FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS AGAINST APION.(1)
BOOK 1.
1. I SUPPOSE that by my books of the Antiquity of the Jews, most
excellent Epaphroditus, (2) have made it evident to those who
peruse them, that our Jewish nation is of very great antiquity,
and had a distinct subsistence of its own originally; as also,
I have therein declared how we came to inhabit this country wherein
we now live. Those Antiquities contain the history of five thousand
years, and are taken out of our sacred books, but are translated
by me into the Greek tongue. However, since I observe a considerable
number of people giving ear to the reproaches that are laid against
us by those who bear ill-will to us, and will not believe what
I have written concerning the antiquity of our nation, while they
take it for a plain sign that our nation is of a late date, because
they are not so much as vouchsafed a bare mention by the most
famous historiographers among the Grecians. I therefore have thought
myself under an obligation to write somewhat briefly about these
subjects, in order to convict those that reproach us of spite
and voluntary falsehood, and to correct the ignorance of others,
and withal to instruct all those who are desirous of knowing the
truth of what great antiquity we really are. As for the witnesses
whom I shall produce for the proof of what I say, they shall be
such as are esteemed to be of the greatest reputation for truth,
and the most skillful in the knowledge of all antiquity by the
Greeks themselves. I will also show, that those who have written
so reproachfully and falsely about us are to be convicted by what
they have written themselves to the contrary. I shall also endeavor
to give an account of the reasons why it hath so happened, that
there have not been a great number of Greeks who have made mention
of our nation in their histories. I will, however, bring those
Grecians to light who have not omitted such our history, for the
sake of those that either do not know them, or pretend not to
know them already.
2. And now, in the first place, I cannot but greatly wonder at
those men, who suppose that we must attend to none but Grecians,
when we are inquiring about the most ancient facts, and must inform
ourselves of their truth from them only, while we must not believe
ourselves nor other men; for I am convinced that the very reverse
is the truth of the case. I mean this, - if we will not be led
by vain opinions, but will make inquiry after truth from facts
themselves; for they will find that almost all which concerns
the Greeks happened not long ago; nay, one may say, is of yesterday
only. I speak of the building of their cities, the inventions
of their arts, and the description of their laws; and as for their
care about the writing down of their histories, it is very near
the last thing they set about. However, they acknowledge themselves
so far, that they were the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, and the Phoenicians
(for I will not now reckon ourselves among them) that have preserved
the memorials of the most ancient and most lasting traditions
of mankind; for almost all these nations inhabit such countries
as are least subject to destruction from the world about them;
and these also have taken especial care to have nothing omitted
of what was [remarkably] done among them; but their history was
esteemed sacred, and put into public tables, as written by men
of the greatest wisdom they had among them. But as for the place
where the Grecians inhabit, ten thousand destructions have overtaken
it, and blotted out the memory of former actions; so that they
were ever beginning a new way of living, and supposed that every
one of them was the origin of their new state. It was also late,
and with difficulty, that they came to know the letters they now
use; for those who would advance their use of these letters to
the greatest antiquity pretend that they learned them from the
Phoenicians and from Cadmus; yet is nobody able to demonstrate
that they have any writing preserved from that time, neither in
their temples, nor in any other public monuments. This appears,
because the time when those lived who went to the Trojan war,
so many years afterward, is in great doubt, and great inquiry
is made, whether the Greeks used their letters at that time; and
the most prevailing opinion, and that nearest the truth, is, that
their present way of using those letters was unknown at that time.
However, there is not any writing which the Greeks agree to he
genuine among them ancienter than Homer's Poems, who must plainly
he confessed later than the siege of Troy; nay, the report goes,
that even he did not leave his poems in writing, but that their
memory was preserved in songs, and they were put together afterward,
and that this is the reason of such a number of variations as
are found in them. (3) As for those who set themselves about writing
their histories, I mean such as Cadmus of Miletus, and Acusilaus
of Argos, and any others that may be mentioned as succeeding Acusilaus,
they lived but a little while before the Persian expedition into
Greece. But then for those that first introduced philosophy, and
the consideration of things celestial and divine among them, such
as Pherceydes the Syrian, and Pythagoras, and Thales, all with
one consent agree, that they learned what they knew of the Egyptians
and Chaldeans, and wrote but little And these are the things which
are supposed to be the oldest of all among the Greeks; and they
have much ado to believe that the writings ascribed to those men
are genuine.
3. How can it then be other than an absurd thing, for the Greeks
to be so proud, and to vaunt themselves to be the only people
that are acquainted with antiquity, and that have delivered the
true accounts of those early times after an accurate manner? Nay,
who is there that cannot easily gather from the Greek writers
themselves, that they knew but little on any good foundation when
they set to write, but rather wrote their histories from their
own conjectures? Accordingly, they confute one another in their
own books to purpose, and are not ashamed. to give us the most
contradictory accounts of the same things; and I should spend
my time to little purpose, if I should pretend to teach the Greeks
that which they know better than I already, what a great disagreement
there is between Hellanicus and Acusilaus about their genealogies;
in how many eases Acusilaus corrects Hesiod: or after what manner
Ephorus demonstrates Hellanicus to have told lies in the greatest
part of his history; as does Timeus in like manner as to Ephorus,
and the succeeding writers do to Timeus, and all the later writers
do to Herodotus (3) nor could Timeus agree with Antiochus and
Philistius, or with Callias, about the Sicilian History, no more
than do the several writers of the Athide follow one another about
the Athenian affairs; nor do the historians the like, that wrote
the Argolics, about the affairs of the Argives. And now what need
I say any more about particular cities and smaller places, while
in the most approved writers of the expedition of the Persians,
and of the actions which were therein performed, there are so
great differences? Nay, Thucydides himself is accused of some
as writing what is false, although he seems to have given us the
exactest history of the affairs of his own time. (4)
4. As for the occasions of so great disagreement of theirs, there
may be assigned many that are very probable, if any have a mind
to make an inquiry about them; but I ascribe these contradictions
chiefly to two causes, which I will now mention, and still think
what I shall mention in the first place to be the principal of
all. For if we remember that in the beginning the Greeks had taken
no care to have public records of their several transactions preserved,
this must for certain have afforded those that would afterward
write about those ancient transactions the opportunity of making
mistakes, and the power of making lies also; for this original
recording of such ancient transactions hath not only been neglected
by the other states of Greece, but even among the Athenians themselves
also, who pretend to be Aborigines, and to have applied themselves
to learning, there are no such records extant; nay, they say themselves
that the laws of Draco concerning murders, which are now extant
in writing, are the most ancient of their public records; which
Draco yet lived but a little before the tyrant Pisistratus. (5)
For as to the Arcadians, who make such boasts of their antiquity,
what need I speak of them in particular, since it was still later
before they got their letters, and learned them, and that with
difficulty also. (6)
5. There must therefore naturally arise great differences among
writers, when they had no original records to lay for their foundation,
which might at once inform those who had an inclination to learn,
and contradict those that would tell lies. However, we are to
suppose a second occasion besides the former of these contradictions;
it is this: That those who were the most zealous to write history
were not solicitous for the discovery of truth, although it was
very easy for them always to make such a profession; but their
business was to demonstrate that they could write well, and make
an impression upon mankind thereby; and in what manner of writing
they thought they were able to exceed others, to that did they
apply themselves, Some of them betook themselves to the writing
of fabulous narrations; some of them endeavored to please the
cities or the kings, by writing in their commendation; others
of them fell to finding faults with transactions, or with the
writers of such transactions, and thought to make a great figure
by so doing. And indeed these do what is of all things the most
contrary to true history; for it is the great character of true
history that all concerned therein both speak and write the same
things; while these men, by writing differently about the same
things, think they shall be believed to write with the greatest
regard to truth. We therefore [who are Jews] must yield to the
Grecian writers as to language and eloquence of composition; but
then we shall give them no such preference as to the verity of
ancient history, and least of all as to that part which concerns
the affairs of our own several countries.
6. As to the care of writing down the records from the earliest
antiquity among the Egyptians and Babylonians; that the priests
were intrusted therewith, and employed a philosophical concern
about it; that they were the Chaldean priests that did so among
the Babylonians; and that the Phoenicians, who were mingled among
the Greeks, did especially make use of their letters, both for
the common affairs of life, and for the delivering down the history
of common transactions, I think I may omit any proof, because
all men allow it so to be. But now as to our forefathers, that
they took no less care about writing such records, (for I will
not say they took greater care than the others I spoke of,) and
that they committed that matter to their high priests and to their
prophets, and that these records have been written all along down
to our own times with the utmost accuracy; nay, if it be not too
bold for me to say it, our history will be so written hereafter;
- I shall endeavor briefly to inform you.
7. For our forefathers did not only appoint the best of these
priests, and those that attended upon the Divine worship, for
that design from the beginning, but made provision that the stock
of the priests should continue unmixed and pure; for he who is
partaker of the priesthood must propagate of a wife of the same
nation, without having any regard to money, or any other dignities;
but he is to make a scrutiny, and take his wife's genealogy from
the ancient tables, and procure many witnesses to it. (7) And
this is our practice not only in Judea, but wheresoever any body
of men of our nation do live; and even there an exact catalogue
of our priests' marriages is kept; I mean at Egypt and at Babylon,
or in any other place of the rest of the habitable earth, whithersoever
our priests are scattered; for they send to Jerusalem the ancient
names of their parents in writing, as well as those of their remoter
ancestors, and signify who are the witnesses also. But if any
war falls out, such as have fallen out a great many of them already,
when Antiochus Epiphanes made an invasion upon our country, as
also when Pompey the Great and Quintilius Varus did so also, and
principally in the wars that have happened in our own times, those
priests that survive them compose new tables of genealogy out
of the old records, and examine the circumstances of the women
that remain; for still they do not admit of those that have been
captives, as suspecting that they had conversation with some foreigners.
But what is the strongest argument of our exact management in
this matter is what I am now going to say, that we have the names
of our high priests from father to son set down in our records
for the interval of two thousand years; and if any of these have
been transgressors of these rules, they are prohibited to present
themselves at the altar, or to be partakers of any other of our
purifications; and this is justly, or rather necessarily done,
because every one is not permitted of his own accord to be a writer,
nor is there any disagreement in what is written; they being only
prophets that have written the original and earliest accounts
of things as they learned them of God himself by inspiration;
and others have written what hath happened in their own times,
and that in a very distinct manner also.
