Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 4.45.1

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 hopes his survey will make pagans respect Christians and see their own follies.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 112

Ἱκανῶς οὖν δοκεῖ ἡμᾶς καὶ ταῦτα ἐκτεθεῖσθαι. Ἀλλʼ ἔτι νομίζω μηδεμίαν δόξαν τῆς ἐπιγείου καὶ χαμαιπετοῦς σοφίας παραλελοιπέναι, οὐκ ἄχρηστον δὲ τὴν εἰς αὐτὰ φροντίδα ὁρῶ ἡμῖν γεγενημένην· οὐδὲ γὰρ μόνον πρὸς ἔλεγχον τῶν αἱρέσεων εὔχρηστον ὁρῶμεν γεγονέναι τὸν λόγον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς αὐτοὺς τοὺς ταῦτα δοξάζοντας, οἳ ἐντυχόντες τῇ γεγενημένῃ ἡμῶν πολυμεριμνίᾳ καὶ τὸ σπουδαῖον θαυμάσουσι καὶ τὸ φιλόπονον οὐκ ἐξουθενήσουσι καὶ μωροὺς οὐκ ἀποφανοῦνται Χριστιανοὺς ἐνιδόντες οἷς αὐτοὶ μωρῶς πιστεύουσιν.

English · Claude translation

These things too, then, seem to us sufficiently set out. But I still think I have left out no opinion of the earthly and groveling wisdom; and I see that the care we have spent on them has not been useless. For we see that the account has proved useful not only for refuting the heresies but also against those who hold these views themselves, who, when they meet with the great pains we have taken, will marvel at our zeal and not despise our industry, and will not declare Christians fools when they see what they themselves foolishly believe.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 112 · 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

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (wrong breathing in the digital text): οἶς αὐτοὶ → οἷς αὐτοὶ.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.45.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/45/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 4.45.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/45/1/).

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