Refutation of All Heresies 9.15.4

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: For a rabid dog's bite the book prescribes immediate immersion in a river or spring, fully clothed.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 466

Ἀλλʼ ἐπεὶ ἐπαοιδαῖς τούτους εἴπομεν χρῆσθαι ἐπί τε κυνοδήκτων καὶ ἑτέρων, δείξομεν· λέγει δὲ οὕτως· Ἄν τινʼ οὖν ἄνδρα ἢ γυναῖκα ἢ νεώτερον ἢ νεωτέραν κύων λυσσῶν καὶ μαινόμενος, ἐν ᾧ ἐστι πνεῦμα διαφθορᾶς, δάκῃ ἢ περισχίσῃ ἢ προσψαύσῃ, ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ὥρᾳ δραμέτω σὺν παντὶ τῷ φορέματι καὶ καταβὰς εἰς ποταμὸν ἢ εἰς πηγήν, ὅπου ἂν ᾖ τόπος βαθύς, βαπτισάσθω

English · Claude translation

But since we said that they use incantations for those bitten by dogs and others, we shall show it. He speaks thus: “If a mad and raging dog, in which there is a spirit of corruption, bites or tears or touches any man or woman or young man or young woman, in that very hour let him run with all his clothing, and going down into a river or a spring, wherever there is a deep place, let him be baptized

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 466 · 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, Baptism

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.15.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/15/4/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.15.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/15/4/).