Church History 5.16.17

Summary: The writer challenges Maximilla's spirit, which claimed to be “word and spirit and power,” to prove itself before the bishops her followers silenced.

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Greek text · Dindorf 4:218

γράφει δὲ οὕτως “καὶ μὴ λε- “γέτω ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ λόγῳ τῷ κατὰ Ἀστέριον Οὐρβανὸν “τὸ διὰ Μαξιμίλλης πνεῦμα ῾διώκομαι ὡς λύκος ἐκ “προβάτων· οὐκ εἰμὶ λύκος· ῥῆμά εἰμι καὶ πνεῦμα καὶ “δύναμιςʼ, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἐν τῷ πνεύματι δύναμιν ἐναργῶς “δειξάτω καὶ ἐλεγξάτω, καὶ ἐξομολογεῖσθαι διὰ τοῦ “πνεύματος καταναγκασάτω τοὺς τότε παρόντας εἰς “τὸ δοκιμάσαι καὶ διαλεχθῆναι τῷ πνεύματι λαλοῦντι, “ἄνδρας δοκίμους καὶ ἐπισκόπους, Ζωτικὸν ἀπὸ Κο- “μάνης κώμης καὶ Ἰουλιανὸν ἀπὸ Ἀπαμείας, ὧν οἱ “περὶ Θεμίσωνα τὰ στόματα φιμώσαντες οὐκ εἴασαν “τὸ ψευδὲς καὶ λαοπλάνον πνεῦμα ὑπʼ αὐτῶν ἐλεγ- “χθῆναι.”

English · Claude translation

He writes thus: “And let not the spirit speaking through Maximilla say, in the same book according to Asterius Urbanus, ‘I am driven away like a wolf from the sheep; I am not a wolf; I am word and spirit and power.’ But let it show clearly the power in the spirit and prove it, and let it compel through the spirit to confess it those who were then present to test and converse with the spirit as it spoke, approved men and bishops, Zoticus from the village of Comana and Julian from Apamea, whose mouths the followers of Themiso muzzled and would not allow the false and people-deceiving spirit to be refuted by them.”

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:218 · 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
  • Anon. Mont. (Anonymous Treatise against the Montanists) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Heresy, Church office

Notes

Translation notes

  • Quotation from the Anonymous Anti-Montanist, citing an oracle of Maximilla as recorded by one Asterius Urbanus; cf. Matt 7:15 and John 10:12.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.16.17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/16/17/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.16.17 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/16/17/).

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