Eusebius' Erfassung des Heiligen Landes: Die Evidenz des Raumes im Onomastikon der biblischen Ortsnamen

In his Onomasticon of the biblical place names Eusebius of Caesarea provides ample information about topographical details of the Holy Land, without being systematic or even comprehensive. The details, relating to the author’s own time, are mentioned in passing, but seemingly do not contribute to the exegesis of the passage under discussion. This article therefore addresses the question of which functions the topographical remarks might have fulfilled for the late antique reader. Linking the account of the Scripture to its local setting, Eusebius attaches a spatial and physical dimension to the history which Christian Identity is based on. More precisely, he shapes Palestine as a commemorative landscape to foster the process of Christian self-definition. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to prove the authenticity of the Biblical tradition. The numerous contemporary details are included in order to give the impression that the geographical space of Biblical times does actually exist and can still be physically experienced. Consequently, the reader is impelled to draw inferences from the physical evidence of the space to the historicity of Bible narrative. In sum, Eusebius by incorporating realistic details produces a reality effect that also occurs in other text genres