The Apology of Aristides.

        The writing of apologies for Christianity emerges into clearer light with the figure of Aristides. He was a Christian philosopher of Athens and addressed a defense of the new faith to the emperor Antoninus, probably between A.D. 138 and 147, since Marcus Aurelius is not mentioned in the address as co-emperor. A century ado all that was known of this book was what Eusebius said of it m the Church History iv. 3. 3. We cannot be sure that even he had actually seen it, although he says it was still in existence and widely circulated in his day. But in 187 8 an Armenian fragment of it, from the tenth century, was published. This confirmed the statement of Eusebius that it was addressed to the emperor Hadrian. In 1889, however, J. Rendel Harris discovered in St. Catherine's on Mount Sinai an almost complete text of the book in a Syriac version. This gave the title of the emperor addressed more fully: “To the Imperator Caesar Titus Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius,” which means Antoninus Pius, although it might easily have suggested Hadrian to Eusebius (who sometimes got other emperors confused) and to the Armenian translator. Harris showed his find to his friend J. Armitage Robinson, who soon after came across large parts of it in Greek in the medieval romance of Barlaam and Joasaph (or Josaphat), the writer of which had evidently worked practically the whole apology into his book. This romance (written in the seventh or eighth century) is the story of a prince of India named Joasaph who is converted by a Christian monk. The monk, Barlaam, is later called upon to defend Christianity before the king and his court, and the defense that is offered is the ancient Apology of Aristides.

        In 1922 a few lines of chapters 5 and 6 were published from a Greek papyrus leaf of the fourth century in Oxyrhynchus Papyri xv. 1778. Another fragment, covering Aristides 15:6-i6:r, was published by H. J. M. Milne in 1923.[36] The sources for the text of the Apology are therefore the Syriac version, the Greek recast of the work employed in Barlaam and loasaph, the Greek fragments from Oxyrhynchus and those in the British Museum, and three short Armenian fragments preserving the opening lines. The Greek, of course, promises to be the truest witness to the text, but it has been alternately expanded and condensed for the immediate purpose in the medieval story, so that in the absence of more ancient materials the textual problem is almost insoluble.

        The apologist begins with an account of the Christian idea of God. He then presents the Chaldean, the Greek, the Egyptian, and the Jewish ways of worshiping God, showing the weaknesses of each.[37] The Chaldeans worship the elements-sky, earth, water, fire, air, sun, and moon. The Greeks worship gods like men, as beings full of frailties and crimes. The Egyptians worship plants and animals-crocodiles, cats, dogs, and snakes. The Jews are too fond of angels and holy days. Finally he presents the Christian way, which he strongly commends, although he speaks of the Christians as well as of the other four groups in the third person. The closing chapters, 15-17, give a fine picture of early Christian practices and morals.

        The influence of the Four Gospels is clearly seen in Aristides' account of the Christians; indeed, he probably refers to them when he invites the emperor to examine the Christians' books (16:3, 5). Aristides is also strongly influenced by the Preaching of Peter, as we have seen. He sees in the Christians a new race, as the author of the Preaching did. He seems to have known the Acts and probably Romans and I Peter. His way of referring to the writings of the Christians as his sources suggests the possession of a larger Christian library.

        The book was current in Greek in the fourth century, as Eusebius and the Oxyrhynchus fragment show; it passed early into Syriac and later into Armenian, and its Greek form was used in the seventh or eighth century in the romance of Barlaam and Joasaph. We may still hope that a complete Greek text of it will sometime come to light.