The Influence of Julius Africanus’ Chronographiae 59
bilaeorum 4, 17-19), and transmits it separately from Byzantine historiography and
chronicles.25 26
A passage on Arphaxad confirms that Malalas also attributed the invention of
astronomical wisdom to Seth. As the sons of Seth had been warned in advance about
the coming destruction of mankind, they engraved on two stelae the astronomical
discoveries of their father. According to Malalas {Chronographia I 5), Cainan, son of
Arphaxad, rediscovered these stelae. Malalas claims Flavius Josephus as his source.
Actually, Josephus {Antiquitates ludaicae I 70-71) says that the descendants of Seth
were the inventors of that wisdom. He does not mention Seth. Besides that, the Book
of Jubilees {Liber Jubilaeorum 8, 3) attests the recovery of the stelae, which were en-
graved by the Watchers. The recovery is attributed to Cainan, son of Arphaxad. As a
consequence, it is possible that Malalas derives his account about the recovery of the
astronomical discoveries of Seth from Africanus. The author of the Chronographiae
conflated the two versions preserved by Josephus and Jubilees f
Another context in which Malalas probably has taken the tradition of Africanus
into consideration is chronological lore and, in particular, the question of the date of
Christ’s Incarnation. In a work which, albeit entitled Chronographia, provides little space
for chronological calculations, Malalas includes a reflection on the Epiphany of Christ.
While accepting Africanus’ thesis that Peleg (Phalek) lived in the year 3000 after the
Creation, Malalas provides a different calculation for the Incarnation. In his opinion,
Christ came into the world in 5967, and not in 5500 as stated by Africanus. Malalas’
calculation leads to a consideration of the death and Resurrection of Christ as the ful-
filment of the chronological plan according to which the world’s existence is deemed
to be 6000 years. It is highly probable that Malalas deduced this calculation from his
source Timotheus, who worked in the Alexandrian area. Africanus, too, was convinced
that the world’s duration was 6000 years. In 221 AD, the world had reached year 5723
from its creation, so that there were many years to go before 6000 were achieved. For
Malalas, dating the Epiphany to 5967 facilitates the idea that the 6000 years were to be
accomplished at the Resurrection, since for Malalas Christ lived for 33 years. In Afri-
25 On Africanus’ tradition in the Byzantine universal history and chronicles see, e.g, loannes Antiochenus,
Historia chronica fr. 1,13-14 Roberto; Symeon Logothetes, Chronicon 24, 7 (p. 26,30-31 Wahlgren); Geor-
gius Monachus, Chronicon p. 10,5 de Boor; Georgius Cedrenus, Historiarum Compendium 8.1,11 Tartaglia
(= Ps. Symeon £ 2iv, 36); Michael Syrus, Chronicon I 5 (Translation p. 9 Chabot). On Malalas’ representa-
tion of Seth see Klijn (1977), pp. 48-53 and Hörling (1980), pp. 46-48. Malalas’ interest for the Hellenistic
motif of the first inventors frotoi heuretai) also derives from Africanus: see Roberto (2011), pp. 158-159.
26 Liber Jubilaeorum 8,1-4: “In the twenty-ninth jubilee, in the first week - at its beginning - Arpachshad
married a woman named Rasueya, the daughter of Susan, the daughter of Elam. She gave birth to a son
for him in the third year of this week, and he named him Kainan. When the boy grew up, his father
taught him (the art of) writing. He went to look for a place of his own where he could possess his own
city. He found an inscription which the ancients had incised in a rock. He read what was in it, copied
it, and sinned on the basis of what was in it, since in it was the Watchers’ teaching by which they used
to observe the omens of the sun, moon, and stars and every heavenly sign. He wrote (it) down but told
no one about it because he was afraid to tell Noah about it lest he become angry at him about it”. On
Africanus as the source of Malalas’narration of the discovery of the stelae see Adler (1989), pp. 215-216;
Jeffreys (1996), p. 63; Berthelot (2004), p. 46.