Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 10.6.4

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: The Stoics derived everything from qualityless matter; others from fire (Hippasus, Heraclitus), air, water (Thales), or earth (Xenophanes).

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 496–498

Ἐξ ἀποίου μὲν οὖν καὶ ἑνὸς σώματος τὴν τῶν ὅλων συνεστήσαντο γένεσιν οἱ Στωϊκοί. Ἀρχὴ γὰρ τῶν ὅλων κατʼ αὐτούς ἐστιν ἡ ἄποιος ὕλη καὶ διʼ ὅλων τρεπτή· μεταβαλλούσης δὲ αὐτῆς γίνεται πῦρ, ἀήρ, ὕδωρ, γ(??) Ἐξ ἑνὸς δὲ καὶ ποιοῦ γεγενῆσθαι τὰ πάντα θέλουσιν οἵ τε περὶ τὸν Ἵππασον καὶ Ἀναξίμανδρον καὶ Θαλῆ τὸν Μιλήσιον. Ἵππασος μὲν ὁ Μεταπόντιος καὶ Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος ἐκ πυρὸς ἀπεφήναντο τὴν γένεσιν, Ἀναξίμανδρος δὲ ἐξ ἀέρος Θαλῆς δὲ ἐξ ὕδατος, Ξενοφάνης δὲ ἐκ γῆς. Ἐκ γῆς γὰρ, φησί, πάντα ἐστί, καὶ εἰς γῆν πάντα τελευτᾷ.

English · Claude translation

The Stoics, then, constructed the generation of all things from one body without quality. For according to them the principle of all things is matter without quality and wholly changeable; and as it changes, fire, air, water, earth come to be. And those around Hippasus and Anaximander and Thales the Milesian hold that all things came to be from one that has quality. Hippasus of Metapontum and Heraclitus of Ephesus declared that generation is from fire, Anaximander from air, Thales from water, and Xenophanes from earth. “For from earth,” he says, “are all things, and into earth all things end.”

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 496–498 · 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
  • Xenophanes, frag. 27 (Xenophanes (fragments)) · quotation, high confidence
  • Heraclitus (Heraclitus (fragments)) · allusion, medium confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Anaximander from air” is probably a slip for Anaximenes. Some letters after “earth” are unreadable in the digital text. The quotation is Xenophanes, fragment 27.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 10.6.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/6/4/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 10.6.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/10/6/4/).

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