| <p> Africanus [[Julius]] (ἈφÏκανός) a [[Christian]] writer at the beginning of the 3rd cent. A great part of his life was passed at [[Emmaus]] in Palestine—not however the Emmaus of St. Luke (24:16) as assumed by the ancient authorities (Soz. H. E. v. 21; Hieron. in libro de Locis Hebraicis s.v. Ἐμμαοῦς ii. p. 439; et in Epitaph. Paulae iv. p. 673); but as Reland has shewn in his [[Palaestina]] pp. 427 758 (see also Smith's Dict. of Geogr. s.v. Emmaus) the Emmaus in the plain (1Ma_3:40) 22 Roman miles (=176 stadia) from Jerusalem. He may have been born A.D. 170 or a little earlier and died A.D. 240 or a little later. There seems to be no ancient authority for dating his death A.D. 232. </p> <p> Africanus ranks with [[Clement]] and [[Origen]] as among the most learned of the ante-Nicene fathers (Socr. <i> H. E. </i> ii. 35; Hieron. <i> Ep. ad Magnum, </i> 83, vol. iv. p. 656). His great work, a comparative view of sacred and profane history from the creation of the world, demanded extensive reading; and the fragments that remain refer to the works of a considerable number of historical writers. His only work now extant in a complete state is his letter to Origen referred to by many authors (Eus. <i> H. E. </i> vi. 31; Hieron. <i> de Vir. Ill. </i> c. 63; Photius, Cod. 34; Suidas, <i> s.v. </i> Ἀφρικανός; Niceph. Call. <i> H. E. </i> v. 21, and others). The correspondence originated in a discussion between Origen and a certain Bassus, at which Africanus was present, and in which Origen appealed to the authority of that part of the Book of Daniel which contains the story of Susanna. Africanus afterwards wrote a short letter to Origen urging several objections to the authenticity of this part of the book; among others, that the style is different from that of the genuine book, that this section is not in the book as received by the Jews, and that it contains a play on Gk. words which shews that, unlike other O.T. books, it was originally written in Gk. and not in Heb. Origen replied at greater length. That Africanus had any intimate knowledge of Heb. must not be regarded as proved by this letter. The date of the correspondence is limited by the facts that Origen writes from Nicomedia, having previously visited Palestine, and refers to his labours in a comparison of the Gk. and Heb. text, indicating that he had already published the Hexapla. These conditions are best satisfied by a date <i> c. </i> 238. </p> <p> Not less celebrated is the letter of Africanus to [[Aristides]] on the discrepancy in our Saviour's genealogies as given by St. Matthew and St. Luke. A considerable portion of this has been preserved by [[Eusebius]] ( <i> H. E. </i> i. 7), and Routh ( <i> Rel. Sac. </i> ii. 228) has published this together with a fragment not previously edited. A compressed version of the letter is given also in Eusebii ad Stephanum, <i> Quaest. </i> iv. (Mai, <i> Script. Vet. Nov. Coll. </i> vol. i.). Africanus begins by rejecting a previous explanation that the genealogies are fictitious lists, designed to establish our Lord's claim to be both king and priest by tracing His descent in one [[Gospel]] from Solomon, in the other from Nathan, who was assumed to be [[Nathan]] the prophet. Africanus argues the necessity of maintaining the literal truth of the Gospel narrative, and against drawing dogmatic consequences from any statements not founded on historical fact. He then gives his own explanation, founded on the levirate law of the Jews, and professing to be traditionally derived from the Desposyni (or descendants of the kindred of our Lord), who dwelt near the villages of [[Nazareth]] and Cochaba. According to this view Matthew gives the natural, Luke the legal, descent of our Lord. Matthan, it is said, of the house of Solomon, and [[Melchi]] of the house of Nathan, married the same woman, whose name is given as Estha. [[Heli]] the son of Melchi (the names [[Matthat]] and [[Levi]] found in our present copies of St. Luke are omitted by Africanus) having died childless, his uterine brother Jacob, Matthan's son, took his wife and raised up seed to him; so that the offspring [[Joseph]] was legally