Some Remarkable Aspects of Clement of Rome's Letter to the Corinthians

Abstract

By way of a general introduction to 1 Clement, it seems fitting to let Eusebius the fourth-century church historian speak, for he sums it up very well when he writes that: Clement has left us one recognised epistle, long and wonderful, which he composed in the name of the church at Rome and sent to the church at Corinth, where dissension had recently occurred. I have evidence that in many churches this epistle was read to the assembled worshippers in early days, as it is in our own. What Eusebius wrote here serves not only as a succinct outline of the celebrated letter, but the last sentence also marks it as a significant document for any serious study in early ecclesiastical development. Not least because it demonstrates that 1 Clement was sufficiently revered to exert a marked effect on the idea-shaping of this nascent religion, which appears to have included it in a primitive Christian canon that was widely accepted in the West for at least the first three and a half centuries.