Church History 4.7.11

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

Summary: Pagans came to accuse Christians of incest and cannibal feasts.

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Greek text · Dindorf 4:143

ταύτῃ δʼ οὑν ἐπὶ πλεῖστον συνέβαινε τὴν περὶ ἡμῶν παρὰ τοῖς τότε ἀπίστοις ὑπόνοιαν δυσσεβῆ καὶ ἀτοπωτάτην διαδίδοσθαι, ὡς δὴ ἀθεμίτοις πρὸς μητέρας καὶ ἀδελφὰς μίξεσιν ἀνοσίαις τε τροφαῖς χρωμένων.

English · Claude translation

In this way, then, it came about that the impious and most absurd suspicion about us spread very widely among the unbelievers of that time, that we practised unlawful intercourse with mothers and sisters and unholy feasts.

About this passage

Source: Dindorf 4:143 · 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)
Topics: Persecution

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.7.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/7/11/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.7.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/7/11/).

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