Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.24

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.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 460

Διὸ καὶ πληθύνονται, γαυριώμενοι ἐπὶ ὄχλοις διὰ τὰς ἡδονάς, ἃς οὐ συνεχώρησεν ὁ Χριστός· οὗ καταφρονήσαντες οὐδὲν ἁμαρτεῖν κωλύουσι, φάσκοντες αὐτὸν ἀφιέναι τοῖς εὐδοκοῦσι. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ γυναιξὶν ἐπέτρεψεν, εἰ ἄνανδροι εἶεν καὶ ἡλικίᾳ γε ἐκκαίοιντο ἀναξίᾳ, ἢ ἑαυτῶν ἀξίαν μὴ βούλοιντο καθαιρεῖν διὰ τὸ νομίμως γαμηθῆναι, ἔχειν ἕνα ὃν ἂν αἱρήσωνται σύγκοιτον, εἴτε οἰκέτην, εἴτε ἐλεύθερον, καὶ τοῦτον κρίνειν ἀντὶ ἀνδρὸς μὴ νόμῳ γεγαμημένην.

English · Claude translation

Therefore they also multiply, priding themselves on their crowds because of the pleasures which Christ did not permit; despising him, they forbid no sin, saying that he forgives those who consent to them. For he even permitted women, if they were without husbands and burned with passion at an unfitting age, or did not wish to overturn their own rank by being lawfully married, to have one bedfellow of their choice, whether a slave or a free man, and to regard him as a husband, though not married by law.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 460 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.

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.

Scripture

1 Cor 7:9 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Marriage, Church office, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

This concerns Roman law, which did not recognize marriage between a woman of senatorial rank and a slave or low-born man; Callistus apparently recognized such unions as marriages before the church. “Burned” echoes 1 Cor 7:9. “At an unfitting age” renders the printed ἡλικίᾳ … ἀναξίᾳ; some editors emend to ἐν ἀξίᾳ, “(women) of rank,” which fits the sequel. “Those who consent” (τοῖς εὐδοκοῦσι) means those who agree with Callistus. Hippolytus's account is hostile.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.12.24 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/12/24/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.12.24 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/12/24/).