But neither let it trouble your understanding, that we see the unrighteous having riches and the servants of God straitened. Let us therefore, brethren and sisters, be believing: we are striving in the contest [4009] of the living God, we are exercised by the present life, in order that we may be crowned by that to come. No one of the righteous received fruit speedily, but awaiteth it. For if God gave shortly the recompense of the righteous, straightway we would be exercising ourselves in business, not in godliness; for we would seem to be righteous, while pursuing not what is godly but what is gainful. And on this account Divine judgment surprised a spirit that was not righteous, and loaded it with chains. [4010]

To the only God invisible, [4011] the Father of truth, who sent forth to us the Saviour and Prince of incorruption, [4012] through whom also He manifested to us the truth and the heavenly life, to Him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen. [4013]

---

Footnotes:

[3848] No title, not even a letter, is preserved in the ms. [In C (= ms. at Constantinople found by Bryennios) the title is Kle'mentos pro`s Korinthi'ous B', corresponding to that of the First Epistle. In S (= Syriac ms. at Cambridge) there is a subscription to the First Epistle ascribing it to Clement, then these words: "Of the same the second Epistle to the Corinthians." At the close this subscription occurs: "Here endeth the Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians."--R.]

[3849] [C has here, and in many other places, humas instead of hemas. This substitution of the second person plural is one of its marked peculiarities.--R.]

[3850] [Literally, "little things;" Lightfoot, "mean things."--R.]

[3851] [Literally, "little things;" Lightfoot, "mean things."--R.]

[3852] [Lightfoot follows the Syriac, and renders: "And they that listen, as concerning mean things, do wrong; and we ourselves do wrong, not knowing," etc. But the briefer reading of the Greek mss. is lectio difficilior --R.]

[3853] [Only S has ga'r. A has de', which the Edinburgh translators have rendered "for." So twice in chap. iii.--R.]

[3854] Literally, "holy things."

[3855] Comp. Psalm 116:12.

[3856] Literally, "lame."

[3857] Literally "of men." [Compare Arnobius, vol. vi. p. 423.]

[3858] Literally, "being full of such darkness in our sight."

[3859] Literally, "having beheld in us much error and destruction."

[3860] [C, S (apparently), and recent editors have hechontas, "even when we had," instead of hechontes (A), as above paraphrased.--R.]

[3861] Comp. Hosea 2:23; Romans 4:17, ix. 25.

[3862] Literally, "willed us from not being to be." [Comp. n. 4, p. 365.]

[3863] Isaiah 54:1; Galatians 4:27. [R. V., "the husband."--R.]

[3864] Some render, "should not cry out, like women in travail." The text is doubtful. [Lightfoot: "Let us not, like women in travail, grow weary of offering up our prayers with simplicity to God."--R.]

[3865] [epei, "since;" hence Lightfoot renders, "He so spake, because."--R.]

[3866] It has been remarked that the writer here implies he was a Gentile.

[3867] Matt. ix, 13; Luke 5:32. [The briefer form given above is that of the correct text in Matthew and Mark (ii. 17), not Luke.--R.]

[3868] [ethe'lese, "willed."--R.] [Noteworthy. 2 Pet. iii. 9.]

[3869] Comp. Matthew 18:11. [Luke 19:10.--R.]

[3870] Literally, "already perishing." [Revelation 3:2.]

[3871] [Literally, "the Father of the truth." The best editions have a period here.--R.]

[3872] Literally, "what is the knowledge which is towards Him." [C, with Bryennios. Hilgenfeld reads tes alethei'as, "what is the knowledge of the truth," instead of he pro`s auto'n, A, S, Lightfoot, and earlier editors.--R.]

[3873] [le'gei de` kai` auto's, "Yea, He Himself saith," Lightfoot.--R.]

[3874] Matthew 10:32.

[3875] Comp. Matthew 22:37.

[3876] ["Now He saith also."--R.]

[3877] Isaiah 29:13.

[3878] Matthew 7:21, loosely quoted.

[3879] [Literally, "in."--R.]

[3880] [A defect in A was thus supplied, but "these" is now accepted; so C, S.--R.]

[3881] Some read "God." ["Him" is correct.--R.]

