Refutation of All Heresies 5.13.11

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: Stars are said to be in aspect by their spacing, and earthly things are said to feel with the heavenly as the body with the head.

Show

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 182

Κατὰ τρίγωνον μὲν οὖν] σχηματίζονται ἐπιθεωροῦντες ἀλλήλους ἀστέρες, ἐπὶ τριῶν ζωδίων ἔχοντες τὸ μεταξὺ διάλειμμα, κατὰ τετράγωνον δὲ οἱ δυεῖν. [Ὃν δὲ τρόπον ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ] κεφαλῇ μὲν τὰ ὑποκείμενα μέρη συμπάσχειν, συμπάσχειν δὲ καὶ τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις τὴν κεφαλήν, οὕτως καὶ τοῖς ὑπερσεληναίοις τὰ ἐπίγεια. Ἀλλὰ γάρ τις ἐστὶ τούτων διαφορὰ καὶ ἀσυμπάθεια, ὡς ἂν μὴ μίαν καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν ἐχόντων ἕνωσιν.

English · Claude translation

In trine, then,] stars are configured as regarding one another when they have an interval of three signs between them, and in square when of two. [And just as in a human being] the parts below sympathize with the head, and the head sympathizes with the parts below, so too earthly things with those above the moon. Yet there is a certain difference and lack of sympathy between them, since they do not have one and the same unity.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 182 · 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.

Notes

Translation notes

  • The bracketed words are the editor's supplement; the first bracket began in the previous section.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.13.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/13/11/).

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

Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.13.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/13/11/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage