Of the extensive literary activity of Eusebius, a relatively large portion has been preserved. Although posterity suspected him of
Arianism, Eusebius had made himself indispensable by his method of authorship; his comprehensive and careful excerpts from original sources saved his successors the painstaking labor of original research. Hence, much has been preserved, quoted by Eusebius, which otherwise would have been lost. The literary productions of Eusebius reflect on the whole the course of his life. At first, he occupied himself with works on
biblical criticism under the influence of
Pamphilus and probably of
Dorotheus of Tyre of the
School of Antioch. Afterward, the persecutions under
Diocletian and
Galerius directed his attention to the martyrs of his own time and the past, and this led him to the history of the whole Church and finally to the history of the world, which, to him, was only a preparation for ecclesiastical history. Then followed the time of the Arian controversies, and
dogmatic questions came into the foreground. Christianity at last found recognition by the State; and this brought new problems – apologies of a different sort had to be prepared. Lastly, Eusebius wrote eulogies in praise of Constantine. To all this activity must be added numerous writings of a miscellaneous nature, addresses, letters, and the like, and exegetical works that extended over the whole of his life and that include both commentaries and an important treatise on the location of
biblical place names and the distances between these cities.
Onomasticon Biblical text criticism were often included in Early Medieval
Gospel books. in the ancient
Garima Gospels Pamphilus and Eusebius occupied themselves with the
textual criticism of the
Septuagint text of the
Old Testament and especially of the
New Testament. An edition of the Septuagint seems to have been already prepared by
Origen, which, according to
Jerome, was revised and circulated by Eusebius and Pamphilus. For an easier survey of the material of the four Evangelists, Eusebius divided his edition of the New Testament into paragraphs and provided it with a synoptical table so that it might be easier to find the
pericopes that belong together. These
canon tables or "Eusebian canons" remained in use throughout the Middle Ages, and
illuminated manuscript versions are important for the study of early medieval art, as they are the most elaborately decorated pages of many
Gospel books. Eusebius detailed in
Epistula ad Carpianum how to use his canons.
Chronicle The
Chronicle ( (
Pantodape historia)) is divided into two parts. The first part, the
Chronography ( (
Chronographia)), gives an epitome of universal history from the sources, arranged according to nations. The second part, the
Canons ( (
Chronikoi kanones)), furnishes a synchronism of the historical material in parallel columns, the equivalent of a parallel timeline. The work as a whole has been lost in the original Greek, but it may be reconstructed from later chronographists of the Byzantine school who made excerpts from the work, especially
George Syncellus. The tables of the second part have been completely preserved in a Latin translation by Jerome, and both parts are still extant in an
Armenian translation. The loss of the Greek originals has given the Armenian translation a special importance; thus, the first part of Eusebius's
Chronicle, of which only a few fragments exist in Greek, has been preserved entirely in
Armenian, though with lacunae. The
Chronicle as preserved extends to the year 325.
Church History In his
Church History or
Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius wrote the second surviving history of the Christian Church as a chronologically ordered account, based on earlier sources, complete from the period of the Apostles to his own epoch. The time scheme correlated the history with the reigns of the Roman Emperors, and the scope was broad. Included were the bishops and other teachers of the Church, Christian relations with the Jews and those deemed heretical, and the Christian martyrs through 324. Although its accuracy and biases have been questioned, it remains an important source on the early church due to Eusebius's access to materials now lost.
Life of Constantine Eusebius's
Life of Constantine (
Vita Constantini) is a
eulogy or
panegyric, and therefore its style and selection of facts are affected by its purpose, rendering it inadequate as a continuation of the
Church History. As the historian
Socrates Scholasticus said, at the opening of his history which was designed as a continuation of Eusebius, "Also in writing the life of Constantine, this same author has but slightly treated of matters regarding
Arius, being more intent on the rhetorical finish of his composition and the praises of the emperor than on an accurate statement of facts." The work was unfinished at Eusebius's death. Some scholars have questioned the Eusebian authorship of this work.
