2 Clement 14.1

Anonymous · 2 Clement · ca. 100–150 · place unknown · Read in context

Traditional ascription rejected: An anonymous sermon, transmitted in the manuscripts after 1 Clement as Clement's “second letter to the Corinthians.” The text itself names no author and is not a letter; the ascription to Clement of Rome is traditional and not accepted by modern scholars.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:150

Ὥστε, ἀδελφοί, ποιοῦντες τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν θεοῦ ἐσόμεθα ἐκ τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς πρώτης, τῆς πνευματικῆς, τῆς πρὸ ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης ἐκτισμένης. ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ποιήσωμεν τὸ θέλημα κυρίου, ἐσόμεθα ἐκ τῆς γραφῆς τῆς λεγούσης· Ἐγενήθη ὁ οἶκός μου σπήλαιον λῃστῶν. ὥστε οὖν αἱρετισώμεθα ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς ζωῆς εἶναι, ἵνα σωθῶμεν.

English · Claude translation

So, brothers, if we do the will of God our Father, we shall belong to the first church, the spiritual one, which was created before the sun and moon; but if we do not do the will of the Lord, we shall be of the scripture that says, “My house has become a den of robbers.” So then let us choose to belong to the church of life, so that we may be saved.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:150 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 128–161 · 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. 9 (1896) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Scripture

Jer 7:11 · quotation, high confidence
Matt 21:13 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Christology

Notes

Translation notes

The preacher teaches that the church existed spiritually before creation (compare Hermas, Vis. 2.4.1) and was revealed in Christ's flesh (14.2–3).

Cite this passage

2 Clem. 14.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/2-clement/14/1/).

Plain text

2 Clem. 14.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/2-clement/14/1/).