Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 7.18.2

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 named individual cannot be divided further; this is what Aristotle calls substance in the primary sense.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 350

Ἐτμήθη γὰρ τὸ μὲν γένος εἰς εἶδος, τὸ δὲ εἶδος εἰς ἄτομον, τὸ δὲ ἄτομον ἐπειδὰν γένηται ὀνόματι κατειλημμένον, οὐχ οἷόν τε τμηθῆναι κατὰ φύσιν εἰς ἄλλο τι, ὡς ἐτέμομεν τῶν προλελεγμένων ἕκαστον. Ταύτην Ἀριστοτέλης πρώτως καὶ μάλιστα καὶ κυριώτατα [οὐσίαν καλεῖ], μήτε καθʼ ὑποκειμένου τινὸς λεγομένην, μήτε ἐν ὑποκειμένῳ οὖσαν.

English · Claude translation

For the genus was divided into species, and the species into the individual; but the individual, once it has been grasped by a name, cannot by nature be divided into anything else, as we divided each of the things mentioned before. This is what Aristotle [calls substance] first, most of all, and most properly: that which is neither said of some subject nor is in a subject.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 350 · 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
  • Aristotle, Cat. 2a11–14 (Aristotle (works)) · allusion, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • Compare Aristotle, Categories 5 (2a11–14). The bracketed words are an editorial supplement.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 7.18.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/18/2/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 7.18.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/7/18/2/).

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