Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 1.2.14

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: Pythagoras forbade eating beans, claiming they arose with the first life and smell of human seed.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 12

Κυάμους δὲ λέγεται παραγγέλλειν μὴ ἐσθίειν, αἰτίᾳ τοῦ τὸν Ζαράταν εἰρηκέναι κατὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν καὶ σύγκρισιν τῶν πάντων συνισταμένης τῆς γῆς ἔτι καὶ συνσεσημμένης γενέσθαι τὸν κύαμον. τούτου δὲ τεκμήριόν φησιν, εἴ τις καταμασησάμενος λεῖον τὸν κύαμον καταθείη πρὸς ἥλιον χρόνον τινά (τοῦτο γὰρ εὐθέως ἀντιλήψεται), προσφέρειν ἀνθρωπίνου γόνου ὀδμήν.

English · Claude translation

He is said to have commanded not to eat beans, because Zaratas said that at the beginning and compounding of all things, while the earth was still being formed and putrefying together, the bean came into being. Of this he says there is proof: if one chews a bean smooth and lays it out in the sun for some time (for it will take effect at once), it gives off the smell of human seed.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 12 · 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

Translation notes

  • The participle συνσεσημμένης ("putrefying together") is an unusual form; the sense is uncertain.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 1.2.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/2/14/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 1.2.14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/2/14/).

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