This farewell gift on 1 Clement to Harnack's students of church history was formative for studies of 1 Clement for several decades after its publication, and it remains an influential work even in contemporary discussions of this ancient letter. Harnack contends that 1 Clement is the most important witness to early Christianity, and that a close study of this work will place the reader upon the right path to better understand its later developments. Also included within this volume are four influential essays that Harnack wrote throughout his career pertaining to 1 Clement as well as a historical introduction and assessment of Harnack's work by Larry Welborn.

Adolf von Harnack (18511930) was a world-renowned professor of church history at the Universities of Leipzig, Giessen, Marburg, and Berlin. His works History of Dogma (18951900),What Is Christianity? (1901), andNew Testament Studies (19081912) have left their mark on studies of both church history and the New Testament. Jacob N. Cerone is a doctoral candidate at the University of Erlangen-Nuremburg. He is the editor of Jörg Freys Qumran, Early Judaism, and New Testament Interpretation (2019) and the Apostolic Fathers Greek Reader: The Complete Edition (2019) and is a coeditor of The Pericope of the Adulteress in Contemporary Research (2016).