ት Tergwame Greek · Coptic · Ethiopic · Syriac · Armenian · Georgian · Latin

Greek · Other · 0030–0800

Dok. 10: Fragmente eines Briefes des Eusebius von Caesarea an Euphration von Balaneae

Dokumente zur Geschichte des arianischen Streites (Athanasius Werke III) · pta

BothSourceEnglish
JSON Dossier
machine-draft · no human review 3 passages · 450 words

Work dossier · summary and historical context

Summary

Dok. 10 preserves fragments of a lost letter from Eusebius of Caesarea to Euphration of Balaneae, dating to the early Arian controversy (c. 318–325). The fragments survive only through later citations, especially in Athanasius’s anti-Arian works, where they are used to critique Eusebius’s subordinationist Christology. The letter likely argued for the Father’s pre-existence over the Son, citing John 14:28, and rejected co-existence (συνυπάρχειν). The edition reconstructs the text from these excerpts, but the original structure and argument remain incomplete. The fragments are brief and selectively quoted, limiting historical reconstruction of Eusebius’s original position.

The fragments provide rare direct evidence of Eusebius’s subordinationist Christology during the early Arian controversy. They show his use of John 14:28 to argue for the Father’s superiority, a key point in the debate. The letter’s survival through Athanasius’s citations highlights the polemical reuse of texts in early Christian doctrinal conflicts. It also illustrates the challenges of reconstructing lost works from fragmentary, tendentious sources.

Historical context

The letter was written during the early Arian controversy (c. 318–325), a period of intense theological debate about the relationship between God the Father and the Son. Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260–339), a prominent bishop and historian, was a key figure in the controversy, often associated with subordinationist views. Euphration of Balaneae, the addressee, was a bishop involved in the conflict. The letter was originally composed in Greek, likely in Caesarea or nearby. It survives only in fragments cited by later authors, particularly Athanasius of Alexandria, who used Eusebius’s own words to argue against Arianism. The transmission is thus shaped by polemical contexts, and the fragments may be selectively quoted. The text is part of the Athanasius Werke III series (Dok. 10), which collects documents related to the Arian controversy.

Apparatus · what the pipeline recorded

Annotation and terms

18 commentary units 3 sense3 term3 scripture3 background3 structure2 caution1 reception 0 derived notes 6 open questions 3 narrative
What the kinds mean

Pipeline notes

  • coverageNo English translation could be identified: a language model asked twice could not name one, though it could not rule one out either. That is not proof that none exists — translations in dissertations, recent books and other modern languages are easily missed.
  • limitThe English is a machine draft produced passage by passage from the transcribed Coptic; no human has verified it. The commentary is model-written and cites only keys the pipeline could resolve.
  • registerRegister: other in ancient Greek; the English keeps the liturgical formulae and the vocatives rather than normalising them.
  • structurePassages: 3 narrative.
  • sourceSource edition: pta — CC BY 4.0

