Sophia Scriptura

Church History 6.2.1

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

Summary: Eusebius will give a brief account of Origen's life from letters and eyewitnesses.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:240

Πολλὰ μὲν οὖν ἄν τις εἴποι, τὸν βίον τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἐν σχολῇ παραδοῦναι διὰ γραφῆς πειρώμενος, δέοιτο δʼ ἂν καὶ ἰδίας ὑποθέσεως ἡ περὶ αὐτοῦ σύνταξις. ὅμως δʼ ἡμεῖς ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος ἐπιτεμνόμενοι τὰ πλεῖστα διὰ βραχέων ὡς οἷόν τε ὀλίγα ἄττα τῶν περὶ αὐτὸν διελευσόμεθα, ἔκ τινων ἐπιστολῶν καὶ ἱστορίας τῶν καὶ εἰς ἡμᾶς τῷ βίῳ πεφυλαγμένων αὐτοῦ γνωρίμων τὰ δηλούμενα φέροντες.

English · Claude translation

Much might be said by one attempting to hand down in writing at leisure the life of the man, and the account of him would need a work of its own. Yet for the present, abridging most things, we shall go briefly, as far as possible, through a few of the facts about him, drawing what we set out from certain letters and from the reports of his acquaintances who have survived to our time.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:240 · 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)

Notes

Translation notes

  • Eusebius and Pamphilus wrote a longer Defence of Origen (6.23.4, 6.33.4), of which Book 1 survives in Latin.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.2.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/6/2/1/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.2.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/6/2/1/).

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