Refutation of All Heresies 6.53.7

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 say the earth is divided into twelve zones, each receiving a power from the heavens, as a type of the Duodecad above.

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Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 342

Οὕτω δὴ καὶ διὰ τοῦ κύκλου τὴν εἰκόνα τῆς συναφείας τῆς δώδεκα πρὸς τὰ τριάκοντα τετηρῆσθαι λέγουσιν· ἔτι μὴν καὶ τὴν γῆν εἰς δώδεκα κλίματα διῃρῆσθαι φάσκοντες, καὶ καθʼ ἓν ἕκαστον κλίμα ἀνὰ μίαν δύναμιν ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν κατὰ κάθετον ὑποδεχομένην καὶ [καθ᾿] ὁμοίωμα τίκτουσαν τέκνα τῇ καταπεμπούσῃ κατὰ τὴν ἀπόρροιαν δυνάμει, τύπον [εἶναι] τῆς ἄνω δωδεκάδος.

English · Claude translation

In this way, they say, the image of the union of the twelve with the thirty has been preserved even through the circle. Moreover they claim that the earth has been divided into twelve zones, and that each single zone receives one power from the heavens perpendicularly and bears children in likeness to the power that sends it down through its outflow, a type [being] of the Duodecad above.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 342 · 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 bracketed words are editorial supplements in the printed text.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.53.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/53/7/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.53.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/53/7/).

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