Refutation of All Heresies 5.12.6
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 Peratae say Christ came to save the upper worlds, while the lower "world" must perish.
Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 178
Τίς δέ ἐστιν ὁ τρόπος τῆς καταβάσεως αὐτῶν, ὕστερον ἐροῦμεν. Κατεληλυθέναι οὖν φησὶ τὸν Χριστὸν ἄνωθεν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγεννησίας, ἵνα διὰ τῆς καταβάσεως αὐτοῦ πάντα σωθῇ τὰ τριχῆ διῃρημένα. Τὰ μὲν γὰρ, φησίν, ἄνωθεν κατενηνεγμένα κάτω ἀνελεύσεται διʼ αὐτοῦ· τὰ δὲ ἐπιβουλεύσαντα τοῖς κατενηνεγμένοις ἄνωθεν ἀφίεται καὶ κολασθέντα ἀπολέγεται. Τοῦτό ἐστι, φησί, τὸ εἰρημένον, Οὐ γὰρ ἦλθεν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου εἰς τὸν κόσμον, ἀπολέσαι τὸν κόσμον, ἀλλʼ ἵνα σωθῇ ὁ κόσμος διʼ αὐτοῦ. Κόσμον, φησί, καλεῖ τὰς δύο μοίρας τὰς ὑπερκειμένας, τήν τε ἀγέννητον καὶ τὴν αὐτογέννητον. Ὅταν δὲ λέγῃ, φησίν· ἵνα μὴ σὺν τῷ κόσμῳ κατακριθῶμεν ἡ γραφή, τὴν τρίτην μοῖραν λέγει τοῦ κόσμου τοῦ ἰδικοῦ. Τὴν μὲν γὰρ τρίτην δεῖ φθαρῆναι, ἣν καλεῖ κόσμον, τὰς δὲ δύο τῆς φθορᾶς ἀπαλλαγῆναι τὰς ὑπερκειμένας.
English · Claude translation
What the manner of their descent is, we shall say later. He says, then, that Christ came down from above, from the unbegottenness, so that through his descent all things divided in three might be saved. For the things brought down from above, he says, will go up through him; but those that plotted against the things brought down from above are let go, and, punished, are rejected. This, he says, is what is said: "For the Son of Man did not come into the world to destroy the world, but that the world might be saved through him." By "world," he says, he means the two portions above, the unbegotten and the self-begotten. And when Scripture says, he says, "that we may not be condemned with the world," it means the third portion, the particular world. For the third, which it calls "world," must perish, and the two above be freed from perishing.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are John 3:17 (freely) and 1 Cor 11:32.
Cite this passage
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.12.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/12/6/).
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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.12.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/12/6/).
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