Refutation of All Heresies 1.26.4

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.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 48–50

Τὰς μὲν οὖν τῶν καθʼ Ἕλληνας φιλοσοφεῖν ἐπικεχειρηκότων δόξας ἱκανῶς ἐκτεθεῖσθαι νομίζω, παρʼ ὧν τὰς ἀφορμὰς λαβόντες οἱ αἱρετικοὶ τὰ μετʼ οὐ πολὺ ῥηθησόμενα ἐπεχείρησαν. Δοκεῖ δὲ πρότερον ἐκθεμένους τὰ μυστικὰ καὶ ὅσα περιέργως περὶ ἄστρα τινὲς ἢ μεγέθη ἐφαντάσθησαν, εἰπεῖν· καὶ γὰρ ἐξ αὐτῶν λαβόντες ἀφορμὰς τερατολογεῖν νομίζονται τοῖς πολλοῖς· ἔπειτα ἀκολούθως τὰ ὑπʼ αὐτῶν ἀδρανῆ δόγματα φανερώσομεν.

English · Claude translation

I think, then, that the opinions of those who have attempted to philosophize among the Greeks have been sufficiently set out; taking their starting points from them, the heretics attempted what will be told shortly. But it seems best first to set out the mystic rites and whatever some have curiously imagined about the stars or magnitudes, and to speak of them; for it is from these too that they are thought by the many to take their starting points for telling marvels. Then, in due order, we shall bring to light their feeble doctrines.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 48–50 · 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

Notes

Translation notes

Books 2 and 3, which treated the mysteries and further topics, are lost; the text resumes in Book 4.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (wrong accent in the digital text): Τὰς μὲν οὗν → Τὰς μὲν οὖν.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 1.26.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/26/4/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 1.26.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/26/4/).