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This article studies the role played by epistles in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Caesarea. It is important to note that this history avoids attributing discourses to the persons it features and instead relies on citing documents of various types, epistles among them. Having noted that the epistle is a special type of sermo, I discount the theory that the reason for the inclusion of the letters in the Ecclesiastical History was the desire to introduce stylistic variation. I emphasize that certain terms that recur in the introductions to the letters throw light on the question: eiq £7ti8ei§iv, rata Aé^iv, pocpTÚpiov, ávTÍypacpov; an analysis of these words shows that Eusebius was very conscious of the importance that the copies of the texts that he cites as documents (letters, among others) be faithful to the literality of the originals. I propose as a hypothesis that this emphasis on the fidelity and literality of the documents is related to the scripture-related category of canonicity first attested in Eusebius's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the reception history of the Jewish-Hellenistic author Flavius Josephus in Christian and Jewish literature up to the Yiddish translation of Sefer Yosippon (printed in 1546). Josephus' description of the Jewish War first shaped Christian historiography and theology. The works of Josephus were not translated into Hebrew until the tenth century, and became then very popular among the Jews. Their importance is confirmed by the 16th century translation into Yiddish that was the second Yiddish book to be printed after the translation of the Torah. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The speech "Understanding Early Christian Ethics," the Presidential Address delivered on November 23, 1985 at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Anaheim, California, is presented. In it the speaker Wayne A. Meeks examines the ethics of the early Christian church in its formative stage, relating it to the historiography and historical philosophy espoused by the sect.