User:G.W./Eusebius

Early life
In his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius speaks of Dionysius of Alexandria as his contemporary. If this is true, Eusebius' birth must have been before Dionysius' death in autumn 264; most modern scholars date the birth to some point in the five years between 260 and 265. He was presumably born in the town which he lived most of his adult life, Caesarea Maritima. He was baptized and instructed in the city, and was resident in Palestine when the army of the East under Diocletian traveled through the region in 296. Eusebius was made presbyter by Agapius of Caesarea. Some, like theologian and ecclesiastical historian John Henry Newman, understand Eusebius' statement that he had heard Dorotheus of Tyre "expound the Scriptures wisely in the Church" to indicate that Eusebius was Dorotheus' pupil while the priest was resident in Antioch; others, like the scholar D. S. Wallace-Hadrill, deem the phrase too ambiguous to support the contention.

By the third century, Caesarea had a population of about 100,000. It had been a pagan city since Pompey had given control of the city to the gentiles during his command of the eastern provinces (60s BC). The gentiles retained control of the city in the three centuries since that date, despite Jewish petitions for joint governorship. Gentile government was strengthened by the city's refoundation under Herod the Great (r. 37–4 BC), when it had taken on the name of Augustus Caesar. In addition to the gentile settlers, Caesarea had large Jewish and Samaritan minorities. Eusebius was probably born into the Christian contingent of the city. Caesarea's Christian community presumably had a history reaching back to apostolic times, but no bishops are attested for the town before about AD 190.

Through the activities of the theologian Origen (185/6–254) and the school of his follower Pamphilus (later third century – 309), Caesarea became a center of Christian learning. On his deathbed, Origen had made a bequest of his private library to the Christian community in the city. Together with the books of his patron Ambrosius, Origen's library (including the original manuscripts of his works ) formed the core of the collection that Pamphilus established. Pamphilus also managed a school that was similar to (or perhaps a re-establishment of ) that of Origen. For his industry, Pamphilus was compared to Demetrius of Phalerum and Pisistratus: he had gathered Bibles from all corners of the world. Like his model Origen, Pamphilus maintained close contact with his students. Eusebius, in his history of the persecutions, alludes to the fact that many of the Caesarean martyrs lived together, presumably under Pamphilus.

Soon after Pamphilus settled in Caesarea (ca. 280s), he began teaching Eusebius, who was then somewhere between twenty and twenty-five. Because of his close relationship with his schoolmaster, Eusebius was sometimes called Eusebius Pamphili: "Eusebius, son of Pamphilus". The name may also indicate that Eusebius was made Pamphilus' heir. Pamphilus gave Eusebius a strong admiration for the thought of Origen. Neither Pamphilus nor Eusebius knew Origen personally; Pamphilus probably picked up Origenist ideas during his studies under Pierius (nicknamed "Origen Junior" ) in Alexandria. In Caesarea, Origenist thought was continued in the generation after his death by Theotecnus, bishop of the city for much of the late third century and an alumnus of Origen's school.

Eusebius' Preparation for the Gospel bears witness to the literary tastes of Origen: Eusebius quotes no comedy, tragedy, or lyric poetry, but makes reference to all the works of Plato and to an extensive range of later philosophic works, largely from Middle Platonists from Philo to the late second century. Whatever its secular contents, the primary aim of Origen and Pamphilus' school was to promote sacred learning. The library's biblical and theological contents were more impressive: Origen's Hexapla and Tetrapla, a copy of (it was claimed) the original Aramaic version of the Gospel of Matthew, and much of Origen's own writings, of which Pamphilus attempted to make a complete account. Marginal comments in extant manuscripts note that Pamphilus and his friends and pupils, including Eusebius, corrected and revised much of the biblical text in their library. Their efforts made the hexaplaric Septuagint text increasingly popular in Syria and Palestine. Soon after joining Pamphilus' school, Eusebius started helping his master expand the library's collections and broaden access to the its resources. At about this time Eusebius compiled a Collection of Ancient Martyrdoms, presumably for use as a general reference tool.

