Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 18.1

Summary: Salvation depends not on external wealth but on the soul's virtues: faith, hope, love, knowledge, gentleness, humility, and truth.

Greek text · Stählin 3:171

Ὥστε τοὺς πλουσίους μαθηματικῶς ἀκουστέον, τοὺς δυσκόλως εἰσελευσομένους εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν, μὴ σκαιῶς μηδὲ ἀγροίκως μηδὲ σαρκίνως· οὐ γὰρ οὕτως λέλεκται. οὐδὲ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἐκτὸς ἡ σωτηρία. οὔτε εἰ πολλὰ οὔτε εἰ ὀλίγα ταῦτα ἢ μικρὰ ἢ μεγάλα ἢ ἔνδοξα ἢ ἄδοξα ἢ εὐδόκιμα ἢ ἀδόκιμα, ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ τῇ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀρετῇ. πίστει καὶ ἐλπίδι καὶ ἀγάπῃ καὶ φιλαδελφίᾳ καὶ γνώσει καὶ πραότητι καὶ ἀτυφίᾳ καὶ ἀληθείᾳ, ὧν ἆθλον ἡ σωτηρία.

English · Claude translation

So the rich who will enter the kingdom with difficulty must be understood in a learned way, as disciples should, not clumsily, rustically, or in a fleshly way; for it is not said in that way. Salvation does not depend on external things, whether they are many or few, small or great, glorious or inglorious, esteemed or unesteemed, but on the virtue of the soul: faith, hope, love, brotherly love, knowledge, gentleness, humility, and truth, of which salvation is the prize.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 3:171 · 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)

Scripture

Mark 10:23 · allusion, high confidence
1 Cor 13:13 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Ethics

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 18.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/18/1/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 18.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/18/1/).