Hebrews
Since Hebrews circulated with manuscripts
of the Pauline letters it is appropriate to treat it with this corpus of New
Testament writings. There is only one passage in the writings of the Apostolic
fathers for which dependence on Hebrews may be plausibly suggested. The
parallel is between 1 Clem. 36 and Heb. 1. For A. J. Carlyle the
parallelism was deeded to be of such strength that he could state, “There can
be practically no doubt that in this passage we have a reminiscence of the
first chapter of Hebrews.” Clement quotes Pss. 2.7; 104.4; and 110.1 in common with
Heb. 1, although there are differences in terms of the textual citations in 1
Clem. 36 and Heb. 1. The more striking parallel is the material that the two
passages share when they are not citing traditions from the Jewish scriptures. 1
Clement states of Christ, “he, being the radiance of his majesty, is as
much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent” (1
Clem. 36.2). This is an abbreviated form of material found in Hebrews, the
relevant passages reading: “he is the radiance of his glory . . . having become
as much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than
they” (Heb. 1.3a, 4). The correspondence is not perfect, but it indicates some
type of relationship between the two passages. Some have not been as confident
as Carlyle concerning the strength of the relationship, noting that this may
just show dependence on an excerpted passage from 1 Clement, or eve the
possibility of a common source. However, given the cumulative weight of three
common citations from the Jewish scriptures, and the similarity of wording with
Heb. 1.3-4 where earlier material is not being cited, this appears to be a reasonably
strong example for establishing the dependence of 1 Clement on Hebrews. (Paul Foster, “The Text of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers,”
in The Cambridge Companion to the Apostolic Fathers, ed. Michael F. Bird
and Scott D. Harrower [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021], 115-16)
