Church History 1.2.22 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Through Moses the Word gave the Hebrew nation symbols such as the sabbath and circumcision, not yet the full mysteries.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:9–10

ὡς δʼ ἤδη διὰ τούτων τὰ θεοσεβείας σπέρματα εἰς πλῆθος ἀνδρῶν καταβέβλητο, ὅλον τε τὸ ἔθνος ἐπὶ τῇ θεοσεβείᾳ προσανέχον ἀνέκαθεν ἐξ Ἑβραίων ὑπέστη τοῦτο, τούτοις μὲν ὡσανεὶ πλήθεσιν ἔτι ταῖς παλαιαῖς ἀγωγαῖς ἐκδεδιῃτημένοις διὰ τοῦ προφήτου Μωυσέως εἰκόνας καὶ σύμβολα σαββάτου τινὸς μυστι- κοῦ καὶ περιτομῆς, ἑτέρων τε νοητῶν θεωρημάτων εἰσαγωγὰς, ἀλλʼ οὐκ αὐτὰς ἐναργεῖς παρεδίδου τὰς μυσταγωγίας.

English · Claude translation

And when through these men the seeds of godliness had already been sown among a multitude, and a whole nation devoted to godliness had arisen from the Hebrews of old, to them, as to multitudes still corrupted by their ancient practices, he delivered through the prophet Moses images and symbols of a certain mystical sabbath and of circumcision, and introductions to other spiritual contemplations, but not the clear mysteries themselves.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:9–10 · 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)

Topics

Scripture and canon

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.2.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/2/22/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.2.22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/2/22/).