Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient Greek city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. Its ruins lie near the modern city of Antakya and lends the modern city its name. Antioch was founded near the end of the fourth century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals; the city's geographical and economic location benefited its occupants such features as the spice trade, the Silk Road, the Royal Road. It rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the Near East; the city was the capital of the Seleucid Empire until 63 B. C. when the Romans took control. From the early 4th century the city was the seat of the Count of the Orient, head of the regional administration of sixteen provinces, it was the main center of Hellenistic Judaism at the end of the Second Temple period. Antioch was one of the most important cities in the eastern Mediterranean of Rome's dominions, it covered 1,100 acres within the walls of which one quarter was mountain, leaving 750 acres about one-fifth the area of Rome within the Aurelian Walls.
Antioch was called "the cradle of Christianity" as a result of its longevity and the pivotal role that it played in the emergence of both Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity. The Christian New Testament asserts, it was one of the four cities of the Syrian tetrapolis, its residents were known as Antiochenes. The city was a metropolis of a quarter million people during Augustan times, but it declined to relative insignificance during the Middle Ages because of warfare, repeated earthquakes, a change in trade routes, which no longer passed through Antioch from the far east following the Mongol invasions and conquests. Two routes from the Mediterranean, lying through the Orontes gorge and the Beilan Pass, converge in the plain of the Antioch Lake and are met there by the road from the Amanian Gate and western Commagene, which descends the valley of the Karasu River to the Afrin River, the roads from eastern Commagene and the Euphratean crossings at Samosata and Apamea Zeugma, which descend the valleys of the Afrin and the Quweiq rivers, the road from the Euphratean ford at Thapsacus, which skirts the fringe of the Syrian steppe.
A single route proceeds south in the Orontes valley. The settlement called Meroe pre-dated Antioch. A shrine of the Semitic goddess Anat, called by Herodotus the "Persian Artemis", was located here; this site was included in the eastern suburbs of Antioch. There was a village on the spur of Mount Silpius named Iopolis; this name was always adduced as evidence by Antiochenes anxious to affiliate themselves to the Attic Ionians—an eagerness, illustrated by the Athenian types used on the city's coins. Io may have been a small early colony of trading Greeks. John Malalas mentions an archaic village, Bottia, in the plain by the river. Alexander the Great is said to have camped on the site of Antioch, dedicated an altar to Zeus Bottiaeus; this account is found only in the writings of Libanius, a 4th-century orator from Antioch, may be legend intended to enhance Antioch's status. But the story is not unlikely in itself. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, his generals divided up the territory. After the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, Seleucus I Nicator won the territory of Syria, he proceeded to found four "sister cities" in northwestern Syria, one of, Antioch, a city named in honor of his father Antiochus.
He is reputed to have built sixteen Antiochs. Seleucus founded Antioch on a site chosen through ritual means. An eagle, the bird of Zeus, had been given a piece of sacrificial meat and the city was founded on the site to which the eagle carried the offering. Seleucus did this on the 22nd day of the month of Artemisios in the twelfth year of his reign. Antioch soon rose above Seleucia Pieria to become the Syrian capital; the original city of Seleucus was laid out in imitation of the grid plan of Alexandria by the architect Xenarius. Libanius describes the first arrangement of this city; the citadel was on Mt. Silpius and the city lay on the low ground to the north, fringing the river. Two great colonnaded streets intersected in the centre. Shortly afterwards a second quarter was laid out on the east and by Antiochus I, from an expression of Strabo, appears to have been the native, as contrasted with the Greek, town, it was enclosed by a wall of its own. In the Orontes, north of the city, lay a large island, on this Seleucus II Callinicus began a third walled "city", finished by Antiochus III.
