Church History 4.11.9

Summary: Justin (quoted): Marcion teaches that a god greater than the Creator is Christ's Father; his followers are still called Christians.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:149

“ Μαρκίωνα δέ τινα Ποντικὸν, ὃς καὶ νῦν ἔτι ἐστὶ ῾ διδάσκων τοὺς πειθομένους ἄλλον τινὰ εἶναι νομί- “ζειν μείζονα τοῦ δημιουργοῦ θεὸν, ὃς καὶ κατὰ πᾶν “γένος ἀνθρώπων διὰ τῆς τῶν δαιμόνων συλλήψεως ‘πολλοὺς πέπεικε βλάσφημα λέγειν, καὶ ἀρνεῖσθαι “ τὸν ποιητὴν τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς πατέρα εἶναι τοῦ “ Χριστοῦ, ἄλλον δέ τινα ὡς ὄντα μείζονα παρὰ τοῦ- “ τον ὁμολογεῖν πεποιηκέναι. καὶ πάντες οἱ ἀπὸ τού- “ των ὡρμημένοι, ὡς ἔφαμεν, Χριστιανοὶ καλοῦνται, ὃν τρόπον καὶ οὐ κοινῶν ὄντων δογμάτων τοῖς φιλο- “ σόφοις τὸ ἐπικαλούμενον ὄνομα τῆς φιλοσοφίας κοινόν ἐστι.’’

English · Claude translation

“And a certain Marcion of Pontus, who is still even now teaching those who believe him to think that there is another god greater than the Creator; who among every race of men, with the help of the demons, has persuaded many to speak blasphemies, and to deny that the maker of this universe is the Father of Christ, and to confess that another, as being greater than he, made greater things. And all who start from these, as we said, are called Christians, just as the name of philosophy is common to philosophers even though their doctrines are not common.”

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:149 · 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

Justin, 1 Apol. 26 (First Apology) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Heresy

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.11.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/11/9/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.11.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/11/9/).

Greek text · Dindorf 4:149

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage