| Clement passage | Greek cited / alluded to | Synoptic locus | Markan corridor location | Gospel profile | Effect on Secret Mark / Canon thesis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ex. Theod. 1.61.4 | «Δεῖ τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Ἀνθρώπου ἀποδοκιμασθῆναι, ὑβρισθῆναι, σταυρωθῆναι» | Mark 8:31; Matt 16:21; Luke 9:22 (expanded diction) | Inside corridor (Mark 8) | Markan passion prediction, rhetorically expanded / harmonized | Moderately supportive (Markan anchoring, non-narrative use) |
In Excerpta ex Theodoto 1.61.4 Clement alludes to the first passion prediction, introduced by the formula «δεῖ τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Ἀνθρώπου…», which in the synoptic tradition first appears at Mark 8:31, the opening hinge of the Markan discipleship corridor (Mark 8:34–10:52). This is the decisive narrative turn where suffering, rejection, and death become the governing framework for discipleship. From a locational standpoint, Clement’s allusion therefore falls squarely within a Markan-defined sequence.
At the same time, Clement’s wording is not a verbatim reproduction of Mark. The verbs «ὑβρισθῆναι» and «σταυρωθῆναι» reflect a compressed and rhetorically intensified summary of the passion, drawing on later passion vocabulary rather than Mark’s more restrained phrasing («ἀποδοκιμασθῆναι… καὶ ἀποκτανθῆναι»). The result is a harmonized passion synopsis, not a narrative citation. Clement is not recounting an episode, but abstracting the passion into a doctrinal datum.
Crucially, Clement immediately reframes the saying metaphysically, remarking that Christ speaks “as though about another,” namely the passible aspect (τοῦ ἐμπαθοῦς). This interpretive move decisively detaches the saying from gospel narration and relocates it within Clement’s anthropology and Christology. The passion prediction becomes evidence for a distinction between the impassible divine subject and the passible economy—an Alexandrian move foreign to the narrative logic of the Synoptics themselves.
From the perspective of the Secret Mark / Canon thesis, the passage is moderately supportive but limited. It confirms that when Clement gestures toward the structure of Jesus’ teaching on suffering, he does so at precisely the Markan hinge-point where discipleship is redefined. However, he does not preserve Mark’s narrative sequencing, nor does he develop adjacent Markan material (Peter’s rebuke, the call to take up the cross, etc.). Mark supplies the axis, but not the argumentative framework.
Accordingly, Excerpta ex Theodoto 1.61.4 fits the established pattern: Clement recognizes and presupposes a Markan turning point in the gospel tradition, yet treats it as theological raw material rather than narrative authority. The passage does not weaken the hypothesis of a Mark-shaped gospel underlying Clement’s thought; it illustrates instead how Mark’s core structural moments could be abstracted, intensified, and philosophically reinterpreted within Alexandrian theology without being narratively reproduced.
