Sophia Scriptura

Church History 2.17.19

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

Summary: Philo describes elderly virgins among them, chaste by choice out of love for wisdom.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:68

φησὶ γὰρ δὴ τοῖς περὶ ὧν ὁ λόγος καὶ γυναῖκας συνεῖναι, ὧν αἶ πλεῖσται γηραλέαι τυγχάνουσι παρθένοι, τὴν ἁγνείαν οὐκ ἀνάγκῃ, καθάπερ ἔνιαι τῶν παρʼ Ἕλλησιν ἱερειῶν, φυλάξασαι μᾶλλον ἢ καθʼ ἑκούσιον γνώμην, διὰ ζῆλον καὶ πόθον σοφίας, ᾗ συμβιοῦν σπουδάσασαι τῶν περὶ τὸ σῶμα ἡδονῶν ἠλόγησαν, οὐ θνητῶν ἐκγόνων, ἀλλʼ ἀθανάτων ὀρεχθεῖσαι, ἃ μόνη τίκτειν ἀφʼ ἑαυτῆς οἵα τέ ἐστιν ἡ θεοφιλὴς ψυχή.

English · Claude translation

For he says that there are women too with those of whom we speak, most of whom are aged virgins, who have kept their chastity not under compulsion, like some of the priestesses among the Greeks, but rather of their own free will, through zeal and longing for wisdom; eager to live with her, they have disregarded the pleasures of the body, desiring not mortal offspring but immortal, which only the God-loving soul is able to bear from itself.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:68 · 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
  • Philo, Contempl. 68 (Philo of Alexandria (works)) · allusion, high confidence
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • Paraphrase of Philo, Contempl. 68.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.17.19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/17/19/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.17.19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/17/19/).

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