1. In the former book, most honored Epaphroditus, I have demonstrated
our antiquity, and confirmed the truth of what I have said, from the
writings of the Phoenicians, and Chaldeans, and Egyptians. I have,
moreover, produced many of the Grecian writers as witnesses thereto.
I have also made a refutation of Manetho and Cheremon, and of certain
others of our enemies. I shall now [1] therefore begin a confutation of
the remaining authors who have written any thing against us; although
I confess I have had a doubt upon me about Apion [2] the grammarian,
whether I ought to take the trouble of confuting him or not; for some
of his writings contain much the same accusations which the others have
laid against us, some things that he hath added are very frigid and
contemptible, and for the greatest part of what he says, it is very
scurrilous, and, to speak no more than the plain truth, it shows him
to be a very unlearned person, and what he lays together looks like the
work of a man of very bad morals, and of one no better in his whole
life than a mountebank. Yet, because there are a great many men so very
foolish, that they are rather caught by such orations than by what
is written with care, and take pleasure in reproaching other men, and
cannot abide to hear them commended, I thought it to be necessary not
to let this man go off without examination, who had written such an
accusation against us, as if he would bring us to make an answer in open
court. For I also have observed, that many men are very much delighted
when they see a man who first began to reproach another, to be himself
exposed to contempt on account of the vices he hath himself been
guilty of. However, it is not a very easy thing to go over this man's
discourse, nor to know plainly what he means; yet does he seem, amidst a
great confusion and disorder in his falsehoods, to produce, in the first
place, such things as resemble what we have examined already, and relate
to the departure of our forefathers out of Egypt; and, in the second
place, he accuses those Jews that are inhabitants of Alexandria; as, in
the third place, he mixes with those things such accusations as concern
the sacred purifications, with the other legal rites used in the temple.
2. Now although I cannot but think that I have already demonstrated,
and that abundantly more than was necessary, that our fathers were not
originally Egyptians, nor were thence expelled, either on account
of bodily diseases, or any other calamities of that sort; yet will I
briefly take notice of what Apion adds upon that subject; for in his
third book, which relates to the affairs of Egypt, he speaks thus: "I
have heard of the ancient men of Egypt, that Moses was of Heliopolis,
and that he thought himself obliged to follow the customs of his
forefathers, and offered his prayers in the open air, towards the city
walls; but that he reduced them all to be directed towards sun-rising,
which was agreeable to the situation of Heliopolis; that he also set
up pillars instead of gnomons, [3] under which was represented a cavity
like that of a boat, and the shadow that fell from their tops fell down
upon that cavity, that it might go round about the like course as the
sun itself goes round in the other." This is that wonderful relation
which we have given us by this grammarian. But that it is a false one
is so plain, that it stands in need of few words to prove it, but
is manifest from the works of Moses; for when he erected the first
tabernacle to God, he did himself neither give order for any such kind
of representation to be made at it, nor ordain that those that came
after him should make such a one. Moreover, when in a future age Solomon
built his temple in Jerusalem, he avoided all such needless decorations
as Apion hath here devised. He says further, how he had "heard of the
ancient men, that Moses was of Hellopolis." To be sure that was, because
being a younger man himself, he believed those that by their elder age
were acquainted and conversed with him. Now this grammarian, as he was,
could not certainly tell which was the poet Homer's country, no
more than he could which was the country of Pythagoras, who lived
comparatively but a little while ago; yet does he thus easily determine
the age of Moses, who preceded them such a vast number of years, as
depending on his ancient men's relation, which shows how notorious a
liar he was. But then as to this chronological determination of the time
when he says he brought the leprous people, the blind, and the lame out
of Egypt, see how well this most accurate grammarian of ours agrees with
those that have written before him! Manetho says that the Jews departed
out of Egypt, in the reign of Tethmosis, three hundred ninety-three
years before Danaus fled to Argos; Lysimaehus says it was under king
Bocchoris, that is, one thousand seven hundred years ago; Molo and some
others determined it as every one pleased: but this Apion of ours, as
deserving to be believed before them, hath determined it exactly to have
been in the seventh olympiad, and the first year of that olympiad;
the very same year in which he says that Carthage was built by the
Phoenicians. The reason why he added this building of Carthage was,
to be sure, in order, as he thought, to strengthen his assertion by
so evident a character of chronology. But he was not aware that this
character confutes his assertion; for if we may give credit to the
Phoenician records as to the time of the first coming of their colony
to Carthage, they relate that Hirom their king was above a hundred and
fifty years earlier than the building of Carthage; concerning whom I
have formerly produced testimonials out of those Phoenician records, as
also that this Hirom was a friend of Solomon when he was building the
temple of Jerusalem, and gave him great assistance in his building that
temple; while still Solomon himself built that temple six hundred and
twelve years after the Jews came out of Egypt. As for the number of
those that were expelled out of Egypt, he hath contrived to have the
very same number with Lysimaehus, and says they were a hundred and ten
thousand. He then assigns a certain wonderful and plausible occasion for
the name of Sabbath; for he says that "when the Jews had traveled a six
days' journey, they had buboes in their groins; and that on this account
it was that they rested on the seventh day, as having got safely to that
country which is now called Judea; that then they preserved the language
of the Egyptians, and called that day the Sabbath, for that malady of
buboes on their groin was named Sabbatosis by the Egyptians." And
would not a man now laugh at this fellow's trifling, or rather hate his
impudence in writing thus? We must, it seems, fake it for granted that
all these hundred and ten thousand men must have these buboes. But,
for certain, if those men had been blind and lame, and had all sorts of
distempers upon them, as Apion says they had, they could not have gone
one single day's journey; but if they had been all able to travel over a
large desert, and, besides that, to fight and conquer those that opposed
them, they had not all of them had buboes on their groins after the
sixth day was over; for no such distemper comes naturally and of
necessity upon those that travel; but still, when there are many ten
thousands in a camp together, they constantly march a settled space [in
a day]. Nor is it at all probable that such a thing should happen by
chance; this would be prodigiously absurd to be supposed. However, our
admirable author Apion hath before told us that "they came to Judea in
six days' time;" and again, that "Moses went up to a mountain that lay
between Egypt and Arabia, which was called Sinai, and was concealed
there forty days, and that when he came down from thence he gave laws to
the Jews." But, then, how was it possible for them to tarry forty days
in a desert place where there was no water, and at the same time to pass
all over the country between that and Judea in the six days? And as for
this grammatical translation of the word Sabbath, it either contains an
instance of his great impudence or gross ignorance; for the words Sabbo
and Sabbath are widely different from one another; for the word Sabbath
in the Jewish language denotes rest from all sorts of work; but the word
Sabbo, as he affirms, denotes among the Egyptians the malady of a bubo
in the groin.
3. This is that novel account which the Egyptian Apion gives us
concerning the Jews' departure out of Egypt, and is no better than a
contrivance of his own. But why should we wonder at the lies he tells
about our forefathers, when he affirms them to be of Egyptian original,
when he lies also about himself? for although he was born at Oasis
in Egypt, he pretends to be, as a man may say, the top man of all the
Egyptians; yet does he forswear his real country and progenitors, and by
falsely pretending to be born at Alexandria, cannot deny the [4] pravity
of his family; for you see how justly he calls those Egyptians whom he
hates, and endeavors to reproach; for had he not deemed Egyptians to
be a name of great reproach, he would not have avoided the name of an
Egyptian himself; as we know that those who brag of their own countries
value themselves upon the denomination they acquire thereby, and reprove
such as unjustly lay claim thereto. As for the Egyptians' claim to be of
our kindred, they do it on one of the following accounts; I mean, either
as they value themselves upon it, and pretend to bear that relation
to us; or else as they would draw us in to be partakers of their own
infamy. But this fine fellow Apion seems to broach this reproachful
appellation against us, [that we were originally Egyptians,] in order
to bestow it on the Alexandrians, as a reward for the privilege they had
given him of being a fellow citizen with them: he also is apprized of
the ill-will the Alexandrians bear to those Jews who are their fellow
citizens, and so proposes to himself to reproach them, although he must
thereby include all the other Egyptians also; while in both cases he is
no better than an impudent liar.
