Excerpta ex Theodoto (from the writings of Clement of Alexadria)
"Extracts from the Works of Theodotus and the So-Called Oriental Teachings at the Time of Valentinus"
7 Therefore, the Father, being unknown, wished to be known to the Aeons, and through his own thought, as if he had known himself, he put forth the Only-Begotten, the spirit of Knowledge which is in Knowledge. So he too who came forth from Know ledge, that is, from the Father's Thought, became Knowledge, that is, the Son, because “through' the Son the Father was known.” But the Spirit of Love has been mingled with the Spirit of Knowledge, as the Father with the Son, and Thought with Truth, having proceeded from Truth as Knowledge from Thought. And he who remained “ Only-Begotten Son in the bosom of the Father” explains Thought to the Aeons through Knowledge, just as if he had also been put forth from his bosom; but him who appeared here, the Apostle no longer calls “ Only Begotten,” but “ as Only-Begotten,” “Glory as of an Only-Begotten.” This is because being one and the same, Jesus is the” First-Born” in creation, but in the Pleroma is “Only- Begotten.” But he is the same, being to each place such as can be contained [in it]. And he who descended is never divided from him who remained. For the Apostle says, “For he who ascended is the same as he who descended.” And they call the Creator, the image of the Only-Begotten. Therefore even the works of the image are the same and therefore the Lord, having made the dead whom he raised an image of the spiritual resurrection, raised them not so that their flesh was incorruptible but as if they were going to die again.
The Father, in accordance with his exalted position over the Totalities, being an unknown and incomprehensible one, has such greatness and magnitude, that, if he had revealed himself suddenly, quickly, to all the exalted ones among the aeons who had come forth from him, they would have perished.The Tripartite Tractate
23 The followers of Valentinus say that Jesus is the Paraclete, because he has come full of the Aeons, having come forth from the whole. For Christ left behind Sophia, who had put him forth, and going into the Pleroma, asked for help for Sophia, who was left outside; and Jesus was put forth by the good will of the Aeons as a Paraclete for the Aeon which had passed. In the type of the Paraclete, Paul became the Apostle of the Resurrection. Immediately after the Lord's Passion he also was sent to preach. Therefore he preached the Saviour from both points of view: as begotten and passible for the sake of those on the left, because, being able to know him, they are afraid of him in this position, and in spiritual wise from the Holy Spirit and a virgin, as the angels on the right know him. For each one knows the Lord after his own fashion, and not all in the same way. “The Angels of the little ones” that is, of the elect who will be in the same inheritance and perfection, “behold the face of the Father.” And perhaps the Face is now the Son, and now as much of that comprehension of the Father as they perceive who have been instructed by the Son. But the rest of the Father is unknown.
24 The Valentinians say that the Spirit which each one of the prophets had adapted to service was poured out upon all those of the Church. Therefore too the signs of the Spirit, healings and prophecies, are fulfilled through the Church. But they do not know that the Paraclete, who now works continuously in the Church, is of the same substance and power as he who worked continuously according to the Old Testament.
25 The followers of Valentinus defined the Angel as a Logos having a message from Him who is. And, using the same terminology, they call the Aeons Logoi.
31 Moreover, if he also who came down was the “good will” of the whole, “for in him was the whole Pleroma bodily,” and the Passion was his, it is clear that the seed in him shared also in the Passion, and that through them the “whole” and the “all” are found to be suffering. Moreover through the persuasion of the twelfth Aeon the whole was instructed, as they say, and shared in his Passion. For then they knew that they are what they are by the grace of the Father, a nameless name, form and knowledge. But the Aeon which wished to grasp that which is beyond knowledge fell into ignorance and formlessness. Whence it effected an abstraction of knowledge which is a shadow of the Name, that is the Son, the form of the Aeons. Thus the distribution of the Name among the Aeons is the loss of the Name.
32 Therefore though there is unity in the Pleroma, each of the Aeons has its own complement, the syzygia. Therefore, whatever come out of a syzygia are complete in themselves (pleromas) and whatever come out of one are images. So Theodotus called the Christ who came out of the thought of Wisdom, an “image of the Pleroma.” Now he abandoned his mother and ascending into the Pleroma was mixed as if with the whole and thus also with the Paraclete.
41 The superior seeds, he says, came forth neither as passions, the seeds of which would have perished when they perished, nor as a creation, but as offspring; since otherwise, when creation was being put together, the seeds would have been put together with it. Therefore, also it has an affinity with the Light, that is Jesus, whom the Christ, who besought the Aeons, first put forth.
