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The Apology of Aristides
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[4414] Die Apologie des Aristides. Recension und Rekonstruktion des Textes, von Lic. Edgar Hennecke. (Die Griechischen Apologeten: Heft 3.)
[4415] The Cambridge Texts and Studies, vol. i., No. 1.
[4416] Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Altchristlichen Litteratur, Gebhardt und Harnack, IX. Band, Heft 1.
[4417] The Cambridge Texts and Studies, vol. i., No. 1.
The Apology of Aristides as it is preserved in the history of Barlaam and Josaphat.
[4418] The Greek might be rendered, “so far as there was room for me to speak of Him,” i.e., the attributes of the Deity are not further relevant to the discussion—as the translator into Syriac takes it. The Armenian adopts the other meaning, viz., the theme is beyond man’s power to discuss. As translated by F. C. Conybeare, the Armenian is in these words: “Now by the grace of God it was given me to speak wisely concerning Him. So far as I have received the faculty I will speak, yet not according to the measure of the inscrutability of His greatness shall I be able to do so, but by faith alone do I glorify and adore Him.”
[4419] The “King” in the Greek is Abenner, the father of Josaphat; in the Syriac, as in the Greek originally, he is the Roman Emperor, Hadrian.
[4420] The Armenian and Syriac agree in giving four races, which was probably the original division. To a Greek, men were either Greeks or Barbarians; to a Greek Christian it would seem necessary to add two new peoples, Jews and Christians. The Greek calls the Barbarians “Chaldæans.” This change of classification is probably the cause of the omission in the Greek of the preliminary accounts of the four classes. The Greek blends the summaries with the fuller accounts.
[4421] “I do not think it out of place here to mention Antinous of our day [a slave of the Emperor Hadrian], whom all, not withstanding they knew who and whence he was, yet affected to worship as a god.”—Justin Martyr quoted in Eusebius Hist. Bk. IV., c. 8.
[4422] The passage in brackets occurs earlier in “Barlaam and Josaphat,” and is restored to its place by J. A. Robinson.
[4423] This, the “Christological” passage, occurs earlier in the Syriac. Chap. II.
[4424] The Armenian agrees with the Greek against the Syriac. “Uná cum Spiritu Sancto” Arm.
[4425] The reference is to Josaphat, son of Abenner, who was taught to be a Christian by the monk Barlaam.
[4426] Nachor, the fictitious monk who represented Barlaam, intended to make a weak defence of Christianity, but, according to the story, he was constrained to speak what he had not intended. It is evidently the author’s intention to make it an instance of “suggestio verborum” or plenary inspiration, in the case of the fictitious monk.
The Apology of Aristides the Philosopher. Translated from the Syriac.
[4427] The superscription seems to be duplicate in the Syriac. It is absent from the Greek as we have it; the Armenian has “To the Emperor Cæsar Hadrian from Aristides.” Various explanations are offered. (a) Both emperors, as colleagues, may be meant. In support of this the Syriac adjectives for “venerable and merciful” are marked plural; the phrase “Your majesty” occurring later has a plural suffix; and two Imperatives, “Take and read,” are plural. On the other hand “O King” occurs constantly in the singular; and the emperors were colleagues only for a few months in the year a.d. 138.
(b) The longer heading is the true one—the shorter being due perhaps to a scribe who had a collection of works to copy. In that case the word “Hadrian” has been selected from the full title of Antonine, and the two adjectives “venerable and merciful” are proper names, Augustus Pius. (Harris.)
(c) The shorter heading has the support of Eusebius and the Armenian version; and the translator into Syriac may have amplified.
(***) Almighty is separated from the word for “God” by a pause, and is not an attribute which a Christian would care to apply to a Roman emperor. παντοκράτωρ may have been confounded with αὐ τοκράτωρ. Raabe supplies *** giving the sense “qui imperium (postatem) habet,” as an epithet of Cæsar. If *** ="Renewed, or dedicated again to…Antoninus Pius,” could be read, both headings might be retained.
[4428] The Armenian adds, “For that which is subject to this distinction is moved by passions.”
[4429] Literally: “a certain dispensation of his.” The Greek term οἰκονομία, “dispensation,” suggests to the translator into Syriac the idea of the Incarnation, familiar, as it seems, by his time. Professor Sachau reads the equivalent of θαυμαστή instead of *** (τις). In the translation given *** is taken adverbially = aliquamdiu.
[4430] This irrelevant sentence is found in the Armenian version also, and therefore was probably in the original Greek. It seems to be an obiter dictum. Men fall into four groups, and, by the way, so do the elements, air, fire, earth, and water; and the powers that govern them. One quaternion suggests others.
[4431] Cf. Rom. 1.25; Col. 2.8.
[4432] Or “and hence the world also gets its name κόσμος.” The Syriac is the equivalent of the Greek “διὸ καὶ κόσμος καλεῖται,” which occurs (Chap. IV.) in discussing the supposed divinity of the sky or heaven.
[4433] Professor Nöldeke’s emendation, ***, in place of *** ="they were reviled,” is adopted in the translation given.
[4434] Cf. Amos v. 26, “Chiun, your star god,” and Acts vii. 43.
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