The Greek historians who mentioned the Jewish nation
Since our acceptance of the oracles among the Hebrews has come about not without reasoning but by tested judgment and understanding, and the proof has been surveyed, it is time to see that the most distinguished of the Greeks themselves were not unacquainted with the affairs of the Hebrews: some bore witness to the truth both of the men's way of life and of the historical narratives current among them, and others even touched on their doctrinal theology in the same way. I shall set out first things first, showing how many of the Greek writers mentioned the Jews and Hebrews by name, the philosophy practiced among them of old, and the history of their ancestors from the beginning. My account will begin from the life of these men, so that you may learn that not without sober reasoning have we preferred the philosophy of the people described to that of the Greeks. That the practice of ethical discipline among them is carried out consistently with what was examined in the previous book, not only their sacred books but also the most distinguished philosophers among the Greeks, celebrated even in our time, bear witness. Take and read what Theophrastus says, as set down in Porphyry's work On Abstinence from Animal Food, as follows:
Theophrastus concerning the Jews, from Porphyry On Abstinence from Animal Food, Bk. i
"And yet, though the Jews among the Syrians, says Theophrastus, still sacrifice living creatures because of their original sacrifice, if anyone told us to sacrifice in the same way, we would shrink from the deed. For they do not feast on what is sacrificed, but, burning them whole at night and pouring much honey and wine on them, they consume the sacrifice quickly, so that even the all-seeing one may not become a spectator of the dreadful thing. And they do this while fasting on the days in between. Throughout all this time, being philosophers by race, they talk with one another about the divine, and at night they contemplate the stars, gazing at them and calling on God in their prayers. For these were the first to begin the sacrifice both of the other animals and of themselves, doing it from necessity and not from desire."
Porphyry on the illustrious philosophy of the Jews in ancient times
And in the fourth book of the same subject Porphyry relates such things about them: "There are the Essenes, Jews by race, more affectionate to one another than others are. They turn away from pleasures as vice, and regard self-control and not yielding to the passions as virtue. They disdain marriage, but taking other people's children while still tender for instruction, they treat them as kin and mold them in their own ways; not abolishing marriage and the succession it brings, but guarding against the licentiousness of women. They despise wealth, and their sharing is admirable; nor can one find anyone among them superior in possessions. For it is a law that those entering the sect make over their property to the order, so that in all of them neither the humiliation of poverty nor the superiority of wealth appears, but, the possessions of each being mixed together, there is one property for all as for brothers. They regard oil as a defilement, and if anyone is anointed against his will, he wipes his body clean; for they think it good to be rough and dry, and always to wear white. The managers of the common goods are elected, and each is appointed without distinction by all for the various needs. They have no one city, but many settle in each, and what they have is open to members of the sect who come from elsewhere; and they go in to those they have never seen before as to intimates. Therefore they take nothing with them for expenses when they travel. They do not change clothing or shoes until they are completely torn or worn out by time. They neither buy nor sell anything, but each gives what he has to one in need and receives in return what is useful from him; and even without exchange they may freely take from whomever they wish." "Toward the divine they are especially pious. Before the sun rises they utter nothing profane, but offer certain ancestral prayers toward it, as if begging it to rise. After this they are dismissed by the managers to the crafts each knows, and having worked hard until the fifth hour, they gather again in one place, and, girding themselves with linen coverings, wash their bodies in cold water. After this purification they gather in a private building, into which none of another persuasion is permitted to enter. And being pure themselves, they come to the dining room as to some holy precinct. When they have sat down in quiet, the baker sets out loaves in order, and the cook one dish of one kind of food for each. The priest prays before the food, which is pure and clean, and it is unlawful for anyone to taste before the prayer; and when they have breakfasted he prays again; at beginning and end they honor God. Then, laying aside their garments as sacred, they turn again to work until evening. Returning, they dine in the same way, guests sitting with them if any happen to be present. Neither shouting nor uproar ever defiles the house; they yield speech to one another in turn, and to outsiders the silence of those within appears like some awesome mystery. The cause of this is their continual sobriety, and the fact that food and drink are measured out among them only to satisfy." "For those who desire to join the sect, entrance is not immediate; but they prescribe for him the same way of life while he stays outside for a year, giving him a small hatchet, a loincloth, and a white garment. When in this time he has given proof of self-control, he comes nearer to their way of life and shares in the purer waters of purification; but he is not yet received into their common life; for after showing his endurance, his character is tested for two more years, and if he appears worthy, he is then admitted to the company. Before touching the common food, he swears awesome oaths to them: first, that he will revere the divine; next, that he will keep justice toward men, and harm no one either of his own will or by command; that he will always hate the unjust and help the just; that he will keep faith with all, and especially with those in power, for to no one does rule come without God; and that if he himself rules, he will never be insolent in his authority, nor outshine those under him in dress or any greater adornment; that he will always love the truth and expose liars; that he will keep his hands pure from theft and his soul from unholy gain; and that he will neither hide anything from the members of the sect nor disclose anything of theirs to others, even if one should force him to the point of death. Besides these, he swears to impart the doctrines to no one otherwise than as he received them, to abstain from robbery, and likewise to preserve the books of their sect and the names of the angels. Such are the oaths. Those convicted and expelled perish by a miserable death. For, bound by the oaths and customs, they cannot even partake of food among others, but eating grass and wasting from hunger, they perish. Therefore, out of pity, they have taken many back in their last extremity, thinking that torment to the point of death was sufficient punishment for their sins." "They give the small spade to those who are to join the sect, since they themselves do not relieve themselves otherwise than by digging a pit a foot deep and covering themselves with the cloak, so as not to insult the rays of God. So great is their frugality and the smallness of their diet that on the seventh day they have no need of evacuation, which day they are accustomed to keep for hymns to God and for rest. From this discipline they have acquired such endurance that, though racked and twisted and burned and made to pass through every instrument of torture, so that they might either blaspheme the lawgiver or eat something unaccustomed, they endure neither. They showed this in the war against the Romans. For they would not flatter their torturers or shed tears, but smiling in their pains and mocking those who applied the tortures, they gave up their souls cheerfully, as expecting to receive them again. For this belief is strong among them: that bodies are perishable and their matter not lasting, but souls remain immortal forever; and that, coming from the finest ether, they are entangled, drawn down by a natural attraction; but when released from the bonds of the flesh, as if freed from long slavery, they then rejoice and are carried aloft. From such a way of life and from discipline in truth and piety, there are naturally many among them who foreknow the future, being trained in sacred books, various purifications, and the sayings of prophets; and rarely do they miss in their predictions." So Porphyry, drawing, it seems, from ancient writings, bore witness to the piety and philosophy of the men described, in the fourth book of his work On Abstinence from Animal Food.
Hecataeus concerning the Jews
Hecataeus of Abdera, a philosopher and very capable in affairs, devoted a book of his own to the history of the Jews and goes through a great deal about them; of which these will suffice to be quoted for the present: "The Jews have many fortresses and villages throughout the country, but one fortified city, Jerusalem, about fifty stadia in circumference, inhabited by about one hundred and twenty thousand people; they call it Hierosolyma. Here, about the middle of the city, is a stone enclosure, about five plethra long and a hundred cubits wide, with double gates, in which there is a square altar, built of unhewn, gathered, unworked stones put together thus: each side twenty cubits, and twelve cubits high. And beside it is a great building, where there is an altar and a lampstand, both of gold, two talents in weight; and on these is a light that is never extinguished, night or day. There is no statue or votive offering at all, and no plant whatever, nor anything like a grove or such. Priests spend the nights and days in it, performing certain purifications, and drinking no wine at all in the temple." Having said this, he testifies a little further on that they served in the army with King Alexander and afterward with his successors. What he says he himself witnessed done by a Jewish man during the campaign I shall set out. He says this: "When I was marching toward the Red Sea, among the other Jewish horsemen escorting us was one named Mosollamus, a man of strong spirit, robust, and acknowledged by all, Greeks and barbarians, as the best archer. This man, then, when many were marching along the road, and a seer was taking omens from birds and asking all to halt, asked why they were waiting. When the seer showed him the bird and said that if it stayed there it was best for all to wait, if it rose and flew forward to advance, and if backward to retreat again, he said nothing, but drew his bow and shot, and struck and killed the bird. When the seer and some others were angry and cursed him, he said, 'Why are you mad, you wretches?' Then, taking the bird in his hands, he said, 'How could this bird, which did not foresee its own safety, tell us anything sound about our march? For if it could foreknow the future, it would not have come to this place, fearing that Mosollamus the Jew would shoot and kill it.'" So Hecataeus.
Clearchus on the same, from Bk. i, On Sleep
"Clearchus, the Peripatetic philosopher, in the first book On Sleep, attributes to the philosopher Aristotle an account of the Jews like this, writing word for word: "'It would take long to tell most of it; but it would not be bad to go through equally those of his traits that have something wonderful and philosophical. Know clearly,' he said, 'Hyperochides, that I shall seem to you to be telling something as wonderful as dreams.' And Hyperochides said respectfully, 'For that very reason we all want to hear it.' 'Then,' said Aristotle, 'following the rule of the rhetoricians, let us first go through his race, so that we may not disobey the teachers of narration.' 'Speak,' said Hyperochides, 'if you think so.' 'That man, then, was a Jew by race, from Coele-Syria. These people are descendants of the philosophers in India; the philosophers, they say, are called Calani among the Indians and Jews among the Syrians, taking the name from the place; for the place they inhabit is called Judea. The name of their city is very awkward: they call it Jerusalem. This man, then, being received as a guest by many and coming down from the upper regions to the coast, was Greek not only in language but also in soul. And when we were staying in Asia, the man, coming to the same places, met us and some other scholars, testing their wisdom. And as he had become intimate with many people of education, he imparted something more of what he had.' So Clearchus too.
