Prophetic Extracts 41.1

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

Summary: Scripture says exposed infants are given to a guardian angel to be raised, and will be like the long-faithful.

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Greek text · Stählin 3:149

Ἡ γραφή φησι τὰ βρέφη τὰ ἐκτεθέντα τημελούχῳ παραδίδοσθαι ἀγγέλῳ, ὑφʼ οὗ παιδεύεσθαί τε καὶ αὔξειν, »καὶ ἔσονται«, φησίν, »ὡς οἱ ἑκατὸν ἐτῶν ἐνταῦθα πιστοί.«

English · Claude translation

Scripture says that infants who have been exposed are handed over to a guardian angel, by whom they are instructed and grow up. “And they will be,” it says, “like the faithful of a hundred years here.”

About this passage

Source

Stählin 3:149 · 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).

Extrabiblical texts

Apoc. Pet. (Apocalypse of Peter) · quotation, medium confidence

Topics

Eschatology, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

“Scripture” here is the Apocalypse of Peter, which Clement cites as Scripture (compare 48.1). Exposure of unwanted infants was common in the Roman world.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 41.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/41/1/).

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Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 41.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/41/1/).

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