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that journey. For, in cafe the people were by birth Egyptians, they would not on the fudden have foeafily changed the cuftoms of their country: And in cafe they had been foreigners, they had for certain fome laws or other which had been kept by them from Jong custom. It is true, that with regard to thofe who had ejected them, they might have fworn never to bear good will to them, and might have had a plaufible reafon for lo doing. But if thefe men refolved to wage an implacable war against all men, in cafe they had acted as wickedly as he relates of them, and this while they wanted the affiftance of all men, this demonAtrates a kind of mad condu& indeed; but not of the men themselves, but very greatly fo of him that tells fuch lies about them. He hath alfo impudence enough to fay that a name implying robbers of the temples was given to their city, and that this name was afterward changed. The reason of which is plain, that the former name brought reproach and hatred upon them in the times of their pofterity, while, it leems, thofe that built the city thought they did honour to the city by giving it fuch a name. So we fee that this fine fellow had fuch an unbounded inclination to reproach us, that he did not understand that robbery of temples is not expreffed by the fame word and name among the Jews, as it is among the Greeks. But why should a man fay any more to a perfon who tells fuch impudent lies? However, fince this book is arifen to a competent length, I will make another beginning, and endeavour to add what ftill remains to perfect my defign in the following book.

That this is the meaning of Hierofyla in Greek, not in Hebrew.

BOOK II.

$1. IN N'the former book, moft honoured Epaphroditus, I have demonftrated our antiquity, and confirmed the truth of what I have faid from the writings of the Phenicians, and Chaldeans, and Egyptians. I have moreover produced many of the Grecian writers as witneffes thereto. I have also made a refutation of Manetho and Cheremon, and of certain others of our enemies. I shall now therefore begin a confutation of the remaining authors who have written any thing againft us; although I confefs I have had a doubt upon me about Apion † the grammarian, whether I ought to take the trouble of confuting him or not: For fome of his writings contain much the fame accufations which the others have laid against us, fome things that he hath added are very frigid and contemptible, and for the greateft part of what he fays, it is very fcurrilous, and, to speak no more than the plain truth, it fhews him to be a very unlearned perfon, 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 fo very foolish, that they are rather caught by fuch 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 neceffary not to let this man go off without examination, who had written fuch an accufation against us, as if he would bring us to make an answer in open court. For I also have obferved that many men are very much delighted, when they fee a man who firft began to reproach another, to be himself expoled to contempt on account of the vices he hath himself been guilty of. However, it is not a very eafy thing to go over this man's difcourfe, nor to know plainly what he means; yet does he feem, amidst a great confufion and diforder in his falfehoods, to produce, in the first place, fuch things as refemble what we have examined already, and relate to the departure of our forefathers out of Egypt: And, in the fecond place he accufes thofe Jews that: are inhabitants of Alexandria, as, in the third place, he mixes with those things fuch accufations as concern the facred purifications, with the other legal rites used in the temple..

2. Now although I cannot but think that I have already demonftrated, and that abundantly more than was neceffary, thats our fathers were not originally Egyptians, nor were thence ex pelled, either on account of bodily difeafes, or on any other ca

The former part of this fecond book is written against the calumnies of Apion, and then, more briefly, against the like calumnies of Apollonius Molo. But af ter that Jofephus leaves off any more particular reply to thofe adverfaries of the Jews, and gives a large and exi ellent defcription and vindication of that cocracy which was lealed for the Jewish nation by Mofes, their great legiflator.

+ Called by Tiberius, Cymbalam Maŋdi, The drum of the world,

lamities of that fort; yet will I briefly take notice of what Apion adds upon that fubject: for in his third book, which relates to the affairs of Egypt, he fpeaks thus: "I have heard of the ancient men of Egypt that Mofes was of Heliopolis, and that he thought himfelt obliged to follow the cuftoms of his forefathers, and offered his prayers in the open air, towarda the city walls; but that he reduced them all to be directed towards fun-rifing, which was agreeable to the fituation of Heliopolis: That he alfo fet up pillars inftead of gnomons*, under which was reprefented a cavity like that of a boat, and the fhadow that tell from their tops fell down upon that cavity, that it might go round about the like courle as the fun itfelf goes round in the other." This is that wonderful relation which we have given us by this grammarian. But that it is a falfe one is to plain, that it ftands in need of few words to prove it, but is manifeft from the works of Mofes; for when he erected the first tabernacle to God, he did himself neither give order for any fuch a kind of interpretation to be made at it, nor ordain that thofe that came after him fhould make fuch an one. Moreover, when in a future age Solomon built his tem. ple in Jerufalem, he avoided all fuch needlefs decorations as Apion hath here devised. He fays farther, "How he had heard of the ancient men, that Mofes was of Heliopolis." To be fure that was becaufe being a younger man himself, he believ ed those that by their elder age were acquainted and converfed 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 Pythagorus, who lived comparatively but a little while ago; yet does he thus eafily determine the age of Mofes, who preceded them fuch a va number of years as depending on his ancient men's relation, which fhews 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, fee how well this moft accurate grammarian of ours agrees with thofe that have written before him. Manetho fays, that the Jews departed out of Egypt, in the reign of Tethmolis three hundred ninety-three years before Danaus fled to Argos; Lyfimachus fays it was under king Bocchoris, that is, one thoufand feven hundred years ago; Molo and fome others determine 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 feventh olympiad, and the first year of that olympiad; the very fame year in which he fays that Carthage was built by the Phenicians. The reafon why he added this building of Carthage was, to be fure, in order, as he thought, to strengthen his affertion by fo evident a character of chronology. But