Heli's son as stated by St. Luke, but naturally Jacob's son as stated by St. Matthew. For a critical examination and defence of this solution, which is adopted by St. [[Augustine]] ( <i> Retract. </i> lib. ii. c. vii.), see Mill, <i> On the Mythical [[Interpretation]] of the Gospels, </i> p. 201. </p> <p> The great work of Africanus was his "accurately laboured " (Eus. <i> H. E. </i> vi. 31) treatise on chronology, in five books. As a whole it is lost, but we can form a good idea of its general character from the still remaining <i> Chronicon </i> of Eusebius, which was based upon it, and which undoubtedly incorporates much of it. Eusebius himself, p. 132, mentions Africanus among his authorities for [[Jewish]] history, subsequent to O.T. times. Several fragments of the work of Africanus can be identified by express quotations, either by Eusebius in his <i> Praeparatio </i> and <i> Demonstratio Evangelii, </i> or by other writers, in particular by Georgius [[Syncellus]] in his <i> Chronographia. </i> These have been collected by Gallandi ( <i> Bibl. Vet. Pat. </i> vol. ii.), and more fully by Routh ( <i> Rel. Sac. </i> vol. ii.). </p> <p> Christian [[Apologists]] had been forced to engage in chronological discussions, to remove the heathen contempt of [[Christianity]] as a novelty, by demonstrating the great antiquity of the Jewish system, out of which the Christian sprang. Thus [[Tatian]] ( <i> Or. ad Graec. </i> c. 39), [[Theophilus]] of [[Antioch]] ( <i> ad. Autol. </i> iii. 21), Clement of [[Alexandria]] ( <i> Stromata, </i> i. 21), discuss the question of the antiquity of Moses, and, following [[Josephus]] ( <i> cont. Apion. </i> i. 16), arrive at the conclusion that Moses was a contemporary of Inachus, and that the Exodus took place 393 years before the coming of Danaus to Argos. Africanus set himself to make a complete synopsis of sacred and profane history from the Creation, and to establish a synchronism between the two. He concludes that Moses and [[Ogyges]] were contemporaries. He thinks a connexion between the Ogygian deluge and the plagues of Egypt likely; and confirms his conclusions by deducing from Polemo, Apion, and [[Ptolemaeus]] Mendesius, that Moses was a contemporary of Inachus, whose son, Phoroneus, reigned at Argos in the time of Ogyges. Africanus follows the LXX: he counts 2262 years to the Deluge; he does not recognize the second Cainan; he places the Exodus A.M. 3707. In computing the years of the Judges he is blamed by Eusebius for lengthening the chronology by adding, without authority, 30 years for the elders after Joshua, 40 for anarchy after Samson, and 25 years of peace. He thus makes 740 years between the Exodus and Solomon. Our Lord's birth he places A.M. 5500, and two years before our common computation of Anno Domini. But he allows only one year for our Lord's public ministry, and thus dates the [[Crucifixion]] A.M. 5531. He calculates the commencement of the 70 weeks from the 20th year of Artaxerxes: from this to the death of our Lord he counts only 475 years, contending that the 70 weeks of Daniel are to be understood as 490 lunar years of 354 days each, equivalent to 475 Julian years. </p> <p> Another interesting passage in the χÏονικά is one in which he treats of the darkness at the Crucifixion and shews in opposition to the [[Syrian]] historian Thallus that it was miraculous and that an eclipse of the sun could not have taken place at the full moon. Lastly we may notice his statement that there were still in his time remains of Jacob's terebinth at [[Shechem]] Gen_35:4 held in honour; and that Jacob's tent had been preserved in [[Edessa]] until struck by lightning in the reign of the emperor [[Antoninus]] (Elagabalus ?). Africanus probably had personally visited Edessa whose king [[Abgarus]] he elsewhere mentions. </p> <p> The work in all probability concluded with the Doxology, which St. [[Basil]] has cited ( <i> de Spir. Sanct. </i> § 73, iii. 61) in justification of the form of doxology σὺν Ἀγίῳ Πνεύματι . </p> <p> It remains to speak of another work, the κεστοί , expressly ascribed to Africanus by Eusebius ( <i> H. E. </i> vi. 