Sophia Scriptura

Church History 7.8.1

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

Summary: Dionysius condemns Novatian for schism, for making Christ unmerciful, and for rejecting the church's baptism.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:302

“Νοουατιανῷ μὲν γὰρ ‟εὐλόγως ἀπεχθανόμεθα διακόψαντι τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, ‘καί τινας τῶν ἀδελφῶν εἰς ἀσεβείας καὶ βλασφημίας ‘ἑλκύσαντι, καὶ περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ διδασκαλίαν ἀνοσιω- ‘τάτην ἐπεισκυκλήσαντι, καὶ τὸν χρηστότατον κύριον “ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ὡς ἀνηλεῆ συκοφαντοῦντι, ἐπὶ πάσι δὲ τούτοις τὸ λουτρὸν ἀθετοῦντι τὸ ἅγιον, ‟καὶ τήν τε πρὸ αὐτοῦ πίστιν καὶ ὁμολογίαν ἀνατρέποντι, τό τε πνεῦμα τό ἅγιον ἐξ αὐτῶν, εἰ καί τις ἦν ἐλπὶς τοῦ παραμεῖναι ἢ καὶ ἐπανελθεῖν πρὸς ‘αὐτοὺς, παντελῶς φυγαδεύοντι.”

English · Claude translation

“For we reasonably feel enmity toward Novatian, who divided the church, drew some of the brothers into impieties and blasphemies, brought in a most unholy teaching about God, slanders our most kind Lord Jesus Christ as unmerciful, and besides all this sets aside the holy washing, overturns the faith and confession that precede it, and wholly banishes the Holy Spirit from them, if there were any hope of its remaining with them or even returning to them.”

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:302 · 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
Heresy, Baptism

Notes

Translation notes

  • Quotation from Dionysius of Alexandria, Fourth Letter on Baptism. Novatian rebaptized those who joined him.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.8.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/7/8/1/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.8.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/7/8/1/).

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