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In these [Apologies] Justin gives no formal or logical exposition, scarcely even an outline, of a complete Christian system. His purpose is merely to collect arguments to justify fair and equitable treatment of the Christians by the authorities, and to support his demand that they should not be condemned unheard. With this object he seeks to refute the popular calumnies against the Christians, he insists on the excellence and truth of the Christian teaching and on the effects which it produces, and he struggles to prove the claims of Christ, especially by the argument from the fulfilment of prophecy. Thus, although he is dogmatic to a degree exceptional among Apologists, owing to the fact that he concentrates his argument round the Person of Christ, yet it is futile to seek in the Apologies for a formulated system of Christian theology. --from the IntroductionA. W. F. Blunt was Fellow and lecturer in Classics at Exeter College, Oxford University. Among his other publications are ''Studies in Apostolic Christianity,'' ''Israel and World History,'' and ''The Ancient World and Its Legacy to Us.''

The intention of Ancient Texts and Translations (ATT) is to make available a variety of ancient documents and document collections to a broad range of readers. The series will include reprints of long out-of- print volumes, revisions of earlier editions, and completely new volumes. The understanding of ancient societies depends upon our close reading of the documents, however fragmentary, that have survived. --K. C. Hanson Series Editor

The Aramaic papyri found on the island of Elephantine, Egypt (ancient Yeb, opposite Syene) come from the fifth century BC. They include letters, personal archives, public archives, the 'Words of Ahikar,' the Behistun inscription, accounts, and lists. Cowley provides here the Aramaic transcriptions and English translations for all the texts available to him. In this edition, an updated bibliography is provided.Some hundred years after the discovery of the first Aramaic papyri almost all the published pieces were brought together in a small volume by one of the main contributors to the decipherment and publication of these texts, A. E. Cowley. For thirty years, until publication of the Brooklyn Museum Aramaic papyri the name of Cowley was virtually synonymous with Aramaic papyri. -Bezalel Porten author of Archives of ElephantineA. E. Cowley (1861-1931) was a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford University, and Sub-librarian of the Bodleian Library. Among his other publications is 'The Samaritan Liturgy'; he also edited the English edition of 'Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar.'

The text of this edition is based on collations of three MSS. unknown to previous editors, together with a fresh collation of the two remaining authorities. Passages in which the LXX version appears to have suggested words or phrases are printed in uncial type. The translation aims at being literal. The notes are intended to be useful to students of a not very advanced type. We venture to hope that the Indices will be found serviceable. The somewhat full Table of Contents is intended to obviate the necessity of an Index Rerum. --from the Preface

ContentsI. History of the ManuscriptII. PalaeographyIII. ContentsIV. The Problem of the TextV. DateVI. The Text of W and the Early Church FathersVII. Collation

The intention of Ancient Texts and Translations (ATT) is to make available a variety of ancient documents and document collections to a broad range of readers. The series will include reprints of long out-of- print volumes, revisions of earlier editions, and completely new volumes. The understanding of ancient societies depends upon our close reading of the documents, however fragmentary, that have survived. --K. C. Hanson Series Editor

Reprint. Originally published: Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1878.