Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.17.6

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: Whoever recognizes that he is a copy of the Father becomes consubstantial with him and ascends; whoever does not perishes.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 196

Εἰ γάρ τις, φησίν, ἐξισχύσει τῶν ἐνθάδε κατανοηθῆναι ὅτι ἐστὶ πατρικὸς χαρακτὴρ ἄνωθεν μετενηνεγμένος ἐνθάδε σωματοποιηθείς, ὥσπερ ἐγκισσήματι τῷ ἀπὸ τῆς ῥάβδου, λευκὸν γέγονεν, ὁμοούσιον τῷ πατρὶ τῷ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς ὅλως, καὶ ἐκεῖ ἀνέρχεται· ἐὰν δὲ μὴ τύχῃ τῆς διδασκαλίας ταύτης, μηδὲ τὴν ἀνάγκην τῆς γενέσεως ἐπιγνῷ, ὥσπερ ἔκτρωμα ὑπὸ νύκτα γεννώμενον ὑπὸ νύκτα ἀπολεῖται.

English · Claude translation

“For if anyone of those here,” he says, “is strong enough to perceive that he is a paternal character carried down from above and embodied here, then, as by the conceiving caused by the rod, he has become white, wholly of one substance with the Father in heaven, and ascends there; but if he does not attain this teaching and does not recognize the necessity of generation, like an abortion born by night he will perish by night.”

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 196 · 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
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • ὁμοούσιος (“of one substance”) is used here in the Peratic sense of sharing the Father's nature.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.17.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/17/6/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.17.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/17/6/).

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