Hippolytus, Refutatio V.7.31-41: Adamas the Cornerstone and the Jordan Turned Back
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.
οὕτως γὰρ τὸν δημιουργὸν πατέρα τοῦ ἰδικοῦ κόσμου καλοῦσιν. ἔχε δὲ ῥάβδον μετὰ χερσὶ καλήν, χρυσείην, τῇ τ’ ἀνδρῶν ὄμματα θέλγει ὧν ἐθέλει, τοὺς δ᾿ αὒτε καὶ ὑπνώοντας ἐγείρει. οὗτος, φησίν, ἐστὶν ὁ τῆς ζωῆς καὶ τοῦ θανάτου μόνος ἔχων ἐΜ σίαν. περὶ τούτου, φησί, γέγραπται· »ποιμανεῖς αὐτοὺς ἐν ῥάβδῳ σιδηρᾷ‘. ὁ δὲ ποιητής, φησί, κοσμῆσαι βουλόμενος τὸ ἀπερινόητον τῆς μακαρίας φύσεως τοῦ λόγου, οὐ σιδηρᾶν, ἀλλὰ χρυσῆν περιέθηκε τὴν ῥάβδον αὐτῷ. θέλγει δὲ τὰ ὄμματα τῶν νεκρῶν, ὥς φησι, τοὺς δ᾿ αὖτε καὶ ὑπνώοντας ἐγείρει, τοὺς ἐξυπνισμένους μένους καὶ γεγονότας μνηστῆρας. περὶ τούτων, φησίν, ἡ γραφὴ λέγει· »ἔγειραι ὁ καθεύδων καὶ ἐξεγέρθητι, καὶ ἐπιφαύσει σοι ὁ Χριστός«. οὐτός ἐστιν ὁ Χριστός, ὁ ἐν πᾶσι, φησί, τοῖς γενητοῖς υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου κεχαρακτηρισμένος ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀχαρακτηρίστου λόγου. τοῦτο, φησίν, ἐστὶ τὸ μέγα καὶ ἄρρητον Ἐλευσινίων μυστήριον »ὕε κύε«· καὶ ὅτι, φησίν, αὐτῷ »πάντα ὑποτέτακται«, καὶ τοῦτ᾿ ἔστι τὸ εἰρημένον«· »εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ἐξῆλθεν ὁ φθόγγος αὐτῶν‘. ὡς τὸ τὴν ῥάβδον <ἄγει> κινήσας ὁ Ἑρμῆς, αἱ δὲ τρίζουσαι ἕπονται αἱ ψυχαὶ συνεχῶς οὕτως, ὡς διὰ τῆς εἰκόνος ὁ ποιητὴς ἐπιδέδειχε λέγων· ὡς δ’ ὅτε νυκτερίδες μυχῷ ἄντρου θεσπεσίοιο τρίζουσαι ποτέονται, ἐπεί κέ τις ἀποπέσῃσιν ὁρμαθοῦ ἐκ πέτρης, ἀνά τ᾿ ἀλλήλῃσιν ἔχονται. πέτρης, φησί, τοῦ Ἀδάμαντος λέγει. οὗτος, φησίν, ἐστὶν ὁ ἀδάμας »ὁ λίθος ὁ ἀκρογωνιαῖος εἰς κεφαλὴν γεγενημένος γωνίας« — έν κεφαλῇ γὰρ εἶναι τὸν χαρακτηριστικὸν ἐγκέφαλον, τὴν οὐσίαν, »ἐξ οὑ πᾶσα πατριὰ χαρακτηρίζεται« —, »ὅν«, φησίν, »ἐντάσσω ἀδάμαντα εἰς τὰ θεμέλια Σιών«· ἀλληγορῶν, φησί, τὸ πλάσμα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου λέγει. ὁ δὲ ἐντασσόμενος ἀδάμας ἐστὶν >»ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος«, θεμέλια Σιὼν δὲ οἱ> ὀδόντες· ὡς Ὅμηρος λέγει »ἕρκος ὀδόντων«, τουτέστι καὶ χαράκωμα, ἐν ᾧ ἐστιν ὁ ἔσω ἄνθρωπος, ἐκεῖθεν ἀποπεπτωκὼς ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀρχανθρώπου ἄνωθεν Ἀδάμαντος, ὁ τημθεὶς ἄνευ χειρῶν« τεμνουσῶν καὶ κατενηνεγμένος μένος εἰς τὸ πλάσμα τῆς λήθης, τὸ χοϊκόν, τὸ »ὀστράκινον«· καὶ φησὶν ὅτι τετριγυῖαι αὐτῷ ἠκολούθουν αἱ ψυχαί, τῷ λόγῳ, ὧς αὗται τετριγυῖαι ἅμ᾿ ἤϊσαν, ἦρχε δ’ ἄρα σφιν — τπθτἐστομ ἡγεῖτο — Ἑρμείας ἀκάκητα κατ’ εὐρώεντα κέλαυθα, τουτέστι, φησίν, εἰς τὰ πάσης κακίας ἀπηλλαγμένα αἰώνια χωρία. ποῦ γάρ, φησίν, ἦλθον; πὰρ δ᾿ ἴσαν Ὠκεανοῦ τε ῥοὰς καὶ Λευκάδα πέτρην, ἡ<δὲ> παρ’ Ἠελίοιο πύλας καὶ δῆμον οὗτος, φησίν, ἐστὶν Ὠκεανὸς »γένεσίς <τε> θεῶν, γένεσίς τ’ ἐκ παλιρροίας στρεφόμενος αἰεί, ποτὲ ἄνω ποτὲ κάτω. ἀλλ ὅταν, φησί, κάτω ῥέῃ ὁ Ὠκεανός, γένεσίς ἐστιν ἀνθρώπων, ὅταν δὲ ἄνω ἐπὶ τὸ τεῖχος καὶ τὸ χαράκωμα καὶ τὴν Λευκάδα