Sophia Scriptura

Excerpts from Theodotus 16.1

Clement of Alexandria · Excerpts from Theodotus · ca. 200 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: The dove at Christ's baptism was seen as a body; the church says it was the Holy Spirit, while the Basilideans and Valentinians gave other interpretations.

Greek text · Stählin 3:112

Καὶ ἡ περιστερὰ δὲ σῶμα ὤφθη, ἣν οἳ μὲν τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμά φασιν, οἱ δὲ ἀπὸ Βασιλείδου τὸν διάκονον, οἱ δὲ ἀπὸ Οὐαλεντίνου τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἐνθυμήσεως τοῦ πατρός. τὸ τὴν κατέλευσιν πεποιημένον ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ λόγου σάρκα.

English · Claude translation

The dove too was seen as a body; some say it is the Holy Spirit, the followers of Basilides say it is the minister, and the followers of Valentinus the spirit of the Father's thought, which made its descent upon the flesh of the Word.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:112 · 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.
Scripture
Topics
Heresy, Baptism

Notes

Translation notes

  • Basilides was a Gnostic teacher at Alexandria in the early second century.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (wrong accent on the relative ἣν): ἥν οἳ μὲν → ἣν οἳ μὲν.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 16.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/16/1/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 16.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/16/1/).

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