Church History 4.23.8

Summary: Pinytus replied, asking Dionysius for more solid teaching rather than milk; his letter shows his orthodoxy and learning.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:173

πρὸς ἣν ὁ Πινυτὸς ἀντιγράφων θαυμάζει μὲν καὶ ἀποδέχεται τὸν Διονύσιον, ἀντιπαρακαλεῖ δὲ στερροτέρας ἤδη ποτὲ μεταδιδόναι τροφῆς, τελειοτέροις γράμμασιν εἰσαῦθις τὸν ὑπʼ αὐτῷ λαὸν ὑποθρέψαντα, ὡς μὴ διὰ τέλους τοῖς γαλακτώδεσιν ἐνδιατρίβοντες λόγοις τῇ νηπιώδει ἀγωγῇ λάθοιεν καταγηράσαντες. διʼ ἧς ἐπιστολῆς καὶ ἡ τοῦ Πινυτοῦ περὶ τὴν πίστιν ὀρθοδοξία τε καὶ φροντὶς τῆς τῶν ὑπηκόων ὠφελείας, τό τε λόγιον καὶ ἡ περὶ τὰ θεῖα σύνεσις ὡς διʼ ἀκριβεστάτης ἀναδείκνυται εἰκόνος.

English · Claude translation

Pinytus, writing in reply, admires and welcomes Dionysius, but in turn urges him at some time to impart more solid food, nourishing the people under him afresh with more mature writings, so that they might not, by continuing to the end in milky words, grow old unawares in childish training. In this letter both Pinytus's orthodoxy in the faith and his care for the benefit of those under him, his learning and his understanding of divine things, are shown as in a most exact image.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:173 · 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

1 Cor 3:2 · allusion, high confidence
Heb 5:12–14 · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Church office

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.23.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/23/8/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.23.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/23/8/).

Greek text · Dindorf 4:173

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage