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While reading a book, I came across the following sentence:
人間では決して勝ちえることのできぬ存在

Even with the translation (fan-translated) "It was an opponent which humanity
could not overcome", I am unable to understand it.

Let's focus on a slightly simpler version: 人間 **で** は勝ちえること **の** できない存在. I
have highlighted the two parts that are confusing me:

  * 人間 **で** は ... I cannot find on [Particles: に vs. で](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/60/particles-%e3%81%ab-vs-%e3%81%a7) a case which makes sense for this use of で, and am unsure what influence it has on the translation compared to its omission 人間は勝ちえること...
  * ...ちえること **の** できない存在: I do not understand this use of の. It seems to neither indicate possession/adjectival, nor an のだ/んだ explanation.

**Finally** , I am unsure I understand how to properly assess the "direction"
of the 勝ちえることできない, i.e. whether to translate "an opponent which humanity could
not overcome" or "an opponent who could not overcome humanity". Indeed, it is
my understanding that using 人間は rather than 人間が makes 人間 the subject of the
sentence in the first case, and the subject of the verb in the second case
(ex: 象さんは鼻が長い > "About elephants, their trunk is long"). Since there is no
explicit object を in the sentence, I would be tempted to translate coarsely
"About/Towards humanity, a being where winning is impossible", which is
ambiguous as to the "direction" of 勝ちえることできない.

Thank you for helping.

Full context:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/GYDY0.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/GYDY0.jpg)
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grammar translation
Understanding the sentence "人間では決して勝ちえることのできぬ存在"
I want to try an answer, although I am only in my third/fourth year of
Japanese.

For your first question, I would reference this page for an academic
description of "dewa"
[https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/では](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%A7%E3%81%AF)
The influence it has on your sentence is to emphasize that it is all of
humanity, not just a typical example of humanity. Without the で particle, it
could be read "It was an opponent which _people in general_ could not
overcome."

For the second question, the の transforms the proceeding words into a noun,
just like こと. I'm not sure why ことの are both used. I'm going to guess dramatic
emphasis.

For a more literal translation, I would go with 人間では決して勝ちえることのできぬ存在 "As for
all of humanity, never making victory can never exist." So I'm thinking the
fan translation is a little off. Perhaps: "It was an opponent which humanity
_must_ overcome."
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ことのできない is common phrase. "の" here is same as "が".

"の" is Kakujoshi and works as "Nominative"(Shukaku) here.  
In japanese, 格助詞である ”の” は主格として働くことがあります。

[Kakujoshi "の" (in
Japanese)](https://finetune32.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/%E6%A0%BC%E5%8A%A9%E8%A9%9E%E3%81%AE%E4%BD%BF%E3%81%84%E5%88%86%E3%81%91%EF%BC%9A%E3%80%8C%E3%81%8C%E3%80%8D%E3%81%A8%E3%80%8C%E3%81%AE%E3%80%8D/)

> ”友だち が/の 来る日”  
>  The day my friend comes.

ことのできない is same as ことができない here.  
Then, "勝つことのできない” means You cannot win/overcome.  
So, "勝つことのできない存在” means An entity or something that you cannot win.

Next, 勝ちえる means They can overcome/beat or they have a chance to overcome.  
So, ”勝ちえることのできない存在” is An entity that you cannot have any chance to overcome.

人間では or 人間には in this case has a nuance that Human beings never overcome it,
but some exsistance but human beings like monster or god could overcome it.

Subject + では or Subject + には are usually used in Negative sentence.  
Besides, it implies other exsistence that can implement it.

> 彼 **には/では** できない仕事だ。  
>  This is a work he cannot resolve. Or This is too tough work for him.

This sentence implies someone who can do it because では/には is used.

By the way, if I translated it, "It is an entity that human beings absolutely
never have any chance to overcome." or "It is an entity that human beings
abolutely never overcome no matter what happaned."
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