Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.25.4

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 Archon of the Hebdomad is the God who spoke to Moses and did not reveal the higher God's name.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 370

Ἦν δὲ καὶ τούτου τοῦ διαστήματος βασιλεὺς καὶ κύριος ἡ ἑβδομάς, καὶ ἔστιν ἡ μὲν ὀγδοὰς ἄρρητος, ῥητὸν δὲ ἡ ἑβδομάς. Οὗτος ἐστί, φησίν, ὁ τῆς ἑβδομάδος ἄρχων ὁ λαλήσας τῷ Μωϋσῇ καὶ εἰπών· Ἐγὼ ὁ θεὸς Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακώβ, καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ οὐκ ἐδήλωσα αὐτοῖς (οὕτως γὰρ θέλουσι γεγράφθαι), τουτέστι τοῦ ἀρρήτου τῆς ὀγδοάδος ἄρχοντος θεοῦ.

English · Claude translation

And the Hebdomad too was king and lord of this interval; and the Ogdoad is unspeakable, but the Hebdomad can be spoken. This, he says, is the Archon of the Hebdomad who spoke to Moses and said: “I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and the name of God I did not reveal to them” (for so they want it to be written), that is, the name of the unspeakable God, the Archon of the Ogdoad.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 370 · 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

  • Exod 6:2–3, which Hippolytus notes they quote in an altered form (“the name of God” instead of “my name”).

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.25.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/25/4/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.25.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/25/4/).

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