Refutation of All Heresies 10.34.4

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.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 544–546

Γέγονας γὰρ θεός· ὅσα γὰρ ὑπέμεινας πάθη ἄνθρωπος ὤν, ταῦτα ἐδίδου, ὅτι ἄνθρωπος εἶς, ὅσα δὲ παρακολουθεῖ θεῷ, ταῦτα παρέχειν ἐπήγγελται θεός, ὅτι ἐθεοποιήθης, ἀθάνατος γεννηθείς. Τουτέστι τὸ Γνῶθι σεαυτόν, ἐπιγνοὺς τὸν πεποιηκότα θεόν. Τὸ γὰρ ἐπιγνῶναι ἑαυτὸν ἐπιγνωσθῆναι συμβέβηκε τῷ καλουμένῳ ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ.

English · Claude translation

For you have become a god. For whatever sufferings you endured as a human being, these he gave because you are a human being; but whatever belongs to God, these God has promised to supply, because you have been deified, born immortal. This is the “Know yourself”: recognizing the God who made you. For to the one who is called by him, knowing oneself turns out to be being known.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 544–546 · 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

1 Cor 13:12 · echo, medium confidence
Gal 4:9 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

“You have become a god” and “deified” (ἐθεοποιήθης) describe deification by grace, not a change of nature into God. “Know yourself” is the Delphic maxim. “To be known” echoes 1 Cor 13:12 and Gal 4:9.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (wrong breathing/accent: εἶς (“you are”)): ἄνθρωπος εἷς → ἄνθρωπος εἶς.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 10.34.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/34/4/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 10.34.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/34/4/).