The Law of Moses in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies

**The Law of Moses in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies**

The *Pseudo-Clementine Homilies* present a distinctive understanding of the Law of Moses that differs significantly from both mainstream Jewish and later Christian interpretations. In these writings, the law is understood to be originally pure, divine, and unwritten, but subsequently corrupted through human additions and falsehoods. This teaching emphasizes the necessity of discernment in reading Scripture, recognizing that it contains both genuine and spurious elements.

The Homilies begin by affirming that Moses truly received the law from God, but that what came to be written down was not entirely faithful to the original revelation. We are told:

**“For the Scriptures have had joined to them many falsehoods against God on this account. The prophet Moses having by the order of God delivered the law, with the explanations, to certain chosen men, some seventy in number, in order that they also might instruct such of the people as chose, after a little the written law had added to it certain falsehoods contrary to the law of God, who made the heaven and the earth, and all things in them; the wicked one having dared to work this for some righteous purpose. And this took place in reason and judgment, that those might be convicted who should dare to listen to the things written against God, and those who, through love towards Him, should not only disbelieve the things spoken against Him, but should not even endure to hear them at all, even if they should happen to be true, judging it much safer to incur danger with respect to religious faith, than to live with an evil conscience on account of blasphemous words.”**

This statement makes two radical claims: first, that the Scriptures as they exist contain interpolations—“falsehoods against God”—and second, that this corruption was permitted for the purpose of testing human hearts. Those who love God will reject anything that portrays Him unjustly, even if such words appear in the Scriptures.

Peter expands on this by explaining the original transmission of the law. He insists that Moses did not write it down, but entrusted it orally to seventy wise men, so that leadership might be preserved through succession. Only after Moses’ death was the law written, and therefore its written form is secondary and already compromised. Peter argues:

**“Then said Peter: The law of God was given by Moses, without writing, to seventy wise men, to be handed down, that the government might be carried on by succession. But after that Moses was taken up, it was written by some one, but not by Moses. For in the law itself it is written, ‘And Moses died; and they buried him near the house of Phogor, and no one knows his sepulchre till this day.’ But how could Moses write that Moses died? And whereas in the time after Moses, about 500 years or thereabouts, it is found lying in the temple which was built, and after about 500 years more it is carried away, and being burnt in the time of Nebuchadnezzar it is destroyed; and thus being written after Moses, and often lost, even this shows the foreknowledge of Moses, because he, foreseeing its disappearance, did not write it; but those who wrote it, being convicted of ignorance through their not foreseeing its disappearance, were not prophets.”**

This reasoning shows a deep skepticism toward the written form of the Pentateuch. Since Moses himself could not have written about his own death, and since the scrolls were lost, found, rewritten, and burned multiple times, the Homilies regard the written text as inferior and unreliable. The true law remained in its oral transmission, safeguarded among the wise.

Furthermore, the Homilies argue that the Scriptures must be read critically, for they contain both truth and falsehood. Peter recalls Jesus’ rebuke of the Sadducees:

**“Then Peter: As to the mixture of truth with falsehood, I remember that on one occasion He, finding fault with the Sadducees, said, ‘Wherefore ye do err, not knowing the true things of the Scriptures; and on this account you are ignorant of the power of God.’ But if He cast up to them that they knew not the true things of the Scriptures, it is manifest that there are false things in them. And also, inasmuch as He said, ‘Be ye prudent money-changers,’ it is because there are genuine and spurious words. And whereas He said, ‘Wherefore do ye not perceive that which is reasonable in the Scriptures?’ He makes the understanding of him stronger who voluntarily judges soundly.”**

Here the principle is established: one must act as a “prudent money-changer,” separating the genuine coins from the counterfeit, the true words of God from the falsehoods added by men or by the wicked one. The Homilies insist that Jesus himself recognized this mixture within Scripture, urging careful discernment.

This perspective also explains why Jesus at times seemed to oppose the Law. Peter clarifies that Jesus never abolished the true law of God, but only stripped away what was falsely attributed to it.

**“And His sending to the scribes and teachers of the existing Scriptures, as to those who knew the true things of the law that then was, is well known. And also that He said, ‘I am not come to destroy the law,’ and yet that He appeared to be destroying it, is the part of one intimating that the things which He destroyed did not belong to the law. And His saying, ‘The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law,’ intimated that the things which pass away before the heaven and the earth do not belong to the law in reality.”**

In this interpretation, the sayings of Jesus affirm the permanence of the true law while also exposing and removing the corruptions that had been attached to it. What appeared to be destruction was in fact purification.

In conclusion, the *Pseudo-Clementine Homilies* offer a nuanced and critical view of the Law of Moses. The law is originally divine and was given orally to chosen men, but the written form contains interpolations and corruptions. This corruption was allowed in order to test human hearts, separating those who truly love God from those who accept falsehoods about Him. Jesus himself acknowledged this mixture of truth and error, calling for discernment and acting as the one who purifies the law by removing what does not belong. The Homilies thus preserve both a high view of the divine law and a sharp critique of the written Scriptures, insisting that only through discernment, guided by the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, can the true law of God be recognized.