Monday, May 21, 2012

PG001(col. 213-216): First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians: Chapter 3.


(From the 1765 Venice edition of  André Galland's "Library of the Ancient Fathers", Tome 1, folio-size, p. 9)
Author:  André Galland
Googlebooks PDF: PG001

Chapter 3

     All good repute[[12]] and broadness[[13]] was given to you, and <what has been written>[[14]] was fulfilled: "The beloved ate and drank, and grew wide and grew thick, and <weaned>[[15]]."[[50c]]  From this <comes> jealously and envy[[16]], and strife, and discord, persecution and instability, war and captivity.  Thus the unhonored were roused against the honored, the inglorious against the glorious, the imprudent against the prudent, the young against the elders.[[51c]]  Because of this[[17]] far away is justice and peace,  in that each one abandons the fear of God, and is dim-sighted in his faith, nor journeys in the customs of his precepts, nor <lives as a citizen> according to <what is proper> to Christ[[18]], but each walks according to his wicked desires, having taken up[[19]] unjust and irreverent jealousy, through which also death entered the world.[[52c]]


Citations
50c. Deuteronomy 32:15

51c. Isaiah 3:5

52c. Wisdom 2:24

Notes
12. "All good repute": Up to here the Corinthians are praised, and their pious, holy, and religious customs are placed before <their> eyes, so that the censure on account of the vices into which they had declined would more sharply prick their souls.  "For the accusation even by itself <is certainly> sufficient to injure" (as Chrysostom <comments> on verse 2, chapter 11 of the first <epistle> to the Corinthians>, "but since is occurs in addition to the juxtaposition of others <who have succeeded> and <who are praised>, it has a greater sting."  Now, the transition is somewhat more abrupt, and for the sake of greater clarity certain things appear to be able to be added, as <though to say>, "But now <you have become> such from <having been> such"[[A]], or some such thing.  But Photius, the father of critics, in the "Ten-thousand book"[[B]], perceived this several centuries before us, <he> who in this genuine <epistle> and also that other epistle which was falsely passed off under the name of Clement, <makes a pretext that> certain "thoughts" <are> "thrown about anyhow, and <are> not keeping a continuous <logical order>": for which reason we change or add nothing, but so that our Clement might be made more excused, beyond those things which above in the letter to the reader about the style of apostolic men we touched upon briefly and [with the fingertip<s>], it pleases here to append certain things about the diction and character of their times; later, although the occasion will rather often be offered, we <shall> put forth a deep silence.  In the infancy of the Church, the ancient Fathers' method of teaching and writing was plain, simple, and brief, prepared not for the delight of the ears, but for the salvation of souls: since indeed <they> placed faith not in "<skillful argument-finding>, but in exhibition of the divine Scriptures", as Cyril of Jerusalem says, <in> the fourth catechism: and they had hearers who were in need "of more childlike <things> and of a milky-warm introduction".  Hence, Methodius in <the writings of> Epiphanius <says>: "Formerly, therefore, <matters> about explanation were totally brief, <sc. the matters> of those striving eagerly not to delight, but to help those present."  Thus, Gregory Nazianzen <in> Oration 21 <says>: "It <once> was, when our affairs flourished and held well, when this prodigiousness, both tongue-entangled of theology and artificial, neither had an entrance to the divine courts".  Hence, Jerome <says> of Didymus: "<He> is inexpert of speech, and not of knowledge, representing an apostolic man from <his> very speech, as much by the reason of <his> meanings as by the simplicity of <his> words"; which also Didymus himself near the end of his tractate on the holy Spirit does not blush to say of himself.  In fact, even the apostles were considered "uncivilized, unlearned, unlettered, and witless", as Chrysostom <says> <in> homily 3 on the <first> Epistle to the Corinthians; and in his preface to <the epistle> to the Romans: "Nothing <was> more unlearned than Peter, nothing more ignorant than Paul; and this he himself agreed and was not ashamed saying: 'But even if <I am> a fool in speech, yet not in knowledge'" (2 Cor 11:6).  And in <his> exposition of psalm 46, he calls them "fools", "inarticulate", "uncivilized", "one-tunicked", "unshod", "naked", and "more speechless than fish".  Thus Gregory of Nyssa <says> at that <phrase> of the Psalmist, "Out of the mouth of babes" (Psalm 8:3), as is in our Catena on the Psalms: "Otherwise was also the style of the apostles; for although these very much <were> fools and more speechless than fish themselves, they <hauled up in a net> the entire inhabited world."  Thus Theodoret <says> on the curing of the <passions> of the Greeks, <in> sermon 8, on the writings of the apostles: "For indeed the compositions of these <apostles>, <while they were> at any rate simple and stripped of Hellenic splendor and refinement, even then both small and few they to all men were worthy of love."  Thus Basil to Libanius: "But we, O admirable one, are with Moses and Elijah and the other thus blessed men, discoursing to me from barbarous speech their affairs, <and> we speak out the <things we received> from them, true meaning, but unlearned diction."  Thus Jerome on chapter 3 to the Ephesians: "Whensoever we observe solecisms or some such, we are not striking the apostle, as the spiteful make accusations, but we are more the apostle's defender, because the Hebrew from among the Hebrews and away from the brilliance of rhetorical speech and composition of words and beauty of eloquence, never would have wanted" [perhaps, 'would have succeeded'][[C]] "<in leading over> the whole world to the faith of Christ, unless he had evangelized it not in the wisdom of word, but in the virtue of God"; and in the same place a little later: "He, therefore, who makes solecisms in words, who cannot render hyperbaton and finish off a sentence, audaciously claims wisdom for himself".  See the epistle of the same <sc. Jerome> to Algasia, where he notes the convoluted meanings, entangled expression, and lack of skill of grammatical art in Paul, and that that saying, "Although <I am> unskilled in speech, but not in knowledge", he affirms <was> brought forth by him <sc. Paul> not regarding humility, but regarding truth of <self-consciousness>.  But these things up to here <are> perhaps more than was suitable.--The same <sc. Young>

