Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.17.12

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: Life-giving substance passes through the pineal gland and cerebellum into the spinal marrow, as forms pass from the Son into Matter.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 198

ἣν ἀρρήτως καὶ ἀσημάντως ἐπισπᾶσθαι διὰ τοῦ κωναρίου φάσκουσι τὴν ἐκ τοῦ καμαρίου ἀπορρέουσαν πνευματικὴν καὶ ζωογόνον οὐσίαν, ἤν ὑποδεξαμένη ἡ παρεγκεφαλὶς ὥςπερ ὁ υἱός, ἀλάλως μεταδίδωσι τῇ ὕλῃ τὰς ἰδέας, τουτέστιν ἐπὶ τὸν νωτιαῖον μυελὸν διαρρέει τὰ σπέρματα καὶ τὰ γένη τῶν γεννωμένων κατὰ σάρκα.

English · Claude translation

and they claim that it draws in, ineffably and imperceptibly, through the pineal gland the spiritual and life-giving substance that flows from the vaulted chamber; and the cerebellum, receiving it, like the Son silently imparts the forms to matter: that is, the seeds and kinds of things begotten according to the flesh flow down into the spinal marrow.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 198 · 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

Notes

Translation notes

  • The “vaulted chamber” (καμάριον) is probably a ventricle of the brain.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.17.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/17/12/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.17.12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/17/12/).

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