Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 6.27.5

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: “Do not bite a whole loaf” means to preserve one's capital; “do not eat beans” means to avoid public office.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 268

Ἀπὸ ὅλου ἄρτου μὴ ἀπόδακνε· τὰ ὑπάρχοντά σου μὴ μειοῦ, ἀλλὰ ἀπὸ τῆς προσόδου ζῆθι, φύλασσε δὲ τὴν οὐσίαν ὡς ἄρτον ὁλόκληρον. Κυάμους μὴ ἔσθιε· ἀρχὴν πόλεως μὴ ἀποδέχου· κυάμοις γὰρ ἐκληροῦντο τὰς ἀρχὰς κατʼ ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον.

English · Claude translation

“Do not bite from a whole loaf”: do not diminish your possessions, but live from the income, and keep your property like a whole loaf. “Do not eat beans”: do not accept public office; for in that time they chose officials by lot with beans.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 268 · 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.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.27.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/27/5/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.27.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/27/5/).

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