Preparation for the Gospel 13.21.1–14.4.16
Greek text: Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 1 (Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 1–2 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1867), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0).English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0). Compare: E. H. Gifford, Eusebii Pamphili Evangelicae Praeparationis libri XV (Oxford, 1903), vol. 3 (English).
Preparation 13, chapter 21
13.21.1Dindorf 2:248–249
“Ὅ τι δʼ ἂν ὁ θεὸς, φησὶν, ἀναιρῇ περί τῶν κτημάτων καὶ τοῦ κινήσαντος, τοῦθʼ ἡ πόλις ὑπηρετοῦσα ταῖς μαντείαις δράτω τοῦ θεοῦ. καὶ ἐὰν μὲν ἐλεύθερος ὁ μηνύσας ᾖ, δόξαν ἀρετῆς κεκτήσθω, μὴ μηνύων δὲ κακίας· δοῦλος δὲ ἂν ᾖ, ὁ μηνύσας μὲν ἐλεύθερος ὑπὸ τῆς πόλεως ὀρθῶς γίγνοιτʼ ἂν, ἀποδιδούσης τῷ δεσπότῃ τὴν τιμήν· μὴ μηνύων δὲ θανάτῳ ζημιούσθω.”
“Ho ti dʼ an ho theos, phēsin, anairę̄ peri tōn ktēmatōn kai tou kinēsantos, touthʼ hē polis hypēretousa tais manteiais dratō tou theou. kai ean men eleutheros ho mēnysas ę̄, doxan aretēs kektēsthō, mē mēnyōn de kakias; doulos de an ę̄, ho mēnysas men eleutheros hypo tēs poleōs orthōs gignoitʼ an, apodidousēs tǭ despotę̄ tēn timēn; mē mēnyōn de thanatǭ zēmiousthō.”
“Whatever the god answers concerning the property and him who moved it, let the city do this, serving the oracles of the god. And if the informer is a free man, let him have a reputation for virtue, and if he does not inform, for wickedness; but if he is a slave, the informer would rightly be made free by the city, which pays his master his price; but if he does not inform, let him be punished with death.”
Notes and citation
Summary: Plato (Laws): a slave who fails to report found treasure is to be put to death.
- Plato, Laws 11.914a.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Leg. 914a (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.1 (Dindorf 2:248–249; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-1). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
13.21.2Dindorf 2:249
Κἀνταῦθα μὲν ἐζημίωται θανάτῳ οὐχ ὁ παρακινήσας τι τῶν ἀπειρημένων, ἀλλʼ ὁ ἑτέρου πλημμελήσαντος μὴ καταμηνύσας. καὶ ἄλλως δὲ καθαρὸν ἀποφαίνει δεσπότην, εἰ τὸν ἴδιον δοῦλον θυμῷ φονεύσειε. λέγει δʼ οὖν “ Δοῦλον δὲ κτείνας ἑαυτοῦ μὲν καθηράσθω, ἐὰν δὲ ἀλλότριον θυμῷ, διπλῇ τὸ βλάβος ἐκτισάτω τῷ κεκτημένῳ.”
Kantautha men ezēmiōtai thanatǭ ouch ho parakinēsas ti tōn apeirēmenōn, allʼ ho heterou plēmmelēsantos mē katamēnysas. kai allōs de katharon apophainei despotēn, ei ton idion doulon thymǭ phoneuseie. legei dʼ oun “ Doulon de kteinas heautou men kathērasthō, ean de allotrion thymǭ, diplę̄ to blabos ektisatō tǭ kektēmenǭ.”
Here it is not the one who disturbed something forbidden who is punished with death, but the one who did not report another’s offense. And elsewhere he declares a master pure if he kills his own slave in anger. He says, then: “If a man kills his own slave, let him purify himself; but if another’s, in anger, let him pay the owner twice the damage.”
Notes and citation
Summary: Plato lets a master who kills his own slave go with purification.
- Plato, Laws 9.868a.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Leg. 868a (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.2 (Dindorf 2:249; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-2). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
13.21.3Dindorf 2:249
Καὶ τοῦτο δὲ ἐπάκουσον αὐτοῦ τῶν νόμων, οὓς περὶ φονέων διετάξατο “Ἐὰν ἄρα τις αὐτόχειρ μὲν κτείνῃ ἐλεύθερον, δὲ πεπραγμένον ἀπροβουλεύτως ὀργῇ τινι γένηται πραχθὲν, τὰ μὲν ἄλλα, καθάπερ ἄνευ θυμοῦ κτείναντι προσῆκέ τῳ πάσχειν, πασχέτω· δύο δʼ ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἔτη φευγέτω, κολάζων τὸν αὑτοῦ θυμόν.”
Kai touto de epakouson autou tōn nomōn, hous peri phoneōn dietaxato “Ean ara tis autocheir men kteinę̄ eleutheron, de pepragmenon aprobouleutōs orgę̄ tini genētai prachthen, ta men alla, kathaper aneu thymou kteinanti prosēke tǭ paschein, paschetō; dyo dʼ ex anankēs etē pheugetō, kolazōn ton hautou thymon.”
And hear this too from his laws, which he set out concerning murderers: “If anyone kills a free man with his own hand, and the deed was done without premeditation in some anger, let him suffer the rest as it would befit one who killed without passion to suffer; but let him of necessity go into exile for two years, chastening his own anger.”
Notes and citation
Summary: Plato: manslaughter in anger is punished with two years’ exile.
- Plato, Laws 9.867c–d.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): “Ἂ ἄρα τις → “Ἐὰν ἄρα τις.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Leg. 867c–d (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.3 (Dindorf 2:249; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-3). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
13.21.4Dindorf 2:249
Καὶ τούτῳ προστίθησιν ἐξῆς ἕτερον τοιόνδε νόμον “Ὁ δὲ θυμῷ μὲν, μετʼ ἐπιβουλῆς δὲ κτείνας, τὰ μὲν ἄλλα κατὰ τὸν ἔμπροσθεν αὖ, τρία δὲ ἔτη, καθάπερ ἅτερος ἔφευγε τὰ δύο, φευγέτω, μεγέθει θυμοῦ πλείω τιμωρηθεὶς χρόνον.”
Kai toutǭ prostithēsin exēs heteron toionde nomon “Ho de thymǭ men, metʼ epiboulēs de kteinas, ta men alla kata ton emprosthen au, tria de etē, kathaper hateros epheuge ta dyo, pheugetō, megethei thymou pleiō timōrētheis chronon.”
And to this he next adds another law of this kind: “He who kills in anger but with premeditation, let him in other respects be treated according to the previous law, but let him go into exile for three years, as the other was exiled for two, being punished for a longer time because of the greatness of his anger.”
Notes and citation
Summary: Killing in anger with premeditation brings three years’ exile.
- Plato, Laws 9.867e.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (capital letter in the digital text): Χρόνον → χρόνον.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Leg. 867e (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.4 (Dindorf 2:249; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-4). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
13.21.5Dindorf 2:249–250
Εἶθʼ ἑξῆς περὶ τοῦ δεύτερον φονεύσαντος τοιάδε νομοθετεῖ “Ἐὰν δὲ αὖθίς ποτε κατελθὼν ὁπότερος αὐτοῖν ἡττηθεὶς ὀργῇ πράξῃ ταὐτὸν τοῦτο, φυγὼν μηκέτι κατέλθῃ.”
Eithʼ hexēs peri tou deuteron phoneusantos toiade nomothetei “Ean de authis pote katelthōn hopoteros autoin hēttētheis orgę̄ praxę̄ tauton touto, phygōn mēketi katelthę̄.”
Then next he legislates thus about one who kills a second time: “And if ever, after returning, either of them, overcome by anger, does this same thing again, let him go into exile and never return.”
Notes and citation
Summary: A repeat offender is exiled for life.
- Plato, Laws 9.868a.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Leg. 868a (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.5 (Dindorf 2:249–250; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-5). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
13.21.6Dindorf 2:250
Καὶ πάλιν ἑξῆς φησιν ‘Ἐὰν δὲ, ὃ γίγνεται μὲν, ὀλιγάκις δὲ, διὰ θυμὸν πατὴρ ἢ μήτηρ υἱὸν ἢ θυγατέρα πληγαῖς ἤ τινι τρόπῳ βιαίῳ κτείνῃ, καθάρσεις μὲν τὰς αὐτὰς τοῖς ἄλλοις καθαίρεσθαι καὶ ἐνιαυτοὺς τρεῖς ἀπενιαυτεῖν, κατελθόντων δὲ τῶν κτεινάντων ἀπαλλάττεσθαι γυναῖκά τε ἀπὸ ἀνδρὸς καὶ τὸν ἄνδρα ἀπὸ γυναικὸς, καὶ μήποτʼ ἔτι κοινῇ παιδοποιήσασθαι.”
Kai palin hexēs phēsin ‘Ean de, ho gignetai men, oligakis de, dia thymon patēr ē mētēr huion ē thygatera plēgais ē tini tropǭ biaiǭ kteinę̄, katharseis men tas autas tois allois kathairesthai kai eniautous treis apeniautein, katelthontōn de tōn kteinantōn apallattesthai gynaika te apo andros kai ton andra apo gynaikos, kai mēpotʼ eti koinę̄ paidopoiēsasthai.”
And again next he says: “If, which happens but rarely, a father or mother in anger kills a son or daughter by blows or in some violent way, let them be purified with the same purifications as the others and be in exile for three years; and when the killers return, let the wife be separated from the husband and the husband from the wife, and let them never again have children together.”
Notes and citation
Summary: Parents who kill a child in anger are exiled, and on return are separated from each other.
- Plato, Laws 9.868c–d.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Leg. 868c–d (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.6 (Dindorf 2:250; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-6). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
13.21.7Dindorf 2:250
Καὶ τούτοις ἐπιφέρει “Γυναῖκα δὲ γαμετὴν ἐὰν ἀνὴρ διʼ ὀργὴν κτείνῃ τινὰ, ἢ γυνή τις ἑαυτῆς ἄνδρα ταὐτὸν τοῦτο ὡσαύτως ἐργάσηται, καθαίρεσθαι τοὺς αὐτοὺς καθαρμοὺς, τριετεῖς δὲ ἀπενιαυτήσεις διατελεῖν. κατελθὼν δὲ ὁ τοιοῦτό τι δράσας τοῖς αὑτοῦ παισὶν ἱερῶν μὴ κοινωνείτω, μηδὲ ὁμοτράπεζος γιγνέσθω ποτέ.
Kai toutois epipherei “Gynaika de gametēn ean anēr diʼ orgēn kteinę̄ tina, ē gynē tis heautēs andra tauton touto hōsautōs ergasētai, kathairesthai tous autous katharmous, trieteis de apeniautēseis diatelein. katelthōn de ho toiouto ti drasas tois hautou paisin hierōn mē koinōneitō, mēde homotrapezos gignesthō pote.
And he adds to these: “If a husband kills his wedded wife in anger, or a wife does this same thing to her own husband, let them be purified with the same purifications and complete three years of exile. And when one who has done such a thing returns, let him not share in sacred rites with his own children, nor ever eat at the same table.
Notes and citation
Summary: Spouses who kill each other in anger are exiled and excluded from their children’s rites.
- Plato, Laws 9.868d–e.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Leg. 868d–e (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.7 (Dindorf 2:250; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-7). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
13.21.8Dindorf 2:250
καὶ ἐὰν ἀδελφὸς ἀδελφὸν ἢ ἀδελφὴν, ἢ ἀδελφὴ ἀδελφὸν ἢ ἀδελφὴν θυμῷ κτείνῃ, τὰ μὲν τῶν καθαρμῶν καὶ ἀπενιαυτήσεων, καθάπερ εἴρηται τοῖς γονεῦσι καὶ τοῖς ἐκγόνοις, εἰρήσθω δεῖν γίγνεσθαι καὶ τούτοις ὧν ἀδελφούς τε ἀδελφῶν καὶ γονέας ἐστέρηκε παίδων, τούτοις δὲ συνέστιος αὐτοῖς αὐτὸς μηδέποτε γιγνέσθω, μηδὲ κοινωνὸς ἱερῶν. —
kai ean adelphos adelphon ē adelphēn, ē adelphē adelphon ē adelphēn thymǭ kteinę̄, ta men tōn katharmōn kai apeniautēseōn, kathaper eirētai tois goneusi kai tois ekgonois, eirēsthō dein gignesthai kai toutois hōn adelphous te adelphōn kai goneas esterēke paidōn, toutois de synestios autois autos mēdepote gignesthō, mēde koinōnos hierōn. —
And if a brother or sister kills a brother or sister in anger, let it be declared that the purifications and years of exile must be the same as were stated for parents and offspring; and let the one who has deprived brothers of brothers and parents of children never share a hearth with them, nor be a partner in sacred rites. —
Notes and citation
Summary: Fratricide in anger brings the same exile and exclusion.
