Who Is The Rich Man That Shall Be Saved? (Saint Clement Of Alexandria)

This short treatise by St. Clement’s is an exposition on the words of Jesus Christ to the young rich man, recounted in the gospels. In the account, the man asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. First, Jesus advises the man to obey the commandments, then Jesus adds: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” However, when he heard this, “he became very sorrowful because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.’” Does this mean that every Christian should give away their goods and become poor? St. Clement, an important Christian figure of the 2nd century, clarifies exactly what was meant by Christ.
Titus Flavius Clemens, also known as Clement of Alexandria (Greek: Κλήμης ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; c. 150 A.D.–c. 215 A.D.),[4] was a Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature. As his three major works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular, by Plato and the Stoics.[5] His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism as well. In one of his works he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, claiming that both Plato and Pythagoras were taught by Egyptian scholars.[6]

Clement is usually regarded as a Church Father. He is venerated as a saint in Eastern Orthodoxy, Coptic Christianity, Eastern Catholicism, Ethiopian Christianity, and Anglicanism. He was revered in Western Catholicism until 1586, when his name was removed from the Roman Martyrology by Pope Sixtus V on the advice of Baronius.