Church History 1.6.2
Summary: Herod was the first foreigner to rule the Jews; Josephus calls him Idumaean and Arabian, while Africanus reports a humbler origin at Ascalon.
Greek text · Dindorf 4:21–22
ἀτελῆ γέ τοι τὰ τῆς προρρή- σεως ἦν, καθʼ ὅν ὑπὸ τοῖς οἰκείοις τοῦ ἔθνους ἂρχουσι διάγειν αὐτοῖς ἐξῆν χρόνον, ἄνωθεν ἐξ αὐτοῦ Μωυσέως καταρξαμένοις καὶ εἰς τὴν Αὐγούστου βασιλείαν διαρκέσασι· καθʼ ὃν πρῶτος ἀλλόφυλος Ἡρώδης τὴν κατὰ Ἰουδαίων ἐπιτρέπεται ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίων ἀρχὴν, ὡς μὲν Ἰώσηπος παραδίδωσιν, Ἰδουμαῖος ὢν κατὰ πατέρα τὸ γένος, Ἀράβιος δὲ κατὰ μητέρα, ὡς δʼ Ἀφρικανὸς, οὐχ ὁ τυχὼν δὲ καὶ οὗτος γέγονε συγγραφεὶς), φασὶν οἱ τὰ κατʼ αὐτὸν ἀκριβοῦντες, Ἀντιπάτρου, τοῦτον δὲ Ἡρώδου τινὸς Ἀσκαλωνίτου τῶν περὶ τὸν νεὼν τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος ἱεροδούλων καλουμένων γεγονέναι.
English · Claude translation
The prediction was unfulfilled during the time when they were permitted to live under rulers of their own nation, beginning from Moses himself and continuing until the reign of Augustus. In his time Herod, the first foreigner, was entrusted by the Romans with the rule of the Jews: as Josephus relates, he was an Idumaean on his father's side and an Arabian on his mother's; but, as Africanus says (and he too was no ordinary writer), those who know the details about him say that he was the son of Antipater, and that Antipater was the son of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of the so-called temple slaves of the temple of Apollo.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The references are Josephus, Ant. 14.8–9, and Julius Africanus, Letter to Aristides.
Cite this passage
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.6.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/6/2/).
Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.6.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/6/2/).
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