Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.28.2

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: Seven angels made the world and, seeing a luminous image from above, tried to make a human being after it.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 380

Ἀπὸ δὲ ἑπτά τινων ἀγγέλων τὸν κόσμον γεγενῆσθαι καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ, καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον δὲ ἀγγέλων εἶναι ποίημα, ἄνωθεν ἀπὸ τῆς αὐθεντίας φωτεινῆς εἰκόνος ἐπιφανείσης, ἣν κατασχεῖν μὴ δυνηθέντες διὰ τὸ παραχρῆμα, φησίν, ἀναδραμεῖν ἄνω, ἐκέλευσαν ἑαυτοῖς λέγοντες· Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατʼ εἰκόνα καὶ καθʼ ὁμοίωσιν· οὗ

English · Claude translation

And that the world and all things in it came into being from some seven angels, and that the human being too is the work of angels, a luminous image having appeared from above from the Supreme Authority, which they were unable to hold back because, he says, it immediately ran back up; and they urged one another, saying, “Let us make a human being according to image and according to likeness.” And when he

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 380 · 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 quotation is Gen 1:26. αὐθεντία, “Supreme Authority,” is Saturnilus's name for the highest power.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.28.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/28/2/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.28.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/28/2/).

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