Philip the Arab and Christianity that appear—save for one reference to Ishmael—figure in the political history of the first three centuries of the Christian era. To Eusebius, the Saracens of the 4th century are direct-line descendants of the biblical Ishmaelites, descendants of the handmaid, Hagar, and the patriarch, Abraham. They are thus outcasts, beyond God's Covenant with the favored son of Abraham, Isaac. The twin images of the Ishmaelite and the Saracen—outcasts and "latrones", raiders of the frontiers—reinforce each other and give Eusebius' portrait of the Arab nation an unhappy color. He may have been reluctant to associate the first Christian emperor with a people
Baraita of Rabbi Ishmael Baraita of Rabbi Ishmael The Baraita of Rabbi Ishmael () is a baraita which explains the 13 rules of R. Ishmael, and their application, by means of illustrations from the Torah. The name is inaccurately given also to the first part of the Baraita, which only enumerates the thirteen rules. The Baraita constitutes the introduction to the Sifra, and precedes it in all editions, containing principles which in the Sifra are given their application. The "Hekalot" are also called by some the "Baraita of R. Ishmael." The thirteen rules were compiled by Rabbi Ishmael b. Elisha for the elucidation of