47 Now the Saviour became the first universal creator. “But Wisdom,” the second, “built a house for herself and hewed out seven pillars” and first of all she put forth a god, the image of the Father, and through him she made heaven and earth, that is “heavenly things, and the earthly” – the things on the right hand and on the left. This, as an image of the Father, then became a father and put forth first the psychic Christ, an image of the Son, then the archangels as images of the Aeons, then the angels of the archangels from the psychic and luminous substance to which the prophetic word refers, “And the Spirit of God was superimposed upon the waters,” declaring that in the combination of the two substances, made for him, the simple was superimposed but the heavy and material substance is borne under, the thick and coarse. But it is even suggested that this was incorporeal in the beginning when it is called “invisible.” Yet it was never invisible to any man that ever lived nor to God, for he made it. But he has somehow declared its absence of form, shape and design.
64 Henceforth the spiritual elements having put off their souls, together with the Mother who leads the bridegroom, also lead bridegrooms, their angels, and pass into the bride chamber within the Limit and attain to the vision of the Father, – having become intellectual Aeons, – in the intellectual and eternal marriages of the Syzyge.
23 The followers of Valentinus say that Jesus is the Paraclete, because he has come full of the Aeons, having come forth from the whole. For Christ left behind Sophia, who had put him forth, and going into the Pleroma, asked for help for Sophia, who was left outside; and Jesus was put forth by the good will of the Aeons as a Paraclete for the Aeon which had passed. In the type of the Paraclete, Paul became the Apostle of the Resurrection. Immediately after the Lord's Passion he also was sent to preach. Therefore he preached the Saviour from both points of view: as begotten and passible for the sake of those on the left, because, being able to know him, they are afraid of him in this position, and in spiritual wise from the Holy Spirit and a virgin, as the angels on the right know him. For each one knows the Lord after his own fashion, and not all in the same way. “The Angels of the little ones” that is, of the elect who will be in the same inheritance and perfection, “behold the face of the Father.” And perhaps the Face is now the Son, and now as much of that comprehension of the Father as they perceive who have been instructed by the Son. But the rest of the Father is unknown.
24 The Valentinians say that the Spirit which each one of the prophets had adapted to service was poured out upon all those of the Church. Therefore too the signs of the Spirit, healings and prophecies, are fulfilled through the Church. But they do not know that the Paraclete, who now works continuously in the Church, is of the same substance and power as he who worked continuously according to the Old Testament.
25 The followers of Valentinus defined the Angel as a Logos having a message from Him who is. And, using the same terminology, they call the Aeons Logoi.
31 Moreover, if he also who came down was the “good will” of the whole, “for in him was the whole Pleroma bodily,” and the Passion was his, it is clear that the seed in him shared also in the Passion, and that through them the “whole” and the “all” are found to be suffering. Moreover through the persuasion of the twelfth Aeon the whole was instructed, as they say, and shared in his Passion. For then they knew that they are what they are by the grace of the Father, a nameless name, form and knowledge. But the Aeon which wished to grasp that which is beyond knowledge fell into ignorance and formlessness. Whence it effected an abstraction of knowledge which is a shadow of the Name, that is the Son, the form of the Aeons. Thus the distribution of the Name among the Aeons is the loss of the Name.
32 Therefore though there is unity in the Pleroma, each of the Aeons has its own complement, the syzygia. Therefore, whatever come out of a syzygia are complete in themselves (pleromas) and whatever come out of one are images. So Theodotus called the Christ who came out of the thought of Wisdom, an “image of the Pleroma.” Now he abandoned his mother and ascending into the Pleroma was mixed as if with the whole and thus also with the Paraclete.
41 The superior seeds, he says, came forth neither as passions, the seeds of which would have perished when they perished, nor as a creation, but as offspring; since otherwise, when creation was being put together, the seeds would have been put together with it. Therefore, also it has an affinity with the Light, that is Jesus, whom the Christ, who besought the Aeons, first put forth.
47 Now the Saviour became the first universal creator. “But Wisdom,” the second, “built a house for herself and hewed out seven pillars” and first of all she put forth a god, the image of the Father, and through him she made heaven and earth, that is “heavenly things, and the earthly” – the things on the right hand and on the left. This, as an image of the Father, then became a father and put forth first the psychic Christ, an image of the Son, then the archangels as images of the Aeons, then the angels of the archangels from the psychic and luminous substance to which the prophetic word refers, “And the Spirit of God was superimposed upon the waters,” declaring that in the combination of the two substances, made for him, the simple was superimposed but the heavy and material substance is borne under, the thick and coarse. But it is even suggested that this was incorporeal in the beginning when it is called “invisible.” Yet it was never invisible to any man that ever lived nor to God, for he made it. But he has somehow declared its absence of form, shape and design.
64 Henceforth the spiritual elements having put off their souls, together with the Mother who leads the bridegroom, also lead bridegrooms, their angels, and pass into the bride chamber within the Limit and attain to the vision of the Father, – having become intellectual Aeons, – in the intellectual and eternal marriages of the Syzyge.
# Theodotus and the Nature of the Aeons
The Valentinian teacher Theodotus, whose teachings survive through the *Excerpta ex Theodoto* preserved by Clement of Alexandria, provides one of the most detailed early explanations of the nature of the Aeons and their relation to the Pleroma. His teaching presents the Aeons not merely as individual beings but as structured expressions of the Father's manifestation within the Pleroma. They are ordered realities proceeding from the Father's thought, arranged in pairs, participating in knowledge of the Father, and forming a complete system of existence within the divine fullness.
Theodotus describes the origin of the Aeons in relation to the Father's desire to be known. The Father himself remains beyond direct comprehension because of the magnitude of his being. Knowledge of him therefore proceeds through mediation within the Pleroma.
> “Therefore, the Father, being unknown, wished to be known to the Aeons, and through his own thought, as if he had known himself, he put forth the Only-Begotten, the spirit of Knowledge which is in Knowledge. So he too who came forth from Knowledge, that is, from the Father's Thought, became Knowledge, that is, the Son, because ‘through the Son the Father was known.’”
Here Theodotus explains that the Father's thought produces the Only-Begotten as the medium of knowledge. The Son reveals the Father to the Aeons, allowing them to participate in knowledge of the source from which they came. The Aeons themselves therefore exist within a structure of knowledge flowing outward from the Father's thought.
The relationship between knowledge and love is also central to this structure.
> “But the Spirit of Love has been mingled with the Spirit of Knowledge, as the Father with the Son, and Thought with Truth, having proceeded from Truth as Knowledge from Thought.”
In this passage Theodotus indicates that the Aeonic order reflects complementary principles—knowledge and love—mirroring the relationships that exist within the Pleroma. These principles appear repeatedly throughout Valentinian descriptions of the Aeonic order, particularly in the pairing of Aeons known as syzygies.
The role of the Son in revealing the Father to the Aeons is further clarified:
> “And he who remained ‘Only-Begotten Son in the bosom of the Father’ explains Thought to the Aeons through Knowledge, just as if he had also been put forth from his bosom.”
Through the Son the Aeons come to understand the Father's thought. The Son functions as the mediator of knowledge within the Pleroma, allowing the Aeons to participate in the comprehension of the Father's being without being overwhelmed by his magnitude.
Theodotus also distinguishes between the manifestation of Christ within the Pleroma and his manifestation within creation.
> “But him who appeared here, the Apostle no longer calls ‘Only Begotten,’ but ‘as Only-Begotten,’ ‘Glory as of an Only-Begotten.’ This is because being one and the same, Jesus is the ‘First-Born’ in creation, but in the Pleroma is ‘Only-Begotten.’”
This statement illustrates how the same figure can function differently depending on the realm in which he appears. Within the Pleroma he is the Only-Begotten, while within creation he appears as the First-Born. Yet Theodotus insists that the same reality operates in both contexts.
The connection between the heavenly order and the Creator is also expressed in symbolic terms.
> “And they call the Creator, the image of the Only-Begotten.”
In Valentinian thought, the Creator functions as an image reflecting the higher realities of the Pleroma. The visible order therefore mirrors the invisible systems within the Aeonic realm.
Theodotus also emphasizes that the Father's transcendence requires mediation. Direct revelation of the Father would overwhelm the Aeons.
This concept is also expressed in a related Valentinian text preserved in the Nag Hammadi collection, the *Tripartite Tractate*:
> “The Father, in accordance with his exalted position over the Totalities, being an unknown and incomprehensible one, has such greatness and magnitude, that, if he had revealed himself suddenly, quickly, to all the exalted ones among the aeons who had come forth from him, they would have perished.”
This statement explains why the Aeonic system exists. The Aeons mediate the Father's presence in a structured and ordered way, allowing the totality of beings within the Pleroma to participate in his reality without being destroyed by the immediacy of his magnitude.
Theodotus also describes the role of Jesus in relation to the Aeons and the restoration of the Pleroma.
> “The followers of Valentinus say that Jesus is the Paraclete, because he has come full of the Aeons, having come forth from the whole.”
Jesus therefore appears as the embodiment of the entire Aeonic order. His coming represents the presence of the whole Pleroma within a single manifestation.
Theodotus continues by describing how the Aeons collectively act for the restoration of Sophia.
> “For Christ left behind Sophia, who had put him forth, and going into the Pleroma, asked for help for Sophia, who was left outside; and Jesus was put forth by the good will of the Aeons as a Paraclete for the Aeon which had passed.”
Here the Aeons act together as a unified system. Their collective will produces Jesus as a Paraclete to assist the Aeon that had fallen outside the harmony of the Pleroma.
Theodotus also emphasizes that different beings perceive the Lord in different ways depending on their nature.
> “For each one knows the Lord after his own fashion, and not all in the same way.”
