BOOK 1.

1. I Suppose that by my books of the Antiquity of the Jews, most

excellent Epaphroditus, [2] have made it evident to those who peruse

them, that our Jewish nation is of very great antiquity, and had a

distinct subsistence of its own originally; as also, I have therein

declared how we came to inhabit this country wherein we now live. Those

Antiquities contain the history of five thousand years, and are taken

out of our sacred books, but are translated by me into the Greek tongue.

However, since I observe a considerable number of people giving ear to

the reproaches that are laid against us by those who bear ill-will to

us, and will not believe what I have written concerning the antiquity of

our nation, while they take it for a plain sign that our nation is of a

late date, because they are not so much as vouchsafed a bare mention by

the most famous historiographers among the Grecians. I therefore have

thought myself under an obligation to write somewhat briefly about

these subjects, in order to convict those that reproach us of spite and

voluntary falsehood, and to correct the ignorance of others, and withal

to instruct all those who are desirous of knowing the truth of what

great antiquity we really are. As for the witnesses whom I shall produce

for the proof of what I say, they shall be such as are esteemed to be

of the greatest reputation for truth, and the most skillful in the

knowledge of all antiquity by the Greeks themselves. I will also show,

that those who have written so reproachfully and falsely about us are

to be convicted by what they have written themselves to the contrary.

I shall also endeavor to give an account of the reasons why it hath so

happened, that there have not been a great number of Greeks who have

made mention of our nation in their histories. I will, however, bring

those Grecians to light who have not omitted such our history, for the

sake of those that either do not know them, or pretend not to know them

already.

2. And now, in the first place, I cannot but greatly wonder at those

men, who suppose that we must attend to none but Grecians, when we are

inquiring about the most ancient facts, and must inform ourselves of

their truth from them only, while we must not believe ourselves nor

other men; for I am convinced that the very reverse is the truth of the

case. I mean this,--if we will not be led by vain opinions, but will

make inquiry after truth from facts themselves; for they will find that

almost all which concerns the Greeks happened not long ago; nay, one may

say, is of yesterday only. I speak of the building of their cities, the

inventions of their arts, and the description of their laws; and as for

their care about the writing down of their histories, it is very near

the last thing they set about. However, they acknowledge themselves so

far, that they were the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, and the Phoenicians

(for I will not now reckon ourselves among them) that have preserved the

memorials of the most ancient and most lasting traditions of mankind;

for almost all these nations inhabit such countries as are least subject

to destruction from the world about them; and these also have taken

especial care to have nothing omitted of what was [remarkably] done

among them; but their history was esteemed sacred, and put into public

tables, as written by men of the greatest wisdom they had among

them. But as for the place where the Grecians inhabit, ten thousand

destructions have overtaken it, and blotted out the memory of former

actions; so that they were ever beginning a new way of living, and

supposed that every one of them was the origin of their new state. It

was also late, and with difficulty, that they came to know the letters

they now use; for those who would advance their use of these letters

to the greatest antiquity pretend that they learned them from the

Phoenicians and from Cadmus; yet is nobody able to demonstrate that they

have any writing preserved from that time, neither in their temples, nor

in any other public monuments. This appears, because the time when those

lived who went to the Trojan war, so many years afterward, is in great

doubt, and great inquiry is made, whether the Greeks used their letters

at that time; and the most prevailing opinion, and that nearest the

truth, is, that their present way of using those letters was unknown at

that time. However, there is not any writing which the Greeks agree to

be genuine among them ancienter than Homer's Poems, who must plainly he

confessed later than the siege of Troy; nay, the report goes, that

even he did not leave his poems in writing, but that their memory was

preserved in songs, and they were put together afterward, and that this

is the reason of such a number of variations as are found in them. [3]

As for those who set themselves about writing their histories, I mean

such as Cadmus of Miletus, and Acusilaus of Argos, and any others that

may be mentioned as succeeding Acusilaus, they lived but a little while

before the Persian expedition into Greece. But then for those that first

introduced philosophy, and the consideration of things celestial and

divine among them, such as Pherceydes the Syrian, and Pythagoras, and

Thales, all with one consent agree, that they learned what they knew

of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and wrote but little And these are the

things which are supposed to be the oldest of all among the Greeks; and

they have much ado to believe that the writings ascribed to those men

are genuine.

3. How can it then be other than an absurd thing, for the Greeks to

be so proud, and to vaunt themselves to be the only people that are

acquainted with antiquity, and that have delivered the true accounts

of those early times after an accurate manner? Nay, who is there that

cannot easily gather from the Greek writers themselves, that they knew

but little on any good foundation when they set to write, but rather

wrote their histories from their own conjectures? Accordingly, they

confute one another in their own books to purpose, and are not ashamed.

to give us the most contradictory accounts of the same things; and I

should spend my time to little purpose, if I should pretend to teach

the Greeks that which they know better than I already, what a great

disagreement there is between Hellanicus and Acusilaus about their

genealogies; in how many eases Acusilaus corrects Hesiod: or after what

manner Ephorus demonstrates Hellanicus to have told lies in the greatest

part of his history; as does Timeus in like manner as to Ephorus, and

the succeeding writers do to Timeus, and all the later writers do to

Herodotus nor could Timeus agree with Antiochus and Philistius, or

with Callias, about the Sicilian History, no more than do the several

writers of the Athide follow one another about the Athenian affairs; nor

do the historians the like, that wrote the Argolics, about the affairs

of the Argives. And now what need I say any more about particular cities

and smaller places, while in the most approved writers of the expedition

of the Persians, and of the actions which were therein performed, there

are so great differences? Nay, Thucydides himself is accused of some as

writing what is false, although he seems to have given us the exactest

history of the affairs of his own time. [4]

4. As for the occasions of so great disagreement of theirs, there may

be assigned many that are very probable, if any have a mind to make an

inquiry about them; but I ascribe these contradictions chiefly to two

causes, which I will now mention, and still think what I shall mention

in the first place to be the principal of all. For if we remember that

in the beginning the Greeks had taken no care to have public records

of their several transactions preserved, this must for certain

have afforded those that would afterward write about those ancient

transactions the opportunity of making mistakes, and the power of making

lies also; for this original recording of such ancient transactions hath

not only been neglected by the other states of Greece, but even among

the Athenians themselves also, who pretend to be Aborigines, and to have

applied themselves to learning, there are no such records extant; nay,

they say themselves that the laws of Draco concerning murders, which

are now extant in writing, are the most ancient of their public records;

which Draco yet lived but a little before the tyrant Pisistratus. [5]

For as to the Arcadians, who make such boasts of their antiquity, what

need I speak of them in particular, since it was still later before they

got their letters, and learned them, and that with difficulty also. [6]

5. There must therefore naturally arise great differences among writers,

when they had no original records to lay for their foundation, which

might at once inform those who had an inclination to learn, and

contradict those that would tell lies. However, we are to suppose a

second occasion besides the former of these contradictions; it is

this: That those who were the most zealous to write history were not

solicitous for the discovery of truth, although it was very easy

for them always to make such a profession; but their business was to

demonstrate that they could write well, and make an impression upon

mankind thereby; and in what manner of writing they thought they were

able to exceed others, to that did they apply themselves, Some of them

betook themselves to the writing of fabulous narrations; some of them

endeavored to please the cities or the kings, by writing in their

commendation; others of them fell to finding faults with transactions,

or with the writers of such transactions, and thought to make a great

figure by so doing. And indeed these do what is of all things the most

contrary to true history; for it is the great character of true history

that all concerned therein both speak and write the same things; while

these men, by writing differently about the same things, think they

shall be believed to write with the greatest regard to truth. We

therefore [who are Jews] must yield to the Grecian writers as to

language and eloquence of composition; but then we shall give them no

such preference as to the verity of ancient history, and least of all as

to that part which concerns the affairs of our own several countries.

6. As to the care of writing down the records from the earliest

antiquity among the Egyptians and Babylonians; that the priests were

intrusted therewith, and employed a philosophical concern about it; that

they were the Chaldean priests that did so among the Babylonians; and

that the Phoenicians, who were mingled among the Greeks, did especially

make use of their letters, both for the common affairs of life, and for

the delivering down the history of common transactions, I think I may

omit any proof, because all men allow it so to be. But now as to our

forefathers, that they took no less care about writing such records,

[for I will not say they took greater care than the others I spoke of,]

and that they committed that matter to their high priests and to their

prophets, and that these records have been written all along down to our

own times with the utmost accuracy; nay, if it be not too bold for me

to say it, our history will be so written hereafter;--I shall endeavor

briefly to inform you.

7. For our forefathers did not only appoint the best of these priests,

and those that attended upon the Divine worship, for that design from

the beginning, but made provision that the stock of the priests should

continue unmixed and pure; for he who is partaker of the priesthood must

propagate of a wife of the same nation, without having any regard to

money, or any other dignities; but he is to make a scrutiny, and take

his wife's genealogy from the ancient tables, and procure many witnesses

to it. [7] And this is our practice not only in Judea, but wheresoever

any body of men of our nation do live; and even there an exact catalogue

of our priests' marriages is kept; I mean at Egypt and at Babylon, or

in any other place of the rest of the habitable earth, whithersoever our

priests are scattered; for they send to Jerusalem the ancient names of

their parents in writing, as well as those of their remoter ancestors,

and signify who are the witnesses also. But if any war falls out,

such as have fallen out a great many of them already, when Antiochus

Epiphanes made an invasion upon our country, as also when Pompey the

Great and Quintilius Varus did so also, and principally in the wars that

have happened in our own times, those priests that survive them

compose new tables of genealogy out of the old records, and examine the

circumstances of the women that remain; for still they do not admit of

those that have been captives, as suspecting that they had conversation

with some foreigners. But what is the strongest argument of our exact

management in this matter is what I am now going to say, that we have

the names of our high priests from father to son set down in our records

for the interval of two thousand years; and if any of these have been

transgressors of these rules, they are prohibited to present themselves

at the altar, or to be partakers of any other of our purifications; and

this is justly, or rather necessarily done, because every one is

not permitted of his own accord to be a writer, nor is there any

disagreement in what is written; they being only prophets that have

written the original and earliest accounts of things as they learned

them of God himself by inspiration; and others have written what hath

happened in their own times, and that in a very distinct manner also.

