Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.22

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.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 460

Ἐπὶ τούτου ἤρξαντο ἐπίσκοποι καὶ πρεσβύτεροι καὶ διάκονοι δίγαμοι καὶ τρίγαμοι καθίστασθαι εἰς κλήρους· εἰ δὲ καί τις ἐν κλήρῳ ὢν γαμοίη, μένειν τὸν τοιοῦτον ἐν τῷ κλήρῳ ὡς μὴ ἡμαρτηκότα· ἐπὶ τούτῳ φάσκων εἰρῆσθαι τὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀποστόλου ῥηθέν· Σὺ τίς εἶ ὁ κρίνων ἀλλότριον οἰκέτην; Ἀλλὰ καὶ παραβολὴν τῶν ζιζανίων πρὸς τοῦτο ἔφη λέγεσθαι· Ἄφετε τὰ ζιζάνια συναύξειν τῷ σίτῳ, τουτέστιν ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τοὺς ἁμαρτάνοντας.

English · Claude translation

Under him bishops, presbyters, and deacons who had been twice married and thrice married began to be appointed to the clergy; and if anyone in the clergy should marry, such a one would remain in the clergy as not having sinned. He claimed that what was said by the apostle had been said about this: “Who are you to judge another's servant?” And he said that the parable of the tares too was spoken with this in view: “Let the tares grow together with the wheat,” that is, those in the church who sin.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 460 · 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

Rom 14:4 · quotation, high confidence
Matt 13:30 · quotation, high confidence
1 Tim 3:2 · allusion, medium confidence
1 Tim 3:12 · allusion, medium confidence
Titus 1:6 · allusion, medium confidence

Topics

Church office, Marriage, Remarriage

Notes

Translation notes

The quotations are Rom 14:4 and Matt 13:30. “Twice married” (δίγαμοι) means men who had married a second or third time, whether after a wife's death or otherwise; the passage assumes the rule that a cleric be “husband of one wife” (1 Tim 3:2, 12; Titus 1:6). Hippolytus presents this as laxity; it is his own hostile account.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.12.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/12/22/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.12.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/12/22/).