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1 Clement

First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

About this book

Come to God with a Pure Heart

Chapter 29

1 Let us therefore approach Him in holiness of soul, lifting up pure and undefiled hands to Him, with love toward our gentle and compassionate Father who made us His own chosen portion. 2 For this is what is written: “When the Most High divided the nations, when He dispersed the sons of Adam, He fixed the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.⁠ His people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, and Israel the measurement of His inheritance.” 3 And in another place He says, “Look, the Lord takes for Himself a nation out of the midst of the nations, as a man takes the firstfruits of his threshing floor; and the holy of holies shall come out of that nation.”

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Deuteronomy 32:8 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 29:2

Septuagint · Early Christian

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Summary

1 Clement quotes the Greek Septuagint version of Deuteronomy 32, including its translation that the nations were divided by the number of the angels of God, demonstrating how the Greek translation had become the standard in early Christian tradition.

Passages

LXX Deuteronomy 32:8

Septuagint
6 Do you thus repay the Lord? is the people thus foolish and unwise? did not he himself your father purchase you, and make you, and form you? 7 Remember the days of old, consider the years for past ages: ask your father, and he shall relate to you, your elders, and they shall tell you. 8 When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. 9 And his people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, Israel was the line of his inheritance.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Deuteronomy

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 29:2

Early Christian · First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
1 Let us therefore approach Him in holiness of soul, lifting up pure and undefiled hands to Him, with love toward our gentle and compassionate Father who made us His own chosen portion. 2 For this is what is written: “When the Most High divided the nations, when He dispersed the sons of Adam, He fixed the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. His people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, and Israel the measurement of His inheritance.”
90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Clement of Rome, 1 Clement

References

"... In the course of Clement’s impassioned plea for an end to division and discord and the return to peace and order at the church in Corinth, a special emphasis is placed on the notion that it is the Christian people who now constitute God’s “chosen portion.” It is they whom he has taken for himself from among all the other nations. In perfect continuity with the Jewish backdrop that informs his intervention, Clement thus argues that since the followers of Christ now constitute a “holy” people, they must act and conduct themselves accordingly. This he grounds on the authority of Deuteronomy 32:8–9 in the Septuagint version. “And so,” he writes, “we should approach him with devout souls, raising pure and undefiled hands to him and loving our gentle and kind-hearted Father who made us his own chosen portion. For so it is written: ‘When the Most High divided the nations and scattered the descendants of Adam, he established the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. His people, Jacob, became the portion of the Lord; Israel became the allotment of his inheritance.’” Not without a certain inconsistency, Clement maintains that it is even through “righteous deeds”— and not through “mere words”— that the holy people should acquire and preserve their holiness. In this respect, and in contrast to the “idle” and the “slovenly,” they should model themselves on the example of the host of heavenly angels ..."
Nicholas Heron, Liturgical Power: Between Economic and Political Theology (New York: Fordham University Press, 2018), 66.

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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LXX Deuteronomy 32:8 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 29:2

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