Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 9.15.6

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: He vows before the seven witnesses to avoid sin and is baptized in his clothes.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 466–468

Τούτους τοὺς ἑπτὰ μάρτυρας μαρτύρομαι, ὅτι οὐκέτι ἁμαρτήσω, οὐ μοιχεύσω, οὐ κλέψω, οὐκ ἀδικήσω, οὐ πλεονεκτήσω, οὐ μισήσω, οὐκ ἀθετήσω, οὐδὲ ἐν πᾶσι πονηροῖς εὐδοκήσω. Ταῦτα οὖν εἰπὼν βαπτισάσθω σὺν παντὶ τῷ φορέματι αὐτοῦ ἐν ὀνόματι τοῦ μεγάλου καὶ ὑψίστου θεοῦ.

English · Claude translation

These seven witnesses I call to witness that I will sin no more, I will not commit adultery, I will not steal, I will not do wrong, I will not be greedy, I will not hate, I will not break faith, nor will I take pleasure in any evil.’ Having said this, then, let him be baptized with all his clothing in the name of the great and most high God.”

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 466–468 · 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, Baptism, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The vow resembles Pliny, Letters 10.96.7, on the oath of Christians.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.15.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/15/6/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 9.15.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/15/6/).

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