Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Banyai AT t-online.de (Michael Banyai)]

Dear Yigal,

Sanchiunatons work is indeed a third hand report over Eusebius, most details 
being made irecognisable by labelling of Greek or Pseudo-Greek names unto the 
mythical personae.

But I could hardly recognise any or the scarciest biblic influence upon 
Eusebius. As a matter of fact it would have been even for Eusebius very hard 
to recognise any biblical parallels in this text. He had probably not the 
slightest idea of the similarity of his Usoos with Esau, and would he have 
had such an idea, he would have been rather scandalised to recognise in the 
Esaus/Jacob story pagan mythical elements. 

Should he have recognised the similarity, his reaction would have been either 
to call Usoos brother like in the biblical text Jacob instead of Hypsuranios 
or Samemrumos (first being probably a translation into Greek of his 
phoenician original). It is also hard to discover how Eusebios might have 
been influnced by biblical sources calling Isaak either Cassios, Libanon, 
Brathy or Antilibanon (names of Phowenician mountains).

His reaction would have been probably rather to make the name Usoos 
disappear, by giving him a Greek nick, or demythologising the whole 
phoenician theogony.

So, on the whole, there is nothing behind the alegation, Eusebius would have 
been biblically biased. His account is indeed damaged, but on other reasons, 
of his or rather Philon´s attempt to appeal to the Greek tongue, making most 
of the text hardly understandable.

Best regards,

Bányai Michael
Stuttgart