Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 19.3

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

Summary: Christ, rich toward God, tells the one rich in passions to give up the alien possessions of the soul, so as to become pure in heart and see God.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

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Greek text · Stählin 3:172

τῷ δὴ κατὰ κόσμον οὐ πτωχῷ καὶ πλουσίῳ κατὰ τὰ πάθη ὁ κατὰ πνεῦμα οὐ πτωχὸς καὶ κατὰ θεὸν πλούσιος ›ἀπόστηθι‹ φησί ›τῶν ὑπαρχόντων ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ σου κτημάτων ἀλλοτρίων. ἵνα καθαρὸς τῇ καρδίᾳ γενόμενος ἴδῃς τὸν θεόν, ὅπερ καὶ διʼ ἑτέρας φωνῆς ἐστιν εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν.

English · Claude translation

To the one who is not poor in the world's goods but rich in passions, the one who is poor in spirit and rich toward God says: ‘Withdraw from the alien possessions that are in your soul, so that, becoming pure in heart, you may see God, which in other words is to enter the kingdom of heaven.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 3:172 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.

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

Matt 5:8 · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

The Greek as printed reads “the one who is not poor in spirit”; the negative is probably a scribal intrusion, and the translation omits it. The speaker, the Christian who is poor in spirit, voices Christ's command in words that run to the end of 19.6. The allusion is Matt 5:8.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 19.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/19/3/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 19.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/19/3/).

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