Sophia Scriptura

Prophetic Extracts 53.2

Clement of Alexandria · Prophetic Extracts · ca. 200 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: “Night to night proclaims knowledge”: the devil knew the Lord would come but not whether Jesus was he, so he tempted him and waited until the resurrection.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

Greek text · Stählin 3:151–152

»καὶ νὺξ νυκτὶ ἀναγγέλλει γνῶσιν.« ὁ διάβολος ᾔδει ἐλευσόμενον τὸν κύριον, εἰ δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς αὐτὸς εἴη, οὐκ ἠπίστατο· διὸ καὶ ἐπείραζεν αὐτόν ἵνα γνῷ· † εἰ δυνατός ἐστιν. ἐᾶν φησι· »καὶ ἀπέστη ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ εἰς καιρόν«, τουτέστιν ἀνεβάλλετο τὴν εὕρεσιν εἰς τὴν ἀνάστασιν. ᾔδει γὰρ τοῦτον εἶναι τὸν κύριον τὸν ἀναστησόμενον.

English · Claude translation

“And night to night proclaims knowledge.” The devil knew that the Lord would come, but did not know whether Jesus was he; that is why he tempted him, to know whether he was powerful. … it says, “And he departed from him for a time,” that is, he postponed the discovery until the resurrection. For he knew that this was the Lord who would rise.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:151–152 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
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
  • Ps 19:2 (18:3 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
  • Luke 4:13 · quotation, high confidence
  • Matt 4:3 · allusion, medium confidence
Topics
Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The words after “powerful” are corrupt (marked with a dagger). The quotations are Ps 19:2 (18:3 LXX) and Luke 4:13.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 53.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/53/2/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 53.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/53/2/).

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