Church History 1.1.8

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

Summary: A church history must begin with Christ, from whom Christians take their name.

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Greek text · Dindorf 4:3

καὶ γὰρ οὖν τὸν γραφῇ μέλλοντα τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς ὑφηγήσεως παραδώσειν τὴν ἱστορίαν, ἄνωθεν ἐκ πρώτης τῆς κατʼ αὐτὸν τὸν Χριστὸν, ὅτι περ ἐξ αὐτοῦ καὶ προσωνυμίας ἠξιώθημεν, θειοτέρας ἢ κατὰ τὸ δοκοῦν τοῖς πολλοῖς οἰκονομίας ἀναγκαῖον ἂν εἴη κατάρξασθαι.

English · Claude translation

For whoever intends to hand down in writing the history of the church's story must of necessity begin from the very first dispensation concerning Christ himself, since it is from him that we have been thought worthy even of our name, a dispensation more divine than most people suppose.

About this passage

Source: Dindorf 4:3 · Wilhelm Dindorf, ed., Eusebii Caesariensis Opera, vol. 4: Historiae ecclesiasticae libri I–X (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871) · Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text: As printed in Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 4. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation: Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Teubner, 1871); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1 (1890) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)
Topics: Christology

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.1.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/1/8/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.1.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/1/8/).

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