Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 10.34.2

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: Knowing the true God, the hearers will escape the fire of judgment, dark Tartarus, the lake of Gehenna, the punishing angels, and the undying worm.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 544

τίς ὁ ὄντως θεὸς καὶ ἡ τούτου εὔτακτος δημιουργία, μὴ προσέχοντες σοφίσμασιν ἐντέχνων λόγων, μηδὲ ματαίοις ἐπαγγελίαις κλεψιλόγων αἱρετικῶν, ἀλλʼ ἀληθείας ἀκόμπου ἁπλότητι σεμνῇ, διʼ ἧς ἐπιγνώσεως ἐκφεύξεσθε ἐπερχομένην πυρὸς κρίσεως ἀπειλὴν καὶ ταρτάρου ζοφεροῦ ὄμμα ἀφώτιστον, ὑπὸ λόγου φωνῆς μὴ καταλαμφθέν, καὶ βρασμὸν ἀεννάου λίμνης γεέννης φλογός, καὶ ταρταρούχων ἀγγέλων κολαστῶν ὄμμα ἀεὶ μένον ἐν ἀπειλῇ, καὶ σκώληκα σώματος ἀπουσίαν ἐπιστρεφόμενον, ἐπὶ τὸ ἐκβράσαν σῶμα ὡς ἐπιστρέφων.

English · Claude translation

who the true God is and what his well-ordered creation is, not giving heed to the sophisms of artful words, nor to the vain promises of word-stealing heretics, but to the dignified simplicity of unboastful truth; through the knowledge of which you will escape the coming threat of the judgment of fire, and the unlit eye of gloomy Tartarus, never illumined by the voice of the Word, and the seething of the ever-flowing lake of the flame of Gehenna, and the eye of the punishing angels who keep Tartarus, ever fixed in threat, and the worm that turns toward the body's corruption, as though returning to the body that spawned it.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 544 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
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
Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The imagery draws on Mark 9:48 (Isa 66:24), Rev 20:14–15, and 2 Pet 2:4 (Tartarus). The last clause about the worm is obscure; ἀπουσία is taken as the body's discharge or corruption (ANF: “the body whose scum has bred it”), and τὸ ἐκβράσαν σῶμα as the body that cast the worm forth.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 10.34.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/34/2/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 10.34.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/34/2/).

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