Clement of Rome

Who Was Clement of Rome?

Meta description: Clement of Rome (c. 35–99) led the church in Rome and wrote First Clement, one of the oldest Christian letters outside the New Testament. Here is who he was and what his letter teaches about unity, humility, and church order.

## Apostolic Fathers: The Christian writers of the late first and early second centuries who knew the apostles or learned from people who did. Their writings are the earliest Christian texts outside the New Testament.

## First Clement: A letter from the church in Rome to the church in Corinth, written around AD 96 and traditionally credited to Clement of Rome.

Keywords: Clement of Rome, First Clement, 1 Clement, Apostolic Fathers, early church fathers, church unity, early church order, bishop of Rome

Who Was Clement of Rome?

Clement of Rome was a leader of the church in Rome in the late first century. Irenaeus, writing around 180, lists him as the third bishop of Rome after Linus and Anacletus. Clement is best known for a letter the Roman church sent to the church in Corinth around AD 96. Christians call it First Clement.

Clement wrote while people who had heard the apostles were still alive. Irenaeus says Clement had seen the apostles, talked with them, and still carried their preaching fresh in his memory. Some early writers, including Origen and Eusebius, linked him to the Clement Paul names in Philippians 4:3. That link is possible, but no one can prove it.

## Major Work: First Clement

First Clement runs 65 short chapters. The letter never names its author. It speaks for “the church of God which sojourns at Rome.” Dionysius of Corinth and Irenaeus both credit it to Clement, and nearly all scholars accept that tradition.

The occasion was a church split. Younger members in Corinth had removed their elders from office. Rome wrote to call the Corinthians back to order. The letter is also one of the earliest sources for the deaths of Peter and Paul. Chapter 5 says both suffered and bore witness, which most scholars read as a reference to their martyrdom in Rome under Nero.

The church in Corinth still read the letter aloud in worship around AD 170. Some churches treated it almost as Scripture. It appears after the New Testament books in Codex Alexandrinus, a fifth-century Bible manuscript.

## Church Unity

Clement treated division as a spiritual problem. He traces jealousy through Scripture: Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, Moses and the Israelites. He then points to jealousy as the cause of suffering among Christians in his own day.

His remedy is repentance. He tells the leaders of the revolt to submit to the elders and accept correction. He asks whoever caused the split to step aside for the sake of peace, even if that means leaving the city.

## Love and Humility

Chapter 49 contains a passage on love that echoes 1 Corinthians 13. Clement writes that love binds us to God, covers a multitude of sins, and knows no schism. Chapters 13 through 19 hold up humility as the mark of the people of God, with Christ as the model.

Clement also prays for the government that persecuted the church. The long prayer in chapters 59 through 61 asks God to grant rulers health, peace, and stability. That prayer shows how the Roman church tried to live out Romans 13 and 1 Timothy 2.

## Early Church Order

First Clement gives an early account of how leadership passed from the apostles. Chapters 42 and 44 say the apostles appointed bishops and deacons, then made provision for other approved men to succeed them. Clement uses “bishop” and “elder” for the same office, as the New Testament does.

This is why the letter matters in debates over church government. Readers from Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions all cite it, and they draw different conclusions from the same chapters.

## How to Read First Clement Today

Read it in one sitting. The whole letter takes about 60 to 75 minutes.

Use Michael Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers (Baker, 3rd edition), for a reliable modern translation with notes.

For a free version, use the Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 1, at ccel.org or newadvent.org/fathers.

Keep 1 Corinthians open beside it. Clement tells the Corinthians to take up Paul’s letter again (chapter 47), and the parallels are easy to spot.

## About the Author

CK Quarterman is a USAF veteran, independent author, and publisher at CKQbooks. He writes the Malaterrestrials nonfiction series, which examines evil earthbound non-human intelligences through Scripture and history, along with the Watchers’ Universe and Sons of the Flood fiction series. Find his books at ckqbooks.com.

Truth · History · Scripture