Praeparatio Evangelica, by Eusebius of Caesarea

[admin]

Part 1 of 3

BOOK VIII

CONTENTS

• I. On the religious polity of Moses p. 348 a
• II. Aristeas on the translation of the Jewish Scriptures p. 350 a
• III. Letter of Demetrius Phalereus to Ptolemy, King of Egypt p. 351 a
• IV. Letter of King Ptolemy, to Eleazar the High Priest of the Jews p. 352 b
• V. Letter of Eleazar the High Priest to King Ptolemy p. 353 b
• VI. Philo on the journey of the Israelites out of Egypt p. 355 c
• VII. The same concerning the religious polity of Moses p. 357 d
• VIII. Josephus on the polity of Moses p. 361 c
• IX. Eleazar the High Priest's sketch of the thought allegorically expressed in the sacred laws. From the writings of Aristeas p. 370 c
• X. Aristobulus on the mention of limbs as belonging to God p. 376 a
• XI. Philo on the virtuous life of those Jews who of old time studied philosophy, from his Apology for the Jews p. 379 a
• XII. On the same, from the treatise That every good man is free p. 381 b
• XIII. Philo concerning God, and that the earth was created p. 384 d
• XIV. The same author on The government of the world by God's Providence p. 386 a

PREFACE

IN the preceding Book, I have traced the lives of the Hebrews of old time before the appearance of Moses, men beloved of God who proved that title true by crowning themselves with the rewards of every virtue. Their pious doctrines also and instructions I described, and moreover their perfectly true and religious beliefs concerning God, which we have confessed that we Christians had come to love and to desire. And now, following the order of succession, I will pass on to the civil polity in the time of Moses, which after that first stage in religion presents a second, namely that which, is provided with legal ordinances quite peculiar to the Jewish nation.

For we shall prove at the proper opportunity that the institutions of Moses were suited to Jews alone, and not to the other nations of the world, nor were possible to be observed by all men, I mean by those who dwelt at a distance from the land of Judaea, whether Greeks or barbarians.

But now I am going to set forth this mode of life, I mean the life in the time of Moses, not in words of my own, but as before only in the words of the very authors who have been approved among the Jews for their hereditary learning: for I think it is proper for me to present the testimonies on which my proofs rest, in the same way as I began, through the authors properly belonging to each subject.

As therefore I called up Phoenicians, and Egyptians, and Greeks as witnesses of the matters well known among themselves in their own country, so it seems to me that the present occasion properly claims these Jewish witnesses, and not that I should myself be supposed to be giving a superficial sketch of matters foreign to me.

But before coming to this point, I think it necessary to set plainly before my readers, how the oracles of the Jews passed to the Greeks, and what was the method settled for the interpretation of the sacred writings entrusted to them; showing also the number and character of the interpreters, and the great zeal of the king, whereby those oracles came to be translated into the Greek language; for the explanation of these matters also will not be unadvisable in regard to my proof of the Preparation for the Gospel.

For when the light of the salutary preaching of our Saviour was all but ready to shine forth unto all men in the Roman empire, more than ordinary reason required that the prophecies concerning Him, and the mode of life of the pious Hebrews of old, and the lessons of their religious teaching, hidden from long ages in their native tongue, should now at length come forth to all the nations, to whom the knowledge of God was about to be introduced; and then God Himself, the author of these blessings, anticipating the future by His foreknowledge as God, arranged that the predictions concerning Him who was to appear before long as the Saviour of all mankind, and to establish Himself as the teacher of the religion of the One Supreme God to all the nations under the sun, should be revealed to them all, and be brought into the light by being accurately translated, and set up in public libraries. So God put it into the mind of King Ptolemy to accomplish this, in preparation, as it seems, for that participation in them by all the nations which was so soon to take place.

For we should not otherwise have got from the Jews those oracles which they would have hidden away for their jealousy of us; but these in consequence of the divinely ordered interpretation were vouchsafed to us in a translation by the men who were approved among them for intelligence and hereditary culture.

These things are described by Aristeas, a man who besides being learned was moreover engaged in the transactions of the time of the second Ptolemy, surnamed Philadelphus, in whose reign the translation of the Jewish Scriptures, made through the zeal of the king, was awarded a place in the libraries of Alexandria. But it is time to listen to the author himself relating the matter word for word in the following manner:

CHAPTER II

[ARISTEAS] 'WHEN Demetrius Phalereus was appointed over the king's library, he acquired large sums of money with the view of collecting all the books in the world, and by making purchases and transcriptions brought the king's purpose to completion, as far as in him lay.

