Refutation of All Heresies 6.14.4

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 seventh power is the Spirit borne above the waters, the image of the infinite power.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 242

Ἑβδόμη δὲ αὕτη δύναμις, ἥτις ἦν δύναμις ὑπάρχουσα ἐν τῇ ἀπεράντῳ δυνάμει, ἥτις γέγονε πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων, αὕτη ἐστί, φησίν, ἡ ἑβδόμη δύναμις, περὶ ἧς λέγει Μωσῆς· Καὶ πνεῦμα θεοῦ ἐπεφέρετο ἐπάνω τοῦ ὕδατος· τουτέστι, φησί, τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ πάντα ἔχον ἐν ἑαυτῷ, εἰκὼν τῆς ἀπεράντου δυνάμεως, περὶ ἧς ὁ Σίμων λέγει· Εἰκὼν ἐξ ἀφθάρτου μορφῆς, κοσμοῦσα μόνη πάντα.

English · Claude translation

This seventh power, which was a power existing in the infinite power and which came to be before all the ages, is,” he says, “the seventh power of which Moses says, ‘And the Spirit of God was borne above the water’; that is,” he says, “the Spirit that holds all things in itself, image of the infinite power, of which Simon says: ‘An image from an incorruptible form, alone ordering all things.’”

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 242 · 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

Gen 1:2 · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Heresy

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.14.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/14/4/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.14.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/14/4/).