A fourth and last quarter was added by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. From west to east the whole was about 6 kilometres in diameter and a little less from north to south; this area included many large gardens. The new city was populated by a mix of local settlers that Athenians brought from the nearby city of Antigonia and Jews; the total free population of Antioch at its foundation has been estimated at between 17,000 and 25,000, not including slaves and native settlers. During the late Hellenistic period and Early Roman period, Antioch's population reached its peak of over 500,000 inhabitants and was the third largest city in the Empire after Rome and Alexandria. In the second half o
Church of St. Mary of Blachernae (Istanbul)
Saint Mary of Blachernae is an Eastern Orthodox church in Istanbul. The little edifice, built in 1867, got the same dedication as the shrine erected in this place in the fifth century which, until its destruction in 1434, was one of the most important sanctuaries of Greek Orthodoxy; the church is located in Istanbul, in the district of Fatih, in the neighbourhood of Ayvansaray, along Mustafa Paşa Bostanı Sokak. It lies a few hundred meters inside the walled city, at a short distance from the shore of the Golden Horn; the building is protected by a high wall, preceded by a garden. In 450, Empress Aelia Pulcheria started to build a church near a fountain of holy water situated outside the walls of Theodosius II at the foot of the sixth hill of Constantinople. After her death in 453, the shrine was completed by Emperor Marcian. Emperor Leo I erected near the church two other buildings: a parekklesion, named Ayía Sorós, since it hosted the holy mantle and robe of the Virgin brought from Palestine in 473, the ´Ayion Loúsma edifice, which enclosed the fountain.
The importance assumed by the whole complex encouraged the Emperors to lodge in the surroundings and to build there the nucleus of what would in centuries become the imperial palace of Blachernae. During the first quarter of the 6th century, Emperors Justin I and Justinian I restored and enlarged the church; the name of Blachernae may come from old name of Romanians and from a small colony of vlachsSaint Mary hosted a famous icon of the Virgin, named after the church Vlachernítissa. It was revetted with gold and silver; this icon and the relics of the Virgin kept in the parekklesion were considered by the Byzantines as most powerful, useful during a war or in case of natural disasters. The first proof of the power of these objects came in 626. During that year Constantinople was besieged by the combined armies of the Avars and the Persians, while Emperor Heraclius was away, fighting the Persians in Mesopotamia; the son of the Emperor, together with Patriarch Sergius and Patrician Bonus carried in procession along the ramparts the icon of the Blachernitissa.
Some time the fleet of the Avars was destroyed. The Khan of the Avars afterwards said that he had been frightened by the vision of a young woman adorned with jewels scouring the walls. After the end of the siege, the Byzantines learned with joy that the building of the church, which at that time lay outside the Walls, was the only one not to have been plundered by the invaders; when the victorious Heraclius came back to Constantinople, bringing back the True Cross, captured by the Persians in Jerusalem, the Patriarch received him at Saint Mary. Sometime the Emperor built a single wall to protect the church, thus enclosing in the City the suburb of Blachernae; the protection of the Virgin of the Blachernae was credited with the Byzantine victories during the Arab siege of 717-718, in 860, during the invasion of the Rus'. In this occasion, the Veil of the Virgin, which by that time had joined the other relics in the church, was shortly plunged in the sea to invoke the protection of God on the fleet.
Some days the Rus' fleet was destroyed. In 926 too, during the war against Simeon of Bulgaria, the potency of the relics of the Virgin helped convince the Bulgarian Tsar to negotiate with the Byzantines instead of assaulting the City. On August 15, 944, the church received other two important objects: the letter written by King Abgar V of Edessa to Jesus and the Mandylion. Both relics were moved to the Church of the Virgin of the Pharos. St. Mary, being a centre of the veneration of the Images, played an important role in the religious fights of the Byzantines. During the Iconoclastic period, the final session of the Council of Hieria, where the cult of the images was condemned, took place in the church; as a consequence of that decision, Emperor Constantine V ordered the mosaics of the interior destroyed, substituted them with others representing natural scenes with trees and animals. On that occasion the Icon of the Blachernitissa was hidden under a layer of silvery mortar. In 843, with the end of Iconoclasm, the Feast of Orthodoxy was celebrated for the first time in the church of Blachernae with an Agrypnía, which occurred on the first Sunday of Lent.
The Blachernitissa was discovered again during restoration works executed during the reign of Romanos III Argyros, became again one of the most venerated icons of Constantinople. The Church of Saint Mary was destroyed during a fire in 1070, was rebuilt by Romanos IV Diogenes and Michael VII Doukas respecting the old plan. According to Anna Komnene, the so-called "habitual miracle" occurred in the church before the Icon of the Virgin Blachernitissa. On Friday after sunset, when the church was empty, the veil which covered the icon moved up revealing the face of the Virgin, while 24 hours it fell again slowly. Anyway, the miracle did not occur and ceased after the Latin conquest of the City. After the Latin invasion of 1204, the church was occupied by the Latin clergy and placed directly under the Holy See. Before the end of the Latin Empire, John III Doukas Vatatzes redeemed the church and many monasteries for the Orthodox clergy in exchange for money. On February 29, 1434, some noble children who were hunting pigeons on the roof of the church accidentally started a fire, which destroyed the whole complex and the surrounding quarter.