4. But let us now see what those heavy and wicked crimes are which Apion
charges upon the Alexandrian Jews. "They came [says he] out of Syria,
and inhabited near the tempestuous sea, and were in the neighborhood of
the dashing of the waves." Now if the place of habitation includes any
thing that is reproached, this man reproaches not his own real country,
[Egypt,] but what he pretends to be his own country, Alexandria; for all
are agreed in this, that the part of that city which is near the sea is
the best part of all for habitation. Now if the Jews gained that part of
the city by force, and have kept it hitherto without impeachment, this
is a mark of their valor; but in reality it was Alexander himself that
gave them that place for their habitation, when they obtained equal
privileges there with the Macedonians. Nor call I devise what Apion
would have said, had their habitation been at Necropolis? and not been
fixed hard by the royal palace [as it is]; nor had their nation had
the denomination of Macedonians given them till this very day [as they
have]. Had this man now read the epistles of king Alexander, or those
of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, or met with the writings of the succeeding
kings, or that pillar which is still standing at Alexandria, and
contains the privileges which the great [Julius] Caesar bestowed upon
the Jews; had this man, I say, known these records, and yet hath the
impudence to write in contradiction to them, he hath shown himself to
be a wicked man; but if he knew nothing of these records, he hath shown
himself to be a man very ignorant: nay, when lie appears to wonder how
Jews could be called Alexandrians, this is another like instance of his
ignorance; for all such as are called out to be colonies, although they
be ever so far remote from one another in their original, receive their
names from those that bring them to their new habitations. And what
occasion is there to speak of others, when those of us Jews that dwell
at Antioch are named Antiochians, because Seleucns the founder of that
city gave them the privileges belonging thereto? After the like manner
do those Jews that inhabit Ephesus, and the other cities of Ionia, enjoy
the same name with those that were originally born there, by the grant
of the succeeding princes; nay, the kindness and humanity of the Romans
hath been so great, that it hath granted leave to almost all others to
take the same name of Romans upon them; I mean not particular men only,
but entire and large nations themselves also; for those anciently named
Iberi, and Tyrrheni, and Sabini, are now called Romani. And if Apion
reject this way of obtaining the privilege of a citizen of Alexandria,
let him abstain from calling himself an Alexandrian hereafter; for
otherwise, how can he who was born in the very heart of Egypt be an
Alexandrian, if this way of accepting such a privilege, of which he
would have us deprived, be once abrogated? although indeed these
Romans, who are now the lords of the habitable earth, have forbidden the
Egyptians to have the privileges of any city whatsoever; while this fine
fellow, who is willing to partake of such a privilege himself as he is
forbidden to make use of, endeavors by calumnies to deprive those of it
that have justly received it; for Alexander did not therefore get some
of our nation to Alexandria, because he wanted inhabitants for this
his city, on whose building he had bestowed so much pains; but this was
given to our people as a reward, because he had, upon a careful trial,
found them all to have been men of virtue and fidelity to him; for, as
Hecateus says concerning us, "Alexander honored our nation to such a
degree, that, for the equity and the fidelity which the Jews exhibited
to him, he permitted them to hold the country of Samaria free from
tribute. Of the same mind also was Ptolemy the son of Lagus, as to those
Jews who dwelt at Alexandria." For he intrusted the fortresses of Egypt
into their hands, as believing they would keep them faithfully and
valiantly for him; and when he was desirous to secure the government of
Cyrene, and the other cities of Libya, to himself, he sent a party of
Jews to inhabit in them. And for his successor Ptolemy, who was called
Philadelphus, he did not only set all those of our nation free who were
captives under him, but did frequently give money [for their ransom];
and, what was his greatest work of all, he had a great desire of
knowing our laws, and of obtaining the books of our sacred Scriptures;
accordingly, he desired that such men might be sent him as might
interpret our law to him; and, in order to have them well compiled, he
committed that care to no ordinary persons, but ordained that Demetrius
Phalereus, and Andreas, and Aristeas; the first, Demetrius, the most
learned person of his age, and the others, such as were intrusted with
the guard of his body; should take care of this matter: nor would he
certainly have been so desirous of learning our law, and the philosophy
of our nation, had he despised the men that made use of it, or had he
not indeed had them in great admiration.
5. Now this Apion was unacquainted with almost all the kings of those
Macedonians whom he pretends to have been his progenitors, who were yet
very well affected towards us; for the third of those Ptolemies, who was
called Euergetes, when he had gotten possession of all Syria by force,
did not offer his thank-offerings to the Egyptian gods for his victory,
but came to Jerusalem, and according to our own laws offered many
sacrifices to God, and dedicated to him such gifts as were suitable to
such a victory: and as for Ptolemy Philometer and his wife Cleopatra,
they committed their whole kingdom to the Jews, when Onias and
Dositheus, both Jews, whose names are laughed at by Apion, were the
generals of their whole army. But certainly, instead of reproaching
them, he ought to admire their actions, and return them thanks for
saving Alexandria, whose citizen he pretends to be; for when these
Alexandrians were making war with Cleopatra the queen, and were in
danger of being utterly ruined, these Jews brought them to terms of
agreement, and freed them from the miseries of a civil war. "But then
[says Apion] Onias brought a small army afterward upon the city at the
time when Thorruns the Roman ambassador was there present." Yes, do I
venture to say, and that he did rightly and very justly in so doing;
for that Ptolemy who was called Physco, upon the death of his brother
Philometer, came from Cyrene, and would have ejected Cleopatra as well
as her sons out of their kingdom, that he might obtain it for himself
unjustly. [5] For this cause then it was that Onias undertook a war
against him on Cleopatra's account; nor would he desert that trust the
royal family had reposed in him in their distress. Accordingly, God gave
a remarkable attestation to his righteous procedure; for when Ptolemy
Physco [6] had the presumption to fight against Onias's army, and had
caught all the Jews that were in the city [Alexandria], with their
children and wives, and exposed them naked and in bonds to his
elephants, that they might be trodden upon and destroyed, and when
he had made those elephants drunk for that purpose, the event proved
contrary to his preparations; for these elephants left the Jews who were
exposed to them, and fell violently upon Physco's friends, and slew
a great number of them; nay, after this Ptolemy saw a terrible ghost,
which prohibited his hurting those men; his very concubine, whom
he loved so well, [some call her Ithaca, and others Irene,] making
supplication to him, that he would not perpetrate so great a wickedness.
So he complied with her request, and repented of what he either had
already done, or was about to do; whence it is well known that the
Alexandrian Jews do with good reason celebrate this day, on the account
that they had thereon been vouchsafed such an evident deliverance from
God. However, Apion, the common calumniator of men, hath the presumption
to accuse the Jews for making this war against Physco, when he ought
to have commended them for the same. This man also makes mention of
Cleopatra, the last queen of Alexandria, and abuses us, because she was
ungrateful to us; whereas he ought to have reproved her, who indulged
herself in all kinds of injustice and wicked practices, both with regard
to her nearest relations and husbands who had loved her, and, indeed, in
general with regard to all the Romans, and those emperors that were her
benefactors; who also had her sister Arsinoe slain in a temple, when
she had done her no harm: moreover, she had her brother slain by private
treachery, and she destroyed the gods of her country and the sepulchers
of her progenitors; and while she had received her kingdom from the
first Caesar, she had the impudence to rebel against his son: [7] and
successor; nay, she corrupted Antony with her love-tricks, and rendered
him an enemy to his country, and made him treacherous to his friends,
and [by his means] despoiled some of their royal authority, and forced
others in her madness to act wickedly. But what need I enlarge upon this
head any further, when she left Antony in his fight at sea, though he
were her husband, and the father of their common children, and compelled
him to resign up his government, with the army, and to follow her [into
Egypt]? nay, when last of all Caesar had taken Alexandria, she came to
that pitch of cruelty, that she declared she had some hope of preserving
her affairs still, in case she could kill the Jews, though it were with
her own hand; to such a degree of barbarity and perfidiousness had she
arrived. And doth any one think that we cannot boast ourselves of
any thing, if, as Apion says, this queen did not at a time of famine
distribute wheat among us? However, she at length met with the
punishment she deserved. As for us Jews, we appeal to the great Caesar
what assistance we brought him, and what fidelity we showed to him
against the Egyptians; as also to the senate and its decrees, and the
epistles of Augustus Caesar, whereby our merits [to the Romans] are
justified. Apion ought to have looked upon those epistles, and in
particular to have examined the testimonies given on our behalf, under
Alexander and all the Ptolemies, and the decrees of the senate and of
the greatest Roman emperors. And if Germanicus was not able to make a
distribution of corn to all the inhabitants of Alexandria, that only
shows what a barren time it was, and how great a want there was then of
corn, but tends nothing to the accusation of the Jews; for what all the
emperors have thought of the Alexandrian Jews is well known, for this
distribution of wheat was no otherwise omitted with regard to the Jews,
than it was with regard to the other inhabitants of Alexandria. But they
still were desirous to preserve what the kings had formerly intrusted to
their care, I mean the custody of the river; nor did those kings think
them unworthy of having the entire custody thereof, upon all occasions.
6. But besides this, Apion objects to us thus: "If the Jews [says he] be
citizens of Alexandria, why do they not worship the same gods with the
Alexandrians?" To which I give this answer: Since you are yourselves
Egyptians, why do you fight it out one against another, and have
implacable wars about your religion? At this rate we must not call you
all Egyptians, nor indeed in general men, because you breed up with
great care beasts of a nature quite contrary to that of men, although
the nature of all men seems to be one and the same. Now if there be such
differences in opinion among you Egyptians, why are you surprised that
those who came to Alexandria from another country, and had original laws
of their own before, should persevere in the observance of those laws?
But still he charges us with being the authors of sedition; which
accusation, if it be a just one, why is it not laid against us all,
since we are known to be all of one mind. Moreover, those that search
into such matters will soon discover that the authors of sedition have
been such citizens of Alexandria as Apion is; for while they were the
Grecians and Macedonians who were ill possession of this city, there
was no sedition raised against us, and we were permitted to observe our
ancient solemnities; but when the number of the Egyptians therein came
to be considerable, the times grew confused, and then these seditions
brake out still more and more, while our people continued uncorrupted.
These Egyptians, therefore, were the authors of these troubles, who
having not the constancy of Macedonians, nor the prudence of Grecians,
indulged all of them the evil manners of the Egyptians, and continued
their ancient hatred against us; for what is here so presumptuously
charged upon us, is owing to the differences that are amongst
themselves; while many of them have not obtained the privileges of
citizens in proper times, but style those who are well known to have
had that privilege extended to them all no other than foreigners: for it
does not appear that any of the kings have ever formerly bestowed those
privileges of citizens upon Egyptians, no more than have the emperors
done it more lately; while it was Alexander who introduced us into
this city at first, the kings augmented our privileges therein, and the
Romans have been pleased to preserve them always inviolable. Moreover,
Apion would lay a blot upon us, because we do not erect images for our
emperors; as if those emperors did not know this before, or stood in
need of Apion as their defender; whereas he ought rather to have admired
the magnanimity and modesty of the Romans, whereby they do not
compel those that are subject to them to transgress the laws of their
countries, but are willing to receive the honors due to them after such
a manner as those who are to pay them esteem consistent with piety and
with their own laws; for they do not thank people for conferring honors
upon them, When they are compelled by violence so to do. Accordingly,
since the Grecians and some other nations think it a right thing to make
images, nay, when they have painted the pictures of their parents, and
wives, and children, they exult for joy; and some there are who take
pictures for themselves of such persons as were no way related to them;
nay, some take the pictures of such servants as they were fond of;
what wonder is it then if such as these appear willing to pay the
same respect to their princes and lords? But then our legislator hath
forbidden us to make images, not by way of denunciation beforehand, that
the Roman authority was not to be honored, but as despising a thing that
was neither necessary nor useful for either God or man; and he forbade
them, as we shall prove hereafter, to make these images for any part of
the animal creation, and much less for God himself, who is no part of
such animal creation. Yet hath our legislator no where forbidden us to
pay honors to worthy men, provided they be of another kind, and inferior
to those we pay to God; with which honors we willingly testify our
respect to our emperors, and to the people of Rome; we also offer
perpetual sacrifices for them; nor do we only offer them every day at
the common expenses of all the Jews, but although we offer no other such
sacrifices out of our common expenses, no, not for our own children, yet
do we this as a peculiar honor to the emperors, and to them alone, while
we do the same to no other person whomsoever. And let this suffice for
an answer in general to Apion, as to what he says with relation to the
Alexandrian Jews.
