Eusebius of Pamphilus.
Eusebius of Pamphilus.
§ 78. Caesarea is a large city of Palestine where Peter founded a church when he baptized Cornelius (Acts 10:48). Paul taught the Gospel before Festus and Agrippa in Caesarea (Acts 25-26). Therefore we must count the church of Caesarea among the apostolic churches. Its bishop, Eusebius of Pamphilus, felt the same way about the canon that Melito relates and that the Council of Laodicea defined. From Josephus, Eusebius lists the canonical books (Hist. eccles., bk. 3, cc. 9-10) and praises this judgment of Josephus (bk. 6, c. 12). He excludes by name the Book of Wisdom and Sirach from the canon (bk. 6, c. 24). From Origen’s explanation of Psalm 1, he lists the catalog of writings of the Old Testament and applies them to the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In Chronic., he says concerning the books of the Maccabees that they were not received among the divine Scriptures.