Parable of the Young Rich Man and Christ: the use in the early Christian tradition

Egor Sergeevich Leontiev research assistant, Saint Petersburg State University, Institute of History (7/9 Universitetskaya emb., Saint Petersburg, Russia, 199034)
st077180@student.spbu.ru

Leontiev E. S. Parable of the Young Rich Man and Christ: the use in the early Christian tradition, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2023, vol. 12, pp. 100–111.

doi: 10.24412/2308-0698-2023-12-100-111

Language: Russian

The article examines the gospel parable about the rich young man and Christ. Special attention is paid to how the parable is presented in the gospel texts themselves (from Matthew, Mark and Luke) — what are the common places and what are the differences: how is the interlocutor of Christ articulated, what should he do to get into the Kingdom of Heaven, wealth prevents this or not? The differences in interpretations of this story seem to have determined further lines of discussion about financial status of members of Christian communities, about acceptable and unacceptable behavior. The text analyzes how the apologists of the 1–3rd centuries AD (for example, Tatian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Cyprian of Carthage, etc.) refer to this material. Special attention is paid to how the various contexts in which the apologists existed determined their interpretation, their goals and objectives. We also tried to highlight the intellectual traditions that have developed around the understanding of wealth/poverty, to trace the ideological continuity within them and to show their relationship with other issues of early Christian thought (for example, about the nature of the soul).

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Key words: parable of the young rich man, early Christianity, poverty, wealth, Tatian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Cyprian

URL: //rcs-almanac.ru/en/en-leontiev-2023/

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