Church History 8.7.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:357–358

οἷς γινομένοις καὶ αὐτοὶ παρῆμεν, ὁπηνίκα τοῦ μαρτυρουμένου σωτῆρος ἡμῶν αὐτοῦ δὴ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τὴν θείαν δύναμιν ἐπιπαροῦσαν, ἐναργῶς τε αὐτὴν τοῖς μάρτυσιν ἐπιδεικνῦσαν ἱστορήσαμεν, τῶν ἀνθρωποβόρων ἐπὶ πλείονα χρόνον μὴ προσψαύειν μηδὲ πλησιάζειν τοῖς τῶν θεοφιλῶν σώμασιν ἐπιτολμώντων, ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ μὲν τοὺς ἄλλους, ὅσοι δήπουθεν ἔξωθεν ἐρεθισμοῖς παρώρμων αὐτὰ, φερομένων, μόνων δὲ τῶν ἱερῶν ἀθλητῶν γυμνῶν ἑστώτων καὶ ταῖς χερσὶ κατασειόντων, ἐπί τε σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐπισπωμένων (τοῦτο γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἐκελεύετο πράττειν) μηδʼ ὅλως ἐφαπτομένων, ἀλλʼ ἔσθʼ ὅπη μὲν καὶ ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς ὁρμώντων, οἷα δὲ πρός τινος θειοτέρας δυνάμεως ἀνακρουομένων καὶ αὖ πάλιν εἰς τοὐπίσω χωρούντων.

English · Claude translation

We ourselves were present when these things happened, and we observed the divine power of our Savior Jesus Christ himself, to whom they bore witness, present and manifestly displayed in the martyrs. For a long time the man-eating beasts did not dare to touch or even approach the bodies of those dear to God, but rushed at the others, who no doubt were goading them on from outside; while the holy athletes alone stood naked, waving their hands and drawing the beasts toward themselves (for they were ordered to do this), the beasts did not touch them at all, but sometimes rushed at them, and then, as though driven back by some more divine power, retreated again.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:357–358 · 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

Martyrdom, Persecution

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (opening parenthesis missing in the digital text): ἐπισπωμένων τοῦτο → ἐπισπωμένων (τοῦτο.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.7.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/7/2/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.7.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/7/2/).