Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.32.1

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: Carpocrates taught that angels made the world and that Jesus, son of Joseph, received power from above because his pure soul remembered what it had seen with God.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 398

Καρποκράτης τὸν μὲν κόσμον καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ ὑπὸ ἀγγέλων πολὺ ὑποβεβηκότων τοῦ ἀγενήτου πατρὸς γεγενῆσθαι λέγει, τὸν δὲ Ἰησοῦν ἐξ Ἰωσὴφ γεγεννῆσθαι, καὶ ὅμοιον τοῖς ἀνθρώποις γεγονότα δικαιότερον τῶν λοιπῶν γενέσθαι, τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ εὔτονον καὶ καθαρὰν γεγονυῖαν διαμνημονεῦσαι τὰ ὁρατὰ μὲν αὐτῇ ἐν τῇ μετὰ τοῦ ἀγενήτου θεοῦ περιφορᾷ, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ὑπʼ ἐκείνου αὐτῇ καταπεμφθῆναι δύναμιν, ὅπως τοὺς κοσμοποιοὺς ἐκφυγεῖν διʼ αὐτῆς δυνηθῇ·

English · Claude translation

Carpocrates says that the world and the things in it were made by angels far inferior to the unbegotten Father, and that Jesus was begotten of Joseph, and being like other human beings became more righteous than the rest; and that his soul, being vigorous and pure, remembered the things it had seen in its circuit with the unbegotten God, and for this reason a power was sent down to it by him, so that through it he might be able to escape the world-makers;

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 398 · 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.
Extrabiblical texts
  • Plato, Phaedr. 247 (Plato (works)) · allusion, low confidence
Topics
Heresy, Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • Hippolytus follows Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.25. The soul's heavenly “circuit” recalls Plato, Phaedrus 247.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.32.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/32/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.32.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/32/1/).

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