Sophia Scriptura

Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 9.1

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

Summary: Jesus loves the man for keeping the law but says he is still imperfect with respect to eternal life.

Greek text · Stählin 3:165

Ὁ γοῦν Ἰησοῦς οὐκ ἐλέγχει μὲν αὐτὸν ὡς πάντα τὰ ἐκ νόμου μὴ πεπληρωκότα, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀγαπᾷ καὶ ὑπερασπάζεται τῆς ἐν οἷς ἔμαθεν εὐπειθείας, ἀτελῆ δὲ εἶναί φησιν ὡς πρὸς τὴν αἰώνιον ζωήν, ὡς οὐ τέλεια πεπληρωκότα καὶ νόμου μὲν ἐργάτην, ἀργὸν δὲ ζωῆς ἀληθινῆς. καλὰ μὲν οὖν κἀκεῖνα (τίς δʼ οὔ φησιν;

English · Claude translation

At any rate, Jesus does not rebuke him as though he had not fulfilled all the things of the law; he loves him and warmly welcomes his obedience in what he had learned. But he says he is imperfect with respect to eternal life, as one who had not done perfect things, a worker of the law but idle in regard to true life. Those things too are good (who denies it?

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:165 · 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
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The parenthesis closes in the next section.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 9.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/9/1/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 9.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/9/1/).

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