Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 14.2

Summary: An instrument is only as good as the skill of the one who uses it.

BothGreekEnglish

Greek text · Stählin 3:168

τὸ ὄργανον, ἐὰν χρῇ τεχνικῶς, τεχνικόν ἐστιν, ἐὰν ὑστερῇς τῆς τέχνης, ἀπολαύει τῆς σῆς ἀμουσίας, ὂν ἀναίτιον.

If you use an instrument skillfully, it is skillful; if you fall short in skill, it shares in your lack of art, though it is not to blame.

Source: Stählin 3:168 · 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. 14.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/14/2/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 14.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/14/2/).