One of the more recent editions published in the Source Chrétiennes series is the late second-century homiletic treatise, Quis dives salvetur (Quel riche sera sauvé), by Clement of Alexandria. Last translated into French by Adalbert-G. Hamman in 1962, this new edition is the result of collaboration between two prominent European scholars in the area of Clementine studies. Carlo Nardi has produced a very useful introduction to Clement's world and thought with a short discourse on Alexandria in the time of Clement, his use of Scripture, and influences from various philosophical sources, Gnostic writers and previous Christian tradition. Nardi also goes on to explore briefly Clement's key theological and ethical ideas. Patrick Descourtieux provides a very accessible modern French translation of the Greek text accompanied by numerous illuminating notes and allusions to ancient sources. The Greek text is largely based on Früchtel's re-edition of Stählin (GCS). With regards to the lacuna of around twenty lines in codex Scorialensis in Quis dives salvetur 42.15, Descourtieux draws upon Pitra's Latin translation of an Armenian version. Descourtieux's critical apparatus of the Greek text is reasonably comprehensive (although there is no mention of the spaces between various clusters of words in Quis dives salvetur 1.4 identified by Stählin). The authors provide an extensive and up-to-date bibliography on Quis dives salvetur including monographs and recent doctoral dissertations. Quis dives salvetur is an important work for two reasons. First, it is the earliest Christian treatise on the subject of wealth and the problem of wealthy believers in the Church. Second, in Quis dives salvetur Clement applies his profound theological and philosophical ideas to a practical problem using the rhetorical conventions of his time. This new edition of Quis dives salvetur contributes substantially towards making Clement's ideas more easily comprehensible to all students of late antiquity.
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