The intermediate state in 1 Clement (part 2)

In the previous post, we noted the claim of Christadelphian apologist Dave Burke that the core theological teachings of 1 Clement correspond exactly to those of Christadelphians today. We found that, although this claim has repeatedly been portrayed as factual information by Dave in his interactions with Christadelphian audiences, it is in fact at odds with contemporary scholarship. In particular, we surveyed the scholarly literature concerning Clement's individual eschatology and found that most scholars agree that Clement believed in an intermediate state for the righteous dead prior to the resurrection; some scholars explicitly locate this post-mortem existence in heaven.

We now turn to a closer exegesis of the relevant passages in 1 Clement. Perhaps the most significant is 1 Clement 5.3-6.2, already quoted in the previous post but reproduced here for convenience:

3. We should set before our eyes the good apostles. 4. There is Peter, who because of unjust jealousy bore up under hardships not just once or twice, but many times; and having thus borne his witness he went to the place of glory that he deserved. 5. Because of jealousy and strife Paul pointed the way to the prize for endurance. 6. Seven times he bore chains; he was sent into exile and stoned; he served as a herald in both the East and the West; and he received the noble reputation for his faith. 7. He taught righteousness to the whole world, and came to the limits of the West, bearing his witness before the rulers. And so he was set free from this world and transported up to the holy place, having become the greatest example of endurance. 6.1. To these men who have conducted themselves in such a holy way there has been added a great multitude of the elect, who have set a superb example among us by the numerous torments and tortures they suffered because of jealousy. 2. Women were persecuted as Danaids and Dircae and suffered terrifying and profane torments because of jealousy. But they confidently completed the race of faith, and though weak in body, they received a noble reward. (1 Clement 5.3-6.2)1

A person with the user name Evangelion, whom I believe was Dave, discussed this passage on a Christadelphian web forum in 2005 and offered the following explanation:

‘I see no reference to heaven (or any form of afterlife) in these passages. I see only a reference to the reward of superlative rank that was promised to him (“…the place of glory due to him… the holy place”) with the word “place” here signifying not a literal abode but a position of authority. The truth of this interpretation is confirmed by Clement’s use of the phrase “due to him”, which makes no sense in the context of a place to which one departs (how can a literal place be “due” to someone?) but perfect sense in the context of a glorious promotion to the heavenly host. It is also vindicated by the New Testament, which is replete with similar language; not least from the writings of Peter himself.’2

It is unclear exactly how Dave conceives of a 'glorious promotion to the heavenly host', a 'position of authority' which yet does not constitute 'any form of afterlife'. It is not obvious how a person who is in no sense alive could receive such a promotion. However, let us for the sake of argument assume the internal consistency of Dave's interpretation.

Evangelion/Dave also comments on 1 Clement 44.4-5, which contains language relevant to our passage. It reads thus in Ehrman’s translation:

Indeed we commit no little sin if we remove from the bishop’s office those who offer the gifts in a blameless and holy way. How fortunate are the presbyters who passed on before, who enjoyed a fruitful and perfect departure from this life. For they have no fear that someone will remove them from the place (topos) established for them.3

Evangelion/Dave writes concerning 1 Clement 44.5:

As in the passage which spoke of Peter’s reward, "the place appointed for them" here is clearly a reward of rank, as opposed to an actual location (such as heaven.) This is confirmed by the context, which makes repeated references to the presbyters' "office", "place" and "ministry."

The key claim is that topos (‘place’) in 1 Clement 5.4, 5.7 does not refer to a location, an abode, but to a position of authority. Evangelion/Dave makes three arguments in favour of this interpretation. 

(1) It is said that the phrase ‘due to him’ (Greek: opheilomenon) makes no sense in relation to a literal place. However, this is not an exegetical argument but merely an assertion for which no lexical or other evidence is provided. If the ‘place’ to which Peter went is construed as a reward (as it clearly is, given the parallel expression ‘noble reward’ in 1 Clement 6.2), then prima facie it is reasonable that it be called his due. Moreover, the same word is used in a similar way by Polycarp in his Letter to the Philippians 9.2, where he says concerning the apostles that ‘they are in the place they deserved, with the Lord’ (kai hoti eis ton opheilomenon autois topon eisi para tō kuriō). Here it seems that topos denotes a location since it is 'with the Lord'.4 Also comparable is Barnabas 19.1, which uses a different word but has a similar idea: ‘Anyone who wants to travel to the place that has been appointed (ton hōrismenon topon) should be diligent in his works.’

(2) It is claimed that the New Testament is replete with similar language confirming his interpretation of topos in 1 Clement 5.4 and 5.7. However, none of the New Testament passages he cites use the word topos, and none of them explicitly refer to something gained immediately after death. Hence, they provide no support for Evangelion/Dave's interpretation of topos in 1 Clement 5.4 and 5.7.

(3) It is claimed that topos in 1 Clement 44.5 refers to an office or rank is highly plausible and, since this would provide a precedent for interpreting topos in the same way in 1 Clement 5.4 and 5.7, it represents the strongest aspect of Evangelion/Dave's argument. It does appear that the place (topos) established for the presbyters who have departed from this life is a position, given the contrast with removal from office in v. 4.5 However, it is possible that there is wordplay here, so that topos simultaneously refers to the presbyters' permanent position as well as the transcendent location of reward. A likely parallel to such wordplay is found in Acts 1:24-25:

And they prayed and said, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place (topos) in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place (topos)." (ESV)

A quick survey of scholarly interpretations of the last clause of v. 25 is in order. Apparently the majority view is that 'his own place' refers to 'a transcendent region related to one's final destiny...In this case...a place of punishment after death'.6 Johnson thinks there is a double entendre so that Judas’ ‘own place’ refers both to his ‘place of final destiny’ and ‘the abandonment of the apostolic circle symbolized by his purchasing of his property’.7

A different, but still spatial, interpretation of ‘his own place’ is Keener’s, who interprets it simply as ‘the field he bought, where he met his gory end’.8 McCabe thinks ‘his own place’ refers to Judas’ ‘solitary and shameful death’;9 this is still a quasi-spatial interpretation. Van de Water thinks this clause alludes to Psalm 36:36 LXX where the plight of the wicked is described thus: ‘and his place was not found.’10 However, this text does not help to explain what place Judas did find according to Acts 1:25 (and van de Water does not elaborate on this point). Whitlock regards Acts 1:24-25 as a poem in which the repetition of the word ‘place’ plays an important role: ‘The place of service is contrasted with Judas’s own place. The contrast is made explicit by the repetition of topos’. Whitlock does not clearly opt for an exclusively spatial or metaphorical meaning of Judas’ own place, but says it leaves readers ‘with a tragically precise summation of Judas’s conflict and fate’.11

If topos can be used poetically in Acts 1:25a and 1:25c to refer to Judas’ position and to his spatial location or destiny respectively (and possibly takes on spatial and positional meanings in 1:25c), then such multivalence should also be regarded as a possibility in 1 Clement 44.5. That topos refers at least partly to a transcendent reward and not merely an office in 1 Clement 44.5 is argued by Hill12 and suggested as a possibility by Lindemann13 Lona regards τόπος in this text as an office only.14

Thus, while the context suggests a metaphorical meaning for topos as 'office' or 'position' in 1 Clement 44.5, it is plausible that there is wordplay here and that a spatial sense is also intended, referring to the presbyters' place of reward. Even if topos takes an exclusively metaphorical sense in 1 Clement 44.5, this does not necessarily mean it takes on an exclusively metaphorical sense in 1 Clement 5.4, 7. This passage must be considered on its own terms. Below are six exegetical arguments which, collectively, in my view, represent a compelling case for interpreting topos spatially in 1 Clement 5.4, 7 (more specifically, as referring to the heavenly sanctuary) and thus concluding that Clement believed in an intermediate state.

(1) Religion-historical parallels adduced by Hill strongly support a heavenly interpretation of 'the place of glory' and 'the holy place' to which Peter and Paul respectively are said to have gone. Concerning the 'holy place' he notes the following important background:

τὰ ἅγια is the customary name used by the author of Hebrews for the holy place, or the holy of holies, whether the earthly (9.8[?], 25; 13.11) or the heavenly (8.2; 9.12, 24; 10.19). It is moreover significant that in Hebrews, which almost certainly Clement knows,15 we have clear evidence of the belief that the "spirits of just men made perfect" now congregate at the cultic precincts of the heavenly Mount Zion (12.22-4).16

A further parallel is adduced from 'Clement's Jewish contemporary at Rome, Josephus' from Bellum Judaicum 3.374:

in accordance with the law of nature and repay the loan which they received from God, when He who lent it is pleased to reclaim it, win eternal renown (κλέος);17 that their houses and families are secure; that their souls, remaining spotless and obedient, are allotted the most holy place in heaven (χῶρον οὐράνιον λαχοῦσαι τὸν ἁγιώτατον), whence, in the revolution of the ages, they return to find in chaste bodies a new habitation.18

Hill comments that 'This teaching is remarkable for its resemblance to that of 1 Clement' and 'In it the "most holy place" is expressly set in heaven'.19 Finally, Hill adduces 'another document of Roman Christian provenance' which 'Within a few decades'20 of 1 Clement portrays 'the celestial lot of Christian martyrs after death as the "right hand portion of the sanctuary" (τοῦ ἁγιάσματος) (Hermas, Vis 3.1.9; 3.2.1), a place also characterized by glory.'21

These religion-historical parallels from Hebrews, Josephus and Hermas support interpreting ‘the holy place’ as a reference to the heavenly sanctuary. To this can be added some relevant OT texts. Throughout the OT, a part of the earthly sanctuary is denoted ‘the holy place’22 and in certain instances the mountain of the Lord (Ps. 24:3; Ps. 68:5 cp. 68:17) or God’s heavenly dwelling-place (Isa. 26:21) is described as God’s ‘holy place.’23 If you asked a person steeped in Second Temple Judaism what ‘the holy place’ (or ‘the place of glory’) was (note the presence of the article in Greek), he would no doubt tell you either that it was the earthly sanctuary (the temple), or the heavenly sanctuary (of which the earthly is merely a copy, according to Heb. 9:24). Since Clement obviously does not mean that Peter and Paul went to the Jerusalem temple, he must mean they went to the heavenly sanctuary. There is, to my knowledge, not one instance in the OT, Second Temple Jewish literature, or early Christian literature where ‘the holy place’ takes on any other spatial meaning, much less a metaphorical meaning such as an office or position! Certainly Dave has not produced any such evidence that suggests otherwise.

