Cleave, cleft, cliff, clift
There are two verbs ' to cleave ' distinct in origin and mean- ing. (1) Cleave, to split asunder, clave, cloven. (2) Cleave, to aiihere, cling, cleaved, cleaved. But the one lias afl'ected the other so as to cause some ctmfusioQ. Thus c. = to split, has also a past ptcp. cleft, Mic 1* 'the valleys shall be cleft'; ami c. = to stick, has the quite irregular past tense clave, more common in AV than any other form of either verb.
Clift, meaning a fissure or crevice, is a word of distinct origin from either verb. It occurs in A V Ex 33^ ' I will put thee in a clift of the rock ' ; 8j>d Is 5"° ' under the clifts of the rocks.' In other places where it occurs in mod. edd. of AV it is spelt cleft (and KV so spells it in these passages) through confusion with the verbr^vfoe, ' to split.' Thus Ca 2", Jer 49'«, Ob », Is 2=' (KV 'caverns'). Am G".
In Dt 14' ' Every beast that partetli the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws' (lit. ' cleaveth the cleft of the two hoofs '), the word •cleft' no doubt means the division of the hoof, but it is formed directly from 'cleave' in imitation of the Ileb. (cf. Lv 11' nps vcy t'Ci-"), the division or toe of the hoof being properly represented by 'claws.' This word 'clift' has been further con- fused witli cliff, a steep face of rock ; whence in Job 3i»« it is .spelt 'clifr* in mod. edd.
of AV (1611 'rlift.s,' KV 'clefts'). The word 'clill' itself occurs once, 2 Ch 20" ' they come up by the c. of 7.ii{rh;p, RV 'ascent'). J. Hastings. CLEMENT (K\:)/i7;s), a fellow-labourer with St. Paul lit I'hiliiipi (I'll 4'). It was commonly held In the earlj- Cliurch tliat this C. is to be identified witii Clemens Komanus, one of the first bishops of Home, who wrote the well-known Epi-ille to the Church of Corinth (cf. Orig. In Joan. i. 29; Eus. HE iii. 4).
But, though in the absence of fuller information it is impossible to say for cer- tain, there are serious ditticullies both as to (dace and time in accepting this view. Thus we hear of Kt. Paul's fellow-lalwarer in connexion only with I'hilippi, while the ether C. is (us."^ciat VOL. I. — 2Q inly with tcil with Rome. Nor is it likely that the former can have lived till A.D.
110, that is, about 50 jears after the date of the Philippian Epistle, and before which date we cannot well place the death of the Kom. bishop. Again, as proving the commonness of the name, it has been pointed out that Tacitus alone mentions five Clements (Ann. i. 23, ii. 39, XV. 73 ; Hist. i. 86, iv. 68). (See Lightfoot on Ph 4', and detached note p. 166 ; and the same writer's Si. Clement of Home.) G. Milligan.