Christian Texts and History • The Role of the Letter-Carriers in 1 Clement

The early Christian text known as 1 Clement is, to focus attention on in its epistolary features, a rather unusual letter. Three features in particular mark it out as unusual within the epistolary literature of early Christianity. To begin with, the letter presents itself as an inter-church missive, addressed from the church in Rome to the church in Corinth, rather than a letter from an individual to a church (and thus distinct from predecessors in the New Testament and the subsequent letters of Ignatius) ...

... The earliest reception of 1 Clement would appear to have recognised this, with the earliest form of the subscription describing it as, “The letter of the Romans to the Corinthians”; and the two earliest discussions of the letter both taking it as a letter from
the church in Rome ...

Second, the length of 1 Clement marks it out as one of the longest Christian letters of antiquity with over nine thousand eight hundred words, and almost twice as many characters as Paul’s letter to the Romans. Many interpreters have not found the length of 1 Clement to be matched by a strong focus on the problem it is attempting to address ...

Third, and of central concern to our investigation here, the letter is unusually explicit concerning the name, character, and role of those who are commissioned to carry and deliver the letter to the Corinthian church.

We have also sent trustworthy and prudent men who from youth to old age have lived blameless lives among us, who will be witnesses between you and us. This we have done in order that you may know that our only concern has been, and still is, that you should attain peace without delay.
(1 Clem. 63.3–4)
. . .
Now send back to us without delay our messengers, Claudius Ephebus and Valerius Bito, together with Fortunatus, in peace and with joy, so that they may report as soon as possible the peace and concord that we have prayed for and desire, so that we too may all the more quickly rejoice over your good order. (1 Clem. 65.1)

We shall look more closely at these passages in what follows, but for the moment we should note that the letter carriers of early Christianity, as in Greco-Roman antiquity more generally, were of vital importance in successful communication by letter ...