: sident of Syria. Now it is plain, that Hecateus wrote an entire book concerning us, while Hieronymus never mentions us in his history, although he was bred up very near to the places where we live thus different from one another are the inclinations of men; while the one thought we deserved to be carefully remembered, as some ill disposed passion blinded the other's mind so entirely, that he could not discern the truth. And now certainly the foregoing records of the Egyptians, and Chaldeans, and Phoenicians, together with so many of the Greek writers, will be sufficient for the demonstration of our antiquity. Moreover, besides those forementioned, Theophilus, and Theodotus, and Mnaseas, and Aristophanes, and Hermogenes, Euhemerus also, and Conon, and Zopyrion, and, perhaps, many others (for I have not lighted upon all the Greek books), have made distinct mention of us. It is true, many of the men before mentioned have made great mistakes about the true accounts of our nation in the earliest times, because they had not perused our sacred books; yet have they all of them afforded their testimony to our antiquity, concerning which I am now treating. However, Demetrius Phalereus and the elder Philo, with Eupolemus, have not greatly missed the truth about our affairs; whose lesser mistakes ought, therefore, to be forgiven them; for it was not in their power to understand our writings with the utmost accuracy. 24. One particular there is still remaining behind of what I at first proposed to speak to, and that is to demonstrate, that those calumnies and reproaches which some have thrown upon our nation are lies, and to make use of those writers' own testimonies against themselves; and that, in general, this self-contradiction hath happened to many other authors, by reason of their ill will to some people, I conclude is not unknown to such as have read histories with sufficient care; for some of them have endeavoured to disgrace the nobility of certain nations, and of some of the most glorious cities, and have cast reproaches upon certain forms of government. Thus hath Theopompus abused the city of Athens, Polycrates that of Lacedæmon, as hath he that hath wrote the Tripoliticus (for he is not Theopompus as is supposed by some) done by the city of Thebes. Timeus also hath greatly abused the foregoing people and others also: and this ill treatment they use chiefly when they have a contest with men of the greatest reputation: some out of envy and malice, and others, as supposing that, by this foolish talking of theirs, they may be thought worthy of being remembered themselves; and, indeed, they do by no means fail - of their hopes with regard to the foolish part of mankind, but men of sober judgment still condemn them of great malignity. 25. Now the Egyptians were the first that cast reproaches upon us; in order to please which nation some others under took to pervert the truth, while they would neither own that our forefathers came into Egypt from another country, as the fact was, nor give a true account of our departure thence. And, indeed, the Egyptians took many occasions to hate us and envy us in the first place, because our ancestors* had had the dominion over their country; and when they were delivered from them, and gone to their own country again, they lived there in prosperity in the next place, the difference of our religion from theirs hath occasioned great enmity between us, while our way of divine worship did as much exceed that which their laws appointed, as does the nature of God exceed that of brute beasts; for so far they all agree through the whole country, to esteem such animals as gods, although they differ one from another in the peculiar worship they severally pay to them. And certainly men they are entirely of vain and foolish minds, who have thus accustomed themselves from the beginning to have such bad notions concerning their gods, and could not think of imitating that decent form of divine worship which we made use of, though, when they saw our institutions approved of by many others, they could not but envy us on that account; for some of them have proceeded to that degree of folly and meanness in their conduct, as not to scruple to contradict their own ancient records, nay to contradict themselves also in their writings, and yet were so blinded by their passions as not to discern it. 26. And now I will turn my discourse to one of their principal writers, whom I have a little before made use of as a witness to our antiquity; I mean Manethot. He promised to interpret the Egyptian history out of their sacred writings, and premised this, that "our people had come into Egypt many ten thousands in number, and subdued its inhabitants;" and when he had farther confessed, that "we went out of that country afterward, and settled in that country which is now called Judea, and there built Jerusalem and its temple." Now thus far he followed his ancient records; but after this he permits himself, in order to appear to have written what rumours and reports * The Phoenician shepherds, whom Josephus mistook for the Israelites. See the note on sect. 16. + In reading this, and the remaining sections of this book, and some parts of the next, one may easily perceive that our usually cool and candid author Josephus was too highly offended with the impudent calumnies of Manetho, and the other bitter enemies of the Jews, with whom he had now to deal, and was thereby betrayed into a greater heat and passion than ordinary, and that by consequence he does not here reason with his usual fairness and impartiality: he seems to depart sometimes from the brevity and sincerity of a faithful historian, which is his grand character, and indulges the prolixity and colours of a pleader and a disputant: accordingly, I confess I always read these sections with less pleasure than I do the rest of his writings, though I fully believe the reproaches cast on the Jews, which he here endeavours to confute and expose, were wholly groundless and unreasonable. passed abroad about the Jews, and introduces incredible narrations, as if he would have the Egyptian multitude that had the leprosy and other distempers to have been mixed with us, as he says they were; and that they were condemned to fly out of Egypt together; for he mentions Amenophis, a fictitious king's name, though on that account he durst not set down the number of years of his reign, which yet he had accurately done as to the other kings he mentions: he then ascribes certain fabulous stories to this king, as having in a manner forgotten how he had already related that the departure of the shepherds for Jerusalem had been five hundred and eighteen years before; for Tethmosis was king when they went away. Now, from his days the reigns of the intermediate kings, according to Manetho, amounted to three hundred and ninety-three years, as he says himself, till the two brothers Sethos and Hermeus; the one of which, Sethos, was called by that other name of Egyptus, and the other, Hermeus, by that of Danaus. He also says, that Sethos cast the other out of Egypt, and reigned fifty-nine years, as did his eldest son Rhampses reign after him sixty-six years. When Manetho, therefore, had acknowledged that our forefathers were gone out of Egypt so many years ago, he introduces his fictitious king Amenophis, and says thus: This