πέτρην, γένεσίς ἐστι θεῶν. τοῦτό ἐστι, φησί, τὸ γεγραμμένον· »ἐγὼ εἶπα· θεοί ἐστε καὶ υἱοὶ ὑψίστου πάντες‘, ἐὰν ἀπὸ τῆς Αἰγύπτου φυγεῖν σπεύδητε καὶ γένησθε πέραν τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς θαλάσσης εἰς τὴν ἔρημον, τουτέστιν ἀπὸ τῆς κάτω μίξεως ἐπὶ τὴν ἄνω Ἱερουσαλήμ, ἥτις ἐστὶ μήτηρ ζώντων· ἐὰν δὲ πάλιν ἐπιστραφῆτε ἐπὶ τὴν Αἴγυπτον, τουτέστιν ἐπὶ τὴν κα΄τω μῖξιν, »ὡς ἄνθρωποι ἀποθνῄσκετε«. θηντὴ γάρ, φησί, πᾶσα ἡ κάτω γένεσις, ἀθάνατος δὲ ἡ ἄνω γεννωμένη· γεννᾶται γὰρ ἐξ ὕδατος μόνου καὶ πνεύματος πνευματικός, οὐ σαρκικός· ὁ δὲ κάτω σαρκικός. τοῦτ᾿ ἔστι, φησί, τὸ γεγραμμένον· »τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τῆς σάρξ σάρξ ἐστι, καὶ τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος πνεῦμά ἐστιν‘. αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτοὺς πνευματικὴ γένεσις. οὗτος, φησίν, ἐστὶν ὁ μέγας Ἰορδάνης, ἃν κάτω ῥέοντα καὶ κωλύοντα ἐξελθεῖν τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσραὴλ ἐκ γῆς Αἰγύπτου — ἤγουν ἐκ τῆς κάτω μίξεως· Αἴγυπτος γάρ ἐστι τὸ σῶμα κατ᾿ αὐτοὺς — ἀνέστειλεν Ἰησοῦς καὶ ἐποίησεν ἄνω ῥέειν.
For thus they call the craftsman father of the particular world. “And he held in his hands a rod, beautiful, golden, with which he charms the eyes of those men he wishes, and others again he wakes from sleep.”
This one, he says, is he who alone has authority over life and death. Concerning him, he says, it is written: “you shall shepherd them with a rod of iron.” But the poet, he says, wishing to adorn the inconceivable quality of the blessed nature of the word, put about him a rod not of iron but of gold. And he charms the eyes of the dead, as he says, “and others again he wakes from sleep” — those who have been woken and have become suitors.
Concerning these, he says, the scripture says: “Awake, you who sleep, and rise up, and Christ shall shine upon you.” This is the Christ, in all things that come to be, he says, the Son of Man stamped from the unstamped word.
This, he says, is the great and unspeakable mystery of the Eleusinians: “Rain! Conceive!” And that, he says, “all things have been subjected” to him, and this is what is said: “into all the earth their sound went out.” As when Hermes, having moved the rod, <leads>, the souls follow squeaking continually, so, as the poet has shown by the image, saying: “and as when bats in the recess of a wondrous cave fly squeaking, when one falls away from the cluster on the rock, and they cling to one another.” The rock, he says, means Adamas.
This, he says, is the adamant, “the cornerstone that has become the head of the corner” — for in the head is the brain that gives the stamp, the substance, “from whom every fatherhood is stamped” — “whom”, he says, “I set as an adamant into the foundations of Zion”. Speaking allegorically, he says, he means the moulded thing of the man.
