Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 6.26.2

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 riddle warns the soul leaving the body not to cling to it, reflecting belief in transmigration.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 266

Ἐὰν οὖν φησίν, ἀποδημῇς, τουτέστιν ἐὰν ἐξέρχῃ ἐκ τοῦ σώματος, μὴ αὐτοῦ ἀντιποιοῦ· ἐὰν δὲ ἀντιποιήσῃ, πάλιν σε τὰ πάθη καθείρξουσιν εἰς σῶμα. Εἶναι γὰρ οὗτοι τῶν ψυχῶν μετενσωμάτωσιν νομίζουσιν, ὡς καὶ ὁ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς πυθαγορίζων λέγει.

English · Claude translation

“If, then,” he says, “you go abroad, that is, if you go out of the body, do not lay claim to it; but if you lay claim to it, the passions will shut you up again in a body.” For these men believe in the transmigration of souls, as Empedocles too says, Pythagorizing.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 266 · 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
  • Empedocles (Empedocles (fragments)) · allusion, medium confidence

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.26.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/26/2/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.26.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/26/2/).

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