Excerpts from Theodotus 51.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: They read “bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh” as the divine soul hidden in the material soul.

Greek text · Stählin 3:123–124

ἐκεῖ γὰρ χοϊκὴ σὰρξ οὐκ ἀναβαίνει, ἀλλʼ ἦν τῇ ψυχῇ τῇ θείᾳ οἷον σὰρξ ἡ ὑλική. ταῦτα σημαίνει »τοῦτο νῦν ὀστοῦν ἐκ τῶν ὀστῶν μου«, τὴν θείαν ψυχὴν αἰνίσσεται τὴν ἐγκεκρυμμένην τῇ σαρκὶ καὶ στερεὰν καὶ δυσπαθῆ καὶ δυνατωτέραν, »καὶ σὰρξ ἐκ τῆς σαρκός μου«, τὴν ὑλικὴν ψυχὴν σῶμα οὖσαν τῆς θείας ψυχῆς.

English · Claude translation

for earthy flesh does not go up there, but the material soul was like flesh to the divine soul. This is what “This now is bone of my bones” signifies: it hints at the divine soul hidden in the flesh, firm, hard to affect, and stronger; and “flesh of my flesh,” the material soul, which is the body of the divine soul.

About this passage

Source

Stählin 3:123–124 · 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

Gen 2:23 · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Heresy

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 51.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/51/2/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 51.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/51/2/).