Difference between revisions of "Apion"

<p> <b> Apion. </b> The name is properly [[Egyptian]] (see Procop. <i> Pers. </i> i. 8; Ross. <i> Inscr. </i> fasc. 2, p. 62) and derived from the god Apis, after the analogy of Anubion, Serapion, etc. </p> <p> ( <b> 1 </b> ) The son of Poseidonius (Justin (?) <i> Coh, ad Gent. </i> § 9; Africanus in Eus. <i> Pr. Ev. </i> x. 10. p. 490), a grammarian of [[Alexandria]] in the 1st cent. His literary triumphs and critical labours on [[Homer]] do not fall within our scope, but his conflict with [[Jews]] and [[Jewish]] [[Christians]] entitles him to a place here. </p> <p> (i) His hostility to [[Judaism]] was deep, persistent, and unscrupulous (Joseph. <i> c. Ap. </i> ii. 1–13; Clem. <i> Hom. </i> iv. 24, v. 2, πάνυ Ἰουδαίους δἰ ἀπεχθείας ἔξοντα , v. 27, 29, ὁ ἀλόγως μισῶν τὸ Ἰουδαίων κ .τ.λ.; Clem. <i> Strom. </i> i. 21), as the direct extracts preserved by [[Josephus]] from his writings clearly prove. These attacks were contained in two works especially in his <i> Egyptian History </i> (Αἰγυπτιακά ), and in a separate treatise <i> Against the Jews </i> ( κατὰ Ἰουδαίων βίβλος , Justin. (?) <i> l.c. </i> ; Africanus, <i> l.c. </i> ). Josephus exposes the ignorance, mendacity, and self-contradictions of Apion. </p> <p> (ii) It is not surprising that the spent wave of this antagonism should have overflowed on Judaic Christianity. Whether [[Apion]] actually came in contact with any members of the new brotherhood is more than questionable. His early date (for he flourished in the reigns of Tiberius, Caius, and Claudius) renders this improbable. But in the writings of the Petro-Clementine cycle he holds a prominent place as an antagonist of the Gospel. In the Clementine <i> Homilies </i> he appears in company with Anubion and Athenodorus among the satellites of Simon Magus, the arch-enemy of St. Peter and St. Peter's faith. The Clementine <i> Recognitions </i> contain nothing corresponding to the disputes of [[Clement]] and Apion in the 4th, 5th, and 6th books of the <i> Homilies; </i> but at the close of this work (x. 52), as at the close of the <i> Homilies, </i> he is introduced as a subsidiary character in the plot. See the treatises on these writings by Schliemann, Uhlhorn, Hilgenfeld, Lehmann, and others. </p> <p> ( <b> 2 </b> ) A [[Christian]] author about the end of 2nd cent., who wrote on the <i> Hexaemeron </i> (Eus. <i> [[H. E]]  </i> v. 27; Hieron. <i> Vir. Ill. </i> 49). </p> <p> [L.] </p>