Texts in Conversation
In 1 Clement, the author quotes a proverb about a lamp that searches a person within, but where Proverbs 20 calls the human spirit the lamp of God, Clement makes the Spirit of God the lamp, so the saying becomes a warning that God sees every thought.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Proverbs 20:27
Hebrew Bible
24 The steps of a person are ordained by the Lord—so how can anyone understand his own way? 25 It is a snare for a person to rashly cry, “Holy!” and only afterward to consider what he has vowed. 26 A wise king separates out the wicked; he turns the threshing wheel over them. 27 The human spirit is like the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts. 28 Loyal love and truth preserve a king, and his throne is upheld by loyal love. 29 The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is gray hair. 30 Beatings and wounds cleanse away evil, and floggings cleanse the innermost being.
Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 21:2
First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
Early Christian
1 “Look, brothers and sisters, lest His benefits, which are many, turn to judgment to all of us, if we walk not worthily of Him, and do those things which are good and well pleasing in His sight with concord.” 2 For He says in a certain place, “The Spirit of the Lord is a lamp searching the inner chambers of the belly.” 3 Let us see how near He is, and that nothing escapes Him of our thoughts or our devices which we make. 4 It is right therefore that we should not be deserters from His will. 5 Let us rather give offense to foolish and senseless men who exalt themselves and boast in the arrogance of their words, than to God.
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Notes and References
“... The approximately seventy direct quotations constitute about one-fourth of this long epistle, making it second only to Barnabas among the apostolic fathers in the frequency of quotation from the OT. [...] Some of the quotations are lengthy. Psalms, Isaiah, Job, Genesis and Proverbs, in this order, are the most frequently cited. The heavy use of Job and Proverbs is unusual in comparison with the NT and Christian literature generally in the early period. Nearly all the quotations have introductory phrases; these include “It is written” and various forms of “It says.” Although some of the quotations vary widely from the Septuagint, thirty-nine are essentially verbatim and nine moderately variant. ...”
Martin, Ralph P.
Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments
(pp. 1195-1196) InterVarsity Press, 1997
* 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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