An Ancient Jewish-Christian Source on the History of Christianity: Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions 1. 27-71 (review)

The Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions and Homilies bear witness to an early Christian novel describing Clement of Rome’s conversion to Christian faith, his travels with St. Peter and his discovery of lost members of his family. Do these texts, which share much material in common, depend on an earlier “Basic Writing?” How do they relate to other sources for the history of the early Church? F. Stanley Jones offers a thorough review of scholarship over the past century and a half, with critical remarks that evaluate the debate. Thus he lays the foundation for his own work.

Versions survive in Syriac and in Latin (the work of Rufinus of Aquileia about 406), with fragments of the original Greek and in an Armenian translation. Jones renders an important service by translating the Syriac of Recognitions 1:27–71 for the first time and placing it in parallel with his rendering of the Latin, as well as the Armenian fragments. This covers 57 pages of careful work. But why were the original texts not included in a series of appendices? The presence of these materials would have allowed the historian or theologian to use this work more effectively.

The second contribution of this book is a 44 page chapter on the “isolation of the source material.” Here Jones interacts with other scholars as he looks for signs of the redactor’s touch and then postulates that a “Basic Writing” can be extracted from the extant sources. He discusses quotations of the Pseudo-Clementine texts in the Chronicon Paschale, the Panarion of Epiphanius, and the Apostolic Constitutions. Again it would have been helpful to include the original of these passages. The relationship of the Clementine stories to the Book of Jubilees, the New Testament, and the passages of Hegesippus preserved by Eusebius is reviewed as well. Currently scholars agree that Hegesippus and Recognitions 1.27–72 depend on an earlier source or tradition rather than one drawing directly from the other. Jones would be happy however, to make this section of Recognitions derive from Hegesippus (142–45).

How do the sources of Recognitions 1. 27–71 relate to “The Ascents of James” mentioned by Epiphanius? Common themes are found elsewhere in early Jewish Christian sources and differences make contact unlikely. However, Jones finds links with the extant citations from the Gospel of the Ebionites and Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho (148–50).

Jones posits an original structure for the Basic Writing (150–55) and, in a brief concluding chapter, he builds on his theory that the original narrator in the source is Matthew. Thus he presents traditions that might claim an antiquity equal to the Pauline letters. “This study has unearthed the thoughts and struggles of at least one of these Jewish Christians” (of the late second century) (168).

The traditions include a development of the Jubilees story about Abraham as an astrologer, a concern for the Land of Israel, an understanding of Jesus’ death as a sacrifice and its effect on Temple worship, the destruction of the Temple and the wretched lot of Jews thereafter. Each of these topics receives only a sketchy treatment in this investigation. There is an extensive bibliography and fine indices (passages from ancient literature, modern authors and subjects).