Why Did Clement Write the Excerpts of Theodotos?

[Secret Alias]

https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0802.htm

It doesn't seem to condemn Valentinianism. Does it anywhere?

Theodotos's name isn't mentioned anywhere except the title. No mention of Valentinus or Valentinianism. "Gnostic" is mentioned 6 times. I find this work very puzzling.

[mbuckley3]

The link has misled you.

The ANF translated what we call the Eclogae Propheticae as 'Extracts of Theodotus'.

The actual Extracts (plenty of Valentiniana) : Andrew published R.P. Casey's English translation online, and it's reproduced on sites like gnosis.org. Casey's book (inc. Greek text) is available on Internet Archive.

Bogdan Bucur, on his academia.edu page, has several interesting articles on what he calls 'the other Clement' : discussing how the Eclogae and the Extracts fit into Clement's 'programme', and how they clarify the more 'speculative' asides in the Stromateis.

[Peter Kirby]

Clement definitely gives off the vibe that gnostic thought was at some point uncontroversial.

[mlinssen]

Clement definitely gives off the vibe that gnostic thought was at some point uncontroversial.

I find the Coptic NT to be much closer to Thomas than the Greek. It all started with "gnostic thought", after which it got Judaised into the NT that we have now - which started right off with inheriting the schism between *Ev and Judaism