Folia Theologica 21. (2010)
Perendy László: An Enigmatic Apology - Aristides on God's created world
AN ENIGMATIC APOLOGY 89 Eusebius knew only the title of the book, and he was not sure about its content. The Syriac duplex address (Hadrian and/or Antoninus Pius) shows that the later Christian interpolator reflected upon the possible chronology and he also pluralized some apostrophes. So in O'Ceallaigh's mind the author of the Apology must have lived much later, when the Christian dogmas were much better known than in the second century. In O'Ceallaigh's summary the important elements of his creed were: "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, (Who) by the Holy Spirit came down from heaven and assumed flesh from a (...) virgin (...) and after fulfilling a certain 'economy', He was crucified, died, (...) and after three days rose again, and ascended into the heavens."17 So there was a definite creedal form in the author's mind, which resembles three Asian creeds from about 380 to 451, the Apostolic Constitutions, the creed of Theodore of Mopsuestia, and that of the Council of Chalcedon. O'Ceallaigh concludes that the similarity with the first one is most obvious, and he dates the final text of the Apology not earlier than 360. The Christian editor also used the Stromateis of Clement of Alexandria. J. A. Robinson18 pointed at the similarities of the Apology with the Preaching of Peter, but this work is known only through the Stromateis. Even if we do not accept O'Ceallaigh's view on authorship, it is obvious that the Apology is deeply rooted in Jewish apologetics. Geffcken had pointed it out already: "Gleichwohl haben wir es in Aristides (...) mit einer Apologie zu tun, die im ganzen ihrer Form nach noch mehr im jüdisch hellenistischen Lager als im eigentlich christlichen weilt".19 20 If O'Ceallaigh's ideas are accepted and the bulk of the work was originally written by a Hellenized Jew or a proselyte with the intention of defending monotheistic worship, this would illustrate the strong connection between of the presentation of cosmological ideas and monotheism, which existed both in Jewish and Christian apologetic.2" 17 Ibid. 239. 18 Robinson, J. A., The Remains of the Original Greek of the Apology of Aristides. Appendix to Harris, J. R. - Robinson, J. A., The Apology of Aristides, 86-95. 19 Geffcken, J., Zwei griechische Apologeten, lx. 20 Cf. van Unnik, W. C., Die Gotteslehre bei Aristides und in gnostischen Schriften, in Sparsa Collecta. The collected essays of W. C. van Unnik (Supplements to Novum Testamentum, 31), Leiden 1983, 106-113. van den Broek, R.,