The area was neglected during the Ottoman period. In 1867, the Guild of the Orthodox fur
Barnabas
Barnabas, born Joseph, was an early Christian, one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem. According to Acts 4:36, Barnabas was a Cypriot Jew. Named an apostle in Acts 14:14, he and Paul the Apostle undertook missionary journeys together and defended Gentile converts against the Judaizers, they traveled together making more converts, participated in the Council of Jerusalem Barnabas and Paul evangelized among the "God-fearing" Gentiles who attended synagogues in various Hellenized cities of Anatolia. Barnabas' story appears in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul mentions him in some of his epistles. Tertullian named him as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, but this and other attributions are conjecture. Clement of Alexandria and some scholars have ascribed the Epistle of Barnabas to him, but his authorship is disputed. Although the date and circumstances of his death are unverifiable, Christian tradition holds that Barnabas was martyred at Salamis, Cyprus, in 61 AD, he is traditionally identified as the founder of the Cypriot Orthodox Church.
The feast day of Barnabas is celebrated on June 11. Barnabas is identified as the cousin of Mark the Evangelist on the basis of Colossians 4. Infrequent occurrence in the Septuagint to its presence in Josephus and Philo, "anepsios" carries the connotation of "cousin"; some traditions hold that Aristobulus of Britannia, one of the Seventy Disciples, was the brother of Barnabas. Acts 11:24 describes Barnabas as "a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith", his Hellenic Jewish parents called him Joseph, but when recounting the story of how he sold all his goods and gave the money to the apostles in Jerusalem, the Book of Acts says the apostles called him Barnabas. The Greek text of the Acts 4:36 explains the name as υἱὸς παρακλήσεως, hyios paraklēseōs, meaning "son of encouragement" or "son of consolation". One theory is that this is from the Aramaic בר נחמה, bar neḥmā, meaning'son consolation'. Another is that it is related to the Hebrew word nabī meaning "prophet". In the Syriac Bible, the phrase "son of consolation" is translated bara dbuya'a.
Barnabas appears in Acts, a history of the early Christian church. He appears in several of Paul's epistles. Barnabas, a native of Cyprus and a Levite, is first mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as a member of the early Christian community in Jerusalem, who sold some land that he owned and gave the proceeds to the community; when the future Apostle Paul returned to Jerusalem after his conversion, Barnabas introduced him to the apostles. Easton, in his Bible Dictionary, supposes that they had been fellow students in the school of Gamaliel; the successful preaching of Christianity at Antioch to non-Jews led the church at Jerusalem to send Barnabas there to oversee the movement. He found the work so extensive and weighty that he went to Tarsus in search of Paul, "an admirable colleague", to assist him. Paul labored with him for a whole year. At the end of this period, the two were sent up to Jerusalem with contributions from the church at Antioch for the relief of the poorer Christians in Judea.
They returned to Antioch taking the cousin or nephew of Barnabas. They went to Cyprus and some of the principal cities of Pamphylia and Lycaonia. After recounting what the governor of Cyprus Sergius Paulus believed, Acts 13:9 speaks of Barnabas's companion no longer as Saul, but as Paul, his Roman name, refers to the two no longer as "Barnabas and Saul" as heretofore, but as "Paul and Barnabas". Only in 14:14 and 15:12-25 does Barnabas again occupy the first place, in the first passage with recollection of 14:12, in the last 2, because Barnabas stood in closer relation to the Jerusalem church than Paul. Paul appears as the more eloquent missionary, whence the Lystrans regarded him as Hermes and Barnabas as Zeus; the King James Version renders the Greek name "Zeus" by the Latin name "Jupiter". Returning from this first missionary journey to Antioch, they were again sent up to Jerusalem to consult with the church there regarding the relation of Gentiles to the church. According to Galatians 2:9-10, Barnabas was included with Paul in the agreement made between them, on the one hand, James and John, on the other, that the two former should in the future preach to the pagans, not forgetting the poor at Jerusalem.
