Church History (Book 1 – Book 2)

Church History

Eusebius of Caesarea

c. AD 325

The first history of the Christian church, written by the bishop of Caesarea in Palestine soon after the persecutions ended. In ten books Eusebius follows the succession of bishops in the great churches, the spread of the gospel, the rise of heresies, the fate of the Jews, and the martyrs. Much of what we know about the first three centuries of the church, and many quotations from works now lost (Papias, Hegesippus, Dionysius of Alexandria and others), come only from him.

A note for readers. Eusebius is our main source for many early writers whose own works are lost, and he quotes them at length. He wrote as an admirer of Constantine and his own judgments (on Origen, the canon, the chiliasts) are his own. Dates and some details have been corrected by later scholarship. The Greek here is the older Dindorf text, not the modern critical edition of Schwartz, so some readings differ from recent translations.

Book 1

Chapter 1

The Plan of the Work.

1 I intend to write about the successions of the holy apostles, and about the period from our Saviour’s time down to our own. I will tell how many and how great the events were that are said to have occurred in the history of the Church. I will name those who led and presided over the Church with distinction in the most notable local churches. I will name those in every generation who served as ambassadors of the divine Word, whether by speaking or by writing. I will also tell who they were, how many there were, and when they lived, those who were driven by a lust for novelty into the worst error. They proclaimed themselves introducers of a “knowledge” falsely so named, and like savage wolves they ruthlessly ravaged the flock of Christ.^[1] [Acts 20:29; 1 Timothy 6:20] 2 Next I will describe what immediately came upon the whole Jewish nation because of their plot against our Saviour. I will describe how often, in what ways, and at what times the divine Word was attacked by the Gentiles. I will tell how many people, in one age after another, went through the contest of blood and torture for his sake. I will include the martyrdoms of our own time, and the gracious and kindly help our Saviour gave to all of them. Since I have resolved to put all this in writing, I will begin at no other point than the first dispensation concerning our Saviour and Lord, Jesus the Christ of God.^[2]

3 At this point my account must ask pardon from understanding readers. I admit that it is beyond my ability to promise a work that is complete and leaves nothing out. I am the first to take up this subject, and I am trying to travel a deserted and untrodden road. I pray to have God as my guide and the power of the Lord as my fellow-worker. Yet I cannot find even bare footprints of any who traveled the same road before me. There are only slight hints, in which one writer in one way and another in another have left us partial accounts of the times they lived through. From far off, like torches, they hold up their voices. From somewhere high above, as from a distant watchtower, they call out and urge us where we must walk, and how to steer the course of the account without going astray or into danger.

5 So I will gather whatever I think useful for my subject from what those writers mention here and there. I will pick the suitable words of the ancient authors, as if from meadows of learning, and try to give them a body in a historical narrative. I will be content if I can rescue the successions of the apostles of our Saviour, if not of all, then at least of the most distinguished, in the notable churches that are still remembered today. I consider this work most necessary, because I have not found that any church writer up to now has given careful attention to this part of the story. I hope it will prove very useful to those who care about the profitable learning that history offers. 8 In the Chronological Canons which I composed earlier, I already made a summary of these matters. Even so, I have now set out to give the fullest account of them. As I said, my account will begin with the dispensation and the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, which is understood to be higher and greater than anything merely human. Anyone who is going to write the history of the Church’s teaching must start from above, from the very first dispensation concerning Christ himself. We are honored to take our name from him, and his dispensation is more divine than most people suppose.^[3]

Chapter 2

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

1 In Christ there are two ways of being. One is like the head of the body, in that he is understood to be God. The other is compared to the feet, in that for the sake of our salvation he took on a man’s nature with passions like ours. Our account will therefore be complete if we begin the whole history of him with the most essential and principal points. In this way the antiquity of the Christians, an antiquity ancient and worthy of God, will be shown to those who suppose it new and foreign, something that appeared only yesterday and no earlier. 2 No account could be adequate to express Christ’s origin and dignity, or his very being and nature. So the divine Spirit also says in the prophecies, “Who will declare his generation?” For no one knew the Father except the Son, and no one could ever know the Son worthily except the Father alone who begot him.^[4] [Isaiah 53:8; Matthew 11:27]

3 Who but the Father could clearly understand the Light that was before the world, the Wisdom, intelligent and substantial, that existed before the ages, and the living God the Word, who was with the Father in the beginning? He is the first and only offspring of God, before every creature and every created thing, visible and invisible. He is the commander-in-chief of the rational and immortal host in heaven, the messenger of the great counsel, and the servant of the Father’s unspeakable purpose. With the Father he is maker of all things, the second cause of the universe after the Father, the true and only-begotten Child of God, the Lord and God and King of all things that have come into being. He has received from the Father authority and power, together with divinity itself, and honor. So the mystical teachings of the Scriptures about his divinity say: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him, and without him not one thing was made.” [John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15]

4 This is also what the great Moses teaches. As the most ancient of all the prophets, he describes by the divine Spirit how the universe was brought into being and arranged. He teaches that the maker of the world and creator of all things handed over the making of lesser things to Christ himself, and to no other than his own divine and firstborn Word. He also teaches that God spoke with him about the making of man. For he says, “God said, Let us make man in our image and likeness.” [Genesis 1:26] 6 Another of the prophets vouches for this saying, speaking of God in the hymns like this: “He spoke, and they were begotten; he commanded, and they were created.” He presents the Father and Maker as ruler of all, giving orders with a royal nod. Second to him is the divine Word, no other than the one we proclaim, serving the Father’s commands. From the first creation of man, all who are said to have been outstanding in righteousness and the virtue of godliness have seen him with the pure eyes of the mind, and have known him and given him the worship due to the Son of God. Among them are the great servant Moses, and before him Abraham first of all, together with Abraham’s children, and all the righteous men and prophets who appeared afterward.

7 He, for his part, never neglected the worship of the Father, but was set up as teacher of the knowledge of the Father to all. For example, it is recorded that the Lord God appeared like an ordinary man to Abraham as he sat by the oak of Mambre. Abraham fell down at once, though with his eyes he saw a man. He worshiped him as God and begged him as Lord, and he acknowledged that he knew who he was, saying in these very words: “Lord, judge of all the earth, will you not execute judgment?” [Genesis 18:1-2; Genesis 18:25] 8 Reason does not allow us to think that the unbegotten and unchangeable essence of almighty God was changed into the form of a man. Nor does it allow us to think that it deceived the eyes of those who saw by the appearance of some created thing. Nor again may we say that Scripture falsely invents such things. Yet here the God and Lord who judges all the earth and executes judgment is seen in the form of a man. Who else, then, can he be called, if it is not right to say it was the first cause of all things, but only the Word who existed before? Of him it is also said in the Psalms: “He sent his Word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” [Genesis 18:25]

9 Moses very clearly proclaims him as Lord, second after the Father, when he says, “The Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord.” The divine Scripture also calls him God when he appeared again to Jacob in the form of a man and said to Jacob, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name, because you have prevailed with God.” Then Jacob called the name of that place “Form of God,” saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and my life has been saved.” [Genesis 19:24; Genesis 32:28; Genesis 32:30] 11 Nor is it right to suppose that these recorded appearances of God were appearances of lesser angels and servants of God. When one of these appears to people, Scripture does not hide it. It says plainly that they were called angels, not God and not Lord, as countless testimonies make easy to prove. Joshua, the successor of Moses, also speaks of this one as the leader of the heavenly angels and archangels and of the powers above the world. He speaks of him as the Father’s viceroy, entrusted with second place in the kingdom and rule over all. He names him “commander of the army of the Lord.” Yet Joshua saw him only, once again, in the form and appearance of a man. [Joshua 5:14]

12 So it is written: “And it happened, when Joshua was at Jericho, that he looked up and saw a man standing opposite him, with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went up to him and said, ‘Are you on our side or on the side of our enemies?’ And he said to him, ‘I have come now as commander of the army of the Lord.’ Joshua fell on his face to the ground and said to him, ‘Master, what do you command your servant?’ And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, ‘Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you are standing is holy.’” [Joshua 5:13-15] 13 From these very words you will also notice that this was none other than the one who spoke with Moses. For Scripture uses the same words about him there: “When the Lord saw that he was coming near to look, the Lord called to him out of the bush, saying, ‘Moses, Moses.’ And he said, ‘What is it?’ And he said, ‘Do not come near here. Take your sandal off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ And he said to him, ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’” [Exodus 3:4-6]

14 There is a living substance that existed before the world and had its own being. It served the Father and God of the universe in making everything that has come into being, and it is called the Word of God and Wisdom. In addition to the proofs already given, we can hear this from Wisdom herself, speaking in her own person. Through Solomon she plainly teaches these mysteries about herself: “I, Wisdom, made counsel and knowledge my dwelling, and I called upon understanding. Through me kings reign, and rulers write down what is just. Through me the great are made great, and through me tyrants hold power over the earth.” [Proverbs 8:12-16] 15 To this she adds: “The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways, for his works. Before the age he founded me, in the beginning, before he made the earth, before the springs of water came forth, before the mountains were set in place. Before all the hills he begets me. When he prepared the heavens, I was present with him. When he set the springs under heaven on a firm footing, I was beside him, fitting things together. I was the one in whom he delighted, and every day I rejoiced before him at all times, when he rejoiced over the inhabited world.” [Proverbs 8:22-25; Proverbs 8:27-31]

18 That is enough, briefly, to show that the divine Word existed before and appeared to some, though not to all. Why, then, was he not proclaimed in ancient times to all people and all nations, as he is now? The answer will become clear. The life of people long ago could not take in the all-wise and all-virtuous teaching of Christ. Right at the beginning, after his first life among the blessed, the first man cared little for God’s command. He fell into this mortal and perishable life, and exchanged his former God-given delight for this earth under a curse. His descendants filled our whole world, and they proved far worse, apart from one or two. They took up a beastlike way of living, a life not worth living. 19 They gave no thought to city or government, to crafts or knowledge. They had no share even in the name of laws and justice, or of virtue and philosophy. They lived as nomads in the wilderness, like savage and cruel creatures. By an excess of deliberate wickedness they ruined the reasoning that belongs to human nature, and the gentle, rational seeds in the human soul. They handed themselves over entirely to every kind of ungodly deed. At one time they were eating human flesh, at another murdering one another, and at another eating human flesh again. They dared to fight against God, in those battles of the giants that everyone talks about. They schemed to build earth up as a wall against heaven. In the madness of their wild pride they prepared to make war on the God of all himself.

