Sophia Scriptura

Prophetic Extracts 47.1

Clement of Alexandria · Prophetic Extracts · ca. 200 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: Christ commands not giving up possessions but managing them without attachment; and God's providence extends beyond those living in the flesh.

Greek text · Stählin 3:150

Ὁ λόγος τῆς κτήσεως ἀφίστασθαι οὐ κελεύει, ἀλλʼ ἀπροσπαθῶς διοικεῖν τὴν κτῆσιν. ἐπισυμβάντος δέ τινος μὴ ἀγανακτεῖν μηδὲ λυπεῖσθαι μηδὲ ἐπιθυμεῖν κτήσασθαι· τῆς ἐν πάθει γὰρ κτήσεως ἀφίστασθαι κελεύει καὶ πάσης προσπαθείας. Ἡ θεία πρόνοια οὐ καταστρέφει ἐπὶ μόνους τοὺς ἐν σαρκί.

English · Claude translation

The Word does not command us to give up possessions, but to manage possessions without attachment; and if something befalls us, not to be vexed or grieved or desire to acquire; for he commands us to give up possession in passion and all attachment. Divine providence does not end with those in the flesh alone.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:150 · 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
Text
As printed in Stählin, GCS 17. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
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.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 8 (1886) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Printed there under the wrong title “Excerpts of Theodotus”, and incomplete (it breaks off in ch. 63).
Extrabiblical texts
  • Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 11.2 (Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved?) · echo, high confidence
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • Compare Quis div. 11–14. The last sentence introduces 48.1.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 47.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/47/1/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 47.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/47/1/).

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