Sophia Scriptura

Church History 3.6.16

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

Summary: Josephus (quoted): the city's generation was so godless that, had Rome delayed, it would have perished like Sodom.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:93

τούτοις ἐπειπών τινα μεταξὺ ἐπιφέρει λέγων οὐκ ἂν ὑποστειλαίμην εἰπεῖν ἅ μοι κελεύει τὸ πάθος. οἶμαι ‘Ρωμαίων βραδυνάντων ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀλιτηρίους, ἢ καταποθῆναι ἂν ‘ὑπὸ χάσματος, ἢ κατακλυσθῆναι τὴν πόλιν, ἢ τοὺς “τῆς Σοδομηνῆς μεταλαβεῖν κεραυνούς. πολὺ γὰρ ‘τῶν ταῦτα παθόντων ἤνεγκε γενεὰν ἀθεωτέραν. τῇ ‘γοῦν τούτων ἀπονοίᾳ πᾶς ὁ λαὸς συναπώλετο.”

English · Claude translation

After saying some other things in between, he adds: “I will not shrink from saying what my feelings bid me. I think that if the Romans had delayed against these sinners, either the city would have been swallowed by a chasm, or overwhelmed by a flood, or would have shared the thunderbolts of Sodom. For it produced a generation far more godless than those who suffered such things. At any rate, by their madness the whole people perished with them.”

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:93 · 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
Extrabiblical texts
  • Josephus, J.W. 5.566 (Josephus (works)) · quotation, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • Quotation from Josephus, J.W. 5.566. Compare Gen 19:24.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.6.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/6/16/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.6.16 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/6/16/).

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