Clement of Rome: EPISTLE TO CORINTHIANS Complete

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.

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Chapter XLVI. — Let us cleave to the righteous: your strife is pernicious.

Such examples, therefore, brethren, it is right that we should follow; [201] since it is written, "Cleave to the holy, for those that cleave to them shall [themselves] be made holy." [202] And again, in another place, [the Scripture] saith, "With a harmless man thou shalt prove [203] thyself harmless, and with an elect man thou shalt be elect, and with a perverse man thou shalt show [204] thyself perverse." [205] Let us cleave, therefore, to the innocent and righteous, since these are the elect of God. Why are there strifes, and tumults, and divisions, and schisms, and wars [206] among you? Have we not [all] one God and one Christ? Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out upon us? And have we not one calling in Christ? [207] Why do we divide and tear to pieces the members of Christ, and raise up strife against our own body, and have reached such a height of madness as to forget that "we are members one of another?" [208] Remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how [209] He said, "Woe to that man [by whom [210] offences come]! It were better for him that he had never been born, than that he should cast a stumbling-block before one of my elect. Yea, it were better for him that a millstone should be hung about [his neck], and he should be sunk in the depths of the sea, than that he should cast a stumbling-block before one of my little ones." [211] Your schism has subverted [the faith of] many, has discouraged many, has given rise to doubt in many, and has caused grief to us all. And still your sedition continueth.


[201] Literally, "To such examples it is right that we should cleave."

[202] Not found in Scripture.

[203] Literally, "be."

[204] Or, "thou wilt overthrow."

[205] Ps. xviii. 25, 26.

[206] Or, "war." Comp. Jas. iv. 1.

[207] Comp. Eph. iv. 4-6.

[208] Rom. xii. 5.

[209] This clause is wanting in the text.

[210] This clause is wanting in the text.

[211] Comp. Matt. xviii. 6, Matt. xxvi. 24; Mark ix. 42; Luke xvii. 2.

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