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Aristo Pellaeus

Wace's Dictionary of Early Christian Biography

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Aristo Pellaeus , the supposed author of a lost dialogue between Papiscus and Jason, quoted, without his name, by Origen (cont. Celsus , iv. 52) and referred to by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. iv. c. 6, pp. 145, 146); by Moses Chorenensis, in a history of Armenia (bk. ii. c. 57); and by Maximus, in his notes on the work de Mystica Theol., ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite (c. i. p. 17, ed. Corderii) in these words, "I have also read the expression 'seven heavens' in the dialogue of Papiscus and Jason, composed by Aristo of Pella, which Clemens of Alexandria in the 6th book of his Hypotyposes says was written by St. Luke." This testimony is the only one connecting the name of Aristo with the dialogue, and though doubt has been thrown on its trustworthiness by its strange assertion that Clement attributed the work to St. Luke, Maximus is far less likely to be in error when simply giving the name of an author than when repeating another's words. Jason, a Jewish Christian, argues so conclusively that the Messianic prophecies are fulfilled in our Lord that his opponent, the Jew Papiscus, begs to be baptized.

We cannot fix the date of this dialogue, except that it must have been written before the time of Celsus, i.e. before the middle of the 2nd cent.; and, if Aristo be its author, we see from Eusebius (l.c. ) that he lived after the destruction of Jerusalem. It is referred to in a pseudo-Cyprianic Ep. Hartd. Opp. Cypr. iii. p. 119. If Maximus's information be correct, Clement's belief that St. Luke was the writer of the Dialogue shews at least that it must have been commonly assigned to a very early date (Routh, Rel. Sac. i. 91–109; Harnack, Alt. Chr. Lit. i. 92 95–97).

[S.M.]