Eusebius and the History of the Church - Term Paper Example

EUSEBIUS AND THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH Eusebius, an elected bishop of Caesaria, is known for being a prolific who has written much of the most noted histories of the early Christian church. His name means “reverent, pious or devout”, and being true to his name he is now celebrated as the father of church history.1 It is presumed that he was born around year 260, and was active in writing many works, giving speeches and orations, as well as counseling until his death in 339. He is famous for writing numerous apologetic works, doctrinal works, bible dictionaries, orations, among others. Eusebius’ most famous work, Ekklestiastices Historias, or the History of the Church, consists of 10 books and contains both histories from the time of the ascension of Jesus of Nazareth, the era during the time of the martyrs and the reign of the persecutions by several emperors, and lastly up to the time of tolerance and peace, written in a style that uses a time grid of the Roman emperors and the succession of bishops until his day.2 While the writings are known to jump from topic to topic in a rather awkward sense, and that within the texts his own ideas were inserted between the lines, it is also to Eusebius’ merit that most, if not all of his sources were properly credited, and acknowledged, which is very unusual for historians at that time. One of the most noted and referred books written by Eusebius is Ekklestiastices Historias, or The History of the Church, was originally in Greek, and was translated in numerous languages during the course of history. This paper will focus on the eighth book, which tells about the persecutions of emperors from Diocletian to Maximian, and the tenth book, which is about the reign of Constantine and the tolerance of the Romans to Christians that resulted in the time of peace and tranquility. The eighth book in Eusebius’ Ekklestiastices Historias tells of the rise of the Christian faith, as well as its fall, which he accounts to the events that he himself experienced in his own time.3 Initially, the Roman rulers and officers were very favorable with regards to those of the Christian faith. Aside from letting the lesser of the people worship in accord to their own chosen faith, Christians were also able to hold offices, govern and rule, as well as to mingle with the upper ranks of the Roman Empire. Moreover, the clergy and other church leaders were also treated with respect not just by their own people, but also those Romans with noble birth.4 With the arrival of peace and tolerance, however, internal discord starts to brew within the structure of the Christian church itself. Due to the gains the Christians had in freedom, fights among them became common. These fights not only included the worshippers, but also their church leaders as well. Eusebius attributed the succeeding events to Divine intervention, when persecutions to Christians in the government offices and the army started. While initially there was not much thought given about it, as the changes in the governance kept sliding past the Christian groups bit by bit, after several generations the Christians were once again subject to the punishments that the early martyrs undertook. The different manners that the Roman Empire tortured its citizens of the Christian faith were described in detail by Eusebius. Among these forms of capital punishments are: death by strangling; beheading; being burned while still alive; bodies thrown into the depths of the sea; even digging up the corpses of some and being thrown in the sea as well, thinking that these bodies might become the subject of worship by those who remain. 5 The destruction of churches and the burning of scriptures during the reign of Diocletian during his reign in 284-305 were also recorded in full detail. As the festival of the Savior’s passion (Easter) approached, aside from the demolition of churches and the eradication of Christian scriptures, those of the Christian faith holding ranks in offices were immediately removed, and those who continue to profess their faith were imprisoned.6 Christian soldiers in the army were forced to choose either to conform to remain or to disobey and be removed from their rank. Resistances to the decree of not sacrificing to the Roman gods and continuing to practice the Christian faith eventually led to the capital punishment and the persecution of Christians once again, only this time there were more places that these killings took place. Eusebius wrote in full detail about the persecutions and the killings that took place, wherever it was done. However, he also wrote the end of emperors who were guilty of punishing the Christians back then, as well as the state of the Roman Empire during and after the times of peace and tolerance. In the times when the rules were in good terms with the Christians, Eusebius mentioned the bountiful harvests, the abundance of good things, the stability of peace and the continuing flow of the growth of Roman authority which could mean peace during the succession of rulers. But when the persecutions started again, just before the edict of rebuilding the Christian church was written, the author of the edict, Galerius, suffered from a very painful sickness, and that doctors were unable to alleviate him from his symptoms. His remorse for torturing and punishing the Christians led him to writing the recantation of the emperors, as well as edifying the rebuilding and re-establishment of the Christian churches that were once destroyed.7 Galerius, as written by Eusebius, suffered the worst divine retribution among the emperors that punished the Christians, while Constantius and his son Constantine were glorified due to their tolerance and letting even the proliferation of the Christian faith grown within the empire. The tenth and the last book of the Ekklestiastices Historias was about the reign of Constantine and the proliferation of peace not just among the Christians but also within the whole Roman empire.8 Most of the chapter was dedicated to the praising of the Almighty, the realization of some divine prophesies, the praising of the emperors that were good and tolerant with the Christians, the promise of blessings to emperors that would be tolerant and would even embrace the faith, as well as the fall of Licinius and the divine retribution he received due to his plan of usurping the throne. Punishments to those who persecute Christians as well as the heavenly rewards to those who tolerate were also written in detail. There were also writings about church restorations and dedications that were being held, as well as joyous festivals and the complete harmony of the Christian church and the state. Since Eusebius was favored by Emperor Constantine, praises and good things about him were written in this last book. The manner by which Eusebius had written the two chapters was observed to be written much like how clergymen and other church leaders would make speeches and other messages to their people, which make such works seem more opinionated or even too biblical since there were passages from the Holy Bible most often quoted as are the messages and letters of some other historians. Unlike today’s historical facts that quote not only the previous historians but also write the proper chronological order of all dates, Eusebius only used the lineage of the reigning emperors as his timeline and guide in writing down the facts and the events in his books. Also, there seems to be bias in terms of how the events were recalled, especially in the books about the martyrdom of Christians. While it is good that in order to make the events seem reliable by quoting other sources, it is somewhat contradicting that Eusebius would also insert his own ideas and opinions during the course of the writing, which is by today’s standards unacceptable. Another thing is that there is the ever the presence of the solid opinion that the destruction of the Jewish temple was a divine punishment for killing Jesus of Nazareth, which is not only written by Eusebius but also the same sentiment by other Christian historians of his day, making him and the other writers seem anti-Judaic and therefore contradicting to their messages of tolerance and peace. 9 But it cannot be denied that the work of Eusebius is a good account of such events because not only was he able to properly quote most of the past works of other historical writers, but also he was able to quote their works in great detail, that even those that were already lost due to antiquity were able to survive up to this day just by being included in his written works. 10 In totality, Eusebius can be very much be accredited to the establishment of the early history not just in the Christian church but of the Roman empire, since he was able to merge both the events that happened before him as well as during his time, especially when documents were hard to retain due to impending destruction of records not just by people but by time itself. BIBLIOGRAPHY Maier, Paul L. Eusebius – the Church History: A New Translation with Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1999. Wllliamson, G. A. The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine. Strand, London: Penguin Books. Ltd., 1989. Read More