Hippolytus, Refutatio V.8.1-11: The Three Words and the Doctrine of Three
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.
Τούτοις καὶ τοῖς τοιούτοις ἑπόμενοι οἱ θαυμασιώτατοι γνωστικοί, ἐφευρεταὶ καινῆς τέχνης γραμματικῆς, τὸν ἑαυτῶν προφήτην Ομηρον ταῦτα προφαίνοντα ἀρρήτως δοξάζουσι καὶ τοὺς ἀμυήτους τὰς ἁγίας γραφὰς εἰς τοιαύτας ἐννοίας συνάγοντες ἐνυβρίζουσι. λέγουσι δέ· ὁ λέγων τὰ πάντα ἐξ ἐνὸς συνεστάναι πλανᾶται, ὁ λέγων ἐκ τριῶν ἀληθεύει καὶ περὶ τῶν ὅλων τὴν ἀπόδειξιν δώσει. μία γάρ ἐστι, φησίν, ἡ μακαρία φύσις τοῦ μακαρίου ἀνθρώπου τοῦ ἄνω, τοῦ Ἀδάμαντος· μία δὲ ἡ θνητὴ κάτω· μία δὲ ἡ ἀβασίλευτος γενεὰ ἡ ἄνω γενομένη, ὅπου, φησίν, ἐστὶ Μαριὰμ ἡ ζητουμένη καὶ Ἰοθὼρ ὁ μέγας σοφὸς καὶ Σεπφώρα ἡ βλέπουσα καὶ Μωσῆς, οὗ γένεσις οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ· γεγόνασι γὰρ αὐτῷ παῖδες ἐν Μαδιάμ. καὶ τοῦτο, φησίν, οὐδὲ τοὺς ποιητὰς λέληθε· τριχθὰ δὲ πάντα δέδασται, ἕκαστος δ᾿ ἔμμορε τιμῆς. δεῖ γάρ, φησί, λαλεῖσθαι τὰ μεγέθη, λαλεῖσθαι δὲ οὕτως ὑπὸ πάντων πανταχῇ, »ἵνα ἀκούοντες μὴ ἀκούωσι καὶ βλέποντες μὴ βλέπωσιν«. εἰ μὴ γὰρ ἐλαλεῖτο, φησί, τὰ μεγέθη, ὁ κόσμος συνεστάναι οὐκ ἠδύνατο. οὑτοί εἰσιν οἱ τρεῖς ὑπέρογκοι λόγοι Καυλακαῦ, Σαυλασαῦ, Ζεησάρ, Καυλακαῦ τοῦ ἄνω, τοῦ Ἀδάμαντος, Σαυλασαῦ τοῦ κάτω θνητοῦ, Ζεησὰρ τοῦ ἐπὶ τὰ ἄνω ῥεύσαντος Ἰορδάνου. οὗτός ἐστι, φησίν, ὁ έν πᾶσιν ἀρσενόθηλυς ἄνθρωπος. ὃν οἱ ἀγνοοῦντες Γηρυόνην καλοῦσι τρισώματον, ὡς ἐκ γῆς ῥέοντα Γηρυόνην, κοινῇ δὲ Ἕλληνες ἐπουράνιον μηνὸς κέρας, ὅτι καταμέμιχε καὶ κεκέρακε πάντα πᾶσι. πάντα γάρ«, φησί, »δι᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. ὃ δὲ γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωή ἐστιν‘. αὕτη, φησίν, ἐστὶν ἡ ζωὴ ἡ ἄρρητος γενεὰ τῶν τελείων ἀνθρώπων, ἣ ταῖς προτέραις γενεαῖς οὐκ ἐγνώσθη· τὸ δὲ οὐδέν ἐστιν], ὃ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ γέγονεν, ὁ κόσμος <ὁ> ἰδικός· γέγονεν γὰρ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ὑπὸ τρίτου καὶ τετάρτου. τοῦτο, φησίν, ἐστὶ τὸ ποτήριον τὸ κόνδυ, ἐν ᾧ βασιλεὺς πίνων οἰωνίζεται«. τοῦτο, φησί, κεκρυμμένον εὑρέθη ἐν τοῖς καλοῖς τοῦ Βενιαμὶν σπέρμασι. λέγουσι δὲ αὐτὸ καὶ Ἕλληνες, φησίν, οὕτως μαινομένῳ στόματι· φέρ᾿ ὕδωρ, φέρ’ οὖνον, ὡ παῖ, μέθυσόν με καὶ κάρωσον. τὸ ποτήριον λέγει μοι, ποδαπόν με δεῖ γενέσθαι, <ἀλάλῳ λαλοῦν τοῦτο, φησίν, ἤρκει μόνον νοηθὲν ἀνθρώποις τὸ τοῦ Ἀνακρέοντος ποτήριον ἀλάλως λαλοῦν μυστήριον ἄρρητον. ἄλαλον γάρ, φησί, τὸ Ἀνακρέοντος φησὶ] ποτήριον, ὅπερ αὐτῷ, φησὶν Ἀνακρέων, λαλεῖ ἀλάλῳ φθέγματι, ποδαπὸν αὐτὸν δεῖ γενέσθαι, τουτέστι πνευματικόν, οὐ σαρκικόν, ἐὰν ἀκούσῃ τὸ κεκρυμμένον μυστήριον ἐν σιωπῇ· καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ἐν τοῖς καοῖς ἐκείνοις γάμοις, ὃ στρέψας ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐποίησεν οἶνον. αὕτη, φησίν, ἐστὶν ἡ μεγάλη καὶ ἀληθινὴ »ἀρχὴ τῶν σημείων‘, ἣν ἐποίησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐν Κανᾷ τῆς Γαλιλαίας καὶ ἐφανέρωσε« τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν. αὕτη, φησίν, ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν ἐντὸς ἡμῶν κατακειμένη ὡς θησαυρός, ὡς ζύμη »εἰς ἀλεύρου τρία σάτα« κεκρυμμένη. Τοῦτ᾿ ἔστι, φησί. τὸ μέγα καἰ ἄρρητον Σαμοθρᾴκων μυστήριον, ὃ μόνοις ἔξεστιν εἰδέναι τοῖς τελείοις, φησίν, ἡμῖν, διαρρήδην γὰρ οἱ Σαμοθρᾷκες τὸν Αδὰμ ἐκεῖνον παραδιδόασιν ἐν τοῖς μυστηρίοις τοῖς ἐπιτελουμένοις παρ’ αὐτοῖς ἀρχάνθρωπον. ἕστηκε δὲ ἀγάλματα δύο ἐν τῷ Σαμοθρᾴκων ἀνακτόρῳ ἀνθρώπων γυμνῶν, ἄνω τεταμένας ἐχόντων τὰς χεῖρας ἀμφοτέρας εἰς οὐρανὸν καὶ τὰς αἰσχύνας ἄνω ἐστραμμένας, καθάπερ ἐν Κυλλήνῃ τὸ τοῦ Ἑρμοῦ. εἰκόνες δέ εἰσι τὰ προειρημένα ἀγάλματα τοῦ ἀρχανθρώπου καὶ τοῦ ἀναγεννωμένου πνευματικοῦ, κατὰ πάνθ᾿ ὁμοουσίου ἐκείνῳ τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ. τοῦτο, φησίν, ἐστὶ τὸ εἰρημένον ὑπὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος· »ἐὰν μὴ πίνητέ μου τὸ αἷμα καὶ φάγητέ μου τὴν σάρκα, οὐ μὴ εἰσέλθητε εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν· ἀλλὰ κἂν πίητε, φησί, τὸ ποτήριον ο ἐγὼ πίνω, ὅπου ἐγὼ ὑπάγω, ἐκεῖ ὑμεῖς εἰσελθεῖν οὐ δύνασθε«.
Following these things and things like them, the most admirable knowers, inventors of a new grammatical art, glorify their own prophet Homer as revealing these things unspeakably; and gathering the uninitiated to such notions, they outrage the holy scriptures. And they say: he who says that all things are constituted out of one is deceived; he who says out of three speaks truly and will give the demonstration concerning the whole.
For one, he says, is the blessed nature of the blessed Man above, of Adamas; and one is the mortal below; and one is the kingless race that has come to be above, where, he says, are Mariam the sought, and Jothor the great wise one, and Sepphora the seeing, and Moses, whose offspring is not in Egypt — for children were born to him in Midian.
And this, he says, has not escaped the poets either: “and all things were divided in three, and each obtained his share of honour.” For the greatnesses must be spoken, he says, and spoken thus by all everywhere, “so that hearing they may not hear and seeing they may not see.” For if the greatnesses were not spoken, he says, the world could not hold together.
These are the three exceedingly great words: KAULAKAU, SAULASAU, ZEESAR — Kaulakau of the one above, of Adamas; Saulasau of the one below, mortal; Zeesar of the Jordan that flowed upward. This, he says, is the male-female Man who is in all. Those who do not know call him three-bodied Geryon, as though Geryon flowing out of earth; and the Greeks in common call him the heavenly horn of the moon, because he has mixed and blended all things with all.
”For all things”, he says, “came to be through him, and apart from him not one thing came to be. And what came to be in him is life.” This, he says, is the life, the unspeakable race of the perfect men, which was not known to the earlier generations. And the “not one thing” that came to be apart from him is the particular world; for it came to be apart from him, by the third and the fourth.