Clement, Strom. i, concerning those who have mentioned the Jewish nation.
Our own Clement too mentions this in the first Miscellany, where he says this: "Clearchus the Peripatetic says he knew a certain Jew who associated with Aristotle." And after other things he adds: "Numa, king of the Romans, was a Pythagorean, and benefiting from the writings of Moses, he forbade the Romans to make an image of God in human or animal form. For in the first hundred and seventy years, though building temples, they made no image, either modeled or painted. For Numa showed them secretly that it is not possible to lay hold of the best by the tongue, but by the mind alone." Further, a little after this, he says: "Megasthenes, the historian who lived with Seleucus Nicator, writes most plainly thus in the third book of his Indica: 'All that was said about nature among the ancients is said also among those who philosophize outside Greece: some among the Indians by the Brahmans, and some in Syria by those called Jews.'" Besides these, Clement mentions Aristobulus the Peripatetic and Numenius the Pythagorean, saying: "Aristobulus, in the first book of his work addressed to Philometor, writes word for word: 'Plato followed our legislation, and has plainly studied carefully each of the things said in it. For before Demetrius, before the conquest of Alexander and the Persians, others had translated the account of the exodus from Egypt of the Hebrews, our fellow citizens, the manifestation of all that happened to them, the conquest of the land, and the explanation of the whole legislation. So it is quite clear that the philosopher mentioned took much from it, for he was very learned; as Pythagoras too transferred many of our teachings into his own doctrine.' And Numenius, the Pythagorean philosopher, writes outright: 'For what is Plato but Moses speaking Attic?'" So Clement.
Numenius the Pythagorean philosopher concerning the Jews, from Bk. i, On the Good
And from the Pythagorean philosopher himself, Numenius I mean, I shall set out these words from the first book On the Good: "Having spoken and indicated this, one will need to go back to the testimonies of Plato and bind them to the doctrines of Pythagoras, and then call in the nations of good repute, bringing forward their rites and doctrines and their institutions carried out in agreement with Plato, as many as the Brahmans, Jews, Magi, and Egyptians have established." So much on these matters.
The same concerning Moses and the Jews, from Bk. iii, On the Good
And in the third book the same author mentions Moses, saying this: "Next came Jannes and Jambres, Egyptian sacred scribes, men judged second to none in magic, when the Jews were being driven out of Egypt. These, then, were the men whom the multitude of the Egyptians thought fit to stand against Musaeus, who led the Jews, a man who was most powerful in prayer to God; and of the calamities that Musaeus brought on Egypt, they were seen to be able to undo the most violent." By these words Numenius bears witness both to the extraordinary wonders performed by Moses and to Moses himself as dear to God.
Choerilus the poet concerning the Jews
"The ancient poet Choerilus too mentions the Jewish nation, and how they served with King Xerxes against Greece. He speaks thus: 'Behind them passed a people wonderful to see, uttering from their mouths the Phoenician tongue; they lived in the Solymian mountains by a broad lake, squalid-headed, with round-cropped hair; and above they wore the flayed scalps of horses, hardened in smoke.' It is clear that he said this about the Jews, from the fact that Jerusalem lies in what the Greeks call the Solymian mountains, and that the Asphalt Lake is near, which is very broad, as the poet says, and larger than all the lakes in Syria." So he too.
Oracles of Apollo concerning the Hebrews, from the works of our contemporary Porphyry
And Porphyry, in the first book of his Philosophy from Oracles, brings in his own god himself, bearing witness to the wisdom of the race of the Hebrews along with the other nations famed for understanding. The Apollo in his work says this in the oracle he sets out. After what is set out about sacrifices, he adds the people to whom one must attend, as full of all divine wisdom: 'Steep is the road of the blessed, and very rough, opened first by gates bound with bronze; and there are unspeakable paths within it, which those who drink the fair water of the land of the Nile first revealed to mortals for boundless action. Many roads of the blessed the Phoenicians too learned, the Assyrians and Lydians, and the race of Hebrew men,' and what follows. To these the writer adds: "For the road to the gods is bound with bronze, steep and rough, and barbarians discovered many paths of it, while Greeks went astray, and those in power have even ruined it. The god testified to the discovery for the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, and the Chaldeans (for these are Assyrians), the Lydians, and the Hebrews. Besides this, in another oracle Apollo says: 'Only the Chaldeans obtained wisdom, and the Hebrews, who worship in purity the self-begotten king, God.' And again, asked for what reason they speak of many heavens, he gave this oracle: 'There is one circle of the world in all, but with seven zones it is borne along starry paths, which the Chaldeans and the much-envied Hebrews named heavens, to move in the seventh course.' Let these be set out, then, about the names of Jews and Hebrews and the piety and philosophy distinguished among them of old; and as for their ancestral history, see how many agreed with it. Since Moses, in his ancient history of the universe, recorded a flood, and how the man called among the Hebrews Noah was saved with his household in an ark made of wood, Josephus, in the first book of his Antiquities, sets out in this way how the historians Berossus the Chaldean, Hieronymus the Egyptian, and Nicolaus of Damascus mentioned the same things:
The foreign historians who mentioned the Flood described by Moses, from Josephus, Antiquities, Bk. i
"This flood and the ark are mentioned by all who have written barbarian histories, among whom is Berossus the Chaldean. For in describing the flood he goes through it somehow thus: 'It is said that part of the vessel still remains in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyaeans, and that some carry off pitch, scraping it off; and people use what they carry off chiefly for averting evil.' Hieronymus the Egyptian, who wrote the Phoenician Antiquities, also mentions these things, as do Mnaseas and many others. And Nicolaus of Damascus in his ninety-sixth book tells about them, saying thus: 'There is above Minyas, in Armenia, a great mountain called Baris, on which, the story goes, many who fled for refuge at the time of the flood were saved, and one, carried in an ark, came aground on the summit, and the remains of the timbers were preserved for a long time. This would be the man whom Moses too, the lawgiver of the Jews, recorded.'" So Josephus.
Concerning the Flood, from the writings of Abydenus
But I, having gone through the Median and Assyrian histories, shall set out for you these words of the man from the writing of Abydenus on the same story: "After him others ruled, and Seisithrus, to whom Cronus foretold that there would be a great quantity of rains on the fifteenth of Desius, and told him to hide everything that had to do with writings in Heliopolis in Sippara. Seisithrus, having done these things, at once sailed toward Armenia, and immediately what came from the god overtook him. On the third day, when the rain had ceased, he let birds go, making trial whether they might see land risen out of the water. But they, since a vast sea received them and they did not know where to settle, came back to Seisithrus, and others after them. When he succeeded with the third ones (for they had come back with their feet full of mud), the gods removed him from among men; and the vessel in Armenia provided the inhabitants with amulets of its wood as protective charms." So he.
The long life of the ancients mentioned by many authors, from Josephus, Antiquities
Again, since Moses said that the first humans were long-lived, Josephus sets out the Greek writers as witnesses to this account too, saying this: "Let no one, comparing the present life and the shortness of the years we live with that of the ancients, think false what is said of them, inferring that because no one now extends life to such a length, neither did they reach that length of life. For they, being dear to God and made by God himself, and because their foods were more suited to a longer time, reasonably lived so great a number of years. Then too, because of their virtue and the usefulness of what they discovered, astronomy and geometry, God granted them to live longer, things they could not have foretold safely unless they had lived six hundred years; for in that time the great year is completed. All who wrote ancient histories among Greeks and barbarians bear witness to my account. For Manetho, who made the record of Egyptian history, Berossus, who compiled the Chaldean, Molus and Hestiaeus, and besides them Hieronymus the Egyptian, and those who composed the Phoenician histories, agree with what I say; and Hesiod, Hecataeus, Hellanicus, Acusilaus, and besides these Ephorus and Nicolaus relate that the ancients lived a thousand years. About these things, then, let each consider as he pleases."
On the building of the Tower, from Abydenus
Again, since Moses recounted the building of the tower, and how from one tongue they were confused into many languages, the writer mentioned a little earlier gives similar testimony in the work called On the Assyrians, saying thus: "There are those who say that the first men who rose up out of the earth, puffed up with strength and size, and despising the gods as being better than they, raised a lofty tower where Babylon now is; and when it was already near heaven, the winds, coming to the help of the gods, overturned the structure upon them; and its ruins are called Babylon. Until then they had been of one tongue, but from the gods they received a speech of many sounds; and afterward war arose between Cronus and Titan." "The place in which they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of what had at first been clear in their language; for the Hebrews call confusion Babel."
Mention of the same by many others, from Josephus, Antiquities
"The Sibyl too mentions this tower and the diversity of human speech, saying thus: 'When all men were of one speech, some built a very high tower, so as to go up to heaven by it. But the gods sent winds and overturned the tower, and gave each his own speech; and for this reason the city came to be called Babylon.' And Hestiaeus mentions the plain called Shinar in the Babylonian country, saying thus: 'Those of the priests who were saved took the sacred vessels of Zeus Enyalius and came to Shinar in Babylonia. From there they were then scattered, forming their settlements everywhere according to their common languages, and each occupied whatever land he came upon.'"