(2) There is a text-critical issue concerning the verb used in the description of Paul’s martyrdom in 1 Clement 5.7. Holmes’ critical text follows the two Greek manuscripts in reading ἐπορεύθη, and so he translates, ‘he thus departed from the world and went to the holy place.’24 Ehrman’s critical text, however, follows the Latin, Coptic and Syriac versions in reading ἀνελήμφθη, and so he translates, ‘he was set free from this world and transported up to the holy place.’25 This reading is also favoured by Hill,26 as well as Arndt et al.27 That ἀνελήμφθη is not attested in any extant Greek manuscript is not very significant, because the presence of equivalent verbs in Syriac, Latin and Coptic versions essentially proves the existence of a Greek textual tradition that read ἀνελήμφθη, since it is extremely unlikely that three translators would have made the same semantic change independently. If Ehrman’s text has the correct reading, then Paul explicitly ascended to the holy place, which supports its spatial location in heaven.

(3) Even the verb poreuō (in 5.4 and in the Greek manuscripts 5.7) usually takes on the spatial meaning ‘go’. The only metaphorical meanings attested in Arndt et al are ‘to conduct oneself’ and ‘to die’,28 neither of which are possible in this context. Certainly, for an expression consisting of a verb (‘go’) and a noun (‘place’) which both have a spatial meaning as their primary sense, a spatial interpretation is most natural.

(4) In 1 Clement 5.7, the explicit contrast between ‘this world’ (the place from which Paul departed or was set free;29 cf. John 13:1; 1 Cor. 5:10) and ‘the holy place’ implies spatial movement. ‘This world’ is not an office or position. It is a place; an abode.

(5) In 1 Clement 50.3, the writer uses a different Greek word to refer to the ‘place’ of the righteous dead: chōros. This text reads:

3 All the generations from Adam till today have passed away, but those perfected in love through the gracious gift of God have a place (chōros) among the godly. And they will be revealed when the kingdom of Christ appears. 4 For it is written, “Come into the inner rooms for just a short while, until my anger and wrath pass by; and I will remember a good day and raise you up from your tombs.”30

These inner rooms are regarded by Clement not metaphorically but as a spatial place, since chōros means ‘an undefined area or location, place’;31 ‘a definite space, piece of ground, place’ or ‘land’, ‘country’, ‘estate’, etc.32 and, unlike topos,  does not have any attested metaphorical sense. The sense of 1 Clement 50.3-4, therefore, is that the righteous dead dwell in a spatial place, identified with the ‘inner rooms’ (ta tameia) of Isa. 26:20 LXX, until the resurrection. Thus it is best to interpret ‘place’ spatially in 1 Clement 5.4 and 5.7 as well. We note further that Josephus, writing in the same city as Clement around the same time (see above), uses the same word chōros to refer to the heavenly abode of the souls of the righteous dead while they await the resurrection of the body.

(6) Remarkably, the passage on which Clement explicitly depends for his doctrine of the intermediate state in 1 Clement 50.3-433 is also the passage which contains the clearest OT reference to ‘the holy place’ as a transcendent location: ‘For look, the Lord from his holy place (tou hagiou) brings wrath upon those who dwell on the earth’ (Isa. 26:21 LXX, NETS). Since we can be certain that Clement’s ideas about the intermediate state have been influenced by this passage, it makes sense to interpret his reference to ‘the holy place’ in 1 Clement 5.7 in line with the reference to ‘the holy place’ in Isa. 26:21 LXX. Accordingly, ‘the holy place’ in 1 Clement 5.7 is best understood as a reference to heaven.

Besides all of this evidence concerning the spatial meaning of topos in 1 Clement 5.4 and 5.7, we redirect the reader’s attention to 1 Clement 6.2, which says of some female martyrs that they received ‘a noble reward’ (geras gennaion). Arndt et al define geras as ‘a material exhibition of esteem, prize, reward’.34 For these martyrs to have received a prize after their death but before their resurrection, they must have still existed. Dave’s post does not mention this verse.

In conclusion, there is substantial evidence that Clement believed in an intermediate state for the righteous dead, or at least for martyrs. The idea that the ‘place’ of the righteous dead refers to a position of authority is plausible in 1 Clement 44.5 but untenable in 1 Clement 5.4 and 5.7 (where it also seems to have no scholarly support). Rather, the ‘place of glory’ and ‘holy place’ to which Peter and Paul are said to have gone (or ascended, in Paul’s case) is best understood as the heavenly sanctuary.

What are the implications of this finding? First, the theology of 1 Clement is not exactly as Christadelphians believe, as Dave claims. In particular, the theology of 1 Clement shows that belief in an intermediate state was entrenched in the church of Rome before the end of the first century. This doctrine was being projected back onto the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul at a time when the church elders in Rome likely included individuals (even Clement?) who had known them personally and sat under their teaching.35 This is reason enough for Christadelphians to take a long look at their materialistic anthropology, and revisit their exegesis of New Testament texts such as Acts 7:59, Phil. 1:22-24 and Heb. 12:22-24 which appear to presuppose belief in an intermediate state. Second, in early Christian theology, heaven-going and resurrection were not mutually exclusive, competing models of individual eschatology. Rather, they could be held simultaneously as two sequential components of individual eschatology – as they still are today in orthodox Christian theology.

