Prophetic Extracts 32.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Scripture must be searched carefully, since the Holy Spirit has impressed his meaning on its words, so that hidden senses can be uncovered.

Greek text · Stählin 3:146–147

δεῖ τοίνυν τὰς γραφὰς ἀκριβῶς διερευνωμένους, ἐπειδὴ ἐν παραβολαῖς εἰρῆσθαι ἀνωμολόγηνται. ἀπὸ τῶν ὀνομάτων θηρᾶσθαι τὰς δόξας, ἃς τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα περὶ τῶν πραγμάτων ἔχον. εἰς τὰς λέξεις ὡς εἰπεῖν τὴν αὑτοῦ διάνοιαν ἐκτυπωσάμενον, διδάσκει. ἵνα ἡμῖν ἀκριβῶς ἐξεταζόμενα διαπτύσσηται μὲν τὰ ὀνόματα πολυσήμως εἰρημένα, τὸ δʼ ἐγκεκρυμμένον ἐν πολλοῖς τοῖς σκέπουσι ψηλαφώμενον καὶ καταμανθανόμενον ἐκφαίνηται καὶ ἀναλάμψῃ.

English · Claude translation

So we must search the Scriptures exactly, since they are acknowledged to have been spoken in parables, and hunt from the names for the meanings which the Holy Spirit, having them about things, teaches, impressing his own thought, so to speak, on the words; so that, examined exactly by us, the names spoken in many senses may be unfolded, and what is hidden under many coverings, felt out and learned, may be revealed and shine forth.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 3:146–147 · 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.

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

Scripture and canon

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 32.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/32/2/).

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

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 32.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/32/2/).