8. For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us,

disagreeing from and contradicting one another, [as the Greeks have,]

but only twenty-two books, [8] which contain the records of all the past

times; which are justly believed to be divine; and of them five belong

to Moses, which contain his laws and the traditions of the origin of

mankind till his death. This interval of time was little short of three

thousand years; but as to the time from the death of Moses till the

reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, who reigned after Xerxes, the

prophets, who were after Moses, wrote down what was done in their times

in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and

precepts for the conduct of human life. It is true, our history hath

been written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but hath not been

esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers,

because there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that

time; and how firmly we have given credit to these books of our own

nation is evident by what we do; for during so many ages as have already

passed, no one has been so bold as either to add any thing to them,

to take any thing from them, or to make any change in them; but it is

become natural to all Jews immediately, and from their very birth, to

esteem these books to contain Divine doctrines, and to persist in them,

and, if occasion be willingly to die for them. For it is no new thing

for our captives, many of them in number, and frequently in time, to

be seen to endure racks and deaths of all kinds upon the theatres, that

they may not be obliged to say one word against our laws and the records

that contain them; whereas there are none at all among the Greeks who

would undergo the least harm on that account, no, nor in case all the

writings that are among them were to be destroyed; for they take them to

be such discourses as are framed agreeably to the inclinations of those

that write them; and they have justly the same opinion of the ancient

writers, since they see some of the present generation bold enough to

write about such affairs, wherein they were not present, nor had concern

enough to inform themselves about them from those that knew them;

examples of which may be had in this late war of ours, where some

persons have written histories, and published them, without having been

in the places concerned, or having been near them when the actions were

done; but these men put a few things together by hearsay, and insolently

abuse the world, and call these writings by the name of Histories.

9. As for myself, I have composed a true history of that whole war, and

of all the particulars that occurred therein, as having been concerned

in all its transactions; for I acted as general of those among us that

are named Galileans, as long as it was possible for us to make any

opposition. I was then seized on by the Romans, and became a captive.

Vespasian also and Titus had me kept under a guard, and forced me to

attend them continually. At the first I was put into bonds, but was

set at liberty afterward, and sent to accompany Titus when he came

from Alexandria to the siege of Jerusalem; during which time there was

nothing done which escaped my knowledge; for what happened in the

Roman camp I saw, and wrote down carefully; and what informations the

deserters brought [out of the city], I was the only man that understood

them. Afterward I got leisure at Rome; and when all my materials were

prepared for that work, I made use of some persons to assist me in

learning the Greek tongue, and by these means I composed the history

of those transactions. And I was so well assured of the truth of what

I related, that I first of all appealed to those that had the supreme

command in that war, Vespasian and Titus, as witnesses for me, for to

them I presented those books first of all, and after them to many of the

Romans who had been in the war. I also sold them to many of our own men

who understood the Greek philosophy; among whom were Julius Archelaus,

Herod [king of Chalcis], a person of great gravity, and king Agrippa

himself, a person that deserved the greatest admiration. Now all these

men bore their testimony to me, that I had the strictest regard to

truth; who yet would not have dissembled the matter, nor been silent, if

I, out of ignorance, or out of favor to any side, either had given false

colors to actions, or omitted any of them.

10. There have been indeed some bad men, who have attempted to

calumniate my history, and took it to be a kind of scholastic

performance for the exercise of young men. A strange sort of accusation

and calumny this! since every one that undertakes to deliver the history

of actions truly ought to know them accurately himself in the first

place, as either having been concerned in them himself, or been informed

of them by such as knew them. Now both these methods of knowledge I may

very properly pretend to in the composition of both my works; for, as I

said, I have translated the Antiquities out of our sacred books; which I

easily could do, since I was a priest by my birth, and have studied that

philosophy which is contained in those writings: and for the History

of the War, I wrote it as having been an actor myself in many of its

transactions, an eye-witness in the greatest part of the rest, and was

not unacquainted with any thing whatsoever that was either said or

done in it. How impudent then must those deserve to be esteemed that

undertake to contradict me about the true state of those affairs!

who, although they pretend to have made use of both the emperors' own

memoirs, yet could not they he acquainted with our affairs who fought

against them.

11. This digression I have been obliged to make out of necessity, as

being desirous to expose the vanity of those that profess to write

histories; and I suppose I have sufficiently declared that this custom

of transmitting down the histories of ancient times hath been better

preserved by those nations which are called Barbarians, than by the

Greeks themselves. I am now willing, in the next place, to say a few

things to those that endeavor to prove that our constitution is but of

late time, for this reason, as they pretend, that the Greek writers have

said nothing about us; after which I shall produce testimonies for our

antiquity out of the writings of foreigners; I shall also demonstrate

that such as cast reproaches upon our nation do it very unjustly.

12. As for ourselves, therefore, we neither inhabit a maritime country,

nor do we delight in merchandise, nor in such a mixture with other men

as arises from it; but the cities we dwell in are remote from the sea,

and having a fruitful country for our habitation, we take pains in

cultivating that only. Our principal care of all is this, to educate our

children well; and we think it to be the most necessary business of

our whole life to observe the laws that have been given us, and to

keep those rules of piety that have been delivered down to us. Since,

therefore, besides what we have already taken notice of, we have had a

peculiar way of living of our own, there was no occasion offered us in

ancient ages for intermixing among the Greeks, as they had for mixing

among the Egyptians, by their intercourse of exporting and importing

their several goods; as they also mixed with the Phoenicians, who

lived by the sea-side, by means of their love of lucre in trade and

merchandise. Nor did our forefathers betake themselves, as did some

others, to robbery; nor did they, in order to gain more wealth, fall

into foreign wars, although our country contained many ten thousands of

men of courage sufficient for that purpose. For this reason it was that

the Phoenicians themselves came soon by trading and navigation to be

known to the Grecians, and by their means the Egyptians became known

to the Grecians also, as did all those people whence the Phoenicians in

long voyages over the seas carried wares to the Grecians. The Medes also

and the Persians, when they were lords of Asia, became well known to

them; and this was especially true of the Persians, who led their armies

as far as the other continent [Europe]. The Thracians were also known to

them by the nearness of their countries, and the Scythians by the

means of those that sailed to Pontus; for it was so in general that all

maritime nations, and those that inhabited near the eastern or western

seas, became most known to those that were desirous to be writers; but

such as had their habitations further from the sea were for the most

part unknown to them which things appear to have happened as to Europe

also, where the city of Rome, that hath this long time been possessed

of so much power, and hath performed such great actions in war, is yet

never mentioned by Herodotus, nor by Thucydides, nor by any one of their

contemporaries; and it was very late, and with great difficulty, that

the Romans became known to the Greeks. Nay, those that were reckoned the

most exact historians [and Ephorus for one] were so very ignorant of the

Gauls and the Spaniards, that he supposed the Spaniards, who inhabit so

great a part of the western regions of the earth, to be no more than one

city. Those historians also have ventured to describe such customs as

were made use of by them, which they never had either done or said; and

the reason why these writers did not know the truth of their affairs was

this, that they had not any commerce together; but the reason why they

wrote such falsities was this, that they had a mind to appear to know

things which others had not known. How can it then be any wonder, if our

nation was no more known to many of the Greeks, nor had given them any

occasion to mention them in their writings, while they were so remote

from the sea, and had a conduct of life so peculiar to themselves?

13. Let us now put the case, therefore, that we made use of this

argument concerning the Grecians, in order to prove that their nation

was not ancient, because nothing is said of them in our records: would

not they laugh at us all, and probably give the same reasons for our

silence that I have now alleged, and would produce their neighbor

nations as witnesses to their own antiquity? Now the very same

thing will I endeavor to do; for I will bring the Egyptians and the

Phoenicians as my principal witnesses, because nobody can complain Of

their testimony as false, on account that they are known to have borne

the greatest ill-will towards us; I mean this as to the Egyptians in

general all of them, while of the Phoenicians it is known the Tyrians

have been most of all in the same ill disposition towards us: yet do

I confess that I cannot say the same of the Chaldeans, since our first

leaders and ancestors were derived from them; and they do make mention

of us Jews in their records, on account of the kindred there is between

us. Now when I shall have made my assertions good, so far as concerns

the others, I will demonstrate that some of the Greek writers have made

mention of us Jews also, that those who envy us may not have even this

pretense for contradicting what I have said about our nation.

14. I shall begin with the writings of the Egyptians; not indeed of

those that have written in the Egyptian language, which it is impossible

for me to do. But Manetho was a man who was by birth an Egyptian, yet

had he made himself master of the Greek learning, as is very evident;

for he wrote the history of his own country in the Greek tongue, by

translating it, as he saith himself, out of their sacred records;

