Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 8.3

Summary: The rich young man had kept the law from youth, which is admirable, since it is easy for the old to be blameless but hard for the young.

Greek text · Stählin 3:165

οὐδὲ γὰρ πεπλήρωκε μόνον τὸν νόμον, ἀλλὰ καὶ εὐθὺς ἀπὸ πρώτης ἡλικίας ἀρξάμενος· ἐπεὶ καὶ τί μέγα ἢ ὑπέρλαμπρον γῆρας ἄγονον ἀδικημάτων ὧν ἐπιθυμίαι τίκτουσι νεανικαὶ ἢ ὀργὴ ζέουσα ἢ ἔρως χρημάτων; ἀλλʼ εἴ τις ἐν σκιρτήματι νεοτησίῳ καὶ τῷ καύσωνι τῆς ἡλικίας παρέσχηται φρόνημα πεπανὸν καὶ πρεσβύτερον τοῦ χρόνου, θαυμαστὸς οὗτος ἀγωνιστὴς καὶ διαπρεπὴς καὶ τὴν γνώμην πολιός.

English · Claude translation

For he had not only fulfilled the law but had begun doing so from his earliest age. For what is great or splendid about an old age that bears none of the wrongs that youthful desires, boiling anger, or love of money produce? But if someone in the leaping of youth and the heat of that age has shown a mind ripe and older than his years, he is a marvelous contestant, distinguished, and gray-haired in judgment.

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

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.

Topics

Ethics

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 8.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/8/3/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 8.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/8/3/).