Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 4.5.3

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: Water clocks cannot measure the heavens accurately either.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 60

Ματαία δὲ καὶ ἡ διὰ τῶν ὑ[δρι]ῶν νομιζομένη κατάληψις. Οὐ γὰρ ὁμοίως [ὁ] ἀμφορεὺς το... θεὶς ῥύσει πληρώσων ὡς ἀπόκενος, αὐτοῦ τοῦ πόλου κατὰ ἐκείνων λόγον ἑνὶ ὁρμήματι ἰσοταχῶς φερομένου.

English · Claude translation

Vain too is the supposed grasp by means of water clocks. For the jar … does not fill in the same way by flowing when it is emptied, while the pole itself, on their own account, is carried round at one impulse with equal speed.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 60 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
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 text is damaged here; the gap is marked "…".

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.5.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/5/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 4.5.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/5/3/).

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