and eloquence of compofition; but then we fhall give them no fuch preference as to the verity of ancient history, and least of all as to that part which concerns the affairs of our own feveral countries.

6. As to the care of writing down the records from the earlieft antiquity among the Egyptians and Babylonians; that the priests were intrufted therewith, and employed a philofophical concern about it; that they were the Chaldean priests that did fo among the Babylonians, and that the Phenicians, who were mingled among the Greeks, did especially make ufe of their letters, both for the common affairs of life, and for the delivering down the hiftory of common tranfactions, I think I may omit any proof, because all men allow it fo to be. But now as to our forefathers, that they took no lefs care about writing fuch records (for I will not fay they took greater care than the others I fpoke of) and that they committed that matter to their high-priefts and to their prophets, and that the fe records have been written all along down to our own times with the utmost accuracy; nay, it it be not too bold for me to fay it, our hiftory will be fo written hereafter, I shall endeavour briefly to inform you.

7. For our forefathers did not only appoint the best of these priests, and thofe that attended upon the divine worship, for that defign from the beginning, but made provifion that the flock of the priests fhould continue unmixed and pure; for he who is partaker of the priesthood muft propagate of a wife of the fame nation, without having any regard to money, or any other dignities; but he is to make a fcrutiny, and take his wife's genealogy from the ancient tables,* and procure many witnefles to it. And this is our practice not only in Judea, but wherefoever any body of men of our nation do live; and even there an exact catalogue of our prieft's marriages are kept; I mean at Egypt and Babylon, or in any other place of the reft of the habitable earth, whitherfoever our priests are fcattered; for they fend to Jerufalem the ancient names of their parents in writing, as well as thofe of their remoter anceftors, and fignify who are the witneffes alto. But if any war falls out, fuch as have fallen out a great many of them already, when Antiochus Epiphanes made an invafion upon our country, as alfo when Pompey the Great and Quintilius Varus did fo alfo, and principally in the wars that have happened in our own times; thofe priefts that furvive them compofe new tables of genealogy out of the old records, and examine the circumftances of the women that remain; for ftill they do not admit of those that have been captives, as fufpetting that they had converfation with fome foreigners. But what is the

Of this accuracy of the Jews before, and in our Saviour's time, in carefully preferving their genealogies all along, particularly those of the priests, fee Jofephus's Life, § 1. Vol. II. Tis accuracy feems to have ended at the deftruction of Jerufalem by Titus, or however at that by Adrian.

frongest argument of our exact management in this matter is what I am now going to fay, That we have the names of our high priests from father to fon fet down in our records, for the interval of two thousand years; and if any of these have been tranfgreffors of thefe rules, they are prohibited to prefent themfelves at the altar, or to be partakers of any other of our purifications: And this is justly or rather neceffarily done, because every one is not permitted of his own accord to be a writer, nor is there any disagreement in what is written; they being only prophets that have written the original and earliest ac counts of things, as they learned them of God himself by infpiration; and others have written what hath happened in their own times, and that in a very diftin&t manner allo.

8. For we have not an innumerable multitude of books a mong us, difagreeing from, and contradicting one another, [as the Greeks have], but only twenty-two books, which contain the records of all the paft time; which are juftly believed to be divine. And of them five belong to Mofes, which contain his laws, and the traditions of the origin of mankind till his death. This interval of time from the death of Mofes till the reign of Artaxerxes king of Perfia, who reigned after Xerxes, the prophets, who were after Mofes, wrote down what was done in their times in thirteen books, The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and precepts for the con duct of human life. It is true, our history hath been written fince Artaxerxes very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact fucceffion of prophets fince that time: And how firmly we have given credit to these books of our own nation, is evident by what we do; for during fo many ages as have already paffed, no one hath been so bold as either to add any thing to them, to take any thing from them, or to make any change in them; but it is become natural to all Jews, immediately and from their very birth, to efteem these books to contain divine doctrines, and to perfift in them, and if occafion be, willingly to die for them. For it is no new thing for our captives, many of them in number, and frequently in time, to be seen to endure racks and deaths of all kinds upon the theatres, that they may not be obliged to fay one word against our laws and the records that contain them; whereas there are none at all among the Greeks who would undergo the least harm on that account, no nor in cafe all the writings that are among them were to be destroyed; for they take them to be fuch difcourfes as are framed agreeably to the inclinations of those that write them; and they have