Onomasticon
Eusebius' Onomasticon (more properly On the Place-Names in the Holy Scripture, the name Eusebius gives to it) is a work that moderns would recognize as a gazetteer, a directory of place names, but which ancients had no category for. It sits uneasily between the ancient genres of geography and lexicography, taking elements from both but a member of neither. Eusebius' description of his own method&mdash;"I shall collect the entries from the whole of the divinely inspired Scriptures, and I shall set them out grouped by their initial letters so that one may easily perceive what lies scattered throughout the text" &mdash;implies that he had no similar type of book to work from; his work was entirely original, based only on the text of the Bible. As he describes, Eusebius organizes his entries into separate categories according to their first letters. Under each letter, the entries are organized first by the book they are found in, and then by their place in that book. The entries for Joshua under Tau, for example, read as follows: Tina (15:22): of the tribe of Judah. Telem (15:24): of the tribe of Judah. Tessam (15:29): of the tribe of Judah. Tyre (19:35): of the tribe of Naphthali. Where there is a contemporary town at the site or nearby, Eusebius notes it in the corresponding entry. "Terebinth", for example, describes Shechem as "near Neapolis", modern Nablus, and "Tophet" is located "in the suburbs of Jerusalem". The Onomasticon has traditionally been dated before 324, on the basis of its sparse references to Christianity, and complete absence of remarks on Constantine's buildings in the Holy Land. The work also describes traditional religious practices at the oak of Mamre as though they were still happening, while they are known to have been suppressed soon after 325, when a church was built on the site. A terminus post quem (point before which it cannot be dated) might be found in Eusebius' reference to the encampment of the Legio X Fretensis at Aila (in southern Israel, near modern Aqaba and Eilat): that legion was probably transfered from Jerusalem to Aila under Diocletian (r. 284–305).

Commentaries on Isaiah and Psalms
Towards the end of his life, in about the 330s, Eusebius wrote a pair of biblical commentaries. Since his major interest in biblical studies was Old Testament messianic prophecy, he chose to write on Isaiah and Psalms&mdash;the two books that Christians have traditionally used to justify their messianic claims for Jesus Christ.

Although Eusebius was a member of the school of Origen, absorbed much of his thought and practice, and was prepared to defend him against charges of heresy, their writings show significant differences in style and method. As they both made commentaries on Psalm 37 (38), their methods can be directly compared. Origen interprets the Psalm in an exposition tying it to a Christian's journey from conversion, to repentance, to absolution and redemption from sin, and progress in virtue. He thus annexes an Old Testament text to the body of Christian doctrine, treating it as if it were composed in full knowledge of essentially Christian theological concepts. Eusebius, by contrast, interprets the text within its Old Testament context alone. He attributes the passage to King David, and draws out its practical moral by connecting the lines spoken in the text to the life of David. Thus verse two of the Psalm is an allusion to the rebellion of Absalom, and verse nineteen is an allusion to the threats of David's political enemies. The message Eusebius reads in the Psalm—that God forgives and rewards the repentant sinner—is similar to Origen's, but the means by which both authors approach it are fundamentally different. Eusebius reads the Bible in a historical and quasi-historical fashion that Origen would have found, in the words of Eusebian scholar Timothy Barnes, "alien and unspiritual".

There are also, however, clear signs of Origenist influence in Eusebius' commentaries. Eusebius makes extensive use of Origen's Hexapla, quoting and commenting on variant readings of the text from Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and, for the Psalms, from the anonymous fifth and sixth versions. At times (and although he had little real knowledge of Hebrew), where a reading appears in the Septuagint but not the Hebrew text, he marks it as potentially spurious. For example, where the Septuagint version of Psalm 61:5 (62:4) has "they ran in thirst", Eusebius marks it down as an obelism, or textual corruption, of the "in flasehood" that is present in all other versions of the passage. Eusebius also takes the Origenist tack of distinguishing the literal from the spiritual sense of a passage. Thus "Israel" in Psalm 75:2 (76:1) is not the Davidic kingdom, but the man with spiritual insight who, in contemplation, sees God.

Works on Constantine

 * Main articles: Life of Constantine, Panegyric to Constantine
 * See also: Speech to the Assembly of the Saints

After the emperor's death on 22 May 337, Eusebius wrote a work called the Life of Constantine (or On the Life according to God of the Blessed Emperor Constantine, the title prefixed to chapter headings in the manuscript). It was left unfinished on Eusebius' own death on 30 May 339. The genre of the work has been contested; as it survives, it has been judged an unhappy combination of biography and panegyric, with similarities to saints' lives. The text went through multiple revisions under Eusebius himself, and final editorial revisions after his death by his episcopal successor Acacius.

Theology
"The three dominant characteristics of his thought are a continual emphasis on the Bible, an intellectual framework which derives from Origen, and celebration of the success of Christianity in the Roman world."

List of works
The following table lists Eusebius' known works.

