Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 10.33.16

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: Christ's humanity is of the same stuff as ours; otherwise his command to imitate him would be unjust.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 542

τοῦτον ἄνθρωπον ἴσμεν [ἐκ] τοῦ καθʼ ἡμᾶς φυράματος γεγονέναι. Εἰ γὰρ μὴ ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ὑπῆρξε, μάτην νομοθετεῖ μιμεῖσθαι τὸν διδάσκαλον. Εἰ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἑτέρας ἐτύγχανεν οὐσίας, τί τὰ ὅμοια κελεύει ἐμοὶ τῷ ἀσθενεῖ πεφυκότι, καὶ πῶς οὗτος ἀγαθὸς καὶ δίκαιος;

English · Claude translation

We know that this man came into being [from] the same lump as ours. For if he were not of the same, he gives a law in vain that we should imitate the Teacher. For if that man happened to be of another substance, why does he command the same things of me, who am weak by nature? And how is he good and just?

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
Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Lump” (φύραμα) recalls Rom 9:21.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 10.33.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/33/16/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 10.33.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/33/16/).

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