Footnotes

• 1 Ehrman, B.D. (2003). The Apostolic Fathers (Vol. 1). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp. 43-47; emphasis added.
• 2 He goes on to quote Matt. 19:28; 1 Cor. 9:25; 2 Tim. 4:8; Jas 1:12; 1 Pet. 5:4.
• 3 Ehrman, op. cit., p. 115.
• 4 Evangelion/Dave disputes this in a separate post on the same discussion board, claiming that 'with the Lord' is symbolic. Space does not allow further discussion of this text here, but suffice it to say that a symbolic meaning for 'with the Lord' is not 'clear' as Dave claims.
• 5 Unquestionably, topos takes on a figurative sense in 1 Clement 40.5: ‘For special liturgical rites have been assigned to the high priest, and a special place (topos) has been designated for the regular priests, and special ministries are established for the Levites.
• 6 Oropeza, B.J. (2010). Judas’ Death and Final Destiny in the Gospels and Earliest Christian Writings. Neotestamentica, 44(2), 342-361; here pp. 352-353. Also favouring this view are Barrett (Barrett, C.K. (1994). Acts 1-14. London: T&T Clark, pp. 103-104; he also considers the possibility that Judas’ own place refers to his position as a traitor); Witherington, B., III. (1998). The Acts of the Apostles. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, p. 122; Marshall, I.H. (1980). The Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction and Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, p. 66; Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 1011; Bock, D.L. (2007). Acts. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, p. 89; Gaertner, D. (1995). Acts. Joplin: College Press, p. 64; Peterson, D. (2009). The Acts of the Apostles. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, p. 128; Zwiep, A.W. (2004). Judas and the Choice of Matthias: A Study on Context and Concern of Acts 1:15-26. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, pp. 166-168. Zwiep offers perhaps the most comprehensive exegesis, considering five possible interpretations of ‘his own place’ before concluding that it ‘is a euphemism for his postmortem state, in Luke’s view geenna.’ Among the parallels cited by scholars in support of this interpretation, the most impressive are Targum on Ecclesiastes 6.6 and Ignatius Magnesians 5.1. The former reads, ‘On the day of his death his soul goes down to Gehenna, the one place where all the guilty go’ (Talbert, C.H. (2005). Reading Acts: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles. Macon: Smyth & Helwys, p. 21, trans., who also cites this text in connection with Acts 1:25 and thus presumably holds to the same interpretation.) The latter reads, ‘the two things are set together, death and life, and each person is about to depart to his own place’ (Ehrman, op. cit., p. 245). In this text, the expression ‘his own place’ parallels that in Acts 1:25, and appears to refer to one’s final destination.
• 7 Johnson, L.T. (1992). The Acts of the Apostles. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, p. 37.
• 8 Keener, C.S. (2012). Acts: An Exegetical Commentary (Vol. 1). Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, p. 771.
• 9 McCabe, D.R. (2011). How to Kill Things with Words: Ananias and Sapphira under the Prophetic Speech-Act of Divine Judgment (Acts 4.32-5.11). London: T&T Clark, p. 208.
• 10 Van de Water, R. (2003). The Punishment of the Wicked Priest and the Death of Judas. Dead Sea Discoveries 10(3), 395-419; here p. 405.
• 11 Whitlock, M.G. (2015). Acts 1:15-26 and the Craft of New Testament Poetry. Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 77(1), 87-106; here pp. 104-105.
• 12 ‘In one other place Clement uses the word τόπος to denote “the post-mortal place of honour.” This time, in an ironical jab at the Corinthians, he is speaking of the lot of deceased presbyters… The directional quality of προοδοιπορήσαντες, not merely “predecessors” but those who have traveled or gone before, is reinforced by the clear terminus for the journey in the τόπος of the departed. Despite, then, prima facie resemblance to Irenaeus’s “appointed place” (ὡρισμένος τόπος, Against Heresies V.31.2), Clement’s “established place” (τόπος) represents a conception of the place of the dead entirely at odds with that notion. There is every reason to assume that the teaching here is of a piece with that of chapter 5, in which the due place of glory and the holy place must be understood as the heavenly sanctuary and not as a subterranean holding place’ (Hill, C.E. (2001). Regnum Caelorum: Patterns of Millennial Thought in Early Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, pp. 83-84).
• 13 ‘τόπος meint die irdische Amtsstellung der Presbyter (vgl. 40,5), die ihnen nicht mehr genommen werden kann, oder aber den "himmlischen" Ort wie in 5,4.7 (so nachdrüklich Aono, Entwicklung 67; dann wäre ἱδρυμένος allerdings uneigentlich gemeint); vielleicht soll gar nicht präzise unterschieden werden’ (Lindemann, A. (1992). Die Clemensbriefe. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, p. 132)] and (apparently) Arndt et al (op. cit., p. 1011), who list 1 Clement 44.5 under the ‘position’ meaning of topos but also asks the writer to ‘Cp. 44:5’ when listing 1 Clement 5.7 under the ‘transcendent site’ meaning.
• 14 ‘Die Presbyter haben nun keinen Anlaß mehr zur Furcht, von ihrem Platz bzw. Amt entfernt zu werden (μεθίστημι wie in 1 Kön 15,13; 1 Makk 11,63; Lk 16,4). Die Ausdrucksweise verrät in zweifacher Weise das Interesse, die Vorstellung von einer schon soliden, feststehenden Einrichtung wachzurufen. Einmal ist von τόπος der Presbyter die Rede, was in diesem Zusammenhang an I Clem 40,5 erinnert: καὶ τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν ἴδιος ὁ τόπος προστέτακται. Sodann wird das bedeuteungsvolle  ἱδρύειν gebraucht, um die Errichtung des Amtes zu bezeichnen. Die Passiv-Form  ἱδρυμένος weist wie in 40,5 auf Gott als den Urheber hin, das Perfekt auf die Gültigkeit des den Presbytern errichteten τόπος. Der Terminus paßt in das Gesamtbild. Der fest gegründete Platz der Presbyter hat sich für einige von ihnen als nicht sicher erwiesen, da sie aus ihrem Amt hinausgedrängt wurden. Dieser Gefahr sind die schon verstorbenen Presbyter entgangen.’ (Lona, H.E. (1998). Der erste Clemensbrief. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, p. 470)
• 15 1 Clement 36 appears to borrow extensively from Hebrews, quoting several of the same OT texts quoted in Hebrews 1, and referring to Jesus as ‘the high priest of our offerings, the benefactor who helps us in our weaknesses’ – language reminiscent of Heb. 2:18; 3:1 (cf. Ehrman, op. cit., pp. 26, 99-100).
• 16 Hill, op. cit., p. 83.
• 17 Hill notes that this same Greek word is used in 1 Clement 5.6.
• 18 quoted in ibid.
• 19 ibid.
• 20 If the Visions were the first part of The Shepherd of Hermas to be written, around the end of the first century, as Osiek 1999: 20 suggests, then this text would have arisen around the same time as 1 Clement from within the same local church!
• 21 Hill, op. cit., p. 83. He discusses this text in more detail in his discussion on the Shepherd of Hermas, ibid., pp. 92ff.
• 22 following LXX: Ex. 28:26; 29:31; Lev. 6:27-36; 10:13-18; 16:2-27; 24:9; Num. 4:16; 28:7; 1 Ki. 8:10; 1 Chr. 23:32; 2 Chr. 5:9-11; 29:7; 31:18; Eccl. 8:10; Ezek. 41:21; 42:14; 44:27; 45:4; 45:18; Dan. 8:11; cf. 1 Macc. 14:36; 2 Macc. 2:18; 8:17; 3 Macc. 2:1; 4 Macc. 4:12; 1 Enoch 25.5.
• 23 Cp. 1 Enoch 12.4, which refers to the Watchers having ‘left the high heaven, the holy eternal place’.
• 24 Holmes, M.W. (2007) The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, p. 53.
• 25 Ehrman, op. cit., p. 53.
• 26 ‘Both Greek mss have ἐπορεύθη (he went), but ἀνελήμφθη (he was taken up) is presumed by the Syriac, Latin, and Coptic versions. Since ἐπορεύθη here may also be accounted for as an assimilation to v. 4, ἀνελήμφθη is preferred by Harnack, I. Clemensbrief, and Lake, ApF. It is also adopted by Funk-Bilhmeyer, though not by Jaubert. Knoch assumes ἐπορεύθη and does not even mention the variant…If  ἀνελήμφθη is original, it would, of course, be very unsuitable for depicting a removal to Hades but utterly natural for depicting an ascension to heaven. (Hill, op. cit., p. 82 n. 19).
• 27 Arndt et al, op. cit., p. 66.
• 28 op. cit., p. 853.
• 29 Ehrman's translation above has Paul being 'set free' from this world, whereas Holmes (op. cit., p. 53) translates 'he thus departed from the world...' Both 'set free' and 'depart' are possible meanings of the verb apallassō (Arndt et al, op. cit., p. 96).
• 30 Ehrman, op. cit., p. 125, trans.
• 31 Arndt et al, op. cit., p. 1096.
• 32 Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon (revised and augmented throughout by H.S. Jones with the assistance of R. McKenzie). Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved from http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dxw%3Dros1, 21 December 2015.
• 33 Lona's comments on this text, already quoted in Part One of this article, are as follows: 'Zitat, dessen Herkunft in einem zweiten Schritt erörtert wird, will offensichtlich das zuvor Gesagte unterstreichen. Gemäß der vom Vf. praktizierten Schriftauslegung ist der als Zitat angeführte Text wörtlich zu nehmen. In diesem Fall sind τὰ τεμεῖα (die Kammern) identisch mit dem χῶρος εὐσεβῶν von V.3. Der Aufenthalt dort hat eine beschützende Funktion, aber er ist nicht dauernd, sondern nur für die Zeit des göttlichen Zornes gedacht, bis Gott sich des guten Tages erinnert und die Gläubigen auferstehen läßt. Zwei Aspekte sind in diesen Wort enthalten, die das Verständnis der Stelle im Kontext bestimmen. Der erste und vordergründige ist der eschatologische. Präzis ist er aber nicht. Die in der Liebe Vollendeten würden in diesen Aufenthaltsort eingehen - was nur als postmortales Ereignis vorstellbar ist - , um dort auf den guten Tag zu warten, an dem Gott sie auferstehen lassen wird. ἀναστήσω ist als Auferstehungsverheißung auszulegen. Die jüdische Apokalyptik kennt ähnliche Vorstellungen über einen Zwischenzustand. Sie sind auch dem NT nicht fremd (vgl. Phil 1,23; Lk 23,43), wenngleich die Ausdrucksweise dort nicht so bildreich ist wie in I Clem 50,4' (Lona, op. cit., p. 534).
• 34 Arndt et al, op. cit., p. 195.
• 35 1 Clement 44.3, 6 may indicate that among the ministers who had been deposed in Corinth were some who had been appointed by the apostles.

The intermediate state in 1 Clement (part 1)

1 Clement is an early Christian letter written from the church of Rome to the church of Corinth.1 The consensus date for this document is c. 96 AD, though it may have been written as early as the 70s.2 It is traditionally ascribed to Clement of Rome; the name Clement 'appears in the titles of each manuscript in which the letter survives'.3 For convenience we will refer to the author as Clement. One can find scholars arguing that the author was 'almost certainly...a Gentile believer'4 or, on the other hand, 'almost certainly a Jewish Christian'!5 Given the writer's knowledge of Old Testament and Jewish tradition but familiarity with and use of Hellenistic ideas, Hagner's balanced statement seems on point: 'We may be sure…that Clement was either a Jew whose Hellenization was complete, or a Greek who had drunk deeply of Jewish thought and practice.'6 The high valuation of this letter in the patristic Church can be seen from its inclusion (together with 2 Clement) at the end of the New Testament in Codex Alexandrinus, one of the most important early biblical manuscripts.

Some Christadelphian apologists have attempted to enlist the author of 1 Clement as essentially a proto-Christadelphian. For instance, in a recent talk on early Christianity, Dave Burke says the following:

In the letter of Clement to the Corinthians we find New Testament theology7 exclusively; we don’t find the deity of Christ, we don’t find the pre-existence of Christ, we don’t find the Trinity, we don’t find the immortal soul, we don’t find a supernatural devil; everything here is exactly as we [Christadelphians] believe. It’s perfectly consistent with New Testament theology.8

More recently, in a Facebook post from August 2015, Dave asserts the following:

Clement's theology is utterly apostolic; there is no evidence that he believed in immortal soulism, the pre-existence of Christ, the deity of Christ, the deity of the Holy Spirit, or an evil supernatural devil.

This appears on a Facebook page authored by Dave which is entitled 'Christian History'. The stated purpose of this page is 'to provide information about early Christian history, the Reformation, and the three Great Awakenings.' The page does not state that it offers a Christadelphian slant on early Christian history, so one would expect the information to be factual or at least in line with the current scholarly consensus. Sadly, this is not the case.

In fact, 1 Clement 51.1 refers to 'the adversary' and it is universally agreed by scholars that this is a reference to Satan (as I have discussed previously). Moreover, scholars have concluded that several passages in 1 Clement presuppose the pre-existence of Christ.9 Dave does not mention any of this evidence. However, our main concern in this article is with Clement's individual eschatology: his beliefs concerning the afterlife. Dave's assertion in this respect is imprecise: he says there is no evidence that Clement believed in 'immortal soulism' and infers that, because Clement believed in resurrection, his individual eschatology must have been identical to that of Christadelphians. However, this implicitly creates a false dichotomy as though Christadelphian conditionalism and 'immortal soulism' (a term Dave does not define) are the only options. If, by 'immortal soulism', Dave means the Greek doctrine of the immortality of the soul founded upon Platonic dualism, in which the soul is temporarily imprisoned in the body which is a mere shell, then one can heartily agree that Clement held no such anthropology. However, there is a third possibility that Dave does not mention: that of an intermediate state, in which the soul continues to exist after death while awaiting the consummate goal of bodily resurrection.

Hence, the question that needs to be asked is whether there is any evidence that Clement believed in a post-mortem existence prior to the resurrection. In order for Clement's theology to be exactly as Christadelphians believe, the answer would have to be no. However, the answer from the scholarly literature, and from careful exegesis of certain passages in 1 Clement, is a decisive yes!

