Codex 34

[Julius Africanus, History]

Read the Historyof Africanus,[1] who was also the author of the Cestiin fourteen books.[2] Although his style is concise, he omits nothing worthy of record. He begins with the Mosaic cosmogony and goes down to the coming of Christ. He also gives a cursory account of events from that time to the reign of Macrinus,[3] at which date, as he tells us, the Chroniclewas finished, that is, in the 5723rd year of the world. The work is in five volumes.

Africanus also wrote a letter to Origen against the authenticity of the history of Susannah, on the grounds (amongst others) that it is not included in the Jewish books, and that the play on words (ἀπὸ τοῦ πρίνον πρῖσαι ... ἀπὸ τοῦ σχίνου σχίσαι)[4]is at variance with the genuine Hebrew style. Origen answered and refuted these objections.

Africanus also wrote a letter to Aristides,[5] in which he showed that in reality there was no such difference as was generally supposed between the genealogies of our Saviour in Matthew and Luke.