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Jewish and Christian Ritual in the Ps.-Clementine Recognitions

a paper by

Matthew Charles Baldwin, Ph.D.

Department of Religion and Philosophy Mars Hill College Mars Hill, NC mbaldwin@mhc.edu

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presented to:

Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism Section 2002 AAR/SBL Annual Meetings Sunday, November 24th, 4:00 pm Toronto, Ontario

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The ps.-Clementine Literature: Potential for Interest to Scholarship on early Jewish and Christian Ritual
I speak today on the subject of the ps.-Clementine Recognitions as a source of evidence for historical inquiries into ritual practices of early Jews and Christians.1 The Latin Recognitions and the Greek Homilies are two closely related, rather bulky, novelistic narrative works which each have Clement of Rome for their first-person narrator.2 The parallel narratives of both works are set in the first half of the first century, during the period of early Christianity when James was the leader of the assembly in Jerusalem; the common story takes place in Syria and Palestine, and relates how Clement came to be a close associate of the apostle Peter. These two texts cannot, in their current form, be thought to directly represent works much older than the early fourth century C.E., when Christianity had become primarily a Gentile movement, and yet scholars have long

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Baldwin Ritual in Ps.-Clementine Recognitions Page 2 been impressed by the markedly "Jewish" character of much of the ps.-Clementines, and have therefore associated its material with religious movements in the family of early Christianities that once were termed variously "Elkesaite," "Ebionitic," "Judaizing," or "Judaist," but are now usually called "Jewish-Christian." To allow these elements of the works to contribute to the history of early Christianity from the first through the second century C.E., scholars have over the course of the past 200 years pursued extensive source-critical research on the pseudoClementines; today's researchers usually rely on the hypothesis that the ps.-Clementines are each derived from a common, third-century, basic document that was in turn composed from older sources, several of which originated in Jewish-Christian circles.3 Many studies have utilized the ps.-Clementines in this manner; one notable example is, of course, Gerd Luedemann's important Opposition to Paul in Jewish Christianity.4 Another important contribution has come from F. Stanley Jones, whose research into the ps.-Clementines began under Luedemann at Vanderbilt, and who remains the most authoritative interpreter of the ps.-Clementines and its history of research in the American academy. Jones argues decisively for the early Jewish-Christian origin of the source behind Recognitions Book 1, chapters 27 to 71, thus assuring the continued dominance of the source-critical method in studies of the ps.-Clementines.5 But the Recognitions contains ten full books, and is more than merely a compilation of sources. I am going to argue here that the Clementines can also be investigated in their redacted and translated forms, the text forms to which we have access today, and utilized as evidence for studying how Christian Gentiles understood their relationship to Judaism, and for discerning the emergence of a distinctly Christian discourse out of Jewish traditions.6

Further Refining the Data to be Considered

A thorough study of the subject I am treating here today might attempt to investigate both the Recognitions and the Homilies, treating the issue of ritual in both redacted forms as well as in the basic document underlying both texts, and might handle as well questions about the topic in the respective sources. But because of the huge extent of the two works, as well as the lack of scholarly consensus on crucial source-critical questionsJones has thoroughly exposed thisit

Baldwin Ritual in Ps.-Clementine Recognitions Page 3 seems necessary reasonably to limit our perspective on the data. I have chosen to focus this study on the Latin Recognitions, and am defending this choice on the following grounds. First, the text of the Latin Recognitions of ps.-Clement has exemplars in a great number of manuscripts; Recognitions texts may be found in over 100 codices, some of which are of considerable antiquity.7 I take this fact to signify that the Recognitions enjoyed a wide-spread "popularity" in the Latin-speaking West from the fifth century on. Even if this popularity was limited to educated readers in the libraries of European monasteries and other institutions, with the Latin Recognitions it nevertheless remains possible to speak with some confidence about who read and appreciated the text, and when. From his interesting preface to the work, we know also the identity of the translator, Rufinus of Aquilea ( ca. 411 C.E.), who worked in the late fourth and early fifth century C.E. Thus we are virtually assured of a fourth-century provenance for the lost Greek work standing behind the Latin Recognitions,8 and our critical text of the Latin Recognitions can with caution, be thought to provide us with a window into a book which seems to have been being read fairly widely in the Gentile Christian world before the mid-fourth century C.E.9 The Greek Homilies, which are so similar to the Recognitions, are yet different in many respectsbeing throughout often rearranged and also either expanded or contracted in many placesare by contrast relatively scantily attested. The text is extant, unfortunately, in only two manuscripts, both of quite late origin.10 Therefore, pace Strecker, whose work focused on the Homilies and presumed that they stand earlier in the tradition, because the Homilies are so different in form, and are later and scantier in their text-basis, the they cannot help but come under the suspicion of being somehow tampered with in the nine hundred years which intervene between the composition of the basic writing and origin of its manuscripts. In whatever way they are thought to relate to the lost Greek Recognitions as translated by Rufinus, and by whatever means we resolve the source-critical questions which emerge from a comparison of the Latin Recognitions and the Greek Homilies, I doubt whether the Greek Homilies may be as confidently taken to represent a popular and early form of the ps.-Clementine literature as can the Recognitions, and so at least temporarily, I set them aside here.11

