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An 1842 copy of Eusebius' Church History

CHURCH HISTORY (EUSEBIUS) (Draft) .

Church History is the name usually given by Biblical scholars to the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea. It was composed in Koine Greek, and survives also in Latin, Syriac and Armenian manuscripts. This important historical work gives a chronological account of the formation of Early Christianity; up to the year 324. Church History has great value to Biblical scholars because it preserved many of the lost historical documents pertaining to Jesus of Nazareth and his followers. Therefore, although the Library of Caesarea was destroyed, the early history of Christianity has been saved.

Authorship

Eusebius, who was born in 260 CE is considered the Father of Church History. Modern historical scholars have said his monumental contribution to historiography is on a par with that of Ranke and Thucydides. Furthermore, Eusebius was a pupil of the esteemed scholar Pamphilus, and became a personal friend of the Emperor Constantine the Great. After being appointed Bishop of Caesarea he gained further access to a vast amount of historical documentation including early manuscripts about Jesus and his teachings.

Most ancient historians in the First Century focused on war. Eusebius' approach was very different. His 'war' was the battle of the early Christians against Roman persecution, and heretical detractors. Eusebius wrote of a nonviolent battle fought for Truth rather than for Empire. His heroes were not soldiers, centurions and emperors, but Martyrs, Apostles and Bishops.

Scholars need to consider the enormous change that took place in the course of Eusebius' lifetime. When he began his Church History, in the 290s, martyrdom and persecution were still his reality. However Eusebius lived to see the extraordinary victory of the Gospel of Christ over the might of the Roman Empire. The Roman Emperor himself had converted and was now a personal friend. It is important to remember that Church History is not merely a triumphalist history written from the perspective of the winners; it was begun before the end of the persecutions. This was the foundation of Church History. It was built on a view of history which had been developed in a time when the Church was still in a minority position. As modern historians begin to understand the author, only then do his writings make sense.

Composition

Eusebius composed an extensive historical narrative written in ten volumes. His Church History was rooted in Hellenistic-Jewish Historiography and was written from a Christian point of view. It begins with life of Jesus of Nazareth and his early desciples. In the introduction to his Church History, Eusebius explains, 'I am the first who ever set out on this kind of venture, like some traveller on a desolate and untrodden path.'

Eusebius had access to the Library of Caesarea which was one of the most comprehensive libraries of the Graeco-Roman world. It was started by Origen in the year 231. Patterned after Alexandria, it contained a considerable body of Christian literature containing an estimated 30,000 items. Eusebius made extensive use of the many ecclesiastical monuments and documents, acts of the martyrs, letters, extracts from earlier Christian writings, manuscripts, and similar sources, accurately quoting the originals at great length.

Furthermore, Eusebius benefitted from new innovative technologies and scholarly techniques. These included the use of codices (i.e. bound books, which contained easily accessible data rather awkward scrolls). He managed to use indices and tables for collating and presenting data. Furthermore, he was able to compile chronological tables and year-on-year lists of important historical events across the major empires of the ancient world. This combination of a new ergonomically effective way of keeping and presenting documentary evidence combined with including including this material in a narrative history, was truly ground breaking.

When the library at Caesarea was lost, the history of Jesus and his followers was preserved in Church History by Eusebius. To this day Church History remains the most important source for the ancient history of the Early Church.

Summary

Church History, which Eusebius began to write during the Roman persecutions was a monumental achievement with far reaching consequences. It gives us a detailed account of the historical Jesus, the formation of Christianity, and the Christian Oral Tradition. It also tells scholars who wrote the first Gospels and why. In this work, Eusebius managed to produce a fully documented history of early Christianity, going back to Christ himself.

Church History has been seen by some as a sequeal to a work entitled Jewish Antiquities. It has even been argued by modern scholars that Eusebius was actually writing a history of the "Christian nation" imitating to some degree Josephus' apologetic historiography.

His detractors say Church History is merely collections of passages copied from early sources. However this may actually be what is important to modern scholars. Eusebius constantly quotes or paraphrases his sources, and he thus preserved portions of earlier works that are no longer extant. It may be fairly said that he preserved the history of Jesus and his followers and saved the great wealth of information at the Library of Caesarea from extinction!