Refutation of All Heresies 6.24.2
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: Substance with its nine accidents (Aristotle's categories) makes up the perfect number ten.
Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 262
συμβεβηκότα γένη ἀσώματα ἐννέα, ἃ χωρὶς εἶναι τῆς οὐσίας οὐ δύναται, ποιὸν καὶ ποσὸν καὶ πρός τι καὶ ποῦ καὶ πότε καὶ κεῖσθαι καὶ ἔχειν καὶ ποιεῖν καὶ πάσχειν. Ἔστιν οὖν ἐννέα τὰ συμβεβηκότα τῇ οὐσίᾳ, οἷς ἀριθμουμένη συνέχει τὸν τέλειον ἀριθμόν, τὸν ῑ.
English · Claude translation
and the incorporeal genera of accidents are nine, which cannot exist apart from substance: quality, quantity, relation, where, when, position, possession, acting, and being acted upon. These, then, are the nine accidents of substance; counted together with them, substance contains the perfect number, the iota.
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Notes
Translation notes
- The nine accidents are Aristotle's categories (Categories 4).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (wrong accent in the digital text; wrong breathing in the digital text): Ἔστιν οὗν ἐννέα → Ἔστιν οὖν ἐννέα; οἶς ἀριθμουμένη → οἷς ἀριθμουμένη.
Cite this passage
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.24.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/24/2/).
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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.24.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/24/2/).
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