- Plato, Laws 9.868e–869a.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Leg. 868e–869a (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.8 (Dindorf 2:250; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-8). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
13.21.9Dindorf 2:250–251
ἀδελφὸς δὲ ἐὰν ἀδελφὸν κτείνῃ ἐν στάσεσι μάχης γενομένης, ἤ τινι τοιούτῳ τρόπῳ, ἀμυνόμενος ἄρχοντα χειρῶν πρότερον, καθάπερ πολέμιον ἀποκτείνας ἔστω καθαρός. καὶ ἐὰν πολίτης πολίτην ὡσαύτως, ἢ ξένος ξένον. ἐὰν δὲ ἀστὸν ξένος, ἢ ξένον ἀστὸς ἀμυνόμενος κτείνῃ, κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ ἔστω τοῦ καθαρὸς εἶναι· καὶ ἐὰν δοῦλος δοῦλον, ὡσαύτως. ἐὰν δὲ αὖ δοῦλος ἐλεύθερον ἀμυνόμενος ἀποκτείνῃ, καθάπερ ὁ κτείνας πατέρα τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἔνοχος ἔστω νόμοις. —
adelphos de ean adelphon kteinę̄ en stasesi machēs genomenēs, ē tini toioutǭ tropǭ, amynomenos archonta cheirōn proteron, kathaper polemion apokteinas estō katharos. kai ean politēs politēn hōsautōs, ē xenos xenon. ean de aston xenos, ē xenon astos amynomenos kteinę̄, kata ta auta estō tou katharos einai; kai ean doulos doulon, hōsautōs. ean de au doulos eleutheron amynomenos apokteinę̄, kathaper ho kteinas patera tois autois enochos estō nomois. —
But if a brother kills a brother in a civil strife when fighting has broken out, or in some such way, defending himself against one who first started the violence, let him be pure, as if he had killed an enemy. And likewise if a citizen kills a citizen, or a foreigner a foreigner. And if a foreigner kills a citizen, or a citizen a foreigner, in self-defense, let him likewise be pure; and if a slave kills a slave, likewise. But if a slave kills a free man in self-defense, let him be liable to the same laws as one who killed his father. —
Notes and citation
Summary: Killing in self-defense leaves one pure, except a slave who kills a free man.
- Plato, Laws 9.869c–d.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Leg. 869c–d (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.9 (Dindorf 2:250–251; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-9). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
13.21.10Dindorf 2:251
Ὃς ἂν ἐκ προνοίας τε καὶ ἀδίκως ὁντιναοῦν τῶν ἐμφυλίων αὐτόχειρ κτείνῃ, πρῶτον μὲν τῶν νομίμων εἰργέσθω, μήτε ἀγορὰν μήτε ἱερὰ μήτε λιμένας μήτε ἄλλον κοινὸν σύλλογον μηδένα μιαίνων, ἐάν τέ τις ἀπαγορεύῃ τῷ δράσαντι ταῦτα ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἐὰν μή. ὁ γὰρ νόμος ἀπαγορεύει... ὁ δὲ μὴ ἐπεξιὼν δέον ἢ μὴ προαγορεύων εἰργέσθω τῶν ἐντὸς ἀνεψιότητος—τὸ δὲ δεύτερον ὑπόδικος τῷ θέλοντι τιμωρεῖν ὑπὲρ τοῦ τελευτήσαντος γιγνέσθω.—Γυνὴ δὲ ἄνδρα ἑαυτῆς ἐξ ἐπιβουλῆς τοῦ ἀποκτεῖναι τρώσασα, ἢ ἀνὴρ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα, φευγέτω ἀειφυγίαν.”
Hos an ek pronoias te kai adikōs hontinaoun tōn emphyliōn autocheir kteinę̄, prōton men tōn nomimōn eirgesthō, mēte agoran mēte hiera mēte limenas mēte allon koinon syllogon mēdena miainōn, ean te tis apagoreuę̄ tǭ drasanti tauta anthrōpōn kai ean mē. ho gar nomos apagoreuei... ho de mē epexiōn deon ē mē proagoreuōn eirgesthō tōn entos anepsiotētos—to de deuteron hypodikos tǭ thelonti timōrein hyper tou teleutēsantos gignesthō.—Gynē de andra heautēs ex epiboulēs tou apokteinai trōsasa, ē anēr tēn heautou gynaika, pheugetō aeiphygian.”
Whoever with premeditation and unjustly kills with his own hand any of his fellow tribesmen, first let him be excluded from the customary places, not polluting marketplace or temples or harbors or any other common gathering, whether anyone forbids the doer these things or not; for the law forbids … And he who does not prosecute when he should, or does not make proclamation, if within the degree of cousins, … and secondly let him be liable to anyone who wishes to take vengeance on behalf of the dead.—And a wife who wounds her own husband with intent to kill, or a husband his own wife, let him go into perpetual exile.”
Notes and citation
Summary: Plato’s laws on premeditated murder and on spouses who wound each other.
- Plato, Laws 9.871a–b; 877c. Parts of Plato’s text are omitted (marked …).
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Leg. 871a–b (Plato (works); quotation); Plato, Leg. 877c (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.10 (Dindorf 2:251; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-10). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
13.21.11Dindorf 2:251–252
Τοιοῦτοι μὲν οἶ τοῦ φιλοσόφου νόμοι. εἰ δὲ χρὴ καὶ τοὺς Μώσεως τούτοις ἀντιπαραβαλεῖν, ἐπάκουσον οἷα περὶ τῶν φονικῶν διατάττεται “ἐὰν τίς τινα, καὶ ἀποθάνῃ, θανάτῳ θανατούσθω. εἰ δὲ οὐχ ἑκὼν, ἀλλʼ ὁ θεὸς παρέδωκεν εἰς τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ, δώσω σοι τόπον οὗ φεύξεται ἐκεῖ ὁ φονεύσας. ἐὰν δὲ ἐπίθηταί τις τῷ πλησίον αὐτοῦ ἀποκτεῖναι αὐτὸν δόλῳ καὶ καταφύγῃ, ἀπὸ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου μου λήψῃ αὐτὸν θανατῶσαι. ὃς τύπτει πατέρα αὐτοῦ, ἢ μητέρα αὐτοῦ, θανάτῳ θανατούσθω. ἐὰν δὲ λοιδορῶνται δύο ἄνδρες, καὶ πατάξῃ τις τὸν πλησίον αὐτοῦ λίθῳ ἢ πυγμῇ, καὶ μὴ ἀποθάνῃ, κατακλιθῇ δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν κοίτην, ἐὰν ἐξαναστὰς ὁ ἄνθρωπος περιπατήσῃ ἔξω ἐπὶ ῥάβδου αὐτοῦ, ἀθῷος ἔσται ὁ πατάξας· πλὴν τῆς ἀργίας αὐτοῦ ἀποτίσει καὶ τὰ ἰατρεῖα. ἐὰν δὲ πατάξῃ τις τὸν παῖδα αὐτοῦ ἢ τὴν παιδίσκην αὐτοῦ ἐν ῥάβδῳ, καὶ ἀποθάνῃ ὑπὸ τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ, δίκῃ ἐκδικηθήσεται. ἐὰν δὲ ἡμέραν μίαν ἢ δύο βιώσῃ, οὐκ ἐκδικηθήσεται· τὸ γὰρ ἀργύριον αὐτοῦ ἐστίν. ἐὰν δὲ πατάξῃ τις τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν τοῦ οἰκέτου, ἢ τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν τῆς θεραπαίνης αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐκτυφλώσῃ αὐτὸν, ἐλευθέρους ἐξαποστελεῖ αὐτοὺς ἀντὶ τοῦ ὀφθαλμοῦ αὐτῶν.”
Toioutoi men oi tou philosophou nomoi. ei de chrē kai tous Mōseōs toutois antiparabalein, epakouson hoia peri tōn phonikōn diatattetai “ean tis tina, kai apothanę̄, thanatǭ thanatousthō. ei de ouch hekōn, allʼ ho theos paredōken eis tas cheiras autou, dōsō soi topon hou pheuxetai ekei ho phoneusas. ean de epithētai tis tǭ plēsion autou apokteinai auton dolǭ kai kataphygę̄, apo tou thysiastēriou mou lēpsę̄ auton thanatōsai. hos typtei patera autou, ē mētera autou, thanatǭ thanatousthō. ean de loidorōntai dyo andres, kai pataxę̄ tis ton plēsion autou lithǭ ē pygmę̄, kai mē apothanę̄, kataklithę̄ de epi tēn koitēn, ean exanastas ho anthrōpos peripatēsę̄ exō epi rhabdou autou, athǭos estai ho pataxas; plēn tēs argias autou apotisei kai ta iatreia. ean de pataxę̄ tis ton paida autou ē tēn paidiskēn autou en rhabdǭ, kai apothanę̄ hypo tas cheiras autou, dikę̄ ekdikēthēsetai. ean de hēmeran mian ē dyo biōsę̄, ouk ekdikēthēsetai; to gar argyrion autou estin. ean de pataxę̄ tis ton ophthalmon tou oiketou, ē ton ophthalmon tēs therapainēs autou, kai ektyphlōsę̄ auton, eleutherous exapostelei autous anti tou ophthalmou autōn.”
Such are the philosopher’s laws. But if we must also compare those of Moses with these, hear what he ordains concerning murderers: “If anyone strikes a man and he dies, let him surely be put to death. But if not willingly, but God delivered him into his hands, I will give you a place where the slayer shall flee. But if anyone attacks his neighbor to kill him by treachery and flees for refuge, you shall take him from my altar to put him to death. Whoever strikes his father or his mother, let him surely be put to death. And if two men quarrel, and one strikes his neighbor with a stone or his fist, and he does not die but is confined to bed, if the man rises and walks about outside on his staff, the one who struck him shall be clear; only he shall pay for his loss of time and the costs of healing. And if anyone strikes his male servant or his female servant with a rod, and he dies under his hands, he shall surely be punished. But if he lives a day or two, he shall not be punished; for he is his money. And if anyone strikes the eye of his male servant or the eye of his maidservant and blinds it, he shall let them go free in return for their eye.”
Exod 21:12 (quotation, high confidence) · Exod 21:13 (quotation, high confidence) · Exod 21:14 (quotation, high confidence) · Exod 21:15 (quotation, high confidence) · Exod 21:18 (quotation, high confidence) · Exod 21:19 (quotation, high confidence) · Exod 21:20 (quotation, high confidence) · Exod 21:21 (quotation, high confidence) · Exod 21:26 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Moses’ laws on homicide and injury, including protection of slaves.
- Exod 21:12–15, 18–21, 26 (Septuagint).
- “Strikes” is supplied by sense; the verb has dropped out of the text here.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (accent slip in the digital text): περὶ τῶν φονικόν → περὶ τῶν φονικῶν.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.11 (Dindorf 2:251–252; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-11). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
13.21.12Dindorf 2:252
τοιαῦτα δὴ καὶ τὰ Μώσεως. αὖθις δὲ ὁ Πλάτων τίνα τρόπον καὶ διʼ ὁποῖα πληγαῖς ἀπαραιτήτοις αἰκίζεσθαι τὸν οἰκέτην προστάττει ἐπάκουσον “Ὅταν τὴν γενναίαν νῦν λεγομένην σταφυλὴν ἢ τὰ γενναῖα σῦκα ἐπονομαζόμενα ὀπωρίζειν βούληται, ἐὰν μὲν ἐκ τῶν οἰκείων λαμβάνῃ, ὅπως ἂν ἐθέλῃ καὶ ὁπόταν βούληται καρπούσθω· ἐὰν δὲ ἐξ ἄλλων πείσας, ἑπόμενος τῷ λόγῳ τῷ μὴ κινεῖν ὅ τι μὴ κατέθετο, ἐκεῖνος ἀεὶ ζημιούσθω. ἐὰν δὲ δοῦλος μὴ πείσας τὸν δεσπότην τῶν χωρίων ἅπτηταί του τῶν τοιούτων, κατὰ ῥᾶγα βοτρύων καὶ σῦκον συκῆς ἰσαρίθμους πληγὰς τούτοις μαστιγούσθω.”
toiauta dē kai ta Mōseōs. authis de ho Platōn tina tropon kai diʼ hopoia plēgais aparaitētois aikizesthai ton oiketēn prostattei epakouson “Hotan tēn gennaian nyn legomenēn staphylēn ē ta gennaia syka eponomazomena opōrizein boulētai, ean men ek tōn oikeiōn lambanę̄, hopōs an ethelę̄ kai hopotan boulētai karpousthō; ean de ex allōn peisas, hepomenos tǭ logǭ tǭ mē kinein ho ti mē katetheto, ekeinos aei zēmiousthō. ean de doulos mē peisas ton despotēn tōn chōriōn haptētai tou tōn toioutōn, kata rhaga botryōn kai sykon sykēs isarithmous plēgas toutois mastigousthō.”
Such, then, are the laws of Moses. But hear again in what way and for what reasons Plato orders a slave to be tormented with unremitting blows: “Whenever anyone wishes to gather what is now called the noble grape or the figs called noble, if he takes from his own, let him gather as he will and when he wishes; but if from others’, without persuading them, let him always be punished, following the rule not to move what one did not put down. But if a slave, without persuading the owner of the fields, touches any of such things, let him be scourged with as many lashes as there are grapes in the bunch and figs on the fig tree.”
Notes and citation
Summary: Plato would flog a slave one lash for every grape or fig taken.
- Plato, Laws 8.844d–845a.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip; stray mark in the digital text): ἅπτηταί του πῶν τοιούτων → ἅπτηταί του τῶν τοιούτων; Πλάτωνʼ → Πλάτων.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Leg. 844d–845a (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.12 (Dindorf 2:252; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-12). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
13.21.13Dindorf 2:252–253
Τοιαῦτα μὲν τὰ κατὰ τῶνδε οὐκ ἄξια τῆς Πλάτωνος μεγαλονοίας. ὡς δὲ σεμνὰ καὶ φιλάνθρωπα τὰ παρὰ Μωσεῖ μάθοις ἂν ἐπακούσας ὧδέ πη λέγοντος “ἐὰν δὲ εἰσέλθῃς εἰς ἀμπελῶνα τοῦ πλησίον, φαγῇ σταφυλὴν, ὅσον ψυχήν σου ἐμπλησθῆναι, εἴς τʼ ἄγγος οὐκ ἐμβαλεῖς.” καὶ πάλιν “ἐὰν εἰσέλθῃς εἰς ἀμητὸν τοῦ πλησίον σου καὶ συλλέξῃς στάχυς ἐν ταῖς χερσί σου, δρέπανον οὐ μὴ ἐπιβάλλῃς ἐπὶ τὸν ἀμητὸν τοῦ πλησίον σου.” καὶ αὖθις ἐὰν ἀμήσῃς ἀμητόν σου ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ σου, καὶ ἐπιλάθῃ δράγμα ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ σου, οὐκ ἐπαναστραφήσῃ λαβεῖν αὐτό· τῷ πτωχῷ καὶ τῷ προσηλύτῳ καὶ τῷ ὀρφανῷ καὶ τῇ χήρᾳ ἔσται, ἵνα εὐλογήσῃ σε κύριος ὁ θεός σου ἐν παντὶ ἔργῳ τῶν χειρῶν σου. ἐὰν δὲ ἐλαιολογήσῃς, οὐκ ἐπαναστρέψεις καλαμήσασθαι τὰ ὀπίσω σου· τῷ προσηλύτῳ καὶ τῷ ὀρφανῷ καὶ τῇ χήρᾳ ἔσται. ἐὰν δὲ τρυγήσῃς τὸν ἀμπελῶνα σου, οὐκ ἐπανατρυγήσεις τὰ ὀπίσω σου· τῷ προσηλύτῳ καὶ τῇ χήρᾳ ἔσται ταῦτα.”
