Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 10.16.4

Hippolytus of Rome · Refutation of All Heresies · ca. 222–235 · Rome · Read in context

Authorship disputed: The work names no author. Book 1 was long printed among Origen's works as the Philosophumena; after books 4–10 were found in a manuscript from Mount Athos (published 1851), it was assigned to Hippolytus, the usual view today, though some scholars ascribe it to another Roman writer of the same circle. Books 2 and 3 are lost, and book 4 lacks its beginning.

Summary: The third Aeon made heaven to separate light from darkness.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 520

Ὁ γὰρ τρίτος αἰών, ὁ ἑαυτὸν τριπλασιάσας, ὁρῶν τοὺς χαρακτῆρας αὐτοῦ πάντας κατασπωμένους εἰς τὸ κάτω σκότος, οὐκ ἀγνοῶν τήν τε τοῦ σκότους δεινότητα καὶ τὴν τοῦ φωτὸς ἀφελότητα, ἐποίησεν οὐρανὸν καὶ μέσον πήξας διεχώρισεν ἀναμέσον τοῦ σκότους καὶ ἀναμέσον τοῦ φωτός.

English · Claude translation

For the third Aeon, which had tripled itself, seeing all its characters being dragged down into the darkness below, and not ignorant of the terribleness of the darkness and the simplicity of the light, made heaven and, fixing it in the middle, separated between the darkness and the light.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 520 · Ludwig Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, eds., S. Hippolyti episcopi et martyris Refutationis omnium haeresium librorum decem quae supersunt (Göttingen: Dieterich, 1859); section divisions from Paul Wendland, ed., Hippolytus Werke 3: Refutatio omnium haeresium, GCS 26 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1916) · Greek text: L. Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, Refutationis omnium haeresium (Göttingen, 1859), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library; section divisions from P. Wendland (GCS 26, 1916), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin); both CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Duncker–Schneidewin. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Duncker–Schneidewin; made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5 (1886) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Its chapter numbers differ from the standard (Wendland) numbering used here.
Scripture
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusion is Gen 1:4, 6–7.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 10.16.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/16/4/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 10.16.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/16/4/).

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