Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 1.19.10

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: Interpreters disagree whether Plato's soul is unbegotten, or generated but immortal, or perishable.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 34

Καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν οἱ μὲν φασὶν αὐτὸν ἀγένητον λέγειν καὶ ἄφθαρτον, ὅταν λέγῃ· ψυχὴ πᾶσα ἀθάνατος, τὸ γὰρ ἀεικίνητον ἀθάνατον· καὶ ὅταν αὐτοκίνητον αὐτὴν ἀποδεικνύῃ καὶ ἀρχὴν κινήσεως. Οἱ δὲ γενητὴν μέν, ἄφθαρτον δὲ διὰ τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ βούλησιν. Οἱ δὲ σύνθετον καὶ γενητὴν καὶ φθαρτήν· καὶ γὰρ κρατῆρα αὐτῆς ὑποτίθεσθαι, καὶ σῶμα αὐτὴν ἔχειν αὐγοειδές, τὸ δὲ γενόμενον πᾶν ἀνάγκην ἔχειν φθαρῆναι.

English · Claude translation

And as for the soul, some say he calls it unbegotten and imperishable, when he says: "Every soul is immortal, for what is ever-moving is immortal," and when he shows that it is self-moving and the principle of motion. Others say he calls it generated but imperishable by the will of God. Others say composite, generated, and perishable; for he supposes a mixing bowl for it, and that it has a body like light, and everything that has come to be must perish.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 34 · 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
  • Plato, Phaedr. 245c (Plato (works)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation is Plato, Phaedrus 245c; the mixing bowl is Timaeus 41d.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 1.19.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/19/10/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 1.19.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/19/10/).

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