Sophia Scriptura

Excerpts from Theodotus 33.2

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

Summary: Clement: this is a distortion of the church's teaching that the Savior is the firstborn, our root and head, and the church his fruit.

Greek text · Stählin 3:117

Ἔστιν οὖν ὁ λόγος οὗτος παράκουσμα τοῦ ἡμετέρου, ἐκ τοῦ ὑποκειμένου »πρωτότοκον« λέγοντος τὸν σωτῆρα, καὶ ἔστιν ὡσπερεὶ ῥίζα καὶ κεφαλὴ ἡμῶν, ἡ δὲ ἐκκλησία καρποὶ αὐτοῦ.

English · Claude translation

This teaching, then, is a mishearing of ours, which calls the Savior “firstborn” from the substrate; and he is as it were our root and head, and the church his fruits.

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.
Scripture
Topics
Heresy, Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • Clement's own comment.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 33.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/33/2/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 33.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/33/2/).

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