Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 9.20.1

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: Essenes live in many towns and welcome traveling members as family; they travel carrying only a weapon.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 472–474

Μία δὲ αὐτῶν οὐκ ἔστι πόλις, ἀλλʼ ἐν ἑκάστῃ μετοικοῦσι πολλοί. Καὶ εἴ τις ἀπὸ ξένης παρῇ τῶν αἱρετιστῶν, πάντα αὐτῷ κοινὰ ἡγοῦνται, καὶ οὓς οὐ πρότερον ᾔδεσαν, ὡς οἰκείους καὶ συνήθεις προσδέχονται. Περιΐασι δὲ τὴν πατρῴαν γῆν, ἑκάστοτε ἀποδημοῦντες μηδὲν φέροντες πλὴν ὅπλου.

English · Claude translation

They have no single city, but many settle in each. And if any of the adherents arrives from elsewhere, they consider everything shared with him, and receive those whom they did not know before as kinsmen and intimates. They travel about their ancestral land, carrying nothing on each journey except a weapon.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 472–474 · 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
  • Josephus, B.J. 2.124–125 (Josephus (works)) · allusion, high confidence
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • Compare Josephus, Jewish War 2.124–125.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.20.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/20/1/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 9.20.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/20/1/).

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