Sophia Scriptura

Church History 10.4.33

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

Summary: The church, ravaged like the vineyard and sanctuary of the psalms, with her books burned and gates hewn down, has by Christ's power blossomed again, for God disciplines those he loves.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:460–461

καὶ τάδε μὲν λόγοις πάλαι προθεσπισθέντα βίβλοις ἱεραῖς καταβέβλητο· τά γε μὴν ἔργα οὐκέτʼ ἀκοαῖς, ἀλλʼ ἔργοις ἡμῖν παραδέδοται. ἡ ἔρημος ἥδε, ἡ ἄνυδρος, ἡ χήρα καὶ ἀπερίστατος, ἧς ὡς ἐν δρυμῷ ξύλων ἀξίναις ἐξέκοψαν τὰς πύλας ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, ἐν πέλυκι καὶ λαξευτηρίῳ συντρίψαντες αὐτὴν, ἧς καὶ τὰς βίβλους διαφθείραντες, ἐνεπύρισαν ἐν πυρὶ τὸ ἁγιαστήριον τοῦ θεοῦ, εἰς τὴν γῆν ἐβεβήλωσαν τὸ σκήνωμα τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ, ἣν ἐτρύγησαν πάντες οἶ παραπορευόμενοι τὴν ὁδὸν, προκαθελόντες αὐτῆς τοὺς φραγμοὺς, ἣν ἐλυμήνατο ὗς ἐκ δρυμοῦ, καὶ μονιὸς ἄγριος κατενεμήσατο, Χριστοῦ δυνάμει παραδόξῳ νῦν, ὅτε θέλει αὐτὸς, γέγονεν ὡς κρίνον· ἐπεὶ καὶ τότε αὐτοῦ νεύματι, ὡσὰν προκηδομένου πατρὸς, ἐπαιδεύετο· ὃν γὰρ ἀγαπᾷ κύριος, παιδεύει, μαστιγοῖ δὲ πάντα υἱὸν ὃν παραδέχεται.

English · Claude translation

These things were foretold long ago in words and set down in sacred books; but the facts have been handed down to us no longer by hearing but in deeds. This desert, this waterless one, this widowed and forsaken one, whose gates they cut down with axes as in a forest of trees, breaking her down with hatchet and hammer; whose books they destroyed; who set fire to the sanctuary of God and profaned to the ground the dwelling of his name; whom all who passed along the way plucked, having first torn down her hedges; whom the boar out of the wood ravaged and the solitary wild beast fed upon: she now, by the wonderful power of Christ, when he himself wills, has become like a lily. For even then she was being disciplined at his nod, as by a father who cares for her: “for whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives.”

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:460–461 · 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)
Scripture
Topics
Persecution

Notes

Translation notes

  • The allusions are Ps 74:5–7 (73:5–7 LXX), Ps 80:12–13 (79:13–14 LXX), Isa 35:1, and Heb 12:6 (Prov 3:12).

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.4.33 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/4/33/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.4.33 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/4/33/).

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