Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.19.4

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: Aristotle's writings follow this division: the Physics for things below the moon, the Metaphysics for things above it, and a treatise on the fifth substance as his theology.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 354

Φυσικὴ γάρ τις ἀκρόασις αὐτῷ γέγονεν, ἐν ᾗ πεπόνηται περὶ τῶν φύσει καὶ οὐ προνοίᾳ διοικουμένων ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς μέχρι τῆς σελήνης πραγμάτων. Γέγονε δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ μετὰ τὰ φυσικὰ περὶ τῶν μετὰ σελήνην ἰδία τις ἄλλη οὕτως ἐπιγραφομένη πραγματεία λόγων· γέγονε δὲ αὐτῷ περὶ πέμπτης οὐσίας ἴδιος λόγος, ὅς ἐστιν αὐτῷ θεολογούμενος. Τοιαύτη τις καὶ ἡ διαίρεσις τῶν ὅλων, ὡς τύπῳ περιλαβεῖν, [καὶ τῆς] κατὰ Ἀριστοτέλην φιλοσοφίας.

English · Claude translation

For he wrote a Lecture on Nature, in which he labored over the things from the earth up to the moon that are managed by nature and not by providence. He also wrote another particular treatise of discourses about the things beyond the moon, entitled in this way, After the Physics. And he wrote a particular discourse on the fifth substance, which for him is theology. Such, to sum it up in outline, is the division of the universe, [and of] philosophy according to Aristotle.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 354 · 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
  • Aristotle (Aristotle (works)) · allusion, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The works meant are the Physics (Φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις), the Metaphysics (τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά), and probably On the Heavens.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.19.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/19/4/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.19.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/19/4/).

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