Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 6.48.1

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 Demiurge, in imitation of a higher sevenfold power, ensouled the world of the seven heavens.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 318–320

Κέχρηται δὲ διακόνῳ τῷ τῶν ἑπτὰ ἀριθμῶν μεγέθει, ἵνα τῆς αὐτοβουλήτου [βουλῆς] φανερωθῇ ὁ καρπός. Τὸν μέντοι ἐπίσημον ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος, φησί, τὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ ἐπισήμου μορφωθέντα νόησον, τὸν ὥσπερ μερισθέντα καὶ ἔξω μείναντα, ὃς τῇ αὐτοῦ δυνάμει τε καὶ φρονήσει διὰ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ προβολῆς τοῦτον τὸν [τὴν ζωὴν] τῶν ἑπτὰ δυνάμεων μιμήσει τῆς ἑπταδυνάμου δυνάμεως ἐψύχωσε κόσμον, καὶ ψυχὴν ἔθετο εἶναι τοῦ ὁρωμένου παντός.

English · Claude translation

He has used as servant the magnitude of the seven numbers, so that the fruit of the self-willed [counsel] might be made manifest. “For the present,” he says, “understand the notable one as the one formed upon the notable one, who was as it were divided and remained outside, who by his own power and wisdom, through his own emission, gave soul to this world of seven powers in imitation of the seven-powered power, and made it the soul of the whole visible universe.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 318–320 · 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 supplements; the syntax of the last clause is disordered in the text.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.48.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/48/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.48.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/48/1/).

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