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First Epistle to the Corinthians

St Clement of Rome, Lake, Loeb 1912

Chapter 29

The privileges of Christians

Let us then approach him in holiness of soul, raising pure and undefiled hands to him, loving our gracious and merciful Father, who has made us the portion of his choice for himself.

For thus it is written: “When the most high divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam, he established the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. His people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, Israel was the lot of his inheritance.”

And in another place he says “Behold the Lord taketh to himself a nation from the midst of nations, as a man taketh the first-fruit of his threshing-floor, and the Holy of Holies shall come forth from that nation.”¹

Notes

The passages quoted in the margin are those which most nearly resemble this quotation, but the difference is considerable, and Clement may be referring to some lost source.