Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 20.5

Summary: The disciples, though poor, knew their passions were not yet mastered, so they despaired like the rich man.

Greek text · Stählin 3:173

ἕνεκα μὲν οὖν χρημάτων ἀκτημοσύνης εὐέλπιδες ἦσαν πρὸς σωτηρίαν· ἐπειδὴ δὲ συνῄδεσαν ἑαυτοῖς μήπω τὰ πάθη τέλεον ἀποτεθειμένοις (ἀρτιμαθεῖς γὰρ ἦσαν καὶ νεωστὶ πρὸς τοῦ σωτῆρος ἠνδρολογημένοι), »περισσῶς ἐξεπλήσσοντο« καὶ ἀπεγίνωσκον ἑαυτοὺς οὐδέν τι ἧττον ἐκείνου τοῦ πολυχρημάτου καὶ δεινῶς τῆς κτήσεως περιεχομένου. ἥν γε προέκρινεν ζωῆς αἰωνίου.

English · Claude translation

As far as having no money was concerned, they were hopeful of salvation; but since they were conscious that they had not yet completely put away their passions (for they had only just begun to learn and had recently been enlisted by the Savior), “they were exceedingly astonished” and despaired of themselves no less than that man who had much money and clung terribly to the possession he preferred to eternal life.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 3:173 · 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 10:26 · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Ethics

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 20.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/20/5/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 20.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/20/5/).