Hippolytus’ Against All Heresies Books One and Four

Little is known with complete certainty about Hippolytus. He was born around A.D. 170, possibly in Asia Minor or Alexandria, and ended up at the Church in Rome. A disciple of Irenaeus, he became part of Church leadership sometime between 198 and 217 when, likely having become a bishop in Rome himself, he fiercely opposed the election of the bishop Calixtus due to differing theological convictions regarding the Trinity. He remained committed to his theological positions through the next two bishops and in 235, was deported to Sardina where he died within the year.

Hippolytus’ greatest extant work is his Against All Heresies, a voluminous catalog of diverse and heterodox doctrines present in the Church of his day. It consisted of a series of ten books (two of which are now lost) that built on the work of Irenaeus to categorize and classify heresies based on their relationship to pagan and Greek philosophy.

While lengthy, this series of books provides the modern reader an invaluable understanding of the thoughts and ideas present in the ancient world. From numerology to the zodiac, one begins to get a sense of the strange beliefs that pervaded the cultural milieu of the Early Church. In this environment, it is perhaps no wonder that so many diverse opinions became dangerous to those within the Church. It also serves as a reminder today that many things which could appear benign on the surface are, in fact, derived from ideas opposed to Scripture. Hippolytus' conviction that all true Christian doctrine must be consistent with the Holy Scriptures remains a necessary criterion for believers today.

This episode contains books one and four of Hippolytus’ Against All Heresies. Unfortunately, books two and three have been lost to time.

If you would like to read more of the writings of the Early Christian Fathers, please visit ccel.org to view the full collection.