Refutation of All Heresies 6.15.4

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.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 246

Στραφὲν δὲ ὑπὸ Μωσέως, τουτέστι τοῦ λόγου, τὸ πικρὸν ἐκεῖνο γίνεται γλυκύ. Καὶ ὅτι ταῦθʼ οὕτως ἔχει, κοινῇ πάντων ἐστὶν ἀκοῦσαι κατὰ τοὺς ποιητὰς λεγόντων· Ῥίζῃ μὲν μέλαν [ἔσκε], γάλακτι δὲ εἴκελον ἄνθος· μῶλυ δέ μιν καλέουσι θεοί· χαλεπὸν δέ τʼ ὀρύσσειν ἀνδράσι γε θνητοῖσι· θεοὶ δέ τε πάντα δύνανται.

English · Claude translation

But when it is changed by Moses, that is, by the Word, that bitter water becomes sweet. And that this is so one can hear from all people in common, speaking after the poets: ‘Black at the root [it was], but its flower like milk; moly the gods call it; and it is hard for mortal men to dig; but the gods can do all things.’”

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 246 · 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

Exod 15:25 · allusion, high confidence

Extrabiblical texts

Homer, Od. 10.304–306 (Homer, Odyssey) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

The quotation is Homer, Odyssey 10.304–306.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (unread letters in the digital text; the reading is certain from Homer): γ(??) θνητοῖσι → γε θνητοῖσι.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.15.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/15/4/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.15.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/15/4/).