Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 10.33.7

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: God made the human being from all the elements to rule creation; he made a man, not a god, but one who obeys him may become a god and be entrusted with greater things.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 538–540

Ὅτε δὲ ὡς ἠθέλησε καὶ ἐποίησεν, ὀνόματι καλέσας ἐσήμηνεν. Ἐπὶ τούτοις τὸν πάντων ἄρχοντα δημιουργῶν ἐκ πασῶν συνθέτων οὐσιῶν ἐσκεύασεν· οὐ θεὸν θέλων ποιεῖν ἔσφηλεν, οὐδὲ ἄγγελον (μὴ πλανῶ), ἀλλʼ ἄνθρωπον. Εἰ γὰρ θεόν σε ἠθέλησε ποιῆσαι, ἐδύνατο· ἔχεις τοῦ λόγου τὸ παράδειγμα· ἄνθρωπον θέλων, ἄνθρωπόν σε ἐποίησεν· εἰ δὲ θέλεις καὶ θεὸς γενέσθαι, ὑπάκουε τῷ πεποιηκότι, καὶ μὴ ἀντίβαινε νῦν, ἵνα ἐπὶ τῷ μικρῷ πιστὸς εὑρεθεὶς καὶ τὸ μέγα πιστευθῆναι δυνηθῇς.

English · Claude translation

And when he had made them as he willed, he designated them by calling them by name. After these, fashioning the ruler of all, he prepared him from all the compound substances. It was not that he wished to make a god and failed, nor an angel (do not be misled); he wished to make a human being. For if he had wished to make you a god, he could have; you have the example of the Word. Wishing a human being, he made you a human being. But if you wish to become a god too, obey the one who made you, and do not resist now, so that, being found faithful in the small, you may be entrusted with the great as well.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 538–540 · 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
Ethics, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are Gen 1:26–28 and Luke 16:10 (compare Matt 25:21). The phrase “become a god” refers to deification by grace, as the following sections explain.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 10.33.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/33/7/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 10.33.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/33/7/).

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