Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 39.1

Greek text · Stählin 3:185

ὁ χώραν ἐν οὐρανοῖς οὐκ ἔχων καὶ τίνα τρόπον τοῖς οὖσι χρώμενος ἄν τις τό τε ἐπίρρητον τοῦ πλούτου καὶ χαλεπὸν εἰς ζωὴν διαφύγοι καὶ δύναιτο τῶν αἰωνίων [τῶν] ἀγαθῶν ἐπαύρασθαι, εἴη δὲ τετυχηκὼς ἢ διʼ ἄγνοιαν ἢ διʼ ἀσθένειαν ἢ περίστασιν ἀκούσιον μετὰ τὴν σφραγῖδα καὶ τὴν λύτρωσιν περιπετής τισιν ἁμαρτήμασιν ἢ παραπτώμασιν, ὡς ὑπενηνέχθαι τέλεον, ὅτι οὗτος κατεψήφισται παντάπασιν ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ.

English · Claude translation

who has no place in heaven, and in what way someone using what he has might escape the reproach of wealth and its difficulty for life and be able to enjoy the eternal good things; but if he happens, through ignorance, weakness, or involuntary circumstance, after the seal and the redemption, to have fallen into some sins or transgressions, so as to have been completely carried away, let him not suppose that he has been utterly condemned by God.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 3:185 · 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)

Extrabiblical texts

Herm. Mand. 4.3 (Shepherd of Hermas: Mandates) · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Baptism, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

“The seal and the redemption” are baptism. This leads into the question of repentance for sins after baptism, much discussed in the second-century church (compare Hermas, Mandate 4.3).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 39.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/39/1/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 39.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/39/1/).