31), [[Photius]] ( <i> l.c. </i> ), [[Suidas]] ( <i> l.c. </i> ), and Syncellus (p. 359). Perhaps (as Scaliger suggests) quoting the <i> Chronika </i> of Eusebius. According to this authority, the work consisted of nine books; and it is probably owing to errors of transcribers that we now find Photius enumerating 14 and Suidas 24. The work seems to have received the fanciful name of <i> Cesti, </i> or variegated girdles, from the miscellaneous character of its contents, which embraced the subjects of geography, natural history, medicine, agriculture, the art of war, etc. The portions that remain have suffered mutilation and addition by different copyists. The external evidence for ascribing the <i> Cesti </i> and <i> [[Chronology]] </i> to the same author is too strong to be easily set aside, and is not without some internal confirmation. Thus the author of the <i> Cesti </i> was better acquainted with Syria than with Libya; for he mentions the abundance of a certain kind of serpent in Syria, and gives its Syrian name ( <i> Vet. Math. </i> p. 290), but when he gives a [[Libyan]] word ( <i> Geopon. </i> p. 226) he does so on second-hand testimony. And he was a Christian, for he asserts ( <i> Geopon. </i> p. 178) that wine may be kept from spoiling by writing on the vessels "the divine words, [[Taste]] and see that the Lord is gracious." The unlikelihood of Africanus having written such a work becomes less if we look upon him not as an ecclesiastic, but as a Christian philosopher, pursuing his former studies after his conversion, and entering in his note-books many things more in accordance with the spirit of his own age than with that of ours. Cf. Harnack on Julius Africanus [[Sextus]] in Herzog, 3rd ed. The last edition of the <i> Chronography </i> is in Gelzer, <i> Sex. Jul. Afr. </i> (2 vols. Leipzig, 1880–1898); see also Spitta (Halle, 1877) on the letter to Aristides, Harnack, <i> Lit. </i> i. 507–513 and ii. 1, pp. 124 sqq. </p> <p> [G.S.] </p> | | <p> an ecclesiastical writer who flourished In the beginning of the 3d century, was, according to [[Suidas]] (s.v. Africanus), a native of Libya, but resided generally at [[Emmaus]] (afterwards Nicopolis), in Palestine. The same writer calls him also Sextus. Little is known of his personal history. [[Eusebius]] (Hist. Eccl. 6, 31) relates that he undertook a journey to [[Alexandria]] to listen to Heraclas, the teacher of the catechumens in that city, as also that he was sent by the inhabitants of Emmaus to ask of the emperor Heliogabalus the restoration of their city, which was granted (see Jerome, De vir. illstr. c. 63). He was a friend of Origen; and as, in letters addressed to him when the latter was already some fifty years old, he styles him "son," it is to be supposed that he was much advanced in years in 238, while the expression "colleague" seems to imply that he was also a priest. He was, according to Jerome, in the full vigor of life during the reign of Heliogabalus and [[Alexander]] Severus. We have no information concerning the precise date of his death; it occurred, in all probability, near the middle of the 3d century '''''—''''' some say about A.D. 232. He enjoyed great reputation for learning among the ancients. He is the author of the oldest [[Christian]] history of the world, the Chronographia, or De temporibus, which Eusebius considered very trustworthy: it extended from the creation to the third year of the reign of Heliogabalus (221). Unfortunately, the complete work is not in our possession; a portion, however, was preserved to us by copious extracts, which subsequent Church historians made from it, and these (fifty-six fragments) have been collected by Galland (Bibliotheca, vol. 2). [[Julius]] also wrote a letter to [[Origen]] concerning the authenticity of the history of Susannah and the Elders, and another to [[Aristides]] on the differences between the genealogies of Christ by Matthew and Luke. In this last letter, speaking against the opinion of a fraus pia having been perpetrated by the Church in order to prove the rights of Jesus as high priest and king, he says, "Far be it that such a thought should govern the