Eusebus Pamphilia Parts 1,2 and 3

Page 122

BOOK II CHAPTER XV The Gospel according to Mark. 121 commander of God, clad in divine armor, carried the costly merchandise of the light of the understanding from the East to those who dwelt in the West, proclaiming the light itself, and the word which brings salvation to souls, and preaching the kingdom of heaven.369 CHAPTER XV. The Gospel according to Mark. 1. And thus when the divine word had made its home among them,370 the power of Simon was quenched and immediately destroyed, together with the man himself.371 And so greatly did the splendor of piety illumine the minds of Peter’s hearers that they were not satisfied with hearing once only, and were not content with the unwritten teaching of the divine Gospel, but with all sorts of entreaties they besought Mark,372 a follower of Peter, and the one whose Gospel is extant, that he would leave them a written monument of the doctrine which had been orally communicated to them. Nor did they cease until they had prevailed with the man, and had thus become the occasion of the written Gospel which bears the name of Mark.373 2. And they say that Peter when he had learned, through a revelation of the Spirit, of that which had been done, was pleased with the zeal of the men, and that the work obtained the sanction of his authority for the purpose of being used in the churches.374 Clement in the eighth book of his Hypotyposes gives this account, and with him

that he followed Justin and Irenæus as far as they go, and that he recorded the meeting with Peter in Rome as a fact commonly accepted in his time, and one for which he needed no written authority; or it is possible that he had another source, unknown to us, as suggested above (note 4). 369 A most amazing mixture of metaphors. This sentence furnishes an excellent illustration of Eusebius’ rhetorical style. 370 See the previous chapter, note 1. 371 See chap. 12, note 9, and chap. 14, note 8. 372 John Mark, son of Mary (Acts xii. 12), a sister of Barnabas (Col. iv. 10), was a companion of Paul and Barnabas in their missionary journeys, and afterward a companion of Barnabas alone (Acts xv. 39), and still later was with Paul again in Rome (Col. iv. 10 and Philemon 24), and with Peter when he wrote his first epistle (1 Pet. v. 13). For the later traditions concerning Mark, see the next chapter, note 1. 373 That Mark wrote the second Gospel under the influence of Peter, or as a record of what he had heard from him, is the universal tradition of antiquity. Papias, in the famous and much-disputed passage (quoted by Eusebius, III. 39, below), is the first to record the tradition. Justin Martyr refers to Mark’s Gospel under the name “Memoirs (ἀπομνημονεύματα) of Peter” (Dial. c. Tryph. 106; the translation in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Am. Ed. Vol. I. p. 252, which refers the αὐτοῦ to Christ, is incorrect; compare Weiss, N. T. Einleitung, p. 44, note 4). Irenæus (Adv. Hær. III. 11. 1, quoted below, V. 8. 2), Tertullian (Adv. Marcionem, IV. 5), and Origen (quoted below, VI. 25) confirm the tradition, which is repeated over and over again by the Fathers. The question as to the real authorship of our second Gospel, or rather as to its composition and its relation to Matthew and Luke, is a very difficult one. The relationship of the three synoptical Gospels was first discussed by Augustine (De Consensu Evangelistarum), who defended the traditional order, but made Mark dependent upon Matthew. This view prevailed until the beginning of the present century, when the problem was attacked anew, and since then it has been the crux of the literary criticism of the Bible. The three have been held to be dependent upon each other, and every possible order has found its advocates; a common source has been assumed for the three: the Hebrew Matthew, the Gospel according to the Hebrews (see Bk. III. chap. 25, note 24), our canonical Gospel of Mark, or an original Mark, resembling the present one; a number of fragmentary documents have been assumed; while others, finally, have admitted only oral tradition as the basis. According to Baur’s tendency theory, Matthew (polemically Jewish-Christian) came first, followed by an original Luke (polemically Pauline-Christian), then by our Mark, which was based upon both and written in the interest of neutrality, and lastly by our present Luke, designed as a final irenicum. This view now finds few advocates. The whole matter is still unsettled, but criticism seems to be gradually converging toward a common ground type (or rather two independent types) for all three while at the same time maintaining the relative independence of the three, one toward the other. What these ground types were, is a matter of still sharper dispute, although criticism is gradually drawing their larger features with more and more certainty and clearness. (The latest discussion upon the subject by Handmann, das Hebräer-Evangelium, makes the two types the “Ur-Marcus” and the Gospel of the Hebrews.) That in the last analysis, however, some space must still be left for floating tradition, or for documents irreducible to the one or two types, seems absolutely certain. For further information as to the state of discussion upon this intricate problem, see among recent works, especially Weiss, Einleitung, p. 473 sqq., Holtzmann, Einleitung, p. 328 sqq., and Schaff, Ch. Hist. I. 575 sqq., where the literature down to 1882 is given with great fullness. Conservative opinion puts the composition of all the synoptic Gospels before the destruction of Jerusalem (for the date of Luke, see III. 4, note 12); but the critical school, while throwing the original type back of that date, considers the composition of our present Gospels to have been the gradual work of years, assuming that they were not finally crystallized into the form in which we have them before the second century. 374 This mention of the “pleasure” of Peter, and the “authority” given by him to the work of Mark, contradicts the account of Clement to which Eusebius here appeals as his authority. In Bk. VI. chap. 14 he quotes from the Hypotyposes of Clement, a passage which must


