Texts in Conversation
In Matthew 10, Jesus compares disciples to sheep among wolves, and in Luke 12, he warns whom to fear after death. In 2 Clement, the preacher connects these sayings in a dialogue with Peter not found in the New Testament, perhaps from a lost gospel.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Matthew 10:16
New Testament
14 And if anyone will not welcome you or listen to your message, shake the dust off your feet as you leave that house or that town. 15 I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town! 16 “I am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of people, because they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues. 18 And you will be brought before governors and kings because of me, as a witness to them and to the Gentiles.
Luke 12:5
New Testament
2 Nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing is secret that will not be made known. 3 So then whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops. 4 “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom you should fear: Fear the one who, after the killing, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! 6 Aren’t five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 In fact, even the hairs on your head are all numbered. Do not be afraid; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
2 Clement 5:3
Early Christian
1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us forsake our stay in this world and do the will of Him who called us, and let us not be afraid to leave this world. 2 For the Lord says, “You shall be as lambs in the midst of wolves.” 3 But Peter answered and said to Him, “What then, if the wolves should tear the lambs?” 4 Jesus said to Peter, “Do not let the lambs fear the wolves after they are dead; and you also, do not fear those who kill you and cannot do anything more to you; but fear Him who, after you are dead, has power over soul and body, to cast them into the Gehenna of fire.”
Date: 130-160 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... The quotation in 2 Clem. 5. 2–4 is extremely complex. There are parallels to what is said here in two synoptic contexts: the saying about lambs in the midst of wolves occurs in the mission discourse in Matt. 10. 16 // Luke 10. 3; and the saying about not being afraid of those who kill the body is found in Matt. 10. 28 // Luke 12. 4–5. However, the section between these in 2 Clement, with the dialogue between Jesus and Peter, has no parallel in the canonical gospels. Thus a number of scholars have suggested that ‘Clement’ is here dependent on an apocryphal gospel, now lost, a theory strengthened for some by similar versions of the saying about not fearing in Justin and in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies. [...] It may well be that 2 Clement here uses a form of a saying which has built on, and harmonized, the versions of the saying about not fearing found in Matthew and Luke. ...”
Gregory, Andrew F.
The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers
(p. 264, 266) Oxford University Press, 2005
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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