Sophia Scriptura

Church History 3.26.4

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

Summary: The devil used such sorcerers to discredit Christian teaching on immortality and resurrection.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:118

ἦν δʼ ἄρα διαβολικῆς ἐνεργείας διὰ τοιῶνδε γοήτων τὴν Χριστιανῶν προσηγορίαν ὑποδυομένων τὸ μέγα τῆς θεοσεβείας μυστήριον ἐπὶ μαγείᾳ σπουδάσαι διαβαλεῖν, διασῦραί τε διʼ αὐτῶν τὰ περὶ ψυχῆς ἀθα- νασίας καὶ νεκρῶν ἀναστάσεως ἐκκλησιαστικὰ δόγματα. ἀλλʼ οὗτοι μὲν τούτους σωτῆρας ἐπιγραψάμενοι τῆς ἀληθοῦς ἀποπεπτώκασιν ἐλπίδος.

English · Claude translation

It was indeed a work of the devil, through such sorcerers who took on the name of Christians, to try to slander the great mystery of godliness as magic, and through them to ridicule the church's doctrines about the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the dead. But those who chose these men as saviours have fallen away from the true hope.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:118 · 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
Topics
Heresy, Eschatology

Notes

Translation notes

  • “The great mystery of godliness” echoes 1 Tim 3:16.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.26.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/26/4/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.26.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/26/4/).

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