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The Historical Relevance of the Data

Obviously, from these arguments it is clear that I am proposing to use Rufinus' translation of the Recognitions primarily as evidence for ideas which appealed to mid-fourth century C.E. (and later) Christians in the West. How then, since Jews and Christians had "parted ways" well before Constantine, can this be of relevance to a study which concerns both Jewish and Christian ritual in the text? Well, let me emphasize that hypotheses about Jewish-Christian sources in the ps.Clementine basic document begin with the observation of theological tendencies present in the extant text. These apparently Jewish-Christian elements in the Recognitions are particularly puzzling if we assume as I do here the widespread popularity of the text in the self-consciously Gentile world of Latin Christianity. Source-critical approaches to the work seem to imply that these features remain in the extant texts more as residue from the sources than as the substance of the redacted whole. The interest of later readers would in that case lie in the adventures of Clement, not in the doctrines of the book. But a thorough reading of the work cannot bear out this implication, because the book places such great weight on the authority of the doctrines and ideas represented therein. Secondly, it must be remarked that if, in the book, there are traditions or teachings about, or narrative depictions of ritual or other matters that show the influence of Jewish ideas or practices, then whatever else these elements of the text may portend, they also can be taken as articulations of the Christian imagination of Judaism. These works may draw on Jewish-Christian sources, but they also reflect Gentile-Christian discourse about the Jewish roots of Christianity; the narrative offers one possible resolution of the tensions inherent in the Gentile appropriation of Jewish traditions. After all, the Recognitions is a first-person narrative, written as if it were the personal account of a Gentile, Clement of Rome, whose enthusiasm for the story of the "true prophet" of the God of the Jews leads him from Rome to Palestine and Syria only a few years after the death of Jesus.12 It tells how he joined together with the company of believers surrounding the Jewish holy-man Simon Peter, apostle of this "true prophet," taking on their practices and putting himself under Peter's instruction, thereby appropriating for himself (and ultimately, for Rome) a true religion rooted in correct understanding of the scriptures of the Jews and their fulfillment among followers of Jesus. Insofar as it does these things, imaginatively

Baldwin Ritual in Ps.-Clementine Recognitions Page 5 depicting both the conversion of Clement and the restoration to him of his lost family "taking place" in the East, the Recognitions represents for us a Gentile-self-reimagination-as-Jewish.13

Ritual in the Ps.-Clementine Recognitions

At first glance, ritual seems not to be so prominent in the Recognitions. In fact, the case could be made that the text, which frequently polemicizes against the rituals of paganism (e.g. as inliciti gentilium ritus)14 and offers a critique of Jewish sacrifice15 is anti-ritualistic. The text seemingly never offers detailed instructions for or descriptions of any ritual, nor makes the rituals it does mention a central focus. Naturally, many ritualistic practices are mentioned by name in the discourses of the work, and the narrator, "Clement," here and there reports when the novel's characters engage in such practices. But these references are superficial, so that the student of ritual may find nothing more to work with than stray nouns and verbs, many of which appear regularly in any religious text from late antiquity, and are therefore perhaps not especially remarkable. For example, among the practices receiving favorable mention in the Recognitions one may include prayer16, fasting17, singing18, worship of God (using various nominal and verbal terms for worship)19, preaching20, giving the right hand21, celebration of religious festival22, meditation23, using ashes to signify repentance24, genuflection25, the "Eucharist of the Lord Christ"26, anointing with oil27, invocations28, unspecified church services29, and list could be extended with more minor terms.30 In addition to these everyday practices associated with religious observance, the work also mentions a small number of occasional rituals normally associated with Judaism and Christianity, namely, circumcision (mentioned in both favorable and unfavorable terms)31, ordination of church officials32, and most frequently, and with perhaps the most interest, baptism.33 The catalogue of ritual practices in the Recognitions could easily be further multiplied if one listed as well all the pagan rites and practices which the text anathematizes.34 Also, the Recognitions makes rather frequent mention of the accoutrements, locations, and officials associated with the above named ritual practices. In sum, with two possible exceptions(i) a more detailed description of an ordination as found in Recognitions 3.65-66; and (ii) the relatively more well developed discussions of baptismthe rituals and rites

Baldwin Ritual in Ps.-Clementine Recognitions Page 6 mentioned in the work receive very little of the narrator's attention and fail to impress us as being of too great a significance for historical inquiry into the ritual life of early Christians or Jews.

But ritual is more than the names of specific activities, and, I submit, in the Recognitions it is more than the usual cast of nouns and verbs associated with typical religious activity. Ritual, as is implied in the preceding review, should perhaps be defined first and foremost as religious activity which is repeated regularly or frequently. Be that so, if we attend to the narrative depiction of the regular rhythms of Peter and his followers in the Recognitions, a fuller picture of the religious life imagined by the text coalesces forthwith. Analyzed in this manner, the ritual practices of the characters emerge more distinctly, and as the characters position their own religious life over and against the lives of unbelievers, an imaginative pattern for the authentic religious life surfaces, offering itself to be imitated by readers. As the narrator, "Clement," tells his story, prior to his first encounter with a Christian preacher, Barnabas, in his home city, Rome (in 1.7), he had always been a chaste and pious person35, but he was full of anxiety, and his central focus in his spiritual life had become his mortality; crebro ad memoriam meam conditionem mortalitatis adducens (1.1.2), he writes, "(I was) frequently bringing (my) condition of mortality into my memory," and was indesinenter animo revolvens, "incessantly turning over in (my) spirit" (1.2.1) questions about the fate of the soul after death. This obsession (animi intentio 1.2.3), he observes, was comes optima (1.2.2), "the finest companion," because it led him ad inquisitionem veritatis (1.2.3) "to inquiry after the truth." The reader may not have realized it yet, but here, in these terms, Clement prefigures the whole of the religious life which he ultimately depicts: especially it is an inquiry after the truth, characterized by a continuous intellectual practice. In short, Clement rejects philosophers and their answers (1.3-4) and decides not to seek for truth among "hierophants," "prophets," or any "magician" in Egypt (1.5.1). Instead he becomes interested in a "report from the East" (ex orientis) about "someone in Judea" (quidam in Judea) "preaching the kingdom of God to the Jews" (regnum dei evangelizaret Iudaeis) which kingdom is promised to "those who would observe (servassent) the ways of life (instituta) of his mandates

Baldwin Ritual in Ps.-Clementine Recognitions Page 7 and doctrines (mandatorum suorum et doctrinae)" (1.6.2). The rumors of this are followed by the advent of a preacher, "by nation a Hebrew, by name Barnabas," whose message, curiously, suggests that the still unnamed "someone" in Judea is still alive: Hear me, Roman citizens: the son of God is present in Judea, promising eternal life to all wishing to hear him, if only one will direct ones actions according to the will of him who had sent him, God the father.36 Two characteristic features of the Recognitions are visible in this introductory material. On the one hand, we see religious emphasis laid not on the person of Jesus but on the regulation of life. Throughout the text, the Recognitions makes only sporadic reference to the name Jesus, or to the title "Christ," or even to the title used here, "Son of God," preferring instead the title "true prophet," verus propheta (which first appears in 1.16.1). Moreover, it apparently fails entirely to speak of what one might take to be a central feature of "Christian" preaching, namely, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.37 Jesus' death is not mentioned by the narrator, or if it is, it is referred to so infrequently as to have escaped my notice. Time is reckoned from the coming of the true prophet (see 9.29.1), not from his death. Neither is there emphasis on his divine lordship or exalted status. Instead, emphasis is always on the believer's faith as the discipline of actions, of good works and the observances (of divine ordinances, prophetic commandments, and religious doctrine), terms which are closely associated in this work with keeping the Law.38 The other characteristic feature worth noting in the above mentioned preaching of Barnabas is the importance of the verb audire, hearing, since, as I will presently argue, the religious life in Clement's description consists precisely in hearing, which is always submitting to instruction from an authoritative teacher. Audire, which appears here twice, appears in the following three chapters alone another five times, all in connection with Barnabas' preaching; it then recurs throughout Clement's reporting of Peter's teaching. In a sense, Clement's discipleship really begins for Clement at the end of Book 1 chapter 14, with a command from Peter: ausculta!, "listen." If the terms for hearing are read alongside the attendant language of speaking, preaching, and seeking knowledge, then the concept takes a central place in the structure of Clement's religious discourse. Although it is not a verb regularly associated with ritual, but there

Baldwin Ritual in Ps.-Clementine Recognitions Page 8 can be little doubt that hearing is, in the Recognitions, a profoundly ritualistic activity. Clement, who is anxious to see Judea (1.11), leaves behind the Roman crowds and their "unbridled minds" (effrenati animi 1.10.1) for Palestine, where he quickly becomes caught up in the regular rhythms of the circle of disciples around the charismatic apostle Peter. Because Peter has given himself over into the ministry of the true prophet, all of his days are divided into portions of private teaching, and public teaching and dispute, a pattern of life which is interrupted only for prayer, healing, bathing, dining, and sleeping. This pattern of life is what I would most like to draw attention to in this discussion of ritual in the ps.-Clementine Recognitions. The narrative describes its characters engaged in a thoroughly ritualistic religious life, a daily routine which supports the teaching and disputing of Peter and his circle. The data from the text which creates this pattern appears especially in the easy to neglect interstices between the long discourses. It appears especially in books one through three, but can also be found easily in book four, five, six, eight, and ten.