Before turning to these passages we must first note our agreement with Dave that the doctrine of bodily resurrection is at the core of Clement's individual eschatology.10 Consider, for instance, 1 Clement 24.1:

We should consider, loved ones, how the Master continuously shows us the future resurrection that is about to occur, of which he made the Lord Jesus Christ the first fruit by raising him from the dead.11

Having noted this, we must reiterate that Clement's belief in resurrection does not imply his disbelief in any post-mortem existence (as in Christadelphian theology). Schmisek reminds us that Clement 'did not spell out the nature of his resurrection anthropology' and that he 'felt free to draw on pagan imagery to convey the concept of resurrection'.12 More importantly, 1 Clement refers to a blessed state of existence which faithful believers and martyrs in particular enter immediately after death. The most significant text in this respect concerns the martyrdom of Peter, Paul and some women, and reads as follows:

3. We should set before our eyes the good apostles. 4. There is Peter, who because of unjust jealousy bore up under hardships not just once or twice, but many times; and having thus borne his witness he went to the place of glory that he deserved. 5. Because of jealousy and strife Paul pointed the way to the prize for endurance. 6. Seven times he bore chains; he was sent into exile and stoned; he served as a herald in both the East and the West; and he received the noble reputation for his faith. 7. He taught righteousness to the whole world, and came to the limits of the West, bearing his witness before the rulers. And so he was set free from this world and transported up to the holy place, having become the greatest example of endurance. 6.1. To these men who have conducted themselves in such a holy way there has been added a great multitude of the elect, who have set a superb example among us by the numerous torments and tortures they suffered because of jealousy. 2. Women were persecuted as Danaids and Dircae and suffered terrifying and profane torments because of jealousy. But they confidently completed the race of faith, and though weak in body, they received a noble reward. (1 Clement 5.3-6.2)13

It should be obvious that, prima facie, this passage constitutes evidence for Clement's belief in post-mortem existence. A plain reading of the text suggests that these martyrs went somewhere after death and received a reward. Certainly, one will never hear the kind of language used in this passage at a Christadelphian funeral! However, Dave neglects to mention this passage when summarizing Clement's theology in his talk and on his Facebook page. This is not because Dave is unaware of the passage; in fact, he had discussed it in an online discussion forum almost a decade earlier (assuming, according to my recollections, that Evangelion was Dave's user name on this forum). However, neither in that post nor at any time since (as far as I am aware) has Dave shown any familiarity with scholarship on this passage and others relevant to our subject. It is to this scholarship that we now turn.

Based on my survey of scholarship, it appears that most scholars conclude, based primarily on 1 Clement 5.3-6.2, that Clement believed in an intermediate state. Some of these, such as Lampe,14 Bauckham,15 Hill,16 Wright,17 and Lehtipuu,18 explicitly locate the intermediate state in heaven. Others, such as Lindemann,19 Lona,20 Arndt et al,21 and Mutie,22 do not explicitly describe Clement's intermediate state as 'heaven' but do conclude that he believed in post-mortem existence.

More nuanced views are those of Sumney, who thinks Clement's intermediate state concept applied to martyrs only,23 and Gonzalez, who thinks 1 Clement is ambiguous about the kind of post-mortem existence which the martyrs enjoy.24

Having surveyed the literature, it is apparent that most scholars have concluded that Clement's theology included the notion of post-mortem existence in an intermediate state for believers. None of the scholars I read concluded that Clement held that believers ceased to exist between their death and resurrection (although Sumney held this to be the case with the exception of martyrs). Contemporary scholarship weighs against Dave Burke's claim that the theology of 1 Clement corresponds exactly to that of Christadelphians in the matter of individual eschatology. Accordingly, I call on Dave to provide his Christadelphian audiences with an objective picture of Clement's theology and to stop presenting his own private interpretations as factual information.

This is Part One of a two-part article. In the next installment, I will interact with Dave's exegesis of 1 Clement 5.3-6.2 and provide exegetical arguments that Clement believed that the righteous dead go to heaven to await the resurrection.

