Sophia Scriptura

Church History 8.10.3

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

Summary: The martyrs endured repeated tortures and threats without yielding, because perfect love casts out fear.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:362

διὸ καὶ “ζηλώσαντες τὰ μείζονα χαρίσματα οἶ Χριστοφόροι “μάρτυρες πάντα μὲν πόνον καὶ παντοίας ἐπινοίας “αἰκισμῶν οὐκ εἰσάπαξ, ἀλλʼ ἤδη καὶ δεύτερόν τινες “ὑπέμειναν, πάσας δὲ ἀπειλὰς οὐ λόγοις μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἔργοις τῶν δορυφόρων κατʼ αὐτῶν φιλοτιμουμένων, οὐκ ἐνεδίδουν τὴν γνώμην, διὰ τὸ τὴν τελείαν ἀγάπην ἔξω βάλλειν τὸν φόβον.

English · Claude translation

“Therefore, ‘earnestly desiring the greater gifts,’ the Christ-bearing martyrs endured every pain and every kind of devised torment, some not once only but even a second time; and though the guards vied with one another in every threat against them, not only in words but in deeds, they did not give up their resolve, because ‘perfect love casts out fear.’

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:362 · 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)
Scripture
Topics
Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

  • Phileas continues. The quotations are 1 Cor 12:31 and 1 John 4:18.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.10.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/10/3/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.10.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/10/3/).

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