Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 1.13.3

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: The worlds, said Democritus, arise, flourish, and perish by colliding.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 26

Εἶναι δὲ τῶν κόσμων ἄνισα τὰ διαστήματα, καὶ τῇ μὲν πλείους, τῇ δὲ ἐλάττους, καὶ τοὺς μὲν αὔξεσθαι, τοὺς δὲ ἀκμάζειν, τοὺς δὲ φθίνειν, καὶ τῇ μὲν γίνεσθαι, τῇ δὲ λείπειν. Φθείρεσθαι δὲ αὐτοὺς ὑπʼ ἀλλήλων προσπίπτοντας. Εἶναι δὲ ἐνίους κόσμους ἐρήμους ζώων καὶ φυτῶν καὶ παντὸς ὑγροῦ.

English · Claude translation

The distances between the worlds are unequal, more here and fewer there; some grow, some are at their peak, some decline; in one place they come into being, in another they fail. They are destroyed by colliding with one another. Some worlds are bare of living things and plants and all moisture.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 26 · 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.

Notes

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (wrong accent in the digital text): Εἷναι δὲ τῶν κόσμων → Εἶναι δὲ τῶν κόσμων; Εἷναι δὲ ἐνίους → Εἶναι δὲ ἐνίους.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 1.13.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/13/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 1.13.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/13/3/).

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