Sophia Scriptura

Prophetic Extracts 56.2

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

Summary: Hermogenes said Christ laid aside his body in the sun; Clement's teacher Pantaenus taught that prophecy often uses one tense for another, as here.

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

Greek text · Stählin 3:152–153

ἔνιοι μὲν οὖν φασι τὸ σῶμα τοῦ κυρίου ἐν τῷ ἡλίῳ αὐτὸν ἀποτίθεσθαι, ὡς Ἑρμογένης, σῶμα δὲ λέγουσιν οἳ μὲν τὸ σκῆνος αὐτοῦ, οἳ δὲ τὴν τῶν πιστῶν ἐκκλησίαν, ὁ Πάνταινος δὲ * ἡμῶν ἔλεγεν »ἀορίστως τὴν προφητείαν ἐκφέρειν τὰς λέξεις ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πλεῖστον καὶ τῷ ἐνεστῶτι ἀντὶ τοῦ μέλλοντος χρῆσθαι χρόνῳ καὶ πάλιν τῷ ἐνεστῶτι ἀντὶ τοῦ παρῳχηκότος«, ὃ καὶ νῦν φαίνεται.

English · Claude translation

Some, then, say that the Lord lays aside his body in the sun, as Hermogenes does; and by body some mean his tabernacle, others the church of the faithful. But Pantaenus, our …, used to say that “prophecy utters its words indefinitely for the most part, and uses the present tense instead of the future, and again the present instead of the past,” which is the case here too.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:152–153 · 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).
Topics
Heresy, Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • Hermogenes was a teacher opposed by Tertullian. Pantaenus was Clement's teacher at Alexandria; a word describing him (probably “teacher”) is missing in the manuscript.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 56.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/56/2/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 56.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/56/2/).

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