Sextus Julius Africanus
Who was Sextus Julius Africanus?
Greco-Roman Christian traveller and historian (c.160–c.240)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Sextus Julius Africanus (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 160 – c. 240) was a Greco-Roman Christian traveler, historian, and scholar whose writings influenced early Christian chronology and historiography. Born in Aelia Capitolina, the Roman city built on the ruins of Jerusalem, he lived during an intellectually vibrant period of early Christianity. Scholars at that time were trying to align biblical history with Greco-Roman knowledge. His exact background is debated; some suggest North African roots due to his last name, Africanus, but this is unconfirmed.
Africanus's most important surviving work is the Chronographiai, a five-volume chronological history that calculated the age of the world from creation to his time. He estimated that the world was created about 5,500 years before Christ, placing the Incarnation in the middle of human history by his assessment. This timeline heavily influenced later Christian historiography, which would be refined and debated for centuries.
Africanus was widely traveled for his time. He journeyed throughout the eastern Mediterranean, visiting Alexandria to engage with the intellectual culture and meeting the philosopher Bardaisan in Edessa. Later, he traveled to Rome and successfully persuaded Emperor Alexander Severus to rebuild the library in the Pantheon, showing his scholarly reputation and imperial court access.
Besides the Chronographiai, Africanus wrote the Kestoi, an encyclopedic collection covering topics like agriculture, medicine, military tactics, and natural history. The Kestoi survives only in fragments but shows his broad interests. He also wrote two notable surviving letters: one to Origen questioning the story of Susanna in the Book of Daniel, and another to Aristides about contradictions in the Gospels' genealogies of Christ. These letters show his critical engagement with scripture.
Africanus died in or near Jerusalem, where he was born when it was Aelia Capitolina. His life connected various regions of the ancient Near East and the Mediterranean, showing the interconnected Roman intellectual and religious culture of the third century. Although many of his works survive only in fragments or through later citations, he significantly impacted early Christian thought and church history writing.
Before Fame
Sextus Julius Africanus was born in Aelia Capitolina, the Roman city built by Emperor Hadrian on the ruins of Jerusalem after the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–135 CE. Growing up in this city, built on such important historical and religious ground, likely influenced his later interests in history, chronology, and the blending of Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman traditions. The specific details of his education and early career aren't recorded in existing sources.
What we do know is that by early adulthood, he had a broad Hellenistic education and had converted to Christianity. This put him in a generation of scholars who were working to establish Christianity as a serious intellectual tradition in conversation with classical learning. His travels across the eastern Mediterranean, including time in Alexandria and at the court in Edessa, indicate he gathered knowledge and built connections before his works gained wider recognition.
Key Achievements
- Authored the Chronographiai, a five-volume world history that established an influential Christian chronological framework dating creation to 5500 BC
- Wrote the Kestoi, an encyclopedic collection covering medicine, agriculture, military science, and natural history
- Composed a critical letter to Origen challenging the scriptural authenticity of the Susanna narrative, pioneering early biblical textual criticism
- Successfully petitioned Emperor Alexander Severus to restore the imperial public library at the Pantheon in Rome
- Directly influenced the historian Eusebius of Caesarea, whose own ecclesiastical chronology built substantially on Africanus's framework
Did You Know?
- 01.Africanus calculated that Jesus Christ was born in the year 5500 from the creation of the world, intentionally placing the Incarnation at the exact midpoint of his projected 11,000-year total span of human history.
- 02.He personally petitioned Roman Emperor Alexander Severus and successfully obtained imperial backing to rebuild and reorganize the public library housed in the Pantheon in Rome.
- 03.His letter to Origen is one of the earliest surviving examples of a Christian scholar applying textual criticism to question the canonical authenticity of a biblical passage, arguing the Susanna episode was a late Greek addition to Daniel.
- 04.His encyclopedic work Kestoi contained sections on topics as varied as how to cure sick horses, military stratagems, and methods of making perfume, reflecting an unusually broad range of practical and scientific interests.
- 05.He met and conversed with the Syriac philosopher and theologian Bardaisan during a visit to Edessa, a meeting that connected him directly with one of the most distinctive early Christian intellectual traditions of the East.