From Stromateis 6.6.50–51 Clement writes:
changed from wild beasts by the faith of the Lord, they become men of God, advancing from the wish to change to the fact. For some the Lord exhorts, and to those who have already made the attempt he stretches forth his hand and draws them up… For the Lord dreads not the face of any one, nor will he regard greatness; for he hath made small and great, and cares alike for all.
This portrays Christ actively urging and uplifting those transitioning from spiritual “wild beast” to true humanity.
The Secret Gospel of Mark, as quoted in Clement’s letter to Theodore includes a passage where Jesus raises a dead young man and then engages him in intimate instruction. In that narrative:
And… going in where the youth was, he stretched forth his hand and raised him… the youth, looking upon him, loved him and began to beseech him that he might be with him… and… Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God.
The language of transformation and divine agency on both sides aligns. In the Stromateis passage Clement depicts the Lord as one who urges on (προτρέπει) those beginning the journey and draws up those who have already begun — the same dynamic found in the Secret Mark story where Jesus not only raises the young man from death (stretching out his hand) but then teaches him the mystery of the kingdom of God. This motif of Christ as initiator of transformation and deeper teaching is precisely what Secret Mark supplies narratively and what Clement rearticulates theologically in the Stromateis.
Βασιλεία / μυστήριον τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ Θεοῦ
In the Secret Gospel citation preserved in Clement’s letter to Theodore, Jesus teaches the young man “τὸ μυστήριον τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ Θεοῦ” at the conclusion of the Bethany episode. This formulation aligns closely with Clement’s own theological framework. In the Stromateis, Clement consistently presents Christian life as progressive movement toward knowledge and participation in the kingdom of God. Although the exact phrase “βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν” appears elsewhere in the work (e.g., in Clement’s discussion of Matthew 6:33), the kingdom functions throughout as a conceptual goal associated with advanced understanding. The language of a “mystery of the kingdom,” disclosed through privileged instruction, fits naturally within Clement’s account of graded Christian pedagogy and is entirely at home in his theological vocabulary.
Χεῖρα ὀρέγει / χεῖρα ἤγειρεν (hand extended / raising up)
In the Secret Gospel passage, Jesus “ἐξέτεινεν τὴν χεῖρα καὶ ἤγειρεν αὐτόν,” stretching out his hand and raising the youth. In Stromateis 6.6.50–51, Clement uses strikingly similar language to describe Christ’s salvific action: “χεῖρα ὀρέγει καὶ ἀνέλκει,” “he stretches out his hand and draws up.” The overlap is not merely lexical but conceptual. In both cases, the extended hand signifies Christ’s active agency in transformation: in Secret Mark, the youth is raised from death; in the Stromateis, believers are lifted from a subhuman or bestial state into true humanity. The shared imagery of χείρ combined with verbs of elevation reinforces the theological continuity between the narrative action of Secret Mark and Clement’s doctrinal exposition.
Μεταβολή / μεταβαλόμενοι (change / transformation)
Clement’s language of transformation is explicit in Stromateis 6.6.50, where he speaks of believers “μεταβαλόμενοι… ἄνθρωποι γίνονται θεοῦ,” being changed and becoming men of God. Although the verb μεταβάλλεσθαι does not occur in the surviving Greek fragment of the Secret Gospel quotation, the narrative itself embodies a paradigmatic μεταβολή. The youth moves from death to life, from isolation to intimacy with Jesus, and from ignorance to instruction in the mystery of the kingdom. This narrative transformation occupies the same semantic field as Clement’s doctrinal language of change, making the absence of the specific verb insignificant for the conceptual parallel.
Προτρέπει / Theodore’s theme of progression
In the Stromateis, Clement uses προτρέπει to characterize Christ’s role in urging believers forward toward truth, virtue, and knowledge. This exhortative function corresponds closely to what is depicted in the Secret Mark episode. Jesus’ private instruction of the youth—explicitly framed as teaching the mystery of the kingdom—constitutes precisely such an act of directed spiritual advancement. Even without the verb προτρέπει appearing in the fragment itself, the scene presupposes the same pedagogical dynamic: Christ actively draws, raises, and instructs those prepared for further progress. The convergence of exhortation, instruction, and transformation situates both texts within a shared theological logic of ascent.
In the Secret Gospel of Mark, as preserved only in Clement’s Mar Saba letter, Mark is said to have composed an expanded, “more spiritual” version of his Gospel for those being perfected, which recounts Jesus raising a young man from the dead and then teaching him the mystery of the kingdom of God. That motif of life-giving teaching following resurrection creates a narrative logic of transformation — from death to life, from ordinary discipleship to deeper initiation — that Clement explicitly affirms in the Stromateis passage.
In the Stromateis passage Clement is asserting that those who were like beasts become “men of God” through the Lord’s power and that Christ urges on the uninitiated and draws up those already committed (τοὺς μὲν… προτρέπει… καὶ χεῖρα ὀρέγει καὶ ἀνέλκει). That language of calling, urging, lifting, and advancing resonates with the narrative dynamic in Secret Mark: Christ as both restorer and teacher of the initiate. When Clement refers to the Lord extending his hand and lifting up, it echoes the story in the longer Mark version where Jesus takes the young man’s hand and raises him from death — a vivid image of transformation that stands paradigmatically for his work of initiation and impartation of the mystery of the kingdom.
In Secret Mark, the resurrected youth becomes a figure for those being perfected, whose transformation is both physical/ethical and spiritual — a deeper participation in Christ’s life and mystery. In the Stromateis Clement is doing the same thing hermeneutically: not repeating the narrative but translating the narrative’s existential import into doctrinal language about conversion and sanctification. Where Secret Mark offers a story of Christ raising and instructing a disciple, the Stromateis passage describes Christ urging on and drawing up those who respond to faith, thereby making them truly human (anthrōpoi) and children of God through communion with him.
Thus if one accepts that Clement indeed knew and considered the tradition of this longer Mark and used it as part of his teaching on spiritual progress, then the Stromateis passage can be argued to be a paraphrastic theological reworking of the same motif of Christ as the agent of inner transformation and deeper instruction, rather than an unrelated theological trope. This does not require literal verbal dependence, but it does suggest that Clement’s spiritual hermeneutics and his portrayal of Christ’s transformative work in the Stromateis are conceptually continuous with how he portrays the assumed Secret Gospel material elsewhere.
