Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.20

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 charges that Callistus founded a rival school and was lax, promising forgiveness to any sinner who joined him.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 458

Τοιαῦτα ὁ γόης τολμήσας συνεστήσατο διδασκαλεῖον κατὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας οὕτως διδάξας, καὶ πρῶτος τὰ πρὸς τὰς ἡδονὰς τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συγχωρεῖν ἐπενόησε, λέγων πᾶσιν ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ ἀφίεσθαι ἁμαρτίας. Ὁ γὰρ παρʼ ἑτέρῳ τινὶ συναγόμενος καὶ λεγόμενος Χριστιανὸς εἴ τι ἂν ἁμάρτῃ, φασίν, οὐ λογίζεται αὐτῷ ἡ ἁμαρτία, εἰ προσδράμοι τῇ τοῦ Καλλίστου σχολῇ.

English · Claude translation

Having dared such things, the charlatan set up a school against the church, teaching in this way; and he was the first to devise conceding to people what concerns their pleasures, saying that sins are forgiven to all by him. For if anyone who assembles with someone else and is called a Christian commits any sin, they say, the sin is not counted against him if he runs over to the school of Callistus.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 458 · 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, Ethics, Church office

Notes

Translation notes

  • Hippolytus calls Callistus's congregation a “school” (διδασκαλεῖον) to deny that it is the church; the account is polemical.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.12.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/12/20/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 9.12.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/12/20/).

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