The Apocriticus of Macarius Magnes

As translated by T. W. Crafer, D.D., 1919

The Apocriticus is a circa fourth century apology written to defend multiple objections against Christianity. It's one of the oldest apologies still surviving, and it argues against both common and uncommon objections from a contemporary Greek of the time.

It also gives a port into the mind of a believing and professing Christian from just after the time of the Nicene Council.^{(325 A.D.)} This is a fascinating chance to see the differences of interpretation between different verses and to compare to how we would today answer some of these objections.

• Translator's Introduction

  Start reading at the translator's introduction here.

• Book One

  Start reading at book one here.

• Table of Contents

  Click here to go to the Table of Contents.

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• ⭳ Download the PDF ⭳

  Download the PDF version of the Apocritius to read at your leisure.

Macarious Magnes ^{Back to Top ↑}

We know very little about Magnes. His importance, from a historical standpoint, comes from this apology, especially since he wrote his opponent's objections verbatim. Some note that his defenses are similar in thought to that of the Cappadocian school, a powerful cultural center in the early Greek Church.

About the Objector ^{Back to Top ↑}

Within the work, we do not know the objector that formulated the complaints against Christianity. However, many scholars believe that it is Porphyry, specifically some of his objections in his mostly lost book, Against Christians.

Note Regarding Footnotes: ^{Back to Top ↑}

Some footnotes left by the translator, Crafer, refer to page and line number of the original Greek version of the Apocriticus. Since we are unable to source the location of these footnotes relative to his translated worked, we were forced to remove these footnotes.