'So being asked in our presence how many myriads there are of books, he answered----"Over twenty myriads, O king: and I shall endeavour to have the rest made up to fifty myriads in a short time. It has also been notified to me that the customs of the Jews are worthy of transcription and of a place in thy library."

'"What is there then," said the king, "to hinder you from doing this? For all that you can require has been assigned to you." And Demetrius replied----"An interpretation also is required; for in Judaea they use characters peculiar to themselves, just as the Egyptians use their own position of the letters, inasmuch as they have also a language of their own. And they are supposed to employ Syriac, but that is not so, for it is a different kind of language."

'And when the king understood everything, he ordered a letter to be written to the High Priest of the Jews, in order that the aforesaid matters might be completed.'

And further on he adds:

'And when this was accomplished, the king commanded Demetrius to report on the description of the Jewish books. For all matters were arranged by these kings in ordinances and with great accuracy, and nothing thrown off at random. For this reason also I have given a place to the report and to the copies of the letters, and to the number of the offerings sent, and the manufacture of each, because every one of them was distinguished by the grandeur of the parts and artistic skill. A copy of the report is as follows:'

CHAPTER III

'"To THE GREAT KING FROM DEMETRIUS.

'"IN accordance with thy command, O king, that the books which were wanting to the completion of the library might be collected, and that the parts which had been damaged might be properly restored, I have very carefully given my attention to these matters, and now present my report to thee.

'"There are wanting the books of the Law of the Jews, together with some few others. For they are expressed in Hebrew characters and language, and are rather carelessly written, and not as they are in the original, according to the report of those who know best, since they have not had the benefit of the king's providence.

'"But it is right that thou shouldest possess these also thoroughly corrected, because this legislation, being divine, is very full of wisdom and sincerity. For which reason both prose-writers and poets and the multitude of historians have avoided the mention of the aforesaid books, and of the men who ordered their life according to them, because, as Hecataeus of Abdera says, the mode of thought therein is of a pure and venerable character.

'"If therefore it seems good, O king, there shall be a letter written to the High Priest in Jerusalem, to send elderly men who have lived the most honourable lives, and are experienced in matters of their own Law, six from each tribe, in order that we may test the agreement by a large number, and after receiving the exact interpretation, may give it a distinguished place, in a manner worthy both of the circumstances and of thy purpose. Good fortune be ever thine."

'And when this report had been presented, the king commanded a letter to be written to Eleazar on this subject, informing him also of the release of the captives which had taken place. He also gave for the manufacture of bowls and cups, and a table, and flagons, fifty talents weight of gold, and seventy talents weight of silver, and a large quantity of precious stones.

'And he commanded the treasurers to give to the artists the choice of whatever they should prefer, and of current coin as much as a hundred talents for sacrifices and other things. Concerning the workmanship, we will give you information, as soon as we have gone through the copies of the letters. The king's letter was in the following form:'

CHAPTER IV

'"KING PTOLEMY TO THE HIGH PRIEST ELEAZAR, GREETING AND HEALTH.

'"WHEREAS it happens that many Jews who were carried away from Jerusalem by the Persians in the time of their power, have been settled in our country, and many more have come with my father into Egypt as prisoners of war, of whom he enrolled many in the military class on higher pay, and likewise, when he judged the chief of them to be faithful, built fortresses and entrusted them to their charge, in order that through them the native Egyptians might be intimidated: and whereas we having succeeded to the kingdom deal very kindly with all men, and more especially with your fellow countrymen, for we have released more than ten myriads of them from captivity, by paying their masters the due price in money, and amending whatever wrong was done through the attacks of the mobs, having taken a pious resolution to do this and to dedicate a thank-offering to the Most High God, who has preserved our kingdom in peace and in the highest glory in all the world: we have also enrolled in the army those of the most vigorous age, and appointed those whom we judged capable to be about our person and worthy of trust about the court.

'"And whereas we wish to show favour to thee also and to all the Jews throughout the world, and to those who shall come after, we have purposed that your Law should be translated in the Greek language out of what you call the Hebrew language, in order that these books also may be kept in our library with the rest of the royal books.

'"Thou wilt, therefore, be acting well and in a manner deserving our favour, in choosing out men of honourable lives, advanced in years, who are skilled in the Law and able to interpret it, out of each tribe six, that so agreement may be obtained from the large number, because the inquiry concerns matters of great importance. For we think that if this is accomplished, we shall gain great glory from it.

