Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 1.2.18

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: Pythagoras learned his numbers from the Egyptian priests and imitated their secrecy.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 14

Τοὺς δὲ ἀριθμοὺς καὶ τὰ μέτρα παρὰ Αἰγυπτίων φασὶ τὸν Πυθαγόραν μαθεῖν, ὃς καταπλαγεὶς τῇ τῶν ἱερέων ἀξιοπίστῳ καὶ φαντασιώδει καὶ δυσχερῶς ἐξαγορευομένῃ σοφίᾳ, μιμησάμενος ὁμοίως καὶ αὐτὸς σιγᾶν προσέταξεν καὶ ἐν ἀδύτοις καταγείοις ἐρημεῖν ἐποίει μανθάνοντας.

English · Claude translation

They say that Pythagoras learned numbers and measures from the Egyptians; astonished by the priests' wisdom, so credible, so full of visions, and so hard to disclose, he imitated it and likewise commanded silence, and made those who were learning live in solitude in underground sanctuaries.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 14 · 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.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 1.2.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/2/18/).

The SBL abbreviation for this work has not been checked yet.

Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 1.2.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/1/2/18/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage