Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.20

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.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 140–142

Οὐ μόνον δʼ αὐτῶν ἐπιμαρτυρῖν φασὶ τῷ λόγῳ τὰ Ἀσσυρίων μυστήρια ἀλλὰ καὶ Φρυγῶν περὶ τὴν τῶν γεγονότων καὶ γινομένων καὶ ἐσομένων ἔτι μακαρίαν κρυβομένην ὁμοῦ καὶ φανερουμένην φύσιν, ἥνπερ φησὶ τὴν ἐντὸς ἀνθρώπου βασίλειαν οὐρανῶν ζητουμένην, περὶ ἧς διαρρήδην ἐν τῷ κατὰ Θωμᾶν ἐπιγραφομένῳ εὐαγγελίῳ παραδιδόασι λέγοντες οὕτως· ἐμὲ ὁ ζητῶν εὑρήσει ἐν παιδίοις ἀπὸ ἐτῶν ἑπτά· ἐκεῖ γὰρ ἐν τῷ τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτῳ αἰῶνι κρυβόμενος φανεροῦμαι.

English · Claude translation

They say that not only the mysteries of the Assyrians bear witness to their account, but also those of the Phrygians, concerning the blessed nature, at once hidden and revealed, of things that have been, are, and will yet be, which, he says, is the kingdom of heaven sought within man; concerning which they hand down explicitly in the gospel entitled According to Thomas, saying thus: "He who seeks me will find me in children from seven years old; for there, hidden in the fourteenth age, I am revealed."

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 140–142 · 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

Luke 17:21 · allusion, high confidence

Extrabiblical texts

Gos. Thom. 4 (Gospel of Thomas) · quotation, medium confidence

Topics

Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

"The kingdom of heaven within man" echoes Luke 17:21. The saying resembles Gospel of Thomas 4 in the Coptic version, but not exactly.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/20/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/20/).