21 Because they had brought themselves to this state, God, who watches over all things, pursued them with floods and fires, as though they were a wild forest spread over the whole earth. He cut them down with constant famines and plagues, with wars, and with thunderbolts from above. He was treating a terrible and most severe disease of the soul with harsher punishments. Then the excess of wickedness had been poured out over almost everyone, like a dreadful drunkenness that overshadowed and darkened the souls of nearly all people. At that time the firstborn and first-created Wisdom of God, the pre-existent Word himself, out of his overflowing love for mankind, appeared to them. Sometimes he appeared through visions of angels to those of lower standing. At other times he appeared in his own person, as the saving power of God, to one or two of the men of old who were dear to God. He appeared to them only in human form, because there was no other way for him to do it.

22 By these appearances the seeds of true worship had now been sown among a multitude of men. A whole nation devoted to God arose from the Hebrews, descended from them from of old. But these people, like the crowd they were, still lived by their old ways. So through the prophet Moses he gave them images and symbols of a mystical Sabbath and of circumcision, and introductions to other spiritual teachings. He did not hand down the mysteries themselves in plain view. 23 The law of the Hebrews became famous and spread to all people like a sweet-smelling breath. Through lawgivers and philosophers everywhere, the minds of most of the other nations were now also tamed by it. Their wild and savage brutality was changed to gentleness, so that they enjoyed deep peace, friendship and contact with one another. By then all people, and the nations throughout the world, had been prepared in advance and were ready to receive the knowledge of the Father. At that time that same Teacher of unspeakable things appeared again. He is the Father’s servant in all good things, the divine and heavenly Word of God. He came in a man whose body did not differ in substance from our nature, at the beginning of the Roman empire. He did and suffered what the prophecies had foretold. They had foretold that one who was both man and God would come to live in the world, work wonders, and be shown to all nations as the teacher of the Father’s true worship. They also proclaimed beforehand the wonder of his birth, his new teaching, and his marvelous works. Besides these, they foretold the manner of his death, his resurrection from the dead, and finally his divine return to heaven.

24 The prophet Daniel saw by the divine Spirit the final kingdom of Christ. He was inspired to write about it in this way, describing the vision of God in rather human terms. “I kept looking,” he says, “until thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days sat down. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like clean wool. His throne was a flame of fire, and its wheels were burning fire. A river of fire flowed out before him. A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court sat, and books were opened.” [Daniel 7:9-10] 26 Next he says: “I kept watching, and look, one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven. He came up to the Ancient of Days and was brought into his presence. To him were given rule, honor and kingship, and all peoples, tribes and languages serve him. His authority is an everlasting authority that will not pass away, and his kingdom will not be destroyed.” These words clearly can refer to no one other than our Savior. He is God the Word, who in the beginning was with God, and he is called Son of Man because of his final becoming man. [Daniel 7:13-14]

27 We have gathered the prophetic selections about our Savior Jesus Christ in separate writings of our own. In other works we have also set out the things revealed about him in a more demonstrative way. So for the present we will be content with what has been said.^[5]

Chapter 3

The Name Jesus and Also the Name Christ Were Known from the Beginning,and Were Honored by the Inspired Prophets.

2 It is now time to show that even the names “Jesus” and “Christ” were already held in honor among the ancient prophets, who were beloved of God. Moses was the first to make known the name of Christ, and he treated it as a name of the highest majesty and glory. He handed down types and symbols of heavenly things, and mysterious images, in keeping with the oracle that said to him, “See that you make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.” Then he appointed a man as high priest of God, as far as that was possible for a man, and called him “Christ.” So he attached the name of Christ, for honor and glory, to the dignity of the high priesthood, which in his eyes surpassed every other position of rank among men. In this way he showed that he knew Christ to be something divine.^[6] [Exodus 25:40; Hebrews 8:5]

4 In the same way Moses, foreseeing the name of Jesus very clearly by the divine Spirit, judged that it too deserved a special privilege. The title “Jesus” had never been spoken among men before Moses knew it. Moses gave it first, and to one man only: the man whom he knew, again as a type and symbol, would take over the rule over all after his own death. Moses’ successor had not used the name Jesus before. He was called by another name, Auses (Hoshea), which his parents had given him. Moses named him Jesus, giving him the name as an honor far greater than any royal crown. For Jesus the son of Nun himself bore the likeness of our Saviour. After Moses, and after the end of the symbolic worship that Moses handed down, he alone took over the leadership of the true and utterly pure worship of God.

5 In this way Moses gave the name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, as the greatest mark of honor to the two men of his own time who stood out above all the people in excellence and glory: the high priest, and the one who would lead after him. 6 The prophets who came later also clearly proclaimed Christ by name beforehand. At the same time they bore witness in advance both to the plot that the Jewish people would devise against him and to the calling of the nations through him. Jeremiah speaks in this way: “The Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord, was caught in their corruptions, of whom we said, ‘In his shadow we shall live among the nations.’” At another time David, in amazement, says: “Why did the nations rage, and the peoples plan empty things? The kings of the earth stood by, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.” Then he adds, speaking in the person of Christ himself: “The Lord said to me, You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.”^[7] [Lamentations 4:20]

8 Among the Hebrews, the name of Christ did not adorn only those honored with the high priesthood, who were anointed with specially prepared oil as a symbol. It also adorned the kings. The prophets, by divine command, anointed them and so made them figures of Christ, because the kings too carried in themselves the types of the royal and ruling authority of the one true Christ, the divine Word who reigns over all. We have also received the report that some of the prophets themselves became Christs in type through anointing. All of these point to the true Christ, the divine and heavenly Word. He alone is High Priest of all, he alone is King of all creation, and he alone, among the prophets, is the Father’s chief prophet. 10 The proof of this is that none of those anointed long ago with the symbolic oil, whether priests, kings, or prophets, ever gained such great power of divine virtue as our Savior and Lord Jesus, the only true Christ, has shown. None of them, though they shone with rank and honor among their own people for many generations, ever gave their subjects the name of Christians from the figurative title “Christ” that they bore. None of them received reverent worship from his subjects. After their deaths their followers did not feel such devotion that they were ready to die for the one they honored. And no such upheaval among all the nations of the world was ever stirred up over any one of them. The power of the symbol in them could not do what the truth did when it was shown forth through our Savior.

12 He received no symbols or types of the high priesthood from anyone. He did not trace his bodily descent from priests. He was not raised to kingship by armed bodyguards. Nor was he a prophet in the way the men of old were, and he held no rank or place of honor among the Jews. Yet the Father adorned him with all these things, not with the symbols, but with the truth itself. So although he did not have honors like those we have mentioned, he is proclaimed Christ more than all of them. And as himself the one true Christ of God, he has filled the whole world with the truly venerable and holy name of Christians. To his company of followers he no longer hands down types or images, but the bare virtues themselves and a heavenly life, together with the very teachings of truth. 14 His anointing was not one made from bodily materials. It was the anointing that befits God: by the divine Spirit, through sharing in the unbegotten, fatherly deity. Isaiah teaches this too, crying out as if in the person of Christ himself: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because of which he anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives and sight to the blind.” And not Isaiah alone, but David also speaks to him: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; the rod of uprightness is the rod of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” In these words the first line declares him God, and the second honors him with a royal scepter. [Isaiah 61:1]

16 Then the psalm goes on. After speaking of his divine and royal power, it presents him in third place as having become Christ, anointed not with oil made from material substances but with the divine oil of gladness. In this it hints at how distinct he is, how far better and different from those of old who were anointed in a more bodily way, as images. Elsewhere the same David explains the matter about him like this: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet,” and, “From the womb, before the morning star, I begot you. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: you are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” [Psalm 110:1] 18 This Melchizedek is introduced in the sacred writings as a priest of the Most High God. He was not shown to be a priest by any specially prepared anointing, and he did not belong to the Hebrew priesthood by family succession. For this reason our Savior was proclaimed Christ and priest, with the confirmation of an oath, according to Melchizedek’s order and not according to the order of the others who took up symbols and types. So the record does not say that he was anointed in the body among the Jews, or that he came from a priestly tribe. It says that he took his being from God himself before the morning star, that is, before the world was established, and that he holds an immortal and ageless priesthood for endless ages.^[8]

19 There is a great and clear proof of the bodiless, divine anointing that he received. He alone of all who have ever lived is called Christ by people everywhere in the world, even to this day. Under this name he is confessed and testified to by all, and remembered among Greeks and barbarians alike. Even now his followers throughout the world honor him as King, admire him as more than a prophet, and glorify him as the true and only High Priest of God. Beyond all this, as the Word of God who existed before all ages and had his being before them, he has received reverent honor from the Father, and he is worshiped as God. 20 But the most amazing thing of all is this: we who are devoted to him do not honor him only with our voices and the sound of words. We honor him with the whole disposition of our soul, so that we value witnessing to him above our own lives.

