2025-01-07
This translation of 2 Clement is a language update of Cyril C. Richardson’s translation, originally translated in 1953. The langauge update was done in 2024/2025 and was intended to make Richardson’s translation sound more natural to a modern audience without significantly changing the meaning of the translation. Both Richardson’s translation and this update are in the public domain.
This translation was digitized and the language updated for the Early Christian Sources project. To find more information on this translation, a reproduction of the original translation and notes that accompanied it or more information on the early Christian writings, visit http://early.xpian.info.
1.1. Brothers, we ought to think of Jesus Christ like we do of God—as the judge of the living and the dead. And we should not make little of our salvation. 2. Because when we make little of him, little is all we can hope to get; and people do wrong if they listen as though to a little matter. And we do wrong also when we fail to realize from where and by whom and into what circumstances we were called, and how much suffering Jesus Christ endured for us. 3. How, will we repay him then, or what could we give back that would be worthy of his gift to us? We owe him so many holy blessings! 4. Because he has given us light; as a Father he has called us sons; he rescued us when we were perishing. 5. How, then, will we praise him? Or how can we repay him for what we have received? 6. Our minds were weakened and damaged; we worshiped stone and wood and gold and silver and brass, the works of men; and our whole life was death and nothing else. So when we were wrapped in darkness and our eyes could not see, by his will we recovered our sight and took off the cloud that surrounded us. 7. Because he took pity on us and in his kindness he saved us, since he saw our great error and destruction, and that we had no hope of salvation unless it came from him. 8. For he called us when we were nothing, and willed our existence from nothing.
2.1. “Rejoice, you who are barren and childless; cry out and shout, you who were never in labor; because the deserted woman has many more children than the one with the husband.” When he says, “Rejoice, you who are barren and childless,” he means us; because our assembly was fruitless before it was given children. 2. And when he says, “Shout, you who were never in labor,” he means this: that we should offer our prayers to God with sincerity, and not lose heart like women in labor. 3. And he says, “The deserted woman has many more children than the one with the husband,” because it seemed like our people were abandoned by God. But now that we believe, we have become more numerous than those who seemed to have God. 4. And another writing says, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” 5. This means that those who are being lost must be saved. 6. Yes, it is a great and wonderful thing to support the things which are collapsing instead of those which are standing. 7. So it was that the Christ was willing to save what was being lost; and he saved many when he came and called us who were actually perishing.
3.1. So then, seeing that he has had such compassion for us, first of all, in that we who are alive do not sacrifice to dead gods or worship them, but have come to know the Father of truth through him—what is knowledge in reference to him, except to refuse to deny him through whom we came to know the Father? 2. He himself says, “He who acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my Father.” 3. This is our reward then, if we acknowledge him through whom we are saved. 4. But how do we acknowledge him? By doing what he says and not disobeying his commands; by honoring him not only with our lips, but with all our heart and mind. And he also says in Isaiah, “This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me.”
4.1. Let’s not merely call him Lord, because that will not save us. 2. Because he says, “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will be saved, but only the one who does what is right.” 3. Therefore, brothers, let’s acknowledge him by our actions, by loving one another, by abstaining from adultery, backbiting, and jealousy, and by being self-controlled, compassionate, kind. We should have sympathy for one another and should not love money. Let’s acknowledge him by acting in this way and not by doing the opposite. 4. We should not fear men but should fear God. 5. That is why, if you act in this way, the Lord said, “If you are gathered with me close to my chest and do not keep my commands, I will throw you out and will say to you: ‘Depart from me. I do not know where you come from, you workers of lawlessness.’”
5.1. Therefore, brothers, as we leave behind our temporary residence in this world, let’s do the will of he who called us, and let’s not be afraid to leave this world. 2. Because the Lord said, “You will be like lambs among wolves.” 3. But Peter replied by saying, “What if the wolves tear the lambs to pieces?” 4. Jesus said to Peter: “After their death the lambs should not fear the wolves, nor should you fear those who kill you and can do nothing more to you. But fear him who, when you are dead, has power over soul and body to throw them into the flames of hell.” 5. Brothers, you must realize that our stay in this world of the flesh is small and short, but Christ’s promise is great and wonderful, and means rest in the coming Kingdom and in eternal life. 6. So what do we need to do to get these things, except to lead a holy and upright life and to consider these things of the world to be alien to us and not to desire them? 7. Because in wanting to get these things we fall from the right way.
