All of these credited for righteousness, going back from Abraham to the first man, could be described as Christians in fact if not in name, without exceeding the truth. For the name means that the Christian, through the knowledge and teaching of Christ, excels in self-control and righteousness, in disciplines and virtue, and in the confession of the one and only God over all, and in all this they showed no less zeal than we.
Eusebius of Caesarea