Chapter 4

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

2 Let me set these things down here, as needed, before the history itself. I do this so that no one will think our Savior and Lord Jesus the Christ is a recent figure because of the date of his life in the flesh. And so that no one will suppose his teaching is new and foreign, set up by a new man no different from other men, let us briefly consider this point too. It is agreed that the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ has only recently shone on all people. It is equally agreed that a new nation then appeared all at once, at times fixed by God’s unspeakable purpose. It is not a small nation, and it is not settled in some corner of the earth. It is the most populous and most God-fearing of all nations, and it cannot be destroyed or defeated, because it always receives help from God. This is the nation honored by all with the name of Christ.

4 One of the prophets was astonished at this. With the eye of the divine Spirit he saw beforehand what would be, and cried out: “Who has heard such things, and who has spoken like this? Did the earth go into labor in one day? Was a nation born all at once?” The same prophet also hints at the coming name, saying, “But to those who serve me a new name will be given, which will be blessed on the earth.” Now it is plain that we are new, and that the name of Christians is truly new, only recently known among all nations. Yet the manner of life and conduct that goes with these doctrines of godliness was not recently invented by us. From the very beginning of the human race, so to speak, it was lived out by the natural understanding of God-loving men of old. I will show this as follows. [Isaiah 66:8; Isaiah 65:15-16]

5 The Hebrew nation is not new. It is honored among all people for its antiquity, and everyone knows it. The writings and records of this people tell of ancient men. They were rare and few in number, but they were outstanding in godliness, righteousness and every other virtue. Some of them lived before the flood. Others lived after it, among the sons and descendants of Noah. Among these was Abraham, whom the Hebrews boast of as their founder and forefather. 7 All these men are attested as righteous. If anyone were to call them Christians in deed, though not in name, going back from Abraham himself to the first man, he would not be straying from the truth. For the name “Christian” means a man who is marked out by the knowledge and teaching of Christ. He is known for self-control and righteousness, for endurance in life and courage in virtue, and for confessing in godliness the one and only God over all. Those men pursued all of this no less eagerly than we do.

8 So they did not care about circumcision of the body, because we do not either. They did not care about keeping the Sabbaths, because we do not either. They did not keep rules about certain foods or make the other distinctions that Moses was the first to hand down to later generations to be carried out as symbols. Christians today do not do these things either. And they clearly knew the very Christ of God. It has already been shown that he appeared to Abraham, gave revelations to Isaac, spoke to Jacob, and conversed with Moses and the prophets after him. 11 For this reason you will find those God-beloved men counted worthy even of the name of Christ, according to the voice that says of them, “Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm.” So it is plain that we must regard the way of true godliness, which has just now been proclaimed to all nations through the teaching of Christ, as the first and oldest discovery of all. It was made by those God-beloved men around Abraham. Some say that Abraham received the command of circumcision long afterward. But before that he was already declared righteous through faith, as the divine word says: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

13 Abraham was already this kind of man before his circumcision. Then God, who had shown himself to him, gave him a promise in words about those who in later times would be justified in the same way as he. (This God was Christ himself, the Word of God.) He said, “And in you all the tribes of the earth will be blessed.” And again, “He will become a great and numerous nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” We can see that this has been fulfilled in our own day. Abraham was justified by faith in Christ, the Word of God, who had appeared to him. He gave up the superstition of his fathers and the error of his earlier life. He confessed the one God over all, and he served him by works of virtue, not by the worship prescribed in the law that Moses gave afterward. To a man of this character it was said that all the tribes of the earth and all the nations would be blessed in him. [Genesis 12:3; Genesis 18:18]

15 That same way of godliness which Abraham followed has now shown itself again. It is practiced, with deeds clearer than words, by Christians alone throughout the whole world. What then is left to stop us from agreeing that we who are of Christ and the God-beloved men of long ago share one and the same life and way of godliness? So the godliness handed down to us by the teaching of Christ is not new or strange. If we are to speak truthfully, it is the first, the only, and the true practice of godliness. Let that be enough on this subject.

Chapter 5

The Time of His Appearance Among Men.

2 Now that we have made the necessary preparation for the church history we set out to write, let us begin, as it were, our journey, starting from the appearance of our Saviour in the flesh. We call on God, the Father of the Word, and on Jesus Christ himself, our Saviour and Lord, the heavenly Word of God, whom we have just spoken of, to help us and work with us in telling the truth of the story. It was the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus, and the twenty-eighth year since the conquest of Egypt and the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, with whom the line of the Ptolemies in Egypt came to an end. At that time our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in keeping with the prophecies about him. This was at the time of the first census, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.^[9]

3 The most famous of the Hebrew historians, Flavius Josephus, also mentions this census under Quirinius. He adds another account, of the sect of the Galileans that arose at the same time. Luke, one of our own writers, also mentions it in the Acts, where he says: “After this man Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census, and drew people away after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were scattered.” [Acts 5:37] 5 The historian just mentioned agrees with this in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities, and he writes the following, which I quote word for word: “Quirinius, a man of the senate who had held the other offices and had passed through them all to become consul, and a man of great dignity in other ways, came to Syria with a few attendants. Caesar had sent him to be judge of the nation and to make an assessment of their property.” A little later Josephus says: “But Judas, a Gaulanite from a city named Gamala, took Saddok, a Pharisee, as his partner and pressed for revolt. They said that the assessment brought nothing other than outright slavery, and they called on the nation to take up the cause of freedom.”

6 In the second book of his History of the Jewish War, Josephus writes this about the same man: “After this, a certain Galilean named Judas urged the people of the land to revolt. He reproached them for putting up with paying tribute to the Romans and for accepting mortal masters after God.” That is Josephus.

Chapter 6

About the Time of Christ, in Accordance with Prophecy, the Rulers Who Had Governed the Fewish Nation in Regular Succession from the Days of Antiquity Came to an End, and Herod, the First Foreigner, Became King.

2 About that time Herod, the first ruler of foreign descent, took over the kingdom of the Jewish nation, and the prophecy given through Moses reached its limit. It said that “a ruler from Judah will not fail, nor a leader from his loins, until he comes for whom it is reserved,” and it declared that he would be the expectation of the nations. The prophecy remained unfulfilled as long as the Jews were allowed to live under rulers of their own nation. That time began with Moses himself and lasted down to the reign of Augustus. In Augustus’ reign Herod, the first foreigner, was entrusted by the Romans with authority over the Jews. Josephus reports that Herod was an Idumean on his father’s side and an Arab on his mother’s. Africanus, himself no ordinary writer, says that those who knew the facts accurately report that Herod was the son of Antipater, and that Antipater was the son of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of the so-called temple servants at the temple of Apollo. [Genesis 49:10]

4 This Antipater was captured as a boy by Idumean robbers and stayed with them, because his father was poor and could not pay a ransom for him. He grew up in their ways, and later became a friend of Hyrcanus, the high priest of the Jews. His son was the Herod who lived in the time of our Saviour. So the kingdom of the Jews had passed to such a man. By now the expectation of the nations, as the prophecy foretold, was at the door, because from that point on there were no longer any of their own people who ruled and led in succession from Moses himself. 6 Before their captivity and their removal to Babylon, the Jews were governed by kings, beginning with Saul first and then David. Before the kings, rulers governed them who were called judges. These too came after Moses and his successor Jesus. After the return from Babylon they continued without a break under an aristocratic government with a ruling few, for the high priests directed their affairs. This lasted until the Roman general Pompey came, besieged Jerusalem and took it by force. He defiled the holy places, going as far as the innermost sanctuary of the temple. Aristobulus, who by ancestral succession had been both king and high priest up to that time, he sent in chains to Rome together with his children. He gave the high priesthood to Aristobulus’ brother Hyrcanus, and from then on he made the whole Jewish nation pay tribute to the Romans.

