Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 4.47.5

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 heretics identify the Kneeler with Adam, who guards the serpent's head as in Genesis.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 116–118

Ὁ μὲν οὖν Ἄρατος οὐκ εἰδέναι φησὶν οὗτος τίς ἐστιν ὁ πόνος καὶ τὸ θαῦμα τοῦτο στρεφόμενον ἐν οὐρανῷ· οἱ δὲ διὰ τῆς τῶν ἄστρων ἱστορίας αἱρετικοὶ θέλοντες τὰ ἑαυτῶν δόγματα συνιστᾶν, περιεργότερον τούτοις ἐπισχόντες, τὸν Ἐν γόνασι φασὶν εἶναι τὸν Ἀδάμ, κατὰ πρόσταγμα, φησίν, τοῦ θεοῦ, καθὼς εἶπε Μωσῆς, φυλάσσοντα τὴν κεφαλὴν τοῦ Δράκοντος καὶ τὸν Δράκοντα τὴν πτέρναν αὐτοῦ. Οὕτως γάρ φησιν ὁ Ἄρατος Δεξιτεροῦ ποδὸς ἴχνος ἔχων σκολιοῖο Δράκοντος.

English · Claude translation

Aratus, then, says he does not know what this toil and this wonder is that turns in the heaven. But the heretics, wishing to establish their own doctrines through the lore of the stars, attending to these things too curiously, say that the Kneeler is Adam, guarding, he says, according to the command of God, as Moses said, the head of the Dragon, and the Dragon his heel. For so Aratus says: "Holding the track of his right foot on the crooked Dragon."

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 116–118 · 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
Extrabiblical texts
  • Aratus, Phaen. 70 (Aratus, Phaenomena) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusion is to Gen 3:15; the verse is Aratus, Phaenomena 70.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.47.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/47/5/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 4.47.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/47/5/).

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