Second Clement: An Ancient Homily · §20 · Anonymous (2 Clement)

Why the wicked prosper and the righteous wait

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The preacher is closing his homily by answering a troubling observation: the unrighteous grow rich while God's servants are afflicted, and he urges faith in the present life as training for a future crown.

Do not let this trouble your minds either: we see the unrighteous growing rich while God's servants are afflicted.

So let us believe, brothers and sisters. We are undergoing a trial of the living God, and we are being trained in the present life so that we may be crowned in the life to come.

None of the righteous has received a quick harvest; he waits for it.

For if God paid the righteous their wages at once, we would immediately be practicing commerce and not godliness. We would seem to be righteous while pursuing not what is devout but what is profitable. And for this reason divine judgment struck down a spirit that was not righteous and weighed it down with chains.

To the only invisible God, Father of the truth, who sent us the Savior and founder of immortality, through whom he also revealed to us the truth and the heavenly life, to him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Second Clement to the Corinthians.

Greek

Ἀλλὰ μηδὲ ἐκεῖνο τὴν διάνοιαν ὑμῶν ταρασσέτω, ὅτι βλέπομεν τοὺς ἀδίκους πλουτοῦντας καὶ στενοχωρουμένους τοὺς τοῦ θεοῦ δούλους.

πιστεύωμεν οὖν, ἀδελφοὶ καὶ ἀδελφαί: θεοῦ ζῶντος πεῖραν ἀθλοῦμεν καὶ γυμναζόμεθα τῷ νῦν βίῳ, ἵνα τῷ μέλλοντι στεφανωθῶμεν.

οὐδεὶς τῶν δικαίων ταχὺν καρπὸν ἔλαβεν, ἀλλ’ ἐκδέχεται αὐτόν.

εἰ γὰρ τὸν μισθὸν τῶν δικαίων ὁ θεὸς συντόμως ἀπεδίδου, εὐθέως ἐμπορίαν ἠσκοῦμεν καὶ οὐ θεοσέβειαν: ἐδοκοῦμεν γὰρ εἶναι δίκαιοι, οὐ τὸ εὐσεβές, ἀλλὰ τὸ κερδαλέον διώκοντες. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο θεία κρίσις ἔβλαψεν πνεῦμα μὴ ὃν δίκαιον, καὶ ἐβάρυνεν δεσμοῖς.

Τῷ μόνῳ θεῷ ἀοράτῳ, πατρὶ τῆς ἀληθείας, τῷ ἐξαποστείλαντι ἡμῖν τὸν σωτῆρα καὶ ἀρχηγὸν τῆς ἀφθαρσίας, δἰ οὗ καὶ ἐφανέρωσεν ἡμῖν τὴν ἀλήθειαν καὶ τὴν ἐπουράνιον ζωήν, αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. ἀμήν. Κλήμεντος πρὸς Κορινθίους ἐπιστολὴ β.

About this text

An early Christian sermon by an unknown preacher, long attached to Clement of Rome, calling a congregation to repentance, pure living, and endurance before the coming judgment.

This homily is anonymous. Although later tradition attached it to Clement of Rome, the author does not name himself, and the work is now understood to have been written by an unknown Christian preacher around the early second century. It is addressed to a congregation as 'brothers' and 'brothers and sisters,' and it survives not as a letter but as a sermon, included in some ancient biblical manuscripts and later classified among the Apostolic Fathers.

The preacher wrote to exhort a Christian community to repentance, pure living, and endurance in view of coming judgment. He calls his hearers to think of Christ as God and judge of the living and the dead, and to repay his saving mercy with confession enacted in deeds, not just words. The occasion is a direct appeal for the congregation to heed his written exhortation while there is still time to repent.

A reader will meet Jesus Christ as the main speaker, quoted through sayings introduced by 'the Lord says' or 'he said.' The preacher also quotes the apostle Peter, the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, and the words of the double-minded, the nations, the faithless at judgment, and the righteous at judgment. The homily quotes the Greek Old Testament, and Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint where it differs from modern English Bibles.

New English from the Greek base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from Kirsopp Lake, The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1 (London: William Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912) (Greek)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.