Prophetic Extracts 56.7

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

Summary: In the past sense, God set the highest angels in rest and contemplation, and the others advance in rank.

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Greek text · Stählin 3:153

ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸν παρῳχηκότα »ἔθετο« τοὺς [τε] πρωτοκτίστους ἀγγέλους εἰς τὸ μηκέτι κατὰ τὴν πρόνοιαν τῷ ὡρισμένῳ λειτουργεῖν, ἀλλʼ εἶναι ἐν ἀναπαύσει καὶ πρὸς μόνῃ τῇ θεωρίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ· οἱ δὲ προσεχέστεροι τούτοις προκόψουσιν εἰς ἣν ἐκεῖνοι ἀπολελοίπασι τάξιν, καὶ οὕτως οἱ ὑποβεβηκότες ἀναλόγως.

English · Claude translation

But according to the past tense, “he set” the first-created angels no longer to minister by providence to what is appointed, but to be at rest and devoted to the contemplation of God alone; and those next to them will advance to the rank they have left, and so the lower ones proportionately.

About this passage

Source: Stählin 3:153 · 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: Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

The bracketed word in the Greek is the editor's deletion.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (iota subscript missing): πρὸς μόνῃ τῆ θεωρίᾳ → πρὸς μόνῃ τῇ θεωρίᾳ.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 56.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/56/7/).

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Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 56.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/56/7/).

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