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are scattered; for they send to Jerusalem the ancient names of their parents in writing, as well as those of their remoter ancestors, and signify who are the wit nesses also. But if any war falls out, such as have fallen out a great many of them already, when Antiochus Epiphanes made an invasion upon our country as also when Pompey the Great and Quintilius Varus did so also, and principally in the wars that have happened in our own times, those priests that survive them compose new tables of genealogy out of the old records, and examine the circum stances of the women that remain; for still they do not admit of those that have been captives, as suspecting that they had conversation with some foreigners, But what is the strongest argument of our exact management in this matter, is what I am now going to say, that we have the names of our high priests from father to son set down in our records, for the interval of two thousand years, and if any of these have been trangsressors of these rules, they are prohibited to present themselves at the altar, or to be partakers of any other of our purifications: and this is justly or rather necessarily 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 accounts of things as they learned them of God himself by inspiration: and others have written what hath happened in their own times, and that in a very distinct manner also.

8. For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing from and contradicting one another [as the Greeks have,] but only twenty-two books,* which contain the records of all the past times, which are justly believed to be divine. And of them five belong to Moses, which contain his laws, and the traditions of the origin of mankind till his death. This interval of time was little short of three thousand years. But as to the time from the death of Moses till the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, who reigned after Xerxes, the prophets, who were after Moses, wrote down what was done in their times in thirtee books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and precepts for the conduct of human life. It is true our history hath been written since Artaxerxe. very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the forme by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that time: and how firmly we have given credit to these books of our own nation, is evident by what we do; for during so many ages as have already passed, 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 esteem these books to contain di vine doctrines, and to persist in them, and, if occasion be, willingly to die fo them. For it is no new thing for our captives, many of them in number, aud frequently in time, to be seen to endure racks and deaths of all kinds upon the theatres, that they may not be obliged to say one word against our laws, or 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 case all the writings that are among them were to be destroyed; for they take them to be such discourses as are framed agreeably to the inclinations of those that write them; and they have justly the same opinion of the ancient writers, since they see some of the present generation bold enough to write about such affairs wherein they were not present, 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 some persons have written histories, and published them, without having been in the places concerned, or having been near them when the actions were done; but

• Which were these twenty-two sacred books of the Old Testament, see the Supplement to the Essay an the Old Testament, p. 25-29, viz. those we call canonical, all excepting the Cauticles; but still with this farther exception, that the first book of apocryphal Esdras be taken inte that number, instead of ous canonical Ezra, which seeins to be no more than a later epitome of the other; which two books of Canti cles and Ezra at no way appears that our Josephus ever saw

these men put a few things together by hearsay, and insolently abuse the world, and call these writings by the name of Histories.

9. As for myself, I have composed a true history of that whole war, and of all the particulars that occurred therein, as having been concerned in all its transactions; for I acted as general of those among us that are named Galileans, as long as it was possible for us to make any opposition. I was then seized on by the Romans, and became a captive; Vespasian also and Titus had me kept under a guard, and forced me to attend them continually. At the first I was put into bonds, but was set at liberty afterward, and sent to accompany Titus, when he came from Alexandria to the siege of Jerusalem; during which time there was nothing done which escaped my knowledge; for what happened in the Roman camp I saw and wrote down carefully; and what information the deserters brought [out of the city,] I was the only man that understood them. Afterwaro I got leisure at Rome; and when all my materials were prepared for that work, I made use of some persons to assist me in learning the Greek tongue, and by these means I composed the history of those transactions. And I was so well assured of the truth of what I related, that I first of all appealed to those that had the supreme command in that war, Vespasian and Titus, as witnesses for me; for to thein 1 presented those books first of all, and after them to many of the Romans who had been in the war. I also sold them to many of our own men who understood the Greek philosophy; among whom were Julius Archelaus; Herod [king of Chalcis,] a person of great gravity, and King Agrippa hin:self, a person that deserved the greatest admiration. Now all these men bore their testimony to me, that I had the strictest regard to truth; who yet would not have dissem bled the matter, nor been silent, if I, out of ignorance, or out of favour to any side, either had given false colours to actions or omitted any of them.

