Some Exegetical Fragments of Hippolytus

The shaking (of the earth) signifies the change of things upon earth.— Sin, then, which in its own nature is a slave, has reigned in the mortal body of men: once, indeed, at the time of the flood; and again in the time of the Sodomites, who, not satisfied with what the land yielded, offered violence to strangers; and a third time in the case of hateful Egypt, which, though it obtained in Joseph a man who distributed food to all, that they might not perish of famine, yet did not take well with his prosperity, but persecuted the children of Israel. “The handmaid casting out her mistress:”i.e., the Church of the Gentiles, which, though itself a slave and a stranger to the promises, cast out the free-born and lordly synagogue, and became the wife and bride of Christ. By Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the whole earth is moved. The “fourth it cannot bear:”for He came first by lawgivers, and secondly by prophets, and thirdly by the Gospel, manifesting Himself openly; and in the fourth instance He shall come as the Judge of the living and the dead, whose glory the whole creation will not be able to endure.

Second fragment, on Proverbs 9:1

St. Hippolytus On Prov. IX. 1, “Wisdom Hath Builded Her House.”

Christ, he means, the wisdom and power of God the Father, has built His house, i.e., His nature in the flesh derived from the Virgin, even as he (John) has said beforetime, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” As likewise the wise prophet testifies: Wisdom that was before the world, and is the source of life, the infinite “Wisdom of God, has built her house” by a mother who knew no man—to wit, as He assumed the temple of the body. “And has raised her seven pillars;”that is, the fragrant grace of the all-holy Spirit, as Isaiah says: “And the seven spirits of God shall rest upon Him,” But others say that the seven pillars are the seven divine orders which sustain the creation by His holy and inspired teaching; to wit, me prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, the hierarchs, the hermits, the saints, and the righteous. And the phrase, “She has killed her beasts,” denotes the prophets and martyrs who in every city and country are slain like sheep every day by the unbelieving, in behalf of the truth, and cry aloud, “For your sake we are killed all the day long, we were counted as sheep for the slaughter.” And again, “She has mingled her wine” in the bowl, by which is meant, that the Saviour, uniting his Godhead, like pure wine, with the flesh in the Virgin, was born of her at once God and man without confusion of the one in the other. “And she has furnished her table:”that denotes the promised knowledge of the Holy Trinity; it also refers to His honoured and undefiled body and blood, which day by day are administered and offered sacrificially at the spiritual divine table, as a memorial of that first and ever-memorable table of the spiritual divine supper. And again, “She bath sent forth her servants:”Wisdom, that is to say, has done so— Christ, to wit— summoning them with lofty announcement. “Whoever is simple, Let him turn to me,” she says, alluding manifestly to the holy apostles, who traversed the whole world, and called the nations to the knowledge of Him in truth, with their lofty and divine preaching. And again, “And to those that want understanding she said”— that is, to those who have not yet obtained the power of the Holy Ghost— “Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled for you;”by which is meant, that He gave His divine flesh and honoured blood to us, to eat and to drink it for the remission of sins.