Refutation of All Heresies 6.37.5

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: Plato says he has written nothing on these matters; Valentinus made Plato's “king of all” his Father and Depth.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

Show

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 290

Διὰ τοῦτο ἐγὼ περὶ τούτων γέ[γραφα οὐ]δέν, οὐδὲ ἔστι Πλάτωνος σύγγραμμα οὐδέν, οὐδὲ ἔσται πώποτε. Τὰ δὲ νῦν λεγόμενα Σωκράτους ἐστὶ καλοῦ καὶ νέου γεγονότος. Τούτοις περιτυχὼν Οὐαλεντῖνος ὑπεστήσατο τὸν πάντων βασιλέα, ὃν ἔφη Πλάτων, οὗτος πατέρα καὶ βυθὸν καὶ πᾶσι γῆν τῶν ὅλων αἰώνων.

English · Claude translation

For this reason I have [written nothing] about these things, and there is no writing of Plato's, nor will there ever be; the things now called his belong to Socrates, made fair and young.” Having come upon these words, Valentinus posited the king of all, of whom Plato spoke, as the Father and Depth and … of all the Aeons.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 290 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
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.
Extrabiblical texts
  • Plato, Ep. 2 314c (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • Plato, Letter 2, 314c. The end of the section is corrupt (καὶ πᾶσι γῆν).

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.37.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/37/5/).

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

Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.37.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/37/5/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage