Sophia Scriptura

Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 18.2

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

Summary: Bodily beauty does not save or condemn; using the body purely saves, and destroying God's temple destroys.

Greek text · Stählin 3:171

οὐδὲ γὰρ διὰ κάλλος σώματος ζήσεταί τις ἢ τοὐναντίον ἀπολεῖται· ἀλλʼ ὁ μὲν τῷ δοθέντι σώματι ἁγνῶς καὶ κατὰ θεὸν χρώμενος ζήσεται. ὁ δὲ φθείρων τὸν ναὸν θεοῦ φθαρήσεται.

English · Claude translation

No one will live because of bodily beauty, nor perish for the opposite; but the one who uses the body given him purely and according to God will live, and the one who destroys the temple of God will be destroyed.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:171 · 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 quotation is 1 Cor 3:17.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 18.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/18/2/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 18.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/18/2/).

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