7. However, I cannot but admire those other authors who furnished this
man with such his materials; I mean Possidonius and Apollonius [the son
of] Molo, [8] who, while they accuse us for not worshipping the same
gods whom others worship, they think themselves not guilty of impiety
when they tell lies of us, and frame absurd and reproachful stories
about our temple; whereas it is a most shameful thing for freemen to
forge lies on any occasion, and much more so to forge them about our
temple, which was so famous over all the world, and was preserved so
sacred by us; for Apion hath the impudence to pretend that, "the Jews
placed an ass's head in their holy place;" and he affirms that this was
discovered when Antiochus Epiphanes spoiled our temple, and found that
ass's head there made of gold, and worth a great deal of money. To this
my first answer shall be this, that had there been any such thing among
us, an Egyptian ought by no means to have thrown it in our teeth, since
an ass is not a more contemptible animal than [9] and goats, and other
such creatures, which among them are gods. But besides this answer, I
say further, how comes it about that Apion does not understand this to
be no other than a palpable lie, and to be confuted by the thing itself
as utterly incredible? For we Jews are always governed by the same laws,
in which we constantly persevere; and although many misfortunes have
befallen our city, as the like have befallen others, and although Theos
[Epiphanes], and Pompey the Great, and Licinius Crassus, and last of
all Titus Caesar, have conquered us in war, and gotten possession of
our temple; yet have they none of them found any such thing there, nor
indeed any thing but what was agreeable to the strictest piety; although
what they found we are not at liberty to reveal to other nations. But
for Antiochus [Epiphanes], he had no just cause for that ravage in our
temple that he made; he only came to it when he wanted money, without
declaring himself our enemy, and attacked us while we were his
associates and his friends; nor did he find any thing there that
was ridiculous. This is attested by many worthy writers; Polybius of
Megalopolis, Strabo of Cappadocia, Nicolaus of Damascus, Timagenes,
Castor the chronotoger, and Apollodorus; [10] who all say that it was
out of Antiochus's want of money that he broke his league with the Jews,
and despoiled their temple when it was full of gold and silver. Apion
ought to have had a regard to these facts, unless he had himself had
either an ass's heart or a dog's impudence; of such a dog I mean as they
worship; for he had no other external reason for the lies he tells of
us. As for us Jews, we ascribe no honor or power to asses, as do the
Egyptians to crocodiles and asps, when they esteem such as are seized
upon by the former, or bitten by the latter, to be happy persons, and
persons worthy of God. Asses are the same with us which they are with
other wise men, viz. creatures that bear the burdens that we lay upon
them; but if they come to our thrashing-floors and eat our corn, or do
not perform what we impose upon them, we beat them with a great many
stripes, because it is their business to minister to us in our husbandry
affairs. But this Apion of ours was either perfectly unskillful in the
composition of such fallacious discourses, or however, when he
begun [somewhat better], he was not able to persevere in what he had
undertaken, since he hath no manner of success in those reproaches he
casts upon us.
8. He adds another Grecian fable, in order to reproach us. In reply to
which, it would be enough to say, that they who presume to speak about
Divine worship ought not to be ignorant of this plain truth, that it is
a degree of less impurity to pass through temples, than to forge wicked
calumnies of its priests. Now such men as he are more zealous to justify
a sacrilegious king, than to write what is just and what is true about
us, and about our temple; for when they are desirous of gratifying
Antiochus, and of concealing that perfidiousness and sacrilege which
he was guilty of, with regard to our nation, when he wanted money, they
endeavor to disgrace us, and tell lies even relating to futurities.
Apion becomes other men's prophet upon this occasion, and says that
"Antiochus found in our temple a bed, and a man lying upon it, with a
small table before him, full of dainties, from the [fishes of the]
sea, and the fowls of the dry land; that this man was amazed at these
dainties thus set before him; that he immediately adored the king,
upon his coming in, as hoping that he would afford him all possible
assistance; that he fell down upon his knees, and stretched out to him
his right hand, and begged to be released; and that when the king bid
him sit down, and tell him who he was, and why he dwelt there, and what
was the meaning of those various sorts of food that were set before him
the man made a lamentable complaint, and with sighs, and tears in his
eyes, gave him this account of the distress he was in; and said that he
was a Greek and that as he went over this province, in order to get his
living, he was seized upon by foreigners, on a sudden, and brought
to this temple, and shut up therein, and was seen by nobody, but was
fattened by these curious provisions thus set before him; and that truly
at the first such unexpected advantages seemed to him matter of great
joy; that after a while, they brought a suspicion him, and at length
astonishment, what their meaning should be; that at last he inquired of
the servants that came to him and was by them informed that it was in
order to the fulfilling a law of the Jews, which they must not tell him,
that he was thus fed; and that they did the same at a set time every
year: that they used to catch a Greek foreigner, and fat him thus up
every year, and then lead him to a certain wood, and kill him, and
sacrifice with their accustomed solemnities, and taste of his entrails,
and take an oath upon this sacrificing a Greek, that they would ever be
at enmity with the Greeks; and that then they threw the remaining parts
of the miserable wretch into a certain pit." Apion adds further, that,
"the man said there were but a few days to come ere he was to be slain,
and implored of Antiochus that, out of the reverence he bore to the
Grecian gods, he would disappoint the snares the Jews laid for his
blood, and would deliver him from the miseries with which he was
encompassed." Now this is such a most tragical fable as is full of
nothing but cruelty and impudence; yet does it not excuse Antiochus of
his sacrilegious attempt, as those who write it in his vindication are
willing to suppose; for he could not presume beforehand that he should
meet with any such thing in coming to the temple, but must have found it
unexpectedly. He was therefore still an impious person, that was given
to unlawful pleasures, and had no regard to God in his actions. But [as
for Apion], he hath done whatever his extravagant love of lying hath
dictated to him, as it is most easy to discover by a consideration of
his writings; for the difference of our laws is known not to regard the
Grecians only, but they are principally opposite to the Egyptians, and
to some other nations also for while it so falls out that men of all
countries come sometimes and sojourn among us, how comes it about that
we take an oath, and conspire only against the Grecians, and that by the
effusion of their blood also? Or how is it possible that all the Jews
should get together to these sacrifices, and the entrails of one man
should be sufficient for so many thousands to taste of them, as Apion
pretends? Or why did not the king carry this man, whosoever he was, and
whatsoever was his name, [which is not set down in Apion's book,] with
great pomp back into his own country? when he might thereby have been
esteemed a religious person himself, and a mighty lover of the Greeks,
and might thereby have procured himself great assistance from all men
against that hatred the Jews bore to him. But I leave this matter;
for the proper way of confuting fools is not to use bare words, but to
appeal to the things themselves that make against them. Now, then, all
such as ever saw the construction of our temple, of what nature it was,
know well enough how the purity of it was never to be profaned; for it
had four several courts [12] encompassed with cloisters round about,
every one of which had by our law a peculiar degree of separation
from the rest. Into the first court every body was allowed to go, even
foreigners, and none but women, during their courses, were prohibited
to pass through it; all the Jews went into the second court, as well as
their wives, when they were free from all uncleanness; into the third
court went in the Jewish men, when they were clean and purified; into
the fourth went the priests, having on their sacerdotal garments; but
for the most sacred place, none went in but the high priests, clothed in
their peculiar garments. Now there is so great caution used about these
offices of religion, that the priests are appointed to go into the
temple but at certain hours; for in the morning, at the opening of the
inner temple, those that are to officiate receive the sacrifices, as
they do again at noon, till the doors are shut. Lastly, it is not so
much as lawful to carry any vessel into the holy house; nor is there any
thing therein, but the altar [of incense], the table [of shew-bread],
the censer, and the candlestick, which are all written in the law; for
there is nothing further there, nor are there any mysteries performed
that may not be spoken of; nor is there any feasting within the place.
For what I have now said is publicly known, and supported by the
testimony of the whole people, and their operations are very manifest;
for although there be four courses of the priests, and every one of them
have above five thousand men in them, yet do they officiate on certain
days only; and when those days are over, other priests succeed in the
performance of their sacrifices, and assemble together at mid-day, and
receive the keys of the temple, and the vessels by tale, without any
thing relating to food or drink being carried into the temple; nay, we
are not allowed to offer such things at the altar, excepting what is
prepared for the sacrifices.
9. What then can we say of Apion, but that he examined nothing that
concerned these things, while still he uttered incredible words about
them? but it is a great shame for a grammarian not to be able to write
true history. Now if he knew the purity of our temple, he hath entirely
omitted to take notice of it; but he forges a story about the seizing of
a Grecian, about ineffable food, and the most delicious preparation of
dainties; and pretends that strangers could go into a place whereinto
the noblest men among the Jews are not allowed to enter, unless they
be priests. This, therefore, is the utmost degree of impiety, and a
voluntary lie, in order to the delusion of those who will not examine
into the truth of matters; whereas such unspeakable mischiefs as are
above related have been occasioned by such calumnies that are raised
upon us.