6.1. The Lord says, “No servant can serve two masters.” If we want to serve both God and money, it will not do us any good. 2. “For what good does it do a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” 3. This world and the world to come are two enemies. 4. This one means adultery, corruption, greed, and deceit, while the other gives them up. 5. So we cannot be friends of both. To get the one, we must give up the other. 6. We think it is better to hate what is here, because it is insignificant, temporary, and perishable, and to value what is there—things that are good and imperishable. 7. Yes, if we do the will of Christ, we will find rest, but if not, nothing will save us from eternal punishment, if we fail to pay attention to his commands. 8. Additionally, the writing also says in Ezekiel, “Though Noah and Job and Daniel should rise, they will not save their children in captivity.” 9. If even men as upright as these cannot save their children by their uprightness, what assurance do we have that we will enter God’s Kingdom if we fail to keep our baptism pure and undefiled? Or who will plead for us if we are not found to have holy and upright deeds?
7.1. So, my brothers, let’s enter the contest, recognizing that it is at hand and that, while many come from over seas to perishable contests, not all of them win laurels, but only those who have struggled hard and competed well. 2. So then, let’s compete so that we may all be crowned. 3. Let’s run the straight race, the imperishable contest; and let many of us sail to it and enter it, so that we may be crowned also. And if we cannot all be crowned, let’s at least come close to it. 4. We must realize that if a contestant in a perishable contest is caught cheating, he is flogged, removed, and driven from the course. 5. What do you think? What will be done with the man who cheats in the contest for the imperishable? 6. Because in reference to those who have not guarded the seal, it says, “Their worm will not die and their fire will not be put out, and they will be a spectacle to all flesh.”
8.1. So while we are on earth, let’s repent. Because we are like clay in a workman’s hands. 2. If a potter makes a vessel and it gets out of shape or breaks in his hands, he remolds it; but once he has thrown it into the flames of the furnace, he cannot do anything else with it. Similarly, while we are in this world, let’s also repent with our whole heart of the evil we have done in the flesh, so that we may be saved by the Lord while we have a chance to repent. 3. Because once we have left this world we cannot confess there or repent any more. 4. Therefore, brothers, by doing the Father’s will and by keeping the flesh pure and by obeying the Lord’s commands, we will obtain eternal life. 5. Because the Lord says in the good message: “If you fail to guard what is small, who will give you what is great? For I tell you that he who is faithful in a very little, is faithful also in much.” 6. So then, this is what he means: keep the flesh pure and the seal undefiled, so that we may obtain eternal life.
9.1. In addition to this, don’t let any of you say that this flesh will not be judged or rise again. 2. Think about this: What state were you in when you were saved? What state were you in when you regained your sight, if it was not while you were in this flesh? 3. Therefore we should guard the flesh as God’s temple. 4. Because just as you were called in the flesh, you will come in the flesh. 5. If Christ the Lord who saved us was made flesh though he was first spirit, and called us in this way, in the same way we will also receive our reward in this very flesh. 6. So then let’s love one another, so that we may all come to God’s Kingdom. 7. While we have an opportunity to be healed, let’s give ourselves over to God, the physician, and pay him in return. 8. How? By repenting with a sincere heart. 9. Because he knows everything in advance, and realizes what is in our hearts. 10. So let’s praise him, not with the mouth only, but from the heart, so that he may accept us as sons. 11. Because the Lord said, “My brothers are those who do the will of my Father.
10.1. So, my brothers, let’s do the will of the Father who called us, so that we may have life; and let’s prefer the pursuit of virtue. Let’s give up evil as the forerunner of our sins, and let’s run away from ungodliness, so that evil things do not take us over. 2. Because if we are eager to do good, peace will pursue us. 3. This is the reason men cannot find peace. They surrender to human fears, and they want the pleasures of the present more than the promises of the future. 4. Because they do not realize what great torment comes with the pleasures of the present, and what delight comes with the promises of the future. 5. If they did these things on their own, it might be tolerable. But they keep on teaching evil to innocent souls, and do not realize that they and their followers will have their sentence doubled.
