Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 1.23.3

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: Some skeptics refused all judgment; others said a thing is "no more" this than that.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 42–44

Οἱ μὲν οὖν τῶν Ἀκαδημαϊκῶν λέγουσι μὴ δεῖν τὴν ἀρχὴν περὶ μηδενὸς ἀποφαίνεσθαι, ἀλλʼ ἁπλῶς ἐπιχειρήσαντας ἐᾶν. Οἱ δὲ τὸ οὐ μᾶλλον προσέθεσαν, λέγοντες οὐ μᾶλλον τὸ πῦρ πῦρ εἶναι ἢ ἄλλο τι. Οὐ μέν τοι ἀπεφήναντο αὐτὸ τί ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ τὸ τοιόνδε.

English · Claude translation

Some of the Academics say that one should not declare anything about anything from the start, but simply argue and let it be. Others added the "no more," saying that fire is no more fire than anything else. They did not, however, declare what it is, but that it is of such a kind.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 42–44 · 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.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 1.23.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/23/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 1.23.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/23/3/).

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