๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐.๐: ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ โ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐ฆ๐จ๐ง๐ฒ
Covering the topics of: V.3 V.4 V.5
Having now examined Clementโs references to Adam, Abraham, and Jacob, we can turn to the language itself. Rather than assuming what Clement means when he calls these figures โour father,โ we should examine the Greek construction he uses and compare it with the same familial language found throughout the New Testament. Clement repeatedly employs the expression:
แฝ ฯฮฑฯแฝดฯ แผกฮผแฟถฮฝ โ โour father.โ
The construction is simply put when diagnosing the script which the epistle was original written. ฯฮฑฯฮฎฯ (patฤr) means โfather,โ while แผกฮผแฟถฮฝ (hฤmลn) is the first-person plural possessive pronoun, โour.โ Together, the expression literally carries the sense of โthe father of usโ or โour father.โ
Clement applies this designation to multiple figures within the biblical ancestral history as we discussed previously:
By reason of jealousy our father Jacob ran away from the face of Esau his brother.
โ Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians 4.8, trans. J. B. Lightfoot
The Greek reads:
แฝ ฯฮฑฯแฝดฯ แผกฮผแฟถฮฝ แผธฮฑฮบแฝผฮฒ
แฝ โ the
ฯฮฑฯฮฎฯ โ father
แผกฮผแฟถฮฝ โ of us / our
แผธฮฑฮบฯฮฒ โ Jacob
Later
Wherefore was
our father Abraham
blessed? was it not because he wrought righteousness and truth through faith?
โ Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians 31.2, trans. J. B. Lightfoot
Again, the Greek construction is:
แฝ ฯฮฑฯแฝดฯ แผกฮผแฟถฮฝ แผฮฒฯฮฑฮฌฮผ
แฝ โ the
ฯฮฑฯฮฎฯ โ father
แผกฮผแฟถฮฝ โ of us / our
แผฮฒฯฮฑฮฌฮผ โ Abraham
And earlier
Jealousy hath estranged wives from their husbands and changed the saying of
our father Adam
, This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.
โ Clement of Rome, First Epistle to the Corinthians 6.3, trans. J. B. Lightfoot
แฝ ฯฮฑฯแฝดฯ แผกฮผแฟถฮฝ แผฮดฮฌฮผ
the father of us โ Adam.
The pattern is therefore not limited to one patriarch. Clement applies the same familial designation to Adam, Abraham, and Jacob.
The lexical is consequently more precise than simply asking whether ฯฮฑฯฮฎฯ can mean โfather.โ In a spiritual sense as the universalists declare; that all anthropoids are grafted into the covenant as they so heretically proclaim. The Greek word possesses a broader semantic range and can refer not only to a literal parent but also to an ancestor or forefather. When Clement applies it to Adam, Abraham, and Jacob, we must therefore examine the relationship being expressed rather than automatically reducing the designation to a spiritual metaphor.
The possessive แผกฮผแฟถฮฝ โ โourโ is equally important. Clement does not merely speak of โfather Jacobโ or โfather Abraham.โ He says โour father.โ The relationship is being expressed collectively: he is father in relation to โus.โ And Clementโs surrounding material tells us what these fathers represent. Abraham is followed by Isaac and Jacob; Jacob is connected to the twelve tribes of Israel; and Adam is explicitly identified as the father whose descendants constitute the ancestral beginning of the biblical narrative; Clement is using Adamic language to the people of Corinth because they are Adamic.
Therefore, before examining other terminology such as ฯฯฮญฯฮผฮฑ, ฮณฮญฮฝฮฟฯ, ฯฯ ฮปฮฎ, within his epistle; we first have to establish what Clement is doing with this repeated familial formula.
This becomes important when we compare Clement with the New Testament within the next discussion, where the patriarchs are described using familial language. Such as Paul, Stephen, James and Peter use similar familial language to express the descent from which those authors and audience come themselves. The same linguistic formation therefore appears across the apostolic writings: a biblical patriarch is identified as โour fatherโ in relation to a collective groupโwho pertain the adoption, service of the Most High and for why Joshua the Anointed came who is blessed forever. Amen.
Ad fontes.
