I think one of my favorite writings in the corpus known as the Apostolic Fathers is the one generally known as "Second Clement".
On Friday, I went to grab lunch from a teriyaki place just up the street from Logos. I ordered my beef yakisoba to go. While waiting for the order, I read through the first chapter of Second Clement. I was reading the Loeb edition from Lake, as it was handy on my shelf at the office. And I read it in the Greek, using the English on the facing page to help out in the places I got stuck.
Second Clement is awesome. You really should read it. If you read Hebrews in the NT and respond with a general "whoa!", then you need to read Second Clement. It is an awesome example of an early Christian homily.
There are two clauses in particular that hit me in this reading. The first was in 2Cl 1.6: "Our entire life was nothing if not death". The best way our lives, prior to Christ's involvement in them -- the best way they could be summed up would be to say that they were death.
The second was the last verse, 2Cl 1.8: "For he called us when we did not exist and he willed us out of non-being to be." Wow! And the clause previous to it: "We had not an ounce of hope of becoming saved if not through him." The one who created us, who called us out of non-being into being, he is the only one that can save us.
This morning, with 2Cl 1.6 still in mind, I worked through the first chapter in the Greek again, this time to work on a translation. It still needs work, but I thought I'd post it below. If you've never read Second Clement, give it a chance. If you have read it ... well, you already know it's pretty cool. Go read it again.
1 Brethren, it is necessary for us to think in this way concerning Jesus Christ: [to think] as concerning God, [to think] as concerning the judge of the living and the dead. It is not proper for us to think little concerning our salvation. 2 For when we think little concerning him, we also hope to receive little. The ones listening as though these were little things, they sin, and we sin — not knowing from where and on behalf of whom and into which place we have been called; nor how great the suffering Jesus Christ endured for us. 3 Therefore what can we give to him as return? What fruit [can we give him] worthy of that which he has given to us? And how much holiness do we owe him? 4 For he gave us the light; he greeted us as a Father does his sons; he saved us when we were being destroyed. 5 Therefore what praise shall we give to him? What wages can we give him as return? 6 We were maimed in our understanding, worshiping stone and wood and gold and silver and copper, the works of men. Our entire life was nothing if not death. And so we were blanketed in darkness and had eyes full of foggy mist. But we received sight, by his will we have cast off the cloud that enveloped us. 7 For he had mercy on us and saved us in his compassion, having seen in us the great error and destruction. We had not an ounce of hope of becoming saved, if not through him. 8 For he called us when we did not exist and he willed us out of non-being to be.