Encounters With Hellenism: Studies on the First Letter of Clement (Arbeiten Zur Geschichte Des Antiken Judentums Und Des Urchristentums, Bd. 53.)

248 Pages·2004·1.42 MB·English

by  Cilliers Breytenbach

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ENCOUNTERS WITH HELLENISM
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ARBEITEN ZUR GESCHICHTE
DES ANTIKEN JUDENTUMS
UND DES
URCHRISTENTUMS
Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity
herausgegeben von
Martin Hengel (Tübingen), Peter Schäfer (Berlin),
Pieter W. van der Horst (Utrecht), Martin Goodman (Oxford),
Daniel R. Schwartz (Jerusalem), Cilliers Breytenbach (Berlin),
Friedrich Avemarie (Marburg), Seth Schwartz (New York)
LIII
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ENCOUNTERS WITH HELLENISM
Studies on the First Letter of Clement
EDITED BY
CILLIERS BREYTENBACH & LAURENCE L. WELBORN
BRILL
LEIDEN (cid:127)BOSTON
2004
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Encounters with Hellenism : studies on the first letter of Clement / [edited by] Cilliers
Breytenbach & Laurence L. Welborn.
p. cm. — (Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken Judentums und des Urchristentums, ISSN
0169-734X : 53)
English and German.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 90-04-12526-4 (alk. paper)
1. Clement I. Pope. First epistle of Clement to the Corinthians. 2. Christianity and
culture—History—Early church. ca. 30.600. I. Breytenbach, Cilliers, 1954—II. Welborn, L.
L., 1953—III. Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken Judentums und des Urchistentums ; Bd.
53.
BR65.C54F534 2003
270.1—dc22
2003056285
ISSN 0169-734X
ISBN 90 04 12526 4
© Copyright 2004 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written
permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal
use is granted by Brill provided that
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Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910
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Fees are subject to change.
printed in the netherlands
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CONTENTS
Editorial Introduction ................................................................. vii
Places of Original Publication ................................................... ix
List of Contributors .................................................................... xi
CHAPTER ONE
Das Schreiben der römischen Kirche an die korinthische aus der
Zeit Domitians (I. Clemensbrief) ............................................... 1
A. von Harnack
CHAPTER TWO
Early Christianity and the Greek Paideia: 1 Clement .............. 104
W. Jaeger
CHAPTER THREE
Studies on the so-called First Epistle of Clement.
The Literary Genre .................................................................... 115
W.C. van Unnik (English translation by L.L. Welborn)
CHAPTER FOUR
Civic Concord and Cosmic Harmony. Sources of Metaphoric
Mapping in 1 Clement 20:3........................................................ 182
C. Breytenbach
CHAPTER FIVE
The Preface to 1 Clement: the Rhetorical Situation and the
Traditional Date.......................................................................... 197
L.L. Welborn
Index of Authors.......................................................................... 217
Index of Textual References........................................................ 219
Index of Subjects.......................................................................... 228
Encounters with Hellenism 22-10-2003 17:12 Pagina vi
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EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
In this volume we republish three studies that were seminal for the
study of the first letter of Clement. The names of Harnack, Jäger and
van Unnik need no introduction. Neither does 1stClement.
Harnack acclaimed the letter as the most important document on
the development of Christianity. Van Unnik calls the short volume of
von Harnack introducing this volume, “spiritual testament” of the
renowned Church historian and endorses his view on the importance
of the letter to students of Early Christianity.
Van Unnik’s study was originally published in Dutch, it was not
included in the three volumes of his collected essays (Sparsa Collecta).
Cilliers Breytenbach had nurtured the idea to publish a translation of
this very important work since 1985, and was very grateful to discover
that Laurence Welborn had already translated it for his own research
purposes. For the publication he reworked his translation.
In our own research on 1st Clement we became aware of the fact
that van Unnik’s study has not only been influenced by Harnack’s
volume. Some of the ideas central to van Unnik’s submission to the
Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences in 1970 have been expressed ten
years earlier by Werner Jäger in his Carl Newell Jackson lectures on
Early Christianity and Greek Paideia. We thus include Jäger’s 2nd lecture
(on 1st Clement) in this collection. To Jäger, who places Clement
within the tradition of Greek political rhetoric and compares him to
Demosthenes, it was clear that amongst other Greek traditions, the
author drew on the political philosophy of the ancient Greek city-
state to give shape to a true Christian community.
Van Unnik’s study of the genre of 1 Clement has exerted a quiet,
but persistent influence upon studies of early Christian literature in
the English-speaking world, even prior to the publication of this trans-
lation. A work which remains an unfinished fragment has a greater
attraction for subsequent generations of researchers than a polished
monument. In the course of his little book, van Unnik refers repeated-
ly to future studies which he hoped to undertake on the structure and
composition of 1 Clement, and on the ideal of “concord.” Both of
these projects call out for attention. Thirty years after the publication
of van Unnik’s study, the facility and the resources are available for
the successful completion of these tasks. We are thus grateful for the
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viii
permission to publish an English translation of this important work.
We conclude the volume with two contributions of our own. Our
indebtedness to the research of Harnack, Jäger and van Unnik is
obvious. We hope that other scholars might follows suit and investi-
gate 1st Clement as an example of Early Christianity’s venture into
the Hellenistic culture. As editors, we thank all persons and instittions
involved for the permission to reprint the essays in this volume (A list
of the original publications appears on page ix). Laurence Welborn
wishes to express sincere gratitude to Dr. Magda Suy of Melsele, Bel-
gium, for her critique of his translation. She eliminated numerous
errors and clarified several passages. Whatever stylistic infelicities
remain are the sole responsibility of the translator. Both editors are
indebted to Dr. Anja Sakowski and Sebastian Fuhrman at the Insti-
tute for Early Christianity and Antiquity at the Humboldt University
in Berlin for their editorial assistance and to Louise Schouten and Ivo
Romein of Brill Publishers for patiently assisting the publication of
the book.
Cilliers Breytenbach Laurence Welborn
Berlin Dayton
May 2003
Encounters with Hellenism 22-10-2003 17:12 Pagina ix
PLACES OF ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS
A.Harnack, Einführung in die Alte Kirchengeschichte. Das Schrei-
ben der römischen Gemeinde an die korinthische aus der Zeit Domi-
tians (I.Clemensbrief), Leipzig 1929.
W.Jaeger, Early Christianity and the Greek Paideia, Chapter II (1
Clement), Cambridge (Mass.) 1961, p. 12-26.
W.C. van Unnik, Studies over de zogenaamde Eerste Brief van
Clemens, Chapter I: Het Litteraire Genre, Amsterdam 1970 (English
translation by L.L.Welborn).
C.Breytenbach, Civic Concord and Cosmic Harmony. Sources of
metaphoric mapping in 1 Clement 20:3, in: Early Christianity and
Classical Culture. Comparative Studies in Honor of Abraham J. Mal-
herbe, edited by J.T.Fitzgerald and others (NT.S), Leiden 2003
(p. 259-273).
L.L.Welborn, The Date of First Clement, Biblical Research 29 (1985)
p. 34-54.