10. There have been, indeed, some bad men who have attempted to calumniate my history, and took it to be a kind of scholastic performance for the exercise of young men. A strange sort of accusation and calumny this! since every one that undertakes to deliver the history 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 such as knew them. Now, both these methods of knowledge I may very properly pretend to in the composition of both my works; for, as I said, I have translated the Antiquities out of our sacred books, which I easily could do, since I was a priest by my birth, and have studied that philosophy which is contained in those writings; and for the History of the War, I wrote it as having been an actor myself in many of its transactions, an eyewitness in the greatest part of the rest, and was not unacquainted with any thing whatsoever that was either said or done in it. How impudent, then, must those deserve to be esteemed, that undertake to contradict me about the true state of those affairs? who, although they pretend to have made use of both the emperor's own memoirs, yet could not they be acquainted with our affairs who fought against them.

11. This digression I have been obliged to make out of necessity, as being de sirous to expose the vanity of those that profess to write histories; and I suppose I have sufficiently declared, that this custom of transmitting down the histories of ancient times hath been better preserved by those nations which are called barbarians, than by the Greeks themselves. I am now willing in the next place, to say a few things to those that endeavour to prove that our constitution is but of late time, for this reason, as they pretend, that the Greek writers have said nothing about us; after which I shall produce testimonies for our antiquity out of the writings of foreigners; I shall also demonstrate, that such as cast re. proaches upon our nation do it very unjustly.

12. As for ourselves, therefore, we neither inhabit a maritime country, nor de we delight in merchandise, nor in such a mixture with other men as arises from it but the cities we dwell in are remote from the sea; and having a fruitful

country for our habitation, we take pains in cultivating that only. Our principa care of all is this, to educate our children well; and we think it to be the mos necessary business of our whole life to observe the laws that have been given us, and to keep those rules of piety that have been delivered down to us. Since therefore, besides what we have already taken notice of, we have had a pe culiar way of living of our own, there was no occasion offered us in ancient ages, for intermixing among the Greeks, as they had for mixing among the Egyptians, by their intercourse of exporting and importing their several goods; as they also mixed with the Phoenicians, who lived by the seaside, by means of their love of lucre in trade and merchandise. Nor did our forefathers betake themselves, as did some others, to robbery; nor did they in order to gain more wealth, fall into foreign wars, although our country contained many ten thousands of men of courage sufficient for that purpose. For this reason it was, that the Phoenicians themselves came soon, by_trading and navigation, to be known to the Grecians, and by their means the Egyptians became known to the Grecians also, as did all those people whence the Phoenicians in long voyages over the seas carried wares to the Grecians. The Medes also, and the Persians, when they were lords of Asia, became well known to them; and this was especially true of the Persians, who led their armies as far as the other continent [Europe.] The Thracians were also known to them by the nearness of their countries, and the Scythians by the means of those that sailed to Pontus; for it was so in general, that all maritime nations, and those that inhabited near the eastern or west. ern seas, became most known to those that were desirous to be writers; but such as had their habitations farther from the sea 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 possessed of so much power, and hath performed such 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 most exact historians, and Ephorus for one, was so very ignorant of the Gauls and the Spaniards, that he supposed the Spaniards who inhabit so great a part of the western regions of the earth, to be no more than one city. Those historians also have ventured to describe such customs as were made use of by them, which they never had either done or said; and the reason why these writers did not know the truth of their affairs was this, that they had not any commerce together; but the reason why they wrote such falsities was this, that they had a mind to appear to know things which others had not known. How can it then be any wonder, if our nation was no more known to many the Greeks, nor had given them any occasion to mention them in their writings, while they were so remote from the sea, and had a conduct of life so peculiar to themselves?