8 Soon afterward Hyrcanus, the last in the succession of high priests, was taken captive by the Parthians. Then Herod, the first foreigner, as I said, was given charge of the Jewish nation by the Roman senate and by the emperor Augustus. In his time the coming of Christ was plainly at hand. The salvation and calling of the nations, which had been expected, followed in accordance with the prophecy. From that time the rulers and leaders from Judah, that is, those from the Jewish nation, had come to an end. As we would expect, the high priesthood was thrown into confusion at once. Until then it had passed steadily by descent to the nearest successors in each generation. 10 For this too you have Josephus as a reliable witness. He shows that when Herod had been entrusted with the kingdom by the Romans, he no longer appointed high priests from the ancient family but gave the honor to certain obscure persons. Herod’s son Archelaus did the same in appointing high priests, and after him so did the Romans, who took over the government of the Jews. The same writer shows that Herod was the first to lock up the high priest’s sacred robe and seal it with his own seal. He would no longer allow the high priests to keep it in their own hands. Archelaus after him did the same, and after Archelaus the Romans.

11 Let me say these things as one more proof that a prophecy was brought to its end at the appearance of our Saviour Jesus Christ. The word in Daniel plainly includes a number of weeks, expressly named, reaching to Christ the ruler. We have dealt with these in other writings. After the completion of those weeks, it prophesies, the anointing among the Jews would be destroyed. And this was clearly fulfilled at the time of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. We have had to set this out first to establish the truth about the dates. [Daniel 9:24-26]

Chapter 7

The Alleged Discrepancy in the Gospels in Regard to the Genealogy of Christ.

2 Matthew and Luke, in proclaiming the gospel, have handed down the genealogy of Christ in different forms, and most people think they disagree. Each believer, not knowing the truth, has worked hard to find explanations for these passages. So let us set down the account that has come down to us on this matter. Africanus, whom I mentioned a little earlier, gave it in a letter to Aristides about the agreement of the genealogies in the gospels. He refuted the views of others as forced and false, and then set out the account he himself had received, in these very words: “The names of the family lines in Israel were counted either by nature or by law. By nature, when a true-born child succeeded his father. By law, when one man fathered a child in the name of a brother who had died childless. (No clear hope of resurrection had yet been given, so they imitated the coming promise by a kind of mortal resurrection, so that the name of the one who had died would never fail.)^[10]

4 “Now some of those listed in this genealogy succeeded their fathers as true sons. Others were born to one man but were assigned by name to another. So mention was made of both: those who actually fathered the child and those who were counted as fathering. In this way neither gospel is false, whether it counts by nature or by law. For the two lines, the one from Solomon and the one from Nathan, were woven together by the raising up of children for the childless, by second marriages, and by the raising up of offspring. As a result the same persons may rightly be counted now as belonging to one father, now to another, either to their reputed fathers or to their real ones. So both accounts are strictly true, and they come down to Joseph in a complicated but exact way. 6 “To make clear what I am saying, I will explain how the lines were interchanged. If we count the generations from David through Solomon, the third from the end is Matthan, who fathered Jacob, the father of Joseph. But if we count from David’s son Nathan, following Luke, the third from the end is likewise Melchi, whose son was Eli, the father of Joseph. For Joseph was the son of Eli, the son of Melchi. “Joseph, then, is our goal. We have to show how each man is recorded as his father: both Jacob, who traced his descent from Solomon, and Eli, who traced his from Nathan. First we must show how Jacob and Eli were brothers. Then we must show how their fathers, Matthan and Melchi, who belonged to different families, both turn out to be grandfathers of Joseph.

8 “Matthan and Melchi each married the same woman in turn and had sons who were brothers by the same mother. The law did not forbid a widow, whether divorced or widowed by her husband’s death, to marry another man. By Estha (for tradition says this was the woman’s name), Matthan, who traced his descent from Solomon, first fathered Jacob. When Matthan died, Melchi, who traced his line back to Nathan, married the widow. He was of the same tribe but of a different family, as I said before. By her he had a son, Eli. 10 “So we find that Jacob and Eli, though from two different families, were brothers by the same mother. Eli died without children, and the other brother, Jacob, took his wife and fathered by her Joseph, as the third. Joseph was Jacob’s own son by nature and by reckoning, and so it is written, ‘Jacob fathered Joseph.’ But by law he was the son of Eli, because Jacob, as Eli’s brother, raised up offspring for him. “So the genealogy that goes through him is not invalidated. Matthew the evangelist, in his count, says: ‘Jacob fathered Joseph.’ Luke, on the other hand, reverses the order and says: ‘who was the son, as was supposed’ (he adds this too) ‘of Joseph, of Eli, of Melchi.’ He could not have stated descent by law more distinctly. He leaves out the word ‘fathered’ all the way to the end of his list, since he traces the line back by working upward, as far as Adam, the son of God.” [Matthew 1:16; Luke 3:23; Luke 3:38]

11 This account is not unproven, nor is it a hasty invention. The Savior’s relatives according to the flesh handed down the following story as well. Whether they wished to boast or simply to instruct, they were in either case telling the truth. Idumean raiders attacked Ascalon, a city of Palestine, and from a temple of Apollo built near its walls they carried off, along with other plunder, Antipater, the son of a temple servant named Herod. The priest could not pay a ransom for his son, so Antipater was raised in the customs of the Idumeans. Later he won the friendship of Hyrcanus, the high priest of the Jews.^[11] 13 Antipater was sent as an envoy to Pompey on behalf of Hyrcanus. He recovered for Hyrcanus the kingdom that his brother Aristobulus had been stripping from him, and he himself was fortunate enough to be appointed administrator of Palestine. Antipater was then murdered out of envy for his great success, and his son Herod succeeded him. Herod was later judged fit to be king of the Jews by a decree of the senate, under Antony and Augustus. His sons were Herod and the other tetrarchs. All this is also found in the Greek histories. Until then the genealogies of the Hebrews had been kept in the public archives. These included the lines of the early proselytes, traced back to Achior the Ammonite and Ruth the Moabitess, and of the mixed multitude who left Egypt together with Israel. Herod’s descent gave him no connection with the people of Israel, and he was stung by the knowledge of his low birth. So he burned the records of their genealogies. He thought he would appear to be of noble birth if no one else could trace his ancestry to the patriarchs or proselytes from any public record, or to the mixed people called “geiras.”^[12]

14 A few careful people kept private records of their own, either by remembering the names or by copying from other sources. They take pride in preserving the memory of their noble descent. Among them were the men mentioned above, called “Desposyni” because of their kinship with the Savior’s family. They came from the Jewish villages of Nazara and Cochaba and spread through the rest of the land. They set out the genealogy given above from memory and from the Book of Days, as far as it reached.^[13] 16 Whether this is how it was or not, no one could find a clearer explanation, I think, and neither could any fair-minded person. Let this be enough for us. Even if it has no witness to support it, we have nothing better or truer to offer. In any case the Gospel is wholly true. At the end of the same letter Africanus adds these words: “Matthan, descended from Solomon, begat Jacob. After Matthan died, Melchi, descended from Nathan, begat Eli by the same woman. So Eli and Jacob were brothers by the same mother. When Eli died childless, Jacob raised up offspring for him by begetting Joseph, who was Jacob’s son by nature but Eli’s by law. So Joseph was the son of both.” That is what Africanus says.

17 Now that Joseph’s genealogy has been traced in this way, Mary is also shown, in effect, to belong to the same tribe as he does, since under the law of Moses it was not allowed to marry into other tribes. The law commands a person to marry someone from the same people and family, so that the inheritance does not pass from tribe to tribe. Let that be enough on these matters.

Chapter 8

The Cruelty of Herod Toward the Infants, and the Manner of His Death.

1 Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea, as the prophecies foretold, at the times already indicated. Magi from the east came asking where the newborn King of the Jews could be found. They said they had seen his star, and that this was the reason for their long journey, for they were eager to worship the child who was born as God. Herod was greatly disturbed at this, because he thought his rule was in danger. He asked the teachers of the law among the people where they expected the Christ to be born. When he learned that the prophecy of Micah announced Bethlehem, he gave a single order. All boys in Bethlehem and throughout its territory, from two years old and under, were to be killed, according to the time he had carefully learned from the magi. He supposed that Jesus, as was likely, would share the fate of others his age. [Matthew 2:1-2; Matthew 2:3-6; Matthew 2:16]

3 But the child escaped the plot. His parents had been warned beforehand by an angel who appeared to them, and they carried him off to Egypt. The holy Scripture of the Gospel teaches these things. It is worth noting, in addition, what Herod got in return for his daring act against Christ and the children of his age. Immediately, with not even a short delay, divine justice overtook him while he was still alive. It showed him a foretaste of what awaited him after he left this life. [Matthew 2:13-15] 5 It is not possible to list here how Herod darkened what he thought were the successes of his reign with a series of disasters in his own household. These were the murders of his wife, his children and the other relatives who were nearest and dearest to him. The story of these things outdoes every tragic drama, and Josephus has told it at length in his histories. But how a scourge sent by God struck him at the very time of his plot against our Saviour and the other infants, and drove him to his death, is better learned from the historian’s own words. In the seventeenth book of his Jewish Antiquities he describes the end of Herod’s life in these words: “The disease of Herod grew more bitter, since God was exacting punishment for the crimes he had committed.

