Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.19.21

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: After his birth the Word washed and drank living water, which all must drink to put on a heavenly garment.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 206

Ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἔστι, φησίν, ἀρκετὸν τὸ εἰσεληλυθέναι τὸν τέλειον ἄνθρωπον, λόγον, εἰς μήτραν παρθένου καὶ λῦσαι τὰς ὠδῖνας τὰς ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ σκότει· ἀλλὰ γὰρ μετὰ τὸ τὰ ἐν μήτρᾳ μυστήρια μυσαρὰ εἰσελθεῖν ἀπελούσατο καὶ ἔπιε τὸ ποτήριον ζῶντος ὕδατος ἁλλομένου, ὃ δεῖ πάντως πιεῖν τὸν μέλλοντα ἀποδιδύσκεσθαι τὴν δουλικὴν μορφὴν καὶ ἐπενδύσασθαι ἔνδυμα οὐράνιον.

English · Claude translation

“But it is not enough,” he says, “that the perfect man, the Word, entered the womb of a virgin and loosed the pangs in that darkness; but after entering the foul mysteries in the womb, he washed himself and drank the cup of living water springing up, which anyone must by all means drink who is to put off the form of the slave and put on a heavenly garment.”

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 206 · 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, Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • The washing and the cup are probably Sethian rites of baptism.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.19.21 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/19/21/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.19.21 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/19/21/).

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