Sophia Scriptura

Prophetic Extracts 50.2

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

Summary: When angels announce births to barren women they introduce the souls in advance; John leaped in the womb as a living being.

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

Greek text · Stählin 3:151

πλάσει. † μαρτύριον ὠνόμασεν πᾶσιν. καὶ ὁπηνίκα ἂν εὐαγγελίζωνται οἱ ἄγγελοι τὰς στείρας, οἷον προεισκρίνουσι τῆς συλλήψεως τὰς ψυχάς· καὶ ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ »τὸ βρέφος ἐσκίρτησεν« ὡς ἔμψυχον.

English · Claude translation

formation. … he called a testimony to all. And whenever the angels bring good news to barren women, they introduce the souls, as it were, before conception. And in the Gospel “the babe leaped,” as ensouled.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:151 · 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).
Scripture
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The words before “he called a testimony” are corrupt (marked with a dagger). The allusion is Luke 1:41, 44.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 50.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/50/2/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 50.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/50/2/).

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