Refutation of All Heresies 6.16.5

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: With right teaching the potential in us is realized, bitter turns sweet, and we become like the infinite power.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 248

Πάντα οὖν, φησί, τὰ ἀγέννητα ἐστὶν ἐν ἡμῖν δυνάμει, οὐκ ἐνεργείᾳ, ὡς ἡ γραμματικὴ ἢ γεωμετρική. Ἐὰν οὖν τύχῃ τοῦ λόγου τοῦ προσήκοντος καὶ διδασκαλίας, καὶ στραφήσεται τὸ πικρὸν εἰς γλυκύ, τουτέστιν αἱ ζιβύναι εἰς δρέπανα καὶ αἱ μάχαιραι εἰς ἄροτρα, οὐκ ἔσται ἄχυρα καὶ ξύλα τὰ γεννώμενα πυρί, ἀλλὰ καρπὸς τέλειος ἐξεικονισμένος, ὡς ἔφην, ἴσος καὶ ὅμοιος τῇ ἀγεννήτῳ καὶ ἀπεράντῳ δυνάμει.

English · Claude translation

“All unbegotten things, then,” he says, “are in us in potentiality, not in actuality, like grammar or geometry. If, then, a man meets with the fitting word and teaching, the bitter too will be turned into sweet, that is, spears into sickles and swords into ploughs; and what is born will not be chaff and wood for the fire, but perfect fruit, brought to its full image, as I said, equal and like to the unbegotten and infinite power.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 248 · 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

Isa 2:4 · allusion, high confidence
Mic 4:3 · allusion, medium confidence

Topics

Heresy

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.16.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/16/5/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.16.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/16/5/).