[3882] Or, "with Me." [This is the more exact rendering of met' emou.--R.]

[3883] The first part of this sentence is not found in Scripture; for the second, comp. Matthew 7:23, Luke 13:27. [The first part is not even identified as a citation from an apocryphal book.--R.]

[3884] Matthew 10:16.

[3885] No such conversation is recorded in Scripture. [Comp. note 13.--R.]

[3886] Or, "Let not the lambs fear."

[3887] Matthew 10:28; Luke 12:4, 5.

[3888] Or, "know."

[3889] The text and translation are here doubtful. [All doubt has been removed; the above rendering is substantially correct.--R.]

[3890] [More exactly, "the righteous path," tes hodou tes dikai'as.--R.]

[3891] Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13.

[3892] Matthew 16:26. [The citation is not exactly according to any evangelist. Literally, "For what advantage is it, if any one gain the whole (Comits whole') world, but forfeit his life," or "soul."--R.]

[3893] Literally, "speaks of." [So Lightfoot.--R].

[3894] Or, "enjoy." [Lightfoot: "but must bid farewell to the one and hold companionship with the other;" thus preserving the correspondence with the preceding sentence.--R.]

[3895] The ms. has, "we reckon." [So C and S, but Lightfoot retains the subjunctive.--R.]

[3896] Ezekiel 14:14, 20.

[3897] [Literally, "But if even such righteous men."--R.]

[3898] Literally, "with what confidence shall we."

[3899] Wake translates "kingdom," as if the reading had been basilei'an; but the ms. has basi'leion, "palace." [Lightfoot gives the former rendering, though accepting basi'leion.--R.]

[3900] [Literally, "holy and righteous works."--R.]

[3901] [agonisometha, "let us strive," as in the games.--R.]

[3902] Literally, "that many set sail for corruptible contests," referring probably to the concourse at the Isthmian games.

[3903] Or, "Let us place before us." [The latter rendering is that of the reading found in A and C, and now accepted by many editors (thomen); but Lightfoot adheres to the'omen (so S), and holds the former reading to be a corruption.--R.]

[3904] Or, "set sail."

[3905] Literally, "know."

[3906] Literally "if he be found corrupting."

[3907] Baptism is probably meant. [See Ephesians 1:13 and Acts 19:6.]

[3908] [Or, "He saith;" "unbroken" is not necessary.--R.]

[3909] Isaiah 66:24.

[3910] Comp. Luke 16:10-12.

[3911] ms. has "we," which is corrected by all editors as above. [The newly discovered authorities have the second person; most recent editors, however, adopt the first person, as lectio difficilior. So Lightfoot; but Hilgenfeld restores apola'bete in his second edition.--R.]

[3912] Some have thought this a quotation from an unknown apocryphal book, but it seems rather an explanation of the preceding words.

[3913] [Editors differ as to the punctuation. Lightfoot: "Understand ye. In what were ye saved? In what did ye recover your sight? if ye were not in the flesh." Hilgenfeld puts a comma after gnote (understand ye), and a period after eso'thete (saved).--R.]

[3914] Literally, "looked up." [Both senses of anable'pein occur in New Testament.--R.]

[3915] The ms. has heis, "one," which Wake follows, but it seems clearly a mistake for hos. [Lightfoot reads ei,with a Syriac fragment; both C and S have heis--R.]

[3916] [C has here the curious reading lo'gos instead of pneuma, but all editors retain the latter.--R.]

[3917] [A reads "eternal," and C, S, "praise;" Lightfoot and others combine the two, "eternal praise,"--R.]

[3918] Matthew 12:50.

[3919] Literally, "rather."

[3920] Literally, "malice, as it were, the precursor of our sins." Some deem the text corrupt.

