Hippolytus the Bishop

Hippolytus was bishop of some church; I have not been able to learn the name of the city. He wrote A Reckoning of the Paschal Feast, and chronological tables, which he worked out up to the first year of the emperor Alexander. He also discussed the cycle of sixteen years, as the Greeks call it, and he gave the lead to Eusebius, who composed for the same Paschal feast a cycle of nineteen years. He wrote some commentaries on the Scriptures, among them these: On the Six Days of Creation, On Exodus, On the Song of Songs, On Genesis, On Zechariah, On the Psalms, On Isaiah, On Daniel, On the Apocalypse, On Proverbs, On Ecclesiastes, On Saul, On the Pythoness, On the Antichrist, On the Resurrection, Against Marcion, On the Passover, Against All Heresies, and an exhortation On the Praise of Our Lord and Savior, in which he indicates that he is speaking in the church in the presence of Origen. Ambrose, who we have said was converted by Origen from the heresy of Marcion to the true faith, urged Origen to write commentaries on the Scriptures in rivalry with Hippolytus. He offered him seven secretaries, and even more, with their expenses, and an equal number of copyists. What is more, with incredible zeal he demanded work from him every day, which is why Origen, in one of his letters, calls him his “Taskmaster.” [a]