8. For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us,
disagreeing from and contradicting one another, [as the Greeks
have,] but only twenty-two books, (8) which contain the records
of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine;
and of them five belong to Moses, which contain his laws and the
traditions of the origin of mankind till his death. This interval
of time was little short of three thousand years; but as to the
time from the death of Moses till the reign of Artaxerxes king
of Persia, who reigned after Xerxes, the prophets, who were after
Moses, wrote down what was done in their times in thirteen books.
The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and precepts for
the conduct of human life. It is true, our history hath been written
since Artaxerxes very particularly, but hath not been esteemed
of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because
there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that
time; and how firmly we have given credit to these books of our
own nation is evident by what we do; for during so many ages as
have already passed, no one has been so bold as either to add
any thing to them, to take any thing from them, or to make any
change in them; but it is become natural to all Jews immediately,
and from their very birth, to esteem these books to contain Divine
doctrines, and to persist in them, and, if occasion be willingly
to die for them. For it is no new thing for our captives, many
of them in number, and frequently in time, to be seen to endure
racks and deaths of all kinds upon the theatres, that they may
not be obliged to say one word against our laws and the records
that contain them; whereas there are none at all among the Greeks
who would undergo the least harm on that account, no, nor in case
all the writings that are among them were to be destroyed; for
they take them to be such discourses as are framed agreeably to
the inclinations of those that write them; and they have justly
the same opinion of the ancient writers, since they see some of
the present generation bold enough to write about such affairs,
wherein they were not present, nor had concern enough to inform
themselves about them from those that knew them; examples of which
may be had in this late war of ours, where some persons have written
histories, and published them, without having been in the places
concerned, or having been near them when the actions were done;
but these men put a few things together by hearsay, and insolently
abuse the world, and call these writings by the name of Histories.
9. As for myself, I have composed a true history of that whole
war, and of all the particulars that occurred therein, as having
been concerned in all its transactions; for I acted as general
of those among us that are named Galileans, as long as it was
possible for us to make any opposition. I was then seized on by
the Romans, and became a captive. Vespasian also and Titus had
me kept under a guard, and forced me to attend them continually.
At the first I was put into bonds, but was set at liberty afterward,
and sent to accompany Titus when he came from Alexandria to the
siege of Jerusalem; during which time there was nothing done which
escaped my knowledge; for what happened in the Roman camp I saw,
and wrote down carefully; and what informations the deserters
brought [out of the city], I was the only man that understood
them. Afterward I got leisure at Rome; and when all my materials
were prepared for that work, I made use of some persons to assist
me in learning the Greek tongue, and by these means I composed
the history of those transactions. And I was so well assured of
the truth of what I related, that I first of all appealed to those
that had the supreme command in that war, Vespasian and Titus,
as witnesses for me, for to them I presented those books first
of all, and after them to many of the Romans who had been in the
war. I also sold them to many of our own men who understood the
Greek philosophy; among whom were Julius Archelaus, Herod [king
of Chalcis], a person of great gravity, and king Agrippa himself,
a person that deserved the greatest admiration. Now all these
men bore their testimony to me, that I had the strictest regard
to truth; who yet would not have dissembled the matter, nor been
silent, if I, out of ignorance, or out of favor to any side, either
had given false colors to actions, or omitted any of them.
10. There have been indeed some bad men, who have attempted to
calumniate my history, and took it to be a kind of scholastic
performance for the exercise of young men. A strange sort of accusation
and calumny this! since every one that undertakes to deliver the
history of actions truly ought to know them accurately himself
in the first place, as either having been concerned in them himself,
or been informed of them by such as knew them. Now both these
methods of knowledge I may very properly pretend to in the composition
of both my works; for, as I said, I have translated the Antiquities
out of our sacred books; which I easily could do, since I was
a priest by my birth, and have studied that philosophy which is
contained in those writings: and for the History of the War, I
wrote it as having been an actor myself in many of its transactions,
an eye-witness in the greatest part of the rest, and was not unacquainted
with any thing whatsoever that was either said or done in it.
How impudent then must those deserve to be esteemed that undertake
to contradict me about the true state of those affairs! who, although
they pretend to have made use of both the emperors' own memoirs,
yet could not they he acquainted with our affairs who fought against
them.
11. This digression I have been obliged to make out of necessity,
as being desirous to expose the vanity of those that profess to
write histories; and I suppose I have sufficiently declared that
this custom of transmitting down the histories of ancient times
hath been better preserved by those nations which are called Barbarians,
than by the Greeks themselves. I am now willing, in the next place,
to say a few things to those that endeavor to prove that our constitution
is but of late time, for this reason, as they pretend, that the
Greek writers have said nothing about us; after which I shall
produce testimonies for our antiquity out of the writings of foreigners;
I shall also demonstrate that such as cast reproaches upon our
nation do it very unjustly.
12. As for ourselves, therefore, we neither inhabit a maritime
country, nor do we delight in merchandise, nor in such a mixture
with other men as arises from it; but the cities we dwell in are
remote from the sea, and having a fruitful country for our habitation,
we take pains in cultivating that only. Our principal care of
all is this, to educate our children well; and we think it to
be the most necessary business of our whole life to observe the
laws that have been given us, and to keep those rules of piety
that have been delivered down to us. Since, therefore, besides
what we have already taken notice of, we have had a peculiar way
of living of our own, there was no occasion offered us in ancient
ages for intermixing among the Greeks, as they had for mixing
among the Egyptians, by their intercourse of exporting and importing
their several goods; as they also mixed with the Phoenicians,
who lived by the sea-side, by means of their love of lucre in
trade and merchandise. Nor did our forefathers betake themselves,
as did some others, to robbery; nor did they, in order to gain
more wealth, fall into foreign wars, although our country contained
many ten thousands of men of courage sufficient for that purpose.
For this reason it was that the Phoenicians themselves came soon
by trading and navigation to be known to the Grecians, and by
their means the Egyptians became known to the Grecians also, as
did all those people whence the Phoenicians in long voyages over
the seas carried wares to the Grecians. The Medes also and the
Persians, when they were lords of Asia, became well known to them;
and this was especially true of the Persians, who led their armies
as far as the other continent [Europe]. The Thracians were also
known to them by the nearness of their countries, and the Scythians
by the means of those that sailed to Pontus; for it was so in
general that all maritime nations, and those that inhabited near
the eastern or western seas, became most known to those that were
desirous to be writers; but such as had their habitations further
from the sea were for the most part unknown to them which things
appear to have happened as to Europe also, where the city of Rome,
that hath this long time been possessed of so much power, and
hath performed such great actions in war, is yet never mentioned
by Herodotus, nor by Thucydides, nor by any one of their contemporaries;
and it was very late, and with great difficulty, that the Romans
became known to the Greeks. Nay, those that were reckoned the
most exact historians (and Ephorus for one) were so very ignorant
of the Gauls and the Spaniards, that he supposed the Spaniards,
who inhabit so great a part of the western regions of the earth,
to be no more than one city. Those historians also have ventured
to describe such customs as were made use of by them, which they
never had either done or said; and the reason why these writers
did not know the truth of their affairs was this, that they had
not any commerce together; but the reason why they wrote such
falsities was this, that they had a mind to appear to know things
which others had not known. How can it then be any wonder, if
our nation was no more known to many of the Greeks, nor had given
them any occasion to mention them in their writings, while they
were so remote from the sea, and had a conduct of life so peculiar
to themselves?
13. Let us now put the case, therefore, that we made use of this
argument concerning the Grecians, in order to prove that their
nation was not ancient, because nothing is said of them in our
records: would not they laugh at us all, and probably give the
same reasons for our silence that I have now alleged, and would
produce their neighbor nations as witnesses to their own antiquity?
Now the very same thing will I endeavor to do; for I will bring
the Egyptians and the Phoenicians as my principal witnesses, because
nobody can complain Of their testimony as false, on account that
they are known to have borne the greatest ill-will towards us;
I mean this as to the Egyptians in general all of them, while
of the Phoenicians it is known the Tyrians have been most of all
in the same ill disposition towards us: yet do I confess that
I cannot say the same of the Chaldeans, since our first leaders
and ancestors were derived from them; and they do make mention
of us Jews in their records, on account of the kindred there is
between us. Now when I shall have made my assertions good, so
far as concerns the others, I will demonstrate that some of the
Greek writers have made mention of us Jews also, that those who
envy us may not have even this pretense for contradicting what
I have said about our nation.
14. I shall begin with the writings of the Egyptians; not indeed
of those that have written in the Egyptian language, which it
is impossible for me to do. But Manetho was a man who was by birth
an Egyptian, yet had he made himself master of the Greek learning,
as is very evident; for he wrote the history of his own country
in the Greek tongue, by translating it, as he saith himself, out
of their sacred records; he also finds great fault with Herodotus
for his ignorance and false relations of Egyptian affairs. Now
this Manetho, in the second book of his Egyptian History, writes
concerning us in the following manner. I will set down his very
words, as if I were to bring the very man himself into a court
for a witness: "There was a king of ours whose name was Timaus.
Under him it came to pass, I know not how, that God was averse
to us, and there came, after a surprising manner, men of ignoble
birth out of the eastern parts, and had boldness enough to make
an expedition into our country, and with ease subdued it by force,
yet without our hazarding a battle with them. So when they had
gotten those that governed us under their power, they afterwards
burnt down our cities, and demolished the temples of the gods,
and used all the inhabitants after a most barbarous manner; nay,
some they slew, and led their children and their wives into slavery.
At length they made one of themselves king, whose name was Salatis;
he also lived at Memphis, and made both the upper and lower regions
pay tribute, and left garrisons in places that were the most proper
for them. He chiefly aimed to secure the eastern parts, as fore-seeing
that the Assyrians, who had then the greatest power, would be
desirous of that kingdom, and invade them; and as he found in
the Saite Nomos, [Sethroite,] a city very proper for this purpose,
and which lay upon the Bubastic channel, but with regard to a
certain theologic notion was called Avaris, this he rebuilt,
and made very strong by the walls he built about it, and by a
most numerous garrison of two hundred and forty thousand armed
men whom he put into it to keep it. Thither Salatis came in summer
time, partly to gather his corn, and pay his soldiers their wages,
and partly to exercise his armed men, and thereby to terrify foreigners.
