Sophia Scriptura

Excerpts from Theodotus 52.1

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

Summary: The flesh is the “adversary” of the Gospel, Paul's warring law, and the strong man to be bound.

Greek text · Stählin 3:124

Τοῦτο τὸ σαρκίον »ἀντίδικον« ὁ σωτὴρ εἶπεν καὶ ὁ Παῦλος »νόμον ἀντιστρατευόμενον τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ νοός μου«, καὶ »δῆσαι« παραινεῖ καὶ »ἁρπάσαι ὡς ἰσχυροῦ τὰ σκεύη«, τοῦ ἀντιπολεμοῦντος τῇ οὐρανίῳ ψυχῇ.

English · Claude translation

This bit of flesh the Savior called “the adversary,” and Paul “a law warring against the law of my mind”; and he advises us to “bind” it and “plunder the goods as of a strong man,” of the one who wars against the heavenly soul.

About this passage

Source
Stählin 3:124 · 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.
Scripture
Topics
Heresy, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are Matt 5:25, Rom 7:23, and Matt 12:29.

Cite this passage

Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 52.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/52/1/).

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Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Exc. 52.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-excerpta/52/1/).

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