Sophia Scriptura

Church History 1.13.20

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

Summary: The Syriac account (quoted): Thaddaeus promised to preach Christ's coming, works, humiliation, death, descent to Hades, and ascension.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:43

καὶ ὁ Θαδδαῖος “νῦν μὲν σιωπήσομαι, ἔφη, ἐπειδὴ κηρῦξαι τὸν λόγον ἀπεστάλην, αὔριον δὲ ἐκκλησίασόν μοι τοὺς πολίτας σου πάντας, καὶ ἐπʼ αὐτῶν κηρύξω τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ σπερῶ ἐν αὐτοῖς τὸν λόγον τῆς ζωῆς, περί τε τῆς ἐλεύσεως τοῦ Ἰησοῦ καθὼς ἐγένετο; καὶ περὶ τῆς ἀποστολῆς αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἕνεκα τίνος ἀπεστάλη ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς, καὶ περὶ τῆς δυνάμεως τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ, καὶ μυστηρίων ὧν ἐλάλησεν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ, καὶ ποίᾳ δυνάμει ταῦτα ἐποίει, καὶ περὶ τῆς καινῆς αὐτοῦ κηρύξεως, καὶ περὶ τῆς σμικρότητος καὶ περὶ τῆς ταπεινώσεως αὐτοῦ, καὶ πῶς ἐταπείνωσεν ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀπέθανε καὶ ἐσμίκρυνεν αὐτοῦ τὴν θεότητα καὶ ἐσταυρώθη, καὶ κατέβη εἰς τὸν Ἃιδην, καὶ διέσχισε φραγμὸν τὸν ἐξ αἰῶνος μὴ σχισθέντα, καὶ ἀνήγαγεν νεκρούς· καταβὰς γὰρ μόνος συνήγειρεν πολλοὺς, εἶθʼ οὕτως ἀνέβη πρὸς τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ.

English · Claude translation

And Thaddaeus said, ‘Now I will be silent, since I was sent to preach the word; but tomorrow assemble for me all your citizens, and before them I will preach the word of God and sow among them the word of life: about the coming of Jesus, how it happened; about his mission, and for what purpose he was sent by the Father; about the power of his works, and the mysteries he spoke in the world, and by what power he did these things; about his new preaching; about his lowliness and humiliation, and how he humbled himself, and died, and made his Godhead small, and was crucified, and went down to Hades, and broke through the barrier never broken from eternity, and raised up the dead; for he went down alone, but raised up many with him, and so ascended to his Father.’

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:43 · 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)
Scripture
Extrabiblical texts
  • Abgar Syriac acts of Thaddaeus (Correspondence of Jesus and Abgar) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Christology

Notes

Translation notes

  • Quotation from the Syriac Edessene account. The descent to Hades echoes 1 Pet 3:19 and Matt 27:52; “humbled himself” echoes Phil 2:8.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.13.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/13/20/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.13.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/13/20/).

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