When this man had reigned thirteen years, after him reigned another,
whose name was Beon, for forty-four years; after him reigned another,
called Apachnas, thirty-six years and seven months; after him
Apophis reigned sixty-one years, and then Janins fifty years and
one month; after all these reigned Assis forty-nine years and
two months. And these six were the first rulers among them, who
were all along making war with the Egyptians, and were very desirous
gradually to destroy them to the very roots. This whole nation
was styled HYCSOS, that is, Shepherd-kings: for the first
syllable HYC, according to the sacred dialect, denotes a king,
as is SOS a shepherd; but this according to the ordinary
dialect; and of these is compounded HYCSOS: but some say that
these people were Arabians." Now in another copy it is said
that this word does not denote Kings, but, on the contrary,
denotes Captive Shepherds, and this on account of the particle
HYC; for that HYC, with the aspiration, in the Egyptian tongue
again denotes Shepherds, and that expressly also; and this to
me seems the more probable opinion, and more agreeable to ancient
history. [But Manetho goes on]: "These people, whom we have
before named kings, and called shepherds also, and their descendants,"
as he says, "kept possession of Egypt five hundred and eleven
years." After these, he says, "That the kings of Thebais
and the other parts of Egypt made an insurrection against the
shepherds, and that there a terrible and long war was made between
them." He says further, "That under a king, whose name
was Alisphragmuthosis, the shepherds were subdued by him, and
were indeed driven out of other parts of Egypt, but were shut
up in a place that contained ten thousand acres; this place was
named Avaris." Manetho says, "That the shepherds built
a wall round all this place, which was a large and a strong wall,
and this in order to keep all their possessions and their prey
within a place of strength, but that Thummosis the son of Alisphragmuthosis
made an attempt to take them by force and by siege, with four
hundred and eighty thousand men to lie rotund about them, but
that, upon his despair of taking the place by that siege, they
came to a composition with them, that they should leave Egypt,
and go, without any harm to be done to them, whithersoever they
would; and that, after this composition was made, they went away
with their whole families and effects, not fewer in number than
two hundred and forty thousand, and took their journey from Egypt,
through the wilderness, for Syria; but that as they were in fear
of the Assyrians, who had then the dominion over Asia, they built
a city in that country which is now called Judea, and that large
enough to contain this great number of men, and called it Jerusalem.
(9) Now Manetho, in another book of his, says, "That this
nation, thus called Shepherds, were also called Captives, in their
sacred books." And this account of his is the truth; for
feeding of sheep was the employment of our forefathers in the
most ancient ages (10) and as they led such a wandering life in
feeding sheep, they were called Shepherds. Nor was it without
reason that they were called Captives by the Egyptians, since
one of our ancestors, Joseph, told the king of Egypt that he was
a captive, and afterward sent for his brethren into Egypt by the
king's permission. But as for these matters, I shall make a more
exact inquiry about them elsewhere. (11)
15. But now I shall produce the Egyptians as witnesses to the
antiquity of our nation. I shall therefore here bring in Manetho
again, and what he writes as to the order of the times in this
case; and thus he speaks: "When this people or shepherds
were gone out of Egypt to Jerusalem, Tethtoosis the king of Egypt,
who drove them out, reigned afterward twenty-five years and four
months, and then died; after him his son Chebron took the kingdom
for thirteen years; after whom came Amenophis, for twenty years
and seven months; then came his sister Amesses, for twenty-one
years and nine months; after her came Mephres, for twelve years
and nine months; after him was Mephramuthosis, for twenty-five
years and ten months; after him was Thmosis, for nine years and
eight months; after him came Amenophis, for thirty years and ten
months; after him came Orus, for thirty-six years and five months;
then came his daughter Acenchres, for twelve years and one month;
then was her brother Rathotis, for nine years; then was Acencheres,
for twelve years and five months; then came another Acencheres,
for twelve years and three months; after him Armais, for four
years and one month; after him was Ramesses, for one year and
four months; after him came Armesses Miammoun, for sixty-six years
and two months; after him Amenophis, for nineteen years and six
months; after him came Sethosis, and Ramesses, who had an army
of horse, and a naval force. This king appointed his brother,
Armais,, to be his deputy over Egypt." [In another copy it
stood thus: After him came Sethosis, and Ramesses, two brethren,
the former of whom had a naval force, and in a hostile manner
destroyed those that met him upon the sea; but as he slew Ramesses
in no long time afterward, so he appointed another of his brethren
to be his deputy over Egypt.] He also gave him all the other authority
of a king, but with these only injunctions, that he should not
wear the diadem, nor be injurious to the queen, the mother of
his children, and that he should not meddle with the other concubines
of the king; while he made an expedition against Cyprus, and Phoenicia,
and besides against the Assyrians and the Medes. He then subdued
them all, some by his arms, some without fighting, and some by
the terror of his great army; and being puffed up by the great
successes he had had, he went on still the more boldly, and overthrew
the cities and countries that lay in the eastern parts. But after
some considerable time, Armais, who was left in Egypt, did all
those very things, by way of opposition, which his brother had
forbid him to do, without fear; for he used violence to the queen,
and continued to make use of the rest of the concubines, without
sparing any of them; nay, at the persuasion of his friends he
put on the diadem, and set up to oppose his brother. But then
he who was set over the priests of Egypt wrote letters to Sethosis,
and informed him of all that had happened, and how his brother
had set up to oppose him: he therefore returned back to Pelusium
immediately, and recovered his kingdom again. The country also
was called from his name Egypt; for Manetho says, that
Sethosis was himself called Egyptus, as was his brother Armais
called Danaus."
16. This is Manetho's account. And evident it is from the number
of years by him set down belonging to this interval, if they be
summed up together, that these shepherds, as they are here called,
who were no other than our forefathers, were delivered out of
Egypt, and came thence, and inhabited this country, three hundred
and ninety-three years before Danaus came to Argos; although the
Argives look upon him (12) as their most ancient king Manetho,
therefore, hears this testimony to two points of the greatest
consequence to our purpose, and those from the Egyptian records
themselves. In the first place, that we came out of another country
into Egypt; and that withal our deliverance out of it was so ancient
in time as to have preceded the siege of Troy almost a thousand
years; but then, as to those things which Manetbo adds, not from
the Egyptian records, but, as he confesses himself, from some
stories of an uncertain original, I will disprove them hereafter
particularly, and shall demonstrate that they are no better than
incredible fables.
17. I will now, therefore, pass from these records, and come to
those that belong to the Phoenicians, and concern our nation,
and shall produce attestations to what I have said out of them.
There are then records among the Tyrians that take in the history
of many years, and these are public writings, and are kept with
great exactness, and include accounts of the facts done among
them, and such as concern their transactions with other nations
also, those I mean which were worth remembering. Therein it was
recorded that the temple was built by king Solomon at Jerusalem,
one hundred forty-three years and eight months before the Tyrians
built Carthage; and in their annals the building of our temple
is related; for Hirom, the king of Tyre, was the friend of Solomon
our king, and had such friendship transmitted down to him from
his forefathers. He thereupon was ambitious to contribute to the
splendor of this edifice of Solomon, and made him a present of
one hundred and twenty talents of gold. He also cut down the most
excellent timber out of that mountain which is called Libanus,
and sent it to him for adorning its roof. Solomon also not only
made him many other presents, by way of requital, but gave him
a country in Galilee also, that was called Chabulon. (13) But
there was another passion, a philosophic inclination of theirs,
which cemented the friendship that was betwixt them; for they
sent mutual problems to one another, with a desire to have them
unriddled by each other; wherein Solomon was superior to Hirom,
as he was wiser than he in other respects: and many of the epistles
that passed between them are still preserved among the Tyrians.
Now, that this may not depend on my bare word, I will produce
for a witness Dius, one that is believed to have written the Phoenician
History after an accurate manner. This Dius, therefore, writes
thus, in his Histories of the Phoenicians: "Upon the death
of Abibalus, his son Hirom took the kingdom. This king raised
banks at the eastern parts of the city, and enlarged it; he also
joined the temple of Jupiter Olympius, which stood before in an
island by itself, to the city, by raising a causeway between them,
and adorned that temple with donations of gold. He moreover went
up to Libanus, and had timber cut down for the building of temples.
They say further, that Solomon, when he was king of Jerusalem,
sent problems to Hirom to be solved, and desired he would send
others back for him to solve, and that he who could not solve
the problems proposed to him should pay money to him that solved
them. And when Hirom had agreed to the proposals, but was not
able to solve the problems, he was obliged to pay a great deal
of money, as a penalty for the same. As also they relate, that
one·Abdemon, a man of Tyre, did solve the problems, and propose
others which Solomon could not solve, upon which he was obliged
to repay a great deal of money to Hirom." These things are
attested to by Dius, and confirm what we have said upon the same
subjects before.
18. And now I shall add Menander the Ephesian, as an additional
witness. This Menander wrote the Acts that were done both by the
Greeks and Barbarians, under every one of the Tyrian kings, and
had taken much pains to learn their history out of their own records.
Now when he was writing about those kings that had reigned at
Tyre, he came to Hirom, and says thus: "Upon the death of
Abibalus, his son Hirom took the kingdom; he lived fifty-three
years, and reigned thirty-four. He raised a bank on that called
the Broad Place, and dedicated that golden pillar which is in
Jupiter's temple; he also went and cut down timber from the mountain
called Libanus, and got timber Of cedar for the roofs of the temples.