7 “The fever was mild. It did not show as much heat to those who touched him as the torment it added inside. He had a terrible craving to eat, and it was impossible not to give in to it. His intestines were ulcerated, and he had terrible pains especially in the colon. A moist, clear swelling had formed about his feet. There was a similar affliction in his lower abdomen. His private parts were also rotting and breeding worms. He could breathe only sitting upright, and his breathing was very unpleasant because of the stench of his breath and its rapid panting. He had spasms in every limb, which added a strength that could not be endured. 9 It was said, in fact, by those who were inspired and who had the wisdom to foretell such things, that God was exacting this penalty from the king for his great ungodliness. The writer I mentioned reports these things in the work cited. In the second book of his Histories he gives a similar account of the same man, writing something like this: “From there the disease spread over his whole body and divided it among various torments. For he had a fever that was not violent, an unbearable itching over the whole surface of his skin, and pains in the colon. His feet were swollen as if with dropsy, his abdomen was inflamed, and his private parts were rotting and breeding worms. Besides this he could breathe only upright and with difficulty, and he had spasms in all his limbs. So those who spoke by divine inspiration said that the diseases were a punishment.”

11 Yet though he wrestled with so many sufferings, he still clung to life. He hoped for recovery and thought up remedies. He crossed the Jordan and used the warm springs at Callirhoe. These flow into the Asphalt Lake (the Dead Sea), but are sweet enough to drink. The physicians decided there to warm his whole body again with heated oil. He was lowered into a tub full of oil, but he went limp, his eyes rolled back, and he fell back as if dead. The attendants raised an uproar, and at the noise he revived. After this he gave up hope of recovery. He ordered fifty drachmas to be given to each soldier, and large sums to his officers and friends. 13 “Then he came back to Jericho, already in a black depression, and as if he were threatening death itself, he went on to plan a lawless deed. He gathered the prominent men from every village throughout Judea and ordered them shut up in the so-called hippodrome. Then he summoned his sister Salome and her husband Alexander and said, ‘I know that the Jews will celebrate my death. But I can be mourned by others as well and have a splendid funeral, if you are willing to carry out my orders. When I have breathed my last, surround the men under guard with soldiers and kill them at once, so that all Judea and every household will weep for me, even against their will.’”

15 And after a little he says: “Again he was racked by lack of food and by a convulsive cough. Overcome by his pains, he undertook to forestall his fate. He took an apple and asked for a knife, for he was in the habit of cutting up apples to eat them. Then he looked around to see that no one was there to stop him, and he raised his right hand as if to strike himself.” Besides this, the same writer records that Herod, shortly before the end of his life, had yet another of his own legitimate sons put to death by his command. This was the third son killed, after two already put to death earlier. Immediately afterward he breathed his last, in no small pain. 16 Such was the end of Herod. He paid a just penalty for the children he killed around Bethlehem, because of his plot against our Saviour. After this, an angel appeared in a dream to Joseph, who was staying in Egypt, and told him to go back to Judea with the child and his mother. He made clear that those who had been seeking the child’s life were dead. The evangelist then adds: “But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the region of Galilee.” [Matthew 2:19-22]

Chapter 9

The Times of Pilate.

2 The historian mentioned above also agrees about Archelaus taking over the rule after Herod. He records how Archelaus received the kingdom over the Jews by the will of his father Herod and the decision of Caesar Augustus. He also records how, after Archelaus lost his rule following a period of ten years, his brothers Philip and Herod the younger, together with Lysanias, governed their own tetrarchies. The same writer, in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities, makes clear that in the twelfth year of the reign of Tiberius, Pontius Pilate was entrusted with Judea. (Tiberius took over the rule of the whole empire after Augustus had held power for fifty-seven years.) He says Pilate stayed there for a full ten years, almost until the death of Tiberius. 4 So the invention of those who recently put out “records” against our Saviour is clearly disproved. First of all, the very date they attach to them exposes the lie of those who made them up. What they dared to write about the Saviour’s saving passion they place in the fourth consulship of Tiberius, which fell in the seventh year of his reign. But at that time Pilate had not yet come to Judea, if we are to trust Josephus as a witness. In the work already mentioned, Josephus plainly says that Pilate was made procurator of Judea by Tiberius in the twelfth year of his reign.

Chapter 10

The High Priests of the Jews Under Whom Christ Taught.

2 It was in these times, then, according to the evangelist, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar and the fourth year of the governorship of Pontius Pilate, while Herod, Lysanias and Philip were tetrarchs over the rest of Judea, that our Saviour and Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, was about thirty years old when he came to John’s baptism. It was then that he began the preaching of the gospel. The divine Scripture says that he spent the whole time of his teaching under the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas. It shows that the entire period of his teaching was completed within the years of service of these two. His teaching began during the high priesthood of Annas and lasted until the beginning of Caiaphas’s term. So the time between does not even amount to a full four years. [Luke 3:1-2; Luke 3:23] 4 By then the ordinances of the law had, in a way, already been abolished. The old arrangement, by which the duties of God’s service belonged to one man for life and passed down from his ancestors, had been set aside. Instead the Roman governors appointed one man after another to the high priesthood, and none stayed in it longer than a year. Josephus records that after Annas there were four high priests in succession down to Caiaphas. In the same work, the Antiquities, he says: “Valerius Gratus put an end to Ananus’s priesthood and appointed Ishmael, the son of Phabi, as high priest. Not long after, he removed him and appointed Eleazar, the son of Ananus the high priest, as high priest.”^[14]

6 After a year had passed, Gratus removed him too and handed the high priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus. Simon likewise held the office for no more than a year, and then Josephus, who is also called Caiaphas, succeeded him.” So the whole time of our Saviour’s teaching turns out to be not even four full years, since four high priests, one after another, each served a year, from Annas down to the appointment of Caiaphas. The Gospel writing therefore rightly names Caiaphas as high priest in the year in which the Saviour’s saving passion was accomplished. From this too, the length of Christ’s teaching is shown to agree with the reckoning set out above.^[15] 7 Not long after the start of his preaching, our Saviour and Lord called the twelve apostles. Of all his disciples he named only these “apostles,” as a special honor. Then he appointed seventy others, and he sent them out two by two ahead of him, into every place and city he was himself about to visit. [Luke 10:1; Luke 6:13]

Chapter 11

Testimonies in Regard to John the Baptist and Christ.

1 Not long afterward John the Baptist was beheaded by the younger Herod. The divine writing of the Gospels records this, and Josephus also bears witness to it. He mentions Herodias by name and tells how Herod took her in marriage, though she was his brother’s wife. To do so Herod rejected his first, lawfully married wife, who was the daughter of Aretas, king of the Petraeans, and he separated Herodias from her husband while the man was still alive. Because of her Herod killed John, and he went to war with Aretas, since Aretas’s daughter had been dishonored. 3 Josephus says that in this war a battle was fought and Herod’s whole army was destroyed, and that Herod suffered this because of the plot against John. The same Josephus openly acknowledges that John, the Baptist, was an especially righteous man, and so he confirms what is written about John in the Gospels. He also records that Herod lost his kingdom because of this same Herodias. She went with him into exile beyond the borders, and he was condemned to live in Vienne in Gaul.

5 Josephus makes these statements in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities, where he writes about John in these very words: “Some of the Jews thought that Herod’s army was destroyed by God, who was most justly punishing Herod for what he did to John, called the Baptist. For Herod killed him, though he was a good man who urged the Jews to practice virtue, to be just toward one another and devout toward God, and so to come together for baptism. In this way, he said, baptism would be acceptable to God: when they used it not to beg pardon for particular sins, but for the purity of the body, since the soul had already been cleansed beforehand by righteousness.^[16] 6 “When others gathered around him (for they were delighted beyond measure at hearing his words), Herod became afraid. He feared that John’s great power to persuade people might lead to some revolt, since they seemed ready to do whatever he advised. So Herod judged it much better to strike first and kill him before any disturbance arose from him, than to wait until a change had come and then regret it when he was caught up in the trouble. Because of Herod’s suspicion, John was sent in chains to Machaerus, the fortress mentioned above, and was put to death there.

8 After going through these things about John, Josephus in the same work also mentions our Saviour, in these words: “At this time there appeared Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was a doer of astonishing deeds, a teacher of people who received the truth with pleasure. He won over many Jews, and many of the Greeks as well. This man was the Christ. When Pilate, on the accusation of the leading men among us, condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him at first did not stop. For he appeared to them on the third day, alive again, as the divine prophets had spoken of this and countless other wonders about him. And even now the tribe of Christians, named after him, has not died out.”^[17] 9 This Hebrew historian, one of their own people, has set down in his own work these things about John the Baptist and about our Saviour. What excuse is left, then, to keep those who forged the “Acts” against them from being exposed as shameless? But let that be enough on this subject.^[18]

Chapter 12

The Disciples of Our Saviour.

