1 Clement 8.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Isaiah's call to repentance: though your sins are scarlet, they will be white as snow.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:20–22

καὶ ἐν ἑτέρῳ τόπῳ λέγει οὕτως· Λούσασθε καὶ καθαροὶ γένεσθε, ἀφέλεσθε τὰς πονηρίας ἀπὸ τῶν ψυχῶν ὑμῶν ἀπέναντι τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν μου· παύσασθε ἀπὸ τῶν πονηριῶν ὑμῶν, μάθετε καλὸν ποιεῖν, ἐκζητήσατε κρίσιν, ῥύσασθε ἀδικούμενον, κρίνατε ὀρφανῷ καὶ δικαιώσατε χήρᾳ· καὶ δεῦτε καὶ διελεγχθῶμεν, λέγει κύριος· καὶ ἐὰν ὦσιν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι ὑμῶν ὡς φοινικοῦν, ὡς χιόνα λευκανῶ· ἐὰν δὲ ὦσιν ὡς κόκκινον, ὡς ἔριον λευκανῶ· καὶ ἐὰν θέλητε καὶ εἰσακούσητέ μου, τὰ ἀγαθὰ τῆς γῆς φάγεσθε· ἐὰν δὲ μὴ θέλητε μηδὲ εἰσακούσητέ μου, μάχαιρα ὑμᾶς κατέδεται· τὸ γὰρ στόμα κυρίου ἐλάλησεν ταῦτα.

English · Claude translation

And in another place he says this: “Wash and become clean; remove the wickedness from your souls before my eyes. Cease from your wickedness, learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the wronged, defend the orphan, and vindicate the widow. And come, let us reason together, says the Lord; and though your sins be like crimson, I will make them white as snow; and though they be like scarlet, I will make them white as wool. And if you are willing and listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you are not willing and do not listen to me, a sword will devour you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:20–22 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 8–121 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Lake, LCL 24. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 24, 1912); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · That translation lacks 57.7–63.4 (a missing leaf in its manuscript); vol. 9 (1896) translates the complete text.

Scripture

Isa 1:16–20 · quotation, high confidence

Cite this passage

1 Clem. 8.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/1-clement/8/4/).

Plain text

1 Clem. 8.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/1-clement/8/4/).