Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 6.55.2

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 will not repeat their allegorical number-readings of Scripture, which Irenaeus already refuted, and says they took them from Pythagoreans and astrologers.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 344

Καὶ ἐκ τῶν γραφῶν ἕκαστα πρὸς τοὺς προειρημένους ἀριθμοὺς ἐφευρίσκοντες σύμφωνα κατηγοροῦσι Μωσέως καὶ τῶν προφητῶν, φάσκοντες ἀλληγορικῶς αὐτοὺς τὰ μέτρα τῶν αἰώνων λέγειν, ἃ παρατιθέναι μοι οὐκ ἔδοξεν, ὄντα φλυαρὰ καὶ ἀσύστατα, ἤδη τοῦ μακαρίου πρεσβυτέρου Εἰρηναίου δεινῶς καὶ πεπονημένως τὰ δόγματα αὐτῶν διελέγξαντος, παρʼ οὗ καὶ αὐτῶν ἐφευρήματα [παρειλήφαμεν] ἐπιδεικνύντες, αὐτοὺς Πυθαγορείου φιλοσοφίας καὶ ἀστρολόγων περιεργίας ταῦτα σφετερισαμένους ἐγκαλεῖν Χριστῷ ταῦτα παραδεδωκέναι.

English · Claude translation

And finding in the Scriptures particular things that agree with the numbers mentioned above, they accuse Moses and the prophets, claiming that they speak allegorically of the measures of the Aeons. I have decided not to set these out, since they are silly and incoherent, and since the blessed presbyter Irenaeus has already refuted their doctrines powerfully and laboriously; from him [we have received] their inventions as well, showing that they, having appropriated these things from Pythagorean philosophy and the curious arts of the astrologers, charge Christ with having handed them down.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 344 · 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, Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • Irenaeus's Against Heresies, especially book 1, is Hippolytus's source here. The bracketed verb is an editorial supplement; the sentence is loosely constructed in the Greek.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.55.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/55/2/).

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

Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.55.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/55/2/).

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