Toiauta men ta kata tōnde ouk axia tēs Platōnos megalonoias. hōs de semna kai philanthrōpa ta para Mōsei mathois an epakousas hōde pē legontos “ean de eiselthę̄s eis ampelōna tou plēsion, phagę̄ staphylēn, hoson psychēn sou emplēsthēnai, eis tʼ angos ouk embaleis.” kai palin “ean eiselthę̄s eis amēton tou plēsion sou kai syllexę̄s stachys en tais chersi sou, drepanon ou mē epiballę̄s epi ton amēton tou plēsion sou.” kai authis ean amēsę̄s amēton sou en tǭ agrǭ sou, kai epilathę̄ dragma en tǭ agrǭ sou, ouk epanastraphēsę̄ labein auto; tǭ ptōchǭ kai tǭ prosēlytǭ kai tǭ orphanǭ kai tę̄ chērą estai, hina eulogēsę̄ se kyrios ho theos sou en panti ergǭ tōn cheirōn sou. ean de elaiologēsę̄s, ouk epanastrepseis kalamēsasthai ta opisō sou; tǭ prosēlytǭ kai tǭ orphanǭ kai tę̄ chērą estai. ean de trygēsę̄s ton ampelōna sou, ouk epanatrygēseis ta opisō sou; tǭ prosēlytǭ kai tę̄ chērą estai tauta.”
Such are his laws on these matters, unworthy of Plato’s greatness of mind. How solemn and humane are those of Moses you may learn by hearing him speak thus: “If you go into your neighbor’s vineyard, you shall eat grapes, as much as you wish to be filled, but you shall not put any into a vessel.” And again: “If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain and gather ears with your hands, you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.” And again: “If you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in your field, you shall not go back to take it; it shall be for the poor and the stranger and the orphan and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in every work of your hands. If you gather olives, you shall not go back to glean what is behind you; it shall be for the stranger and the orphan and the widow. And if you harvest your vineyard, you shall not glean what is left behind you; these shall be for the stranger and the widow.”
Deut 23:24 (23:25 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Deut 23:25 (23:26 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Deut 24:19 (quotation, high confidence) · Deut 24:20 (quotation, high confidence) · Deut 24:21 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Moses’ harvest laws show generosity to the neighbor and the poor.
- Deut 23:24–25 (Septuagint 23:25–26); 24:19–21.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip; accent slip in the digital text; stray parenthesis and accent slip in the digital text): τοὐ πλησίον → τοῦ πλησίον; ἔνα εὐλογήσῃ → ἵνα εὐλογήσῃ; τῷ προσηλύτω καὶ τῷ ὀρφανῷ καὶ τῇ) χήρᾳ → τῷ προσηλύτῳ καὶ τῷ ὀρφανῷ καὶ τῇ χήρᾳ.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.13 (Dindorf 2:252–253; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-13). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
13.21.14Dindorf 2:253
Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν τὰ παρὰ Μωσεῖ. δῆλα δὲ τὰ Πλάτωνος ἐν οἶς μυρία εὕροις ἂν ἀνεπίληπτα, ὧν δὴ μάλιστα τῶν παρʼ αὐτῷ τὰ σεμνὰ καὶ κράτιστα ἀποδεχόμενοι τοῖς μὴ τοιούτοις μακρὰ χαίρειν φαμέν. ἀλλὰ γὰρ τούτων ὧδε διεξωδευμένων, ἀποδοθείσης τε αἰτίας διʼ ἣν οὐ κατὰ Πλάτωνα φιλοσοφεῖν ἐγνώκαμεν, ὥρα καὶ τὰ τῆς λοιπῆς ὑποσχέσεως εἰς πέρας ἀγαγεῖν, καὶ τάς γε ἄλλας αἱρέσεις τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς ἐπιθεωρῆσαι φιλοσοφίας.
Kai tauta men ta para Mōsei. dēla de ta Platōnos en ois myria heurois an anepilēpta, hōn dē malista tōn parʼ autǭ ta semna kai kratista apodechomenoi tois mē toioutois makra chairein phamen. alla gar toutōn hōde diexōdeumenōn, apodotheisēs te aitias diʼ hēn ou kata Platōna philosophein egnōkamen, hōra kai ta tēs loipēs hyposcheseōs eis peras agagein, kai tas ge allas haireseis tēs Hellēnikēs epitheōrēsai philosophias.
Such are the laws of Moses. Plato’s are plain, among which you would find countless that are blameless; and accepting above all the solemn and excellent things in him, we bid a long farewell to those that are not such. But now that these things have been gone through in this way, and the reason has been given why we have decided not to philosophize according to Plato, it is time to bring the rest of our promise to completion, and to examine the other schools of Greek philosophy.
Notes and citation
Summary: Eusebius accepts Plato’s best teachings, rejects the rest, and turns to the other Greek schools.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 13.21.14 (Dindorf 2:253; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-13-21-14). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
Preparation 14, chapter 1
14.1.1Dindorf 2:253
Ὅσα μὲν εἰπεῖν τε καὶ ἀκοῦσαι ἦν ἀμφὶ τῆς κατὰ Πλάτωνα φιλοσοφίας τῆς τε τούτου πρὸς τὰ Ἑβραίων λόγια συμφωνίας, διʼ ἥν τὸν ἄνδρα καταπεπλήγμεθα, καὶ αὖ πάλιν τῆς πρὸς αὐτοὺς διαφωνίας, διʼ ἣν οὐκ ἄν τις αὐτὸν εὖ φρονῶν ἀποδέξαιτο, διελθὼν ἐν τῷ πρὸ τούτου, μέτειμι νῦν ἐπὶ τὰς λοιπὰς αἱρέσεις τῶν παρʼ Ἕλλησιν ἐπὶ φιλοσοφίᾳ διαβοηθέντων.
Hosa men eipein te kai akousai ēn amphi tēs kata Platōna philosophias tēs te toutou pros ta Hebraiōn logia symphōnias, diʼ hēn ton andra katapeplēgmetha, kai au palin tēs pros autous diaphōnias, diʼ hēn ouk an tis auton eu phronōn apodexaito, dielthōn en tǭ pro toutou, meteimi nyn epi tas loipas haireseis tōn parʼ Hellēsin epi philosophią diaboēthentōn.
Having gone through in the preceding book all that there was to say and hear about the philosophy of Plato and its agreement with the oracles of the Hebrews, on account of which we have admired the man, and again its disagreement with them, on account of which no one of sound mind would accept him, I now pass on to the remaining schools of those among the Greeks who were renowned for philosophy.
Notes and citation
Summary: Eusebius turns from Plato to the other Greek schools.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (line-end hyphen left in the digital text): διαφω- νίας → διαφωνίας; δια- βοηθέντων → διαβοηθέντων.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.1.1 (Dindorf 2:253; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-1-1). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.1.2Dindorf 2:253–254
καὶ τούτων αὖ πάλιν τὸν ἐκ τῆς ἀληθείας ὄλισθον οὐκ αὐτὸς οὐδὲ παρʼ ἐμαυτοῦ, διὰ δὲ τῆς αὐτῶν πάλιν τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν φωνῶν μαρτυρίας, σκοπεῖν τοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσι πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν θήσω· οὐ μὲν δή τισι τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἀπεχθόμενος, ὧν γε καὶ μέγα θαῦμʼ ἔχειν ὁμολογῶ, ὅταν δὴ τοῖς ἄλλοις, οἷάπερ ἀνθρώποις, παραβάλλω τοὺς ἄνδρας·
kai toutōn au palin ton ek tēs alētheias olisthon ouk autos oude parʼ emautou, dia de tēs autōn palin tōn Hellēnikōn phōnōn martyrias, skopein tois entynchanousi pro ophthalmōn thēsō; ou men dē tisi tōn andrōn apechthomenos, hōn ge kai mega thaumʼ echein homologō, hotan dē tois allois, hoiaper anthrōpois, paraballō tous andras;
And again I shall set their slipping from the truth before the eyes of readers to examine, not myself nor from my own resources, but through the testimony of the Greek writers themselves; not from any hatred of these men, for whom I admit I have great admiration when I compare them with the others, as men with men.
Notes and citation
Summary: Eusebius will expose the philosophers’ errors from their own writings, without hatred.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (line-end hyphen left in the digital text): μαρτυ- ρίας → μαρτυρίας.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.1.2 (Dindorf 2:253–254; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-1-2). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.1.3Dindorf 2:254
ἐπὰν δὲ τοῖς Ἑβραίων θεολόγοις τε καὶ προφήταις, θεῷ τε τῷ διὰ τούτων καὶ μελλόντων προρρήσεις καὶ θαυμάτων ἐπιδείξεις πεποιημένῳ, ἀτὰρ δὴ καὶ μαθημάτων εὐσεβῶν δογμάτων τε ἀληθῶν διδασκαλίαν καταβεβλημένῳ, οὐκέτʼ οἶμαί τινα δεῖν εὐλόγως ἐπιμέμψασθαι, εἰ θεὸν πρὸ ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἀλήθειαν αὐτὴν πρὸ θνητῶν λογισμῶν τε καὶ στοχασμῶν τιμώμεθα.
epan de tois Hebraiōn theologois te kai prophētais, theǭ te tǭ dia toutōn kai mellontōn prorrēseis kai thaumatōn epideixeis pepoiēmenǭ, atar dē kai mathēmatōn eusebōn dogmatōn te alēthōn didaskalian katabeblēmenǭ, ouketʼ oimai tina dein eulogōs epimempsasthai, ei theon pro anthrōpōn kai alētheian autēn pro thnētōn logismōn te kai stochasmōn timōmetha.
But when I compare them with the theologians and prophets of the Hebrews, and with God, who through them made predictions of the future and displays of wonders, and laid down the teaching of godly lessons and true doctrines, I think no one could any longer reasonably blame us if we honor God before men, and truth itself before mortal reasonings and conjectures.
Notes and citation
Summary: Compared with the Hebrew prophets and with God, the philosophers must take second place.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.1.3 (Dindorf 2:254; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-1-3). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.1.4Dindorf 2:254
τοῦτο δέ μοι πᾶν ὁ τῆς παρούσης Προπαρασκευῆς δείξειν πεφιλοτίμηται λόγος, εἰς ἀπόκρισιν ὁμοῦ καὶ ἀπολογίαν τῶν δὴ πευσομένων, τί δὴ ἄρα καλὸν ἢ σεμνὸν ἰδόντες ἐν τοῖς βαρβάρων γράμμασι τῆς πατρῴας καὶ εὐγενοῦς φιλοσοφίας, τῆς Ἑλλήνων λέγω, προκρίνειν αὐτὰ διανενοήμεθα. ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἤδη διʼ ἔργων ἡ ἀπόδειξις ἡμῖν χωρείτω.
touto de moi pan ho tēs parousēs Proparaskeuēs deixein pephilotimētai logos, eis apokrisin homou kai apologian tōn dē peusomenōn, ti dē ara kalon ē semnon idontes en tois barbarōn grammasi tēs patrǭas kai eugenous philosophias, tēs Hellēnōn legō, prokrinein auta dianenoēmetha. alla gar ēdē diʼ ergōn hē apodeixis hēmin chōreitō.
The whole argument of the present Preparation has been eager to show this, as an answer and defense at once to those who will ask what good or noble thing we saw in the writings of barbarians that we decided to prefer them to our ancestral and noble philosophy, I mean that of the Greeks. But now let the demonstration proceed by deeds.
Notes and citation
Summary: The whole Preparation answers why Christians prefer the barbarian writings to Greek philosophy.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.1.4 (Dindorf 2:254; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-1-4). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
Preparation 14, chapter 2
14.2.1Dindorf 2:254
Ἡγοῦμαι δὲ δεῖν πρώτιστα πάντων ἄνωθεν ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης καταβολῆς τῶν παρʼ Ἕλλησι φιλοσόφων ἀπάρξασθαι, καὶ τοὺς πρόσθεν ἢ Πλάτωνα γενέσθαι φυσικοὺς ἐπικληθέντας φιλοσόφους καταμαθεῖν, τίνες ποτὲ γεγόνασι, καὶ ὁποίων ἔτυχεν ἡ κατʼ αὐτοὺς φιλοσοφία προστατῶν τοῦ λόγου, εἶτʼ ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ Πλάτωνος παρελθεῖν διαδοχὴν, καὶ τίνες ποτʼ ἦσαν καὶ οἵδε, τάς τε πρὸς ἀλλήλους λογομαχίας αὐτῶν ἐπισκέψασθαι, ἐπιθεωρῆσαι δὲ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων αἱρέσεων τὰς διαστάσεις, τῶν τε δοξῶν τὰς ἀντικαταστάσεις, ἐν αἷς πυκτεύοντας τοὺς γενναίους καὶ φιλοτίμως διαπληκτιζομένους, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ σκηνῆς τοῖς θεαταῖς, παραδείξω.
