Despite its traditional attribution, 2 Clement is not a letter and was almost certainly not written by Clement of Rome. It is the earliest surviving Christian sermon or homily, probably dating to the mid-second century. The text exhorts its audience to repentance and moral seriousness, drawing extensively on both canonical and non-canonical sayings of Jesus. Its theology of the pre-existent Church and its use of an otherwise unknown gospel source make it a significant document for understanding second-century Christianity. This edition follows the text of Kirsopp Lake (Loeb Classical Library, 1912).
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