Refutation of All Heresies 5.21.6

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: Only the Sethians, reborn as spiritual, know the place where the mixed elements are separated.

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Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 212

Διχάζεται γὰρ καὶ διακρίνεται ἕκαστα τῶν συγκεκραμένων οἰκείου χωρίου τυχόντα. Ὡς γάρ ἐστι χωρίον συγκράσεως τοῖς ζῴοις ἅπασιν ἔν, οὕτω καὶ τῆς διακρίσεως καθέστηκεν ἕν, ὃ οἶδεν οὐδείς, φησίν, ἢ μόνοι ἡμεῖς, οἱ ἀναγεννώμενοι πνευματικοὶ οὐ σαρκικοί, ὧν ἔστι τὸ πολίτευμα ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἄνω.

English · Claude translation

For each of the blended things is divided and separated when it reaches its proper place. For as there is one place of blending for all living creatures, so there is also one place of separation, which no one knows,” he says, “except us alone, who are reborn spiritual, not fleshly, whose citizenship is in heaven above.”

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 212 · 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

Notes

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (wrong accent and breathing in the digital text): ἧ μόνοι → ἢ μόνοι.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.21.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/21/6/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.21.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/21/6/).

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