Prophetic Extracts 21.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: No thought of God is worthy of him, but we may think of him as unapproachable light, all-good, compassionate, impassible, and all-knowing.

Greek text · Stählin 3:142

Εἰ δή τις νοεῖ θεόν (κατʼ ἀξίαν μὲν οὐδαμῶς, τίς γὰρ ἔννοια ἀξία θεοῦ; ἀλλʼ ὡς δυνατόν ἐστι), νοείτω μέγα καὶ ἀπερινόητον καὶ κάλλιστον »φῶς ἀπρόσιτον«, πᾶσαν δύναμιν ἀγαθήν, πᾶσαν ἀστείαν ἀρετὴν συγκεκληρωμένον, πάντων κηδόμενον, φιλοικτίρμον, ἀπαθές, ἀγαθόν, πάντα εἰδός, προγινῶσκον πάντα, εἰλικρινές, γλυκύ, λαμπρόν, ἀκήρατον.

English · Claude translation

If anyone conceives of God (in no way worthily, for what conception is worthy of God? but as far as possible), let him conceive of him as a great, incomprehensible, and most beautiful “unapproachable light,” endowed with every good power, every fine virtue, caring for all, compassionate, impassible, good, knowing all things, foreknowing all things, pure, sweet, bright, undefiled.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 3:142 · 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

Text

As printed in Stählin, GCS 17. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

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.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 8 (1886) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Printed there under the wrong title “Excerpts of Theodotus”, and incomplete (it breaks off in ch. 63).

Scripture

1 Tim 6:16 · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Trinity

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 21.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/21/1/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 21.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/21/1/).