Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 4.28.3

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: The magician feigns possession and chants incantations in Greek and mock Hebrew.

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

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 88–90

εἶτα θεοφορεῖσθαι δοκῶν, εἰσπεσὼν τῷ μυχῷ μέγα καὶ ἀπηχὲς κέκραγε καὶ πᾶσιν ἀσύνετον·... [π]ολὺ δὲ πάντας τοὺς παρόντας... καὶ τὸν φρῦν [χάρ]τῃ ἐγγρα[φέντα] ἐπικαλοῦντες δαίμονα ἐπειδὰν εἰσελθόντες παραστῶσιν οἱ παρόντες ἐπὶ... βαλὼν τὸν παῖδα πολλὰ ἐπιλέγει αὐτῷ, τοῦτο μὲν ἑλλάδι φωνῇ τοῦτο δὲ ὡς ἑβραΐδι, τὰς συνήθεις τοῖς μάγοις ἐπαοιδάς· ὁ δὲ ἐνάρχεται προσπευσόμενος.

English · Claude translation

then, seeming to be possessed by the god, he rushes into the inner chamber and shouts something loud and discordant and unintelligible to all; … all who are present … invoking the demon Phryn, written on the paper; when those present have come in and stand by, … putting the boy …, he says many things over him, some in Greek and some as if in Hebrew, the incantations usual among the magi; and he begins to inquire.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 88–90 · 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.

Notes

Translation notes

  • The text is damaged; gaps are marked "…". The demon's name appears as Phryn here and Phren in 4.28.6.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.28.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/28/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 4.28.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/28/3/).

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