Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 6.47.4

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: Six is the number of creation and regeneration, and it completes the thirty-letter name.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 318

Τὸν γὰρ τέλειον νοῦν, ἐπιστάμενον τὸν τῶν ἓξ ἀριθμὸν δύναμιν ποιήσεως καὶ ἀναγεννήσεως ἔχοντα, φανερῶσαι τοῖς υἱοῖς τοῦ φωτὸς [τὴν] διὰ τοῦ φανέντος ἐπισήμου [εἰς] τὴν διʼ αὐτοῦ ἐπιγενομένην ἀναγέννησιν. Ἔνθεν καὶ τὰ διπλᾶ γράμματα τὸν ἀριθμὸν ἐπίσημον ἔχειν φησίν· ὁ γὰρ ἐπίσημος ἀριθμὸς συγκερασθεὶς τοῖς εἰκοσιτέσσαρσι στοιχείοις τὸ τριακονταγράμματον ὄνομα ἀπετέλεσε.

English · Claude translation

For the perfect Mind, knowing that the number six has the power of making and of regeneration, revealed to the children of light the regeneration that came about through the notable one who appeared. Hence also he says that the double letters have the notable number; for the notable number, blended with the twenty-four letters, completed the thirty-lettered name.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 318 · 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

Translation notes

  • “The notable number” is six, written with the episemon sign.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.47.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/47/4/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.47.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/47/4/).

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