23 Facts About Eusebius

1.

Eusebius of Caesarea, known as Eusebius Pamphilus, was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist.

2.

Eusebius wrote Demonstrations of the Gospel, Preparations for the Gospel and On Discrepancies between the Gospels, studies of the biblical text.

3.

Eusebius' own surviving works probably only represent a small portion of his total output.

4.

Eusebius was most likely born in or around Caesarea Maritima.

5.

Eusebius was baptized and instructed in the city, and lived in Syria Palaestina in 296, when Diocletian's army passed through the region.

6.

Eusebius got his information about what texts were accepted by the third-century churches throughout the known world, a great deal of which Origen knew of firsthand from his extensive travels, from the library and writings of Origen.

7.

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.

8.

At about this time Eusebius compiled a Collection of Ancient Martyrdoms, presumably for use as a general reference tool.

9.

Eusebius completed the first editions of the Ecclesiastical History and Chronicle before 300.

10.

Eusebius succeeded Agapius as Bishop of Caesarea soon after 313 and was called on by Arius who had been excommunicated by his bishop Alexander of Alexandria.

11.

Eusebius prevailed and Eustathius was deposed at a synod in Antioch.

12.

Eusebius remained in the Emperor's favour throughout this time and more than once was exonerated with the explicit approval of the Emperor Constantine.

13.

The literary productions of Eusebius reflect on the whole the course of his life.

14.

Pamphilus and Eusebius occupied themselves with the textual criticism of the Septuagint text of the Old Testament and especially of the New Testament.

15.

Eusebius' Life of Constantine 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.

16.

All of the exegetical works of Eusebius have suffered damage in transmission.

17.

Eusebius wrote a work Quaestiones ad Stephanum et Marinum, On the Differences of the Gospels.

18.

Eusebius wrote treatises on the biblical past; these three treatises have been lost.

19.

Eusebius is fairly unusual in his preterist, or fulfilled, eschatological view.

20.

From a dogmatic point of view, Eusebius stands entirely upon the shoulders of Origen.

21.

Eusebius held that men were sinners by their own free choice and not by the necessity of their natures.

22.

The earliest recorded feast day of Eusebius is found in the earliest known Syrian Martyrology dating to the year 411 translated by William Wright.

23.

Eusebius was, moreover, very zealous in the study of the sacred Scriptures, and along with Pamphilus the martyr was a most diligent investigator of sacred literature.