he also finds great fault with Herodotus for his ignorance and false

relations of Egyptian affairs. Now this Manetho, in the second book of

his Egyptian History, writes concerning us in the following manner. I

will set down his very words, as if I were to bring the very man himself

into a court for a witness: "There was a king of ours whose name was

Timaus. Under him it came to pass, I know not how, that God was averse

to us, and there came, after a surprising manner, men of ignoble birth

out of the eastern parts, and had boldness enough to make an expedition

into our country, and with ease subdued it by force, yet without

our hazarding a battle with them. So when they had gotten those that

governed us under their power, they afterwards burnt down our cities,

and demolished the temples of the gods, and used all the inhabitants

after a most barbarous manner; nay, some they slew, and led their

children and their wives into slavery. At length they made one of

themselves king, whose name was Salatis; he also lived at Memphis, and

made both the upper and lower regions pay tribute, and left garrisons

in places that were the most proper for them. He chiefly aimed to secure

the eastern parts, as fore-seeing that the Assyrians, who had then the

greatest power, would be desirous of that kingdom, and invade them; and

as he found in the Saite Nomos, [Sethroite,] a city very proper for this

purpose, and which lay upon the Bubastic channel, but with regard to a

certain theologic notion was called Avaris, this he rebuilt, and made

very strong by the walls he built about it, and by a most numerous

garrison of two hundred and forty thousand armed men whom he put into

it to keep it. Thither Salatis came in summer time, partly to gather his

corn, and pay his soldiers their wages, and partly to exercise his

armed men, and thereby to terrify foreigners. When this man had reigned

thirteen years, after him reigned another, whose name was Beon, for

forty-four years; after him reigned another, called Apachnas, thirty-six

years and seven months; after him Apophis reigned sixty-one years, and

then Janins fifty years and one month; after all these reigned Assis

forty-nine years and two months. And these six were the first rulers

among them, who were all along making war with the Egyptians, and were

very desirous gradually to destroy them to the very roots. This whole

nation was styled Hycsos, that is, Shepherd-kings: for the first

syllable Hyc, according to the sacred dialect, denotes a king, as is Sos

a shepherd; but this according to the ordinary dialect; and of these is

compounded Hycsos: but some say that these people were Arabians." Now

in another copy it is said that this word does not denote Kings, but,

on the contrary, denotes Captive Shepherds, and this on account of the

particle Hyc; for that Hyc, with the aspiration, in the Egyptian tongue

again denotes Shepherds, and that expressly also; and this to me seems

the more probable opinion, and more agreeable to ancient history. [But

Manetho goes on]: "These people, whom we have before named kings,

and called shepherds also, and their descendants," as he says, "kept

possession of Egypt five hundred and eleven years." After these, he

says, "That the kings of Thebais and the other parts of Egypt made an

insurrection against the shepherds, and that there a terrible and long

war was made between them." He says further, "That under a king, whose

name was Alisphragmuthosis, the shepherds were subdued by him, and were

indeed driven out of other parts of Egypt, but were shut up in a place

that contained ten thousand acres; this place was named Avaris." Manetho

says, "That the shepherds built a wall round all this place, which was a

large and a strong wall, and this in order to keep all their possessions

and their prey within a place of strength, but that Thummosis the son

of Alisphragmuthosis made an attempt to take them by force and by siege,

with four hundred and eighty thousand men to lie rotund about them, but

that, upon his despair of taking the place by that siege, they came to a

composition with them, that they should leave Egypt, and go, without any

harm to be done to them, whithersoever they would; and that, after

this composition was made, they went away with their whole families and

effects, not fewer in number than two hundred and forty thousand, and

took their journey from Egypt, through the wilderness, for Syria; but

that as they were in fear of the Assyrians, who had then the dominion

over Asia, they built a city in that country which is now called Judea,

and that large enough to contain this great number of men, and called

it Jerusalem." [9] Now Manetho, in another book of his, says, "That

this nation, thus called Shepherds, were also called Captives, in their

sacred books." And this account of his is the truth; for feeding of

sheep was the employment of our forefathers in the most ancient ages

[10] and as they led such a wandering life in feeding sheep, they

were called Shepherds. Nor was it without reason that they were called

Captives by the Egyptians, since one of our ancestors, Joseph, told the

king of Egypt that he was a captive, and afterward sent for his brethren

into Egypt by the king's permission. But as for these matters, I shall

make a more exact inquiry about them elsewhere. [11]

15. But now I shall produce the Egyptians as witnesses to the antiquity

of our nation. I shall therefore here bring in Manetho again, and what

he writes as to the order of the times in this case; and thus he speaks:

"When this people or shepherds were gone out of Egypt to Jerusalem,

Tethtoosis the king of Egypt, who drove them out, reigned afterward

twenty-five years and four months, and then died; after him his son

Chebron took the kingdom for thirteen years; after whom came Amenophis,

for twenty years and seven months; then came his sister Amesses, for

twenty-one years and nine months; after her came Mephres, for twelve

years and nine months; after him was Mephramuthosis, for twenty-five

years and ten months; after him was Thmosis, for nine years and eight

months; after him came Amenophis, for thirty years and ten months;

after him came Orus, for thirty-six years and five months; then came his

daughter Acenchres, for twelve years and one month; then was her brother

Rathotis, for nine years; then was Acencheres, for twelve years and five

months; then came another Acencheres, for twelve years and three months;

after him Armais, for four years and one month; after him was Ramesses,

for one year and four months; after him came Armesses Miammoun, for

sixty-six years and two months; after him Amenophis, for nineteen years

and six months; after him came Sethosis, and Ramesses, who had an army

of horse, and a naval force. This king appointed his brother, Armais,

to be his deputy over Egypt." [In another copy it stood thus: "After

him came Sethosis, and Ramesses, two brethren, the former of whom had a

naval force, and in a hostile manner destroyed those that met him

upon the sea; but as he slew Ramesses in no long time afterward, so he

appointed another of his brethren to be his deputy over Egypt.] He

also gave him all the other authority of a king, but with these only

injunctions, that he should not wear the diadem, nor be injurious to the

queen, the mother of his children, and that he should not meddle with

the other concubines of the king; while he made an expedition against

Cyprus, and Phoenicia, and besides against the Assyrians and the Medes.

He then subdued them all, some by his arms, some without fighting, and

some by the terror of his great army; and being puffed up by the great

successes he had had, he went on still the more boldly, and overthrew

the cities and countries that lay in the eastern parts. But after some

considerable time, Armais, who was left in Egypt, did all those very

things, by way of opposition, which his brother had forbid him to do,

without fear; for he used violence to the queen, and continued to make

use of the rest of the concubines, without sparing any of them; nay, at

the persuasion of his friends he put on the diadem, and set up to oppose

his brother. But then he who was set over the priests of Egypt wrote

letters to Sethosis, and informed him of all that had happened, and

how his brother had set up to oppose him: he therefore returned back to

Pelusium immediately, and recovered his kingdom again. The country also

was called from his name Egypt; for Manetho says, that Sethosis was

himself called Egyptus, as was his brother Armais called Danaus."

16. This is Manetho's account. And evident it is from the number of

years by him set down belonging to this interval, if they be summed up

together, that these shepherds, as they are here called, who were

no other than our forefathers, were delivered out of Egypt, and came

thence, and inhabited this country, three hundred and ninety-three years

before Danaus came to Argos; although the Argives look upon him [12] as

their most ancient king Manetho, therefore, hears this testimony to two

points of the greatest consequence to our purpose, and those from the

Egyptian records themselves. In the first place, that we came out of

another country into Egypt; and that withal our deliverance out of it

was so ancient in time as to have preceded the siege of Troy almost a

thousand years; but then, as to those things which Manetbo adds, not

from the Egyptian records, but, as he confesses himself, from some

stories of an uncertain original, I will disprove them hereafter

particularly, and shall demonstrate that they are no better than

incredible fables.

17. I will now, therefore, pass from these records, and come to those

that belong to the Phoenicians, and concern our nation, and shall

produce attestations to what I have said out of them. There are then

records among the Tyrians that take in the history of many years,

and these are public writings, and are kept with great exactness, and

include accounts of the facts done among them, and such as concern their

transactions with other nations also, those I mean which were worth

remembering. Therein it was recorded that the temple was built by king

Solomon at Jerusalem, one hundred forty-three years and eight months

before the Tyrians built Carthage; and in their annals the building of

our temple is related; for Hirom, the king of Tyre, was the friend of

Solomon our king, and had such friendship transmitted down to him

from his forefathers. He thereupon was ambitious to contribute to the

splendor of this edifice of Solomon, and made him a present of one

hundred and twenty talents of gold. He also cut down the most excellent

timber out of that mountain which is called Libanus, and sent it to

him for adorning its roof. Solomon also not only made him many other

presents, by way of requital, but gave him a country in Galilee

also, that was called Chabulon. [13] But there was another passion, a

philosophic inclination of theirs, which cemented the friendship that

was betwixt them; for they sent mutual problems to one another, with

a desire to have them unriddled by each other; wherein Solomon was

superior to Hirom, as he was wiser than he in other respects: and many

of the epistles that passed between them are still preserved among the

Tyrians. Now, that this may not depend on my bare word, I will produce

for a witness Dius, one that is believed to have written the Phoenician

History after an accurate manner. This Dius, therefore, writes thus, in

his Histories of the Phoenicians: "Upon the death of Abibalus, his son

Hirom took the kingdom. This king raised banks at the eastern parts

of the city, and enlarged it; he also joined the temple of Jupiter

Olympius, which stood before in an island by itself, to the city, by

raising a causeway between them, and adorned that temple with donations

of gold. He moreover went up to Libanus, and had timber cut down for the

building of temples. They say further, that Solomon, when he was king

of Jerusalem, sent problems to Hirom to be solved, and desired he would

send others back for him to solve, and that he who could not solve the

problems proposed to him should pay money to him that solved them. And

when Hirom had agreed to the proposals, but was not able to solve the

problems, he was obliged to pay a great deal of money, as a penalty

for the same. As also they relate, that one OEabdemon, a man of Tyre, did

solve the problems, and propose others which Solomon could not solve,

upon which he was obliged to repay a great deal of money to Hirom."

These things are attested to by Dius, and confirm what we have said upon

the same subjects before.

18. And now I shall add Menander the Ephesian, as an additional witness.

This Menander wrote the Acts that were done both by the Greeks and

Barbarians, under every one of the Tyrian kings, and had taken much

pains to learn their history out of their own records. Now when he was

writing about those kings that had reigned at Tyre, he came to Hirom,

and says thus: "Upon the death of Abibalus, his son Hirom took the

kingdom; he lived fifty-three years, and reigned thirty-four. He raised

a bank on that called the Broad Place, and dedicated that golden pillar

which is in Jupiter's temple; he also went and cut down timber from the

mountain called Libanus, and got timber Of cedar for the roofs of

the temples. He also pulled down the old temples, and built new ones;

besides this, he consecrated the temples of Hercules and of Astarte. He

first built Hercules's temple in the month Peritus, and that of Astarte

when he made his expedition against the Tityans, who would not pay him

their tribute; and when he had subdued them to himself, he returned

home. Under this king there was a younger son of Abdemon, who mastered

the problems which Solomon king of Jerusalem had recommended to be

solved." Now the time from this king to the building of Carthage is

thus calculated: "Upon the death of Hirom, Baleazarus his son took the

kingdom; he lived forty-three years, and reigned seven years: after him

succeeded his son Abdastartus; he lived twenty-nine years, and reigned

nine years. Now four sons of his nurse plotted against him and slew him,

the eldest of whom reigned twelve years: after them came Astartus,

the son of Deleastartus; he lived fifty-four years, and reigned twelve

years: after him came his brother Aserymus; he lived fifty-four years,

and reigned nine years: he was slain by his brother Pheles, who took the

kingdom and reigned but eight months, though he lived fifty years: he

was slain by Ithobalus, the priest of Astarte, who reigned thirty-two

years, and lived sixty-eight years: he was succeeded by his son

Badezorus, who lived forty-five years, and reigned six years: he was

succeeded by Matgenus his son; he lived thirty-two years, and reigned

nine years: Pygmalion succeeded him; he lived fifty-six years, and

reigned forty-seven years. Now in the seventh year of his reign, his

sister fled away from him, and built the city Carthage in Libya." So

the whole time from the reign of Hirom, till the building of Carthage,

amounts to the sum of one hundred fifty-five years and eight months.

