In a work that has been attributed to Hippolytus (and even Irenaeus! [it is thought to belong to the authentic writings that came out of the Hippolytian community]), “Benedictions of Isaac, Jacob, and Moses” (a commentary on Gen 49 and Deut 33), we read the following:
C'est pour cela quie Moise lui aussi dit: << Et ses frères il ne
(les) point reconnus e tses fils il [ ] a eu d'eux connaissance. >> (342)
<< Ses frères >> a-t-il dit: ceus qui, selon la chair, étaient
considérés comme étant ses frères, ceux-là, le Sauveur ne les a pas reconnus
parce qu'ils n'etaient pas veritablement frères. Certains étaient nés de la
semence de Joseph, mais Lui, d'une vierge et du Saint Espirit' (M. Briere, L.
Mariès and B. Ch. Mercier, Hippolyte
de Rome, Sur les bénédictions d'Isaac, de Jacob et de Moíse Patrologia
Orientalis 27.1 (1954), 150-51)
Hans von Campenhausen offers the following translation
of the passage:
[This is why Moses said] ‘He did [not] acknowledge as brothers those who
were regarded as his brothers according to the body; the Redeemer did not acknowledge
them, because in truth those [were] not his brothers who were born from Joseph through
seed, but he from the Virgin and the Holy Spirit; and they regarded them as his
brothers, but he did not acknowledge them.’ (Hans von Campenhausen, The
Virgin Birth in the Theology of the Ancient Church [trans. Frank Clarke;
Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2011; repr., London: SCM Press, 1954], 49 n. 4,
comment in square brackets added for clarification)
It appears that this passage attributed (falsely?) to
Hippolytus rejects the perpetual virginity; instead, what is being stressed is
what we find in John 7, Matthew 12, and other texts: the establishment of an eschatological
family by Jesus and His favouring those who are joined to him spiritually, not
biologically.
