Sophia Scriptura

Church History 4.7.9

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

Summary: Irenaeus reports that Carpocrates' Gnostics practised magic openly and taught that shameful deeds were needed to escape the cosmic rulers.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:142–143

γράφει δὲ καὶ Εἰρήναιος συγχρονίσαι τούτοις Καρποκράτην, ἑτέρας αἱρέσεως τῆς τῶν γνωστικῶν ἐπικληθείσης πατέρα, οἳ καὶ τοῦ Σίμωνος οὐχ ὡς ἐκεῖνος κρύβδην, ἀλλʼ ἤδη καὶ εἰς φανερὸν τὰς μαγείας παραδιδόναι ἠξίουν, ὡς ἐπὶ μεγάλοις δὴ μονονουχὶ σεμνυνόμενοι τοῖς κατὰ περιεργίαν πρὸς αὐτῶν ἐπιτελουμένοις φίλτροις ὀνειροπομποῖς τε καὶ παρέδροις τισὶ δαίμοσι καὶ ἄλλαις ὁμοιοτρόποις τισὶν ἀγωγαῖς· τούτοις τε ἀκολούθως πάντα δρᾶν χρῆναι διδάσκειν τὰ αἰσχρουργότατα τοὺς μέλλοντας εἰς τὸ τέλειον τῆς κατʼ αὐτοὺς μυσταγωγίας ἢ καὶ μᾶλλον μυσαροποιίας ἐλεύσεσθαι, ὡς μὴ ἂν ἄλλως ἐκφευξομένους τοὺς κοσμικοὺς, ὡς ἂν ἐκεῖνοι φαῖεν, ἄρχοντας) μὴ οὐχὶ πᾶσι τὰ διʼ ἀρρητοποιίας ἀπονείμαντας χρέα.

English · Claude translation

Irenaeus also writes that Carpocrates was contemporary with these, the father of another heresy called that of the Gnostics, who thought fit to hand down Simon's magic arts no longer secretly, as he had, but now openly, priding themselves almost as on great things on the love-charms, dream-sending and familiar demons, and other similar practices carried out by them in their curiosity; and in accordance with these they taught that those who were to come to the perfection of their mystagogy, or rather their abomination, must do all the most shameful things, since they could not otherwise escape the cosmic rulers, as they would say, unless they paid to all what was due by means of unspeakable deeds.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:142–143 · 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)
Extrabiblical texts
  • Irenaeus, Irenaeus, Haer. 1.25.3–4 (Irenaeus, Against Heresies) · allusion, high confidence
Topics
Heresy, Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • The source is Irenaeus, Haer. 1.25.3–4. “Cosmic rulers” (κοσμικοὶ ἄρχοντες) are the powers the Gnostics believed governed the world.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.7.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/7/9/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 4.7.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/4/7/9/).

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