Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 6.17.7

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: If rightly taught, the power in seed and milk grows from a spark into an infinite, unchanging power.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 250

Ἐὰν γὰρ μὴ στρέφηται ἡ φλογίνη ῥομφαία, φθαρήσεται καὶ ἀπολεῖται τὸ καλὸν ἐκεῖνο ξύλον· ἐὰν δὲ στρέφηται εἰς σπέρμα καὶ γάλα, ὁ δυνάμει ἐν τούτοις κατακείμενος λόγου τοῦ προσήκοντος καὶ τόπου κυρίου, ἐν ᾧ γεννᾶται λόγος, τυχών, ἀρξάμενος ὡς ἀπὸ σπινθῆρος ἐλαχίστου, παντελῶς μεγαλυνθήσεται καὶ αὐξήσει καὶ ἔσται δύναμις ἀπέραντος, ἀπαράλλακτος, [ἴση καὶ ὁμοία] αἰῶνι ἀπαραλλάκτῳ μηκέτι γινομένῳ εἰς τὸν ἀπέραντον αἰῶνα.

English · Claude translation

For if the flaming sword does not turn, that fine tree will be corrupted and perish; but if it turns into seed and milk, he who lies in these in potentiality, when he meets with the fitting word and the proper place in which the word is begotten, beginning as from the smallest spark, will be magnified completely and will grow, and will be an infinite, unchangeable power, [equal and like] to an unchangeable age that no longer comes to be, to the infinite age.”

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 250 · 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

  • The bracketed words are the editor's supplement.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.17.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/17/7/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.17.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/17/7/).

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