Clement of Alexandria — Stromata 5

Accordingly all those above-mentioned dogmas appear to have been transmitted from Moses the great to the Greeks. That all things belong to the wise man, is taught in these words: And because God has showed me mercy, I have all things. And that he is beloved of God , God intimates when He says, The God of Abraham , the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Exodus 3:16 For the first is found to have been expressly called friend; James 2:23 and the second is shown to have received a new name, signifying he that sees God ; while Isaac, God in a figure selected for Himself as a consecrated sacrifice , to be a type to us of the economy of salvation . Now among the Greeks, Minos the king of nine years' reign, and familiar friend of Zeus, is celebrated in song; they having heard how once God conversed with Moses , as one speaking with his friend.

Exodus 33:11 Moses , then, was a sage, king, legislator. But our Saviour surpasses all human nature . He is so lovely, as to be alone loved by us, whose hearts are set on the true beauty, for He was the true light. John 1:9 He is shown to be a King, as such hailed by unsophisticated children and by the unbelieving and ignorant Jews , and heralded by the prophets . So rich is He, that He despised the whole earth, and the gold above and beneath it, with all glory , when given to Him by the adversary. What need is there to say that He is the only High Priest, who alone possesses the knowledge of the worship of God? He is Melchizedek , King of peace, Hebrews 7:2 the most fit of all to head the race of men.

A legislator too, inasmuch as He gave the law by the mouth of the prophets , enjoining and teaching most distinctly what things are to be done, and what not. Who of nobler lineage than He whose only Father is God? Come, then, let us produce Plato assenting to those very dogmas . The wise man he calls rich in the Phœdrus , when he says, O dear Pan, and whatever other gods are here, grant me to become fair within; and whatever external things I have, let them be agreeable to what is within. I would reckon the wise man rich. And the Athenian stranger, finding fault with those who think that those who have many possessions are rich, speaks thus: For the very rich to be also good is impossible — those, I mean, whom the multitude count rich.

Those they call rich, who, among a few men, are owners of the possessions worth most money; which any bad man may possess. The whole world of wealth belongs to the believer, Solomon says, but not a penny to the unbeliever. Much more, then, is the Scripture to be believed which says, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man Matthew 19:24 to lead a philosophic life. But, on the other hand, it blesses the poor; Matthew 5:3 as Plato understood when he said, It is not the diminishing of one's resources, but the augmenting of insatiableness, that is to be considered poverty; for it is not slender means that ever constitutes poverty, but insatiableness, from which the good man being free, will also be rich. And in Alcibiades he calls vice a servile thing, and virtue the attribute of freemen.