10. Nay, this miracle or piety derides us further, and adds the
following pretended facts to his former fable; for he says that this man
related how, "while the Jews were once in a long war with the Idumeans,
there came a man out of one of the cities of the Idumeans, who there had
worshipped Apollo. This man, whose name is said to have been Zabidus,
came to the Jews, and promised that he would deliver Apollo, the god of
Dora, into their hands, and that he would come to our temple, if they
would all come up with him, and bring the whole multitude of the Jews
with them; that Zabidus made him a certain wooden instrument, and put it
round about him, and set three rows of lamps therein, and walked after
such a manner, that he appeared to those that stood a great way off
him to be a kind of star, walking upon the earth; that the Jews were
terribly affrighted at so surprising an appearance, and stood very quiet
at a distance; and that Zabidus, while they continued so very quiet,
went into the holy house, and carried off that golden head of an ass,
[for so facetiously does he write,] and then went his way back again
to Dora in great haste." And say you so, sir! as I may reply; then
does Apion load the ass, that is, himself, and lays on him a burden of
fooleries and lies; for he writes of places that have no being, and not
knowing the cities he speaks of, he changes their situation; for Idumea
borders upon our country, and is near to Gaza, in which there is no
such city as Dora; although there be, it is true, a city named Dora in
Phoenicia, near Mount Carmel, but it is four days' journey from Idumea.
[12] Now, then, why does this man accuse us, because we have not gods in
common with other nations, if our fathers were so easily prevailed upon
to have Apollo come to them, and thought they saw him walking upon the
earth, and the stars with him? for certainly those who have so many
festivals, wherein they light lamps, must yet, at this rate, have never
seen a candlestick! But still it seems that while Zabidus took his
journey over the country, where were so many ten thousands of people,
nobody met him. He also, it seems, even in a time of war, found the
walls of Jerusalem destitute of guards. I omit the rest. Now the doors
of the holy house were seventy [13] cubits high, and twenty cubits
broad; they were all plated over with gold, and almost of solid gold
itself, and there were no fewer than twenty [14] men required to shut
them every day; nor was it lawful ever to leave them open, though it
seems this lamp-bearer of ours opened them easily, or thought he
opened them, as he thought he had the ass's head in his hand. Whether,
therefore, he returned it to us again, or whether Apion took it, and
brought it into the temple again, that Antiochus might find it, and
afford a handle for a second fable of Apion's, is uncertain.
11. Apion also tells a false story, when he mentions an oath of ours,
as if we "swore by God, the Maker of the heaven, and earth, and sea,
to bear no good will to any foreigner, and particularly to none of the
Greeks." Now this liar ought to have said directly that, "we would
bear no good-will to any foreigner, and particularly to none of the
Egyptians." For then his story about the oath would have squared with
the rest of his original forgeries, in case our forefathers had been
driven away by their kinsmen, the Egyptians, not on account of any
wickedness they had been guilty of, but on account of the calamities
they were under; for as to the Grecians, we were rather remote from them
in place, than different from them in our institutions, insomuch that we
have no enmity with them, nor any jealousy of them. On the contrary, it
hath so happened that many of them have come over to our laws, and some
of them have continued in their observation, although others of them had
not courage enough to persevere, and so departed from them again; nor
did any body ever hear this oath sworn by us: Apion, it seems, was the
only person that heard it, for he indeed was the first composer of it.
12. However, Apion deserves to be admired for his great prudence, as to
what I am going to say, which is this, "That there is a plain mark among
us, that we neither have just laws, nor worship God as we ought to do,
because we are not governors, but are rather in subjection to Gentiles,
sometimes to one nation, and sometimes to another; and that our city
hath been liable to several calamities, while their city [Alexandria]
hath been of old time an imperial city, and not used to be in subjection
to the Romans." But now this man had better leave off this bragging,
for every body but himself would think that Apion said what he hath said
against himself; for there are very few nations that have had the good
fortune to continue many generations in the principality, but still the
mutations in human affairs have put them into subjection under others;
and most nations have been often subdued, and brought into subjection
by others. Now for the Egyptians, perhaps they are the only nation that
have had this extraordinary privilege, to have never served any of
those monarchs who subdued Asia and Europe, and this on account, as they
pretend, that the gods fled into their country, and saved themselves by
being changed into the shapes of wild beasts! Whereas these Egyptians
[15] are the very people that appear to have never, in all the past
ages, had one day of freedom, no, not so much as from their own lords.
For I will not reproach them with relating the manner how the Persians
used them, and this not once only, but many times, when they laid their
cities waste, demolished their temples, and cut the throats of those
animals whom they esteemed to be gods; for it is not reasonable to
imitate the clownish ignorance of Apion, who hath no regard to the
misfortunes of the Athenians, or of the Lacedemonians, the latter of
whom were styled by all men the most courageous, and the former the
most religious of the Grecians. I say nothing of such kings as have been
famous for piety, particularly of one of them, whose name was Cresus,
nor what calamities he met with in his life; I say nothing of the
citadel of Athens, of the temple at Ephesus, of that at Delphi, nor
of ten thousand others which have been burnt down, while nobody cast
reproaches on those that were the sufferers, but on those that were
the actors therein. But now we have met with Apion, an accuser of our
nation, though one that still forgets the miseries of his own people,
the Egyptians; but it is that Sesostris who was once so celebrated a king
of Egypt that hath blinded him. Now we will not brag of our kings, David
and Solomon, though they conquered many nations; accordingly we will let
them alone. However, Apion is ignorant of what every body knows, that
the Egyptians were servants to the Persians, and afterwards to the
Macedonians, when they were lords of Asia, and were no better than
slaves, while we have enjoyed liberty formerly; nay, more than that,
have had the dominion of the cities that lie round about us, and this
nearly for a hundred and twenty years together, until Pompeius Magnus.
And when all the kings every where were conquered by the Romans, our
ancestors were the only people who continued to be esteemed their
confederates and friends, on account of their fidelity to them.[16]
13. "But," says Apion, "we Jews have not had any wonderful men amongst
us, not any inventors of arts, nor any eminent for wisdom." He then
enumerates Socrates, and Zeno, and Cleanthes, and some others of the
same sort; and, after all, he adds himself to them, which is the most
wonderful thing of all that he says, and pronounces Alexandria to be
happy, because it hath such a citizen as he is in it; for he was
the fittest man to be a witness to his own deserts, although he hath
appeared to all others no better than a wicked mountebank, of a
corrupt life and ill discourses; on which account one may justly pity
Alexandria, if it should value itself upon such a citizen as he is.
But as to our own men, we have had those who have been as deserving
of commendation as any other whosoever, and such as have perused our
Antiquities cannot be ignorant of them.
14. As to the other things which he sets down as blameworthy, it may
perhaps be the best way to let them pass without apology, that he may
be allowed to be his own accuser, and the accuser of the rest of the
Egyptians. However, he accuses us for sacrificing animals, and for
abstaining from swine's flesh, and laughs at us for the circumcision
of our privy members. Now as for our slaughter of tame animals for
sacrifices, it is common to us and to all other men; but this Apion,
by making it a crime to sacrifice them, demonstrates himself to be
an Egyptian; for had he been either a Grecian or a Macedonian, [as he
pretends to be,] he had not shown any uneasiness at it; for those people
glory in sacrificing whole hecatombs to the gods, and make use of those
sacrifices for feasting; and yet is not the world thereby rendered
destitute of cattle, as Apion was afraid would come to pass. Yet if all
men had followed the manners of the Egyptians, the world had certainly
been made desolate as to mankind, but had been filled full of the
wildest sort of brute beasts, which, because they suppose them to be
gods, they carefully nourish. However, if any one should ask Apion which
of the Egyptians he thinks to be the most wise and most pious of them
all, he would certainly acknowledge the priests to be so; for the
histories say that two things were originally committed to their care
by their kings' injunctions, the worship of the gods, and the support of
wisdom and philosophy. Accordingly, these priests are all circumcised,
and abstain from swine's flesh; nor does any one of the other Egyptians
assist them in slaying those sacrifices they offer to the gods. Apion
was therefore quite blinded in his mind, when, for the sake of the
Egyptians, he contrived to reproach us, and to accuse such others as not
only make use of that conduct of life which he so much abuses, but have
also taught other men to be circumcised, as says Herodotus; which makes
me think that Apion is hereby justly punished for his casting such
reproaches on the laws of his own country; for he was circumcised
himself of necessity, on account of an ulcer in his privy member; and
when he received no benefit by such circumcision, but his member became
putrid, he died in great torment. Now men of good tempers ought to
observe their own laws concerning religion accurately, and to persevere
therein, but not presently to abuse the laws of other nations, while
this Apion deserted his own laws, and told lies about ours. And this
was the end of Apion's life, and this shall be the conclusion of our
discourse about him.
15. But now, since Apollonius Molo, and Lysimachus, and some others,
write treatises about our lawgiver Moses, and about our laws, which are
neither just nor true, and this partly out of ignorance, but chiefly
out of ill-will to us, while they calumniate Moses as an impostor and
deceiver, and pretend that our laws teach us wickedness, but nothing
that is virtuous, I have a mind to discourse briefly, according to
my ability, about our whole constitution of government, and about the
particular branches of it. For I suppose it will thence become evident,
that the laws we have given us are disposed after the best manner for
the advancement of piety, for mutual communion with one another, for a
general love of mankind, as also for justice, and for sustaining labors
with fortitude, and for a contempt of death. And I beg of those that
shall peruse this writing of mine, to read it without partiality; for
it is not my purpose to write an encomium upon ourselves, but I shall
esteem this as a most just apology for us, and taken from those our
laws, according to which we lead our lives, against the many and the
lying objections that have been made against us. Moreover, since this
Apollonius does not do like Apion, and lay a continued accusation
against us, but does it only by starts, and up and clown his discourse,
while he sometimes reproaches us as atheists, and man-haters, and
sometimes hits us in the teeth with our want of courage, and yet
sometimes, on the contrary, accuses us of too great boldness and
madness in our conduct; nay, he says that we are the weakest of all the
barbarians, and that this is the reason why we are the only people who
have made no improvements in human life; now I think I shall have then
sufficiently disproved all these his allegations, when it shall appear
that our laws enjoin the very reverse of what he says, and that we very
carefully observe those laws ourselves. And if I he compelled to make
mention of the laws of other nations, that are contrary to ours, those
ought deservedly to thank themselves for it, who have pretended to
depreciate our laws in comparison of their own; nor will there, I think,
be any room after that for them to pretend either that we have no such
laws ourselves, an epitome of which I will present to the reader, or
that we do not, above all men, continue in the observation of them.
