Church History 2.1.13

Summary: The Ethiopian officer baptized by Philip, the first Gentile convert, is said to have taken the gospel home, fulfilling the psalm.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:47

ἀλλὰ γὰρ εἰς αὔξην ὁσημέραι προἰ·όντος τοῦ σωτηρίου κηρύγματος οἰκονομία τις ἦγεν καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς Αἰθιόπων τῶν τῆς αὐτόθι βασιλίδος, κατά τι πάτριον ἔθος ὑπὸ γυναικὸς τοῦ ἔθνους εἰσέτι νῦν βασιλευομένου, δυνάστην· ὃν πρῶτον ἐξ ἐθνῶν πρὸς τοῦ Φιλίππου διʼ ἐπιφανείας τὰ τοῦ θείου λόγου ὄργια μετασχόντα, τῶν τε ἀνὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην πιστῶν ἀπαρχὴν γενόμενον, πρῶτον κατέχει λόγος ἐπὶ τὴν πάτριον παλινοστήσαντα γῆν εὐαγγελίσασθαι τὴν το τῶν ὅλων θεοῦ γνῶσιν, καὶ τὴν ζωοποιὸν εἰς ἀνθρώπους τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἐπιδημίαν, ἔργῳ πληρωθείσης διʼ αὐτοῦ τῆς “ Αἰθιοπία προφθάσει χεῖρα αὐτῆς τῷ θεῷ” περιεχούσης προφητείας.

English · Claude translation

But as the saving proclamation advanced daily in growth, a certain providence brought from the land of the Ethiopians an officer of the queen there, for by an ancestral custom that nation is still ruled by a woman. Tradition holds that he, the first of the Gentiles to receive from Philip, through a revelation, the sacred mysteries of the divine Word, and the first-fruits of the faithful throughout the world, was the first to return to his native land and proclaim the knowledge of the God of the universe and the life-giving sojourn of our Saviour among men; so that through him the prophecy was fulfilled in fact which says, “Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand to God.”

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:47 · 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

Acts 8:27 · allusion, high confidence
Ps 68:31 (67:32 LXX) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Baptism

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.1.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/1/13/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.1.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/1/13/).

Greek text · Dindorf 4:47

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage