Refutation of All Heresies 5.16.10
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 Peratae say the serpent appeared under Herod and was prefigured by Joseph's coat and by Esau.
Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 192
Οὗτός ἐστι, φησίν, ὁ ἐν ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις ἐν ἀνθρώπου μορφῇ φανεὶς ἐν τοῖς χρόνοις Ἡρώδου, γενόμενος κατʼ εἰκόνα Ἰωσὴφ τοῦ πεπραμένου ἐκ χειρὸς ἀδελφῶν, οὗ μόνου τὸ ἔνδυμα ἦν ποικίλον. Οὗτός ἐστι, φησίν, ὁ κατʼ εἰκόνα Ἠσαῦ, οὗ καὶ μὴ παρόντος ἡ στολὴ εὐλόγηται, ὃς οὐκ ἐδέξατο, φησί, τὴν ἀμβλυωπὸν εὐλογίαν, ἀλλʼ ἐπλούτησεν ἔξωθεν, οὐδὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀμβλυωποῦντος λαβών, οὗ εἶδε τὸ πρόσωπον Ἰακὼβ ὡς ἂν ἴδοι ἄνθρωπος πρόσωπον θεοῦ.
English · Claude translation
“This is,” he says, “the one who appeared in the last days in human form in the times of Herod, born after the image of Joseph, who was sold from the hand of his brothers, whose garment alone was of many colors. This is,” he says, “the one after the image of Esau, whose robe was blessed even when he was not present; who did not receive,” he says, “the dim-sighted blessing, but grew rich from outside, taking nothing from the dim-sighted one; whose face Jacob saw as a man might see the face of God.”
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Hippolytus, Haer. 5.16.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/16/10/).
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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.16.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/16/10/).
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