Footnotes

• 1 The prescript of the letter reads, 'The church of God that temporarily resides in Rome, to the church of God that temporarily resides in Corinth' (Ehrman, B.D. (2003). The Apostolic Fathers (Vol. 1). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p. 35).
• 2 Gregory, A. (2006). I Clement: An Introduction. The Expository Times, 117(6), 223-230 (here pp. 227-228).
• 3 ibid., pp. 224-225.
• 4 Skarsaune, O. (2009). Does the Letter to the Hebrews Articulate a Supersessionist Theology? In R. Bauckham, D. Driver & T. Hart (Eds.), The Epistle to the Hebrews and Christian Theology (pp. 192-200). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, p. 198.
• 5 Sanders, J.T. (1993). Schismatics, Sectarians, Dissidents, Deviants: The First One Hundred Years of Jewish-Christian Relations. London: SCM Press, p. 220.
• 6 Hagner, D.A. (1973). The Use of the Old and New Testaments in Clement of Rome. Leiden: Brill, p. 8.
• 7 Read: the Christadelphian version of New Testament theology.
• 8 These remarks are from a talk Dave delivered in 2014, which can be downloaded here (the discussion of 1 Clement begins around the 9:45 mark).
• 9 E.g. 1 Clement 16.2, 16.17, 36.2, 42.1. These are the texts adduced by Talbert who concludes that 1 Clement 'assumes pre-existence' and thus 'reflects an epiphany model' of Christology (Talbert, C.H. (2011). The Development of Christology during the first hundred years. Leiden: Brill, p. 36). I hope to discuss Clement's Christology in detail in a future post.
• 10 Wright states: 'He not only believes in final resurrection; he mounts various arguments to show that it is not as unreasonable a thing to believe as one might suppose. First, the sequence of day and night, and seedtime and harvest, indicates that such a progression is built into the created world… Clement then – boldly, we may think – advances the apparent parallel of the phoenix, which rejuvenates itself after dying every 500 years. And he rounds off his exposition with three biblical passages which demonstrate, he says, that "the creator of all things will create the resurrection of those who have served him in holiness, in the assurance of a good faith."' (Wright, N.T. (2003). The Resurrection of the Son of God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, p. 481) Similarly, Chester: 'The main concentration of eschatological themes in 1 Clement… is to be found in chapters 23-27. It is clearly the delay of the Parousia that constitutes one main problem that the writer has to deal with… Chapters 24-26 provide the main, central thrust of this section as a whole, arguing for the resurrection of the body as not in the least improbable, on the analogy of the seed dying in order to product fruit and the phoenix rising from the ashes. Clearly the writer sees the doubts about the Parousia, and those about the resurrection of the believers, as closely bound up together.' (Chester, A. (2007). Messiah and Exaltation: Jewish Messianic and Visionary Traditions and New Testament Christology. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, p. 455.) See also Mutie, J. (2015). Death in Second-Century Christian Thought: The Meaning of Death in Earliest Christianity. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, pp. 56-57. Offering a different perspective is Schmisek, who surprisingly claims that 'resurrection was not a major issue for Clement and he spent little time discussing it' (Schmisek, B. (2013). Resurrection of the Flesh or Resurrection from the Dead: Implications for Theology. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, p. 3.)
• 11 Ehrman, op. cit., p. 81.
• 12 Schmisek, op. cit., p. 4.
• 13 Ehrman, op. cit., pp. 43-47; emphasis added.
• 14 Lampe thinks that topos refers to 'heaven' in 1 Clement 5.4, 5.7 (Lampe, G.W.H. (1961). A Patristic Greek Lexicon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 1397).
• 15 Bauckham regards the word sunēthroisthē in 1 Clement 6.1 as possibly suggesting that 'the great multitude joined the martyrs just mentioned in heaven: this would supply a reference to the heavenly reward of the great multitude of martyrs, which is otherwise missing but which is expected by comparison with the examples of Peter, Paul and the women' (Bauckham, R.J. (1992). The Martyrdom of Peter in Early Christian Literature. In ANRW II.26.1, pp. 539-595; here p. 561).
• 16 Hill concludes that Clement believed in a 'heavenly version of the intermediate state' and yet that 'absolutely no tension can be detected, in Clement's mind' between this and his 'vigorous Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body' (Hill, C.E. (2001). Regnum Caelorum: Patterns of Millennial Thought in Early Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, p. 85). Hill's exegesis of the relevant passages in 1 Clement is the most detailed among the scholars cited here. We will consider it in more detail in the second part of this article.
• 17 Wright says that 'Clement believed in a temporary post-mortem heaven rather than in the righteous going to Hades' and argued that 1 Clement 5.4-6.2 dovetail with Clement's teachings on the resurrection of the dead: 'We are not surprised, therefore, to find that Clement articulates a doctrine of resurrection not far removed from that of the New Testament. To begin with, however, it might have seemed otherwise. In the early chapters Clement speaks of the apostles Peter and Paul having died and gone, in the first place, to a "place of glory", and in the second to the "holy place". He goes on to speak of martyrs who "received a noble reward", of those who obtain the gift of "life in immortality", and of presbyters who have finished their course and have obtained "a fruitful and perfect release (analysis)", and who now need have no fear of being moved "from the place appointed to them". By themselves these passages could have been taken to indicate a belief in a final disembodied state, capable of being described in shorthand (though Clement does not use this phrase) as "going to heaven". But when Clement expounds his own view of the final state of the blessed departed, he makes it clear that this language about Peter, Paul and the others must refer to their temporary abode in a blessed, glorious and holy place. He not only believes in final resurrection; he mounts various arguments to show that it is not as unreasonable a thing to believe as one might suppose' (Wright, op. cit., p. 479).
• 18 Lehtipuu regards this passage from 1 Clement as one witness to a widespread conviction 'that martyrs will pass immediately to heaven at the moment of their death': 'The conviction that martyrs will pass immediately to heaven at the moment of their death is so widespread that it can be called "a commonplace in martyrological literature."… The emphasis of the martyr accounts is on the continuation of life after death without any interruption.' (Lehtipuu, O. (2015). Debates over the Resurrection of the Dead: Constructing Early Christian Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 169).
• 19 Lindemann regards 1 Clement 5.4-7 as referring to a post-mortem state of existence analogous to that implied by NT passages such as Luke 16:22f, 23:43 and Acts 7:56-59. He writes, 'τόπον vgl. Apg 1,25 (dort ἴδιος statt ὀφειλόμενος) und in der Sache Joh 14,2f; Ign Magn 5,1; vgl. auch die etwas rätselhafte Bemerkung in Apg 12,17: Petrus ἐπορεύθη εἰς ἕτερον τόπον (M. Smith, NTS 7, 1960/61, 86-88 sieht hier einen literarischen Zusammenhang und ein Argument gegen die Petrus-Rom-Hypothese; s.u.). Zur eschatologischen Bedeutung von δόξα s. Röm 8,18.21. V. 4 besagt wohl nicht, daß dem Märtyrer "ein besonderer Platz am postmortalen, interimistischen Ort der Frommen" zuteil wird oder er schon "in die volle Seligkeit" gelangt ist, auf die "andere Tote noch bis zur Endvollendung warten müssen" (so Baumeister aaO. 242, der auf 44,5 verweist; s. dort), denn ein Vergleich mit anderen ist gar nicht im Blick. Die Stelle bestätigt freilich eine im NT vor allem in den lk Schriften zu beobachtende Tendenz zur Individualisierung der Eschatologie (vgl. Lk 16,22f; 23,43; Apg 7.56.59),' (Lindemann, A. (1992). Die Clemensbriefe. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, pp. 37-38).
• 20 Lona regards the 'place of glory' in 1 Clement 5.4 as the eschatological place (Ort) of salvation. He writes on this 'place of glory' that it is 'ein klarer Hinweis auf die von Petrus empfangene eschatologische Belohnung' (Lona, H.E. (1998). Der erste Clemensbrief. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, p. 161). He adds in a note, 'Zu τόπος als eschatologischem Ort des Heiles vgl. auch I Clem 44,5; II Clem 1,2; Herm Sim IX 27,3 (104,3)' (ibid., p. 161 n. 1). On 1 Clement 5.7 he writes, 'Das Verlassen der Welt bedeutet in diesem Fall das Hingehen zu einem anderen Ort' (ibid., p. 166). In 1 Clement 50.3-4 Lona finds a concept of the intermediate state similar to what is found in Jewish apocalyptic and in NT passages such as Luke 23:43 and Phil. 1:23: 'Das Zitat, dessen Herkunft in einem zweiten Schritt erörtert wird, will offensichtlich das zuvor Gesagte unterstreichen. Gemäß der vom Vf. praktizierten Schriftauslegung ist der als Zitat angeführte Text wörtlich zu nehmen. In diesem Fall sind τὰ τεμεῖα (die Kammern) identisch mit dem χῶρος εὐσεβῶν von V.3. Der Aufenthalt dort hat eine beschützende Funktion, aber er ist nicht dauernd, sondern nur für die Zeit des göttlichen Zornes gedacht, bis Gott sich des guten Tages erinnert und die Gläubigen auferstehen läßt. Zwei Aspekte sind in diesen Wort enthalten, die das Verständnis der Stelle im Kontext bestimmen. Der erste und vordergründige ist der eschatologische. Präzis ist er aber nicht. Die in der Liebe Vollendeten würden in diesen Aufenthaltsort eingehen - was nur als postmortales Ereignis vorstellbar ist - , um dort auf den guten Tag zu warten, an dem Gott sie auferstehen lassen wird. ἀναστήσω ist als Auferstehungsverheißung auszulegen. Die jüdische Apokalyptik kennt ähnliche Vorstellungen über einen Zwischenzustand. Sie sind auch dem NT nicht fremd (vgl. Phil 1,23; Lk 23,43), wenngleich die Ausdrucksweise dort nicht so bildreich ist wie in I Clem 50,4' (ibid., p. 534).
• 21 The lexicon classifies topos in this text under the following definition: ‘a transcendent site: esp. of the place to which one’s final destiny brings one’ (Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed.) Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 1011).
• 22 Mutie states that the writer of 1 Clement 'concludes his understanding of death by suggesting that those who are perfected in love have already entered their glorious places in Christ’s kingdom. [cites 1 Clement 50.3-4] In other words, not only does the writer of 1 Clement understand death in terms of sleep, but he also, within the tradition of the Old Testament, affirms the survival of the soul beyond the physical death. As Dewart observes, "it is interesting to note that the letter contains one of the passages in the Apostolic Fathers which seems to affirm the survival of the soul independently of the body" after death.' (Mutie, op. cit., pp. 56-57).
• 23 Sumney's main focus is Paul's individual eschatology. He argues that in Paul's view,  'most people (including believers) cease to exist at death' but 'Martyrs and others of exceptional faithfulness...may be exceptions to this general rule and thus possess a limited existence with God before the parousia' (Sumney, J.L. (2009). Post-Mortem Existence and Resurrection of the Body in Paul. Horizons in Biblical Theology, 31(1), 12-26; here p. 12). He regards Acts 7:59, Revelation 6:9-11 and 4 Maccabees 17:17-18 as evidence for a belief that 'the fate of martyrs differs from that of others...martyrs are already in heaven with God' (ibid., p. 24). He interprets 1 Clement 5.3-6.2 in the same way, as affirming a 'post mortem existence for martyrs': 'Clement says that Peter has gone to the ‘place of glory’ because he is a martyr (1 Clem 5:4). Clement goes on to say that Paul is in ‘the holy place’ (5:6) and that women martyrs receive a ‘noble reward’ (6:2). So various people within the early church thought that post mortem existence for martyrs, including Paul, was different from the state of others' (ibid., p. 25). Sumney's thesis has been criticized by Orr, who says that the literature cited by Sumney holds out martyrs as examples to imitate but does not differentiate their fate from that of other believers. Orr says Sumney has missed 'the fact that the texts that he cites, although they speak of the martyrs being with God, do not, in fact, distinguish between martyrs and other believers. So 4 Maccabees does indeed picture martyrs being present with God following their death, but these are held out as examples for readers to imitate so that they too will suffer like these martyrs. The state of those who die without suffering is not raised. The implicit understanding of the book is that those who τῆς εὐσεβείας προνοοῦσιν ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας (7:18) will suffer death and so will go to be with God. Similarly, Revelation appears to apply the description (if not the term) of martyr to all believers (7:9, 14). Sumney argues that Polycarp distinguishes between martyrs and other believers in Philippians 9:2 when, in fact, he is using their example and reward to call his readers to imitate them (9:1). The same note of imitation is found in 1 Clement 5 (cf. 5:1). Further, it seems that Paul himself fails to make any distinction between martyrs and other Christians. In any case, this distinction would be very odd in a letter where he so definitely sees himself as a model for other Christians' (Orr, P. (2014). Christ Absent and Present: A Study in Pauline Christology. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, p. 46).
• 24 Gonzalez states: 'The early church fathers tend to support the view that the martyrs, through some means, and within a context of an anthropology that is never defined, go straight to heaven at their deaths. In the earlier chapters of 1 Clement, reference is made to Peter and Paul, who were martyred and who are respectively described as having gone ‘to his appointed place in glory’ (εἰς τὸν ὁφειλόμενον τόπον της δόξης), and ‘departed from this world and went to the holy place’ (ὁυτως ἀπηλλάγη τοῦ κόσμου καὶ εἰς τὸν ἅγιον τόπον ἐπορεύθη). 1 Clement also refers to the martyrs as having received ‘a noble reward’ (ἔλαβον γέρας γενναῖον). There is some ambiguity in this matter, however. It is notable (and rather overlooked) that 1 Clement never explicitly describes the martyrs or the righteous dead as having ascended or as specifically having gone to heaven. The extent to which the state in which the martyrs exist is merely blessed in anticipation rather than in reality is unclear. It may be either that the immediate admittance of the martyrs to heaven is simply assumed, or that this idea has not yet fully matured in the concept of early Christianity… From what we have seen, the concept of the immediate post-mortem ascent of the soul itself is not explicitly found in the writings of the "Apostolic Fathers." Perhaps it may be assumed in 1 Clement, and in the Martyrdom of Polycarp with regard to the martyrs. However, in relation to the martyrs as discussed in 1 Clement and the Polycarp texts, there is still no concept of a soul as separate from the physical body, nor of the motion of ascent of the martyrs to God. The martyrs are portrayed as receiving an immediate reward upon death, although the tension with the teaching of the resurrection is at times quite apparent.' (Gonzalez, E. (2014). The Fate of the Dead in Early Third Century North African Christianity: The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas and Tertullian. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, pp. 57-58). Gonzalez shows reserve in his exegesis of this passage, but this does not amount to an endorsement of a Christadelphian reading of Clement's theology.

The Angels that Sinned (and Tartarus) Revisited

Two years ago I wrote a review of Christadelphian interpretations of 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 - two texts which have traditionally been understood to refer to fallen angels. I considered three interpretations that I have come across in Christadelphian literature. The first asserts that the 'angels' who 'sinned' (2 Peter) or 'left their first estate' (Jude, KJV) were a pre-Adamic race. The second asserts that these 'angels' were Korah, Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16). The third (popularised in a pamphlet by Steven Cox) asserts that these texts do allude to a Jewish apocryphal tradition about fallen angels (found in 1 Enoch) but denies that Peter and Jude endorsed it, claiming instead that they view it as merely hypothetical rather than historical.

In my review, I described these three views and the arguments used to defend them. I then explained why I do not think any of them fits the language and argument of 2 Peter and Jude. Instead, I favour the traditional and standard scholarly view, that 2 Peter and Jude were referring to a fall of angels as events from the past. In this, they drew on a traditional Jewish interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4 which regards the 'sons of God' as angels.

Jonathan Burke has written a response to my review. Since his response is very brief, I will quote it in full:

This takes a very long time to say very little; Farrar basically argues that Cox’s ‘if’ interpretation is contrived. But the matter of whether or not Peter and Jude regard their source as recounting a historical event requires more work than either Farrar or Cox have carried out. Farrar’s own proposal that tartarosas in 2 Peter refers to the underworld is made without any substantiating lexical evidence (not even a search in the LXX), and without even a single citation from the relevant literature.

Burke also states the following in a footnote:

While it is true this interpretation is popular, especially among theologians, it is hardly an established position in the broader literature and is challenged repeatedly on lexical and contextual grounds.

Before addressing what Burke has said here, let us point out what Burke has not said.

(1) He does not respond to my comments on pre-Cox Christadelphian interpretation of 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6. He thus avoids the question of whether Christadelphians have historically misunderstood these texts.

(2) Burke criticizes Cox's and my exegesis as insufficient, but offers no exegesis of his own. In this instance he criticizes the work of others without providing any constructive contribution of his own.

(3) Concerning whether the writers regarded the content of the allusion in 2 Peter 2:4/Jude 6 as historical, Burke says my arguments are inadequate ('the matter...requires more work') but does not say why. He offers no specific criticism of my exegesis aside from the comment on tartarōsas, which is peripheral to the historical question.

Now let us deal with what Burke has said.

