Church History 6.19.9 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Eusebius: Porphyry is right about Origen's learning but lies about his and Ammonius's religion.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:263

ταῦτα τῷ Πορφυρίῳ κατὰ τὸ τρίτον σύγγραμμα τῶν γραφέντων αὐτῷ κατὰ Χριστιανῶν εἴρηται, ἐπαληθεύσαντι μὲν περὶ τῆς τἀνδρὸς ἀσκήσεως καὶ πολυμαθείας, ψευσαμένῳ δὲ σαφῶς (τί γὰρ οὐκ ἔμελλεν ὁ κατὰ Χριστιανῶν;) ἐν οἷς αὐτὸν μὲν ἐξ Ἑλλήνων φησὶν μετατεθεῖσθαι, τὸν δʼ Ἀμμώνιον ἐκ βίου τοῦ κατὰ τὴν θεοσέβειαν ἐπὶ τὸν ἐθνικὸν τρόπον ἐκπεσεῖν.

English · Claude translation

These things are said by Porphyry in the third book of the work he wrote against Christians. He tells the truth about the man's training and learning, but clearly lies (for what would an opponent of Christians not do?) where he says that Origen had come over from the Greeks, and that Ammonius fell away from a life of piety to pagan ways.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:263 · 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

Porphyry, Porphyry, Chr. (Porphyry, Against the Christians (fragments)) · allusion, medium confidence

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.19.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/6/19/9/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.19.9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/6/19/9/).