Refutation of All Heresies 6.49.3
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: Marcus counts the letters of divine names, including the letters in the spelled-out names of each letter of “Christ,” and links “alpha and omega” to the dove.
Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 324–326
Ταύτης δὲ τῆς τετράδος ὁ σύμπας ἀριθμὸς ἐστὶ στοιχείων εἰκοσιτεσσάρων. Ὁ γὰρ ἄρρητος ἔχει στοιχεῖα ἑπτά, ἡ σιγὴ (σειγὴ) πέντε, καὶ ὁ πατὴρ πέντε, καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια ἑπτά. Ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ ἡ δευτέρα τετράς, λόγος καὶ ζωή, ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἐκκλησία τὸν αὐτὸν ἀριθμὸν τῶν στοιχείων ἀνέδειξαν. Καὶ τὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος ῥητὸν ὄνομα [τουτέστι τὸν Ἰησοῦν] γραμμάτων ὑπάρχειν ἕξ, τὸ δʼ ἄρρητον αὐτοῦ ἐπʼ ἀριθμῷ τῶν κατὰ ἓν γραμμάτων στοιχείων ἐστὶν εἰκοσιτεσσάρων, υἱὸς δὲ Χριστὸς (Χρειστὸς) δώδεκα, τὸ δὲ ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ ἄρρητον γραμμάτων τριάκοντα καὶ αὐτὸ τοῖς ἐν αὐτῷ γράμμασι κατὰ ἓν τῶν στοιχείων ἀριθμουμένων. Τὸ γὰρ Χριστὸς (Χρειστὸς) ἔστι στοιχείων ὀκτώ. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ χεῖ τριῶν, τὸ δὲ ῥῶ δύο, καὶ τὸ εἶ δύο, καὶ ἰῶτα τεσσάρων, τὸ σίγμα πέντε, καὶ τὸ ταῦ τριῶν, τὸ δὲ οὐ δύο, καὶ τὸ σὰν τριῶν. Οὕτως τὸ ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ ἄρρητον φάσκουσι στοιχείων τριάκοντα. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο δέ, φασίν, αὐτὸν λέγειν· Ἐγὼ τὸ ἄλφα καὶ τὸ ὦ, ἐπιδεικνύντα τὴν περιστερὰν τοῦτον ἔχουσαν τὸν ἀριθμόν, ὅ ἐστιν ὀκτακόσια ἕν.
English · Claude translation
The whole number of the letters of this tetrad is twenty-four. For Ineffable (arrētos) has seven letters, Silence (sigē, spelled seigē) five, Father (patēr) five, and Truth (alētheia) seven. Likewise the second tetrad too, Word and Life, Man and Church, displayed the same number of letters. And the speakable name of the Savior [that is, Jesus] is of six letters, but his ineffable name, by the count of the letters taken one by one, is of twenty-four letters; Son Christ (huios chreistos) of twelve; and the ineffable in Christ of thirty letters, it too counted by the letters within it one by one. For Christ (chreistos) has eight letters: chi has three, rho two, ei two, iota four, sigma five, tau three, ou two, and san three. So they say the ineffable in Christ is of thirty letters. And for this reason, they say, he says, “I am the alpha and the omega,” showing the dove, which has this number, eight hundred and one.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The counts depend on the spellings shown in parentheses. Several letter names are unreadable in the digital text and are supplied from the counts. As printed, the letter names of “Christ” add up to 24, not 30.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (unread letter in the digital text; certain from Rev 1:8 and the number 801; unread word in the digital text; certain from the spelling of Χρειστός): τὸ δὲ (??) δύο → τὸ δὲ ῥῶ δύο; καὶ (??) τεσσάρων → καὶ ἰῶτα τεσσάρων; τὸ (??) πέντε → τὸ σίγμα πέντε; καὶ τὸ (??) τριῶν → καὶ τὸ ταῦ τριῶν; ἄλφα καὶ τὸ (??) → ἄλφα καὶ τὸ ὦ.
Cite this passage
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.49.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/49/3/).
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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.49.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/49/3/).
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