PG001(col. 235-238): First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians: Chapter 14.

(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 14

{J}ust, therefore[[93-94]], and hallowed <it is>, beloved brothers, <that> we rather become obedient to God, than follow the leaders in pretension and instability of foul envy.  For not the <casual>[[95]] harm, but rather a great danger will we sustain, if recklessly we deliver ourselves to the wishes of men who shoot forth at strife and sedition, at <our being alienated> from <that which goes well>.  Let us be good to them[[97]] according to the compassion and sweetness of  the <one who made> us.  For <it has been written>: "<The> good will be the inhabitants of the land, and <the> innocent will be left remaining in it[[98]][[82b]]; But the <law-transgressors> will be utterly destroyed from it[[99]][[83b]]."  And again <it> says: "I saw[[100]] <an> irreverent <one> exalted exceedingly and evelated[[1]][[F]] like the cedars of Lebanon; and I came by, and look, <he> was not, but and I sought out his place, and I did not find <him>.  Keep innocence, and see straightness, because <that> is <the> remnant[[2]] for <the> peaceful man." 


Biblical Citations
82b. Proverbs 2:21, 22 according to the Septuagint

83b. Psalms 36:9

84b. <In the same place> 35-37

85b. Isaiah 29:13

86b. Psalms 61:5


Notes
93-94. "Just, therefore": In the "All-receiver" of Nicon the Monk, discourse 18, Regal codices 2418, 2423, 2424 <has>: "Of Clement of Rome: 'Just, therefore, and hallowed', etc.", as above among the testimonies of the ancients, column 43[[A]].  <He> joins together the words <at> Clement's Epistle 1, this chapter and the following <chapter> and 46, likewise  <at> Epistle 2, chapter 3.--The same <sc. Cotelier>

95. "the casual":  The <printed> editions omit the article "the", which Wotton restored from the manuscript.--Gallandi

96. "Who shoot forth": Lord Bois thinks something is absent, and that the word "words" or "statements" should be supplied.  I would prefer, without any addition, to read "<who> sharpen up", and <this> is rendered by us in our translation: but so that the meaning is fuller and more rounded, I do not refuse to all "the tongues", if one thus might wish, and indeed by a most elegant phrasing which Libanius uses <in his> Epistle to Basil[[B]]: "If these <words are> of an unwrought tongue, who would you be <to sharpen> it?" Thus the epistle to Sallust not yet published: "For already <since> <those who are sharpening> <their> right hands to write quickly <are> standing up." thus the Psalmist calls the tongue of the impious, who contrive iniquity and deceits, "<a> sharpened razor".  But whom "shoot forth" pleases more, to fill out the meaning they can add, "the tongues" or "with the tongues"; for the tongue of taunting and perverse men "is an injuring missile and a mendacious bow," as says Jeremiah, chapter 9, verses 3 and 8, which Solomon in Proverbs calls a "knife" and Job a "lash".  Whence <Gregory the> Nazianzen, <in> epistle 191, which in the manuscript codex of the Bodleian library, not to Timothy, as in the printed <editions>, but to the sophist Stagirius is dedicated: "Put down for once the weapons, and the slings, and the more terrible spears, the tongues, with which you cast against each other and injure," and Nicephorus Callistus, <in> book 8, chapter 11 on the Arian heresy, and the schism then arisen in the Church, making words: "Not <as> <speakers of a foreign tongue> did they make war upon the churches, but <as those>  <of the same lifestyle> and <of the same stock> against each other they <armed themselves>, using tongues as spears."--Young

97. "Let us be good to them": Instead of "them", others prefer "to each other". Others, "to ourselves": which word of course sometimes is used instead of "to each other".  Thus Colossians 3:13 : "being gracious to yourselves"[[C]].  But the reading of the manuscript seems <that it ought to be retained>, if it is referred to the schismatics, about whom <he was speaking> a little earlier: "to <those> in pretension, etc.", which meaning certainly seems to more aptly adhere to the context of this chapter.  If however you think otherwise, not even then <should> the reading be changed: for also often the holy Father uses these words, "to them", "them", instead of, "to each other", "each other", as noted below at Epistle 2, chapter 4.--Gallandi

98. "The good will be the inhabitants of the land, and the innocent will be left remaining in it": These, therefore, truly are of the 70 Elders[[D]].--Cotelier

99. "will be utterly destroyed": Young and the editions all <unanimously> read "will be utterly distroyed"[[E]].  But the manuscript <actually reads> "will be utterly destroyed", both here and perpetually in the Septuagint.  Thus also "I destroy", "destruction", "destroyer" : and "I utterly destroy", etc.  Both Eustathius and <the Suda> use "I destroy"; such that such that the way of writing <it with> "e" seems to be older and more accurate: for "I destroy" is derived from "destruction", which is always written with "e". <Wotton's note>--Gallandi

     --What is here asserted about the Septuagint is a manifest error.  For indeed in <the writings of> those elders we perpetually read "I distroy"[[E]], "I utterly distroy".  Thus also "distruction", "utter distroying" (each hapax legomenon, Joshua 17:13, and 1 Kings 15:21), "utter distruction".  But <the Suda> in the Lexicon holds a deep silence about both these words.  I am not able to speak about Eustathius, whom I do not have in my hands.--Drach

100. "I saw, etc.": These and the following <words> up to the beginning of chapter 18, <with> few things changed, Clement of Alexandria repeats <in> "Miscellanies", book 4, chapter 5, page 577.--Gallandi

1. "evelated"[[F]]: The editions <have> "levated".  But the manuscript <has> "evelated".  Not can anyone suspect but that here should be read "elevated", and in the Septuagint.  for since in this manuscript "v" and "l" are very often permuted between themselves, <with> each both vowel and diphthong restored to their places, "evelated" comes out <as> "elevated". <Wotton's note>.--The same <sc. Gallandi>

2. "remnant": Euthymius understands <this word to mean> remembrance, which is preserved in a double way, either through offspring, or through good works; but Ferrandus most ingeniously thus paraphrases this passage: "The time will be when a wage suitable to the innocent man will be repaid."  Each <in the spirit> of the Hymnographer[[G]].--Colomiès


My Notes
A.  I haven't translated these excepts on this blog.  But they may be found in Migne at the cited column.

B.  Letter 343

C.  What is properly the 3rd person reflexive pronoun is often colloquially used for the reciprocal pronoun in all persons.

D.  I'm not sure what the import of this note is.  Since I don't have a critical edition of the Septuagint (pace Herr Hitzig), I can't say anything further but that the online texts I've found use a different preposition and case for "in it" at the end of the line. 

E. The issue here is a spelling variant: "olethreu-" vs. "olothreu-".  I've altered the letters to fit the English examples.

F. The text has what is apparently a misspelling due to an inversion of letters.  I have kept this in the English and altered the cited letters fit the English example.

G. I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean.  It may be a reference to the style of Joseph the Hymnographer, although he lived much later than either.  The only other person I can find with the title "Hymnographer" is King David, but that seems wrong here.