ought not to be ignorant of this plain truth, that it is a degree of less impurity to pass through temples than to forge wicked calumnies of its priests. Now such men as he are more zealous to justify a sacrilegious king than to write what is just and what is true about us, and about our temple: for when they are desirous of gratifying Antiochus, and of concealing that perfidiousness and sacrilege which he was guilty of with regard to our nation when he wanted money, they endea. four to disgrace us, and tell lies even relating to futurities. Apion becomes other men's prophet upon this occasion, and says, that "Antiochus found in our temple a bed, and a man lying upon it, with a small table before him, full of dain ties from the [fishes of the] sea, and the fowls of the dry land: that this man was amazed at these dainties thus set before him: that he immediately adored the king, upon his coming in, as hoping that he would afford him all possible assistance that he fell down upon his knees, and stretched out to him his right hand, and begged to be released; and that when the king bid him sit down, and tell him who he was, and why he dwelt there, and what was the meaning of those various sorts of food that were set before him, the man made a lamentable com. plaint, and with sighs and tears in his eyes, gave him this account of the distress he was in, and said, that he was a Greek; and that, as he went over this province in order to get his living, he was seized upon by foreigners, on a sudden, and brought to this temple and shut up therein, and was seen by nobody, but was fattened by these curious provisions thus set before him: and that truly at the first such unexpected advantages seemed to him matter of great joy: that, after a while, they brought a suspicion upon him, and at length astonishment, what their mean. ing should be that at last he inquired of the servants that came to him, and was by them informed, that it was in order to the fulfilling a law of the Jews, which they must not tell him, that he was thus fed; and that they did the same at a set time every year: that they used to catch a Greek foreigner, and fat him thus up every year, and then lead him to a certain wood, and kill him, and sacrifice with their accustomed solemnities, and taste of his entrails, and take an oath upon this sacrificing a Greek, that they would ever be at enmity with the Greeks: and that then they threw the remaining parts of the miserable wretch into a certain pit." Apion adds farther," That the man said there were but a few days to come ere he was to be slain, and implored Antiochus that, out of the reverence he bore to the Grecian gods, he would disappoint the snares the Jews laid for his blood, and would deliver him from the miseries with which he was encompassed." Now this is such a most tragical fable, as is full of nothing but cruelty and impudence; yet does it not excuse Antiochus of his sacrilegious attempts, as those who write it in his vindication are willing to suppose: for he could not presume beforehand that he should meet with any such thing in coming to the temple, but must have found it unexpectedly. He was, therefore, still an impious person, that was given to unlawful pleasures, and had no regard to God in his actions. But [as for Apion] he hath done whatever his extravagant love of lying hath dictated to him, as it is most easy to discover by a consideration of his writings; for the difference of our laws is known not to regard the Grecians only, but they are principally opposite to the Egyptians, and to some other nations also: for while it so falls out, that men of all countries come sometimes and sojourn among us, how comes it about that we take an oath, and conspire only against the Grecians? and that by the effusion of their blood also? Or how is it possible that all the Jews should get together to these sa crifices, and the entrails of one man should be sufficient for so many thousands to taste of them, as Apion pretends? Or why did not the king carry this man, whe soever he was, and whatsoever was his name (which is not set down in Apionʼ book,) with great pomp back into his own country? when he might thereby hav been esteemed a religious person himself, and a mighty lover of the Greeks, and might thereby have procured himself great assistance from all men against that hatred the Jews bore to him. But I leave this matter for the proper way of

confuting fools is not to use bare words, but to appeal to the things themselves that make against them. Now then, all such as ever saw the construction of our temple, of what nature it was, knew well enough how the purity of it was never to be profaned; for it had four several courts,* encompassed with cloisters round about, every one of which had, by our law, a peculiar degree of separation from the rest. Into the first court every body was allowed to go, even foreigners, and none but women, during their courses, were prohibited to pass through it; all the Jews went into the second court, as well as their wives, when they were free from all uncleanness; into the third court went in the Jewish men, when they were clean and purified; into the fourth went the priests, having on their sacer dotal garments; but for the most sacred place, none went in but the high priests, clothed in their peculiar garments. Now there is so great caution used about these offices of religion, that the priests are appointed to go into the temple but at certain hours; for in the morning, at the opening of the inner temple, those that are to officiate receive the sacrifices, as they do again at noon, till the doors are shut. Lastly, it is not so much as lawful to carry any vessel into the holy house; nor is there any thing therein but the altar [of incense,] the table [of shew-bread,] the censer, and the candlestick, which are all written in the law: for there is nothing farther there, nor are there any mysteries performed that may not be spoken of; nor is there any feasting within the place. For what I have now said is publicly known, and supported by the testimony of the whole people, and their operations are very manifest; for although there be four courses of the priests, and every one of them have above five thousand men in them, yet do they officiate on certain days only; and when those days are over, other priests succeed in the performance of their sacrifices, and assemble together at midday, and receive the keys of the temple, and the vessels by tale, without any thing relating to food or drink being carried into the temple; nay, we are not allowed to offer such things at the altar, excepting what is prepared for the sa crifices.

