Eusebus Pamphilia Parts 1,2 and 3

Page 28

CHAPTER I THE LIFE OF EUSEBIUS 27 bearing was there brought out by its enemies, we can see that he could not do otherwise than change; that he must have become either an out-and-out Arian, or an opponent of Arianism as he did. When he learned, and learned for the first time, that Arianism meant the denial of all essential divinity to Christ, and when he saw that it involved the ascription of mutability and of other finite attributes to him, he must either change entirely his views on those points or he must leave the Arian party. To him who with all his subordinationism had laid in all his writings so much stress on the divinity of the Word (even though he had not realized exactly what that divinity involved) it would have been a revolution in his Christian life and faith to have admitted what he now learned that Arianism involved. Sabellianism had been his dread, but now this new fear, which had aroused so large a portion of the Church, seized him too, and he felt that stand must be made against this too great separation of Father and Son, which was leading to dangerous results. Under the pressure of this fear it is not surprising that he should become convinced that the Arian formula—“there was a time when the Son was not”—involved serious consequences, and that Alexander and his followers should have succeeded in pointing out to him its untruth, because it led necessarily to a false conclusion. It is not surprising, moreover, that they should have succeeded in explaining to him at least partially their belief, which, as his epistle to Alexander shows, had before been absolutely incomprehensible, that the Son was generated from all eternity, and that therefore the Father did not exist before him in a temporal sense. He says toward the close of his epistle to the Cæsarean church that he had not been accustomed to use such expressions as “There was a time when he was not,” “He came to be from nothing,” etc. And there is no reason to doubt that he speaks the truth. Even in his epistles to Alexander and Euphration he does not use those phrases (though he does defend the doctrine taught by the first of them), nor does Arius himself, in the epistle to Alexander upon which Eusebius apparently based his knowledge of the system, use those expressions, although he too teaches the same doctrine. The fact is that in that epistle Arius studiously avoids such favorite Arian phrases as might emphasize the differences between himself and Alexander, and Eusebius seems to have avoided them for the same reason. We conclude then that Eusebius was not an Arian (nor an adherent of Lucian) before 318, that soon after that date he became an Arian in the sense in which he understood Arianism, but that during the Council of Nicæa he ceased to be one in any sense. His writings in later years confirm the course of doctrinal development which we have supposed went on in his mind. He never again defends Arian doctrines in his works, and yet he never becomes an Athanasian in his emphasis upon the ὁμοούσιον. In fact he represents a mild orthodoxy, which is always orthodox—when measured by the Nicene creed as interpreted by the Nicene Council—and yet is always mild. Moreover, he never acquired an affection for the word ὁμοούσιος, which to his mind was bound up with too many evil associations ever to have a pleasant sound to him. He therefore studiously avoided it in his own writings, although clearly showing that he believed fully in what the Nicene Council had explained it to mean. It must be remembered that during many years of his later life he was engaged in controversy with Marcellus, a thorough-going Sabellian, who had been at the time of the Council one of the strongest of Athanasius’ colleagues. In his contest with him it was again anti-Sabellianistic polemics which absorbed him and increased his distaste for ὁμοούσιον and minimized his emphasis upon the distinctively anti-Arianistic doctrines formulated at Nicæa. For any except the very wisest minds it was a matter of enormous difficulty to steer between the two extremes in those times of strife; and while combating Sabellianism not to fall into Arianism, and while combating the latter not to be engulfed in the former. That Eusebius under the constant pressure of the one fell into the other at one time, and was in occasional danger of falling into it again in later years, can hardly be cited as an evidence either of wrong heart or of weak head. An Athanasius he was not, but neither was he an unsteady weather-cock, or an hypocritical time-server. §6. The Council of Nicæa. At the Council of Nicæa, which met pursuant to an imperial summons in the year 325 A.D., Eusebius played a very prominent part. A description of the opening scenes of the Council is given in his Vita Constantini, III. 10 sq. After the Emperor had entered in pomp and had taken his seat, a bishop who sat next to him upon his right arose and delivered in his honor the opening oration, to which the Emperor replied in a brief Latin address. There can be no doubt that this bishop was our Eusebius. Sozomen (H. E. I. 19) states it directly; and Eusebius, although he does not name the speaker, yet refers to him, as he had referred to the orator at the dedication of Paulinus’ church at Tyre, in such a way as to make it clear that it was himself; and moreover in his Vita Constantini, I. 1, he mentions the fact that he had in the midst of an assembly of the servants of God addressed an oration to the Emperor on the


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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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