Also.
 * Sermons and epistles.
 * Letter to Euphrantion, bishop of Balaneae
 * Letter to the church of Caesarea on the Council of Nicaea
 * Letter to Constantia. Disputed authenticity
 * On the Festival of Easter

Ancient sources

 * Eusebius of Caesarea.
 * Historia Ecclesiastica (Church History) first seven books ca. 300, eighth and ninth book ca. 313, tenth book ca. 315, epilogue ca. 325.
 * Migne, J.P., ed. Eusebiou tou Pamphilou, episkopou tes en Palaistine Kaisareias ta euriskomena panta (in Greek). Patrologia Graeca 19–24. Paris, 1857. Online at Khazar Skeptik and Documenta Catholica Omnia. Accessed 4 November 2009.
 * McGiffert, Arthur Cushman, trans. Church History. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. Online at New Advent and CCEL. Accessed 28 September 2009.
 * Williamson, G.A., trans. Church History. London: Penguin, 1989.
 * Contra Hieroclem (Against Hierocles).
 * Onomasticon (On the Place-Names in Holy Scripture).
 * Klostermann, E., ed. Eusebius' Werke 3.1 (Die griechischen christlichen Schrifsteller der ersten (drei) Jahrhunderte 11.1. Leipzig and Berlin, 1904). Online at the Internet Archive. Accessed 29 January 2010.
 * Wolf, Umhau, trans. The Onomasticon of Eusebius Pamphili: Compared with the version of Jerome and annotated. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1971. Online at Tertullian. Accessed 29 January 2010.
 * De Martyribus Palestinae (On the Martyrs of Palestine).
 * McGiffert, Arthur Cushman, trans. Martyrs of Palestine. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. Online at New Advent and CCEL. Accessed June 9, 2009.
 * Cureton, William, trans. History of the Martyrs in Palestine by Eusebius of Caesarea, Discovered in a Very Antient Syriac Manuscript. London: Williams & Norgate, 1861. Online at Tertullian. Accessed September 28, 2009.
 * Praeparatio Evangelica (Preparation for the Gospel).
 * Demonstratio Evangelica (Demonstration of the Gospel).
 * Theophania (Theophany).
 * Laudes Constantini (In Praise of Constantine) 335.
 * Migne, J.P., ed. Eusebiou tou Pamphilou, episkopou tes en Palaistine Kaisareias ta euriskomena panta (in Greek). Patrologia Graeca 19–24. Paris, 1857. Online at Khazar Skeptik. Accessed 4 November 2009.
 * Richardson, Ernest Cushing, trans. Oration in Praise of Constantine. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. Online at New Advent. Accessed 19 October 2009.
 * Vita Constantini (The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine) ca. 336–39.
 * Migne, J.P., ed. Eusebiou tou Pamphilou, episkopou tes en Palaistine Kaisareias ta euriskomena panta (in Greek). Patrologia Graeca 19–24. Paris, 1857. Online at Khazar Skeptik. Accessed 4 November 2009.
 * Richardson, Ernest Cushing, trans. Life of Constantine. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. Online at New Advent. Accessed 9 June 2009.


 * Gregory Thaumaturgus. Oratio Panegyrica.
 * Salmond, S.D.F., trans. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. Online at New Advent. Accessed 31 January 2010.


 * Jerome.
 * Chronicon (Chronicle) ca. 380.
 * Fotheringham, John Knight, ed. The Bodleian Manuscript of Jerome's Version of the Chronicle of Eusebius. Oxford: Clarendon, 1905. Online at the Internet Archive. Accessed 8 October 2009.
 * Pearse, Roger, et al., trans. The Chronicle of St. Jerome, in Early Church Fathers: Additional Texts. Tertullian, 2005. Online at Tertullian. Accessed 14 August 2009.
 * de Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious Men) 392.
 * Herding, W., ed. De Viris Illustribus (in Latin). Leipzig: Teubner, 1879. Online at Google Books. Accessed 6 October 2009.
 * Liber de viris inlustribus (in Latin). Texte und Untersuchungen 14. Leipzig, 1896.
 * Richardson, Ernest Cushing, trans. De Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious Men). From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 3. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1892. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. Online at New Advent. Accessed 15 August 2009.
 * Epistulae (Letters).
 * Fremantle, W.H., G. Lewis and W.G. Martley, trans. Letters. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 6. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1893. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. Online at New Advent and CCEL. Accessed 19 October 2009.


 * Origen.
 * De Principiis (On First Principles).

Modern sources

 * Barnes, Timothy D. Constantine and Eusebius. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.
 * Kofsky, Arieh. Eusebius of Caesarea against paganism. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
 * Levine, Lee I. Caesarea under Roman rule. Leiden: Brill, 1975.
 * Louth, Andrew. "Eusebius and the Birth of Church History". In The Cambridge history of early Christian literature, edited by Frances Margaret Young, Lewis Ayres, and Andrew Louth, 266–74. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
 * Wallace-Hadrill, D. S. Eusebius of Caesarea. London: A. R. Mowbray, 1960.