Editing Hippolytus of Rome (section)

== Writings ==
[[File:Statues of Saint Hippolytus.jpg|thumb|upright=1|[[Ancient Roman|Roman]] sculpture, maybe of Hippolytus, found in 1551 and used for the attribution of the Apostolic Tradition.]]

Controversy surrounds the corpus of the writer Hippolytus. In the [[Victorian era]], scholars claimed his principal work to be the ''[[Refutation of all Heresies]]''.<ref name="ODCC" /> Of its ten books, Book I was the most important.<ref name="EBO"/> It was long known and was printed (with the title ''Philosophumena'') among the works of Origen. Books II and III are lost, and Books IV–X were found, without the name of the author,<ref name="EB1911" /> in a monastery of [[Mount Athos]] in 1842. Emmanuel Miller published them in 1851 under the title ''Philosophumena'', attributing them to [[Origen of Alexandria]]. Recent scholarship prefers to treat the text as the work of an unknown author, perhaps of Roman origin.

In 1551 a marble statue of a seated figure (originally female,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Handl |first1=András |date=2021 |title=A Heavily Bearded Philosopher in Women's Underwear - Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Identity of the So-called Hippolytus Statue |journal=Louvain Studies |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=340-364 |doi=10.2143/LS.44.4.3290040 |url=https://www.academia.edu/72135680 |access-date=14 April 2024}}</ref> perhaps personifying one of the sciences) was purportedly found in the cemetery of the [[Via Tiburtina]] and was heavily restored. On the sides of the seat was carved a [[paschal cycle]], and on the back the titles of numerous writings by Hippolytus.<ref name="Kirsch" /><ref name="EB1911" /> Many other works are listed by [[Eusebius]] and [[Jerome]]. The research of Guarducci showed the original statue was a representation of a female figure, reopening the question of its original purpose. Allen Brent analyzed the title list of the statue, questioning Hippolytan authorship of some works.

Hippolytus' voluminous writings, which for variety of subject can be compared with those of Origen, embrace the spheres of [[exegesis]], [[homiletics]], [[apologetics]] and [[polemic]], [[chronography]], and [[canon law|ecclesiastical law]]. The Apostolic Tradition, if it is the work of Hippolytus, recorded the first [[liturgy|liturgical]] reference to the [[Virgin Mary]], as part of the ordination rite of a bishop.<ref name="McNally68">McNally, Terrence, ''What Every Catholic Should Know about Mary'', 2009, {{ISBN|1-4415-1051-6}}, pp. 68-69</ref>

Of exegetical works attributed to Hippolytus, the best preserved are the ''Commentary on the Prophet [[Daniel (biblical figure)|Daniel]]'' and the ''Commentary on the [[Song of Songs]]''.<ref name="ODCC" /> This is the earliest attested Christian interpretation of the Song, covering only the first three chapters to Song 3:7.

The commentary on the [[Song of Songs]] survives in two Georgian manuscripts, a Greek [[epitome]], a Paleo-Slavonic [[florilegium]], and fragments in [[Armenian language|Armenian]] and [[Syriac language|Syriac]] as well as in many patristic quotations, especially in [[Ambrose]]'s ''Exposition on Psalm 118 (119)''. It is generally regarded as an instruction relating to a post-Baptismal rite of anointing with oil as a symbol of receiving the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]]. The commentary was originally written as part of a [[Order of Christian Initiation of Adults|mystagogy]], an instruction for new Christians. Scholars have usually assumed the ''Commentary on the [[Song of Songs]]'' was originally composed for use during [[Easter]], a season favored in the West for Baptism.<ref>Hippolytus' ''Commentary on Daniel'' 1.17</ref> Hippolytus supplied his commentary with a fully developed introduction known as the ''schema isagogicum'', indicating his knowledge of the rhetorical conventions for teachers discussing classical works.<ref>{{harvnb|Mansfeld|1997|p=}} notes Origen's use of the schema, but not Hippolytus'.</ref> He employs a common rhetorical trope, [[ekphrasis]], using images on the walls or floors of Greco-Roman homes, and in the catacombs as paintings or mosaics.<ref name="Smith">[https://www.gorgiaspress.com/bookshop/p-59818-the-mystery-of-anointing-hippolytus-commentary-on-the-song-of-songs-in-social-and-critical-contextsbrby-yancy-smithbrgorgias-studies-in-early-christianity-and-patristics-62.aspx Smith, Yancy] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413225321/http://gorgiaspress.com/bookshop/p-59818-the-mystery-of-anointing-hippolytus-commentary-on-the-song-of-songs-in-social-and-critical-contextsbrby-yancy-smithbrgorgias-studies-in-early-christianity-and-patristics-62.aspx |date=13 April 2016}} ''The Mystery of Anointing: Hippolytus' Commentary On the Song of Songs in Social and Critical Contexts'', Gorgias Studies in Early Christianity and Patristics 62, 2015, {{ISBN|978-1-4632-0218-7}}, pp. 9, 34</ref> Origen felt that the Song should be reserved for the spiritually mature and that studying it might be harmful for the novice.

