Sophia Scriptura

Church History 3.24.4

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

Summary: Even Paul, though most eloquent and granted visions of the third heaven, wrote only short letters.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:112–113

καὶ τοῦτʼ ἔπραττον ἅτε μείζονι καὶ ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον ἐξυπηρετούμενοι διακονίᾳ. ὁ γοῦν Παῦλος πάντων ἐν παρασκευῇ λόγων δυνατώτατος νοήμασί τε ἱκανώτατος γεγονὼς, οὐ πλέον τῶν βραχυτάτων ἐπιστολῶν γραφῇ παρα δέδωκε, καίτοι μυρία γε καὶ ἀπόρρητα λέγειν ἔχων, ἅτε τῶν μέχρις οὐρανοῦ τρίτου θεωρημάτων ἐπιψαύσας, ἐπʼ αὐτόν τε τὸν θεοπρεπῆ παράδεισον ἀναρ- πασθεὶς καὶ τῶν ἐκεῖσε ῥημάτων ἀρρήτων ἀξιωθεὶς ἐπακοῦσαι.

English · Claude translation

And they did this as serving a greater ministry, beyond man. Paul at any rate, the most powerful of all in the preparation of words and most capable in thought, committed to writing no more than very short letters, although he had countless unspeakable things to say, since he had touched the visions reaching to the third heaven, had been caught up to the divine paradise itself, and had been thought worthy to hear the unspeakable words there.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:112–113 · 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

Notes

Translation notes

  • Allusion to 2 Cor 12:2–4.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.24.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/24/4/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.24.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/24/4/).

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