Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.1

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 Naassenes claim a tradition from James through Mariamne; Hippolytus will show it comes from pagan mysteries.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 134

Ταῦτα ἐστὶν ἀπὸ πολλῶν πάνυ λόγων τὰ κεφάλαια, ἃ φησὶ παραδεδωκέναι Μαριάμνῃ τὸν Ἰάκωβον τοῦ κυρίου τὸν ἀδελφόν. Ἵνʼ οὖν μήτε Μαριάμνης ἔτι καταψεύδωνται οἱ ἀσεβεῖς, μήτε Ἰακώβου, μήτε τοῦ σωτῆρος αὐτοῦ, ἔλθωμεν ἐπὶ τὰς τελετὰς (ὅθεν αὐτοῖς οὗτος ὁ μῦθος), εἰ δοκεῖ, ἐπὶ τὰς βαρβαρικάς τε καὶ Ἑλληνικάς, καὶ ἴδωμεν ὡς τὰ κρυπτὰ καὶ ἀπόρρητα πάντων ὁμοῦ συνάγοντες οὗτοι μυστήρια τῶν ἐθνῶν καταψευδόμενοι τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐξαπατῶσι τοὺς ταῦτα οὐκ εἰδότας τὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν ὄργια.

English · Claude translation

These are the chief points of very many discourses which, he says, James the brother of the Lord handed down to Mariamne. So, in order that the impious may no longer lie against Mariamne, or James, or the Savior himself, let us come to the rites (from which they have this myth), if you will, both the barbarian and the Greek, and see how these men, gathering together the hidden and secret mysteries of all the nations and lying against Christ, deceive those who do not know these orgies of the nations.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 134 · 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

  • Mariamne is probably Mary Magdalene.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/1/).

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