king was desirous to become a spectator of the gods, as had Orus, one of his predecessors in that kingdom, desired the same before him; he also communicated that his desire to his namesake Amenophis, who was the son of Papis, and one that seemed to partake of a divine nature, both as to wisdom and the knowledge of futurities." Manetho adds, "how this namesake of his told him, that he might see the gods if he would clear the whole country of the lepers and of the other impure people: that the king was pleased with this injunction, and got together all that had any defects in their bodies out of Egypt, and that their number was eighty thousand; whom he sent to those quarries which are on the east side of the Nile, that they might work in them, and might be separated from the rest of the Egyptians." He says farther, that "there were some of the learned priests that were polluted with the leprosy; but that still this Amenophis, the wise man and the prophet, was afraid that the gods would be angry at him and at the king, if there should appear to have been violence offered them; who also added this farther [out of his sagacity about futurities], that certain people would come to the assistance of these polluted wretches, and would conquer Egypt, and keep it in their possession thirteen years: that, however, he durst not tell the king of these things; but that he left a writing behind him about all those matters, and then slew himself, which made the king disconsolate." After which he writes thus verbatim:-" After those that were sent to work in the quarries had continued in that miserable state for a long while, the king was desired that he would set apart the city of Avaris, which was then left desolate of the shepherds, for their habitation and protection; which desire he granted them. Now this city, according to the ancient theology, was Typho's city. But when these men were gotten into it, and found the place fit for a revolt, they appointed themselves a ruler out of the priests of Heliopolis, whose name was Osarsiph, and they took their oaths that they would be obedient to him in all things. He then, in the first place, made this law for them, that they should neither worship the Egyptian gods, nor should abstain from any one of those sacred animals which they have in the highest esteem, but kill and destroy them all: that they should join themselves to nobody but to those that were of this confederacy. When he had made such laws as these, and many more such as were mainly opposite to the customs of the Egyptians*, he gave order that they should use the multitude of the hands they had in building walls about their city, and make themselves ready for a war with king Amenophis, while he did himself take into his friendship the other priests, and those that were polluted with them, and send ambassadors to those shepherds who had been driven out of the land by Tethmosis to the city called Jerusalem; whereby he informed them of his own affairs, and of the state of those others that had been treated after such an ignominious manner, and desired that they would come with one consent to his assistance in this war against Egypt. He also promised that he would, in the first place, bring them back to their ancient city and country Avaris, and provide a plentiful maintenance for their multitude; that he would protect them and fight for them as occasion should require, and would easily reduce the country under their dominion. These shepherds were all very glad of this message, and came away with alacrity altogether, being in number two hundred thousand men; and in a little time they came to Avaris. And now Amenophis, the king of Egypt, upon his being informed of their invasion, was in great confusion, as calling to mind what Amenophis, the son of Papis, had foretold him; and, in the first place, he assembled the multitude of the Egyptians, and took counsel with their leaders, and sent for their sacred animals to him, especially for those that were principally worshiped in their temples, and gave a particular charge to the priests distinctly, that they should hide the images of their gods with the utmost care. He also sent his son Sethos, who was also named Ramesses, from his father Rhampses, being but five years old, to a friend of his. *This is a very valuable testimony of Manetho, that the laws of Osarsiph or Moses were not made in compliance with but in opposition to the customs of the Egyptians. See the note on Antiq. B. iii. ch. viii. sect. 9. He then passed on with the rest of the Egyptians, being three hundred thousand of the most warlike of them, against the enemy, who met them. Yet did he not join battle with them; but thinking that would be to fight against the gods, he returned back, and came to Memphis, where he took Apis and the other sacred animals which he had sent for to him, and presently marched into Ethiopia, together with his whole army and multitude of Egyptians; for the king of Ethiopia was under an obligation to him; on which account he received him, and took care of all the multitude that was with him, while the country supplied all that was necessary for the food of the men. He also allotted cities and villages for this exile, that was to be from its beginning during those fatally determined thirteen years. Moreover, he pitched a camp for his Ethiopian army, as a guard to King Amenophis, upon the borders of Egypt. And this was the state of things in Ethiopia. But for the people of Jerusalem, when they came down together with the polluted Egyptians, they treated the men in such a barbarous manner, that those who saw how they subdued the forementioned country, and the horrid wickedness they were guilty of, thought it a most dreadful thing; for they did not only set the cities and villages on fire, but were not satisfied till they had been guilty of sacrilege, and destroyed the images of the gods, and used them in roasting of those sacred animals that used to be worshiped, and forced the priests and prophets to be the executioners and murderers of those animals, and then ejected them naked out of the country. It was also reported, that the priest who ordained their polity and their laws was by birth of Heliopolis, and his name Osarsiph, from Osyris, who was the god of Heliopolis; but that, when he was gone over to these people, his name was changed, and he was called Moses." 27. This is what the Egyptians relate about the Jews, with much more, which I omit for the sake of brevity.—But still Manetho goes on, that "after this Amenophis returned back from Ethiopia with a great army, as did his son Rhampses with another army also; and that both of them joined battle with the shepherds and the polluted people, and beat them, and slew a great many of them, and pursued them to the bounds of Syria." These and the like accounts are written by Manetho. But I will demonstrate that he trifles, and tells arrant lies, after I have made a distinction which will relate to what I am going to say about him for this Manetho had granted and confessed that this nation was not originally Egyptian, but that they had come from another country, and subdued Egypt, and then went away again out of it. But that those Egyptians who were thus diseased in their bodies were not mingled with us afterward, and that Moses who brought the people out was not one of that com |