Clement of Rome, The Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, Kirsopp Lake (Translator), 12

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[1] Let us then wait for the kingdom of God, from¹ hour to hour, in love and righteousness, seeing that we know not the day of the appearing of God.

[2] For when the Lord himself was asked by someone when his kingdom would come, he said: When the two shall be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male with the female neither male nor female.²

[3] Now the two are one when we speak with one another in truth, and there is but one soul in two bodies without dissimulation.

[4] And by the outside as the inside he means this, that the inside is the soul, and the outside is the body. Therefore, just as your body is visible, so let your soul be apparent in your good works.

[5] And by the male with the female neither male nor female he means this, that when a brother sees a sister he should have no thought of her as female, nor she of him as male.³

[6] When you do this, he says, the kingdom of my Father will come.

The Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians. Clement of Rome. Kirsopp Lake (Translator). London. 1912.

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The Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians (English) (Clement of Rome. The Apostolic Fathers, Volume 1. Lake, Kirsopp, editor. London: William Heinemann Ltd.; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1912.)

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Epistula II ad Corinthios First1KGreek (Clement of Rome. The Apostolic Fathers, Volume 1. Lake, Kirsopp, editor. London: William Heinemann Ltd.; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1912.) — 12 focus

[1] Ἐκδεχώμεθα οὖν καθ̓ ῶραν τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν ἀγάπῃ καὶ δικαιοσύνῃ, ἐπειδὴ οὐκ οἴδαμεν τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς ἐπιφανείας τοῦ θεοῦ.

[2] ἐπερωτηθεὶς γὰρ αὐτὸς ὁ κύριος ὑπό τινος, ¹πότε ἥξει αὐτοῦ ἡ βασιλεία, εἶπεν: Ὅταν ἔσται τὰ δύο ἕν, καὶ τὸ ἔξω ὡς τὸ ἔσω, καὶ τὸ ἄρσεν μετὰ τῆς θηλείας οὔτε ἅρσεν οὔτε θῆλυ.

[3] τὰ δύο δὲ ἕν ἐστιν, ὅταν λαλῶμεν ἑαυτοῖς ἀλήθειαν καὶ ἐν δυσὶ σώμασιν ἀνυποκρίτως εἴη μία ψυχή.

[4] καὶ τὸ ἔξω ὡς τὸ ἔσω, τοῦτο λέγει: τὴν ψυχὴν λέγει τὸ ἕσω, τὸ δὲ ἔξω τὸ σῶμα λέγει. ὃν τρόπον οὖν σου τὸ σῶμα φαίνεται, οὕτως καὶ ἡ ψυχή σου δῆλος ἔστω ἐν τοῖς καλοῖς ἔργοις.

[5] καὶ τὸ ἄρσεν μετὰ τῆς θηλείας, οὔτε ἄρσεν οὔτε θῆλυ, τοῦτο ² λέγει: ἵνα ἀδελφὸς ἰδὼν ἀδελφὴν οὐδὲν ³ φρονῇ περὶ αὐτῆς θηλυκόν, μηδὲ φρονῇ τι περὶ αὐτοῦ ἀρσενικόν.

[6] ταῦτα ὑμῶν ποιούντων, φησίν, ἐλεύσεται ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ πατρός μου.

Notes on the current edition

The Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

1. Interpretation of a Saying of the Lord

2. The same saying, or very nearly so, is quoted from Cassianus by Clement of Alexandria ( Strom. iii. 13 ), and the latter states that it is from the Gospel of the Egyptians. But the whole question has been complicated by the discovery of Grenfell and Hunt’s Lost Gospel ( Oxyrhynchus papyri, vol. iv. pp. 22 ff. ), which seems to refer to a similar saying, and the problem of the mutual relations between these documents is still unsolved.

3. Or, if αὑτοῦ be read instead of αὐτοῦ, nor have any thought of himself as male.

Clement of Rome The Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 12

Kirsopp Lake (Translator)

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