1Africanus rejects the view that the two Gospel genealogies mix priestly and royal lines to show Christ as priest and king, since a pious falsehood dishonours God.
2Israelite descent was reckoned by nature or by law (levirate marriage), so both Gospel genealogies are true.
3Matthan and Melchi married the same woman in turn; their sons Jacob and Heli were half-brothers, and Jacob raised up Joseph as Heli's legal son.
4The Lord's relatives report the low origins of Herod's family, which agree with Greek histories.
5Herod burned the Jewish genealogical records, but the Lord's relatives, the desposyni, preserved their family's genealogy.
6A summary of the solution: Joseph was Jacob's son by nature and Heli's by law.
authentic · Part of the letter is quoted by Eusebius (Church History 1.7), who says Africanus wrote it to Aristides. Migne's fuller text joins Eusebius's quotation to the Vatican manuscript published by Mai.
Standing
Not honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by the Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant traditions. Writer in the church of his time, not venerated by any of the three traditions.
Older English translation
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 6 (1886) (public domain, at CCEL; for comparison: our translation is made from the original first and checked against it afterwards) · ANF 6 translates it as "The Epistle to Aristides".
Date
ca. 220–240 (approximate) · Written in Africanus's later years; the exact date is not known.
Written at
Emmaus (Nicopolis), Palestine (probable)
Addressed to
Aristides
Language
Greek
Genre
letter
Reference system
chapter (1–6, following Migne's Latin numerals; Migne's Greek numerals are partly lost in the OCR)
SBL abbreviation
Aristid.Not yet checked
Clavis
CPG number not yet checked
Text from
J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, Series Graeca 10 (Paris: Migne, 1857), cols. 51–64 (Printed edition in the public domain; OCR transcription of public-domain page images)
Critical editions
Walter Reichardt, ed., Die Briefe des Sextus Julius Africanus an Aristides und Origenes, TU 34.3 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909) (cited, not reproduced)