On Abraham the forefather of all the Hebrews, from the same
Again, since Moses set out at length the history of Abraham, the forefather of the Hebrews, Josephus says that outside historians also bear witness to him, in these words: "Berossus mentions our father Abraham, not naming him, but saying thus: 'In the tenth generation after the flood there was among the Chaldeans a righteous man, great and skilled in heavenly things.'" And Hecataeus did more than mention him; for he composed and left a book about him. And Nicolaus of Damascus in the fourth book of his histories says thus: "Abraham reigned in Damascus, having come as an immigrant with an army from the land beyond Babylon called Chaldea. Not long after, he moved from this country too with his own people into the land then called Canaan, now Judea, and so did those who multiplied from him, about whom I shall relate the history in another book." "The name of Abraham is still honored in the territory of Damascus, and a village is shown named after him, called Abraham's Dwelling. Later, when a famine had seized Canaan, Abraham, learning that the Egyptians were prospering, was eager to go over to them, both to share their abundance and to hear what their priests said about the gods; for if they were found better, he would follow them, or else he would bring them over to the better view, if he himself thought better." Then he adds next: "And he associated with the most learned of the Egyptians, and from this it came about that his virtue and reputation became more conspicuous. For since the Egyptians favored different customs and disparaged one another's practices, and were therefore hostile to one another, he conversed with each of them, and, refuting the arguments they made for their own customs, showed them to be empty and to contain nothing true. Admired by them, then, in their meetings as most intelligent, and a man clever not only at understanding but at persuading by speech about whatever he undertook to teach, he gave them arithmetic and handed on astronomy. For before Abraham's coming the Egyptians were ignorant of these; for these came from the Chaldeans to Egypt, and from there to the Greeks also." So Josephus.
Eupolemus concerning Abraham, from the work of Alexander Polyhistor On the Jews
Alexander Polyhistor agrees with these too, a very learned man and well known to those Greeks who have not treated the fruit of education as a side matter, who in his work On the Jews relates the things about this Abraham, word for word, in this way: "Eupolemus, in his work On the Jews of Assyria, says that the city of Babylon was first founded by those saved from the flood; that they were giants, and built the tower of which history tells. When it fell by the working of God, the giants were scattered over the whole earth. And in the tenth generation, he says, in the city of Babylonia Camarina, which some call the city Urie (meaning, when translated, a city of the Chaldeans), in the thirteenth generation Abraham was born, surpassing all in nobility and wisdom; he discovered astronomy and the Chaldean art, and, setting out on piety, pleased God. He, at God's commands, came to Phoenicia and settled there, and, teaching the Phoenicians the solstices of sun and moon and all the rest, pleased their king. Later the Armenians made war on the Phoenicians; and when they had won and taken his nephew captive, Abraham, coming to help with his servants, overpowered the captors and took captive the enemies' children and wives. When envoys came to him that he might take money and release these, he did not choose to trample on the unfortunate, but, taking the food for his young men, returned the captives; and he was received as a guest by the city at the temple Argarizin, which means, translated, 'mountain of the Most High'; and from Melchizedek, who was priest of God and king, he received gifts. When a famine came, Abraham moved to Egypt with his whole household and lived there, and the king of the Egyptians married his wife, since he said she was his sister. He related further that the king could not have intercourse with her, and that it happened that his people and his house were being destroyed. When he called his seers, they told him this, that the woman was not a widow; and so the king of the Egyptians recognized that she was Abraham's wife and gave her back to her husband. Abraham, living at Heliopolis with the Egyptian priests, taught them many things, and introduced astronomy and the rest to them, saying that the Babylonians and he himself had discovered these, but he traced their discovery back to Enoch, and that Enoch first discovered astronomy, not the Egyptians. For the Babylonians say that first there was Belus, who is Cronus; from him were born Belus and Canaan; this Canaan begot the father of the Phoenicians; and his son was Chum, whom the Greeks call Asbolus, father of the Ethiopians and brother of Mestraim, father of the Egyptians. The Greeks say that Atlas discovered astronomy; but Atlas is the same as Enoch; and Enoch's son was Methuselah, who knew all things through angels of God, and so we came to know them."
Artapanus on the same, from the same work of Polyhistor
"Artapanus says in his Judaica that the Jews are called Hermiouth, which, translated into the Greek language, means Jews; and that they are called Hebrews from Abraham. He says that Abraham came with his whole household into Egypt to Pharethothes, the king of the Egyptians, and taught him astronomy; and that having stayed there twenty years he returned to the regions of Syria, while many of those who came with him remained in Egypt because of the prosperity of the land. In anonymous writings we found that Abraham traced his descent to the giants; that these, living in Babylonia, were destroyed by the gods for their impiety; that one of them, Belus, escaping death, settled in Babylon, built a tower and lived in it, which was called Belus after Belus who built it; and that Abraham, having been taught the science of astronomy, first came to Phoenicia and taught the Phoenicians astronomy, and later arrived in Egypt."
Molon on the same, from the same work
"Molon, who wrote the Attack on the Jews, says that at the time of the flood the man who survived went away from Armenia with his sons, driven from his own land by the inhabitants; and having crossed the country between, he came into the mountainous part of Syria, which was uninhabited. After three generations Abraham was born, which name is translated 'father's friend'; who, becoming wise, sought out the desert; and taking two wives, one a native and kinswoman, the other an Egyptian handmaid, from the Egyptian he begot twelve sons, who went off to Arabia, divided the country, and were the first to rule over its inhabitants; hence to our time there are twelve kings of the Arabs with the same names as they. By his wedded wife one son was born to him, who in Greek was named Laughter (Gelos). Abraham died in old age, and Gelos and a native wife had eleven sons, and a twelfth, Joseph, and third from him Moses." So much from Polyhistor; to which after other things he adds: "Not long after, God commanded Abraham to offer Isaac his son as a whole burnt offering to him. He led the boy up to the mountain, heaped up a pyre, and laid Isaac on it; but when he was about to slay him, he was prevented by an angel, who set a ram beside him for the offering; and Abraham took the boy down from the pyre and offered the ram."
Philo on the same
"Philo too speaks of this in the first book of his work on Jerusalem: 'I heard that once, by the ancient ordinances, ten thousand times more famous, Abraham, exalted above the bond of chains, overflowed in splendor with proud reasonings, charms dear to God. For when he left the splendid fence of dread plants, the praiseworthy one, holding the blaze of the mighty-voiced, made his word immortal; since from that time his offspring, of dread descent, obtained much-hymned glory,' and so on. To which after a little he adds: 'Just as he was readying the sword-bearing sharp blade in his hand for the sacrifice, and the throat was gathered beside it, he put into his hands a horned ram,' and what follows." These things, then, are from the previously mentioned writing of Polyhistor. Josephus too, in the first book of his Antiquities, mentions the same man in these words: "It is said that this Apher made an expedition against Libya and took it, and his grandsons settled in it and called the land Africa after his name. Alexander Polyhistor bears witness to my account, saying thus: 'Cleodemus the prophet, also called Malchas, in his history of the Jews, as Moses their lawgiver too has related, says that from Keturah many sons were born to Abraham; and he gives their names, naming three: Apher, Assouri, and Aphran. From Assouri Assyria was named, and from the two, Aphran and Apher, the city Aphra and the country Africa. These joined Heracles in his campaign against Libya and Antaeus; and Heracles, marrying Aphran's daughter, begot by her a son, Diodorus; and from him came Sophonas, from whom the barbarians are called Sophaces.'" Let so much, briefly, be set down about Abraham.