Which were thefe twenty-two facred books of the Old Testament, fee the Supplement to Effay on the Old Teftament, p 25-29 viz. thofe we call canonical, all excepting the Canticles; but ftil! with this farther exception, that the first book of apocryphal Eldras be taken into that number, instead of our canonical Ezra, which feems to be no more than a lafer epitome of the other: Which two books of Cansicles and Ezra, it no way appears that our Jofephus ever law.

justly the fame opinion of the ancient writers, fince they fee fome of the present generation bold enough to write about fuch affairs, wherein they were not prefent, nor had concern enough to inform themselves about them from those that knew them; examples of which may be had in this late war of ours, where fome perfons have written hiftories, and publifhed them, without having been in the places concerned, or having been near them when the actions were done; but these men put a few things together by hearlay, and infolently abuse the world, and call thefe writings by the name of Hiftories.

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9. As for myfelf. I have compofed a true hiftory of that whole war, and of all the particulars that occurred therein, having been concerned in all its transactions, for 1 acted as general of those among us that are named Galileans, as long as it was poffible for us to make any oppofition. I was then feized on by the Romans, and became a captive: Vefpafian alfo and Titus had me kept under a guard, and forced me to attend them continually. At the firft I was put into bonds, but was fet at liberty afterward, and fent to accompany Titus when he came from Alexandria to the fiege of Jerufalem; during which time there was nothing done which efcaped my knowledge; for what happened in the Roman camp I faw, and wrote down carefully; and what informations the defert ers brought [out of the city], I was the only man that underftood them. Afterward I got leifure at Rome; and when all my materials were prepared for that work, I made ufe of fome perfons to affift me in learning the Greek tongue, and by thefe means I compofed the hiftory of those transactions. And I was fo well affured of the truth of what I related, that I firft of all appealed to thofe that had the fupreme command in that war, Vefpafian and Titus, as witneffes for me; for to them I prefented those books first of all, and after them to many of the Romans who had been in the war. I also fold them to many of our own men who understood the Greek philofophy; among whom were Julius Archelaus, Herod [king of Chalcis], a person of great gravity, and king Agrippa himselt, a perfon that deferved the greateft admiration. Now all thefe men bore their teflimony to me, that I had the ftri&teft regard to truth: Who yet would not have diffembled the matter, nor been filent, if I, out of ignorance. or out of favour to any fide, either had given falfe colours to actions, or omitted any of them.

10. There have been indeed fome bad men, who have attempted to calumniate my hiftory, and took it to be a kind of fcholaftic performance for the exercife of young men. A ftrange fort of acculation and calumny this! fince every one that undertakes to deliver the hiftory of actions truly ought to know them accurately himself in the first place, as either having been concerned in them himself, or been informed of them by fuch as knew them. Now, both these methods of knowledge I may very properly pretend to in the compofition of

both my works; for, as I faid, I have tranflated the Antiqui ties out of our facred books; which I eafily could do, fince I was a priest by my birth, and have ftudied that philofophy which is contained in thofe writings: And for the Hiftory of the War, I wrote it as having been an actor myself in many of its tranfactions, an eye witnefs in the greateft part of the reft, and was not unacquainted with any thing whatfoever that was either faid or done in it. How impudent then must those deserve to be elteemed, that undertake to contradict me about the true ftate of thofe affairs? who, although they pretend to have made ufe of both the emperor's own memoirs, yet could not they be acquainted with our affairs, who fought against them. 11. This digreffion I have been obliged to make out of ne ceffity, as being defirous to expofe the vanity of those that profefs to write hiftories; and I fuppofe I have fufficiently declared that this cuftom of tranfmitting down the hiftories of ancient times hath been better preferved by those nations which are called Barbarians, than by the Greeks themfelves. I am now willing, in the next place, to say a few things to thofe that endeavour to prove that our conftitution is but of late time, for this reason, as they pretend, that the Greek writers have faid nothing about us; after which I fhall produce teftimonies for our antiquity out of the writings of foreigners: I fhall alfo demonftrate that fuch as caft reproaches upon our nation do it very unjuftly.

