Church History 5.4.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:201

“χαίρειν ἐν θεῷ σε ἐν πᾶσιν εὐχόμεθα καὶ ἀεὶ, πάτερ “Ἐλεύθερε. ταῦτά σοι τὰ γράμματα προετρεψάμεθα “τὸν ἀδελφὸν ἡμῶν καὶ κοινωνὸν Εἰρηναῖον διακομίσαι, καὶ παρακαλοῦμεν ἔχειν σε αὐτὸν ἐν παραθέ- “σει, ζηλωτὴν ὄντα τῆς διαθήκης Χριστοῦ. εἰ γὰρ “ᾔδειμεν, τόπον τινὶ δικαιοσύνην περιποιεῖσθαι, ὡς “πρεσβύτερον ἐκκλησίας, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἐπʼ αὐτῷ, ἐν “πρώτοις ἂν παρεθέμεθα.”

English · Claude translation

“We pray, Father Eleutherus, that you may rejoice in God in all things and always. We have urged our brother and companion Irenaeus to carry this letter to you, and we ask you to hold him in esteem, as he is zealous for the covenant of Christ. For if we knew that rank procured righteousness for anyone, we would have commended him first of all as a presbyter of the church, which he is.”

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:201 · 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

Church office

Notes

Translation notes

Quotation from a letter of the Gallic martyrs to Eleutherus of Rome. The sentence “if we knew…” is difficult; the sense is that they commend him for his zeal, not merely for his office.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (wrong accent in the digital text): σεῖ, → σει,.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.4.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/4/2/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.4.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/4/2/).