Refutation of All Heresies 9.17.1

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 book tells its readers to keep its secrets like costly pearls.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 468–470

Ταῦτα τοίνυν τὰ μεγάλα καὶ ἀπόρρητα μυστήρια ἄλογον ἡγούμενος καταπατεῖσθαι ἢ εἰς πολλοὺς παραδίδοσθαι, συμβουλεύει ὡς πολυτελεῖς μαργαρίτας φυλάσσειν οὕτω λέγων· Τοῦτον δὲ τὸν λόγον μὴ ἀναγινώσκετε πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις, καὶ ταύτας τὰς ἐντολὰς φυλάξατε ἐπιμελῶς, ὅτι οὐ πάντες ἄνδρες πιστοὶ οὐδὲ πᾶσαι γυναῖκες ὀρθαί.

English · Claude translation

Thinking it unreasonable, then, that these great and secret mysteries should be trampled underfoot or handed over to many, he advises that they be kept like costly pearls, speaking thus: “Do not read this word to all people, and keep these commandments carefully, because not all men are faithful nor are all women upright.”

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 468–470 · 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

Matt 7:6 · echo, high confidence

Topics

Heresy

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.17.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/17/1/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.17.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/17/1/).

Refutation of All Heresies 9.17.1

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 468–470

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage