Church History 4.15.41

Summary: The Martyrdom (quoted): Nicetes, urged by the Jews, asked that the body not be released lest Christians worship Polycarp; but Christians worship Christ alone.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:161

ὑπέβαλον γοῦν τινες Νι- “κήτην, τὸν τοῦ Ἡρώδου πατέρα, ἀδελφὸν Ἄλκης, “ ἐντυχεῖν τῷ ἡγεμόνι, ὥστε μὴ δοῦναι αὐτοῦ τὸ σῶμα, μὴ, φησὶν, ἀφέντες τὸν ἐσταυρωμένον, τοῦ- “τον ἄρξωνται σέβειν. καὶ ταῦτα εἶπον ὑποβαλόντων καὶ ἐνισχυσάντων τῶν Ἰουδαίων, οἳ καὶ ἐτήρησαν μελλόντων ἡμῶν ἐκ τοῦ πυρὸς αὐτὸν λαμβάνειν, ἀγνοοῦντες ὅτι οὔτε τὸν Χριστόν ποτε καταλιπεῖν “ δυνησόμεθα, τὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς τοῦ παντὸς κόσμου τῶν σωζομένων σωτηρίας παθόντα, οὔτε ἕτερόν τινα σέβειν.

English · Claude translation

Some, then, prompted Nicetes, the father of Herod and brother of Alce, to petition the governor not to give up his body, ‘lest,’ he said, ‘they abandon the crucified one and begin to worship this man.’ And they said this at the prompting and urging of the Jews, who also watched when we were about to take him from the fire, not knowing that we shall never be able either to forsake Christ, who suffered for the salvation of the whole world of those who are saved, or to worship any other.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:161 · 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. 17.2 (Martyrdom of Polycarp) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Martyrdom, Christology

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.15.41 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/15/41/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.15.41 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/15/41/).

Greek text · Dindorf 4:161

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage