Refutation of All Heresies 7.32.5

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: The Carpocratians practice magic, claiming power over the world's rulers and all their works.

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Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 402

Τέχνας οὖν μαγικὰς ἐξεργάζονται καὶ ἐπαοιδάς, φίλτρα τε καὶ χαριτήσια, παρέδρους τε καὶ ὀνειροπόμπους καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ κακουργήματα, φάσκοντες ἐξουσίαν ἔχειν πρὸς τὸ κυριεύειν ἤδη τῶν ἀρχόντων καὶ ποιητῶν τοῦδε τοῦ κόσμου, οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ ποιημάτων ἁπάντων·

English · Claude translation

So they practice magic arts and incantations, love potions and charms, familiar spirits and dream-senders and other evil practices, claiming to have authority to rule already over the rulers and makers of this world, and indeed over all the works in it;

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 402 · 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. 7.32.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/32/5/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.32.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/32/5/).

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