Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.29.17

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: Souls wander for thirty thousand seasons, born in every mortal form, which Empedocles calls life's painful paths.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 388

τρὶς μὲν μυρίας ὥρας ἀπὸ μακάρων ἀλάλησθαι, μάκαρας καλῶν τοὺς συνηγμένους ὑπὸ τῆς φιλίας ἀπὸ τῶν πολλῶν εἰς τὴν ἑνότητα τοῦ κόσμου τοῦ νοητοῦ. Τούτους οὖν φησιν ἀλάλησθαι καὶ φυομένους παντοῖα διὰ χρόνου εἴδεα θνητῶν, ἀργαλέας βιότοιο μεταλλάσσοντα κελεύθους. Ἀργαλέας κελεύθους φησὶν εἶναι τῶν ψυχῶν τὰς εἰς τὰ σώματα μεταβολὰς καὶ μετακοσμήσεις.

English · Claude translation

“for thrice ten thousand seasons they wander from the blessed,” calling “blessed” those gathered by Love out of the many into the unity of the intelligible world. These, then, he says, wander, “being born through time as all kinds of forms of mortals, exchanging the painful paths of life.” He says the painful paths are the changes and transfers of souls into bodies.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 388 · 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, frag. 115.6–8 (Empedocles (fragments)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • Empedocles, fragment 115.6–8.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.29.17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/29/17/).

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

Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.29.17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/29/17/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage