Sophia Scriptura

Excerpts from Theodotus 78.2

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

Summary: Not only the washing frees, but the knowledge of who we were and have become, where we came from and where we go, what birth and rebirth are.

Greek text · Stählin 3:131

ἔστιν δὲ οὐ τὸ λουτρὸν μόνον τὸ ἐλευθεροῦν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ γνῶσις, τίνες ἦμεν, τί γεγόναμεν· ποῦ ἦμεν, [ἢ] ποῦ ἐνεβλήθημεν· ποῦ σπεύδομεν, πόθεν λυτρούμεθα· τί γέννησις, τί ἀναγέννησις. Ἕως οὖν ἀμόρφωτον, φασίν, ἔτι τὸ σπέρμα, θηλείας ἐστὶ τέκνον·

English · Claude translation

But it is not only the washing that sets free, but also the knowledge: who we were, what we have become; where we were, or where we have been thrown; where we are hastening, from what we are redeemed; what birth is, and what rebirth. As long, then, as the seed is still unformed, they say, it is a child of the female;

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:131 · 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, Baptism

Notes

Translation notes

  • This famous summary of Gnostic knowledge is attributed to Theodotus. The bracketed word in the Greek is the editor's deletion.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 78.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/78/2/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 78.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/78/2/).

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