In short, the lifestyle and daily routine of Peter's company is as follows:

The menand only the menaround Peter (at one point their number is specified as thirteen, at another twenty39) share the same sleeping accommodations.40 The disciples and their master always rise very early, while it is in fact still night, gallorum cantibus, "with the crowing of the roosters;" sometimes the master rises first, sometimes the master rises to find the disciples already awake and waiting for him; in any case, during these dark morning hours, by the light of the still burning evening lamp (vespertinum lumen) they begin their days, which are wholly devoted to religious learning and teaching.41 When master and students are gathered together in the lamp-light, he salutes them in a customary manner42, and the private instructions begin. Morning prayers seem regularly to follow the private instruction.43 Afterwards, with the light of dawn, public teaching or disputing commences.44 During the day the disciples engage in public teaching, and at the conclusion of these public discourses, the master publicly prays, heals the sick, and exorcizes demons.45 Daily bathing seems also to be a feature of the routine, although it

Baldwin Ritual in Ps.-Clementine Recognitions Page 9 is inconsistently described, being reported as taking place either after public teaching in the afternoon, or before it, in the morning.46 As the normal last activity of their day, the master and disciples dine together, although non-baptized "hearers" must dine separately, and even the baptized disciples apparently dine in an order of rank. The meal is followed by thanksgiving prayers.47 If there is ever still light left after the labors of the day and the evening meal, the disciples once more listen to the master's teachings.48 Finally, all go to sleep away the night.49 The text gives the impression that the diurnal order repeats itself indefinitely, giving structure to the three-month periodic cycles between baptisms of new hearers.50 That the text assumes the year-in year-out regularity of the practice is proven when Peter is portrayed as recommending to his disciples that they vary the hours they keep in different seasons so that they will not miss their sleep.51 As presented by the Recognitions, this ritualized daily order structures the whole religious life, including all other ritual behaviors in its scope, and this, I would argue, is the real meat which ought to be considered by students of ritual.52 As one might expect, this daily order of intellectual discipline is itself supported by a thoroughgoing ideological and doctrinal system which emphasizes the importance of order, hearing, repetition, and memory in the religious life.53 The ideological preference for order in the teaching process is nowhere more evident than in book three, chapters 32 through 36, where ordo, order, in the disciplina doctrinae, the teaching of doctrine, is manifested not only in stages of the learning process, but in the important distinction between the ignarus and the scientus; it is the former who seeks, the latter who already knows and can teach in the proper ordo. As Peter asserts to his arch-rival, Simon Magus, qui audierint per ordinem sermonem ueritatis contradicere omnino non possunt, sed sciunt uerum esse quod dicitus, si tamen libenter etiam uitae instituta suscipiant, "those who hear the discourse of truth in order are not at all able to contradict (it), but they know what has been said is the truth, provided they also adopt the regulation of life."54 There are comparable statements about the importance of order scattered throughout the entire work.55 Moreover, the text preserves cosmological arguments on the importance of order which bear close resemblance to classic ideas of wisdom instruction; the ideal world of this work is fully structured by order from the sun, moon, and stars on down.56 Within this ordered instituta

Baldwin Ritual in Ps.-Clementine Recognitions Page 10 uitae, instruction, that is, disciplina, is especially characterized by repetitive practices of reciting and recalling; two most interesting verbs used in this regard are retexere, that is, in this context, close to its meaning of "retracing," and recolere, which means not only to go over in the mind, but through its relation to colere, worship, implies renewed worship. In this regard, Peter's words describing how he spends the dark hours of morning after waking from sleep are telling: in consuetudine habui uerba domini mei . . . reuocare ad memoriam . . . ut evigilans ad ea et singula quaeque recolens ac retexens possim memoriter retinere, "I have customarily recalled to memory the sayings of my lord, . . . so that by waking to them, going over and retracing each single one, I am able accurately to recall them."57 But it is not only the words of Jesus which, following Peter's example, one is to recolere in prayer and private instruction; in the ps.-Clementine Recognitions, the Law, that is, the Hebrew scriptures, are also a focus of worshipful attention. As a product of God's "true prophet," ultimately the author of all scriptures, and who is also called legislator,58 it is only natural that the Jewish scriptures would be the most authoritative scriptures for Peter and his band. Indeed, Peter begins teaching Clement with exposition of the contents of "the Law"this is the JewishChristian source in 1.27-71the teachings of which are said to encompass all history ab initio until Clement's arrival at Caesarea in Palestine.59 Peter openly speaks of repeating (iterare) this form of teaching the better to facilitate memory,60 but Clement's memory of Peter's teaching of the Law, in fact, is said to be so efficient, that in fact he is able to claim that it has tamquam vernacula animae meae et ingenita effecta sunt, "become just as if indigenous and inborn in my mind," allowing him to revocare and recolere it out-loud himself for the approval of Peter and the other hearers (auidtores).61 I am tempted to speak of this either as the Hebrew scriptures "going native" in Clement's mind, or of Clement "going native" in this Palestinian context; neither characterization is far from Clement's own self-description. However one might characterize it, the text clearly portrays the piety of the daily routine as being occupied in large measure by repeated study, by iteration, by recollection (revocare) of the Hebrew scriptures. The place of the Law in this religious company should probably not be confused with the place of the Law in rabbinic Judaism; in some respects Peter's and Clement's use of the law in the Recognitions can be

