Sophia Scriptura

Excerpts from Theodotus 29.1

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

Summary: In the Valentinian myth, Silence, mother of all the emanations of the Depth, kept silent about the ineffable.

Greek text · Stählin 3:116

Ἡ Σιγή, φασί, μήτηρ οὖσα πάντων τῶν προβληθέντων ὑπὸ τοῦ Βάθους. ὃ μὲν οὐκ ἔσχεν εἰπεῖν, περὶ τοῦ ἀρρήτου σεσίγηκεν, ὃ δὲ κατέλαβεν, τοῦτο ἀκατάληπτον προσηγόρευσεν.

English · Claude translation

Silence, they say, being mother of all that was put forth by the Depth, kept silent about the ineffable, since she could not speak of it; and what she did comprehend, she called incomprehensible.

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
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • Depth (Bythos) and Silence (Sige) are the first pair of the Valentinian Aeons.
  • As printed, the Greek says Silence called “incomprehensible” what she did comprehend; some editors insert a negative.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (word split in the digital text): ὃ δὲ κα τέλαβεν → ὃ δὲ κατέλαβεν.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 29.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/29/1/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 29.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/29/1/).

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