Julius Africanus

Julius Africanus, whose five volumes On Chronology still survive, was commissioned in the reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who succeeded Macrinus, to restore the city of Emmaus, which was afterward called Nicopolis. There is a letter of his to Origen On the Question of Susanna, in which he argues that this story is not contained in the Hebrew, and that it does not fit Hebrew word-derivation, because of the wordplay on prinos and prisai, schinos and schisai. In reply, Origen wrote a learned letter. Another letter of his survives, To Aristides, in which he discusses at length the apparent disagreements in the genealogy of our Savior as recorded by Matthew and Luke. [a]