Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 6.39.3

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 explains the trick: Marcus secretly added a dye and talked until it dissolved.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 298

Ὁ δὲ πανοῦργος τότε μὲν πολλοὺς ἔλαθε, νυνὶ δὲ ἐλεγχόμενος παύσεται· φάρμακον γάρ τι τοιαύτην δυνάμενον χρόαν παρασχεῖν λαθραίως ἐνιῶν τῷ κεράσματι ἐπιπολὺ φλυαρῶν ἀνέμενεν, ὅπως τῆς ὑγρότητος μεταλαβὸν λυθῇ καὶ ἀναμιγὲν ἐπιχρωτίσῃ τὸ πόμα. Τὰ δὲ δυνάμενα τοῦτο παρασχεῖν φάρμακα ἐν τῇ κατὰ μάγων βίβλῳ προείπομεν ἐκθέμενοι, ὡς πολλοὺς πλανῶντες ἀφανίζουσιν, οἷς εἰ φίλον περιεργότερον τῷ εἰρημένῳ προσεπισχεῖν, εἴσονται τὴν Μάρκου πλάνην.

English · Claude translation

But the rascal, though he escaped the notice of many at the time, will now be refuted and stop. For, secretly putting into the mixture a drug able to give such a color, he waited a long while babbling, so that it might take up moisture, dissolve, and, being mixed in, color the drink. The drugs able to do this we set out earlier in the book against the magicians, showing how they lead many astray and ruin them; if anyone cares to attend more carefully to what was said there, he will recognize Marcus's deception.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 298 · 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, Eucharist

Notes

Translation notes

  • The book against the magicians is Book 4.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.39.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/39/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.39.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/39/3/).

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