Judéen ou lévite ? L’origine de Jésus "selon la chair" dans la lettre de Clément de Rome aux Corinthiens (31, 4 – 32, 2)

Résumé 0

In a passage of his "Letter to the Corinthians" dealing with the descendance of the patriarch Jacob (31, 4-32, 2), Clement of Rome mentions Jesus among the priests and kings sprung from Juda, without expliciting at any rate which tribe he is linked to. In those conditions, the genealogical conception which uphold this passage have been the object of diverging interpretations and some have namely wanted to read in them the expression of a conception linking Jesus both to the tribe of Levi and of Juda, possibly only to the sacerdotal tribe. The present article attempts to differentiate the various interpretations offered. Funding itself upon a deepened analysis of the passage, it concludes that the levitical or levitico-judean inter- pretations are not to be maintained and that Clement, in following the line of Rm 3 and Hb 7, 13-14, relates Chirst to the tribe of Juda and the davidic lineage, without relating his priesthood to some levitical ascendency.