Church History 4.7.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: As the church flourished, the devil, who had first used persecution, turned to new schemes.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:141

Ἤδη δὲ λαμπροτάτων δίκην φωστήρων τῶν ἀνὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἀποστιλβουσῶν ἐκκλησιῶν, ἀκμαζούσης τε εἰς ἅπαν τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος τῆς εἰς τὸν σωτῆρα καὶ κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν πίστεως, ὁ μισόκαλος δαίμων οἷα τῆς ἀληθείας ἐχθρὸς καὶ τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων σωτηρίας ἀεὶ τυγχάνων πολεμιώτατος, πάσας στρέφων κατὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας μηχανὰς, πάλαι μὲν τοῖς ἔξωθεν διωγμοῖς κατʼ αὐτῆς ὡπλίζετο·

English · Claude translation

When the churches throughout the world were now shining like the most brilliant luminaries, and faith in our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ was flourishing among the whole human race, the demon who hates the good, as the enemy of truth and ever most hostile to human salvation, turned all his devices against the church. Formerly he armed himself against it with persecutions from outside;

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:141 · 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

Persecution

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.7.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/7/1/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.7.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/7/1/).