The Fathers Speak:
Eusebius
The fourth century bishop Eusebius was
a biblical scholar, but is today best known for his History of the Church.
Eusebius’s History gives us
great insight into the early Church and is particularly important because it
helps us establish the continuity of our Tradition through the period before
the first Council of Nicea.
The following excerpts give insights
into the lives of the Apostles after Pentecost, as well as the composition of
Mark’s Gospel and the First Letter of Peter.
But
such a great light of religion shone on the minds of those who heard Peter,
that they were not satisfied to hear only once, nor with the unwritten teaching
of the divine proclamation; but with every possible plea they besought Mark,
whose Gospel is extant, since he was Peter’s follower, to leave behind also a
written statement of the teaching which had been given to them orally…and in this
way they became the cause of the Scripture called the Gospel According to Mark...
It
is said that Peter’s first Epistle, in which he makes mention of Mark, was
composed in Rome itself; and that he himself indicates this, referring to the
city figuratively as Babylon…They say that this Mark was the first to be sent
to preach in Egypt the Gospel which, indeed, he had written, and that he was
the first to establish churches in Alexandria itself…
The
holy Apostles and disciples of the Savior, however, were scattered throughout the
whole world. Thomas, as tradition holds,
received Parthia by lot; Andrew, Scythia;…Peter, however, seems to have
preached to the Jews in the diaspora in the Pontus and in Galatia, Bithynia,
Cappadocia, and in Asia; and at last, having come to Rome, he was crucified
head downwards, the manner in which he himself had thought it fitting to suffer…
After
the martyrdom of Paul ad Peter, Linus was the first appointed to the episcopacy
of the church at Rome. Paul, writing to
Timothy, mentions him in the salutation at the end of the Epistle.
