Church History 6.37.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: In Arabia some taught that the soul dies with the body until the resurrection; Origen persuaded them otherwise at a synod.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:278

Ἄλλοι δʼ αὖ πάλιν ἐπὶ τῆς Ἀραβίας κατὰ τὸν δηλούμενον ἐπιφύονται χρόνον δόγματος ἀλλοτρίου τῆς ἀληθείας εἰσηγηταὶ, οἳ ἔλεγον τὴν ἀνθρωπείαν ψυχὴν τέως μὲν κατὰ τὸν ἐνεστῶτα καιρὸν ἅμα τῇ τελευτῇ συναποθνήσκειν τοῖς σώμασι καὶ συνδιαφθείρεσθαι αὖθις δέ ποτε κατὰ τὸν τῆς ἀναστάσεως καιρὸν σὺν αὐτοῖς ἀναβιώσεσθαι. καὶ δὴ καὶ τότε συγκροτηθείσης οὐ σμικρᾶς συνόδου, πάλιν Ὠριγένης παρακληθεὶς καὶ ἐνταῦθα, κινήσας τε λόγους ἐπὶ τοῦ κοινοῦ περὶ τοῦ ζητουμένου οὕτως ἠνέχθη ὡς μετατεθῆναι τὰς τῶν πρότερον ἐσφαλμένων διανοίας.

English · Claude translation

At the time mentioned others again sprang up in Arabia, introducers of a doctrine foreign to the truth, who said that the human soul, for the present time, dies with the body at death and perishes with it, but at some time, at the time of the resurrection, will come to life again with it. A synod of no small size was assembled then too, and Origen, again invited there, raised discussions publicly on the question, and was so carried along that the minds of those who had formerly erred were changed.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:278 · 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

Eschatology, Heresy

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.37.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/6/37/1/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.37.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/6/37/1/).