2 The names of the apostles of our Saviour are clear to everyone from the Gospels. But there is no list of the seventy disciples anywhere. Barnabas is said to have been one of them. The Acts of the Apostles mentions him in several places, and Paul does too, especially when writing to the Galatians. They say that Sosthenes, who wrote to the Corinthians together with Paul, was also one of them. This account is found in Clement, in the fifth book of his Hypotyposes. There he also says that Cephas was one of the seventy disciples, a man with the same name as the apostle Peter. He is the one about whom Paul says, “When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face.”^[19] [Galatians 2:11] 4 The tradition also holds that Matthias, who was added to the apostles in the place of Judas, and the man who was honored with him by the same vote, were counted worthy of the same calling among the seventy. They say that Thaddeus was another of them, and I will shortly set out an account about him that has come down to us. If you look carefully, you will also find that the Saviour had more disciples than the seventy. Paul is your witness. He says that after the resurrection from the dead Christ appeared first to Cephas, then to the twelve, and after them to more than five hundred brothers at once. Some of these, he said, had fallen asleep, but most were still alive at the time he wrote this. [1 Corinthians 15:5-6]

5 Then Paul says that he appeared to James. This James was one of those called the Saviour’s brothers. Next, there were many others who were apostles in imitation of the Twelve, as Paul himself was. So Paul adds, “Then he appeared to all the apostles.” That is enough about these men. The account of Thaddeus runs as follows. [1 Corinthians 15:7]

Chapter 13

Narrative Concerning the Prince of the Edessences.

2 The divine power of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was proclaimed among all people because of his wonder-working power. It drew countless people from foreign lands, far from Judea, in the hope of being healed of their diseases and all kinds of suffering. In this way King Abgar, who ruled the nations beyond the Euphrates with great distinction, was wasting away in his body with a terrible illness that no human power could cure. He heard of the name of Jesus and of his mighty works, which everyone agreed in attesting. So he sent a messenger with a letter, humbly asking Jesus to deliver him from his disease. 4 Jesus did not answer his call at that time. Yet he did think him worthy of a personal letter, saying that he would send one of his disciples to heal his disease, and promising salvation both to Abgar and to all his household. The promise was not long in being fulfilled. After the resurrection from the dead and the ascent into heaven, Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, was moved by a more than human prompting. He sent Thaddeus, who was himself counted among the seventy disciples of Christ, to Edessa as a preacher and evangelist of the teaching of Christ. Through him everything our Saviour had promised was brought to completion.

5 You have written evidence of this, taken from the record offices of Edessa, which was at that time a city ruled by a king. In the public documents there, which contain the ancient history and the acts of Abgar, these things are found preserved even to this day. The best thing is to hear the letters themselves. We took them from the archives and translated them word for word from the Syriac language, in this way. Here is a copy of a letter written by Abgar the ruler to Jesus, and sent to him at Jerusalem by the courier Ananias.^[20] 7 “Abgar, ruler of Edessa, to Jesus, the good Saviour who has appeared in the region of Jerusalem: greetings. I have heard about you and about your cures, how they are done by you without medicines or herbs. The report is that you make the blind see again and the lame walk. You cleanse lepers, cast out spirits and demons, heal those tormented by long illness, and raise the dead. Having heard all this about you, I have settled it in my mind that one of two things is true: either you are God, and came down from heaven to do these things, or you are the Son of God who does them.”

10 “For this reason I have written to ask you to trouble yourself to come to me and heal the suffering I have. I have also heard that the Jews are grumbling against you and want to harm you. My city is very small, but it is respectable, and it is big enough for both of us.” The reply written by Jesus to the ruler Abgarus, sent by the courier Ananias: “Blessed are you, who have believed in me without having seen me. For it is written about me that those who have seen me will not believe in me, and that those who have not seen me will believe and live. As for what you wrote asking me to come to you, I must complete here everything for which I was sent, and when I have completed it, I must be taken up to the one who sent me. When I have been taken up, I will send you one of my disciples, to heal your suffering and to give life to you and to those with you.”

12 Attached to these letters, in the Syriac language, was also the following account. After Jesus was taken up, Judas, who is also called Thomas, sent Thaddeus to Abgarus. Thaddeus was an apostle, one of the Seventy. When he came, he stayed with Tobias, the son of Tobias. When word of him spread, it was reported to Abgarus that an apostle of Jesus had come, just as Jesus had written to him. Thaddeus began to heal every disease and sickness by the power of God, so that everyone was amazed. When Abgarus heard of the great and marvelous things he was doing and how he healed, he began to suspect that this was the man about whom Jesus had written: “When I have been taken up, I will send you one of my disciples, who will heal your suffering.” 14 So Abgarus sent for Tobias, with whom Thaddeus was staying, and said, “I have heard that a certain man of power has come and is staying in your house. Bring him to me.” Tobias went to Thaddeus and said to him, “The ruler Abgarus sent for me and told me to bring you to him, so that you may heal his suffering.” Thaddeus said, “I will go up, since I have been sent to him with power.” So Tobias got up early the next day, took Thaddeus, and came to Abgarus. When Thaddeus went up, Abgarus’s nobles were present and standing around. As soon as he entered, a great vision appeared to Abgarus in the face of the apostle Thaddeus. When Abgarus saw it, he bowed down before Thaddeus. All who stood around were astonished, for they had not seen the vision, which appeared to Abgarus alone.

16 Abgarus asked Thaddeus, “Are you truly a disciple of Jesus, the Son of God, who said to me, ‘I will send you one of my disciples, who will heal you and give you life’?” Thaddeus said, “Because you have believed so strongly in the one who sent me, I was sent to you. And again, if you believe in him, the requests of your heart will be granted to you according to your faith.” Abgarus said to him, “I have believed in him so much that I wanted to take an army and cut to pieces the Jews who crucified him. I was only held back from this by the power of the Romans.” Thaddeus said, “Our Lord has fulfilled the will of his Father, and having fulfilled it, he was taken up to the Father.” 18 Abgarus said to him, “I too have believed in him and in his Father.” Thaddeus said, “For this reason I lay my hand on you in his name.” As soon as he did this, Abgarus was healed of the disease and the suffering he had. Abgarus was amazed that, just as he had heard about Jesus, so he had received it in actual deeds through his disciple Thaddeus, who healed him without medicine or herbs. Not only that, but Abdus, the son of Abdus, who had gout, also came and fell at Thaddeus’s feet. He received a blessing by the laying on of hands and was healed. Thaddeus healed many other citizens of the city as well, doing great and wonderful things and proclaiming the word of God.

19 After this Abgarus said, “Thaddeus, you do these things by the power of God, and we ourselves are amazed at you. But besides this, I beg you to tell me about the coming of Jesus, how it happened, and about his power, and by what power he did the things we have heard about.” 20 Thaddeus said, “For now I will keep silent, since I was sent to proclaim the word. But tomorrow gather all your citizens for me, and before them I will preach the word of God. I will sow the word of life among them: about the coming of Jesus, how it came about; about his mission, and why the Father sent him; about the power of his works and the mysteries he spoke in the world, and by what power he did these things; about his new preaching, and his smallness and humbling, and how he humbled himself, and died, and lowered his divinity, and was crucified, and went down into Hades. He tore through the barrier that had never been torn from the beginning of the ages, and brought up the dead. For he went down alone, but raised many with him, and so went up to his Father.”

22 So Abgarus ordered his citizens to gather in the morning and hear Thaddeus’s preaching. After this he commanded that gold and uncoined silver be given to him. But Thaddeus would not accept it. He said, “If we have left behind what was our own, how shall we take what belongs to others?” These things happened in the year 340. I have set them down here in their proper place, translated word for word from the Syriac, and I hope not without profit.

Book 2

Greeting

In the previous book I set out briefly, as a kind of introduction, the matters that needed to be settled for this church history. These were the divine nature of the saving Word, and the ancient origin of the doctrines we teach. They included also the antiquity of the gospel way of life among Christians, as well as the recent appearing of Christ himself, his suffering, and the choosing of the apostles. In each case I kept the proofs short. Now let us look at what happened after his ascension. Some things I will point out from the divine Scriptures, and others I will add from outside writings, which I will mention as the occasion arises.

Chapter 1

The Course Pursued by the Apostles After the Ascension of Christ.

1 First, then, Matthias was chosen by lot for the apostleship in place of the traitor Judas. As has been shown, he too was one of the Lord’s disciples. Seven approved men, including Stephen, were appointed by prayer and the laying on of the apostles’ hands for the work of service, to attend to the needs of the community. Stephen was the first after the Lord to be stoned to death by the Lord’s murderers, at the very time of his appointment, as if he had been brought forward for this very purpose. In this way he was the first to win the crown that shares his name, the crown of Christ’s martyrs, who are worthy of the victory prize.^[21] [Acts 1:23-26; Acts 6:3-6; Acts 7:58-60] 2 Then James, who was called the Lord’s brother, is recorded as the first to be entrusted with the bishop’s seat of the church in Jerusalem. He was called the Lord’s brother because he was named as a son of Joseph. Joseph was the father of Christ, since the Virgin was engaged to him and, before they came together, was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit, as the sacred Scripture of the Gospels teaches. The men of old called this James “the Just” because of his outstanding virtue. [Matthew 1:18]

4 Clement, in the sixth book of his Hypotyposes, writes this: “Peter, James and John, after the Savior’s ascension, though the Lord had honored them above the others, did not claim the glory for themselves. Instead they chose James the Just as bishop of Jerusalem.” In the seventh book of the same work the same writer also says this about him: “The Lord, after his resurrection, gave the knowledge to James the Just, John and Peter. They gave it to the other apostles, and the other apostles to the Seventy, one of whom was Barnabas.”^[22] 6 There were two men named James. One was James the Just, who was thrown down from the parapet of the temple and beaten to death with a fuller’s club. The other was the one who was beheaded. Paul also mentions James the Just, writing, “But I saw none of the other apostles, except James the Lord’s brother.” At this time also the promise of our Savior to the king of the Osrhoenians was fulfilled. Thomas, moved by a divine impulse, sent Thaddeus to Edessa as a preacher and evangelist of the teaching about Christ, as we showed a little earlier from the document found there.^[23] [Galatians 1:19]