16. To begin then a good way backward, I would advance this, in the
first place, that those who have been admirers of good order, and of
living under common laws, and who began to introduce them, may well have
this testimony that they are better than other men, both for moderation
and such virtue as is agreeable to nature. Indeed their endeavor was to
have every thing they ordained believed to be very ancient, that
they might not be thought to imitate others, but might appear to have
delivered a regular way of living to others after them. Since then this
is the case, the excellency of a legislator is seen in providing for the
people's living after the best manner, and in prevailing with those that
are to use the laws he ordains for them, to have a good opinion of
them, and in obliging the multitude to persevere in them, and to make no
changes in them, neither in prosperity nor adversity. Now I venture to
say, that our legislator is the most ancient of all the legislators whom
we have ally where heard of; for as for the Lycurguses, and Solons, and
Zaleucus Locrensis, and all those legislators who are so admired by the
Greeks, they seem to be of yesterday, if compared with our legislator,
insomuch as the very name of a law was not so much as known in old times
among the Grecians. Homer is a witness to the truth of this observation,
who never uses that term in all his poems; for indeed there was then no
such thing among them, but the multitude was governed by wise maxims,
and by the injunctions of their king. It was also a long time that they
continued in the use of these unwritten customs, although they were
always changing them upon several occasions. But for our legislator,
who was of so much greater antiquity than the rest, [as even those that
speak against us upon all occasions do always confess,] he exhibited
himself to the people as their best governor and counselor, and included
in his legislation the entire conduct of their lives, and prevailed with
them to receive it, and brought it so to pass, that those that were made
acquainted with his laws did most carefully observe them.
17. But let us consider his first and greatest work; for when it was
resolved on by our forefathers to leave Egypt, and return to their
own country, this Moses took the many tell thousands that were of the
people, and saved them out of many desperate distresses, and brought
them home in safety. And certainly it was here necessary to travel over
a country without water, and full of sand, to overcome their enemies,
and, during these battles, to preserve their children, and their wives,
and their prey; on all which occasions he became an excellent general of
an army, and a most prudent counselor, and one that took the truest
care of them all; he also so brought it about, that the whole multitude
depended upon him. And while he had them always obedient to what he
enjoined, he made no manner of use of his authority for his own private
advantage, which is the usual time when governors gain great powers to
themselves, and pave the way for tyranny, and accustom the multitude
to live very dissolutely; whereas, when our legislator was in so great
authority, he, on the contrary, thought he ought to have regard to
piety, and to show his great good-will to the people; and by this means
he thought he might show the great degree of virtue that was in him, and
might procure the most lasting security to those who had made him their
governor. When he had therefore come to such a good resolution, and
had performed such wonderful exploits, we had just reason to look upon
ourselves as having him for a divine governor and counselor. And when
he had first persuaded himself [17] that his actions and designs were
agreeable to God's will, he thought it his duty to impress, above all
things, that notion upon the multitude; for those who have once believed
that God is the inspector of their lives, will not permit themselves
in any sin. And this is the character of our legislator: he was no
impostor, no deceiver, as his revilers say, though unjustly, but such
a one as they brag Minos [18] to have been among the Greeks, and other
legislators after him; for some of them suppose that they had their laws
from Jupiter, while Minos said that the revelation of his laws was to
be referred to Apollo, and his oracle at Delphi, whether they really
thought they were so derived, or supposed, however, that they could
persuade the people easily that so it was. But which of these it was who
made the best laws, and which had the greatest reason to believe
that God was their author, it will be easy, upon comparing those laws
themselves together, to determine; for it is time that we come to that
point. [19] Now there are innumerable differences in the particular
customs and laws that are among all mankind, which a man may briefly
reduce under the following heads: Some legislators have permitted their
governments to be under monarchies, others put them under oligarchies,
and others under a republican form; but our legislator had no regard
to any of these forms, but he ordained our government to be what, by a
strained expression, may be termed a Theocracy, [20] by ascribing the
authority and the power to God, and by persuading all the people to have
a regard to him, as the author of all the good things that were enjoyed
either in common by all mankind, or by each one in particular, and of
all that they themselves obtained by praying to him in their greatest
difficulties. He informed them that it was impossible to escape God's
observation, even in any of our outward actions, or in any of our
inward thoughts. Moreover, he represented God as unbegotten, [21] and
immutable, through all eternity, superior to all mortal conceptions in
pulchritude; and, though known to us by his power, yet unknown to us as
to his essence. I do not now explain how these notions of God are the
sentiments of the wisest among the Grecians, and how they were taught
them upon the principles that he afforded them. However, they testify,
with great assurance, that these notions are just, and agreeable to the
nature of God, and to his majesty; for Pythagoras, and Anaxagoras, and
Plato, and the Stoic philosophers that succeeded them, and almost all
the rest, are of the same sentiments, and had the same notions of the
nature of God; yet durst not these men disclose those true notions to
more than a few, because the body of the people were prejudiced with
other opinions beforehand. But our legislator, who made his actions
agree to his laws, did not only prevail with those that were his
contemporaries to agree with these his notions, but so firmly imprinted
this faith in God upon all their posterity, that it never could be
removed. The reason why the constitution of this legislation was ever
better directed to the utility of all than other legislations were, is
this, that Moses did not make religion a part of virtue, but he saw and
he ordained other virtues to be parts of religion; I mean justice, and
fortitude, and temperance, and a universal agreement of the members of
the community with one another; for all our actions and studies, and all
our words, [in Moses's settlement,] have a reference to piety towards
God; for he hath left none of these in suspense, or undetermined.
For there are two ways of coming at any sort of learning and a moral
conduct of life; the one is by instruction in words, the other by
practical exercises. Now other lawgivers have separated these two ways
in their opinions, and choosing one of those ways of instruction, or
that which best pleased every one of them, neglected the other. Thus did
the Lacedemonians and the Cretians teach by practical exercises, but not
by words; while the Athenians, and almost all the other Grecians, made
laws about what was to be done, or left undone, but had no regard to the
exercising them thereto in practice.
18. But for our legislator, he very carefully joined these two methods
of instruction together; for he neither left these practical exercises
to go on without verbal instruction, nor did he permit the hearing of
the law to proceed without the exercises for practice; but beginning
immediately from the earliest infancy, and the appointment of every
one's diet, he left nothing of the very smallest consequence to be done
at the pleasure and disposal of the person himself. Accordingly, he made
a fixed rule of law what sorts of food they should abstain from, and
what sorts they should make use of; as also, what communion they
should have with others what great diligence they should use in their
occupations, and what times of rest should be interposed, that, by
living under that law as under a father and a master, we might be guilty
of no sin, neither voluntary nor out of ignorance; for he did not suffer
the guilt of ignorance to go on without punishment, but demonstrated
the law to be the best and the most necessary instruction of all others,
permitting the people to leave off their other employments, and to
assemble together for the hearing of the law, and learning it exactly,
and this not once or twice, or oftener, but every week; which thing all
the other legislators seem to have neglected.
19. And indeed the greatest part of mankind are so far from living
according to their own laws, that they hardly know them; but when they
have sinned, they learn from others that they have transgressed the law.
Those also who are in the highest and principal posts of the government,
confess they are not acquainted with those laws, and are obliged to take
such persons for their assessors in public administrations as profess to
have skill in those laws; but for our people, if any body do but ask any
one of them about our laws, he will more readily tell them all than he
will tell his own name, and this in consequence of our having learned
them immediately as soon as ever we became sensible of any thing, and of
our having them as it were engraven on our souls. Our transgressors of
them are but few, and it is impossible, when any do offend, to escape
punishment.
20. And this very thing it is that principally creates such a wonderful
agreement of minds amongst us all; for this entire agreement of ours
in all our notions concerning God, and our having no difference in our
course of life and manners, procures among us the most excellent concord
of these our manners that is any where among mankind; for no other
people but the Jews have avoided all discourses about God that any way
contradict one another, which yet are frequent among other nations; and
this is true not only among ordinary persons, according as every one
is affected, but some of the philosophers have been insolent enough to
indulge such contradictions, while some of them have undertaken to use
such words as entirely take away the nature of God, as others of them
have taken away his providence over mankind. Nor can any one perceive
amongst us any difference in the conduct of our lives, but all our works
are common to us all. We have one sort of discourse concerning God,
which is conformable to our law, and affirms that he sees all things;
as also we have but one way of speaking concerning the conduct of our
lives, that all other things ought to have piety for their end; and this
any body may hear from our women, and servants themselves.
21. And, indeed, hence hath arisen that accusation which some make
against us, that we have not produced men that have been the inventors
of new operations, or of new ways of speaking; for others think it a
fine thing to persevere in nothing that has been delivered down from
their forefathers, and these testify it to be an instance of the
sharpest wisdom when these men venture to transgress those traditions;
whereas we, on the contrary, suppose it to be our only wisdom and virtue
to admit no actions nor supposals that are contrary to our original
laws; which procedure of ours is a just and sure sign that our law
is admirably constituted; for such laws as are not thus well made are
convicted upon trial to want amendment.
