The Library · §9 · Photius of Constantinople

Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica (Preparation for the Gospel)

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

The fifteen books of Eusebius's Preparation for the Gospel have been read by me, in which he refutes for the most part the vain babbling of the Greeks, showing how they remained at variance with themselves throughout. At the start of the fifteenth book, and at its end, he mentions another treatise, which he entitled Demonstration of the Gospel, a sequel to the Preparation: the one is nearly a refutation of Greek error, the other a confirmation of the Gospel message.

Greek

Ἀνεγνώσθη εὐαγγελικῆς προπαρασκευῆς ΕΥΣΕΒΙΟΥ λόγοι ιέ, ἐν οἷς ὡς ἐπίπαν τὴν Ἑλλήνων ματαιολογίαν ἐλέγχει, καὶ ὡς ἀσύμφωνοι αὐτοὶ πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς διετέλεσαν. μέμνηται δὲ ἐν ἀρχῇ τοῦ πεντεκαιδεκάτου λόγου καὶ ἐν τῷ τέλει ἑτέρας πραγματείας, ἣν εὐαγγελικὴν ἀπόδειξιν ἐξωνόμασε, ἀκόλουθον οὖσαν τῇ εὐαγγελικῇ προπαρασκευῇ, ὅτι ἡ μὲν ἔλεγχός ἐστι σχεδὸν τῆς Ἑλλήνων πλάνης, ἡ δὲ βεβαίωσις τοῦ κηρύγματος τοῦ εὐαγγελικοῦ.

Report a mistake in this passage

About this text

Photius's notes on the first 17 books in his Library, from Theodore's defense of Dionysius to the Acts of the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon.

Photius of Constantinople (c. 810–c. 893) was a scholar and patriarch of Constantinople in the ninth century.

The Library is a record of Photius's private reading, containing summaries of 279 books that he had read and discussed. Photius engaged a secretary and set down all the summaries he could recollect, arranging them in the order in which his memory recalled them rather than by subject. In the ninth century it was still possible to read vast quantities of ancient literature, both pagan and Christian, that has since been lost, and Photius is often our best or only source of information about these lost books.

A reader will meet summaries of early Christian writings, including works by Eusebius, Gregory of Nyssa, Origen, Apollinarius, Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Sophronius, as well as summaries of works by Theodore the Presbyter, Hadrian the Monk, and Nonnosus, and of the acts of the councils of Nicaea, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. Photius was a keen critic of style and content, and his summaries often include his own judgments on the works he describes. Because many of the books he read have since disappeared, his notes are frequently the only surviving evidence for their contents.

Part only: Codices 1–17 of 279

EditionImmanuel Bekker, Photii Bibliotheca (Berlin, 1824)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

Report a mistake