(1) Lack of references to scholarly literature

Burke criticizes me for not referring to 'any substantial lexical evidence' or 'even a single citation from the relevant literature'. The problem with this criticism is not that it is unjustified,1 but that Burke himself immediately runs afoul of it. He states that the meaning of tartarōsas as the underworld is not established in the literature and is 'repeatedly challenged on lexical and contextual grounds,' although it is popular among 'theologians.' He does not provide 'even a single citation from the relevant literature' to support these claims. In fact, according to the comments policy of Burke's own website, these comments ought to be removed!2 In any case, this post will make up for the lack of engagement with academic literature in my older post.

(2) Whether the events described in 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 are regarded by their authors as historical

I argued in my post that the context of 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 demonstrates that their authors regarded the content of these allusions as historical. Burke suggested that my arguments were inadequate ('the matter...requires more work'). Burke does not say why he finds my exegesis inadequate or offer any specific criticism thereof aside from the comment on tartarōsas, which is peripheral to the historical question. Thus Burke has not raised any arguments on this point that require a response.

However, I will reiterate my argument in greater detail, and will show that scholars have reached the same conclusions as myself.

2 Peter 2:4 is the beginning of a single sentence which (in Greek) runs until the end of v. 10. The whole sentence reads as follows:

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; 7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men 8 (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. (2 Peter 2:4-10 NASB)

In the Greek, the four conditional statements of vv. 4-7 are all governed by a single 'if' (ei) in v. 4, and are joined together with 'and' (kai). Hence, the apodosis ('then' statement) that begins in v. 9 is dependent on a single four-part protasis ('if' statement):3

if God did not spare angels when they sinned...

    and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah...

    and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction...

    and rescued righteous Lot...

[then] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment...

Logically, the apodosis in vv. 9-10 follows only if all four parts of the protasis are valid.4 Moreover, in context, 2 Peter is undoubtedly making an historical argument.5 He is arguing from historical precedent that for the false teachers of his own day, 'their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep' (v. 3).6 If the examples in vv. 4-7 are merely hypothetical, they do not serve the author's rhetorical goal of demonstrating the certainty of a coming judgment in history (see esp. 2 Peter 3:3-13).7

Furthermore, all three incidents recounted by 2 Peter in 2:4-7 come from Genesis (a traditional Jewish interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4, in the case of v. 4). Indeed, in editing Jude's material this writer has rearranged the Watchers story and Sodom and Gomorrah incidents into chronological order, which suggests an historical interest.8 Moreover, he offers no hint that he differentiates the historical truth value of the incident in v. 4 from those in vv. 5-7. The same is true of Jude 6, where Jude sandwiches the reference to rebellious angels in between straightforward references to two events from biblical history (Israel's unbelief in the wilderness, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah).9 These are the simple but compelling reasons for concluding that the content of 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 was held by these authors to be historical.

The only scholar known to me who challenges the consensus above is Charles. He allows that the tradition cited in Jude 6 depends on 1 Enoch, but suggests:

The presentation of the angels in v. 6 is abrupt. This can mean one of several things. It may reflect the assumption that the audience is familiar with the traditions, needing no introduction or explanation. It may also indicate that Jude is borrowing from Jewish apocalyptic imagery without necessarily endorsing its theological content, employing the imagery for his own purpose.10

Charles goes on to argue for the latter explanation, based on the obscure argument that the Watchers in the Book of Daniel are holy, not fallen, angels. This argument has no relevance to the interpretation of Jude 6 since Jude never uses the term 'watchers'. Charles also argues in a separate paper that whereas in 1 Enoch and Jubilees, the angels' fall is explicitly linked to fleshly lust, in Jude 'it is a fall from authority, domain, and position' and thus 'The picture is one of contrast' (between Jude and the Enochic tradition).11 This argument is unconvincing because these two sins are not mutually exclusive. 1 Enoch 12.4 describes the Watchers as having 'left the high heaven, the holy eternal place' (cf. 15.3). Meanwhile, the word homoion in Jude 7 may be intended to implicate the angels of v. 6 in sexual immorality.12 Jude may differ in emphasis in his depiction of the angels' sins, but this is a very weak basis on which to argue that he did not endorse the theological content of the allusion. Charles neglects to address the point which has persuaded most scholars that Jude 6 intends to refer to historical events: that it is sandwiched between two straightforward references to biblical history. One should also note that Charles does not extend his claim concerning Jude 6 to 2 Peter 2:4.

No firm basis for challenging the consensus that 2 Peter and Jude use the fallen angels story as sacred history can be found in the text itself. Instead, it must be read into the text for theological reasons.13

(3) The meaning of Tartarus in 2 Peter 2:4

Burke criticizes my claim that tartarōsas in 2 Peter refers to the underworld.14 He states that this claim is controversial without providing any evidence, and without suggesting what he thinks the term means. His comments thus merit no response, but we can add value by surveying scholarly views on the significance of this New Testament hapax legomenon in 2 Peter 2:4.15

There is indeed some scholarly disagreement concerning the precise meaning of tartarōsas in 2 Peter 2:4. There are basically three issues here: (i) the meaning of Tartarus in Greek mythology; (ii) the use of this term in Second Temple Jewish literature; (iii) whether 2 Peter takes the term directly from Greco-Roman sources, or from Jewish sources, or both.

Tartarus in Greek Mythology

First attested in Hesiod's Theogony (c. 700-665 BC), Tartarus is 'a fearful dungeon, far beneath the earth' which served as 'a prison for superhuman rebels'.16 Burnett observes that by the classical period,

the concept of Tartarus possessed a certain clear taxonomy, which included its: 1) location within Hades, 2) function as a prison and place of punishment, and 3) stygian environment.17

One can already see a close parallel with 2 Peter 2:4, since Tartarus here is explicitly identified as a place of punishment characterized by darkness. But let us continue with standard lexical authorities.

BDAG says the following concerning Tartarus (within the entry on tartaroō since this is the word actually used in the NT):

Tartarus, thought of by the Greeks as a subterranean place lower than Hades where divine punishment was meted out, and so regarded in Israelite apocalyptic as well18

LSJ gives two definitions for Tartaros, namely, 'the nether world generally' and the same 'personified as husband of Gaia and father of Typhoeus.'19 A separate entry for tartaroō defines this verb as 'cast into Tartarus or hell.' Slater's Lexicon to Pindar defines Tartaros simply as 'the underworld.'20

Tartarus in Second Temple Jewish Literature

The noun tartaros occurs three times in the LXX (Job 40:20; 41:24; Proverbs 30:16). Its meaning in these texts is a matter of scholarly debate. Lust, Eynikel and Hauspie's A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint defines the word in these three passages as 'deep place,' 'lowest place of the deep' and 'place of imprisonment' respectively.21 While one can see how all three of these definitions derive from the Greek mythological meaning, only the third seems close to the Greek sense.

Cox, translating Job in the New English Translation of the Septuagint, transliterates tartaros in Job 40:20; 41:24 LXX as Tartarus, and on both occasions clarifies in a footnote, 'i.e. the nether world.'22 Cook, translating Proverbs, also transliterates the term as Tartarus, without offering any explanatory note.23 It appears that these translators think the LXX has straightforwardly borrowed the term from Greek mythology. This is the position taken by Goff:

References to the Titans and Tartarus in the LXX indicate that Jewish translators of Hebrew texts incorporated knowledge of Greek mythology (e.g., 2 Kgdms 5:18; Prov 30:16).24

Reading these LXX texts quite differently is Seventh Day Adventist scholar Papaioannou. In his PhD dissertation on places of punishment in the Synoptic Gospels (which offers a thoroughly conditionalist interpretation), he includes a short appendix on Tartarus. This he begins with a description of the origin of this term in Greek mythology, which is limited to Hesiod's Theogony. He does not discuss any Greek or Greco-Roman literature from the classical period or later, but turns immediately to the LXX. In Job 40:20 LXX (in the passage in which the MT speaks of Behemoth), Papaioannou interprets, 'Tartarus here is to be understood as a reference to the watery places which hippopotamus frequents'.25 Similarly, in Job 41:24 LXX (in the passage in which the MT speaks of Leviathan), Papaioannou interprets, 'The "lowest parts of the deep," therefore, can only be a reference to the depths of the "sea" (or other body of water?) that mysterious Leviathan could wade.26 Lastly, concerning Prov. 30:16 LXX, Papaioannou acknowledges that Tartarus has no equivalent in the MT. While he describes the exact meaning of Tartarus here as 'elusive,' he concludes that 'Tartarus is again a reference to the sea.'27

Problematically, Papaioannou largely interprets these LXX texts through the lens of the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT). He appears not to allow for the possibility that the LXX translators have redacted the meaning of the these texts by introducing mythological language which was faint or absent in the Hebrew. Moreover, he neglects to adduce any external evidence that 'watery places' (a river, in the case of the hippopotamus!) falls within the semantic field of tartaros.

A more convincing exegesis of these LXX texts is offered by Burnett. Having thoroughly surveyed references to tartaros in Greek and Greco-Roman literature down through the Hellenistic period, Burnett turns to Second Temple literature, beginning with the three LXX passages. After noting that tartaros in these texts has no parallel in the MT or Targumim and 'thus seem to reflect additions to the Hebrew texts,'28 he summarizes the meaning of the term in each case.