Since then the temple was built at Jerusalem in the twelfth year of the

reign of Hirom, there were from the building of the temple, until the

building of Carthage, one hundred forty-three years and eight months.

Wherefore, what occasion is there for alleging any more testimonies out

of the Phoenician histories [on the behalf of our nation], since what

I have said is so thoroughly confirmed already? and to be sure our

ancestors came into this country long before the building of the temple;

for it was not till we had gotten possession of the whole land by war

that we built our temple. And this is the point that I have clearly

proved out of our sacred writings in my Antiquities.

19. I will now relate what hath been written concerning us in the

Chaldean histories, which records have a great agreement with our books

in oilier things also. Berosus shall be witness to what I say: he was

by birth a Chaldean, well known by the learned, on account of his

publication of the Chaldean books of astronomy and philosophy among the

Greeks. This Berosus, therefore, following the most ancient records

of that nation, gives us a history of the deluge of waters that then

happened, and of the destruction of mankind thereby, and agrees with

Moses's narration thereof. He also gives us an account of that ark

wherein Noah, the origin of our race, was preserved, when it was brought

to the highest part of the Armenian mountains; after which he gives us

a catalogue of the posterity of Noah, and adds the years of their

chronology, and at length comes down to Nabolassar, who was king of

Babylon, and of the Chaldeans. And when he was relating the acts of

this king, he describes to us how he sent his son Nabuchodonosor against

Egypt, and against our land, with a great army, upon his being informed

that they had revolted from him; and how, by that means, he subdued them

all, and set our temple that was at Jerusalem on fire; nay, and removed

our people entirely out of their own country, and transferred them

to Babylon; when it so happened that our city was desolate during the

interval of seventy years, until the days of Cyrus king of Persia. He

then says, "That this Babylonian king conquered Egypt, and Syria, and

Phoenicia, and Arabia, and exceeded in his exploits all that had

reigned before him in Babylon and Chaldea." A little after which Berosus

subjoins what follows in his History of Ancient Times. I will set down

Berosus's own accounts, which are these: "When Nabolassar, father of

Nabuchodonosor, heard that the governor whom he had set over Egypt, and

over the parts of Celesyria and Phoenicia, had revolted from him, he was

not able to bear it any longer; but committing certain parts of his army

to his son Nabuchodonosor, who was then but young, he sent him against

the rebel: Nabuchodonosor joined battle with him, and conquered him, and

reduced the country under his dominion again. Now it so fell out that

his father Nabolassar fell into a distemper at this time, and died in

the city of Babylon, after he had reigned twenty-nine years. But as he

understood, in a little time, that his father Nabolassar was dead, he

set the affairs of Egypt and the other countries in order, and committed

the captives he had taken from the Jews, and Phoenicians, and Syrians,

and of the nations belonging to Egypt, to some of his friends, that they

might conduct that part of the forces that had on heavy armor, with the

rest of his baggage, to Babylonia; while he went in haste, having but a

few with him, over the desert to Babylon; whither, when he was come, he

found the public affairs had been managed by the Chaldeans, and that

the principal person among them had preserved the kingdom for him.

Accordingly, he now entirely obtained all his father's dominions. He

then came, and ordered the captives to be placed as colonies in the most

proper places of Babylonia; but for himself, he adorned the temple of

Belus, and the other temples, after an elegant manner, out of the

spoils he had taken in this war. He also rebuilt the old city, and added

another to it on the outside, and so far restored Babylon, that none who

should besiege it afterwards might have it in their power to divert

the river, so as to facilitate an entrance into it; and this he did by

building three walls about the inner city, and three about the outer.

Some of these walls he built of burnt brick and bitumen, and some of

brick only. So when he had thus fortified the city with walls, after an

excellent manner, and had adorned the gates magnificently, he added a

new palace to that which his father had dwelt in, and this close by it

also, and that more eminent in its height, and in its great splendor. It

would perhaps require too long a narration, if any one were to describe

it. However, as prodigiously large and as magnificent as it was, it was

finished in fifteen days. Now in this palace he erected very high walks,

supported by stone pillars, and by planting what was called a pensile

paradise, and replenishing it with all sorts of trees, he rendered the

prospect an exact resemblance of a mountainous country. This he did to

please his queen, because she had been brought up in Media, and was fond

of a mountainous situation."

20. This is what Berosus relates concerning the forementioned king, as

he relates many other things about him also in the third book of his

Chaldean History; wherein he complains of the Grecian writers for

supposing, without any foundation, that Babylon was built by Semiramis,

[14] queen of Assyria, and for her false pretense to those wonderful

edifices thereto buildings at Babylon, do no way contradict those

ancient and relating, as if they were her own workmanship; as indeed

in these affairs the Chaldean History cannot but be the most credible.

Moreover, we meet with a confirmation of what Berosus says in the

archives of the Phoenicians, concerning this king Nabuchodonosor, that

he conquered all Syria and Phoenicia; in which case Philostratus agrees

with the others in that history which he composed, where he mentions

the siege of Tyre; as does Megasthenes also, in the fourth book of his

Indian History, wherein he pretends to prove that the forementioned

king of the Babylonians was superior to Hercules in strength and the

greatness of his exploits; for he says that he conquered a great part

of Libya, and conquered Iberia also. Now as to what I have said before

about the temple at Jerusalem, that it was fought against by the

Babylonians, and burnt by them, but was opened again when Cyrus had

taken the kingdom of Asia, shall now be demonstrated from what Berosus

adds further upon that head; for thus he says in his third book:

"Nabuchodonosor, after he had begun to build the forementioned wall,

fell sick, and departed this life, when he had reigned forty-three

years; whereupon his son Evilmerodach obtained the kingdom. He governed

public affairs after an illegal and impure manner, and had a plot laid

against him by Neriglissoor, his sister's husband, and was slain by him

when he had reigned but two years. After he was slain, Neriglissoor,

the person who plotted against him, succeeded him in the kingdom, and

reigned four years; his son Laborosoarchod obtained the kingdom, though

he was but a child, and kept it nine mouths; but by reason of the very

ill temper and ill practices he exhibited to the world, a plot was laid

against him also by his friends, and he was tormented to death. After

his death, the conspirators got together, and by common consent put

the crown upon the head of Nabonnedus, a man of Babylon, and one who

belonged to that insurrection. In his reign it was that the walls of the

city of Babylon were curiously built with burnt brick and bitumen; but

when he was come to the seventeenth year of his reign, Cyrus came out of

Persia with a great army; and having already conquered all the rest of

Asia, he came hastily to Babylonia. When Nabonnedus perceived he was

coming to attack him, he met him with his forces, and joining battle

with him was beaten, and fled away with a few of his troops with him,

and was shut up within the city Borsippus. Hereupon Cyrus took Babylon,

and gave order that the outer walls of the city should be demolished,

because the city had proved very troublesome to him, and cost him a

great deal of pains to take it. He then marched away to Borsippus, to

besiege Nabonnedus; but as Nabonnedus did not sustain the siege, but

delivered himself into his hands, he was at first kindly used by Cyrus,

who gave him Carmania, as a place for him to inhabit in, but sent him

out of Babylonia. Accordingly Nabonnedus spent the rest of his time in

that country, and there died."

21. These accounts agree with the true histories in our books; for in

them it is written that Nebuchadnezzar, in the eighteenth year of

his reign, laid our temple desolate, and so it lay in that state of

obscurity for fifty years; but that in the second year of the reign of

Cyrus its foundations were laid, and it was finished again in the second

year of Darius. I will now add the records of the Phoenicians; for it

will not be superfluous to give the reader demonstrations more than

enough on this occasion. In them we have this enumeration of the times

of their several kings: "Nabuchodonosor besieged Tyre for thirteen years

in the days of Ithobal, their king; after him reigned Baal, ten years;

after him were judges appointed, who judged the people: Ecnibalus, the

son of Baslacus, two months; Chelbes, the son of Abdeus, ten months;

Abbar, the high priest, three months; Mitgonus and Gerastratus, the sons

of Abdelemus, were judges six years; after whom Balatorus reigned one

year; after his death they sent and fetched Merbalus from Babylon, who

reigned four years; after his death they sent for his brother Hirom, who

reigned twenty years. Under his reign Cyrus became king of Persia." So

that the whole interval is fifty-four years besides three months; for

in the seventh year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar he began to besiege

Tyre, and Cyrus the Persian took the kingdom in the fourteenth year of

Hirom. So that the records of the Chaldeans and Tyrians agree with our

writings about this temple; and the testimonies here produced are an

indisputable and undeniable attestation to the antiquity of our nation.

And I suppose that what I have already said may be sufficient to such as

are not very contentious.

