Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.8.29

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 apply the parable of the sower to themselves as the only true hearers.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 160

Καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι, φησί, τὸ εἰρημένον· Ἐξῆλθεν ὁ σπείρων τοῦ σπεῖραι· καὶ τὰ μὲν ἔπεσε παρὰ τὴν ὁδὸν καὶ κατεπατήθη, τὰ δὲ ἐπὶ τὰ πετρώδη· καὶ ἐξανέτειλε, φησί, καὶ διὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν βάθος ἐξηράνθη καὶ ἀπέθανε· τὰ δὲ ἔπεσε, φησίν, ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν τὴν καλὴν καὶ ἀγαθήν, καὶ ἐποίει καρπόν, ὁ μὲν ἑκατόν, ὁ δὲ ἑξήκοντα, ὁ δὲ τριάκοντα. Ὁ ἔχων, φησίν, ὦτα ἀκούειν ἀκουέτω. Τουτέστι, φησίν, οὐδεὶς τούτων τῶν μυστηρίων ἀκροατὴς γέγονεν εἰ μὴ μόνοι οἱ γνωστικοὶ τέλειοι.

English · Claude translation

And this, he says, is what is said: "The sower went out to sow; and some fell by the road and was trampled, and some on the rocky places; and it sprang up," he says, "and because it had no depth it withered and died; and some fell," he says, "on the fair and good soil and bore fruit, some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear," he says, "let him hear." That is, he says, no one has become a hearer of these mysteries except the perfect Gnostics alone.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 160 · 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 quotation is Matt 13:3–9, freely.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.8.29 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/8/29/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.8.29 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/8/29/).

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