Refutation of All Heresies 6.38.3

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: Monad and One complete a first tetrad; others name the first Ogdoad Pre-principle, Inconceivable, Ineffable, and Invisible.

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Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 292–294

Ταύτῃ τῇ δυνάμει συνυπάρχει δύναμις ὁμοούσιος αὐτῇ, ἣν καὶ αὐτὴν ὀνομάζω τὸ ἕν. Αὗται αἱ τέσσαρες δυνάμεις προήκαντο τὰς λοιπὰς τῶν αἰώνων προβολάς. Ἄλλοι δὲ πάλιν αὐτῶν τὴν πρώτην καὶ ἀρχέγονον ὀγδοάδα τούτοις τοῖς ὀνόμασιν ἐκάλεσαν· [πρῶτον προαρχήν, ἔπειτα ἀνεννόητον, τὴν δὲ τρίτην ἄρρητον, καὶ τὴν] τετάρτην ἀόρατον.

English · Claude translation

With this power coexists a power of the same substance with it, which I too name the One. These four powers sent forth the remaining emissions of the Aeons.” Others of them, again, called the first and original Ogdoad by these names: [first Pre-principle, then Inconceivable, the third Ineffable, and] the fourth Invisible.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 292–294 · 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 bracketed words are the editor's supplement.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.38.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/38/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.38.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/38/3/).

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