Sophia Scriptura

Church History 2.9.4

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

Summary: Herod then imprisoned Peter, but an angel freed him by night.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:56

τὸ τηνικαῦτα δὲ, ὥς φησιν ἡ θεία γραφὴ, ἰδὼν ὁ Ἡρώδης ἐπὶ τῇ τοῦ Ἰακώβου ἀναιρέσει ὅτι δὴ πρὸς ἡδονῆς εἴη τὸ πραχθὲν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις, ἐπιτίθεται καὶ Πέτρῳ, δεσμοῖς τε αὐτὸν παραδοὺς ὅσον οὔπω καὶ τὸν κατʼ αὐτοῦ φόνον ἐνήργησεν ἂν, εἰ μὴ διὰ θείας ἐπιφανείας ἐπιστάντος αὐτῷ νύκτωρ ἀγγέλου παραδόξως τῶν εἱργμῶν ἀπαλλαγεὶς ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ κηρύγματος ἀφεῖτο διακονίαν. καὶ τὰ μὲν κατὰ Πέτρον οὕτως εἶχεν οἰκονομίας.

English · Claude translation

Then, as the divine Scripture says, Herod, seeing after the killing of James that what had been done pleased the Jews, attacked Peter too, and having put him in chains would very soon have carried out his murder, had not an angel appeared to him by night in a divine vision, and he was wonderfully released from his bonds and set free for the ministry of preaching. So God's dispensation for Peter was carried out.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:56 · 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
Topics
Persecution

Notes

Translation notes

  • Allusion to Acts 12:3–11.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.9.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/9/4/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.9.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/9/4/).

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