Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.9.22

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 Naassenes claim to be the only true Christians, anointed from the horn like David.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 174

Καὶ ἐσμὲν ἐξ ἁπάντων ἀνθρώπων ἡμεῖς Χριστιανοὶ μόνοι ἐν τῇ τρίτῃ πύλῃ ἀπαρτίζοντες τὸ μυστήριον καὶ χριόμενοι ἐκεῖ ἀλάλῳ χρίσματι ἐκ κέρατος, ὡς Δαβίδ, οὐκ ὀστρακίνου φακοῦ, φησίν, ὡς ὁ Σαούλ, ὁ συμπολιτευόμενος τῷ πονηρῷ δαίμονι τῆς σαρκικῆς ἐπιθυμίας.

English · Claude translation

And we alone of all men are Christians, completing the mystery at the third gate and anointed there with an unspeakable anointing from a horn, like David, not from an earthen flask, he says, like Saul, who kept company with the evil demon of fleshly desire.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 174 · 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 allusions are 1 Sam 16:13 (David's horn), 1 Sam 10:1 (Saul's flask), and 1 Sam 16:14 (the evil spirit on Saul). "Christians" plays on χρίω "anoint".

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.9.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/9/22/).

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

Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.9.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/9/22/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage