THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS

19

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF CLEMENT

TO THE CORINTHIANS

viii

The discoveries of new manuscripts original: "MSS."; an abbreviation for manuscripti, which are hand-written copies of original texts that survived from antiquity before the invention of the printing press. and ancient versions original: "versions"; these are ancient translations of the original Greek texts into other languages, such as Latin, Coptic, or Syriac, which help scholars double-check the accuracy of the Greek text. enable the text to be improved in detail from time to time. This is especially the case with First Clement The First Epistle of Clement, a letter sent by the church at Rome to the church at Corinth late in the 1st century. and Hermas Referring to "The Shepherd of Hermas," a popular early Christian work consisting of visions, rules for living, and symbolic stories..

For the purposes of the present publication the text has been revised, but it has not been possible to provide critical notes Scholarly explanations usually found at the bottom of a page that compare different manuscript variations to justify why a specific word or phrase was chosen. unless the evidence was so balanced that more than one reading A specific variation of the text found in a particular manuscript or group of manuscripts. was capable of being defended.