He also pulled down the old temples, and built new ones; besides
this, he consecrated the temples of Hercules and of Astarte. He
first built Hercules's temple in the month Peritus, and that of
Astarte when he made his expedition against the Tityans, who would
not pay him their tribute; and when he had subdued them to himself,
he returned home. Under this king there was a younger son of Abdemon,
who mastered the problems which Solomon king of Jerusalem had
recommended to be solved." Now the time from this king to
the building of Carthage is thus calculated: "Upon the death
of Hirom, Baleazarus his son took the kingdom; he lived forty-three
years, and reigned seven years: after him succeeded his son Abdastartus;
he lived twenty-nine years, and reigned nine years. Now four sons
of his nurse plotted against him and slew him, the eldest of whom
reigned twelve years: after them came Astartus, the son of Deleastartus;
he lived fifty-four years, and reigned twelve years: after him
came his brother Aserymus; he lived fifty-four years, and reigned
nine years: he was slain by his brother Pheles, who took the kingdom
and reigned but eight months, though he lived fifty years: he
was slain by Ithobalus, the priest of Astarte, who reigned thirty-two
years, and lived sixty-eight years: he was succeeded by his son
Badezorus, who lived forty-five years, and reigned six years:
he was succeeded by Matgenus his son; he lived thirty-two years,
and reigned nine years: Pygmalion succeeded him; he lived fifty-six
years, and reigned forty-seven years. Now in the seventh year
of his reign, his sister fled away from him, and built the city
Carthage in Libya." So the whole time from the reign of Hirom,
till the building of Carthage, amounts to the sum of one hundred
fifty-five years and eight months. Since then the temple was built
at Jerusalem in the twelfth year of the reign of Hirom, there
were from the building of the temple, until the building of Carthage,
one hundred forty-three years and eight months. Wherefore, what
occasion is there for alleging any more testimonies out of the
Phoenician histories [on the behalf of our nation], since what
I have said is so thoroughly confirmed already? and to be sure
our ancestors came into this country long before the building
of the temple; for it was not till we had gotten possession of
the whole land by war that we built our temple. And this is the
point that I have clearly proved out of our sacred writings in
my Antiquities.
19. I will now relate what hath been written concerning us in
the Chaldean histories, which records have a great agreement with
our books in oilier things also. Berosus shall be witness to what
I say: he was by birth a Chaldean, well known by the learned,
on account of his publication of the Chaldean books of astronomy
and philosophy among the Greeks. This Berosus, therefore, following
the most ancient records of that nation, gives us a history of
the deluge of waters that then happened, and of the destruction
of mankind thereby, and agrees with Moses's narration thereof.
He also gives us an account of that ark wherein Noah, the origin
of our race, was preserved, when it was brought to the highest
part of the Armenian mountains; after which he gives us a catalogue
of the posterity of Noah, and adds the years of their chronology,
and at length comes down to Nabolassar, who was king of Babylon,
and of the Chaldeans. And when he was relating the acts of this
king, he describes to us how he sent his son Nabuchodonosor against
Egypt, and against our land, with a great army, upon his being
informed that they had revolted from him; and how, by that means,
he subdued them all, and set our temple that was at Jerusalem
on fire; nay, and removed our people entirely out of their own
country, and transferred them to Babylon; when it so happened
that our city was desolate during the interval of seventy years,
until the days of Cyrus king of Persia. He then says, "That
this Babylonian king conquered Egypt, and Syria, and Phoenicia,
and Arabia, and exceeded in his exploits all that had reigned
before him in Babylon and Chaldea." A little after which
Berosus subjoins what follows in his History of Ancient Times.
I will set down Berosus's own accounts, which are these: "When
Nabolassar, father of Nabuchodonosor, heard that the governor
whom he had set over Egypt, and over the parts of Celesyria and
Phoenicia, had revolted from him, he was not able to bear it any
longer; but committing certain parts of his army to his son Nabuchodonosor,
who was then but young, he sent him against the rebel: Nabuchodonosor
joined battle with him, and conquered him, and reduced the country
under his dominion again. Now it so fell out that his father Nabolassar
fell into a distemper at this time, and died in the city of Babylon,
after he had reigned twenty-nine years. But as he understood,
in a little time, that his father Nabolassar was dead, he set
the affairs of Egypt and the other countries in order, and committed
the captives he had taken from the Jews, and Phoenicians, and
Syrians, and of the nations belonging to Egypt, to some of his
friends, that they might conduct that part of the forces that
had on heavy armor, with the rest of his baggage, to Babylonia;
while he went in haste, having but a few with him, over the desert
to Babylon; whither, when he was come, he found the public affairs
had been managed by the Chaldeans, and that the principal person
among them had preserved the kingdom for him. Accordingly, he
now entirely obtained all his father's dominions. He then came,
and ordered the captives to be placed as colonies in the most
proper places of Babylonia; but for himself, he adorned the temple
of Belus, and the other temples, after an elegant manner, out
of the spoils he had taken in this war. He also rebuilt the old
city, and added another to it on the outside, and so far restored
Babylon, that none who should besiege it afterwards might have
it in their power to divert the river, so as to facilitate an
entrance into it; and this he did by building three walls about
the inner city, and three about the outer. Some of these walls
he built of burnt brick and bitumen, and some of brick only. So
when he had thus fortified the city with walls, after an excellent
manner, and had adorned the gates magnificently, he added a new
palace to that which his father had dwelt in, and this close by
it also, and that more eminent in its height, and in its great
splendor. It would perhaps require too long a narration, if any
one were to describe it. However, as prodigiously large and as
magnificent as it was, it was finished in fifteen days. Now in
this palace he erected very high walks, supported by stone pillars,
and by planting what was called a pensile paradise, and
replenishing it with all sorts of trees, he rendered the prospect
an exact resemblance of a mountainous country. This he did to
please his queen, because she had been brought up in Media, and
was fond of a mountainous situation."
20. This is what Berosus relates concerning the forementioned
king, as he relates many other things about him also in the third
book of his Chaldean History; wherein he complains of the Grecian
writers for supposing, without any foundation, that Babylon was
built by Semiramis, (14) queen of Assyria, and for her false pretense
to those wonderful edifices thereto buildings at Babylon, do no
way contradict those ancient and relating, as if they were her
own workmanship; as indeed in these affairs the Chaldean History
cannot but be the most credible. Moreover, we meet with a confirmation
of what Berosus says in the archives of the Phoenicians, concerning
this king Nabuchodonosor, that he conquered all Syria and Phoenicia;
in which case Philostratus agrees with the others in that history
which he composed, where he mentions the siege of Tyre; as does
Megasthenes also, in the fourth book of his Indian History, wherein
he pretends to prove that the forementioned king of the Babylonians
was superior to Hercules in strength and the greatness of his
exploits; for he says that he conquered a great part of Libya,
and conquered Iberia also. Now as to what I have said before about
the temple at Jerusalem, that it was fought against by the Babylonians,
and burnt by them, but was opened again when Cyrus had taken the
kingdom of Asia, shall now be demonstrated from what Berosus adds
further upon that head; for thus he says in his third book: "Nabuchodonosor,
after he had begun to build the forementioned wall, fell sick,
and departed this life, when he had reigned forty-three years;
whereupon his son Evilmerodach obtained the kingdom. He governed
public affairs after an illegal and impure manner, and had a plot
laid against him by Neriglissoor, his sister's husband, and was
slain by him when he had reigned but two years. After he was slain,
Neriglissoor, the person who plotted against him, succeeded him
in the kingdom, and reigned four years; his son Laborosoarchod
obtained the kingdom, though he was but a child, and kept it nine
mouths; but by reason of the very ill temper and ill practices
he exhibited to the world, a plot was laid against him also by
his friends, and he was tormented to death. After his death, the
conspirators got together, and by common consent put the crown
upon the head of Nabonnedus, a man of Babylon, and one who belonged
to that insurrection. In his reign it was that the walls of the
city of Babylon were curiously built with burnt brick and bitumen;
but when he was come to the seventeenth year of his reign, Cyrus
came out of Persia with a great army; and having already conquered
all the rest of Asia, he came hastily to Babylonia. When Nabonnedus
perceived he was coming to attack him, he met him with his forces,
and joining battle with him was beaten, and fled away with a few
of his troops with him, and was shut up within the city Borsippus.
Hereupon Cyrus took Babylon, and gave order that the outer walls
of the city should be demolished, because the city had proved
very troublesome to him, and cost him a great deal of pains to
take it. He then marched away to Borsippus, to besiege Nabonnedus;
but as Nabonnedus did not sustain the siege, but delivered himself
into his hands, he was at first kindly used by Cyrus, who gave
him Carmania, as a place for him to inhabit in, but sent him out
of Babylonia. Accordingly Nabonnedus spent the rest of his time
in that country, and there died."
21. These accounts agree with the true histories in our books;
for in them it is written that Nebuchadnezzar, in the eighteenth
year of his reign, laid our temple desolate, and so it lay in
that state of obscurity for fifty years; but that in the second
year of the reign of Cyrus its foundations were laid, and it was
finished again in the second year of Darius. I will now add the
records of the Phoenicians; for it will not be superfluous to
give the reader demonstrations more than enough on this occasion.
In them we have this enumeration of the times of their several
kings: "Nabuchodonosor besieged Tyre for thirteen years in
the days of Ithobal, their king; after him reigned Baal, ten years;
after him were judges appointed, who judged the people: Ecnibalus,
the son of Baslacus, two months; Chelbes, the son of Abdeus, ten
months; Abbar, the high priest, three months; Mitgonus and Gerastratus,
the sons of Abdelemus, were judges six years; after whom Balatorus
reigned one year; after his death they sent and fetched Merbalus
from Babylon, who reigned four years; after his death they sent
for his brother Hirom, who reigned twenty years. Under his reign
Cyrus became king of Persia." So that the whole interval
is fifty-four years besides three months; for in the seventh year
of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar he began to besiege Tyre, and Cyrus
the Persian took the kingdom in the fourteenth year of Hirom.
So that the records of the Chaldeans and Tyrians agree with our
writings about this temple; and the testimonies here produced
are an indisputable and undeniable attestation to the antiquity
of our nation. And I suppose that what I have already said may
be sufficient to such as are not very contentious.
22. But now it is proper to satisfy the inquiry of those that
disbelieve the records of barbarians, and think none but Greeks
to be worthy of credit, and to produce many of these very Greeks
who were acquainted with our nation, and to set before them such
as upon occasion have made mention of us in their own writings.
Pythagoras, therefore, of Samos, lived in very ancient times,
and was esteemed a person superior to all philosophers in wisdom
and piety towards God. Now it is plain that he did not only know
our doctrines, but was in very great measure a follower and admirer
of them. There is not indeed extant any writing that is owned
for his (15) but many there are who have written his history,
of whom Hermippus is the most celebrated, who was a person very
inquisitive into all sorts of history. Now this Hermippus, in
his first book concerning Pythagoras, speaks thus: "That
Pythagoras, upon the death of one of his associates, whose name
was Calliphon, a Crotonlate by birth, affirmed that this man's
soul conversed with him both night and day, and enjoined him not
to pass over a place where an ass had fallen down; as also not
to drink of such waters as caused thirst again; and to abstain
from all sorts of reproaches." After which he adds thus:
"This he did and said in imitation of the doctrines of the
Jews and Thracians, which he transferred into his own philosophy."
For it is very truly affirmed of this Pythagoras, that he took
a great many of the laws of the Jews into his own philosophy.
Nor was our nation unknown of old to several of the Grecian cities,
and indeed was thought worthy of imitation by some of them. This
is declared by Theophrastus, in his writings concerning laws;
for he says that "the laws of the Tyrians forbid men to swear
foreign oaths." Among which he enumerates some others, and
particularly that called Corban: which oath can only be
found among the Jews, and declares what a man may call "A
thing devoted to God." Nor indeed was Herodotus of Halicarnassus
unacquainted with our nation, but mentions it after a way of his
own, when he saith thus, in the second book concerning the Colchians.
His words are these: "The only people who were circumcised
in their privy members originally, were the Colchians, the Egyptians,
and the Ethiopians; but the Phoenicians and those Syrians that
are in Palestine confess that they learned it from the Egyptians.
And for those Syrians who live about the rivers Thermodon and
Parthenius, and their neighbors the Macrones, they say they have
lately learned it from the Colchians; for these are the only people
that are circumcised among mankind, and appear to have done the
very same thing with the Egyptians. But as for the Egyptians and
Ethiopians themselves, I am not able to say which of them received
it from the other." This therefore is what Herodotus says,
that "the Syrians that are in Palestine are circumcised."
But there are no inhabitants of Palestine that are circumcised
excepting the Jews; and therefore it must be his knowledge of
them that enabled him to speak so much concerning them. Cherilus
also, a still ancienter writer, and a poet, (16) makes mention
of our nation, and informs us that it came to the assistance of
king Xerxes, in his expedition against Greece. For in his enumeration
of all those nations, he last of all inserts ours among the rest,
when he says," At the last there passed over a people, wonderful
to be beheld; for they spake the Phoenician tongue with their
mouths; they dwelt in the Solymean mountains, near a broad lake:
their heads were sooty; they had round rasures on them; their
heads and faces were like nasty horse-heads also, that had been
hardened in the smoke." I think, therefore, that it is evident
to every body that Cherilus means us, because the Solymean mountains
are in our country, wherein we inhabit, as is also the lake called
Asphaltitis; for this is a broader and larger lake than any other
that is in Syria: and thus does Cherilus make mention of us. But
now that not only the lowest sort of the Grecians, but those that
are had in the greatest admiration for their philosophic improvements
among them, did not only know the Jews, but when they lighted
upon any of them, admired them also, it is easy for any one to
know. For Clearchus, who was the scholar of Aristotle, and inferior
to no one of the Peripatetics whomsoever, in his first book concerning
sleep, says that "Aristotle his master related what follows
of a Jew," and sets down Aristotle's own discourse with him.
The account is this, as written down by him: "Now, for a
great part of what this Jew said, it would be too long to recite
it; but what includes in it both wonder and philosophy it may
not be amiss to discourse of. Now, that I may be plain with thee,
Hyperochides, I shall herein seem to thee to relate wonders, and
what will resemble dreams themselves. Hereupon Hyperochides answered
modestly, and said, For that very reason it is that all of us
are very desirous of hearing what thou art going to say. Then
replied Aristotle, For this cause it will be the best way to imitate
that rule of the Rhetoricians, which requires us first to give
an account of the man, and of what nation he was, that so we may
not contradict our master's directions. Then said Hyperochides,
Go on, if it so pleases thee. This man then, [answered Aristotle,]
was by birth a Jew, and came from Celesyria; these Jews are derived
from the Indian philosophers; they are named by the Indians Calami,
and by the Syrians Judaei, and took their name from the
country they inhabit, which is called Judea; but for the name
of their city, it is a very awkward one, for they call it Jerusalem.
Now this man, when he was hospitably treated by a great many,
came down from the upper country to the places near the sea, and
became a Grecian, not only in his language, but in his soul also;
insomuch that when we ourselves happened to be in Asia about the
same places whither he came, he conversed with us, and with other
philosophical persons, and made a trial of our skill in philosophy;
and as he had lived with many learned men, he communicated to
us more information than he received from us." This is Aristotle's
account of the matter, as given us by Clearchus; which Aristotle
discoursed also particularly of the great and wonderful fortitude
of this Jew in his diet, and continent way of living, as those
that please may learn more about him from Clearchus's book itself;
for I avoid setting down any more than is sufficient for my purpose.
Now Clearchus said this by way of digression, for his main design
was of another nature. But for Hecateus of Abdera, who was both
a philosopher, and one very useful ill an active life, he was
contemporary with king Alexander in his youth, and afterward was
with Ptolemy, the son of Lagus; he did not write about the Jewish
affairs by the by only, but composed an entire book concerning
the Jews themselves; out of which book I am willing to run over
a few things, of which I have been treating by way of epitome.
And, in the first place, I will demonstrate the time when this
Hecateus lived; for he mentions the fight that was between Ptolemy
and Demetrius about Gaza, which was fought in the eleventh year
after the death of Alexander, and in the hundred and seventeenth
olympiad, as Castor says in his history. For when he had set down
this olympiad, he says further, that "in this olympiad Ptolemy,
the son of Lagus, beat in battle Demetrius, the son of Antigonus,
who was named Poliorcetes, at Gaza." Now, it is agreed by
all, that Alexander died in the hundred and fourteenth olympiad;
it is therefore evident that our nation flourished in his time,
and in the time of Alexander. Again, Hecateus says to the same
purpose, as follows: "Ptolemy got possession of the places
in Syria after that battle at Gaza; and many, when they heard
of Ptolemy's moderation and humanity, went along with him to Egypt,
and were willing to assist him in his affairs; one of whom (Hecateus
says) was Hezekiah (17) the high priest of the Jews; a man of
about sixty-six years of age, and in great dignity among his own
people. He was a very sensible man, and could speak very movingly,
and was very skillful in the management of affairs, if any other
man ever were so; although, as he says, all the priests of the
Jews took tithes of the products of the earth, and managed public
affairs, and were in number not above fifteen hundred at the most."
Hecateus mentions this Hezekiah a second time, and says, that
"as he was possessed of so great a dignity, and was become
familiar with us, so did he take certain of those that were with
him, and explained to them all the circumstances of their people;
for he had all their habitations and polity down in writing."
Moreover, Hecateus declares again, "what regard we have for
our laws, and that we resolve to endure any thing rather than
transgress them, because we think it right for us to do so."
Whereupon he adds, that "although they are in a bad reputation
among their neighbors, and among all those that come to them,
and have been often treated injuriously by the kings and governors
of Persia, yet can they not be dissuaded from acting what they
think best; but that when they are stripped on this account, and
have torments inflicted upon them, and they are brought to the
most terrible kinds of death, they meet them after an extraordinary
manner, beyond all other people, and will not renounce the religion
of their forefathers." Hecateus also produces demonstrations
not a few of this their resolute tenaciousness of their laws,
when he speaks thus: "Alexander was once at Babylon, and
had an intention to rebuild the temple of Belus that was fallen
to decay, and in order thereto, he commanded all his soldiers
in general to bring earth thither. But the Jews, and they only,
would not comply with that command; nay, they underwent stripes
and great losses of what they had on this account, till the king
forgave them, and permitted them to live in quiet." He adds
further, that "when the Macedonians came to them into that
country, and demolished the [old] temples and the altars, they
assisted them in demolishing them all (18) but [for not assisting
them in rebuilding them] they either underwent losses, or sometimes
obtained forgiveness." He adds further, that "these
men deserve to be admired on that account." He also speaks
of the mighty populousness of our nation, and says that "the
Persians formerly carried away many ten thousands of our people
to Babylon, as also that not a few ten thousands were removed
after Alexander's death into Egypt and Phoenicia, by reason of
the sedition that was arisen in Syria." The same person takes
notice in his history, how large the country is which we inhabit,
as well as of its excellent character, and says, that "the
land in which the Jews inhabit contains three millions of arourae,
(19) and is generally of a most excellent and most fruitful soil;
nor is Judea of lesser dimensions." The same man describe
our city Jerusalem also itself as of a most excellent structure,
and very large, and inhabited from the most ancient times. He
also discourses of the multitude of men in it, and of the construction
of our temple, after the following manner: "There are many
strong places and villages (says he) in the country of Judea;
but one strong city there is, about fifty furlongs in circumference,
which is inhabited by a hundred and twenty thousand men, or thereabouts;
they call it Jerusalem. There is about the middle of the city
a wall of stone, whose length is five hundred feet, and the breadth
a hundred cubits, with double cloisters; wherein there is a square
altar, not made of hewn stone, but composed of white stones gathered
together, having each side twenty cubits long, and its altitude
ten cubits. Hard by it is a large edifice, wherein there is an
altar and a candlestick, both of gold, and in weight two talents:
upon these there is a light that is never extinguished, either
by night or by day. There is no image, nor any thing, nor any
donations therein; nothing at all is there planted, neither grove,
nor any thing of that sort. The priests abide therein both nights
and days, performing certain purifications, and drinking not the
least drop of wine while they are in the temple." Moreover,
he attests that we Jews went as auxiliaries along with king Alexander,
and after him with his successors. I will add further what he
says he learned when he was himself with the same army, concerning
the actions of a man that was a Jew. His words are these: "As
I was myself going to the Red Sea, there followed us a man, whose
name was Mosollam; he was one of the Jewish horsemen who conducted
us; he was a person of great courage, of a strong body, and by
all allowed to be the most skillful archer that was either among
the Greeks or barbarians. Now this man, as people were in great
numbers passing along the road, and a certain augur was observing
an augury by a bird, and requiring them all to stand still, inquired
what they staid for. Hereupon the augur showed him the bird from
whence he took his augury, and told him that if the bird staid
where he was, they ought all to stand still; but that if he got
up, and flew onward, they must go forward; but that if he flew
backward, they must retire again. Mosollam made no reply, but
drew his bow, and shot at the bird, and hit him, and killed him;
and as the augur and some others were very angry, and wished imprecations
upon him, he answered them thus: Why are you so mad as to take
this most unhappy bird into your hands? for how can this bird
give us any true information concerning our march, who could not
foresee how to save himself? for had he been able to foreknow
what was future, he would not have come to this place, but would
have been afraid lest Mosollam the Jew should shoot at him, and
kill him." But of Hecateus's testimonies we have said enough;
for as to such as desire to know more of them, they may easily
obtain them from his book itself. However, I shall not think it
too much for me to name Agatharchides, as having made mention
of us Jews, though in way of derision at our simplicity, as he
supposes it to be; for when he was discoursing of the affairs
of Stratonice, "how she came out of Macedonia into Syria,
and left her husband Demetrius, while yet Seleueus would not marry
her as she expected, but during the time of his raising an army
at Babylon, stirred up a sedition about Antioch; and how, after
that, the king came back, and upon his taking of Antioch, she
fled to Seleucia, and had it in her power to sail away immediately
yet did she comply with a dream which forbade her so to do, and
so was caught and put to death." When Agatharehides had premised
this story, and had jested upon Stratonice for her superstition,
he gives a like example of what was reported concerning us, and
writes thus: "There are a people called Jews, and dwell in
a city the strongest of all other cities, which the inhabitants
call Jerusalem, and are accustomed to rest on every seventh day
(20) on which times they make no use of their arms, nor meddle
with husbandry, nor take care of any affairs of life, but spread
out their hands in their holy places, and pray till the evening.
