Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 8.14.2

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: The geometric solids that make up the elements come from the numbers in the iota, the perfect Son.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 428

Οἵ τε γὰρ κύβοι καὶ τὰ ὀκτάεδρα καὶ αἱ πυραμίδες καὶ πάντα τὰ τούτοις παραπλήσια σχήματα, ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκε πῦρ, ἀήρ, ὕδωρ, γῆ, ἀπὸ τῶν ἀριθμῶν γεγόνασι τῶν κατειλημμένων ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἁπλῇ τοῦ ἰῶτα κεραίᾳ, ἥτις ἐστὶν υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου τελείου τέλειος.

English · Claude translation

For the cubes and octahedra and pyramids and all the figures like these, of which fire, air, water, and earth are composed, have come into being from the numbers contained in that simple stroke of the iota, which is the perfect Son of the perfect Man.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 428 · 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
  • Plato, Tim. 53c–56c (Plato (works)) · allusion, medium confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The regular solids as the shapes of the elements are from Plato, Timaeus 53c–56c.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 8.14.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/8/14/2/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 8.14.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/8/14/2/).

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