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Works Hippolytus of Rome (170-235)

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Widerlegung aller Häresien (BKV)

1.

Thales aus Milet, einer der sieben Weisen, soll sich zuerst mit Naturwissenschaft befaßt haben. Er behauptete, Ursprung und Ende des Alls sei das Wasser; denn aus Wasser, sei es in festem, sei es in flüssigem Zustande, bestehe das Universum, und es schwebe auf dem Wasser; hievon kämen auch die Erdbeben, die Wechsel der Winde und die Bewegungen der Gestirne; alles sei in der Schwebe und im Flusse, wie es die Natur der ersten Werdensursache mit sich bringe; das, was weder Anfang noch Ende habe, sei Gott. Thales widmete sich auch der Lehre und der Forschung über die Gestirne und ist so für die Griechen der erste Begründer der diesbezüglichen Wissenschaft. Da er eines Tages zum Himmel hinaufschaute, um die Dinge oben genau beobachten zu können, wie er sagte, fiel er in einen Brunnen. Eine Magd, namens Thratta, lachte ihn aus und sagte: „Da er die Dinge am Himmel sehen will, übersieht er, was vor seinen Füßen ist.“ Thales lebte zur Zeit des Krösus.

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The Refutation of All Heresies

Chapter I.--Thales; His Physics and Theology; Founder of Greek Astronomy.

It is said that Thales of Miletus, one of the seven 1 wise men, first attempted to frame a system of natural philosophy. This person said that some such thing as water is the generative principle of the universe, and its end;--for that out of this, solidified and again dissolved, all things consist, and that all things are supported on it; from which also arise both earthquakes and changes of the winds and atmospheric movements, 2 and that all things are both produced 3 and are in a state of flux corresponding with the nature of the primary author of generation;--and that the Deity 4 is that which has neither beginning nor end. This person, having been occupied with an hypothesis and investigation concerning the stars, became the earliest author to the Greeks of this kind of learning. And he, looking towards heaven, alleging that he was carefully examining supernal objects, fell into a well; and a certain maid, by name Thratta, remarked of him derisively, that while intent on beholding things in heaven, he did not know 5 what was at his feet. And he lived about the time of Croesus.


  1. [These were: Periander of Corinth, b.c. 585; Pittacus of Mitylene, b.c. 570; Thales of Miletus, b.c. 548: Solon of Athens, b.c. 540; Chilo of Sparta, b.c. 597; Bias of Priene; Cleobulus of Lindus, b.c. 564.] ↩

  2. Or, "motions of the stars" (Roeper). ↩

  3. Or, "carried along" (Roeper). ↩

  4. Or," that which is divine." See Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom., v. pp. 461, 463 (Heinsius and Sylburgius' ed.). Thales, on being asked, "What is God?" "That," replied he, "which has neither beginning nor end." ↩

  5. Or, "see." ↩

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The Refutation of All Heresies
Widerlegung aller Häresien (BKV)

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Faculty of Theology, Patristics and History of the Early Church
Miséricorde, Av. Europe 20, CH 1700 Fribourg

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