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 his advice and depart for Egypt (Jeremiah 43:6). Ishmael ben Nethaniah is described in 2 Kings 25:25 as the son of Nethaniah, ‘son of Elishama of the royal family’. Jeremiah describes him as one of the chief officers of the (former) king Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 41:1). Ishmael was a soldier, described as a ‘captain of the forces’ (2 Kings 25:23; and Jeremiah 41:3). Together with a number of other such captains, Ishmael emerges from the surrounding open country (Jeremiah 40:7) and makes his way to Mizpah, a city in Benjamin, after Gedaliah is appointed governor. Although the forces were likely to