Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Eusebius of Caesarea(c. AD 260/265 – 30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius,was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima in the Roman province of Syria Palaestina.
T. D. Barnes has brought attention to this little known text that was composed in connection with the discussions on standardizing the celebration of Easter. Barnes points out that the decision at Nicaea to use the western system meant that the ancient calculations used in most of the east, including Caesarea, would have to be abandoned. Since, Eusebius mentions the discussion at the council , the tract is to be dated (in its current form) to after the council. Barnes reasons that Eusebius wrote it “to explain and justify his acceptance of the majority position which the emperor supported” . That is why he dates the work to “shortly after the Council” . Cameron and Hall, however, in their 1999 translation Eusebius: Life of Constantine, identify this as the work that was sent by the author to Constantine (4.34) and the prompted a thank you note which Eusebius includes at the end of the Vita (4.35). Because of their placement just after Eusebius’s description of his oration before the emperor on the tomb of the Savior, given in 335, Cameron and Hall date the exchange to late that same year. This would imply a date for the De Pascha of c. 335. Barnes’s dating seems the more likely.
#christianhistory
#earlychristianity
#catholicchurch
#easternorthodox
#churchfathers
#romanempire
#ancientrome
#easter
#pascha
Eusebius of Caesarea(c. AD 260/265 – 30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius,was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima in the Roman province of Syria Palaestina.
T. D. Barnes has brought attention to this little known text that was composed in connection with the discussions on standardizing the celebration of Easter. Barnes points out that the decision at Nicaea to use the western system meant that the ancient calculations used in most of the east, including Caesarea, would have to be abandoned. Since, Eusebius mentions the discussion at the council , the tract is to be dated (in its current form) to after the council. Barnes reasons that Eusebius wrote it “to explain and justify his acceptance of the majority position which the emperor supported” . That is why he dates the work to “shortly after the Council” . Cameron and Hall, however, in their 1999 translation Eusebius: Life of Constantine, identify this as the work that was sent by the author to Constantine (4.34) and the prompted a thank you note which Eusebius includes at the end of the Vita (4.35). Because of their placement just after Eusebius’s description of his oration before the emperor on the tomb of the Savior, given in 335, Cameron and Hall date the exchange to late that same year. This would imply a date for the De Pascha of c. 335. Barnes’s dating seems the more likely.
#christianhistory
#earlychristianity
#catholicchurch
#easternorthodox
#churchfathers
#romanempire
#ancientrome
#easter
#pascha