8 When Thaddeus reached the place, he healed Abgar by the word of Christ. He astonished everyone there with his extraordinary miracles. His works prepared them well and led them to revere the power of Christ, and he made them disciples of the Savior’s teaching. From that time to this, the whole city of the Edessenes has been devoted to the name of Christ. This is no small proof of our Savior’s kindness to them also. Let this much be said, drawn from ancient records. Now let us turn back to the divine Scripture. The first and greatest persecution of the church in Jerusalem was stirred up by the Jews themselves, on the occasion of Stephen’s martyrdom. All the disciples except the Twelve were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Some, as the divine Scripture says, went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. But they did not yet dare to share the word of faith with the Gentiles, and preached it only to Jews. [Acts 8:1; Acts 11:19]

10 At that time Paul was still ravaging the church. He went into the homes of believers, dragged away men and women, and handed them over to prison. Philip, one of those appointed with Stephen for the ministry of service, was among those who were scattered. He went down to Samaria. Filled with divine power, he was the first to preach the word to the people there. Divine grace worked with him so strongly that even Simon the magician, along with a great many others, was drawn in by his words. [Acts 8:3] 12 Simon was so famous at that time, and held such power over those he had deceived by his sorcery, that they believed he was the great power of God. But now he was amazed at the miracles Philip did by divine power. He slipped in and pretended to have faith in Christ, even to the point of baptism. It is remarkable that the same thing still happens today among those who follow his most defiling heresy. Like their forefather, they creep into the church like a plague or a scabby disease. They do great harm to those in whom they can implant the incurable, terrible poison hidden inside themselves. Many of them have already been thrown out once they were caught in their wickedness. Simon himself was exposed by Peter and paid the penalty he deserved.

13 As the saving message was growing day by day, a providential plan brought an official of the queen of the Ethiopians. To this day that nation is ruled by a woman, according to an ancestral custom. He was the first of the Gentiles to share in the mysteries of the divine word through Philip, after a revelation. He became the firstfruits of believers throughout the world. The account holds that he was also the first to go back to his homeland and proclaim the knowledge of the God of the universe and the life-giving coming of our Savior among men. So through him the prophecy was fulfilled in fact, which says, “Ethiopia will stretch out her hand to God.” 14 After these events Paul, the “chosen vessel,” was shown to be an apostle. He was appointed “not from men, nor through men, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ himself and of God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” He was counted worthy of the call by a vision and by the heavenly voice that came in the revelation. [Galatians 1:1; Acts 9:15]

Chapter 2

How Tiberius Was Affected When Informed by Pilate Concerning Christ.

2 By now the amazing resurrection of our Savior and his ascension into heaven were widely talked about. There was an old custom among the rulers of the provinces to report any new developments to the emperor, so that nothing would escape him. So Pilate informed the emperor Tiberius about the reports spreading all over Palestine concerning the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ from the dead. Pilate had learned of his other marvels as well, and that many already believed he was God, having risen from the dead after dying. They say Tiberius referred the matter to the Senate, but the Senate rejected it. The apparent reason was that it had not examined the matter first, since an ancient law held that no one could be made a god among the Romans except by a vote and decree of the Senate. The real reason was that the saving teaching of the divine message did not need approval or endorsement from human judgment.

4 So the Roman Senate rejected the report about our Saviour. Tiberius kept the opinion he had held before, and he devised nothing hostile against the teaching of Christ. Tertullian records this. He was a man who knew Roman law thoroughly, was distinguished in other ways, and was among the most illustrious men in Rome. In his Apology for the Christians, written in Latin and translated into Greek, he reports it word for word as follows: “Let us also discuss the origin of such laws. There was an ancient decree that no emperor should consecrate a god before the Senate had approved him. Marcus Aemilius acted on this in the case of a certain idol of Alburnus. And this supports our argument, because among you divinity is conferred by human approval. 6 If a god does not please a man, he does not become a god. So, by this custom, man must be gracious to god! Tiberius, then, was emperor when the name of Christians came into the world. When this teaching was reported to him from Palestine, where it first began, he put it before the Senate, making clear to them that he himself was pleased with it. But the Senate rejected it, because it had not approved it for itself. Tiberius stayed with his own judgment and threatened death to those who accused the Christians. Heavenly providence, in its plan, was putting this into his mind so that the word of the gospel, unhindered in its beginnings, might run out over the whole earth.^[24]

Chapter 3

The Doctrine of Christ Soon Spread Throughout All the World.

2 In this way, by heavenly power and co-operation, the saving word lit up the whole world all at once, like a ray of the sun. Straightway, in keeping with the divine Scriptures, the voice of his inspired evangelists and apostles went out over all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. In every city and village, churches sprang up at once, packed with countless people, like a threshing floor filled with grain. Many people had been bound in their souls by the old disease of idol superstition, handed down from their ancestors and rooted in ancient error. By the power of Christ, through the teaching and the wonders of his disciples, they were set free as if from cruel masters and found release from the harshest chains. They spat on every kind of demonic polytheism and confessed that there is only one God, the maker of all things. They honored him by the laws of true piety, in the God-inspired and sober worship that our Saviour sowed in human life.^[25] [Romans 10:18]

3 But divine grace was by now being poured out on the other nations too. First, at Caesarea in Palestine, Cornelius and his whole household received faith in Christ, through a striking divine appearance and the service of Peter. Then very many other Greeks at Antioch believed, those to whom the people scattered in the persecution over Stephen had preached. The church at Antioch was now flourishing and growing. At the same time a great many prophets from Jerusalem were there, and with them Barnabas and Paul and a further crowd of the brothers. It was there, then, that the name of Christians was first given out, as from a fresh and fruitful spring. 4 Agabus, one of the prophets who were with them, foretold that a famine was coming. Paul and Barnabas were sent to take part in the relief service for the brothers. [Acts 11:27-30]

Chapter 4

After the Death of Tiberius, Caius Appointed Agrippa King of the Jews, Having Punished Herod with Perpetual Exile.

1 Tiberius died after reigning about twenty-two years. Gaius succeeded him in the rule of the empire and at once placed the crown of the Jewish realm on Agrippa, making him king of the tetrarchies of Philip and of Lysanias. Not long afterward he gave him the tetrarchy of Herod as well. Gaius punished Herod, the one who ruled at the time of the Saviour’s passion, together with his wife Herodias, with permanent exile for a great many offenses. Josephus is a witness to these events too.^[26] 3 In his reign Philo became well known. He was a man of great distinction, not only among many of our own people but also among many who came from the learning outside the church. By ancient descent he was a Hebrew, and he was inferior to none of the leading men in office at Alexandria. How much labor he put into the divine studies of his ancestors is plain to everyone from his work. As for his skill in philosophy and the liberal studies of outside learning, there is no need to say what sort of man he was. He is reported to have been especially zealous for the discipline of Plato and Pythagoras, and to have surpassed all his contemporaries.

Chapter 5

Philo's Embassy to Caius in Behalf of the Jews.

1 Philo wrote an account in five books of what happened to the Jews under Caius. In it he describes the madness of Caius, who proclaimed himself a god and committed countless outrages in his rule. He also tells of the sufferings of the Jews under him. He tells of the embassy he himself undertook to the city of Rome on behalf of his countrymen in Alexandria. He tells how he stood before Caius to defend the laws of his fathers and got nothing but laughter and mockery, and how he came close to losing his life. 3 Josephus also mentions these things in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities, writing in these words: “When a riot broke out in Alexandria between the Jews who live there and the Greeks, three envoys were chosen from each side and came before Caius. One of the Alexandrian envoys was Apion, who slandered the Jews. Among other things he said that they neglected the honors due to Caesar. All the peoples under Roman rule, he said, had set up altars and temples to Caius and in every way received him just as they did the gods. These people alone, he said, thought it disgraceful to honor him with statues and to swear by his name.

5 “Apion made many harsh charges, by which he hoped, quite reasonably, to stir up Caius. Philo, the head of the Jewish embassy, was a man of distinction in every respect. He was the brother of Alexander the alabarch and not without knowledge of philosophy, and he was ready to answer the accusations in defense. But Caius cut him off and ordered him to get out of his sight. He was furiously angry and plainly about to do them some serious harm. Philo left, having been grossly insulted, and told the Jews around him to take courage. In words, he said, Caius was angry with them, but in fact he was already setting himself against God.” So far Josephus. 7 Philo himself, in the work he wrote about the embassy, describes precisely, point by point, what was done then. I will pass over most of it and set down only what will make clear to readers that the troubles that fell on the Jews came soon after their daring acts against Christ, and because of them. First, he relates that in Rome in the time of Tiberius, Sejanus, who then had the greatest influence with the emperor, worked hard to destroy the whole Jewish nation completely. In Judea, he says, Pilate, under whom the deeds against the Saviour were done, tried something at the temple in Jerusalem, which was still standing then, that went against what the Jews permitted. He stirred them up to the greatest disturbances.

