Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.13.3

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: Hippolytus advises readers either not to listen to heresies at all or to listen while bound fast by faith to the cross of Christ.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 348

Ὃ ποιῆσαι τοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσιν συμβουλὴ [ἐμή], καὶ ἢ τὰ ὧτα κατακηρώσαντας διʼ ἀσθένειαν διαπλεῦσαι τὰ τῶν αἱρέσεων δόγματα μηδὲ κατακούσαντας πείθειν εὐκόλως δυνάμενα πρὸς ἡδονήν, ὡς λιγυρὸν ᾆσμα Σειρήνων, ἢ ἑαυτὸν τῷ ξύλῳ Χριστοῦ προσδήσαντα πιστῶς κατακούσαντα μὴ ταραχθῆναι, πεποιθότα ᾧ προσέσφιγκται, καὶ ἑστηκέναι ὀρθῶς.

English · Claude translation

My advice to those who read is to do this: either, because of weakness, stop their ears with wax and sail through the doctrines of the heresies without even listening to them, since those doctrines can easily persuade toward pleasure, like the clear song of the Sirens; or else, binding oneself faithfully to the wood of Christ, to listen and not be troubled, trusting in him to whom one is bound fast, and to stand upright.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 348 · 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

  • “Wood” (ξύλον) means both the mast and the cross.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.13.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/13/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.13.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/13/3/).

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