22. But now it is proper to satisfy the inquiry of those that disbelieve

the records of barbarians, and think none but Greeks to be worthy of

credit, and to produce many of these very Greeks who were acquainted

with our nation, and to set before them such as upon occasion have made

mention of us in their own writings. Pythagoras, therefore, of Samos,

lived in very ancient times, and was esteemed a person superior to all

philosophers in wisdom and piety towards God. Now it is plain that

he did not only know our doctrines, but was in very great measure a

follower and admirer of them. There is not indeed extant any writing

that is owned for his [15] but many there are who have written his

history, of whom Hermippus is the most celebrated, who was a person very

inquisitive into all sorts of history. Now this Hermippus, in his first

book concerning Pythagoras, speaks thus: "That Pythagoras, upon the

death of one of his associates, whose name was Calliphon, a Crotonlate

by birth, affirmed that this man's soul conversed with him both night

and day, and enjoined him not to pass over a place where an ass had

fallen down; as also not to drink of such waters as caused thirst again;

and to abstain from all sorts of reproaches." After which he adds thus:

"This he did and said in imitation of the doctrines of the Jews and

Thracians, which he transferred into his own philosophy." For it is very

truly affirmed of this Pythagoras, that he took a great many of the laws

of the Jews into his own philosophy. Nor was our nation unknown of

old to several of the Grecian cities, and indeed was thought worthy

of imitation by some of them. This is declared by Theophrastus, in his

writings concerning laws; for he says that "the laws of the Tyrians

forbid men to swear foreign oaths." Among which he enumerates some

others, and particularly that called Corban: which oath can only be

found among the Jews, and declares what a man may call "A thing devoted

to God." Nor indeed was Herodotus of Halicarnassus unacquainted with our

nation, but mentions it after a way of his own, when he saith thus, in

the second book concerning the Colchians. His words are these: "The only

people who were circumcised in their privy members originally, were the

Colchians, the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians; but the Phoenicians and

those Syrians that are in Palestine confess that they learned it from

the Egyptians. And for those Syrians who live about the rivers Thermodon

and Parthenius, and their neighbors the Macrones, they say they have

lately learned it from the Colchians; for these are the only people that

are circumcised among mankind, and appear to have done the very same

thing with the Egyptians. But as for the Egyptians and Ethiopians

themselves, I am not able to say which of them received it from the

other." This therefore is what Herodotus says, that "the Syrians that

are in Palestine are circumcised." But there are no inhabitants of

Palestine that are circumcised excepting the Jews; and therefore it must

be his knowledge of them that enabled him to speak so much concerning

them. Cherilus also, a still ancienter writer, and a poet, [16] makes

mention of our nation, and informs us that it came to the assistance of

king Xerxes, in his expedition against Greece. For in his enumeration of

all those nations, he last of all inserts ours among the rest, when he

says, "At the last there passed over a people, wonderful to be beheld;

for they spake the Phoenician tongue with their mouths; they dwelt in

the Solymean mountains, near a broad lake: their heads were sooty;

they had round rasures on them; their heads and faces were like nasty

horse-heads also, that had been hardened in the smoke." I think,

therefore, that it is evident to every body that Cherilus means us,

because the Solymean mountains are in our country, wherein we inhabit,

as is also the lake called Asphaltitis; for this is a broader and

larger lake than any other that is in Syria: and thus does Cherilus make

mention of us. But now that not only the lowest sort of the Grecians,

but those that are had in the greatest admiration for their philosophic

improvements among them, did not only know the Jews, but when they

lighted upon any of them, admired them also, it is easy for any one to

know. For Clearchus, who was the scholar of Aristotle, and inferior

to no one of the Peripatetics whomsoever, in his first book concerning

sleep, says that "Aristotle his master related what follows of a Jew,"

and sets down Aristotle's own discourse with him. The account is this,

as written down by him: "Now, for a great part of what this Jew said, it

would be too long to recite it; but what includes in it both wonder and

philosophy it may not be amiss to discourse of. Now, that I may be plain

with thee, Hyperochides, I shall herein seem to thee to relate wonders,

and what will resemble dreams themselves. Hereupon Hyperochides answered

modestly, and said, For that very reason it is that all of us are very

desirous of hearing what thou art going to say. Then replied Aristotle,

For this cause it will be the best way to imitate that rule of the

Rhetoricians, which requires us first to give an account of the man,

and of what nation he was, that so we may not contradict our master's

directions. Then said Hyperochides, Go on, if it so pleases thee.

This man then, [answered Aristotle,] was by birth a Jew, and came from

Celesyria; these Jews are derived from the Indian philosophers; they are

named by the Indians Calami, and by the Syrians Judaei, and took their

name from the country they inhabit, which is called Judea; but for

the name of their city, it is a very awkward one, for they call it

Jerusalem. Now this man, when he was hospitably treated by a great many,

came down from the upper country to the places near the sea, and became

a Grecian, not only in his language, but in his soul also; insomuch that

when we ourselves happened to be in Asia about the same places whither

he came, he conversed with us, and with other philosophical persons, and

made a trial of our skill in philosophy; and as he had lived with many

learned men, he communicated to us more information than he received

from us." This is Aristotle's account of the matter, as given us by

Clearchus; which Aristotle discoursed also particularly of the great

and wonderful fortitude of this Jew in his diet, and continent way of

living, as those that please may learn more about him from Clearchus's

book itself; for I avoid setting down any more than is sufficient for

my purpose. Now Clearchus said this by way of digression, for his main

design was of another nature. But for Hecateus of Abdera, who was both a

philosopher, and one very useful ill an active life, he was contemporary

with king Alexander in his youth, and afterward was with Ptolemy, the

son of Lagus; he did not write about the Jewish affairs by the by only,

but composed an entire book concerning the Jews themselves; out of

which book I am willing to run over a few things, of which I have been

treating by way of epitome. And, in the first place, I will demonstrate

the time when this Hecateus lived; for he mentions the fight that

was between Ptolemy and Demetrius about Gaza, which was fought in the

eleventh year after the death of Alexander, and in the hundred and

seventeenth olympiad, as Castor says in his history. For when he had set

down this olympiad, he says further, that "in this olympiad Ptolemy, the

son of Lagus, beat in battle Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, who was

named Poliorcetes, at Gaza." Now, it is agreed by all, that Alexander

died in the hundred and fourteenth olympiad; it is therefore evident

that our nation flourished in his time, and in the time of Alexander.

Again, Hecateus says to the same purpose, as follows: "Ptolemy got

possession of the places in Syria after that battle at Gaza; and many,

when they heard of Ptolemy's moderation and humanity, went along with

him to Egypt, and were willing to assist him in his affairs; one of whom

[Hecateus says] was Hezekiah [17] the high priest of the Jews; a man of

about sixty-six years of age, and in great dignity among his own people.

He was a very sensible man, and could speak very movingly, and was very

skillful in the management of affairs, if any other man ever were so;

although, as he says, all the priests of the Jews took tithes of the

products of the earth, and managed public affairs, and were in number

not above fifteen hundred at the most." Hecateus mentions this Hezekiah

a second time, and says, that "as he was possessed of so great a

dignity, and was become familiar with us, so did he take certain of

those that were with him, and explained to them all the circumstances

of their people; for he had all their habitations and polity down in

writing." Moreover, Hecateus declares again, "what regard we have for

our laws, and that we resolve to endure any thing rather than transgress

them, because we think it right for us to do so." Whereupon he adds,

that "although they are in a bad reputation among their neighbors,

and among all those that come to them, and have been often treated

injuriously by the kings and governors of Persia, yet can they not

be dissuaded from acting what they think best; but that when they are

stripped on this account, and have torments inflicted upon them, and

they are brought to the most terrible kinds of death, they meet them

after an extraordinary manner, beyond all other people, and will not

renounce the religion of their forefathers." Hecateus also produces

demonstrations not a few of this their resolute tenaciousness of their

laws, when he speaks thus: "Alexander was once at Babylon, and had an

intention to rebuild the temple of Belus that was fallen to decay, and

in order thereto, he commanded all his soldiers in general to bring

earth thither. But the Jews, and they only, would not comply with that

command; nay, they underwent stripes and great losses of what they had

on this account, till the king forgave them, and permitted them to live

in quiet." He adds further, that "when the Macedonians came to them

into that country, and demolished the [old] temples and the altars, they

assisted them in demolishing them all [18] but [for not assisting them

in rebuilding them] they either underwent losses, or sometimes obtained

forgiveness." He adds further, that "these men deserve to be admired on

that account." He also speaks of the mighty populousness of our nation,

and says that "the Persians formerly carried away many ten thousands of

our people to Babylon, as also that not a few ten thousands were removed

after Alexander's death into Egypt and Phoenicia, by reason of the

sedition that was arisen in Syria." The same person takes notice in his

history, how large the country is which we inhabit, as well as of its

excellent character, and says, that "the land in which the Jews inhabit

contains three millions of arourae, [19] and is generally of a most

excellent and most fruitful soil; nor is Judea of lesser dimensions."

The same man describe our city Jerusalem also itself as of a most

excellent structure, and very large, and inhabited from the most ancient

times. He also discourses of the multitude of men in it, and of the

construction of our temple, after the following manner: "There are many

strong places and villages [says he] in the country of Judea; but one

strong city there is, about fifty furlongs in circumference, which is

inhabited by a hundred and twenty thousand men, or thereabouts; they

call it Jerusalem. There is about the middle of the city a wall of

stone, whose length is five hundred feet, and the breadth a hundred

cubits, with double cloisters; wherein there is a square altar, not made

of hewn stone, but composed of white stones gathered together, having

each side twenty cubits long, and its altitude ten cubits. Hard by it

is a large edifice, wherein there is an altar and a candlestick, both

of gold, and in weight two talents: upon these there is a light that is

never extinguished, either by night or by day. There is no image, nor

any thing, nor any donations therein; nothing at all is there planted,

neither grove, nor any thing of that sort. The priests abide therein

both nights and days, performing certain purifications, and drinking

not the least drop of wine while they are in the temple." Moreover, he

attests that we Jews went as auxiliaries along with king Alexander,

and after him with his successors. I will add further what he says he

learned when he was himself with the same army, concerning the actions

of a man that was a Jew. His words are these: "As I was myself going to

the Red Sea, there followed us a man, whose name was Mosollam; he was

one of the Jewish horsemen who conducted us; he was a person of great

courage, of a strong body, and by all allowed to be the most skillful

archer that was either among the Greeks or barbarians. Now this man, as

people were in great numbers passing along the road, and a certain

augur was observing an augury by a bird, and requiring them all to stand

still, inquired what they staid for. Hereupon the augur showed him the

bird from whence he took his augury, and told him that if the bird staid

where he was, they ought all to stand still; but that if he got up, and

flew onward, they must go forward; but that if he flew backward, they

must retire again. Mosollam made no reply, but drew his bow, and shot at

the bird, and hit him, and killed him; and as the augur and some others

were very angry, and wished imprecations upon him, he answered them

thus: Why are you so mad as to take this most unhappy bird into your

hands? for how can this bird give us any true information concerning our

march, who could not foresee how to save himself? for had he been able

to foreknow what was future, he would not have come to this place, but

would have been afraid lest Mosollam the Jew should shoot at him, and

kill him." But of Hecateus's testimonies we have said enough; for as to

such as desire to know more of them, they may easily obtain them from

his book itself. However, I shall not think it too much for me to name

Agatharchides, as having made mention of us Jews, though in way of

derision at our simplicity, as he supposes it to be; for when he was

discoursing of the affairs of Stratonice, "how she came out of Macedonia

into Syria, and left her husband Demetrius, while yet Seleueus would not

marry her as she expected, but during the time of his raising an army at

Babylon, stirred up a sedition about Antioch; and how, after that, the

king came back, and upon his taking of Antioch, she fled to Seleucia,

and had it in her power to sail away immediately yet did she comply with

a dream which forbade her so to do, and so was caught and put to

death." When Agatharehides had premised this story, and had jested upon

Stratonice for her superstition, he gives a like example of what was

reported concerning us, and writes thus: "There are a people called

Jews, and dwell in a city the strongest of all other cities, which the

inhabitants call Jerusalem, and are accustomed to rest on every seventh

day [20] on which times they make no use of their arms, nor meddle with

husbandry, nor take care of any affairs of life, but spread out their

hands in their holy places, and pray till the evening. Now it came to

pass, that when Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, came into this city with his

