Sophia Scriptura

Excerpts from Theodotus 61.6

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

Summary: They say Christ's body died when the Spirit from his baptism withdrew; otherwise death would have overpowered the Savior.

Greek text · Stählin 3:127

ἀπέθανεν δὲ ἀποστάντος τοῦ καταβάντος ἐπʼ αὐτῷ ἐπὶ τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ πνεύματος, οὐκ ἰδίᾳ γενομένου, ἀλλὰ συσταλέντος, ἵνα καὶ ἐνεργήσῃ ὁ θάνατος, ἐπεὶ πῶς τῆς ζωῆς παρούσης ἐν αὐτῷ ἀπέθανεν τὸ σῶμα; οὕτω γὰρ ἂν καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ σωτῆρος ὁ θάνατος ἐκράτησεν ἄν, ὅπερ ἄτοπον.

English · Claude translation

He died when the Spirit that had come down on him at the Jordan withdrew, not separating itself but drawing itself in, so that death too might act; for how, while life was present in him, did the body die? For in that way death would have overpowered the Savior himself, which is absurd.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:127 · 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

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 61.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/61/6/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 61.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/61/6/).

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