Sophia Scriptura

Church History 3.5.4

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

Summary: Josephus records the war's horrors in detail, ending with the abomination of desolation and the burning of the temple.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:88–89

ὅσα μὲν οὖν τηνικάδε κατὰ πάντα τόπον ὅλῳ τῷ ἔθνει συνερρύη κακὰ, ὅπως τε αὖ μάλιστα οἱ τῆς Ἰουδαίας οἰκήτορες εἰς ἔσχατον περιηλάθησαν συμφορῶν, ὁπόσαι τε μυριάδες ἡβηδὸν γυναιξὶν ἅμα καὶ παισὶ ξίφει καὶ λιμῷ καὶ μυρίοις ἄλλοις εἴδεσι περιπεπτώκασι θανάτου, πόλεων τε Ἰουδαϊκῶν ὅσαι τε καὶ οἷαι γεγόνασι πολιορκίαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁπόσα οἶ ἐπʼ αὐτὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ ὡσὰν ἐπὶ μητρόπολιν ὀχυρωτάτην καταπεφευγότες δεινὰ καὶ πέρα δεινῶν ἑωράκασι, τοῦ τε παντὸς πολέμου τὸν τρόπον, καὶ τῶν ἐν τούτῳ γεγενημένων ἐν μέρει ἕκαστα, καὶ ὡς ἐπὶ τέλει τὸ πρὸς τῶν προφητῶν ἀνηγορευμένον βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως ἐν αὐτῷ κατέστη τῷ πάλαι τοῦ θεοῦ περιβοήτῳ νεῷ, παντελῆ φθορὰν καὶ ἀφανισμὸν ἔσχατον τὸν διὰ πυρὸς ὑπομείναντι, πάρεστιν ὅτῳ φίλον ἐπʼ ἀκριβὲς ἐκ τῆς τῷ Ἰωσήπῳ γραφείσης ἀναλέξασθαι ἱστορίας.

English · Claude translation

How many evils then poured on the whole nation in every place; how especially the inhabitants of Judea were driven to the extreme of calamities; how many tens of thousands of men of every age, with women and children, fell by the sword, by famine, and by countless other forms of death; how many and what sieges of Jewish cities took place; and what terrible things, and worse than terrible, those saw who fled to Jerusalem itself as to a most secure metropolis; the course of the whole war and each event that took place in it; and how at last the abomination of desolation proclaimed by the prophets stood in the very temple of God, famous of old, which suffered utter ruin and final destruction by fire: all this anyone who wishes may gather accurately from the history written by Josephus.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:88–89 · 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
Extrabiblical texts
  • Josephus, J.W. (Josephus (works)) · allusion, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The “abomination of desolation” alludes to Dan 9:27 and Matt 24:15.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.5.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/5/4/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.5.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/3/5/4/).

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