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Introductory Notice
to
Julius Africanus.
————————————
[a.d.
200–232–245.] In a former volume, strengthened by a
word from Archbishop Usher,1027
| 1027 Vol.
ii. p. 87, this series. |
I have not hesitated to claim for Theophilus of Antioch a primary place
among Christian chronologists. It is no detraction from the fame
of our author to admit this, and truth requires it. But the great
Alexandrian school must again come into view when we speak of any
considerable achievements, among early Christian writers, in this
important element of all biblical, in fact, all historical,
science. Africanus was a pupil of Heraclas, and we must therefore
date his pupilage in Alexandria before a.d.
232, when Dionysius succeeded Heraclas in the presidency of that
school. It appears that in a.d. 226 he
was performing some duty in behalf of Emmaus (Nicopolis) in Palestine;
but Heraclas, who had acted subordinately as Origen’s assistant
as early as a.d. 218, could not have become the
head of the school, even provisionally, till after Origen’s
unhappy ordination.1028
Let us assume the period of our
author’s attending the school under Heraclas to be between
a.d. 228 and a.d. 232,
however. We may then venture to reckon his birth as circa
a.d. 200. And, if he became “bishop
of Emmaus,” it could hardly have been before the year 240, when
he was of ripe age and experience. He adds additional lustre to
the age of Gregory Thaumaturgus and Dionysius, as well as to that of
their common mother in letters and theology, the already ancient
academy of Pantænus and of Clement. His reviving credit in
modern times has been largely due to the learned criticism of Dr.
Routh, to whose edition of these Fragments the student must necessarily
apply. Their chief interest arises from the important specimen
which treats of the difficult question of the genealogies of our Lord
contained in the evangelists. For a succinct statement of the
points involved, and for a candid concession that they were not
preserved to meet what modern curiosity would prefer to see
established, I know of nothing more satisfactory than the commentary of
Wordsworth,1029
from which I have
borrowed almost wholly one of my elucidations.
The reader will remember the specimen of our
author’s critical judgment which is given with the works of
Origen.1030
He differed
with that great author, and the Church Catholic has sustained his
judgment as just. I regret that the Edinburgh editors thought it
necessary to make the Letter to Origen concerning the Apocryphal
Book of Susannah a mere preface to Origen’s answer. It
might have been quoted there as a preface; but it is too important not
to be included here, with the other fragments of his noble
contributions to primitive Christian literature.
It does not clearly appear, from the Edinburgh edition,
who the translator is; but here follows the
Translator’s Introductory
Notice.
The principal facts known to us in the life of
Africanus are derived from himself and the Chronicon of
Eusebius. He says of himself that he went to Alexandria on
account of the fame of
Heraclas. In the Chronicon, under the year 226, it is
stated that “Nicopolis in Palestine, which formerly bore the name
of Emmaus, was built, Africanus, the author of the Chronology,
acting as ambassador on behalf of it, and having the charge of
it.” Dionysius Bar-Salibi speaks of Africanus as bishop of
Emmaus.
Eusebius describes Africanus as being the author of a
work called κεστοί.1031
| 1031
Hist. Eccl., vi. 31. | Suidas says
that this book detailed various kinds of cures, consisting of charms
and written forms, and such like. Some have supposed that such a
work is not likely to have been written by a Christian writer:
they appeal also to the fact that no notice is taken of the
κεστοί by Jerome in his
notice of Africanus, nor by Rufinus in his translation of
Eusebius. They therefore deem the clause in Eusebius an
interpolation, and they suppose that two bore the name of
Africanus,—one the author of the κεστοί, the other the
Christian writer. Suidas identifies them, says that he was
surnamed Sextus, and that he was a Libyan philosopher.
The works ascribed to Africanus, beside the
Cesti, are the following:—
1. Five Books of Chronology.
Photius1032
says of this
work, that it was concise, but omitted nothing of importance. It
began with the cosmogony of Moses, and went down to the advent of
Christ. It summarized also the events from the time of Christ to
the reign of the Emperor Macrinus.
2. A very famous letter to Aristides, in which he
endeavoured to reconcile the apparent discrepancies in the genealogies
of Christ given by Matthew and Luke.
3. A letter to Origen, in which he
endeavoured to prove that the story of Susanna in Daniel was a
forgery. A translation of this letter has been given with the
Works of Origen.
The Acts of Symphorosa and her Seven
Sonsare attributed in the mss. to
Africanus; but no ancient writer speaks of him as the author of this
work. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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