Superb footnotes add to brilliant history

The modern day commentary and footnotes enhance the incredibly pleasurable writing of Eusebius.

I always wonder why more modern day believers don’t explore the fundamental roots of their own modern day beliefs from some of the original foundational documents such as this book. I don’t think I’ve ever read an Early Medieval history book, or an Early Christian history book which did not quote extensively from Eusebius.

I know I now have to read Josephus because of Eusebius. Hoopla has an audio version of his book that I will borrow for free. Though, I would much prefer a version like this book that has explanatory footnotes and commentaries. The translator, Maier, had a fairly good discussion on Josephus’ mentions of Jesus and what scholars believe to be extrapolations or not, and the footnotes and commentary overall did not go wasted on me.

The only fault with this audible version is that I wasn’t always able to distinguish the footnote or commentary from Eusebius’ writings. I wish that the reader had been told to say ‘footnote’ and ‘end of footnote’ in the narration. But, that tells me how good of a writer Eusebius really was because his writing flows like a modern day conversation between friends.

To understand who we are today it sometimes requires understanding where we came from. Why is what we call the bible today the bible, or what does Jesus’ nature mean or what’s this about the Arian controversy, what’s all this about martyrs and why it is so important for the church’s history, and why are the Donatists so cool to understand (I’m going to give you a hint, it has something to do with the reformation and Martin Luther, but of course Eusebius and Augustine don’t know that), and how does the ‘catholic church’ (i.e., ‘catholic’ means ‘universal’ and the early ‘catholic church’ meant all are welcome) become a ‘Catholic Church’ (i.e. ‘universal’ means everywhere). Eusebius explains how the early orthodox Christians world thought about itself and allows one to anticipate the transition to Augustine who mostly defines the medieval Catholic world until Thomas Aquinas comes along in 1250. Eusebius always takes an orthodox (mostly from a Greek perspective) position, but all of these kinds of things lurk within the text and is incredibly well presented and are necessary for understanding where we are toda

25 people found this helpful

Good Overview of Early Church History

This is a very good history of the early Christian church which is difficult to obtain otherwise. There are some minor flaws in content which are clearly laid out since it was an early written history by an author that didn't use modern modes of history writing but the vast majority of it is balanced and fair and gives interesting details of early Christian saints and martyrs(of which some grisly details are also exposed.) The narration is excellent, clear, with good diction and just enough inflection to convey the import of some stories. This is well worth listening to.

18 people found this helpful

Excellent, but hard to distinguish footnotes

It would have been very helpful if the footnotes had been voiced by a different narrator from the original text.

13 people found this helpful

Truly Excellent Audiobook!

This is truly a superb translation of Eusebius's "The Church History". I am so very grateful to Paul L. Maier for doing a masterful job in bringing this ancient work to English speaking people! Indeed I will unhesitatingly say, that this is a precious addition to my growing audiobook library (10/10).

In addition to my gratitude to Paul L. Maier, I am very grateful for the excellent performance of John Lescault; he truly did an exceptional job in reading the text! Also, I would be negligent if I did not say thank you to Audible for making this audiobook available here...many, many thanks!

7 people found this helpful

Awesome book would recommend

Great book for any church history buff and really well read and translated. Easy to follow despite quite a heavy topic.

6 people found this helpful

Of Limited Value

For those that study church history, this work by Eusebius has value as added background and perspective. There are many modern works that summarize this time frame and are much more accessible to the casual reader. While I appreciate Eusebius and his work, his thoughts are not as orginized as one would hope in this particular work. If you want to read a work on church history Eusebius would be several books down the line of preference for me. YMMV

5 people found this helpful

Difficult to follow

Unfortunately this version of this important text is quite difficult to follow, as it includes a running scholarly commentary on the original text without differentiating between text and comment in any obvious way. Eusebius' factual claims (say, about the alleged conversion of Philo) will be immediately followed by scholarly retraction, and the narrative will then careen forward another step, only to be followed by a half-shuffle back, etc. This would be easy to follow with the physical text at hand, but as this is an audiobook, the narrative needs clearly audible delineation. (Just saying "note" and "end note" before and after each interpolation would help a lot.) I found it all too confusing and gave up, which is a shame, because the translation and commentary both seem valuable as such.

2 people found this helpful

Great Original- Bad Performance and Comments

A great book and a classic. The narrator is awful at pronunciation. Common words like Gaius (as in Gaius Julius Caesar) he pronounces as “gay-us”. The commentator/translator likely does not come from an apostolic church (Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Etc.) since his commentary often derides Church Tradition.

1 person found this helpful

Poor translation, poorly read

The translator states at the start that he cleaned up the text for the modern reader. What he doesn't seem to realize is that this is Eusebius, an author from the ancient world. Readers who come to this text are going to want an honest translation, not a version for a tweet or a TikTok short.

The narrator manages to get the English right, but he has only the vaguest notion of how ancient names are to be pronounced. And he insists on saying "Psalms" when reading citations of verses from a single Psalm. I don't know if that is the fault of the translator or the narrator, but it is not an error that I'd expect from people involved in producing an audiobook edition of a classic religious text.

Well-made edition of patristic classic

Eusebius's (260–339AD) Church History is the first complete history of the Church. This edition is well-made, particularly for audible listeners. As the preface explains, it is a translation that aims to retain all information from each sentence, but to trim down Eusebius's verbiage and Greek idiom. The result is a less literal translation than some, but much easier to follow as an audiobook, and the translator claims to have retained every bit of information.

The book is also supplemented by continual footnotes from the translator, which summarize the content of each chapter, clarify Eusebius's remarks with references to modern dating, and correct or qualify inaccuracies in the original text.

Here, it is worth noting two defects in this book. First, the reader doesn't say anything when he transitions to a footnote. Usually it is obvious enough he is reading a footnote, but it often takes a second or two to realize that. Thus, some information can be lost as the listener tries to catch his bearing. Other audiobooks with footnotes say, "FOOTNOTE," before passing into the note. Second, the editor, like almost all modern editors, is overly easy about correcting, condemning, or apologizing for Eusebius's failure to live up to his 21st-century liberal values. Such editorializing is, I find immature, but fortunately doesn't outweigh the great good found in this audiobook. Nevertheless, listeners should be careful to recognize that the footnotes represent just one fallible scholar's opinion.