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St Photius the Great, tr. Freese, 1920; selections

121. Codex 121: Hippolytus, Against Heresies

Read the tractate of Hippolytus,¹ the pupil of Irenaeus, entitled Against the Thirty-two Heresies. It begins with the Dositheans,² and goes down to the heresies of Noetus³ and the Noetians, which he says were refuted by Irenaeus in his lectures, of which the present work is a synopsis. The style is clear, somewhat severe and free from redundancies, although it exhibits no tendency to atticism. Some of the statements are inaccurate, for instance, that the epistle to the Hebrews is not the work of the apostle Paul. Hippolytus is said to have addressed the people after the manner of Origen, with whom he was very intimate and whose writings he so much admired that he urged him to write a commentary on the Bible, for which purpose he supplied, at his own expense, seven shorthand writers and the same number of calligraphists. Having rendered this service, he persistently demanded the work, whence Origen, in one of his letters, calls him a “hustler.” He is said to have written a large number of other works.

Notes

Flourished during the third century. He was a pupil of Irenaeus and an active opponent of the Gnostics. He was a presbyter of Rome, and became anti-bishop in opposition to Calixtus (Callistus), an adherent of Monarchianism (denial of the doctrine of the Trinity). The treatise Against Heresies was first discovered in a convent on Mount Athos in 1842.
A Jewish sect, so called from Dositheus of Samaria (first century A.D.), who killed himself by fasting. He insisted on a rigorous observance of the Sabbath.
Died about A.D. 200, born at Smyrna or Ephesus. According to him “Christ was the Father, and the Father was born, suffered, and died.”