22. But while we are ourselves persuaded that our law was made agreeably
to the will of God, it would be impious for us not to observe the same;
for what is there in it that any body would change? and what can be
invented that is better? or what can we take out of other people's laws
that will exceed it? Perhaps some would have the entire settlement
of our government altered. And where shall we find a better or more
righteous constitution than ours, while this makes us esteem God to be
the Governor of the universe, and permits the priests in general to be
the administrators of the principal affairs, and withal intrusts the
government over the other priests to the chief high priest himself?
which priests our legislator, at their first appointment, did not
advance to that dignity for their riches, or any abundance of other
possessions, or any plenty they had as the gifts of fortune; but he
intrusted the principal management of Divine worship to those that
exceeded others in an ability to persuade men, and in prudence of
conduct. These men had the main care of the law and of the other parts
of the people's conduct committed to them; for they were the priests who
were ordained to be the inspectors of all, and the judges in doubtful
cases, and the punishers of those that were condemned to suffer
punishment.
23. What form of government then can be more holy than this? what more
worthy kind of worship can be paid to God than we pay, where the entire
body of the people are prepared for religion, where an extraordinary
degree of care is required in the priests, and where the whole polity is
so ordered as if it were a certain religious solemnity? For what things
foreigners, when they solemnize such festivals, are not able to observe
for a few days' time, and call them Mysteries and Sacred Ceremonies, we
observe with great pleasure and an unshaken resolution during our whole
lives. What are the things then that we are commanded or forbidden? They
are simple, and easily known. The first command is concerning God, and
affirms that God contains all things, and is a Being every way perfect
and happy, self-sufficient, and supplying all other beings; the
beginning, the middle, and the end of all things. He is manifest in
his works and benefits, and more conspicuous than any other being
whatsoever; but as to his form and magnitude, he is most obscure. All
materials, let them be ever so costly, are unworthy to compose an image
for him, and all arts are unartful to express the notion we ought to
have of him. We can neither see nor think of any thing like him, nor is
it agreeable to piety to form a resemblance of him. We see his works,
the light, the heaven, the earth, the sun and the moon, the waters, the
generations of animals, the productions of fruits. These things hath God
made, not with hands, nor with labor, nor as wanting the assistance of
any to cooperate with him; but as his will resolved they should be made
and be good also, they were made and became good immediately. All
men ought to follow this Being, and to worship him in the exercise of
virtue; for this way of worship of God is the most holy of all others.
24. There ought also to be but one temple for one God; for likeness is
the constant foundation of agreement. This temple ought to be common to
all men, because he is the common God of all men. High priests are to
be continually about his worship, over whom he that is the first by his
birth is to be their ruler perpetually. His business must be to offer
sacrifices to God, together with those priests that are joined with him,
to see that the laws be observed, to determine controversies, and to
punish those that are convicted of injustice; while he that does not
submit to him shall be subject to the same punishment, as if he had been
guilty of impiety towards God himself. When we offer sacrifices to him,
we do it not in order to surfeit ourselves, or to be drunken; for
such excesses are against the will of God, and would be an occasion of
injuries and of luxury; but by keeping ourselves sober, orderly, and
ready for our other occupations, and being more temperate than others.
And for our duty at the sacrifices [22] themselves, we ought, in the
first place, to pray for the common welfare of all, and after that for
our own; for we are made for fellowship one with another, and he who
prefers the common good before what is peculiar to himself is above all
acceptable to God. And let our prayers and supplications be made humbly
to God, not [so much] that he would give us what is good, [for he
hath already given that of his own accord, and hath proposed the same
publicly to all,] as that we may duly receive it, and when we have
received it, may preserve it. Now the law has appointed several
purifications at our sacrifices, whereby we are cleansed after
a funeral, after what sometimes happens to us in bed, and after
accompanying with our wives, and upon many other occasions, which it
would be too long now to set down. And this is our doctrine concerning
God and his worship, and is the same that the law appoints for our
practice.
25. But, then, what are our laws about marriage? That law owns no other
mixture of sexes but that which nature hath appointed, of a man with his
wife, and that this be used only for the procreation of children. But it
abhors the mixture of a male with a male; and if any one do that, death
is its punishment. It commands us also, when we marry, not to have
regard to portion, nor to take a woman by violence, nor to persuade her
deceitfully and knavishly; but to demand her in marriage of him who hath
power to dispose of her, and is fit to give her away by the nearness
of his kindred; for, says the Scripture, "A woman is inferior to her
husband in all things." [23] Let her, therefore, be obedient to him; not
so that he should abuse her, but that she may acknowledge her duty to
her husband; for God hath given the authority to the husband. A husband,
therefore, is to lie only with his wife whom he hath married; but to
have to do with another man's wife is a wicked thing, which, if any one
ventures upon, death is inevitably his punishment: no more can he
avoid the same who forces a virgin betrothed to another man, or entices
another man's wife. The law, moreover, enjoins us to bring up all our
offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or
to destroy it afterward; and if any woman appears to have so done, she
will be a murderer of her child, by destroying a living creature,
and diminishing human kind; if any one, therefore, proceeds to such
fornication or murder, he cannot be clean. Moreover, the law enjoins,
that after the man and wife have lain together in a regular way, they
shall bathe themselves; for there is a defilement contracted thereby,
both in soul and body, as if they had gone into another country; for
indeed the soul, by being united to the body, is subject to miseries,
and is not freed therefrom again but by death; on which account the law
requires this purification to be entirely performed.
26. Nay, indeed, the law does not permit us to make festivals at the
births of our children, and thereby afford occasion of drinking to
excess; but it ordains that the very beginning of our education should
be immediately directed to sobriety. It also commands us to bring those
children up in learning, and to exercise them in the laws, and make
them acquainted with the acts of their predecessors, in order to their
imitation of them, and that they might be nourished up in the laws from
their infancy, and might neither transgress them, nor have any pretense
for their ignorance of them.
27. Our law hath also taken care of the decent burial of the dead, but
without any extravagant expenses for their funerals, and without the
erection of any illustrious monuments for them; but hath ordered that
their nearest relations should perform their obsequies; and hath showed
it to be regular, that all who pass by when any one is buried should
accompany the funeral, and join in the lamentation. It also ordains that
the house and its inhabitants should be purified after the funeral is
over, that every one may thence learn to keep at a great distance from
the thoughts of being pure, if he hath been once guilty of murder.
28. The law ordains also, that parents should be honored immediately
after God himself, and delivers that son who does not requite them for
the benefits he hath received from them, but is deficient on any such
occasion, to be stoned. It also says that the young men should pay due
respect to every elder, since God is the eldest of all beings. It does
not give leave to conceal any thing from our friends, because that is
not true friendship which will not commit all things to their fidelity:
it also forbids the revelation of secrets, even though an enmity arise
between them. If any judge takes bribes, his punishment is death: he
that overlooks one that offers him a petition, and this when he is able
to relieve him, he is a guilty person. What is not by any one intrusted
to another ought not to be required back again. No one is to touch
another's goods. He that lends money must not demand usury for its loan.
These, and many more of the like sort, are the rules that unite us in
the bands of society one with another.
29. It will be also worth our while to see what equity our legislator
would have us exercise in our intercourse with strangers; for it will
thence appear that he made the best provision he possibly could, both
that we should not dissolve our own constitution, nor show any
envious mind towards those that would cultivate a friendship with us.
Accordingly, our legislator admits all those that have a mind to observe
our laws so to do; and this after a friendly manner, as esteeming that
a true union which not only extends to our own stock, but to those that
would live after the same manner with us; yet does he not allow those
that come to us by accident only to be admitted into communion with us.
30. However, there are other things which our legislator ordained for us
beforehand, which of necessity we ought to do in common to all men; as
to afford fire, and water, and food to such as want it; to show them
the roads; not to let any one lie unburied. He also would have us treat
those that are esteemed our enemies with moderation; for he doth not
allow us to set their country on fire, nor permit us to cut down those
trees that bear fruit; nay, further, he forbids us to spoil those that
have been slain in war. He hath also provided for such as are taken
captive, that they may not be injured, and especially that the women
may not be abused. Indeed he hath taught us gentleness and humanity
so effectually, that he hath not despised the care of brute beasts,
by permitting no other than a regular use of them, and forbidding any
other; and if any of them come to our houses, like supplicants, we are
forbidden to slay them; nor may we kill the dams, together with their
young ones; but we are obliged, even in an enemy's country, to spare and
not kill those creatures that labor for mankind. Thus hath our lawgiver
contrived to teach us an equitable conduct every way, by using us
to such laws as instruct us therein; while at the same time he hath
ordained that such as break these laws should be punished, without the
allowance of any excuse whatsoever.
31. Now the greatest part of offenses with us are capital; as if any
one be guilty of adultery; if any one force a virgin; if any one be so
impudent as to attempt sodomy with a male; or if, upon another's making
an attempt upon him, he submits to be so used. There is also a law for
slaves of the like nature, that can never be avoided. Moreover, if any
one cheats another in measures or weights, or makes a knavish bargain
and sale, in order to cheat another; if any one steals what belongs to
another, and takes what he never deposited; all these have punishments
allotted them; not such as are met with among other nations, but more
severe ones. And as for attempts of unjust behavior towards parents, or
for impiety against God, though they be not actually accomplished, the
offenders are destroyed immediately. However, the reward for such as
live exactly according to the laws is not silver or gold; it is not a
garland of olive branches or of small age, nor any such public sign of
commendation; but every good man hath his own conscience bearing witness
to himself, and by virtue of our legislator's prophetic spirit, and of
the firm security God himself affords such a one, he believes that God
hath made this grant to those that observe these laws, even though they
be obliged readily to die for them, that they shall come into being
again, and at a certain revolution of things shall receive a better life
than they had enjoyed before. Nor would I venture to write thus at this
time, were it not well known to all by our actions that many of our
people have many a time bravely resolved to endure any sufferings,
rather than speak one word against our law.
