Editing Eusebius (section)

==Works==
[[File:Armenian translation of Eusebius Chronicon.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Armenian translation of Chronicon. 13th century manuscript]]
Of the extensive literary activity of Eusebius, a relatively large portion has been preserved. Although posterity suspected him of [[Arianism]], Eusebius had made himself indispensable by his method of authorship; his comprehensive and careful excerpts from original sources saved his successors the painstaking labor of original research. Hence, much has been preserved, quoted by Eusebius, which otherwise would have been lost.

The literary productions of Eusebius reflect on the whole the course of his life. At first, he occupied himself with works on [[biblical criticism]] under the influence of [[Pamphilus of Caesarea|Pamphilus]] and probably of [[Dorotheus of Tyre]] of the [[School of Antioch]]. Afterward, the persecutions under [[Diocletian]] and [[Galerius]] directed his attention to the martyrs of his own time and the past, and this 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 ecclesiastical history.

Then followed the time of the Arian controversies, and [[dogma]]tic questions came into the foreground. Christianity at last found recognition by the State; and this brought new problems – apologies of a different sort had to be prepared. Lastly, Eusebius wrote eulogies in praise of Constantine. To all this activity must be added numerous writings of a miscellaneous nature, addresses, letters, and the like, and exegetical works that extended over the whole of his life and that include both commentaries and an important treatise on the location of [[Onomasticon (Eusebius)|biblical place names]] and the distances between these cities.

===''Onomasticon''===
{{main|Onomasticon (Eusebius)}}

===Biblical text criticism===
[[File:Fol. 10v-11r Egmond Gospels.jpg|thumb|Eusebius's [[canon tables]] were often included in Early Medieval [[Gospel book]]s]]

[[File:Eusebius Ethiopian icon.jpg|thumb|Eusebius depicted in the page preceding his [[Eusebian Canons]] in the ancient [[Garima Gospels]]]]
Pamphilus and Eusebius occupied themselves with the [[textual criticism]] of the [[Septuagint]] text of the [[Old Testament]] and especially of the [[New Testament]]. An edition of the Septuagint seems to have been already prepared by [[Origen]], which, according to [[Jerome]], was revised and circulated by Eusebius and Pamphilus. For an easier survey of the material of the four Evangelists, Eusebius divided his edition of the New Testament into paragraphs and provided it with a synoptical table so that it might be easier to find the [[pericope]]s that belong together. These [[canon tables]] or "Eusebian canons" remained in use throughout the Middle Ages, and [[illuminated manuscript]] versions are important for the study of early medieval art, as they are the most elaborately decorated pages of many [[Gospel book]]s. Eusebius detailed in ''[[Epistula ad Carpianum]]'' how to use his canons.

===''Chronicle''===
{{Main|Chronicon (Eusebius)}}
The ''Chronicle'' ({{lang|grc|Παντοδαπὴ Ἱστορία}} (''Pantodape historia'')) is divided into two parts. The first part, the ''Chronography'' ({{lang|grc|Χρονογραφία}} (''Chronographia'')), gives an epitome of universal history from the sources, arranged according to nations. The second part, the ''Canons'' ({{lang|grc|Χρονικοὶ Κανόνες}} (''Chronikoi kanones'')), furnishes a synchronism of the historical material in parallel columns, the equivalent of a parallel timeline.<ref>Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 112.</ref>

The work as a whole has been lost in the original Greek, but it may be reconstructed from later chronographists of the Byzantine school who made excerpts from the work, especially [[George Syncellus]]. The tables of the second part have been completely preserved in a Latin translation by Jerome, and both parts are still extant in an [[Armenian language|Armenian]] translation. The loss of the Greek originals has given the Armenian translation a special importance; thus, the first part of Eusebius's ''Chronicle'', of which only a few fragments exist in Greek, has been preserved entirely in [[Armenian language|Armenian]], though with lacunae. The ''Chronicle'' as preserved extends to the year 325.<ref>Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 112–13, 340 n. 58.</ref>

===''Church History''===
{{Main|Church History (Eusebius)}}
In his ''Church History'' or ''Ecclesiastical History'', Eusebius wrote the second surviving history of the Christian Church as a chronologically ordered account, based on earlier sources, complete from the period of the Apostles to his own epoch.<ref>{{Citation | first = Glenn F. | last = Chesnut | title = The First Christian Histories: Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and Evagrius | year = 1986 | chapter = Introduction}}</ref> The time scheme correlated the history with the reigns of the Roman Emperors, and the scope was broad. Included were the bishops and other teachers of the Church, Christian relations with the Jews and those deemed heretical, and the Christian martyrs through 324.<ref>{{Citation | first = Paul L. | last = Maier | title = Eusebius: The Church History – Translation and Commentary by Paul L. Maier | year = 2007 | page = 9 and 16 }}</ref> Although its accuracy and biases have been questioned,<ref>See, e.g., [[James the Brother of Jesus (book)]] by Robert Eisenman.</ref> it remains an important source on the early church due to Eusebius's access to materials now lost.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07365a.htm | title = Catholic Encyclopedia | contribution = Ecclesiastical History | publisher = New Advent}}</ref>

===''Life of Constantine''===
Eusebius's ''[[Life of Constantine]]'' (''Vita Constantini'') is a [[eulogy]] or [[panegyric]], and therefore its style and selection of facts are affected by its purpose, rendering it inadequate as a continuation of the ''Church History.'' As the historian [[Socrates Scholasticus]] said, at the opening of his history which was designed as a continuation of Eusebius, "Also in writing the life of Constantine, this same author has but slightly treated of matters regarding [[Arius]], being more intent on the rhetorical finish of his composition and the praises of the emperor than on an accurate statement of facts." The work was unfinished at Eusebius's death. Some scholars have questioned the Eusebian authorship of this work. {{Who|date=September 2022}}

==== Conversion of Constantine according to Eusebius ====
{{Main|Constantine the Great and Christianity}}
Writing after Constantine had died, Eusebius claimed that the emperor himself had recounted to him that some time between the death of his father – the ''augustus'' [[Constantius Chlorus|Constantius]] – and his final battle against his rival [[Maxentius]] as ''augustus'' in the West, Constantine experienced a [[Vision (spirituality)|vision]] in which he and his soldiers beheld a Christian symbol, "a cross-shaped trophy formed from light", above the sun at midday.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|last1=Bardill|first1=Jonathan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AUK5cQW2EUwC|title=Constantine, Divine Emperor of the Christian Golden Age|last2=Bardill|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0-521-76423-0|pages=159–170|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">Eusebius of Caesarea, ''Vita Constantini'', 1.29</ref> Attached to the symbol was the phrase "by this conquer" ({{langx|grc|ἐν τούτῳ νίκα|label=none|translit=en toútōi níka}}), a phrase often rendered into Latin as "''[[in hoc signo vinces]]''".<ref name=":02" /> In a dream that night "the Christ of God appeared to him with the sign which had appeared in the sky, and urged him to make himself a copy of the sign which had appeared in the sky, and to use this as a protection against the attacks of the enemy."<ref name=":1" /> Eusebius relates that this happened "on a campaign he [Constantine] was conducting somewhere".<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":02" /> It is unclear from Eusebius's description whether the shields were marked with a [[Christian cross]] or with a ''[[Chi Rho|chi-rho]]'', a [[staurogram]], or another similar symbol.<ref name=":02" />

The Latin text ''De mortibus persecutorum'' contains an early account of the 28 October 312 [[Battle of the Milvian Bridge]] written by [[Lactantius]] probably in 313, the year following the battle. Lactantius does not mention a vision in the sky but describes a revelatory dream on the eve of battle.<ref>Lactantius, ''De mortibus persecutorum'', 44.5–6</ref> Eusebius's work of that time, his ''Church History'', also makes no mention of the vision.<ref name=":02" /> The Arch of Constantine, constructed in AD 315, neither depicts a vision nor any Christian insignia in its depiction of the battle. In his posthumous biography of Constantine, Eusebius agrees with Lactantius that Constantine received instructions in a dream to apply a Christian symbol as a [[Heraldic device|device]] to his soldiers' shields, but unlike Lactantius and subsequent Christian tradition, Eusebius does not date the events to October 312 and does not connect Constantine's vision and dream-vision with the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.<ref name=":02" />

===Minor historical works===
Before he compiled his church history, Eusebius edited a collection of martyrdoms of the earlier period and a biography of Pamphilus. The martyrology has not survived as a whole, but it has been preserved almost completely in parts. It contained:
* an epistle of the congregation of [[Smyrna]] concerning the martyrdom of [[Polycarp]];
* the martyrdom of [[Pionius]];
* the martyrdoms of [[Carpus and Papylus|Carpus, Papylus]], and [[Carpus and Papylus|Agathonike]];
* the martyrdoms in the congregations of [[Vienne (department)|Vienne]] and [[Lyon]];
* the martyrdom of Apollonius.

Of the life of Pamphilus, only a fragment survives. A work on the [[martyrs of Palestine]] in the time of Diocletian was composed after 311; numerous fragments are scattered in legendaries which have yet to be collected. The life of Constantine was compiled after the death of the emperor and the election of his sons as Augusti (337). It is more a rhetorical eulogy on the emperor than a history but is of great value on account of numerous documents incorporated into it.

===Apologetic and dogmatic works===
To the class of [[Apologetics|apologetic]] and dogmatic works belong:
* The ''[[Apology for Origen]]'', the first five books of which, according to the definite statement of Photius, were written by Pamphilus in prison, with the assistance of Eusebius. Eusebius added the sixth book after the death of Pamphilus. We possess only a Latin translation of the first book, made by [[Tyrannius Rufinus|Rufinus]].
* A treatise against [[Sossianus Hierocles|Hierocles]] (a Roman governor), in which Eusebius combated the former's glorification of [[Apollonius of Tyana]] in a work entitled ''[[A Truth-loving Discourse]]'' (Greek: ''Philalethes logos''); in spite of manuscript attribution to Eusebius, however, it has been argued (by Thomas Hagg<ref>Thomas Hagg, "Hierocles the Lover of Truth and Eusebius the Sophist," SO 67 (1992): 138–50</ref> and more recently, Aaron Johnson)<ref>Aaron Johnson, "The Author of the Against Hierocles: A Response to Borzì and Jones," JTS 64 (2013): 574–594)</ref> that this treatise "[[Against Hierocles]]" was written by someone other than Eusebius of Caesarea.
* ''[[Praeparatio evangelica]]'' (''Preparation for the Gospel''), commonly known by its Latin title, which attempts to prove the excellence of Christianity over every pagan religion and philosophy. The ''Praeparatio'' consists of fifteen books which have been completely preserved. Eusebius considered it an introduction to Christianity for pagans. But its value for many later readers is more because Eusebius studded this work with so many lively fragments from historians and philosophers which are nowhere else preserved. Here alone is preserved [[Pyrrho]]'s translation of the Buddhist [[Three marks of existence]] upon which Pyrrho based [[Pyrrhonism]]. Here alone is a summary of the writings of the [[Phoenicia]]n priest [[Sanchuniathon]] of which the accuracy has been shown by the mythological accounts found on the [[Ugaritic]] tables. Here alone is the account from [[Diodorus Siculus]]'s sixth book of [[Euhemerus]]' wondrous voyage to the island of [[Panchaea]] where [[Euhemerus]] purports to have found his true history of the gods. And here almost alone is preserved writings of the [[neo-Platonist]] philosopher [[Atticus (philosopher)|Atticus]] along with so much else.
* ''Demonstratio evangelica'' (''[[Proof of the Gospel]]'') is closely connected to the ''Praeparatio'' and comprised originally twenty books of which ten have been completely preserved as well as a fragment of the fifteenth. Here Eusebius treats of the person of Jesus Christ. The work was probably finished before 311;
* Another work which originated in the time of the persecution, entitled ''[[Prophetic Extracts]]'' (''Eclogae propheticae''). It discusses in four books the [[Messiah|Messianic]] texts of Scripture. The work is merely the surviving portion (books 6–9) of the ''General elementary introduction'' to the Christian faith, now lost. The fragments given as the Commentary on Luke in the PG have been claimed to derive from the missing tenth book of the General Elementary Introduction (see D. S. Wallace-Hadrill); however, Aaron Johnson has argued that they cannot be associated with this work.<ref>Aaron Johnson, "The Tenth Book of Eusebius' General Elementary Introduction: A Critique of the Wallace-Hadrill Thesis," Journal of Theological Studies, 62.1 (2011): 144–160</ref>
{{anchor|On Divine Manifestation|Theophania}}<!--linked-->
* The treatise ''On Divine Manifestation'' or ''On the Theophania'' (''Peri theophaneias''), of unknown date. It treats of the incarnation of the Divine [[Logos (Christianity)|Logos]], and its contents are in many cases identical with the ''Demonstratio evangelica.'' Only fragments are preserved in Greek, but a complete Syriac translation of the ''Theophania'' survives in an early 5th-century manuscript. Samuel Lee, the editor (1842) and translator (1843) of the Syriac ''Theophania,'' thought that the work must have been written "after the general peace restored to the Church by Constantine, and before either the 'Praeparatio,' or the 'Demonstratio Evangelica,' was written ... It appears probable ... therefore, that this was one of the first productions of Eusebius, if not the first after the persecutions ceased."<ref>Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea ''On the Theophania, or Divine Manifestation of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ'' (Cambridge, 1843), pp. xxi–xxii. Lee's full passage is as follows: "As to the period at which it was written, I think it must have been, after the general peace restored to the Church by Constantine, and before either the "Praeparatio", or the "Demonstratio Evangelica", was written. My reason for the first of these suppositions is: Our author speaks repeatedly of the peace restored to the Church; of Churches and Schools restored, or then built for the first time : of the nourishing state of the Church of Caesarea; of the extended, and then successfully extending, state of Christianity : all of which could not have been said during the times of the last, and most severe persecution. My reasons for the second of these suppositions are, the considerations that whatever portions of this Work are found, either in the "Praeparatio", |22 the "Demonstratio Evangelica", or the " Oratio de laudibus Constantini", they there occur in no regular sequence of argument as they do in this Work: especially in the latter, into which they have been carried evidently for the purpose of lengthening out a speech. Besides, many of these places are amplified in these works, particularly in the two former as remarked in my notes; which seems to suggest, that such additions were made either to accommodate these to the new soil, into which they had been so transplanted, or, to supply some new matter, which had suggested itself to our author. And again, as both the "Praeparatio" and "Demonstratio Evangelica", are works which must have required very considerable time to complete them, and which would even then be unfit for general circulation; it appears probable to me, that this more popular, and more useful work, was first composed and published, and that the other two,--illustrating as they generally do, some particular points only,--argued in order in our Work,-- were reserved for the reading and occasional writing of our author during a considerable number of years, as well for the satisfaction of his own mind, as for the general reading of the learned. It appears probable to me therefore, that this was one of the first productions of Eusebius, if not the first after the persecutions ceased."</ref> Hugo Gressmann, noting in 1904 that the ''Demonstratio'' seems to be mentioned at IV. 37 and V. 1, and that II. 14 seems to mention the extant practice of temple prostitution at Hieropolis in Phoenica, concluded that the ''Theophania'' was probably written shortly after 324. Others have suggested a date as late as 337.<ref>Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'' (Harvard, 1981), p. 367, n.176. Note that Lee (p. 285) thinks that the passage in V. 1 refers to an earlier section within the ''Theophania'' itself, rather than to the ''Demonstratio''.</ref>
* A polemical treatise against [[Marcellus of Ancyra]], the ''Against Marcellus'', dating from about 337;
* A supplement to the last-named work, also against Marcellus, entitled ''[[Ecclesiastical Theology]]'', in which he defended the Nicene doctrine of the Logos against the party of Athanasius.

A number of writings, belonging in this category, have been entirely lost.

===Exegetical and miscellaneous works===
All of the exegetical works of Eusebius have suffered damage in transmission. The majority of them are known to us only from long portions quoted in Byzantine catena-commentaries. However these portions are very extensive. Extant are:
* An enormous Commentary on the [[Psalms]];
* A commentary on [[Isaiah]], discovered more or less complete in a manuscript in Florence early in the 20th century and published 50 years later;
* Small fragments of commentaries on [[Epistle to the Romans|Romans]] and [[1 Corinthians]].

Eusebius also wrote a work '{{lang|la|Quaestiones ad Stephanum et Marinum}}, ''On the Differences of the Gospels'' (including solutions). This was written for the purpose of harmonizing the contradictions in the reports of the different Evangelists. This work was recently (2011) translated into the English language by David J. Miller and Adam C. McCollum and was published under the name ''Eusebius of Caesarea: Gospel Problems and Solutions''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Eusebius of Caesarea: Gospel Problems and Solutions (Ancient Texts in Translation): Roger Pearse, David J Miller, Adam C McCollum: 9780956654014: Amazon.com: Books |date= 2010-03-06|isbn = 978-0956654014|last1 = Caesaea|first1 = Eusebius of|last2= Miller|first2= David J. D.|last3= McCollum|first3= Adam C.|last4= Downer|first4= Carol|last5= Zamagni|first5= Claudio|publisher= Chieftain}}</ref> The original work was also translated into [[Syriac language|Syriac]], and lengthy quotations exist in a ''[[Catena (biblical commentary)|catena]]'' in that language, and also in [[Arabic]] catenas.<ref>Georg Graf, ''Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur'' vol. 1</ref>

Eusebius also wrote treatises on the biblical past; these three treatises have been lost. They were:

* A work on the Greek equivalents of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] Gentilic nouns;
* A description of old [[Judea]] with an account of the [[Ten Lost Tribes|loss of the ten tribes]];
* A plan of [[Jerusalem]] and the [[Temple in Jerusalem|Temple of Solomon]].

The addresses and sermons of Eusebius are mostly lost, but some have been preserved, e.g., a sermon on the consecration of the church in Tyre and an address on the thirtieth anniversary of the reign of Constantine (336).

Most of Eusebius's letters are lost. His letters to Carpianus and Flacillus exist complete. Fragments of a letter to the empress Constantia also exists.