Sophia Scriptura

Excerpts from Theodotus 27.3

Clement of Alexandria · Excerpts from Theodotus · ca. 200 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: The stripped soul passes into the spiritual realm and becomes high-priestly, animated directly by the Word, as the archangels are high priests of the angels.

Greek text · Stählin 3:116

γυμνὴ δὲ ἡ ψυχὴ ἐν δυνάμει τοῦ συνειδότος, οἷον σῶμα τῆς δυνάμεως γενομένη μεταβαίνει εἰς τὰ πνευματικά. λογικὴ τῷ ὄντι καὶ ἀρχιερατικὴ γενομένη, ὡς ἂν ἐμψυχουμένη ὡς εἰπεῖν ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου προσεχῶς ἤδη, καθάπερ οἱ ἀρχάγγελοι τῶν ἀγγέλων ἀρχιερεῖς γενόμενοι καὶ τούτων πάλιν οἱ πρωτόκτιστοι.

English · Claude translation

And the soul, stripped, in the power of its conscience, having become as it were a body of that power, passes into the spiritual realm, having become truly rational and high-priestly, as if now ensouled, so to speak, directly by the Word, just as the archangels have become high priests of the angels, and the first-created again of them.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:116 · 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.
Topics
Eschatology

Notes

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (accent and breathing: οἷον): οἶον σῶμα τῆς → οἷον σῶμα τῆς.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 27.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/27/3/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 27.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/27/3/).

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