Refutation of All Heresies 4.34.1

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: How magicians open sealed letters and reseal them with a copied seal.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 98–100

Ἐπεὶ μὲν οὖν τῶν παρʼ αὐτοῖς ἀπορρήτων μαθημάτων συντόμως τὰς δυνάμεις ἐξεθέμεθα εὔκολόν τε τὴν μέθοδον αὐτῶν κατὰ γνῶσιν ἐδείξαμεν, οὐδὲ τοῦτο σιωπᾶν βουλόμεθα ὂν ἀναγκαῖον, ὡς σφραγῖδας λύοντες ἐσφραγισμένα τὰ γράμματα αὐταῖς ταῖς σφραγῖσιν ἀποδιδόασι· πίσσαν καὶ ῥητίνην καὶ θεῖον, ἔτι δὲ ἄσφαλτον ἶσα τήξαντες κολλυρίου σχήματι πλάσαντες φυλάττουσι· καιρὸς δὲ ὅταν ᾖ λύειν γραμματίδιον, τὴν γλῶσσαν ἐλαίῳ δεύσαντες, εἶτα ἐξ αὐτῆς τὴν σφραγῖδα χρίσαντες, πυρὶ συμμέτρῳ τὸ φάρμακον θερμάναντες ἐπιφέρουσι τῇ σφραγῖδι καὶ μέχρι ἂν παγῇ παντελῶς ἐῶσι, καὶ τούτῳ δίκην σημάντρου χρῶνται.

English · Claude translation

Since we have briefly set out the powers of their secret teachings and shown their method to be easy to understand, we do not wish to keep silent about this either, since it is necessary: how, breaking seals, they return the sealed letters with the very same seals. Melting pitch, resin, sulfur, and also asphalt in equal parts, they shape it into the form of an eye salve and keep it. When the time comes to open a letter, they moisten the tongue with oil, then smear the seal with it; warming the drug on a moderate fire, they apply it to the seal and leave it until it sets completely, and they use it like a signet.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 98–100 · 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.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.34.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/34/1/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.34.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/34/1/).