32. Nay, indeed, in case it had so fallen out, that our nation had not
been so thoroughly known among all men as they are, and our voluntary
submission to our laws had not been so open and manifest as it is, but
that somebody had pretended to have written these laws himself, and had
read them to the Greeks, or had pretended that he had met with men out
of the limits of the known world, that had such reverent notions of God,
and had continued a long time in the firm observance of such laws
as ours, I cannot but suppose that all men would admire them on a
reflection upon the frequent changes they had therein been themselves
subject to; and this while those that have attempted to write somewhat
of the same kind for politic government, and for laws, are accused
as composing monstrous things, and are said to have undertaken an
impossible task upon them. And here I will say nothing of those other
philosophers who have undertaken any thing of this nature in their
writings. But even Plato himself, who is so admired by the Greeks on
account of that gravity in his manners, and force in his words, and that
ability he had to persuade men beyond all other philosophers, is little
better than laughed at and exposed to ridicule on that account, by those
that pretend to sagacity in political affairs; although he that shall
diligently peruse his writings will find his precepts to be somewhat
gentle, and pretty near to the customs of the generality of mankind.
Nay, Plato himself confesseth that it is not safe to publish the true
notion concerning God among the ignorant multitude. Yet do some men look
upon Plato's discourses as no better than certain idle words set off
with great artifice. However, they admire Lycurgus as the principal
lawgiver, and all men celebrate Sparta for having continued in the firm
observance of his laws for a very long time. So far then we have gained,
that it is to be confessed a mark of virtue to submit to laws. [24] But
then let such as admire this in the Lacedemonians compare that duration
of theirs with more than two thousand years which our political
government hath continued; and let them further consider, that though
the Lacedemonians did seem to observe their laws exactly while they
enjoyed their liberty, yet that when they underwent a change of their
fortune, they forgot almost all those laws; while we, having been under
ten thousand changes in our fortune by the changes that happened among
the kings of Asia, have never betrayed our laws under the most pressing
distresses we have been in; nor have we neglected them either out
of sloth or for a livelihood. [25] if any one will consider it, the
difficulties and labors laid upon us have been greater than what appears
to have been borne by the Lacedemonian fortitude, while they neither
ploughed their land, nor exercised any trades, but lived in their own
city, free from all such pains-taking, in the enjoyment of plenty, and
using such exercises as might improve their bodies, while they made use
of other men as their servants for all the necessaries of life, and had
their food prepared for them by the others; and these good and humane
actions they do for no other purpose but this, that by their actions and
their sufferings they may be able to conquer all those against whom they
make war. I need not add this, that they have not been fully able to
observe their laws; for not only a few single persons, but multitudes of
them, have in heaps neglected those laws, and have delivered themselves,
together with their arms, into the hands of their enemies.
33. Now as for ourselves, I venture to say that no one can tell of so
many; nay, not of more than one or two that have betrayed our laws, no,
not out of fear of death itself; I do not mean such an easy death as
happens in battles, but that which comes with bodily torments, and seems
to be the severest kind of death of all others. Now I think those that
have conquered us have put us to such deaths, not out of their hatred to
us when they had subdued us, but rather out of their desire of seeing a
surprising sight, which is this, whether there be such men in the world
who believe that no evil is to them so great as to be compelled to do or
to speak any thing contrary to their own laws. Nor ought men to wonder
at us, if we are more courageous in dying for our laws than all other
men are; for other men do not easily submit to the easier things in
which we are instituted; I mean working with our hands, and eating but
little, and being contented to eat and drink, not at random, or at every
one's pleasure, or being under inviolable rules in lying with our wives,
in magnificent furniture, and again in the observation of our times of
rest; while those that can use their swords in war, and can put their
enemies to flight when they attack them, cannot bear to submit to such
laws about their way of living: whereas our being accustomed willingly
to submit to laws in these instances, renders us fit to show our
fortitude upon other occasions also.
34. Yet do the Lysimachi and the Molones, and some other writers,
[unskillful sophists as they are, and the deceivers of young men,]
reproach us as the vilest of all mankind. Now I have no mind to make an
inquiry into the laws of other nations; for the custom of our country is
to keep our own laws, but not to bring accusations against the laws of
others. And indeed our legislator hath expressly forbidden us to laugh
at and revile those that are esteemed gods by other people? on account
of the very name of God ascribed to them. But since our antagonists
think to run us down upon the comparison of their religion and ours, it
is not possible to keep silence here, especially while what I shall say
to confute these men will not be now first said, but hath been already
said by many, and these of the highest reputation also; for who is there
among those that have been admired among the Greeks for wisdom, who
hath not greatly blamed both the most famous poets, and most celebrated
legislators, for spreading such notions originally among the body of the
people concerning the gods? such as these, that they may be allowed to
be as numerous as they have a mind to have them; that they are begotten
one by another, and that after all the kinds of generation you can
imagine. They also distinguish them in their places and ways of living
as they would distinguish several sorts of animals; as some to be under
the earth; as some to be in the sea; and the ancientest of them all to
be bound in hell; and for those to whom they have allotted heaven, they
have set over them one, who in title is their father, but in his actions
a tyrant and a lord; whence it came to pass that his wife, and brother,
and daughter [which daughter he brought forth from his own head] made
a conspiracy against him to seize upon him and confine hint, as he had
himself seized upon and confined his own father before.
35. And justly have the wisest men thought these notions deserved
severe rebukes; they also laugh at them for determining that we ought to
believe some of the gods to be beardless and young, and others of them
to be old, and to have beards accordingly; that some are set to trades;
that one god is a smith, and another goddess is a weaver; that one god
is a warrior, and fights with men; that some of them are harpers, or
delight in archery; and besides, that mutual seditions arise among them,
and that they quarrel about men, and this so far, that they not only lay
hands upon one another, but that they are wounded by men, and lament,
and take on for such their afflictions. But what is the grossest of all
in point of lasciviousness, are those unbounded lusts ascribed to almost
all of them, and their amours; which how can it be other than a most
absurd supposal, especially when it reaches to the male gods, and to the
female goddesses also? Moreover, the chief of all their gods, and their
first father himself, overlooks those goddesses whom he hath deluded and
begotten with child, and suffers them to be kept in prison, or drowned
in the sea. He is also so bound up by fate, that he cannot save his own
offspring, nor can he bear their deaths without shedding of tears. These
are fine things indeed! as are the rest that follow. Adulteries truly
are so impudently looked on in heaven by the gods, that some of them
have confessed they envied those that were found in the very act. And
why should they not do so, when the eldest of them, who is their king
also, hath not been able to restrain himself in the violence of his
lust, from lying with his wife, so long as they might get into their
bedchamber? Now some of the gods are servants to men, and will sometimes
be builders for a reward, and sometimes will be shepherds; while others
of them, like malefactors, are bound in a prison of brass. And what
sober person is there who would not be provoked at such stories, and
rebuke those that forged them, and condemn the great silliness of those
that admit them for true? Nay, others there are that have advanced a
certain timorousness and fear, as also madness and fraud, and any other
of the vilest passions, into the nature and form of gods, and have
persuaded whole cities to offer sacrifices to the better sort of them;
on which account they have been absolutely forced to esteem some gods as
the givers of good things, and to call others of them averters of evil.
They also endeavor to move them, as they would the vilest of men, by
gifts and presents, as looking for nothing else than to receive some
great mischief from them, unless they pay them such wages.
36. Wherefore it deserves our inquiry what should be the occasion of
this unjust management, and of these scandals about the Deity. And truly
I suppose it to be derived from the imperfect knowledge the heathen
legislators had at first of the true nature of God; nor did they explain
to the people even so far as they did comprehend of it: nor did they
compose the other parts of their political settlements according to it,
but omitted it as a thing of very little consequence, and gave leave
both to the poets to introduce what gods they pleased, and those subject
to all sorts of passions, and to the orators to procure political
decrees from the people for the admission of such foreign gods as they
thought proper. The painters also, and statuaries of Greece, had herein
great power, as each of them could contrive a shape [proper for a god];
the one to be formed out of clay, and the other by making a bare picture
of such a one. But those workmen that were principally admired, had the
use of ivory and of gold as the constant materials for their new statues
[whereby it comes to pass that some temples are quite deserted, while
others are in great esteem, and adorned with all the rites of all kinds
of purification]. Besides this, the first gods, who have long flourished
in the honors done them, are now grown old [while those that flourished
after them are come in their room as a second rank, that I may speak the
most honorably of them I can]: nay, certain other gods there are who
are newly introduced, and newly worshipped [as we, by way of digression,
have said already, and yet have left their places of worship desolate];
and for their temples, some of them are already left desolate, and
others are built anew, according to the pleasure of men; whereas they
ought to have their opinion about God, and that worship which is due to
him, always and immutably the same.
37. But now, this Apollonius Molo was one of these foolish and proud
men. However, nothing that I have said was unknown to those that were
real philosophers among the Greeks, nor were they unacquainted with
those frigid pretensions of allegories [which had been alleged for such
things]; on which account they justly despised them, but have still
agreed with us as to the true and becoming notions of God; whence it was
that Plato would not have political settlements admit to of any one of
the other poets, and dismisses even Homer himself, with a garland on his
head, and with ointment poured upon him, and this because he should not
destroy the right notions of God with his fables. Nay, Plato principally
imitated our legislator in this point, that he enjoined his citizens
to have he main regard to this precept, "That every one of them should
learn their laws accurately." He also ordained, that they should not
admit of foreigners intermixing with their own people at random; and
provided that the commonwealth should keep itself pure, and consist of
such only as persevered in their own laws. Apollonius Molo did no way
consider this, when he made it one branch of his accusation against us,
that we do not admit of such as have different notions about God, nor
will we have fellowship with those that choose to observe a way of
living different from ourselves, yet is not this method peculiar to us,
but common to all other men; not among the ordinary Grecians only, but
among such of those Grecians as are of the greatest reputation among
them. Moreover, the Lacedemonians continued in their way of expelling
foreigners, and would not indeed give leave to their own people to
travel abroad, as suspecting that those two things would introduce a
dissolution of their own laws: and perhaps there may be some reason to
blame the rigid severity of the Lacedemonians, for they bestowed the
privilege of their city on no foreigners, nor indeed would give leave
to them to stay among them; whereas we, though we do not think fit to
imitate other institutions, yet do we willingly admit of those that
desire to partake of ours, which, I think, I may reckon to be a plain
indication of our humanity, and at the same time of our magnanimity
also.
