Excerpts from Theodotus 56.3

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

Summary: The Valentinian doctrine of three natures: the spiritual saved by nature, the psychic free to choose, the material lost by nature.

BothGreekEnglish

Greek text · Stählin 3:125

τὸ μὲν οὖν πνευματικὸν φύσει σῳζόμενον. τὸ δὲ ψυχικὸν αὐτεξούσιον ὂν ἐπιτηδειότητα ἔχει πρός τε πίστιν καὶ ἀφθαρσίαν καὶ πρὸς ἀπιστίαν καὶ φθορὰν κατὰ τὴν οἰκείαν αἵρεσιν, τὸ δὲ ὑλικὸν φύσει ἀπόλλυται.

English · Claude translation

The spiritual is saved by nature; the psychic, having free will, has a capacity both for faith and incorruption and for unbelief and corruption, according to its own choice; but the material perishes by nature.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 3:125 · 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.

Extrabiblical texts

Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 1.6.31 (The Instructor) · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

This passage states the Valentinian determinism that Clement opposes elsewhere (for example Paed. 1.6.31).

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 56.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/56/3/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 56.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/56/3/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage