Sextus Julius Africanus

This episode contains two works by Sextus Julius Africanus. Born sometime around A.D. 200 to a pagan family, he was a soldier in the Roman army and at some point converted to Christianity. Seeking wisdom, he was drawn by the fame of Heraclas to Alexandria, placing him in that city no earlier than A.D. 232. He was an erudite scholar, and an example of his textual criticism has already been presented in this series through a correspondence with Origen. Beyond his works, little more is known other than he appears to have become the Bishop of Emmaus at some point before his death. 

Both works presented here represent meaningful, scholarly contributions to Christian literature. The first, a letter to Aristides, represents Africanus’ attempt to reconcile the different genealogies of Jesus presented in Matthew and Luke. He proposes a plausible scheme that, if Eusebius is to be believed, satisfied many in the Early Church period. Perhaps more important than the way that the two accounts are harmonized is the fact that the question was being asked at all, and Africanus’ response serves to remind us of the intellectual impact of the Alexandrian school on the Early Church.

The second work is a fragment of Africanus’ Chronography. While Theophilus holds the record for the first Christian chronology of history, Africanus’ work was more extensively quoted by Eusebius in cataloging the history of the Church - indeed it is only because of these quotations that we have a record of the Chronology. The focus of both works are similar, however, to show the superiority of the narrative in the Hebrew Scriptures, the consistency of secular and sacred histories, and to provide more details on events important to the Christian faith.

If you would like to read more of the writings of the Early Christian Fathers, please visit ccel.org to view the full collection.