Hippolytus, Refutatio V.7.22-30: Osiris, Hermes, and Esaldaios
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.
οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἀπόρρητος αὐτοῖς λόγος καὶ μυστικός. λέγουσι γοῦν, ὅτι Αἰγύπτιοι, πάντων ἀνθρώπων μετὰ τοὺς Φρύγας ἀρχαιότεροι καθεστῶτες καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνθρώποις ὁμολογου- μένως τελετὰς καὶ ὄργια θεῶν πάντων ὁμοῦ μετ᾿ αὐτοὺς πρῶτον κατηγγελκότες <καὶ> ἰδέας καὶ ἐνεργείας, ἱερὰ καὶ σεβάσμια καὶ τοῖς μὴ τετελεσμένοις τὰ Ισιδος ἔχουσι μυστήρια· τὰ δ εἰσὶν οὐκ ἄλλο τι ἢ ἡρπασμένον καὶ ζητούμενον ὑπὸ τῆς ἑπταστόλου καὶ μελανείμονος αἰσχύνη Ὀσίριδος. Ὄσιριν δὲ λέγουσιν ὕδωρ. ἡ δὲ φύσις ἐπτάστολος, περὶ αὑτὴν ἔχουσα καὶ ἐστολισμένη ἑπτά στολὰς αἰθερίους — τοὺς πλάνητας γὰρ ἀστέρας οὕτω προσαγορεύουσιν ἀλληγοροῦντες καὶ αἰθερίους καλοῦντες † καθὼς —, ἡ μεταβλητὴ γένεσις, ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀρρήτου καὶ ἀνεξεικονίστου καὶ ἀνεννοήτου καὶ ἀμόρφου μεταμορφουμένη κτίσις ἀναδείκνυται· καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ εἰρημένον, φησίν, ἐν τῇ γραφῇ· »ἑπτάκις πεσεῖται ὁ δίκαιος καὶ ἀναστήσεται«. αὐται γὰρ αἱ πτώσεις, φησίν, αἱ τῶν ἄστρων μεταβολαὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ πάντα κινοῦντος κινούμεναι. Λέγουσιν οὖν περὶ τῆς τοῦ σπέρματος οὐσίας, ἥτις ἐστὶ πάντων τῶν γινομένων αἰτία, ὅτι τούτων ἔστιν οὐδέν, γεννᾷ δὲ καὶ ποιεῖ πάντα τὰ γινόμεναι λέγοντες οὕτως· »γίνομαι ὃ θέλω καὶ εἰμὶ ὃ εἰμί«. διὰ τοῦτό φησι ἀκίνητον εἶναι τὸ πάντα κινοῦν· μένει γὰρ ὅ ἐστι ποιοῦν τὰ πάντα καὶ οὐδὲν τῶν γινομένων γίνεται. τοῦτον εἶναί φησιν ἀγαθὸν μόνον, καὶ περὶ τούτου λελέχθαι τὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος λεγόμενον· τί με λέγεις ἀγαθόν; εἷς ἐστὶν ἀγαθός, ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, ὃς ἀνατέλλει τὸν ἥλιον αὑτοῦ ἐπὶ δικαίους καὶ ἀδίκους καὶ βρέχει ἐπὶ ὁσίους καὶ ἁμαρτωλούς‘. τίνες δὲ εἰσιν οἱ ὅσιοι οἷς βρέχει καὶ οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ οἷς ὁ αὐτὸς βρέχει, καὶ τοῦτο μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων ὕστερον ἐροῦμεν. καὶ τοῦτ’ εἶναι τὸ μέγα καὶ κρύφιον τῶν ἄγνωστον μυστήριον μυστήριον παρὰ τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις κεκαλυμμένον καὶ ἀνακεκαλυμμένον. οὐδεὶς γάρ, φησίν, ἐστὶ ναὸς ἐν ᾦ πρὸ τῆς εἰσόδου οὐχ ἕστηκε γυμνὸν τὸ κεκρυμμένον, κάτωθεν ἄνω βλέπον καὶ πάντας αὐτοῦ τοὺς καρποὺς τῶν γινομένων στεφανούμενον· ἐστάναι δὲ οὐ μόνον ἐν τοῖς ἁγιωτάτοις πρὸ τῶν ἀγαλμάτων ναοῖς λέγουσι τὸ τοιοῦτον, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ εἰς τὴν ἁπάντων ἐπίγνωσιν, οἱονεὶ φῶς >οὐχ> ὑπὸ τὸν μόδιον, ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ τὴν λυχνίαν ἐπικείμενον, κήρυγμα κηρυσσόμενον ἐπὶ τῶν δωμάτων, ἐν πάσαις ὁδοῖς καὶ πόσαις ἀγυιαῖς καὶ παρ’ αὐταῖς ταῖς οἰκίαις, ὅρον τινὰ καὶ τέρμα τῆς οἰκίας προτεταγμένον, καὶ τοῦτο εἶναι τὸ ἀγαθὸν ὑπὸ πόντων λεγόμενον· ἀγαθηφόρον γὰρ αὐτὸ καλοῦσιν, ὃ λέγουσιν οὐκ εἰδότες, καὶ τοῦτο Ἕλληνες μυστικὸν ἀπὸ Αἰγυπτίων παραλαβόντες φυλάσσουσι μέχρι σήμερον. τοὺς γοῦν Ἑρμᾶς, φησί, παρ’ αὐτοῖς τοιούτῳ τετιμημένους σχήματι θεωροῦμεν. Κυλλήνιοι δὲ διαφερόντως τιμῶντες * * * λόγον. φησὶ γάρ· Ἑρμῆς ἐστι λόγος. <ὃς> ἑρμηνεὺς ὢν καὶ δημιουργὸς τῶν ὁμοῦ καὶ γινομένων καὶ ἐσομένων παρ’ αὐτοῖς τιμώμενος ἕστηκε τοιούτῳ τινὶ κεχαρακτηρισμένος σχήματι, ὅπερ ἐστὶν αἰσχύνη ἀνθρώπου, ἀπὸ τῶν κάτω ἐπὶ τὰ ἄνω ὁρμὴν ἔχων. Καὶ ὅτι οὗτος, τουτέστιν ὁ τοιοῦτος Ἑρμῆς, ψυχαγωγός, φησίν, ἐστὶ καὶ ψυχοπομπὸς καὶ ψυχῶν αἴτιος, οὐδὲ τοὺς ποιητὰς τῶν Μνῶν λανθάνει λέγοντας οὕτως· Ἑρμῆς δὲ ψυχὰς Κυλλήνιος ἐξεκαλεῖτο ἀνδρῶν μνηστήρων, οὐ τῶν Πηνελόπης, φησίν, ὦ κακοδαίμονες, μνηστήρων, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἐξυπνισμένων καὶ ἀνεμνησμένων, ἐξ οἴης τιμῆς καὶ ὅσου μήκεος ὄλβου«, τουτέστιν ἀπὸ τοῦ μακαρίου ἄνωθεν ἀνθρώπου ἢ ἀρχανθρώπου ἢ Ἀδάμαντος, ὡς ἐκείνοις δοκεῖ, κατηνέχθησαν ὡδε εἰς πλάσμα τὸ πήλινον, ἵνα δουλεύσωσι τῷ ταύτης τῆς κτίσεως δημιουργῷ Ἠσαλδαίῳ, θεῷ πυρίνῳ, ἀριθμὸν τετάρτῳ·
This is their unspeakable and mystical account. They say, at any rate, that the Egyptians — who are established as the most ancient of all men after the Phrygians, and who by common consent among all other men were the first after them to have proclaimed the rites and ceremonies of all the gods together, <and> their forms and operations — have the mysteries of Isis, holy and venerable and, for those not initiated, sealed.
And these are nothing else than the shame of Osiris, snatched away and sought by the seven-robed and black-clad one. And they say Osiris is water. And nature is seven-robed, having about herself and being arrayed in seven ethereal robes — for so they call the wandering stars, speaking allegorically and calling them ethereal † as — and she, the changeable coming-to-be, is displayed as the creation transformed by the unspeakable and unimaginable and unthinkable and formless.
And this, he says, is what is said in the scripture: “seven times the righteous shall fall and shall rise again.” For these fallings, he says, are the changes of the stars, moved by the one who moves all things.
They speak, then, concerning the substance of the seed, which is the cause of all things that come to be, that it is none of these things, but generates and makes all the things that come to be, saying thus: “I become what I will, and I am what I am.” For this reason, he says, that which moves all things is itself unmoved; for it remains what it is, making all things, and becomes none of the things that come to be.
He says that this alone is good, and that what is said by the Saviour was said concerning it: “Why do you call me good? One is good, my Father who is in the heavens, who makes his sun rise upon just and unjust and rains upon holy and sinners.” And who the holy are upon whom he rains, and who the sinners upon whom the same one rains, we shall say later, with the rest.
