Eusebius of Caesarea: Ecclesiastical History

The Ecclesiastical History (Greek *Historia Ekklesiastike*, often rendered *Church History*) of Eusebius of Caesarea is the earliest surviving comprehensive history of the Christian Church. In ten books it traces the movement from the apostolic age to the author's own day under the emperor Constantine. For the life of Paul it holds a particular place: it preserves the earliest *connected* traditions about the apostle's final years and death — events the New Testament itself never narrates — and it does so largely by quoting and paraphrasing earlier writers whose works are otherwise lost. That makes it at once indispensable and a source to be read with care, since Eusebius wrote well over two centuries after the events he reports about Paul.

Who Eusebius was

Eusebius (c. AD 260 - c. 340) was bishop of Caesarea Maritima in Roman Palestine, a prolific biblical scholar, and the most influential Christian historian of antiquity — so much so that he is conventionally called the "father of church history." (Scholarship) He is thus a figure who straddles two of the categories a reference site uses: he is a church father by his standing in the early Church, but the source that concerns us here, the *Ecclesiastical History*, is a work of history, and it is as a historian preserving older tradition that he matters for the biography of Paul.

What the work is

The *Ecclesiastical History* is a ten-book narrative reaching from the apostles to the reign of Constantine in Eusebius's own lifetime. It was composed and revised in stages, reaching its final form around AD 313-325. (Scholarship) Its enduring value lies less in Eusebius's own eloquence than in his method: he transcribes or summarises a great many earlier documents — letters, apologies, chronicles, and episcopal lists — many of which survive only because he chose to quote them. For the sub-apostolic and second-century Church he is often the single thread by which an otherwise lost witness reaches us, which is precisely why he is the foundational repository of early-Church *tradition*.

What it tells us about Paul

Eusebius does not add first-hand facts to Paul's life; the apostle had been dead for roughly 250 years. What he does is gather and date the earliest traditions:

• Luke as Paul's companion and the author of Acts. In Book 3 (chapters 1 and 4) Eusebius records the tradition that the mission fields were divided among the apostles, and that Luke, "a physician by profession" and a companion of Paul, wrote both the Gospel that bears his name and the Acts of the Apostles. (Tradition) This is the patristic backing for the attribution discussed in our entry on the Acts of the Apostles.

• A release, further ministry, and a second imprisonment. In Book 2 (chapter 22) Eusebius reads the close of Acts — where Paul remains "two whole years in his own hired lodging" (Acts 28:30, Douay-Rheims) (Scripture) — as only the *first* Roman imprisonment. He reports the tradition that Paul was released, undertook a further period of ministry, and was arrested a second time and executed. (Tradition) This is transparently Eusebius's attempt to *reconcile* the narrative of Acts with the situation implied by the Pastoral Epistles, in one of which the writer says, "I am even now ready to be sacrificed: and the time of my dissolution is at hand" (2 Timothy 4:6, Douay-Rheims). Because the Pauline authorship of the Pastorals is itself disputed by many scholars, the "release and second ministry" scheme should be presented as an early *reconstruction*, not as settled fact. (Scholarship)

• Martyrdom at Rome under Nero; the beheading. In Book 2 (chapter 25) Eusebius places the deaths of Peter and Paul in the same Neronian persecution at Rome — Paul beheaded as befitted a Roman citizen, Peter crucified. To support this he cites earlier witnesses: Gaius (Caius), a Roman writer of about AD 200, on the "trophies" (that is, the memorials or tombs) of the apostles on the Vatican hill and along the Ostian Way; and he appeals to Dionysius of Corinth and to Tertullian. (Tradition) Eusebius dates these martyrdoms to the Neronian persecution, which yields the familiar range of about AD 64-67. (Tradition / Scholarship)

How to weigh Eusebius

This is the point at which a careful reference must be most explicit about the difference between tradition and documented fact. Eusebius is not an eyewitness and does not claim to be; he is a fourth-century historian assembling second- and third-hand reports, and the earlier writers he cites are themselves of varying reliability and date. The traditions he preserves — the Roman martyrdom under Nero, the beheading of Paul, the twin death of Peter and Paul — are early and widely attested, and modern scholarship generally regards the Roman martyrdom as probable. (Scholarship) But they remain *tradition recorded by Eusebius, citing Gaius, Dionysius of Corinth and Tertullian*, not first-order documentary evidence. The exact year (most often given as 64 or 67) and the manner of death (beheading is likely but not certain) are therefore best stated as a range and a probability, never as fixed data. For the earliest external witness of all — earlier even than the writers Eusebius quotes — see the letter known as 1 Clement, which attests the deaths of Peter and Paul without specifying the manner. A fuller treatment of the death traditions is in our reference on the Apostle Paul.

Where to read it

The standard public-domain English translation is that of A. C. McGiffert in the *Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers*, Series 2, Volume 1, which may be read chapter by chapter online. The key passages for Paul are Book 2, chapter 22 (Paul sent to Rome, the "two years," the possible release and second ministry) and Book 2, chapter 25 (the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul under Nero and the "trophies" quotation from Gaius), with Book 3, chapters 1 and 4 on the apostolic mission fields and on Luke as Paul's companion.

The arc these traditions describe — an apostle who, after Tarsus, carried the faith to "the extremity of the west" and died a witness at Rome — is what St Paul Global Week honours in his birthplace. On 28-30 June 2027, around the 29 June Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, a faith-tourism gathering organised by Funny Tourism will bring pilgrims to Tarsus and Mersin. You are warmly invited to explore the programme, to learn why Tarsus, and — for leaders bringing a group — to read about the Hosted Delegation Leaders programme.