Refutation of All Heresies 1.2.16

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: Pythagoras died in a fire at Croton; his disciples gave up their property and kept years of silence.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 12–14

Οὗτος ἐν Κρότωνι τῆς Ἰταλίας ἅμα τοῖς μαθηταῖς ἐμπυρισθεὶς διεφθάρη. Ἔθος δὲ τοῦτο ἦν παρʼ αὐτῷ, ἐπειδὰν προσῄει τις μαθητευσόμενος, πιπράσκειν τὰ ὑπάρχοντα καὶ τὸ ἀργύριον κατατιθέναι ἐσφραγισμένον παρὰ τῷ Πυθαγόρᾳ, καὶ ὑπέμεινε σιωπῶν ὅτε μὲν ἔτη τρία, ὅτε δὲ πέντε καὶ μανθάνων. αὖθις δὲ λυθεὶς ἐμίσγετο τοῖς ἑτέροις καὶ παρέμενε μαθητὴς καὶ συνειστιᾶτο ἅμα, εἰ δʼ οὐ, ἀπελάμβανε τὸ ἴδιον καὶ ἀπεβάλλετο.

English · Claude translation

He perished at Croton in Italy, burned together with his disciples. This was his custom: when anyone came to him to become a disciple, he would sell his possessions and deposit the money, sealed, with Pythagoras, and he would remain silent, sometimes for three years and sometimes for five, and learn. Then, released again, he associated with the others and remained a disciple and ate with them; if not, he took back his own and was sent away.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 12–14 · 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.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 1.2.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/2/16/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 1.2.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/2/16/).