Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 4.11.1

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: Such ratios cannot belong to a harmonious world.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 70

Οὗτοι δὴ οἱ λόγοι ὅ τε πλείων ἢ [ἐννεαπλάσιος καὶ] ἐλάττων ἢ ἥμισυς καὶ πλείων ἢ διπλάσιος καὶ ἐλάττων ἢ ἐπιτέταρτος καὶ πλείων ἢ ἥμισυς καὶ ἐλάττων ἢ διπλάσιος ἔξω πασῶν εἰσὶ συμφωνιῶν, ἐξ ὧν οὐκ ἐναρμόνιόν τι καὶ σύμφωνον σύστημʼ ἂν γένοιτο. Ὁ δʼ ἅπας κόσμος καὶ τὰ τούτου μέρη κατὰ πάντα ὁμοίως ἐναρμονίως καὶ συμφώνως σύγκειται.

English · Claude translation

These ratios, then, more than [ninefold and] less than half, more than double, less than five-fourths, more than half, and less than double, are outside all concords, and from them no harmonious and concordant system could come about. But the whole world and its parts are composed in every respect alike, harmoniously and concordantly.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 70 · 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 words in square brackets are the editor's.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.11.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/11/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 4.11.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/11/1/).

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