Now it came to pass, that when Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, came
into this city with his army, that these men, in observing this
mad custom of theirs, instead of guarding the city, suffered their
country to submit itself to a bitter lord; and their law was openly
proved to have commanded a foolish practice. (21) This accident
taught all other men but the Jews to disregard such dreams as
these were, and not to follow the like idle suggestions delivered
as a law, when, in such uncertainty of human reasonings, they
are at a loss what they should do." Now this our procedure
seems a ridiculous thing to Agatharehides, but will appear to
such as consider it without prejudice a great thing, and what
deserved a great many encomiums; I mean, when certain men constantly
prefer the observation of their laws, and their religion towards
God, before the preservation of themselves and their country.
23. Now that some writers have omitted to mention our nation,
not because they knew nothing of us, but because they envied us,
or for some other unjustifiable reasons, I think I can demonstrate
by particular instances; for Hieronymus, who wrote the History
of [Alexander's Successors, lived at the same time with Hecateus,
and was a friend of king Antigonus, and president of Syria. Now
it is plain that Hecateus wrote an entire book concerning us,
while Hieronymus never mentions us in his history, although he
was bred up very near to the places where we live. Thus different
from one another are the inclinations of men; while the one thought
we deserved to be carefully remembered, as some ill-disposed passion
blinded the other's mind so entirely, that he could not discern
the truth. And now certainly the foregoing records of the Egyptians,
and Chaldeans, and Phoenicians, together with so many of the Greek
writers, will be sufficient for the demonstration of our antiquity.
Moreover, besides those forementioned, Theophilus, and Theodotus,
and Mnaseas, and Aristophanes, and Hermogenes, Euhemerus also,
and Conon, and Zopyrion, and perhaps many others, (for I have
not lighted upon all the Greek books,) have made distinct mention
of us. It is true, many of the men before mentioned have made
great mistakes about the true accounts of our nation in the earliest
times, because they had not perused our sacred books; yet have
they all of them afforded their testimony to our antiquity, concerning
which I am now treating. However, Demetrius Phalereus, and the
elder Philo, with Eupolemus, have not greatly missed the truth
about our affairs; whose lesser mistakes ought therefore to be
forgiven them; for it was not in their power to understand our
writings with the utmost accuracy.
24. One particular there is still remaining behind of what I at
first proposed to speak to, and that is, to demonstrate that those
calumnies and reproaches which some have thrown upon our nation,
are lies, and to make use of those writers' own testimonies against
themselves; and that in general this self-contradiction hath happened
to many other authors by reason of their ill-will to some people,
I conclude, is not unknown to such as have read histories with
sufficient care;for some of them have endeavored to disgrace the
nobility of certain nations, and of some of the most glorious
cities, and have cast reproaches upon certain forms of government.
Thus hath Theopompus abused the city of Athens, Polycrates that
of Lacedemon, as hath he hat wrote the Tripoliticus (for he is
not Theopompus, as is supposed bys ome) done by the city of Thebes.
Timeils also hath greatly abused the foregoing people and others
also; and this ill-treatment they use chiefly when they have a
contest with men of the greatest reputation; some out of envy
and malice, and others as supposing that by this foolish talking
of theirs they may be thought worthy of being remembered themselves;
and indeed they do by no means fail of their hopes, with regard
to the foolish part of mankind, but men of sober judgment still
condemn them of great malignity.
25. Now the Egyptians were the first that cast reproaches upon
us; in order to please which nation, some others undertook to
pervert the truth, while they would neither own that our forefathers
came into Egypt from another country, as the fact was, nor give
a true account of our departure thence. And indeed the Egyptians
took many occasions to hate us and envy us: in the first place,
because our ancestors had had the dominion over their country?
and when they were delivered from them, and gone to their own
country again, they lived there in prosperity. In the next place,
the difference of our religion from theirs hath occasioned great
enmity between us, while our way of Divine worship did as much
exceed that which their laws appointed, as does the nature of
God exceed that of brute beasts; for so far they all agree through
the whole country, to esteem such animals as gods, although they
differ one from another in the peculiar worship they severally
pay to them. And certainly men they are entirely of vain and foolish
minds, who have thus accustomed themselves from the beginning
to have such bad notions concerning their gods, and could not
think of imitating that decent form of Divine worship which we
made use of, though, when they saw our institutions approved of
by many others, they could not but envy us on that account; for
some of them have proceeded to that degree of folly and meanness
in their conduct, as not to scruple to contradict their own ancient
records, nay, to contradict themselves also in their writings,
and yet were so blinded by their passions as not to discern it.
26. And now I will turn my discourse to one of their principal
writers, whom I have a little before made use of as a witness
to our antiquity; I mean Manetho. (22) He promised to interpret
the Egyptian history out of their sacred writings, and premised
this: that "our people had come into Egypt, many ten thousands
in number, and subdued its inhabitants;" and when he had
further confessed that "we went out of that country afterward,
and settled in that country which is now called Judea, and there
built Jerusalem and its temple." Now thus far he followed
his ancient records; but after this he permits himself, in order
to appear to have written what rumors and reports passed abroad
about the Jews, and introduces incredible narrations, as if he
would have the Egyptian multitude, that had the leprosy and other
distempers, to have been mixed with us, as he says they were,
and that they were condemned to fly out of Egypt together; for
he mentions Amenophis, a fictitious king's name, though on that
account he durst not set down the number of years of his reign,
which yet he had accurately done as to the other kings he mentions;
he then ascribes certain fabulous stories to this king, as having
in a manner forgotten how he had already related that the departure
of the shepherds for Jerusalem had been five hundred and eighteen
years before; for Tethmosis was king when they went away. Now,
from his days, the reigns of the intermediate kings, according
to Manethe, amounted to three hundred and ninety-three years,
as he says himself, till the two brothers Sethos and Hermeus;
the one of whom, Sethos, was called by that other name of Egyptus,
and the other, Hermeus, by that of Danaus. He also says that Sethos
east the other out of Egypt, and reigned fifty-nine years, as
did his eldest son Rhampses reign after him sixty-six years. When
Manethe therefore had acknowledged that our forefathers were gone
out of Egypt so many years ago, he introduces his fictitious king
Amenophis, and says thus: "This king was desirous to become
a spectator of the gods, as had Orus, one of his predecessors
in that kingdom, desired the same before him; he also communicated
that his desire to his namesake Amenophis, who was the son of
Papis, and one that seemed to partake of a divine nature, both
as to wisdom and the knowledge of futurities." Manethe adds,
"how this namesake of his told him that he might see the
gods, if he would clear the whole country of the lepers and of
the other impure people; that the king was pleased with this injunction,
and got together all that had any defect in their bodies out of
Egypt; and that their number was eighty thousand; whom he sent
to those quarries which are on the east side of the Nile, that
they might work in them, and might be separated from the rest
of the Egyptians." He says further, that "there were
some of the learned priests that were polluted with the leprosy;
but that still this Amenophis, the wise man and the prophet, was
afraid that the gods would be angry at him and at the king, if
there should appear to have been violence offered them; who also
added this further, [out of his sagacity about futurities,] that
certain people would come to the assistance of these polluted
wretches, and would conquer Egypt, and keep it in their possession
thirteen years; that, however, he durst not tell the king of these
things, but that he left a writing behind him about all those
matters, and then slew himself, which made the king disconsolate."
After which he writes thus verbatim: "After those
that were sent to work in the quarries had continued in that miserable
state for a long while, the king was desired that he would set
apart the city Avaris, which was then left desolate of the shepherds,
for their habitation and protection; which desire he granted them.
Now this city, according to the ancient theology, was Typho's
city. But when these men were gotten into it, and found the place
fit for a revolt, they appointed themselves a ruler out of the
priests of Hellopolis, whose name was Osarsiph, and they took
their oaths that they would be obedient to him in all things.
He then, in the first place, made this law for them, That they
should neither worship the Egyptian gods, nor should abstain from
any one of those sacred animals which they have in the highest
esteem, but kill and destroy them all; that they should join themselves
to nobody but to those that were of this confederacy. When he
had made such laws as these, and many more such as were mainly
opposite to the customs of the Egyptians, (23) he gave order that
they should use the multitude of the hands they had in building
walls about their City, and make themselves ready for a war with
king Amenophis, while he did himself take into his friendship
the other priests, and those that were polluted with them, and
sent ambassadors to those shepherds who had been driven out of
the land by Tefilmosis to the city called Jerusalem; whereby he
informed them of his own affairs, and of the state of those others
that had been treated after such an ignominious manner, and desired
that they would come with one consent to his assistance in this
war against Egypt. He also promised that he would, in the first
place, bring them back to their ancient city and country Avaris,
and provide a plentiful maintenance for their multitude; that
he would protect them and fight for them as occasion should require,
and would easily reduce the country under their dominion. These
shepherds were all very glad of this message, and came away with
alacrity all together, being in number two hundred thousand men;
and in a little time they came to Avaris. And now Amenophis the
king of Egypt, upon his being informed of their invasion, was
in great confusion, as calling to mind what Amenophis, the son
of Papis, had foretold him; and, in the first place, he assembled
the multitude of the Egyptians, and took counsel with their leaders,
and sent for their sacred animals to him, especially for those
that were principally worshipped in their temples, and gave a
particular charge to the priests distinctly, that they should
hide the images of their gods with the utmost care he also sent
his son Sethos, who was also named Ramesses, from his father Rhampses,
being but five years old, to a friend of his. He then passed on
with the rest of the Egyptians, being three hundred thousand of
the most warlike of them, against the enemy, who met them. Yet
did he not join battle with them; but thinking that would be to
fight against the gods, he returned back and came to Memphis,
where he took Apis and the other sacred animals which he had sent
for to him, and presently marched into Ethiopia, together with
his whole army and multitude of Egyptians; for the king of Ethiopia
was under an obligation to him, on which account he received him,
and took care of all the multitude that was with him, while the
country supplied all that was necessary for the food of the men.
