Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 6.12.1

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: All parts of the fire are intelligent, and the world arose from this unbegotten fire.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 240

Πάντα γὰρ, φησίν, ἐνόμιζε τὰ μέρη τοῦ πυρὸς τὰ ὁρατὰ καὶ τὰ ἀόρατα φρόνησιν ἔχειν καὶ νώματος αἶσαν. Γέγονεν οὖν ὁ κόσμος ὁ γεννητὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀγεννήτου πυρός. Ἤρξατο δὲ, φησί, γενέσθαι τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον.

English · Claude translation

For he held, he says, that all the parts of the fire, visible and invisible, have intelligence and a share of thought. The begotten world, then, came to be from the unbegotten fire. “And it began to come to be,” he says, “in this way.”

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 240 · 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.
Extrabiblical texts
  • Empedocles, fragment 110 (Empedocles (fragments)) · allusion, medium confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • “A share of thought” (νώματος αἶσαν) echoes Empedocles, fragment 110.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.12.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/12/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.12.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/12/1/).

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