11.1. Therefore, let’s serve God with a pure heart and we will be upright. But if, by not believing in God’s promises, we do not serve him, we will be wretched. 2. Because the word of the prophet says, “The double-minded are wretched, those who doubt in their soul and say, `We have heard these things long ago, even in our fathers’ times, and day after day we have waited and have seen none of them.’ 3. You fools! Compare yourselves to a tree. Take a vine: first it sheds its leaves, then comes a bud, and after this a sour grape, then a ripe bunch. 4. So my people too has had turmoils and troubles; but after that it will receive good things.” 5. So, my brothers, we must not be double-minded. Instead, we must patiently hold out in hope so that we may also gain our reward. 6. Because the one who promised to pay each one the wages due for his work can be trusted. 7. So if we have done what is right in God’s eyes, we will enter his Kingdom and receive the promises which no ear has heard or eye seen, or which no man’s heart has entertained.
12.1. Loving and doing what is right, we must be on the watch for God’s Kingdom hour by hour, since we do not know the day when God will appear. 2. Because when someone asked the Lord when his Kingdom was going to come, he said, “When the two shall be one, and the outside like the inside, and the male with the female, neither male nor female.” 3. Now “the two” are “one” when we tell each other the truth and two bodies harbor a single mind with no deception. 4. “The outside like the inside” means this: “the inside” means the soul and “the outside” means the body. Just as your body is visible, so make your soul evident by your good deeds. 5. Furthermore “the male with the female, neither male nor female,” means this: that when a brother sees a sister he should not think of her gender, any more than she should think of his. 6. When you do these things, he says, my Father’s Kingdom will come.
13.1. Right now, my brothers, we must repent, and be alert for the good, because we are full of a lot of stupidity and wickedness. We must wipe our former sins off of us and be saved by heartfelt repentance. And we must not seek to please men or desire to please only ourselves. But by doing what is right, let’s seek to please even outsiders, so that the name may not be scoffed at because of us. 2. Because the Lord says, “My name is continually scoffed at by all peoples”; and again, “Alas for him through whom my name is scoffed at!” How is it scoffed at? By your failing to do what I want. 3. Because when the heathens hear God’s sayings on our lips they’re amazed at their beauty and greatness. But after, when they note that our deeds are unworthy of the words we say, they begin to scoff, and say that it’s a myth and a delusion. 4. For example, when they hear from us that God says, “It is no credit to you if you love those who love you, but it is to your credit if you love your enemies and those who hate you,” when they hear these things, they are amazed at such outstanding goodness. But when they see that we fail to love not only those who hate us, but even those who love us, then they mock at us and scoff at the name.
14.1. So, my brothers, by doing the will of God our Father we will belong to the first assembly, the spiritual one, which was created before the sun and the moon. But if we fail to do the Lord’s will, that writing which says, “My house has become a robber’s den” will apply to us. So, then, we must choose to belong to the assembly of life in order to be saved. 2. I do not suppose that you are unaware that the living assembly is the body of Christ. Because the writing says, “God made man male and female.” The male is Christ; the female is the assembly. Additionally, the books and the apostles say that the assembly is not limited to the present, but existed from the beginning. Because it was spiritual, as our Jesus was, and was made manifest in the last days to save us. 3. Indeed, the assembly which is spiritual was made manifest in the flesh of Christ, and so indicates to us that if any of us guard it in the flesh and do not corrupt it, he will get it in return by the Holy Spirit. For this flesh is the copy of the spirit. As a result, no one who has corrupted the copy will share in the reality. This, then, is what it means, brothers: Guard the flesh so that you may share in the spirit. 4. Now, if we say that the assembly is the flesh and the Christ is the spirit, then whoever does violence to the flesh, does violence to the assembly. Someone like that, then, will not share in the spirit, which is Christ. 5. This flesh is able to share in so great a life and immortality, because the Holy Spirit clings to it. Nor can one express or tell what things the Lord has prepared for his chosen ones.
15.1. In my opinion, the advice I have given about self-control is not unimportant; and if a man acts on it, he will not regret it, but will save himself as well as me who advised him. Because to convert a soul who is straying and perishing so that they may be saved comes with no small reward. 2. For this is how we can pay back God who created us, if the one who speaks and the one who hears do so with faith and love. 3. As a result, we must remain true to our faith and be upright and holy, so that we can make requests to God in confidence. He says, “Even while you are speaking, I will say, ‘See, here I am.’” 4. Surely this saying is a sign of a great promise; because the Lord says of himself that he is more ready to give than we are to ask. 5. So then, let’s take our share of such great kindness and not begrudge each other the obtaining of such great blessings. Because these sayings hold in store as much pleasure for those who act on them, as they do condemnation for those who ignore them.