12. As for ourselves, therefore, we neither inhabit a maritime country, nor do we delight in merchandise, nor in fuch a mixture with other men as arifes from it; but the cities we dwell in are remote from the fea, and having a fruitful country for our habitation, we take pains in cultivating that only. Our principal care of all is this, to educate our children well; and we think it to be the most neceffary bufinefs of our whole life, to obferve the laws that have been given us, and to keep thofe rules of piety that have been delivered down to us. Since, therefore, befides what we have already taken notice of, we have had a peculiar way of living of our own, there was no occafion offered us in ancient ages for intermixing among the Greeks, as they had for mixing among the Egyptians, by their intercourfe of exporting and importing their feveral goods; as they alfo mixed with the Phenicians, who lived by the fea-fide, by means of their love of lucre in trade and merchandife. Nor did our forefathers betake themfelves, as did fome others, to robbery; nor did they, in order to gain more wealth, fall into foreign wars, although our country contain ed many ten thoufands of men of courage fufficient for that purpole. For this reafon it was that the Phenicians themselves came foon by trading and navigation to be known to the Grecians, and by their means the Egyptians became known to the Grecians alfo, as did all thofe people whence the Phenicians in long voyages over the feas carried wares to the Gre

cians. The Medes alfo and the Perfians, when sos, that is, lords of Afia, became well known to them; and this wo the facially true of the Perfians, who led their armies as far as acother continent, [Europe]. The Thracians were also knowled to them by the nearness of their countries; and the Scythians by the means of thofe that failed to Pontus; for it was fo in general that all maritime nations, and those that inhabited near the eastern or western feas, became most known to thole that were defirous to be writers; but fuch as had their habitations farther from the fea were for the most part unknown to them: Which things appear to have happened as to Europe also, where the city of Rome, that hath this long time been poffeffed of fo much power, and hath performed fuch great actions in war, is yet never mentioned by Herodotus, nor by Thucydides, nor by any one of their contemporaries; and it was very late, and with great difficulty, that the Romans became known to the Greeks. Nay, those that were reckoned the moft exact hiftorians, and Ephorus for one, were so very ignorant of the Gauls and the Spaniards, that he supposed the Spaniards, who inhabit fo great a part of the western regions of the earth, to be no more than one city. Those hiftorians also have ventured to defcribe fuch customs as were made use of by them, which they never had either done or faid; and the reason why thele writers did not know the truth of their affairs, was this, that they had not any commerce together; but the reason why they wrote fuch falfities was this, that they had a mind to appear to know things which others had not known. How can it then be any wonder, it our nation was no more known to many of the Greeks, nor had given them any occafion to mention them in their writings, while they were fo remote from the sea, and had a conduct of life fo peculiar to themselves.

13. Let us now put the cafe, therefore, that we made use of this argument concerning the Grecians, in order to prove that their nation was not ancient, because nothing is faid of them in our records; would not they laugh at us all, and probably give the fame reasons for our filence that I have now alleged, and would produce their neighbour nations as witneffes to their own antiquity? Now the very fame thing will I endeavour to do; for I will bring the Egyptians and the Phenicians as my principal witneffes, becaufe nobody can complain of their teftimony as falfe, on account that they are known to have borne the greateft ill-will towards us: I mean this as to the Egyptians in general all of them, while of the Phenicians it is known the Tyrians have been moft of all in the fame ill difpofition towards us: Yet do I confefs that I cannot fay the fame of the Chaldeans, fince our first leaders and ancestors were derived from them, and they do make mention of us Jews in their records, on account of the kindred there is between us. Now, when I fhall have made my affertions good, so far VOL. III.

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