Hippolytus, Refutatio V.7.1-10: Adamas and the First Man
Refutatio omnium haeresium · the Naassene report
Ἔλεγχος κατὰ πασῶν αἱρέσεων
This edition presents the verbatim Hebrew of the passage beside a fresh English rendering and a critical apparatus. It is a provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor.
The apparatus carries a running commentary, notes on the controlled vocabulary and the rendering chosen for each term, any doctrinally-live ambiguity preserved with both readings, and cross-references to the lexicon. The Hebrew is reproduced verbatim from the Hebrew Wikisource transcription; the standard modern English translation (Kaplan, 1979) is under copyright.
Ταῦτά ἐστιν ἀπὸ πολλῶν πάνυ λόγων τὰ κεφάλαια, ἅ φησι παραδεδωκέναι Μαριάμμῃ τὸν Ἰάκωβον τοῦ κυρίου τὸν ἀδελφόν. ἵν᾿ οὖν μήτε Μαριάμμης ἔτι καταψεύδωνται οἱ ἀσεβεῖς μήτε Ἰακώβου μήτε τοῦ σωτῆρος αὐτοῦ, ἔλθωμεν ἐπὶ τὰς τελετάς, ὅθεν αὐτοῖς οὗτος ὁ μῦθος, εἰ δοκεῖ, ἐπὶ τὰς βαρβαρικάς τε καὶ Ἑλληνικάς, καὶ ἴδωμεν ὡς τὰ κρυπτὰ καὶ ἀπόρρητα πάντων ὁμοῦ συνάγοντες οὗτοι μυστήρια τῶν ἐθνῶν καταψευδόμενοι τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐξαπατῶσι τοὺς ταῦτα οὐκ εἰδότας τὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν ὄργια. ἐπεὶ γὰρ ὑπόθεσις αὐτοῖς ὁ ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν Ἀδάμας καὶ λέγουσι γεγράφθαι περὶ αὐτοῦ τὴν γενεὰν αὐτοῦ τίς διηγήσεται;« μάθετε πῶς κατὰ μέρος παρὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν τὴν ἀνεξεύρητον καὶ ἀδιάφθορον τοῦ ἀνθρώπου γενεὰν λαβόντες ἐπιπλάσσουσι τῷ Χριστῷ. γῆ δέ, φασὶν οἱ Ἕλληνες, ἄνθρωπον ἀνέδωκε πρώτη καλὸν ἐνεγκαμένη γέρας, μὴ φυτῶν ἀναισθήτων μηδὲ θηρίων ἀλόγων, ἀλλὰ ἡμέρου ζῴου καὶ θεοφιλοῦς ἐθέλουσα μήτηρ γενέσθαι. χαλεπὸν δέ, φησίν, ἐξευρεῖν, εἴτε Βοιωτοῖς Ἀλαλκομενεὺς ὑπὲρ λίμνης Κηφισίδος ἀνέσχε πρῶτος ἀνθρώπων , εἴτε Κουρῆτες ἦσαν Ἰδαῖοι, θεῖον γένος, ἢ Φρύγιοι Κορύβαντες, οὔς πρώτους ἥλιος ἐπεῖδε δενδροφυεῖς ἀναβλαστάνοντας, εἴτε προσεληναῖον Ἀρκαδία Πελασγόν, ἢ Ραρίας οἰκήτορα Δυσαύλην Ἐλευσίν, ἢ Λῆμνος καλλίπαιδα Κάβιρον ἀρρήτῳ ἐτέκνωσεν ὀργιασμῷ εἴτε Πελλήνη Φλεγραῖον Ἀλκυονέα, πρεσβύτατον Γιγάντων. Λίβυες δὲ Γαράμαντά φασι πρωτόγονον αὐχμηρῶν ἀναδύντα πεδίων γλυκείας ἀπάρξασθαι Διὸς βαλάνου. Αὐγυπτίαν δὲ Νεῖλος ἰλὺν ἐπιλιπαίνων μέχρι σήμερον ζωογονῶν, φησίν, ὑγρᾷ σαρκούμενα θερμότητι ζῷα καὶ σῶμα] ἀναδίδωσιν. Ἀσσύριοι δὲ Ὠάννην ἰχθυοφάγον γενέσθαι παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς, Χαλδαῖοι δὲ τὸν Ἀδάμ. καὶ τοῦτον εἶναι φάσκουσι τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ὃν ἀνέδωκεν ἡ γῆ μόνον· κεῖσθαι δὲ αὐτὸν ἄπνουν, ἀκίνητον, ἀσάλευτον, ὡς ἀνδριάντα, εἰκόνα ὑπάρχοντα ἐκείνου τοῦ ἄνω, τοῦ ὑμνουμένου Ἀδάμαντος ἀνθρώπου, γενόμενον ὑπὸ δυνάμεων τῶν πολλῶν, περὶ ὧν ὁ κατὰ μέρος λόγος ἐστὶ πολύς. Ἵν᾿ οὖν τελέως ᾖ κεκρατημένος ὁ μέγας ἄνθρωπος ἄνωθεν, »ἀφ᾿ οὑ«, καθὼς λέγουσι, »πᾶσα πατριὰ ὀνομαζομένη ἐπὶ γῆς καὶ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς‘ συνέστηκεν, ἐδόθη αὐτῷ καὶ ψυχή, ἵνα διὰ τῆς ψυχῆς πάσχῃ καὶ κολάζηται καταδουλούμενον τὸ πλάσμα τοῦ μεγάλου καὶ καλλίστου καὶ τελείου ἀνθρώπου· καὶ γὰρ οὕτως αὐτὸν καλοῦσι. ζητοῦσιν οὖν αὖ πάλιν τίς ἐστιν ἡ ψυχὴ καὶ πόθεν καὶ ποταπὴ τὴν φύσιν, ἵν’ ἐλθοῦσα εἰς τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ κινήσασα καταδουλώσῃ καὶ κολάσῃ τὸ πλάσμα τοῦ τελείου ἀνθρώπου· ζητοῦσι δὲ οὐκ ἀπὸ τῶν γραφῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτο ἀπὸ τῶν μυστικῶν. εἶναι δέ φασι τὴν ψυχὴν δυσεύρετον πάνυ καὶ δυσκατανόητον· οὐ γὰρ μένει ἐπὶ σχήματος οὐδὲ μορφῆς τῆς αὐτῆς πάντοτε οὐδὲ πάθους ἑνός, ἵνα τις αὐτὴν ἢ τύπῳ εἴπῃ ἢ οὐσίᾳ καταλήψεται. τὰς δὲ ἐξαλλαγὰς ταύτας τὰς ποι- κίλας ἐν τῷ ἐπιγραφομένῳ κατ’ Αἰγυπτίους εὐαγγελίῳ κειμένας ἔχουσιν. ἀποροῦσιν οὐν. καθάπερ οἱ ἄλλοι πάντες τῶν ἐΜῶν ἄνθρωποι, πότερόν ποτε ἐκ τοῦ προόντος ἐστίν <ἣ> ἐκ τοῦ ἢ ἐκ τοῦ ἐκκεχυμένου χάους. καὶ πρῶτον ἐπὶ τὰς Ἀσσυρίων καταφεύγουσι τελετάς, τὴν τριχῇ διαίρεσιν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου κατανοοῦντες· πρῶτοι γὰρ Ἀσσύριοι τὴν ψυχὴν τριμερῆ νομίζουσιν εἶναι καὶ μίαν. ψυχῆς γάρ. φασί, πᾶσα φύσις, ἄλλη δὲ ἄλλως, ὀρέγεται. ἔστι γὰρ ψυχὴ πάντων τῶν γινομένων αἰτία· πάντα γὰρ ὅσα τρέφεται, φησί, καὶ αὔξει, ψυχῆς δεῖται. οὐδὲν γὰρ οὔτε τροφῆς, φησίν, οὔτε αὐξήσεως οἷόν <τ’> ἐστὶν ἐπιτυχεῖν ψυχῆς μὴ παρούσης. καὶ γὰρ οἱ φησίν, εἰσὶν ἔμψυχοι· ἔχουσι γὰρ τὸ αὐξητικόν. αὔξησις δὲ οὐκ ἄν ποτε γένοιτο χωρὶς τροφῆς· κατὰ προσθήκην γὰρ αὔξει τὰ αὐξανόμενα·
These are the chief points, out of a very great many discourses, which he says James the Lord’s brother handed on to Mariamme. So that the impious may no longer lie against Mariamme, nor against James, nor against their Saviour, let us come to the rites, whence this myth of theirs comes; and, if it seems good, to the barbarian and the Greek rites; and let us see how, gathering together at once the hidden and unspeakable mysteries of all the nations, and lying against Christ, they deceive those who do not know these ceremonies of the nations.
For since their underlying principle is the Man Adamas, and they say it is written of him, “his generation, who shall declare it?”, learn how, taking piece by piece from the nations the untraceable and incorruptible generation of the Man, they impose it upon Christ.
”And earth,” say the Greeks, “first gave up man, bearing a noble prize, wishing to become mother not of senseless plants nor of irrational beasts, but of a gentle and god-loving living thing."
"But it is hard,” he says, “to find out whether Alalkomeneus rose first of men among the Boeotians above the Kephisian lake; or whether it was the Idaean Kouretes, a divine race, or the Phrygian Korybantes, whom the sun first looked upon as they sprouted up tree-like; or whether Arkadia brought forth Pelasgos, older than the moon; or Eleusis Dysaules, dweller in Raria; or Lemnos begot Kabeiros, fair of children, in a rite not to be spoken; or Pellene the Phlegraean Alkyoneus, eldest of the Giants."
