Sophia Scriptura

Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 2.2

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

Summary: Some rich people, hearing that a camel passes through a needle's eye more easily, despair of salvation and give themselves entirely to this world.

Greek text · Stählin 3:156–161

οἱ μὲν γὰρ αὐτόθεν καὶ προχείρως ἀκούσαντες τῆς τοῦ κυρίου φωνῆς, ὅτι ῥᾷον κάμηλος διὰ τρήματος ῥαφίδος διεκδύσεται ἢ πλούσιος εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἀπογνόντες ἑαυτοὺς ὡς οὐ βιωσόμενοι, τῷ κόσμῳ πάντα χαριζόμενοι καὶ τῆς ἐνταῦθα ζωῆς ὡς μόνης ἑαυτοῖς ὑπολειπομένης ἐκκρεμασθέντες ἀπέστησαν πλέον τῆς ἐκεῖ ὁδοῦ, μηκέτι πολυπραγμονήσαντες μήτε τίνας τοὺς πλουσίους ὁ δεσπότης καὶ διδάσκαλος προσαγορεύει μήτε ὅπως τὸ ἀδύνατον ἐν ἀνθρώποις δυνατὸν γίνεται.

English · Claude translation

For some, hearing the Lord's saying straight off and carelessly, that a camel will more easily pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man into the kingdom of heaven, have despaired of themselves as not destined to live; surrendering everything to the world and clinging to life here as the only one left them, they have gone further from the way to the life there, no longer inquiring whom the Master and Teacher calls rich, nor how what is impossible with men becomes possible.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:156–161 · 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
Topics
Ethics, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are Mark 10:25 (Matt 19:24; Luke 18:25) and Mark 10:27.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 2.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/2/2/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 2.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/2/2/).

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