Refutation of All Heresies 7.37.1

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: Cerdo taught that the just God of Moses and the prophets is not the unknown, good Father of Jesus Christ.

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Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 408

Κέρδων δέ τις καὶ αὐτὸς ἀφορμὰς ὁμοίως παρὰ τούτων λαβὼν καὶ Σίμωνος, λέγει τὸν ὑπὸ Μωσέως καὶ προφητῶν θεὸν κεκηρυγμένον μὴ εἶναι πατέρα Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Τοῦτον μὲν γὰρ ἐγνῶσθαι, τὸν δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ πατέρα εἶναι ἄγνωστον, καὶ τὸν μὲν εἶναι δίκαιον, τὸν δὲ ἀγαθόν.

English · Claude translation

A certain Cerdo, likewise taking his starting points from these and from Simon, says that the God proclaimed by Moses and the prophets is not the Father of Jesus Christ. For the one has been known, but the Father of Christ is unknown; and the one is just, the other good.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 408 · 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

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.37.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/37/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.37.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/37/1/).

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