Refutation of All Heresies, Book 1, preface 5

Authorship disputed: The work names no author. Book 1 was long printed among Origen's works as the Philosophumena; after books 4–10 were found in a manuscript from Mount Athos (published 1851), it was assigned to Hippolytus, the usual view today, though some scholars ascribe it to another Roman writer of the same circle. Books 2 and 3 are lost, and book 4 lacks its beginning.

Summary: Hippolytus resolves to set out all the heretics' teachings in detail so that others will not be misled.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 4

Ἀλλʼ ἐπεὶ ἀναγκάζει ἡμᾶς ὁ λόγος εἰς μέγαν βυθὸν διηγήσεως ἐπιβῆναι, οὐχ ἡγούμεθα σιγᾶν, ἀλλὰ τὰ πάντων δόγματα κατὰ λεπτὸν ἐκθέμενοι οὐδὲν σιωπήσομεν. Δοκεῖ δὲ, εἰ καὶ μακρότερος ἔσται λόγος, μὴ καμεῖν. Οὐδὲ γὰρ μικράν τινα βοήθειαν τῷ τῶν ἀνθρώπων βίῳ καταλείψομεν πρὸς τὸ μηκέτι πλανᾶσθαι, φανερῶς πάντων ὁρώντων τὰ κρύφια αὐτῶν καὶ ἄρρητα ὄργια, ἃ ταμιευόμενοι μόνοις τοῖς μύσταις παραδιδόασιν.

English · Claude translation

But since the argument compels us to venture into a great depth of narrative, we do not think we should be silent; rather, setting out the doctrines of all of them in detail, we will keep nothing back. It seems best not to grow weary, even if the account turns out rather long. For we shall leave no small help to the life of men, so that they no longer go astray, when all can plainly see their hidden and unspeakable rites, which they store up and hand on to the initiated alone.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 4 · Ludwig Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, eds., S. Hippolyti episcopi et martyris Refutationis omnium haeresium librorum decem quae supersunt (Göttingen: Dieterich, 1859); section divisions from Paul Wendland, ed., Hippolytus Werke 3: Refutatio omnium haeresium, GCS 26 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1916) · Greek text: L. Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, Refutationis omnium haeresium (Göttingen, 1859), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library; section divisions from P. Wendland (GCS 26, 1916), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin); both CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Duncker–Schneidewin. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Duncker–Schneidewin; made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5 (1886) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Its chapter numbers differ from the standard (Wendland) numbering used here.

Topics

Heresy

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 1.0.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/0/5/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 1.0.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/0/5/).