Church History 9.1.8 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Churches reassembled everywhere, and astonished pagans hailed the Christians' God as great and alone true.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:421

καὶ δὴ τούτων οὕτως ἐπιτελεσθέντων, ἀθρόως οἷόν τι φῶς ἐκ ζοφερᾶς νυκτὸς ἐκλάμψαν κατὰ πᾶσαν πόλιν συγκροτουμένας παρῆν ὁρᾶν ἐκκλησίας, συνόδους τε παμπληθεῖς, καὶ τὰς ἐπὶ τούτων ἐξ ἔθους ἐπιτελουμένας συναγωγὰς, καταπέπληκτο δʼ ἐπὶ τούτοις οὐ σμικρῶς πᾶς τις τῶν ἀπίστων ἐθνῶν, τῆς τοσαύτης μεταβολῆς τὸ παράδοξον ἀποθαυμάζων, μέγαν τε καὶ μόνον ἀληθῆ τὸν Χριστιανῶν θεὸν ἐπιβοώμενος.

English · Claude translation

When this had been done, suddenly, like a light shining out of a dark night, one could see churches being assembled in every city, crowded gatherings, and the meetings customarily held in them. And every one of the unbelieving Gentiles was not a little astonished at these things, marveling at the unexpectedness of so great a change and proclaiming the God of the Christians great and alone true.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:421 · 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)

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.1.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/1/8/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.1.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/1/8/).