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Post by Pacelli on Jun 17, 2023 8:59:03 GMT -5
The alleged Statue of “Hippolytus” found in 1551
In 1551 during excavations in Rome, a statue was found that has been attributed to being the repentant third century antipope, Hippolytus. The statue had various inscriptions on it, on the right side on its base, were the names of works, and since the statue was said to be of Hippolytus, these works were attributed to him.
There has been a lot of ink spilled on this matter of the statue, and many scholars have analyzed the evidence. Unfortunately, much of the work has been done by non-Catholic scholars, and Catholic scholarship on this matter is remarkably lacking. To further complicate matters, much of the research has been done by European scholars, much of which remains untranslated.
With that said, we do have scholars with solid reputations who have examined the evidence and have written extensively on it, as well, in English. Much of this is published and available for free in the public domain.
The statue of “Hippolytus,” apparently was not a statue of Hippolytus at all, but appears to have originally been a statue of a woman, that was reconstructed to be Hippolytus, at least according to examination of the statue and its history.
I will be posting some texts from scholars that have written on this matter.
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Post by Pacelli on Jun 17, 2023 9:11:58 GMT -5
The following is taken from the book, The Apostolic Tradition, Bradshaw, Paul, 2002. The book is found online and free at archive.org linked HERE
The book is far more useful than just for the comments on the statue. Bradshaw and his colleagues provide translations of the texts of the ordination rites as well, which is very useful, and he also analyzes problems with the reconstructions of the texts done by Botte (who used his reconstruction to in essence create a new rite of episcopal consecration of bishops), and others, and seeks to correct their deficiencies. I will be getting more into these issues in a future post, but for now, let's just look at this matter of this statue, to which so much relies on being certain that these documents actually came from Hippolytus.
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Post by Pacelli on Jun 17, 2023 12:06:39 GMT -5
For those wanting more perspectives on the history and the controversy regarding the statue, there was a an over 600 page book written by Allen Brent, Hippolytus and the Roman church in the third century : communities in tension before the emergence of a monarch-bishop, 1995. Mr. Brent did some good research into the matter, even using maps from the 1500's in Rome, and has found the writings of those involved in the discovery along with countless other details regarding the statue and discusses and analyzes much of the controversy and gives rebuttals to counter theories in regards to some of the controversy. There is too much detail and it's far too long for me to post any of it here. For those seeking more background in the statue, it's discovery and some of the controversy, it's another good resource to look at. The book is in public domain and found on archive.org linked HERE
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