The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
Clemens Romanus (Clement of Rome)
Clement of Rome. The Apostolic Fathers, Volume 1. Lake, Kirsopp, editor. London: William Heinemann Ltd.; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1912.
Who shall declare
his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.For the iniquities of my people is he come to death.
And I will give the wicked for his burial, and the rich for his death; for he wrought no iniquity, nor was guile found in his mouth. And the Lord’s will is to purify him from stripes.
If ye make an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed.
And the Lord’s will is to take of the toil of his soul, to show him light and to form him with understanding, to justify a righteous man who serveth many well. And he himself shall bear their sins.
For this reason shall he inherit many, and he shall share the spoils of the strong; because his soul was delivered to death, and he was reckoned among the transgressors.
And he bore the sins of many, and for their sins was he delivered up.
And again he says himself, But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
All they who saw me mocked me, they spoke with their .lips, they shook their heads; He hoped on the Lord, let him deliver him, let him save him, for he hath pleasure in him.
You see. Beloved, what is the example which is given to us; for if the Lord was thus humble-minded, what shall we do, who through him have come under the yoke of his grace?
Let us also be imitators of those who went[*](Humility in the Old Testament) about in the skins of goats and sheep, heralding the coming of Christ; we mean Elijah and Elisha, and moreover Ezekiel, the prophets, and in addition to them the famous men of old.
Great fame was given to Abraham, and he was called the Friend of God,[*](Abraham) and he, fixing his gaze in humility on the Glory of God, says But I am dust and ashes.