The Shelves · Philosophy

Excerpts from Theodotus

Ἐκ τῶν Θεοδότου ἐπιτομαί

Known · Attestedin Alexandria?Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Philosophy

Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

Clement of Alexandria, excerpting the Valentinian teacher Theodotus

c. 150–215 CE. Taught a Christian gnosis steeped in Greek philosophy until the persecution of 202/203 drove him out. His Stromata quote hundreds of lost authors, among them the Gnostics Basilides, Valentinus and Epiphanes, and describe the 42 books of Hermes carried in Egyptian processions.

Excerpts from Theodotus

Ἐκ τῶν Θεοδότου ἐπιτομαί

Opening words not preserved.

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives whole

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Attested

Written in Alexandria.

On the table: written in Alexandria; no evidence it was in the Library.

Read it today

Greek text (Scaife Viewer) · the original · link checked 31 Oct 2026
Casey, The Excerpta ex Theodoto (1934) · original and translation · link checked 31 Oct 2026

III · In the show

Heresiologists and early Christian doctrine, episode 2, at 43 secondsTranscriptHeresiologists and early Christian doctrine: why we know the early schools from their opponents.Known: attested
Heresiologists and early Christian doctrine, episode 2, at 2 minutes 2 secondsTranscript“Clement of Alexandria was a little bit more um he was a little bit more amunable to you know particularly the Gnostic schools”Fair: Clement's 'true gnostic' and his careful quotation of Valentinian and Basilidean sources.Known: attested
Baptism, anointing, and the Holy Spirit, episode 2, at 23 minutes 50 secondsTranscript“Basalian gnostics did not celebrate the incarnation of the Lord on or around the winter solstice”Clement is the source: the Basilideans kept the feast of the Baptism, on 15 or 11 Tybi, around 10 or 6 January (Stromata I.21.146).Known: attested

+ 14 more

Path: Martinism and Reintegration, station 4Understand the anointing. The Basilidian feast of the Baptism, connected with the anointing at the Jordan.Known: attested
Gnosticism · Thirty aeons and a Limit: 'How we know' cites Clement's Excerpts from TheodotusKnown: attested
Gnosticism · Traditions: the Basilidean current, 'reports in Clement of Alexandria'Known: attested
Gnostic readings of the serpent and demiurge, episode 2, at 37 minutes 33 secondsTranscriptGnostic readings of the serpent and the demiurge.Known: attested
Gnostic texts and orthodoxy, episode 11, at 19 minutesTranscriptKnown: attested
Gnosticism, Material vs Spiritual Reality, episode 23, at 37 minutes 20 secondsTranscriptValentinians and Basilideans.Known: attested
Plato’s Demiurge vs. the Gnostic Demiurge, episode 36, at 1 hour 54 minutes 33 secondsTranscriptPlato's demiurge against the Gnostic demiurge.Known: attested
Early Spread of Christianity & Esotericism, episode 17, at 48 minutes 34 secondsTranscriptEarly spread of Christianity and esotericism; Plotinus' hypostases and the Trinity.Known: attested
Gnostic texts and orthodoxy, episode 11, at 20 minutes 11 secondsTranscript“The the Coptic schools in Alexandria in and around Alexandria”Known: attested
Correction
What was said
"The Coptic schools in Alexandria".
What the sources say
The Alexandrian teachers wrote in Greek; Coptic belongs to the later translations made in Upper Egypt.
Alexandria as Esoteric Crossroads, episode 17, at 47 minutes 57 secondsTranscript“the evangelist Mark brought Christianity there in 42 CE”Church tradition, which the speaker labels 'legend… or tradition' (Eusebius, Church History 2.16); Eusebius' Chronicle, in Jerome's version, puts Mark's mission in the early 40s.Known: attested
Correction
What was said
The Hermetic tracts were "all found outside of Alexandria".
What the sources say
Near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, some 600 km south of Alexandria (about 615 km in a straight line, farther by the river). Codex VI holds three Hermetic texts (the Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth, the Prayer of Thanksgiving, an extract of the Asclepius) and an extract of Plato's Republic.
Gnosticism · Chronology: Great system-buildersKnown: attested
Christian Mysticism · Chronology: Origen reads the SongOrigen reads the Song.Known: attested
Christian Mysticism · Chronology: The desert withdrawalThe desert withdrawal; Athanasius' Life of Antony.Known: attested
Symbolism · Origen's three sensesKnown: attested

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references

Excerpts from Theodotus 78.2

Modern scholarship (2)

R. P. Casey, The Excerpta ex Theodoto of Clement of Alexandria (London: Christophers, 1934).
E. Thomassen, The Spiritual Seed: The Church of the 'Valentinians' (Leiden: Brill, 2006).

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

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