And this, they say, is the great and hidden and unknown mystery among the Egyptians, veiled and unveiled. For there is no temple, he says, before whose entrance the hidden thing does not stand naked, looking from below upward and crowned with all its own fruits of the things that come to be.
And they say that such a thing stands not only in the holiest temples before the images, but also for the recognition of all — as it were a light <not> under the bushel but set upon the lampstand, a proclamation proclaimed upon the housetops, in all roads and all streets and beside the houses themselves, set before them as a boundary and limit of the house. And this is the good spoken of by all; for they call it the good-bearer, saying what they do not understand. And the Greeks, having received this mystic thing from the Egyptians, keep it to this day.
We see, at any rate, he says, that the Hermae among them are honoured in such a form. And the Cyllenians, honouring it especially * * * word. For he says: Hermes is the word. He, being the interpreter and craftsman of the things that are at once coming to be and shall yet be, stands honoured among them, marked with some such form, which is the shame of a man, having its impulse from the things below toward the things above.
And that this one — that is, this sort of Hermes — is a leader of souls, he says, and a conductor of souls and the cause of souls, does not escape even the poets of the nations, who speak thus: “And Cyllenian Hermes called forth the souls of the men who were suitors” — not the suitors of Penelope, he says, you wretches, but of those who have been woken and have remembered, “from what honour and how great a length of prosperity”, that is, from the blessed Man above, or First Man, or Adamas, as it seems to them, they were brought down here into the moulded thing of clay, so that they might be enslaved to the craftsman of this creation, ESALDAIOS, a fiery god, fourth in number.
And these are nothing else than the shame of Osiris, snatched away and sought by the seven-robed and black-clad one. And they say Osiris is water. And nature is seven-robed, having about herself and being arrayed in seven ethereal robes — for so they call the wandering stars, speaking allegorically and calling them ethereal † as — and she, the changeable coming-to-be, is displayed as the creation transformed by the unspeakable and unimaginable and unthinkable and formless.
And this, he says, is what is said in the scripture: “seven times the righteous shall fall and shall rise again.” For these fallings, he says, are the changes of the stars, moved by the one who moves all things.
They speak, then, concerning the substance of the seed, which is the cause of all things that come to be, that it is none of these things, but generates and makes all the things that come to be, saying thus: “I become what I will, and I am what I am.” For this reason, he says, that which moves all things is itself unmoved; for it remains what it is, making all things, and becomes none of the things that come to be.
He says that this alone is good, and that what is said by the Saviour was said concerning it: “Why do you call me good? One is good, my Father who is in the heavens, who makes his sun rise upon just and unjust and rains upon holy and sinners.” And who the holy are upon whom he rains, and who the sinners upon whom the same one rains, we shall say later, with the rest.
And this, they say, is the great and hidden and unknown mystery among the Egyptians, veiled and unveiled. For there is no temple, he says, before whose entrance the hidden thing does not stand naked, looking from below upward and crowned with all its own fruits of the things that come to be.
And they say that such a thing stands not only in the holiest temples before the images, but also for the recognition of all — as it were a light <not> under the bushel but set upon the lampstand, a proclamation proclaimed upon the housetops, in all roads and all streets and beside the houses themselves, set before them as a boundary and limit of the house. And this is the good spoken of by all; for they call it the good-bearer, saying what they do not understand. And the Greeks, having received this mystic thing from the Egyptians, keep it to this day.
We see, at any rate, he says, that the Hermae among them are honoured in such a form. And the Cyllenians, honouring it especially * * * word. For he says: Hermes is the word. He, being the interpreter and craftsman of the things that are at once coming to be and shall yet be, stands honoured among them, marked with some such form, which is the shame of a man, having its impulse from the things below toward the things above.
And that this one — that is, this sort of Hermes — is a leader of souls, he says, and a conductor of souls and the cause of souls, does not escape even the poets of the nations, who speak thus: “And Cyllenian Hermes called forth the souls of the men who were suitors” — not the suitors of Penelope, he says, you wretches, but of those who have been woken and have remembered, “from what honour and how great a length of prosperity”, that is, from the blessed Man above, or First Man, or Adamas, as it seems to them, they were brought down here into the moulded thing of clay, so that they might be enslaved to the craftsman of this creation, ESALDAIOS, a fiery god, fourth in number.
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.