9. What then, can we say of Apion, but that he examined nothing that concerned these things, while still he uttered incredible words about them? but it is a great shame for a grammarian not to be able to write true history. Now, if he knew the purity of our temple, he hath entirely omitted to take notice of it; but he forges a story about the siezing of a Grecian, about ineffable food, and the most delicious preparation of dainties; and pretends that strangers could go into a place whereinto the noblest men among the Jews are not allowed to enter, unless they be priests. This, therefore, is the utmost degree of impiety, and a voluntary lie, in order to the delusion of those who will not examine into the truth of matters: whereas such unspeakable mischiefs as are above related, have been occasioned by such calumnies that are raised upon us.

10. Nay, this miracle of piety derides us farther and adds the following pretended facts to his former fable; for he says, that this man related how, "while the Jews were once in a long war with the Idumeans, there came a man out of one of the cities of the Idumeans, who there had worshiped Apollo. This man, whose name is said to have been Zabidus, came to the Jews, and promised that he would deliver Apollo, the god of Dora, into their hands, and that he would come to our temple, if they would all come up with him, and bring the whole multitude of the Jews with them: that Zabidus made him a certain wooden in." strument, and put it round about him, and set three rows of lamps therein, and walked after such a manner that he appeared to those that stood a great way off him to be a kind of star walking upon the earth: that the Jews were terribly frightened at so surprising an appearance, and stood very quiet at a distance;

It is remarkable that Josephus here, and, I think, nowhere else, reckons up tour distinct courts of the temple, that of the Gentiles, that of the women of Israel, that of the men of Israel, and that of the priests; as also, that the court of the women admitted of the men (I suppose only of the husbands of inose wives that were therein,) while the court of the men did not admit any women into it at all.

and that Zabidus, while they continued so very quiet, went into the holy house, and carried off that golden head of an ass (for so facetiously does he write,) and then went his way back again to Dora in great haste." And say you so, sir? as I may reply: then does Apion load the ass, that is himself, and lays on him a burden of fooleries and lies; for he writes of places that have no being, and not knowing the cities he speaks of, he changes their situation; for Idumea bor. ders upon our country, and is near to Gaza, in which there is no such city as Dora; although there be, it is true, a city named Dora in Phoenicia, near mount Carmel, but it is four days journey from Idumea.* Now, then, why does this man accuse us, because we have not gods in common with other nations? If our forefathers were so easily prevailed upon to have Apollo come to them, and thought they saw him walking upon the earth, and the stars with him; for certainly those who have so many festivals, wherein they light lamps, must yet, at this rate, have never seen a candlestick! but still it seems that while Zabidus took his journey over the country, where were so many ten thousands of people, nobody met him. He also, it seems, even in a time of war, found the walls of Jerusalem destitute of guards: I omit the rest. Now, the doors of the holy house were seventy† cubits high and twenty cubits broad; they were ail plated over with gold, and almost of solid gold itself, and there were no fewer than twenty men required to shut them every day; nor was it lawful ever to leave them open, though it seems, this lamp-bearer of ours opened them easily, or thought he opened them, as he thought he had the ass's head in his hand. Whether, therefore, he returned it to us again, or whether Apion took it and brought it into the temple again, that Antiochus might find it, and afford a handle for a second fable of Apion's, is uncertain.

11. Apion also tells a false story, when he mentions an oath of ours, as if we swore by God, the maker of the heaven, and earth, and sea, to bear no good will to any foreigner, and particularly to none of the Greeks." Now this lar ought to have said directly, that " we would bear no good will to any foreigner, and particularly to none of the Egyptians." For then his story about the oath would have squared with the rest of his original forgeries, in case our forefathers had been driven away by their kinsmen, the Egyptians, not on account of any wickedness they had been guilty of, but on account of the calamities they were under; for as to the Grecians, we were rather remote from them in place than different from them in our institutions; insomuch that we have no enmity with them, nor any jealousy of them. On the contrary, it hath so happened, that many of them have come over to our laws, and some of them have continued in their observation, although others of them had not courage enough to persevere, and so departed from them again; nor did any body ever hear this oath sworn by us: Apion, it seems, was the only person that heard it, for he, indeed, was the first composer of it.

12. However, Apion deserves to be admired for his great prudence, as to what I am going to say, which is this, that "there is a plain mark among us, that we neither have just laws, nor worship God as we ought to do, because we are not governors, but are rather in subjection to Gentiles, sometimes to one nation and sometimes to another; and that our city hath been liable to several calamities, while their city [Alexandria] hath been of old time an imperial city, and not used to be in subjection to the Romans." But now this man had better leave off his bragging; for every body but himself would think that Apion said what he hath said against himself; for there are very few nations that have had the good fortune to continue many generations in the principality, but still the mu tations in human affairs have put them into subjection under others; and most nations have been often subdued and brought into subjection by others. Now Judea in the Greek, by a gross mistake of the transcribers.

+ Seven, in the Greek, by a like gross mistake of the transcribers. See of the War, B. v. ch. v. sect. 4 Two hundred, in the Greek, contrary to the twenty in the War, B. vii ch. v. sect. 3.

for the Egyptians, perhaps, they are the only nation that have had this extra ordinary privilege, to have never served any of those monarchs who subdued Asia and Europe, and this on account, as they pretend, that the gods fled into their country, and saved themselves by being changed into the shapes of wild beasts! Whereas these Egyptians* are the very people that appear to have ne ver, in all the past ages, had one day of freedom, no not so much as from their own lords. For I will not reproach them with relating the manner how the Persians used them, and this not once only, but many times, when they laid their cities waste, demolished their temples, and cut the throats of those animals whom they esteemed to be gods; for it is not reasonable to imitate the clownish igno. rance of Apion, who hath no regard to the misfortunes of the Athenians or of the Lacedemonians, the latter of which were styled by all men the most courageous. and the former the most religious of the Grecians. I say nothing of such kings as have been famous for piety, particularly of one of them whose name was Cresus, nor what calamities he met with in his life; I say nothing of the citadel of Athens, of the temple at Ephesus, of that at Delphi, nor of ten thousand others which have been burnt down, while nobody cast reproaches on those that were the sufferers, but on those that were the actors therein. But now we have met with Apion, an accuser of our nation, though one that still forgets the miseries of his own people, the Egyptians; but it is that Sesostris, who was once so celebrated a king of Egypt, that hath blinded him now we will not brag of our kings, David and Solomon, though they conquered many nations; accordingly, we will let them alone. However, Apion is ignorant of what every body knows, that the Egyptians were servants to the Persians, and afterward to the Mace. donians, when they were lords of Asia, and were no better than slaves, while we have enjoyed liberty formerly; nay, more than that, have had the dominion of the cities that lie round about us, and this nearly for a hundred and twenty years together, until Pompeius Magnus. And when all the kings every where were conquered by the Romans, our ancestors were the only people who con. tinued to be esteemed their confederates and friends, on account of their fidelity to them.

13. But, says Apion, "we Jews have not had any wonderful men amongst us, nor any inventors of arts, nor any eminent for wisdom." He then enumerates Socrates, and Zeno, and Cleanthes, and some others of the same sort ; and after all, he adds himself to them, which is the most wonderful thing of all that he says, and pronounces Alexandria to be happy, because it hath such a citizen as he is in it; for he was the fittest man to be a witness to his own de. serts, although he hath appeared to all others no better than a wicked mounte bank, of a corrupt life and ill discourses; on which account one may justly pity Alexandria, if it should value itself upon such a citizen as he is. But as to our own men, we have had those who have been as deserving of commendation as any other whosoever; and such as have perused our Antiquities cannot be igno rant of them.

