Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 6.37.7

Hippolytus of Rome · Refutation of All Heresies · ca. 222–235 · Rome · Read in context

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: Hippolytus quotes Valentinus's psalm, which sets out the hierarchy of being from flesh up to the depth.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 290

Καὶ δεδήλωκεν αὐτὴν διʼ ἐλαχίστων Οὐαλεντῖνος ἐν ψαλμῷ κάτωθεν ἀρξάμενος, οὐχ ὥσπερ ὁ Πλάτων ἄνωθεν, λέγων οὕτως· Αἰθέρος πάντα κρεμάμενα πνεύματι βλέπω, πάντα δʼ ὀχούμενα πνεύματι νοῶ· σάρκα μὲν ἐκ ψυχῆς κρεμαμένην, ψυχὴν δὲ ἀέρος ἐξοχουμένην, ἀέρα δὲ ἐξ αἰθέρος κρεμάμενον, ἐκ δὲ βυθοῦ καρποὺς φερομένους, ἐκ μήτρας δὲ βρέφος φερόμενον· οὕτως ταῦτα νοῶν·

English · Claude translation

And Valentinus has shown this in very few words in a psalm, beginning from below, not from above as Plato did, speaking thus: “All things hanging from the ether I see by spirit, all things borne along I perceive by spirit: flesh hanging from soul, soul borne out by air, air hanging from ether, fruits borne out of the depth, a babe borne out of the womb.” Understanding these things thus:

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; 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.
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • This psalm (often called “Harvest”) survives only here.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.37.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/37/7/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.37.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/37/7/).

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