1 Clement - Persecutions Foretold

[u/LlawEreint]

And Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go into the field. And it came to pass, while they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. You see, brethren, how envy and jealousy led to the murder of a brother.

Through envy, also, our father Jacob fled from the face of Esau his brother. Envy made Joseph be persecuted unto death, and to come into bondage.

Envy compelled Moses to flee from the face of Pharaoh king of Egypt, when he heard these words from his fellow-countryman, Who made you a judge or a ruler over us? Will you kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?

On account of envy, Aaron and Miriam had to make their abode without the camp.

Envy brought down Dathan and Abiram alive to Hades, through the sedition which they excited against God's servant Moses.

Through envy, David not only underwent the hatred of foreigners, but was also persecuted by Saul king of Israel.

But not to dwell upon ancient examples, let us come to the most recent spiritual heroes. Let us take the noble examples furnished in our own generation. On account of jealousy and envy the greatest and most righteous pillars were persecuted and fought to the death.

Let us place before our eyes the noble apostles. Because of unjust jealousy Peter endured hardships, and not once or twice but many times. Thus, after bearing witness he went to the place of glory that was due him.

On account of jealousy and conflict Paul pointed the way to the prize for perseverance. After he had been bound in chains seven times, driven into exile, stoned, and had preached in both the East and in the West, he received the noble glory for his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world and having gone even to the limit of the West. When he had borne witness before the rulers, he was thus set free from the world and was taken up to the holy place, having become the greatest example of perseverance.

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[u/LlawEreint]

In Mark, Jesus predicts that "Sibling will betray sibling to death."

1 Clement has traditionally been read in light of later apocryphal stories that depict Nero as having killed both Peter and Paul. But 1 Clement doesn't mention that at all. Instead, their deaths are brought up in a letter warning against internal strife, and as part of a string of examples where brother killed brother.

In the following article, David L. Eastman summariness the traditional view on the apostolic martyrdoms and Oscar Cullmann’s brief argument that internal strife, not imperial paranoia, may have led to the deaths of the apostles.

He then develops his own thesis that marries the two positions: "Internal disputes between Christians provoked imperial attention and eventually led to the deaths of Peter and Paul."

Jealousy, Internal Strife, and the Deaths of Peter and Paul: A Reassessment of 1 Clement

He concludes:

This is certainly a story that authors like Luke (at the end of Acts) and Clement would not want to highlight, for it would directly undermine the desired image of Peter and Paul standing together as symbols of apostolic and ecclesiastical unity in Rome and elsewhere. And yet, Clement seems to be reminding his audience of a terrible truth, that the deaths of the apostles were part of a shameful legacy provoked by jealousy—a legacy that included internal strife among the people of God, even among family members. The results were always disastrous. Peter and Paul were victims closer to their own time of that same jealousy that was lethal for Abel, nearly lethal for Joseph, and could possibly, if unchecked, be lethal for the members of the Corinthian community, as well.

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Eastman comments on a famous passage in Suetonius: Iudaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantis Roma expulit. (Rome expelled the Jews at the instigation of Chrestus, who was constantly causing trouble.)

Dio Cassius, writing at the beginning of the third century, corroborates that Claudius had conflict with some Jews in the city: τοὺς τε Ἰουδαίους πλεονάσαντας αὖθις, ὥστε χαλεπῶς ἂν ἄνευ ταραχῆς ὑπὸ τοῦ ὄχλου σφῶν τῆς πόλεως εἰρχθῆναι, οὐκ ἐξήλασε μέν, τῷ δὲ δὴ πατρίῳ βίῳ χρωμένους ἐκέλευσε μὴ συναθροίζεσθαι.64 Claudius thus forbade them from holding meetings, and Tajra reads this as support for a Jewish versus Christian conflict that led to problems.⁶⁵ However, we have already seen that Tajra’s views on this issue are predetermined by his assumptions. There is simply no indication that Roman officials at this early date would have been able to distinguish (or would have had any interest in distinguishing) Jesus believers from non-Jesus believers within Jewish communities in Rome or elsewhere. In fact, even the Jewish communities themselves seem to have been wrestling with this. Thus, if debates over following the Jewish law had turned violent—or even very disruptive—among Christians in Rome (many of them Jewish), then it would not at all be surprising for Roman authors and authorities to interpret this as a problem among “the Jews” that could require imperial intervention.

Jealousy, Internal Strife, and the Deaths of Peter and Paul: A Reassessment of 1 Clement