He also allotted cities and villages for this exile, that was
to be from its beginning during those fatally determined thirteen
years. Moreover, he pitched a camp for his Ethiopian army, as
a guard to king Amenophis, upon the borders of Egypt. And this
was the state of things in Ethiopia. But for the people of Jerusalem,
when they came down together with the polluted Egyptians, they
treated the men in such a barbarous manner, that those who saw
how they subdued the forementioned country, and the horrid wickedness
they were guilty of, thought it a most dreadful thing; for they
did not only set the cities and villages on fire but were not
satisfied till they had been guilty of sacrilege, and destroyed
the images of the gods, and used them in roasting those sacred
animals that used to be worshipped, and forced the priests and
prophets to be the executioners and murderers of those animals,
and then ejected them naked out of the country. It was also reported
that the priest, who ordained their polity and their laws, was
by birth of Hellopolls, and his name Osarsiph, from Osyris, who
was the god of Hellopolls; but that when he was gone over to these
people, his name was changed, and he was called Moses."
27. This is what the Egyptians relate about the Jews, with much
more, which I omit for the sake of brevity. But still Manetho
goes on, that "after this, Amenophis returned back from Ethiopia
with a great army, as did his son Ahampses with another army also,
and that both of them joined battle with the shepherds and the
polluted people, and beat them, and slew a great many of them,
and pursued them to the bounds of Syria." These and the like
accounts are written by Manetho. But I will demonstrate that he
trifles, and tells arrant lies, after I have made a distinction
which will relate to what I am going to say about him; for this
Manetho had granted and confessed that this nation was not originally
Egyptian, but that they had come from another country, and subdued
Egypt, and then went away again out of it. But that. those Egyptians
who were thus diseased in their bodies were not mingled with us
afterward, and that Moses who brought the people out was not one
of that company, but lived many generations earlier, I shall endeavor
to demonstrate from Manetho's own accounts themselves.
28. Now, for the first occasion of this fiction, Manetho supposes
what is no better than a ridiculous thing; for he says that"
king Amenophis desired to see the gods." What gods, I pray,
did he desire to see? If he meant the gods whom their laws ordained
to be worshipped, the ox, the goat, the crocodile, and the baboon,
he saw them already; but for the heavenly gods, how could he see
them, and what should occasion this his desire? To be sure? it
was because another king before him had already seen them. He
had then been informed what sort of gods they were, and after
what manner they had been seen, insomuch that he did not stand
in need of any new artifice for obtaining this sight. However,
the prophet by whose means the king thought to compass his design
was a wise man. If so, how came he not to know that such his desire
was impossible to be accomplished? for the event did not succeed.
And what pretense could there be to suppose that the gods would
not be seen by reason of the people's maims in their bodies, or
leprosy? for the gods are not angry at the imperfection of bodies,
but at wicked practices; and as to eighty thousand lepers, and
those in an ill state also, how is it possible to have them gathered
together in one day? nay, how came the king not to comply with
the prophet? for his injunction was, that those that were maimed
should be expelled out of Egypt, while the king only sent them
to work in the quarries, as if he were rather in want of laborers,
than intended to purge his country. He says further, that"
this prophet slew himself, as foreseeing the anger of the gods,
and those events which were to come upon Egypt afterward; and
that he left this prediction for the king in writing." Besides,
how came it to pass that this prophet did not foreknow his own
death at the first? nay, how came he not to contradict the king
in his desire to see the gods immediately? how came that unreasonable
dread upon him of judgments that were not to happen in his lifetime?
or what worse thing could he suffer, out of the fear of which
he made haste to kill himself? But now let us see the silliest
thing of all: - The king, although he had been informed of these
things, and terrified with the fear of what was to come, yet did
not he even then eject these maimed people out of his country,
when it had been foretold him that he was to clear Egypt of them;
but, as Manetho says, "he then, upon their request, gave
them that city to inhabit, which had formerly belonged to the
shepherds, and was called Avaris; whither when they were gone
in crowds," he says, "they chose one that had formerly
been priest of Hellopolls; and that this priest first ordained
that they should neither worship the gods, nor abstain from those
animals that were worshipped by the Egyptians, but should kill
and eat them all, and should associate with nobody but those that
had conspired with them; and that he bound the multitude by oaths
to be sure to continue in those laws; and that when he had built
a wall about Avaris, he made war against the king." Manetho
adds also, that "this priest sent to Jerusalem to invite
that people to come to his assistance, and promised to give them
Avaris; for that it had belonged to the forefathers of those that
were coming from Jerusalem, and that when they were come, they
made a war immediately against the king, and got possession of
all Egypt." He says also that "the Egyptians came with
an army of two hundred thousand men, and that Amenophis, the king
of Egypt, not thinking that he ought to fight against the gods,
ran away presently into Ethiopia, and committed Apis and certain
other of their sacred animals to the priests, and commanded them
to take care of preserving them." He says further, that"
the people of Jerusalem came accordingly upon the Egyptians, and
overthrew their cities, and burnt their temples, and slew their
horsemen, and, in short, abstained from no sort of wickedness
nor barbarity; and for that priest who settled their polity and
their laws," he says," he was by birth of Hellopolis,
and his name was Osarsiph, from Osyris the god of Hellopolis,
but that he changed his name, and called himself Moses."
He then says that "on the thirteenth year afterward, Amenophis,
according to the fatal time of the duration of his misfortunes,
came upon them out of Ethiopia with a great army, and joining
battle with the shepherds and with the polluted people, overcame
them in battle, and slew a great many of them, and pursued them
as far as the bounds of Syria."
29. Now Manetho does not reflect upon the improbability of his
lie; for the leprous people, and the multitude that was with them,
although they might formerly have been angry at the king, and
at those that had treated them so coarsely, and this according
to the prediction of the prophet; yet certainly, when they were
come out of the mines, and had received of the king a city, and
a country, they would have grown milder towards him. However,
had they ever so much hated him in particular, they might have
laid a private plot against himself, but would hardly have made
war against all the Egyptians; I mean this on the account of the
great kindred they who were so numerous must have had among them.
Nay still, if they had resolved to fight with the men, they would
not have had impudence enough to fight with their gods; nor would
they have ordained laws quite contrary to those of their own country,
and to those in which they had been bred up themselves. Yet are
we beholden to Manethe, that he does not lay the principal charge
of this horrid transgression upon those that came from Jerusalem,
but says that the Egyptians themselves were the most guilty, and
that they were their priests that contrived these things, and
made the multitude take their oaths for doing so. But still how
absurd is it to suppose that none of these people's own relations
or friends should be prevailed with to revolt, nor to undergo
the hazards of war with them, while these polluted people were
forced to send to Jerusalem, and bring their auxiliaries from
thence! What friendship, I pray, or what relation was there formerly
between them that required this assistance? On the contrary, these
people were enemies, and greatly differed from them in their customs.
He says, indeed, that they complied immediately, upon their praising
them that they should conquer Egypt; as if they did not themselves
very well know that country out of which they had been driven
by force. Now had these men been in want, or lived miserably,
perhaps they might have undertaken so hazardous an enterprise;
but as they dwelt in a happy city, and had a large country, and
one better than Egypt itself, how came it about that, for the
sake of those that had of old been their enemies, of those that
were maimed in their bodies, and of those whom none of their own
relations would endure, they should run such hazards in assisting
them? For they could not foresee that the king would run away
from them: on the contrary, he saith himself that "Amenophis's
son had three hundred thousand men with him, and met them at Pelusium."
Now, to be sure, those that came could not be ignorant of this;
but for the king's repentance and flight, how could they possibly
guess at it? He then says, that "those who came from Jerusalem,
and made this invasion, got the granaries of Egypt into their
possession, and perpetrated many of the most horrid actions there."
And thence he reproaches them, as though he had not himself introduced
them as enemies, or as though he might accuse such as were invited
from another place for so doing, when the natural Egyptians themselves
had done the same things before their coming, and had taken oaths
so to do. However, "Amenophis, some time afterward, came
upon them, and conquered them in battle, and slew his enemies,
and drove them before him as far as Syria." As if Egypt were
so easily taken by people that came from any place whatsoever,
and as if those that had conquered it by war, when they were informed
that Amenophis was alive, did neither fortify the avenues out
of Ethiopia into it, although they had great advantages for doing
it, nor did get their other forces ready for their defense! but
that he followed them over the sandy desert, and slew them as
far as Syria; while yet it is rot an easy thing for an army to
pass over that country, even without fighting.
30. Our nation, therefore, according to Manetho, was not derived
from Egypt, nor were any of the Egyptians mingled with us. For
it is to be supposed that many of the leprous and distempered
people were dead in the mines, since they had been there a long
time, and in so ill a condition; many others must be dead in the
battles that happened afterward, and more still in the last battle
and flight after it.
