Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.30.4

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: Marcion forbids meat and dissolves marriages joined by God, following Empedocles' view that marriage divides the One.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 394

ἑπόμενος γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς κατὰ πάντα τούτῳ τὰ βρώματα παραιτεῖσθαι τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ μαθητὰς διδάσκεις, ἵνα μὴ φάγωσι σῶμά τι λείψανον ψυχῆς ὑπὸ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ κεκολασμένης· λύεις τοὺς ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ συνηρμοσμένους γάμους τοῖς Ἐμπεδοκλέους ἀκολουθῶν δόγμασιν, ἵνα σοι φυλαχθῇ τὸ τῆς φιλίας ἔργον ἓν ἀδιαίρετον. Διαιρεῖ γὰρ ὁ γάμος κατὰ Ἐμπεδοκλέα τὸ ἓν καὶ ποιεῖ πολλά, καθὼς ἀπεδείξαμεν.

English · Claude translation

For truly following him in everything, you teach your disciples to refuse foods, so that they may not eat some body that is the remnant of a soul punished by the Demiurge. You dissolve marriages joined by God, following the doctrines of Empedocles, so that the work of Love may be kept for you one and undivided. For according to Empedocles marriage divides the one and makes many, as we have shown.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 394 · 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, Marriage

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Joined by God” echoes Matt 19:6.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.30.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/30/4/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.30.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/30/4/).

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