army, that these men, in observing this mad custom of theirs, instead of

guarding the city, suffered their country to submit itself to a bitter

lord; and their law was openly proved to have commanded a foolish

practice. [21] This accident taught all other men but the Jews to

disregard such dreams as these were, and not to follow the like idle

suggestions delivered as a law, when, in such uncertainty of human

reasonings, they are at a loss what they should do." Now this our

procedure seems a ridiculous thing to Agatharehides, but will appear to

such as consider it without prejudice a great thing, and what deserved

a great many encomiums; I mean, when certain men constantly prefer the

observation of their laws, and their religion towards God, before the

preservation of themselves and their country.

23. Now that some writers have omitted to mention our nation, not

because they knew nothing of us, but because they envied us, or for some

other unjustifiable reasons, I think I can demonstrate by particular

instances; for Hieronymus, who wrote the History of Alexander's

Successors, lived at the same time with Hecateus, and was a friend of

king Antigonus, and president of Syria. Now it is plain that Hecateus

wrote an entire book concerning us, while Hieronymus never mentions us

in his history, although he was bred up very near to the places where we

live. Thus different from one another are the inclinations of men;

while the one thought we deserved to be carefully remembered, as some

ill-disposed passion blinded the other's mind so entirely, that he could

not discern the truth. And now certainly the foregoing records of the

Egyptians, and Chaldeans, and Phoenicians, together with so many of

the Greek writers, will be sufficient for the demonstration of our

antiquity. Moreover, besides those forementioned, Theophilus, and

Theodotus, and Mnaseas, and Aristophanes, and Hermogenes, Euhemerus

also, and Conon, and Zopyrion, and perhaps many others, [for I have not

lighted upon all the Greek books,] have made distinct mention of us. It

is true, many of the men before mentioned have made great mistakes about

the true accounts of our nation in the earliest times, because they had

not perused our sacred books; yet have they all of them afforded their

testimony to our antiquity, concerning which I am now treating. However,

Demetrius Phalereus, and the elder Philo, with Eupolemus, have not

greatly missed the truth about our affairs; whose lesser mistakes

ought therefore to be forgiven them; for it was not in their power to

understand our writings with the utmost accuracy.

24. One particular there is still remaining behind of what I at first

proposed to speak to, and that is, to demonstrate that those calumnies

and reproaches which some have thrown upon our nation, are lies, and to

make use of those writers' own testimonies against themselves; and that

in general this self-contradiction hath happened to many other authors

by reason of their ill-will to some people, I conclude, is not unknown

to such as have read histories with sufficient care; for some of them

have endeavored to disgrace the nobility of certain nations, and of some

of the most glorious cities, and have cast reproaches upon certain

forms of government. Thus hath Theopompus abused the city of Athens,

Polycrates that of Lacedemon, as hath he hat wrote the Tripoliticus

[for he is not Theopompus, as is supposed by some] done by the city of

Thebes. Timeils also hath greatly abused the foregoing people and others

also; and this ill-treatment they use chiefly when they have a contest

with men of the greatest reputation; some out of envy and malice, and

others as supposing that by this foolish talking of theirs they may be

thought worthy of being remembered themselves; and indeed they do by no

means fail of their hopes, with regard to the foolish part of mankind,

but men of sober judgment still condemn them of great malignity.

25. Now the Egyptians were the first that cast reproaches upon us;

in order to please which nation, some others undertook to pervert the

truth, while they would neither own that our forefathers came into Egypt

from another country, as the fact was, nor give a true account of our

departure thence. And indeed the Egyptians took many occasions to hate

us and envy us: in the first place, because our ancestors had had the

dominion over their country? and when they were delivered from them, and

gone to their own country again, they lived there in prosperity. In the

next place, the difference of our religion from theirs hath occasioned

great enmity between us, while our way of Divine worship did as much

exceed that which their laws appointed, as does the nature of God

exceed that of brute beasts; for so far they all agree through the whole

country, to esteem such animals as gods, although they differ one

from another in the peculiar worship they severally pay to them. And

certainly men they are entirely of vain and foolish minds, who have

thus accustomed themselves from the beginning to have such bad notions

concerning their gods, and could not think of imitating that decent

form of Divine worship which we made use of, though, when they saw our

institutions approved of by many others, they could not but envy us on

that account; for some of them have proceeded to that degree of folly

and meanness in their conduct, as not to scruple to contradict their own

ancient records, nay, to contradict themselves also in their writings,

and yet were so blinded by their passions as not to discern it.

26. And now I will turn my discourse to one of their principal writers,

whom I have a little before made use of as a witness to our antiquity; I

mean Manetho. [22] He promised to interpret the Egyptian history out of

their sacred writings, and premised this: that "our people had come into

Egypt, many ten thousands in number, and subdued its inhabitants;"

and when he had further confessed that "we went out of that country

afterward, and settled in that country which is now called Judea, and

there built Jerusalem and its temple." Now thus far he followed his

ancient records; but after this he permits himself, in order to appear

to have written what rumors and reports passed abroad about the Jews,

and introduces incredible narrations, as if he would have the Egyptian

multitude, that had the leprosy and other distempers, to have been mixed

with us, as he says they were, and that they were condemned to fly out

of Egypt together; for he mentions Amenophis, a fictitious king's name,

though on that account he durst not set down the number of years of

his reign, which yet he had accurately done as to the other kings he

mentions; he then ascribes certain fabulous stories to this king,

as having in a manner forgotten how he had already related that the

departure of the shepherds for Jerusalem had been five hundred and

eighteen years before; for Tethmosis was king when they went away.

Now, from his days, the reigns of the intermediate kings, according to

Manethe, amounted to three hundred and ninety-three years, as he says

himself, till the two brothers Sethos and Hermeus; the one of whom,

Sethos, was called by that other name of Egyptus, and the other,

Hermeus, by that of Danaus. He also says that Sethos east the other out

of Egypt, and reigned fifty-nine years, as did his eldest son Rhampses

reign after him sixty-six years. When Manethe therefore had acknowledged

that our forefathers were gone out of Egypt so many years ago, he

introduces his fictitious king Amenophis, and says thus: "This king

was desirous to become a spectator of the gods, as had Orus, one of

his predecessors in that kingdom, desired the same before him; he also

communicated that his desire to his namesake Amenophis, who was the son

of Papis, and one that seemed to partake of a divine nature, both as

to wisdom and the knowledge of futurities." Manethe adds, "how this

namesake of his told him that he might see the gods, if he would clear

the whole country of the lepers and of the other impure people; that the

king was pleased with this injunction, and got together all that had any

defect in their bodies out of Egypt; and that their number was eighty

thousand; whom he sent to those quarries which are on the east side of

the Nile, that they might work in them, and might be separated from the

rest of the Egyptians." He says further, that "there were some of the

learned priests that were polluted with the leprosy; but that still this

Amenophis, the wise man and the prophet, was afraid that the gods would

be angry at him and at the king, if there should appear to have been

violence offered them; who also added this further, [out of his sagacity

about futurities,] that certain people would come to the assistance of

these polluted wretches, and would conquer Egypt, and keep it in their

possession thirteen years; that, however, he durst not tell the king

of these things, but that he left a writing behind him about all those

matters, and then slew himself, which made the king disconsolate." After

which he writes thus verbatim: "After those that were sent to work in

the quarries had continued in that miserable state for a long while, the

king was desired that he would set apart the city Avaris, which was then

left desolate of the shepherds, for their habitation and protection;

