Epistula ad Aristidem 53 ............ Therefore, those who either were ignorant of the evangelical history or were unable to understand it compounded their ignorance with a glorious error, saying, that this varied enumeration and mixture of names, both of the priestly, as they suppose, and of the royal, rightly came to be, so that Christ might be rightly shown to have become both priest and king, as if someone were disbelieving or had another hope, that 54 Christ <is> an eternal priest of the Father, offering up our prayers to him, and a super-cosmic king, bestowing to the spirit those whom he freed, having become a co-worker in the ordering of all things. And this was announced to us not by the catalogue of the tribes, not by the mixture of the recorded generations, but by patriarchs and prophets. Let us not then descend to such petty reasoning in piety, so that we might establish the kingdom and priesthood of Christ by the interchange of names, since the priestly tribe of Levi was joined to the royal tribe of Judah, beginning with Aaron taking Elisheba the sister of Nahshon, and again Eleazar the daughter of Putiel, and from them begetting 55 children. Therefore the evangelists lied, establishing not truth, but a conjectural praise, and for this reason one traced the genealogy from David through Solomon to Jacob the father of Joseph, while the other traced it from Nathan the son of David to Heli, who was likewise in another way the father of Joseph. And yet they ought not to have been ignorant that each of the enumerated lines is the family of David, the royal tribe of Judah. For if Nathan was a prophet, yet so also was Solomon and the father of them both; and prophets came from many tribes, but priests from none of the twelve tribes, only Levites. In vain then has the 56 falsehood been fabricated by them. Let such an argument not prevail in a church of Christ and of God the Father of exact truth, that a falsehood is composed for the praise and glorification of Christ. For who does not know that most sacred saying of the apostle, when he was preaching and proclaiming the resurrection of our savior and insisting on the truth, saying with great fear, that if some say Christ has not been raised <neither has Christ been raised>, but we both say this and have believed it and we also hope for it and preach it, we bear false witness against God, that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise. If then he who glorifies God the Fa 57 ther is so afraid lest he should seem a liar when narrating a paradoxical work, how would he not justly be afraid who through falsehood provides a confirmation of truth, composing a glory that is not