Church History 4.7.13 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Heresies came and went, but the one true universal church grew, unchanged and shining on all peoples.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:143–144

ἔσβεστο μὲν γὰρ αὐτίκα πρὸς αὐτῆς ἐνεργείας ἀπελεγχόμενα τὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ἐπιτεχνήματα, ἄλλων ἐπʼ ἄλλαις αἱρέσεων καινοτομουμένων, ὑπορρεουσῶν ἀεὶ τῶν προτέρων καὶ εἰς πολυτρόπους καὶ πολυμόρφους ἰδέας ἄλλοτε ἄλλως φθειρομένων· προῄει δʼ εἰς αὔξην καὶ μέγεθος ἀεὶ κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ ὡσαύτως ἔχουσα ἡ τῆς καθόλου καὶ μόνης ἀληθοῦς ἐκκλησίας λαμπρότης, τό τε σεμνὸν καὶ εἰλικρινὲς καὶ ἐλευθέριον τό τε σῶφρον καὶ καθαρὸν τῆς ἐνθέου πολιτείας τε καὶ φιλοσοφίας εἰς ἅπαν γένος ῾Ελλήνων τε καὶ βαρβάρων ἀποστίλβουσα.

English · Claude translation

For the devices of the enemies were at once extinguished, refuted by its power, as one heresy after another was newly invented, the earlier ones always flowing away and perishing in various ways into many-shaped and many-formed kinds; but the splendour of the universal and only true church went on increasing in growth and greatness, remaining always the same and in the same way, shining on every race of Greeks and barbarians with the reverence, sincerity, and freedom, and the sobriety and purity, of its divine way of life and philosophy.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:143–144 · 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

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.7.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/7/13/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.7.13 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/7/13/).