Prophetic Extracts 17.1

Clement of Alexandria · Prophetic Extracts · ca. 200 · Alexandria · Read in context

Summary: Against the preexistence of souls: we did not exist before God made us, or we would remember it.

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Greek text · Stählin 3:141

Ὁ θεὸς ἡμᾶς ἐποίησεν οὐ προόντας. ἐχρῆν γὰρ καὶ εἰδέναι ἡμᾶς ὅπου ἦμεν, εἰ προῆμεν, καὶ πῶς καὶ διὰ τί δεῦρο ἥκομεν· εἰ δʼ οὐ προῆμεν, τῆς γενέσεως μόνος αἴτιος ὁ θεός.

English · Claude translation

God made us when we did not exist before. For if we had existed before, we would have had to know where we were, and how and why we came here; but if we did not exist before, God alone is the cause of our coming into being.

About this passage

Source: Stählin 3:141 · 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
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

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 17.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/17/1/).

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Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 17.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/17/1/).

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