Eusebius refers to Christs ie. plural more than once

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MrMacSon
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Eusebius refers to Christs ie. plural more than once

Post by MrMacSon »

Eusebius' Church History Book I

Chapter 1


2. It is my purpose...to give the names and number and dates of those who through love of innovation have run into the greatest errors, and, proclaiming themselves discoverers of knowledge falsely so-called, have like fierce wolves mercilessly devastated 'the flock of Christ'.

3. It is my intention, moreover, to recount the misfortunes that immediately came upon the whole Jewish nation in consequence of their plots against our Saviour, and to record the ways and the times in which the divine word has been attacked by the Gentiles ... I shall commence my work with the beginning of 'the dispensation' [οἰκονομία] of our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ. [Several manuscripts, editors and translators read τοῦ θεοῦ after χριστόν. But the 'best manuscripts' and 'sources', included Rufinus, omit τοῦ θεοῦ.]


8. My work will begin, as I have said, with the dispensation [οἰκονομία] of the Saviour Christ — which is loftier and greater than human conception — and with a discussion of his divinity.

9. For it is necessary, inasmuch as we derive even our name from Christ, for one who proposes to write a history of the Church to begin with the very origin of Christ's dispensation, a dispensation more divine than many think.



Chapter 2 begins


1. ... the antiquity and divinity of Christianity [will] be shown to those who suppose it of recent and foreign origin [νέαν αὐτὴν καὶ ἐκτετοπισμένην] and 'imagine' that 'it appeared only yesterday'.


There's also


2. No language is sufficient to express the origin and the worth, the being and the nature of Christ ...

4. This, too, the great Moses...describes under the influence of the divine Spirit the creation and arrangement of the universe. He declares that the maker of the world and the creator of all things yielded to Christ himself ...



Chapter 3


1. It is now the proper place to show that the very name Iesous and also the name Christ were honored by the ancient prophets beloved of God.

2. Moses was the first to make known the name of Christ as a name especially august and glorious. When he delivered types and symbols of heavenly things, and mysterious images, in accordance with the oracle which said to him, 'Look that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you in the mount" [Exodus 25:40], he consecrated a man high priest of God, in so far as that was possible, and him he called Christ. And thus to this dignity of the high priesthood, which in his opinion surpassed the most honorable position among men, he attached for the sake of honor and glory the name of Christ.

3. He [Moses] 'knew' so well that in Christ was something divine. And the same one foreseeing, under the influence of the divine Spirit, the name Iesous, dignified it also with a certain distinguished privilege. For the name of Iesous, which had never been uttered among men before the time of Moses, he applied first and only to the one who he knew would receive after his death, again as a type and symbol, the supreme command.

4. His successor, therefore, who had not hitherto borne the name Iesous, but had been called by another name, Auses [Hosea/Oshea], which had been given him by his parents, he now called Iesous, bestowing the name upon him as a gift of honor, far greater than any kingly diadem. For Iesous himself, the son of Nave, bore a resemblance to our Saviour in the fact that he alone, after Moses and after the completion of the symbolic worship which had been transmitted by him, succeeded to the government of the true and pure religion.

5. Thus Moses bestowed the name of our Saviour, Iesous Christ, as a mark of the highest honor, upon the two men who in his time surpassed all the rest of the people in virtue and glory; namely, upon the high priest and upon his own successor in the government.

6. And the prophets that came after also clearly foretold Christ by name, predicting at the same time the plots which the Jewish people would form against him, and the calling of the nations through him. Jeremiah, for instance, speaks as follows: "The Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord, was taken in their destructions; of whom we said, 'under his shadow we shall live among the nations' " [Lamentations 4:20 in part]. And David, in perplexity, says, "Why did the nations rage and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ [His Anointed One]" [Psalm 2:1-2]; to which he adds, in the person of Christ himself, "The Lord said to me, "You are my Son, this day have I begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession [Psalm 2:7-9]."

7. And not only those who were honored with the high priesthood, and who for the sake of the symbol were anointed with especially prepared oil, were adorned with the name of Christ among the Hebrews, but also the kings whom the prophets anointed under the influence of the divine Spirit, and thus constituted, as it were, typical Christs. For they also bore in their own persons types of the royal and sovereign power of the true and only Christ, the divine Word who rules over all.

8. And we have been told also that certain of the prophets themselves became, by the act of anointing, Christs in type,[highlight=cornsilk so that all these have reference to the true Christ,[/highlight] the divinely inspired and heavenly Word, who is the only high priest of all, and the only King of every creature, and the Father's only supreme prophet of prophets.

