Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.27.3

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: Things stay incorruptible in their own place; ignorance will spare the lower Archon grief and sighing.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 376

Ἔστιν οὖν, φησίν, ἄφθαρτα πάντα τὰ κατὰ χώραν μένοντα, φθαρτὰ δέ, ἐὰν ἐκ τῶν κατὰ φύσιν ὑπερπηδᾶν καὶ ὑπερβαίνειν βούλοιντο. Οὕτως οὐδὲν ὁ ἄρχων τῆς ἑβδομάδος γνώσεται τῶν ὑπερκειμένων· καταλήψεται γὰρ καὶ τοῦτον ἡ μεγάλη ἄγνοια, ἵνα ἀποστῇ ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ λύπη καὶ ὀδύνη καὶ στεναγμός· ἐπιθυμήσει γὰρ οὐδενὸς τῶν ἀδυνάτων οὐδὲ λυπηθήσεται.

English · Claude translation

All things, then, he says, are incorruptible while they remain in their place, but corruptible if they wish to leap over and pass beyond what is according to nature. So the Archon of the Hebdomad will know nothing of the things above; for the great ignorance will seize him too, so that grief and pain and sighing may depart from him; for he will desire none of the impossible things, nor will he grieve.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 376 · 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, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Grief and pain and sighing” echoes Isa 35:10.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.27.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/27/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.27.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/27/3/).

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