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ARISTIDES, APOLOGY OF

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 497 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ARISTIDES, See also:APOLOGY OF . Until 1878 our knowledge of the See also:early See also:Christian writer Aristides was confined to the statement of See also:Eusebius that he was an Athenian philosopher, who presented an apology " concerning the faith " to the See also:emperor See also:Hadrian. In that See also:year, however, the See also:Mechitharists of S. Lazzaro at See also:Venice published a fragment in Armenian 1 from the beginning of the apology; and in 1889 Dr Rendel See also:Harris found the whole of it in a See also:Syriac version on See also:Mount See also:Sinai. While his edition was passing through the See also:press, it was observed by the See also:present writer that all the while the See also:work had been in our hands in See also:Greek, though in a slightly abbreviated See also:form, as it had been imbedded as a speech in a religious novel written about the 6th See also:century, and entitled " The See also:Life of Barlaam and Josaphat." The See also:discovery of the Syriac version reopened the question of the date of the work. For although its See also:title there corresponds to that given by the Armenian fragment and by Eusebius, it begins with a formal inscription to " the emperor See also:Titus Hadrianus See also:Antoninus See also:Augustus See also:Pius "; and Dr R. Harris is followed by See also:Harnack and others in supposing that it was only through a careless See also:reading of this inscription that the work was supposed to have been addressed to Hadrian. If this be the See also:case, it must be placed somewhere in the See also:long reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161). There are, however, no See also:internal grounds for rejecting the thrice-attested See also:dedication to Hadrian his predecessor, and the picture of See also:primitive Christian life which is here found points to the earlier rather than to the later date. It is possible that the Apology was read to Hadrian in See also:person when he visited See also:Athens, and that the Syriac inscription was prefixed by a See also:scribe on the See also:analogy of See also:Justin's Apology, a See also:mistake being made in the amplification of Hadrian's name. The Apology opens thus: "I, 0 See also:king, by the See also:providence of See also:God came into the See also:world; and having beheld the See also:heaven, and the See also:earth, and the See also:sea, the See also:sun and See also:moon, and all besides, I 1 Codex Venet. See also:ann., 981, and Codex Etchmlaz. of the 1 ith century. marvelled at their orderly disposition; and seeing the world and all things in it, that it is moved by compulsion, I understood that He that moveth and governeth it is God.

For whatsoever moveth is stronger than that which is moved, and whatsoever governeth is stronger than that which is governed." Having briefly spoken of the divine nature in the terms of Greek See also:

philosophy, Aristides proceeds to ask which of all the races of men have at all partaken of the truth about God. Here we have the first See also:attempt at a systematic comparison of See also:ancient religions. For the purpose of his inquiry he adopts an obvious threefold See also:division into idolaters, See also:Jews and Christians. Idolaters, or, as he more gently terms them in addressing the emperor, " those who See also:worship what among you are said to be gods," he subdivides into the three See also:great world-civilizations—Chaldeans, Greeks and Egyptians. He chooses this See also:order so as to work up to a See also:climax of See also:error and absurdity in See also:heathen worship. The See also:direct nature-worship of the Chaldeans is shown to be false because its See also:objects are See also:works of the Creator, fashioned for the use of men. They obey fixed See also:laws and have no See also:power over themselves. " The Greeks have erred worse than the Chaldeans . . . calling those gods who are no gods, according to their evil lusts, in order that having these as See also:advocates of their wickedness they may commit See also:adultery, and See also:plunder and kill, and do the worst of deeds." The gods of See also:Olympus are challenged one by one, and shown to be either vile or helpless, or both at once. A heaven of quarrelling divinities cannot inspire a reasonable worship. These gods are not even respectable; how can they be adorable ? " The Egyptians have erred worse than all the nations; for they were not content with the worships of the Chaldeans and Greeks, but introduced, moreover, as gods even See also:brute beasts of the dry See also:land and of the See also:waters, and See also:plants and herbs.

. . . Though they see their gods eaten by others and by men, and burned, and slain, and rotting, they do not understand concerning them that they are no gods." Throughout the whole of the See also:

argument there is strong See also:common-sense and a stern severity unrelieved by conscious See also:humour. Aristides is engaged in a real contest; he strikes hard blows, and gives no See also:quarter. He cannot see, as Justin and See also:Clement see, a striving after truth, a feeling after God, in the older religions, or even in the philosophies of See also:Greece. He has no See also:patience with attempts to find a deeper meaning in the stories of the gods. " Do they say that one nature underlies these diverse forms ? Then why does god hate god, or god kill god ? Do they say that the histories are mythical ? Then the gods themselves are myths, and nothing more." The Jews are briefly treated. After a reference to their descent from See also:Abraham and their sojourn in See also:Egypt, Aristides praises them for their worship of the one God, the Almighty Creator; but blames them as worshipping angels, and observing " sabbaths and new moons, and the unleavened See also:bread, and the great fast, and See also:circumcision, and cleanness of meats." He then proceeds to the description of the Christians. He begins with a statement which, when purged of glosses by a comparison of the three forms in which it survives, reads thus: " Now the Christians reckon their See also:race from the See also:Lord Jesus See also:Christ; and He is confessed to be the Son of God Most High. Having by the See also:Holy Spirit come down from heaven, and having been See also:born of a See also:Hebrew virgin, He took flesh and appeared unto men, to See also:call them back from their error of many gods; and having completed His wonderful See also:dispensation, He was pierced by the Jews, and after three days He revived and went up to heaven.

