In a small country, almost unknown to others, lived a nation, the
founders of which having too long been slaves among the Egyptians, were
delivered, from their servitude by a priest of Heliopolis, who, by means
of his superior genius and knowledge, gained the ascendancy over them.1
This man, known by the name of Diodorus Siculus also relates the history
of Moses--Vide translation of Abbe Terrasson.
1 Maneton and Cheremon, Egyptian historians, respecting
whom testimonies have been transmitted to us by Joseph the
Jew, inform us that a multitude of lepers were drawn out of
Egypt by king Amenophis; and that these exiles elected for
their leader a priest of Heliopolis whose name was Moses,
and who formed for them a religion and a code of laws.
Joseph contre Appion. liv. i. chap. ix. II, 12.
Be this as it may, Moses, by the confession of the Bible itself, began
his career by assassinating an Egyptian, who was quarrelling with an
Hebrew; after which he fled into Arabia, and married the daughter of
an idolatrous priest, by whom he was often reproached for his cruelty.
Thence he returned into Egypt, and placed himself at the head of his
nation, which was dissatisfied with king Pharaoh. Moses reigned very
tyrannically; the examples of Korah, Dathan, and Abirain, prove to what
kind of people he had an aversion. He at last disappeared like Romulus,
no one being able to find his body, or the place of his sepulture.
Moses, being educated in the mysteries of a religion, which was fertile
in prodigies, and the mother of superstitions, placed himself at
the head of a band of fugitives, whom he persuaded that he was an
interpreter of the will of their God, whose immediate commands he
pretended to receive. He proved his mission, it is said, by works which
appeared supernatural to men ignorant of the operations of nature, and
the resources of art. The first command that he gave them on the part of
his God was to rob their masters, whom they were about to desert. When
he had thus enriched them with the spoils of Egypt, being sure of their
confidence, he conducted them into a desert, where, during forty years,
he accustomed them to the blindest obedience, he taught them the will of
heaven, the marvellous fables of their forefathers, and the ridiculous
ceremonies to which he pretended the Most High attached his favours. He
was particularly careful to inspire them with the most envenomed hatred
against the gods of other nations, and the most refined cruelty to those
who adored them. By means of carnage and severity, he rendered them a
nation of slaves, obsequious to his will, ready to second his passions,
and sacrifice themselves to gratify his ambitious views. In one word,
he made the Hebrews monsters of phrenzy and ferocity. After having thus
animated them with the spirit of destruction, he shewed them the lands
and possessions of their neighbours, as an inheritance assigned them by
God himself.
Proud of the protection of Jehovah, the Hebrews marched forth to
victory. Heaven authorised in them knavery and cruelty. Religion, united
to avidity, rendered them deaf to the cries of nature; and, under the
conduct of inhuman chiefs, they destroyed the Canaanitish nations with
a barbarity, at which every man must revolt, whose reason is not wholly
annihilated by superstition. Their fury destroyed every thing, even
infants at the breast, in those cities whither these monsters carried
their victorious arms. By the commands of their God, or his prophets,
good faith was violated, justice outraged, and cruelty exercised.
This nation of robbers, usurpers, and murderers, at length established
themselves in a country, not indeed very fertile, but which they found
delicious in comparison with the desert in which they had so long
wandered. Here, under the authority of the visible priests of their
hidden God, they founded a state, detestable to its neighbours, and at
all times the object of their contempt or their hatred. The priesthood,
under the title of a theocracy, for a long time governed this blind and
ferocious people. They were persuaded that in obeying their priests they
obeyed God himself.
Notwithstanding their superstition, the Hebrews at length, forced by
circumstances, or perhaps weary of the yoke of priesthood, determined
to have a king, according to the example of other nations. But in the
choice of their monarch they thought themselves obliged to have recourse
to a prophet. Thus began the monarchy of the Hebrews. Their princes,
however, were always crossed in their enterprises by inspired priests
and ambitious prophets, who continually laid obstacles in the way of
every sovereign whom they did not find sufficiently submissive to their
own wills. The history of the Jews at all times shews us nothing
but kings blindly obedient to the priesthood, or at war with it, and
perishing under its blows.
The ferocious and ridiculous superstitions of the Jews rendered them at
once the natural enemies of mankind, and the object of their contempt.
They were always treated with great severity by those who made inroads
upon their territory. Successively enslaved by the Egyptians, the
Babylonians, and the Grecians, they experienced from their masters
the bitterest treatment, which was indeed but too well deserved. Often
disobedient to their God, whose own cruelty, as well as the tyranny of
his priests frequently disgusted them, they were never faithful to their
princes. In vain were they crushed beneath sceptres of iron; it was
impossible to render them loyal subjects. The Jews were always the dupes
of their prophets, and in their greatest distresses their obstinate
fanaticism, ridiculous hopes, and indefatigable credulity, supported
them against the blows of fortune. At last, conquered with the rest of
the earth, Judah submitted to the Roman yoke.
Despised by their new masters, the Jews were treated hardly, and
with great haughtiness; for their laws, as well as their conduct, had
inspired the hearts of their conquerors with the liveliest detestation.
Soured by misfortune, they became more blind, fanatic, and seditious.
Exalted by the pretended promises of their God; full of confidence in
oracles, which have always announced to them a felicity which they
have never tasted; encouraged by enthusiasts, or by impostors, who
successively profit by their credulity; the Jews have, to this day,
expected the coming of a Messiah, a monarch, a deliverer, who shall free
them from the yokes beneath which they groan, and cause their nation to
reign over all other nations in the universe.