31. It now remains that I debate with Manetho about Moses. Now
the Egyptians acknowledge him to have been a wonderful and a divine
person; nay, they would willingly lay claim to him themselves,
though after a most abusive and incredible manner, and pretend
that he was of Heliopolis, and one of the priests of that place,
and was ejected out of it among the rest, on account of his leprosy;
although it had been demonstrated out of their records that he
lived five hundred and eighteen years earlier, and then brought
our forefathers out of Egypt into the country that is now inhabited
by us. But now that he was not subject in his body to any such
calamity, is evident from what he himself tells us; for he forbade
those that had the leprosy either to continue in a city, or to
inhabit in a village, but commanded that they should go about
by themselves with their clothes rent; and declares that such
as either touch them, or live under the same roof with them, should
be esteemed unclean; nay, more, if any one of their disease be
healed, and he recover his natural constitution again, he appointed
them certain purifications, and washings with spring water, and
the shaving off all their hair, and enjoins that they shall offer
many sacrifices, and those of several kinds, and then at length
to be admitted into the holy city; although it were to be expected
that, on the contrary, if he had been under the same calamity,
he should have taken care of such persons beforehand, and have
had them treated after a kinder manner, as affected with a concern
for those that were to be under the like misfortunes with himself.
Nor ;was it only those leprous people for whose sake he made these
laws, but also for such as should be maimed in the smallest part
of their body, who yet are not permitted by him to officiate as
priests; nay, although any priest, already initiated, should have
such a calamity fall upon him afterward, he ordered him to be
deprived of his honor of officiating. How can it then be supposed
that Moses should ordain such laws against himself, to his own
reproach and damage who so ordained them? Nor indeed is that other
notion of Manetho at all probable, wherein he relates the change
of his name, and says that "he was formerly called Osarsiph;"
and this a name no way agreeable to the other, while his true
name was Mosses, and signifies a person who is preserved out of
the water, for the Egyptians call water Moil. I think, therefore,
I have made it sufficiently evident that Manetho, while he followed
his ancient records, did not much mistake the truth of the history;
but that when he had recourse to fabulous stories, without any
certain author, he either forged them himself, without any probability,
or else gave credit to some men who spake so out of their ill-will
to us.
32. And now I have done with Manetho, I will inquire into what
Cheremon says. For he also, when he pretended to write the Egyptian
history, sets down the same name for this king that Manetho did,
Amenophis, as also of his son Ramesses, and then goes on thus:
"The goddess Isis appeared to Amenophis in his sleep, and
blamed him that her temple had been demolished in the war. But
that Phritiphantes, the sacred scribe, said to him, that in case
he would purge Egypt of the men that had pollutions upon them,
he should be no longer troubled. with such frightful apparitions.
That Amenophis accordingly chose out two hundred and fifty thousand
of those that were thus diseased, and cast them out of the country:
that Moses and Joseph were scribes, and Joseph was a sacred scribe;
that their names were Egyptian originally; that of Moses had been
Tisithen, and that of Joseph, Peteseph: that these two came to
Pelusium, and lighted upon three hundred and eighty thousand that
had been left there by Amenophis, he not being willing to carry
them into Egypt; that these scribes made a league of friendship
with them, and made with them an expedition against Egypt: that
Amenophis could not sustain their attacks, but fled into Ethiopia,
and left his wife with child behind him, who lay concealed in
certain caverns, and there brought forth a son, whose name was
Messene, and who, when he was grown up to man's estate, pursued
the Jews into Syria, being about two hundred thousand, and then
received his father Amenophis out of Ethiopia."
33. This is the account Cheremon gives us. Now I take it for granted
that what I have said already hath plainly proved the falsity
of both these narrations; for had there been any real truth at
the bottom, it was impossible they should so greatly disagree
about the particulars. But for those that invent lies, what they
write will easily give us very different accounts, while they
forge what they please out of their own heads. Now Manetho says
that the king's desire of seeing the gods was the origin of the
ejection of the polluted people; but Cheremon feigns that it was
a dream of his own, sent upon him by Isis, that was the occasion
of it. Manetho says that the person who foreshowed this purgation
of Egypt to the king was Amenophis; but this man says it was Phritiphantes.
As to the numbers of the multitude that were expelled, they agree
exceedingly well (24) the former reckoning them eighty thousand,
and the latter about two hundred and fifty thousand! Now, for
Manetho, he describes those polluted persons as sent first to
work in the quarries, and says that the city Avaris was given
them for their habitation. As also he relates that it was not
till after they had made war with the rest of the Egyptians, that
they invited the people of Jerusalem to come to their assistance;
while Cheremon says only that they were gone out of Egypt, and
lighted upon three hundred and eighty thousand men about Pelusium,
who had been left there by Amenophis, and so they invaded Egypt
with them again; that thereupon Amenophis fled into Ethiopia.
But then this Cheremon commits a most ridiculous blunder in not
informing us who this army of so many ten thousands were, or whence
they came; whether they were native Egyptians, or whether they
came from a foreign country. Nor indeed has this man, who forged
a dream from Isis about the leprous people, assigned the reason
why the king would not bring them into Egypt. Moreover, Cheremon
sets down Joseph as driven away at the same time with Moses, who
yet died four generations (25) before Moses, which four generations
make almost one hundred and seventy years. Besides all this, Ramesses,
the son of Amenophis, by Manetho's account, was a young man, and
assisted his father in his war, and left the country at the same
time with him, and fled into Ethiopia. But Cheremon makes him
to have been born in a certain cave, after his father was dead,
and that he then overcame the Jews in battle, and drove them into
Syria, being in number about two hundred thousand. O the levity
of the man! for he had neither told us who these three hundred
and eighty thousand were, nor how the four hundred and thirty
thousand perished; whether they fell in war, or went over to Ramesses.
And, what is the strangest of all, it is not possible to learn
out of him who they were whom he calls Jews, or to which of these
two parties he applies that denomination, whether to the two hundred
and fifty thousand leprous people, or to the three hundred and
eighty thousand that were about Pelusium. But perhaps it will
be looked upon as a silly thing in me to make any larger confutation
of such writers as sufficiently confute themselves; for had they
been only confuted by other men, it had been more tolerable.
34. I shall now add to these accounts about Manethoand Cheremon
somewhat about Lysimachus, who hath taken the same topic of falsehood
with those forementioned, but hath gone far beyond them in the
incredible nature of his forgeries; which plainly demonstrates
that he contrived them out of his virulent hatred of our nation.
His words are these: "The people of the Jews being leprous
and scabby, and subject to certain other kinds of distempers,
in the days of Bocchoris, king of Egypt, they fled to the temples,
and got their food there by begging: and as the numbers were very
great that were fallen under these diseases, there arose a scarcity
in Egypt. Hereupon Bocehoris, the king of Egypt, sent some to
consult the oracle of [Jupiter] Hammon about his scarcity. The
god's answer was this, that he must purge his temples of impure
and impious men, by expelling them out of those temples into desert
places; but as to the scabby and leprous people, he must drown
them, and purge his temples, the sun having an indignation at
these men being suffered to live; and by this means the land will
bring forth its fruits. Upon Bocchoris's having received these
oracles, he called for their priests, and the attendants upon
their altars, and ordered them to make a collection of the impure
people, and to deliver them to the soldiers, to carry them away
into the desert; but to take the leprous people, and wrap them
in sheets of lead, and let them down into the sea. Hereupon the
scabby and leprous people were drowned, and the rest were gotten
together, and sent into desert places, in order to be exposed
to destruction. In this case they assembled themselves together,
and took counsel what they should do, and determined that, as
the night was coming on, they should kindle fires and lamps, and
keep watch; that they also should fast the next night, and propitiate
the gods, in order to obtain deliverance from them. That on the
next day there was one Moses, who advised them that they should
venture upon a journey, and go along one road till they should
come to places fit for habitation: that he charged them to have
no kind regards for any man, nor give good counsel to any, but
always to advise them for the worst; and to overturn all those
temples and altars of the gods they should meet with: that the
rest commended what he had said with one consent, and did what
they had resolved on, and so traveled over the desert. But that
the difficulties of the journey being over, they came to a country
inhabited, and that there they abused the men, and plundered and
burnt their temples; and then came into that land which is called
Judea, and there they built a city, and dwelt therein, and that
their city was named Hierosyla, from this their robbing
of the temples; but that still, upon the success they had afterwards,
they in time changed its denomination, that it might not be a
reproach to them, and called the city Hierosolyma, and
themselves Hierosolymites."
35. Now this man did not discover and mention the same king with
the others, but feigned a newer name, and passing by the dream
and the Egyptian prophet, he brings him to [Jupiter] Hammon, in
order to gain oracles about the scabby and leprous people; for
he says that the multitude of Jews were gathered together at the
temples. Now it is uncertain whether he ascribes this name to
these lepers, or to those that were subject to such diseases among
the Jews only; for he describes them as a people of the Jews.
What people does he mean? foreigners, or those of that country?
Why then' dost thou call them Jews, if they were Egyptians? But
if they were foreigners, why dost thou not tell us whence they
came? And how could it be that, after the king had drowned many
of them in the sea, and ejected the rest into desert places, there
should be still so great a multitude remaining? Or after what
manner did they pass over the desert, and get the land which we
now dwell in, and build our city, and that temple which hath been
so famous among all mankind? And besides, he ought to have spoken
more about our legislator than by giving us his bare name; and
to have informed us of what nation he was, and what parents he
was derived from; and to have assigned the reasons why he undertook
to make such laws concerning the gods, and concerning matters
of injustice with regard to men during that journey. For in case
the people were by birth Egyptians, they would not on the sudden
have so easily changed the customs of their country; and in case
they had been foreigners, they had for certain some laws or other
which had been kept by them from long custom. It is true, that
with regard to those who had ejected them, they might have sworn
never to bear good-will to them, and might have had a plausible
reason for so doing. But if these men resolved to wage an implacable
war against all men, in case they had acted as wickedly as he
relates of them, and this while they wanted the assistance of
all men, this demonstrates a kind of mad conduct indeed; but not
of the men themselves, but very greatly so of him that tells such
lies about them. He hath also impudence enough to say that a name,
implying "Robbers of the temples," (26) was given to
their city, and that this name was afterward changed. The reason
of which is plain, that the former name brought reproach and hatred
upon them in the times of their posterity, while, it seems, those
that built the city thought they did honor to the city by giving
it such a name. So we see that this fine fellow had such an unbounded
inclination to reproach us, that he did not understand that robbery
of temples is not expressed By the same word and name among the
Jews as it is among the Greeks. But why should a man say any more
to a person who tells such impudent lies? However, since this
book is arisen to a competent length, I will make another beginning,
and endeavor to add what still remains to perfect my design in
the following book.
