Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 4.12.1

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: Hippolytus mocks Ptolemy's measurements: pity he was not there to advise the builders of Babel.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 72

Τίς οὐ θαυμάσει τὴν τοσαύτην φροντίδα μετὰ τοσούτου πόνου γεγενημένην; οὐκ ἀχρεῖος δέ μοι οὑτοσὶ ὁ Πτολεμαῖος ὁ τούτων μεριμνητὴς δοκεῖ· τοῦτο δὲ μόνον λυπεῖ, ὡς πρόσφατος γεννηθεὶς οὐκ εὔχρηστος γεγένηται γιγάντων παισίν, οἳ τὰ μέτρα ταῦτα ἠγνοηκότες ἐγγὺς νομίζοντες εἶναι ὕψη οὐρανοῦ πύργον μάτην ἐπεχείρησαν ποιεῖν, οἷς εἰ κατʼ ἐκεῖνο παρὼν τὰ μέτρα διηγήσατο, οὐκ ἂν μάτην τετολμήκεισαν.

English · Claude translation

Who will not marvel at such great care, taken with so much toil? This Ptolemy, the one who fretted over these things, does not seem to me useless; this alone is a pity, that, being born so recently, he was of no use to the sons of the giants, who, not knowing these measures and thinking the heights of heaven were near, tried in vain to build a tower. If he had been present then and told them the measures, they would not have ventured in vain.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 72 · 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.
Scripture

Notes

Translation notes

  • The tower is the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1–9), whose builders are here called sons of the giants.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.12.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/12/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 4.12.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/12/1/).

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