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.
ENDNOTE
(1)
This first book has a wrong title. It is not written against Apion, as
is the first part of the second book, but against those Greeks in general
who would not believe Josephus's former accounts of the very ancient state
of the Jewish nation, in his 20 books of Antiquities; and particularly
against Agatharelddes, Manetho, Cheremon, and Lysimachus. it is one of
the most learned, excellent, and useful books of all antiquity; and upon
Jerome's perusal of this and the following book, he declares that it seems
to him a miraculous thing "how one that was a Hebrew, who had been
from his infancy instructed in sacred learning, should be able to pronounce
such a number of testimonies out of profane authors, as if he had read
over all the Grecian libraries," Epist. 8. ad Magnum; and the learned
Jew, Manasseh-Ben-Israel, esteemed these two books so excellent, as to
translate them into the Hebrew; this we learn from his own catalogue of
his works, which I have seen. As to the time and place when and where these
two books were written, the learned have not hitherto been able to determine
them any further than that they were written some time after his Antiquities,
or some time after A.D. 93; which indeed is too obvious at their entrance
to be overlooked by even a careless peruser, they being directly intended
against those that would not believe what he had advanced in those books
con-the great of the Jewish nation As to the place, they all imagine that
these two books were written where the former were, I mean at Rome; and
I confess that I myself believed both those determinations, till I came
to finish my notes upon these books, when I met with plain indications
that they were written not at Rome, but in Judea, and this after the third
of Trajan, or A.D. 100.
(2)
Take Dr. Hudson's note here, which as it justly contradicts the common
opinion that Josephus either died under Domitian, or at least wrote nothing
later than his days, so does it perfectly agree to my own determination,
from Justus of Tiberias, that he wrote or finished his own Life after the
third of Trajan, or A.D. 100. To which Noldius also agrees, de Herod, No.
383 [Epaphroditus]. "Since Florius Josephus," says Dr. Hudson,
"wrote [or finished] his books of Antiquities on the thirteenth of
Domitian, [A.D. 93,] and after that wrote the Memoirs of his own Life,
as an appendix to the books of Antiquities, and at last his two books against
Apion, and yet dedicated all those writings to Epaphroditus; he can hardly
be that Epaphroditus who was formerly secretary to Nero, and was slain
on the fourteenth [or fifteenth] of Domitian, after he had been for a good
while in banishment; but another Epaphroditas, a freed-man, and procurator
of Trajan, as says Grotius on Luke 1:3.
(3)
The preservation of Homer's Poems by memory, and not by his own writing
them down, and that thence they were styled Rhapsodies, as sung by him,
like ballads, by parts, and not composed and connected together in complete
works, are opinions well known from the ancient commentators; though such
supposal seems to myself, as well as to Fabricius Biblioth. Grace. I. p.
269, and to others, highly improbable. Nor does Josephus say there were
no ancienter writings among the Greeks than Homer's Poems, but that they
did not fully own any ancienter writings pretending to such antiquity,
which is trite.
(4)
It well deserves to be considered, that Josephus here says how all the
following Greek historians looked on Herodotus as a fabulous author; and
presently, sect. 14, how Manetho, the most authentic writer of the Egyptian
history, greatly complains of his mistakes in the Egyptian affairs; as
also that Strabo, B. XI. p. 507, the most accurate geographer and historian,
esteemed him such; that Xenophon, the much more accurate historian in the
affairs of Cyrus, implies that Herodotus's account of that great man is
almost entirely romantic. See the notes on Antiq. B. XI. ch. 2. sect. 1,
and Hutchinson's Prolegomena to his edition of Xenophon's, that we have
already seen in the note on Antiq. B. VIII. ch. 10. sect. 3, how very little
Herodotus knew about the Jewish affairs and country, and that he greatly
affected what we call the marvelous, as Monsieur Rollin has lately and
justly determined; whence we are not always to depend on the authority
of Herodotus, where it is unsupported by other evidence, but ought to compare
the other evidence with his, and if it preponderate, to prefer it before
his. I do not mean by this that Herodotus willfully related what he believed
to be false, (as Cteeias seems to have done,) but that he often wanted
evidence, and sometimes preferred what was marvelous to what was best attested
as really true.
(5)
About the days of Cyrus and Daniel.
