Refutation of All Heresies 4.33.1

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: A fiery Asclepius and the gods appear in a basin of water.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 96–98

Ἐπὰν δὲ χλευάζων λήξῃ, φαίνεται κατὰ τοῦ ἐδάφους πυρώδης Ἀσκληπιός. Εἶτα θεὶς ἐν μέσῳ λεκάνην πλήρη ὕδατος πάντας καλεῖ τοὺς θεοὺς καὶ παραγίνονται. Ἐγκύψας γὰρ ὁ παρὼν ἐν τῇ λεκάνῃ ὄψεται πάντας καὶ τὴν Ἄρτεμιν ἅμα σκύλακας ὑλακτοῦντας ἄγουσαν. Οὐκ ὀκνήσομεν δὲ καὶ τούτων τὴν ἱστορίαν ὡς ἐπιχειροῦσι διηγήσασθαι.

English · Claude translation

When he has finished his mockery, a fiery Asclepius appears on the floor. Then, placing in the middle a basin full of water, he calls all the gods, and they come. For whoever is present, bending over the basin, will see them all, and Artemis leading her baying hounds. We shall not hesitate to tell the account of these things too, how they contrive them.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 96–98 · 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.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.33.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/33/1/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.33.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/33/1/).