Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.19.1

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: The Sethians teach three principles, each with countless powers, that is, capacities to become anything.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 198–200

Ἴδωμεν οὖν τί λέγουσιν οἱ Σηθιανοί. Τούτοις δοκεῖ τῶν ὅλων εἶναι τρεῖς ἀρχὰς περιωρισμένας, ἑκάστην δὲ τῶν ἀρχῶν ἀπείρους ἔχειν δυνάμεις. Δυνάμεις δʼ αὐτῶν λεγόντων λογιζέσθω ὁ ἀκούων τοῦτο αὐτοὺς λέγειν· Πᾶν ὅ τι νοήσει ἐπινοεῖς ἢ καὶ παραλείπεις μὴ νοηθέν, τοῦτο ἑκάστη τῶν ἀρχῶν πέφυκε γενέσθαι, ὡς ἐν ἀνθρωπίνῃ ψυχῇ πᾶσα ἡτισοῦν διδασκομένη τέχνη·

English · Claude translation

Let us see, then, what the Sethians say. They hold that there are three defined principles of all things, and that each of the principles has infinite powers. When they speak of “powers,” let the hearer take them to mean this: everything you conceive by thought, or even pass over without conceiving it, each of the principles is by nature able to become, just as in a human soul any art whatever that is taught;

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 198–200 · 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.
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The Sethians, a Gnostic group named after Seth, son of Adam, are described in Book 5 chapters 19–22.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.19.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/19/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.19.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/19/1/).

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