Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 8.14.3

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: Moses' rod, which brought ten plagues, is the one stroke of the iota, and the plagues symbolize creation.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 428

Ὅταν οὖν, φησίν, ῥάβδον λέγῃ Μωϋσῆς στρεφομένην ποικίλως εἰς τὰ πάθη τὰ κατὰ τὴν Αἴγυπτον, ἅτινα, φησίν, ἐστὶ τῆς κτίσεως ἀλληγορούμενα σύμβολα, οὐκ εἰς πλείονα πάθη τῶν δέκα σχηματίζει τὴν ῥάβδον, ἥτις ἐστὶν ἡ μία κεραία. Διπλῆ, ποικίλη αὕτη, φησίν, ἐστὶν ἡ δεκάπληγος, ἡ κοσμικὴ κτίσις.

English · Claude translation

When, then, he says, Moses speaks of the rod turned in various ways for the plagues in Egypt, which, he says, are allegorical symbols of the creation, he does not shape the rod for more plagues than ten; and the rod is the one stroke. This, he says, is double and varied, the ten-plague, the cosmic creation.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 428 · 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 allusions are Exod 7–11. The phrase “double and varied” is obscure.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 8.14.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/8/14/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 8.14.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/8/14/3/).

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