Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.16.15

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: The head of the heavenly Dragon, where setting and rising meet, is the great wonder that the poet Aratus described.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 194

Ἐπὶ τούτου, φησίν, ἐστὶ τὸ μέγα θαῦμα ὁρώμενον ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ τοῖς δυναμένοις ἰδεῖν. Κατὰ γάρ, φησί, ταύτην τὴν ἄκραν αὐτοῦ τὴν κεφαλήν, ὅπερ πάντων ἀπιστότερον τοῖς οὐκ εἰδόσι, μίσγονται δύσις τε καὶ ἀνατολὴ ἀλλήλαις. Τουτέστι περὶ οὗ εἶπεν ἡ ἀγνωσία· ἐν οὐρανῷ εἱλεῖται μέγα θαῦμα Δράκων δεινοῖο πελώρου.

English · Claude translation

“In him,” he says, “is the great wonder seen in heaven by those who can see. For at this extremity of his, his head,” he says, “(which is the most incredible thing of all to those who do not know), setting and rising mingle with one another. This is what ignorance spoke of: ‘In heaven there winds a great wonder, the Dragon, a terrible monster.’”

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 194 · 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
  • Aratus, Phaen. 46 (Aratus, Phaenomena) · quotation, high confidence
  • Aratus, Phaen. 61–62 (Aratus, Phaenomena) · allusion, high confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The quotation is Aratus, Phaenomena 46; “setting and rising mingle” echoes Phaenomena 61–62.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.16.15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/16/15/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.16.15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/16/15/).

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