What is important for us in the Apology is not its peculiar history, but rather that it deals with the issue of the jews in several places. This is of interest precisely because Aristides is an early Christian author and accordingly can be taken as being proverbially "'closer to the source'" than more modern authorities who all too often have ulterior and often directly political motivations for their theological positions on the subject of the jews.
Now the Apology first brings up the subject of the jews when it states that there are fours kinds of men: Barbarians, Greeks, Jews and Christians. The Apology then moves on to summarise the genealogies in relation to the origin of man that these four groups believe in. It asserts that Barbarians think they come from Kronos, Greeks think they come from Zeus, Jews think they come from Abraham and Christians think they come from Jesus Christ. (1)
Now in this we can easily detect the truth of Eusebius and Jerome's assertions that Aristides was Greek (and probably Athenian) given that he dates all religions that are not Judaism or Christianity to two generations of Greek gods: Kronos and Zeus. The relation between Kronos and Zeus being that the former was the father of the latter and latter overthrew the former to become the leader of the gods. If we bear in mind that Aristides was well aware of non-Greek religions such as traditional Egyptian polytheism (2) then it is clear that Aristides is engaging in fairly typical Greek intellectual snobbery in relation to the rest of the world.
This is particularly evident when the Apology states that the Greeks were far wiser than the barbarians, but then qualifies this by stating that the Greeks have consequently erred far more grievously than the barbarians because they were more able (i.e. wiser) to divine the falsehood of polytheism and the truth of monotheism. (3)
In essence Aristides is trying to argue; although not very well in my view, that Christianity is the necessary end of all rational philosophical speculation, but to make his case he relies more on the common Greek belief in their eminent intellectual superiority over non-Greeks writ large as opposed to logic and making a reasoned case to intellectually convert his readership.
The reader might at this juncture wonder what on earth this has to do with the jews, but we can very readily make the necessary connection by moving onto the Apology's comments on that very subject, which can only be properly understood when we recognise that Aristides was a Greek intellectual snob.
The Apology states as follows:
"'The Christians, then, reckon the beginning of their religion from Jesus Christ, who is named the Son of God most High; and it is said that God came down from heaven, and from a Hebrew virgin took and clad Himself with flesh, and in a daughter of man there dwelt the Son of God. This is taught from that Gospel which a little while ago was spoken among them as being preached; wherein if you also will read, you will comprehend the power that is upon it. This Jesus, then, was born of the tribe of the Hebrews; and He had twelve disciples, in order that a certain dispensation of His might be fulfilled. He was pierced by the Jews; and He died and was buried; and they say that after three days He rose and ascended to heaven; and then these twelve disciples went forth into the known parts of the world, and taught concerning His greatness with all humility and sobriety; and on this account those also who to-day believe in this preaching are called Christians, who are well known.'" (4)
Now the Apology clearly uses the word "'Hebrew'" rather than "'Jew'" to describe Jesus' mother Mary, but this does not mean that the Apology is introducing a distinction between the two given that Aristides states clearly that:
"'There were called the race of the Hebrews by their lawgiver: but at last they were named Jews.'" (5)
This clearly indicates that to Aristides the Hebrews of old were the jews of the present and that accordingly Jesus was born of a jewess, which would make him (unless one views him as a raceless human [per the intellectual traditions of the German Christians and Positive Christianity]) a jew (which Aristides openly and clearly states) himself by conventional jewish and non-jewish standards.
This at first glance would suggest that the Apology is a philo-Semitic document, but if we look a bit closer we can see that in the same breath as Aristides' statement about the jewishness of Mary: we also see him directly accuse the jews of deicide (the murder of god) when he declares that the jews; and not the Romans, killed Christ.
This is noteworthy because it clearly indicates that for Aristides both facts were important in his understanding of the jewish question as they are superficially contradictory to the modern Christian mindset of today, but yet obviously were not for Aristides.
