Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.8.3

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: They cite Homer's threefold division and Jesus' saying about hearing without hearing.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 150

καὶ τοῦτο, φησίν, οὐδὲ τοὺς ποιητὰς λέληθε· τριχθὰ δὲ πάντα δέδασται, ἕκαστος δʼ ἔμμορε τιμῆς. Δεῖ γὰρ, φησί, λαλεῖσθαι τὰ μεγέθη, λαλεῖσθαι δὲ οὕτως ὑπὸ πάντων πανταχῆ, ἵνα ἀκούοντες μὴ ἀκούωσι καὶ βλέποντες μὴ βλέπωσιν. Εἰ μὴ γὰρ ἐλαλεῖτο, φησί, τὰ μεγέθη, ὁ κόσμος συνεστάναι οὐκ ἠδύνατο.

English · Claude translation

And this, he says, has not escaped even the poets: "All things are divided in three, and each has received his share of honor." For the great things, he says, must be spoken, and spoken thus by all everywhere, "so that hearing they may not hear and seeing they may not see." For if the great things were not spoken, he says, the world could not hold together.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 150 · 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.
Scripture
Extrabiblical texts
  • Homer, Il. 15.189 (Homer, Iliad) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotations are Homer, Iliad 15.189, and Matt 13:13 (cf. Isa 6:9).

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.8.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/8/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.8.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/8/3/).

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