Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.26.1

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: Justin teaches three principles: the Good, the Father, and a female half-maiden, half-viper.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 218

Οὗτος φησίν· Ἦσαν τρεῖς ἀρχαὶ τῶν ὅλων ἀγέννητοι, ἀρρενικαὶ δύο, θηλυκὴ μία. Τῶν δὲ ἀρρενικῶν ἡ μέν τις καλεῖται ἀγαθός, αὐτὸ μόνον οὕτως λεγόμενος, προγνωστικὸς τῶν ὅλων. Ἡ δὲ ἑτέρα πατὴρ πάντων τῶν γεννητῶν, ἀπρόγνωστος [καὶ ἄγνωστος] καὶ ἀόρατος. Ἡ δὲ θήλεια ἀπρόγνωστος, ὀργίλη, δίγνωμος, δίσωμος, κατὰ πάντα τῇ κατὰ τὸν Ἡροδότου μῦθον ἐμφερής, μέχρι βουβῶνος παρθένος, ἔχιδνα δὲ τὰ κάτω, ὥς φησιν Ἰουστῖνος.

English · Claude translation

He says: “There were three unbegotten principles of all things, two male and one female. Of the male ones, one is called Good, being called by this name alone, and he foreknows all things. The other is the Father of all begotten things, without foreknowledge, [unknown,] and invisible. The female is without foreknowledge, wrathful, double-minded, double-bodied, in every way like the girl in Herodotus's myth, a maiden to the groin and a viper below,” as Justin says.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 218 · 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 bracketed word is the editor's supplement.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.26.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/26/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.26.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/26/1/).

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