Hēgoumai de dein prōtista pantōn anōthen apo tēs prōtēs katabolēs tōn parʼ Hellēsi philosophōn aparxasthai, kai tous prosthen ē Platōna genesthai physikous epiklēthentas philosophous katamathein, tines pote gegonasi, kai hopoiōn etychen hē katʼ autous philosophia prostatōn tou logou, eitʼ epi tēn tou Platōnos parelthein diadochēn, kai tines potʼ ēsan kai hoide, tas te pros allēlous logomachias autōn episkepsasthai, epitheōrēsai de kai tōn allōn haireseōn tas diastaseis, tōn te doxōn tas antikatastaseis, en hais pykteuontas tous gennaious kai philotimōs diaplēktizomenous, hōsper epi skēnēs tois theatais, paradeixō.
I think it necessary first of all to begin from the very first foundation of the philosophers among the Greeks, and to learn who those were before Plato who were called natural philosophers, and what kind of leaders of the argument their philosophy had; then to pass on to Plato’s succession, and who these were, and to examine their wordy battles with one another; and also to view the divisions of the other schools and the conflicts of their opinions, in which I shall show the noble gentlemen boxing and brawling ambitiously, as on a stage before spectators.
Notes and citation
Summary: Eusebius outlines his plan: the natural philosophers, Plato’s successors, and the strife of the schools.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.2.1 (Dindorf 2:254; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-2-1). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.2.2Dindorf 2:254–255
αὐτίκα γοῦν μάλα θεασώμεθα ὅπως μὲν ὁ Πλάτων τοὺς πρὸ αὐτοῦ πρώτους ἔσκωπτεν, ὅπως δὲ τοὺς Πλάτωνος οἰκείους τε καὶ διαδόχους ἄλλοι· καὶ αὖ πάλιν ὅπως οἶ Πλάτωνος ἑταῖροι τὰ σοφὰ τῆς Ἀριστοτέλους πολυνοίας ἀπήλεγχον· ὅπως θʼ οἶ τὸν Ἀριστοτέλην καὶ τὸν Περίπατον αὐχοῦντες τὰ δοκοῦντα τοῖς τὴν ἐναντίαν πρεσβεύουσι τὸ μηθὲν ὄντα παρίστων.
autika goun mala theasōmetha hopōs men ho Platōn tous pro autou prōtous eskōpten, hopōs de tous Platōnos oikeious te kai diadochous alloi; kai au palin hopōs oi Platōnos hetairoi ta sopha tēs Aristotelous polynoias apēlenchon; hopōs thʼ oi ton Aristotelēn kai ton Peripaton auchountes ta dokounta tois tēn enantian presbeuousi to mēthen onta paristōn.
Let us see at once, then, how Plato mocked the first ones before him, and how others mocked Plato’s own associates and successors; and again how Plato’s companions refuted the wisdom of Aristotle’s many-sided intellect; and how those who boasted of Aristotle and the Peripatos showed the opinions of those who held the opposite to be nothing.
Notes and citation
Summary: The schools mocked and refuted one another.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray mark in the digital text): Πλάτωνʼ → Πλάτων.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.2.2 (Dindorf 2:254–255; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-2-2). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.2.3Dindorf 2:255
καὶ τὰ δεινὰ δὲ καὶ ἀκριβῆ τῆς τῶν Στωïκῶν λεπτολογίας ὑφʼ ἑτέρων αὖ πάλιν ὄψει καταγελώμενα, πάντας τε πανταχόθεν κατὰ τῶν πέλας κονιομένους καὶ μάχην καὶ πάλην ἀνδρικώτατα συνισταμένους, ὡς διὰ Χειρῶν ἤδη καὶ γλώττης, ἢ μᾶλλον διὰ καλάμου καὶ μέλανος, τὸν κατὰ ἀλλήλων αὐτοὺς πόλεμον ἐπιτειχίζεσθαι, μονονουχὶ βάλλοντας καὶ βαλλομένους τοῖς διὰ λόγων δόρασί τε καὶ παντευχίαις.
kai ta deina de kai akribē tēs tōn Stōikōn leptologias hyphʼ heterōn au palin opsei katagelōmena, pantas te pantachothen kata tōn pelas koniomenous kai machēn kai palēn andrikōtata synistamenous, hōs dia Cheirōn ēdē kai glōttēs, ē mallon dia kalamou kai melanos, ton kata allēlōn autous polemon epiteichizesthai, mononouchi ballontas kai ballomenous tois dia logōn dorasi te kai panteuchiais.
And again you will see the clever and exact subtleties of the Stoics laughed at by others, and all of them on every side covering themselves with dust against their neighbors and joining combat and wrestling most manfully, so that with hands now and tongue, or rather with pen and ink, they build siege-works in their war against one another, all but striking and being struck with the spears and full armor of words.
Notes and citation
Summary: The Stoics too are mocked; the philosophers wage a war of words.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.2.3 (Dindorf 2:255; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-2-3). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.2.4Dindorf 2:255
περιέξει δʼ ἡμῖν τὸ στάδιον ἐν τῷ γυμνικῷ τῷδε ἀγῶνι γυμνοὺς ἀληθείας ἀπάσης πρὸς τοῖς δηλωθεῖσι καὶ τοὺς πᾶσιν ὁμοῦ τοῖς δογματικοῖς φιλοσόφοις ἐξ ἐναντίας ἀραμένους τὰ ὅπλα, τοὺς ἀμφὶ Πύρρωνα λέγω, μηδὲν εἶναι καταληπτὸν ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἀποφηναμένους, καὶ τούς τε κατʼ Ἀρίστιππον μόνα λέγοντας τὰ πάθη εἷναι καταληπτὰ, καὶ αὖ πάλιν τοὺς κατὰ Μητρόδωρον καὶ Πρωταγόραν μόναις δεῖν φάσκοντας ταῖς τοῦ σώματος πιστεύειν αἰσθήσεσι.
periexei dʼ hēmin to stadion en tǭ gymnikǭ tǭde agōni gymnous alētheias apasēs pros tois dēlōtheisi kai tous pasin homou tois dogmatikois philosophois ex enantias aramenous ta hopla, tous amphi Pyrrōna legō, mēden einai katalēpton en anthrōpois apophēnamenous, kai tous te katʼ Aristippon mona legontas ta pathē heinai katalēpta, kai au palin tous kata Mētrodōron kai Prōtagoran monais dein phaskontas tais tou sōmatos pisteuein aisthēsesi.
And the stadium in this naked contest will contain for us, besides those mentioned, men naked of all truth: those who have taken up arms against all the dogmatic philosophers together, I mean the followers of Pyrrho, who declared that nothing can be apprehended by men; and those of Aristippus, who say that only feelings can be apprehended; and again those of Metrodorus and Protagoras, who say that we must trust only the senses of the body.
Notes and citation
Summary: The skeptics, Cyrenaics, and sensationalists will also be examined.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.2.4 (Dindorf 2:255; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-2-4). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.2.5Dindorf 2:255
ἔμπαλιν δὲ τούτοις συναποδύσομεν τοὺς ἀμφὶ Ξενοφάνην καὶ Παρμενίδην τὴν ἐναντίαν παραταξαμένους καὶ τὰς αἰσθήσεις ἀνελόντας.
empalin de toutois synapodysomen tous amphi Xenophanēn kai Parmenidēn tēn enantian parataxamenous kai tas aisthēseis anelontas.
And in opposition to these we shall strip for the contest the followers of Xenophanes and Parmenides, who took the opposite side and did away with the senses.
Notes and citation
Summary: Xenophanes and Parmenides, who rejected the senses, will be examined.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.2.5 (Dindorf 2:255; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-2-5). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.2.6Dindorf 2:255
οὐ παρήσομεν δὲ οὐδὲ τοὺς τῆς ἡδονῆς προμάχους, ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτων τὸν ἀριστέα Ἐπίκουρον σὺν τοῖς εἰρημένοις καταλέξομεν. πρὸς ἅπαντας δὲ ὁμοῦ τοῖς σφετέροις αὐτῶν βέλεσι τὸν κατʼ αὐτῶν ἀντιθήσομεν ἔλεγχον.
ou parēsomen de oude tous tēs hēdonēs promachous, alla kai toutōn ton aristea Epikouron syn tois eirēmenois katalexomen. pros hapantas de homou tois spheterois autōn belesi ton katʼ autōn antithēsomen elenchon.
Nor shall we pass over the champions of pleasure, but we shall enroll their chief, Epicurus, with those mentioned. And against all of them together we shall set the refutation of them by their own weapons.
Notes and citation
Summary: Epicurus too will be refuted with the philosophers’ own arguments.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.2.6 (Dindorf 2:255; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-2-6). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.2.7Dindorf 2:255–256
καὶ τῶν ἐπίκλην δὲ φυσικῶν ἁπάντων ὁμοῦ τῶν τε δογμάτων τὰς διαφωνίας καὶ τῆς σπουδῆς τὴν ἀχρηστομάθειαν εἰς φανερὸν οἴσω, οὔ τι που μισέλλην οὐδὲ μισόλογος τις ὢν, πολλοῦ γε δέω, διαβολῆς δʼ αἰτίαν ἀπολυόμενος, ὅτι δὴ τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς παιδείας ἥκιστα μεταποιηθέντες τὰ Ἑβραίων λόγια προτετιμήκαμεν.
kai tōn epiklēn de physikōn hapantōn homou tōn te dogmatōn tas diaphōnias kai tēs spoudēs tēn achrēstomatheian eis phaneron oisō, ou ti pou misellēn oude misologos tis ōn, pollou ge deō, diabolēs dʼ aitian apolyomenos, hoti dē tēs Hellēnikēs paideias hēkista metapoiēthentes ta Hebraiōn logia protetimēkamen.
And I shall bring into the open both the disagreements in the doctrines of all those called natural philosophers and the uselessness of their study; not that I am a hater of the Greeks or of learning, far from it, but to clear myself of the charge that we have honored the oracles of the Hebrews above Greek learning because we had very little share in Greek education.
Notes and citation
Summary: Eusebius will show the natural philosophers’ disagreements, not from hatred of Greek learning but in self-defense.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.2.7 (Dindorf 2:255–256; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-2-7). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
Preparation 14, chapter 3
14.3.1Dindorf 2:256
Οἱ μέν γε Ἑβραῖοι ἄνωθεν ἐξ αἰῶνος μακροῦ καὶ αὐτῆς, ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν, ἀπὸ πρώτης ἀνθρωπογονίας τὴν εὐσέβειαν καὶ ἀληθῆ φιλοσοφίαν ἀνηρευνηκότες, ἀκήρατον καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς μετέπειτα ταύτην διατετηρήκασι, παῖς παρὰ πατρὸς θησαυρὸν λόγων ἀληθῶν ὑποδεξάμενοί τε καὶ φυλάξαντες, ὡς μήτʼ ἐπιθεῖναι μήτʼ ἀφελεῖν τινὰ τοῖς ἅπαξ κεκριμένοις τολμῆσαι.
Hoi men ge Hebraioi anōthen ex aiōnos makrou kai autēs, hōs epos eipein, apo prōtēs anthrōpogonias tēn eusebeian kai alēthē philosophian anēreunēkotes, akēraton kai epi tous metepeita tautēn diatetērēkasi, pais para patros thēsauron logōn alēthōn hypodexamenoi te kai phylaxantes, hōs mētʼ epitheinai mētʼ aphelein tina tois hapax kekrimenois tolmēsai.
The Hebrews, having from a long age past, and, so to say, from the very first creation of man, searched out godliness and true philosophy, have kept it pure for those after them also, son receiving and guarding from father a treasure of true words, so that no one dared to add to or take away from what had once been decided.
Notes and citation
Summary: The Hebrews preserved their true philosophy unchanged from the beginning.
Topics: Scripture and canon
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.3.1 (Dindorf 2:256; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-3-1). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.3.2Dindorf 2:256
οὔτʼ οὖν ὁ πάνσοφος Μώσης, πάντων μὲν Ἑλλήνων πρεσβύτατος ἀποφανθεὶς διὰ τῶν ἔμπροσθεν, πάντων δὲ ὕστατος τὴν ἡλικίαν τῶν πρὶν Ἑβραίων γεγονὼς, κινῆσαί τι καὶ μεταθεῖναι τῶν τοῖς προπάτορσι δοξάντων τῆς δογματικῆς πέρι θεολογίας διανενόηται, πλὴν ὅσον τοῖς ὑπʼ αὐτὸν ἀνθρώποις ἀγωγῆς βίου καταλλήλου τρόπον καί τινος μέσης πολιτείας νομοθεσίαν καταβαλέσθαι,
outʼ oun ho pansophos Mōsēs, pantōn men Hellēnōn presbytatos apophantheis dia tōn emprosthen, pantōn de hystatos tēn hēlikian tōn prin Hebraiōn gegonōs, kinēsai ti kai metatheinai tōn tois propatorsi doxantōn tēs dogmatikēs peri theologias dianenoētai, plēn hoson tois hypʼ auton anthrōpois agōgēs biou katallēlou tropon kai tinos mesēs politeias nomothesian katabalesthai,
Neither, then, did the all-wise Moses, who has been shown in the preceding books to be the oldest of all the Greeks, though he was the last in age of the earlier Hebrews, intend to move or change anything of what the forefathers had held concerning doctrinal theology, except to lay down for the people under him legislation for a fitting way of life and a certain intermediate polity;
Notes and citation
Summary: Moses changed nothing in the forefathers’ theology, only giving a law for his people.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.3.2 (Dindorf 2:256; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-3-2). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.3.3Dindorf 2:256
οὔθʼ οἱ μετὰ τόνδε προφῆται, μυρίαις ὅσαις ὕστερον ἐτῶν περιόδοις ἐκλάμψαντες, διάφωνόν τι ῥῆμα πρός τε σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἢ πρὸς τὰ Μωσεῖ καὶ τοῖς πάλαι θεοφιλέσι νομισθέντα προέσθαι τῇ φωνῇ τετολμήκασιν.
outhʼ hoi meta tonde prophētai, myriais hosais hysteron etōn periodois eklampsantes, diaphōnon ti rhēma pros te sphas autous ē pros ta Mōsei kai tois palai theophilesi nomisthenta proesthai tę̄ phōnę̄ tetolmēkasin.
nor have the prophets after him, who shone forth countless periods of years later, dared to utter a word that disagreed either with one another or with what Moses and the men dear to God of old had held.
