New Concepts in Ancient Languages: Greek and Latin (and beyond) in the First Christian Letters

The First Epistle to the Corinthians written by Clement of Rome is one of the first Christian texts spread in the Western Roman world, together with the New Testament versions of the so-called Vetus Latina. The Epistle has been given much attention with regard to both doctrinal and linguistic aspects, but generally in relation to the original Greek version of the text. By contrast, this study examines its translation into Latin, which is interesting for several linguistic and textual reasons. In fact, the Latin translation witnesses some peculiar traits of the Latin language used by the Christians of these early centuries. On the textual level, it shows the adaptation of a genre, the epistle, and its remodeling based on the main, basic goal of spreading the Christian creed. This goal makes the Epistle as a part of a genre that is halfway between orality and writing, between an instrument of communication and an exegetical and normative text. On the linguistic level, some features of the Latin version allow us to grasp both the innovative nature of the language and its relationship with the original Greek text. However, both languages have to deal with the cultural contents of the new religion of which the Epistle is an exceptional witness, because it did not enter the canonical texts of the Church, and this probably preserved it in its original form, without the revisions that the Gospels and the Epistles of the Apostles have undergone. This paper presents some linguistic traits that are useful to demonstrate the interest that the Latin version of the Epistle deserves.