Scholars generally ascribe to Hippolytus<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Hippolytus-of-Rome |title=Saint Hippolytus of Rome - antipope |date=13 March 2024}}</ref> a work now entitled the ''[[Apostolic Tradition]]'', which contains the earliest known ritual of ordination.<ref name="SHMI" /> The influence of Hippolytus was felt chiefly through his works on chronography and ecclesiastical law.<ref name="EB1911" /> His chronicle of the world, a compilation embracing the whole period from the [[Genesis creation narrative|creation of the world]] up to the year 234, formed a basis for many chronographical works both in the East and West.<ref name="Schmidt">[http://www.attalus.org/armenian/Chronicon_of_Hippolytus.pdf], ''The Chronicon of Hippolytus'', T.C. Schmidt and Nick Nicholas, 2010, 2nd ed. (rough draft)</ref><ref name="EB1911" /> It is from the ''Apostolic Tradition'' that the current words of episcopal ordination in the [[Catholic Church]] come from, as updated by [[Pope Paul VI]]. Additionally, the 21st chapter of Apostolic Tradition contains what may be a proto-[[Apostles' Creed]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.stjohnsarlingtonva.org/Customer-Content/saintjohnsarlington/CMS/files/EFM/Apostolic_Tradition_by_Hippolytus.pdf |title=The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus of Rome}}</ref>

In the great compilations of ecclesiastical law that arose in the East since the 3rd century, the [[Ancient Church Orders|Church Orders]] many canons were attributed to Hippolytus, for example in the [[Canons of Hippolytus]] or [[Apostolic Constitutions#Epitome|the Constitutions through Hippolytus]]. How much of this material is genuinely his, how much of it worked over, and how much of it wrongly attributed to him, can no longer be determined beyond dispute,<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911 |wstitle=Hippolytus (writer) |display=Hippolytus |volume=13 |page=519 |inline=1 |first=Gustav |last=Krüger}}</ref> however a great deal was incorporated into the ''[[Fetha Negest]]'', which once served as the constitutional basis of law in [[Ethiopia]] – where he is still remembered as '''Abulides'''. During the early 20th century the work known as ''The Egyptian Church Order'' was identified as the [[Apostolic Tradition]] and attributed to Hippolytus; at present this attribution is hotly contested.

Differences in style and theology lead some scholars to conclude that some of the works attributed to Hippolytus actually derive from a second author.<ref name="ODCC" />

Two small but potentially important works, ''On the Twelve Apostles of Christ'' and ''On the [[Seventy Apostles]] of Christ,'' are often neglected because the manuscripts were lost during most of the church age and then found in Greece in the 19th century. The two are included in an appendix to the works of Hippolytus in the voluminous collection of [[Church Fathers|Early Church Fathers]].<ref>''Ante-Nicean Fathers'', ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleaveland Coxe, vol. 5 (Peabody MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1999), 254–256 {{ISBN?}}</ref> The work on the 70 apostles is noteworthy as a (potentially) early source.

A consensus of scholarship agrees on a core of authentic texts composed by the second-third-century writer Hippolytus, regardless of disputes concerning his community, or the exact dates of his biography: these are the biblical commentaries, including On Daniel, On David and Goliath, On the Song of Songs (partially extant), On the Blessings of Isaac and Jacob, and On the Antichrist. These form a sound basis for exploring and understanding his theology and biblical doctrines.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}