Sophia Scriptura

Prophetic Extracts 35.1

Clement of Alexandria · Prophetic Extracts · ca. 200 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: The mysteries of knowledge are mocked by the many, but the few, first dazzled, grow used to them and rejoice.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

Greek text · Stählin 3:147

Οἶδα δὲ ἐγὼ ὅτι τὰ τῆς γνώσεως μυστήρια τοῖς μὲν πολλοῖς χλεύην φέρει καὶ μάλιστα μὴ κεκαττυμένα σοφιστικῇ τροπολογίᾳ. τοὺς δὲ ὀλίγους καθάπερ φῶς ἐπεισενεχθὲν ἐξαίφνης συμποσίῳ τινὶ συνηρεφεῖ ἐκπλήξει τὰ πρῶτα, ἔπειτα ἐθίσαντες καὶ συντραφέντες καὶ ἐγγυμνασάμενοι τῷ λογισμῷ ὡς ὑφʼ ἡδονῆς εὐφραινόμενοι καὶ ἀγαλλιώμενοι * * τὸν κύριον.

English · Claude translation

I know that the mysteries of knowledge bring mockery from the many, especially when they are not patched up with sophistic figures of speech; but the few, like a light suddenly brought into a darkened banquet, they astonish at first; then, having become used to them, reared in them, and exercised in reasoning, as though gladdened by pleasure and rejoicing … the Lord.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:147 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
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

Notes

Translation notes

  • The asterisks in the Greek mark a gap.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 35.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/35/1/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 35.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/35/1/).

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