Hi Alan
Do have complete quotes from Eusebius and one showing the full context of the Biblis story?
May I suggest ( http://www.biblefacts.org/index2.html
In it please refer to ( http://www.biblefacts.org/eusebius/euseb_b5.html#t27.htm.2 (Book 5 Chapter 1). Titled "The Number of those who fought for Religion in Gaul under Verus and the Nature of their Conflicts." Paragraph 3, last few sentences (Note "biblis" is spelled "biblias" in this version):
.....And these indeed were burned, but he continued unbending and unyielding, firm in his confession, and refreshed and strengthened by the heavenly fountain of the water of life, flowing from the bowels of Christ. And his body was a witness of his sufferings, being one complete wound and bruise, drawn: out of shape, and altogether unlike a human form. Christ, suffering in him, manifested his glory, delivering him from his adversary, and making him an example for the others, showing that nothing is fearful where the love of the Father is, and nothing painful where there is the glory of Christ. For when the wicked men tortured him a second time after some days, supposing that with his body swollen and inflamed to such a degree that he could not bear the touch of a hand, if they should again apply the same instruments, they would overcome him, or at least by his death under his sufferings others would be made afraid, not only did not this occur, but, contrary to all human expectation, his body arose and stood erect in the midst of the subsequent torments, and resumed its original appearance and the use of its limbs_ so that, through the grace of Christ, these second sufferings became to him, not torture, but healing. "But the devil, thinking that he had already consumed Biblias, who was one of those who had denied Christ, desiring to increase her condemnation through the utterance of blasphemy, brought her again to the torture, to compel her, as already feeble and weak, to report impious things concerning us. But she recovered herself under the suffering, and as if awaking from a deep sleep, and reminded by the present anguish of the eternal punishment in hell, she contradicted the blasphemers. 'How,' she said, 'could those eat children who do not think it lawful to taste the blood even of irrational animals?' And thenceforward she confessed herself a Christian, and was given a place in the order of the witnesses.
Also try ( http://www.swcp.com/~vogs/eusebius.html - Translated by G. A. Williamson (1895-1960?)) for Book 5, Titled "GALLIC MARTYRS OF VERUS' REIGN"
.... But his poor body was a witness to what he had suffered--it was all one wound and bruise, bent up and robbed of outward human shape, but, suffering in that body, Christ accomplished most glorious things, utterly defeating the adversary and proving as an example to the rest that where the Father's love is [1 John 4:18] nothing can frighten us, where Christ's glory is [2 Cor. 8:23] nothing can hurt us. A few days later wicked people again put the martyr on the rack, thinking that now that his whole body was swollen and inflamed a further application of the same instruments would defeat him, unable as he was to bear even the touch of a hand; or that by dying under torture he would put fear into the rest. However, nothing of the sort happened; to their amazement his body became erect and straight as a result of these new torments, and recovered its former appearance and the use of the limbs; thus through the grace of Christ his second spell on the rack proved to be not punishment but cure. Biblis again, one of those who had denied Christ, was handed over to punishment by the devil, who imagined that he had already devoured her [1 Peter 5:8] and hoped to damn her as a slanderer by forcing her to say wicked things about us, being--so he thought--a feeble creature, easily broken. But on the rack she came to her senses [2 Tim. 2:26], and, so to speak, awoke out of deep sleep, reminded by the brief chastisement of the eternal punishment in hell [Matt. 25:46]. She flatly contradicted the slanderers; 'How could children be eaten by people who are not even allowed to eat the blood of brute beasts?' [Acts 15:29] From then on she insisted that she was a Christian, and so she joined the ranks of the martyrs.
When the tyrant's instruments of torture had been utterly defeated by Christ through the endurance of the blessed saints, the devil resorted to other devices--confinement in the darkness of a filthy prison; clamping the feet in the stocks, stretched apart to the fifth hole; and the other agonies which warders when angry and full of the devil are apt to inflict on helpless prisoners. Thus the majority were suffocated in prison--those whom the Lord wished to depart in this way, so revealing His glory [John 2:2]. Some, though tortured so cruelly that even if they received every care it seemed impossible for them to survive, lived on in the prison, deprived of all human attention but strengthened by the Lord and fortified in body and soul, stimulating and encouraging the rest. But the young ones who had been recently arrested and had not previously undergone physical torture could not bear the burden of confinement, also died in prison.
In the above, I have tried to give you the paragraphs and sentences around the talk on biblis (biblias).
Alan you also asked the follwing:
Also, a detailed explanation of why the reference to the Eusebius quote is a lie, and why the WTS's use of the Biblis story is a misrepresentation?
I suspect (knowing you) you know the author. Go to
( http://www.youthonfire.com/x_service/lesson/Jehovahs_witnesses/Blood_Doctrine.html
The section is titled "How the WTS Tries to Overcome the Biblical Evidence". Note the last few paragraphs in this section.
I will also be reading through Eusebius a bit more and may add my two cents worth later.
Hawk
