Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 4.46.6

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: Aratus describes the stars wheeling around the fixed axis of heaven.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 114–116

Φησὶν οὖν ὁ Ἄρατος οὕτως· Οἱ μὲν ὁμῶς πολέες τε καὶ ἄλλυδις ἄλλοι ἐόντες οὐρανῷ ἕλκονται πάντʼ ἤματα συνεχὲς αἰεί (τουτέστιν οἱ πάντες ἀστέρες). Αὐτὰρ ὅγʼ οὐδʼ ὀλίγον μετανίσσεται, ἀλλὰ μάλʼ αὕτως ἄξων αἰὲν ἄρηρεν, ἔχει δʼ ἀτάλαντον ἁπάντῃ μεσσηγὺς γαῖαν, περὶ δʼ οὐρανὸν αὐτὸν ἀγινεῖ.

English · Claude translation

Aratus, then, speaks thus: "They, many alike and scattered here and there, are drawn across the sky all the days, continually, for ever" (that is, all the stars). "But it does not shift even a little, but just so the axis is ever fixed, and holds the earth in the middle, balanced on every side, and turns the heaven itself around."

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 114–116 · 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
  • Aratus, Phaen. 19–23 (Aratus, Phaenomena) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The verses are Aratus, Phaenomena 19–23.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.46.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/46/6/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 4.46.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/46/6/).

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