Church History 3.28.6

Summary: Irenaeus, from Polycarp's tradition, tells how John fled a bath-house because Cerinthus was inside.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:120

ταῦτα Διονύσιος. ὁ δὲ Εἰρήναιος ἀπορρητοτέρας δή τινας τοῦ αὐτοῦ ψευδοδοξίας ἐν πρώτῳ συγγράμματι τῶν πρὸς τὰς αἱρέσεις προθεὶς ἐν τῷ τρίτῳ καὶ ἱστορίαν οὐκ ἀξίαν λήθης τῇ γραφῇ παραδέδωκεν, ὡς ἐκ παραδόσεως Πολυκάρπου φάσκων Ἰωάννην τὸν ἀπόστολον εἰσελθεῖν ποτε ἐν βαλανείῳ, ὥστε λούσασθαι, γνόντα δὲ ἔνδον ὄντα τὸν Κήρινθον ἀποπηδῆσαί τε τοῦ τόπου καὶ ἐκφυγεῖν θύραζε, μηδʼ ὑπομείναντα τὴν αὐτὴν αὐτῷ ὑποδῦναι στέγην, ταὐτὸ δὲ τοῦτο καὶ τοῖς σὺν αὐτῷ παραινέσαι φήσαντα, “φύγωμεν, μὴ καὶ τὸ βαλανεῖον “συμπέσῃ, ἔνδον ὄντος Κηρίνθου τοῦ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐχθροῦ.

English · Claude translation

So much Dionysius. And Irenaeus, having set out certain more secret false opinions of the same man in the first book of Against Heresies, has handed down in the third a story not worth forgetting, saying on the tradition of Polycarp that John the apostle once went into a bath-house to bathe, but learning that Cerinthus was inside, sprang up from the place and fled out of the door, not enduring to be under the same roof with him, and urged those with him to do the same, saying, “Let us flee, lest the bath-house fall in, since Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is inside.”

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:120 · 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

Irenaeus, Irenaeus, Haer. 3.3.4 (Irenaeus, Against Heresies) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Heresy

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.28.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/28/6/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.28.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/28/6/).

Greek text · Dindorf 4:120

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage