Sophia Scriptura

Excerpts from Theodotus 81.3

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

Summary: Air feeds or quenches fire, but the Spirit from above rules even the evil powers.

Greek text · Stählin 3:132

καὶ τὸ σωματικὸν πνεῦμα τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ πυρὸς τροφὴ καὶ ὑπέκκαυμα γίνεται ὀλίγον ὄν, πλεῖον δὲ γενόμενον σβεστήριον πέφυκεν, τὸ δὲ ἄνωθεν δοθὲν ἡμῖν πνεῦμα ἀσώματον ὂν οὐ στοιχείων μόνων, ἀλλὰ καὶ δυνάμεων κρατεῖ καὶ ἀρχῶν πονηρῶν.

English · Claude translation

And bodily air, when little, becomes food and kindling for the sensible fire, but when there is more of it, its nature is to extinguish it; but the Spirit given us from above, being bodiless, rules not only the elements but also the powers and evil principalities.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:132 · 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
Baptism

Notes

Translation notes

  • The word πνεῦμα means both “air, breath” and “Spirit”; the argument plays on the two senses.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 81.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/81/3/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 81.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/81/3/).

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