Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 12.2

Summary: The philosophers who gave up wealth often grew proud and vain, so their souls were worse, not better.

Greek text · Stählin 3:167

ἄξιον δὲ τοῦ σωτῆρος τὸ δίδαγμα. οἱ γάρ τοι πρότεροι, καταφρονήσαντες τῶν ἐκτός, τὰ μὲν κτήματα ἀφῆκαν καὶ παραπώλεσαν, τὰ δὲ πάθη τῶν ψυχῶν οἶμαι ὅτι καὶ προσεπέτειναν· ἐν ὑπεροψίᾳ γὰρ ἐγένοντο καὶ ἀλαζονείᾳ καὶ κενοδοξίᾳ καὶ περιφρονήσει τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων ὡς αὐτοί τι ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον ἐργασάμενοι.

English · Claude translation

and the teaching worthy of the Savior. For those before, who despised external things, let go and got rid of their possessions, but I think they even increased the passions of their souls; for they fell into arrogance, boastfulness, vainglory, and contempt for other people, as though they themselves had done something beyond human.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 3:167 · 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

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.

Topics

Ethics

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 12.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/12/2/).

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Quis div. 12.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-quis-dives/12/2/).