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1 Clement

First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

About this book
Chapter 60

1 “You made the everlasting structure of the world visible through Your works. You, Lord, created the earth. You who are faithful throughout all generations, righteous in Your judgments, marvelous in strength and excellence, You who are wise in creating and prudent in establishing what You have made, who are good in the things that are seen and faithful to those who trust in You, merciful and compassionate, forgive us our iniquities and our unrighteous acts⁠ and our transgressions and shortcomings.” 2 “Do not count against us every sin of Your servants and Your maidservants, but cleanse us with the cleansing of Your truth, and guide our steps to walk in holiness and righteousness and sincerity of heart, and to do what is good and pleasing in Your sight and in the sight of our rulers.”⁠ 3 “Yes, Lord, make Your face shine upon us in peace for our good, so that we may be sheltered by Your mighty hand and delivered from every sin by Your uplifted arm. And deliver us from those who hate us unjustly.” 4 “Give harmony and peace to us and to all who dwell on the earth, as You gave to our fathers when they called on You in faith and truth with holiness, so that we may be saved while we obey Your almighty and most excellent Name, and our rulers and governors on the earth.”

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Deuteronomy 13:19 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 60:2

Septuagint · Early Christian

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Summary

In 1 Clement, the author prays to do what is good and pleasing before God in language taken almost exactly from the Greek Septuagint translation of Deuteronomy 13, then adds a mention of rulers, so that pleasing rulers stands beside pleasing God.

Passages

LXX Deuteronomy 13:19

Septuagint
17 And all its captured goods you shall gather into its public ways, and you shall burn the city with fire, and all its captured goods publicly before the Lord your God; and it shall be uninhabited for ever, it shall not be built again. 18 And there shall nothing of the cursed thing cling to your hand, that the Lord may turn from his fierce anger, and show you mercy, and pity you, and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers; 19 if you will hear the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments, all that I charge you this day, to do that which is good and pleasing before the Lord your God.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Deuteronomy

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 60:2

Early Christian · First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
1 “You made the everlasting structure of the world visible through Your works. You, Lord, created the earth. You who are faithful throughout all generations, righteous in Your judgments, marvelous in strength and excellence, You who are wise in creating and prudent in establishing what You have made, who are good in the things that are seen and faithful to those who trust in You, merciful and compassionate, forgive us our iniquities and our unrighteous acts and our transgressions and shortcomings.” 2 “Do not count against us every sin of Your servants and Your maidservants, but cleanse us with the cleansing of Your truth, and guide our steps to walk in holiness and righteousness and sincerity of heart, and to do what is good and pleasing in Your sight and in the sight of our rulers.”
90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Clement of Rome, 1 Clement

References

“... The prayer focuses throughout on God, emphasising at the opening not only the dependence of everything upon God, but particularly God's action in raising up the humble and weak and humbling the proud (59.3f; cf. 1 Cor 1.26ff). All who join in the prayer then pray, in words taken almost exactly from Deut 13.19 (LXX), for God's guidance in order that they may do τὰ καλὰ καὶ εὐάρεστα ἐνώπιόν σου - 'what is good and pleasing before you [God]' - though Clement significantly adds καὶ ἐνώπιον τῶν ἀρχόντων ἡμῶν, 'and before our rulers'; a phrase not found in Deut 13.19 (1 Clem 60.2; cf. 61.2). Thus, in Clement's prayer here, 'what is well-pleasing to rulers runs parallel to what is well-pleasing to God'. ...”
David G. Horrell, The Social Ethos of the Corinthian Correspondence: Interests and Ideology from 1 Corinthians to 1 Clement (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1996), 272–273.

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 13:19 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 60:2

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