“The analogy to Aaron and Moses is an important part of the letter and its purpose is to establish the principle of there being an authority over other bishops.”
No. It is to show the people are to be under THEIR Bishop, or more correctly, elder. It is NOT an attempt or a claim to Rome being the ‘Bishop of Bishops’.
Chapter 43 has Moses stilling dissension with a miracle. I doubt Clement did that from Rome...
Chapter 44 has this: “We are of opinion, therefore, that those appointed by them, or afterwards by other eminent men, with the consent of the whole church, and who have blamelessly served the flock of Christ, in a humble, peaceable, and disinterested spirit, and have for a long time possessed the good opinion of all, cannot be justly dismissed from the ministry. For our sin will not be small, if we eject from the episcopate those who have blamelessly and holily fulfilled its duties.”
That is an appeal to their reason, sense of fairness, and to accept someone over them they know...not an imposition of Clement’s will to require anything. It would also have justified Luther’s Reformation, since the Popes of the time were NOT men “who have blamelessly served the flock of Christ, in a humble, peaceable, and disinterested spirit, and have for a long time possessed the good opinion of all”!
The letter is about Christian leadership, and obeying those who serve honorably. It is NOT an imposition of the Bishop of Rome over any other Bishop.
LOL! That is sooooo true!
There is no doubt that Clement simply argues that firing someone who has been without blemish is unfair and unChristian, rather than pulling rank.
To be sure, this letter is grounded in reason, however, if you read Chapters 57-59, you will see that it also contains a forceful warning for those who “shall disobey the words spoken by Him through us”. The letter is an exercise of papal authority, or, at the very least, is written exactly like the more forceful latter-day papal exncyclicals are written.
Regarding the number of the apostles, obviously, it first contracted with betrayal of Judas and then expanded to include Mathias and Paul. Yet, the initial number 12 was related to the 12 tribes of Israel.