Source for the following: Geoffrey S. Smith, Valentinian Christianity: Texts and Translations (Oakland, Calif.: University of California Press, 2020)
Background:
In his Excerpts of Theodotus Clement of Alexandria records a
series of extracts from a variety of Valentinian sources. Despite the title of
the work, not all of the extracts come from Theodotus, a Valentinian teacher
who is known only from Clement’s extracts. He is named only five times in the
entire text. In other instances Clement may be citing Theodotus, but he does
not do so by name. Another challenge the text poses to interpreters is that
unlike the Gospel of Philip, which, if it is a collection of extracts,
does not seem to include additions by the person responsible for compiling the
extracts, Clement has added his own comments to many of the extracts, and his
additions are not always easily distinguishable from the texts he excerpts from
his Valentinian sources.
While questions remain about the precise nature of the sources Clement
uses, scholars often divide the Excerpts into four groups: (A) 1–28, (B)
29–43:1, (C) 43.2–65, and (D) 66–86. Group C has affinities with Irenaeus, AH
1.4.5–7.1 and may draw upon the source used by Irenaeus.
The Excerpts survive in two late manuscripts, one directly
copied from the other. The earliest of the two is Laur. V 3, which dates
to the eleventh century c.e. Clement likely produced the collection, however,
in the latter part of the second century c.e. The following Greek text comes
from my own transcription of Laur. V 3, in consultation with Sagnard’s
edition. (p. 57)
Greek Texts:
22 Καὶ ὅταν εἴπῃ ὁ Ἀπόστολος, «Ἐπεὶ τί ποιήσουσιν, οἱ βαπτιζόμενοι ὑπὲρ
τῶν νεκρῶν;» ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν γάρ, φησίν, οἱ Ἄγγελοι ἐβαπτίσαντο, ὧν ἐσμεν μέρη.
Νεκροὶ δὲ ἡμεῖς οἱ νεκρωθέντες τῇ συστάσει ταύτῃ, ζῶντες δὲ καὶ ἄρρενες
οἱ μὴ μεταλαβόντες τῆς συστάσεως ταύτης.
«Εἰ νεκροὶ οὐκ ἐγείρονται, τί καὶ βαπτιζόμεθα;» Ἐγειρόμεθα
οὖν ἡμεῖς ἰσάγγελοι τοῖς ἄρρεσιν ἀποκατασταθέντες, τοῖς μέλεσι τὰ μέλη, εἰς ἕνωσιν.
«Οἱ βαπτιζόμενοι» δέ, φασίν, «ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τῶν νεκρῶν,»
οἱ Ἄγγελοί εἰσιν οἱ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν βαπτιζόμενοι, ἵνα ἔχοντες καὶ ἡμεῖς τὸ Ὄνομα μὴ ἐπισχεθῶμεν
κωλυθέντες εἰς τὸ Πλήρωμα παρελθεῖν τῷ Ὅρῳ καὶ τῷ Σταυρῷ.
Διὸ καὶ ἐν τῇ χειροθεσίᾳ λέγουσιν ἐπὶ τέλους, «εἰς
λύτρωσιν ἀγγελικήν,» τουτέστιν ἣν καὶ Ἄγγελοι ἔχουσιν, ἵν’ ᾖ βεβαπτισμένος ὁ τὴν
λύτρωσιν κομισάμενος τῷ αὐτοῦ Ὀνόματι ᾧ καὶ ὁ Ἄγγελος αὐτοῦ προβεβάπτισται.
Ἐβαπτίσαντο δὲ ἐν ἀρχῇ οἱ Ἄγγελοι, ἐν λυτρώσει τοῦ
Ὀνόματος τοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἐν τῇ περιστερᾷ κατελθόντος καὶ λυτρωσαμένου αὐτόν.
Ἐδέησεν δὲ λυτρώσεως καὶ τῷ Ἰησοῦ, ἵνα μὴ
κατασχεθῇ τῇ Ἐννοίᾳ ᾗ ἐνετέθη τοῦ ὑστερήματος, προ`σ´ερχόμενος διὰ τῆς Σοφίας, ὥς
φησιν ὁ Θεόδοτος. (pp. 72, 74)
English:
22 And when the Apostle said, “Otherwise what will they do, those
baptized on behalf of the dead?” For on our behalf, he says, the angels, of
whom we are parts, were baptized.
But we are dead who are made dead by this structure, but males are
alive who did not take part in this structure.
“If the dead are not raised, why are we baptized?” Therefore we are
raised equal to angels, having been returned to the males in oneness, the
members with the members. “Those baptized on our behalf, the dead,” they say,
are the angels who are baptized on our behalf, so that when we also have the
name, we might not be restrained, prevented by the limit and the cross from
entering into the fullness.
Wherefore when laying on hands they say at the end, “For the angelic
redemption,” that is, what the angels have, so that the one receiving the
redemption might be baptized in his name, in which his angels had also been
baptized.
The angels were baptized in the beginning, in the redemption of the
name that descended upon Jesus in the dove and redeemed him.
Redemption was necessary even for Jesus, so that he might not be
detained by the mind of the deficiency in which he was placed while approaching
through Wisdom, as Theodotus says. (pp. 73, 75)
