A blog and webstore of the Byzantine Catholic tradition
The Apostolic Root Where are you rooted?

Library › The Church Fathers › Clement of Rome › 1 Clement › Chapter 31

Clement of Rome

First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

Chapter 31

Let us see by what means we may obtain the divine blessing.

Let us cleave then to His blessing, and consider what are the means1 of possessing it. Let us think2 over the things which have taken place from the beginning. For what reason was our father Abraham blessed? was it not because he wrought righteousness and truth through faith?3 Isaac, with perfect confidence, as if knowing what was to happen,4 cheerfully yielded himself as a sacrifice.5 Jacob, through reason6 of his brother, went forth with humility from his own land, and came to Laban and served him; and there was given to him the sceptre of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Notes

  1. Literally, “what are the ways of His blessing.”↩
  2. Literally, “unroll.”↩
  3. Comp. James ii. 21.↩
  4. Some translate, “knowing what was to come.”↩
  5. Gen. xxii.↩
  6. So Jacobson: Wotton reads, “fleeing from his brother.”↩

Translation by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and Frederick Crombie: The Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. 1: The Apostolic Fathers (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1870).
Text from Project Gutenberg eBook #77576, proofread by Distributed Proofreaders from Internet Archive scans. Public domain.