Sophia Scriptura

Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 13.7

Clement of Alexandria · Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? · ca. 190–210 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: If Christ commanded both giving to the needy and giving up all money, he would contradict himself; wealth that benefits others should not be discarded.

Greek text · Stählin 3:168

εἰ δὲ τὰς χρείας οὐχ οἷόν τε ἐκπληροῦν ταύτας μὴ ἀπὸ χρημάτων, τῶν δὲ χρημάτων ἀφίστασθαι κελεύει, τί ἂν ἕτερον εἴη ποιῶν ὁ κύριος ἢ τὰ αὐτὰ διδόναι τε καὶ μὴ διδόναι παραινῶν, τρέφειν καὶ μὴ τρέφειν, ὑποδέχεσθαι καὶ ἀποκλείειν, κοινωνεῖν καὶ μὴ κοινωνεῖν, ὅπερ ἁπάντων ἀλογώτατον. Οὐκ ἄρα ἀπορριπτέον τὰ καὶ τοὺς πέλας ὠφελοῦντα χρήματα·

English · Claude translation

But if these needs cannot be met except from money, and he commands us to give up money, what else would the Lord be doing but advising us both to give and not to give the same things, to feed and not to feed, to receive and to shut out, to share and not to share, which is the most absurd of all? So money that benefits one's neighbors too is not to be thrown away;

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:168 · 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. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (accent and breathing: οἷόν): οὐχ οἶόν τε ἐκπληροῦν → οὐχ οἷόν τε ἐκπληροῦν.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 13.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/13/7/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 13.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/13/7/).

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