Prophetic Extracts 25.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: The Spirit corresponds to the bodiless soul, fire to what is material; this fire is not evil but a good power that cleanses, which is why the prophets call it wise.

Greek text · Stählin 3:144

ἀλλʼ ἐπεὶ μὲν τὸ σῳζόμενον σίτῳ ἔοικεν, τὸ δὲ περιπεφυκὸς τῇ ψυχῇ τῷ ἀχύρῳ. καὶ τὸ μὲν ἀσώματον, τὸ δὲ χωριζόμενον ὑλικόν ἐστιν. ἀντέθηκεν τῷ μὲν ἀσωμάτῳ τὸ πνεῦμα, λεπτὸν καὶ καθαρὸν σχεδὸν ὑπὲρ νοῦν. τῷ δὲ ὑλικῷ τὸ πῦρ, οὐ πονηρὸν οὐδὲ κακὸν ὑπάρχον, ἀλλʼ ἰσχυρὸν καὶ κακοῦ καθαρτικόν· ἀγαθὴ γὰρ δύναμις τὸ πῦρ νοεῖται καὶ ἰσχυρά. φθαρτικὴ τῶν χειρόνων καὶ σωστικὴ τῶν ἀμεινόνων. διὸ καὶ φρόνιμον λέγεται παρὰ τοῖς προφήταις τοῦτο τὸ πῦρ.

English · Claude translation

But since what is saved is like wheat, and what has grown around the soul like chaff, and the one is bodiless while what is separated is material, he set the Spirit, fine and pure and almost beyond mind, against the bodiless, and fire against the material; fire that is not wicked or evil, but strong and cleansing of evil. For fire is understood as a good and strong power, destructive of the worse and preserving the better. That is why this fire is called “wise” by the prophets.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 3:144 · 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).

Topics

Baptism, Eschatology

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 25.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/25/4/).

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

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 25.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/25/4/).