Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 10.5.1

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: Hippolytus turns to the truth, which owes nothing to Greek, Egyptian, Chaldean, or Babylonian lore and refutes error simply by appearing.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 494–496

Τὸν λαβύρινθον τῶν αἱρέσεων οὐ βίᾳ διαρρήξαντες, ἀλλὰ μόνῳ ἐλέγχῳ ἀληθείας δυνάμει διαλύσαντες, πρόσιμεν ἐπὶ τὴν τῆς ἀληθείας ἀπόδειξιν. Τότε γὰρ τῆς πλάνης ἔντεχνα σοφίσματα ἀσύστατα φανερωθήσεται, ἐπὰν ὁ τῆς ἀληθείας ὅρος ἐπιδειχθῇ, οὐκ ἀπὸ σοφίας Ἑλλήνων ἀρχὰς μεταλαβών, οὐδʼ Αἰγυπτίων δόγματα, τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς μετʼ ἀξιοπιστίας θρησκευόμενα μάταια, ὡς ἄρρητα διδαχθείς, οὐδὲ Χαλδαίων ἀσυστάτῳ περιεργίᾳ σοφισθείς, οὐδὲ Βαβυλωνίων ἀλογίστῳ μανίᾳ διʼ ἐν[εργεί]ας δαιμόνων καταπλαγείς, ἀλλʼ ᾧ ὑπάρχει τρόπῳ ὅρος ἀληθὴς ὢν ἀφύλακτός τε καὶ ἀκαλλώπιστος, ὃς μόνον φανεὶς ἐλέγξει τὴν πλάνην.

English · Claude translation

Having not broken through the labyrinth of heresies by force, but having dissolved it by refutation alone, through the power of truth, we come to the demonstration of the truth. For then the artful sophisms of error will be shown to be incoherent, when the definition of the truth is displayed: which did not take its principles from the wisdom of the Greeks, nor was taught as secret the doctrines of the Egyptians, the vanities worshipped among them with credulity, nor was made clever by the incoherent curiosity of the Chaldeans, nor was struck with amazement by the irrational madness of the Babylonians through the working of demons; but, in the way it exists, the true definition, unguarded and unadorned, which, merely by appearing, will refute error.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 494–496 · 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

  • ὅρος is rendered “definition”; it may also mean “boundary” or “rule.”

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 10.5.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/5/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 10.5.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/5/1/).

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