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
Ishmael son of Nethaniah Ishmael son of Nethaniah Ishmael (Hebrew: ישמעאל "God shall hear") ben (= 'son of') Nethaniah was a member of the royal household of Judah who, according to biblical accounts in II Kings and Jeremiah, assassinated Gedaliah after he was appointed governor of Judah by king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The biblical accounts suggest (and have perhaps been edited specifically for this purpose) that Ishmael ben Nethaniah’s actions were a key factor in the subsequent flight of the people of Judah to Egypt, something Jeremiah counsels strongly against (Jeremiah 42 - 43). Nonetheless, the people, led by Johanan son of Kareah, ignore