Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.23.1

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 Gnostic Justin leads his hearers back to Greek myths and binds them by oath before revealing his mystery.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 214

Ἰουστῖνος πάντη ἐναντίος τῇ τῶν ἁγίων γραφῶν γενόμενος διδαχῇ, προσέτι δὲ καὶ τῇ τῶν μακαρίων εὐαγγελιστῶν ἐγγράφῳ φωνῇ, ὡς ἐδίδασκεν ὁ λόγος τοὺς μαθητὰς λέγων· Εἰς ὁδὸν ἐθνῶν μὴ ἀπέλθητε, ὅπερ δηλοῖ μὴ προσέχειν τῇ τῶν ἐθνῶν ματαίᾳ διδασκαλίᾳ, οὗτος ἐπὶ τὰ ἐθνῶν τερατολογούμενα καὶ διδασκόμενα ἀναγαγεῖν πειρᾶται τοὺς ἀκροωμένους, αὐτολεξεὶ τὰ παρʼ Ἕλλησι μυθευόμενα διηγούμενος, οὔτε πρότερον διδάξας οὔτε παραδοὺς τὸ τέλειον αὐτοῦ μυστήριον, εἰ μὴ ὅρκῳ δήσῃ τὸν πλανώμενον.

English · Claude translation

Justin set himself wholly against the teaching of the holy Scriptures, and moreover against the written word of the blessed evangelists; for the Word taught the disciples, saying, “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles,” which means not to give heed to the vain teaching of the Gentiles. Yet this man tries to lead his hearers back to the marvels told and taught by the Gentiles, recounting word for word the myths of the Greeks, and he neither teaches nor hands on his perfect mystery until he has bound the one being led astray with an oath.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 214 · 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

  • This Justin is a Gnostic teacher known only from Hippolytus, not Justin Martyr.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.23.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/23/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.23.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/23/1/).

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