Chapter I.—Recapitulation.

After we have, not with violence, burst through the labyrinth1015    See Fragments of Hippolytus’ Works (p. 235 et seq.), edited by Fabricius; Theodoret, Hær. Fab., iii. 3; Epiphanius, Hær., lvii.; and Philastrius, Hæret., liv. Theodoret mentions Epigonus and Cleomenes, and his account is obviously adopted by Hippolytus.    [This word is an index of authenticity. See on the “Little Labyrinth,” Bunsen, i. p. 243, and Wordsworth, pp. 100, 161, and his references to Routh, Lardner, etc.] of heresies, but have unravelled (their intricacies) through a refutation merely, or, in other words, by the force of truth, we approach the demonstration of the truth itself. For then the artificial sophisms of error will be exposed in all their inconsistency, when we shall succeed in establishing whence it is that the definition of the truth has been derived. The truth has not taken its principles from the wisdom of the Greeks, nor borrowed its doctrines, as secret mysteries, from the tenets of the Egyptians, which, albeit silly, are regarded amongst them with religious veneration as worthy of reliance. Nor has it been formed out of the fallacies which enunciate the incoherent (conclusions arrived at through the) curiosity of the Chaldeans.  Nor does the truth owe its existence to astonishment, through the operations of demons, for the irrational frenzy of the Babylonians. But its definition is constituted after the manner in which every true definition is, viz., as simple and unadorned. A definition such as this, provided it is made manifest, will of itself refute error. And although we have very frequently propounded demonstrations, and with sufficient fulness elucidated for those willing (to learn) the rule of the truth; yet even now, after having discussed all the opinions put forward by the Greeks and heretics, we have decided it not to be, at all events, unreasonable to introduce, as a sort of finishing stroke to the (nine) books preceding, this demonstration throughout the tenth book.

Τὸν λαβύρινθον τῶν αἱρέσεων οὐ βί(ᾳ) διαρρήξαντες, ἀλλὰ μόνῳ ἐλέγχῳ [καὶ] ἀληθείας δυνάμει διαλύσαντες, πρόσιμεν ἐπὶ τὴν τῆς ἀληθείας ἀπόδειξιν. τότε γὰρ [μόνον τὰ] τῆς πλάνης ἔντεχνα σοφίσματα ἀσύστατα φανερωθήσεται, ἐπὰν ὁ τῆς ἀληθείας ὅρος ἐπιδειχθῇ: [ὃς] οὐκ ἀπὸ σοφίας Ἑλ(λ)ήνων ἀρχὰς μεταλαβών, οὐδ' Αἰγυπτ(ί)ων δόγμα[τα] τά [τ'] ἐν αὐτοῖς μετ' ἀξιοπιστίας θρ(η)σκευόμενα μάταια ὡς ἄρρητα διδαχθείς, οὐδὲ Χαλδαίων ἀσυστάτῳ περιερ(γ)ίᾳ σοφισθείς, οὐδὲ Βαβυλωνίων ἀλογίστῳ μανίᾳ δι' ἐν(εργεί)ας (δ)αιμόνων καταπλαγείς, ἀλλ' ᾧ ὑπάρχει τρόπῳ ὅρος ἀληθής, ὢν ἀφύλακτός τε καὶ ἀκαλλώπιστος, μόνον φανεὶς ἐλέγξει τὴν πλάνην. περὶ οὗ εἰ καὶ πλειστάκις ἀποδείξεις ἐποιήσαμεν καὶ ἱκανῶς τὸν τῆς ἀληθείας κανόνα [καὶ] ἀφθόνως τοῖς βουλομένοις [ἐπιγνῶναι] ἐπεδείξαμεν, ἀλλά γε καὶ νῦν οὐκ ἄλογον ἐκρίναμεν ἐπὶ πᾶσι τοῖς Ἕλλησι καὶ αἱρετικοῖς δεδοκημένοις ὡσεὶ κορωνίδα τῶν βίβλων ἐπενέγκαι ταύτην τὴν ἀπόδειξιν διὰ τῆς δεκάτης βίβλου.