Refutation of All Heresies 5.19.13

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: Spirit and light are scattered in all creatures, and from the water came a violent wind, the cause of generation.

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Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 202–204

Εἰς δὲ ταύτην πᾶσαν τὴν ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐν τοῖς διαφόροις ζῴοις ἀπειρίαν κατέσπαρται καὶ καταμεμέρισται μετὰ τοῦ φωτὸς ἡ τοῦ πνεύματος ἄνωθεν εὐωδία. Γέγονεν οὖν ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος πρωτόγονος ἀρχὴ ἄνεμος σφοδρὸς καὶ λάβρος καὶ πάσης γενέσεως αἴτιος.

English · Claude translation

Into all this infinity under heaven, in the various living creatures, the fragrance of the spirit from above has been sown and distributed together with the light. From the water, then, there came a firstborn principle, a wind, violent and fierce, and the cause of all generation.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 202–204 · 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. 5.19.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/19/13/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.19.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/19/13/).

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