Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.20.3

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 Sethians' three laws are the prohibition in Eden, the call of Abraham, and the commandments with fixed penalties.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 208

Ἀπαγορευτικὸς δέ ἐστι νόμος· Ἀπὸ παντὸς ξύλου τοῦ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ βρώσει φαγῇ, ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ ξύλου τοῦ γινώσκειν καλὸν καὶ πονηρόν, οὐ μὴ φάγητε. Ἐν δὲ τῷ λέγειν· Ἔξελθε ἐκ τῆς γῆς σου καὶ ἐκ τῆς συγγενείας σου καὶ δεῦρο εἰς γῆν, ἣν ἄν σοι δείξω, ἐφετικός, φησίν, οὗτος ὁ νόμος· ἑλομένῳ γὰρ ἔστιν ἐξελθεῖν, μὴ ἑλομένῳ δὲ μένειν. Διατιμητικὸς δὲ νόμος ἐστὶν ὁ λέγων· Οὐ μοιχεύσεις, οὐ φονεύσεις, οὐ κλέψεις· διατετίμηται γὰρ ἑκάστου τῶν ἀδικημάτων ζημία.

English · Claude translation

The prohibitive law is: “Of every tree in paradise you may eat for food, but of the tree of knowing good and evil you shall not eat.” In the saying, “Go out from your land and from your kindred and come into the land that I will show you,” this law, he says, is permissive; for one who chooses may go out, and one who does not choose may stay. The penal law is the one that says, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal”; for a penalty has been fixed for each of the wrongs.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 208 · 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

  • The quotations are Gen 2:16–17, Gen 12:1, and Exod 20:13–15 in the order of the LXX (adultery first).

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.20.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/20/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.20.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/20/3/).

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