Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 6.37.4

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: Plato's letter warns that such teachings can seem credible or incredible at different times.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 290

Εἰσὶ γὰρ ἄνδρες ταῦτα ἀκηκοότες μαθεῖν [μὲν δυνατοί], δυνατοὶ δὲ μνημονεῦσαι καὶ βασανίσαντες πάντη πάντως κρῖναι γέροντες ἤδη, οἵ φασι τὰ μὲν τότε πιστὰ εἶναι δόξαντα, νῦν ἄπιστα, τὰ δὲ τότε ἄπιστα, νῦν τοὐναντίον. Πρὸς ταῦτα οὖν σκοπῶν εὐλαβοῦ, μή ποτε σοὶ μεταμελήσῃ τῶνδε ἀναξίως ἐκπεσόντων.

English · Claude translation

For there are men who have heard these things, men [able to learn] and able to remember, and to judge after testing them thoroughly in every way, men already old, who say that things which then seemed credible now seem incredible, and things then incredible now the opposite. Looking to this, then, take care that you never regret these things falling out unworthily.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 290 · 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
  • Plato, Ep. 2 314a–b (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • Plato, Letter 2, 314a–b.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.37.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/37/4/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.37.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/37/4/).

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