Sophia Scriptura

Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 36.1

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

Summary: All believers are noble, but some are more elect: hidden saints who shun recognition, whom Christ calls the light of the world and salt of the earth.

Greek text · Stählin 3:183

Πάντες οὖν οἱ πιστοὶ καλοὶ καὶ θεοπρεπεῖς καὶ τῆς προσηγορίας ἄξιοι, ἣν ὥσπερ διάδημα περίκεινται. οὐ μὴν ἀλλʼ εἰσὶν ἤδη τινὲς καὶ τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν ἐκλεκτότεροι, καὶ τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον ᾗ ἧττον ἐπίσημοι, τρόπον τινὰ ἐκ τοῦ κλύδωνος τοῦ κόσμου νεωλκοῦντες ἑαυτοὺς καὶ ἐπανάγοντες ἐπʼ ἀσφαλές, οὐ βουλόμενοι δοκεῖν ἅγιοι. κἂν εἴπῃ τις, αἰσχυνόμενοι, ἐν βάθει γνώμης ἀποκρύπτοντες τὰ ἀνεκλάλητα μυστήρια. καὶ τὴν αὑτῶν εὐγένειαν ὑπερηφανοῦντες ἐν κόσμῳ βλέπεσθαι, οὓς ὁ λόγος »φῶς τοῦ κόσμου« καὶ »ἅλας τῆς γῆς« καλεῖ.

English · Claude translation

All the faithful, then, are noble and godlike and worthy of the name they wear like a diadem. Yet there are already some more elect than the elect, and the more so the less conspicuous they are: those who in some way draw their ship up out of the surge of the world and bring themselves to safety, not wishing to seem holy, and ashamed if anyone calls them so, hiding the unspeakable mysteries in the depth of their mind, and disdaining to have their nobility seen in the world. These the Word calls “the light of the world” and “the salt of the earth.”

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:183 · 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

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Matt 5:14 and 5:13.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 36.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/36/1/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 36.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/36/1/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage