Refutation of All Heresies 5.8.44

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.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 164–166

Ταῦτʼ ἐστὶ, φησὶ, τὰ μικρὰ μυστήρια τὰ τῆς σαρκικῆς γενέσεως, ἃ μυηθέντες οἱ ἄνθρωποι μικρὰ παύσασθαι ὀφείλουσι καὶ μυεῖσθαι τὰ μεγάλα τὰ ἐπουράνια. Οἱ γὰρ τοὺς ἐκεῖ, φησί, λαχόντες μόρους μείζονας μοίρας λαμβάνουσιν. Αὕτη γάρ, φησίν, ἐστὶν ἡ πύλη τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ οὗτος ὁ οἶκος θεοῦ, ὅπου ὁ ἀγαθὸς θεὸς κατοικεῖ μόνος, εἰς ὃν οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται, φησίν, ἀκάθαρτος οὐδείς, οὐ ψυχικός, οὐ σαρκικός, ἀλλὰ τηρεῖται πνευματικοῖς μόνοις, ὅπου δεῖ γενομένους βαλεῖν τὰ ἐνδύματα καὶ πάντας γενέσθαι νυμφίους ἀπηρσενωμένους διὰ τοῦ παρθενικοῦ πνεύματος.

English · Claude translation

These, he says, are the lesser mysteries, those of fleshly generation; men who have been initiated into them ought to pause a little and be initiated into the great, the heavenly ones. For those who obtain the deaths there, he says, receive greater portions. For this, he says, is the gate of heaven and this the house of God, where the good God dwells alone, into which no unclean person will enter, he says, no psychic, no fleshly one; but it is kept for the spiritual alone, where those who have come must cast off their garments and all become bridegrooms, unmanned through the virginal Spirit.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 164–166 · 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

Gen 28:17 · allusion, high confidence
Rev 21:27 · allusion, medium confidence

Topics

Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

The allusions are Gen 28:17 and Rev 21:27; the image of garments and bridegrooms may echo Matt 22:11–12 and Matt 25:1–10.
"Unmanned" renders ἀπηρσενωμένους, literally "deprived of maleness", that is, made eunuchs in spirit (cf. 5.8.40, 5.9.10–11).

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.8.44 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/8/44/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.8.44 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/8/44/).