One of the few passages in Clement that might initially seem to support a sexual reading of the Letter to Theodore occurs in Book III of the Stromata . Clement there attacks Christians who use the language of the mysteries to describe promiscuous sexual intercourse. Because the Letter to Theodore is itself framed as a response to the Carpocratians, the passage raises an obvious question. If Clement elsewhere associates heterodox “mystical” language with sexual license, does that give us grounds for interpreting the disputed expression γυμνοὶ γυμνῷ , “naked ones with the naked one,” sexually? At first glance the argument has some force. The Letter opens by accusing the Carpocratians of wandering into “carnal and bodily sins” and becoming slaves of base desires. The Gospel passage Clement subsequently quotes contains a young man who comes to Jesus wearing a linen cloth over his naked body, remains with him during the night, and is taught the mystery of the kingdom of God. If Clement al...