(6)
It is here well worth our observation, what the reasons are that such ancient
authors as Herodotus, Josephus, and others have been read to so little
purpose by many learned critics; viz. that their main aim has not been
chronology or history, but philology, to know words, and not things, they
not much entering oftentimes into the real contents of their authors, and
judging which were the most accurate discoverers of truth, and most to
be depended on in the several histories, but rather inquiring who wrote
the finest style, and had the greatest elegance in their expressions; which
are things of small consequence in comparison of the other. Thus you will
sometimes find great debates among the learned, whether Herodotus or Thucydides
were the finest historian in the Ionic and Attic ways of writing; which
signify little as to the real value of each of their histories; while it
would be of much more moment to let the reader know, that as the consequence
of Herodotus's history, which begins so much earlier, and reaches so much
wider, than that of Thucydides, is therefore vastly greater; so is the
most part of Thucydides, which belongs to his own times, and fell under
his own observation, much the most certain.
(7)
Of this accuracy of the Jews before and in our Savior's time, in carefully
preserving their genealogies all along, particularly those of the priests,
see Josephus's Life, sect. 1. This accuracy. seems to have ended at the
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, or, however, at that by Adrian.
(8)
Which were these twenty-two sacred books of the. Old Testament, see the
Supplement to the Essay of the Old Testament, p. 25-29, viz. those we call
canonical, all excepting the Canticles; but still with this further exception,
that the book of apocryphal Esdras be taken into that number instead of
our canonical Ezra, which seems to be no more than a later epitome of the
other; which two books of Canticles and Ezra it no way appears that our
Josephus ever saw.
(9)
Here we have an account of the first building of the city of Jerusalem,
according to Manetho, when the Phoenician shepherds were expelled out of
Egypt about thirty-seven years before Abraham came out of Harsh.
(10)
Genesis 46;32, 34; 47:3, 4.
(11)
In our copies of the book of Genesis and of Joseph, this Joseph never calls
himself "a captive," when he was with the king of Egypt, though
he does call himself "a servant," "a slave," or "captive,"
many times in the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, under Joseph, sect.
1, 11, 13-16.
(12)
Of this Egyptian chronology of Manetho, as mistaken by Josephus, and of
these Phoenician shepherds, as falsely supposed by him, and others after
him, to have been the Israelites in Egypt, see Essay on the Old Testament,
Appendix, p. 182-188. And note here, that when Josephus tells us that the
Greeks or Argives looked on this Danaus as "a most ancient,"
or "the most ancient," king of Argos, he need not be supposed
to mean, in the strictest sense, that they had no one king so ancient as
he; for it is certain that they owned nine kings before him, and Inachus
at the head of them. See Authentic Records, Part II. p. 983, as Josephus
could not but know very well; but that he was esteemed as very ancient
by them, and that they knew they had been first of all denominated "Danai"
from this very ancient king Danaus. Nor does this superlative degree always
imply the "most ancient" of all without exception, but is sometimes
to be rendered "very ancient" only, as is the case in the like
superlative degrees of other words also.
(13)
Authentic Records, Part II. p. 983, as Josephus could not but know very
well; but that he was esteemed as very ancient by them, and that they knew
they had been first of all denominated "Danai" from this very
ancient king Danaus. Nor does this superlative degree always imply the
"most ancient" of all without exception, but is sometimes to
be rendered "very ancient" only, as is the case in the like superlative
degrees of other words also.
(14)
This number in Josephus, that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple in the
eighteenth year of his reign, is a mistake in the nicety of chronology;
for it was in the nineteenth. The true number here for the year of Darius,
in which the second temple was finished, whether the second with our present
copies, or the sixth with that of Syncellus, or the tenth with that of
Eusebius, is very uncertain; so we had best follow Josephus's own account
elsewhere, Antiq. ;B. XI. ch. 3. sect. 4, which shows us that according
to his copy of the Old Testament, after the second of Cyrus, that work
was interrupted till the second of Darius, when in seven years it was finished
in the ninth of Darius.
(15)
This is a thing well known by the learned, that we are not secure that
we have any genuine writings of Pythagoras; those Golden Verses, which
are his best remains, being generally supposed to have been written not
by himself, but by some of his scholars only, in agreement with what Josephus
here affirms of him.
(16)
Whether these verses of Cherilus, the heathen poet, in the days of Xerxes,
belong to the Solymi in Pisidia, that were near a small lake, or to the
Jews that dwelt on the Solymean or Jerusalem mountains, near the great
and broad lake Asphaltitis, that were a strange people, and spake the Phoenician
tongue, is not agreed on by the learned. If is yet certain that Josephus
here, and Eusebius, Prep. IX. 9. p. 412, took them to be Jews; and I confess
I cannot but very much incline to the same opinion. The other Solymi were
not a strange people, but heathen idolaters, like the other parts of Xerxes's
army; and that these spake the Phoenician tongue is next to impossible,
as the Jews certainly did; nor is there the least evidence for it elsewhere.
Nor was the lake adjoining to the mountains of the Solvmi at all large
or broad, in comparison of the Jewish lake Asphaltitis; nor indeed were
these so considerable a people as the Jews, nor so likely to be desired
by Xerxes for his army as the Jews, to whom he was always very favorable.