Notes and citation
Summary: The prophets never contradicted one another or Moses.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (page subdivision letter leaked into the digital text): μετὰc τόνδε → μετὰ τόνδε.
Topics: Scripture and canon
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.3.3 (Dindorf 2:256; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-3-3). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.3.4Dindorf 2:256
ἀλλʼ οὐδὲ τὸ καθʼ ἡμᾶς διδασκαλεῖον, ἐκεῖθέν ποθεν ὁρμώμενον καὶ διʼ ἐνθέου δυνάμεως ὁμοῦ πᾶσαν Ἑλλάδα τε καὶ τὴν βάρβαρον ἐμπλῆσαν, διάφωνόν τι τοῖς πρόσθεν ἐμπεριείληφεν, εἰ μή τις φαίη ὅτι μὴ μόνον τοῖς δόγμασι τῆς θεολογίας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ τρόπῳ τοῦ βίου τὴν αὐτὴν ἀγωγὴν τοῖς πρὸ Μώσεως θεοφιλέσιν Ἑβραίοις παραδίδωσι.
allʼ oude to kathʼ hēmas didaskaleion, ekeithen pothen hormōmenon kai diʼ entheou dynameōs homou pasan Hellada te kai tēn barbaron emplēsan, diaphōnon ti tois prosthen emperieilēphen, ei mē tis phaiē hoti mē monon tois dogmasi tēs theologias, alla kai tǭ tropǭ tou biou tēn autēn agōgēn tois pro Mōseōs theophilesin Hebraiois paradidōsi.
Nor has our own school, which set out from there and by divine power filled all Greece and the barbarian world alike, included anything at variance with what came before; unless one should say that it hands down not only the same doctrines of theology, but also the same way of life as that of the Hebrews dear to God before Moses.
Notes and citation
Summary: Christianity agrees with what came before and restores the life of the pre-Mosaic Hebrews.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.3.4 (Dindorf 2:256; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-3-4). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.3.5Dindorf 2:256–257
καὶ τὰ μὲν ἡμέτερα τοιαῦτα, μιᾷ διανοίᾳ μιᾷ τε φωνῇ ὑπὸ τῶν πρώτων καὶ τῶν μέσων καὶ τῶν ὑστάτων μεμαρτυρημένα, τῆς ἀληθοῦς εὐσεβείας ὁμοῦ καὶ φιλοσοφίας τὸ βέβαιον ἁπάσαις ψήφοις ἐπισφραγίζεται, πληροῖ τε τὴν σύμπασαν οἰκουμένην, ὁσημέραι νεάζοντα καὶ ἀνθοῦντα, ὡς ἄρτι πρώτην ἀκμὴν καταβεβλημένα· καὶ οὔτε νόμων διατάξεις οὔτʼ ἐχθρῶν ἐπιβουλαὶ οὔτε πολεμίων πολλάκις ἀκονηθέντα ξίφη κρείττονα τῆς ὧν μετήλθομεν λόγων ἀρετῆς τὴν δύναμιν ἐπιδέδεικται.
kai ta men hēmetera toiauta, mią dianoią mią te phōnę̄ hypo tōn prōtōn kai tōn mesōn kai tōn hystatōn memartyrēmena, tēs alēthous eusebeias homou kai philosophias to bebaion hapasais psēphois episphragizetai, plēroi te tēn sympasan oikoumenēn, hosēmerai neazonta kai anthounta, hōs arti prōtēn akmēn katabeblēmena; kai oute nomōn diataxeis outʼ echthrōn epiboulai oute polemiōn pollakis akonēthenta xiphē kreittona tēs hōn metēlthomen logōn aretēs tēn dynamin epidedeiktai.
Such, then, is our teaching, attested with one mind and one voice by the first and the middle and the last; it seals with every vote the certainty of true godliness and philosophy at once, and fills the whole inhabited world, renewing its youth and blooming day by day, as though it had just reached its first prime; and neither ordinances of laws, nor plots of enemies, nor the swords of foes so often sharpened, have shown their power to be stronger than the virtue of the words we have followed.
Notes and citation
Summary: Christian teaching is consistent from first to last and flourishes despite persecution.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): οὔτι πολεμίων → οὔτε πολεμίων.
Topics: Persecution
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.3.5 (Dindorf 2:256–257; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-3-5). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.3.6Dindorf 2:257
τὰ δὲ τῆς Ἑλλήνων φιλοσοφίας ἐπὶ σαλεύσαντα τίνα ποτὲ τὴν ἰσχὺν ἐπεδείξατο νυνὶ θεασώμεθα, πρώτους ἁπάντων εἰς τὸν ἀγῶνα καθιέντες τοὺς φυσικοὺς ἐπικληθέντας· οἱ δὴ πρόσθεν ἢ Πλάτωνα διαλάμψαι λεγόμενοι ὅπως πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἐστασίασαν παρʼ αὐτοῦ μαθεῖν ἔστι τοῦ Πλάτωνος· ὃς δὴ τῶν ἀμφὶ Πρωταγόραν Ἡράκλειτόν τε καὶ τὴν πρὸς Παρμενίδην καὶ τοὺς ἀμφʼ αὐτὸν διαμάχην ἐξελέγχει.
ta de tēs Hellēnōn philosophias epi saleusanta tina pote tēn ischyn epedeixato nyni theasōmetha, prōtous hapantōn eis ton agōna kathientes tous physikous epiklēthentas; hoi dē prosthen ē Platōna dialampsai legomenoi hopōs pros allēlous estasiasan parʼ autou mathein esti tou Platōnos; hos dē tōn amphi Prōtagoran Hērakleiton te kai tēn pros Parmenidēn kai tous amphʼ auton diamachēn exelenchei.
But now let us see what strength the teachings of Greek philosophy have shown, having been shaken, sending into the contest first of all those called natural philosophers. How these, who are said to have shone before Plato, quarreled with one another can be learned from Plato himself, who refutes the followers of Protagoras and Heraclitus and their battle with Parmenides and his followers.
Notes and citation
Summary: Eusebius begins with the natural philosophers, using Plato’s own account of their quarrels.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.3.6 (Dindorf 2:257; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-3-6). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.3.7Dindorf 2:257
ὁ μὲν γὰρ Δημοκρίτου γεγονὼν ἑταῖρος, ὁ Πρωταγόρας, ἄθεον ἐκτήσατο δόξαν· λέγεται γοῦν τοιᾷδε κεχρῆσθαι εἰσβολῇ ἐν τῷ Περὶ θεῶν συγγράμματι “Περὶ μὲν θεῶν οὐκ οἶδα οὔθʼ ὡς εἰσὶν οὔθʼ ὡς οὐκ εἰσὶν οὔθʼ ὁποῖοί τινες ἰδέαν.” ὁ δὲ Δημόκριτος ἀρχὰς τῶν ὅλων ἔφη εἶναι τὸ κενὸν καὶ τὸ πλῆρες· τὸ πλῆρες ὂν λέγων καὶ στερεὸν, τὸ δὲ κενὸν μὴ ὄν. διὸ καί φησι μηδὲν μᾶλλον τὸ ὂν τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἶναι· ὅτι τε ἐξ ἀιδίου τὰ ὄντα ἐν τῷ κενῷ συνεχῶς καὶ ὀξέως κινεῖται.”
ho men gar Dēmokritou gegonōn hetairos, ho Prōtagoras, atheon ektēsato doxan; legetai goun toiąde kechrēsthai eisbolę̄ en tǭ Peri theōn syngrammati “Peri men theōn ouk oida outhʼ hōs eisin outhʼ hōs ouk eisin outhʼ hopoioi tines idean.” ho de Dēmokritos archas tōn holōn ephē einai to kenon kai to plēres; to plēres on legōn kai stereon, to de kenon mē on. dio kai phēsi mēden mallon to on tou mē ontos einai; hoti te ex aidiou ta onta en tǭ kenǭ synechōs kai oxeōs kineitai.”
Protagoras, who had been a companion of Democritus, gained the reputation of an atheist; he is said, at least, to have used this opening in his work On the Gods: “About the gods I do not know either that they are or that they are not, or what they are like in form.” And Democritus said that the principles of the universe are the void and the full, calling the full being and solid, and the void non-being. That is why he also says that being is no more than non-being; and that existing things move continually and swiftly in the void from eternity.
Notes and citation
Summary: Protagoras doubted the gods; Democritus made the void and the full the principles of all.
- Protagoras, fragment B 4 (Diels–Kranz); Democritus, testimonia (compare Diogenes Laertius 9.51; 9.44). The source of this summary is uncertain (it is closed with a quotation mark).
Extrabiblical texts: Democritus (Democritus (fragments); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.3.7 (Dindorf 2:257; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-3-7). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.3.8Dindorf 2:257
ὁ δὲ Ἡράκλειτος ἀρχὴν τῶν πάντων ἔφη εἶναι τὸ πῦρ, ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα γίνεται, καὶ εἰς ὃ ἀναλύεται. ἀμοιβὴν γὰρ εἶναι τὰ πάντα, χρόνον τε ὡρίσθαι τῆς τῶν πάντων εἰς τὸ πῦρ ἀναλύσεως καὶ τῆς ἐκ τούτου γενέσεως.
ho de Hērakleitos archēn tōn pantōn ephē einai to pyr, ex hou ta panta ginetai, kai eis ho analyetai. amoibēn gar einai ta panta, chronon te hōristhai tēs tōn pantōn eis to pyr analyseōs kai tēs ek toutou geneseōs.
Heraclitus said that the principle of all things is fire, from which all things come into being and into which they are dissolved; for all things are an exchange, and a time has been fixed for the dissolution of all things into fire and for their generation from it.
Notes and citation
Summary: Heraclitus made fire the principle of all things.
Extrabiblical texts: Heraclitus (Heraclitus (fragments); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.3.8 (Dindorf 2:257; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-3-8). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.3.9Dindorf 2:257–258
οἵδε μὲν οὖν πάντα κινεῖσθαι ἔφασαν· ὁ δὲ Παρμενίδης, τὸ γένος Ἐλεάτης ὢν, ἕν μὲν εἶναι τὸ πᾶν, ἀγέννητον δὲ καὶ ἀκίνητον καὶ κατὰ σχῆμα σφαιροειδὲς ὑπάρχειν ἐδογμάτιζε. Παρμενίδου δὲ Μέλισσος ἑταῖρος γέγονε, τὰ αὐτὰ τῷ Παρμενίδῃ δοξάζων. τούτων δὴ οὖν πέρι ὁποῖα ὁ Πλάτων ἐν τῷ Θεαιτήτῳ διέξεισιν ἄκουε
hoide men oun panta kineisthai ephasan; ho de Parmenidēs, to genos Eleatēs ōn, hen men einai to pan, agennēton de kai akinēton kai kata schēma sphairoeides hyparchein edogmatize. Parmenidou de Melissos hetairos gegone, ta auta tǭ Parmenidę̄ doxazōn. toutōn dē oun peri hopoia ho Platōn en tǭ Theaitētǭ diexeisin akoue
These, then, said that all things are in motion; but Parmenides, an Eleatic by race, taught that the universe is one, unborn and unmoved, and spherical in shape. Melissus was a companion of Parmenides, holding the same views as Parmenides. Hear, then, what Plato relates about these in the Theaetetus:
Notes and citation
Summary: Parmenides and Melissus taught that all is one and unmoved.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (broken word and stray mark in the digital text; stray mark in the digital text): σφαιροει- ’δες → σφαιροειδὲς; Πλάτωνʼ → Πλάτων.
Extrabiblical texts: Parmenides (Parmenides (fragments); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.3.9 (Dindorf 2:257–258; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-3-9). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
Preparation 14, chapter 4
14.4.1Dindorf 2:258
“Ἐκ δὲ δὴ φορᾶς τε καὶ κινήσεως καὶ κράσεως πρὸς ἄλληλα γίνεται πάντα ἃ δή φαμεν εἶναι, οὐκ ὀρθῶς προσαγορεύοντες. ἔστι μὲν γὰρ οὐδέποτε οὐδὲν, ἀεὶ δὲ γίνεται. καὶ περὶ τούτου πάντες ἐξαίσιοι σοφοὶ πλὴν Παρμενίδου ξυμφέρεσθον, Πρωταγόρας τε καὶ Ἡράκλειτος καὶ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς, καὶ τῶν ποιητῶν οἷ ἄκροι τῆς ποιήσεως ἑκατέρας, κωμῳδίας μὲν Ἐπίχαρμος, τραγῳδίας δὲ Ὅμηρος, εἰπὼν Ὠκεανόν τε θεῶν γένεσιν καὶ μητέρα Τηθύν, πάντα εἴρηκεν ἔκγονα ῥοῆς τε καὶ κινήσεως. ἢ οὐ δοκεῖ τοῦτο λέγειν;
“Ek de dē phoras te kai kinēseōs kai kraseōs pros allēla ginetai panta ha dē phamen einai, ouk orthōs prosagoreuontes. esti men gar oudepote ouden, aei de ginetai. kai peri toutou pantes exaisioi sophoi plēn Parmenidou xympheresthon, Prōtagoras te kai Hērakleitos kai Empedoklēs, kai tōn poiētōn hoi akroi tēs poiēseōs hekateras, kōmǭdias men Epicharmos, tragǭdias de Homēros, eipōn Ōkeanon te theōn genesin kai mētera Tēthyn, panta eirēken ekgona rhoēs te kai kinēseōs. ē ou dokei touto legein?
