Church History 2.17.9

Summary: Philo (quoted): each house has a sacred room, a “monastery,” where they study only the law, the prophets, and hymns.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:66

εἶθʼ ἑξῆς τὰς οἰκήσεις αὐτῶν ὁποῖαί τινες ἦσαν διαγράψας περὶ τῶν κατὰ χώραν ἐκκλησιῶν ταῦτά φησιν ἐν ἑκάστῃ δὲ οἰκίᾳ ἐστὶν οἴκημα ἱερὸν ὃ καλεῖται σεμνεῖον καὶ μοναστήριον, ἐν ᾧ μονούμενοι τὰ τοῦ σεμνοῦ βίου μυστήρια τελοῦνται, μηδὲν εἰσκομίζοντες, μὴ ποτὸν, μὴ σιτίον, μηδέ τι τόν ἄλλων ὅσα πρὸς τὰς τοῦ σώματος χρείας ἀναγκαῖα, ἀλλὰ νόμους καὶ λόγια θεσπισθέντα διὰ προφητῶν καὶ ὕμνους, καὶ τἄλλα οἶς ἐπιστήμη καὶ εὐσέβεια συναύξονται καὶ τελειοῦν- ται.’

English · Claude translation

Then, after describing what their dwellings were like, he says this about the churches in the country: “In each house there is a sacred room, which is called a sanctuary and monastery, in which, in solitude, they are initiated into the mysteries of the holy life, bringing in nothing, neither drink nor food nor any of the other things necessary for the needs of the body, but laws and oracles delivered by the prophets, and hymns, and the other things by which knowledge and piety are increased and perfected.”

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:66 · 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. 25 (Philo of Alexandria (works)) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Prayer, Scripture and canon

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.17.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/17/9/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.17.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/17/9/).

Greek text · Dindorf 4:66

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage