Church History 10.4.39 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Inside the gate lies a square courtyard (atrium) surrounded by colonnades with lattice screens, open to the sky.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:462

εἴσω δὲ παρελθόντι πυλῶν, οὐκ εὐθὺς ἐφῆκεν ἀνάγνοις καὶ ἀνίπτοις ποσὶ τῶν ἔνδον ἐπιβαίνειν ἁγίων, διαλαβὼν δὲ πλεῖστον ὅσον τὸ μεταξὺ τοῦ τε νεὼ καὶ τῶν πρώτων εἰσόδων, τέτταρσι μὲν πέριξ ἐγκαρσίοις κατεκόσμησε στοαῖς, εἰς τετράγωνόν τι σχῆμα περιφράξας τὸν τόπον, κίοσι πανταχόθεν ἐπαιρομέναις, ὧν τὰ μέσα διαφράγμασι τοῖς ἀπὸ ξύλου δικτυωτοῖς ἐς τὸ σύμμετρον ἥκουσι μήκους περικλείσας, μέσον αἴθριον ἠφίει εἰς τὴν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κάτοψιν, λαμπρὸν καὶ ταῖς τοῦ φωτὸς ἀκτῖσιν ἀνειμένον ἀέρα παρέχον.

English · Claude translation

But for the one who has passed within the gates he did not permit him at once to tread upon the holy places within with impure and unwashed feet, but leaving a very large space between the temple and the first entrances, he adorned it all around with four transverse colonnades, enclosing the place in a sort of square figure, with pillars rising on every side; the spaces between them he closed with wooden lattice screens of suitable height, and he left an open court in the middle for the sight of the sky, providing air bright and open to the rays of light.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:462 · 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)

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.4.39 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/4/39/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.4.39 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/10/4/39/).