This feems to have been the first dial that had been made in Egypt, and was a little before the time that Ahaz made his [firft] dial in Judea, and about Anno 755 in the first year of the leventh olympiad, as we fhall fee preteatly. See a Kings . 1. Ifa. xxxviii. 8.

he was not aware that this character confutes his affertion; for it we may give credit to the Phenician records as to the time of the first coming of their colony to Carthage, they relate that Hirom their king was above an hundred and fifty years earlier than the building of Carthage; concerning whom I have formerly produced teftimonials out of thofe Phenician records, as also that this Hirom was a friend of Solomon when he was building the temple of Jerufalem, and gave him great affiftance in his building that temple; while ftill Solomon himself built that temple fix hundred and twelve years alter 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 fame number with Ly machus, and fays they were an hundred and ten thousand. He then affigns a certain wonderful and plaufible occafion for the name of Sabbath; " for he fays, that when the Jews had travelled a fix days journey, they had buboes in their groins; and that on this account it was that they refted on the feventh day, as having got fafely to that country which is now called Judea; that then they preferved the language of the Egyptians, and called that day the Sabbath, for that malady of buboes on their groin was named fabbatofis by the Egyptians." And would not a man now laugh at this fellow's trifling, or rather hate his impudence in writing thus? We muft, it feems, take it for granted, that all these hundred and ten thousand men must have thele buboes. But, for certain, if those men had been blind and lame, and had all forts of diftempers upon them, as Apion fays they had, they could not have gone one fingle day's jour ney But if they had been all able to travel over a large defert, and befides that to fight and conquer thofe that oppofed them, they had not all of them had buboes on their groins atter the fixth day was over; for no fuch diffemper comes naturally and of neceffity upon those that travel; but ftill, when there are many ten thousands in a camp together, they conftantly march a fettled pace [in a day]. Nor is it at all probable that fuch a thing fhould happen by chance; this would be prodigiously abfurd to be fuppofed. However, our admirable author Apion had before told us that they came to Judea in fix days time;" and again, "That Mofes 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 poffible for them to tarry forty days in a defert place where there was no water, and at the fame time to pafs all over the country between that and Judea in the fix days? And as for this grammatical tranflation of the word Sabbath, it either contains an inftance of his great impudence or grofs ignorance; for the words Sabbo and Sabbath are widely different from one another; for the word Sabbath in the Jewish language denotes reft from all forts of work; but the VOL. III.

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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 Jew's departure out of Egypt, and is no better than a contrivance of his own. But why fhould we wonder at the lies he tells about our forefathers, when he atfirms them to be of Egyptian original, when he lies also about himfelt? for although he was born at Oasis in Egypt, he pretends to be. as a man may fay, the top man of all the Egyp tians; yet does he forfwear his real country and progenitors, and by falfely pretending to be born at Alexandria, cannot deny the pravity of his family; for you fee how jufly he calls thofe Egyptians whom he hates, and endeavours 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 himfelf; as we know that those who brag of their own countries, value themselves upon the denomination they acquire thereby, and reprove fuch as unjaftly 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 elfe as they would draw us in to be partakers of their own infamy. But this fine fellow Apion feems 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 alfo is apprized of the ill will the Alexandri ans bear to thole Jews who are their fellow-citizens; and lo proposes to himfelf to reproach them, although he must thereby include all the other Egyptians alfo; while in both cafes he is no better than an impudent liar.

4. But let us now lee what thofe heavy and wicked crimes are, which Apion charges upon the Alexandrian Jews. "They came (fays he) out of Syria, and inhabited near the tempeftu. ous fea, and were in the neighbourhood of the dashing of the waves." Now, if the place of habitation includes any thing that is reproachful, 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 fea, 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 valour: 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 can I devife what Apion would have faid, 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 The burial place for dead bodies, as I fuppole.

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