Sophia Scriptura

Church History 4.15.40

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

Summary: The Martyrdom (quoted): the devil tried to keep the Christians from recovering Polycarp's body.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:161

ὁ δὲ ἀντίζηλος καὶ βάσκανος καὶ “πονηρὸς, ὁ ἀντικείμενος τῷ γένει τῶν δικαίων, ἰδὼν “τὸ μέγεθος αὐτοῦ τῆς μαρτυρίας καὶ τὴν ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς “ ἀνεπίληπτον αὐτοῦ πολιτείαν, ἐστεφανωμένον τε τὸν ῾τῆς ἀφθαρσίας στέφανον καὶ βραβεῖον ἀναντίρρη- “ ’τον ἀπενηνεγμένον, ἐπετήδευσεν ὡς μηδὲ τὸ σω- “μάτιον αὐτοῦ ὑφʼ ἡμῶν ληφθείη, καίπερ πολλῶν ἐπιθυμούντων τοῦτο ποιῆσαι, καὶ κοινωνῆσαι τῷ ἁγίῳ αὐτοῦ σαρκίῳ.

English · Claude translation

But the jealous and envious evil one, who opposes the race of the righteous, seeing the greatness of his martyrdom and his blameless life from the beginning, and that he had been crowned with the crown of incorruption and had carried off an undisputed prize, contrived that not even his poor body should be taken by us, though many desired to do this and to have fellowship with his holy flesh.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:161 · 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
  • Mart. Pol. 17.1 (Martyrdom of Polycarp) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Martyrdom

Notes

Translation notes

  • Quotation from Mart. Pol. 17.1.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.15.40 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/15/40/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.15.40 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/15/40/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage