Church History 7.3.1 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Cyprian required rebaptism of converts from heresy; Stephen angrily defended the older tradition.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:298

Πρῶτος τῶν τότε Κυπριανὸς τῆς κατὰ Καρχηδόνα παροικίας ποιμὴν οὐδʼ ἄλλως ἢ διὰ λουτροῦ πρότερον τῆς πλάνης ἀποκαθηραμένους προσίεσθαι δεῖν ἡγεῖτο. ἀλλʼ ὅ γε Στέφανος, μὴ δεῖν τι νεώτερον παρὰ τὴν κρατήσασαν ἀρχῆθεν παράδοσιν ἐπικαινοτομεῖν οἰόμενος, ἐπὶ τούτῳ διηγανάκτει.

English · Claude translation

Cyprian, pastor of the community of Carthage, was the first of those then living to think that they should not be admitted otherwise than after first being purified from their error by the washing. But Stephen, thinking that no innovation should be made contrary to the tradition that had prevailed from the beginning, was greatly indignant at this.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:298 · 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

Cyprian, Ep. (Letters) · allusion, medium confidence

Topics

Baptism, Heresy

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.3.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/7/3/1/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.3.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/7/3/1/).