Sophia Scriptura

Church History 9.5.1

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

Summary: Forged, blasphemous Acts of Pilate were published everywhere and made required memorization in schools.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:423

Πλασάμενοι δῆτα Πιλάτου καὶ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ὑπομνήματα, πάσης ἔμπλεα κατὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ βλασφημίας, γνώμῃ τοῦ μείζονος ἐπὶ πᾶσαν διαπέμπονται τὴν ὑπʼ αὐτὸν ἀρχὴν, διὰ γραμμάτων παρακελευόμενοι, κατὰ πάντα τόπον, ἀγρούς τε καὶ πόλεις, ἐν ἐκφανεῖ ταῦτα τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐκθεῖναι, τοῖς τε παισὶ τοὺς γραμματοδιδασκάλους ἀντὶ μαθημάτων ταῦτα μελετᾶν καὶ διὰ μνήμης κατέχειν παραδιδόναι.

English · Claude translation

They forged Acts of Pilate and of our Savior, full of every blasphemy against Christ, and with the approval of their chief sent them throughout his whole dominion, ordering by letters that they be displayed openly for all in every place, country and city, and that the schoolmasters give them to the children to study and learn by heart instead of their lessons.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:423 · 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
Persecution

Notes

Translation notes

  • These pagan Acts of Pilate are distinct from the later Christian work of the same name; compare 1.9.3 and 1.11.9.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.5.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/5/1/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 9.5.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/9/5/1/).

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