Sophia Scriptura

Church History 5.16.9

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

Summary: Two women were also filled with this spirit, which flattered its followers and taught them to revile the whole church for rejecting it.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:216–217

τέχνῃ δέ τινι, μᾶλλον “δὲ τοιαύτῃ μεθόδῳ κακοτεχνίας ὁ διάβολος τὴν κατὰ “τῶν παρηκόων ἀπώλειαν μηχανησάμενος, καὶ παρʼ “ἀξίαν ὑπʼ αὐτῶν τιμώμενος, ὑπεξήγειρέ τε καὶ προσεξέκαυσεν “αὐτῶν τὴν ἀποκεκοιμημένην ἀπὸ τῆς κατʼ “ἀλήθειαν πίστεως διάνοιαν, ὡς καὶ ἑτέρας τινὰς δύο “γυναῖκας ἐπεγεῖραι καὶ τοῦ νόθου πνεύματος πληρῶσαι, “ὡς καὶ λαλεῖν ἐκφρόνως καὶ ἀκαίρως καὶ “ἀλλοτριοτρόπως, ὁμοίως τῷ προειρημένῳ, καὶ τοὺς “μὲν χαίροντας καὶ χαυνουμένους ἐπʼ αὐτῷ μακαρί- “ζοντος τοῦ πνεύματος, καὶ διὰ τοῦ μεγέθους τῶν “ἐπαγγελμάτων ἐκφυσιοῦντος, ἔσθʼ ὅπη δὲ καὶ κα- “τακρίνοντος στοχαστικῶς καὶ ἀξιοπίστως αὐτοὺς “ἄντικρυς, ἵνα καὶ ἐλεγκτικὸν εἶναι δοκῇ, (ὀλίγοι δʼ “ἦσαν οὗτοι τῶν Φρυγῶν ἐξηπατημένοι), τὴν δὲ κα- “θόλου καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐκκλησίαν “βλασφημεῖν διδάσκοντος τοῦ ἀπηυθαδισμένου πνεύ- “ματος, ὅτι μήτε τιμὴν μήτε πάροδον εἰς αὐτὴν τὸ “ψευδοπροφητικὸν ἐλάμβανε πνεῦμα.

English · Claude translation

By a certain art, or rather by such a method of evil craft, the devil contrived the destruction of the disobedient and, honoured by them beyond his deserts, stirred up and further inflamed their understanding, which had fallen asleep from the true faith, so that he raised up two other women as well and filled them with the spurious spirit, so that they spoke madly, unseasonably, and strangely, like the one already mentioned. The spirit called blessed those who rejoiced and were puffed up in him, and inflated them by the greatness of its promises; yet sometimes it also condemned them outright, shrewdly and plausibly, so as to seem also to reprove (but few of the Phrygians were deceived); and the arrogant spirit taught them to blaspheme the whole catholic church under heaven, because the spirit of false prophecy received from it neither honour nor entrance.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:216–217 · 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
  • Anon. Mont. (Anonymous Treatise against the Montanists) · quotation, high confidence
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • Quotation from the Anonymous Anti-Montanist. The two women are Priscilla and Maximilla. “Catholic” here means “universal”.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.16.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/16/9/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.16.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/16/9/).

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