Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea, gave the church one of its greatest gifts by chronicling the rise of Christianity until the fourth century in The Ecclesiastical History. One of the earliest and most important histories of the church, this classic work is a must read. Eusebius began writing in 311 and finished in 323, just two years before the Council of Nicaea. Comprehensive in its detail and scope and faithful to history, this work forms a solid foundation for the study of church history, historical theology, patristics, and the early church, all of which are integral to a grounded understanding of the New Testament church and the trajectory of its development. The Loeb edition of The Ecclesiastical History includes the original Greek text with English translation by Kirsopp Lake and J. E. L. Oulton as well as notes and an extensive introduction to the text.
Eusebius arranges his history by the reign of the Roman emperors as he presents the church’s intellectual, spiritual, and institutional development. For his sources, he calls upon Josephus, Philo, Clement of Alexandra, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, and others, serving as an archivist of manuscript contents otherwise lost to time. Theological topics and historical accounts include a defense of Christ as the eternal Logos, Mosiac legislation, the Jewish rebellion, Christian martyrs, the rise of Gnosticism, the lives of various bishops, and an examination of the works of early Christian writers and apologists.
The digital version of this two-volume Loeb edition is provided in four resources for ease of use. The Greek text is morphologically tagged and easily searchable. Scripture passages are tagged to appear on mouseover in your preferred translation, and all cross-references link to the other resources in your digital library, making this collection easier to access than ever before. With Logos’ advanced features, you can perform comprehensive searches by topic or Scripture reference, finding, for example, every mention of “Arius” or “Justin Martyr.”
