Church History 8.9.5 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: As some were condemned, others rushed forward to confess Christ and went to death singing psalms and hymns.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:360–361

ὅτε καὶ θαυμασιωτάτην ὁρμὴν θείαν τε ὡς ἀληθῶς δύναμιν καὶ προθυμίαν τῶν εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ πεπιστευκότων συνεωρῶμεν. ἅμα γοῦν τῇ κατὰ τῶν προτέρων ἀποφάσει ἐπεπήδων ἄλλοθεν ἄλλοι τῷ πρὸ τοῦ δικαστοῦ βήματι, χριστιανοὺς σφὰς ὁμολογοῦντες, ἀφροντίστως μὲν πρὸς τὰ δεινὰ καὶ τοὺς τῶν πολυειδῶν βασάνων τρόπους διακείμενοι, ἀκαταπλήκτως δὲ παρρησιαζόμενοι ἐπὶ τῇ εἰς τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεὸν εὐσεβείᾳ, μετά τε χαρᾶς καὶ γέλωτος καὶ εὐφροσύνης τὴν ὑστάτην ἀπόφασιν τοῦ θανάτου καταδεχόμενοι, ὥστε ψάλλειν καὶ ὕμνους καὶ εὐχαριστίας εἰς τὸν τῶν ὅλων θεόν μέχρις αὐτῆς ἐσχάτης ἀναπέμπειν ἀναπνοῆς.

English · Claude translation

Then too we beheld a most wonderful eagerness, a truly divine power and zeal, in those who had believed in the Christ of God. For as soon as sentence was pronounced on the first, others from one side and another would leap up to the judgment seat before the judge, confessing themselves Christians, unconcerned about the terrors and the kinds of manifold tortures, boldly declaring their piety toward the God of the universe without dismay, and receiving the final sentence of death with joy and laughter and gladness, so that they sang psalms and sent up hymns and thanksgivings to the God of the universe until their very last breath.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:360–361 · 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

Martyrdom, Prayer

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.9.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/9/5/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.9.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/9/5/).