and Eusebius,(1) who is the first writer who mentions it, expresses doubt regarding it, while Jerome(2) and Photius(3) state that it was rejected by the ancients. It is now universally regarded as spurious,(4) and dated about the end of the second century,(5) or later.(6) We shall hereafter see that many other pseudographs were circulated in the name of Clement, to which, however, we need not further allude at present.
There has been much controversy as to the identity of the Clement to whom the first Epistle is attributed. In early days he was supposed to be the Clement
mentioned in the Epistle to the Philippians (iv. 3)(1), but this is now generally doubted or abandoned,(2) and the authenticity of the Epistle has, indeed, been called in question both by earlier and later critics.(3) It is unnecessary to detail the various traditions regarding the supposed writer, but we must point out that the Epistle itself makes no mention of the author's name. It merely purports to be addressed by "The Church of God which sojourns at Rome to the Church of God sojourning at Corinth;" but in the Codex Alexandrinus, the title of "The first Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians," is added at the end. Clement of Alexandria calls the supposed writer the "Apostle Clement:"(4) Origen reports that many also ascribed to him the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews;(5) and Photius mentions that he was likewise said to be the writer of the Acts of the Apostles.(6) We know that until a comparatively late date this Epistle was quoted as Holy Scripture,(7) and was publicly read in the churches at the Sunday meetings of Christians.(8) It has, as we have seen, a place amongst
the canonical books of the New Testament in the Codex Alexandrinus, but it did not long retain that position in the canon, for although in the "Apostolic Canons"(1) of the sixth or seventh century both Epistles appear, yet in the Stichometry of Nicephorus, a work of the ninth century, derived, however, as Credner(2) has demonstrated, from a Syrian catalogue of the fifth century, both Epistles are classed among the Apocrypha.(3)
Great uncertainty prevails as to the date at which the Epistle was written. Reference is supposed to be made to it by the so-called Epistle of Polycarp,(4) but, owing to the probable inauthenticity of that work itself, no weight can be attached to this circumstance. The first certain reference to it is by Hegesippus, in the second half of the second century, mentioned by Eusebius.(5) Dionysius of Corinth, in a letter ascribed to him addressed to Soter, Bishop of Rome, is the first who distinctly mentions the name of Clement as the author of the Epistle.(6) There is some difference of opinion as to the order of his succession to the Bishopric of Rome. Irenæus(7) and Eusebius(8) say that he followed Anacletus, and the latter adds the date of the twelfth year of the reign of Domitian (a.d. 91-92), and that he died nine years after, in the third year of Trajan's reign (a.d. 100).(9) Internal evidence(10) shows that the Epistle was written after some persecution
of the Roman Church, and the selection lies between the persecution under Nero, which would suggest the date a.d. 64-70, or that under Domitian, which would assign the letter to the end of the first century, or to the beginning of the second. Those who adhere to the view that the Clement mentioned in the Epistle to the Philippians is the author, maintain that the Epistle was written under Nero.(1) One of their principal arguments for this conclusion is a remark occurring in Chapter xli.: "Not everywhere, brethren, are the daily sacrifices offered up, or the votive offerings, or the sin-offerings and the trespass-offerings, but only in Jerusalem. But even there they are not offered in every place, but only at the altar before the Sanctuary, examination of the sacrifice offered being first made by the High Priest and the ministers already mentioned."(2) From this it is concluded that the Epistle was written before the destruction of the Temple. It has, however, been shown that Josephus,(3) the author of the "Epistle to Diognetus" (c. 3), and others, long after the Jewish worship of the Temple was at an end, continually speak in the present tense of the Temple worship in Jerusalem; and it is evident, as Cotelier long ago remarked, that this may be done with propriety even in the present
