Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.18

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 reinterpret Paul's word "shamelessness" as the first shapeless substance.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 140

Τί δέ ἐστιν ἡ φυσικὴ κατʼ αὐτοὺς χρῆσις, ὕστερον ἐροῦμεν. Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ οἱ ἄρρενες ἀφέντες τὴν φυσικὴν χρῆσιν τῆς θηλείας ἐξεκαύθησαν ἐν τῇ ὀρέξει αὐτῶν εἰς ἀλλήλους, ἄρρενες ἐν ἄρρεσι τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην κατεργαζόμενοι (ἀσχημοσύνη δέ ἐστιν ἡ πρώτη καὶ μακαρία κατʼ αὐτοὺς ἀσχημάτιστος οὐσία, ἡ πάντων σχημάτων τοῖς σχηματιζομένοις αἰτία) καὶ τὴν ἀντιμισθίαν ἣν ἔδει τῆς πλάνης αὐτῶν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἀπολαμβάνοντες.

English · Claude translation

What natural use is according to them we shall say later. "And likewise the men too, leaving the natural use of the woman, were inflamed in their desire for one another, men with men working shamelessness" (and shamelessness, according to them, is the first and blessed shapeless substance, the cause of all shapes for things that are shaped) "and receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was due."

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 140 · 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

  • The quotation is Rom 1:27. The pun is on ἀσχημοσύνη "shamelessness" and ἀσχημάτιστος "shapeless".

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/18/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/18/).

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