Refutation of All Heresies 9.26.3
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: Later members are less strict; many Essenes live past a hundred, face death gladly, and endure torture rather than blaspheme the law or eat idol-food.
Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 482–484
Τοσοῦτον δὲ οἱ μετέπειτα ἐλάττους τῇ ἀσκήσει γεγένηνται, ὥστε τοὺς τοῖς ἀρχαίοις ἔθεσιν ἐμμένοντας μηδὲ προσψαύειν αὐτῶν, ὧν εἰ ψαύσαιεν, εὐθέως ἀπολούονται, ὥς τινος ἀλλοφύλου ψαύσαντες. Εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ μακρόβιοι οἱ πλεῖστοι, ὥστε καὶ πλέον ἑκατὸν ἔτεσι ζῆν. Φασὶν οὖν εἶναι αἴτιον τό τε τῆς ἄκρας θεοσεβείας καὶ τῷ καταγνωσθῆναι ἀμέτρως προσφέρεσθαι ἐγκρατιστὰς εἶναι καὶ ἀοργήτους. Θανάτου δὲ καταφρονοῦσι χαίροντες, ἡνίκα μετὰ συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς τελευτῶσιν· εἰ δὲ καὶ αἰκίζοιτό τις τοὺς τοιούτους, ἵνα ἢ τὸν νόμον δυσφημήσῃ ἢ εἰδωλόθυτον φάγῃ, οὐ π[οι]ήσει ὑπομένων θανεῖν καὶ βασάνους βαστάσαι, ἵνα τὸ συνειδὸς μὴ παρέλθῃ.
English · Claude translation
And those who came later have become so inferior in discipline that those who remain in the ancient customs will not even touch them; if they touch them, they wash at once, as if they had touched a foreigner. Most of them are also long-lived, so as to live even more than a hundred years. They say, then, that the cause is their extreme piety and their condemnation of eating without measure, so that they are self-controlled and free from anger. They despise death, rejoicing when they die with a good conscience. And if anyone should torture such people to make them blaspheme the law or eat food sacrificed to idols, he will not succeed, for they endure death and bear torments rather than transgress their conscience.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- Compare Josephus, Jewish War 2.150–153. The clause after “piety” (τῷ καταγνωσθῆναι ἀμέτρως προσφέρεσθαι) is awkward in the Greek; προσφέρεσθαι is taken of taking food, as in Josephus's “simplicity of diet.”
Cite this passage
Hippolytus, Haer. 9.26.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/26/3/).
The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.
Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 9.26.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/26/3/).
Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)
Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text