Reconciling these two positions is easier than it sounds when we read the other section of the Apology which contains references to the jews. To wit:
"'Let us come now, O king, also to the history of the Jews and let us see what sort of opinion they have concerning God. The Jews then say that God is one, Creator of all and almighty: and that it is not proper for us that anything else should be worshiped, but this God only: and in this they appear to be much nearer to the truth than all the peoples, in that they worship God more exceedingly and not His works; and they imitate God by reason of the love which they have for man; for they have compassion on the poor and ransom the captive and bury the dead, and do things of a similar nature to these: things which are acceptable to God and are well-pleasing also to men, things which they have received from their fathers of old. Nevertheless they too have gone astray from accurate knowledge, and they suppose in their minds that they are serving God, but in the methods of their actions their service is to angels and not to God, in that they observe Sabbaths and new moons and the passover and the great fast, and the fast, and circumcision, and cleanness of meats: which things not even thus have they perfectly observed.' "(6)
In the above it once again seems at the start of the passage that Aristides is being philo-Semitic because he accedes that the jews are"'much nearer the truth'" and that they perform acts of charity (the unspoken element of this is "'among their own'").
Aristides however then immediately goes back on the offensive and accuses the jews of having "'strayed'" from the proper path ("'accurate knowledge'"), which is represented by their observance of superstitious and absurd ritualistic nonsense such as the Sabbath ("'sabbath'" and "'fast'"), the phases of the Moon ("'new moons' "i.e. the jewish lunar calendar), Passover/Pesach ("'the great fast'"), circumcision (presumably male but female circumcision cannot be ruled out entirely either given Strabo's mention of the custom of female circumcision among the jews) (7) and the laws of Kashrus and/or the practice of Schechita ("'cleanness of meats'").
He further throws a delightfully nasty little rhetorical dart into the mix about the fact that the jews are not even that rigorous about all of these (i.e. they haven't "'perfectly observed'" them), which suggests that to Aristides' mind the jews were; to use Arnold Toynbee's latter characterization, a "'fossil religion'".
This can be further shown to be what Aristides had in mind by pointing out that if we follow his reasoning then the jews have received a covenant from "'their fathers of old'", but they have rigidly stuck to it as if it were the be all and end all of religious knowledge and ritual. Hence their use of superstitious and absurd rituals, which have become part of jewish tradition without any basis; to Aristides' mind, in the worship of the one god.
Indeed the Apology makes it explicitly clear that the jews do not; in fact, worship god, but rather worship angels, because they deify rituals that focus on the intervention of angels (e.g. Passover/Pesach) and other beings which to Aristides' mind is nearly as bad as worshiping idols as had long been the custom in the ancient world.
This major error on the part of the jews; which occupies pride of place in Aristides' mind, is both the reason why Jesus was" 'born of a Hebrew' "(to correct the error of the jews) and also why the jews killed Jesus (because they refused to abandon their superstitious and absurd rituals which were "'pleasing to men'"). This is what reconciles the jewishness of Jesus and his murder by his own people in Aristides' view and also provides the Apology with the logical reason why the Christian religion was for all men and not just for the jews (i.e. the covenant was now with the gentiles).
In essence to Aristides' mind the jews are the major antagonists of both Jesus in his lifetime and of Christians in his time as they were addicted to ritual for the sake of ritual and demented religious fanaticism because they could not conceive of anything higher or better.
This belief on Aristides' part brings in his Greek snobbery in so far as he views the jews having grasped the truth of monotheism far earlier than the Greeks, but also believes the Greeks are far wiser. Accordingly for Aristides Christianity is the result of the jews being given a last chance (Jesus) by the one god to do his wishes and in rejecting and murdering Jesus: the chalice has passed to the Greeks who are able to surpass ritual and superstition via the medium of philosophy.
Thus we come back full circle to Aristides' belief that Christianity is the logical end of philosophical speculation and that the Greeks (with the other non-jews following close behind) have superseded the jews as the people of the one god as represented in the chalice of Christianity passing to them with Jesus' death at the hands of proverbial "'children of the devil'".
Therefore we should see in the Apology of Aristides not just a Christian philosophical argument, but rather an anti-jewish Christian manifesto of a sort.
REFERENCES
(1) Syr. Apol. Arist. 2(2) Ibid. 7(3) Ibid. 8(4) Ibid. 2(5) Ibid.(6) Ibid.(7) Strab. 16:2.28
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