Sophia Scriptura

Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 27.5

Clement of Alexandria · Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? · ca. 190–210 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: Loved by God first, we can repay him only with love, which gives incorruption; the more we love God, the more deeply we enter into him.

Greek text · Stählin 3:178

ὑπὸ τούτου τοίνυν προαγαπηθέντας καὶ τοῦ γενέσθαι τυχόντας οὐχ ὅσιον ἄλλο τι πρεσβύτερον ἄγειν καὶ τιμιώτερον, ἐκτίνοντας μόνην τὴν χάριν ταύτην μικρὰν ἐπὶ μεγίστοις, ἄλλο δὲ μηδοτιοῦν ἔχοντας ἀνενδεεῖ καὶ τελείῳ θεῷ πρὸς ἀμοιβὴν ἐπινοῆσαι, αὐτῷ δὲ τῷ ἀγαπᾶν τὸν πατέρα εἰς οἰκείαν ἰσχὺν καὶ δύναμιν ἀφθαρσίαν κομιζομένους, ὅσον γὰρ ἀγαπᾷ τις θεόν, τοσούτῳ καὶ πλέον ἐνδοτέρω τοῦ θεοῦ παραδύεται. Δευτέραν δὲ τάξει καὶ οὐδέν τι μικροτέραν ταύτης εἶναι

English · Claude translation

Since we were loved by him first and received our existence from him, it is not holy to hold anything else older or more honorable. We repay only this small thanks for the greatest gifts, being unable to think of anything else at all to give in return to God, who needs nothing and is perfect; but by the very act of loving the Father with all our own strength and power we gain incorruption. For the more one loves God, the more one enters within God. He says that the second in order, and no smaller than this,

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:178 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 3, Stromata Buch VII und VIII, Excerpta ex Theodoto, Eclogae propheticae, Quis dives salvetur, Fragmente, GCS 17 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 3 (GCS 17, 1909), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Stählin, GCS 17. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Stählin (1909); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)
Scripture
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Loved by him first” echoes 1 John 4:19. The sentence continues in the next section.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 27.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/27/5/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 27.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/27/5/).

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