Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.21.1

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: When nothing existed, Basilides says, the “non-existent God,” without thought or will, willed to make a world.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 358

Ἐπεὶ οὖν οὐδὲν ἦν, οὐχ ὕλη, οὐκ οὐσία, οὐκ ἀνούσιον, οὐχ ἁπλοῦν, οὐ σύνθετον, οὐκ ἀνόητον, οὐκ ἀναίσθητον, οὐκ ἄνθρωπος, οὐκ ἄγγελος, οὐ θεός, οὐδὲ ὅλως τι τῶν ὀνομαζομένων ἢ διʼ αἰσθήσεως λαμβανομένων ἢ νοητῶν πραγμάτων, ἀλλʼ οὕτω καὶ ἔτι λεπτομερεστέρως πάντων ἁπλῶς περιγεγραμμένων, οὐκ ὢν θεός, (ὃν Ἀριστοτέλης καλεῖ νόησιν νοήσεως, οὗτοι δὲ οὐκ ὄντα) ἀνοήτως, ἀναισθήτως, ἀβούλως, ἀπροαιρέτως, ἀπαθῶς, ἀνεπιθυμήτως κόσμον ἠθέλησε ποιῆσαι.

English · Claude translation

Since, then, there was nothing, not matter, not substance, not the insubstantial, not simple, not compound, not unthinkable, not imperceptible, not human, not angel, not god, nor anything at all of the things that are named or grasped by sense or of intelligible things, but all things were thus, and still more subtly, simply blotted out, the non-existent God (whom Aristotle calls thought of thought, but these men the non-existent), without thought, without perception, without will, without choice, without passion, without desire, willed to make a world.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 358 · 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

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (wrong accent: οὖν): Ἐπεὶ οὗν → Ἐπεὶ οὖν.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.21.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/21/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.21.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/21/1/).

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