Refutation of All Heresies 5.14.1

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: Hippolytus quotes a Peratic book that describes a watery power from Chaos which people named the Sea.

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Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 184

Δοκεῖ οὖν παρατάξαι μίαν τινὰ τῶν παρʼ αὐτοῖς δοξαζομένων βίβλων, ἐν ᾗ λέγει· Ἐγὼ φωνὴ ἐξυπνισμοῦ ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τῆς νυκτός· λοιπὸν ἄρχομαι γυμνοῦν τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ χάους δύναμιν. Ἡ δύναμις τοῦ ἀβυσσικοῦ θολοῦ, ἡ τὸν πηλὸν ἀναβαστάζουσα τοῦ ἀφθάρτου ἀχανοῦς διΰγρου, ἡ τοῦ σπάσματος ὅλη δύναμις ὑδατόχρους ἀεικίνητος, φέρουσα τὰ μένοντα, κατέχουσα τὰ τρέμοντα, ἀπολύουσα τὰ ἐρχόμενα, κουφίζουσα τὰ μένοντα, καθαιροῦσα τὰ αὔξοντα, πιστὴ οἰκονόμος τοῦ ἴχνους τῶν ἀέρων, ἡ τὰ ἀνερευγόμενα ἀπὸ τῶν δώδεκα ὀφθαλμῶν ἐντολῆς ἀπολαύουσα, σφραγῖδα δηλοῦσα πρὸς τὴν μετʼ αὐτῶν οἰκονομοῦσαν τῶν ἐπιφερομένων ἀοράτων ὑδάτων δύναμιν, ἐκλήθη Θάλασσα.

English · Claude translation

It seems good, then, to set out one of the books held in esteem among them, in which it says: “I am a voice of awakening in the age of the night. Now I begin to lay bare the power from Chaos. The power of the abyssal mire, which bears up the clay of the incorruptible, gaping, watery …; the whole power of the convulsion, water-colored, ever-moving, bearing what abides, holding back what trembles, releasing what comes, lightening what abides, diminishing what grows; faithful steward of the track of the airs, which enjoys the command of what is belched up from the twelve eyes, showing a seal to the power that with them governs the invisible waters that are borne above: it was called Sea.”

About this passage

Source: Duncker–Schneidewin, 184 · 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.
Topics: Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

The Peratic book is otherwise unknown; its language is deliberately obscure and the syntax in places cannot be construed with confidence.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (missing space in the digital text): κατέχουσατὰ → κατέχουσα τὰ.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.14.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/14/1/).

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Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.14.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/14/1/).

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