Sunday, August 18, 2013

PG001(col. 275-278): First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians: Chapter 34.

(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 34

The good worker with <free action> takes the break of his work; the sluggish and remiss does not look his work-provider in the face.  Therefore, it is necessary that we be eager towards beneficence; for from him[[23]] is everything.  For he proclaims to us: "Behold the Lord, and his reward <is> before him[[31b]], to render to each according to his work[[24]]"[[32b]].  Therefore, he urges us from <the> whole heart towards <it/him>[[25]], not to be idle nor slack in every good work.  Let our boast and outspokenness be in this; let us be subjected to his will.  Let us comprehend the entire multitude of his angels, how <being present> they minister to his will.  For the Scripture says: "Countless ten-thousands <were present> to him, and a thousand thousands were ministering to him[[26]]"[[33b]].  "And they were crying out, 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord sabaoth, all the creation[[27]] <is> full of his glory'"[[34b]].  And we, therefore, having been gathered together in agreement upon the same, <by mutual knowledge>[[28]] as from one mouth let us cry out to him earnestly, to <the purpose of> us <becoming> participants of his great and glorious promises.  For he says, "Eye did not see, and ear did not hear, and upon <the> hear of man did not ascend how many things he prepared[[29]] for those awaiting him"[[35b]].


Biblical Citations
32b.  Isaiah 40:10 ; 62:11

33b.  Psalm 61:13

34b.  Daniel 7:10

35b.   1 Corinthians 2:9


Notes
23.  "from him":  That is, from the work-provider, evidently, God.  Thus <interprets> Bois.  To whom Wotton seems to accede.  For he thus translates: "For from him are all things".--The same <sc. Gallandi>

24.  "Behold the Lord, and his reward is before him, to render to each according to his work":  <Cf. the epistle> of Barnabas, chapter 21: "Near <is> the Lord, and his reward".  In the apostolic Constitutions, book 2, chapter 14, and in the interpolated Ignatius, "Epistle to the Smyrnaeans", chapter 9: "Look, man and his work before his face"[[A]].  The same <apostolic> Constitutions, book 3, chapter 43, <have>: "Behold, man and his work": to which words are appended those in the "Questions" of Anastasius edited by Gretser, question 22: "And will you not render to each according to his works".  Clement <of Alexandria> <in> the <"Miscellanies">, book 4, page 528, <writes>: "For <it> has been said: 'Behold <the> Lord, and his reward from his face, to render to each according to his works."  From Origen, homily 35 "on Luke": "And then <it> will be completed: 'Behold man, his works before his face'."  And <in> tome 16, "on John": "Behold <the> Lord, and his reward in his hand, to render to each according to his work.Basil on psalm 32:18 : "Behold <the> Lord, and his reward" (thus the Greek edition with three Royal manuscripts of great antiquity) "to render to each as to his work.Chrysostom <in> Convocation 2 "On Lazarus", tome 5: "For behold, he says, man and his works."  In pseudo-Chrysostom or the author of the "Incomplete work on Matthew", at chapter 3, verse 12: "Behold man and his works." Saint Ambrose on <psalm 118:82>, octave 11, says: "And so the Prophet was deficient <regarding> the word.  And we think ourselves idle if we seem <to be zealous> merely for the word; and of more we appraise those who work, than those who exercise the zeal of knowing truth.  For very many say: 'Behold man and his works, as though he who is zealous for the word does not work', etc."  Finally, Valentinus and the monks who <were> with him <in> the epistle to saint Augustine, <number> 256 among the epistles of that doctor: "Because the Lord will come, and his reward <will be> with him: because man will stand and his work" (commonly badly <transmitted as> 'body') "<will be> before him."  All took from the passages of Scripture of Isaiah 40:10 ; 62:11 ; Revelation 22:12 ; Psalm 61:13.--Cotelier

25.  "towards it/him":  Bois adds "<towards> trusting <him>", relying upon Proverbs 3:5.  Others <emend to>, "to it".  Davies boldly <emends to>, "towards the not <being idle>, etc."  However, Wotton, sticking to the manuscript, thus renders: "By urging he turns us towards it/him with the whole heart." For in that manner, he says, we read in Aeschines, "to urge towards our friendship": [[Lat. Trans. Om.]].--Gallandi