And the See also:

glory of His coming See also:thou canst learn, 0 king, from that which is called among them the evangelic scripture, if thou wilt read it. He had twelve disciples, who after His ascent into heaven went forth into the provinces of the world and taught His greatness; whence they who at this See also:day believe their See also:preaching are called Christians." This passage contains striking correspondences with the second See also:section of the Apostles' Creed. The attribution of the Crucifixion to the Jews appears in several 2nd-century documents; Justin actually uses the words " He was pierced by you " in his See also:dialogue with Trypho the See also:Jew. " These are they," he proceeds, " who beyond all the nationsof the earth have found the truth: for they know God as Creator and Maker of all things, and they worship no other god beside Him; for they have His commandments graven on their See also:hearts, and these they keep in expectation of the world to come Whatsoever they would not should be done unto them, they do not to another. . . . He that hath supplieth him that hath not without grudging: if they see a stranger they bring him under their roof, and rejoice over him, as over a See also:brother indeed, for they call not one another brethren after the flesh, but after the spirit. They are ready for Christ's See also:sake to give up their own lives; for His commandments they securely keep, living holily and righteously, according as the Lord their God hath commanded them, giving thanks to Him at all See also:hours, over all their See also:food and drink, and the See also:rest of their See also:good things." This See also:simple description is See also:fuller in the Syriac, but the additional details must be accepted with caution: for while it is likely that the See also:monk who appropriated the Greek may have cut it down to meet the exigencies of his See also:romance, it is the See also:habit of certain Syriac translators to elaborate their originals. After asserting that " this is the way of truth," and again referring for further See also:information to " the writings of the Christians," he says: " And truly this is a new race, and there is something divine mingled with it." At the See also:close we have a passage which is found only in the Syriac, but which is shown by internal See also:evidence to contain See also:original elements: " The Greeks, because they practise foul things . . . turn the ridicule of their foulness upon the Christians." This is an allusion to the charges of Thyestean banquets and other immoralities, which the early apologists constantly rebut. "But the Christians offer up prayers for them, that they may turn from their error; and when one of them turns, he is ashamed before the Christians of the deeds that were done by him, and he confesses to God saying: ` In See also:ignorance I did these things '; and he cleanses his See also:heart, and his sins are forgiven him, because he did them in ignorance in former See also:time, when he was blaspheming the true knowledge of the Christians." These last words point to the use in the See also:composition of this Apology of a lost apocryphal work of very early date, The Preaching of See also:Peter. This See also:book is known to us chiefly by quotations in Clement of See also:Alexandria: it was widely circulated, and at one time claimed a See also:place within the See also:Canon. It was used by the Gnostic See also:Heracleon and probably by the unknown writer of the See also:epistle to See also:Diognetus.

From the fragments which survive we see that it contained: (1) a description of the nature of God, which closely corresponds with Arist. i., followed by (2) a warning not to worship according to the Greeks, with an exposure of various forms of See also:

idolatry; (3) a warning not to worship according to the Jews—although they alone think they know the true God —for they worship angels and are superstitious about moons and sabbaths, and feasts, comp. Arist. xiv.; (4) a description of the Christians as being " a third race," and worshipping God in " a new way " through Christ; (5) a See also:proof of See also:Christianity from Jewish prophecy; (6) a promise of forgiveness to Jews and Gentiles who should turn to Christ, because they had sinned "in ignorance" in the former time. Now all these points, except the proof from Jewish prophecy, are taken up and worked out by Aristides with a frequent use of the actual See also:language of The Preaching of Peter. A criterion is thus given us for the reconstruction of the Apology, where the Greek which we have has been abbreviated, and we are enabled to claim with certainty some passages of the Syriac which might otherwise be suspected as interpolations. The See also:style of the Apology is exceedingly simple. It is curiously misdescribed by See also:Jerome, who never can have seen it, as " Apologeticum See also:pro Christianis contextum philosophorum sententiis." Its merits are its recognition of the helplessness of the old heathenism to satisfy human aspiration after the divine, and the impressive simplicity with which it presents the unfailing argument of the lives of Christians. The student may consult The Apology of Aristides, Syriac See also:text and See also:translation (J.. R. Harris), with an appendix containing the Greek text, Texts and Studies, i. i (1891), and a See also:critical discussion by R. Seeberg in Zahn's Forschungen, v. 2 (1893) ; also, brief discussions by A. Harnack, Altchristl.

Litteratur, i. 96 if., Chronologie, i. 271 if., where references to other writers may be found. The Epistola ad omnes philosophos and the See also:

Homily on the Penitent Thief, ascribed by Armenian tradition to Aristides, are really of 5th-century origin. Trans. of Apology by W. S. Walford (1909). (J. A.

End of Article: ARISTIDES, APOLOGY OF

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