Scripture Interpretation.

        Fully half of the looks of Hippolytus that we know were devoted to the interpretation of the scriptures. His interest extended all the way from Genesis to the Revelation, but lie covered very few individual books completely — Ruth, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Daniel, Revelation — usually contenting himself with discussing particular narratives or prophecies here and there.

        Of some twenty-six such commcritarics and homilies, we have six, either in the original Greek or in early versions, the most extended being the coininentary Oil Daniel in four books, written in A.D. 203-4, which is complete in Old Slavic but is preserved in large part in Greek also. We have also the commentary Oil the Song of Songs (in Georgian); Oil the Blessing of Jacob (Genesis, chap. 49) (in Greek, Armenian, and Georgian); Oil the Blessing of Moses (Deuteronomy, chap. 33) and the Story of David and Goliath (I Samuel, chap. 17) (these two in Armenian and Georgian); and Oil the Raising of Lazarus (John, chap. 11), preserved in Grech among the sermons of Cluysostom but in Arincnian as a work of Hippolytus. These Eastern versions show how highly the Eastern churches regarded the work of Hippolvtus, although he was generally forgottcri in the West. Hippolvtus' method of interpretation was, of course, highly allegorical; Susanna, in Daniel, symbolized the Christian church, threatened by Jews, pagans, and heretics but saved by Christ. Yet he was less atornistic and more historical in his interpretation than his Alexandrian contciiiporary Origen.

        The sermon that Origen on his visit to Rome heard Hippolytus preach has disappeared, but Jerome says it was On the Praise the Lord Our Saviour (On Illustrious Men 61). The work On the Passover was found in 1936 by C. Martin among the sermons of Chrysostom.

        We can name at least eighteen other exegetical writings of Hippolytus, which are either entirely lost or represented only by fragments, and it is worthwhile to mention them, if for no other reason than to facilitate their discovery, in case they still exist. For we shall find them sooner if we know what we are looking for, and some of them can probably be found.

        From our various sources, already mentioned, we know that in this field he wrote on:

The Six Days of Creation. There are some Greek fragments of this and the four works following

        What Followed the Six Days

        The Blessing of Isaac (Genesis, chap. 27).

        The Blessing of Balaam (Numbers, chaps. 23 and 24.).

Moses' Song (Deuteronomy, chap. 32).

The Book of Ruth. A Greek fragment

Elkanah and Hannah (I Samuel, chap. i). Four short Greek fragments

The Witch of Endor. A Greek fragment

The Psalms (some of them). Four Greek fragments

Proverbs. Twenty-nine fragments

Ecclesiastes. One fragment

Part of Isaiah. One Greek fragment

Parts of Ezekiel. One Greek and one Syriac fragment

Zechariah (lost).

Parts ofMatthew. Possible Greek and Syriac fragments

The Parable ofthe Talents. One Greek fragment

The Two Thieves. Three Greek fragments

The Revelation. Some Arabic fragments