Demetrius concerning Jacob
Let us return again to Polyhistor: "Demetrius says that Jacob, at the age of seventy-five, fled to Haran in Mesopotamia, sent by his parents because of the secret enmity of his brother Esau, since his father had blessed him thinking he was Esau, and so that he might take a wife from there. So Jacob set out for Haran in Mesopotamia, leaving his father Isaac aged one hundred and thirty-seven, he himself being seventy-seven. Having stayed there seven years, he married two daughters of Laban his mother's brother, Leah and Rachel, being eighty-four years old; and in seven more years twelve children were born to him: in the eighth year, tenth month, Reuben; in the ninth year, eighth month, Simeon; in the tenth year, sixth month, Levi; in the eleventh year, fourth month, Judah. And Rachel, not bearing, was jealous of her sister, and gave Jacob her handmaid Zilpah to lie with, at the same time that Bilhah conceived Naphtali, in the eleventh year, fifth month; and she bore in the twelfth year, second month, a son, who was named Gad by Leah; and from the same woman, in the same year and the twelfth month, she bore another, who was also called Asher by Leah. And Leah again, in exchange for the mandrake apples that Reuben brought to Rachel, conceived, and at the same time her handmaid Zilpah, in the twelfth year, third month, and bore in the twelfth month of the same year a son and named him Issachar. And again Leah in the thirteenth year, tenth month, bore another son, named Zebulun; and the same woman in the fourteenth year, eighth month, bore a son named Dan. At the same time Rachel conceived, when Leah bore a daughter, Dinah; and she bore in the fourteenth year, eighth month, a son who was named Joseph; so that in the seven years with Laban twelve children were born. When Jacob wished to go away to his father in Canaan, he was asked by Laban to stay another six years, so that in all he stayed in Haran with Laban twenty years. As he was going to Canaan, an angel of God wrestled with him and touched the flat of Jacob's thigh, and it became numb and he limped; hence the sinew in the thigh of cattle is not eaten. And the angel said to him that from now on he would be called no longer Jacob but Israel. And he came, in the land of Canaan, to another city, Shechem, with his children: Reuben aged twelve years and two months, Simeon eleven years and four months, Levi ten years and six months, Judah nine years and eight months, Naphtali eight years and ten months, Gad eight years and ten months, Asher eight years, Issachar eight years, Zebulun seven years and two months, Dinah six years and four months, Joseph six years and four months. Israel sojourned with Hamor ten years, and Israel's daughter Dinah was violated by Shechem the son of Hamor, being sixteen years and four months old. The sons of Israel leapt out, Simeon aged twenty-one years and four months and Levi twenty years and six months, and killed Hamor and his son Shechem and all the males because of the violation of Dinah; Jacob was then one hundred and seven years old. When he came to Luz in Bethel, God said that he should be called no longer Jacob but Israel. From there he came to Chaphratha, and from there arrived at Ephrath, which is Bethlehem, and there begot Benjamin; and Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin, Jacob having lived with her twenty-three years. From there Jacob came to Mamre of Hebron to Isaac his father. Joseph was then seventeen years old, and was sold into Egypt, and stayed in prison thirteen years, so that he was thirty years old, and Jacob one hundred and ten, in which year Isaac too had died a year before, aged one hundred and eighty. Joseph, having interpreted the king's dreams, ruled Egypt seven years, during which he married Asenath, daughter of Pentephres the priest of Heliopolis, and begot Manasseh and Ephraim; and two years of the famine followed. Joseph, though prosperous for nine years, did not send for his father, because he and his brothers were shepherds, and shepherding was a disgrace to the Egyptians; and that he did not send for him for this reason he has shown. For when his kinsmen came, he told them that if they were summoned by the king and asked what they did, they should say they were keepers of cattle. It is asked why Joseph gave Benjamin a fivefold portion at the meal, since he could not consume so much meat. He did this, then, because seven sons had been born to his father from Leah, and two from Rachel his mother; therefore he set five portions before Benjamin and took two himself; so they had seven, as many as the sons of Leah received. In the same way also, when he gave each of them two robes, he gave Benjamin five and three hundred gold pieces, and sent to his father on the same scale, so that his mother's house should be equal. They lived in the land of Canaan, from the time Abraham was chosen out of the nations and moved to Canaan, Abraham twenty-five years, Isaac sixty years, Jacob one hundred and thirty years; so that the whole time in the land of Canaan comes to 215 years. And in the third year of the famine in Egypt Jacob came into Egypt, being one hundred and thirty years old, Reuben forty-five, Simeon forty-four, Levi forty-three, Judah forty-two years and three months, Asher forty years and eight months, Naphtali forty-one years and six months, Gad forty-one years and three months, Zebulun forty, Dinah thirty-nine, Benjamin twenty-eight. He says that Joseph was thirty-nine years old in Egypt; that from Adam until Joseph's kinsmen entered Egypt there were 3,624 years; from the flood until Jacob's arrival in Egypt 1,360 years; and from the time Abraham was chosen out of the nations and came from Haran to Canaan until Jacob and his household came into Egypt, 215 years. Jacob came from Haran to Laban at eighty years of age and begot Levi; and Levi lived in Egypt seventeen years from the time he came from Canaan into Egypt, so that he was sixty when he begot Kohath; and in the same year in which Kohath was born Jacob died in Egypt, having blessed the sons of Joseph, aged one hundred and forty-seven, leaving Joseph fifty-six years old. Levi died aged one hundred and thirty-seven; Kohath at forty begot Amram, who was fourteen when Joseph died in Egypt, aged one hundred and ten; Kohath died aged one hundred and thirty-three. Amram took as wife his uncle's daughter Jochebed, and at seventy-five begot Aaron and Moses; Amram was seventy-eight when he begot Moses, and died aged one hundred and thirty-six." Let this stand from the writing of Alexander Polyhistor; and next let the following also be added.
Theodotus concerning the same
"Theodotus in his work On the Jews says that Shechem took its name from Shechemius son of Hermes, for he also founded the city; and he describes its situation in his On the Jews thus: 'The land was good, a pasture for goats, and well watered; nor was the road long to reach the city from the fields; nor were the leafy thickets ever a toil to the workers. Close beside it two steep mountains appear, full of grass and woodland; between them a path is cut, narrow, [a hollow glen;] and on the other side holy Shechem comes into view, a sacred town, built below at the root, and around it a smooth wall along the foot of the hill, and above, a rampart runs down from the height.' Later, he says, it was taken by the Hebrews, when Hamor was ruler; for Hamor begot a son Shechem. He says: 'From there, stranger, Jacob came from the shepherds' place to the broad city of Shechem; and over its men ruled Hamor with his son Shechem, two very stubborn men.' Then, about Jacob and his arrival in Mesopotamia, his marriage to the two wives, the birth of his children, and his coming from Mesopotamia to Shechem: 'Jacob came to Syria, where cattle are raised, and left the broad stream of the loud-sounding river Euphrates; for he had come there leaving the harsh reproach of his own brother … Laban received him gladly into his house, who was his cousin, and then alone ruled Syria, being of noble ancestry. To him he promised marriage with his youngest daughter and nodded assent; yet he did not mean to fulfill it at all, but wove a trick, and sent to the man's bed Leah, who was the elder. Yet it did not escape him; he perceived the wicked contrivance, and received the other girl too, and lay with both, his own kinswomen. And to him were born eleven sons, exceedingly wise in mind, and a daughter, Dinah, of very beautiful appearance, of graceful form and blameless spirit.' He says that Jacob came from the Euphrates to Shechem to Hamor; that Hamor received him and gave him a part of the land; that Jacob himself farmed, while his sons, eleven in number, kept the flocks, and his daughter Dinah and the women worked wool; and that Dinah, being a virgin, came into Shechem when a festival was being held, wishing to see the city; and Shechem the son of Hamor saw her and fell in love with her, seized her, carried her off to his house, and violated her. Later he came with his father to Jacob and asked for her in the partnership of marriage; but Jacob said he would not give her until all who lived in Shechem were circumcised and adopted the Jewish way of life; and Hamor said he would persuade them. About the need for them to be circumcised, Jacob says: 'For this is not lawful for the Hebrews, to bring sons-in-law from elsewhere into the house for their daughters, but only one who boasts to be of the same race.' Then, a little further on, about circumcision: 'He who once led godlike Abraham out of his homeland, himself from heaven commanded the man to with all his household strip the flesh from the foreskin; and he performed it. It stands unshaken, since God himself spoke it.' So when Hamor had gone into the city and was urging his subjects to be circumcised, one of Jacob's sons, Simeon by name, resolved to kill Hamor and Shechem, being unwilling to bear his sister's outrage like a peaceable citizen; and having resolved this he shared it with his brother Levi, and having taken him as partner he urged him on to the deed, bringing forward an oracle in which God had said he would give ten nations to the descendants of Abraham. Simeon speaks to Levi thus: 'For I have well learned the word of God: for he once said he would give ten nations to the children of Abraham.' And God put this purpose into them because the people in Shechem were impious. He says: 'God struck the inhabitants of Shechem; for they did not honor anyone who came among them, whether bad or good; nor did they give judgments or laws throughout the city; but deadly deeds were their concern.' So Levi and Simeon came armed into the city, and first killed those they met, and then killed Hamor and Shechem as well. He speaks of their slaying thus: 'Then Simeon rushed upon Hamor and struck his head, seized his throat in his left hand, and left him still gasping, since another task had arisen. Meanwhile an irresistible fury seized Levi, and he took Shechem by the hair, as he clasped his knees, raging beyond words; he drove at the middle of the collarbone, and the sharp sword sank through the breast into the vitals, and the soul at once left the body.' And the other brothers, learning what they had done, came to their help, sacked the city, rescued their sister, and brought her with the captives to their father's dwelling."
Artapanus concerning Joseph
To these let us add what follows about Joseph from the same writing of Polyhistor: "Artapanus says in his On the Jews that Joseph was a descendant of Abraham and a son of Jacob; that, excelling the others in understanding and wisdom, he was plotted against by his brothers; that, foreseeing the conspiracy, he asked the neighboring Arabs to take him to Egypt; and they did what was asked, for the kings of the Arabs are descendants of Israel, sons of Abraham, brothers of Isaac. When he came to Egypt and was introduced to the king, he became administrator of the whole country. And whereas formerly the Egyptians farmed without order, because the land was undivided and the weaker were wronged by the stronger, he was the first to divide the land and mark it with boundaries, made much waste land cultivable, and allotted some of the arable plots to the priests. He also invented measures, and for these things was greatly loved by the Egyptians. He married Asenath, daughter of a priest of Heliopolis, and had children by her. After this his father and brothers came to him bringing much property, and were settled in the city of Kaisan, and the Syrians multiplied in Egypt. These, he says, called Hermiouth, built both the temple at Athos and the one at Heliopolis. After this both Joseph and the king of the Egyptians died. Joseph, while ruling Egypt, stored the grain of the seven years, which had been produced in immense abundance, and became master of Egypt."
Philo concerning Joseph
"Philo too, in the fourteenth book of his On Jerusalem, bears witness to the sacred books, speaking thus: 'For them the great founder, the Most High, built a most blessed seat of the whole …, and before that, from Abraham and Isaac, the offspring of Jacob rich in children, Joseph, who as prophet of dreams, sceptre-bearer on Egypt's thrones, turned the hidden things of time in the flood of fate,' and so on. This much about Joseph also."
Aristeas concerning Job
"Hear also what the same writer relates about Job: 'Aristeas says in his On the Jews that Esau married Bassara and begot Job in Edom; and that Job lived in the land of Ausitis, on the borders of Idumaea and Arabia. He was righteous and rich in cattle: he possessed seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred grazing she-asses; and he also had a good deal of farmland. This Job was formerly named Jobab. God, to test him, had him remain steadfast, and surrounded him with great misfortunes. First his asses and oxen were driven off by robbers; then his sheep with their shepherds were burned up by fire falling from heaven; not long after, his camels too were driven off by robbers; then his children died when the house fell; and on the same day his body was covered with sores. While he was in this bad state there came to visit him Eliphaz, king of the Temanites, Bildad, ruler of the Shuhites, and Zophar, king of the Minaeans; and Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite came too. When they comforted him, he said that even without comfort he would remain steadfast both in his piety and in his sufferings; and God, admiring his courage, freed him from his disease and made him master of many possessions.'" So much about these also from Polyhistor.
Eupolemus concerning Moses
About Moses too the same writer again sets out a great deal, which also deserves a hearing: "Eupolemus says that Moses was the first wise man, and was the first to hand down letters to the Jews; that the Phoenicians received them from the Jews, and the Greeks from the Phoenicians; and that Moses was the first to write laws for the Jews."
Artapanus concerning the same
"Artapanus says in his On the Jews that when Abraham had died, and his son Mempsasthenoth, and likewise the king of the Egyptians, the king's son Palmanothes took over the rule. He treated the Jews badly; first he built Kessa and founded the temple in it, then constructed the shrine at Heliopolis. He begot a daughter, Merris, whom he betrothed to a certain Chenephres, who ruled the regions above Memphis, for at that time there were many kings in Egypt. She, being barren, adopted as her own a child of one of the Jews and named him Moses; and when he grew to manhood the Greeks called him Musaeus. This Moses became the teacher of Orpheus; and when he had grown up he handed on to mankind many useful things: he invented ships, machines for setting stones, Egyptian weapons, the instruments for drawing water and for war, and philosophy. He also divided the state into thirty-six nomes and assigned to each of the nomes the god to be worshiped, and the sacred letters to the priests; and the gods were to be cats, dogs, and ibises. He also allotted the priests a select territory. All this he did in order to keep the monarchy secure for Chenephres; for previously the crowds, being without order, would sometimes expel kings and sometimes install them, often the same ones, sometimes others. For these reasons Moses was loved by the crowds, and, being thought worthy by the priests of honor equal to a god's, he was called Hermes, because of his interpretation of the sacred letters. But Chenephres, seeing Moses's excellence, envied him and sought to kill him on some plausible pretext. And when the Ethiopians once invaded Egypt, Chenephres, thinking he had found a fitting opportunity, sent Moses against them as general with an army; he enrolled for him the mass of farmers, supposing that because of the weakness of the soldiers he would easily be killed by the enemy. Moses came to the so-called Hermopolite nome with about a hundred thousand farmers and encamped there; he sent generals to occupy the country in advance, who won conspicuous advantages in the battles. He says the people of Heliopolis say this war lasted ten years. So Moses and his men, because of the size of the army, founded a city in that place and consecrated the ibis in it, because this bird kills the creatures harmful to men; and they called it Hermopolis. The Ethiopians, though enemies, came to love Moses so much that they learned circumcision of the private parts from him; and not they alone, but all the priests as well. When the war was over, Chenephres welcomed him in word but plotted against him in deed. Taking his troops away from him, he sent some to the borders of Ethiopia as a guard, and ordered others to pull down the temple at Diospolis, which was built of baked brick, and to build another of stone, quarrying the nearby mountain; and he set Nacheros over the building as overseer. When Chenephres came with Moses to Memphis, he asked him whether there was anything else useful to mankind; he said the breed of oxen, because the land is plowed by them. Chenephres named a bull Apis and ordered the crowds to found a temple for it, and ordered them to bring the animals consecrated by Moses there and bury them, wishing to conceal Moses's inventions. When the Egyptians had become estranged from him, he bound his friends by oath not to report to Moses the plot being formed against him, and to put forward men to kill him. When no one obeyed, Chenephres reproached Chanethothes, the one he had most particularly addressed; and he, reproached, promised to make the attack when he found an opportunity. About this time Merris died, and Chenephres charged Moses and Chanethothes to carry the body to the regions beyond Egypt and bury it, supposing that Moses would be killed by Chanethothes. As they were going, one of those who knew of the plot reported it to Moses; and he, keeping guard over himself, buried Merris and named the river and the city on it Meroe. This Merris is honored by the inhabitants no less than Isis. Aaron, Moses's brother, learning of the plot, advised his brother to flee to Arabia; and he, persuaded, crossed the Nile from Memphis and set off for Arabia. Chanethothes, learning of Moses's flight, lay in ambush to kill him; and seeing him coming he drew his dagger against him; but Moses was too quick for him, seized his hand, drew the sword, and killed Chanethothes. He escaped to Arabia and lived with Reuel, the ruler of the region, taking his daughter as wife. Reuel wanted to campaign against the Egyptians, wishing to bring Moses back and to secure the rule for his daughter and son-in-law; but Moses prevented it, having regard for his own people; and Reuel, being prevented from campaigning, ordered the Arabs to raid Egypt. About the same time Chenephres, the first of all men to suffer elephantiasis, died; he fell into this affliction because he had ordered the Jews to wear linen garments and not to put on woolen clothing, so that, being conspicuous, they might be punished by him. Moses prayed to God to stop the peoples' sufferings at last. And as he was entreating, he says, fire was suddenly kindled from the earth and kept burning, though there was neither wood nor any other timber in the place. Moses, afraid at what had happened, fled; but a divine voice told him to march against Egypt, rescue the Jews, and lead them to their ancient homeland. Taking courage, he resolved to lead a hostile force against the Egyptians. First he went to Aaron his brother. The king of the Egyptians, learning of Moses's arrival, summoned him and asked why he had come; and he said, because the Lord of the world commanded him to release the Jews. When the king heard this, he shut him up in prison. But when night came, all the doors of the prison opened of their own accord, and of the guards some died, some were overcome by sleep, and their weapons were broken. Moses went out and came to the palace; finding the doors open he went in, and, the guards there too being overcome, he woke the king. The king, astounded at what had happened, ordered Moses, mockingly, to tell him the name of the God who had sent him. He bent down and spoke it into his ear; and the king, hearing it, fell speechless, but, held fast by Moses, came back to life. He wrote the name on a tablet and sealed it; and one of the priests, who made light of what was written on the tablet, died in convulsions. The king told him to perform some sign for him; and Moses threw down the staff he had and made it a serpent; and when all were terrified, he took it by the tail, picked it up, and made it a staff again. Going forward a little, he struck the Nile with the staff; and the river, swelling, flooded all Egypt; and from that time its annual flooding began. The water, gathered into pools, putrefied and killed the river creatures, and the people perished from thirst. When these wonders had happened, the king said he would release the peoples after a month if he restored the river; and Moses, striking the water again with the staff, checked the flow. When this had been done, the king summoned the priests from above Memphis and said he would kill them and demolish the temples unless they too worked some wonder. They then, by certain charms and incantations, made a serpent and changed the color of the river. The king, elated at what had happened, maltreated the Jews with every punishment and penalty. Moses, seeing this, worked other signs; and striking the earth with the staff he sent up a winged creature to ravage the Egyptians, and all their bodies broke out in sores. When the physicians could not heal the sufferers, the Jews again obtained relief. Again Moses sent up frogs by the staff, and besides these locusts and gnats. For this reason the Egyptians dedicate the staff in every temple, and likewise to Isis, because the earth is Isis, and when struck by the staff it sent up the wonders. As the king still acted senselessly, Moses brought about hail and earthquakes by night, so that those fleeing the earthquake were killed by the hail, and those avoiding the hail were destroyed by the earthquakes. At that time all the houses and most of the temples collapsed. At last, having fallen into such calamities, the king released the Jews; and they, having borrowed from the Egyptians many drinking cups, much clothing, and a great quantity of other treasure, crossed the rivers toward Arabia, and after crossing a good stretch of country came on the third day to the Red Sea. The people of Memphis say that Moses, knowing the country, watched for the ebb tide and took the multitude across the sea on dry ground. The people of Heliopolis say that the king rushed upon them with a large force, together with the consecrated animals, because the Jews were carrying off the property they had borrowed from the Egyptians. A divine voice came to Moses to strike the sea with the staff and it would part. Moses, hearing it, touched the water with the staff; and so the stream parted, and the host went through by a dry path. When the Egyptians went in with them and pursued, he says, fire shone out against them from in front, and the sea flooded the path again; and the Egyptians were all destroyed by the fire and the flood. The Jews, escaping the danger, spent forty years in the desert, God raining on them a meal like millet, close to snow in color. He says Moses was tall, ruddy, gray-haired, long-haired, and of dignified bearing; and he did these things when he was about eighty-nine years old."