Knowledge within the Aeonic system is therefore relative to the capacity of the one who perceives it.
Theodotus also explains how the concept of Logos applies to the Aeons.
> “The followers of Valentinus defined the Angel as a Logos having a message from Him who is. And, using the same terminology, they call the Aeons Logoi.”
In this description the Aeons function as expressions or words of the Father's thought. Each Aeon is therefore a Logos—a rational expression or articulation of the divine order.
Theodotus also describes an event within the Aeonic realm involving the twelfth Aeon.
> “Moreover through the persuasion of the twelfth Aeon the whole was instructed, as they say, and shared in his Passion.”
This passage reflects the idea that the experiences of a single Aeon can affect the entire Aeonic system. Because the Aeons form a unified structure within the Pleroma, events involving one Aeon resonate throughout the whole.
Theodotus continues by explaining that the Aeons learned something through this event.
> “For then they knew that they are what they are by the grace of the Father, a nameless name, form and knowledge.”
This realization emphasizes the dependence of the Aeons upon the Father. Their existence and identity come from his grace rather than from their own independent power.
Theodotus also describes the consequences of an Aeon attempting to grasp what lies beyond knowledge.
> “But the Aeon which wished to grasp that which is beyond knowledge fell into ignorance and formlessness.”
This statement illustrates a fundamental principle within the Valentinian system: the Aeons must remain within the limits of their knowledge. Attempting to transcend those limits leads to disorder.
From this event Theodotus describes a symbolic abstraction:
> “Whence it effected an abstraction of knowledge which is a shadow of the Name, that is the Son, the form of the Aeons.”
The Son functions as the form that gives structure to the Aeons. The Aeonic order therefore reflects the form embodied in the Son.
Theodotus further explains how the Aeons are arranged.
> “Therefore though there is unity in the Pleroma, each of the Aeons has its own complement, the syzygia.”
The concept of syzygy is essential to Valentinian cosmology. Aeons exist in pairs, each completing the other. The union of these complementary principles produces fullness.
He continues:
> “Therefore, whatever come out of a syzygia are complete in themselves (pleromas) and whatever come out of one are images.”
This statement shows that completeness arises through union. When Aeons operate together as syzygies they produce fullness, while individual emanations produce images or reflections.
Theodotus also refers to Christ in relation to this structure.
> “So Theodotus called the Christ who came out of the thought of Wisdom, an ‘image of the Pleroma.’”
Christ here represents a manifestation that reflects the structure of the entire Pleroma.
Theodotus also describes how this Christ re-enters the fullness:
> “Now he abandoned his mother and ascending into the Pleroma was mixed as if with the whole and thus also with the Paraclete.”
This imagery suggests reintegration with the totality of the Aeonic system.
Theodotus then describes the origin of certain spiritual seeds associated with the light.
> “Therefore, also it has an affinity with the Light, that is Jesus, whom the Christ, who besought the Aeons, first put forth.”
The spiritual elements within humanity are therefore connected with the Aeonic order through the mediation of Christ.
Theodotus also provides a description of the creative process associated with Wisdom.
> “Now the Saviour became the first universal creator. ‘But Wisdom,’ the second, ‘built a house for herself and hewed out seven pillars’ and first of all she put forth a god, the image of the Father, and through him she made heaven and earth.”
This passage shows how the visible cosmos reflects higher structures originating in the Aeonic realm.
He continues:
> “This, as an image of the Father, then became a father and put forth first the psychic Christ, an image of the Son, then the archangels as images of the Aeons, then the angels of the archangels.”
Here the hierarchy of beings mirrors the structure of the Aeonic order. Each level reflects the level above it.
Theodotus also describes the formation of the cosmos through the interaction of substances:
> “And the Spirit of God was superimposed upon the waters, declaring that in the combination of the two substances, made for him, the simple was superimposed but the heavy and material substance is borne under.”
This description portrays the ordering of elements within creation as a reflection of higher realities.
Finally, Theodotus describes the destiny of the spiritual elements and their transformation within the Aeonic order.
> “Henceforth the spiritual elements having put off their souls, together with the Mother who leads the bridegroom, also lead bridegrooms, their angels, and pass into the bride chamber within the Limit and attain to the vision of the Father, – having become intellectual Aeons, – in the intellectual and eternal marriages of the Syzyge.”
In this final vision the participants enter into the Aeonic realm itself. They become intellectual Aeons, participating fully in the eternal syzygies that characterize the Pleroma.
Through these teachings Theodotus presents the Aeons as an ordered system of realities flowing outward from the Father's thought. They exist in complementary pairs, function as expressions of the Father's Logos, and collectively form the structure of the Pleroma. Their purpose is to mediate the knowledge of the Father, maintain the harmony of the divine fullness, and ultimately draw spiritual beings into participation in the eternal order of the Aeonic realm.
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