Church History 5.16.7 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:216

κώμη τις εἶναι λέγεται ἐν τῇ κατὰ “τὴν Φρυγίαν Μυσίᾳ, καλουμένη Ἀρδαβαῦ τοὔνομα· “ἔνθα φασί τινα τῶν νεοπίστων πρώτως, Μοντανὸν “τοὔνομα, κατὰ Γρᾶτον Ἀσίας ἀνθύπατον, ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ “ψυχῆς ἀμέτρῳ φιλοπρωτείας δόντα πάροδον εἰς “ἑαυτὸν τῷ ἀντικειμένῳ πνευματοφορηθῆναί τε καὶ “αἰφνιδίως ἐν κατοχῇ τινι καὶ παρεκστάσει γενόμενον “ἐνθουσιᾶν ἄρξασθαί τε λαλεῖν καὶ ξενοφωνεῖν, “παρὰ τὸ κατὰ παράδοσιν καὶ κατὰ διαδοχὴν ἄνωθεν “τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἔθος δῆθεν προφητεύοντα.

English · Claude translation

There is said to be a village in Mysia on the Phrygian side called Ardabau. There, they say, one of the recent converts named Montanus, when Gratus was proconsul of Asia, in the unbounded lust of his soul for pre-eminence, first gave the adversary access to himself, was carried away in spirit, and suddenly falling into a kind of possession and abnormal ecstasy, began to rave and to speak and utter strange sounds, prophesying contrary to the custom of the church handed down by tradition and succession from the beginning.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:216 · 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

Anon. Mont. (Anonymous Treatise against the Montanists) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

Quotation from the Anonymous Anti-Montanist. The digital text reads ἀπιθυμίᾳ for ἐπιθυμίᾳ (“lust”).

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (misread letter in the digital text): ἀπιθυμίᾳ → ἐπιθυμίᾳ.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.16.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/16/7/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.16.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/16/7/).