THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS

The writing which has always been known by this name is clearly, from internal evidence, a letter sent by the church of Rome to the church of Corinth in consequence of trouble in the latter community which had led to the deposition of certain Presbyters From the Greek 'presbyteros', meaning 'elders'; these were the early officials who led the Christian community.. The church of Rome writes protesting against this deposition, and the partizanship which has caused it.

The actual name of the writer is not mentioned in the letter itself: indeed, it clearly claims to be not the letter of a single person but of a church. Tradition, however, has always ascribed it to Clement, who was, according to the early episcopal lists Historical records maintained by the early Church to track the succession of bishops in a specific city., the third or fourth bishop of Rome during the last decades of the first century. There is no reason for rejecting this tradition, for though it is not supported by any corroborative evidence in its favour there is nothing whatever against it.

Nothing certain is known of Clement; but from the amount of pseudepigraphic Literature written by an anonymous author who attributes the work to a famous person from the past to give the text more authority. literature attributed to him it is probable that he was a famous man in his own time. Tradition has naturally identified him with the Clement who is mentioned in Philippians iv. 3 A reference to the fourth chapter, third verse of the Apostle Paul's Letter to the Philippians in the New Testament..

original: "Chronologie" See Harnack, Chronology, vol. 1, pp. 70-230.