Baldwin Ritual in Ps.-Clementine Recognitions Page 11 compared to the idea of the Hebrew scriptures found in Luke 24:44-48, where the risen Jesus is represented as teaching his disciples how to interpret the law, prophets, and psalms as containing a message about himself, which is to be preached "to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." 62 But at the same time, perhaps not so differently, the "scriptures of the Jews" (scripturae Iudaeorum) are hailed as the supreme prophetic authority about all matters theological, philosophical, and historical; as Simon Magus, who is not represented as Jewish in this text, asserts, he will argue with Peter on the sole basis of the Torah (lex Iudaeorum): "for it is manifest to all who are concerned with religion, that this law is of authority for all."63 Expertise in the Law is mandated of officials in the churches Peter establishes, and the religious "hearing" of such officials is also mandated.64 To Clement's mother, Peter describes his own practice and that of his followers by saying, "we worship one God who made the world, and we keep his law;"65 moreover he teaches his followers that accord with the law of God is the goal of the religious life, which will then be characterized by mercy, good works, sobriety, chastity, and justice,66 as well as the kind of simplicity and asceticism of lifestyle that Peter himself demonstrates and claims for himself.67 Notice that the author of ps.-Clement, and hence the readers also, transform the idea of "keeping the law" from observance of specific commands (especially those concerning sacrifice; as mentioned, the text actively polemicizes against both Pagan and Jewish sacrificial practice68) into the religious, pious regulation of one's entire life within a routine of study and meditation. The text gives the impression, in fact, that the entire ritualized routine of Peter and his followers is conceived of as keeping the law.

Conclusions
What then, ought we to make of this reconstruction of ritual in the ps.-Clementine Recognitions? The religious life is ritualistic, and is characterized by instruction, that is, disciplina, an order encompassing master and student, and the order is characterized by routine, by simplicity of life, by repetition, and memorization. The Recognitions should not, of course, be taken for anything like an historical source on the practices of Palestinian of Syrian Jewish Christians: the text abounds with too many third-person references to the customs and ideas of the

Baldwin Ritual in Ps.-Clementine Recognitions Page 12 Jews to work as such evidence. The Latin text is permeated by Clement's self-consciousness as a Gentile. The redacted text is therefore Gentile Christian, but these references to Jewish (or "Hebrew" as it is sometimes called) customs are usually positive, and thus the text is thoroughly suffused with a notion of piety and practice which the text itself characterizes as Jewish. As such, the work represents a Gentile idea of Jewish piety, and may therefore be viewed, as I earlier claimed, a Gentile-self-re-imagination-as-Jewish. We also should not assume that the piety and ritual described and prescribed in the work represent widespread notions of the ideal religious life, because, for the everyday believer or hearer, the lifestyle of Peter and Clement hardly seems like a real possibility, economically speaking. Rather, the ritualized routine of daily piety represented in the text is a fantasy which likely appealed primarily to elite Gentile readers of the third century who no doubt gladly found their own lifestyles supported in the example of the chief of the apostles. One cannot help but catch a glimpse, a reflection, in this fantastic portrayal, of the actual lived piety of some second and third century elites: figures come to mind such as Origen, or Clement of Alexandria, or a number of different teachers and thinkers among early Christians; like Clement in the Recognitions, these were men who chose to lead lives of constant prayer, study, and teaching. One might also recognize in this pattern the supporting self-narrative which ultimately would underlie monastic practice in the west. Thank you.