16.1. So, brothers, since we have been given no small opportunity to repent, let’s take the occasion to turn to God who has called us, while we still have One to accept us. 2. Because if we renounce these pleasures and master our souls by avoiding their evil desires, we will share in Jesus’s mercy. 3. Understand that the day of judgment is already on its way like a blazing furnace, and the powers of heaven will dissolve and the whole earth will be like lead melting in fire. Men’s secret and public actions will then be made clear. 4. So, charity, like repentance from sin, is a good thing. But fasting is better than prayer, and charity is better than both. Love covers a multitude of sins, and prayer, arising from a good conscience, rescues from death. Everyone who abounds in these things is blessed, because charity lightens sin.
17.1. So, let’s repent with our whole heart, so that none of us will be lost. Because if we have been commanded to do this too—to draw men away from idols and instruct them—how much more wrong is it for the soul which already knows God to perish? 2. Consequently we must help one another and bring back those who are weak in goodness, so that we may all be saved; and let’s convert and warn one another.
3. We should not only appear to be believing and attentive right now, while the elders are preaching to us. But when we go home, we should keep the Lord’s commands in mind and not be diverted by worldly passions. Instead, we should strive to come here more often and progress in the Lord’s commands, so that with a common mind we may all be gathered together to gain life. 4. For the Lord said, “I am coming to gather together all peoples, clans, and tongues.” This refers to the day of his appearing, when he will come to redeem us, each according to his deeds. 5. And unbelievers will see his glory and power, and they will be surprised to see the sovereignty of the world given to Jesus, and they will say, “How sad for us, because you really did exist, and we didn’t recognize it or believe, and we did not obey the elders who preached to us our salvation.” And “their worm will not die and their fire will not be put out, and they will be a spectacle to all flesh.” 6. He refers to that day of judgment when men will see those who were ungodly among us and who twisted the commands of Jesus Christ. 7. But the upright who have done good and patiently endured tortures and hated the pleasures of the soul, when they see those who have deviated and denied Jesus in word and action being punished with dreadful torments and undying fire, will give glory to their God and say, “There is hope for him who has served God with his whole heart.”
18.1. As a result, we must also be among those who give thanks and have served God, and not of the ungodly who are sentenced. 2. As for me, I too am a grave sinner, and have not yet escaped temptation. I am still surrounded by the devil’s devices, though I am anxious to pursue righteousness. My aim is to manage at least to approach it, because I am afraid of the judgment to come.
19.1. So, my brothers and sisters, following the God of truth, I am reading you an exhortation to pay attention to what was written there, so that you may save yourselves and your reader. For compensation I beg you to repent with all your heart, granting yourselves salvation and life. By doing this we will set a goal for all the young who want to be active in the cause of religion and of God’s goodness. 2. Additionally, we should not be so stupid as to be displeased and irritated when anyone warns us and turns us from wickedness to righteousness. There are times when we do wrong unknowingly because of the double-mindedness and unbelief in our hearts, and our understanding is darkened by empty desires. 3. So then, let’s do what is right so that we may finally be saved. Those who observe these instructions are blessed; although they suffer briefly in this world, they will gather the immortal fruit of the resurrection. 4. A religious man must not be downcast if he is miserable now. A time of blessedness is waiting for him. He will live again with the fathers above, and will rejoice in an eternity that knows no sorrow.
20.1. But you must not be troubled in your minds by the fact that we see the wicked in prosperity while God’s slaves are in difficult circumstances. 2. Brothers and sisters, we must have faith. We are engaged in the contest of the living God and are being trained by the present life in order to win laurels in the life to come. 3. None of the upright has gotten his reward quickly, but he waits for it. 4. Because if God were to give the righteous their reward right away, we would be engaged in a business venture with God rather than training in godliness. Because we would give an appearance of uprightness, but would be pursuing profit and not piety. That is why the divine judgment punishes a spirit which is not upright, and loads it with chains.
5. To the only invisible God, the Father of truth, who dispatched to us the Saviour and prince of immortality, through whom he also disclosed to us the truth and the heavenly life—to him be glory forever and ever. Amen.