Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.39

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: They read "you are gods" as promised to those who flee bodily union, and "you die like men" to those who return to it.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 148

Τοῦτό ἐστι, φησί, τὸ γεγραμμένον· ἐγὼ εἶπα· θεοί ἐστε καὶ υἱοὶ ὑψίστου πάντες, ἐὰν ἀπὸ τῆς Αἰγύπτου φυγεῖν σπεύδητε καὶ γένησθε πέραν τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς θαλάσσης εἰς τὴν ἔρημον, τουτέστιν ἀπὸ τῆς κάτω μίξεως ἐπὶ τὴν ἄνω Ἱερουσαλήμ, ἥτις ἐστὶ μήτηρ ζώντων, ἐὰν δὲ πάλιν ἐπιστραφῆτε ἐπὶ τὴν Αἴγυπτον, τουτέστιν ἐπὶ τὴν κάτω μῖξιν, ὡς ἄνθρωποι ἀποθνήσκετε·

English · Claude translation

This, he says, is what is written: "I said, You are gods and all sons of the Most High," if you hasten to flee from Egypt and get beyond the Red Sea into the wilderness, that is, from the intercourse below to the Jerusalem above, which is the mother of the living; but if you turn back again to Egypt, that is, to the intercourse below, "you die like men."

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 148 · 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
  • Ps 82:6 (81:6 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
  • Ps 82:7 (81:7 LXX) · quotation, high confidence
  • Gal 4:26 · allusion, high confidence
  • Exod 14:22 · allusion, medium confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Ps 82:6–7 (81:6–7 LXX); the allusions are the Exodus and Gal 4:26.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.39 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/39/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.39 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/39/).

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