Sophia Scriptura

Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 8.2

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

Summary: If the law could give eternal life, Christ's coming and suffering would have been in vain, and the man who kept the law would not have needed to ask him.

Greek text · Stählin 3:164–165

εἰ γοῦν ἱκανὸς ἦν ὁ Μωσέως νόμος ζωὴν αἰώνιον παρασχεῖν, μάτην μὲν ὁ σωτὴρ αὐτὸς παραγίνεται καὶ πάσχει διʼ ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ γενέσεως μέχρι τοῦ σημείου τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα διατρέχων, μάτην δὲ ὁ πάσας πεποιηκὼς »ἐκ νεότητος« τὰς νομίμους ἐντολὰς παρὰ ἄλλου αἰτεῖ γονυπετῶν ἀθανασίαν.

English · Claude translation

If the law of Moses had been able to provide eternal life, the Savior himself would have come and suffered for us in vain, running through the course of humanity from birth to the sign of the cross; and in vain would the one who had done all the commandments of the law “from his youth” kneel and ask immortality from another.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:164–165 · 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
Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • “The sign” (τὸ σημεῖον) is the cross. Compare Gal 2:21.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 8.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/8/2/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 8.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/8/2/).

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