Job 40:20 LXX indicates that four-footed beasts (tetraposin) dwell within tartaros. Burnett describes this use of tartaros as 'vague' and 'ambiguous', although he notes the possibility that the translator had in mind Cerberus, a four-footed beast from Greco-Roman mythology. He thinks that in Job 41:24 LXX and Prov. 30:16 LXX 'the translators maintained the common Greco-Roman taxonomy of Tartarus as a deep place associated with Hades.'29 He notes that

it is striking that nowhere in the LXX did a translator feel compelled to explain the characteristics of Tartarus... it seems that the translators assumed their audiences' familiarity with this concept. This hypothesis is strengthened by the LXX translators' use of mythology related to Tartarus. Numerous times throughout the LXX, the translators chose to render the Hebrew terms gibbôr, gībbōrîm, npîlîm, and rpā’îm with the terms gigas and titan.30

Burnett suggests an apologetic motive for the incorporation of such Greco-Roman mythological concepts by the translators:

the Jewish translators were attempting to legitimize and legitimate their religion over that of the Greeks by proving the antiquity of their religious ideology. Considering the ingrained nature of the myth of Tartarus, the Titans, and the Giants in Greco-Roman culture, what better apologetic could Jews have brought to bear than the proof that the myths related to Tartarus were actually Jewish in origin?31

Tartarus appears in other Second Temple Jewish literature as well. Josephus, for instance, 'connected the Jewish traditions of the fallen angels to the ancient Greek myth of Titans, who were giants that rebelled against Chronos and were bound in chains in Tartarus (Ant. 1.73).'32

Particularly important to interpreting 2 Peter 2:4 is 1 Enoch. Here, Burnett summarizes:

The author of 1 Enoch not only employed Tartarus, but also derived much of his work from Greco-Roman mythology, subsuming the taxonomy of Tartarus and equating the Watcher tradition with titanomachy and gigantomachy.33

1 Enoch was originally written in Hebrew. However, a Greek version of the work (preserved in Codex Panopolitanus) refers to 'Uriel, one of the holy angels, the one over the world and Tartarus' (1 Enoch 20.2).34 This occurs in the context of descriptions of the place of punishment of the fallen angels - which have much in common with the description of Tartarus in Hesiod's Theogony.35 De Vivo notes that Tartarus refers to a place of punishment for sinners also in Philo, Josephus, Apocalypse of Ezra, Testament of Solomon, and Sibylline Oracles.36 Significantly, Sib. Or. 2.303 (302, Greek) uses the Greek word zophos to describe the darkness of Tartarus - just as 2 Peter 2:4 does.37

The use of Tartarus in Jewish literature and its relevance for interpreting 2 Peter 2:4 can be summarized as follows:

Since Tartarus appears in the LXX, the Pseudepigrapha, and first-century Jewish authors, it is probable that the author of 2 Peter was using a common word and making reference to a concept that had become familiar in Judaism in this time of religious syncretism. Further, the primary text that narrates the punishment of the sinful angels (Book of Watchers 1 En. 1–36) uses the term Tartarus.38

the concepts of Tartarus and the Greek myths of Titans and Giants underlie much of the treatment in eschatology in the Jewish literature of the [Second Temple] period.39

Tartarus in 2 Peter 2:4

There seems to be virtually universal agreement among commentators today that 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 are drawing on the fallen angels interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4 as expanded upon in Jewish tradition.40 Scholarly consensus also now holds this to be the background to 1 Peter 3:19.412 Peter and Jude use similar terminology to 1 Enoch in describing the punishment of the rebellious angels, including Tartarus, darkness, and chains.42 There is scholarly debate as to whether 2 Peter, in referring to Tartarus, is borrowing the terminology directly from Greek mythology43 or through the mediation of Jewish apocalyptic.44 The latter seems more likely:

Peter qualifies that by this divine judicial act they were ‘sent…to the underworld’ (tartarōsas). This verb, found only here in the NT, refers to being sent to Tartarus, the ‘deepest region of the underworld, lower even than Hades’ (OCD 1476)…The name given to this place of punishment in classical mythology was taken up by Jewish apocalyptic literature and appears to have found its way into the Jewish consciousness in general (Job 41:24; 1 En. 20.2; Philo, Embassy 7 § 49; 14 § 103; Josephus, Ag. Ap. 2.33 § 240; Sib. Or. 2.303). Jewish thinking modified reflection on the theme, however, as God now becomes the one who consigns the evil to ‘Tartarus itself and profound darkness’ (Philo, Rewards 26 § 152). ‘Dark Tartarus’ is juxtaposed with Gehenna (Sib. Or. 4.186). A small step was made from seeing this as the place of punishment of the Titans to speaking of it as the place where sinful angels were consigned (Glasson 1961: 62-67). This is precisely the connection made not only in 2 Pet. 2:4 but also in the Sib. Or. 1.98-103: 'Watchers… were mighty, of great form, but nevertheless they went under the dread house of Tartarus guarded by unbreakable bonds, to make retribution, to Gehenna of terrible, raging, undying fire.'45

Whence 2 Peter took the term Tartarus is not crucial to our purpose since it is, in either case, clear what he means: 'The rebellious angels had been... "Entartared".'46 Scholars point out that this does not refer to a final punishment but a provisional one in preparation for the final judgment.47 The consensus view of the meaning of 2 Peter 2:4 is shared even by conditionalist scholars.48

In summary, there is every reason to conclude that 2 Peter 2:4, like other Jewish literature, borrows from Greek mythology to describe the place of punishment for fallen angels. One cannot be sure of its geographical location in the writer's cosmology, but he clearly assumes its existence to be real.

Conclusion

The finding of my post from two years ago was that (1) 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 refer to an angelic interpretation of Genesis 6:1-4 (mediated by Jewish tradition), and that (2) these two early Christian writers treated these events as part of sacred history. A closer look at these two texts and their treatment in scholarly literature, with special emphasis on the reference to Tartarus in 2 Peter 2:4, has provided further confirmation of this conclusion.

Christadelphian writers long held conclusion (2) but not (1), ignoring the findings of biblical scholarship and arguing for an oblique allusion to some other biblical event. When a Christadelphian finally adopted (1), he simultaneously abandoned (2) in order to avoid the logical consequence of (1) and (2): that a New Testament writer believed in the existence of fallen angels. This simply cannot be accepted by a Christadelphian writer because his theological presuppositions do not allow it to be true. Hopefully, Christadelphians who are more interested in evidence than dogma will reconsider their exegesis of 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 - and its theological consequences.

