Sophia Scriptura

Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 15.3

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

Summary: Such a person discards what is indifferent and keeps the real source of vice, which poverty inflames.

Greek text · Stählin 3:169

οὐ γὰρ τὰ ἀπόβλητα ἀπέβαλεν, ἀλλὰ τὰ ἀδιάφορα, καὶ τῶν μὲν ὑπηρετικῶν ἑαυτὸν περιέκοψεν, ἐξέκαυσε δὲ τὴν ὕλην τῆς κακίας τὴν ἔμφυτον τῇ τῶν ἐκτὸς ἀπορίᾳ.

English · Claude translation

For he has not thrown away what should be thrown away, but what is indifferent; he has cut himself off from what serves him, but set on fire the innate material of vice by the lack of external things.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:169 · 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

Translation notes

  • “Indifferent” (ἀδιάφορα) is the Stoic term for things neither good nor evil in themselves.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 15.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/15/3/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 15.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/15/3/).

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