Refutation of All Heresies 10.13.4

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: The Valentinians deny the salvation of the flesh, calling it a “garment of skin.”

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Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 512–514

Τὴν δὲ σάρκα μὴ σώζεσθαι θέλει, δερμάτινον χιτῶνα ἀποκαλῶν καὶ ἄνθρωπον φθειρόμενον. Ταῦτα ἐν ἐπιτομῇ ἐξεῖπον, πολλῆς ὕλης κατʼ αὐτοὺς τυγχανούσης καὶ διαφόρων γνωμῶν. Οὕτως οὖν δοκεῖ καὶ τῇ Οὐαλεντίνου σχολῇ.

English · Claude translation

But he holds that the flesh is not saved, calling it a “garment of skin” and a corruptible man. These things I have told in summary, since there is much material in their teaching and differing opinions. This, then, is what the school of Valentinus too thinks.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 512–514 · 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.
Scripture
Topics
Heresy, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Garment of skin” alludes to Gen 3:21.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (wrong accent: οὖν): Οὕτως οὗν → Οὕτως οὖν.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 10.13.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/13/4/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 10.13.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/13/4/).

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