Refutation of All Heresies 6.20.2

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, 256–258

Εἰ δέ τις ὀνόματι καλέσει παρʼ αὐτοῖς ἰδὼν τὰς εἰκόνας ἢ Σίμωνος ἢ Ἑλένης, ἀπόβλητος γίνεται, ὡς ἀγνοῶν τὰ μυστήρια. Οὗτος ὁ Σίμων πολλοὺς πλανῶν ἐν τῇ Σαμαρείᾳ μαγείαις ὑπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων ἠλέγχθη, καὶ ἐπάρατος γενόμενος, καθὼς ἐν ταῖς Πράξεσι γέγραπται, ὕστερον ἀπευδοκήσας ταῦτα ἐπεχείρησεν· ἕως καὶ τῆς Ῥώμης ἐπιδημήσας ἀντέπεσε τοῖς ἀποστόλοις· πρὸς ὃν πολλὰ Πέτρος ἀντικατέστη μαγείαις πλανῶντα πολλούς. Οὗτος ἐπὶ τέλει ἐλθὼν ἐν τ....

English · Claude translation

And if anyone among them, seeing the images, calls them by the name of Simon or Helen, he is cast out as ignorant of the mysteries. This Simon, leading many astray in Samaria by magic, was refuted by the apostles; and having been cursed, as is written in the Acts, he afterward, having lost favor, attempted these things; until, having come even to Rome, he clashed with the apostles. Peter opposed him at length, as he was leading many astray by magic. Coming at last to …

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 256–258 · 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

Acts 8:20–24 · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

The place name at the end is lost (perhaps Gitta).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (wrong accent in the digital text): πὰρʼ αὐτοῖς → παρʼ αὐτοῖς.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.20.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/20/2/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.20.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/20/2/).