38. But I shall say no more of the Lacedemonians. As for the Athenians,
who glory in having made their city to be common to all men, what their
behavior was Apollonius did not know, while they punished those that
did but speak one word contrary to the laws about the gods, without any
mercy; for on what other account was it that Socrates was put to death
by them? For certainly he neither betrayed their city to its enemies,
nor was he guilty of any sacrilege with regard to any of their temples;
but it was on this account, that he swore certain new oaths [26] and
that he affirmed either in earnest, or, as some say, only in jest, that
a certain demon used to make signs to him [what he should not do]. For
these reasons he was condemned to drink poison, and kill himself. His
accuser also complained that he corrupted the young men, by inducing
them to despise the political settlement and laws of their city: and
thus was Socrates, the citizen of Athens, punished. There was also
Anaxagoras, who, although he was of Clazomente, was within a few
suffrages of being condemned to die, because he said the sun, which the
Athenians thought to be a god, was a ball of fire. They also made this
public proclamation, "That they would give a talent to any one who would
kill Diagoras of Melos," because it was reported of him that he laughed
at their mysteries. Protagoras also, who was thought to have written
somewhat that was not owned for truth by the Athenians about the
gods, had been seized upon, and put to death, if he had not fled away
immediately. Nor need we at all wonder that they thus treated such
considerable men, when they did not spare even women also; for they very
lately slew a certain priestess, because she was accused by somebody
that she initiated people into the worship of strange gods, it having
been forbidden so to do by one of their laws; and a capital punishment
had been decreed to such as introduced a strange god; it being manifest,
that they who make use of such a law do not believe those of other
nations to be really gods, otherwise they had not envied themselves the
advantage of more gods than they already had. And this was the happy
administration of the affairs of the Athenians! Now as to the Scythians,
they take a pleasure in killing men, and differ but little from brute
beasts; yet do they think it reasonable to have their institutions
observed. They also slew Anacharsis, a person greatly admired for his
wisdom among the Greeks, when he returned to them, because he appeared
to come fraught with Grecian customs. One may also find many to have
been punished among the Persians, on the very same account. And to be
sure Apollonius was greatly pleased with the laws of the Persians, and
was an admirer of them, because the Greeks enjoyed the advantage of
their courage, and had the very same opinion about the gods which they
had. This last was exemplified in the temples which they burnt, and
their courage in coming, and almost entirely enslaving the Grecians.
However, Apollonius has imitated all the Persian institutions, and that
by his offering violence to other men's wives, and gelding his own sons.
Now, with us, it is a capital crime, if any one does thus abuse even a
brute beast; and as for us, neither hath the fear of our governors, nor
a desire of following what other nations have in so great esteem, been
able to withdraw us from our own laws; nor have we exerted our courage
in raising up wars to increase our wealth, but only for the observation
of our laws; and when we with patience bear other losses, yet when any
persons would compel us to break our laws, then it is that we choose to
go to war, though it be beyond our ability to pursue it, and bear the
greatest calamities to the last with much fortitude. And, indeed, what
reason can there be why we should desire to imitate the laws of other
nations, while we see they are not observed by their own legislators
[27] And why do not the Lacedemonians think of abolishing that form of
their government which suffers them not to associate with any others,
as well as their contempt of matrimony? And why do not the Eleans and
Thebans abolish that unnatural and impudent lust, which makes them lie
with males? For they will not show a sufficient sign of their repentance
of what they of old thought to be very excellent, and very advantageous
in their practices, unless they entirely avoid all such actions for the
time to come: nay, such things are inserted into the body of their laws,
and had once such a power among the Greeks, that they ascribed these
sodomitical practices to the gods themselves, as a part of their good
character; and indeed it was according to the same manner that the gods
married their own sisters. This the Greeks contrived as an apology for
their own absurd and unnatural pleasures.
39. I omit to speak concerning punishments, and how many ways of
escaping them the greatest part of the legislators have afforded
malefactors, by ordaining that, for adulteries, fines in money should be
allowed, and for corrupting [28] [virgins] they need only marry them
as also what excuses they may have in denying the facts, if any one
attempts to inquire into them; for amongst most other nations it is
a studied art how men may transgress their laws; but no such thing is
permitted amongst us; for though we be deprived of our wealth, of our
cities, or of the other advantages we have, our law continues immortal;
nor can any Jew go so far from his own country, nor be so aftrighted at
the severest lord, as not to be more aftrighted at the law than at him.
If, therefore, this be the disposition we are under, with regard to the
excellency of our laws, let our enemies make us this concession, that
our laws are most excellent; and if still they imagine, that though we
so firmly adhere to them, yet are they bad laws notwithstanding, what
penalties then do they deserve to undergo who do not observe their own
laws, which they esteem so far superior to them? Whereas, therefore,
length of time is esteemed to be the truest touchstone in all cases, I
would make that a testimonial of the excellency of our laws, and of that
belief thereby delivered to us concerning God. For as there hath been
a very long time for this comparison, if any one will but compare its
duration with the duration of the laws made by other legislators, he
will find our legislator to have been the ancientest of them all.
40. We have already demonstrated that our laws have been such as have
always inspired admiration and imitation into all other men; nay, the
earliest Grecian philosophers, though in appearance they observed the
laws of their own countries, yet did they, in their actions, and their
philosophic doctrines, follow our legislator, and instructed men to live
sparingly, and to have friendly communication one with another. Nay,
further, the multitude of mankind itself have had a great inclination
of a long time to follow our religious observances; for there is not
any city of the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any nation
whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not
come, and by which our fasts and lighting up lamps, and many of our
prohibitions as to our food, are not observed; they also endeavor
to imitate our mutual concord with one another, and the charitable
distribution of our goods, and our diligence in our trades, and our
fortitude in undergoing the distresses we are in, on account of our
laws; and, what is here matter of the greatest admiration, our law hath
no bait of pleasure to allure men to it, but it prevails by its own
force; and as God himself pervades all the world, so hath our law passed
through all the world also. So that if any one will but reflect on his
own country, and his own family, he will have reason to give credit to
what I say. It is therefore but just, either to condemn all mankind
of indulging a wicked disposition, when they have been so desirous of
imitating laws that are to them foreign and evil in themselves, rather
than following laws of their own that are of a better character, or else
our accusers must leave off their spite against us. Nor are we guilty of
any envious behavior towards them, when we honor our own legislator, and
believe what he, by his prophetic authority, hath taught us concerning
God. For though we should not be able ourselves to understand the
excellency of our own laws, yet would the great multitude of those that
desire to imitate them, justify us, in greatly valuing ourselves upon
them.
41. But as for the [distinct] political laws by which we are governed, I
have delivered them accurately in my books of Antiquities; and have
only mentioned them now, so far as was necessary to my present purpose,
without proposing to myself either to blame the laws of other nations,
or to make an encomium upon our own; but in order to convict those
that have written about us unjustly, and in an impudent affectation of
disguising the truth. And now I think I have sufficiently completed
what I proposed in writing these books. For whereas our accusers have
pretended that our nation are a people of very late original, I have
demonstrated that they are exceeding ancient; for I have produced as
witnesses thereto many ancient writers, who have made mention of us
in their books, while they had said that no such writer had so done.
Moreover, they had said that we were sprung from the Egyptians, while I
have proved that we came from another country into Egypt: while they had
told lies of us, as if we were expelled thence on account of diseases
on our bodies, it has appeared, on the contrary, that we returned to
our country by our own choice, and with sound and strong bodies. Those
accusers reproached our legislator as a vile fellow; whereas God in old
time bare witness to his virtuous conduct; and since that testimony of
God, time itself hath been discovered to have borne witness to the same
thing.
42. As to the laws themselves, more words are unnecessary, for they are
visible in their own nature, and appear to teach not impiety, but the
truest piety in the world. They do not make men hate one another, but
encourage people to communicate what they have to one another freely;
they are enemies to injustice, they take care of righteousness, they
banish idleness and expensive living, and instruct men to be content
with what they have, and to be laborious in their calling; they forbid
men to make war from a desire of getting more, but make men courageous
in defending the laws; they are inexorable in punishing malefactors;
they admit no sophistry of words, but are always established by actions
themselves, which actions we ever propose as surer demonstrations than
what is contained in writing only: on which account I am so bold as to
say that we are become the teachers of other men, in the greatest number
of things, and those of the most excellent nature only; for what is more
excellent than inviolable piety? what is more just than submission to
laws? and what is more advantageous than mutual love and concord? and
this so far that we are to be neither divided by calamities, nor to
become injurious and seditious in prosperity; but to contemn death
when we are in war, and in peace to apply ourselves to our mechanical
occupations, or to our tillage of the ground; while we in all things
and all ways are satisfied that God is the inspector and governor of
our actions. If these precepts had either been written at first, or more
exactly kept by any others before us, we should have owed them thanks as
disciples owe to their masters; but if it be visible that we have made
use of them more than any other men, and if we have demonstrated that
the original invention of them is our own, let the Apions, and the
Molons, with all the rest of those that delight in lies and reproaches,
stand confuted; but let this and the foregoing book be dedicated to
thee, Epaphroditus, who art so great a lover of truth, and by thy means
to those that have been in like manner desirous to be acquainted with
the affairs of our nation.