As for the rest of Cherilus's description, that "their heads were
sooty; that they had round rasures on their heads; that their heads and
faces were like nasty horse-heads, which had been hardened in the smoke;"
these awkward characters probably fitted the Solymi of Pisidi no better
than they did the Jews in Judea. And indeed this reproachful language,
here given these people, is to me a strong indication that they were the
poor despicable Jews, and not the Pisidian Solymi celebrated in Homer,
whom Cherilus here describes; nor are we to expect that either Cherilus
or Hecateus, or any other pagan writers cited by Josephus and Eusebius,
made no mistakes in the Jewish history. If by comparing their testimonies
with the more authentic records of that nation we find them for the main
to confirm the same, as we almost always do, we ought to be satisfied,
and not expect that they ever had an exact knowledge of all the circumstances
of the Jewish affairs, which indeed it was almost always impossible for
them to have. See sect. 23.
(17)
This Hezekiah, who is here called a high priest, is not named in Josephus's
catalogue; the real high priest at that time being rather Onias, as Archbishop
Usher supposes. However, Josephus often uses the word high priests in the
plural number, as living many at the same time. See the note on Antiq.
B. XX. ch. 8. sect. 8.
(18)
So I read the text with Havercamp, though the place be difficult.
(19)
This number of arourae or Egyptian acres, 3,000,000, each aroura containing
a square of 100 Egyptian cubits, (being about three quarters of an English
acre, and just twice the area of the court of the Jewish tabernacle,) as
contained in the country of Judea, will be about one third of the entire
number of arourae in the whole land of Judea, supposing it 160 measured
miles long and 70 such miles broad; which estimation, for the fruitful
parts of it, as perhaps here in Hecateus, is not therefore very wide from
the truth. The fifty furlongs in compass for the city Jerusalem presently
are not very wide from the truth also, as Josephus himself describes it,
who, Of the War, B. V. ch. 4. sect. 3. makes its wall thirty-three furlongs,
besides the suburbs and gardens; nay, he says, B. V. ch. 12. sect. 2, that
Titus's wall about it at some small distance, after the gardens and suburbs
were destroyed, was not less than thirty-nine furlongs. Nor perhaps were
its constant inhabitants, in the days of Hecateus, many more than these
120,000, because room was always to be left for vastly greater numbers
which came up at the three great festivals; to say nothing of the probable
increase in their number between the days of Hecateus and Josephus, which
was at least three hundred years. But see a more authentic account of some
of these measures in my Description of the Jewish Temples. However, we
are not to expect that such heathens as Cherilus or Hecateus, or the rest
that are cited by Josephus and Eusebius, could avoid making many mistakes
in the Jewish history, while yet they strongly confirm the same history
in the general, and are most valuable attestations to those more authentic
accounts we have in the Scriptures and Josephus concerning them.
(20)
A glorious testimony this of the observation of the sabbath by the Jews.
See Antiq. B. XVI. ch. 2. sect. 4, and ch. 6. sect. 2; the Life, sect.
54; and War, B. IV. ch. 9. sect. 12.
(21)
Not their law, but the superstitious interpretation of their leaders which
neither the Maccabees nor our blessed Savior did ever approve of.
(22)
In reading this and the remaining sections of this book, and some parts
of the next, one may easily perceive that our usually cool and candid author,
Josephus, was too highly offended with the impudent calumnies of Manethe,
and the other bitter enemies of the Jews, with whom he had now to deal,
and was thereby betrayed into a greater heat and passion than ordinary,
and that by consequence he does not hear reason with his usual fairness
and impartiality; he seems to depart sometimes from the brevity and sincerity
of a faithful historian, which is his grand character, and indulges the
prolixity and colors of a pleader and a disputant: accordingly, I confess,
I always read these sections with less pleasure than I do the rest of his
writings, though I fully believe the reproaches cast on the Jews, which
he here endeavors to confute and expose, were wholly groundless and unreasonable.
(23)
This is a very valuable testimony of Manetho, that the laws of Osarsiph,
or Moses, were not made in compliance with, but in opposition to, the customs
of the Egyptians. See the note on Antiq. B. III. ch. 8. sect. 9.
(24)
By way of irony, I suppose.
(25)
Here we see that Josephus esteemed a generation between Joseph and Moses
to be about forty-two or forty-three years; which, if taken between the
earlier children, well agrees with the duration of human life in those
ages. See Antheat. Rec. Part II. pages 966, 1019, 1020.
(26)
That is the meaning of Hierosyla in Greek, not in Hebrew.
Antiquities of the Jews
War of the Jews
Autobiography
Hades
Against Apion