The Blackness of Ethiopians: Classical Ethnography and Eusebius's Commentary on the Psalms

Extract

The copious works of Eusebius of Caesarea are rarely investigated for their importance as testimonials to ancient knowledge of racial groups or to classical conceptions of ethnicity. Ancient ethnographical literature is not, however, an unimportant background for reading the bishop's works; nor are conceptions of race and ethnicity absent from his prolific literary output. In fact, racial assumptions are integral features in the development of various aspects—especially ecclesiological—of Eusebius's thought. Eusebius's prominent characterization of Christianity, which remains consistent throughout his entire literary career, is “the Church from the nations.” Such an appellation carried within itself the impulse to describe and define further the “nations” from which members of the Church were drawn. Persians, Scythians, Phoenicians, Egyptians and other “barbarian” nations, as well as Greeks, left behind the identities of their former lives when they adopted the new way of life and the new identity offered by Christ.