hatsoff

EDIT: The title should read "from Paul to Clement," and not the other way around.

The wikipedia page on the epistles of Clement includes the following curious claim:

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church includes in their wider Biblical canon an epistle traditionally attributed as written by St. Paul to Clement.

Now, this is certainly a plausible suggestion, but is it true? I have searched Google, JSTOR and ebrary for some mention of this supposed apocryphal epistle, without so much as a hint of its existence.

Can anyone verify the existence of this epistle? Better yet, has anyone published the text of that epistle?

Thanks in advance!

Roger Pearse

This site contains a curious article which seems to refer to an item labelled "Clement" in some forms of the Ethiopian canon. A footnote says:

[13] W. Wright, Catalogue of the Ethiopic manuscripts in the British Museum, London 1877, pp. 211-213 and

S. Grébaut, "Littérature Éthiopienne Pseudo-Clémentine", Revue de l'Orient Chrétien, Paris 1911, pp. 72-77 contain outlines of this book Qälëmentos.

A translation of part 1- part 3, ch. 10, by S. Grébaut, will be found in ROC 16 (1911), pp. 78-84, 167-175, 225-233, 17 (1912), pp. 16-31, 133-144, 244-252, 337-346, 18 (1913), pp. 69-78, 19 (1914), pp. 324-330, 20 (1915-17), pp. 33-37, 424-430, 21 (1918), pp. 246-252, 22 (1920), pp. 22-28, 113-117, 395-400, 26 (1927-28), pp. 22-31.

The ROC volumes are online.

Unfortunately the article did not make clear -- at least to me -- whether this was considered part of the NT.

UPDATE: Looking at Grébaut's article in ROC16 (1911), he says:

Roger Pearse

I've now had a look at Metzger's Canon of the New Testament which confirms my impression that the book above is the "Clement" sometimes listed as canonical in the Ethiopian church.

I've also read Metzger's book on the versions, on the Ethiopic versions, but this does not mention the work. What did come out of this, tho, was that little reliable is known about the Ethiopic bible. I have a feeling that the "canon" stuff may be little more reliable.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

hatsoff

Roger to the rescue, again!

Thanks man!

DCHindley

The Ethiopic Orthodox Tewahedo Church is essentially the modern Ethiopic Orthodox Church, which standardized worship on one standard proposed by bishop Abuna Salama, under the authority of Emperor Tewodoros.

Tewodros and his religious policy 1855-1868
After the death of Abuna Qerillos about 1828, Ethiopia remained without a bishop until the appointment of Abuna Salama in 1841. The new bishop was a young, energetic man who had attended a Protestant college in Cairo. In Ethiopia, many problems awaited the young prelate, the chief among them being the political instability of the country, widespread doctrinal controversies within the Church and the activities of foreign missionaries. Abuna Salama demonstrated ability as an administrator of Church affairs and considerable political skill during a very trying period, while endeavoring to solve as many of the problems as he could with caution and wisdom.

His arrival in Ethiopia occurred during the period of Ethiopian history known as the Era of the Princes, when strong central government had broken down and the Emperors were puppets in the hands of ambitious nobles vying for power. During this difficult time, when the various provinces of the Empire were ruled by different local lords, the Orthodox Church had remained one of the few unifying forces in the country. Unfortunately the Church herself was divided by a doctrinal controversy over the Nature of Christ, which flourished throughout the Alexandrian teaching on this matter and to persuade Church scholars to accept it and renounce erroneous beliefs. With regard to the problems posed by foreign missionaries, he assigned to them certain spheres of influences where they could teach but not baptize; he required new converts to be baptized by Orthodox priests.

Abuna Salama was, of course, unable to restore political unity to Ethiopia; this was the task undertaken by the Emperor Tewodros II. His reign inaugurated a new era in the history of Ethiopia, in both a political and a religious sense. After his coronation by Abuna Salama in 1855, he set out to reunite the divided Kingdom and to restore Ethiopia to her ancient glory. A fundamental aim of his policy was to put an end to religious controversy in the Empire and to consolidate the Orthodox Faith. To this end, in 1855, he imposed the Tewahido doctrine, propagated by Abuna Salama, as the sole doctrine to be allowed in Ethiopia.

At that time there existed three groups of doctrinal affinities which had been inherited form the past. The Tewahido doctrine was and remains the official teaching of the Church of Ethiopia. It confesses the unity of two natures, divine and human, in the person of Christ, without confusion and without separation: -- hence the name Tewahido which means “unity”. The second group was called Qebat, signifying “unction”, because it laid stress upon the anointing of Christ and not upon the incarnation of the Son. The third group was known as Tsegga Lej (Son of Grace) and supported the teaching of the “Three Births”: eternal birth of the Son from the Father, genetic birth of the Son from the Virgin Mary and birth from the Holy Ghost after the incarnation of Jesus. The Emperor Tewodros forbade the teachings of the Qebat and Tsegga Lej sects and all Christians were called upon to profess the Tewahido teaching. Any who failed to abide by this decree were severely punished, thus his order was generally accepted and theological disputation gradually died out.
http://www.ethiopianorthodox.org/eng...reorganization

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has a book purportedly written by Peter to Clement:

3. Clement (Qälëmentos) is a book in seven parts, communicated by Peter to Clement.[13] It is not the Roman or Corinthian correspondence, nor one of the parts of Sinodos, (namely Te'ezaz, Gessew or Abtelis, which are sometimes called 1, 2 and 3 Clement), nor part of the Syriac Octateuch of Clement.

[13] W. Wright, Catalogue of the Ethiopic manuscripts in the British Museum, London 1877, pp. 211-213 and

S. Grébaut, "Littérature Éthiopienne Pseudo-Clémentine", Revue de l'Orient Chrétien, Paris 1911, pp. 72-77 contain outlines of this book Qälëmentos.

A translation of part 1- part 3, ch. 10, by S. Grébaut, will be found in ROC 16 (1911), pp. 78-84, 167-175, 225-233, 17 (1912), pp. 16-31, 133-144, 244-252, 337-346, 18 (1913), pp. 69-78, 19 (1914), pp. 324-330, 20 (1915-17), pp. 33-37, 424-430, 21 (1918), pp. 246-252, 22 (1920), pp. 22-28, 113-117, 395-400, 26 (1927-28), pp. 22-31.
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Bib...thiopican.html

Another site, specifically labeled that of the Ethiopic Orthodox Tewahedo Church, has a complete list of sacred books.
http://www.ethiopianorthodox.org/eng...cal/books.html

It looks like that is a "letter" from Peter, not Paul.

DCH