This matter having been settled, they returned again to Antioch, bringing the agreement of the council that Gentiles were to be admitted into the church without having to adopt Jewish practices. After they had returned to Antioch from the Jerusalem council, they spent some time there. Peter came and associated there with the Gentiles, eating with them, until criticized for this by some disciples of James, as against Mosaic law. Upon their remonstrances, Peter yielded through fear of displeasing them, refused to eat any longer with the Gentiles. Barnabas followed his example. Paul considered that they "walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel" and upbraided them before the whole church. Paul asked Barnabas to accompany him on another journey. Barnabas wished to take John Mark along, but Paul did not, as he had left them on the earlier journey; the dispute
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, United States, part of the Greater Phoenix Area. Named Scottsdale in 1894 after its founder Winfield Scott, a retired U. S. Army chaplain, the city was incorporated in 1951 with a population of 2,000; the 2015 population of the city was estimated to be 236,839 according to the U. S. Census Bureau; the New York Times described downtown Scottsdale as "a desert version of Miami's South Beach" and as having "plenty of late night partying and a buzzing hotel scene." Its slogan is "The West's Most Western Town."Scottsdale, 31 miles long and 11.4 miles wide at its widest point, shares boundaries with many other municipalities and entities. On the west, Scottsdale is bordered by Phoenix, Paradise Valley and unincorporated Maricopa County land. Carefree is located along the western boundary, as well as sharing Scottsdale's northern boundary with the Tonto National Forest. To the south Scottsdale is bordered by Tempe; the southern boundary is occupied by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, which extends along the eastern boundary, which borders Fountain Hills, the McDowell Mountain Regional Park and more unincorporated Maricopa County land.
The area which would include what would become Scottsdale was inhabited by the Hohokam, from 300 BC to 1450 AD. This ancient civilization farmed the area and developed a complex network of canals for irrigation, unsurpassed in pre-Columbian North America. At its peak, the canals stretched over 250 miles, many of which built remains extant today, some having been renovated and put back into use in the 20th century. Under still-mysterious circumstances, the Hohokam disappeared around 1450 or 1500, the most theory having to do with a prolonged drought; the area's occupants, the Pima and O'odham, are thought to be the direct descendants of the Hohokam people. Before European settlement, Scottsdale was a Pima village known as Vaṣai S-vaṣonĭ, meaning "rotting hay." Some Pima remained in their original homes well into the 20th century. For example, until the late 1960s, there was a still-occupied traditional dwelling on the southeast corner of Indian Bend Road and Hayden Road; those Pima who live within Scottsdale reside in newer homes rather than traditional dwellings.
Many Pima and Maricopa people continue to reside on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, which borders Scottsdale directly to the south and east. In the early to mid 1880s, U. S. Army Chaplain Winfield Scott visited the Salt River Valley and was impressed with the region and its potential for agriculture. Returning in 1888 with his wife, Helen, he purchased 640 acres for $3.50 an acre for a stretch of land where downtown Scottsdale is now located. Winfield and his brother, George Washington Scott, became the first residents of the town, known as Orangedale due to the large citrus groves planted by the Scott brothers. Many of the community's original settlers, recruited by Scott from the East and Midwest, were educated and had an appreciation for cultural activities; the town's name was changed to Scottsdale after its founder. In 1896, these settlers established the Scottsdale Public School system, opened the first schoolhouse, followed by the opening of the first general store by J. L. Davis, which housed the first post office for Scottsdale in 1897.
In the early 1900s the community supported an artists and writers culture, culminating in the opening of the region's first resort in 1909, the Ingleside Inn, located just south of the Arizona Canal and west of the Crosscut Canal in what is today Scottsdale. In 1909, Cavalliere's Blacksmith Shop opened in downtown Scottsdale, the original schoolhouse was replaced by the much more expansive Little Red Schoolhouse, which remains standing to this day. While not in its original building, Cavalliere's has been in continuance operation since that time. In 1912, both the Phoenix Street Railway Company and a competitor, the Salt River Valley Electric Railway Company, proposed building streetcar lines to Scottsdale but due to an economic downturn, neither was built. Between 1908 and 1933, due to the construction of the Granite Reef and Roosevelt dams, Scottsdale's population experienced a boom, growing during those years. Scottsdale became a small market town providing services for families involved in the agricultural industry.