true? For if the generations are different and no genuine seed traces down to Joseph, and it is said only for the establishment of the one who was to be born, that the one to come will be a king and a priest, with no proof being present, but the solemnity of the words tending toward an ineffectual hymn, it is clear that the praise, being a lie, does not pertain to God, but judgment is for the one who has spoken what is not, boasting as if it were. Therefore, in order that we may refute the igno 58 rance of the one who said this, and that we may stop anyone from being scandalized by a similar ignorance, I will set forth the true history of what happened. For since the names of the generations in Israel were numbered either by nature or by law—by nature, through the succession of genuine seed, but by law, when another begot a child in the name of a brother who had died childless; (for since a clear hope of resurrection had not yet been given to them, they imitated the future promise with a mortal resurrection, so that the name of the deceased might remain imperishable)—since, therefore, of those included in this genealogy some succeeded their father genuinely as son, while others were born to some but were added by name to others, the memory of both has been made, both of those who begot and of those who were as if they had begotten. Thus neither of the gospels lies, numbering both nature and law. For the generations from Solomon and from Nathan were interwoven with each other by the raising up of seed for the childless and

Epistula ad Aristidem 53 ............ Οἱ μὲν οὖν ἤτοι τὴν εὐαγγελικὴν ἱστορίαν ἠγνοηκότες ἢ συνεῖναι μὴ δυνηθέντες δοξολογούσῃ πλάνῃ τὴν ἀγνωσίαν ἐπύκνωσαν εἰπόντες, ὅτι δικαίως γέγονεν ἡ διάφορος αὕτη τῶν ὀνομάτων καταρίθμησίς τε καὶ ἐπιμιξία τῶν τε ἱερατικῶν ὡς οἴονται καὶ τῶν βασιλικῶν, ἵνα δειχθῇ δικαίως ὁ Χριστὸς ἱερεύς τε καὶ βασιλεὺς γενόμενος, ὥσπερ τινὸς ἀπειθοῦντος ἢ ἑτέραν ἐσχηκότος ἐλπίδα, ὅτι 54 Χριστὸς ἀΐδιος μὲν <ὑπάρχει> ἱερεὺς πατρός, τὰς ἡμετέρας πρὸς αὐτὸν εὐχὰς ἀναφέρων, βασιλεὺς δὲ ὑπερκόσμιος, οὓς ἠλευθέρωσε νέμων τῷ πνεύματι, συνεργὸς εἰς τὴν διακόσμησιν τῶν ὅλων γενόμενος. καὶ τοῦτο ἡμῖν προσήγγειλεν οὐχ ὁ κατάλογος τῶν φυλῶν, οὐχ ἡ μῖξις τῶν ἀναγράπτων γενῶν, ἀλλὰ πατριάρχαι καὶ προφῆται. μὴ οὖν κατίωμεν εἰς τοσαύτην θεοσεβείας σμικρολογίαν, ἵνα τῇ ἐναλλαγῇ τῶν ὀνομάτων τὴν Χριστοῦ βασιλείαν καὶ ἱερωσύνην συνιστῶμεν, ἐπεὶ τῇ Ἰούδα φυλῇ τῇ βασιλικῇ ἡ τοῦ Λεϋὶ φυλὴ ἡ ἱερατικὴ συνεζύγη, τοῦ Ναασσὼν ἀδελφὴν τὴν Ἐλισάβετ Ἀαρὼν ἀρξαμένου καὶ πάλιν Ἐλεάζαρ τὴν θυγατέρα Φατιὴλ καὶ ἐνθένδε παιδοποιησα 55 μένων. ἐψεύσαντο οὖν οἱ εὐαγγελισταὶ συνιστάντες οὐκ ἀλήθειαν, ἀλλ' εἰκαζόμενον