Church History 1.2.17

Eusebius of Caesarea · Church History · ca. 300–325 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: The gospel was not preached to all nations earlier because ancient humanity was not ready for it.

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Greek text · Dindorf 4:8

Τί δὴ οὑν οὐχὶ καθάπερ τανῦν, καὶ πάλαι πρότερον εἰς πάντας ἀνθρώπους καὶ πᾶσιν ἔθνεσιν ἐκηρύττετο, ὧδε ἂν γένοιτο πρόδηλον. οὐκ ἦν ’πʼ χωρεῖν οἶός τε τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ πάνσοφον καὶ πάνα ρετον διδασκαλίαν ὁ πάλαι τῶν ἄνθρωπον βίος.

English · Claude translation

Why, then, he was not proclaimed long ago, as he is now, to all men and all nations, will become clear from what follows. The life of men in ancient times was not able to receive the all-wise and all-virtuous teaching of Christ.

About this passage

Source: Dindorf 4:8 · Wilhelm Dindorf, ed., Eusebii Caesariensis Opera, vol. 4: Historiae ecclesiasticae libri I–X (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871) · Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text: As printed in Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 4. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation: Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Teubner, 1871); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1 (1890) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Notes

Translation notes

The digital text has a stray ’πʼ after ἦν and splits πανάρετον; both are OCR slips and are translated as the sense requires.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.2.17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/2/17/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.2.17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/2/17/).

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