Church History 7.17.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: At the Jordan springs at Paneas, Astyrius's prayer ended a pagan "miracle" in which sacrifices vanished.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:315

ἀτὰρ καὶ παραδόξου τοιούτου. ἐπὶ τῆς Φιλίππου Καισαρείας, ἣν Πανεάδα Φοίνικες προσαγορεύουσι, φασὶ παρὰ ταῖς αὐτόθι δεικνυμέναις ἐν ταῖς ὑπωρείαις τοῦ καλουμένου Πανίου ὅρους πηγαῖς, ἐξ ὧν καὶ τὸν Ἰορδάνην προχεῖσθαι, κατά τινα ἑορτῆς ἡμέραν σφάγιόν τι καταβάλλεσθαι, καὶ τοῦτο τῇ τοῦ δαίμονος δυνάμει ἀφανὲς γίνεσθαι παραδόξως, θαῦμά τε εἶναι περιβόητον τοῖς παροῦσι τὸ γινόμενον. παρόντα δʼ οὖν ποτὲ τοῖς πραττομένοις τὸν Ἀστύριον, καὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα καταπεπληγμένους ἰδόντα τοὺς πολλοὺς, οἰκτεῖραι τῆς πλάνης, κἄπειτα ἀνανεύσαντα εἰς οὐρανὸν ἱκετεῦσαι διὰ Χριστοῦ τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸν, τὸ λαοπλάνον δαιμόνιον ἐλέγξαι καὶ παῦσαι τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀπάτης. ταῦτα δέ φασιν εὐξαμένου ἀθρόως τὸ ἱερεῖον ἐπιπολάσαι ταῖς πηγαῖς, οὕτω τε αὐτοῖς τὸ παράδοξον οἴχεσθαι, μηδενὸς μηκέτι θαύματος περὶ τὸν τόπον γενομένου.

English · Claude translation

and in particular this marvel. At Caesarea Philippi, which the Phoenicians call Paneas, they say that at the springs shown there at the foot of the so-called Mount Panium, from which the Jordan flows, on a certain feast day a victim was thrown in, and by the power of the demon it disappeared marvellously, and what happened was a famous wonder to those present. Once, then, Astyrius was present at these proceedings, and seeing most of the people struck with amazement at the thing, he pitied their error; and then, looking up to heaven, he entreated the God over all, through Christ, to refute the people-deceiving demon and stop its deception of men. They say that when he had prayed, the victim immediately floated on the springs, and so their marvel departed, no wonder ever again occurring at the place.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:315 · 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)

Topics

Prayer

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.17.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/7/17/1/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.17.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/7/17/1/).