ἔπαινον, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ὁ μὲν διὰ Σολομῶνος ἀπὸ ∆αβὶδ ἐγενεαλόγησεν ἐπὶ Ἰακὼβ τὸν τοῦ Ἰωσὴφ πατέρα, ὁ δὲ ἀπὸ Νάθαν τοῦ ∆αβὶδ ἐπὶ Ἡλὶ τὸν τοῦ Ἰωσὴφ ὁμοίως ἄλλως πατέρα. καίτοι ἀγνοεῖν αὐτοὺς οὐκ ἐχρῆν, ὡς ἑκατέρα τῶν κατηριθμημένων τάξις τὸ τοῦ ∆αβίδ ἐστι γένος, ἡ τοῦ Ἰούδα φυλὴ βασιλική. εἰ γὰρ προφήτης ὁ Νάθαν, ἀλλ' ὅμως καὶ Σολομὼν ὅ τε τούτων πατὴρ ἑκατέρου· ἐκ πολλῶν δὲ φυλῶν ἐγένοντο προφῆται, ἱερεῖς δὲ οὐδένες τῶν δώδεκα φυλῶν, μόνοι δὲ λεϋῖται. μάτην αὐτοῖς ἄρα πέπλασται τὸ 56 ἐψευσμένον. μὴ δὴ κρατοίη τοιοῦτος λόγος ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ Χριστοῦ καὶ θεοῦ πατρὸς ἀκριβοῦς ἀληθείας, ὅτι ψεῦδος σύγκειται εἰς αἶνον καὶ δοξολογίαν Χριστοῦ. τίς γὰρ οὐκ οἶδε κἀκεῖνον τὸν ἱερώτατον τοῦ ἀποστόλου λόγον κηρύσσοντος καὶ διαγγέλλοντος τὴν ἀνάστασιν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν καὶ διϊσχυριζομένου τὴν ἀλήθειαν, μεγάλῳ φόβῳ λέγοντος, ὅτι εἰ Χριστὸν λέγουσί τινες μὴ ἐγηγέρθαι <οὐδὲ Χριστὸς ἐγήγερται>, ἡμεῖς δὲ τοῦτο καί φαμεν καὶ πεπιστεύκαμεν καὶ αὐτὸ καὶ ἐλπίζομεν καὶ κηρύσσομεν, καταψευδομαρτυροῦμεν τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅτι ἤγειρε τὸν Χριστόν, ὃν οὐκ ἤγειρεν. εἰ δὲ οὕτως ὁ δοξολογῶν θεὸν πα 57 τέρα δέδοικε, μὴ ψευδολόγος δοκοίη ἔργον παράδοξον διηγούμενος, πῶς οὐκ ἂν δικαίως φοβηθείη ὁ διὰ ψευδολογίας ἀληθείας σύστασιν ποριζόμενος, δόξαν οὐκ ἀληθῆ συντιθείς; εἰ γὰρ τὰ γένη διάφορα καὶ μηδὲν καταφέρει γνήσιον σπέρμα ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰωσήφ, εἴρηται δὲ μόνον εἰς σύστασιν τοῦ γεννηθησομένου, ὅτι βασιλεὺς καὶ ἱερεὺς ἔσται ὁ ἐσόμενος, ἀποδείξεως μὴ προσούσης, ἀλλὰ τῆς τῶν λόγων σεμνότητος εἰς ὕμνον ἀδρανῆ φερομένης, δῆλον ὡς τοῦ θεοῦ μὲν ὁ ἔπαινος οὐχ ἅπτεται ψεῦδος ὤν, κρίσις δὲ τῷ εἰρηκότι τὸ οὐκ ὂν ὡς ὂν κομπάσαντι. ἵνα οὖν καὶ τοῦτο μὲν τοῦ εἰρηκότος ἐλέγξωμεν τὴν ἀμα 58 θίαν, παύσωμεν δὲ τοῦ μηδένα ὑπ' ἀγνοίας ὁμοίας σκανδαλισθῆναι, τὴν ἀληθῆ τῶν γεγονότων ἱστορίαν ἐκθήσομαι. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν γενῶν ἐν Ἰσραὴλ ἠριθμεῖτο ἢ φύσει ἢ νόμῳ-φύσει μὲν γνησίου σπέρματος διαδοχῇ, νόμῳ δὲ ἑτέρου παιδοποιουμένου εἰς ὄνομα τελευτήσαντος ἀδελφοῦ ἀτέκνου· (ὅτι γὰρ οὐδέπω αὐτοῖς δέδοτο ἐλπὶς ἀναστάσεως σαφής, τὴν μέλλουσαν ἐπαγγελίαν ἀναστάσει ἐμιμοῦντο θνητῇ, ἵνα ἀνέκλειπτον τὸ ὄνομα μείνῃ τοῦ μετηλλαχότος)-ἐπεὶ οὖν οἱ τῇ γενεαλογίᾳ ταύτῃ ἐμφερόμενοι οἱ μὲν διεδέξαντο παῖς πατέρα γνησίως, οἱ δὲ ἑτέροις μὲν ἐγεννήθησαν, ἑτέροις δὲ προσετέθησαν κλήσει, ἀμφοτέρων γέγονεν ἡ μνήμη, καὶ τῶν γεγεννηκότων καὶ τῶν ὡς γεγεννηκότων. οὕτως οὐδέτερον τῶν εὐαγγελίων ψεύδεται, καὶ φύσιν ἀριθμοῦν καὶ νόμον. ἐπεπλάκη γὰρ ἀλλήλοις τὰ γένη τό τε ἀπὸ τοῦ Σολομῶνος καὶ τὸ ἀπὸ τοῦ Νάθαν ἀναστάσεσιν ἀτέκνων καὶ