"And the Libyans say that Garamas, firstborn, rising up out of parched plains, was the first to take of the sweet acorn of Zeus.” And the Nile, he says, enriching the Egyptian silt, to this day gives up living creatures and bodies, enfleshed by moist heat.
The Assyrians say that Oannes the fish-eater came to be among them, and the Chaldaeans Adam. And they assert that this is the Man whom the earth gave up, alone; and that he lay breathless, unmoving, unshaken, like a statue, being an image of that Man above, the hymned Adamas, made by the many powers, concerning which the detailed account is long.
In order, then, that the great Man from above might be wholly mastered — “from whom,” as they say, “every fatherhood named on earth and in the heavens” is constituted — a soul was also given to him, so that through the soul the moulded thing of the great and most beautiful and perfect Man might suffer and be punished in its enslavement. For so they call him.
They inquire, then, once again, what the soul is, and whence, and of what kind in its nature, such that coming into the man and moving him it should enslave and punish the moulded thing of the perfect Man. And they inquire not from the scriptures, but this too from the mystical rites. And they say that the soul is very hard to find out and hard to understand; for it does not remain always in the same shape or the same form, nor in a single condition, such that one might state it by type or grasp it by substance.
These varied alterations they have as set down in the gospel entitled According to the Egyptians. They are at a loss, then, like all other men of the nations, whether it is at any time from the pre-existent, <or> from the ⟨…⟩, or from the poured-out chaos. And first they take refuge in the rites of the Assyrians, observing the threefold division of the man; for the Assyrians were first to hold the soul to be tripartite and one.
For every nature, they say, reaches after soul, each in a different way. For soul is the cause of all things that come to be; for all things that are nourished, he says, and that grow, stand in need of soul. For nothing, he says, is able to attain either nourishment or growth when soul is not present. For even ⟨…⟩, he says, are ensouled; for they have the principle of growth. And growth would never come about apart from nourishment; for things that grow, grow by addition.
For since their underlying principle is the Man Adamas, and they say it is written of him, “his generation, who shall declare it?”, learn how, taking piece by piece from the nations the untraceable and incorruptible generation of the Man, they impose it upon Christ.
”And earth,” say the Greeks, “first gave up man, bearing a noble prize, wishing to become mother not of senseless plants nor of irrational beasts, but of a gentle and god-loving living thing."
"But it is hard,” he says, “to find out whether Alalkomeneus rose first of men among the Boeotians above the Kephisian lake; or whether it was the Idaean Kouretes, a divine race, or the Phrygian Korybantes, whom the sun first looked upon as they sprouted up tree-like; or whether Arkadia brought forth Pelasgos, older than the moon; or Eleusis Dysaules, dweller in Raria; or Lemnos begot Kabeiros, fair of children, in a rite not to be spoken; or Pellene the Phlegraean Alkyoneus, eldest of the Giants."
"And the Libyans say that Garamas, firstborn, rising up out of parched plains, was the first to take of the sweet acorn of Zeus.” And the Nile, he says, enriching the Egyptian silt, to this day gives up living creatures and bodies, enfleshed by moist heat.
The Assyrians say that Oannes the fish-eater came to be among them, and the Chaldaeans Adam. And they assert that this is the Man whom the earth gave up, alone; and that he lay breathless, unmoving, unshaken, like a statue, being an image of that Man above, the hymned Adamas, made by the many powers, concerning which the detailed account is long.
In order, then, that the great Man from above might be wholly mastered — “from whom,” as they say, “every fatherhood named on earth and in the heavens” is constituted — a soul was also given to him, so that through the soul the moulded thing of the great and most beautiful and perfect Man might suffer and be punished in its enslavement. For so they call him.
They inquire, then, once again, what the soul is, and whence, and of what kind in its nature, such that coming into the man and moving him it should enslave and punish the moulded thing of the perfect Man. And they inquire not from the scriptures, but this too from the mystical rites. And they say that the soul is very hard to find out and hard to understand; for it does not remain always in the same shape or the same form, nor in a single condition, such that one might state it by type or grasp it by substance.
These varied alterations they have as set down in the gospel entitled According to the Egyptians. They are at a loss, then, like all other men of the nations, whether it is at any time from the pre-existent, <or> from the ⟨…⟩, or from the poured-out chaos. And first they take refuge in the rites of the Assyrians, observing the threefold division of the man; for the Assyrians were first to hold the soul to be tripartite and one.
For every nature, they say, reaches after soul, each in a different way. For soul is the cause of all things that come to be; for all things that are nourished, he says, and that grow, stand in need of soul. For nothing, he says, is able to attain either nourishment or growth when soul is not present. For even ⟨…⟩, he says, are ensouled; for they have the principle of growth. And growth would never come about apart from nourishment; for things that grow, grow by addition.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
An orientation
This edition sets the verbatim original-language text beside a fresh English rendering and a critical apparatus: a running commentary on the passage, notes on the controlled vocabulary and the rendering chosen for each term, and cross-references to the lexicon and to related sections. It is a provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor.