Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.8.7

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 link Anacreon's cup with the water turned to wine at Cana.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 152

Τοῦτο, φησίν, ἤρκει μόνον νοηθὲν ἀνθρώποις τὸ τοῦ Ἀνακρέοντος ποτήριον ἀλάλως λαλοῦν μυστήριον ἄρρητον. Ἄλαλον γάρ, φησί, τὸ Ἀνακρέοντος ποτήριον, ὅπερ αὐτῷ φησίν Ἀνακρέων λαλεῖν ἀλάλῳ φθέγματι, ποδαπὸν αὐτὸν δεῖ γενέσθαι, τουτέστι πνευματικόν, οὐ σαρκικόν, ἐὰν ἀκούσῃ τὸ κεκρυμμένον μυστήριον ἐν σιωπῇ· καὶ τοῦτο ἐστὶ τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ἐν τοῖς καλοῖς ἐκείνοις γάμοις, ὃ στρέψας ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐποίησεν οἶνον. Αὕτη, φησίν, ἐστὶν ἡ μεγάλη καὶ ἀληθινὴ ἀρχὴ τῶν σημείων, ἣν ἐποίησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐν Κανᾷ τῆς Γαλιλαίας, καὶ ἐφανέρωσε τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν.

English · Claude translation

This alone, he says, would suffice for men to understand: Anacreon's cup, speaking without speech an unspeakable mystery. For Anacreon's cup, he says, is speechless, which Anacreon says tells him with speechless utterance what sort he must become, that is, spiritual, not fleshly, if he hears the mystery hidden in silence. And this is the water at that fair wedding, which Jesus turned and made wine. This, he says, is the great and true beginning of the signs, which Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed the kingdom of heaven.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 152 · 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 allusion is John 2:1–11.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.8.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/8/7/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.8.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/8/7/).

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