EN
Clement of Alexandria quotes the Book of Psalms more than any other Old Testament book and does so more frequently than any other early Christian author apart from from Origen. The aim of this article is to examine Clement’s use of the Psalter in his works. First, it demonstrates how Clement quotes from the Psalms, specifically what sort of introductory wording he uses. It is apparent that the Book of Psalms has many different functions for Clement: a tool of evangelisation, the word of God himself educating human beings, a Christian book of prayer, prophetic writing, a source of theology (providing evidence of God’s characteristics), and a model of morality. Second, the article attempts to characterize the specific role of the Psalms in individual works by Clement. It concludes that the Greek Psalter is quoted in all works except the homily Quis dives salvetur? Finally, the article highlights the verses of the Psalms or the particularly frequent and common themes of the Psalter that are key to Clement’s theological thinking (these are Ps 1:1–6; Ps 18/19, especially v. 5; Ps 33/34:9; Ps 81/82:6; the theme of the “new song” and the image of “the rod of punishment”).