Eusebius (the Church Historian) and the Image of the Beast

Occasionally, we find in church history an account of an event long since past but which sheds much light on difficult biblical passages. Such information may even give us pause about our own long-held interpretations of certain passages and might push us to further reflection and study. The famed church historian, Eusebius, recounts one such event.

Eusebius was born about 260 A.D. and died in 348/349. He lived during the Constantinian Period in the Roman province of Syria Palestina (which includes the modern nations of Israel and Syria, as well as portions of Jordan, Turkey, and Egypt). Eusebius is best known for his Ecclesiastical History (which covered the apostolic age until his own) and his unfinished Life of Constantine. Eusebius was an early sympathizer of Arius, but eventually signed off on the homoousion.

In his history of the church, Eusebius recounts an event which sheds some interesting light on one biblical passage which has long perplexed interpreters—Revelation 13:13-15. There we read that the second beast [from the land] “performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain." This beast performs signs, including making an image of the first beast speak. He also coordinates the persecution of the faithful.

Prophecy pundits often take Revelation 13:13-15 to be a prophetic prediction of a high-tech mode of deception used by the Antichrist to enslave the world after the church is removed at the Rapture. On this view, John is envisioning some sort of future technology (perhaps an AI computer-generated hologram or similar) used to create a dazzling and deceptive image which successfully attracts the bulk of those living on earth to worship the image of the first beast so that people willingly take his mark (cf. Revelation 13:16 ff). This beast also orchestrates the persecution of the faithful left behind and converted after the Rapture.

Critical scholarship, by and large, understands John to be speaking of the Roman imperial cult dominant throughout Asia Minor at the time John records his vision. The imperial cult centered upon veneration and worship of deified emperors (Augustus, Tiberius, Vespasian, Domitian, et. al.), as well as various Greek and Roman gods, whose images and temples dominated the Palestina region. Eusebius reports that Christians were persecuted in scattered locales for refusing to worship the divinized emperor or the accepted Roman gods. In fact, Christians were often denounced as "atheists" for refusing to worship the pagan and Roman “deities.”

In his Ecclesiastical History (Book 9:5), Eusebius describes a remarkable act of deception during the reign of Maximin Daia (who ruled the eastern portion of the Roman empire from A.D. 308-313), and his lackey Theotecnus (which, ironically means "child of God" in Greek) and who was the city comptroller of Antioch. Eusebius tells us . . .

Time and time again this man [Theotecnus] engaged in hostilities against us, trying every means to hunt our people out of hiding as if they were thieving villains, using every subterfuge to slander and accuse us, and even causing death to countless numbers. Finally, with illusions and sorceries, he erected a statue of Zeus [like the one in Olympus, pictured above] as a god of friendship, and after devising demonic rites, initiations, and repulsive purifications for it, he displayed his magic even in the emperor's presence through whatever oracular utterances he pleased. . .

Eusebius goes on to describe the fall of Maximin and the arrest of Theotecnus after Constantine's rise to power:

Justice also summoned Theotecnus, determined that what he did to the Christians should never be forgotten. After he set up the idol at Antioch, he seemed to enjoy great success and indeed, was awarded a governorship by Maximin. . . . When, under torture, they [Theotecnus] revealed that the entire mystery [the oracle from Zeus] was a deception contrived by Theotecnus" [Book 9.11].

Eusebius' account indicates that the priests of the imperial cult were able to deceive and shake down their emperors through the use of fake "oracles from Zeus." Sounds very much like ventriloquism was at least one of the modes through which the image of the beast (in this case, the statue of Zeus) was made to seem alive and perform deceptive signs and wonders.

There are a couple of points of interest here. The use of occult deception and the hunting down of believers sounds much like the kind of thing proposed by prophecy pundits as characteristic of the future seven-year tribulation period. The problem for those who think this is limited to a future seven-year tribulation (i.e., our dispensational friends) is that this kind of Satanic deception was occurring in the fourth century, and was clearly a continuation of that spasmodic persecution of Christians by Roman emperors depicted by John in the Book of Revelation.

Far from being something isolated to the future (after the Rapture), the occult deception described here seems to characteristic of the efforts undertaken by the dragon (Satan) to seduce the nations throughout the entire inter-advental period. In this localized fourth-century persecution, we see the power of the gospel "restraining" (or binding Satan), as will be the case until the very end of the age when the dragon is said to be released from the abyss immediately before the return of Christ. Then, the dragon is allowed to universalize and intensify his war on the people of God until cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:7-10).

When we read of Christians being persecuted, reviled, and even put to death, we see the same Satanic war on the people of God that Eusebius' witnessed in the days of Theotecnus when deception was foisted upon the people by the priests of Zeus. Dispensationalists are correct to remind us that Christians may be persecuted and martyred, and a future technology may be used to deceive the masses. They are wrong (and more than a bit naive) to assume that this sort of thing is limited to a future seven-year tribulation period, when, as John indicates, we are already in the great tribulation and will be until Jesus returns (Revelation 7:14).

Eusebuis’ report confirms this. He gives us a remarkable glimpse of the image of the beast and his account explains why the people of Antioch stooped to worship a lifeless statue of Zeus. The lesson for us; let us not think that we, unlike those naive ancients in Antioch, cannot be taken in by such things. History marches on, but the human heart remains as sinful as ever. People who hate the truth will be given over to deception (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).