J. Fell, Praefatio in Clementis Alexandrini librum Quis dives salvetur

Discourse of Clement of Alexandria: Who is the Rich Man that is Saved?

Book of Clement of Alexandria: Who is the Rich Man that is Saved?

Since Clement of Alexandria's excellent treatise On the Salvation of the Rich, which had been lost for several centuries, and was at length published through the labour of Michael Geisler under the name of Origen in a wholly foreign place (namely, in his Commentary on the prophecy of Jeremiah), came to the knowledge of but few, as though still unpublished; and since, moreover, when subsequently inserted into Combefis's Auctarium of the Greek Fathers, it lay hidden even until now among the crowds of later writers with whom it was placed: I hoped it would be not unwelcome to men of letters if I brought it forth at last into the public light under better, that is, its own auspices. That the work is genuine is attested not only by the weight and grace of the writing, but also by the testimony of Eusebius of Caesarea, who in his Ecclesiastical History often praises the book, and in Book III, Chapter 23, transcribed whole pages from it; which indeed in the Vatican manuscript (to which single copy, so far as we yet know, we owe the preservation of this work) occurred in a mutilated state, and are happily restored from Eusebius. Mention of this treatise is likewise found in Jerome's Catalogue; nay more, Photius not only praises it, but inserted its opening into his Bibliotheca, codex III [read 111]. Whence there remains no room for doubting the author and standing of the little book. Meanwhile I would not deny that the last period, "to Whom through the Son," etc., was added by a copyist who passed this treatise off as an Origenian homily, and accordingly judged that it should be concluded with the customary closing formula of sermons. That this class of men attempted such things everywhere has been observed by me elsewhere, in the minor works attributed to Cyprian. Perhaps it will not be superfluous to give notice that in the copy there were several lacunae which seemed likely to delay the reader, and which we have supplied by interposing as few words as possible. But lest additions should be mingled with what is genuine, whatever has been interpolated by us we have enclosed in brackets. Fell.