26.  "Let us comprehend the entire multitude of his angels, how <being present> they minister to his will.  For the Scripture says: 'Countless ten-thousands <were present> to him, and a thousand thousands were ministering to him'":  Two things here come to be observed.One, that all angels <stand ready> and minister, accord to the teaching of many: to which seem to fit both divine testimonies, Genesis 3:24; Tobit 12:14,15; Psalm 103:4; Isaiah 6:2, etc.; Luke 1:19; and Hebrews 1:7,14 : and the opinions of the Holy Fathers: Minucius Felix says, "Sosthenes bestows both the true God with merited majesty, <and> also the angels, that is, the ministers and heralds of God, even the true <God>, and to his veneration he recognizes that <they> <stand ready>."  Didymus <in> book 1 "On the holy Spirit", from the translation of Jerome, before the end[[B]], adds those <words> at Hebrews 1:7 : "For although all invisible creatures were not sent individually, nevertheless because other of the same type and honor were sent, in a certain manner even they were sent [with power], the companions of the ones sent, and of equal substance."[[C]]  In <the writings of> the same Jerome, epistle 142[[D]]: "A certain one of the Greeks especially learned in the Scriptures expounded that the Seraphim a certain virtues in the heavens, which, assisting before the tribunal of God, praise him and are sent in diverse ministries, and most of all to those who are in need of purification, and on account of previous sins from some part deserve to be purified with punishments."  And in the same epistle the angels are called by Jerome, "the whole heavenly ministry", and, "attendant virtues in heavenly things"; in which manner to the Damascene the angel is "God's defender and minister", <in> oration 3 <in defense of> sacred icons.  The author of the Commentaries on the Epistle to the Hebrews, among the Words of saint Ambrose, at verse 7, chapter 1, <says>, "For not only angels does <he> signify with this word, but all virtues discharging supernal ministries."  And later, "<It> can be said that when they are sent to announce light" (read 'mild')[[E]] "things, <they> are angels; when they are sent for punishment, <they> are ministers, that is, burning fire."  Which things, at last, agree with the just cited <passage> from Jerome, and with these from the same <sc. Jerome> in <the writings of> Sedulius at Hebrews 1:7 : "Twofold is the office of the angels: for they minister either the spirit of consolation or the fire of punishment for men"; likewise equally with those <words of Jerome>, in psalm 103: "As in some they pour in the light of truth, in others they consume sins"; and <with> those at the passage of Daniel: "Twofold is the office of the angels; of some who deliver rewards to the just; of others who preside over individual torments"; unless if the final word should be changed into "cities", from saint Thomas[[F]] at the same <passage of the> prophet: "For not the good, but the bad angels are appointed to torments," says the [often cited] Jerome near the end of book 9 of the Commentaries "on Ezekiel".  The same <sc. Jerome>, explicating the first two verses of chapter 6 of Micah: "Others think the mountains, hills, and valleys <indicate> angels: who either serve God in heaven; or preside over men upon this earth; or established among <those below>, are said <to be> the foundations of those who <as> terrestrial ones stood out by their sin ."  Consult regarding the assistance and ministry of the angels Pope Gregory <in> homily 34 on the Gospels, Primasius at Hebrews 1:14, and Isidore of Spain <in> the book "On the order of creatures", chapter 2, tome 1 of Acherian "Gleanings".  And so less verisimilitudinous is made the opinion of Dionysius, contending in the word "On the celestial hierarchy" that only the superior angels assist God, and only the inferiors are sent to human ministries: and also the contrary opinion of Theodoret at Daniel 7:16, considering that the more worthy of the angels not only are present, but also minister, <whereas> the remaining merely are present.  I would believe, guided mostly by sacred utterances, that all orders of angels discharge the offices of assisting and ministering; but nevertheless that certain of the angels more often pursue either duty; such that the lesser in dignity and number are sent more and serve our affairs, bur the greater and more numerous more frequently assist near God, and among these are few who most rarely of all cease from assisting.  The other thing which offers itself to be observed is the inversion of the prophetic <word-order>, <at> Daniel 7:10, thus: "Countless ten-thousands <were present> to him, and a thousand thousands were ministering to him", whereas it has been rendered by the Septuagint suitably to the <Hebrew?> original, "A thousand thousands were ministering to him, and ountless ten-thousands <were present> to him".  However, with Clement agree Irenaeus <in> book 2, chapter 6; Gregory of Nyssa <in> homily 8 "on Ecclesiastes"; and Cyril of Alexandria <in> the epistle on the Creed.  [The words of ministering and assisting are even worse corrupted in other <writers>]: as in Tertullian, chapter 3 of the "Book against Praxeas"; Chrysostom <in> tome 6, "Homily on the blind man and Zacchaeus"; Theodore the Studite <in> catechesis 82, 107; Michael Syncellus <in> "Praise of the angels", tome 1 of the Combefisian Addition of the Library of the Fathers; <in> the "Liturgies" of Gregory and Cyril; and <in> the "Ordinations of the Syrian Maronites" published by Jean Morin; and also in Gregory of Nyssa, tome 3 at the end of the tract "On virginity", and <in> Basil of Seleucia, oration 1.  In fact also <he> who wrote again the Novatians, printed with Cyprian, near the end of his little work, in the text of Daniel places an equal number of assisting and serving <angels>.  But most of all beyond others Eusebius and Chrysostom <throw things into disorder> <respectively in>, "Evangelical Preparation" book 7, chapter 15: and "against the Anomoeans" oration 6, tome 1, by citing: "Countless ten-thousands were ministering to him, and a thousand thousands were present before him", or, "were present to him".--Cotelier

27.  "all the creation":  The <reads> the manuscript.  But from the editions, except the London, is absent, "the".  The Septuagint <read>, "the earth".--Gallandi

28.  "by mutual knowledge":  Perhaps, "and by mutual knowledge", or rather, "by union", thus also above: "with mercy and mutual knowledge", perhaps, "union", should be read.--Young

29.  "he prepared":  Thus <reads> the manuscript according to Wotton.  Thus also <reads> the London edition.  Others <read>, "he prepard"[[G]].--Gallandi


My Notes
A.  As Cotelier indicates, this line seems to have been judged an interpolation, and so it seems not to appear in any of the current texts of the this epistle.

B.  This quotation seems to be significantly before the end, appx. 1/4 of the way into the text.

C.  I'm not quite sure what this is suppose to mean.

D.  At Migne, Pat. Lat. 23, col. 367

E.  The emendatory suggestions here is based on the similarity between the Latin words "levia" and "lenia".

F.  Aquinas?

G.  Spelling variant; no change in meaning.

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