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2 Clement

About this book
Chapter 7

1 So then, my brothers and sisters, let us struggle, knowing that the contest is near at hand, and that, while many go to the corruptible contests, not all are crowned,⁠ but only those who have worked hard and fought bravely. 2 Let us then contend so that we may all be crowned. 3 Therefore let us run in the straight course, the incorruptible contest. Let us gather there in great numbers and fight, that we may also be crowned. And if we cannot all be crowned, let us at least come near the crown. 4 We should realize that whoever competes in a corruptible contest, if found cheating, is first flogged and then removed and driven out of the racecourse. 5 What do you think then? What shall be done to the one who has cheated in the contest of incorruption? 6 For concerning those who have not kept the seal, He says, “Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be a spectacle to all flesh.”⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Corinthians 9:25 and 2 Clement 7:1

New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul compares Christian discipline to training for an imperishable crown. In 2 Clement, the preacher uses the same image to urge effort, though it was too common to establish a direct echo of Paul.

Passages

1 Corinthians 9:25

New Testament
22 To the weak I became weak in order to gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I may save some. 23 I do all these things because of the gospel, so that I can be a participant in it. 24 Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. 25 Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. 26 So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air. 27 Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.
55–57 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Corinthians

2 Clement 7:1

Early Christian
1 So then, my brothers and sisters, let us struggle, knowing that the contest is near at hand, and that, while many go to the corruptible contests, not all are crowned, but only those who have worked hard and fought bravely. 2 Let us then contend so that we may all be crowned. 3 Therefore let us run in the straight course, the incorruptible contest. Let us gather there in great numbers and fight, that we may also be crowned. And if we cannot all be crowned, let us at least come near the crown. 4 We should realize that whoever competes in a corruptible contest, if found cheating, is first flogged and then removed and driven out of the racecourse.
130–160 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Clement

References

“... The metaphor of a race is a common one, and therefore insufficient to demonstrate dependence on Paul. The suggestion that competitors may have sailed [...] to the games has been interpreted as evidence of Corinthian provenance, on the grounds that failure to specify a port makes it likely that the games took place near to the point at which competitors disembarked. This would put the author (or at least those whom he addresses) in a city with strong associations with Paul. Should this hypothesis be accepted, it need not entail that we draw any inferences from the author’s silence about Paul, though in this respect the contrast with 1 Clement may be noted. ...”
Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett, eds., The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 283.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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1 Corinthians 9:25 and 2 Clement 7:1

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