Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 4.34.3

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: The best compound for forging seals, used to read others' letters.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 100

Καὶ τὸ διὰ τοῦ τυρρηνικοῦ δὲ κηροῦ καὶ ῥητίνης φορυκτῆς καὶ πίσσης καὶ ἀσφάλτου [καὶ] μαστίχης καὶ λείας μαρμάρου, ἴσων ἁπάντων ἑψομένων, τῶν μὲν ἄλλων ὧν ἔφην ἐστὶ μὲν βέλτιον, τὸ δὲ διὰ τῆς γύψου οὐκ ἔλαττον. Οὕτως μὲν οὖν καὶ τὰς σφραγῖδας λύειν ἐπιχειροῦσι τὰ ἔνδον γεγραμμένα μανθάνειν πειρώμενοι.

English · Claude translation

The mixture of Etruscan wax, tree resin, pitch, asphalt, [and] mastic, and powdered marble, all boiled in equal parts, is better than the others I have mentioned, and the one with gypsum is not inferior. In this way, then, they try to break the seals, attempting to learn what is written inside.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 100 · 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

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (wrong accent in the digital text): Οὕτως μὲν οὗν → Οὕτως μὲν οὖν.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.34.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/34/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 4.34.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/34/3/).

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