Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 10.33.13

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: Christian faith rests not on eloquence but on words spoken by divine power, through which the Word calls humans freely back from disobedience.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 542

Τοιαύτη ἡ καθʼ ἡμᾶς πίστις, ὦ πάντες ἄνθρωποι, οὐ κενοῖς ῥήμασι πειθομένων, οὐδὲ σχεδιάσμασι καρδίας συναρπαζομένων, οὐδὲ πιθανότητι εὐεπείας λόγων θελγομένων, ἀλλὰ δυνάμει θείᾳ λόγοις λελαλημένοις οὐκ ἀπειθούντων. Καὶ ταῦτα θεὸς ἐκέλευε λόγῳ. Ὁ δὲ λόγος ἐφθέγγετο λέγων, διʼ αὐτῶν ἐπιστρέφων τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐκ παρακοῆς, οὐ βίᾳ ἀνάγκης δουλαγωγῶν, ἀλλʼ ἐπʼ ἐλευθερίαν ἑκουσίῳ προαιρέσει καλῶν.

English · Claude translation

Such is our faith, all you people: we are not persuaded by empty words, nor carried away by the improvisations of the heart, nor charmed by the persuasiveness of eloquent words, but we do not disobey words spoken by divine power. And these things God commanded by the Word. And the Word spoke them, through them turning the human being back from disobedience, not enslaving him by force of necessity, but calling him to freedom by his own willing choice.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 542 · 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
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The contrast with persuasive words recalls 1 Cor 2:4.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (wrong breathing: ὦ): ὧ πάντες → ὦ πάντες.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 10.33.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/33/13/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 10.33.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/33/13/).

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