Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.18.5

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: “In a subject” means qualities such as color or justice, which cannot exist on their own but only in something else.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 352

Ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ δὲ, φησίν, ἐστίν, ὃ ἔν τινι μὴ ὡς μέρος ὑπάρχον, ἀδύνατον χωρὶς εἶναι τοῦ ἐν ᾧ ἐστί, [ὅ ἐστι] τῶν συμβεβηκότων ἕκαστον τῇ οὐσίᾳ, ὃ καλεῖται ποιότης, καθὸ ποιοὶ τινὲς λεγόμεθα, οἷον λευκοί, γλαυκοί, μέλανες, δίκαιοι, ἄδικοι, σώφρονες καὶ τὰ τούτων παραπλήσια. Τούτων δὲ ἓν αὐτὸ καθʼ αὑτὸ ἀδύνατόν ἐστι γενέσθαι, ἀλλὰ δεῖ ἔν τινι εἶναι.

English · Claude translation

And “in a subject,” he says, is that which, being in something not as a part, cannot exist apart from that in which it is; [that is,] each of the accidents of substance, which is called quality, according to which we are said to be of a certain kind, such as white, grey-eyed, black, just, unjust, temperate, and the like. None of these can come to be by itself; it must be in something.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 352 · 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.
Extrabiblical texts
  • Aristotle, Cat. 1a24–25 (Aristotle (works)) · allusion, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • Compare Aristotle, Categories 2 (1a24–25). γλαυκοί may mean “grey-eyed” or “pale.”

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.18.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/18/5/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.18.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/18/5/).

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