Eusebius' Onomastikon

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Louis L Sorenson
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Eusebius' Onomastikon

Post by Louis L Sorenson »

I've been looking at Eusebius' Onomastikon, a list of Biblical name places. It can be found online at http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/euseb ... _trans.htm among other places like CCEL.org. What I am wondering about is that for all the sections of the Onomasticon different sources are listed.... The Greek text can be found online at ????

οἵον....Στοιχεῖον Ι

Ἀπὸ τῆς Γενέσεως.
Ἀριθμῶν καὶ Δευτερονομίου.
Ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ.
Βασιλειῶν.
Ἀπὸ τῶν Εὐαγγελίων.

What I'm wondering about is that some sections have an Ἀπὸ τῶν Εὐαγγελίων section and some don't.
Having the section are: α, β, γ, δ, ε, ι, ν, τ
Missing the gospel sections are: ζ, η, θ, κ, μ, ξ, ο, π, ρ, ς, υ, φ, χ, ψ, ω

Ι think that reading Greek explanations of place names would be a good exercise in cartography and getting to know the layout of 1st century Palestine. ποῦ κεῖται ἡ πόλις..... What would really be cool, is a restored Madaba map http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/mad/. This would be a real nice addition to a beginning grammar.

Here are some sample entries:
Γολγοθά (Matth 27, 33). «κρανίου τόπος», ἔνθα ὁ Χριστὸς ἐσταυρώθη.
ὃς καὶ δείκνυται ἐν Αἰλίᾳ πρὸς τοῖς βορείοις τοῦ Σιὼν
ὄρους.

Καφαρναούμ (Matth 4, 13). παρὰ τὴν Γεννησαρῖτιν λίμνην. εἰς
ἔτι νῦν ἐστι κώμη ἐν τῇ Γαλιλαίᾳ τῶν ἐθνῶν «ἐν ὁρίοις Ζαβουλὼν
καὶ Νεφθαλείμ»

Ἱεριχώ (Deut 32, 49). πόλις ἣν κατέσκαψεν Ἰησοῦς, τὸν βασιλέα
αὐτῆς ἀνελών. ἀνθ' ἧς ἑτέραν ἤγειρεν Ὀζὰν ἐκ Βαιθὴλ φυλῆς Ἐφρ-
αΐμ, ἣν ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς ὁ Χριστὸς τῆς ἰδίας παρουσίας ἠξί-
ωσεν. καταβληθείσης δὲ καὶ αὐτῆς ἐπὶ τῆς πολιορκίας τῆς Ἱερου-
σαλὴμ διὰ τὴν τῶν ἐνοικούντων ἀπιστίαν, ἑτέρα ἐκ τρίτου συνέστη
εἰς ἔτι νῦν δεικνυμένη πόλις. καὶ τῶν δύο δὲ τῶν προτέρων εἰς ἔτι
νῦν τὰ ἴχνη σῴζεται.

Ἐμμαοῦς (Luc 24, 13). ὅθεν ἦν Κλεώπας ὁ ἐν τῷ κατὰ Λουκᾶν
Εὐαγγελίῳ. αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ νῦν Νικόπολις τῆς Παλαιστίνης ἐπίσημος
πόλις.

.
Eusebius does not list even Caesarea (although he talks about Διοκαισαρεῖα) , so I'm wondering what I don't understand about his work. Perhaps someone could shed some light on it for me. Is he sticking to places only mentioned in the OT and apocrhypha? He does mention Δεκάπολις. Someone suggested it was written when Christianity was still illegal. And that some of the places have been added or moved due to later editors.
Ken M. Penner
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Re: Eusebius' Onomastikon

Post by Ken M. Penner »

Louis L Sorenson wrote: Eusebius does not list even Caesarea (although he talks about Διοκαισαρεῖα) , so I'm wondering what I don't understand about his work. Perhaps someone could shed some light on it for me. Is he sticking to places only mentioned in the OT and apocrhypha? He does mention Δεκάπολις. Someone suggested it was written when Christianity was still illegal. And that some of the places have been added or moved due to later editors.
I'm not sure if this is the issue, but as Josephus says (War 1.408):
Στράτωνος ἐκαλεῖτο πύργος
Ken M. Penner
Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, St. Francis Xavier University
Co-Editor, Digital Biblical Studies
General Editor, Lexham English Septuagint
Co-Editor, Online Critical Pseudepigrapha pseudepigrapha.org
Louis L Sorenson
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Re: Eusebius' Onomastikon

Post by Louis L Sorenson »

Here is the Suda's definition
Καισάρεια, ἡ μητρόπολις, ἀπὸ Καίσαρος Τιβερίου Ὀκταβίου: ἣν ἀφείλετο Ἀρχέλαον, πρότερον Μάζακα ἐπονομαζομένην, ἔπειτα Καισάρειαν κληθεῖσαν τῇ ἰδίᾳ προσηγορίᾳ.
http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?d ... per_page=1

Most likely we would need to add several other eponyms and need to differentiate between the two:

ἣ τὸ πρότερον Στράτωνος πύργος ἐκαλεῖτο. (κατὰ Ιωσηπον)

1) ἡ ἐν τῇ παραλίᾳ οὗ ᾠκοδομησεν οἱ Φοινικοι τινα πύργον καλουντες αὐτὴν ἐπι ὀνόματι τινος βασιλεως τῶν Σιδωνων ονοματι Στρατωνι, εν τῇ γλώσσῃ τῶν Φοινικων Αβδασταρτ. Ἡρῷδης δὲ ὁ μέγας τόνδε Στρατωνος πύργον ῷκοδομησεν εἰς πόλιν ἔνδοξον. Καισάρεια ἦν ἡ μεστίσην πόλιν ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ ἀφ' οὗ οἱ Ῥωμανοι τὴν Παλεστεινην ἤρξαντο.
2) ἡ τοῦ Φιλλίπου ἡ ἔκειτο πρὸς τὸν βορρᾶν ἐπὶ πόδα τοῦ ὄρους ὀνόματι Ερμων

But the use of Strato's Tower does not explain why no Gospel sources occur for more than half of the alphabet.
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