Monday, May 23, 2022

The Ecclesiastical History

THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY (Roman Christian, c. 320 CE)

The Ecclesiastical (Church) History by Eusebius (260 or 265-339) tells the history of Christianity from the time of Christ to nearly the time of the author, stopping sometime around 320, during the reign of Constantine, the first officially Christian Roman emperor and Eusebius's patron. Arranged chronologically into 10 books, it incorporates and thus preserves long portions of documents no longer available to us. Its value as history has been argued: some consider it accurate, and some think it little more than pro-Constantine propaganda. Nevertheless, it is the first such history of Christianity, and set the style for later works, earning Eusebius the title "Father of Church History." He also wrote Biblical commentaries, a life of Constantine, and other, lesser works of history, including a Chronicle purporting to give the history of each nation--Assyrians, Chaldeans, and so on up to the Romans--from more or less "the beginning" (the Hebrew Chronicle starts with Adam).



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