During the First World War Scottsdale and its environs supported a large cotton farming industry, due to the creation of Long Staple Egyptian Cotton, developed by the US Department of Agriculture. Although cotton is still grown in southern Arizona, Scottsdale's cotton boom ended with the loss of government contracts at the end of the war. In 1920, a second resort was opened on 12 acres of the property owned by the artist Jessie Benton Evans. Called the Jokake Inn, meaning "mud house," the structure still stands on the grounds of the world-famous Phoenician Resort; the Depression years saw an influx of artists and architects to Scottsdale, which included, in 1937, the internationally renowned Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1937, Wright and his wife purchased 600 desert acres at the foot of the McDowell Mountains and established what is now known as Taliesin West, his winter home and his architectural firm's Southwestern headquarters. Scottsdale and the rest of Phoenix have seen an everlasting influence from Frank Lloyd Wright.
Many buildings throughout the region were designed by the famous architect. His significant influence on the regional architecture is commemorated through a major street which bears his name and a 125-foot spire memorial designed by Wright himself in North Scottsdale. Among the more
Encaustic painting
Encaustic painting known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid or paste is applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas and other materials are used; the simplest encaustic mixture can be made from adding pigments to beeswax, but there are several other recipes that can be used—some containing other types of waxes, damar resin, linseed oil, or other ingredients. Pure, powdered pigments can be used, though some mixtures use other forms of pigment. Metal tools and special brushes can be used to shape the paint before it cools, or heated metal tools can be used to manipulate the wax once it has cooled onto the surface. Today, tools such as heat lamps, heat guns, other methods of applying heat allow artists to extend the amount of time they have to work with the material; because wax is used as the pigment binder, encaustics can be sculpted as well as painted. Other materials can be encased or collaged into the surface, or layered, using the encaustic medium to stick them to the surface.
The word encaustic originates from the Greek word enkaustikos which means to burn in, this element of heat is necessary for a painting to be called encaustic. This technique was notably used in the Fayum mummy portraits from Egypt around 100–300 AD, in the Blachernitissa and other early icons, as well as in many works of 20th-century North American artists, including Jasper Johns, Tony Scherman, Mark Perlman, Fernando Leal Audirac. Kut-kut, a lost art of the Philippines, employs encaustic techniques, it was practiced by the indigenous tribe of Samar island around 1600 to 1800. Artists in the Mexican muralism movement, such as Diego Rivera and Jean Charlot sometimes used encaustic painting; the Belgian artist James Ensor experimented with encaustic. The wax encaustic painting technique was described by the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder in his Natural History from the 1st Century AD; the oldest surviving encaustic panel paintings are the Romano-Egyptian Fayum mummy portraits from the 1st Century BC.
In the 20th century, painter Fritz Faiss, a student of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus, together with Dr. Hans Schmid, rediscovered the so-called "Punic wax" technique of encaustic painting. Faiss held two German patents related to the preparation of waxes for encaustic painting. One covered a method for treating beeswax so that its melting point was raised from 60 to 100 °C; this occurred after boiling the wax in a solution of sea soda three successive times. The resulting harder wax is the same as the Punic wax referred to in ancient Greek writings on encaustic painting. Encaustic art has seen a resurgence in popularity since the 1990s with people using electric irons and heated styli on different surfaces including card and pottery; the iron makes producing a variety of artistic patterns easier. The medium is not limited to just simple designs. Although technically difficult to master, attractions of this medium for contemporary artists are its dimensional quality and luminous color.