9. And a proof of this is that no one of those who were of old symbolically anointed, whether priests, or kings, or prophets, possessed so great a power of inspired virtue as was exhibited by our Saviour and Lord Iesous, the true and only Christ.

10. None of them at least, however superior in dignity and honor they may have been for many generations among their own people, ever gave to their followers the name of Christians from their own typical name of Christ ...

11. He, although he received no symbols and types of high priesthood from any one, although he was not born of a race of priests, although he was not elevated to a kingdom by military guards, although he was not a prophet like those of old, although he obtained no honor nor pre-eminence among the Jews, nevertheless was adorned by the Father with all, if not with the symbols, yet with the truth itself.

12. And therefore, although he did not possess like honors with those whom we have mentioned, he is called Christ more than all of them. And as himself the true and only Christ of God, he has filled the whole earth with the truly august and sacred name of Christians, committing to his followers no longer types and images, but the uncovered virtues themselves, and a heavenly life in the very doctrines of truth.

13. And he was not anointed with oil prepared from material substances, but, as befits divinity, with the divine Spirit himself, by participation in the unbegotten deity of the Father. And this is taught also again by Isaiah, who exclaims, as if in the person of Christ himself, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore has he anointed me. He has sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor, to proclaim deliverance to captives, and recovery of sight to the blind."



Chapter 4


9. Hence you will find those divinely favored men [Christians] honored with the name of Christ, according to the passage which says of them, 'Touch not my Christs, [My anointed ones] and do my prophets no harm" [Psalm 105:15, channelling Genesis 26:11 and Jeremiah 39:12].

10. So that it is clearly necessary to consider that religion, which has lately been preached to all nations through the teaching of Christ, the first and most ancient of all religions, and the one discovered by those divinely favored men in the age of Abraham.



So, other people were called Christ. Could this be what was being played out in Claudius 25? Someone thinking they were or portraying one of a number of prophets - Christs/Chrestuses - of olde?


Intriguingly, Eusebius next refers to "beginning with the appearance of our Saviour in the flesh" yet, after briefly mentioning the infamous Census, refers to Josephus' accounts of Judas the Galilean -

Chapter 5


1. And now, after this necessary introduction to our proposed history of the Church, we can enter, so to speak, upon our journey, beginning with the appearance of our Saviour in the flesh. And we invoke God, the Father of the Word, and him, of whom we have been speaking, Jesus Christ himself our Saviour and Lord, the heavenly Word of God, as our aid and fellow-laborer in the narration of the truth.

2. It was in the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus and the twenty-eighth after the subjugation of Egypt and the death of Antony and Cleopatra, with whom the dynasty of the Ptolemies in Egypt came to an end, that our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea, according to the prophecies which had been uttered concerning him [Micah 5:2]. His birth took place during the first census, while Cyrenius was governor of Syria.

3. Flavius Josephus, the most celebrated of Hebrew historians, also mentions this census, which was taken during Cyrenius' term of office. In the same connection he gives an account of the uprising of the Galileans, which took place at that time, of which also Luke, among our writers, has made mention in the Acts, in the following words: "After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away a multitude after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed" [Acts 5:37].

4. The above-mentioned author, in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities, in agreement with these words, adds the following, which we quote exactly: "Cyrenius, a member of the senate, one who had held other offices and had passed through them all to the consulship, a man also of great dignity in other respects, came to Syria with a small retinue, being sent by Cæsar to be a judge of the nation and to make an assessment of their property."

5. And after a little he says: "But Judas, a Gaulonite, from a city called Gamala, taking with him Sadduchus, a Pharisee, urged the people to revolt, both of them saying that the taxation meant nothing else than downright slavery, and exhorting the nation to defend their liberty."

6. And in the second book of his History of the Jewish War, he writes as follows concerning the same man: "At this time a certain Galilean, whose name was Judas, persuaded his countrymen to revolt, declaring that they were cowards if they submitted to pay tribute to the Romans, and if they endured, besides God, masters who were mortal." These things are recorded by Josephus.






Then, chapter 6, Eusebius talks about Herod, the first ruler of foreign blood (with some speculation about his parentage); Hyrcanus the high priest whose son "was that Herod who lived in the times of our Saviour"; Saul and David, the rulers before the Jews captivity and transportation to Babylon; the subsequent kings leaders who governed them who were called Judges who came after Moses "and his successor Iesous" ... before referring to "Christ [who] appeared in bodily shape [under Herod]" and asserting that "the expected Salvation of the nations and their calling followed in accordance with prophecy" and "From this time the princes and rulers of Judah, ... of the Jewish nation, came to an end, and, as a natural consequence the order of the high priesthood, which from ancient times had proceeded regularly in closest succession from generation to generation, was immediately thrown into confusion."