And the adamant that is set in is <“the inner man”, and the foundations of Zion are the> teeth — as Homer says, “the fence of the teeth”, that is, a palisade also, in which is the inner man, having fallen from there, from the First Man above, Adamas; the one “cut without cutting hands”, and carried down into the moulded thing of forgetfulness, the thing of dust, the “earthen” thing.
And he says that the souls followed him squeaking, that is, the word, as “these went squeaking together, and there led them” — that is, guided them — “Hermes the kindly, down the dank ways”, that is, he says, into the eternal places rid of all evil. For where, he says, did they come? “And they went past the streams of Ocean and the White Rock, and past the gates of the Sun and the people of dreams.” This, he says, is Ocean, “genesis of gods
and genesis of men”, turned always by the ebb and flow, now upward, now downward. But when, he says, Ocean flows downward, it is the coming-to-be of men; and when upward, toward the wall and the palisade and the White Rock, it is the coming-to-be of gods.
This is, he says, what is written: “I said, you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High” — if you hasten to flee from Egypt and come to be beyond the Red Sea into the wilderness, that is, from the mixture below to the Jerusalem above, which is the mother of the living. But if you turn back again to Egypt, that is, to the mixture below, “you die as men.”
For mortal, he says, is all the coming-to-be below, but immortal that which is begotten above; for it is begotten of water alone and spirit, spiritual, not fleshly; but the one below is fleshly. This is, he says, what is written: “that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.” This is, according to them, the spiritual coming-to-be.
This, he says, is the great Jordan, which, flowing downward and preventing the sons of Israel from going out of the land of Egypt — that is, out of the mixture below, for Egypt according to them is the body — IESOUS turned back and made to flow upward.
This one, he says, is he who alone has authority over life and death. Concerning him, he says, it is written: “you shall shepherd them with a rod of iron.” But the poet, he says, wishing to adorn the inconceivable quality of the blessed nature of the word, put about him a rod not of iron but of gold. And he charms the eyes of the dead, as he says, “and others again he wakes from sleep” — those who have been woken and have become suitors.
Concerning these, he says, the scripture says: “Awake, you who sleep, and rise up, and Christ shall shine upon you.” This is the Christ, in all things that come to be, he says, the Son of Man stamped from the unstamped word.
This, he says, is the great and unspeakable mystery of the Eleusinians: “Rain! Conceive!” And that, he says, “all things have been subjected” to him, and this is what is said: “into all the earth their sound went out.” As when Hermes, having moved the rod, <leads>, the souls follow squeaking continually, so, as the poet has shown by the image, saying: “and as when bats in the recess of a wondrous cave fly squeaking, when one falls away from the cluster on the rock, and they cling to one another.” The rock, he says, means Adamas.
This, he says, is the adamant, “the cornerstone that has become the head of the corner” — for in the head is the brain that gives the stamp, the substance, “from whom every fatherhood is stamped” — “whom”, he says, “I set as an adamant into the foundations of Zion”. Speaking allegorically, he says, he means the moulded thing of the man.
And the adamant that is set in is <“the inner man”, and the foundations of Zion are the> teeth — as Homer says, “the fence of the teeth”, that is, a palisade also, in which is the inner man, having fallen from there, from the First Man above, Adamas; the one “cut without cutting hands”, and carried down into the moulded thing of forgetfulness, the thing of dust, the “earthen” thing.
And he says that the souls followed him squeaking, that is, the word, as “these went squeaking together, and there led them” — that is, guided them — “Hermes the kindly, down the dank ways”, that is, he says, into the eternal places rid of all evil. For where, he says, did they come? “And they went past the streams of Ocean and the White Rock, and past the gates of the Sun and the people of dreams.” This, he says, is Ocean, “genesis of gods
and genesis of men”, turned always by the ebb and flow, now upward, now downward. But when, he says, Ocean flows downward, it is the coming-to-be of men; and when upward, toward the wall and the palisade and the White Rock, it is the coming-to-be of gods.
This is, he says, what is written: “I said, you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High” — if you hasten to flee from Egypt and come to be beyond the Red Sea into the wilderness, that is, from the mixture below to the Jerusalem above, which is the mother of the living. But if you turn back again to Egypt, that is, to the mixture below, “you die as men.”
For mortal, he says, is all the coming-to-be below, but immortal that which is begotten above; for it is begotten of water alone and spirit, spiritual, not fleshly; but the one below is fleshly. This is, he says, what is written: “that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.” This is, according to them, the spiritual coming-to-be.
This, he says, is the great Jordan, which, flowing downward and preventing the sons of Israel from going out of the land of Egypt — that is, out of the mixture below, for Egypt according to them is the body — IESOUS turned back and made to flow upward.
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.