Refutation of All Heresies 4.48.1

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 Kneeler, between the Lyre and the Crown, seems to be confessing sin.

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Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 118

Παρατετάχθαι δέ φησιν αὐτῷ ἑκατέρωθεν (λέγω δὲ τῷ Ἐν γόνασι) Λύραν καὶ Στέφανον, αὐτὸν δὲ γόνυ κλίνειν καὶ ἐκτετακότα ἀμφοτέρας τὰς χεῖρας οἱονεὶ περὶ ἁμαρτίας ἐξομολογούμενον.

English · Claude translation

He says that on either side of him (I mean the Kneeler) are set the Lyre and the Crown, and that he bends the knee and stretches out both hands as if confessing his sin.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 118 · 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.
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (misread letter in the digital text (Α for Λ)): Αύραν → Λύραν.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.48.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/48/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 4.48.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/48/1/).

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