Church History 6.8.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:249

τὸ γὰρ “εἰσὶν εὐνοῦχοι οἵτινες εὐνούχισαν ἑαυτοὺς διὰ τὴν βασι- ῾ λείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν ἁπλούστερον καὶ νεανικώτερον ἐκλαβὼν ὁμοῦ μὲν σωτήριον φωνὴν ἀποπληροῦν οἰόμενος, ὁμοῦ δὲ καὶ διὰ τὸ νέον τὴν ἡλικίαν ὄντα μὴ ἀνδράσι μόνον, καὶ γυναιξὶ δὲ τὰ θεῖα προσομιλεῖν, ὡς ἂν πᾶσαν τὴν παρὰ τοῖς ἀπίστοις αἰσχρᾶς διαβολῆς ὑπόνοιαν ἀποκλείσειε, τὴν σωτήριον φωνὴν ἔργοις ἐπιτελέσαι ὡρμήθη, τοὺς πολλοὺς τῶν ἀμφʼ αὐτὸν γνωρίμων διαλαθεῖν φροντίσας.

English · Claude translation

For taking the saying, “There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven,” in too literal and youthful a sense, and thinking at once to fulfil the Saviour's word, and at the same time, since he was young and had to converse about divine things not only with men but also with women, to cut off from unbelievers all suspicion of shameful slander, he set about carrying out the Saviour's word in deed, taking care to escape the notice of most of his acquaintances.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:249 · 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

Matt 19:12 · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Ethics, Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

The quotation is Matt 19:12. The report of Origen's self-castration comes from Eusebius; some modern scholars doubt it, but it cannot be settled.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.8.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/6/8/2/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.8.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/6/8/2/).