Christian theologian of the second and third centuries;
schismatic Bishop of Rome in opposition to Calixtus I. (217);
deported in 235 to Sardinia, where he died. Hippolytus was one
of the most prolific writers among the Church Fathers, the first
real exegete of the Christian Church, and, because of his
intimate acquaintance with philosophical and gnostic systems,
one of the most prominent among the early defenders of Catholic
doctrine. His works have come down in a fragmentary state and in
various translations, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Armenian,
and Georgian. In 1551 a statue of Hippolytus, made in the third
century, was unearthed in the Via Tiburtina in Rome, on the
pedestal of which was engraved a list of his many works, a list
which is found with variations both in Eusebius and in Jerome.
Hippolytus is of interest in several ways to the Jewish student.
As a defender of his church it was natural that he should attack
the Jews. His Ἀποδεικτικὴ πρὸς Ἰουδαίονς (on the statue simply
Πρὸς τοὺς Ἰουδαίονς)