
Bible connection
The Rock, his work is perfect,
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God, without deceit,
just and upright is he;
yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him,
a perverse and crooked generation.
Do you thus repay the Lord,
O foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your father who created you,
who made you and established you?
Remember the days of old;
consider the years long past;
ask your father, and he will inform you,
your elders, and they will tell you. — Deuteronomy 32:4-7
I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.
Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did, as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” — 1 Corinthians 10:1-6
All about Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260/265-339)
No collection of the great figures in the history of the church would be complete without including the premier historian of the church, Eusebius of Caesarea. He lived during a very formative period for the Church and his writings reflect every aspect of it. There was once a biography of Eusebius, written by his successor as Caesarea’s bishop, but like so many of his own writings, it is lost. So we know nothing for certain about his early life. He was probably born in Palestine, certainly baptized at Caesarea and ordained a presbyter (elder) there under his teacher and friend, Pamphilus — so closely did he follow this Origen devotee that he called himself Eusebius Pamphili (son of Pamphilus) after he died.
In 303 the co-emperors Diocletian and Galerius ordered the “great persecution,” and Pamphilus was martyred within seven years. Eusebius too, was imprisoned but managed to avoid his mentor’s fate. The persecutions turned the historian’s attention to the martyrs of his own time and the past. He writes:
“We saw with our own eyes the houses of prayer thrown down to the very foundations, and the divine and sacred Scriptures committed to the flames in the market-places, and the shepherds of the churches basely hidden here and there, and some of them captured ignominiously, and mocked by their enemies” (Church History 8.2.1).
Collecting those personal histories led him to the history of the whole Church and finally to the history of the world, which, to him, was only a preparation for Church history.
Imagine writing a comprehensive history of the Church’s last three centuries — that means you start in 1725. Now imagine no one has ever written such a history before, so there’s no single collection of key documents, no books profiling key figures, no chronology of major events, no Google, not even a fixed system of dating the past. When Eusebius undertook such an effort, he felt trepidation. In his introduction to the The Church History (or Ecclesiastical History) [Internet Archive] he writes:
“I feel inadequate to do it justice as the first to venture on such an undertaking, a traveler on a lonely and untrodden path. But I pray that God may guide me and the power of the Lord assist me, for I have not found even the footprints of any predecessors on this path, only traces in which some have left various accounts of the times in which they lived.”
Around 313, about the time of Constantine’s Edict of Milan, Eusebius became bishop of the Palestinian city of Caesarea. There he continued work on his church history, which he began during the persecutions. He also wrote a 15-volume refutation of paganism called Preparation, and Demonstration of the Gospel [Internet Archive], demonstrating Christ’s fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. He also completed his Chronicle of world history.
Just as Eusebius was writing about Christianity’s defeat of paganism, one the greatest threats to the Church was developing within it. Arius, a presbyter from Libya, was gaining followers around the empire, teaching, “There was a time when the Son was not.” Egyptian bishop Alexander and his chief deacon, Athanasius, fumed at the teaching. The argument spread throughout the empire, promising to rip the church in two. Constantine, God’s chosen instrument, as Eusebius saw him, called the Council of Nicaea to close the fissure.
Since his earliest days with Pamphilus, Eusebius had been enthralled with the teachings of Origen, who has been criticized for 1,800 years for believing the Trinity is a hierarchy, not an equality. This led Eusebius to be less concerned with Arius’ heresy than the threat of disunity in the Church. When Arius was censured, Eusebius, who thought the entire debate brought Christianity the “most shameful ridicule,” was among the first to ask he be reinstated.
At the Council of Nicaea, Eusebius (whose name means “faithful”) attempted to mediate between the Arians and the orthodox. But when the council was over and Arius was anathematized, Eusebius was reluctant to agree with its decision. He eventually signed the document the council produced, saying, “Peace is the object which we set before us.” But a few years later, when the tables flipped and Arianism became popular, Eusebius criticized Athanasius, hero of the council. He even sat on the council that deposed him. Eusebius wasn’t himself an Arian—he rejected the idea that “there was a time when the Son was not” and that Christ was created out of nothing. He simply opposed anti-Arianism.
As the Arian controversy continued to rage, Eusebius stayed in Caesarea, declining a promotion to become bishop of Antioch, and wrote. Among his most famous writings of this final period was another history: a praise-filled Life of Constantine, his adored political leader.
Eusebius wrote many other things, including an important treatise on the location of biblical place names and the distances between them. He also created a system to number passages of the Gospels and made a table so readers could find the parallels between Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This numbering exists in almost all the Greek manuscripts we have. It became a central idea behind how people read the Bible.