[3921] Literally, according to the ms., "it is not possible that a man should find it who are"--the passage being evidently corrupt. [The evidence of C and S does not clear up the difficulty here, the reading of these authorities being substantially that of A. Lightfoot renders: "For for this cause is a man unable to attain happiness, seeing that they call in the fears of men," etc. Hilgenfeld (2d ed.) assumes here a considerable gap in all the authorities, and inserts two paragraphs, cited in other authors as from Clement. The first and longer passage is from John of Damascus, and it may be accounted for as a loose citation from chap. xx. in the recovered portion of this Epistle. The other is from pseudo-Justin (Questions to the Orthodox, 74) This was formerly assigned by both Hilgenfeld and Lightfoot (against Harnack) to the First Epistle of Clement, lviii., in that portion wanting in A. But the recovered chapters (lviii.-lxiii.) contain, according to C and S, no such passage. Lightfoot thinks the reference in pseudo-Justin is to chap. xvi. of this homily, and that the mention of the Sibyl in the same author is not necessarily part of the citation from Clement. Comp. Lightfoot, pp. 308, 447, 448, 458, 459, and Hilgenfeld, 2d ed., pp. xlviii., 77.--R.]

[3922] [Lightfoot, more literally, "but now they continue teaching evil to innocent souls."--R.]

[3923] The same words occur in Clement's first epistle, chap. xxiii.

[3924] 1 Corinthians 2:9.

[3925] These words are quoted (Clem. Alex., Strom., iii. 9, 13) from the Gospel according to the Egyptians, no longer extant.

[3926] Thus ends the ms., but what followed will be found in Clem. Alex. as just cited.

[3927] For details respecting the version here given, see Introductory Notice, [311]pp. 514, 515.

[3928] Or, more correctly, both here and above, "by this He meaneth."

[3929] All editors read oude`n phrone, but C has phronei which is ungrammatical. In this clause, after hina we would expect meden; but as Lightfoot suggests, oude`n may be combined as a substantive idea with theluko'n; comp. the use of ou with participles.

[3930] For mede' (so C) Gebhardt would substitute med' hede, while S supplies in full, quum soror videbit fratrem, an obvious interpretament.

[3931] This seems to be an explanation of the saying above referred to, and not a citation; similar cases occur in the homily.

[3932] The headings to the chapters have been supplied by the editor, but in so rambling a discourse they are in some cases necessarily unsatisfactory.

[3933] Hilgenfeld reads mou instead of houn; so S apparently. The chapters are usually introduced with houn (nine times) or oste (five times).

[3934] gino'metha; Lightfoot, "be found."

[3935] Literally, "ourselves," heautois; but the reciprocal sense is common in Hellenistic Greek, and is here required by the context.

[3936] Comp. Acts 5:41, where the correct text omits au`tou. The Revised Version properly capitalizes "Name" in that passage.

[3937] C here, and in many other cases, reads humas; comparison of mss. shows that it is a correction of the scribe.

[3938] Lightfoot renders dia` panto's, "every way;" but the temporal sense is common in Hellenistic Greek, and here required by the Hebrew.

[3939] Isaiah 52:5, with pasin inserted.

[3940] Lightfoot reads, kai pa'lin Ouai', following the Syriac. C has kai Dio'. There is difficulty in identifying this second quotation: comp. Ezekiel 36:20-23. Lightfoot thinks it probable that the preacher used two different forms of Isaiah 52:5.

[3941] This sentence is not part of the citation, but an explanation, the words being used as if spoken by God. The Syriac text seeks to avoid this difficulty by reading, "by our not doing what we say."

[3942] Here ta` lo'gia tou Theou is used of the Scriptures, and with distinct reference to the New Testament; see next note.

[3943] In view of the connection, this must mean "God in His oracles;" a significant testimony to the early belief in the inspiration of the Gospels.

[3944] Luke 6:27, 32, freely combined; comp. Matthew 5:44, 46. The use of cha'ris uemin shows that the quotation is from the former Gospel.

[3945] oste, as at the beginning of chs. vii., x.

[3946] Comp. Psalm 72.(LXX. lxxi.) 5, 17.

[3947] Jeremiah 7:11. Comp. Matthew 12:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46.

[3948] Harnack says, "The Jewish synagogue is the church of death." Lightfoot, more correctly, accepts a contrast "between mere external membership in the visible body and spiritual communion in the celestial counterpart."

[3949] Comp. Ephesians 1:23 and many similar passages.

[3950] Genesis 1:27; comp. Ephesians 5:31-33.