which desire he granted them. Now this city, according to the ancient

theology, was Typho's city. But when these men were gotten into it, and

found the place fit for a revolt, they appointed themselves a ruler out

of the priests of Hellopolis, whose name was Osarsiph, and they took

their oaths that they would be obedient to him in all things. He then,

in the first place, made this law for them, That they should neither

worship the Egyptian gods, nor should abstain from any one of those

sacred animals which they have in the highest esteem, but kill and

destroy them all; that they should join themselves to nobody but to

those that were of this confederacy. When he had made such laws as

these, and many more such as were mainly opposite to the customs of the

Egyptians, [23] he gave order that they should use the multitude of the

hands they had in building walls about their City, and make themselves

ready for a war with king Amenophis, while he did himself take into his

friendship the other priests, and those that were polluted with them,

and sent ambassadors to those shepherds who had been driven out of the

land by Tefilmosis to the city called Jerusalem; whereby he informed

them of his own affairs, and of the state of those others that had been

treated after such an ignominious manner, and desired that they would

come with one consent to his assistance in this war against Egypt. He

also promised that he would, in the first place, bring them back

to their ancient city and country Avaris, and provide a plentiful

maintenance for their multitude; that he would protect them and fight

for them as occasion should require, and would easily reduce the

country under their dominion. These shepherds were all very glad of this

message, and came away with alacrity all together, being in number two

hundred thousand men; and in a little time they came to Avaris. And now

Amenophis the king of Egypt, upon his being informed of their invasion,

was in great confusion, as calling to mind what Amenophis, the son

of Papis, had foretold him; and, in the first place, he assembled the

multitude of the Egyptians, and took counsel with their leaders, and

sent for their sacred animals to him, especially for those that were

principally worshipped in their temples, and gave a particular charge to

the priests distinctly, that they should hide the images of their gods

with the utmost care he also sent his son Sethos, who was also named

Ramesses, from his father Rhampses, being but five years old, to a

friend of his. He then passed on with the rest of the Egyptians, being

three hundred thousand of the most warlike of them, against the enemy,

who met them. Yet did he not join battle with them; but thinking

that would be to fight against the gods, he returned back and came to

Memphis, where he took Apis and the other sacred animals which he had

sent for to him, and presently marched into Ethiopia, together with

his whole army and multitude of Egyptians; for the king of Ethiopia was

under an obligation to him, on which account he received him, and took

care of all the multitude that was with him, while the country supplied

all that was necessary for the food of the men. He also allotted cities

and villages for this exile, that was to be from its beginning during

those fatally determined thirteen years. Moreover, he pitched a camp for

his Ethiopian army, as a guard to king Amenophis, upon the borders of

Egypt. And this was the state of things in Ethiopia. But for the people

of Jerusalem, when they came down together with the polluted Egyptians,

they treated the men in such a barbarous manner, that those who saw how

they subdued the forementioned country, and the horrid wickedness they

were guilty of, thought it a most dreadful thing; for they did not only

set the cities and villages on fire but were not satisfied till they had

been guilty of sacrilege, and destroyed the images of the gods, and used

them in roasting those sacred animals that used to be worshipped, and

forced the priests and prophets to be the executioners and murderers of

those animals, and then ejected them naked out of the country. It was

also reported that the priest, who ordained their polity and their laws,

was by birth of Hellopolls, and his name Osarsiph, from Osyris, who was

the god of Hellopolls; but that when he was gone over to these people,

his name was changed, and he was called Moses."

27. This is what the Egyptians relate about the Jews, with much more,

which I omit for the sake of brevity. But still Manetho goes on, that

"after this, Amenophis returned back from Ethiopia with a great army,

as did his son Ahampses with another army also, and that both of them

joined battle with the shepherds and the polluted people, and beat them,

and slew a great many of them, and pursued them to the bounds of

Syria." These and the like accounts are written by Manetho. But I will

demonstrate that he trifles, and tells arrant lies, after I have made a

distinction which will relate to what I am going to say about him;

for this Manetho had granted and confessed that this nation was not

originally Egyptian, but that they had come from another country, and

subdued Egypt, and then went away again out of it. But that those

Egyptians who were thus diseased in their bodies were not mingled with

us afterward, and that Moses who brought the people out was not one of

that company, but lived many generations earlier, I shall endeavor to

demonstrate from Manetho's own accounts themselves.

28. Now, for the first occasion of this fiction, Manetho supposes what

is no better than a ridiculous thing; for he says that, "King Amenophis

desired to see the gods." What gods, I pray, did he desire to see? If

he meant the gods whom their laws ordained to be worshipped, the ox, the

goat, the crocodile, and the baboon, he saw them already; but for the

heavenly gods, how could he see them, and what should occasion this his

desire? To be sure? it was because another king before him had already

seen them. He had then been informed what sort of gods they were, and

after what manner they had been seen, insomuch that he did not stand in

need of any new artifice for obtaining this sight. However, the prophet

by whose means the king thought to compass his design was a wise man.

If so, how came he not to know that such his desire was impossible to

be accomplished? for the event did not succeed. And what pretense could

there be to suppose that the gods would not be seen by reason of the

people's maims in their bodies, or leprosy? for the gods are not angry

at the imperfection of bodies, but at wicked practices; and as to eighty

thousand lepers, and those in an ill state also, how is it possible to

have them gathered together in one day? nay, how came the king not to

comply with the prophet? for his injunction was, that those that were

maimed should be expelled out of Egypt, while the king only sent them

to work in the quarries, as if he were rather in want of laborers, than

intended to purge his country. He says further, that, "this prophet slew

himself, as foreseeing the anger of the gods, and those events which

were to come upon Egypt afterward; and that he left this prediction for

the king in writing." Besides, how came it to pass that this prophet

did not foreknow his own death at the first? nay, how came he not to

contradict the king in his desire to see the gods immediately? how came

that unreasonable dread upon him of judgments that were not to happen

in his lifetime? or what worse thing could he suffer, out of the fear

of which he made haste to kill himself? But now let us see the silliest

thing of all:--The king, although he had been informed of these things,

and terrified with the fear of what was to come, yet did not he even

then eject these maimed people out of his country, when it had been

foretold him that he was to clear Egypt of them; but, as Manetho says,

"he then, upon their request, gave them that city to inhabit, which had

formerly belonged to the shepherds, and was called Avaris; whither when

they were gone in crowds," he says, "they chose one that had formerly

been priest of Hellopolls; and that this priest first ordained that they

should neither worship the gods, nor abstain from those animals that

were worshipped by the Egyptians, but should kill and eat them all, and

should associate with nobody but those that had conspired with them;

and that he bound the multitude by oaths to be sure to continue in

those laws; and that when he had built a wall about Avaris, he made

war against the king." Manetho adds also, that "this priest sent to

Jerusalem to invite that people to come to his assistance, and promised

to give them Avaris; for that it had belonged to the forefathers of

those that were coming from Jerusalem, and that when they were come,

they made a war immediately against the king, and got possession of

all Egypt." He says also that "the Egyptians came with an army of

two hundred thousand men, and that Amenophis, the king of Egypt, not

thinking that he ought to fight against the gods, ran away presently

into Ethiopia, and committed Apis and certain other of their sacred

animals to the priests, and commanded them to take care of preserving

them." He says further, that, "the people of Jerusalem came accordingly

upon the Egyptians, and overthrew their cities, and burnt their temples,

and slew their horsemen, and, in short, abstained from no sort of

wickedness nor barbarity; and for that priest who settled their polity

and their laws," he says, "he was by birth of Hellopolis, and his name

was Osarsiph, from Osyris the god of Hellopolis, but that he changed his

name, and called himself Moses." He then says that "on the thirteenth

year afterward, Amenophis, according to the fatal time of the duration

of his misfortunes, came upon them out of Ethiopia with a great army,

and joining battle with the shepherds and with the polluted people,

overcame them in battle, and slew a great many of them, and pursued them

as far as the bounds of Syria."

29. Now Manetho does not reflect upon the improbability of his lie; for

the leprous people, and the multitude that was with them, although

they might formerly have been angry at the king, and at those that had

treated them so coarsely, and this according to the prediction of the

prophet; yet certainly, when they were come out of the mines, and had

received of the king a city, and a country, they would have grown milder

towards him. However, had they ever so much hated him in particular,

they might have laid a private plot against himself, but would hardly

have made war against all the Egyptians; I mean this on the account of

the great kindred they who were so numerous must have had among them.

Nay still, if they had resolved to fight with the men, they would not

have had impudence enough to fight with their gods; nor would they have

ordained laws quite contrary to those of their own country, and to

those in which they had been bred up themselves. Yet are we beholden

to Manethe, that he does not lay the principal charge of this horrid

transgression upon those that came from Jerusalem, but says that the

Egyptians themselves were the most guilty, and that they were their

priests that contrived these things, and made the multitude take their

oaths for doing so. But still how absurd is it to suppose that none

of these people's own relations or friends should be prevailed with

to revolt, nor to undergo the hazards of war with them, while these

polluted people were forced to send to Jerusalem, and bring their

auxiliaries from thence! What friendship, I pray, or what relation

was there formerly between them that required this assistance? On the

contrary, these people were enemies, and greatly differed from them in

their customs. He says, indeed, that they complied immediately, upon

their praising them that they should conquer Egypt; as if they did not

themselves very well know that country out of which they had been driven

by force. Now had these men been in want, or lived miserably, perhaps

they might have undertaken so hazardous an enterprise; but as they dwelt

in a happy city, and had a large country, and one better than Egypt

itself, how came it about that, for the sake of those that had of old

been their enemies, of those that were maimed in their bodies, and of

those whom none of their own relations would endure, they should run

such hazards in assisting them? For they could not foresee that the

king would run away from them: on the contrary, he saith himself that

"Amenophis's son had three hundred thousand men with him, and met them

at Pelusium." Now, to be sure, those that came could not be ignorant of

this; but for the king's repentance and flight, how could they possibly

guess at it? He then says, that "those who came from Jerusalem, and made

this invasion, got the granaries of Egypt into their possession, and

perpetrated many of the most horrid actions there." And thence he

reproaches them, as though he had not himself introduced them as

enemies, or as though he might accuse such as were invited from another

place for so doing, when the natural Egyptians themselves had done the

same things before their coming, and had taken oaths so to do. However,

"Amenophis, some time afterward, came upon them, and conquered them

in battle, and slew his enemies, and drove them before him as far as

Syria." As if Egypt were so easily taken by people that came from any

place whatsoever, and as if those that had conquered it by war, when

they were informed that Amenophis was alive, did neither fortify the

avenues out of Ethiopia into it, although they had great advantages for

doing it, nor did get their other forces ready for their defense! but

that he followed them over the sandy desert, and slew them as far as

Syria; while yet it is rot an easy thing for an army to pass over that

country, even without fighting.

30. Our nation, therefore, according to Manetho, was not derived from

Egypt, nor were any of the Egyptians mingled with us. For it is to be

supposed that many of the leprous and distempered people were dead

in the mines, since they had been there a long time, and in so ill

a condition; many others must be dead in the battles that happened

afterward, and more still in the last battle and flight after it.