Holy History
His famous Church History shares a missionary purpose with Eusebius’s more explicitly apologetic writings. The opening words state his six interests:
- It is my purpose to write an account of the successions of the holy apostles;. …
- to relate the many important events that are said to have occurred in the history of the church;
- to mention those who have governed and presided over the church in the most prominent parishes and those who in each generation have proclaimed the divine word either orally or in writing;. …
- to give the names. … of those who through love of innovation have run into the greatest errors;. …
- to recount the misfortunes that immediately came upon the whole Jewish nation in consequence of their plots against our Savior;
- and to record the ways and the times in which the divine word has been attacked by the nations and to describe the character of those who at various periods have contended for it in the face of blood and tortures, as well as the confessions that have been made in our own days, and finally the gracious and kindly succor that our Savior has afforded them all.
Eusebius later added a seventh interest: the canon of New Testament Scripture. Athanasius’ definitive list of books stems from Eusebius.
He begins his Church History by describing the divine nature of the pre-existent Christ and the “scattering of the seeds of true religion” among human beings from the beginning of time. Many people throughout history rejected this divine teaching, but it was always available. This point was crucial to Eusebius because it answered a significant question from pagans: If Christianity is the only true religion, why was it so late in coming to the world?
Furthermore, the affirmation that Christianity began at Creation was central to Eusebius’s theology of history. To bolster his claim that God’s plan reached its climax in Christ, he had to trace that plan back through all time. On this basis, he could show how God continued to work through the church as well.
Eusebius wrote the History for ordinary Christians and interested non-Christians. This broad audience was not interested in doctrinal questions, so Eusebius gives such questions little attention. Instead, he concentrates on what would have popular, and enduring, appeal: sensational tales of martyrdom, juicy tidbits about famous leaders, lively quotations, and personal reflections.
Eusebius’ history has, in retrospect, many defects, both in style and method. For instance, he assumes, inaccurately, that the early church looked just like the church he knew. He displayed no sense of doctrinal or institutional development, especially in the Latin West, a region about which he knew little.
Eusebius can also be accused of whitewashing what he did know. As he introduced accounts of persecution in his day, he stated that he was including only what would be profitable:
We shall not mention those who were shaken by the persecution nor those who in everything pertaining to salvation were shipwrecked. … But we shall introduce into this history in general only those events which may be useful first to ourselves and afterwards to posterity (Church History 8.2.3).
Other complaints about Eusebius include his inattention to coherent narrative, his occasionally careless use of sources, and of course his belief that Christianity and the Roman state belonged together. But this negative picture can be exaggerated, and modern readers should be grateful that Eusebius collected material that would otherwise be lost.
Whatever may be said about Eusebius’s inability to organize his materials, he nonetheless had keen insight into themes that would have abiding interest for future generations. Who can forget the scenes recorded by Eusebius?
- The apostle John fleeing the bathhouse upon finding Cerinthus, “the enemy of the truth,” there.
- Justin Martyr in a philosopher’s cloak preaching the Word of God.
- Polycarp confessing his faith before the governor: “Eighty-six years I have served Christ, and he has done me no wrong; how can I blaspheme my king who saved me?”
- Blandina, the slave girl, hanging on a stake as if on a cross, but inspiring her fellow martyrs, “who saw the One who was crucified in the form of their sister.”
- Origen’s father admiring his sleeping boy as one in whom the divine Spirit was enshrined.
Eusebius did not perfect the discipline of church history, but he took the crucial first step of considering world events from a Christian perspective. It is a tribute to his accomplishment that scholars continued his pursuit—though none attempted to rewrite what he had written for centuries.
More
The Wikipedia page is extensive [link]
Catholic criticisms and congratulations regarding Church History [link]
Podcast: Eusebius: History from the Wrong Side of History | Way of the Fathers with Mike Aquilina:
What do we do with this?
Many people know Eusebius as the “Father of Church History.” But did he write history? Because of his style of weaving short entries into a broader scheme he has been called one of the fathers of journalism. Others call him a propagandist – he did call Emperor Constantine “most beloved by God,” and described the fourth-century church as being brought to “a state of uniform harmony.” However we evaluate his achievements, his works remain foundational for our knowledge of the church in its first three centuries. And this foundation stands firm despite noticeable cracks.
Have you ever written your own personal history of faith in your day? It would be interesting to see who and what influenced you, what heresies you faced, what nonsense in the church you had to endure, even your persecutions! Give it a try and see how God blesses it.