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The Epistle of Clement and the Writings falsely ascribed to him

4min
page 213

The Evangelists that were still Eminent at that Time

4min
page 212

Trajan forbids the Christians to be sought after

9min
pages 205-206

Symeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, suffers Martyrdom

8min
pages 203-204

Nicolaus and the Sect named after him

4min
page 199

Cerinthus the Heresiarch

8min
pages 197-198

Menander the Sorcerer

4min
page 194

The Heresy of the Ebionites

9min
pages 195-196

The Divine Scriptures that are accepted and those that are not

26min
pages 188-193

Narrative Concerning John the Apostle

17min
pages 179-182

The Order of the Gospels

22min
pages 183-187

The Relatives of our Saviour

3min
page 177

Symeon rules the Church of Jerusalem after James

4min
page 172

Domitian commands the Descendants of David to be slain

4min
page 176

The Manner in which Josephus mentions the Divine Books

16min
pages 167-171

The Signs which preceded the War

7min
pages 164-165

Josephus and the Works which he has left

4min
page 166

The Famine which oppressed them

14min
pages 159-162

The Predictions of Christ

3min
page 163

The Last Siege of the Jews after Christ

3min
page 158

The First Successors of the Apostles

19min
pages 154-157

The Epistles of the Apostles

35min
pages 148-153

The Jews, afflicted with Innumerable Evils, commenced the Last War Against the Romans

5min
page 144

The Parts of the World in which the Apostles preached Christ

3min
page 145

The First Ruler of the Church of Rome

7min
pages 146-147

The Persecution under Nero in which Paul and Peter were honored at Rome with Martyrdom in Behalf of Religion

13min
pages 141-143

Annianus the First Bishop of the Church of Alexandria after Mark

5min
page 140

The Martyrdom of James, who was called the Brother of the Lord

22min
pages 135-139

Paul having been sent bound from Judea to Rome, made his Defense, and was acquitted of every Charge

9min
pages 133-134

The Calamity which befell the Jews in Jerusalem on the Day of the Passover

5min
page 131

The Works of Philo that have come down to us

21min
pages 127-130

The Preaching of the Apostle Peter in Rome

9min
pages 120-121

Simon Magus

9min
pages 118-119

The Gospel according to Mark

5min
page 122

Helen, the Queen of the Osrhœnians

4min
page 117

The Impostor Theudas and his Followers

4min
page 116

The Misfortunes which overwhelmed the Jews after their Presumption against Christ

7min
pages 111-112

Philo’s Embassy to Caius in Behalf of the Jews

5min
page 110

After the Death of Tiberius, Caius appointed Agrippa King of the Jews, having punished Herod with Perpetual Exile

4min
page 109

How Tiberius was affected when informed by Pilate concerning Christ

13min
pages 105-107

The Doctrine of Christ soon spread throughout All the World

4min
page 108

The Course pursued by the Apostles after the Ascension of Christ

18min
pages 101-104

Narrative concerning the Prince of the Edessenes

13min
pages 98-100

The Disciples of our Saviour

10min
pages 96-97

Testimonies in Regard to John the Baptist and Christ

9min
pages 94-95

The Alleged Discrepancy in the Gospels in regard to the Genealogy of Christ

26min
pages 85-89

About the Time of Christ, in accordance with Prophecy, the Rulers who had governed the Jewish Nation in Regular Succession from the Days of Antiquity came to an End, and Herod, the First Foreigner, Became King

10min
pages 83-84

The Cruelty of Herod toward the Infants, and the Manner of his Death

9min
pages 90-91

The High Priests of the Jews under whom Christ taught

4min
page 93

The Times of Pilate

5min
page 92

The Time of his Appearance among Men

10min
pages 81-82

The Religion Proclaimed by Him to All Nations Was Neither New Nor Strange

4min
page 80

The Name Jesus and also the Name Christ were known from the Beginning, and were honored by the Inspired Prophets

8min
pages 78-79

5. Literature

4min
page 58

Summary View of the Pre-existence and Divinity of Our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ

19min
pages 74-77

Sozomen in the First Book of his Ecclesiastical History (chap. 1

5min
page 64

From Constantine’s Letter to the Antiochians in Eusebius’ Life of Constantine, Book III. chap. 60

4min
page 59

3. Eusebius as a Historian. The Merits and Defects of his History

19min
pages 51-54

4. Editions and Versions

13min
pages 55-57

VII. ORATIONS

7min
pages 48-49

IV. DOGMATIC WORKS

4min
page 43

VI. BIBLICAL DICTIONARIES

4min
page 47

V. CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL WORKS

12min
pages 44-46

II. APOLOGETIC WORKS

24min
pages 37-41

3. The Persecution of Diocletian

9min
pages 19-20

6. The Council of Nicæa

9min
pages 28-29

7. Continuance of the Arian Controversy. Eusebius’ Relations to the Two Parties

14min
pages 30-32

2. Catalogue Of His Works

4min
page 35

III. POLEMIC WORKS

4min
page 42

5. The Outbreak of the Arian Controversy. The Attitude of Eusebius

29min
pages 22-27

4. Eusebius’ Accession to the Bishopric of Cæsarea

4min
page 21
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