Refutation of All Heresies 4.28.7

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: In darkness the magician lays the boy down and places papers by his ears.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 90

Πολὺ μὲν οὖν τυγχάνει τὸ σκότος. Λέγει γὰρ ἀδύνατον τὰ θεῖα ὁρᾷν θνητὴν φύσιν, ἱκανὸν γὰρ τὸ ὁμιλεῖν. Κατακλίνας δὲ τὸν παῖδα πρηνῆ καὶ δύο τῶν γραμματιδίων ἐκείνων, ἅπερ ἦν ἐγγεγραμμένα ἑβραϊκοῖς δῆθεν γράμμασιν ὡς δαιμόνων ὀνόματα, πλευρᾷ παραθεὶς ἑκατέρᾳ τὰ λοιπὰ τοῖς ὠσὶν ἐνθήσειν λέγει.

English · Claude translation

There is much darkness. For he says it is impossible for mortal nature to see divine things; it is enough to converse with them. Laying the boy face down, and placing two of those little writings, which were written supposedly in Hebrew letters as the names of demons, beside each side, he says he will put the rest into his ears.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 90 · 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.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.28.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/28/7/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.28.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/28/7/).

Refutation of All Heresies 4.28.7

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 90

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Notes on the original text

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