31. It now remains that I debate with Manetho about Moses. Now the

Egyptians acknowledge him to have been a wonderful and a divine person;

nay, they would willingly lay claim to him themselves, though after

a most abusive and incredible manner, and pretend that he was of

Heliopolis, and one of the priests of that place, and was ejected out

of it among the rest, on account of his leprosy; although it had

been demonstrated out of their records that he lived five hundred and

eighteen years earlier, and then brought our forefathers out of Egypt

into the country that is now inhabited by us. But now that he was

not subject in his body to any such calamity, is evident from what he

himself tells us; for he forbade those that had the leprosy either to

continue in a city, or to inhabit in a village, but commanded that they

should go about by themselves with their clothes rent; and declares that

such as either touch them, or live under the same roof with them, should

be esteemed unclean; nay, more, if any one of their disease be healed,

and he recover his natural constitution again, he appointed them certain

purifications, and washings with spring water, and the shaving off all

their hair, and enjoins that they shall offer many sacrifices, and those

of several kinds, and then at length to be admitted into the holy city;

although it were to be expected that, on the contrary, if he had been

under the same calamity, he should have taken care of such persons

beforehand, and have had them treated after a kinder manner, as affected

with a concern for those that were to be under the like misfortunes with

himself. Nor was it only those leprous people for whose sake he made

these laws, but also for such as should be maimed in the smallest part

of their body, who yet are not permitted by him to officiate as priests;

nay, although any priest, already initiated, should have such a calamity

fall upon him afterward, he ordered him to be deprived of his honor of

officiating. How can it then be supposed that Moses should ordain such

laws against himself, to his own reproach and damage who so ordained

them? Nor indeed is that other notion of Manetho at all probable,

wherein he relates the change of his name, and says that "he was

formerly called Osarsiph;" and this a name no way agreeable to the

other, while his true name was Mosses, and signifies a person who is

preserved out of the water, for the Egyptians call water Moil. I think,

therefore, I have made it sufficiently evident that Manetho, while he

followed his ancient records, did not much mistake the truth of the

history; but that when he had recourse to fabulous stories, without any

certain author, he either forged them himself, without any probability,

or else gave credit to some men who spake so out of their ill-will to

us.

32. And now I have done with Manetho, I will inquire into what Cheremon

says. For he also, when he pretended to write the Egyptian history, sets

down the same name for this king that Manetho did, Amenophis, as also of

his son Ramesses, and then goes on thus: "The goddess Isis appeared

to Amenophis in his sleep, and blamed him that her temple had been

demolished in the war. But that Phritiphantes, the sacred scribe, said

to him, that in case he would purge Egypt of the men that had pollutions

upon them, he should be no longer troubled with such frightful

apparitions. That Amenophis accordingly chose out two hundred and fifty

thousand of those that were thus diseased, and cast them out of the

country: that Moses and Joseph were scribes, and Joseph was a sacred

scribe; that their names were Egyptian originally; that of Moses had

been Tisithen, and that of Joseph, Peteseph: that these two came to

Pelusium, and lighted upon three hundred and eighty thousand that had

been left there by Amenophis, he not being willing to carry them into

Egypt; that these scribes made a league of friendship with them, and

made with them an expedition against Egypt: that Amenophis could not

sustain their attacks, but fled into Ethiopia, and left his wife with

child behind him, who lay concealed in certain caverns, and there

brought forth a son, whose name was Messene, and who, when he was grown

up to man's estate, pursued the Jews into Syria, being about two hundred

thousand, and then received his father Amenophis out of Ethiopia."

33. This is the account Cheremon gives us. Now I take it for granted

that what I have said already hath plainly proved the falsity of both

these narrations; for had there been any real truth at the bottom, it

was impossible they should so greatly disagree about the particulars.

But for those that invent lies, what they write will easily give us very

different accounts, while they forge what they please out of their own

heads. Now Manetho says that the king's desire of seeing the gods was

the origin of the ejection of the polluted people; but Cheremon feigns

that it was a dream of his own, sent upon him by Isis, that was the

occasion of it. Manetho says that the person who foreshowed this

purgation of Egypt to the king was Amenophis; but this man says it was

Phritiphantes. As to the numbers of the multitude that were expelled,

they agree exceedingly well [24] the former reckoning them eighty

thousand, and the latter about two hundred and fifty thousand! Now, for

Manetho, he describes those polluted persons as sent first to work in

the quarries, and says that the city Avaris was given them for their

habitation. As also he relates that it was not till after they had made

war with the rest of the Egyptians, that they invited the people of

Jerusalem to come to their assistance; while Cheremon says only that

they were gone out of Egypt, and lighted upon three hundred and eighty

thousand men about Pelusium, who had been left there by Amenophis, and

so they invaded Egypt with them again; that thereupon Amenophis fled

into Ethiopia. But then this Cheremon commits a most ridiculous blunder

in not informing us who this army of so many ten thousands were, or

whence they came; whether they were native Egyptians, or whether they

came from a foreign country. Nor indeed has this man, who forged a dream

from Isis about the leprous people, assigned the reason why the king

would not bring them into Egypt. Moreover, Cheremon sets down Joseph as

driven away at the same time with Moses, who yet died four generations

[25] before Moses, which four generations make almost one hundred and

seventy years. Besides all this, Ramesses, the son of Amenophis, by

Manetho's account, was a young man, and assisted his father in his war,

and left the country at the same time with him, and fled into Ethiopia.

But Cheremon makes him to have been born in a certain cave, after his

father was dead, and that he then overcame the Jews in battle, and

drove them into Syria, being in number about two hundred thousand. O the

levity of the man! for he had neither told us who these three hundred

and eighty thousand were, nor how the four hundred and thirty thousand

perished; whether they fell in war, or went over to Ramesses. And, what

is the strangest of all, it is not possible to learn out of him who they

were whom he calls Jews, or to which of these two parties he applies

that denomination, whether to the two hundred and fifty thousand leprous

people, or to the three hundred and eighty thousand that were about

Pelusium. But perhaps it will be looked upon as a silly thing in me

to make any larger confutation of such writers as sufficiently confute

themselves; for had they been only confuted by other men, it had been

more tolerable.

34. I shall now add to these accounts about Manethoand Cheremon somewhat

about Lysimachus, who hath taken the same topic of falsehood with those

forementioned, but hath gone far beyond them in the incredible nature of

his forgeries; which plainly demonstrates that he contrived them out of

his virulent hatred of our nation. His words are these: "The people of

the Jews being leprous and scabby, and subject to certain other kinds

of distempers, in the days of Bocchoris, king of Egypt, they fled to the

temples, and got their food there by begging: and as the numbers were

very great that were fallen under these diseases, there arose a scarcity

in Egypt. Hereupon Bocehoris, the king of Egypt, sent some to consult

the oracle of [Jupiter] Hammon about his scarcity. The god's answer

was this, that he must purge his temples of impure and impious men, by

expelling them out of those temples into desert places; but as to the

scabby and leprous people, he must drown them, and purge his temples,

the sun having an indignation at these men being suffered to live; and

by this means the land will bring forth its fruits. Upon Bocchoris's

having received these oracles, he called for their priests, and the

attendants upon their altars, and ordered them to make a collection of

the impure people, and to deliver them to the soldiers, to carry them

away into the desert; but to take the leprous people, and wrap them in

sheets of lead, and let them down into the sea. Hereupon the scabby and

leprous people were drowned, and the rest were gotten together, and sent

into desert places, in order to be exposed to destruction. In this case

they assembled themselves together, and took counsel what they should

do, and determined that, as the night was coming on, they should kindle

fires and lamps, and keep watch; that they also should fast the next

night, and propitiate the gods, in order to obtain deliverance from

them. That on the next day there was one Moses, who advised them that

they should venture upon a journey, and go along one road till they

should come to places fit for habitation: that he charged them to have

no kind regards for any man, nor give good counsel to any, but always to

advise them for the worst; and to overturn all those temples and altars

of the gods they should meet with: that the rest commended what he

had said with one consent, and did what they had resolved on, and so

traveled over the desert. But that the difficulties of the journey being

over, they came to a country inhabited, and that there they abused the

men, and plundered and burnt their temples; and then came into that land

which is called Judea, and there they built a city, and dwelt therein,

and that their city was named Hierosyla, from this their robbing of the

temples; but that still, upon the success they had afterwards, they in

time changed its denomination, that it might not be a reproach to them,

and called the city Hierosolyma, and themselves Hierosolymites."

35. Now this man did not discover and mention the same king with the

others, but feigned a newer name, and passing by the dream and the

Egyptian prophet, he brings him to [Jupiter] Hammon, in order to gain

oracles about the scabby and leprous people; for he says that the

multitude of Jews were gathered together at the temples. Now it is

uncertain whether he ascribes this name to these lepers, or to those

that were subject to such diseases among the Jews only; for he describes

them as a people of the Jews. What people does he mean? foreigners, or

those of that country? Why then' dost thou call them Jews, if they were

Egyptians? But if they were foreigners, why dost thou not tell us whence

they came? And how could it be that, after the king had drowned many of

them in the sea, and ejected the rest into desert places, there should

be still so great a multitude remaining? Or after what manner did they

pass over the desert, and get the land which we now dwell in, and build

our city, and that temple which hath been so famous among all mankind?

And besides, he ought to have spoken more about our legislator than by

giving us his bare name; and to have informed us of what nation he was,

and what parents he was derived from; and to have assigned the reasons

why he undertook to make such laws concerning the gods, and concerning

matters of injustice with regard to men during that journey. For in case

the people were by birth Egyptians, they would not on the sudden have so

easily changed the customs of their country; and in case they had been

foreigners, they had for certain some laws or other which had been kept

by them from long custom. It is true, that with regard to those who had

ejected them, they might have sworn never to bear good-will to them,

and might have had a plausible reason for so doing. But if these men

resolved to wage an implacable war against all men, in case they had

acted as wickedly as he relates of them, and this while they wanted the

assistance of all men, this demonstrates a kind of mad conduct indeed;

but not of the men themselves, but very greatly so of him that tells

such lies about them. He hath also impudence enough to say that a name,

implying "Robbers of the temples," [26] was given to their city, and

that this name was afterward changed. The reason of which is plain, that

the former name brought reproach and hatred upon them in the times of

their posterity, while, it seems, those that built the city thought they

did honor to the city by giving it such a name. So we see that this fine

fellow had such an unbounded inclination to reproach us, that he did not

understand that robbery of temples is not expressed By the same word and

name among the Jews as it is among the Greeks. But why should a man say

any more to a person who tells such impudent lies? However, since this

book is arisen to a competent length, I will make another beginning, and

endeavor to add what still remains to perfect my design in the following

book.