Sophia Scriptura

Church History 5.27.1

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

Summary: Eusebius lists other writers of the period — Heraclitus, Maximus, Candidus, Apion, Sextus, Arabianus — and many anonymous orthodox works.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:235

Πλεῖστα μὲν οὖν παρὰ πολλοῖς εἰσέτι νῦν τῶν τότε σώζεται παλαιῶν καὶ ἐκκλησιαστικῶν ἀνδρῶν ἐναρέτου σπουδῆς ὑπομνήματα· ὧν γε μὴν αὐτοὶ διέγνωμεν, εἴη ἂν τὰ Ἡρακλείτου εἰς τὸν ἀπόστολον, καὶ τὰ Μαξίμου περὶ τοῦ πολυθρυλήτου παρὰ τοῖς αἱρεσιώταις ζητήματος, τοῦ πόθεν ἡ κακία, καὶ περὶ τοῦ γενητὴν ὑπάρχειν τὴν ὕλην· τά τε Κανδίδου εἰς τὴν ἑξαήμερον, καὶ Ἀπίωνος εἰς τὴν αὐτὴν ὑπόθεσιν· ὁμοίως Σέξτου περὶ ἀναστάσεως, καὶ ἄλλη τις ὑπόθεσις Ἀραβιανοῦ, καὶ μυρίων ἄλλων, ὧν διὰ τὸ μηδεμίαν ἔχειν ἀφορμὴν οὐχ οἷόν τε οὔτε τοὺς χρόνους παραδοῦναι γραφῇ οὔθʼ ἱστορίας μνήμην ὑποσημήνασθαι. καὶ ἄλλων δὲ πλείστων, ὧν οὐδὲ τὰς προσηγορίας καταλέγειν ἡμῖν δυνατὸν, ἦλθον εἰς ἡμᾶς λόγοι ὀρθοδόξων μὲν καὶ ἐκκλησιαστικῶν, ὥς γε δὴ ἡ ἑκάστου παραδείκνυσι τῆς θείας γραφῆς ἑρμηνεία, ἀδήλων δὲ ὅμως ἡμῖν, ὅτι μὴ τὴν προσηγορίαν ἐπάγεται τῶν συγγραψαμένων.

English · Claude translation

Very many memorials of the virtuous zeal of the ancient churchmen of that time are still preserved by many. Of those we have ourselves examined there are the works of Heraclitus on the Apostle; those of Maximus on the question so much discussed among the heretics, whence evil comes, and on matter being created; those of Candidus on the Hexaemeron, and of Apion on the same subject; likewise of Sextus on the resurrection, and another treatise of Arabianus, and of countless others, whose dates we cannot record or give any historical note of, because we have no information. And writings of very many others, whose names we cannot even list, have come to us: orthodox and ecclesiastical, as each one's interpretation of the divine Scripture shows, but unknown to us because they do not bear the names of their authors.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:235 · 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
Scripture and canon, Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • Heraclitus's work was a commentary on Paul's letters. The treatise of Maximus on the origin of evil is partly preserved in Methodius's On Free Will.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.27.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/27/1/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.27.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/27/1/).

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