Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.15

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: Once bishop, Callistus expelled Sabellius to clear himself of suspicion, but Hippolytus calls him a charlatan.

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Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 456

Οὕτω μετὰ τὴν τοῦ Ζεφυρίνου τελευτὴν νομίζων τετυχηκέναι οὗ ἐθηρᾶτο, τὸν Σαβέλλιον ἀπέωσεν ὡς μὴ φρονοῦντα ὀρθῶς, δεδοικὼς ἐμὲ καὶ νομίζων οὕτω δύνασθαι ἀποτρίψασθαι τὴν πρὸς τὰς ἐκκλησίας κατηγορίαν, ὡς μὴ ἀλλοτρίως φρονῶν. Ἦν οὖν γόης καὶ πανοῦργος καὶ ἐπὶ χρόνῳ συνήρπασε πολλούς.

English · Claude translation

So after the death of Zephyrinus, thinking he had obtained what he was hunting for, he drove out Sabellius as not thinking rightly, fearing me and thinking that in this way he could rub off the accusation against him before the churches, as though he did not hold strange views. He was, then, a charlatan and a knave, and in time he carried many away.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 456 · 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, Church office

Notes

Translation notes

  • Callistus was bishop of Rome ca. 217–222. Hippolytus's charges are those of an opponent.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.12.15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/12/15/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 9.12.15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/12/15/).

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