Refutation of All Heresies 5.17.3

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 Son is imprinted by the Father as Jacob's rods imprinted colors on the conceiving flocks.

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Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 196

Ἐκτυποῦται δὲ ὁ μὲν υἱὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀρρήτως καὶ ἀλάλως καὶ ἀμεταστάτως, οὕτως ὥς φησι Μωϋσῆς ἀπὸ τῶν ῥάβδων τῶν ἀπὸ τῶν ποτιστηρίων ῥερευκέναι τὰ χρώματα τῶν ἐγκεκισσημένων.

English · Claude translation

The Son receives his impress from the Father ineffably, silently, and without change, just as Moses says that the colors flowed from the rods at the watering troughs onto the ewes that conceived.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 196 · 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
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • ἐγκισσάω (“conceive,” of ewes) is the verb of Gen 30:38–39 LXX.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.17.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/17/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.17.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/17/3/).

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