Polybius, Ptolemy, Pliny, and Strabo have mentioned a people inhabiting
Andalusia and the modern Algarve, differing from all their neighbours,
speaking a peculiar language, using refined grammatical rules, and
possessing inscribed monuments of antiquity, as also poems, and
even laws in verse. Strabo mentions that they say “their laws are of
6,000 years.” Palmerius proposes to read “six thousand verses,” by
♦introducing ἐπῶν instead of ἐτῶν. Men of great erudition and research
maintained that that people was a Jewish population, descendants of
the old colonists in the times of Solomon, Amaziah, and Nebuchadnezzar.
They also maintained that the books of Genesis, Exodus, and Deuteronomy
contained poems, to which may be added the Psalms and Proverbs.
The above-mentioned district also included Tarshish; and many other
arguments were advanced to prove that it was a Jewish colony. However,
the theory is rejected by others, and I must say that I think on
too slender grounds. It is argued that “these people are denominated
Turdetani and Turduli, by authors whose information was extensive upon
national peculiarities, and who were at least so well acquainted with
the Jews as to have been able to pronounce at once, if warranted by
facts, that these Andalusians were of that nation.” Now, it might as
well be argued that the people whom Haman sought to destroy were no Jews,
because he did not pronounce them so at once. He only “said unto King
Ahasuerus, there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed
among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are
diverse from all people, neither keep they the king’s laws, therefore
it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them.”――Esther iii. 8. The
acquaintance of the heathen authors with the history of the Jews, is
nothing more than an assumption. Trogus Pompeius, a writer in the time
of Augustus, professes to have been best acquainted with the Jews,
indeed, at that time he ought to have been so. He wrote the history of
all nations in forty-five volumes, of which we have only an abridgment
by Justin. Judge from the following chapter of the acquaintance which
the heathen had with Jewish history:――
♦ ‘iutroducing’ replaced with ‘introducing’
“Namque Judæis origo Damascena, Syriæ nobilissima civitas; unde et
Assyriis regibus genus ex regina Semirami fuit. Nomen urbi a Damasco
rege inditum; in cujus honorem Syrii sepulcrum Arathis uxoris ejus
pro templo coluere, deamque exinde sanctissimæ religionis habent.
Post Damascum Azelus, mox Adores et Abraham et Israhel reges fuere.
Sed Israhelem felix decem filiorum proventus majoribus suis clariorem
fecit. Itaque populum in decem regna divisum filiis tradidit, omnesque
ex nomine Judæ, qui post divisionem decesserat, _Judæos_ appellavit;
colique ejus memoriam ab omnibus jussit, cujus portio omnibus accesserat.
Minimus ætate inter fratres Joseph fuit; cujus excellens ingenium veriti
fratres, clam inceptum peregrinis mercatoribus vendiderunt. A quibus
deportatus in Ægyptum, cum magicas ibi artes solerti ingenio percepisset,
brevi ipsi regi percarus fuit. Nam et prodigiorum sagacissimus erat,
et somniorum primus intelligentiam condidit; nihilque divini juris
humanique ei incognitum videbatur: adeo, ut etiam sterilitatem agrorum
ante multos annos providerit; perissetque omnis Ægyptus fame, nisi
monitu ejus rex edicto servari per multos annos fruges jussisset;
tantaque experimenta ejus fuerunt, ut non ab homine, sed a Deo responsa
dari viderentur. Filius ejus Moses fuit, quem præter paternæ scientiæ
hereditatem, etiam formæ pulcritudo commendabat. Sed Ægypti, quum
scabiem et vitiliginem paterentur, responso moniti, eum cum ægris, ne
pestis ad plures serperet, terminis Ægypti pellunt. Dux igitur exsulum
factus, sacra Ægyptiorum furto abstulit: quæ repetentes armis Ægyptii,
domum redire tempestatibus compulsi sunt. Itaque Moses Damascena antiqua
patria repetita montem Synæ occupat; quo septem dierum jejunio per
deserta Arabiæ cum populo suo fatigatus, cum tandem venisset, septimum
diem more gentis _Sabbatum_ appellatum in omne ævum jejunio sacravit,
quoniam illa dies famem illis erroremque finierat. Et quoniam metu
contagionis pulsos se ab Ægypto meminerant, ne eadem causa invisi apud
incolas forent, caverunt, ne cum peregrinis communicarent: quod ex causa
factum paulatim in disciplinam religionemque convertit. Post Mosen etiam
filius ejus Aruas, sacerdos sacris Ægyptiis, mox rex creatur; semperque
exinde hic mos apud Judæos fuit, ut eosdem, reges et sacerdotes haberent;
quorum justitia religione permixta, incredibile quantum coaluere.”
――_Justini_, lib. xxxvi., cap. ii.