ARISTIONE, Saint. - A disciple of the Lord. Papias, in the preface to his Exegesis of the Lord’s Words, says that he wished to hand on what he had heard and learned from the «presbyters» (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. III, 39, 3) or from the hearers of the «presbyters» (39, 4), and for this reason he had inquired about what had been said by the «disciples of the Lord» (the apostles) and about what were said by A. and the «presbyter» John, disciples of the Lord.
The problem of A. is closely linked to the famous question of the «presbyter» John. Papias is concerned with the oral doctrine of the Church, both because for him the living voice is superior to books (39, 4) and because of the needs of anti-Gnostic polemic (39, 3). He therefore lists the guarantors of the oral tradition in the Church in three groups: 1) presbyters, 2) hearers of the presbyters whom he had occasion to hear, and 3) the disciples of the Lord, A. and the «presbyter» John. According to the context, A. and the «presbyter» John must have been direct disciples of the Lord who were still alive in the time of Papias. The system of oral tradition in Papias: apostles, presbyters, hearers of the presbyters, and alongside them «the disciples of the Lord» (A. and the «presbyter» John), suggests analogies in the transmission of oral tradition among the Jews. On the one hand there is the series of the first transmitters (the «presbyters» probably correspond to the Abhith, cf. Hebr. 11, 2), and alongside them stand the witnesses ('edut) who confirm the truth of the oral tradition (on witnesses in Jewish tradition cf. Jos. Ranft, Der Ursprung des katholischen Traditionsprinzips, Würzburg 1931, p. 15 ff.). By accepting thus the viewpoint of Irenaeus and not that of Eusebius regarding the text of Papias, A. would be a disciple of Jesus and not a «presbyter» in the series of transmitters, contemporary with the «presbyter» John in Asia Minor.
In the Constitutiones apostolorum, VII, 46, 8 a certain Ariston (not Ariston) is mentioned as the first bishop of Smyrna, whereas according to Irenaeus (Adv. Haer., III, 3, 4) and Eusebius (Hist. eccl. III, 36, 1) Polycarp was the first bishop of Smyrna. The author of this chapter knew Eusebius, with whom he distinguishes two Johns in Ephesus (46, 7) and, like Eusebius, saw in A. a «presbyter», who thus becomes for him a bishop; but the attribution of Smyrna as the residence of Ariston may not be an invention.
Papia ha spesso (Eusebio, op. cit., III, 39, 7) menzionato nella sua opera le «tradizioni» udite da A. sui discorsi del Signore. Il ms. armeno 229 (sec. X) di Egmizan (riproduzione fotografica di F. Mader, Parigi 1920; cf. anche Eb. Nestle-E. V. Dobschütz, Einführung in das Neue Testament, tav. 19) attribuisce la chiusa del Vangelo di Marco (16, 9-20) al presbitero Ariston (il nome come in Constit. apostol., VII, 46, 8), forse in base alla menzione del miracolo della bevanda velenosa (Mc. 16, 18), che, come miracolo di Giuseppe Barsaba «il giusto», è stato raccontato da Papia e che da un manoscritto dell'Historia eccl. di Rufino, è attribuito ad A. (cf. F. X. Funk, Patres apostolici, I, Tubinga 1901, p. 353 n). Si tratta della congettura di un dotto, che vede con Eusebio in A. un «presbitero» e non un discepolo di Gesù. Contro questa congettura cf. B. H. Streeter, The Four Gospels, Londra 1936, p. 344 sgg. Th. Zahn attribuisce ad A., oltre Mc. 16, 14-16, la pericope dell'adultera in Io. 8, 1-11, mentre J. Chapman, basandosi su analogie con Mc. 16, 9-20, fa A. autore anche dell'epistola agli Ebrei.
Poiché A. non figura nel Nuovo Testamento, i Greci non l'hanno incluso nell'elenco dei 70 discepoli di Gesù; ma i Latini (cf. s. Girolamo, De viris illustr., 18) la considerano come tale nel Martirolgio romano, che, fondandosi sugli apocrifi Atti di Barnaba, ne fa un vescovo di Salamina in Cipro e ne fissa la morte (e festa) al 22 febbr.