| Clement passage | Greek cited by Clement | Synoptic locus | Markan corridor location | Gospel profile | Effect on Secret Mark / Canon thesis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strom. 3.6.56.2 | εἰ θέλεις τέλειος γενέσθαι, πωλήσας τὰ ὑπάρχοντα δὸς πτωχοῖς | Matt 19:21 // Mark 10:21 // Luke 18:22 | Inside corridor (Mark 10:17–31) | Mark-compatible, harmonized | Positive (moderate) |
Stromateis 3.6.56.2 clearly engages the rich man pericope, which stands at the center of the Markan discipleship corridor (Mark 10:17–31). Clement’s citation, “εἰ θέλεις τέλειος γενέσθαι, πωλήσας τὰ ὑπάρχοντα δὸς πτωχοῖς,” corresponds to the dominical command delivered at the decisive moment of the episode, when Jesus confronts the man’s failure to embody πλήρωσις of the command to love one’s neighbor.
Although the wording is compatible with Matthew’s phrasing, Clement’s handling of the saying is structurally Markan. He treats the command not as an abstract ethical ideal but as the interpretive climax of a discipleship test, precisely as in Mark, where Jesus’ injunction exposes the man’s attachment to wealth and precipitates the ensuing teaching on the impossibility of salvation apart from divine action. Clement’s comment that the man “had not fulfilled ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself’” directly mirrors Mark’s internal logic, where obedience to commandments is shown to be incomplete without renunciation.
What is especially important is that Clement does not detach the saying from its narrative function. He explicitly frames it as the moment of completion (συντελειοῦμενος) through which the Lord instructs the man “δι’ ἀγάπην μεταδιδόναι.” This reflects Mark’s pedagogical structure: commandment-keeping → exposure of lack → call to renunciation → redefinition of discipleship. Clement is not stringing together aphorisms; he is reading the saying as the decisive act within a coherent instructional sequence.
In this respect, Stromateis 3.6.56.2 aligns closely with Clement’s treatment of the same pericope in Quis Dives Salvetur, where the Markan narrative governs the exposition and Matthew supplies supplementary diction. The consistency strengthens the case that Clement’s underlying gospel framework for this material is Mark-shaped, even when the surface language is synoptic or Matthean.
Accordingly, this passage does advance the Secret Mark hypothesis, though not as strongly as the extended sequential handling in Quis Dives Salvetur. It provides independent corroboration that Clement repeatedly accesses the rich man pericope as a stable Markan discipleship unit, one that fits squarely within the corridor later preserved—quietly but structurally—in Eusebius’s Gospel Canons when Mark governs alignment.
In short, Stromateis 3.6.56.2 belongs securely inside the Markan discipleship corridor and supports the claim that Clement’s Alexandrian tradition treated this corridor as a coherent instructional spine, consistent with a harmonized Mark underlying both his exegesis and the later Eusebian system.
