Sophia Scriptura

Church History 2.17.3

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

Summary: Philo calls these ascetics Therapeutae, either as healers of souls or as pure worshippers of God.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:65

πρῶτόν γέ τοι τὸ μηδὲν πέρα τῆς ἀληθείας οἴκοθεν καὶ ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ προσθήσειν· ἐν οἷς ἱστορήσειν ἔμελλεν ἀπισχυρισάψενος, ἐν ᾧ ἐπέγραψε λόγῳ περὶ βίου θεωρητικοῦ ἢ ἱκετῶν θεραπευτὰς αὐτοὺς καὶ τὰς σὺν αὐτοῖς γυναῖκας θεραπευτρίδας ἀποκαλεῖσθαί φησι τὰς αἰτίας ἐπειπὼν τῆς τοιᾶσδε προσρήσεως· ἤτοι γὰρ παρὰ τὸ τὰς ψυχὰς τῦν προσιόντων αὐτοῖς τῶν ἀπὸ κακίας παθῶν ἰατρῶν δίκην ἀπαλλάττοντας ἀκεῖσθαι καὶ θεραπεύειν, ἢ τῆς περὶ τὸ θεῖον καθαρὰς καὶ εἰλικρινοῦς θεραπείας τε καὶ θρησκείας ἕνεκα.

English · Claude translation

First, at any rate, in the treatise he entitled On the Contemplative Life, or Suppliants, after affirming that he would add nothing beyond the truth from himself in what he was about to relate, he says that they are called Therapeutae, and the women with them Therapeutrides, and gives the reasons for this name: either because, like physicians, they heal and cure the souls of those who come to them, freeing them from the passions of vice, or because of their pure and sincere service and worship of the divine.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:65 · 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)
Extrabiblical texts
  • Philo, Contempl. 2 (Philo of Alexandria (works)) · allusion, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • Paraphrase of Philo, Contempl. 1–2.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.17.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/17/3/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.17.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/17/3/).

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