Repentance

Chapter 5

And so it is appropriate to pray to the Father and to invoke him with all our soul, sighing, not outwardly with the lips, but with the inward spirit⁠ that comes from the depth, repenting the former life we led, confessing our sins, understanding the vacuous lie we lived in, and the hollow zealotry, wailing because of the darkness and the wave that engulfed us, weeping for ourselves so that he would show us compassion, hating ourselves because of what we are now.
The Savior again said: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be pitied.⁠ Blessed are those who are hungry, for they will be filled.”⁠
He said once more, “If one does not hate his soul he cannot follow me.”⁠
This is because the beginning of salvation is repentance.
And so, “Before Christ appeared, John came, preaching the baptism of repentance.”⁠
And repentance occurs in pain and sorrow.
The Father, however, is good and loves humanity, and he listens to the soul who calls on him, sending it the light of salvation.
By the Spirit he therefore said to the prophet: “Say to the children of my people: ‘[If] your sins reach [from earth to] heaven, and if they are [red] as scarlet, and blacker than sackcloth,⁠ [and if] you return to me with all your soul, and say to me “my Father!” I will listen to you as a holy people.’”
Yet another passage: “Thus says the Lord, the holy one of Israel: ‘If you return and weep, then you will be saved,⁠ and you will know where you were when you hoped in what is empty.’”
And in another passage, he said: “Jerusalem wept much, saying, ‘Have pity on me.’ He will be gracious to you at the sound of your weeping. And when he saw, he answered you.
And the Lord will give you bread of adversity and water of affliction. From now on, those who lie to you will not approach you again. Your eyes will see those who lie to you.⁠
And so it is appropriate to pray to God both night and day, spreading out our hands to him like those who sail in the middle of the sea.
They pray to God with all their heart without duplicity, because those who pray with duplicity only lie to themselves.
In fact, so that he might know who deserves salvation, God examines the inward parts and searches the depths of the heart.
For no one who is still in love with the place of lies deserves salvation.

Texts in conversation

Compare Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 8:4 and Exegesis on the Soul 5:8

Early Christian · Nag Hammadi

Summary

In 1 Clement, God promises to hear repentant sinners in a saying attributed elsewhere to Ezekiel. Exegesis on the Soul, a Nag Hammadi text, also quotes it, possibly through Clement or a shared source.

Passages

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 8:4

Early Christian · First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

3 For, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘I do not desire the death of the sinner as much as his repentance.’ 4 And He also gave a merciful judgment: ‘Repent, house of Israel, of your iniquity. Say to the children of My people: Though your sins reach from the earth to the heavens, and though they are redder than scarlet and blacker than sackcloth, if you turn to Me with your whole heart and say, “Father,” I will listen to you as to a holy people.’ 5 And in another place He says: ‘Wash, be clean. Remove your iniquities from My sight. Cease from your sins; learn to do good; seek justice; defend those who are wronged; give judgment for the orphan and uphold righteousness for the widow. Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are as crimson, I will make them white as snow; though they are as scarlet, I will make them white as wool. If you are willing and listen to Me, you will eat the good things of the earth; but if you refuse and do not listen, a sword shall devour you—for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Clement of Rome, 1 Clement

Exegesis on the Soul 5:8

Nag Hammadi

The Father, however, is good and loves humanity, and he listens to the soul who calls on him, sending it the light of salvation. By the Spirit he therefore said to the prophet: “Say to the children of my people: ‘[If] your sins reach [from earth to] heaven, and if they are [red] as scarlet, and blacker than sackcloth, [and if] you return to me with all your soul, and say to me “my Father!” I will listen to you as a holy people.’” Yet another passage: “Thus says the Lord, the holy one of Israel: ‘If you return and weep, then you will be saved, and you will know where you were when you hoped in what is empty.’”

200–230 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Exegesis on the Soul

References

“... The earliest witness to the second apocryphal Ezekiel fragment is 1 Clem. 8:3, which also contains the longest form of the saying. Clement does not attribute the saying to Ezekiel, but it falls in a sequence with a passage (8:2) that bears resemblence to Ezek 33:11, although some have argued that 8:2 was part of the Ezekiel apocryphon as well. The saying is explicitly attributed to Ezekiel by Clement of Alexandria, Paed. I.[10.]91.2, who reports only a portion of the text contained in 1 Clement. A third witness, the Exegesis on the Soul (Nag Hammadi, Π 6, 135.30-136.4), provides a Coptic version of the saying that encompasses the full scope of the fragment as it is found in 1 Clement. The passage as a whole has the character of a biblical prophetic saying. [...] The Exegesis on the Soul, however, does not present a clear picture, and one could argue for either its independent or derivative status. ...”

Benjamin G. Wright, “The Apocryphal Ezekiel Fragments,” in The Apocryphal Ezekiel, ed. Michael E. Stone, Benjamin G. Wright, and David Satran, EJL 18 (Atlanta: SBL, 2000), 19–20.

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

Repentance

Exegesis on the Soul7 chapters

Compare Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 8:4 and Exegesis on the Soul 5:8

Summary

Passages

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 8:4

Exegesis on the Soul 5:8

References

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