Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 1.21.3

Hippolytus of Rome · Refutation of All Heresies · ca. 222–235 · Rome · Read in context

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: The Stoics held the soul to be a body formed by cooling air, surviving death.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 40

Τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν λέγουσι μένειν μετὰ θάνατον, εἶναι δὲ σῶμα καὶ γενέσθαι ἐκ τῆς περιψύξεως τοῦ ἀέρος τοῦ περιέχοντος, διὸ καὶ καλεῖσθαι ψυχήν. Ὁμολογοῦσι δὲ καὶ μετενσωμάτωσιν γίνεσθαι ὡρισμένων οὐσῶν τῶν ψυχῶν.

English · Claude translation

They say that the soul remains after death, but that it is body and came into being from the cooling of the surrounding air, which is why it is called psyche. They also admit that transmigration occurs, the souls being fixed in number.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 40 · 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.

Notes

Translation notes

  • The Stoic etymology links ψυχή "soul" with ψῦξις "cooling".

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 1.21.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/21/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 1.21.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/21/3/).

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