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his named tribe should not fail. And it seems to me that in relating these things, he almost cries out that Christ is God, in accordance with his works; but being astonished by the paradoxical event, he passed over it in this way, in the middle, having enjoined nothing upon those who believed in him, but rather even agreeing with them. As I considered these things, it reasonably seemed wonderful to me that the Hebrews 1.1.7 did not get there first and, before other men, convert to Christianity. For even if the Sibyl and certain oracles foretold the future of the events concerning Christ, it is not on this account, surely, possible to accuse all Greeks of unbelief. For few, who seemed to excel in education, knew such prophecies, being for the most part in verse and expressed in words too august <ἢ> for 1.1.8 the people. But it was, as it seems to me, a matter of providence from above, for the harmony of future events, to proclaim the future not only to its own prophets, but also in part to foreign ones, just as if some composer, for the need of an unusual melody, should run over the extra strings with the plectrum, or add other ones to those that exist. That the Hebrews, then, having used more numerous and clearer prophecies concerning the coming of Christ, came after the Greeks with respect to faith in him, 1.1. it is sufficient to say this much. Yet not even so would it seem unreasonable for the church to have grown especially through the other nations, first because God is wont to award paradoxical transitions in divine and very great matters; and then, it is possible to find that the religion was administered not with the ordinary virtues of those who led it from the beginning. 1.1.10 For even if they did not have a tongue sharpened for expression or beauty of speech, nor did they persuade their hearers with words or linear proofs, not on this account was their endeavor any the worse accomplished; but stripping themselves of their property and neglecting their families, and being impaled and receiving the many and harsh tortures as if in foreign bodies, and being neither swayed by the flatteries of the peoples and rulers in the city nor terrified by their threats, they made it clear to all that they were enduring this contest for the greatest of prizes; so that there was no need for persuasive words, as the facts themselves, without a struggle, compelled belief in houses and cities of things they had not heard before. 1.1.11 Such a great divine and paradoxical change, then, having occurred in the world, that even the former religion and the ancestral laws were neglected, it would indeed be a terrible thing if the boar in Calydon and the bull in Marathon and other such things that happened or were mythologized in various regions or cities were deemed worthy of so much attention that many of the most reputable writers among the Greeks labored over them, being naturally gifted at writing, but that I should not compel my nature 1.1.12 and write an ecclesiastical history. For I am persuaded that, as the subject was not created by men, it is not impossible for God that I should paradoxically appear as a writer. At first, I was moved to write this treatise from the beginning. But considering that others also attempted this up to their own times, both Clement and Hegesippus, most wise men, having followed the succession of the apostles, and Africanus the writer and Eusebius, surnamed Pamphilus, a man most learned in the divine scriptures and in the poets and writers among the Greeks, a historian, as many of the things that have come down to us that happened to the churches after the ascension of Christ into heaven until the deposition of Licinius, I have treated in summary in two books, 1.1.13 and now, with God's help, I will try to go through the events after these. 1.1.13 I shall mention matters which I was present for and which I have heard from those who knew or saw them, in our own generation and before us. But for what is further back, I have hunted down the information from the laws established for the religion and from the synods held from time to time and innovations and imperial and priestly letters, of which some are still now in the