Artists specializing in encaustic painting include the following. Encaustic tile Doxiadis, Euphrosyne; the Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt. H. N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-500-28217-5. Charlot, John. El Primer Fresco de Jean Charlot: La Masacre en el Templo Mayor. Congreso Internacional de Muralismo: San Ildefonso cuna del muralismo mexicano, Reflexiones historiográficas y artísticas. Mexico City. Pliny the Elder; the Natural History. Translated by John Bostock. T. Riley. London: Taylor and Francis. Mayer, Ralph; the Artist's Handbook of Techniques. Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-83701-4. Reams, Maxine. "Unique Wax Paintings by Immigrant Artist should Endure 10,000 Years." Los Angeles Times, Oct. 19, 1952 Birgit Hüttemann-Holz. Wanderlust. Gedichte und Malerei in Enkaustik - poems and encaustic paintings. San Francisko, USA: Blurb Inc. Hildebrandt, Hans. "Fritz Faiss" Kunst der Nation, 1933 Mattera, Joanne. The Art of Encaustic Painting: Contemporary Expression in the Ancient Medium of Pigmented Wax. Watson-Guptill Publications.
P. 22. ISBN 978-0-8230-0283-2. Rankin, Lissa. Encaustic Art: The Complete Guide to Creating Fine Art with Wax. Watson-Guptill Publications. ISBN 978-0-8230-9928-3. Gottsegen, Mark David. Painter's Handbook: Revised and Expanded. New York: Watson-Guptill. P. 60. ISBN 978-0-8230-3496-3. Early Icons from St. Catherine's, The Sinai All Things Encaustic Encaustic Art Today
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, as described in the New Testament. Its adherents, known as Christians, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and savior of all people, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Depending on the specific denomination of Christianity, practices may include baptism, prayer, confirmation, burial rites, marriage rites and the religious education of children. Most denominations hold regular group worship services. Christianity developed during the 1st century CE as a Jewish Christian sect of Second Temple Judaism, it soon attracted Gentile God-fearers, which lead to a departure from Jewish customs, the establishment of Christianity as an independent religion. During the first centuries of its existence Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, to Ethiopia and some parts of Asia. Constantine the Great decriminalized it via the Edict of Milan; the First Council of Nicaea established a uniform set of beliefs across the Roman Empire.
By 380, the Roman Empire designated Christianity as the state religion. The period of the first seven ecumenical councils is sometimes referred to as the Great Church, the united full communion of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, before their schisms. Oriental Orthodoxy split after the Council of Chalcedon over differences in Christology; the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church separated in the East–West Schism over the authority of the Pope. In 1521, Protestants split from the Catholic Church in the Protestant Reformation over Papal primacy, the nature of salvation, other ecclesiological and theological disputes. Following the Age of Discovery, Christianity was spread into the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, the rest of the world via missionary work and colonization. There are 2.3 billion Christians in the world, or 31.4% of the global population. Today, the four largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodoxy.
Christianity and Christian ethics have played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization around Europe during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. In the New Testament, the names by which the disciples were known among themselves were "brethren", "the faithful", "elect", "saints" and "believers". Early Jewish Christians referred to themselves as'The Way' coming from Isaiah 40:3, "prepare the way of the Lord." According to Acts 11:26, the term "Christian" was first used in reference to Jesus's disciples in the city of Antioch, meaning "followers of Christ," by the non-Jewish inhabitants of Antioch. The earliest recorded use of the term "Christianity" was by Ignatius of Antioch, in around 100 AD. While Christians worldwide share basic convcitions, there are differences of interpretations and opinions of the Bible and sacred traditions on which Christianity is based. Concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds, they began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith.
The Apostles' Creed is the most accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical churches of Western Christian tradition, including the Latin Church of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism and Western Rite Orthodoxy, it is used by Presbyterians and Congregationalists. This particular creed was developed between the 9th centuries, its central doctrines are those of God the Creator. Each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period; the creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Its main points include: Belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Holy Spirit The death, descent into hell and ascension of Christ The holiness of the Church and the communion of saints Christ's second coming, the Day of Judgement and salvation of the faithful; the Nicene Creed was formulated in response to Arianism, at the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople in 325 and 381 and ratified as the universal creed of Christendom by the First Council of Ephesus in 431.