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I first encountered the ps.-Clementine Recognitions and Homilies while doing research on the apocryphal Acts of Peter, the major fruit of which is my dissertation, finished earlier this year: Matthew C. Baldwin, "Whose Acts of Peter? Text and Historical Context of the Actus Vercellenses" (Ph.D. dissertation; University of Chicago, 2002). Such an encounter is inevitable encounter at least some of the research on the pseudo-Clementine literaturenot only because in the early period of research on the Clementines, various scholars, especially R. A. Lipsius, argued that an early "ebionite" praxeis Petrou was used as a source for the basic document standing behind the Recognitions and Homiliesbut also, far more importantly, because the Actus Vercellenses is found in only one manuscript, the majority of which is occupied by an important early exemplar of the ps.-Clementine Recognitions: Ms. Vercelli, Biblioteca Capitolare 158, located in Vercelli, Italy. I have had opportunity to examine in detail a microfilm of this manuscript, and the results of my paleographical and codicological investigations of this manuscript are published in chapter three of my dissertation. I have also written on the Latinity of the Actus Vercellenses in some detail in chapter four of the same work. Although interest in the connection between the Clementines and the Petrine acta has waned in more recent scholarship, I have argued that a (lost) Greek form of the Acts of Peter now known only via the Latin Actus Vercellenses quite possibly was connected in its initial composition to the (lost) Greek Recognitions, which is now known only in Rufinus' Latin translation. 2 For "modern" translations into English, the reader may consult, as I frequently have, ANF 8:67346. Given the considerable bulk of these works, I find these translations indispensable. Nevertheless, they are not based on fully reliable critical texts. Throughout, in my discussion of the Recognitions, I have supplied my own translations, based on the only adequate modern critical edition, that of Bernhard Rehm and Franz Paschke, Die Pseudoklementinen II: Rekognitionen (GCS 51; Akademie Verlag: Berlin: 1965). Rehm's book, chapter and verse divisions are cited throughout as in "book.chapter.verse;" page numbers of the GCS edition are not cited. For the Homilies, which is however not treated in this article, the reader may consult B. Rehm and Georg Strecker, Die Pseudoklementinen I: Homilien (GCS; 3rd edition; Akademie Verlag 1992). 3 Contemporary scholars who become interested in these fascinating "novels" are very fortunate to have the relatively recent works of F. Stanley Jones, who has contributed a critical history of over 200 years of scholarshipmost of it in nineteenth-century Germanthat is objective, reliable, and detailed; Jones has also contributed in very important ways to the debates about source-criticism of the Recognitions and Jewish Christianity. I freely admit that without access to the work of Jones, whose due diligence has made him the reigning guru among American scholars of the ps.-Clementines, I would not feel competent even to begin to write or speak on the Recognitions or Homilies. See F. Stanley Jones, An Ancient Jewish Christian Source on the History of Christianity: Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions 1.27-71 (SBL Texts and Translations 37; Christian Apocrypha Series 2; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995) and idem, "The PseudoClementines: A History of Research," The Second Century 2 (1982): 1-33; 63-96. 4 Gerd Luedemann, Opposition to Paul in Jewish Christianity (tr. M. Eugene Boring; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989); see esp. his chapter 11, pp. 169-194. 5 Op. cit. in note 3 above.

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6

If space and time permitted, a complete discussion of the ps.-Clementines and ritual would attempt to treat the subject first at the level of the sources of the basic document, then at the level of the redacted basic document itself, and finally at the level of the text forms in which the romance was transmitted, that is, in the Recognitions (extant in Latin and in Syriac fragments ) and the Homilies (extant in Greek). But given the fact that research into the Recognitions and Homilies has thus far failed to produce real consensus on the extent, contents, or shape even of the basic document, let alone of all its underlying sources, such a study is not now feasible. 7 See Rehm, Die Pseudoklementinen II: Rekognitionen, xviii-cxi for a full discussion of the manuscript tradition. 8 Jones treats the debate on the reliability of this translation; see An Ancient Jewish Christian Source, 39-50. 9 I regret to say that I lack competence in Syriac, otherwise, if the Syriac Recognitions could be checked against the Latin in specific instances, its conformity to the lost Greek might be better assured or challenged. 10 See Rehm and Strecker, Die Pseudoklementinen: Homilien, p. ix ff. 11 Although Photius of Constantinople mentions, in his ninth-century work Bibliotheca (cod. 112113) the existence of numerous copies of the Greek Reocognitions known to him, and mentions that these were extant in two versions substantially similar to one another, this should not be thought to invalidate the claim I am making here. First, we have every reason to believe that Rufinus translated one of the versions mentioned by Photius to make his Latin Recognitions. Thus, it may still be taken to provide a window into a fourth-century form of the Recognitions. Second, Rufinus also mentions the existence of two versions of the Recognitions in his time; these are, I think indubitably, the same two versions mentioned by Photius. But scholars have generally not connected the two versions of the Recognitions which are mentioned by both Photius and Rufinus with the Latin Recognitions and the Greek Homilies. A few may maintain that the Homilies likely come closer in form to the earlier Greek Recognitions, but without entering into this enormously complex debate here, I think that the textual evidence will ultimately not bear out their claims as well; to paraphrase J. Z. Smith, I would rather have my problems than theirs. For a fuller discussion of this, see chapter two of my dissertation, in the section on Photius. 12 Book 9, chapter 29 suggests that the events of the novel take place around seven years after the coming of the true prophet. 13 In the process, unfortunately, perhaps unintentionally, it attempts to supplant others who claimed the same heritage, retroactively appropriating the map, as it were, a long time after the actual territory had been seized by force of arms. 14 9.29.1. 15 See 1.36-37. 16 See e.g. Rec. 1.19; 1.71; 2.19; 3.50; 3.67; 4.17; 4.37; 5.29; 8.2; 10.69 et passim. 17 See Rec. 1.72; 6.15; 7.34 & 36 et passim. 18 See Rec. 1.19. 19 Frequently, e.g., colere 1.21; cf. 1.35; 7.29; cultus dei and reverentia 4.9; cf. 8.53; et multa passim. 20 1.11; 1.42; 4.4; 7.2; 10.15 et passim. 21 "nam tibi dexteram dedissem," 2.31.

