Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 15.4

Summary: Only harmful possessions must be renounced, not those that can be used well.

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Greek text · Stählin 3:169

ἀποτακτέον οὖν τοῖς ὑπάρχουσι τοῖς βλαβεροῖς. οὐχὶ τοῖς ἐὰν ἐπίστηταί τις τὴν ὀρθὴν χρῆσιν καὶ συνωφελεῖν δυναμένοις.

We must renounce, then, those possessions that are harmful, not those that can also help, if one knows how to use them rightly.

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

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 15.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/15/4/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 15.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/15/4/).