Refutation of All Heresies 4.45.2

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: Knowing these opinions will equip Christians to resist error and help the deceived.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 112–114

Ἔτι δὲ καὶ τοὺς τῇ ἀληθείᾳ προσέχοντας φιλομαθεῖς προβιβάσει ὁ λόγος φρονιμωτέρους πρὸς τὸ μὴ μόνον τὰς τῶν αἱρέσεων μαθόντας ἀρχὰς εὐκόλως ἀνατρέπειν τοὺς πλανᾶν τετολμηκότας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς τῶν σοφῶν λεγομένας δόξας, ὧν οὐκ ἄπειροι γενόμενοι, οὔθʼ ὑπʼ αὐτῶν ταραχθήσονται ὡς ἀμαθεῖς, οὔθʼ ὑπό τινων πλανηθήσονται ὡς δυνάμει τινὶ δρώντων, ἀλλʼ ἔτι καὶ τοὺς πλανωμένους ἐπιτηρήσουσιν.

English · Claude translation

Further, the account will advance studious lovers of truth to be more prudent, so that, having learned not only the principles of the heresies they may easily overturn those who have dared to lead astray, but also the so-called opinions of the wise, of which, not being ignorant, they will neither be troubled by them as the unlearned are, nor be led astray by those who seem to act by some power, but will even watch over those who are going astray.

About this passage

Source

Duncker–Schneidewin, 112–114 · 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

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.45.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/45/2/).

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

Plain text

Hippolytus, Haer. 4.45.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/4/45/2/).