“From motion and change and mixture with one another all things come to be which we say are, not addressing them correctly; for nothing ever is, but always becomes. And on this all the wise men in succession except Parmenides agree, Protagoras and Heraclitus and Empedocles, and of the poets the chief in each kind of poetry, in comedy Epicharmus, in tragedy Homer, who, saying ‘Oceanus, origin of the gods, and mother Tethys,’ has said that all things are offspring of flux and motion. Or does he not seem to say this?
Notes and citation
Summary: Plato (Theaetetus): all the wise except Parmenides say that everything is in flux.
- Plato, Theaetetus 152e; Homer, Iliad 14.201, 302.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Theaet. 152e (Plato (works); quotation); Homer, Il. 14.201 (Homer, Iliad; quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.1 (Dindorf 2:258; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-1). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.2Dindorf 2:258
Ἔμοιγε. Τίς οὖν ἂν ἔτι πρός γε τοσοῦτον στρατόπεδον καὶ στρατηγὸν Ὅμηρον δύναιτο ἀμφισβητήσας μὴ καταγέλαστος γενέσθαι;” Εἶθʼ ἐξῆς προïὼν τῷ λόγῳ ἐπιφέρει λέγων
Emoige. Tis oun an eti pros ge tosouton stratopedon kai stratēgon Homēron dynaito amphisbētēsas mē katagelastos genesthai?” Eithʼ exēs proiōn tǭ logǭ epipherei legōn
He does to me. Who then could still contend against so great an army, with Homer as general, and not become ridiculous?” Then, proceeding next in his argument, he adds:
Notes and citation
Summary: No one can oppose so great an army without ridicule.
- Plato, Theaetetus 153a.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): γενέοθαι → γενέσθαι.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Theaet. 153a (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.2 (Dindorf 2:258; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-2). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.3Dindorf 2:258–259
“ Προσιτέον οὖν ἐγγυτέρω, ὡς ὁ ὑπὲρ Πρωταγόρου λόγος ἐπέταττε, καὶ σκεπτέον τὴν φερομένην ταύτην οὐσίαν διακρούοντα, εἴτε ὑγιὲς εἴτε σαθρὸν φθέγγεται. μάχη δʼ οὖν περὶ αὐτῆς οὐ φαύλη οὐδʼ ὀλίγοις γέγονε. Πολλοῦ καὶ δεῖ φαύλη εἶναι, ἀλλὰ περὶ μὲν τὴν Ἰωνίαν ἐπιδίδωσι πάμπολυ. οἱ γὰρ τοῦ Ἡρακλείτου ἑταῖροι χορηγοῦσι τούτου τοῦ λόγου μάλα ἐρρωμένως. Τῷ τοι, ὠ φίλε Θεόδωρε, μᾶλλον σκεπτέον καὶ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὥσπερ αὐτοὶ ὑποτείνονται.
“ Prositeon oun engyterō, hōs ho hyper Prōtagorou logos epetatte, kai skepteon tēn pheromenēn tautēn ousian diakrouonta, eite hygies eite sathron phthengetai. machē dʼ oun peri autēs ou phaulē oudʼ oligois gegone. Pollou kai dei phaulē einai, alla peri men tēn Iōnian epididōsi pampoly. hoi gar tou Hērakleitou hetairoi chorēgousi toutou tou logou mala errōmenōs. Tǭ toi, ō phile Theodōre, mallon skepteon kai ex archēs hōsper autoi hypoteinontai.
“We must come closer, then, as the argument on behalf of Protagoras directed, and examine this moving being by striking it, whether it rings sound or cracked. There has been no small battle about it, and among not a few. It is far from small; in Ionia it is even growing very great. For the companions of Heraclitus lead the chorus of this doctrine very vigorously. All the more, then, my dear Theodorus, must we examine it, and from the beginning, as they themselves propose it.
Notes and citation
Summary: Socrates proposes to examine the Heraclitean doctrine of flux.
- Plato, Theaetetus 179d–e.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip; line number leaked into the digital text; page subdivision letter leaked into the digital text): περὶ μὲν τὴν c Ἰωνίαν → περὶ μὲν τὴν Ἰωνίαν; Ἡρακλείτον → Ἡρακλείτου; ἐξ ἀρχῆς 9 ὥσπερ → ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὥσπερ.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Theaet. 179d–e (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.3 (Dindorf 2:258–259; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-3). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.4Dindorf 2:259
Παντάπασι μὲν οὖν. καὶ γὰρ, ὠ Σώκρατες, περὶ τούτων τῶν Ἡρακλειτείων, ἢ ὥσπερ σὺ λέγεις Ὁμηρείων τε καὶ ἔτι παλαιοτέρων, αὐτοῖς μὲν τοῖς περὶ τὴν Ἔφεσον, ὅσοι προσποιοῦνται ἔμπειροι εἶναι, οὐδὲν μᾶλλον οἷόν τε διαλεχθῆναι ἢ τοῖς οἰστρῶσιν. ἀτεχνῶς γὰρ κατὰ τὰ συγγράμματα φέρονται, τὸ δὲ ἐπιμεῖναι ἐπὶ λόγῳ καὶ ἐρωτήματι καὶ ἡσυχίως ἐν μέρει ἀποκρίνασθαί τε καὶ ἐρέσθαι, ἧττον αὐτοῖς ἔνι ἢ τὸ μηδέν· μᾶλλον δὲ ὑπερβάλλει τὸ οὐδʼ οὐδὲν πρὸς τὸ μηδὲ σμικρὸν ἐνεῖναι τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἡσυχίας. ἀλλʼ ἄν τινά τι ἔρῃ, ὥσπερ ἐκ φαρέτρας ῥηματίσκια αἰνιγματώδη ἀνασπῶντες ἀποτοξεύουσι, καὶ ἂν τούτου ζητῇς λόγον λαβεῖν, τί εἴρηκεν, ἑτέρῳ πεπλήξῃ καινῶς μετωνομασμένῳ, περανεῖς δὲ οὐδέποτε οὐδὲν πρὸς οὐδένα αὐτῶν, οὐδέ γε ἐκεῖνοι αὐτοὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους, ἀλλʼ εὖ πάνυ φυλάττουσι τὸ μηδὲν βέβαιον ἐὰν εἶναι μήτʼ ἐν λόγῳ μήτʼ ἐν ταῖς αὑτῶν ψυχαῖς, ἡγούμενοι, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, αὐτὸ στάσιμον εἶναι. τούτῳ δὲ πάνυ πολεμοῦσι, καὶ καθʼ ὅσον δύνανται πανταχόθεν ἐκβάλλουσιν.
Pantapasi men oun. kai gar, ō Sōkrates, peri toutōn tōn Hērakleiteiōn, ē hōsper sy legeis Homēreiōn te kai eti palaioterōn, autois men tois peri tēn Epheson, hosoi prospoiountai empeiroi einai, ouden mallon hoion te dialechthēnai ē tois oistrōsin. atechnōs gar kata ta syngrammata pherontai, to de epimeinai epi logǭ kai erōtēmati kai hēsychiōs en merei apokrinasthai te kai eresthai, hētton autois eni ē to mēden; mallon de hyperballei to oudʼ ouden pros to mēde smikron eneinai tois andrasin hēsychias. allʼ an tina ti erę̄, hōsper ek pharetras rhēmatiskia ainigmatōdē anaspōntes apotoxeuousi, kai an toutou zētę̄s logon labein, ti eirēken, heterǭ peplēxę̄ kainōs metōnomasmenǭ, peraneis de oudepote ouden pros oudena autōn, oude ge ekeinoi autoi pros allēlous, allʼ eu pany phylattousi to mēden bebaion ean einai mētʼ en logǭ mētʼ en tais hautōn psychais, hēgoumenoi, hōs emoi dokei, auto stasimon einai. toutǭ de pany polemousi, kai kathʼ hoson dynantai pantachothen ekballousin.
Entirely so. For indeed, Socrates, about these Heraclitean doctrines, or, as you say, Homeric and still older ones, it is no more possible to discuss them with those around Ephesus themselves, who profess to be experienced, than with madmen. For they are simply carried along, as their writings say; but to dwell on an argument and a question, and quietly answer and ask in turn, is less in them than nothing; or rather, “not even nothing” falls short of the absence of the least rest in these men. If you ask one of them anything, they draw out little enigmatic sayings as from a quiver and shoot them off; and if you try to get an account of what he has said, you will be struck by another newly coined phrase, and you will never get anywhere with any of them, nor do they themselves with one another; but they are very careful to allow nothing to be stable, either in argument or in their own souls, thinking, as it seems to me, that it would be something stationary. This they fight against with all their might, and drive it out on every side as far as they can.
Notes and citation
Summary: Theodorus: the Heracliteans cannot be argued with, since they allow nothing to be stable.
- Plato, Theaetetus 179e–180b.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Theaet. 179e–180b (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.4 (Dindorf 2:259; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-4). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.5Dindorf 2:259–260
Ἴσως, ὦ Θεόδωρε, τοὺς ἄνδρας μαχομένους ἑώρακας, εἰρηνεύουσι δὲ οὐ συγγέγονας· οὐ γάρ σοι ἑταῖροί εἰσιν. ἀλλʼ, οἶμαι, τὰ τοιαῦτα τοῖς μαθηταῖς ἐπὶ σχολῆς φράζουσιν, οὓς ἂν βούλωνται ὁμοίους αὑτοῖς ποιῆσαι. Ποίοις μαθηταῖς, ὠ δαιμόνιε; οὐδὲ γίγνεται τῶν τοιούτων ἕτερος ἑτέρου μαθητὴς, ἀλλʼ αὐτόματοι ἀναφύονται, ὁπόθεν ἂν τύχῃ ἕκαστος αὐτῶν ἐνθουσιάσας, καὶ τὸν ἕτερον ὁ ἕτερος οὐδὲν ἡγεῖται παρὰ μὲν οὖν τούτων, ὅπερ ᾖα ἐρῶν, οὐκ ἄν ποτε λάβοις λόγον οὔτε ἑκόντων οὔτε ἀκόντων· αὐτοὺς δὲ δεῖ παραλαβόντας ὥσπερ πρόβλημα ἐπισκοπεῖσθαι.
Isōs, ō Theodōre, tous andras machomenous heōrakas, eirēneuousi de ou syngegonas; ou gar soi hetairoi eisin. allʼ, oimai, ta toiauta tois mathētais epi scholēs phrazousin, hous an boulōntai homoious hautois poiēsai. Poiois mathētais, ō daimonie? oude gignetai tōn toioutōn heteros heterou mathētēs, allʼ automatoi anaphyontai, hopothen an tychę̄ hekastos autōn enthousiasas, kai ton heteron ho heteros ouden hēgeitai para men oun toutōn, hoper ę̄a erōn, ouk an pote labois logon oute hekontōn oute akontōn; autous de dei paralabontas hōsper problēma episkopeisthai.
Perhaps, Theodorus, you have seen the men fighting but have not been with them at peace; for they are not your friends. But I think they explain such things at leisure to their pupils, whom they want to make like themselves. What pupils, my good man? None of these men becomes a pupil of another; they spring up by themselves, from wherever each happens to have been inspired, and one thinks the other knows nothing. From these, as I was going to say, you would never get an account, willing or unwilling; we must take the matter up ourselves and examine it as a problem.
Notes and citation
Summary: The Heracliteans have no pupils; the question must be examined as a problem.
- Plato, Theaetetus 180b–c.
- “Knows nothing” is translated by sense; a word (εἰδέναι) has dropped out of the text.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slips): πάρα μὲν οὑν τούτων, ὅπερ ῃα ἔρων, οὐκ αν ποτε → παρὰ μὲν οὖν τούτων, ὅπερ ᾖα ἐρῶν, οὐκ ἄν ποτε.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Theaet. 180b–c (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.5 (Dindorf 2:259–260; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-5). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.6Dindorf 2:260
Καὶ μετρίως γε λέγεις. Τὸ δὲ δὴ πρόβλημα ἄλλο τι παρειλήφαμεν παρὰ μὲν τῶν ἀρχαίων, μετὰ ποιήσεως ἐπικρυπτομένων τοὺς πολλοὺς, ὡς ἡ γένεσις τῶν πάντων Ὠκεανός τε καὶ Τηθὺς ῥεῦμα τυγχάνει καὶ οὐδὲν ἕστηκε, παρὰ δὲ τῶν ὑστέρων, ἅτε σοφωτέρων, ἀναφανδὸν ἀποδεικνυμένων, ἵνα καὶ οἱ σκυτοτόμοι αὐτῶν τὴν σοφίαν μάθωσιν ἀκούσαντες καὶ παύσωνται ἠλιθίως οἰόμενοι τὰ μὲν ἑστάναι, τὰ δὲ κινεῖσθαι τῶν ὄντων, μαθόντες δὲ ὅτι πάντα κινεῖται τιμῶσιν αὐτούς; ὀλίγου δὲ ἐπελαθόμην, ὦ Θεόδωρε, ὅτι ἄλλοι αὖ τἀναντία τούτοις ἀπεφήναντο, Οἷον ἀκίνητον τελέθει τῷ πάντʼ ὄνομʼ εἶναι, Καὶ ἄλλα ὅσα Μέλισσοί τε καὶ Παρμενίδαι ἐναντιούμενοι Πᾶσι τούτοις διισχυρίζονται, ὡς ἕν τε πάντα ἐστὶ καὶ ἕστηκεν αὐτὸ ἐν ἑαυτῷ, οὐκ ἔχον χώραν ἐν ᾗ κινεῖται.
