Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.29.13

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: Empedocles describes the world under Love as a perfect sphere without limbs.

Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 386

Καὶ περὶ μὲν τῆς τοῦ κόσμου ἰδέας, ὁποία τίς ἐστιν ὑπὸ τῆς φιλίας κοσμουμένη, λέγει τοιοῦτόν τινα τρόπον· Οὐ γὰρ ἀπὸ νώτοιο δύο κλάδοι ἀΐσσονται, οὐ πόδες, οὐ θοὰ γούνατʼ, οὐ μήδεα γενήεντα, ἀλλὰ σφαῖρος ἔην καὶ ἶσος ἐστὶν αὐτῷ.

English · Claude translation

And about the form of the world, of what kind it is when set in order by Love, he speaks in some such way as this: “For two branches do not spring from its back, no feet, no swift knees, no generative parts; but it was a sphere, and equal to itself.”

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 386 · 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; the problem in this passage is discussed in the notes.
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
  • Empedocles, frag. 29 (Empedocles (fragments)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • Empedocles, fragment 29; the last words are corrupt in the transmitted text.

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (stray space): γενήεντ α → γενήεντα.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.29.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/29/13/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.29.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/29/13/).

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