Ezekiel concerning the same
"About Moses' being put out by his mother in the marsh and taken up and reared by the king's daughter, Ezekiel the writer of tragedies also tells, taking up the story from the beginning, from those who came with Jacob into Egypt to Joseph. He speaks thus, bringing on Moses as speaker: 'Since Jacob left the land of Canaan and came down to Egypt, having seventy souls with him, and begot a great people, faring ill and afflicted, ill-treated to this very time by wicked men and the hand of power. For seeing our race grown great enough, King Pharaoh devised much craft against us: tormenting men with brickmaking and heavy labors of building, and he built towered cities by the work of us wretched ones. Then he proclaims to the race of the Hebrews to throw the male children into the deep-flowing river. Then the mother who bore me hid me three months, as she used to say; but, unable to escape notice, she put me out, wrapping clothing round me, by the edge of the river, in the thick marsh, overgrown. Miriam my sister kept watch nearby. And then the king's daughter came down with her maids to refresh her young skin with bathing; and seeing me she at once took me and lifted me up, and knew I was a Hebrew. And Miriam my sister, running up to the princess, says this: "Do you want me to find you quickly a nurse for this child from the Hebrews?" And she urged the girl on; she went and told our mother, and quickly my mother herself was there and took me in her arms. And the king's daughter said: "Nurse this child, woman, and I will pay you your wage." And she named him Moses, because she had taken him up from the wet bank of the river.' After these lines, Ezekiel in the tragedy goes on to speak of the following too, bringing on Moses as speaker: 'When the time of my infancy had passed, my mother brought me to the princess's palace, having first told me everything and declared to me my father's race and the gifts of God. As long as I was of the age of a child, she provided everything, with royal upbringing and education, as though I were from her own womb. But when the full round of days had come, I went out of the royal house, for my spirit and the king's contrivance urged me to deeds. I first see men fighting hand to hand, one a Hebrew, the other an Egyptian; and seeing them alone, with no one present, I rescued my brother and killed the other, and hid him in the sand, so that no one else should see us and lay the killing bare. On the next day, again seeing two men, and they kinsmen, beating each other, I say: "Why do you strike one weaker than yourself?" And he said: "Who sent you here as judge or overseer over us? Will you not kill me, as you did the man yesterday?" And in fear I said: "How did this become known?" And he quickly reported all this to the king; and Pharaoh seeks to take my life. Hearing this I take myself out of the way, and now I wander in a land of foreign borders.' Then about the daughters of Raguel he continues thus: 'I see these seven maidens.' And when he asks them who the maidens are, Sepphora says: 'Stranger, this whole land is called Libya, and it is inhabited by tribes of every race, black Ethiopian men; and there is one ruler of the land, sole king and general. This city is ruled, and men are judged, by a priest, who is father of me and of these.' Then, having gone through the watering of the flocks, he continues about Sepphora's marriage, bringing on Choum and Sepphora speaking in turn: 'Choum: Still, you must tell me this, Sepphora. Sepphora: My father gave me to this stranger as wife.'"
Demetrius concerning the same
"Demetrius related the killing of the Egyptian and the quarrel with the man who informed about the dead man in the same way as the writer of the sacred book; but he says that Moses fled to Midian and there married Zipporah, Jethro's daughter, who was, so far as one can conjecture from the names, of the descendants of Keturah, of the line of Abraham, from Jokshan, who was born to Abraham of Keturah. From Jokshan came Dedan, from Dedan Reuel, from Reuel Jethro and Hobab, and from Jethro Zipporah, whom Moses married. The generations also agree: Moses was seventh from Abraham, Zipporah sixth. For when Isaac, from whom Moses came, was already married, Abraham married Keturah at the age of 140 and begot of her Ishbak as his second son; and he begot Isaac at a hundred; so Ishbak, from whom Zipporah's descent is traced, was born forty-two years after. There is therefore no difficulty in Moses and Zipporah having lived at the same time. They lived in the city of Midian, which was named after one of Abraham's sons; for he says that Abraham sent his sons east to settle; and for this reason Aaron and Miriam said at Hazeroth that Moses had married an Ethiopian woman. Ezekiel too speaks of these things in the Exagoge, adding the dream seen by Moses and interpreted by his father-in-law. Moses himself speaks to his father-in-law in alternating lines somewhat thus: 'I dreamed that on the summit of Mount Sinai there was a great throne reaching to the folds of heaven, and on it sat a noble man wearing a diadem and holding a great sceptre in his left hand. With his right hand he beckoned to me, and I stood before the throne. He handed me the sceptre and told me to sit on the great throne; he gave me the royal diadem, and he himself withdrew from the throne. I looked upon the whole circle of the earth, both beneath the earth and above heaven; and a multitude of stars fell at my knees, and I counted them all, and they passed before me like a camp of mortals. Then in terror I start up from sleep.' His father-in-law interprets the dream thus: 'Stranger, God has shown you this as a good sign; may I live when these things happen to you. You will raise up a great throne, and you yourself will judge and lead mortals. And as for seeing the whole inhabited earth, and what is beneath and above God's heaven: you will see what is, what was before, and what will be afterward.' About the burning bush and his mission to Pharaoh he again brings on Moses conversing with God in alternating lines. Moses says: 'Ah! What is this sign from the bush, a marvel and beyond men's belief? Suddenly the bush is burning with much fire, yet all its growth remains green. What then? I will go forward and see this very great marvel; for it brings no belief to men.' Then God speaks to him: 'Stop, noblest one, do not come near, Moses, before you loose the binding of your feet; for the ground on which you stand is holy; and the divine word shines out to you from the bush. Take courage, my son, and hear my words; for to see my face is impossible for one born mortal, but you may hear my words, for whose sake I have come. I am the God of your ancestors whom you name, of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob the third. Remembering them and also my gifts, I am here to save my people of the Hebrews, having seen the ill-treatment and toil of my servants. But go and make known by my words, first to all the Hebrews together, then to the king, what I have commanded, that you may lead my people out of the land.' Then, after some lines of dialogue, Moses himself says: 'I am not eloquent by nature; my tongue is hard of speech, faint-voiced, so that my words cannot come before the king.' Then God answers him: 'Send Aaron your brother quickly, to whom you will tell all that has been said by me, and he will speak before the king: you from us, and he receiving from you.' About the staff and the other wonders he has spoken thus in alternating lines: 'God: What is this you have in your hands? Tell me quickly. Moses: A staff, to chastise four-footed beasts and men. God: Throw it to the ground and step back quickly; for it will be a fearful serpent, so that you will marvel. Moses: See, it is thrown. Master, be merciful! How fearful, how monstrous! Pity me; I shudder at the sight, and my limbs tremble. God: Fear nothing; stretch out your hand and take its tail, and it will be a staff again as it was. Put your hand into your bosom and bring it out. Moses: See, what was commanded: it has become like snow. God: Put it into your bosom again, and it will be as it was.'" To these, after some things said in between, he adds: "Ezekiel too says this in the Exagoge, bringing on God speaking about the signs thus: 'With this staff you will do all the plagues. First the river will flow with blood, and all the springs and gatherings of waters; and I will send a multitude of frogs and gnats on the land. Then I will sprinkle ashes from the furnace, and dreadful bitter sores will break out on men. The dog-fly will come and afflict many of the Egyptians. After that there will be pestilence again, and those with hard hearts will die. I will make the heaven bitter: hail with fire will now fall and lay men dead; fruits will perish, and the bodies of beasts. I will set darkness for three whole days, and I will send locusts, and they will consume all the remaining food and the green of the crops. On top of all these I will kill the firstborn children of men, and I will end the insolence of wicked men. King Pharaoh will heed nothing that I say until he has his firstborn child dead; and then in fear he will quickly send the people out. Besides this you will tell all the Hebrews together: "This month is the first of the year for you; in it I will lead the people away into another land, which I promised to the fathers of the Hebrew race." And you will tell all the people, in the month I speak of, at the full moon, having sacrificed the Passover to God on the night before, to touch the door with blood, so that the dread angel may pass by the sign. And you will feast on roasted meat at night. And in haste the king will drive out the whole crowd. When you are about to depart, I will give the people favor, and woman will receive from woman vessels and every ornament that a person wears, gold and silver and clothing, so that they may repay men a wage for what they did. And when you enter your own country, then for as many days as you journeyed, from the very dawn on which you fled, a seven days' road out of Egypt, every year you shall all eat unleavened bread for so many days and worship God, sacrificing to God the firstborn of animals, all male offspring that virgins first bear, opening their mothers' wombs.' And again about this same feast he says he spoke more exactly, working it out further: 'From the tenth day of this month let each of the Hebrew men take, by families, sheep and calves without blemish; and let them be kept until the fourteenth day dawns; and sacrificing toward evening, you shall eat them thus, all roasted with the inward parts: with your belts fastened and sandals bound on your feet, and with staff in hand; for in haste the king will order all to be driven from the land. Each one shall be called. When you sacrifice, take a bunch of hyssop in your hands, dip it in the blood, and touch the two doorposts, so that death may pass away from the Hebrews. And you shall keep this feast to the Lord, seven days of unleavened bread, and no leaven shall be eaten; for you will be released from these evils, and in this month God grants the exodus; and this is the beginning of months and of seasons.'" Again, after other things, he adds: "Ezekiel too, in the drama entitled Exagoge, brings on a messenger describing the state of the Hebrews and the destruction of the Egyptians thus: 'When King Pharaoh set out from his palace with this throng, with countless armed men, with all his cavalry and four-horse chariots, with commanders and men at their sides, there was a fearsome throng of men in battle order. Foot soldiers and men of the phalanx in the middle, leaving lanes for the chariots to run through; horsemen he posted, some on the left and some on the right, of all the army of Egypt. I asked the number of the whole army: there were a hundred myriads of men. When our army met the Hebrews, they were gathered on the shore, encamped near the Red Sea; some were giving food to their little children and their wives, worn out with toil; there were many cattle and household goods; and they, all unarmed for battle, seeing us raised a tearful cry and all together stretched their hands to heaven, to their fathers' God. There was a great crowd of men; and joy held all of us in turn. Then we pitched our camp close to them, at a city men call Baal-zephon. When the Titan sun drew near its setting, we halted, wishing to fight at dawn, trusting in our numbers and fearsome arms. Then divine wonders began, marvelous to see. Suddenly a great pillar of cloud stood up from the earth, between our camp and the Hebrews. And then their leader Moses, taking the staff of God, with which before he had performed terrible signs and wonders on Egypt, struck the surface of the Red Sea and split the depth of the sea in the middle; and all of them rushed swiftly through the salt-sea path. We went straight after them on it, on their track; by night we came upon them, running to battle; but suddenly our chariot wheels would not turn, but stuck fast as if bound. From heaven a great light as of fire appeared to us; so that, as one might guess, God was there as their helper. When they were already across the sea, a great wave roared close to us; and someone, seeing it, cried out: "Let us flee home before the hands of the Most High; for to them he is a helper, but for us wretches he works destruction." And the passage of the Red Sea was flooded over and destroyed the army.'" And again, a little later: "From there they went three days, as Demetrius himself says, and the sacred book in agreement with him. Having no sweet water there but bitter, God told him to throw a piece of wood into the spring, and the water became sweet. From there they came to Elim and found there twelve springs of water and seventy palm trunks. About these and the bird that appeared, Ezekiel in the Exagoge brings on someone speaking to Moses, about the palms and the twelve springs thus: 'Most excellent Moses, see what a place we have found, by this breezy glen. It is there, as you too can see; from there a light shone out by night, a sign like a pillar of fire. There we found a shady meadow and moist springs; a rich, deep place, drawing twelve springs from one rock; and there are many strong palm trunks, laden with fruit, ten times seven; and well-watered grass grows, fodder for the flocks.' Then, going on, he describes the bird that appeared: 'Besides these we saw another creature, strange and marvelous, such as no one has ever seen. Its length was nearly twice an eagle's, with wings of varied colors. Its breast appeared purple, its legs vermilion, and along its neck it was adorned with saffron-colored plumes. Its head was like that of tame cocks, and it looked around with a yellow eye; the pupil looked like a scarlet berry. It had the most splendid voice of all. It appeared to be king of all the birds, as one could see; for all the winged creatures together rushed fearfully behind it, while it went in front, proud as a bull, stepping with a swift stride.' And after a little: "Someone asks how the Israelites had weapons, since they went out unarmed. They said that they would go out a three days' journey, sacrifice, and return. It seems, then, that they used the weapons of those who were not drowned."
