), who if he had wished could have appeared
on earth [Greek: en kompoi alazoneias], he is exalted far above the
angels (32), as he is the Son of God ([Greek: pathemata tou theou], 2.
1); he hath spoken through the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament (22. 1).
It is not certain whether Clement understood Christ under the [Greek:
logos megalosunes tou theou] (27. 4). According to 2 Clem., Christ and
the church are heavenly spiritual existences which have appeared in the
last times. Gen. I. 27 refers to their creation (c. 14; see my note on
the passage: We learn from Origen that a very old Theologoumenon
identified Jesus with the ideal of Adam, the church with that of Eve).
Similar ideas about Christ are found in Gnostic Jewish Christians); one
must think about Christ as about God (I. 1). Ignatius writes (Eph. 7-2):
[Greek: Eis, iatros estin sarkikos te kai pneumatikos, gennetos kai
agennetos, en sarki genomenos theos, en thanatoi zoe alethine, kai ek
Marias kai ek theou, proton pathaetos kai tote apathes Iesous Christos
ho kurios hemon]. As the human predicates stand here first, it might
appear as though, according to Ignatius, the man Jesus first became God
([Greek: ho theos hemon], Cf. Eph. inscr.: 18. 2). In point of fact, he
regards Jesus as Son of God only by his birth from the Spirit; but on
the other hand, Jesus is [Greek: aph' henos patros proelthon] (Magn. 7.
2), is [Greek: logos theou] (Magn. 8. 2,) and when Ignatius so often
emphasises the truth of Jesus' history against Docetism (Trall. 9. for
example), we must assume that he shares the thesis with the Gnostics
that Jesus is by nature a spiritual being. But it is well worthy of
notice that Ignatius, as distinguished from Barnabas and Clement, really
gives the central place to the historical Jesus Christ, the Son of God
and the Son of Mary, and his work. The like is found only in Irenaeus.
The pre-existence of Christ is presupposed by Polycarp. (Ep 7. 1); but,
like Paul, he strongly emphasises a real exaltation of Christ (2. 1).
The author of Praed. Petri calls Christ the [Greek: logos] (Clem. Strom.
I. 29, 182). As Ignatius calls him this also, as the same designation is
found in the Gospel, Epistles, and Apocalypse of John (the latter a
Christian adaptation of a Jewish writing), in the Act. Joh. (see Zahn,
Acta Joh. p. 220), finally, as Celsus (II. 31) says quite generally,
"The Christians maintain that the Son of God is at the same time his
incarnate Word", we pla