Sophia Scriptura

Church History 5.20.1

Eusebius of Caesarea · Church History · ca. 300–325 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: Irenaeus wrote letters against Blastus and Florinus and a treatise On the Ogdoad against Florinus's drift into Valentinianism.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:225

Ἐξ ἐναντίας δὲ τῶν ἐπὶ Ῥώμης τὸν ὑγιῆ τῆς ἐκκλησίας θεσμὸν παραχαραττόντων, Εἰρήναιος διαφόρους ἐπιστολὰς συντάττει, τὴν μὲν ἐπιγράψας πρὸς Βλάστον περὶ σχίσματος, τὴν δὲ πρὸς Φλωρῖνον περὶ μοναρχίας ἢ περὶ τοῦ μὴ εἶναι τὸν θεὸν ποιητὴν κακῶν. ταύτης γάρ τοι τῆς γνώμης οὗτος ἐδόκει προασπίζειν· διʼ ὃν αὖθις ὑποσυρόμενον τῇ κατὰ Οὐαλεντῖνον πλάνῃ καὶ τὸ περὶ ὀγδοάδος συντάττεται τῷ Εἰρηναίῳ σπούδασμα, ἐν ᾧ καὶ ἐπισημαίνεται τὴν πρώτην τῶν ἀποστόλων κατειληφέναι ἑαυτὸν διαδοχήν.

English · Claude translation

Against those at Rome who were debasing the sound ordinance of the church, Irenaeus composed various letters, one entitled To Blastus, On Schism, another To Florinus, On Monarchy, or That God Is Not the Maker of Evil. For Florinus seemed to champion this opinion. And because he was again being drawn away by the error of Valentinus, Irenaeus also composed the treatise On the Ogdoad, in which he indicates that he himself had belonged to the first succession after the apostles.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:225 · 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

Notes

Translation notes

  • These works are lost except for the extracts that follow. The Ogdoad is the first group of eight Aeons in the Valentinian system.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.20.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/20/1/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.20.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/20/1/).

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