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13. Let us now put the case, therefore, that we made use of this argument concerning the Grecians, in order to prove that their nation was not ancient, be cause nothing is said of them in our records; would not they laugh at us all, and probably give the same reasons for our silence that I have now alleged, and would produce their neighbour nations as witnesses to their own antiquity? Now, the very same thing will I endeavour to do; for I will bring the Egyptians and the Phoenicians as my principal witnesses, because nobody can complain of their tes timony as false, on account that they are known to have borne the greatest ill will towards us: I mean this as to the Egyptians in general all of them, while of the Phoenicians it is known the Tyrians have been most of all in the same ill disposi tion towards us: yet do I confess, that I cannot say the same of the Chaldeans, since 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 shall have made my assertions good, so far as concerns the others, I will demonstrate that some of the Greek writers have made mention of

ns Jews also, that those who envy us may not have even this pretence for contradicting what I have said about our nation.

14. I shall begin with the writings of the Egyptians; not, indeed, of those that have written in the Egyptian language, which it is impossible for me to do. But Manetho was a man who was by birth an Egyptian; yet had he made himself master of the Greek learning, as is very evident; for he wrote the history of his own country in the Greek tongue, by translating it, as he saith himself, ou of their sacred records: he also finds great fault with Herodotus for his ignorance and false relation of Egyptian affairs. Now this Manetho, in the second book of his Egyptian history, writes concerning us in the following manner. I will set down his very words, as if I were to bring the very man himself into a court for a witness-"There was a king of ours whose name was Timaus. Under him it came to pass, I know not how, that God was averse to us, and there came, af ter a surprising manner, men of ignoble birth out of the eastern parts, and had boldness enough to make an expedition into our country, and with ease subdued it by force, yet without our hazarding a battle with them. So when they had gotten those that governed us under their power, they afterwards burnt down our cities, and demolished the temples of the gods, and used all the inhabitants after a most barbarous manner; nay, some they slew, and led their children and their wives into slavery. At length they made one of themselves king, whose name was Salatis; he also lived at Memphis, and made both the upper and lower regions pay tribute, and left garrisons in places that were the most proper for them. He chiefly aimed to secure the eastern parts, as foreseeing that the Assyrians, who had then the greatest power, would be desirous of that kingdom, and invade them; and as he found in the Saite Nomos [Seth-roite,] a city very proper for his purpose, and which lay upon the Bubastic channel, but with regard to a certain theologic notion was called Avaris: this he rebuilt, and made very strong by the walls he built about it, and by a most numerous garrison of two hundred and forty thousand armed men which he put into it to keep it. Thither Salatis came in summer time, partly to gather his corn and pay his soldiers their wages, and partly to exercise his armed men, and thereby to terrify foreigners. When this man had reigned thirteen years, after him reigned another, whose name was Beon, for forty-four years; after him reigned another, called Apachnas, thirty-six years and seven months; after him Apophis reigned sixty-one years, and then Janias fifty years and one month; after all these reigned Assis forty-nine years and two months. And these six were the first rulers among them, who were all along making war with the Egyptians, and were very desirous gradually to destroy them to the very roots. This whole nation was styled Hycsos, that is, shepherd. kings; for the first syllable Hvc, according to the sacred dialect, denotes a king, as is sos a shepherd; but this according to the ordinary dialect; and of these is compounded Hycsos: but some say that these people were Arabians." Now, in another copy it is said, that this word does not denote kings, but on the contrary denotes captive shepherds, and this on account of the particle Hyc; for that Hyc, with the aspiration, in the Egyptian tongue, again denotes shepherds, and that expressly also: and this to me seems the more probable opinion, and more agreeable to ancient history. [But Manetho goes on]-"These people, whom we have before named kings, and called shepherds also, and their descendants," as he says, "kept possession of Egypt five hundred and eleven years. After these," he says, "That the kings of Thebais and of the other parts of Egypt, made an insurrection against the shepherds, and that there a terrible and long war was made between them." He says farther," That under a king, whose name was Alisphragmuthosis, the shepherds were subdued by him, and were, indeed, driven out of other parts of Egypt, but were shut up in a place that contained ten thousand acres: This place was named Avaris." Manetho says,"That the shepherds built a wall round all this place, which was a large and a strong wall, and this in order to keep all their possessions and their prev