Chapter 6

The Misfortunes Which Overwhelmed the Jews After Their Presumption Against Christ.

2 After the death of Tiberius, Caius took over the empire. He committed many outrages against many people, but above all he did great harm to the whole nation of the Jews. We can learn this briefly from Philo’s own words, where he writes as follows: “Such was the inconsistency of Caius’s character toward everyone, and especially toward the Jewish people. He hated them bitterly. He took over their houses of prayer in the other cities, beginning with those in Alexandria, and filled them with images and statues of himself. (When he allowed others to set them up, he was in effect setting them up himself.) The temple in the holy city had until then remained untouched, honored with complete inviolability as a place of refuge. He set about changing it and remodeling it into a temple of his own, so that it would be called the temple of Caius, the new Zeus made manifest.”^[27]

4 The same author records countless other terrible things that happened to the Jews in Alexandria, beyond all telling, in the second work mentioned, which he entitled On the Virtues. Josephus agrees with him. He likewise indicates that the calamities against the whole nation began in the time of Pilate, with the daring deeds against our Saviour. Hear what he says in the second book of the Jewish War, in these very words: “Pilate was sent to Judea as procurator by Tiberius. By night he brought Caesar’s images into Jerusalem, covered up. They are called standards. When day came, this caused the greatest uproar among the Jews. Those nearby were shocked at the sight, since their laws had been trampled underfoot. For they do not allow any image to be set up in the city.” 6 If you compare these things with what the Gospels record, you will see that the penalty did not wait long to overtake them for the cry they raised before Pilate himself, when they shouted that they had no king but Caesar. The same writer next records another calamity that came upon them. He says: “After this he stirred up another disturbance by spending the sacred treasure, which is called Corban, on an aqueduct that brought water from a distance of three hundred stadia. The crowd was furious at this.^[28] [John 19:15]

7 When Pilate came to Jerusalem, they stood around his tribunal and shouted at him. He had foreseen their uproar. So he mixed armed soldiers among the crowd, hidden under ordinary clothes. He forbade them to use the sword, but ordered them to beat the shouters with clubs, and he gave the signal from the tribunal. The Jews were struck down. Many died from the blows, and many were trampled to death by their own people as they fled. The crowd was stunned by the fate of those who had been killed, and fell silent.” 8 Besides these, the same writer shows that countless other uprisings broke out in Jerusalem itself. He makes clear that from that time on, the city and all Judea never stopped having riots, wars and one wicked scheme after another, until at last the siege under Vespasian came upon them. In this way, then, divine justice overtook the Jews for what they had dared to do against Christ.

Chapter 7

Pilate's Suicide.

It is worth knowing that the Pilate who served in the time of our Saviour is himself reported to have fallen, under Gaius (whose times we are describing), into such great misfortunes that he was driven to become his own murderer and to carry out the punishment with his own hand. Divine justice, it seems, did not wait long to overtake him. This is told by the Greek historians who recorded the Olympiads together with the events of each period.^[29]

Chapter 8

The Famine Which Took Place in the Reign of Claudius.

Gaius did not hold power for even four full years. The emperor Claudius succeeded him. In his reign a famine pressed upon the whole world. Writers who have no connection with our message also handed this down in their histories. So the prophet Agabus’s prediction in the Acts of the Apostles, that a famine would come over the whole world, was fulfilled. Luke, in the Acts, notes the famine under Claudius. He tells how the brothers at Antioch, each according to his means, sent help to the brothers in Judea by Paul and Barnabas. Then he goes on to say: [Acts 11:27-30]

Chapter 9

The Martyrdom of James the Apostle.

2 “About that time” (clearly he means in the reign of Claudius) “King Herod laid hands on some of those from the church to mistreat them, and he killed James, the brother of John, with a sword.” Concerning this James, Clement, in the seventh book of his Hypotyposes, gives an account worth remembering. He says he has it from the tradition of those before him. The man who brought James into court, seeing him give his testimony, was moved and confessed that he too was a Christian.^[30] [Acts 12:1-2] 4 So, Clement says, they were both led away together. On the way the man begged James to forgive him. James thought for a moment and said, “Peace to you,” and kissed him. And so both were beheaded together. Then, as the divine Scripture says, Herod saw that the killing of James pleased the Jews, and he went after Peter also. He handed him over to be bound in prison, and he would very soon have carried out his murder as well, had Peter not been marvellously freed from his chains by an angel who appeared to him at night, by God’s intervention. He was thus released for the service of preaching. That was how God’s plan worked out for Peter.

---

Notes

[1] “Local churches” renders paroikiai, here the Christian communities of the leading cities and their surrounding areas, later called “parishes” or dioceses. “Unwritten” (agraphōs) means “without writing,” that is, by spoken teaching.

[2] The older version adds “misfortunes” and renders martyria as “confessions.” The Greek says “martyrdoms” (literally “testimonies”). “Dispensation” (oikonomia) means God’s plan carried out in Christ, including his coming in the flesh.

[3] The Chronological Canons were Eusebius’s earlier work of chronological tables. The Greek word theologia, here “doctrine of his divinity,” means the teaching about Christ’s divine nature.

[4] Only “Who will declare his generation?” is given as the prophet’s words (compare Isaiah 53:8). The rest is Eusebius’s own statement, echoing Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:27.

[5] These are probably Eusebius’ works such as the Proof of the Gospel and the Prophetic Extracts; the Greek does not name them.

[6] The Greek “Christ” (Hebrew “Messiah”) means “anointed one.” Moses’ words are quoted from the Greek text of Exodus 25:40 as Eusebius gives it. The high priest was anointed with oil.

[7] The Jeremiah quotation is Lamentations 4:20 in the Greek version, a book traditionally ascribed to Jeremiah. The other quotations are Psalm 2:1-2 and 7-8.

[8] “Before the morning star” is from the Greek (Septuagint) text of the psalm; Eusebius explains it as “before the foundation of the world.”

[9] The Greek has Κυρίνιος (Quirinius); “Cyrenius” is the older English form of the same name, as in the KJV of Luke 2:2.

[10] Africanus is Julius Africanus, a Christian writer of the early third century. The “law” here is the Mosaic rule that a man should raise up a child for his dead childless brother (Deuteronomy 25:5-6).

[11] The preceding sections are Eusebius’ quotation of Julius Africanus, who is the source of the story that follows. “Idumeans” are Edomites, from the region south of Judea.

[12] The older translation has “Georae.” Greek “geiōras” (from Hebrew ger) means resident foreigners or proselytes. Achior appears in the book of Judith.

[13] “Desposyni” means “belonging to the Master” (the Lord’s family). “The Book of Days” probably refers to the Chronicles or the genealogical records, and is rendered “daily records” in the older translation.

[14] “Annas” in the Gospels is the same man Josephus calls “Ananus.” Counting Caiaphas, the four high priests after Annas are Ishmael, Eleazar, Simon and Caiaphas.

[15] The quotation from Josephus (Antiquities 18.34-35) begins in the previous section and ends here at “succeeded him.” Eusebius draws his own inference from it: he treats the four one-year terms as fixing the length of Jesus’ ministry at under four years.

[16] Josephus’s Greek has the Baptist’s baptism as being “for purity of the body,” not “for the forgiveness of sins.” Eusebius quotes it as written; the Gospels describe John’s baptism as one of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

[17] This is the well-known passage in Josephus about Jesus (the “Testimonium Flavianum”). Eusebius is the earliest writer to quote it in this form. Scholars still debate whether some of its wording was added later by Christians.

[18] The “Acts” are forged documents (the Acts of Pilate) that were circulated against the Christians. Eusebius has discussed them earlier in this book. The “Hebrew historian” is Josephus.

[19] Hypotyposes (“Outlines”) is a work by Clement of Alexandria that survives only in fragments. Eusebius quotes Galatians 2:11 here.

[20] “Toparch” means a regional ruler or governor. Eusebius’s Greek here also describes Edessa as a city “ruled by a king” (βασιλευομένην).

[21] “Stephen” in Greek (Stephanos) means “crown,” which is the wordplay here.

[22] Hypotyposes (“Outlines”) is a lost work of Clement of Alexandria, known only from quotations like this one.

[23] Pterygion literally means “little wing” and is the term for the pinnacle or parapet of the temple. Osrhoene is the region around Edessa, ruled by Abgarus.

[24] The sarcastic opening lines are Tertullian’s (Apology 5). The closing remark about heavenly providence is Eusebius’s own comment, not part of the Tertullian quotation.

[25] The words “their voice went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world” echo Psalm 19:4, as Paul uses it in Romans 10:18.

[26] Gaius is the emperor commonly known as Caligula. This Herod is Herod Antipas.

[27] “Houses of prayer” translates the Greek proseuchai, the usual word for synagogues in Egypt and the Greek diaspora.

[28] The Greek says the water “came down from” three hundred stadia away, so the distance is that of the water’s source. A stadion was about 600 feet (roughly 185 metres). Corban is the Hebrew word for a gift dedicated to God.

[29] Olympiads were four-year periods used by Greek writers to date events. Eusebius names no particular historian here.

[30] The quotation is from Acts 12:1-2. Clement of Alexandria’s Hypotyposes (“Outlines”) is a lost work, known mainly through quotations like this.