The Chalcedonian Definition, or Creed of Chalcedon, developed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, though rejected by the Oriental Orthodox churches, taught Christ "to be acknowledged in two natures, unchangeably, inseparably": one divine and one human, that both natures, while perfect in themselves, are also united into one person. The Athanasian Creed, received in the Western Church as having the same status as the Nicene and Chalcedonian, says: "We worship one God in Trinity, Trinity in Unity. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith while agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. Most Baptists do not use creeds "in that they have not sought to establish binding
Eusebius
Eusebius of Caesarea known as Eusebius Pamphili, was a historian of Christianity and Christian polemicist. He became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima about 314 AD. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon and is regarded as an learned Christian of his time, he wrote Demonstrations of the Gospel, Preparations for the Gospel, On Discrepancies between the Gospels, studies of the Biblical text. As "Father of Church History", he produced the Ecclesiastical History, On the Life of Pamphilus, the Chronicle and On the Martyrs. During the Council of Antiochia he was excommunicated for subscribing to the heresy of Arius, thus withdrawn during the First Council of Nicaea where he accepted that the Homoousion referred to the Logos. Never recognized as a saint, he became counselor of Constantine the Great, with the bishop of Nicomedia he continued to polemicize against Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, Church Fathers, since he was condemned in the First Council of Tyre in 335. Little is known about the life of Eusebius.
His successor at the See of Caesarea, wrote a Life of Eusebius, a work that has since been lost. Eusebius' own surviving works only represent a small portion of his total output. Beyond notices in his extant writings, the major sources are the 5th-century ecclesiastical historians Socrates and Theodoret, the 4th-century Christian author Jerome. There are assorted notices of his activities in the writings of his contemporaries Athanasius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Alexander of Alexandria. Eusebius' pupil, Eusebius of Emesa, provides some incidental information. In his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius writes of Dionysius of Alexandria as his contemporary. If this is true, Eusebius' birth must have been before Dionysius' death in autumn 264, he was born in the town in which he lived for most of his adult life, Caesarea Maritima. He was baptized and instructed in the city, lived in Syria Palaestina in 296, when Diocletian's army passed through the region. Eusebius was made presbyter by Agapius of Caesarea.
Some, like theologian and ecclesiastical historian John Henry Newman, understand Eusebius' statement that he had heard Dorotheus of Tyre "expound the Scriptures wisely in the Church" to indicate that Eusebius was Dorotheus' pupil while the priest was resident in Antioch. By the 3rd century, Caesarea had a population of about 100,000, it had been a pagan city since Pompey had given control of the city to the gentiles during his command of the eastern provinces in the 60s BC. The gentiles retained control of the city for the three centuries to follow, despite Jewish petitions for joint governorship. Gentile government was strengthened by the city's refoundation under Herod the Great, when it had taken on the name of Augustus Caesar. In addition to the gentile settlers, Caesarea had large Samaritan minorities. Eusebius was born into the Christian contingent of the city. Caesarea's Christian community had a history reaching back to apostolic times, but it is a common claim that no bishops are attested for the town before about 190 though the Apostolic Constitutions 7.46 states that Zacchaeus was the first bishop.
Through the activities of the theologian Origen and the school of his follower Pamphilus, Caesarea became a center of Christian learning. Origen was responsible for the collection of usage information, or which churches were using which gospels, regarding the texts which became the New Testament; the information used to create the late-fourth-century Easter Letter, which declared accepted Christian writings, was based on the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Caesarea, wherein he uses the information passed on to him by Origen to create both his list at HE 3:25 and Origen's list at HE 6:25. Eusebius got his information about what texts were accepted by the third-century churches throughout the known world, a great deal of which Origen knew of firsthand from his extensive travels, from the library and writings of Origen. On his deathbed, Origen had made a bequest of his private library to the Christian community in the city. Together with the books of his patron Ambrosius, Origen's library formed the core of the collection that Pamphilus established.
Pamphilus managed a school, similar to that of Origen. Pamphilus was compared to Demetrius of Phalerum and Pisistratus, for he had gathered Bibles "from all parts of the world". Like his model Origen, Pamphilus maintained close contact with his students. Eusebius, in his history of the persecutions, alludes to the fact that many of the Caesarean martyrs lived together under Pamphilus. Soon after Pamphilus settled in Caesarea, he began teaching Eusebius, somewhere between twenty and twenty-five; because of his close relationship with his schoolmaster, Eusebius was sometimes called Eusebius Pamphili: "Eusebius, son of Pamphilus". The name may indicate that Eusebius was made Pamphilus' heir. Pamphilus gave Eusebius a strong admiration for the thought of Origen. Neither Pamphilus nor Eusebius knew Origen personally.
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Vailhé, Siméon (1913). . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Vailhé, Siméon (1913). 