14. As to the other things which he sets down as blameworthy, it may, per haps, be the best way to let them pass without apology, that he may be allowed to be his own accuser, and the accuser of the rest of the Egyptians. However he accuses us for sacrificing animals, and for abstaining from swine's flesh, and laughs at us for the circumcision of our privy members. Now, as for our slaugh

This notorious disgrace belonging peculiarly to the people of Egypt, ever since the times of the old prophets of the Jews, noted both section 4 already, and here, may be confirmed by the testimony of Isidorus, an Egyptian of Pelusium, Epist. lib. i. Ep. 489. And this is a remarkable completion of the ancient prediction of God, by Ezek. xxix, 14, 15,-"That the Egyptians should be a base kingdom, the basest of the kingdoms;" and that it "should not exalt itself any more above the nations." The truth of which still farther appears by the present observation of Josephus, that these Egyptians had ne ver, in all the past ages since Sesostris, had one day of liberty, no not so much as to have been free from despotic power under any of the monarchs to that day. And all this has been found equally true in the latter ages, under the Romans, Saracens, Mammalukes, and Turks, from the days of Josephus to the present age also 43*

ter of tame animals for sacrifices, it is common to us and to all other men; but this Apion, by making it a crime to sacrifice them, demonstrates himself to be an Egyptian; for had he been either a Grecian or a Macedonian [as he pretends to be] he had not showed any uneasiness at it; for those people glory in sacri ficing whole hecatombs to the gods, and make use of those sacrifices for feasting; and yet is not the world thereby rendered destitute of cattle, as Apion was afraid would come to pass. Yet, if all men had followed the manners of the Egyptians, the world had certainly been made desolate as to mankind, but had been filled full of the wildest sort of brute beasts, which, because they sup. pose them to be gods, they carefully nourish. However, if any one should ask Apion, which of the Egyptians he thinks to be the most wise and most pious of them all, he would certainly acknowledge the priests to be so; for the histories say, that two things were originally committed to their care by their king's in. junctions, the worship of the gods and the support of wisdom and philosophy. Accordingly, these priests are all circumcised, and abstain from swine's flesh: nor does any one of the other Egyptians assist them in slaying those sacrifices they offer to the gods. Apion was, therefore, quite blinded in his mind, when for the sake of the Egyptians, he contrived to reproach us, and to accuse such others as not only make use of that conduct of life which he so much abuses, but have also taught other men to be circumcised, as says Herodotus, which makes me think that Apion is hereby justly punished for his casting such reproaches on the laws of his own country; for he was circumcised himself of necessity, on account of an ulcer in his privy member; and when he received no benefit by such circumcision, but his member became putrid, he died in great torment. Now men of good tempers ought to observe their own laws concerning religion accurately, and to persevere therein, but not presently to abuse the laws of other nations, while this Apion deserted his own laws, and told lies about ours. And this was the end of Apion's life, and this shall be the conclusion of our dis course about him.

15. But now, since Apollonius Molo, and Lysimachus, and some others write treatises about our lawgiver Moses, and about our laws, which are neither ust nor true, and this partly out of ignorance, but chiefly out of ill will to us while they calumniate Moses as an impostor and deceiver, and pretend that ou laws teach us wickedness, but nothing is virtuous, I have a mind to discourse briefly according to my ability, about our whole constitution of government and about the particular branches of it. For I suppose it will thence become evident, that the laws we have given us are disposed after the best manner for the advancement of piety, for mutual communion with one another, for a gene ral love of mankind, as also for justice, and for sustaining labours with fortitude, and for a contempt of death. And I beg of those that shall peruse this writing of mine to read it without partiality; for it is not my purpose to write an enco. mi im upon ourselves, but I shall esteem this as a most just apology for us, and taken from those our laws, according to which we lead our lives, against the many and the lying objections that have been made against us. Moreover, since this Apollonius does not do like Apion, and lay a continued accusation against us, but does it only by starts, and up and down his discourse, while he sometimes reproaches us as atheists and man-haters, and sometimes hits us in the teeth with our want of courage, and yet sometimes, on the contrary, ac. cuses us of too great boldness and madness in our conduct; nay, he says that we are the weakest of all the barbarians; and that this is the reason why we are the only people which have made no improvements in human life. Now I think I shall have then sufficiently disproved all these his allegations, when it shall appear that our laws enjoin the very reverse of what he says, and that we very carefully observe those laws ourselves. And if I be compelled to make men. tion of the laws of other nations that are contrary to ours, those ought deserv edly to thank themselves for it, who have pretended to depreciate our laws in