within a place of strength, but that Thummosis, the son of Alisphragmutbosis, made an attempt to take them by force and by siege, with four hundred and eighty thousand men to lie round about them; but that, upon his despair of taking the place by that siege, they came to a composition with them, that they should leave Egypt, and go, without any harm to be done to them, whithersoever they would; and that after this composition was made, they went away with their whole families and effects, not fewer in number than two hundred and forty thousand, and took their journey from Egypt through the wilderness for Syria; but that, as they were in fear of the Assyrians, who had then the dominion over Asia, they built a city in that country which is now called Judea, and that large enough to contain this great "number of men, and called it Jerusalem."* Now Mane. tho, in another book of his, says,-"That this nation, thus called shepherds, were also called captives in their sacred books." And this account of his is the truth; for feeding of sheep was the employment of our forefathers in the most an cient ages; and as they led such a wandering life in feeding sheep, they were called shepherds. Nor was it without reason that they were called captives by the Egyp. tians, since one of our ancestors, Joseph, told the king of Egypt that he was a cap. tive, and afterward sent for his brethren into Egypt by the king's permission. But as for these matters I shall make a more exact inquiry about them elsewhere.§ 15. But now I shall produce the Egyptians as witnesses to the antiquity of our nation. I shall, therefore, here bring in Manetho again, and what he writes as to the order of the times in this case: and thus he speaks." When this peo ple or shepherds were gone out of Egypt to Jerusalem, Tethmosis the king of Egypt who drove them out reigned afterward twenty-five years and four monits, and then died; after him his son Chebron took the kingdom for thirteen years, after whom came Amenophis, for twenty years and seven months; then came his sister Amesses, for twenty-one years and nine months; after her came Mephres, for twelve years and nine months; after her was Mephramuthosis, for twenty. five years and ten months; after him was Thmosis, for nine years and eight months; after him came Amenophis, for thirty years and ten moths; after him came Orus, for thirty-six years and five months; then came his daughter Acencheres, for twelve years and one month; then was her brother Rathotis, for nine years; then was Acencheres, for twelve years and five months; then came another Acencheres, for twelve years and three months; after him Armais, for four years and one month; after him was Ramesses, for one year and four months; after him came Armesses Miammoun, for sixty years and two months; after him Amenophis, for nineteen years and six months; after him came Sethosis and Ramesses, who had an army of horse, and a naval force. This king appointed his brother Armais to be his deputy over Egypt. [In another copy it stood thus. After him came Sethosis and Ramesses, two brethren, the former of which had a naval force, and in a hostile manner destroyed those that met him upon the sea; but as he slew Ramesses in no long time afterward, so he appointed another of his brethren to be his deputy over Egypt.] He also gave him all the other authority of a king, but with these only injunctions, that he should not wear the diadem, nor be injurious to the queen, the mother of his children; and that he should not meddle with the other concubines of the king, while he made an expedition against Cyprus and Phoenicia, and besides against the Assyrians and the Medes. He then subdued them all, some by his arms, some without fighting, and some by the terror of his great army; and, being * Here we have an account of the first building of the city of Jerusalem, according to Manetho, when the Phoenician shepherds were expelled out of Egypt, about thirty-seven years before Abraham came out of Haran.

+ Gen. xlvi. 32, 34; xlvii, 3, 4.

In our copies of the book of Genesis and of Josephus, this Joseph never calls himself a captive, when he was with the king of Egypt, though he does call himself a servant, a slave, or a captive, many times in the Testament of the twelve Patriarchs, under Jose-h, sect 1, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16.

This is now wanting.

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