Church History 1.7.2

Summary: Africanus (quoted) explains that Jewish lineages were reckoned either by nature or by law, as in levirate marriage.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:24–25

τὰς μὲν τῶν λοιπῶν δόξας ὡσὰν βιαίους καὶ διεψευσμένας ἀπελέγξας, ἣν δʼ αὐτὸς παρείληφεν ἱστορίαν, τούτοις αὐτοῖς ἐκτιθέμενος τοῖς ῥήμασιν “ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τὰ ὀνόματα “τῶν γενῶν ἐν Ἰσραὴλ ἠριθμεῖτο ἢ φύσει ἢ νόμῳ, “φύσει μὲν, γνησίου σπέρματος διαδοχῇ, νόμῳ δὲ, “ἑτέρου παιδοποιουμένου εἰς ὄνομα τελευτήσαντος “ἀδελφοῦ ἀτέκου· (ὅτι γὰρ οὐδέπω δέδοτο ἐλπὶς “ἀναστάσεως σαφὴς, τὴν μέλλουσαν ἐπαγγελίαν ἀνα- “στάσει ἐμιμοῦντο θνητῇ, ἵνα ἀνέκλειπτον τὸ ὄνομα “μείνῃ τοῦ μετηλλαχότος)·

English · Claude translation

He refuted the opinions of the others as forced and false, and set out the account he himself had received in these very words: “For the names of the families in Israel were reckoned either by nature or by law: by nature, through the succession of legitimate offspring; by law, when another raised up children in the name of a brother who had died childless. For since no clear hope of resurrection had yet been given, they imitated the promise to come by a mortal resurrection, so that the name of the one who had departed might remain unfailing.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:24–25 · 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

Deut 25:5–6 · allusion, high confidence

Extrabiblical texts

Julius Africanus, Letter to Aristides (Julius Africanus (fragments)) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Marriage

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.7.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/7/2/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.7.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/7/2/).

Greek text · Dindorf 4:24–25

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage