Church History 1.2.19 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:8–9

ἀλλὰ καὶ οὔτε πόλιν οὔτε πολιτείαν, οὐ τέχνας, οὐκ ἐπιστήμας ἐπὶ νοῦν ἐβάλλοντο, νόμων τε καὶ δικαιωμάτων καὶ προσέτι ἀρετῆς καὶ φιλοσοφίας οὐδὲ ὀνόματος μετεῖχον, νομάδες δὲ ἐπʼ ἐρημίαις οἶά τινες ἄγριοι καὶ ἀπηνεῖς διῆγον, τοὺς μὲν ἐκ φύσεως προσήκοντας λογισμοὺς, τά τε λογικὰ καὶ ἥμερα τῆς ἀνθρώπων ψυχῆς σπέρματα αὐτοπροαιρέτου κακίας ὑπερβολῇ διαφθείροντες, ἀνοσιουργίαις δὲ πάσαις ὅλους σφᾶς ἐκδεδωκότες, ὡς τοτὲ μὲν ἀνθρωποβορεῖν, τοτὲ δὲ ἀλληλοκτονεῖν, ἄλλοτε δὲ ἀνθρωποβορεῖν, θεομαχίας τε καὶ τὰς παρὰ τοῖς πᾶσι βοωμένας γιγαντομαχίας ἐπιτολμᾶν, καὶ γῆν μὲν ἐπιτειχίζειν οὐρανῷ διανοεῖσθαι, μανίᾳ δὲ φρονήματος ἐκτόπου αὐτὸν τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸν πολεμεῖν παρασκευάζεσθαι.

English · Claude translation

They gave no thought to city or constitution, to arts or sciences; they had not even the name of laws and ordinances, nor, besides, of virtue and philosophy; but they lived as nomads in deserts, like wild and cruel creatures, destroying the natural reasoning and the rational and gentle seeds of the human soul by an excess of deliberately chosen wickedness, and giving themselves wholly over to every impiety, so that now they devoured one another, now killed one another, and at other times ate human flesh, and dared to fight against the gods and to attempt the battles with giants celebrated among all, and planned to wall up the earth against heaven, and in the madness of an outlandish pride prepared to make war on the very God who is over all.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:8–9 · 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

Gen 11:4 · allusion, medium confidence

Notes

Translation notes

The digital text repeats ἀνθρωποβορεῖν in the list; the translation keeps the sense. “Walling the earth against heaven” alludes to the tower of Babel (Gen 11:4) and to Greek myths of the giants.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.2.19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/2/19/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.2.19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/2/19/).