Texts in Conversation
In 1 Clement, the author quotes God swearing an oath that he prefers the repentance of sinners to their death, which resembles the Greek Septuagint translation of Ezekiel 33 without following it, and may come from a lost book in the name of Ezekiel.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Ezekiel 33:11
Septuagint
10 “And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘So you have spoken, saying, “Our deception and our lawless acts are upon us, and in them we are wasting away; and how shall we live?” 11 Say to them, ‘“As I live,” thus the Lord says, “I do not wish the death of the impious, but that the ungodly turn back from his way and live. In turning, turn away from your way. Why should you die, O house of Israel?” 12 Say to the sons of your people, “A righteous person’s righteousness will certainly not deliver him in that day he is led astray, and an impious person’s lawlessness will certainly not mistreat him in that day he turns away from his lawlessness, and the righteous will certainly not be able to be saved.
Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 8:3
First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
Early Christian
1 The ministers of the grace of God, through the Holy Spirit, spoke concerning repentance. 2 Yes, and the Master of the universe Himself spoke about repentance with an oath. 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, O 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 be 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.’
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Notes and 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, II 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. ...”
Wright, Benjamin G.
"The Apocryphal Ezekiel Fragments" in Stone, Michael E.; Wright, Benjamin G.; Satran, David (ed.) The Apocryphal Ezekiel
(p. 19) Society of Biblical Literature, 2000
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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