These citations are from J.D. James, The Geniuneness and Authorship of the Pastoral Epistles, p. 13. He lists several potential allusions to First Clement, which he dates as 93-95 AD. This post only goes into one of them, though I'll likely work through a chunk of them here over the next few weeks (I hope!)

1Cl 2.7 ἀμεταμέλητοι ἦτε ἐπὶ πάσῃ ἀγαθοποι·́ᾳ, ἕτοιμοι εἰς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθόν. (Lake's Greek). Ye repented not of any well-doing, but were ready unto every good work. (Lake's English)

Tt 3.1 Ὑπομίμνῃσκε αὐτοὺς ἀρχαῖς ἐξουσίαις ὑποτάσσεσθαι, πειθαρχεὶν, πρὸς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγατθὸν ἑτοίμους εἶναι (NA27) Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work. (ESV)

2Ti 2.21 ἐὰν οὖν τις ἐκκαθάρῃ ἑαυτὸν ἀπὸ τούτων, ἔσται σκεῦος εἰς τιμήν, ἡγιασμένον, εὔχρεστον τῷ δεσπότῃ, εἰς πᾶν ἔργον αγ̓αθόν ἡτοιμασμένον. (NA27) Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. (ESV)

2Ti 3.17 ἵνα ἄρτις ᾖ ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος, πρὸς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθὸν ἐχηρτισμένος. (NA27) that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (ESV) (though this instance doesn't use ἕτοιμος it has the "every good work" bit)

Well, that's all fine and dandy, they use similar phrasing. But how do we know that the thought of being "ready for every good work" or "prepared for every good work" (that is, ἕτοιμος + (εἰς or πρός) + πᾶν ἔργον αγ̓αθόν) wasn't some sort of common phrase used at the time? Did it occur elsewhere? In other circumstances?

The phrase πᾶν ἔργον αγ̓αθόν does occur elsewhere in the New Testament. There are the three instances in the Pastorals (cited above) plus 2Co 9.8:

And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that having all contentment in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. (ESV) εἰς πᾶν ἔργον αγ̓αθόν

And the phrase πᾶν ἔργον αγ̓αθόν occurs a two more times in the Apostolic Fathers — both in First Clement:

What then must we do, brethren? Must we idly abstain from doing good, and forsake love? May the Master never allow this to befall us at least; but let us hasten with instancy and zeal to accomplish every good work. (1Cl 33.1, Lake)

He exhorteth us therefore to believe on Him with our whole heart, and to be not idle nor careless unto every good work. (1Cl 34.4, Lake)

So, a few questions. Clement was ostensibly writing to the Corinthians (if you take the preface to First Clement as accurate), so why couldn't he have been familiar with Second Corinthians, which also uses a similar phrase? Or how do we know that the phrase/concept of "every good work" wasn't simply a phrase in currency in the latter half of the first century?

Well, I searched a few things. I searched the NT and the Apostolic Fathers for the phrase with the results reported above. I also searched for the phrase in the Works of Philo and the Works of Josephus, no luck. What I haven't done is search Perseus or TLG. Perhaps at a later date I'll be able to do that.

But what I know at this point is: The phrase occurs once in Second Corinthians, three times in the Pastoral Epistles, and three times in First Clement. Logicially, then, it is possible that there has been earlier NT influence on Clement; it is possible to see other allusions to other NT documents in his writing. I realize correlation does not prove causation; but it does make some sort of relationship or influence between the two possible. And J.D. James has a whole list of common ideas/phrases like this one (three pages worth) positing allusions of the Pastoral Epistles within First Clement.

I'll hopefully look into another one of these next, sometime in the next few days.

In working through the Pastoral Epistles, one runs across 1Ti 4.16:

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

This sort of phrasing is also seen in some writings of the Apostolic Fathers:

I do not think that I have given trivial advice about self-restraint. And whoever takes my advice will have no regrets, but will instead save both himself and me, the one who has given the advice. There is no small reward for the one who converts a person who is going astray toward destruction, that he may be saved. (2Cl 15.1, Ehrman)

Do not be deceived, my brothers; those who corrupt their households will not inherit the kingdom of God. If then those who do such things according to the flesh die, how much more the one who corrupts the faith of God through an evil teaching, the faith for which Jesus Christ was crucified? Such a person is filthy and will depart into the unquenchable fire; so too the one who listens to him. (IEph 16.1-2, Ehrman)

There are others, of course, and they're listed in the article. What I've done is create a few very general patterns (based on morphology of portions of the phrase in 1Ti 4.16) and searched other corpora for that pattern. The PDF article simply lists semi-relevant instances that I culled from the 100+ hits located in corpora such as the Apostolic Fathers, OT Pseudepigrapha, Works of Philo and Works of Josephus.

I was looking into 1Ti 4.14 this morning, and ran across Poly 6.1, both of which use the word ἀμελέω for neglect.

I blogged a bit about it over on my personal blog but wanted to at least record a link here since it is about the Pastoral Epistles.

Marc Goodacre of the NT Gateway Weblog posted his normal link to the latest reviews from Review of Biblical Literature.

There's a review of a book that sounds very interesting as it relates to the Pastoral Epistles:

Treblico, Paul. The Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004. pp. xxi + 826

The book is 800+ pages, published by Mohr-Siebeck. Unfortunately it is also EUR 149.00. Too much for this bibliophile's book budget. I couldn't find any info on their web page about non-library purchasers.

But read the review anyway. I may add this to the bibliography section later, I need to first consider if I want to treat books I haven't read or personally examined differently than books that I am familiar with.

This volume of the Hermeneia series is valuable for its citations of the Apostlic Fathers and other early Christian materials. But it is handy for other things too.

The Greek text is interacted with to great detail and several other works are cited. In many instances, English translations of cited Greek are provided, which is helpful if one's Greek skills are not as sharp as they once were.

After one has done his initial study of the text, if his study is serious he should next interact with Dibelius and Conzelmann.