Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 3.6.56

Clement of Alexandria · Miscellanies · ca. 198–203 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: Christ forbids not wealth rightly used but greed; the generous gain eternal riches by sharing, while the hoarder, like the rich fool, stores up treasure on earth and loses his soul.

Greek text · Stählin 2:221–222

καλῶς οὖν πλουτεῖν οὐ κεκώλυκεν, ἀλλὰ γὰρ τὸ ἀδίκως καὶ ἀπλήστως πλουτεῖν· κτῆσις γὰρ ἐπισπευδομένη μετὰ ἀνομίας ἐλάττων γίνεται. εἰσὶ γὰρ οἳ σπείροντες πλείονα ποιοῦσι, καὶ οἳ συνάγοντες ἐλαττοῦνται· περὶ ὧν γέγραπται· ἐσκόρπισεν, ἔδωκεν τοῖς πένησιν, ἡ δικαιοσύνη αὐτοῦ μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα· ὁ μὲν γὰρ σπείρων καὶ πλείονα συνάγων οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ διὰ τῆς ἐπιγείου καὶ προσκαίρου μεταδόσεως τὰ οὐράνια κτώμενος καὶ τὰ αἰώνια, ἕτερος δὲ ὁ μηδενὶ μεταδιδούς, κενῶς δὲ θησαυρίζων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ὅπου σὴς καὶ βρῶσις ἀφανίζει (περὶ οὗ γέγραπται· συνάγων τοὺς μισθοὺς συνήγαγεν εἰς δεσμὸν τετρυπημένον), τούτου τὴν χώραν εὐφορῆσαι λέγει ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ ὁ κύριος, ἔπειτα τοὺς καρποὺς ἀποθέσθαι βουληθέντα, οἰκοδομησόμενον ἀποθήκας μείζονας κατὰ τὴν προσωποποιίαν εἰπεῖν πρὸς ἑαυτόν· ἔχεις ἀγαθὰ πολλὰ ἀποκείμενά σοι εἰς ἔτη πολλά, φάγε, πίε, εὐφραίνου· ἄφρον οὖν, ἔφη, ταύτῃ γὰρ τῇ νυκτὶ τὴν ψυχήν σου ἀπαιτοῦσιν ἀπὸ σοῦ. ἃ οὖν ἡτοίμασας, τίνι γένηται;

English · Claude translation

So he has not forbidden being rich rightly, but being rich unjustly and insatiably; for “property hastily gained with lawlessness becomes less.” For “there are those who sow and make more, and those who gather and become less.” About them it is written: “He scattered, he gave to the poor; his righteousness remains forever.” For the one who sows and gathers more is the one who, through earthly and temporary sharing, acquires the heavenly and eternal things; but the other is the one who shares with no one, but vainly stores up treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy (about whom it is written, “He who gathered wages gathered them into a bag with holes”). The Lord says in the Gospel that this man's land bore well, and then, wishing to store the fruits, he was going to build bigger barns, and said to himself, in the personification: “You have many goods laid up for many years; eat, drink, be merry.” “Fool,” he said, “this night they demand your soul from you; the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:221–222 · Otto Stählin, ed., Clemens Alexandrinus, vol. 2, Stromata Buch I–VI, GCS 15 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1906); vol. 3, Stromata Buch VII und VIII, GCS 17 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909) · Greek text: Otto Stählin, Clemens Alexandrinus 2–3 (GCS 15, 17, 1906–1909), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Stählin, GCS 15, 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 (1906–1909); 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) · Book 3 is left partly untranslated (in Latin) there.
Scripture
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Prov 13:11 (LXX), Prov 11:24, Ps 112:9 (111:9 LXX), Matt 6:19, Hag 1:6, and Luke 12:16–20.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.6.56 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/6/56/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3.6.56 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/3/6/56/).

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