Hippolytus of Rome (Full Script)

To lazy to read?  Watch the video!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VonGt4L5-x4

Hippolytus

Post-Apostolic Church

INTRO

Hippolytus was an overseer in Rome and wrote around AD 225.

He was a student of Irenaeus.  He also learned much of his knowledge from the works of Justin Martyr, who had lived in Rome about 65 years before.  Origen probably heard Hippolytus teach.

LIFE

Hippolytus devotedly fought for the truth.  At one time, he opposed other overseers in Rome for too freely accepting pagan converts.  He accused one of the overseers of Monarchianism which is the belief that there is one God in one Person as opposed to the Three Persons of the Trinity.

Because of his Christian faith, Hippolytus was exiled by the Romans to Sardinia and died there.  It is said that while he was there with one of his fellow overseers whom he had opposed, he made amends with him and they died having been reconciled.

WORKS

Hippolytus wrote many, many works.  Like Irenaeus, his teacher, he compiled a massive work describing the heresies of his day.  Jerome's list of his writings is extremely long (Jerome, On Illustrious Men, chapter 61.  AD 400.  NPNF2, vol 3, page 375.)

STATUE

In 1551, a statue of a complete man was found in Rome.  Because of the inscriptions on it, there is no doubt that the statue is of Hippolytus.  As you watch the videos on this channel you may like or dislike the images used to represent the Early Christian writers.  That’s ok!  These images are probably not accurate likenesses of the ancient writers. However, if this statue was made while Hippolytus was alive, this is what he looked like.

QUOTATIONS

About the nature of God, Hippolytus wrote,

And the blessed John, in the testimony of his gospel, gives us an account of this economy [that is, nature of God] and acknowledge this Word as God, when he says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  Then, if the Word was with God and was also God, what follows?  Would one say that he speaks of two Gods?  Indeed, I shall not speak of two Gods, but of one.  [I will speak of] two Persons, however, and of a third economy, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit....  [5.2] The Father decrees, the Word executes, and the Son is manifested, through whom the Father is believed on.  The economy of harmony is led back to one God; for God is one.  It is the Father who commands, and the Son who obeys, and the Holy Spirit who gives understanding: the Father who is above all, and the Son who is through all, and the Holy Spirit who is in all.  (Hippolytus.  AD 225.  ANF, vol 5, page 228.)