Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 6.52.5

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: They connect the lost coin and the lost sheep with the number ninety-nine, which is also the value of “Amen.”

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 332–334

Καὶ ἐπὶ τούτων τὴν δραχμὴν λέγουσιν, ἣν ἀπολέσασα γυνὴ ἅψασα λύχνον ἐζήτει, τήν τε ἐπὶ ἑνὶ προβάτῳ ἀπώλειαν, καὶ τὴν τῶν ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα συντιθέντες ἑαυτοῖς ἀριθμοὺς μυθεύουσιν ὡς τῶν ἕνδεκα ἐπισυμπλεκομένων τοῖς ἐννέα ποιεῖν τὸν τῶν ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα ἀριθμόν, καὶ τούτου χάριν λέγεσθαι τὸ ἀμήν, περιέχον ἀριθμὸν ἐνενήκοντα ἐννέα· ἄλλον δὲ ἀριθμὸν.

English · Claude translation

And in reference to these they speak of the drachma which a woman lost and, lighting a lamp, sought, and of the loss of the one sheep; and, combining the numbers of the ninety-nine for themselves, they tell the tale that the eleven, woven together with the nine, make the number ninety-nine, and that for this reason Amen is said, which contains the number ninety-nine. Another number …

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 332–334 · 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.
Scripture
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • The letters of ἀμήν add up to 99 (1+40+8+50).

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 6.52.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/52/5/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 6.52.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/6/52/5/).

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