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 former kingdom of Israel, and are apparently in mourning (Jeremiah 41:7), possibly for the destruction of the Temple. All but ten of them are slaughtered and thrown into a cistern, the ten being spared because they have access to otherwise scarce food supplies (Jeremiah 41:8). After this fresh slaughter, Ishmael and his band make their way towards Ammon, with hostages from Mizpah. But before they get there, they are engaged in battle by Johanan son of Kareah at Gibeon, a place which in the time of Jeremiah already resonated with previous acts of treachery for the Israelites. Ishmael’s band releases