Church of Christ as to invent a falsehood to glorify Christ." Eusebius, Photius, and Suidas ascribe to him also the authorship of another work in twenty-four books, a sort of compendium of information on medicine and natural philosophy. According to Suidas, it was a collection of empiric formulas for curing diseases by sorcery, etc. But, as this does not seem to agree with what we know of the general character of the man, Dupin thinks that there must be some mistake, and that there probably existed both a Julius Africanus and a Julius Sextus, who have been confounded one with the other. Finally, he has also been considered the author of several treatises '''''—''''' De trinitate, De circumcisione, De Attalo, De Pascha, De Sabbate '''''—''''' which are evidently not his, but belong to the Roman presbyter Novatian. See M '''''Ö''''' hler, Patrologie, 1, 577-580; Routh, Rel. Sacr. 2, 108 sq.; Herzog, Real-Encyklop. 7, 155. </p> |
| <p> (called by Suidas Sextus Julius), was an intimate friend of Origen, an eminent Christian chronographer, and flourished about the year 220. Having been attracted by the fame of Heraclas, a celebrated philosopher, and pupil of Origen, he came to Alexandria to study with him, but he seems to have lived chiefly at [[Nicopolis]] (the ancient Emmaus), in Palestine, and to have exerted himself for its restoration; for which purpose, in 220, he made a visit to Antoninus Heliogabalus, to obtain from him permission that the walls of the ruined city should be rebuilt. According to one writer (Hebedjesu, Cat. lib. Chald. 15, 18), he was bishop of Nicopolis. He died about 232. Africanus wrote a chronological work in five sections under the title of Pentabiblos '''''—''''' a sort of universal history, composed to prove the antiquity of true religion and the novelty of paganism. [[Fragments]] of this chronology are extant in the works of Eusebius, Syncellus, Malala, Theophanes, Cedrenus, and in the "Chronicon Paschale." The "Pentabiblos" commences with the creation, B.C. 5499, and closes with A.D. 221. The chronology of Africanus places the birth of Christ three years before the commencement of our era. But under the reign of [[Diocletian]] ten years were taken from the number which had elapsed, and thus the computation of the Churches of Alexandria and Antioch were reconciled. According to [[Fabricius]] (Bibl. Gr. ed. nova, 8:9), there exists at [[Paris]] a manuscript containing an abstract of the "Pentabiblos." Scaliger has borrowed, in his edition of Eusebius, the chronology of Africanus extant in "Geo. Syncelli Chronographia ab Adamo ad Dioclesianum, a Jac. Goar" (Gr. et Lat., Paris, 1652, fol.). Africanus wrote a learned letter to Origen, in which he disputes the authenticity of the apocryphal history of Susannah (Basle, Gr. and Lat. 1674, 4to). A great part of another letter of Africanus to Aristides, reconciling the disagreement between the genealogies of Christ in Matthew and Luke, is extant in Eusebius (bk. 6, ch. 31). </p> <p> It is believed that Africanus was still a pagan when he wrote his work entitled [[Cestus]] ( '''''Κεστός''''' , girdle of Venus), in which he treats of agriculture, medicine, physics, and especially the military art. Hebedjesu, in his catalogue of [[Chaldean]] works, mentions a commentary on the N.T. by Africanus, bishop of Emmaus. Finally, a translation of the work of [[Abdias]] of Babylon, entitled Historia certaminis apostolici, has been attributed to Africanus, but probably erroneously. </p> <p> The fact of a man so learned and intelligent as the chronologer Africanus being a Christian, refutes the error of those who think that all [[Christians]] in the first centuries of our era were illiterate. The criticisms of Africanus upon the apocryphal books seem to attest that he did not receive the canonical writings of the New [[Testament]] without previous examination; and, from his manner of reconciling the different genealogies of Christ, it appears certain that he recognised the authenticity of the [[Gospels]] in which they occur. Cave, Hist. Lit. ann. 220; Lardner, Works, 2, 457. </p>
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