9. Of these things Josephus is also a witness, who shows that when Herod was made King by the Romans he no longer appointed the high priests from the ancient line, but gave the honor to certain obscure persons. A course similar to that of Herod in the appointment of the priests was pursued by his son Archelaus, and after him by the Romans, who took the government into their own hands.

10. The same writer shows that Herod was the first that locked up the sacred garment of the high priest under his own seal and refused to permit the high priests to keep it for themselves. The same course was followed by Archelaus after him, and after Archelaus by the Romans.

11. These things have been recorded by us in order to show that another prophecy has been fulfilled in the appearance of our Saviour Jesus Christ. For the Scripture, in the Book of Daniel [Daniel 9:26] having expressly mentioned a certain number of weeks until the coming of Christ, of which we have treated in other books, most clearly prophesies that, after the completion of those weeks, the unction among the Jews should totally perish. And this, it has been clearly shown, was fulfilled at the time of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. This has been necessarily premised by us as a proof of the correctness of the time.



Chapter 7 is about the alleged discrepancy in the Gospels in regard to the genealogy of Christ.

Chapter 8: the cruelty of Herod toward the Infants, and the manner of his death.

Chapter 9: the times of Pilate

Chapter 10: the high priests of the Jews under whom Christ taught


2. The Divine Scripture says...that he passed the entire time of his ministry under the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, showing that in the time which belonged to the priesthood of those two men the whole period of his teaching was completed. Since he began his work during the high priesthood of Annas and taught until Caiaphas held the office, the entire time does not comprise quite four years.

3. For the rites of the law having been already abolished since that time, the customary usages in connection with the worship of God, according to which the high priest acquired his office by hereditary descent and held it for life, were also annulled and there were appointed to the high priesthood by the Roman governors now one and now another person who continued in office not more than one year.



Chapter 11 begins with the account of John the Baptist being beheaded by the younger Herod who then suffered calamity an d driven into banishment. And of course Josephus recorded all this and "thus agrees with the things written of [John] in the Gospels". And -

7. After relating these things concerning John, he [Jospheus] makes mention of our Saviour in the same work, in the following words: "And there lived at that time Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it be proper to call him a man. For he was a doer of wonderful works, and a teacher of such men as receive the truth in gladness. And he attached to himself many of the Jews, and many also of the Greeks. He was the Christ."

Chapter 12 is about the disciples of the Savior

Chpater 13 is about the supposed correspondence between King Abgarus, the Prince of the Edessenes, and Christ ...
Last edited by MrMacSon on Tue Jan 18, 2022 1:48 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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mlinssen
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Re: Eusebius refers to Christs ie. plural

Post by mlinssen »

What a boatload of work Mac, and it would appear that you haven't lost your sanity

I have a little side dish for you as I have decided to include the Oxyrhynchus copies. Whereas Coptic Thomas explicitly and literally states "I revealed to them in flesh", P. Oxy 1 has turned that into "In the flesh I was seen by them" - a grand switch of a not so insignificant adverbial phrase

Eusebius is full of it of course, but he had to try

https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon ... lexResults

I'm thinking that xrhstos became slapped on to IS, and treated as nomen sacrum just like any other. Question just is: what is the order of NHL texts there?
davidmartin
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Re: Eusebius refers to Christs ie. plural more than once

Post by davidmartin »

What Eusebius is doing, is making this new belief compatible with the existing ruling structure of Rome so that it supports it. This is the very definition of orthodox Christianity. It supports the existing political landscape and empowers it so that it may bestow that power in support of it's rule, with a sop to a few morality issues superficially. If anyone objects then they are a heretic. The chances that this represents the intent of the original movement are zero who were quite differently living under fear of such rule whether Roman or Jewish or Martian or from the planet Venus, so it's incomprehensible that Eusebius is speaking accurately on behalf of those he hallows or worships but he is doing his duty for the current establishment no more and no less
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DCHindley
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Re: Eusebius refers to Christs ie. plural more than once

Post by DCHindley »

Hi MrMacSon,

Here is something I surely must have posted either on this list or FRDB/IIDB/Crosstalk2:
CRIW, CHRISTOS, CRISM

CRIW (to touch on the surface: to rub or anoint)