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22 23

Barnabas "se diem festum religionis suae ... apud Iudaeam celbraturum" 1.10. The Jews were said to be "cotidie meditantes" on the coming of the Messiah: Rec. 5.11 & 12. 24 10.68. 25 "haec cum dixit, omnis multitudo genua flexit deo," 3.50. 26 1.63. 27 See 1. Rec. 45-48; 3.67, et passim. 28 1.39; 1.63; 1.69; 9.11 et multa passim. 29 Peter institutes "omnia ecclesiae ministeria" at Tripoli in Rec. 6.15. 30 It would serve no purpose to catalogue here every verb or noun which indicates a ritualistic activity, but other terms may be found; these include ritualistic saluting (e.g. 3.51, salutare), confession (e.g. 3.51 fateri), Hebrew rites of thanksgiving (e.g. Peter "Hebraeorum ritu gratias deo agens" 5.36), veneration (e.g. 4.5 Iesum veneri), supplication (e.g. 1.66 supplicare) and many others. 31 See 1.33; 5.34; 8.53; 9.28. 32 See 3.65; for a prayer which is an ordination liturgy describing the ordinances of the church see 3.66. See also 6.15 & 10.68. 33 Baptism is mentioned in very many instances throughout the work; here is a list, not exhaustive: 1.19; 1.39; 1.48; 1.54-55; 1.63; 1.69; 1.73; 2.72; 3.67; 4.17; 4.35-36; 6.8-9; 6.15; 7.29; 7.38; 8.53; 9.7; 10.49; 10.68; 10.72. 34 The text lambastes necromancy (necromantia, 1.5; 2.13; 8.53) and other forms of "magical" practices (ars magica 1.30; 4.21; 4.26; 4.29; 8.53; 10.66), as well as the altars, sacrifices and idolworship of Paganism (1.30; 2.71; 4.36; 8.51 et passim). Actually there is a surprisingly large amount of anti-Pagan polemical material in the Recognitions, which as shall briefly be discussed below, fits into the pedagogical purpose of the work as a whole. 35 For Clement's chastity and piety, see: 1.1.1; 1.4.3; 1.4.6. Clement's words in the opening chapters of the Recognitions assume in advance the value of chastity, piety, and sobriety; his inquiries among the philosophers (1.3-4) aim at establishing the immortality of the soul so that he may be certain his practice of these virtues is valuable. On the whole his definition of virtue is "to restrain myself from the desire of sin," a peccati me libidine continere (1.4.6). 36 audite me, o cives Romani, filius dei in partibus adest Iudaeae, promittens omnibus volentibus audire se vitam aeternam, si quis tamen secundum voluntatem eius, a quo missus est dei patris, actus suos direxerit. (Rec. 1.7.3-4) 37 On the crucifixion as a central feature of early Christian preaching, see e.g. 1 Cor. 1:23. 38 These are the features of the text, more than anything else, by which it has earned the reputation of being composed of "Ebionitic" or Jewish-Christian sources. Interestingly, the redactor who produced the Recognitions from these sources did not tend to introduce much in the narrative framework to overcome these tendencies, although there is plenty of material which clearly identifies the narrator and his "us" with Gentiles, characterized over and against the Jews, who reject Jesus. For the emphasis on the importance of good actions or works, see e.g. 1.52; 2.21; 2.22; 4.5; 5.8; 5.14; 5.23; 5.28; 6.10; 6.8 et multa passim. For expressions laying emphasis on observance, see 1.24; 1.39; 4.5; 4.36; 5.13; 5.14; 5.23; 7.24; 8.49; 7.29. On keeping the Law, see especially 7.29; 9.7; 10.42; 10.47. For the narrator's "us" over against the Jews, see 1.43; 1.50; 1.60; 5.34 and elsewhere.