Conversion of Constantine according to Eusebius Writing after Constantine had died, Eusebius claimed that the emperor himself had recounted to him that some time between the death of his father – the
augustus Constantius – and his final battle against his rival
Maxentius as
augustus in the West, Constantine experienced a
vision in which he and his soldiers beheld a Christian symbol, "a cross-shaped trophy formed from light", above the sun at midday. Attached to the symbol was the phrase "by this conquer" (), a phrase often rendered into Latin as "
in hoc signo vinces". Eusebius's work of that time, his
Church History, also makes no mention of the vision. and more recently, Aaron Johnson) that this treatise "
Against Hierocles" was written by someone other than Eusebius of Caesarea. •
Praeparatio evangelica (
Preparation for the Gospel), commonly known by its Latin title, which attempts to prove the excellence of Christianity over every pagan religion and philosophy. The
Praeparatio consists of fifteen books which have been completely preserved. Eusebius considered it an introduction to Christianity for pagans. But its value for many later readers is more because Eusebius studded this work with so many lively fragments from historians and philosophers which are nowhere else preserved. Here alone is preserved
Pyrrho's translation of the Buddhist
Three marks of existence upon which Pyrrho based
Pyrrhonism. Here alone is a summary of the writings of the
Phoenician priest
Sanchuniathon of which the accuracy has been shown by the mythological accounts found on the
Ugaritic tables. Here alone is the account from
Diodorus Siculus's sixth book of
Euhemerus's wondrous voyage to the island of
Panchaea where
Euhemerus purports to have found his true history of the gods. And here almost alone is preserved writings of the
neo-Platonist philosopher
Atticus along with so much else. •
Demonstratio evangelica (
Proof of the Gospel) is closely connected to the
Praeparatio and comprised originally twenty books of which ten have been completely preserved as well as a fragment of the fifteenth. Here Eusebius treats of the person of Jesus Christ. The work was probably finished before 311; • Another work which originated in the time of the persecution, entitled
Prophetic Extracts (
Eclogae propheticae). It discusses in four books the
Messianic texts of Scripture. The work is merely the surviving portion (books 6–9) of the
General elementary introduction to the Christian faith, now lost. The fragments given as the Commentary on Luke in the PG have been claimed to derive from the missing tenth book of the General Elementary Introduction (see D. S. Wallace-Hadrill); however, Aaron Johnson has argued that they cannot be associated with this work. • The treatise
On Divine Manifestation or
On the Theophania (
Peri theophaneias), of unknown date. It treats of the incarnation of the Divine
Logos, and its contents are in many cases identical with the
Demonstratio evangelica. Only fragments are preserved in Greek, but a complete Syriac translation of the
Theophania survives in an early 5th-century manuscript. Samuel Lee, the editor (1842) and translator (1843) of the Syriac
Theophania, thought that the work must have been written "after the general peace restored to the Church by Constantine, and before either the 'Praeparatio,' or the 'Demonstratio Evangelica,' was written ... It appears probable ... therefore, that this was one of the first productions of Eusebius, if not the first after the persecutions ceased." Hugo Gressmann, noting in 1904 that the
Demonstratio seems to be mentioned at IV. 37 and V. 1, and that II. 14 seems to mention the extant practice of temple prostitution at Hieropolis in Phoenica, concluded that the
Theophania was probably written shortly after 324. Others have suggested a date as late as 337. • A polemical treatise against
Marcellus of Ancyra, the
Against Marcellus, dating from about 337; • A supplement to the last-named work, also against Marcellus, entitled
Ecclesiastical Theology, in which he defended the Nicene doctrine of the Logos against the party of Athanasius. A number of writings, belonging in this category, have been entirely lost.
Exegetical and miscellaneous works All of the exegetical works of Eusebius have suffered damage in transmission. The majority of them are known to us only from long portions quoted in Byzantine catena-commentaries. However these portions are very extensive. Extant are: • An enormous Commentary on the
Psalms; • A commentary on
Isaiah, discovered more or less complete in a manuscript in Florence early in the 20th century and published 50 years later; • Small fragments of commentaries on
Romans and
1 Corinthians. Eusebius also wrote a work ',
On the Differences of the Gospels (including solutions). This was written for the purpose of harmonizing the contradictions in the reports of the different Evangelists. This work was recently (2011) translated into the English language by David J. Miller and Adam C. McCollum and was published under the name
Eusebius of Caesarea: Gospel Problems and Solutions. The original work was also translated into
Syriac, and lengthy quotations exist in a
catena in that language, and also in
Arabic catenas. Eusebius also wrote treatises on the biblical past; these three treatises have been lost. They were: • A work on the Greek equivalents of
Hebrew Gentilic nouns; • A description of old
Judea with an account of the
loss of the ten tribes; • A plan of
Jerusalem and the
Temple of Solomon. The addresses and sermons of Eusebius are mostly lost, but some have been preserved, e.g., a sermon on the consecration of the church in Tyre and an address on the thirtieth anniversary of the reign of Constantine (336). Most of Eusebius's letters are lost. His letters to Carpianus and Flacillus exist complete. Fragments of a letter to the empress Constantia also exists. ==Doctrine==