LXX/OG:
• Exod. 28:41; 29:2, 7, 29, 36; 30:26, 30, 32; 40:9f, 13;
• Lev. 4:3; 6:13; 7:36; 8:11f; 16:32;
• Num. 6:15; 7:1, 10, 84, 88; 35:25;
• Deut. 28:40;
• Jda. 9:8, 15; Jdg. 9:8, 15;
• 1 Sam. 9:16; 10:1; 11:15; 15:1, 17; 16:3, 12f;
• 2 Sam. 1:21; 2:4, 7; 5:3, 17; 12:7; 19:11;
• 1 Ki. 1:34, 39, 45; 5:15; 19:15f;
• 2 Ki. 9:3, 6, 12; 11:12; 23:30;
• 1 Chr. 11:3; 14:8; 29:22;
• 2 Chr. 23:11; 36:1;
• Jdt. 10:3;
• Ps. 26:1; 44:8; 88:21; 151:4;
• Sir. 45:15; 46:13; 48:8;
• Hos. 8:10;
• Amos 6:6;
• Isa. 25:6; 61:1;
• Jer. 22:14;
• Ezek. 16:9; 43:3;
• Dan-Theodotion 9:24

Josephus:
• Ant. 2:220 (to daub Moses' ark of bulrushes with slime);
• 3:198 (to anoint a priest);
• 4:200 (to white over with mortar);
• 6:83 (to anoint Saul with holy oil), 157 (to anoint a son of Jesse to be the
• Israelite king in place of Saul), 159 (to anoint
• a specific youth as above);
• 7:357 (the high priest and Nathan the prophet anoint Solomon with oil as king
• David's designated successor), 382 (repeat of
• Solomon's anointing with oil after David's death);
• 9:106 (a disciple of Elisha the prophet is given holy oil to anoint Jehu as
• king), 149 (7 yr old Jehoash is anointed king by
• the high priest Jehoiada); 19:239 (Agrippa the Jew anoints his head with oil
• before visiting the Roman Senate to mediate
• Claudius' appointment as emperor)

Perseus Project:
• Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound (4)
• Apollodorus: Library and Epitome (5)
• Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica (1)
• Appian: The Foreign Wars (1)
• Aretaeus: The Cappadocian (15)
• Callimachus: Hymns and Epigrams (2)
• Diodorus Siculus: Library (1)
• Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Eminent Philosophers (1)
• Euripides: Medea (2)
• Herodotus: The Histories (6)
• Hesiod: Works and Days (1)
• Hippocrates: De diaeta in morbis acutis (3)
• Homer: Iliad (4), Odyssey (16)
• Homeric Hymns (2)
• Pausanias: Description of Greece (3)
• Pindar: Odes (1)
• Plutarch: Agesilaus (1), Alexander (1), Aristides (1), Cimon (3), De Pythiae oraculis (1), Quaestiones Convivales (4), Quaestiones Naturales (1)
• Sophocles: Trachiniae (4)
• Strabo: Geography (3)
• Theocritus: Idylls (1)
• Xenophon: Anabasis (2), Cyropaedia (2), Minor Works (2), Works on Socrates (2)

CRISTOS (to be rubbed on, of persons, anointed)

LXX/OG:
• Lev. 4:5, 16; 6:15; 21:10, 12;
• 1 Sam. 2:10, 35; 12:3, 5; 16:6; 24:7, 11; 26:9, 11, 16, 23;
• 2 Sam. 1:14, 16; 2:5; 19:22; 22:51; 23:1;
• 1 Chr. 16:22;
• 2 Chr. 6:42; 22:7;
• 2 Ma. 1:10;
• Ps. 2:2; 17:51; 19:7; 27:8; 83:10; 88:39, 52; 104:15; 131:10, 17;
• Odes 3:10; 4:13; 14:14, 27;
• Sir. 46:19;
• Ps. Sol. 17:32; 18:1, 5, 7;
• Amos 4:13;
• Hab. 3:13;
• Isa. 45:1;
• Lam. 4:20;
• Dan-OG 9:26;
• Dan-Theodotion 9:25

Josephus:
• Ant. 8:137 (anointed with plaster);
• 18:63 (called Christ);
• 20:200 (called Christ)

Perseus Project:
• Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound (1, ointment)
• Euripides: Hippolytus (1, ointment)

CRISMA (anything smeared on)

LXX/OG:
• Exod. 29:7; 30:25; 35:12, 19; 40:9, 15;
• Sir. 38:30;
• Dan-OG 9:26;
• Dan-Theodotion 9:26

Josephus:
• Ant. 3:197 (priests anointed with a sweet ointment)

Perseus Project:
• Aretaeus: The Cappadocian (4)
• Theophrastus: Characters (1)
I have not tried to tally them, either then or now.

You can tell this is old because I was using one of the old pre-UNICODE ASCII transliteration schemes.

DCH
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