Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 9.7.3

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: Hippolytus says he repeatedly forced Zephyrinus and Callistus to confess the truth, but they soon fell back.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 440–442

Τούτων κατὰ διαδοχὴν διέμεινε τὸ διδασκαλεῖον κρατυνόμενον καὶ ἐπαῦξον διὰ τὸ συναίρεσθαι αὐτοῖς τὸν Ζεφυρῖνον καὶ τὸν Κάλλιστον, καίτοι ἡμῶν μηδέποτε συγχωρησάντων, ἀλλὰ πλειστάκις ἀντικαθεστώτων πρὸς αὐτοὺς καὶ διελεγξάντων καὶ ἄκοντας βιασαμένων τὴν ἀλήθειαν ὁμολογεῖν· οἳ πρὸς μὲν ὥραν αἰδούμενοι καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς ἀληθείας συναγόμενοι ὡμολόγουν, μετʼ οὐ πολὺ δὲ ἐπὶ τὸν αὐτὸν βόρβορον ἀνεκυλίοντο.

English · Claude translation

In succession from these the school continued, strengthened and growing, because Zephyrinus and Callistus helped them, although we never gave way but very often opposed them and refuted them and compelled them against their will to confess the truth. For the moment, ashamed and constrained by the truth, they confessed it, but not long afterward they rolled back into the same mire.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 440–442 · 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.
Scripture
Topics
Heresy, Church office

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Rolled back into the same mire” echoes 2 Pet 2:22.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 9.7.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/7/3/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 9.7.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/9/7/3/).

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