Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.22.11

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: Like a bird and its wing, the Sonship and the Spirit need each other to rise.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 362

Εὐεργετεῖ μέν, ὅτι καθάπερ ὄρνιθος πτερὸν αὐτὸ κατʼ αὐτὸ τοῦ ὄρνιθος ἀπηλλαγμένον οὐκ ἂν γένοιτό ποτε ὑψηλὸν οὐδὲ μετάρσιον, οὐδʼ αὖ ὄρνις ἀπολελυμένος τοῦ πτεροῦ οὐκ ἄν ποτε γένοιτο ὑψηλὸς οὐδὲ μετάρσιος. Τοιοῦτόν τινα τὸν λόγον ἔσχεν ἡ υἱότης πρὸς τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα πρὸς τὴν υἱότητα.

English · Claude translation

It benefits it, because just as a bird's wing by itself, separated from the bird, could never become high or aloft, nor again would a bird freed from its wing ever become high or aloft, such was the relation the Sonship had to the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit to the Sonship.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 362 · 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

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.22.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/22/11/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.22.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/22/11/).

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