Sophia Scriptura

Excerpts from Theodotus 47.4

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

Summary: “Invisible” in Gen 1:2 is read as describing formless matter.

Greek text · Stählin 3:122

ἀσώματον δὲ καὶ ταύτην ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰνίσσεται τῷ φάσκειν »ἀόρατον«· οὔτε γὰρ ἀνθρώπῳ τῷ μηδέπω ὄντι ἀόρατος ἦν οὔτε τῷ θεῷ· ἐδημιούργει γάρ· ἀλλὰ τὸ ἄμορφον καὶ ἀνείδεον καὶ ἀσχημάτιστον αὐτῆς ὧδέ πως ἐξεφώνησεν.

English · Claude translation

And he hints that this too was bodiless in the beginning by calling it “invisible”; for it was not invisible to man, who did not yet exist, nor to God, for he was fashioning it; but in some such way he expressed its formlessness, shapelessness, and lack of figure.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:122 · 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.
Scripture
  • Gen 1:2 · allusion, high confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • Gen 1:2 in the Greek reads “the earth was invisible and unformed.”

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 47.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/47/4/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 47.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/47/4/).

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