Eupolemus concerning David and Solomon and Jerusalem
"Eupolemus says in a work on the prophecy of Elijah that Moses prophesied forty years; then Joshua the son of Nun thirty years; and he lived a hundred and ten years and pitched the holy tabernacle at Shiloh. After this Samuel became prophet. Then by the will of God Saul was chosen king by Samuel, and after reigning twenty-one years he died. Then David his son ruled, who subdued the Syrians living by the river Euphrates, and Commagene, and the Assyrians in Galaditis, and the Phoenicians. He also campaigned against the Idumaeans, Ammanites, Moabites, Ituraeans, Nabataeans, and Nabdaeans. Again he campaigned against Souron, king of Tyre and Phoenicia, and compelled them to pay tribute to the Jews; and he made a treaty of friendship with Vaphres, king of the Egyptians. When David wished to build a temple for God, he asked God to show him the place for the altar. Then an angel appeared to him, standing above the place where the altar is set up in Jerusalem, and told him not to set up the temple, because he was stained with human blood and had waged war for many years. His name was Dianathan; and he commanded him to entrust the building to his son, while he himself prepared what belonged to the construction: gold, silver, bronze, stones, cypress and cedar wood. Hearing this, David built ships at Ailana, a city of Arabia, and sent miners to the island of Ourphe, which lies in the Red Sea and has gold mines; and the miners brought the gold from there to Judaea. After reigning forty years, David handed over the rule to his son Solomon, who was twelve years old, in the presence of Eli the high priest and the twelve heads of tribes, and handed over to him the gold, silver, bronze, stone, and cypress and cedar wood. He himself died, and Solomon reigned and wrote to Vaphres, king of Egypt, the letter written below."
Letter of Solomon to Vaphres, King of Egypt
"King Solomon to Vaphres, king of Egypt, friend of my father, greeting. Know that I have received the kingdom from David my father through God the Most High, who has commanded me to build a temple to God, who created heaven and earth; and at the same time to write to you to send me some of your people, who will stand by me until I have completed everything as needed, as has been commanded."
Letter of Vaphres to King Solomon
"King Vaphres to Solomon, the great king, greeting. On reading your letter I rejoiced greatly, and I and all my forces kept a splendid day because you have received the kingdom from an excellent man approved by so great a God. As for what you write to me about the people with us, I have sent you eighty thousand, and I have made clear to you the numbers and where they come from: from the Sebrithite nome ten thousand, from the Mendesian and Sebennyte twenty thousand, from the Busirite, Leontopolite, and Athribite ten thousand each. See to what they need and to everything else, so that there may be good order, and that they may be returned to their own country when they are no longer needed."
Letter of Solomon to Suron (Hiram), King of Phoenicia
"King Solomon to Souron, king of Tyre, Sidon, and Phoenicia, friend of my father, greeting. Know that I have received the kingdom from David my father through God the Most High, who has commanded me to build a temple to God, who created heaven and earth; and at the same time to write to you too to send me some of your people, who will stand by us until we have completed God's requirement, as has been commanded me. I have also written to Galilee, Samaritis, Moabitis, Ammanitis, and Galaditis to supply them with what they need from the country each month: ten thousand cors of grain (the cor is six artabas) and ten thousand cors of wine (the cor of wine is ten measures). The oil and the rest will be supplied to them from Judaea, and animals to eat from Arabia."
Letter of Suron to Solomon
"Souron to Solomon, the great king, greeting. Blessed be God, who created heaven and earth, who has chosen an excellent man, son of an excellent man. On reading your letter I rejoiced greatly and blessed God because you have received the kingdom. As for what you write to me about the people with us, I have sent you eighty thousand Tyrians and Phoenicians; and I have sent you a master builder, a man of Tyre, of a Jewish mother, of the tribe of David. Whatever you ask him about all things under heaven, and architecture, he will explain to you and do. As for what is needed and the servants sent to you, you will do well to write to the local governors, so that what is needed may be supplied." "Solomon, going with his father's friends to Mount Lebanon with the Sidonians and Tyrians, carried the timber previously cut by his father by sea to Joppa, and from there overland to Jerusalem. He began to build the temple of God at the age of thirteen. The previously mentioned nations did the work, and the twelve tribes of the Jews supplied everything needed for the hundred and sixty thousand, one tribe each month. He laid the foundations of the temple of God, sixty cubits long, sixty cubits wide, and the width of the building and the foundations ten cubits; for so Nathan the prophet of God had commanded him. He built in alternating courses of stone and binding beams of cypress, holding the two courses together with bronze clamps weighing a talent. Having built it thus, he paneled it outside with cedar and cypress wood, so that the stone building was not seen; and he gilded the temple inside, overlaying it with golden plates five cubits long, and fixed them on, nailing them with silver nails a talent in weight, breast-shaped in form, four in number. So he gilded it from floor to roof, made the ceiling of golden coffers, and made the roof of bronze, of bronze tiles, smelting bronze and pouring it on. He made two bronze pillars and overlaid them with pure gold a finger thick. The pillars were as tall as the temple, and each column ten cubits in circumference; they stood one on the right of the house, the other on the left. He also made golden lampstands, each weighing ten talents, taking as a model the one set by Moses in the tent of witness. He set them on each side of the sanctuary, some on the right, some on the left. He also made seventy golden lamps, so that seven burned on each lampstand. He built the gates of the temple and adorned them with gold and silver, and roofed them with coffers of cedar and cypress. He also made a portico on the north side of the temple and set forty-eight bronze pillars under it. He made a bronze laver, twenty cubits long, twenty wide, and five high; and on it he made a rim projecting outward toward the base by one cubit, so that the priests could stand on it to wash their feet and hands. He made the laver's stands, twelve, cast and chased, of a man's height, and set them at the back, under the laver, to the right of the altar. He also made a bronze platform two cubits high, beside the laver, so that the king might stand on it when he prays and be seen by the people of the Jews. He built the altar twenty-five cubits by twenty, and twelve cubits high. He also made two bronze rings of chain-work and set them on frames rising twenty cubits above the temple, and they cast shade over the whole temple; and on each network he hung four hundred bronze bells, each a talent in weight; and he made the networks whole, so that the bells would sound and scare away the birds, so that they would not settle on the temple or nest on the coffers of the gates and porticoes and foul the temple with their droppings. He also surrounded the city of Jerusalem with walls, towers, and ditches, and built a palace for himself. The sanctuary was at first called the Temple (hieron) of Solomon; later, by corruption, the city was named Jerusalem from the temple, and by the Greeks it is called correspondingly Hierosolyma. Having completed the temple and walled the city, he went to Shiloh and brought a sacrifice to God as a whole burnt offering, a thousand oxen. He took the tabernacle, the altar, and the vessels that Moses had made, brought them to Jerusalem, and placed them in the house. And the ark, the golden altar, the lampstand, the table, and the other vessels were deposited there, as the prophet had commanded him. He offered God an immense sacrifice, two thousand sheep and three thousand five hundred calves. The total gold used on the two pillars and the temple was 4,600,000 talents; for the nails and the other furnishings, 1,232 talents of silver; and of bronze for the columns, the laver, and the portico, 18,050 talents. Solomon sent away the Egyptians and the Phoenicians, each to their own land, giving each ten gold shekels; and the talent is a shekel. To Vaphres king of Egypt he sent ten thousand measures of oil, a thousand artabas of dates, a hundred jars of honey, and spices. To Souron in Tyre he sent the golden column that is set up in Tyre in the temple of Zeus. Theophilus says that Solomon sent the surplus gold to the king of the Tyrians, and that he made a life-size statue of his daughter, and put the golden column round the statue as a sheath. Eupolemus says that Solomon also made a thousand golden shields, each of five hundred gold pieces. He lived fifty-two years, of which he reigned forty in peace.
