Sophia Scriptura

Church History 6.33.1

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

Summary: Beryllus of Bostra denied that Christ pre-existed with his own divinity before the incarnation.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:276

Βήρυλλος ὁ μικρῷ πρόσθεν δεδηλωμένος Βοστρῶν τῆς Ἀραβίας ἐπίσκοπος, τὸν ἐκκλησιαστικὸν παρεκτρέπων κανόνα, ξένα τινὰ τῆς πίστεως παρεισφέρειν ἐπειρᾶτο, τὸν σωτῆρα καὶ κύριον ἡμῶν λέγειν τολμῶν μὴ προυφεστάναι κατʼ ἰδίαν οὐσίας περιγραφὴν πρὸ τῆς εἰς ἀνθρώπους ἐπιδημίας, μηδὲ μὴν θεότητα ἰδίαν ἔχειν, ἀλλʼ ἐμπολιτευομένην αὐτῷ μόνην τὴν πατρικήν.

English · Claude translation

Beryllus, mentioned a little before as bishop of Bostra in Arabia, perverting the church's rule, tried to introduce things foreign to the faith, daring to say that our Saviour and Lord did not pre-exist in his own distinct mode of being before his coming to dwell among men, nor had a divinity of his own, but only the Father's divinity dwelling in him.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:276 · 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
Christology, Heresy, Trinity

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Distinct mode of being” renders κατʼ ἰδίαν οὐσίας περιγραφήν.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.33.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/6/33/1/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.33.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/6/33/1/).

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