Sophia Scriptura

2 Clement 3.1

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.

Summary: To know the Father is not to deny Christ, through whom we know him.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:132

Τοσοῦτον οὖν ἔλεος ποιήσαντος αὐτοῦ εἰς ἡμᾶς, πρῶτον μέν, ὅτι ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες τοῖς νεκροῖς θεοῖς οὐ θύομεν καὶ οὐ προσκυνοῦμεν αὐτοῖς, ἀλλὰ ἔγνωμεν διʼ αὐτοῦ τὸν πατέρα τῆς ἀληθείας· τίς ἡ γνῶσις ἡ πρὸς αὐτόν, ἢ τὸ μὴ ἀρνεῖσθαι διʼ οὗ ἔγνωμεν αὐτόν;

English · Claude translation

Since, then, he has shown us such mercy, first of all that we who are living do not sacrifice to dead gods or worship them, but through him have come to know the Father of truth: what is knowledge of him, except not to deny him through whom we have known him?

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:132 · 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)
Topics
Christology

Notes

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong breathing and accent)): διʼ οὖ ἔγνωμεν → διʼ οὗ ἔγνωμεν.

Cite this passage

2 Clem. 3.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/2-clement/3/1/).

Plain text
2 Clem. 3.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/2-clement/3/1/).

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