Church History 2.17.4

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

Summary: Whether Philo coined the name or they used it before “Christian” was common does not matter.

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Greek text · Dindorf 4:65

εἴτʼ οὑν ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ ταύτην αὐτοῖς ἐπιτέθειται τὴν προσηγορίαν, οἰκείως ἐπιγράψας τῷ τρόπῳ τῶν ἀνδρῶν τοὔνομα, εἴτε καὶ ὄντως τοῦτʼ αὐτοὺς ἐκάλουν κατʼ ἀρχὰς οἱ πρῶτοι, μηδαμῶς πω τῆς Χριστιανῶν προσρήσεως ἀνὰ πάντα τόπον ἐπιπεφημισμένης, οὔ τί πω διατείνεσθαι ἀναγκαῖον.

English · Claude translation

Whether he gave them this name himself, fittingly attaching it to the men's way of life, or whether the first of them really called themselves this at the beginning, when the name of Christians had not yet been proclaimed everywhere, there is no need to insist.

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)

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.17.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/17/4/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.17.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/17/4/).

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