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αὐτοῦ ὠνομασμένον μὴ ἐπιλεῖψαι φῦλον. καί μοι δοκεῖ ταῦτα ἱστορῶν μονονουχὶ βοᾶν ἀναλόγως τοῖς ἔργοις θεὸν εἶναι τὸν Χριστόν· ὑπὸ δὲ τοῦ παραδόξου πράγματος καταπλαγεὶς ὡδίπως μέσος παρέδραμε, μηδὲν τοῖς εἰς αὐτὸν πιστεύσασιν ἐπισκήψας, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ συνθέμενος. ταῦτά μοι λογιζομένῳ θαυμαστὸν εἰκότως κατεφαίνετο μὴ τοὺς ῾Εβραίους 1.1.7 φθάσαι καὶ πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων εἰς Χριστιανισμὸν μεταβαλεῖν. εἰ γὰρ καὶ Σίβυλλα καὶ χρησμοί τινες τῶν ἐπὶ τῷ Χριστῷ συμβεβηκότων τὸ μέλλον προεμήνυσαν, οὐ παρὰ τοῦτο δήπου πᾶσιν ῞Ελλησιν δυσπιστίαν ἐγκαλεῖν ἔστιν. ὀλίγοι γάρ, οἳ παιδείᾳ διαφέρειν ἐδόκουν, τὰς τοιαύτας ᾔδεσαν προφητείας, ἐμμέτρους τε ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ οὔσας καὶ σεμνοτέραις <ἢ> πρὸς 1.1.8 δῆμον λέξεσι πεφρασμένας. ἦν δὲ ἄρα, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, τῆς ἄνωθεν προμηθείας ἐπὶ συμφωνίᾳ τῶν ἐσομένων μὴ μόνον ἰδίοις προφήταις ἐνηχῆσαι τὸ μέλλον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὀθνείοις ἐκ μέρους, ὥσπερ εἴ τις μελοποιὸς διὰ χρείαν παραξένου μέλους τὰς περιττὰς τῶν χορδῶν ἐπιδράμοι τῷ πλήκτρῳ ἢ ταῖς οὔσαις ἑτέρας προσθείη. ῾Ως μὲν οὖν ῾Εβραῖοι πλείοσι καὶ σαφεστέραις προφητείαις χρησάμενοι περὶ τῆς παρουσίας Χριστοῦ κατόπιν ῾Ελλήνων ἐγένοντο περὶ τὴν εἰς αὐτὸν 1.1. πίστιν, ἀπόχρη τοσοῦτον εἰπεῖν. οὐ μὴν οὐδ' οὕτω παράλογον δόξειε διὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἐθνῶν εἰς τὰ μάλιστα τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ἐπιδοῦναι, πρῶτον μὲν καθότι φιλεῖ ὁ θεὸς τὰς ἐκ παραδόξου μεταβάσεις βραβεύειν ἐπὶ τοῖς θείοις καὶ μεγίστοις πράγμασιν· ἔπειτα δὲ οὐ ταῖς τυχούσαις ἀρεταῖς τῶν ἐξ ἀρχῆς 1.1.10 προστάντων αὐτῆς οἰκονομηθεῖσαν ἔστιν εὑρεῖν τὴν θρησκείαν. εἰ γὰρ καὶ γλῶσσαν πρὸς φράσιν ἢ κάλλος λέξεως ἠκονημένην οὐκ εἶχον οὐδὲ λέξεσιν ἢ γραμμικαῖς ἀποδείξεσι τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας ἔπειθον, οὐ παρὰ τοῦτο χεῖρον αὐτοῖς ἐπράχθη τὸ σπουδαζόμενον· ἀλλ' ἀποδυόμενοι τὰς οὐσίας καὶ τῶν οἰκείων ἀμελοῦντες, ἀνασκολοπιζόμενοί τε καὶ ὡς ἐν ἀλλοτρίοις σώμασι τὰς πολλὰς καὶ χαλεπὰς βασάνους δεχόμενοι καὶ μήτε τῶν κατὰ πόλιν δήμων καὶ ἀρχόντων ταῖς κολακείαις ὑπαγόμενοι μήτε ταῖς ἀπειλαῖς ἐκπληττόμενοι δῆλον πᾶσιν ἐποίησαν ὡς ὑπὲρ μεγίστων ἄθλων τὸν ἀγῶνα τοῦτον ὑπομένουσιν· ὥστε οὐδὲ πειθοῦς ἔδει λόγων, ἀκονιτὶ τῶν πραγμάτων κατ' οἴκους καὶ πόλεις πιστεύειν βιαζομένων ἃ μὴ πρότερον ἀκηκόασι. 1.1.11 Τοσαύτης οὖν θείας καὶ παραδόξου μεταβολῆς τῇ οἰκουμένῃ συμβάσης, ὡς καὶ τῆς προτέρας θρησκείας καὶ τῶν πατρίων νόμων ἀμελῆσαι, ἦ δεινὸν ἂν εἴη τὸν μὲν ἐν Καλυδῶνι κάπρον καὶ τὸν ἐν Μαραθῶνι ταῦρον καὶ ἄλλα τοιαῦτα κατὰ χώρας ἢ πόλεις γενόμενα ἢ μυθευόμενα τοσαύτης ἀξιωθῆναι σπουδῆς, ὡς πολλοὺς τῶν παρ' ῞Ελλησιν εὐδοκιμωτάτων συγγραφέων περὶ ταῦτα πονῆσαι, φύσεως εὖ ἔχοντας γράφειν, ἐμὲ δὲ μὴ τὴν φύσιν βιάσασθαι 1.1.12 καὶ ἐκκλησιαστικὴν ἱστορίαν συγγράψαι. πέπεισμαι γάρ, ὡς ὑποθέσεως οὐκ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων δημιουργηθείσης παραδόξως ἀναφανῆναί με συγγραφέα οὐκ ἄπορον τῷ θεῷ. ὡρμήθην δὲ τὰ μὲν πρῶτα ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ταύτην συγγράψαι τὴν πραγματείαν. λογισάμενος δὲ ὡς καὶ ἄλλοι ταύτης ἐπειράθησαν μέχρι τῶν κατ' αὐτοὺς χρόνων, Κλήμης τε καὶ ῾Ηγήσιππος, ἄνδρες σοφώτατοι, τῇ τῶν ἀποστόλων διαδοχῇ παρακολουθήσαντες, καὶ ᾿Αφρικανὸς ὁ συγγραφεὺς καὶ Εὐσέβιος ὁ ἐπίκλην Παμφίλου, ἀνὴρ τῶν θείων γραφῶν καὶ τῶν παρ' ῞Ελλησι ποιητῶν καὶ συγγραφέων πολυμαθέστατος ἵστωρ, ὅσα μὲν τῶν εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐλθόντων ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις συνέβη μετὰ τὴν εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἄνοδον τοῦ Χριστοῦ μέχρι τῆς Λικινίου καθαιρέσεως, ἐπιτεμόμενος ἐπραγμα1.1.13 τευσάμην ἐν βιβλίοις δύο, νῦν δέ, σὺν θεῷ φάναι, τὰ μετὰ ταῦτα διεξελθεῖν 1.1.13 πειράσομαι. μεμνήσομαι δὲ πραγμάτων οἷς παρέτυχον καὶ παρὰ τῶν εἰδότων ἢ θεασαμένων ἀκήκοα, κατὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν καὶ πρὸ ἡμῶν γενεάν. τῶν δὲ περαιτέρω τὴν κατάληψιν ἐθήρασα ἀπὸ τῶν τεθέντων νόμων διὰ τὴν θρησκείαν καὶ τῶν κατὰ καιροὺς συνόδων καὶ νεωτερισμῶν καὶ βασιλικῶν καὶ ἱερατικῶν ἐπιστολῶν, ὧν αἱ μὲν εἰσέτι νῦν ἐν τοῖς