Church History 4.15.23

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

Summary: The Martyrdom (quoted): threatened with beasts, Polycarp said Christians cannot “repent” from better to worse.

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Greek text · Dindorf 4:158

ὁ δὲ ἀνθύπατος ἔς “ “θηρία ἔχω· τούτοις σε παραβαλῶ, ἐὰν μὴ μετανοή- ῾σῃς.’ ὁ δὲ εἶπεν ‘κάλει, ἀμετάθετος γὰρ ἡμῖν ἡ ἀπὸ τῶν κρειττόνων ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω μετάνοια, καλὸν δὲ “ μετατίθεσθαι ἀπὸ τῶν χαλεπῶν ἐπὶ τὰ δίκαια.’

English · Claude translation

The proconsul said, ‘I have wild beasts; I will throw you to them unless you repent.’ He said, ‘Call them; for repentance from better to worse is impossible for us, but it is good to change from what is harsh to what is just.’

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:158 · 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

Mart. Pol. 11.1 (Martyrdom of Polycarp) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

Quotation from Mart. Pol. 11.1.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.15.23 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/15/23/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.15.23 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/15/23/).

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