Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 1.3.2

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: Empedocles taught that souls pass into all kinds of creatures, as he claimed of himself.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 14

μάλιστα δὲ πάντων συγκατατίθεται τῇ μετενσωματώσει, οὕτως εἰπών· Ἤτοι μὲν γὰρ ἐγὼ γενόμην κοῦρός τε κόρη τε θαμνός τʼ οἰωνός τε καὶ ἐξ ἁλὸς ἔμπορος ἰχθύς. Οὗτος πάσας εἰς πάντα τὰ ζῶα μεταλλάττειν εἶπε τὰς ψυχάς. Καὶ γὰρ ὁ τούτων διδάσκαλος Πυθαγόρας ἔφη ἑαυτὸν Εὔφορβον γεγονέναι τὸν ἐπὶ Ἴλιον στρατεύσαντα, φάσκων ἐπιγινώσκειν τὴν ἀσπίδα. Ταῦτα μὲν ὁ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς.

English · Claude translation

Above all he agrees with transmigration, speaking thus: "For already I have been a boy and a girl, a bush and a bird, and a fish that journeys from the sea." He said that all souls change into all living things. For their teacher Pythagoras said that he had been Euphorbus, who fought at Ilium, claiming that he recognized his shield. So much for Empedocles.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 14 · 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
  • Empedocles, fragment 117 (Empedocles (fragments)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The verses are Empedocles, fragment 117 (Diels–Kranz 31 B117).

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 1.3.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/3/2/).

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

Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 1.3.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/3/2/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage