Prophetic Extracts 27.5

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

Summary: Like a magnet drawing only iron, books draw only readers who can understand them.

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Greek text · Stählin 3:145

καθάπερ οὖν ἡ μαγνῆτις λίθος τὴν ἄλλην ὕλην παραπεμπομένη μόνον ἐφέλκεται διʼ ἐπιτηδειότητα τὸν σίδηρον, οὕτως καὶ τὰ βιβλία πολλῶν ὄντων τῶν ἐντυγχανόντων τοὺς οἵους τε συνιέναι μόνους ἐπισπᾶται.

English · Claude translation

Just as the magnet, passing over other material, attracts only iron because of its fitness, so books too, though they have many readers, draw only those able to understand.

About this passage

Source: Stählin 3:145 · 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: Scripture and canon

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 27.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/27/5/).

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Plain text

Clement of Alexandria, Ecl. 27.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-eclogae/27/5/).

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