Refutation of All Heresies 10.11.6

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: From the meeting of the three principles came heaven and earth, shaped like a womb, and all other things are impressed in the same way.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 508

Ὥσπερ γὰρ σφραγὶς ἐπικοινωνήσασα κηρῷ τὸν τύπον ἐποίησεν αὐτὴ παρʼ ἑαυτῇ ἡτισοῦν [ἦν] μένουσα, οὕτως καὶ αἱ δυνάμεις ἐπικοινωνήσασαι τὰ πάντα ἀπεργάζονται γένη ζῴων ἄπειρα. Γεγονέναι οὖν ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης συνδρομῆς τῶν τριῶν ἀρχῶν μεγάλης σφραγῖδος ἰδέαν, οὐρανὸν καὶ γῆν, εἶδος ἔχουσαν παραπλήσιον μήτρᾳ ὀμφαλὸν ἐχούσῃ μέσον. Οὕτως δὲ καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς ἐκτυπώσεις τῶν πάντων ἐκτετυπῶσθαι ὥσπερ οὐρανὸν καὶ γῆν μήτρᾳ παραπλησίους.

English · Claude translation

For as a seal, sharing with wax, makes the impression while itself remaining whatever it [was], so also the powers, sharing with one another, produce all things, infinite kinds of living beings. So from the first concourse of the three principles there came into being the form of a great seal, heaven and earth, having a shape like a womb with a navel in the middle. And so the other impressions of all things too have been stamped, like heaven and earth, similar to a womb.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 508 · 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. 10.11.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/11/6/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 10.11.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/11/6/).