On the Day May 30 339AD

World's First Church Historian Dies

Khen Lim



Image source: scrollpublishing.com

Imagine for a moment, this scenario: Your people have been dead for hundreds of years. For some reason, you are the only survivor of a generation that has no recorded history. Your ancestry was in fact considered outlaw in their time and the government of the day made it a point to destroy your forefathers. Most if not all your people had lost their homes to destruction, occupation and colonialisation. 

Eventually, they were all scattered throughout the world. There are no materials available today that talk about your people because everything was burned and destroyed. You remember that the leaders of their time were all captured and killed. No festivals remained that would leave clues behind. No artefacts. No relics. In fact there was precious little by which any historian could trace its history.

Then someone asks you, “Tell us about your people.” Now, that is a problem. Without any traces left behind all these generations, how do you possibly put together something reasonable and call it the story of your people? In the case of Christianity, enter stage left, Eusebius Pamphilius (or Eusebius in short) for it seems in hindsight that, God made sure he was up to the task.

Eusebius’ people were the Early Christians who had been put to the sword for almost 300 years. By the time he was asked that question, Christianity had a redeeming period of peace under Constantine. So, he had the best opportunity to record the story of the Early Church and therein, he began his role as the world’s first church historian by preparing a chronology of the Bible and the travails of the Early Church. 

He was also the one who first attempted to put dates to Christ’s death and the ensuing events. This must have been arduous because there were so many calendars in use at that time and reconciling one with the others would have been an unenviable task.

Then there was Eusebius’ 10-volume collection that established his undisputed authority in Early Christian history. Through him, we now have the luxury of being able to read from sources long dead and forgotten as well as the apostolic lineage that he successfully traced in key cities that then led to our understanding of how the church evolved in the big townships. Through him, we also have the sobering accounts of those who suffered for Christ during the Early Church period.

Eusebius’ interests also extended to the formation of the Bible. His involvement in the debates over the selection process gave us invaluable insights into which books were chosen and why. This was particularly important in us learning today how the New Testament took shape then amidst the rise of heresy at that time. 

He was also there when the debates raised serious challenges to orthodoxy that eventually split the church into the East and the West. But given all of this, Eusebius was also truly blessed by God who opened his eyes to see how His outpouring of grace helped to preserve the church even as it was hit by strife and discord.

In his later life, Eusebius was given the bishopric appointment to Antioch to which he turned down. When his supporters petitioned Constantine to make him accept the position, the Emperor in turn praised him for refusing.

On May 30 339AD at the age of seventy-four, Eusebius died, leaving behind a tremendously rich legacy of writings that are still relevant today. Of his other writings that were also deservedly prominent were his commentaries on the Books of Isaiah and Psalms as well as a geography of the Bible and the much-admired Martyrs of Palestine to whom he had personal friendships with. 

For the Gospels, he added a reference-standard concordance plus a number of guide books to help the reader better understand some of the alleged discrepancies.

No matter how varied his writing talents have proven to be, Eusebius will forever be best known for his invaluable contributions to the birth of Early Christianity. Through his eye for detail and his proven penmanship, we now have recorded history of a people whom so many in the past were hell-bent in wanting to destroy.