Term index

CopticRenderingCountFirst
no glossary terms recorded
pta0100.pta010:1 · narrativehigh
Source
Εὐσεβίου τοῦ Παμφίλου πρὸς Εὐφρατίωνα. οὗ ἡ ἀρχή: Τῷ δεσπότῃ μου κατὰ πάντα χάριν ὁμολογῶ. Καὶ μεθ’ ἕτερα· Οὐ γὰρ συνυπάρχειν φαμὲν τὸν υἱὸν τῷ πατρί, προυπάρχειν δὲ τὸν πατέρα τοῦ υἱοῦ. ἐὰν γὰρ συνυπάρχωσι, πῶς ἔσται ὁ πατὴρ πατὴρ καὶ ὁ υἱὸς υἱός; ἢ πῶς ὁ μὲν πρῶτος, ὁ δὲ δεύτερος; καὶ ὁ μὲν ἀγέννητος, ὁ δὲ γεννητός; δύο γὰρ ἐξ ἴσου ὁμοίως ἀλλήλοις συνυπάρχοντα ἰσότιμα ἂν νοοῖντο καὶ ἤτοι ἄμφω, ὡς ἔφην, ἀγέννητα ἢ ἑκάτερα γεννητά. ἀλλ’ οὐδέτερον τούτων ἀληθές· οὔτε γὰρ τὸ ἀγέννητον οὔτε τὸ γεννητὸν ἂν εἴη. ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν καὶ πρῶτον καὶ κρεῖττον καὶ τάξει καὶ τιμῇ τοῦ δευτέρου ἡγεῖται, ὡς ἂν καὶ τοῦ εἶναι καὶ τοῦ τοιῶσδε εἶναι τῷ δευτέρῳ αἴτιον γεγενημένον. Πλὴν αὐτὸς ὁ πάντων μᾶλλον ἀκριβῶς ἐπιστάμενος υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ἕτερον ἑαυτὸν εἰδὼς τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ μείω καὶ ὑποβεβηκότα, εὖ μάλα εὐσεβῶς τοῦτο καὶ ἡμᾶς διδάσκει λέγων· ὁ πατὴρ ὁ πέμψας με μείζων μού ἐστι. Καὶ ἀνεγνώσθη ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς ἐπιστολῆς·
English
Eusebius of Pamphilus to Euphration. Its beginning: "To my master I confess gratitude in all things." And after other matters: For we do not say that the Son coexists with the Father, but that the Father pre-exists the Son. For if they coexist, how will the Father be Father and the Son be Son? Or how will the one be first and the other second? And the one unbegotten, the other begotten? For two things coexisting equally with each other would be understood as of equal rank, and either both, as I said, unbegotten or each begotten. But neither of these is true; for neither would the unbegotten nor the begotten exist. But the one is both first and superior, and in order and honor takes precedence over the second, as having become the cause both of the existence and of the being such for the second. However, the Son of God himself, knowing more accurately than all that he is other than the Father and lesser and inferior, teaches us this very piously, saying: "The Father who sent me is greater than I." And it was read from the same letter.
pta0100.pta010:2 · narrativemedium
Source
Τὸν αὐτὸν δὲ καὶ μόνον ἀληθινὸν εἶναι διδάσκει δι ̓ ὧν φησιν· ἶνα γινώσκωσί σε τὸν μόνον ἀληθινὸν θεόν, οὐχὶ ὡς ἑνὸς ὄντος μόνου τοῦ θεοῦ, ἀλλ’ ̓ ὡς ἑνὸς ὄντος μόνου ἀληθινοῦ θεοῦ μετὰ προσθήκης ἀναγκαιοτάτης τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ. ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐτὸς θεὸς μὲν ὁ υἱός, ἀλλ ̓ οὐκ ἀληθινὸς θεός. εἷς γάρ ἐστι καὶ μόνος ἀληθινὸς θεὸς διὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν πρὸ αὐτοῦ τινα. εἰ δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ υἱὸς ἀληθινός, ἀλλ’ ὡς εἰκὼν τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ θεοῦ εἴη ἂν καὶ θεός, ἐπεὶ καὶ θεὸς ἧν ὁ λόγος, οὐ μὴν ὡς ὁ μόνος ἀληθινὸς θεός. Διελεῖν γὰρ τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ τολμήσας καὶ ἕτερον θεὸν τὸν λόγον ὀνομάσαι, οὐσίᾳ τε καὶ δυνάμει διεστῶτα τοῦ πατρός, εἰς ὅσην βλασφημίαν ἐκπέπτωκεν ἔνεστιν σαφῶς ἀπ’ αὐτῶν τῶν ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ γραφέντων ῥητῶν ῥᾳδίως μανθάνειν. γέγραφεν δ’ αὐταῖς λέξεσιν οὕτως· Οὐ δήπου δὲ ἡ εἰκὼν καὶ τὸ οὗ ἐστιν ἡ εἰκὼν ἓν καὶ ταὐτὸν ἐπινοεῖται, ἀλλὰ δύο μὲν οὐσίαι καὶ δύο πράγματα καὶ δύο δυνάμεις, ὡς καὶ τοσαῦται προσηγορίαι.
English
The same one he teaches to be the only true God through what he says: "that they may know you, the only true God," not as if there is only one God, but as there is only one true God with the most necessary addition of "true." For the Son is also God, but not true God. For there is one and only true God because he has no one before him. But if the Son himself were true, yet as an image of the true God he would also be God, since the Word was God, but not as the only true God. For having dared to divide the Word of God and to name the Word another God, separated in substance and power from the Father, into what great blasphemy he has fallen it is possible to learn clearly from the very phrases written by him, easily. And he wrote in these very words as follows: "Surely the image and that of which it is the image are not conceived as one and the same, but there are two substances, two things, and two powers, as also there are that many appellations.
pta0100.pta010:3 · narrativehigh
Source
Ἄνθρωπον γὰρ μόνον τὸν σωτῆρα δεῖξαι βουλόμενος, ὡς μέγιστον ἡμῖν ἀπόρρητον τοῦ ἀποστόλου ἀνακαλύπτων μυστήριον, οὕτως ἔφη· Διὸ σαφέστατα καὶ ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος τὴν ἀπόρρητον ἡμῖν καὶ μυστικὴν παραδιδοὺς θεολογίαν βοᾷ καὶ κέκραγεν εἷς ὁ θεός, εἶτα μετὰ τὸν ἕνα θεόν φησιν εἷς μεσίτης θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, ἄνθρωπος Χριστός Ἰησοῦς.
English
For wanting to show the savior to be only a man, as if revealing to us the greatest secret of the apostle, he spoke thus: Therefore the divine apostle, handing down to us the ineffable and mystical theology, most clearly cries out and proclaims, "One God," and then after the one God he says, "One mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Citation. Tergwame, “Dok. 10: Fragmente eines Briefes des Eusebius von Caesarea an Euphration von Balaneae”, pta0100.pta010:1, machine-draft, 2026. https://naxiai.com/christian/works/pta0100.pta010#s1
Colophon. Source: pta · licence: CC BY 4.0 · model: deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash:floor · provider: Relace · cost: $0.0019 · generated 2026-11-15.