Church History 7.10.4

Summary: An Egyptian chief magician turned Valerian against the Christians and toward human sacrifice.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:304–305

ἀποσκευάσασθαι δὲ παρέπεισεν αὐτὸν ὁ “διδάσκαλος καὶ τῶν ἀπʼ Αἰγύπτου μάγων ἀρχισυν- “άγωγος, τοὺς μὲν καθαροὺς καὶ ὁσίους ἄνδρας “κτίννυσθαι καὶ διώκεσθαι κελεύων, ὡς ἀντιπάλους καὶ κωλυτὰς τῶν παμμιάρων καὶ βδελυκτῶν ἐπαοιδῶν ὑπάρχοντας, (καὶ γὰρ εἰσὶ καὶ ἦσαν ἱκανοὶ, παρόντες καὶ ὁρώμενοι, καὶ μόνον ἐμ- “πνέοντες καὶ φθεγγόμενοι, διασκεδάσαι τὰς τῶν ‟ἀλιτηρίων δαιμόνων ἐπιβουλάς), τελετὰς δὲ ἀνάγνους καὶ μαγγανείας ἐξαγίστους καὶ ἱερουργίας ‟ἀκαλλιερήτους ἐπιτελεῖν ὑποτιθέμενος, παῖδας ἀ- “θλίους ἀποσφάττειν, καὶ τέκνα δυστήνων πατέρων καταθύειν, καὶ σπλάγχνα νεογενῆ διαιρεῖν, καὶ τὰ ‟τοῦ θεοῦ διακόπτειν καὶ καταχορδεύειν πλάσματα, ‟ὡς ἐκ τούτων εὐδαιμονήσοντας.”

English · Claude translation

But the teacher and chief of the synagogue of the magicians from Egypt persuaded him to get rid of them, bidding him kill and persecute the pure and holy men as opponents and hinderers of his abominable and loathsome incantations (for they are and were able, by being present and seen, and merely breathing and speaking, to scatter the plots of the accursed demons), and advising him to perform impure rites, abominable sorceries, and ill-omened sacrifices: to slaughter wretched boys, to sacrifice the children of unhappy fathers, to divide newborn entrails, and to cut up and mangle God's creatures, as though they would prosper by these things.”

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:304–305 · 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

Dionysius of Alexandria (Dionysius of Alexandria (letters and fragments)) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Persecution

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.10.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/7/10/4/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.10.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/7/10/4/).

Greek text · Dindorf 4:304–305

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage