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Clement of Rome
The third successor of Peter, whose letter to the Corinthians is the earliest surviving Christian document outside the New Testament.
Clement was a leader of the church in Rome in the last decade of the first century. According to Irenaeus of Lyons, he was the third bishop of Rome after Peter, following Linus and Anacletus. Irenaeus also attests that Clement “had seen the blessed apostles” and had their preaching still echoing in his ears, which places him in the apostolic generation.
He is not to be confused with Clement of Alexandria, the second-century theologian. The Clement of the Apostolic Fathers is the bishop of Rome whose letter to the Corinthians was written around AD 95–97.
The Letter to the Corinthians
The occasion of 1 Clement was a dispute in the church at Corinth. Younger members had deposed the established elders, and the Roman church intervened to restore order. Clement writes with authority but also with humility, urging the Corinthians to repent and to respect the structure of leadership that had been handed down.
The letter is the earliest surviving Christian document outside the New Testament. It quotes extensively from the Old Testament and from Paul's letters. It assumes a hierarchical church with bishops and deacons. And it confirms that Peter and Paul we're both martyred in Rome — the earliest explicit testimony to that tradition.
Why Clement Matters
Clement's letter gives us a window into how the earliest Christians understood authority, order, and continuity. He does not argue for the episcopate; he assumes it. He does not argue that the apostles appointed successors; he simply refers to the established pattern. For the historian, this is invaluable evidence of how the church organized itself within a generation of the apostles.
Clement's tone is worth noting. He writes to correct, but he writes as a brother, not as a lord. He appeals to Scripture, to reason, and to the Corinthians' own better instincts. This is how a leader in the apostolic generation exercised authority: firmly, but with humility.
“ Let us therefore be humble, brothers, laying aside all haughtiness and pride and foolishness and anger, and let us do what is written.”
1 Clement 13:1“ Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured not one or two, but numerous labours; and having at length suffered martyrdom, departed to the place of glory due to him.”
1 Clement 5:4Sources
- Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3.3.
- 1 Clement, trans. Michael W. Holmes, in The Apostolic Fathers, 3rd ed. (Baker Academic, 2007).
- Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.4; 3.15; 3.16.
- J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1 (Macmillan, 1890; reprinted).
- Andreas Lindemann, Die Clemensbriefe (Mohr Siebeck, 1992).