This, he says, is “the cup, the goblet, in which the king drinking takes omens.” This, he says, was found hidden in the fair seed of Benjamin. And the Greeks too say it, he says, thus, with maddened mouth: “Bring water, bring wine, boy; make me drunk and stupefy me. The cup tells me what sort of thing I must become,” <speaking with a speechless voice>. This, he says,
it would have been enough had it only been understood by men — the cup of Anacreon speaking speechlessly an unspeakable mystery. For speechless, he says, is the cup of Anacreon, which, Anacreon says, speaks to him with a speechless utterance, telling him what sort of thing he must become — that is, spiritual, not fleshly — if he hears the mystery hidden in silence. And this is the water at those fair marriages, which Jesus turned and made wine. This, he says, is the great and true “beginning of the signs” which Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and “he manifested” the kingdom of the heavens.
This, he says, is the kingdom of the heavens lying within us like treasure, like leaven hidden “in three measures of meal.”
This is, he says, the great and unspeakable mystery of the Samothracians, which it is permitted to know only to the perfect — to us, he says. For expressly the Samothracians hand down that Adam as First Man in the mysteries performed among them.
And there stand two images in the sanctuary of the Samothracians, of naked men, having both hands stretched upward to heaven and their shames turned upward, just as the one of Hermes at Cyllene. And the aforesaid images are likenesses of the First Man and of the spiritual man being born again, in all things of the same substance as that Man.
This, he says, is what is said by the Saviour: “unless you drink my blood and eat my flesh, you shall not enter into the kingdom of the heavens; but even if you drink”, he says, “the cup which I drink, where I go, there you cannot enter.”
For one, he says, is the blessed nature of the blessed Man above, of Adamas; and one is the mortal below; and one is the kingless race that has come to be above, where, he says, are Mariam the sought, and Jothor the great wise one, and Sepphora the seeing, and Moses, whose offspring is not in Egypt — for children were born to him in Midian.
And this, he says, has not escaped the poets either: “and all things were divided in three, and each obtained his share of honour.” For the greatnesses must be spoken, he says, and spoken thus by all everywhere, “so that hearing they may not hear and seeing they may not see.” For if the greatnesses were not spoken, he says, the world could not hold together.
These are the three exceedingly great words: KAULAKAU, SAULASAU, ZEESAR — Kaulakau of the one above, of Adamas; Saulasau of the one below, mortal; Zeesar of the Jordan that flowed upward. This, he says, is the male-female Man who is in all. Those who do not know call him three-bodied Geryon, as though Geryon flowing out of earth; and the Greeks in common call him the heavenly horn of the moon, because he has mixed and blended all things with all.
”For all things”, he says, “came to be through him, and apart from him not one thing came to be. And what came to be in him is life.” This, he says, is the life, the unspeakable race of the perfect men, which was not known to the earlier generations. And the “not one thing” that came to be apart from him is the particular world; for it came to be apart from him, by the third and the fourth.
This, he says, is “the cup, the goblet, in which the king drinking takes omens.” This, he says, was found hidden in the fair seed of Benjamin. And the Greeks too say it, he says, thus, with maddened mouth: “Bring water, bring wine, boy; make me drunk and stupefy me. The cup tells me what sort of thing I must become,” <speaking with a speechless voice>. This, he says,
it would have been enough had it only been understood by men — the cup of Anacreon speaking speechlessly an unspeakable mystery. For speechless, he says, is the cup of Anacreon, which, Anacreon says, speaks to him with a speechless utterance, telling him what sort of thing he must become — that is, spiritual, not fleshly — if he hears the mystery hidden in silence. And this is the water at those fair marriages, which Jesus turned and made wine. This, he says, is the great and true “beginning of the signs” which Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and “he manifested” the kingdom of the heavens.
This, he says, is the kingdom of the heavens lying within us like treasure, like leaven hidden “in three measures of meal.”
This is, he says, the great and unspeakable mystery of the Samothracians, which it is permitted to know only to the perfect — to us, he says. For expressly the Samothracians hand down that Adam as First Man in the mysteries performed among them.
And there stand two images in the sanctuary of the Samothracians, of naked men, having both hands stretched upward to heaven and their shames turned upward, just as the one of Hermes at Cyllene. And the aforesaid images are likenesses of the First Man and of the spiritual man being born again, in all things of the same substance as that Man.
This, he says, is what is said by the Saviour: “unless you drink my blood and eat my flesh, you shall not enter into the kingdom of the heavens; but even if you drink”, he says, “the cup which I drink, where I go, there you cannot enter.”
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.