Faith & RitualGreek → English
Eusebius
/juːˈsiːbiəs/proper noun
A personal name, carried by the fourth-century bishop of Caesarea whose Ecclesiastical History is the main source for the early church.
The Greek roots
εὖ
eû
well, good
σέβας
sébas
reverence, awe
Literally: “of good reverence, pious”
The story of the word
Eusebeia was the ordinary Greek word for proper conduct toward gods, parents and the dead, so the name means something closer to dutiful than devout. The bishop quoted long passages from books that have since vanished, which is why much of what survives of second-century Christianity survives inside his footnotes. Sebastos, the same root, was the Greek rendering of the imperial title Augustus.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
Sebastianasebeiaeulogyeuphoria
In a sentence
Almost everything known about Papias comes through Eusebius.
His chronicle synchronised biblical dates with Greek and Roman ones.