Timochares concerning Jerusalem
"Timochares says in his History of Antiochus that Jerusalem has a circuit of forty stades, and that it is hard to capture, being enclosed on all sides by steep ravines. The whole city flows with water, so that even the gardens are irrigated by the water running off from the city; but the land between, from the city to forty stades out, is waterless, and beyond the forty stades it is well watered again."
The Author of The Metrical Survey of Syria on the same
"The writer of the Measurement of Syria says in his first book that Jerusalem lies on a high and rugged site; that some parts of the wall are built of dressed stone, but most of rubble; that the city has a circuit of twenty-seven stades; and that there is also a spring in the place gushing up abundant water."
Philo concerning the waters of Jerusalem
Philo says in his On Jerusalem that there is a fountain, and that it dries up in winter but fills in summer. He says in the first book: 'Above those swimming is another astonishing sight, a [pool]. [Its sound], with the ruler's baths, fills the deep channel of the stream flowing out,' and so on. Going on again, he adds about its filling: 'For the high-shining stream, sent down in rainy snows, rich in joy, winds past towers and heights, and over the dry, dusty ground shows the far-shining, supreme wonders of the fountain to the peoples,' and what follows. Then again he describes the high priest's fountain and its channeling thus: 'And steeply the pipes spout forth through the earth with water-carrying …,' and all that follows." So much, then, from Alexander Polyhistor.
Aristeas concerning the same
About the waters in Jerusalem, Aristaeus too, in the book he wrote On the Translation of the Law of the Jews, relates this: "The house faces east, and its back is toward the west. The whole floor is paved with stone and has slopes toward the proper places for the flow of the water, which is needed for cleansing away the blood of the sacrifices; for many myriads of beasts are offered on the feast days. There is an unfailing supply of water, as if from an abundant spring flowing up naturally within; and besides there are wonderful, indescribable reservoirs underground, as they showed, for five stades around the foundation of the temple, and from them countless pipes, the streams joining one another on every side. All these are leaded at the bottom and on the walls, and over them a great quantity of plaster has been spread, all having been done with care."
Eupolemus concerning the prophet Jeremiah
Besides these, since Polyhistor has also made mention of the prophecy of Jeremiah, it would be most unreasonable of all for us to pass it over in silence. Let it, then, be set down too: "Then Jonachim; in his time Jeremiah the prophet prophesied. Sent by God, he found the Jews sacrificing to a golden idol whose name was Baal. He revealed to them the misfortune to come. Jonachim tried to burn him alive; but he said that with this wood they would cook food for the Babylonians, and as captives would dig the canals of the Tigris and Euphrates. When Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians, heard what Jeremiah had foretold, he called on Astibares, king of the Medes, to campaign with him. Taking Babylonians and Medes, and gathering a hundred and eighty thousand foot, a hundred and twenty thousand horse, and ten thousand chariots, he first subdued Samaritis, Galilee, Scythopolis, and the Jews living in Galaditis; then he took Jerusalem and captured Jonachim, the king of the Jews alive; and they picked out the gold, silver, and bronze in the temple and sent it to Babylon, except the ark and the tablets in it; this Jeremiah kept back."
Berossus on the Captivity of the Jews by Nabuchodonosor
To these it is necessary to add also the account of the Jews' captivity under Nebuchadnezzar: "Nebuchadnezzar engaged the rebel, drew up against him, overcame him, and brought the country under his own rule again. It happened that his father Nabopolassar fell ill at that time and died in the city of Babylon, having reigned twenty-one years. Nebuchadnezzar, learning not long after of his father's death, settled affairs in Egypt and the rest of the country, entrusted the captives—Jews, Phoenicians, and Syrians, and the peoples of Egypt—to some of his friends, and came to Babylonia." And after other things he says: "Nebuchadnezzar, after beginning the previously mentioned wall, fell ill and died, having reigned forty-three years; and his son Evilmalourouchos became master of the kingdom. He managed affairs lawlessly and licentiously, was plotted against by Neriglisar, his sister's husband, and was killed, having reigned two years. After he was killed, Neriglisar, who had plotted against him, succeeded to the rule and reigned four years. His son Chabaessoarachos became master of the kingdom while a boy, for nine months; but, plotted against because he showed many signs of a bad character, he was beaten to death by his friends. When he was dead, those who had plotted against him met and together conferred the kingship on Nabonidus, a man from Babylon, who was of the same conspiracy. Under him the walls of the city of Babylon along the river were finished with baked brick and asphalt. In the seventeenth year of his reign Cyrus came from Persia with a large force, and having subdued all the rest of the kingdom, set out against Babylonia. Nabonidus, learning of his approach, met him with his army, joined battle, was defeated, and fled with a few, and was shut up in the city of the Borsippenes. Cyrus, having taken Babylon and ordered the walls outside the city to be demolished, because the city seemed to him very troublesome and hard to capture, marched off to Borsippa to besiege Nabonidus. Nabonidus did not await the siege but surrendered first; Cyrus treated him kindly, gave him Carmania to live in, and sent him out of Babylonia. Nabonidus spent the rest of his time in that country and ended his life there." "This account has the truth in agreement with our books. For it is written in them that Nebuchadnezzar in the eighteenth year of his reign laid waste our temple, and it lay unseen for fifty years; and in the second year of the reign of Cyrus its foundations were laid, and it was completed again in the tenth year of the reign of Darius." So Josephus.
Abydenus concerning Nabuchodonosor
I have also found the following about Nebuchadnezzar in Abydenus's writing On the Assyrians: "Megasthenes says that Nabucodrosor, who became mightier than Heracles, campaigned against Libya and Iberia, and having subdued them settled a portion of them on the right-hand shore of the Pontus. Afterwards, it is said by the Chaldaeans, he went up to his palace and was possessed by some god or other, and uttering a cry he said: 'I, Nabucodrosor, men of Babylon, foretell to you the coming disaster, which neither Belus my forefather nor queen Beltis has the power to persuade the Fates to turn aside. A Persian mule will come, using your own daimones as allies, and will bring slavery; and his accomplice will be a Mede, the boast of Assyria. I wish that, before he gives up my citizens, some Charybdis or sea would take him into its depths and blot him out root and branch; or that, turned aside on other roads, he might be carried through the desert, where there are neither cities nor footsteps of men, but wild beasts have pasture and birds wander, roaming alone among rocks and ravines; and that I, before I took these things to heart, had met a better end.' Having prophesied, he at once vanished; and his son Amilmaroudokos became king. Iglisares, his relative by marriage, killed him and left a son, Labassoaraskos. When he died a violent death, they appointed as king Nabannidochos, who was no relation of his. Cyrus, having taken Babylon, made him a gift of the governorship of Carmania." And about Nebuchadnezzar's founding of Babylon the same writer writes this: "It is said that in the beginning everything was water, called sea; that Belus stopped it, assigning each its own land, and surrounded Babylon with a wall; and that in the appointed time it disappeared. And that Nebuchadnezzar walled it again, the wall with bronze gates that lasted until the empire of the Macedonians." And after other things he adds: "Nebuchadnezzar, having succeeded to the rule, walled Babylon with a triple circuit in fifteen days; he led off the river Armakales, which is a branch of the Euphrates, and the Akrakanos. Above the city of the Sipparenes he dug a reservoir forty parasangs in circuit and twenty fathoms deep, and set gates on it, by opening which they watered the plain; they call them echetognomones. He also walled off the flooding of the Red Sea, founded the city of Teredon facing the incursions of the Arabs, and furnished the palace with trees, naming them the hanging gardens." Let these too be set down from the writing named, because it is reported in the prophecy of Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar, walking in the temple of his kingdom in Babylon, with proud thoughts spoke arrogantly, saying: "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built as a royal house by the might of my strength, for the honor of my glory?" when, while the word was still in his mouth, the overthrow that followed came upon him.
Josephus concerning the authors who have mentioned the Jewish nation
This, then, is enough from us on these matters. But to all of these let there be added the passage from Josephus's Antiquity of the Jews, where, after setting out word for word the statements of countless writers, he adds this: "Nevertheless, for the proof of our antiquity the records of the Syrians, Chaldaeans, and Phoenicians suffice, and besides them so many of the Greek writers; and in addition to those mentioned, Theophilus, Theodotus, Mnaseas, Aristophanes, Hermogenes, Euhemerus, Conon, Zopyrion, and perhaps many others (for I have not come across all the books) have mentioned us more than in passing. Most of the men named missed the truth about our earliest history, because they had not read our sacred books; yet all alike have borne witness to our antiquity, which is what I set out to speak of now. Demetrius of Phalerum, however, and Philo the elder and Eupolemus did not go far astray from the truth; and they deserve to be pardoned, for it was not possible for them to follow our writings with full accuracy." So Josephus too. Anyone who cares to read the man's books on the antiquity of the Jews will find a great many testimonies agreeing with those set out here. And a great crowd of other witnesses, ancient and recent writers, pours in upon us, setting their seal to the same verdict as those quoted; but, mindful of proportion in our work, we leave their words for the studious to seek out and examine, and ourselves pass on to the promise that remains.
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Preparation for the Gospel, Book 9
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