Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.24.2

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: As Aristotle's soul governs the body, so Basilides' son governs the Archon.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 366–368

Τόν τε γὰρ υἱὸν ὁ ἄρχων κατὰ Βασιλείδην γεγέννηκε, τήν τε ψυχὴν ἔργον καὶ ἀποτέλεσμά φησιν εἶναι ὁ Ἀριστοτέλης φυσικοῦ σώματος ὀργανικοῦ ἐντελέχειαν. Ὡς οὖν ἡ ἐντελέχεια διοικεῖ τὸ σῶμα, οὕτως ὁ υἱὸς διοικεῖ κατὰ Βασιλείδην τὸν ἀρρήτων ἀρρητότερον θεόν.

English · Claude translation

For according to Basilides the Archon has begotten the son, and Aristotle says that the soul, the actuality of a natural organic body, is the work and product of it. As, then, the actuality governs the body, so according to Basilides the son governs the God more unspeakable than the unspeakable.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 366–368 · 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

  • “The God more unspeakable than the unspeakable” here seems to mean the great Archon (compare 7.23.4), not the non-existent God.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.24.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/24/2/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.24.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/24/2/).

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