Excerpts from Theodotus 31.3

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

Summary: The Aeons learned that they exist by the Father's grace; Wisdom, grasping beyond knowledge, fell into ignorance.

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Greek text · Stählin 3:117

τότε γὰρ ἐπέγνωσαν ὅτι ὅ εἰσιν, χάριτι τοῦ πατρός εἰσιν, ὄνομα ἀνωνόμαστον, μορφὴ καὶ γνῶσις. ὁ δὲ βουληθεὶς αἰὼν τὸ ὑπὲρ τὴν γνῶσιν λαβεῖν ἐν ἀγνωσίᾳ καὶ ἀμορφίᾳ ἐγένετο.

English · Claude translation

For then they recognized that what they are, they are by the grace of the Father: a name without a name, form, and knowledge. But the Aeon who wished to grasp what is beyond knowledge came to be in ignorance and formlessness.

About this passage

Source: Stählin 3:117 · 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.
Topics: Heresy

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 31.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/31/3/).

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Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 31.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/31/3/).

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