Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.26.27

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: Elohim sent Heracles, a Gentile prophet, whose twelve labors were victories over Eden's twelve angels.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 226

Τὸ τελευταῖον ἐξ ἀκροβυστίας προφήτην ἐπελέξατο Ἐλωεὶμ τὸν Ἡρακλέα καὶ ἔπεμψεν, ἵνα τοὺς δώδεκα ἀγγέλους τῆς Ἐδὲμ καταγωνίσηται καὶ ἐλευθερώσῃ τὸν πατέρα ἀπὸ τῶν δώδεκα ἀγγέλων τῆς κτίσεως τῶν πονηρῶν. Ταῦτά ἐστι τὰ δώδεκα ἆθλα τοῦ Ἡρακλέους, ἃ κατηγωνίσατο ὁ Ἡρακλῆς τῇ τάξει, ἀπὸ τοῦ πρώτου ἕως ἐσχάτου, λέοντα καὶ ὕδραν καὶ κάπρον καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς.

English · Claude translation

Last of all, Elohim chose from the uncircumcision a prophet, Heracles, and sent him to overcome the twelve angels of Eden and to free the Father from the twelve wicked angels of the creation. These are the twelve labors of Heracles, which Heracles accomplished in order, from the first to the last: the lion, the hydra, the boar, and the rest.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 226 · 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

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (missing accent in the digital text): τα δώδεκα ἆθλα → τὰ δώδεκα ἆθλα.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.26.27 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/26/27/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.26.27 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/26/27/).

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