Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.29

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: They say Hermes, shown as a phallic pillar, is the Word.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 144

Τοὺς γοῦν Ἑρμᾶς, φησί, παρʼ αὐτοῖς τοιούτῳ τετιμημένους σχήματι θεωροῦμεν. Κυλλήνιον δὲ διαφερόντως τιμῶντες Λόγιον φασίν. Ὁ γὰρ Ἑρμῆς ἐστι λόγος, ὃς ἑρμηνεὺς ὢν καὶ δημιουργὸς τῶν γεγονότων ὁμοῦ καὶ γινομένων καὶ ἐσομένων παρʼ αὐτοῖς τιμώμενος ἕστηκε τοιούτῳ τινὶ κεχαρακτηρισμένος σχήματι, ὅπερ ἐστὶν αἰδοῖον ἀνθρώπου ἀπὸ τῶν κάτω ἐπὶ τὰ ἄνω ὁρμὴν ἔχον.

English · Claude translation

At any rate, he says, we see the Herms honored among them in such a form. And honoring the Cyllenian especially, they call him Logios. For Hermes is the Word, who, being interpreter and fashioner of things that have been, are, and will be, stands honored among them marked with some such form, which is the genitals of a man, having an impulse from below upward.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 144 · 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

  • "Cyllenian" is an epithet of Hermes, born on Mount Cyllene; Logios means "god of speech".

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.29 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/29/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.7.29 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/7/29/).

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