XVI. Such, O King, is the commandment of the law of the Christians, and such is their manner of life. As men who know God, they ask from Him petitions which are fitting for Him to grant and for them to receive. And thus they employ their whole lifetime. And since they know the loving-kindnesses of God toward them, behold! for their sake the glorious things which are in the world flow forth to view. And verily, they are those who found the truth when they went about and made search for it; and from what we considered, we learned that they alone come near to a knowledge of the truth. And they do not proclaim in the ears of the multitude the kind deeds they do, but are careful that no one should notice them; and they conceal their giving just as he who finds a treasure and conceals it. And they strive to be righteous as those who expect to behold their Messiah, and to receive from Him with great glory the promises made concerning them. And as for their words and their precepts, O King, and their glorying in their worship, and the hope of earning according to the work of each one of them their recompense which they look for in another world, you may learn about these from their writings. It is enough for us to have shortly informed your Majesty concerning the conduct and the truth of the Christians. For great indeed, and wonderful is their doctrine to him who will search into it and reflect upon it. And verily, this is a new people, and there is something divine (lit: a divine admixture) in the midst of them.
Take, then, their writings, and read therein, and lo! you will find that I have not put forth these things on my own authority, nor spoken thus as their advocate; but since I read in their writings I was fully assured of these things as also of things which are to come. And for this reason I was constrained to declare the truth to such as care for it and seek the world to come. And to me there is no doubt but that the earth abides through the supplication of the Christians. But the rest of the nations err and cause error in wallowing before the elements of the world, since beyond these their mental vision will not pass. And they search about as if in darkness because they will not recognize the truth; and like drunken men they reel and jostle one another and fall.
XVII. Thus far, O King, I have spoken; for concerning that which remains, as is said above, [4442] there are found in their other writings things which are hard to utter and difficult for one to narrate,--which are not only spoken in words but also wrought out in deeds.
Now the Greeks, O King, as they follow base practises in intercourse with males, and a mother and a sister and a daughter, impute their monstrous impurity in turn to the Christians. But the Christians are just and good, and the truth is set before their eyes, and their spirit is long-suffering; and, therefore, though they know the error of these (the Greeks), and are persecuted by them, they bear and endure it; and for the most part they have compassion on them, as men who are destitute of knowledge. And on their side, they offer prayer that these may repent of their error; and when it happens that one of them has repented, he is ashamed before the Christians of the works which were done by him; and he makes confession to God, saying, I did these things in ignorance. And he purifies his heart, and his sins are forgiven him, because he committed them in ignorance in the former time, when he used to blaspheme and speak evil of the true knowledge of the Christians. And assuredly the race of the Christians is more blessed than all the men who are upon the face of the earth.
Henceforth let the tongues of those who utter vanity and harass the Christians be silent; and hereafter let them speak the truth. For it is of serious consequence to them that they should worship the true God rather than worship a senseless sound. And verily whatever is spoken in the mouth of the Christians is of God; and their doctrine is the gateway of light. Wherefore let all who are without the knowledge of God draw near thereto; and they will receive incorruptible words, which are from all time and from eternity. So shall they appear before the awful judgment which through Jesus the Messiah is destined to come upon the whole human race.
The Apology of Aristides the Philosopher is finished.
[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. pantokrator may have been confounded with au tokrator. 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 oikonomia, "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 thaumaste instead of *** (tis). 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. i. 25 and Col. ii. 8.
[4432] Or "and hence the world also gets its name kosmos." The Syriac is the equivalent of the Greek "dio kai kosmos kaleitai," 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.
[4435] Pasiphae's unnatural passion for Taurus is not in the Greek mythology charged to Zeus.
[4436] The visit of Zeus to Semele (not Selene) is evidently referred to. Selene Luna would give the Syriac ***.
[4437] Professor Rendel Harris pronounces "Paludus" a vox nihili, and explains its presence as due to a corrupt repetition of the preceding Polydeuces. The Syriac word in the text suggests Pollux--the Latin equivalent of Polydeuces. Clytemnestra is the name required.
[4438] Adopting Professor Harris's emendation *** = kleptes instead of *** = vir.
[4439] "Tyrant," ***, seems out of place when connected with Herakles. Perhaps *** = ebrius, which occurs at the close of the paragraph, should be read here. Cf. also the Greek.
[4440] The same two words are used of Isis. The Christians are unlike her in finding what they sought.
[4441] Cf. Pliny's letter to the Emperor Trajan, a.d. 112, "The Christians are wont to meet at dawn on an appointed day, and to sing a hymn to Christ as God."
[4442] The Christian Scriptures are previously referred to as a source of information, not as containing difficulties. cf. 2 Peter iii. 16.
The Passion of the Scillitan Martyrs
The Passion of the Scillitan Martyrs.
by
Andrew Rutherford, B.D.
Translation by Prof. J. A. Robinson. Introduction by A. R.
The Passion of the Scillitan Martyrs.
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