7. The Life of Constantine: The Image of an Image Peter Van Nuffelen In her 1991 classic, Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire, Averil Cameron commented that Eusebius’ Life of Constantine (also referred to as the VC) is “a work over-criticized on historical grounds and understudied as a literary text.” [1] This statement still holds true. To cite but one example,… Read more
8. Eusebius’ Commentary on the Psalms and Its Place in the Origins of Christian Biblical Scholarship Michael J. Hollerich Eusebius’ Commentary on the Psalms (hereafter CPs) is probably the longest book he ever wrote. It came late in his career, at a time when the Church was basking in the emperor’s favor and when the party of those with misgivings about the Council of Nicaea felt… Read more
9. Textuality and Territorialization: Eusebius’ Exegeses of Isaiah and Empire Jeremy M. Schott That we should study Eusebius’ works within the context of late-ancient Roman imperialism appears self-evident. Eusebius lived and wrote in one of Rome’s provincial capitals. He lived under and had direct contact with Roman imperial power—he witnessed the persecution of Christians in Caesarea under the governors Flavianus, Urbanus, and Firmilianus, but also met,… Read more
10. The Ends of Transfiguration: Eusebius’ Commentary on Luke (PG 24.549) Aaron P. Johnson In an illuminating treatment of the rise of Platonic commentaries, David Sedley has argued that at the origins of such a parasitic genre as the commentary lies the need to explain a text whose meaning is no longer clear, primarily because of temporal distance, to its readers. [1]… Read more
11. Origen as an Exegetical Source in Eusebius’ Prophetic Extracts Sébastien Morlet The study of the relationship between Eusebius and Origen as exegetes is still conditioned by Carmelo Curti’s article “L’esegesi di Eusebio di Cesarea: caratteri e sviluppo.” [1] This article contains, in my view, three major hypotheses: Throughout his life, Eusebius was attached to the principle that Scripture contains… Read more
12. New Perspectives on Eusebius’ Questions and Answers on the Gospels: The Manuscripts [1] Claudio Zamagni Eusebius wrote a large number of works; each of them would probably have been enough to make him one of the major Christian authors of his time. Among his less famous works stand the Questions and Answers on the Gospels, [2]… Read more
13. Eusebius of Caesarea on Asterius of Cappadocia in the Anti-Marcellan Writings: A Case Study of Mutual Defense within the Eusebian Alliance Mark DelCogliano The theological contributions of Eusebius of Caesarea have long been overshadowed by his achievements as a historian, apologist, and biblical scholar. But in recent scholarship on the fourth-century Trinitarian controversies, he has been identified as one of the leading lights in the… Read more
Chapter 3. Democritus, Heraclitus, and the Dead Souls: Reconstructing Columns I–VI of the Derveni Papyrus [*] Franco Ferrari Università dell’Aquila On January 15, 1962, the remains of the Derveni Papyrus were unearthed from a cist grave in northern Greece. Anton Fackelmann, curator of the papyrus collection of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna and the world’s leading expert in the handling… Read more
Chapter 4. Derveni and Ritual Fritz Graf The Ohio State University In many respects, the derveni papyrus remains as intriguing as it appeared in 1964 when Stylianos Kapsomenos published the first choice morsels to whet the appetite of the scholarly community, or when, in 1968, Walter Burkert proposed the first thorough interpretation of the text known at the time and anchored the commentary firmly in… Read more
Chapter 5. Divination in the Derveni Papyrus Sarah Iles Johnston The Ohio State University In this paper I will look at column V of the papyrus and then, more briefly, at column VI, in hopes of better understanding two issues. First, in what sorts of divinatory practices did the author of the Derveni Papyrus (hereafter the “Author”) engage, and what did he imagine those practices… Read more