Kai metriōs ge legeis. To de dē problēma allo ti pareilēphamen para men tōn archaiōn, meta poiēseōs epikryptomenōn tous pollous, hōs hē genesis tōn pantōn Ōkeanos te kai Tēthys rheuma tynchanei kai ouden hestēke, para de tōn hysterōn, hate sophōterōn, anaphandon apodeiknymenōn, hina kai hoi skytotomoi autōn tēn sophian mathōsin akousantes kai pausōntai ēlithiōs oiomenoi ta men hestanai, ta de kineisthai tōn ontōn, mathontes de hoti panta kineitai timōsin autous? oligou de epelathomēn, ō Theodōre, hoti alloi au tanantia toutois apephēnanto, Hoion akinēton telethei tǭ pantʼ onomʼ einai, Kai alla hosa Melissoi te kai Parmenidai enantioumenoi Pasi toutois diischyrizontai, hōs hen te panta esti kai hestēken auto en heautǭ, ouk echon chōran en hę̄ kineitai.
You speak reasonably. And the problem: have we not received it from the ancients, who hid it from the many with poetry, that the origin of all things, Oceanus and Tethys, is a stream and nothing stands still; and from the later ones, who, being wiser, demonstrate it openly, so that even the shoemakers may learn their wisdom on hearing it, and stop foolishly thinking that some things stand still and others move, and, learning that everything moves, may honor them? But I almost forgot, Theodorus, that others have declared the opposite to these: “Such that it is unmoved, whose name is the All,” and all the other things that the Melissuses and Parmenideses maintain against all these, that all things are one and it stands still in itself, having no place in which it moves.
Notes and citation
Summary: The flux doctrine is opposed by Parmenides and Melissus, who say all is one and at rest.
- Plato, Theaetetus 180c–e; Parmenides, fragment B 8.38 (as quoted by Plato).
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Theaet. 180c–e (Plato (works); quotation); Parmenides, fr. B 8.38 (Parmenides (fragments); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.6 (Dindorf 2:260; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-6). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.7Dindorf 2:260
Τούτοις οὖν, ὦ ἑταῖρε, πᾶσι τί χρησόμεθα; Κατὰ σμικρὸν γὰρ προϊόντες λελήθαμεν ἀμφοτέρων εἰς τὸ μέσον πεπτωκότες, καὶ ἐὰν μή πη ἀμυνόμενοι διαφύγωμεν, δίκην δώσομεν ὥσπερ οἰ ἐν ταῖς παλαίστραις διὰ γραμμῆς παίζοντες, ὅταν ὑπʼ ἀμφοτέρων ληφθέντες ἕλκωνται εἰς τἀναντία.”
Toutois oun, ō hetaire, pasi ti chrēsometha? Kata smikron gar proïontes lelēthamen amphoterōn eis to meson peptōkotes, kai ean mē pē amynomenoi diaphygōmen, dikēn dōsomen hōsper oi en tais palaistrais dia grammēs paizontes, hotan hypʼ amphoterōn lēphthentes helkōntai eis tanantia.”
What then shall we do with all these, my friend? For advancing little by little we have unawares fallen between both, and unless we somehow defend ourselves and escape, we shall pay the penalty, like those who play across the line in the wrestling schools, when they are caught by both sides and dragged in opposite directions.”
Notes and citation
Summary: Socrates finds himself caught between the two camps.
- Plato, Theaetetus 180e–181a.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Theaet. 180e–181a (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.7 (Dindorf 2:260; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-7). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.8Dindorf 2:260–261
Ταῦτα μὲν ἐν Θεαιτήτῳ. Μεταβὰς δὲ ἑξῆς ἐπὶ Τὸν Σοφιστὴν αὖθις περὶ τῶν πρὸ αὐτοῦ γενομένων φυσικῶν φιλοσόφων τοιάδε φησίν “Εὐκόλως μοι δοκεῖ Παρμενίδης ἡμῖν διειλέχθαι Καὶ πᾶς ὅστις ἡμῖν πώποτε ἐπὶ κρίσιν ὥρμησε τοῦ τὰ ὄντα διορίσασθαι πόσα τε καὶ ποῖά ἐστι. — Μῦθόν τινα ἕκαστος φαίνεταί μοι διηγεῖσθαι, παισὶν ὡς οὖσιν ἡμῖν. ὁ μὲν ὡς τρία τὰ ὄντα, πολεμεῖ δὲ ἀλλήλοις ἐνίοτε αὐτῶν ἄττα πη, τοτὲ δὲ καὶ φίλα γιγνόμενα γάμους τε καὶ τόκους καὶ τροφὰς τῶν ἐκγόνων παρέχεται· δύο δὲ ἕτερος εἰπὼν, ὑγρὸν καὶ ξηρὸν ἢ θερμὸν καὶ ψυχρὸν, συνοικίζει τε αὐτὰ καὶ ἐκδίδωσι. τὸ δὲ παρʼ ἡμῖν Ἐλεατικὸν ἔθνος ἅπαν, ἀπὸ Ξενοφάνους τε καὶ ἔτι πρόσθεν ἀρξάμενον, ὡς ἑνὸς ὄντος τῶν πάντων καλουμένων, οὕτω διεξέρχεται τοῖς μύθοις. Ἰάδες δέ τινες καὶ Σικελικαὶ ὕστερον Μοῦσαι ξυνενόησαν ὅτι συμπλέκειν ἀσφαλέστερον ἀμφότερα καὶ λέγειν ὡς τὸ ὂν πολλά τε καὶ ἕν ἐστιν, ἔχθρᾳ δὲ καὶ φιλίᾳ συνέχεται. διαφερόμενον γὰρ ἀεὶ ξυμφέρεται, φασὶν αἶ συντονώτεραι τῶν Μουσῶν· αἱ δὲ μαλακώτεραι τὸ μὲν ἀεὶ ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχειν ἐχάλασαν· ἐν μέρει δὲ τοτὲ μὲν ἓν εἶναί φασι τὸ πᾶν καὶ φίλον ὑπʼ Ἀφροδίτης, τοτὲ δὲ πολλὰ καὶ πολέμιον αὐτὸ αὑτῷ διὰ νεῖκός τι. ταῦτα δὲ πάντα εἰ μὲν ἀληθῶς τις ἢ μὴ τούτων εἴρηκε, χαλεπὸν καὶ πλημμελὲς οὕτω μεγάλα κλεινοῖς καὶ παλαιοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἐπιτιμᾶν.”
Tauta men en Theaitētǭ. Metabas de hexēs epi Ton Sophistēn authis peri tōn pro autou genomenōn physikōn philosophōn toiade phēsin “Eukolōs moi dokei Parmenidēs hēmin dieilechthai Kai pas hostis hēmin pōpote epi krisin hōrmēse tou ta onta diorisasthai posa te kai poia esti. — Mython tina hekastos phainetai moi diēgeisthai, paisin hōs ousin hēmin. ho men hōs tria ta onta, polemei de allēlois eniote autōn atta pē, tote de kai phila gignomena gamous te kai tokous kai trophas tōn ekgonōn parechetai; dyo de heteros eipōn, hygron kai xēron ē thermon kai psychron, synoikizei te auta kai ekdidōsi. to de parʼ hēmin Eleatikon ethnos hapan, apo Xenophanous te kai eti prosthen arxamenon, hōs henos ontos tōn pantōn kaloumenōn, houtō diexerchetai tois mythois. Iades de tines kai Sikelikai hysteron Mousai xynenoēsan hoti symplekein asphalesteron amphotera kai legein hōs to on polla te kai hen estin, echthrą de kai philią synechetai. diapheromenon gar aei xympheretai, phasin ai syntonōterai tōn Mousōn; hai de malakōterai to men aei tauta houtōs echein echalasan; en merei de tote men hen einai phasi to pan kai philon hypʼ Aphroditēs, tote de polla kai polemion auto hautǭ dia neikos ti. tauta de panta ei men alēthōs tis ē mē toutōn eirēke, chalepon kai plēmmeles houtō megala kleinois kai palaiois andrasin epitiman.”
So much in the Theaetetus. Passing next to the Sophist, he again says this about the natural philosophers before him: “Parmenides seems to me to have spoken to us carelessly, and everyone who ever set out to judge and determine how many and what kind are the things that are. — Each of them seems to me to tell us a kind of myth, as if we were children. One says that the things that are are three, and some of them sometimes war with one another in some way, and at other times become friends and provide marriages and births and the nurture of offspring; another, saying two, wet and dry or hot and cold, makes them live together and gives them in marriage. And the Eleatic tribe among us, beginning from Xenophanes and still earlier, tells its myths as if what are called all things were one. But certain Ionian and later Sicilian Muses perceived that it is safer to weave both together and to say that being is both many and one, and is held together by enmity and friendship; for in being drawn apart it is always drawn together, say the stricter of the Muses; but the gentler ones relaxed the rule that this is always so, and say that in turn the All is at one time one and friendly by Aphrodite, at another many and at war with itself through some strife. Whether any of these has spoken truly or not in all this, it is hard and offensive to censure such great charges against famous and ancient men.”
Notes and citation
Summary: Plato (Sophist): each early philosopher told a myth about how many things there are.
- Plato, Sophist 242c–243a.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): ὡς τὸ ὂν πολλά τε καὶ ἴν ἐστιν → ὡς τὸ ὂν πολλά τε καὶ ἕν ἐστιν.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Soph. 242c–243a (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.8 (Dindorf 2:260–261; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-8). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.9Dindorf 2:261
Καὶ μετὰ βραχέα ἐπιλέγει “Τοὺς μὲν τοίνυν διακριβολογουμένους ὄντος τε πέρι καὶ μὴ πάντας μὲν οὐ διεληλύθαμεν, ὅμως δʼ ἱκανῶς ἐχέτω· τοὺς δὲ ἄλλως λέγοντας αὖ θεατέον, ἵνʼ ἐκ πάντων ἴδωμεν ὅτι τὸ ὂν τοῦ μὴ ὄντος οὐδὲν εὐπορώτερον εἰπεῖν ὅ τι ποτέ ἐστιν. Οὐκοῦν πορεύεσθαι χρὴ καὶ ἐπὶ τούτους. Καὶ μὴν ἔοικέ γε ἐν αὐτοῖς οἶον γιγαντομαχία τις εἷναι διὰ τὴν ἀμφισβήτησιν περὶ τῆς οὐσίας πρὸς ἀλλήλους.
Kai meta brachea epilegei “Tous men toinyn diakribologoumenous ontos te peri kai mē pantas men ou dielēlythamen, homōs dʼ hikanōs echetō; tous de allōs legontas au theateon, hinʼ ek pantōn idōmen hoti to on tou mē ontos ouden euporōteron eipein ho ti pote estin. Oukoun poreuesthai chrē kai epi toutous. Kai mēn eoike ge en autois oion gigantomachia tis heinai dia tēn amphisbētēsin peri tēs ousias pros allēlous.
And a little after he adds: “Those who give a precise account of being and non-being we have not gone through completely, but let it suffice; now we must look at those who speak otherwise, so that we may see from all of them that it is no easier to say what being is than non-being. Then we must go on to these too. And indeed there seems to be among them something like a battle of gods and giants, because of their dispute with one another about being.
Notes and citation
Summary: Plato: a battle of gods and giants rages over the nature of being.
- Plato, Sophist 245e–246a.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Soph. 245e–246a (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.9 (Dindorf 2:261; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-9). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.10Dindorf 2:261–262
Πῶς; Οἱ μὲν εἰς γῆν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀοράτου πάντα ἕλκουσι, ταῖς χερσὶν ἀτεχνῶς πέτρας καὶ δρῦς περιλαμβάνοντες. τῶν γὰρ τοιούτων ἐφαπτόμενοι πάντων διισχυρίζονται τοῦτο εἶναι μόνον ὃ παρέχει προσβολὴν καὶ ἐπαφήν τινα, ταὐτὸν σῶμα καὶ οὐσίαν ὁριζόμενοι, τῶν δὲ ἄλλων εἴ τις φήσει μὴ σῶμα ἔχον εἶναι, καταφρονοῦντες τὸ παράπαν καὶ οὐδὲν ἐθέλοντες ἄλλο ἀκούειν. Ἦι δεινοὺς εἴρηκας ἄνδρας· ἤδη γὰρ καὶ ἐγὼ τούτων πλέον οἷς προσέτυχον.
Pōs? Hoi men eis gēn ex ouranou kai tou aoratou panta helkousi, tais chersin atechnōs petras kai drys perilambanontes. tōn gar toioutōn ephaptomenoi pantōn diischyrizontai touto einai monon ho parechei prosbolēn kai epaphēn tina, tauton sōma kai ousian horizomenoi, tōn de allōn ei tis phēsei mē sōma echon einai, kataphronountes to parapan kai ouden ethelontes allo akouein. Ēi deinous eirēkas andras; ēdē gar kai egō toutōn pleon hois prosetychon.
How? Some drag everything down to earth from heaven and the invisible, literally grasping rocks and oaks with their hands. For laying hold of all such things they maintain that that alone exists which offers resistance and contact, defining body and being as the same; and if anyone says that anything without a body exists, they despise him utterly and will hear nothing else. You speak of terrible men; for I too have met many of them already.
Notes and citation
Summary: The materialists say only bodies exist.
- Plato, Sophist 246a–b.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (word broken in the digital text): πρόσ βολὴν → προσβολὴν.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Soph. 246a–b (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.10 (Dindorf 2:261–262; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-10). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.11Dindorf 2:262
Τοιγαροῦν οἱ πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἀμφισβητοῦντες μάλα εὐλαβῶς ἄνωθεν ποθὲν ἀμύνονται, νοητὰ ἄττα καὶ ἀσώματα εἴδη βιαζόμενοι τὴν ἀληθινὴν οὐσίαν εἶναι· τὰ δὲ ἐκείνων σώματα καὶ τὴν λεγομένην ὑπὸ τούτων ἀλήθειαν κατὰ σμικρὰ διαθραύοντες ἐν τοῖς λόγοις γένεσιν ἀντὶ οὐσίας φερομένην τινὰ προσαγορεύουσιν. ἐν μέσῳ δὲ περὶ ταῦτα ἄπλετος ἀμφοτέρων μάχη τις, ὦ Θεαίτητε, ἀεὶ ξυνέστηκεν. Ἀληθῆ.”
Toigaroun hoi pros autous amphisbētountes mala eulabōs anōthen pothen amynontai, noēta atta kai asōmata eidē biazomenoi tēn alēthinēn ousian einai; ta de ekeinōn sōmata kai tēn legomenēn hypo toutōn alētheian kata smikra diathrauontes en tois logois genesin anti ousias pheromenēn tina prosagoreuousin. en mesǭ de peri tauta apletos amphoterōn machē tis, ō Theaitēte, aei xynestēken. Alēthē.”
Therefore those who dispute with them defend themselves very cautiously from somewhere above, out of the invisible, forcing it that certain intelligible and incorporeal forms are the true being; while the bodies of the others, and what they call truth, they break into small pieces in their arguments and call it a moving becoming instead of being. Between them, Theaetetus, an endless battle about these things has always been joined. True.”
Notes and citation
Summary: The friends of the forms say only intelligible forms are true being; the battle is endless.
- Plato, Sophist 246b–c.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (line-end hyphen left in the digital text): φε- ρομένην → φερομένην.
Extrabiblical texts: Plato, Soph. 246b–c (Plato (works); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.11 (Dindorf 2:262; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-11). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.12Dindorf 2:262
Διὰ δὴ τοσούτων τοὺς πρὸ αὐτοῦ φυσικοὺς φιλοσόφους διαβέβληκεν ὁ Πλάτων. ὁποίαν δὲ αὐτὸς περὶ τῶν ἐζητημένων ἐπήγετο δόξαν ἐν τοῖς πρὸ τούτου διειλήφαμεν, ὅτε συμφωνεῖν αὐτὸν τοῖς Ἑβραίων δόγμασι καὶ τῇ Μώσεως συντρέχειν περὶ τοῦ ὄντος διδασκαλίᾳ παριστῶμεν.
Dia dē tosoutōn tous pro autou physikous philosophous diabeblēken ho Platōn. hopoian de autos peri tōn ezētēmenōn epēgeto doxan en tois pro toutou dieilēphamen, hote symphōnein auton tois Hebraiōn dogmasi kai tę̄ Mōseōs syntrechein peri tou ontos didaskalią paristōmen.
In so many words, then, Plato has discredited the natural philosophers before him. And what opinion he himself held on the questions under inquiry we have described before, when we showed that he agreed with the doctrines of the Hebrews and concurred with Moses’ teaching about being.
Notes and citation
Summary: Plato discredited his predecessors; his own view, as shown, agreed with Moses.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (breathing slip in the digital text): Ἐβραίων → Ἑβραίων.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.12 (Dindorf 2:262; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-12). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.13Dindorf 2:262–263
Καὶ τοὺς αὐτοῦ δὲ τοῦ Πλάτωνος διαδόχους φέρε τῷ λόγῳ θεωρήσωμεν. Πλάτωνά φασιν ἐν Ἀκαδημίᾳ συστησάμενον τὴν διατριβὴν πρῶτον Ἀκαδημαϊκὸν κληθῆναι, καὶ τὴν ὀνομασθεῖσαν Ἀκαδημαϊκὴν φιλοσοφίαν συστήσασθαι. μετὰ δὲ Πλάτωνα Σπεύσιππον τὸν ἐξ ἀδελφῆς Πλάτωνος, τῆς Ποτώνης, εἶτα Ξενοκράτην, ἔπειτα Πολέμωνα τὴν διατριβῆν ὑποδέξασθαι.
Kai tous autou de tou Platōnos diadochous phere tǭ logǭ theōrēsōmen. Platōna phasin en Akadēmią systēsamenon tēn diatribēn prōton Akadēmaïkon klēthēnai, kai tēn onomastheisan Akadēmaïkēn philosophian systēsasthai. meta de Platōna Speusippon ton ex adelphēs Platōnos, tēs Potōnēs, eita Xenokratēn, epeita Polemōna tēn diatribēn hypodexasthai.
Come, then, and let us consider in our argument the successors of Plato himself as well. They say that Plato, having set up his school in the Academy, was first called an Academic and founded the so-called Academic philosophy; and that after Plato, Speusippus, the son of Plato’s sister Potone, then Xenocrates, then Polemo took over the school.
Notes and citation
Summary: Plato’s successors in the Academy: Speusippus, Xenocrates, Polemo.
- Compare Diogenes Laertius 3–4.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (line-end hyphen left in the digital text): Ἀκα- δημίᾳ → Ἀκαδημίᾳ; διατρι- βῆν → διατριβῆν.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.13 (Dindorf 2:262–263; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-13). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.14Dindorf 2:263
τούτους δὲ ἀφʼ ἑστίας ἀρξαμένους εὐθὺς τὰ Πλατωνικά φασι παραλύειν, στρεβλοῦντας τὰ τῷ διδασκάλῳ φανέντα ξένων εἰσαγωγαῖς δογμάτων, ὥστε σοι μὴ εἰς μακρὸν ἐλπίζειν τὴν τῶν θαυμαστῶν ἐκείνων διαλόγων ἰσχὺν ἀποσβῆναι, ἅμα τε τῇ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τελευτῇ καὶ τὴν τῶν δογμάτων διαδοχὴν συναποτελευτῆσαι· μάχης ἐντεῦθεν καὶ στάσεως ἀπὸ τῶνδε ἀρξαμένης, οὔποτε καὶ εἰς δεῦρο διαλειπούσης, τοὺς τὰ αὐτῷ φίλα ζηλοῦν ἀσπαζομένους οὐδένας μὲν ὄντας, πλὴν εἰ μὴ εἶς που ἢ δεύτερος ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ βίῳ, ἢ καί τινες ἄλλοι κομιδῇ βραχεῖς τὸν ἀριθμὸν, οὐδʼ αὐτοὶ πάμπαν ἀλλότριοι τῆς ἐπιπλάστου σοφιστείας· ἐπεὶ καὶ οἱ πρόσθεν τὸν Πλάτωνα διαδεξάμενοι τοιοίδε τινες διαβέβληνται.
toutous de aphʼ hestias arxamenous euthys ta Platōnika phasi paralyein, streblountas ta tǭ didaskalǭ phanenta xenōn eisagōgais dogmatōn, hōste soi mē eis makron elpizein tēn tōn thaumastōn ekeinōn dialogōn ischyn aposbēnai, hama te tę̄ tou andros teleutę̄ kai tēn tōn dogmatōn diadochēn synapoteleutēsai; machēs enteuthen kai staseōs apo tōnde arxamenēs, oupote kai eis deuro dialeipousēs, tous ta autǭ phila zēloun aspazomenous oudenas men ontas, plēn ei mē eis pou ē deuteros en holǭ tǭ biǭ, ē kai tines alloi komidę̄ bracheis ton arithmon, oudʼ autoi pampan allotrioi tēs epiplastou sophisteias; epei kai hoi prosthen ton Platōna diadexamenoi toioide tines diabeblēntai.
And they say that these, beginning at the very hearth, at once undid Plato’s teachings, twisting what had seemed right to their teacher by introducing foreign doctrines, so that you might expect the strength of those wonderful dialogues to be quenched before long, and the succession of his doctrines to have ended together with the man’s death; strife and faction having begun from them and never ceasing even to this day, those who are devoted to cherishing what was dear to him being none, except perhaps one or two in a whole lifetime, or some others very few in number, and not even they altogether strangers to counterfeit sophistry; since even those who first succeeded Plato have been accused of being such.
Notes and citation
Summary: Plato’s successors at once corrupted his teaching, and strife never ceased.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.14 (Dindorf 2:263; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-14). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.15Dindorf 2:263
Πολέμωνα γάρ φασι διαδέξασθαι Ἀρκεσίλαον, ὃν δὴ κατέχει λόγος ἀφέμενον τῶν Πλάτωνος δογμάτων ξένην τινὰ καὶ, ὥς φασι, δευτέραν συστήσασθαι Ἀκαδημίαν. φάναι γὰρ περὶ ἁπάντων ἐπέχειν δεῖν· εἶναι γὰρ πάντα ἀκατάληπτα καὶ τοὺς εἰς ἑκάτερα λόγους ἰσοκρατεῖς ἀλλήλοις, καὶ τὰς αἰσθήσεις δὲ ἀπίστους εἶναι καὶ πάντα λόγον. ἐπῄνει γοῦν Ἡσιόδου τουτὶ τὸ ἀπόφθεγμα κρύψαντες γὰρ ἔχουσι θεοὶ νόον ἀνθρώποισιν. ἐπειρᾶτο δὲ καὶ παράδοξά τινα ἀνακαινίζειν.
Polemōna gar phasi diadexasthai Arkesilaon, hon dē katechei logos aphemenon tōn Platōnos dogmatōn xenēn tina kai, hōs phasi, deuteran systēsasthai Akadēmian. phanai gar peri hapantōn epechein dein; einai gar panta akatalēpta kai tous eis hekatera logous isokrateis allēlois, kai tas aisthēseis de apistous einai kai panta logon. epę̄nei goun Hēsiodou touti to apophthegma krypsantes gar echousi theoi noon anthrōpoisin. epeirato de kai paradoxa tina anakainizein.
For they say that Arcesilaus succeeded Polemo, who, the story goes, abandoned Plato’s doctrines and founded a strange and, as they say, a second Academy. For he said that one must suspend judgment on all things, since all things are incomprehensible, and the arguments on either side equal in strength to one another, and that the senses and every argument are untrustworthy. At least he praised this saying of Hesiod: “For the gods keep hidden from men their mind.” And he tried to revive certain paradoxes.
Notes and citation
Summary: Arcesilaus founded the Second Academy, teaching suspension of judgment.
- Hesiod, Works and Days 42 (with “mind” for “livelihood”).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (breathing slip in the digital text): ῾Ησιόδου → Ἡσιόδου.
Extrabiblical texts: Hesiod, Op. 42 (Hesiod, Works and Days; quotation)
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.15 (Dindorf 2:263; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-15). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.
14.4.16Dindorf 2:263–264
μετὰ δὲ τὸν Ἀρκεσίλαον τοὺς ἀμφὶ Καρνεάδην καὶ Κλειτόμαχον, τῆς τῶν προτέρων δόξης ἀποτραπέντας, τρίτης Ἀκαδημίας αἰτίους γενέσθαι φασίν. ἔνιοι δὲ καὶ τετάρτην προστιθέασι τὴν τῶν περὶ τὸν Φίλωνα καὶ Χαρμίδην. τινὲς δὲ καὶ πέμπτην καταλέγουσι τὴν τῶν περὶ τὸν Ἀντίοχον. Τοιαύτη μέν τις ἡ αὐτοῦ Πλάτωνος ὑπῆρξε διαδοχή. ὁποῖοι δὲ γεγόνασιν οἵδε τὸν τρόπον, ἀνάγνωθι τὰς ὧδε ἐχούσας Νουμηνίου τοῦ Πυθαγορείου φωνὰς, ἃς τέθειται ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ ὧν ἐπέγραψε “Περὶ τῆς τῶν Ἀκαδημαϊκῶν πρὸς Πλάτωνα διαστάσεως.”
meta de ton Arkesilaon tous amphi Karneadēn kai Kleitomachon, tēs tōn proterōn doxēs apotrapentas, tritēs Akadēmias aitious genesthai phasin. enioi de kai tetartēn prostitheasi tēn tōn peri ton Philōna kai Charmidēn. tines de kai pemptēn katalegousi tēn tōn peri ton Antiochon. Toiautē men tis hē autou Platōnos hypērxe diadochē. hopoioi de gegonasin hoide ton tropon, anagnōthi tas hōde echousas Noumēniou tou Pythagoreiou phōnas, has tetheitai en tǭ prōtǭ hōn epegrapse “Peri tēs tōn Akadēmaïkōn pros Platōna diastaseōs.”
After Arcesilaus they say that the followers of Carneades and Clitomachus, turning from the opinion of their predecessors, were the authors of a third Academy. Some add a fourth also, that of Philo and Charmides; and some count a fifth too, that of Antiochus. Such was the succession of Plato himself. And what sort of men these were in character, read in these words of Numenius the Pythagorean, which he set down in the first book of the work he entitled On the Disagreement of the Academics with Plato:
Notes and citation
Summary: The later Academies; Eusebius introduces Numenius on the Academics.
- Numenius, On the Disagreement of the Academics with Plato.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (line-end hyphen left in the digital text; mismatched quotation marks in the digital text): ‘ Περὶ τῆς τῶν Ἀκαδημαϊκῶν πρὸς Πλάτωνα διαστάσεως.” → “Περὶ τῆς τῶν Ἀκαδημαϊκῶν πρὸς Πλάτωνα διαστάσεως.”; δια- δοχή → διαδοχή.
Cite (SBL): Eusebius, Praep. ev. 14.4.16 (Dindorf 2:263–264; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-praeparatio/13-21-1/#p-14-4-16). (abbreviation not yet checked)
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Greek of Dindorf's Teubner text (1867; digital text First1KGreek, CC BY-SA 4.0), then compared section by section with the public-domain English of E. H. Gifford (1903); differences checked against the Greek.