Refutation of All Heresies 4.43.13
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: Names reckoned by number reduce to male or female values.
Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 112
Διὸ πᾶν γεννώμενον ἐν τοῖς ἀρσενικοῖς ἀριθμοῖς ἀγαθοποιόν ἐστι, τὸ δὲ ἐν τοῖς θηλυκοῖς κακοποιόν ἐστιν, οἷον ψηφίζουσι· μονάς, ἵνα ἀπʼ αὐτῆς ἀρξώμεθα, γίνεται (??), ἃ λήγει εἰς μονάδα τῆς ἐννεάδος ὑφαιρεθείσης. Ὁμοίως ψήφισον· δυὰς γίνεται (??), ὕφελε τὰς ἐννεάδας, λήγει εἰς δυάδα, καὶ ἀποκαθίσταται ἕκαστον εἰς τὸ ἴδιον.
English · Claude translation
Therefore everything born under the male numbers is beneficent, and what is under the female is maleficent. For example, they reckon thus: monad, to begin from it, becomes …, which ends in a monad when the nine is subtracted. Likewise reckon: dyad becomes …; subtract the nines, it ends in a dyad; and each is restored to its own.
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Notes
Translation notes
- The numbers could not be read by the digitizers (marked (??) in the digital text).
Cite this passage
Hippolytus, Haer. 4.43.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/43/13/).
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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 4.43.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/43/13/).
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