Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.8.31

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 Man is "unfruitful" when fleshly; the only true fruits are the spiritual who enter the third gate.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 160

Ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς οὗτος ὑπὸ τῶν Φρυγῶν καὶ ἄκαρπος καλεῖται. Ἔστι γὰρ ἄκαρπος, ὅταν ᾖ σαρκικὸς καὶ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν τῆς σαρκὸς ἐργάζηται. Τοῦτο, φησίν, ἐστὶ τὸ εἰρημένον· πᾶν δένδρον μὴ ποιοῦν καρπὸν καλὸν ἐκκόπτεται καὶ εἰς πῦρ βάλλεται. Καρποὶ γὰρ οὗτοι, φησίν, εἰσὶ μόνον οἱ λογικοί, οἱ ζῶντες ἄνθρωποι, οἱ διὰ τῆς πύλης εἰσερχόμενοι τῆς τρίτης.

English · Claude translation

This same one is also called by the Phrygians "unfruitful." For he is unfruitful when he is fleshly and works the desire of the flesh. This, he says, is what is said: "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." For these fruits, he says, are only the rational ones, the living men, who enter through the third gate.

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 3:10 (7:19).

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.8.31 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/8/31/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.8.31 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/8/31/).

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