Note 1 — BOOK X SUMMARIES, AND THE WORD OF TRUTH

The promises before noted at the end of Books VIII and IX to declare the Doctrine of Truth says nothing of these epitomes, nor do they always accord with the earlier Books which may be supposed to be here epitomized. For a suggested explanation of this discrepancy see Introduction, Vol. I, pp. 18, 19 supra. It should also be noted that, while the author omits here any detailed mention of the contents of Books II, III, and IV, he can hardly have had Book I before his eyes at the time of writing, or he would have referred to it directly instead of quoting as he does from Sextus Empiricus. As has been said in the Introduction, the “epitome of the heresies” bears closer relation to Books V-IX, although it omits several heresies included in the epitomized books. That the writer, if not Hippolytus himself, is at any rate writing in his name, is plain from the wording of chap. 5, infra, and we can hardly suppose a forger so reckless as not to have read the earlier Books before attempting to epitomize them. On the other hand, it is perfectly conceivable that Hippolytus had in his possession notes from which his earlier Books were written, and that of these only a part remained when he set to work to write Book X. It would seem, therefore, that only some such hypothesis as that given in the Introduction really fits the case.

As to the style of the Book it does not differ materially from that of the others, save in one particular. This is the frequent omission of the definite article, which is so frequent as to arouse suspicion that the scribe may have been here translating from a Latin rather than copying from a Greek original.