Refutation of All Heresies 6.43.2
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: The last sound of the last letter fell below and produced the lower world, while the letter itself was taken back up.
Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 306
Ὧν στοιχείων τοῦ ἐσχάτου στοιχείου τὸ ὕστερον [γράμμα] φωνὴν προήκατο τὴν ἑαυτοῦ, οὗ ὁ ἦχος ἐξελθὼν [κατ᾿] εἰκόνα τῶν στοιχείων στοιχεῖα ἴδια ἐγέννησεν, ἐξ ὧν τά τε ἐνταῦθα διακεκοσμῆσθαί φησι, καὶ τὰ πρὸ τούτων γεγενῆσθαι. Τὸ μέντοι γράμμα αὐτό, οὗ ὁ ἦχος ἦν συνεπακολουθῶν τῷ ἤχῳ κάτω, ὑπὸ τῆς συλλαβῆς τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ἀνειλῆφθαι ἄνω λέγει εἰς ἀναπλήρωσιν τοῦ ὅλου, μεμενηκέναι δὲ εἰς τὰ κάτω τὸν ἦχον, ὥσπερ ἔξω ῥιφέντα.
English · Claude translation
Of these letters, the last [sign] of the last letter sent forth its own voice, whose sound, going out, begot letters of its own after the image of the letters, from which he says that the things here have been ordered and the things before these begotten. The sign itself, whose sound followed the sound downward, he says was taken up above by its own syllable to complete the whole, while the sound remained below, as if thrown outside.
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- The bracketed word is the editor's supplement.
Cite this passage
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.43.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/43/2/).
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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.43.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/43/2/).
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