RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Hippolytus
banished him to Sardinia, together with Pontianus, the legitimate bishop; and on that "unwholesome island " he died.
Hippolytus was a very fertile ecclesiastical writer. His exegetical work was specially extensive; only a few specimens of it, however, have been preserved entire, the " Antichrist " 3. Exeget- and the later commentary on Daniel, ical Works, and of these only the former exists in the original (in three manuscripts of the tenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries; there is also an Old Church Slavic version of probably the eleventh century). The dependence of its content upon Irenffius is unmistakable. The Daniel commentary, once the most widely read of his works, is extant from book i. 29 in a manuscript of the tenth century found at Athos, and book iv. is also found in another of the fifteenth, while the whole is in the Old Church Slavic version, besides indirect tradition in the catenae and portions in Syriac and Armenian versions. The book was written not long after a severe persecution, and thus can scarcely belong to the end of Hippolytus's life. A more rhetorical character belongs to the commentary on the Song of Solomon, of which fragments exist in the Old Church Slavic and some also in the Armenian. In the Georgian this commentary appears to have been preserved entire (Germ, transl. by Bonwetsch in TU, xxiii., part 2, 1903). Bonwetsch also edited Hippolytus's exegesis of the Blessing of Jacob and of Moses, and of the narrative of David and Goliath (TU. xxvi. la, 1904). The Greek of the Blessing of Jacob seems to be in existence at Athens. Fragments on Genesis are preserved in the catena of Procopius of Gaza, besides one by Jerome, one by Leontius, and three by Theodoret. A fragment discovered by Achelis in an Athos manuscript is the only evidence for the former existence of a commentary on Ruth. Theodoret gives citations from a work on Elkanah and Hannah, and one on the witch of Endor is mentioned both by the inscription and by Jerome. Of the treatise on the Psalms, probably not a complete commentary, the historical introduction is preserved in Syriac, and some fragments in Greek by Theodoret. Some fragments of that on the Proverbs are in the catena}, and a few unimportant ones exist from those on Ecclesiastes and on parts of Isaiah and Ezekiel, while of that on Zechariah nothing remains. There are fragments, again, on Matt. xxiv. and xxv. 24 sqq., which have an eschatological bearing, as had also the commentary on the Apocalypse (of which genuine fragments are extant in Arabic), the " Chapters against Caius " (fragments published by Gwynne, Hermathena, vi. 397 sqq., 1888), and the treatise on the resurrection addressed to the Empress Mammsea (a few Syriac and and Greek fragments), mentioned in the inscription. Possibly some fragments of a commentary on the oracles of Balaam belong to Hippolytus. Theodoret has also preserved a portion of a discourse on the two thieves. On the other hand, the sermon on the raising of Lazarus (Greek and Syriac), is of doubtful authenticity, and still more questionable is that on the divine epiphanies, because both form and contents are unlike Hippolytus.
Of the polemical treatises, that against JVlarcion has entirely disappeared. The " treatise "against All Heresies," which, according to Photius, contained thirty-two forms of error, from 4. Polem- Dositheus to Noetus, was used as a ical "Works, source by the pseudo-Tertullian, Epiphanius, and Pbilaster, which at least determines the sequence of heresies treated in it. It is a question whether the extant homily against Noetus originally formed the close of this book or not. As he defended the Apocalypse against Caius, so he attacked the opponents of the Johannean writings in general in a treatise " On the Gospel and Revelation of John." Of the contents of this some idea may be gained from Epiphanius, Hcer., li., where Hippolytus is undoubtedly quoted, as in Hmr., xlviii. there are traces of his polemic against the Montanists. In the Philosophumena, or " Refutation of All Heresies," also he undertakes to show the origin of heresies from the older philosophies, his knowledge of which, however, according to Diels, was gained from inadequate extracts. The second, third, and beginning of the fourth books are lost; the remainder of the fourth deals with the astrologers. His treatment of the heresies is mainly confined to exposition without thorough polemic. His account of the Gnostic system is based partly on Irena?us and Tertullian; where he is independent of them he has been supposed by some critics to have trusted too much to forged documents — but forgery is unlikely in the case of so speculative a system as that, e.g., of Basilides. Against the pagans he wrote a treatise which seems from its variously given title to have dealt with the Platonic doctrine of the All and the First Cause; the extant fragment is eschatological. The work " On the Faith " attributed to Hippolytus is later than the Nicene Council; that " On the Method of the Vow " is more likely Aphraates' The polemical treatise against the Jews, though no such work is mentioned in the inscription, and though its present form is possibly not all due to Hippolytus, yet has reminders of his work; and his having written against the Jews is rendered likely by the use of material from him in later anti-Jewish writings. Of several other works mentioned in various places scarcely anything more than the titles is known. That called " On Charismata " or " Apostolic Tradition on Charismata " (according to whether the inscription is here naming one or two works) may well have been incorporated in the " Teachings of the Holy Apostles on Charismata," and H. Achelis has made the attempt to determine exactly what part comes from Hippolytus. The " Canons of the Holy Apostles on the Election [of Bishops] by Hippolytus," which are parallel to the Apostolic Constitutions, viii. 4 sqq., are an extract from a primitive form of the Apostolic Constitutions, and according to Achelis and Harnack are based upon genuine canons of Hippolytus, of which a working-over exists in the Arabic " Canons of Hippolytus." Achelis thinks that Hippolytus wrote the " On Charismata " while still in the catholic communion, and that the assertion that an ignorant or immoral bishop was no true bishop had reference to Zephyrinus, while the canons were in-
Hippolytus Hiram