First Epistle of Clement

The First Epistle of Clement (Ancient Greek: Κλήμεντος πρὸς Κορινθίους, romanized: Klḗmentos pròs Korinthíous, lit. 'Clement to Corinthians') is a letter addressed to the Christians in the city of Corinth. The work is internally anonymous, but it is attributed to Clement I, the fourth bishop of Rome, which most scholars hold to be true. Based on internal evidence, some scholars say the letter was composed some time before AD 70, but the most common time given for the epistle's composition is at the end of the reign of Domitian (c. AD 96). As the name suggests, a Second Epistle of Clement is known, but this is a later work by a different author.

The letter is a response to events in Corinth, where the congregation had deposed certain bishops. The author called on the congregation to repent, to restore the bishops to their position, and to obey their superiors. He said that the Apostles had appointed the church leadership and directed them on how to perpetuate the ministry. In Corinth, the letter was read aloud from time to time. This practice spread to other churches, and Christians translated it from the original Greek into Latin, Syriac, and other languages. The work was lost for centuries, but since the 1600s various copies or fragments have been found and studied. It has provided valuable evidence about the structure of the early church.

Part of the Apostolic Fathers collection, some early Christians treated the work as a sacred text. It was included in some Bibles, such as the Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Hierosolymitanus, but not in the 27-book New Testament canon that is shared across most modern Christian churches. Such works are known as New Testament apocrypha, and 1 Clement ranks Didache as one of the earliest, if not the earliest, of those that still exist.

Although traditionally attributed to Clement of Rome, the letter does not include Clement's name, and is anonymous, though scholars generally consider it to be genuine. The epistle is addressed as "the Church of God which sojourneth in Rome to the Church of God which sojourneth in Corinth". Its stylistic coherence suggests a single author.

Scholars have proposed a range of dates, but most limit the possibilities to the last three decades of the 1st century, and no later than AD 140. The most common time given for the epistle's composition is at the end of the reign of Domitian (c. AD 96). The phrase "sudden and repeated misfortunes and hindrances which have befallen us" (1:1) is taken as a reference to persecutions under Domitian. Thus some scholars believe that 1 Clement was written around the same time as the Book of Revelation (c. AD 95–97).

Irenaeus (c. 130 – c. 202 AD) mentions the letter in his book Against Heresies III (180 AD).

In the time of this Clement, no small dissension having occurred among the brethren at Corinth, the Church in Rome dispatched a most powerful letter to the Corinthians, exhorting them to peace, renewing their faith, and declaring the tradition which it had lately received from the apostles, proclaiming the one God, omnipotent, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Creator of man, who brought on the deluge, and called Abraham, who led the people from the land of Egypt, spoke with Moses, set forth the law, sent the prophets, and who has prepared fire for the devil and his angels. From this document, whosoever chooses to do so, may learn that He, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, was preached by the Churches, and may also understand the apostolic tradition of the Church, since this Epistle is of older date than these men who are now propagating falsehood, and who conjure into existence another god beyond the Creator and the Maker of all existing things.

— St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies III, Chapter 3:3