Please read Book III of his History of the Church. What do you see in this book that would be particularly worth adding to an essay on the strengths/weaknesses of Eusebius as a historian? Was there anything you found particularly interesting in this book?
Thursday, November 14, 2013
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From the history perspective the book follows in line very well with the first few chapters of the book. It follows the chronological chain of events of Christian history. I find it interesting on how this book talks about Jesus' relatives. You never hear about them in many christian books. The only ones who are ever talked about in the Bible are his parents and a couple relatives. It must have been difficult to be related to such an amazing person. Jesus being perfect and all powerful. It is almost a funny thought of Jesus as a kid and comparing his accomplishments to his relatives. -Kelly Longden
ReplyDeleteBook III is full of detailed information that would be appealing to any historian. I found it difficult to read because information is choppy and separated into chunks that I couldn't connect everything together. The long quotes from other books provide a background info I wouldn't otherwise be familiar with, but it also makes it hard to get through. I also don't know who all the bishops are and their significance so I wasn't able to fully appreciate the thoroughness of it. It’s just source after source!
ReplyDeleteI found the tiny chapter on the evangelist missionaries interesting. Service and spreading the Gospel is deeply rooted in Christianity and this reinforces that fact.
In book 3, Eusebius has great information and I was actually able to stay focused on it. However, I feel he is still struggling with jumping around with his information. Also, the order that he puts the information can be confusing at times. I feel Eusebius took whatever information he could find and put it in wherever he believed it could fit; confusing yes, but it still provides needed information for historians.
ReplyDelete-Melinda Quade
I find Book III interesting because in giving us histories of missions and persecutions Eusebius gives me some information I know and a lot that I never knew. I guess the only problem I have is that it's a lot to take in. I like how he always goes back to Jesus and explains what that means for the church but he also gives a lot of other people the spotlight as well. He highlights a lot of writings and gives many details to the persecution of Christians, like Trajan's Edict that called for the halt of hunting Christians- I like that because so far we've only had one source for Christian history (the New Testament) which is a great source but doesn't include a lot of the writings and details that Eusebius provides here. - Zach Kuhlman
ReplyDeleteBook III offers a rather important account of Christian persecution. It's astonishing to think of how Eusebius' recording of such an account would be so to instrumental in our understanding of the early church. In book III however, Eusebius seems to try to hard as his information is again rather disorganized and confusing. The information he provides is necessary and perhaps he documented it for future scholars to sort out later as they saw fit,
ReplyDelete-Zack Krage
He makes use of a number of distinct sources in his work for each topic. disregarding whether these sources are reliable, he does at least keep it varied rather than have the skewed perspective of one person for each subject, which i thought he was going to do when i kept seeing The Jewish War. this is a sign of not only a good historian but a good writer as well. I also agree with Kelly and Dylan in their opinions about the mention of Jesus' relatives. Until recently i didn't think Jesus had any form of lineage to speak of so i thought it was interesting. -Sean M.
ReplyDeleteI think that much of the information that Eusebius includes is complementary to a lot of scripture in the Bible, and it gives a greater picture. Like others have said, the information at times seems a little choppy, but the translating has fortunately already been done for us.
ReplyDeleteSome stories that I found really interesting include the whole section about the destruction of famine that came upon the Jews during the siege. Certainly, at that time many might think that this horrifying event could be what Jesus had fortold, but I think their treatment in WWII could have applied as well, granted they lived well before that time.
Another section I found interesting was titled "Menander the Charlatan" (115). I honestly don't recall having come across an account of someone else claiming to be a savior, but it makes perfect sense. Especially if you're trying to sully the Christian faith by making it appear to have all just been sorcery and necromancy.
~Aaron Johnston
The obvious strength of this book is the sheer amount of detailed information and the passages from the sources Eusebius took the information from. However, like many of my classmates, found it difficult to get through. I did, however, find the section about John, the apostle beloved by Jesus, to be really interesting.
ReplyDeleteClaire DeMilia