Ever since I found a sermon by Eusebius of Emesa and placed it online, I have been somewhat interested in this obscure figure. He was a pupil of Eusebius of Caesarea, and has been called a semi-Arian, although he had no political interests and lived in the times of Constantius when such views were perhaps normal in some areas. The sermon I found was translated by Solomon Caesar Malan, a Swiss prodigy who knew many languages, took a degree at Oxford, and could converse in the bazaars of the east in the 1830’s with anyone who met in any language. He is mentioned in Tuckwell’s Reminiscences of Oxford.
The sermon was very interesting, and this leads me to wonder what else now remains of his work. I could find no evidence of any translations into English.
In the Patrologia Graeca 86, there are two “orationes” (cols. 510-535), plus a slew of fragments from catenas (columns 535-562). But I learn from Quasten that there is rather more under the name of Eusebius of Caesarea, in PG 24. 1047-1208, 14 sermons originally printed by Sirmond in 1643. The CD I have lists the following titles (which don’t make 14!):
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De fide adversus Sabellium (On the faith, against Sabellius, 2 books)
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De resurrectione (on the resurrection, 2 books)
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De incorporali et invisibili deo (on the incorporeal and invisible God)
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De incorporali (on the incorporeal, 2 books)
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De spiritali cogitatu hominis (on the spiritual thoughts of men)
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De eo quod deus pater incorporalis est (on he who is the incorporeal God the Father) (?)
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Another sermon of the same name
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De eo quod ait Dominus (on he who is called Lord)
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De operibus bonis et malis (on good and evil deeds)
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De operibus bonis (on good deeds)
I don’t think any of that exactly thrills. Theological noodling is not my bag, and the lack of work on these texts suggests that my instinctive reaction is not unusual.
There is also another 17 homilies, discovered in Latin in Ms. Troyes 523 and published by Buytaert in the 1950’s. He appended Sirmond’s collection to the end of his publication. There are also a bunch of these things in Armenian.
None of this exactly calls out for translation, tho, does it?
I coincidentally came across this..
Maybe I am a nitpicker, but let me submit some other translations for the Latin titles:
De eo quod deus pater incorporalis est (on the fact that God the father is incorporeal)
De eo quod ait Dominus (on that what the Lord said/on the fact that the Lord said …)
Keep up the good work!
Perhaps it does not call for something like what you did with Eusebius of Caesarea’s Gospel Problems & Solutions, but it would be helpful to at least sift through these works and note their New Testament utilizations, and any variant-readings involved.
There is so much that could be done…