[3951] The reference is here is probably to the Old-Testament "books," while the term "Apostles" may mean the New Testament in whole or part. The more direct reference probably is to Genesis and Ephesians.

[3952] Lightfoot inserts in brackets legousin, delon, rendering as above. Hilgenfield suggests phasin oidate, "Ye know that the books, etc., say that." Byrennios joins this sentence to the preceding, taking the whole as dependent on agnoein. Ropes renders accordingly, making a parenthesis from "for the Scripture" to "the Church." In any case a verb of saying must be supplied, as in the Syriac.

[3953] anothen has a local and a temporal sense; the latter is obviously preferable here.

[3954] "Jesus" is the subject of the latter part of the sentence.

[3955] "Keep her pure;" comp. chap. viii. Lightfoot renders terein, "guard," here and elsewhere.

[3956] The verb corresponds with that rendered "partake" in what follows.

[3957] "Copy," antitupos, antitupon. Comp. Hebrews 9:24; 1 Pet. iii. 21. Our use of "antitype" is different. The antithesis here is authentikon, the original, or archetype. This mystical interpretation has a Platonic basis.

[3958] Comp. the close of chap. viii.

[3959] Lightfoot calls attention to the confusion of metaphors; but there is also evidence of that false exegesis which made "flesh" and "spirit" equivalent to "body" and "soul,"--an error which always leads to further mistakes.

[3960] Here the word "flesh" is used in an ambiguous sense.

[3961] 1 Corinthians 2:9.

[3962] peri` enkratei'as, "temperance" in the wide New-Testament sense. Lightfoot, "continence;" in these days the prominent danger was from libidinous sins.

[3963] Comp. James 5:19, 20, with which our passage has many verbal correspondences.

[3964] "A favorite word with our author, especially in this connection."--Lightfoot.

[3965] Isaiah 58:9, LXX.

[3966]

[3967] ei's to` dido'nai tou ai'tountos; the sense of the elliptical construction is obviously as above.

[3968] heautois. Here again in the reciprocal sense; comp. chap. xiii.

[3969] aphormen labo'ntes, as in Romans 7:8, 11.

[3970]

[3971] kairo`n echontes, "seeing that we have time" (Lightfoot). But "opportunity" is more exact.

[3972] apotaxo'metha, "bid farewell to;" comp. chap. vi.

[3973]

[3974] Comp. Malachi 4:1.

[3975]

[3976] Comp. Isaiah 34:4, which resembles the former clause, and 2 Peter 3:7, 10, where the same figures occur. The text seems to be corrupt: tines ("some") is sustained by both the Greek and the Syriac, but this limitation is so peculiar as to awaken suspicion; still, the notion of several heavens might have been in the author's mind.

[3977]

[3978] Comp. Tobit xii. 8, 9; but the position given to almsgiving seems to be contradicted by the next sentence. Lightfoot seems to suspect a corruption of text here also, but in the early Church there was often an undue emphasis placed upon almsgiving.

[3979]

[3980] 1 Pet. iv. 8. Comp. Proverbs 10:12; James 5:20.

[3981]

[3982] Literally, "becometh a lightener (kou'phisma) of sin;" comp. Ecclus. iii. 30.

[3983] Lightfoot, with Syriac, reads hina kai` touto pra'ssomen. Comits hina, and reads pra'ssomen, "If we have commandments and practise this."

[3984] Here Lightfoot thinks a verb has probably fallen out of the text.

[3985] Bryennios thus connects: "in order that all may be saved, and may convert," etc.

[3986]

[3987] "This clearly shows that the work before us is a sermon delivered in church" (Lightfoot). The preacher is himself one of "the presbyters;" comp. chap. xix. It is possible, but cannot be proven, that he was the head of the presbyters, the parochial bishop.

[3988]

[3989] entalma'ton, not the technical word for the commandments of the Decalogue (entolai).

[3990] Syriac, "praying," which Lightfoot thinks may be correct; but prosercho'menoi might very easily be mistaken for proseucho'menoi. The former means coming in worship: comp. Hebrews 10:1, 22.

[3991] 2 Corinthians 13:11; Philippians 2:2.

