Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 4.11.3

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 planetary distances are recalculated from Archimedes' lunar distance by Plato's ratios.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 70

Εἰ δὴ πιστὸν τὸν Ἀρχιμήδην ἡγησάμεθα ἐν μόνῳ τῷ πρώτῳ ἀποστήματι τῷ ἀπὸ σελήνης μέχρι γῆς, ῥᾴδιον καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ κατὰ τὸ διπλάσιον καὶ τριπλάσιον αὔξοντα εὑρεῖν. Ἔστω δὴ κατὰ τὸν Ἀρχιμήδην τὸ ἀπὸ γῆς μέχρι σελήνης ἀπόστημα σταδίων μυριάδ. (??) μονάδων (??), ἔσται μὲν δὴ τούτου διπλάσιος ἀριθμὸς σταδίων ὧν ἀφέστηκεν ὁ ἥλιος τῆς σελήνης μυριάδ. (??) καὶ (??), ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς γῆς ἀφέστηκεν ὁ ἥλιος σταδίων [μυριάδ.] (??) καὶ βτ(??). καὶ Ἀφροδίτη δὲ ἀφέστηκεν ἀπὸ μὲν ἡλίου σταδίων μυριάδ.

English · Claude translation

If, then, we have considered Archimedes trustworthy only in the first distance, that from the moon to the earth, it is easy to find the others too by increasing in double and triple. Let the distance from the earth to the moon be, according to Archimedes, … myriads … units of stades; then the double of this will be the number of stades by which the sun is distant from the moon, … myriads and …; and the sun is distant from the earth … [myriads] and … stades. And Aphrodite is distant from the sun … myriads

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 numbers could not be read by the digitizers (marked (??) in the digital text) and are shown as "…".

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.11.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/11/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 4.11.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/11/3/).

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