Footnotes

• 1 In my defense I would note that I was not writing an academic article but a popular-level response to a popular-level pamphlet by Cox (who himself seems to formally cite only one published source).
• 2 The comments policy notes: 'When discussing post content, please demonstrate familiarity with the topic by referring to material from the relevant peer reviewed scholarly literature...comments failing to do so may be removed, at our discretion.'
• 3 'vv. 4-9 involve a lengthy conditional sentence whose protasis (vv. 4-8: consisting of 4 clauses introduced by ei and continued by 3 successive uses of kai) is balanced by a concluding apodosis (vv. 9-10a)' (Richard, E. (2000). Reading 1 Peter, Jude, and 2 Peter: A Literary and Theological Commentary. Macon: Smyth & Helwys, p. 349); 'The protasis ("if") in 2:4-8 consists of three negative examples (about the rebellious angels, the generation destroyed by the flood, and the men of Sodom and Gomorrah) and two positive examples (Noah and Lot). The point of these examples is made clear in the beginning of the apodosis ("then") in 2:9: "then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous punished until the day of judgment."...The general conclusion (2:9) is that just as in the distant biblical past God has rescued righteous persons like Noah and Lot and punished evildoers (the rebellious angels, the flood generation, and the men of Sodom and Gomorrah), so at the future judgment (which the false teachers are denying) God will rescue the righteous and punish the wicked.' (Harrington, D.J. (2008). 1 Peter, Jude and 2 Peter. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, pp. 269-270).
• 4 'This saying is the conclusion of the examples and is constructed using "if/then" logic. Namely, if God is capable of administering justice and deliverance in the examples above, then God still knows how to deliver the godly – the verb is in the present tense – and has not forgotten how to keep those who are not godly for the punishment that awaits them.' (Reese, R.A. (2007). 2 Peter and Jude. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, p. 153).
• 5 '2 Peter uses the watcher story as an example of God’s ability to punish the unrighteous, but he is not so interested in the details of the story as the outcome for the watchers, who are treated as real examples. Jude also uses 1 Enoch authoritatively.' (Vanbeek, L. (2000). 1 Enoch among Jews and Christians: A Fringe Connection? In S.E. Porter & B.W. Pearson (Eds.), Christian-Jewish Relations through the Centuries (pp. 93-115). London: T&T Clark, p. 103).
• 6 'The judgment of God involves both the punishment of the ungodly and the salvation of the faithful. But is there any evidence that God does, in fact, so act? The writer provides an answer in the form of a long sentence (vv. 4-10), beginning with the conditional “if” and concluding with “then.” If this and this and this and this happened, then you have your answer; God certainly does know how to punish and to rescue. Three cases of punishment are offered: First, the sinning angels (sons of God) of Gen. 6:1-4. The author here reveals familiarity with a Jewish writing, 1 Enoch (probably dated between the third century B.C. and the first century A.D.) which offers an elaborate interpretation of biblical history. According to 1 Enoch 10, the angels of Genesis 6 became involved with earthly women and their offspring loosed war, violence, and idolatry in the world. As punishment, these angels were cast down into hell (tartarus) to be confined in dark pits until the final day of judgment. It is interesting that the writer assumes the readers not only knew 1 Enoch but also regarded it as an authoritative account of God’s activity' (Craddock, F.B. (1995). First and Second Peter and Jude. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, p. 112).
• 7 'For the author of 2 Peter the story of the angels who sinned and their eventual judgement and punishment is a powerful example of the certainty of divine judgement on those who deny the parousia and who seek to compromise or adapt the faith of the apostles so as to make it palatable to the syncretic theosophy of the age. The message to the opponents and scoffers is clear – if God did not spare even angels who sinned, how much more certain is his judgement upon humans who do likewise?' (Billings, B. (2008). ‘The Angels who Sinned … He Cast into Tartarus’ (2 Peter 2:4): Its Ancient Meaning and Present Relevance. The Expository Times, 119(11), 532-537. Here p. 534).
• 8 'In rewriting Jude 5-8 the author of 2 Peter has omitted the example of the exodus generation (Jude 5) and added the case of the flood generation (2 Pet 2:5). Also he has put the examples in their biblical chronological order: rebellious angels, flood, and Sodom and Gomorrah' (Harrington, op. cit., p. 269).
• 9 'The example in Jude 6 is sandwiched between two clearly historical examples in Jude 5 and Jude 7. This suggests that Jude saw the story of the fallen angels as historical (he handles Genesis 6:1-4 with restraint unlike its use in 1 Enoch)' (Witherington, B., III. (2007). Letters and Homilies for Jewish Christians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on Hebrews, James and Jude. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, p. 612); 'Here, then, [Jude] has aligned references to episodes in Exodus/Numbers, 1 Enoch, and Genesis. Nothing is said about the status of any of these works, nor is it said that one was ranked higher or lower in authority than another. Each is considered an appropriate source of information about the Lord’s punishing acts in the past. That is, like Genesis and Exodus/Numbers, 1 Enoch is a source of facts about what God has done' (VanderKam, J.C. (1996). 1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Literature. In J.C. VanderKam & W. Adler (Eds.), The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity (pp. 33-101). Assen: Royal van Gorcum, p. 35.); 'It is possible, of course, that Jude alluded to a traditional story without believing it was historical, but this is problematic since the judgment of Israel in the wilderness and Sodom and Gomorrah are considered to be historical events. We must beware of a rationalistic worldview that dismisses such strange events as impossible. The objection most raise is that angels are asexual (Matt 22:30). Actually, Matthew did not say angels do not have sexuality, but they neither marry nor are given in marriage. There is no evidence that angels reproduce or engage in sexual intercourse. But when angels come to earth, they often come as human beings; and presumably the human form is genuine, not a charade, so that the sexuality of angels when they appear on earth is genuine… It is instructive, however, that many cultures have the story of the sexual union of angels and human beings. I would suggest that such accounts are distortions of an event that once occurred, an event that is accurately recorded in Gen 6:1-4. Nevertheless, the presence of such a story in so many cultures functions as evidence of a historical event that occurred. Do sexual unions between angels and human beings still happen today? I think the point of the imprisonment of angels and the flood narrative is that God now hinders any such unions from taking place' (Schreiner, T.R. (2003). 1, 2 Peter, Jude: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture. Nashville: B&H Publishing, p. 451); '"Text" I refers to three groups of people: Israel in the wilderness (Num 14), the Watchers or fallen angels (I Enoch 6-19), and the cities of the Plain (Gen 19)… Both the groups and the individuals were well-known scriptural examples of judgment, who function here as types. So in these "texts" we have not verbal prophecies but historical types, to which Jude refers in summary form rather than by quoting Scripture. In verses 5-6, however, there are some more or less precise verbal allusions to the actual texts of Scripture [he cites Deut. 1:32; 9:23; Ps. 106:24; 1 Enoch 12:4; 15:3, 7; 10:12)]' (Bauckham, R. (1990/2004). Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church. London: T&T Clark, pp. 182-183); In his use of the Enochic Watchers story in Jude 6, Jude 'indirectly relays his affection and trust in the pseudepigrapha as true and authoritative material' (Opoku-Gyamfi, F. (2015). The Use of Scripture in the Letter of Jude. Ilorin Journal of Religious Studies, 5(1), 73-102. Here p. 88).
• 10 Charles, J.D. (2005). The Angels under Reserve in 2 Peter and Jude. Bulletin for Biblical Research, 15(1), 40-48. Here p. 48.
• 11 Charles, J.D. (1994). The Use of Tradition-Material in the Epistle of Jude. Bulletin for Biblical Research, 4(1), 1-14. Here p. 7.
• 12 so Kelly, J.N.D. (1969). A Commentary on the Epistles of Peter and Jude. London: A&C Black, p. 258.
• 13 These theological reasons could be: (1) the canonical problem of New Testament writers apparently regarding Enochic tradition as authentic history; (2) the theological problems posed by an angelic rebellion.
• 14 Burke rebukes me for not substantiating my claim that Tartarus refers to the underworld here, but there are two reasons why I did not. Firstly, I was responding to Cox's pamphlet, and he had not proposed a different meaning for Tartarus in 2 Peter 2:4. Cox and I apparently agree on the referential meaning of the allusions in 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6; we only disagree on the rhetorical purpose and historical significance of these allusions. Secondly, the meaning of Tartarus in this text is not central to my exegetical argument. However, inasmuch as it highlights the mythological content of these passages, it is worth analyzing further here.
• 15 Hapax legomenon is a technical term for a word that occurs only once in a body of writings.
• 16 Bernstein, A.E. 1993. The Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian Worlds. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, p. 22. Similarly, Sacks states that in Greek mythology, Tartarus was 'a lowermost abyss in Hades' realm...the scene of punishment for the evil Titans and for the worst human sinners' (Sacks, D. (1995). 'Afterlife'. In A Dictionary of the Ancient Greek World. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 8-9).
• 17 Burnett, C. (2013). Going through Hell: TARTAROS in in Greco-Roman Culture, Second Temple Judaism, and Philo of Alexandria. Journal of Ancient Judaism, 4(3), 352-378. Here p. 355. 'Stygian' means very dark.
• 18 Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 991.
• 19 LSJ.
• 20 Pindar lexicon
• 21 Lust, J., Eynikel, E., & Hauspie, K. (1996). A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, Part II. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, p. 469.
• 22 Cox, C.E. (2007). Job. In A. Pietersma & B. Wright (eds.), New English Translation of the Septuagint (pp. 667-696). Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 695-696.
• 23 Cook, J. (2007). Proverbs. In A. Pietersma & B. Wright (eds.), New English Translation of the Septuagint (pp. 621-647). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 642.
• 24 Goff, M.J. (2010). Ben Sira and the Giants of the Land: A Note on Ben Sira 16:7. Journal of Biblical Literature, 129(4), 645-655, here p. 653 n. 34.
• 25 Papaioannou, K.G. (2004). Places of punishment in the Synoptic Gospels. PhD Dissertation, University of Durham, p. 173.
• 26 op. cit., p. 174.
• 27 op. cit., 174.
• 28 Burnett, op. cit., p. 367.
• 29 ibid.
• 30 ibid.
• 31 ibid.
• 32 Donelson, L.R. (2010). I & II Peter and Jude: A Commentary. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, p. 116.
• 33 Burnett, op. cit., p. 373.
• 34 trans. De Vivo, J. (2014). 2 Peter 2:4-16: The Redaction of the Biblical and Intertestamental References Dependent on Jude 5-11 and their Overall Significance for the Document. PhD Dissertation, Loyola University, p. 49. According to Pierce, the reference to Tartarus is also present in three Ethiopic manuscripts (Pierce, C.T. (2009). Spirits and the Proclamation of Christ: 1 Peter 3:18-22 in Its Tradition-Historical and Literary Context. PhD Dissertation, Durham University, p. 51).
• 35 Bautch, K.C. (2003). A Study of the Geography of 1 Enoch 17-19: No One Has Seen What I Have Seen. Leiden: Brill, pp. 130f. For his part, Papaioannou says little of the reference to Tartarus in 1 Enoch 20.2, merely expressing surprise at the 'lack of more references to Tartarus in...1 Enoch since it deals at most length with the fallen Watchers which in turn somewhat resembles the Greek myth of the Titans whence the concept of Tartarus emerged' (op. cit., p. 176).
• 36 De Vivo, op. cit., pp. 50-51.
• 37 op. cit., p. 52.
• 38 op. cit., p. 51.
• 39 Burnett, op. cit., p. 352.
• 40 'First Peter, 2 Peter, and Jude appear to assume that their readers have some knowledge of a tradition concerning the imprisonment of the fallen angels in Gen 6' (Donelson, op. cit., p. 116); 'Here, 2 Peter alludes to [the Watchers] story; but, instead of using traditional Hebraic language, 2 Peter uses the language that was familiar to Hellenistic Greeks and Jews - ταρταρώας (‘sending someone to Tartarus’) is the language used to describe the lowest place of imprisonment in the Greek underworld, the place where defeated gods, ancient giants, and others were consigned to torment… In 2 Peter the angels who sinned are not spared this judgment but are rather cast into darkness to wait for the final judgment that will come (Reese, op. cit., pp. 150-151)'; cf. Harrington, op. cit., pp. 269-270; Bauckham, op. cit., pp. 186-188; Fuchs, E. & Reymond, P. (1988). La Deuxième Épitre de Saint Pierre, L’Épitre de Saint Jude (2nd ed.). Genève: Labor et Fides, p. 84; Paulsen, H. (1992). Der Zweite Petrusbrief und der Judasbrief. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, pp. 132-133; and other commentators cited below.
• 41 'While exegetes have considered a wide range of interpretative possibilities for this enigmatic Petrine text, the consensus today is that the passage also refers to the tradition of angels imprisoned in a liminal space, a tradition that underscores justice and divine judgment' (Bautch, K.C. (2014). ‘Awaiting New Heavens and a New Earth’: The Apocalyptic Imagination of 1-2 Peter and Jude. In E.F. Mason & T.W. Martin (Eds.), Reading 1-2 Peter and Jude: A Resource for Students (pp. 63-82). Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, pp. 72-73).
• 42 'In 1 Enoch 54, Enoch sees a valley burning with fire, where ‘iron fetters of immense weight’ are being forged for ‘the armies of Azael’ (on these chains or bonds, see also 1 En. 13.1-2; 14.5; 56.1-2; 88.1). This binding in chains is echoed in Jude 6 and 2 Pet 2:4.' (Donelson, op. cit., p. 116).
• 43 Witherington, Ben, III. (2007). Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1-2 Peter. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, p. 352; Billings, op. cit., p. 535.
• 44 De Vivo, op. cit., pp. 47-52; Kelly, op. cit., p. 331; Schreiner, op. cit., pp. 336-337.
• 45 Green, G.L. (2008). Jude & 2 Peter. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, pp. 250-251.
• 46 Bernstein, op. cit., p. 251.
• 47 '[This text] alludes not to an indefinite punishment in the future but to one that lasts only until the Last Judgment' (ibid.); 'The angels who had sinned were “thrown down”, according to 2 Pet 2:4 by God himself into “the Tartarus”, to be kept there for the coming judgment' (Mussies, G. 'Giants'. In K. van der Toorn, B. Becking & P.W. van der Horst (eds.), Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (2nd ed.) (pp. 343-345). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, p. 344).
• 48 Papaioannou (op. cit., pp. 179-180) thinks that 2 Peter refers to fallen angels but depicts Tartarus as a place of temporal banishment on the earth; his arguments are rather thin. Fudge takes 2 Peter 2:4 to refer to punishment of fallen angels, but does not see this as problematic for conditionalism 'since (1) it concerns angels, not men, and (2) it speaks of detention before judgment rather than punishment following it' (Fudge, E.W. (2011). The Fire that Consumes (3rd ed.). Eugene: Wipf & Stock, p. 226).