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Refutation of All Heresies 1st Edition Unknow Christian Bishop (Often Attributed To Hippolytus of Rome) (Trans and Commentary M. David Litwa)
Refutation of All Heresies 1st Edition Unknow Christian Bishop (Often Attributed To Hippolytus of Rome) (Trans and Commentary M. David Litwa)
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WRITINGS FROM THE GRECO-ROMAN WORLD
General Editors
Craig A. Gibson and Ronald Hock
Editorial Board
Wendy Mayer
Margaret M. Mitchell
Teresa Morgan
Ilaria L. E. Ramelli
Michael Roberts
Karin Schlapbach
James C. VanderKam
L. Michael White
Number 40
Volume Editor
Joshua L. Langseth
Refutation of All Heresies
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by
means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permit-
ted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission
should be addressed in writing to the Rights and Permissions Office, SBL Press, 825 Hous-
ton Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329 USA.
Preface.................................................................................................................ix
Abbreviations.....................................................................................................xi
Introduction................................................................................................. xxvii
Sigla for the Greek Text...................................................................................liv
Outline of the Work..........................................................................................lv
Book 1..................................................................................................................2
Books 2–3..........................................................................................................89
Book 4................................................................................................................90
Book 5..............................................................................................................192
Book 6..............................................................................................................356
Book 7..............................................................................................................488
Book 8..............................................................................................................580
Book 9..............................................................................................................620
Book 10............................................................................................................696
Bibliography....................................................................................................765
This book was motivated by my own need for a useable, scholarly edi-
tion and translation of the Refutation of All Heresies. Previous (complete)
translations are now outdated, and the most recent critical edition is vir-
tually unusable. J. H. MacMahon’s translation in the Ante-Nicene Fathers
is based mainly on the editio princeps of the Refutation printed in 1851
by Emmanuel Miller. In 1921, F. Legge made a second English transla-
tion based on the 1860 edition of Patricius Cruice. MacMahon had a lively
style, but his translation is marred by its many faulty readings and out-
dated vocabulary. Legge’s translation is literal to the point of agony and
was based on an edition of the Greek text that had been, even in his time,
replaced by that of Wendland (1916). The most recent critical edition
(Marcovich, 1986—with a preface dated to 1980) has sat idle for almost
thirty years with no translator coming forward. After reading the reviews,
there is little wonder. Although Marcovich’s double apparatus and indi-
ces are generous, his libido emendationis altered readings on almost every
paragraph, making the text a minefield for scholars whose eyes are not
constantly trained on the apparatus. Consequently, my initial desire to
produce a working translation also necessitated a new edition of the text
more faithful to the manuscript tradition. I offer the edition here as a ser-
vice to the scholarly community.
Sincere thanks go to the editors of Writings from the Greco-Roman
World. My friend Blaire French kindly proofread my initial transla-
tion of the Refutation. Emanuele Castelli offered helpful comments on
my introduction. Special appreciation is owed to Joshua Langseth, who
meticulously and efficiently checked the translation and notes. Many of
his corrections and suggestions are incorporated throughout this edition.
Any errors that remain are my responsibility.
My hope is that this edition will spark renewed attention and interest
in this bizarre masterpiece. What was meant as the heresiography to end
all heresiography is in effect a mine of (in many cases, uniquely preserved)
-ix-
x preface
Charlottesville
St. Patrick’s Day, 2015
Abbreviations
Primary Sources
-xi-
xii abbreviations
Secondary Sources
The Refutation of All Heresies is not a well-attested work. There are five
manuscripts of book 1, all of which ascribe the work to Origen.1 Books 2
and 3 are lost. Books 4–10 exist in a single fourteenth-century manuscript
found in 1841 at Mount Athos by Constantinus Minoides Mynas.
Mynas was sent east by the University of Paris to collect ancient manu-
scripts. On February 25, 1842, he reported by letter that he had acquired
thirty-five texts. Among them was an anonymous refutation composed in
six books. Mynas attributed the work to Origen because the form of argu-
ment, he thought, resembled the Contra Celsum. The manuscript, labeled
Parisinus Supplément grec 464 (hereafter P), was deposited in the Biblio-
thèque Royale.2
The books of the Refutation were then recompiled. In 1851, book 1
was combined with books 4–10 in the Oxford edition of Emmanuel Mill-
er.3 Miller attributed the entire work to Origen. Eight years later, the edi-
tion of L. Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin ascribed the work to the misty
figure of Hippolytos.4 The 1860 edition of Patricius Cruice did not record
-xxvii-
xxviii Refutation of All Heresies
an author but indicated that the work was ascribed to Origen (opus Ori-
geni adscriptum).5
Title
Although we lack a title in the manuscripts for the treatise as a whole, the
brief tables of contents at the head of each book consistently refer to the
work as Ὁ κατὰ πασῶν αἱρέσεων ἔλεγχος: The Refutation of All Heresies. Yet
the word “refutation,” from the Latin refutatio, has the potential to mislead.
The author did indeed aim to refute his opponents. Yet he also, and primar-
ily, intended to denounce, unmask, and expose his enemies as plagiarists—
with the ultimate goal of showing them “naked and full of shame” (Ref. 1,
pref. §11).6
A generation earlier, Irenaeus claimed that to expose the doctrines of
the “gnostics” was to refute them (Haer. 1.31.3). But his exposé was accom-
panied by four books of rational, scriptural, and rhetorical arguments
attempting to refute his opponents. In the Refutation, as Gérard Vallée has
pointed out, “we witness … almost a complete disappearance of this type
of argumentation.”7 The truth alone so effectively topples error, affirms
the author of the Refutation, it has only to manifest itself “inexorable and
unadorned” (Ref. 10.5.1).
For a long time in English, the Refutation was also called Philosophou-
mena (or Philosophumena). Indeed, F. Legge (following Cruice) gave it this
title in the last full English translation (1921).8 The author of the Refuta-
tion refers to τὰ φιλοσοφούμενα in 9.8.2: “Now, even though I formerly set
out the theory of Herakleitos in τὰ φιλοσοφούμενα.…” Miroslav Marcovich
believed that τὰ φιλοσοφούμενα referred to book 1.9 Jaap Mansfeld viewed
Buenos-Ayres, 25 septembre.