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For twenty, see 5.36. For thirteen, see 2.1. See Rec. 2.1.2-3: mulierum sane nulla prorsus aderat. Although this fact is mentioned nowhere else, the inner circle around Peter, it seems safe to infer, is composed solely of men. 41 See Rec. 2.1; 3.1; 3.31; 3.51; 4.3; 6.1. 42 Rec. 3.51; 4.6; 5.2 et multa passim. 43 Rec. 3.33; 6.1; 8.37. 44 The majority of discourses in the work are presented as the public teaching of Peter or his disciples; for specific examples which note the beginning of the public teaching with the dawn, see the transitions from private to public teaching in Rec. 2.19; 3.12; and 6.2. Peter is described as "disputing and teaching during the day" for months at a time in 3.72 & 74; 3.74 also mentions that night-time (which I take to mean early morning) is the time of private instruction. 45 Rec. 2.70; 3.30; 4.7; 5.36; 10.52; 10.68. In 4.7 Peter heals the sick and exorcises demons before public teaching, but this is by accident; after telling his hearers that he would heal them after the public teaching was through, this promise alone turns out to be sufficient to heal them all forthwith. 46 For bathing before the evening meal, see 4.3; 5.36; for morning bathing, see 8.1. For more doctrines on bathing, see 6.11. 47 See 3.50; 4.37; 5.36. The order of the disciples at mealtimes is described as a proprii ordinis locum (4.37) or simply as an ordo (5.36). For segregated dining rules, see 1.19; 2.70-72; 3.30; 7.29. 48 See 3.32; 3.74, 4.37; 5.36. 49 Sleep is usually mentioned directly after the meal; see Rec.2.72; 3.50; et passim. 50 See 7.2 for the regularity of the three-month interval, which is represented as the appropriate length of a missionary stay. Three months of hearing is expected before initiation by baptism; cf. 3.67; 4.1; 7.24. 51 See Rec. 6.1 for Peter's teaching on varying the daily hours. 52 Because the bulk of the Recognitions is made up of large units of teaching discourse, many of which stand under the suspicion of stemming from older sources, we might be tempted to dismiss this pattern of ritualized daily order as nothing more than a convenient structure created by the redactor of the work. One might suppose that narrative materials forming a redactional structure would be of relatively little importance for understanding the work as a whole or for discussing a concept such as ritual in the work. But the orderly life of Peter and his disciples appears more like a reflection of or an interpretation of some of the most important principles and concepts presented in the discourses, namely, its ideas of order, discipline, recollection and memory, teaching, preaching, and of course, hearing. 53 Aside from the other examples presented in this paragraph, the connection of repetition (iterare 1.22.4; retexere, 1.23.8) and memory (memoria, passim) is particularly strong in 1.22-23. 54 Rec. 3.36.4. 55 See e.g. 4.36; 8.47; 10.42. 56 See e.g. 8.18-23; 8.46; 9.15. 57 Rec. 2.1.6 58 Rec. 1.21.

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See Rec. 1.22.1: cumque haec dixisset, exponere mihi singula de his quae in quaestione esse uidebantur, legis capitulis coepit, ab initio creaturae usque ad id temporis, quo ad eum Caesaream devolutus sum. 60 1.22.4. 61 See esp. 1.23.2-4. 62 See also 1.68, where the community of James at Jerusalem is said to have based its debate with Caiaphas about the identity of Jesus on interpretation of the Law and the prophets; cf. 1.74, where Peter speaks of making the secrets of the written Law known. 63 omnibus enim qui religionis curam gerunt, manifestum est totius esse auctoritatis hanc legem(lex Iudaeorum) (2.39.1-2). In Rec. 2.38-9 the "scriptures of the Jews" are selected by both sides as the preferred prophetic authority in Peter's dispute with Simon (cf. 2.52). In 2.45 the "divine law" (lex divina) is appealed to in support of strict monotheism; in 2.46 it is asserted that when Jesus came, deum praedicabat Iudaeorum, supporting this appeal to law. 64 See 3.66; cf. Peter, on his own learning in the Law, 10.15, and on the necessity of studying the law with a suitably educated master: 10.42. 65 Rec. 7.29. 66 See 9.7; 10.47. 67 See 7.6. 68 Sacrificial practices in the Jewish cult are rejected as a concession by Moses to learned habits of Egyptian piety in Book I of the Recognitions; see 1.36; cf. 1.37; 1.39; 1.48; 1.55; 1.64. All of these references, of course, occur in Rec. 1:27-71, which Jones argues is a Jewish-Christian source. The text also polemicizes against sacrifice in general: see 2.71; 4.19; 4.36; 7.30; 8.48; 8.51.