13.  "Broadness", as Cyril in our Catena on Psalms interprets, is "Cheerfulness" [perhaps, abundance][[D]] "of affairs, and open space".  For Corinth in those times, as Chrysostom <recounts> in <his> argument <on> the first Epistle to the Corinthians, was a great city "and populous, and wondrous on account of wealth and wisdom, and the head of Greece.  For the <affairs> of the Athenians and the Lacedaimonians were then faring wretchedly, <priority> having been transferred long ago."--The same <sc. Young>

14. "Weaned":  Read with Colomiès and others, "kicked away".--Gallandi


     "Weaned": "Kicked away" should be substituted, although it is most well-known that infants taken away from the breasts are impudent, troublesome, querulous, and implacable.  Now, in this passage let it be once observed that Clement, in praising the sacred Scriptures, imitates the apostles, who repeatedly would render meanings more than words; nor indeed <would they do> that distinctly and separately, but confusedly and as if [<with> <their> decisions plucked out through gleaning].  Nor so much from Hebrew sources as <from> the Translation of the 70 <which is> profuse and perhaps less clear, but more suitable and set forth to all to draw up.--Fell


15. "The beloved ate, and drank, and grew wide and grew thick, and kicked away": Not much differently the blessed Chrysostom <in> homily 1 on Genesis thus cites: "The beloved ate and drank, and grew fat and grew thick, and kicked away".--Cotelier

16. "and envy": Thus <reads> Wotton from the manuscript.  The editions omit those <words> which nevertheless Young's translation acknowledges: jealously, envy, strife.--Gallandi

17. "Because of this": We translate: "On account of this cause, far away are absent justice and peace, because each one," etc.  Young <translates>: "From here <it> is that, <with> justice far away being exiled and peace, each one <...>."  We step back somewhat from the translation of the most learned man so that the mind of the author can more expressly be manifest; who renders this most useful pronouncement against the statement of the <secular world>; <that> care of morals and civil peace fall to the ground, <when> piety <has been> previously despised.--Fell

18. "to Christ": Although this reading is approved by Wotton, it nevertheless displeases Davies, which for that reason he thus supplies: "to <one who is> in Christ", a phrase <which is> utilized here and there by the Apostle.--Gallandi

     "proper to Christ":  [<Although>] perhaps "to a Christian" should be read, nevertheless "suitable" is the same as "becoming", as Clement of Alexandria <says in> "Pedagogy", book 1, where from the school of the Stoics he defines "suitable" to be "<what is set straight> according to the obedience of the word".--Young

19. "Having taken up": Wotton would prefer: "each one...having taken up"[[E]].  But that nothing should be changed, those words persuade: Matthew 26:22 : "<They> began to speak...each one".  Acts 2:6 : "<They> were listening, each one".  And [<compare>] <Acts 2:>8 : "And how we each listen";  Thus elsewhere here and there a collective noun <in the singular> is found joined to a plural verb.--Gallandi

     "Having taken up unjust and irreverent jealousy": Perhaps he says "having taken up" <with> respect had towards the sedition born in the time of the divine Paul; about whom near the end of the epistle he <purposefully> discusses; such the the meaning <here> is, that those <Corinthians> are again reverted to iniquitous and impious envy.  See 1 Cor 11.  Furthermore, a reason is to be had for the particle "<also>", which immediately follows, "through which also death entered the world".[[F]]--Fell

My Notes
A. If this is a quote, I haven't found it.  But it may just be a statement of a general principle of Greek though.  Variants of the phrase, "οἵα ἐξ οἵων", "such from such", do appear at various points in Greek literature to indicate a transition from one state to another.  In particular, cf. Aristotle's quotation of Iphicrates in book 1, chapter 9 of "Rhetoric".


B. Also known as the "Library".

C.  The difference between the two words is of one letter, and Young's emendation makes patent sense.

D. The difference between the two words is of two middle letters, and Young's emendation makes more sense.

E. The difference is that the note's headword in the text is plural and therefore grammatically modifies "desires".  The deletion of the final sigma would change it to singular, thus capable of modifying "each <person>".  But as Gallandi demonstrates (cf. note 19), grammatical correspondence in number appears not to be especially strict in the New Testament, and so perhaps neither is it so among other authors of the early church.


F.  Fell's argument appears to interpret the Greek verb as meaning, "to take up again".  This is indeed another meaning of "analambanw", but it doesn't seem especially necessary here.  As for his argument about the particle "kai", I don't see what he's trying to say.

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