Refutation of All Heresies 6.27.4

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 explains several Pythagorean maxims: do not provoke anger, despise small things, stir up strife, or take up menial work.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 268

Πῦρ μαχαίρῃ μὴ σκάλευε, τὸν τεθυμωμένον ἄνθρωπον λέγων μὴ ἐρέθιζε· πυρὶ γὰρ ἔοικεν ὁ θυμούμενος, μαχαίρᾳ δὲ λόγος. Σάρον μὴ ὑπέρβαινε, μικροῦ πράγματος μὴ καταφρόνει. Φοίνικα ἐν οἰκίᾳ μὴ φύτευε, φιλονεικίαν ἐν οἰκίᾳ μὴ κατασκεύαζε· μάχης γὰρ καὶ διαφορᾶς ἐστὶν ὁ φοῖνιξ σημεῖον. Ἀπὸ δίφρου μὴ ἔσθιε, βάναυσον τέχνην μὴ μεταχειρίζου, ἵνα μὴ δουλεύσῃς τῷ σώματι ὄντι φθαρτῷ, ἀλλὰ ποιοῦ τὸν βίον ἀπὸ λόγων· ἐνέσται γάρ σοι καὶ τρέφειν τὸ σῶμα καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ποιεῖν κρείττονα.

English · Claude translation

“Do not stir fire with a knife”: he means, do not provoke an angry man; for the angry man is like fire, and speech like a knife. “Do not step over a broom”: do not despise a small matter. “Do not plant a palm tree in a house”: do not create contentiousness in a house; for the palm is a sign of battle and discord. “Do not eat from a stool”: do not take up a menial craft, so that you may not be a slave to the body, which is perishable, but make your living from learning; for then you will be able both to feed the body and to make the soul better.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 268 · 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

Ethics

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.27.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/27/4/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.27.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/27/4/).