Clement and the Early Tradition (3)

Looking again at chapters 40-44 of Clement's letter, we can see a kind of conceptual matrix in the interrelationships of the key terms. The important vocabulary is as follows: prosphora, liturgy, hierus, episcopate, eucharist, tagma, trapeza, diadechontai, and finally the phrase prosenenkontas ta dora.

By themselves, many of these terms might mean any number of things. Prosphora, for instance, literally means "offering," liturgy "public service," episcopate "overseer," eucharist "giving of thanks," tagma "rank" or "order," trapeza "altar-table," diadechontai "succeed [to]," and lastly, "offered the gifts." However, in ecclesiastical and septuagint usage, the meaning of each word narrows. The fact of the matter is all of this is eucharistic and hierarchical vocabulary having to do with what we now call the sacrifice of the mass, the sacerdotal priesthood, and the hierarchical constitution of the Church. Prosphora can also mean "altar bread" in ecclesiastical Greek. Seeing it paired with "liturgy" and "eucharist" in the context of "offering the gifts" and in connection with the threefold Levitical priesthood strengthens the probability that Clement is using these words in their technical sense.

The importance of all of this cannot be overstated for many reasons. We know that Clement was written no later than AD 96 and possibly as early as 70. We know that prior to him in the New Testament we don't see such technical vocabulary and such well-developed doctrinal expressions, and we know that after him both the vocab and the doctrine becomes standard in the Church Fathers. This leaves us with only two possibilities. Either Clement originated them, or they're an element of apostolic teaching implicit in the New Testament but only attested to explicitly outside of and after it. The second seems infinitely more probable, but either way, the writing of Clement indicates a point at which Christian identity and doctrine is fleshed out to the point that we can truly call everything that comes after distinctively Catholic. We'll explore more concerning Clement and Catholic identity in a later post.