Sophia Scriptura

Miscellanies 4.6.35

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

Summary: Christ counts the choice, not the size of the gift; Zacchaeus (or Matthias, some say) gave half his goods and was saved; the widow's two coins were more than the rich man's gift.

Greek text · Stählin 2:263–264

ἆρʼ οὐκ ἄντικρυς τὸν γνωστικὸν μεθέπειν ἡμᾶς παρακελεύεται βίον ἔργῳ τε καὶ λόγῳ ζητεῖν τὴν ἀλήθειαν προτρέπει; πλούσιον τοίνυν οὐ τὴν δόσιν, ἀλλὰ τὴν προαίρεσιν λογίζεται ὁ παιδεύων τὴν ψυχὴν Χριστός. Ζακχαῖον τοίνυν, οἳ δὲ Ματθίαν φασίν, ἀρχιτελώνην, ἀκηκοότα τοῦ κυρίου καταξιώσαντος πρὸς αὐτὸν γενέσθαι, ἰδοὺ τὰ ἡμίση τῶν ὑπαρχόντων μου δίδωμι ἐλεημοσύνην φάναι, κύριε, καὶ εἴ τινός τι ἐσυκοφάντησα, τετραπλοῦν ἀποδίδωμι. ἐφʼ οὗ καὶ ὁ σωτὴρ εἶπεν· ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐλθὼν σήμερον τὸ ἀπολωλὸς εὗρεν. πάλιν τε αὖ θεασάμενος εἰς τὸ γαζοφυλάκιον τὸν μὲν πλούσιον ἀναλόγως τῇ κτήσει βεβληκότα, τὴν δὲ χήραν χαλκοῦς δύο πλεῖον ἔφη τὴν χήραν βεβληκέναι πάντων· ὃ μὲν γὰρ ἀπὸ τοῦ περισσεύματος, ἣ δὲ ἐκ τῆς ὑστερήσεως συνεισήνεγκεν.

English · Claude translation

Does he not plainly exhort us to pursue the life of knowledge and urge us to seek the truth in deed and word? So Christ, who trains the soul, reckons a man rich not by his gift but by his choice. Zacchaeus, then, or, as some say, Matthias, chief tax collector, having heard that the Lord thought fit to come to him, said: “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I give as alms; and if I have wrongfully taken anything from anyone, I repay it fourfold.” Of whom the Savior too said: “The Son of Man, having come today, has found what was lost.” Again, seeing the rich man putting into the treasury in proportion to his property, and the widow two copper coins, he said that the widow had put in more than all; for he gave from his abundance, but she from her want.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 2:263–264 · 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 and allusions are Luke 19:8–10 (a free form) and Mark 12:41–44 (Luke 21:1–4). The identification of Zacchaeus with Matthias is otherwise unknown.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.6.35 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/6/35/).

Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.6.35 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/6/35/).

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