Sophia Scriptura

Church History 1.7.4

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

Summary: Africanus (quoted): both Gospels are true, because the lines of Solomon and Nathan were intertwined by levirate and second marriages.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:25

οὕτως οὐδέτερον τῶν εὐαγγελίων ψεύδε- “ται, καὶ φύσιν ἀριθμοῦν καὶ νόμον· ἐπεπλάκη γὰρ “ἀλλήλοις τὰ γένη, τό τε ἀπὸ τοῦ Σολομῶνος καὶ τὸ “ἀπὸ τοῦ Νάθαν, ἀναστάσεσιν ἀτέκνων καὶ δευτερο- “γαμίαις καὶ ἀναστάσει σπερμάτων, ὡς δικαίως τοὺς “αὐτοὺς ἄλλοτε ἄλλων νομίζεσθαι, τῶν μὲν δοκούν- “των πατέρων, τῶν δὲ ὑπαρχόντων· ὡς ἀμφοτέρας “τὰς διηγήσεις κυρίως ἀληθεῖς οὔσας ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰωσὴφ “πολυπλόκως μὲν, ἀλλʼ ἀκριβῶς κατελθεῖν.

English · Claude translation

So neither of the Gospels is false, for they reckon both nature and law. For the families descended from Solomon and from Nathan were intertwined with one another by raisings-up of offspring for the childless, by second marriages, and by raising up of seed, so that the same persons are rightly reckoned as belonging now to one, now to another, some to their reputed fathers and some to their actual fathers. Thus both accounts are strictly true, and come down to Joseph in a complicated but accurate way.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:25 · 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)
Extrabiblical texts
  • Julius Africanus, Letter to Aristides (Julius Africanus (fragments)) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Marriage

Notes

Translation notes

  • Quotation from Julius Africanus, Letter to Aristides.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.7.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/7/4/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 1.7.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/1/7/4/).

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