[3992] Isaiah 66:18. But "tribes" is inserted; comp. Daniel 3:7. The phrase "shall see His glory" is from the passage in Isaiah, The language seems to be put into the mouth of Christ by the preacher.

[3993] This implies various degrees of reward among these redeemed.

[3994] to` basi'leion; not exactly "the kingdom," rather "the kingly rule." en to 'Iesou is rightly explained by Lightfoot, "in the hands, in the power, of Jesus;" xenisthesontai is rendered above "shall think it strange," as in 1 Pet. iv. 4, 12.

[3995] "He" is properly supplied as frequently in the Gospels. There seems to be a reminiscence of John 8:24 and similar passages.

[3996] Isaiah 66:24; comp. chap. vii. above.

[3997] C reads humin, as often, for hemin, Syriac, accepted by all editors.

[3998]

[3999] panthamartolo's; occurring only here; but a similar word, parthama'rtetos, occurs in the Teaching, v. 2, Apostolical Constitutions, vii. 18, and Barnabas, xx.

[4000] tois orga'nois; comp. Ignat., Rom., iv., Ante-Nicene Fathers, i.[[312]p. 75, where the word is rendered "instruments," and applied to the teeth of the wild beasts in the amphitheatre. Here Lightfoot renders "engines," regarding the metaphor as military.

[4001] The phrase kan hengus auetes implies a doubt of attaining the aim, in accord with the tone of humility which obtains in this chapter.

[4002] Comp. the opening sentence of Barnabas, "Sons and daughters," Ante-Nicene Fathers, i.[[313]p. 137; see also chap. xx.

[4003] If any doubt remained as to the character of this writing, it would be removed by this sentence. The passage is elliptical, meta` to`n theo`n tes alnthei'as, but there is no doubt as to the meaning. The Scripture was read, and listening to it was regarded as hearing the voice of God, whose words of truth were read. Then followed the sermon or exhortation; comp. Justin, First Apology, chap. lxvii. (vol. i.[[314]p. 186). That lessons from some at least of the New Testament were included at the date of this homily, seems quite certain; comp. the references to the New Testament in chaps. ii., iii., iv., and elsewhere. It is here implied that this homily was written and "read."

[4004] The word enteuzis, here used, means intercession, or supplication, to God (comp. 1 Tim. ii. 1, iv. 5) in early Christian literature: but the classical sense is "entreaty:" so in the opening sentence of Justin, First Apology (vol. i. p. 163, where it is rendered "petition").

[4005] Lightfoot, with Syriac and most editors, reads skopo'n; but C has ko'pon, so Bryennios.

[4006] C had originally philosophein (accepted by Hilgenfeld), but was corrected to philoponein. The latter is confirmed by the Syriac, and now generally accepted, though Hilgenfeld uses the other reading to support his view that Clement of Alexandria was the author.

[4007] Ephesians 4:18.

[4008] C inserts tou'to; so Bryennios, Hilgenfeld, and others. Lightfoot omits, with Syriac. The punctuation above given is that of Bryennios and Lightfoot. Hilgenfeld joins this clause with what precedes.

[4009] peiran athloumen; the construction is classical, and the figure common in all Greek literature.

[4010] The verbs here are aorists, and have been rendered by the English past tense; the present participle (me` on di'kaion) describing the character of the "spirit" must, according to English usage, conform to the main verbs. Lightfoot says, "The aorist here has its common gnomic sense;" and he therefore interprets the passage as a general statement: "Sordid motives bring their own punishment in a judicial blindness." But this gnomic sense of the aorist is not common. C reads desmo's, which yields this sense: "and a chain weighed upon him." Hilgenfeld refers the passage to those Christians who suffered persecution for other causes than those of righteousness. Harnack thinks the author has in mind Satan, as the prince of avarice, and regards him as already loaded with chains. If the aorist is taken in its usual sense, this is the preferable explanation; but the meaning is obscure.

[4011] 1 Timothy 1:17.

[4012] Acts 3:15, v. 31; comp. Hebrews 2:10.

[4013] The doxology is interesting, as indicating the early custom of thus closing a homily. The practice, fitting in itself, naturally followed the examples in the Epistles.