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1 Clement

First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

About this book

God Rewards Good Works

Chapter 34

1 The good workman receives the bread of his work with confidence, but the lazy and slack one does not dare look his employer in the face. 2 So we must be eager to do good; for all things come from Him. 3 since He forewarns us saying, “Look, the Lord, and His reward is before His face, to repay each man according to his work.”⁠ 4 So He urges us to believe in Him with our whole heart, and not to be idle or slack in any good work. 5 Let our boast and our confidence be in Him: let us submit ourselves to His will; let us note the whole host of His angels, how they stand by and serve His will. 6 For the scripture says, “Ten thousands of ten thousands stood by Him, and thousands of thousands served Him: and they cried aloud, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Sabaoth; all creation is full of His glory.’”⁠ 7 Yes, and let us also, gathered together in harmony and with earnest hearts, cry out to Him earnestly as with one mouth, so that we may share in His great and glorious promises. 8 For He says, “Eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man what great things He has prepared for those who patiently wait for Him.”⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 34:3 and Revelation 22:12

Early Christian · New Testament

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Summary

1 Clement and Revelation each join a phrase from Isaiah about God coming with his reward to one from Proverbs about repaying each person for what he has done. The combination may come from a lost writing about the end of the age that each knew.

Passages

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 34:3

Early Christian · First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
1 The good workman receives the bread of his work with confidence, but the lazy and slack one does not dare look his employer in the face. 2 So we must be eager to do good; for all things come from Him. 3 since He forewarns us saying, “Look, the Lord, and His reward is before His face, to repay each man according to his work.” 4 So He urges us to believe in Him with our whole heart, and not to be idle or slack in any good work. 5 Let our boast and our confidence be in Him: let us submit ourselves to His will; let us note the whole host of His angels, how they stand by and serve His will.
90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Clement of Rome, 1 Clement

Revelation 22:12

New Testament
10 Then he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy contained in this book, because the time is near. 11 The evildoer must continue to do evil, and the one who is morally filthy must continue to be filthy. The one who is righteous must continue to act righteously, and the one who is holy must continue to be holy.” 12 (Look ! I am coming soon, and my reward is with me to pay each one according to what he has done! 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end!) 14 Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can have access to the tree of life and can enter into the city by the gates.
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

References

“... Carlyle and the Oxford Committee found no evidence for classifying higher than ‘d’ any potential allusions to either non-Pauline letters or the Apocalypse. [...] The committee remarks on the ‘noticeable’ combination of phrases from Isaiah and Proverbs found in both 1 Clement and Revelation, but observes that this ‘may perhaps be accounted for by the hypothesis that it may have been made in some earlier apocalyptic work’, and refers to Barn. 21. 3 (NTAF, 58). ...”
Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett, eds., The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 154.

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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Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 34:3 and Revelation 22:12

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