Church History 4.30.3 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Bardesanes left the Valentinians but never fully shed their errors; Soter of Rome died at this time.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:181–182

ἦν δʼ ἄρα οὗτος πρότερον τῆς κατὰ Οὐαλεντῖνον σχολῆς, καταγνοὺς δὲ ταύτης, πλεῖστά τε τῆς κατὰ τοῦτον μυθοποιίας ἀπελέγξας, ἐδόκει μέν πως αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ ἐπὶ τὴν ὀρθοτέραν γνώμην μετατεθεῖσθαι, οὐ μὴν παντελῶς γε ἀπερρύψατο τὸν τῆς παλαιᾶς αἱρέσεως ῥύπον. ἐν τούτῳ γε μὴν καὶ ὁ τῆς ῾Ρωμαίων ἐκκλησίας ἐπίσκοπος Σωτὴρ τελευτᾷ.

English · Claude translation

He had formerly belonged to the school of Valentinus, but having condemned it and refuted very many of its myths, he seemed to himself to have changed to a more correct opinion; yet he did not entirely wash off the filth of his old heresy. At this time also Soter, bishop of the church of the Romans, died.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:181–182 · 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)

Topics

Heresy, Church office

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.30.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/30/3/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.30.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/30/3/).