Eusebius of Caesarea
Church historian, apologist, propagandist
and theological controversialist, martyrologist, geographer, biblical scholar,
and bishop. E. was born in Palestine in the early 260s, studied at Caesarea
under Pamphilus, who stood in the tradition of Origen, was appointed bishop of
Caesarea ca. 313/15, and died in 339/40. Following his mentors, he was skilled
in biblical scholarship, to such a degree that Emperor Constantine requested
that E. supply 50 copies of the Bible in order to make available the best
possible text. It has been speculated that these Bibles may have been
illustrated, but this seems improbable given the stipulation that they were to
be executed in a convenient and portable format (VC 4.36). E. is an important source for the general state of
material culture in the eastern Mediterranean during the early 4th c., and he
is invaluable in the documentation he provides for the Imperial building
program under the → patronage of → Constantine (see Voelkl, 1953) and → Helena.
HE (10.4.1–72) contains the earliest Eusebian description of a
Christian church building; this is the dedicatory speech for the new cathedral
of Bishop Paulinus at Tyre in Phoenicia (→ Lebanon). He mentions (HE 7.30.19) an even earlier church
building taken away from Paul of Samosata in Antioch and also reports (HE 7.19.1) that the episcopal throne (→
Cathedra) of James, the brother of Jesus, had been preserved to his own day. He
also reports (HE 7.18.2) the
existence at Caesarea Philippi (→ Paneas) of a bronze relief (ektypōma) of Jesus (→ Asklepios?) and
the haemorrhoissa (→ Woman with the
Issue of Blood); in the same context he writes that he had visited Caesarea
Philippi and had seen paintings (eikōnes;
→ Icon) there of the apostles and of Peter, Paul, and Christ; the local people,
he writes, had painted the images of these figures, whom they honored
(following pagan custom) as saviors.
Toward the end of his life, E.
began (and left unfinished) a biography of the first Christian emperor,
entitled Life of Constantine (VC). In
book 3 of VC he attributed the
construction of eight early Christian churches to the emperor. Five of these
eight are also mentioned in chapter 9 of E.’s encomiastic speech In Praise of Constantine (hereafter LC)—all five were in the eastern half of
the Empire. The most important and most fully described of the group is the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (VC
3.25–40; 4.40, 47; LC 9.16, 17;
11.2). A letter from the emperor to the bishop of Jerusalem, Macarius, is
quoted and provides many details about design and decoration. E. attributes the
construction of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (VC 3.41–43; LC 9.17) both
to Constantine and to his mother, Helena; he writes that she was also the
patron of Eleona Church on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem (VC 3.41–43; LC 9.17; see Taylor.1993, 143ff.). For all three, E. mentions
sacred caves associated by tradition with Jesus; and he is particularly amazed
that the empty tomb was discovered beneath a temple of Venus in the midst of
Roman Aelia Capitolina-Jerusalem (see Taylor.1993, 113ff.).
E. also attributes to Constantine
the construction of a basilica at the oak and spring of → Mamre near Hebron
(where → Abraham lived); he quotes a letter (VC 3.51–53) describing the visit of his mother-in-law, Eutropia, to
this site. This church commemorated God’s appearance to Abraham and Sarah (Gen.
18:1–15) under the guise of three men (variously interpreted in Patristic
exegesis; see BP, ad loc.); also
celebrated was the couple’s hospitality (philoxenia)
to their three visitors (for iconography depicting this event, see
Erffa.1989–95, 2:91–102).
Two major cities in the Eastern
Empire that received churches from the emperor were Nikomedia in → Bithynia,
the site of an Imperial residence for Diocletian and Licinius, and Syrian →
Antioch. At VC 3.50 and LC 9.14–15, E. describes the octagonal
structure at Antioch as “richly adorned with a profusion of gold, brass, and
other materials of the most costly kind.” And for Heliopolis (→ Baalbek) he
notes that a large church replaced the temple of Venus (VC 3.58).
E. also records (VC 3.48) Constantine’s church-building
activity at Constantinople, but he does not mention by name the old Hagia
Sophia (Mathews.1971, 11ff.) or the several memorials to martyrs. Socrates,
Sozomen, and Procopius report Hagios Akakios (Heptaskalon) and Hagios Michael
(Anaplus-Hestiae) as Constantinian foundations (Mathews.1971, index, s.v.). E.
does report (VC 4.58–60, 70) in some
detail on the building of the Church of the Holy Apostles (Fatih Camii; see
Müller-Wiener.1977, index: “Apostelkirche”) in the new capital city, but he
does not mention its cruciform shape; this was Constantine’s dynastic church
(destroyed in 1462) in which he had his own sarcophagus installed and
surrounded it with the empty sarcophagi of the 12 apostles (Koch.2000, 420ff.).
E. also describes a statue of
Constantine in Rome holding “a lofty spear in the figure of a cross” (VC 1.40; HE 9.10), and he mentions gifts to churches (VC 1.42; → Liber Pontificalis). He cites a letter from the emperor
admonishing church leaders “to repair or enlarge” church buildings, “or, in
cases of necessity, to erect new ones” (VC
1.45, 46). He also reports a picture on the portico of the palace in
Constantinople with the cross above the head of the emperor and a dragon and a
serpent beneath his feet, which E. interprets as an allegory based on Is. 27:1
and Rev. 12–13 (VC 3.3). Inside “in
the principal apartment of the Imperial palace” there was “a vast tablet,” or
panel, in the center of the ceiling with “the symbol of our Saviour’s Passion …
composed of a variety of precious stones richly wrought with gold” (VC 3.49). In the fountains of the
marketplace there were brass and gold figures of the Good Shepherd and of lions
(ibid.). None of these latter monuments has survived intact, but parts of
individual Constantinopolitan churches have been excavated. (Gregory T.
Armstrong, “Eusebius of Caesarea,” in The Eerdmans Encyclopedia of Early Christian
Art and Archaeology, 3 vols. ed. Paul Corby Finney [Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, 2017], 1:518-19)
Further Reading:
Answering
Fundamentalist Protestants and Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox on Images/Icons
