ith the Old Testament (see the Pauline Epistles).
This may perhaps explain how the author--like 2 Clem. II. 4: [Greek:
hetera de graphe legei hoti ouk elthon kalesai dikaious alla
hamartolous]--has introduced a saying of this kind with the same formula
as was used in introducing Old Testament quotations. Passages, such as
Clem. XIII. 4: [Greek: legei ho theos: ou charis humin ei agapate
k.t.l.] would mark the transition to this mode of expression. The
correctness of this explanation is confirmed by observation of the fact
that the same formula as was employed in the case of the Old Testament
was used in making quotations from early Christian apocalypses, or
utterances of early Christian prophets in the earliest period. Thus we
already read in Ephesians V. 14: [Greek: dio legei: egeire ho katheudon
kai anasta ek ton nekron kai epiphausei soi ho Christos]. That,
certainly, is a saying of a Christian prophet, and yet it is introduced
with the usual "[Greek: legei]". We also find a saying of a Christian
prophet in Clem. XXIII. (the saying is more complete in 2 Clem. XI.)
introduced with the words: [Greek: he graphe haute, hopou legei]. These
examples may be multiplied still further. From all this we may perhaps
assume that the trite formulae of quotation "[Greek: graphe], [Greek:
gegraptai]," etc., were applied wherever reference was made to sayings
of the Lord and of prophets that were fixed in writings, even when the
documents in question had not yet as a whole obtained canonical
authority. Finally, we must also draw attention to the following:--The
Epistle of Barnabas belongs to Egypt; and there probably, contrary to my
former opinion, we must also look for the author of the second Epistle
of Clement. There is much to favour the view that in Egypt _Christian_
writings were treated as sacred texts, without being united into a
collection of equal rank with the Old Testament. (See below on this
point.)]
[Footnote 73: See on Justin Bousset. Die Evv.-Citate Justins. Gott.,
1891. We may also infer from the expression of Hegesippus (Euseb., H. E.
IV. 22. 3; Stephanus Gobarus in Photius, Bibl. 232. p. 288) that it was
not Christian writings, but the Lord himself, who was placed on an
equality with Law and Prophets. Very instructive is the formula: "Libri
et epistolae Pauli viri iusti" ([Greek: hai kath' hemas bibloi kai hai
prosepitoutois epistolai Paulou tou hosiou andros]), which is found in
the Acta Mart. Scillit. anno 180 (
|