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The Clementine literature (also referred to as the Clementine Romance or Pseudo-Clementine Writings) is a late antique third-century Christian romance or "novel" containing a account of the conversion of Clement of Rome to Christianity, his subsequent life and travels with the apostle Peter and an account of how they became traveling companions, Peter's discourses, and finally Clement's family history and eventual reunion with his family.[1][2] To reflect the pseudonymous nature of the authorship, the author is sometimes referred to as Pseudo-Clement. In all likelihood, the original text went by the name of Periodoi Petrou or Circuits of Peter; sometimes historians refer to it as the "Basic Writing" or "Grundschrift".[3]
Though lost, the original survives in two recensions known as the Clementine Homilies and the Clementine Recognitions. The overlap between the two has been used to produce a provisional reconstruction of the Circuits of Peter.[4] Respectively, the original titles for these two texts were the Klementia and the Recognitions of the Roman Clement.[3] Both were composed in the fourth-century. In turn, there was plausibly a second-century document (referred to as the Kerygmata Petrou or "Preaching of Peter") that was used a source for the original Clementine literature text. The Kerygma are thought to consist of a letter from Peter to James, lectures and debates of Peter, and James's testimony about the letters recipients.[5]
Some believe that the original was lost due to the substantially greater popularity of its recensions in the Homilies and Recognitions. These were so popular that translations and recensions of them appeared in Syriac, Greek, Latin, Ethiopic, Arabic, Slavonic, and Georgian. Vernacular versions also appeared in Icelandic, Old Swedish, Middle High German, Early South English, and Anglo-Norman.[6]
- ^ Jones 2014, p. 13.
- ^ Childers, Jeff (2011). "Clement of Rome and Pseudo-Clementine literature".
- ^ a b Jones 2014, p. 14–15.
- ^ Jones 2014, p. 16–19.
- ^ Köster, Helmut (1995). Introduction to the New Testament. Volume 2: History and literature of early Christianity. New York Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 211–212. ISBN 978-3-11-014970-8.
- ^ Jones 2014, p. 37, esp. n. 17.