Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.19.8

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: Aristotle also wrote on ethics; if Basilides has transferred Aristotle's words into the gospel, his disciples are pagans whom Christ will not profit.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 354–356

Καταβέβληται δὲ Ἀριστοτέλης οὐ μόνον περὶ φύσεως καὶ κόσμου καὶ προνοίας καὶ θεοῦ λόγους, ἀλλ(??) γὰρ γέγονεν αὐτῷ καὶ πραγματεία λόγων τις ἠθικῶν, ἐπιγράφει δὲ ταῦτα ἠθικὰ βιβλία, διʼ ὧν σπουδαῖον ἐκ φαύλου τὸ τῶν ἀκροωμένων ἦθος ἐργάζεται. Ἐὰν [οὖν] ὁ Βασιλείδης εὑρεθῇ μὴ τῇ δυνάμει μόνῃ ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς λόγοις αὐτοῖς καὶ τοῖς ὀνόμασι τὰ τοῦ Ἀριστοτέλους δόγματα εἰς τὸν εὐαγγελικὸν καὶ σωτήριον ἡμῶν λόγον μεθαρμοζόμενος, τί λείψει, ἢ τὰ ἀλλότρια ἀποδόντας ἐπιδεικνύναι τοῖς τούτου μαθηταῖς, ὅτι ἐθνικοὺς ὄντας αὐτοὺς Χριστὸς οὐδὲν ὠφελήσει;

English · Claude translation

And Aristotle laid down discourses not only about nature, the world, providence, and God; but … he also wrote a treatise of ethical discourses, and he entitles these Ethical Books, by which he makes the character of his hearers good instead of bad. If, [then,] Basilides is found transferring the doctrines of Aristotle, not in meaning only but in the very words and names, into our saving gospel teaching, what remains but to give back what is not theirs and show the disciples of this man that, since they are pagans, Christ will profit them nothing?

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 354–356 · 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

Translation notes

  • The digital text has unreadable characters after ἀλλ(ὰ); the sense “but also” is clear. The last clause echoes Gal 5:2.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.19.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/19/8/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.19.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/19/8/).

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