'"Now concerning this business we have sent Andreas one of the chiefs of our bodyguard and Aristeas, men in honour with us, to converse with thee, and to bring the first-fruits of our offerings to the temple, with a hundred talents of silver for sacrifices and other things. And do thou also write to us on whatsoever thou desirest: for thou wilt gratify us, and be doing what deserves our friendship; for whatever things thou mayest prefer shall be performed as quickly as possible. Farewell."

'In answer to this, Eleazar wrote back appropriately as follows:'

CHAPTER V

'"ELEAZAR HIGH PRIEST TO KING PTOLEMY, TRUE FRIEND, GREETING.

'"IF thou art in good health thyself, and Queen Arsinoe thy sister, and thy children, that would be well, and as we wish; we ourselves also are well. On the receipt of thy letter we greatly rejoiced at thy purpose and noble design; and having assembled the whole people we read it before them, that they might know the reverence thou hast toward our God.

'"We exhibited also the cups which thou hast sent, twenty of gold, and thirty of silver, five bowls, and a table for dedication of offerings, and a hundred talents of silver for offering sacrifices, and for whatever repairs the temple may yet need; and these have been brought by Andreas, one of those honoured in thy presence, and Aristeas, noble and virtuous men, eminent in learning, and worthy in all respects of thy training and just esteem.

'"They communicated thy commands to us, and have also received from us an answer befitting thy deeds. For in all things whatsoever are expedient for thee. even if they are contrary to our natural disposition, we shall obey: since this is a mark of friendship and affection. For in many ways thou hast conferred upon our citizens benefits great and never to be forgotten.

'"Immediately, therefore, we offered sacrifices on behalf of thee, and thy sister and children, and friends; and all the people prayed that it may happen to thee always according to thy desire, and that God who ruleth over all may preserve thy kingdom in peace with honour.

'"Also, in order that the transcription of the sacred Law may be made conveniently and with safety, I chose out, in the presence of all, men of honour and virtue, of mature years, from each tribe six, and these I have sent with the Law. Thou wilt do well then, 0 righteous sovereign, in giving directions, as soon as the transcription of the books is made, that the men may be sent back to us again in safety. Farewell." '

Aristeas next interposes many statements concerning the proposed business, and after his account of the translation of the Scriptures adds in exact words:

'And as soon as these volumes had been read, the priests and the elder men among the interpreters and rulers of the city, and the leaders of the people stood up and said: "Since the interpretation of the books has been well and reverently made and accurately in every point, it is right that they should continue as they are, and that no revision take place." And when all had shouted in approval of this saying, they commanded that, as their custom is, any one who should make a revision by adding or by taking away or by changing anything at all in what had been written should be accursed: in which they did rightly, in order that it might be always preserved as an overflowing fountain.

'When this also had been announced to the king, he was greatly rejoiced: for he thought that the purpose which he entertained had been safely accomplished. And all was read over before him, and he greatly admired the mind of the Lawgiver, and said to Demetrius: "How is it that, when so great deeds had been performed, none of the historians or poets ever attempted to make mention of them?" And he replied: "Because the legislation was sacred, and had come through God, and some of those who attempted it were smitten by God and ceased from the attempt."

'For he said that he had heard from Theopompus, that, when intending rather rashly to add to his history some of the passages which had been previously translated out of the Law, he had suffered from confusion of mind more than thirty days, but in the interval of relief he besought God that it might be made clear to him, what the reason of the occurrence was: and when he had been taught in a dream, that he had been over-curious in his desire to publish the divine oracles to common men, and had desisted, he was thus restored to his senses.

'From Theodectes also, the tragic poet, I was informed that as he was going to convert one of the events recorded in the Book into a drama he was stricken with cataract in the eyes, and having got a suspicion that it had happened to him for this reason, he propitiated God, and after many days was restored.

'And when the king had received, as I said before, the report from Demetrius concerning these books, he reverenced them, and commanded that great care should be taken of the books, and that they should be preserved in purity.'

Let this abridgement from the writing of the aforesaid author suffice: so now let us take a view of the polity established by the legislation of Moses from authors illustrious among that people. And I will give the first place to the remarks of Philo on the journeying of the Jews from Egypt, which they made under Moses as their leader, quoting from the first book of what he entitled Hypothetica, where, in making his defence of the Jews as against their accusers, he speaks as follows:

CHAPTER VI

[PHILO IUDAEUS] 1 'THEIR ancient forefather was from Chaldaea, and this people, who had emigrated from Syria in old times, removed out of Egypt, as they were increasing in countless myriads, and the land was not sufficient for them; moreover they had been highly trained in youthful confidence of spirit, and God also began to indicate their departure by visions and dreams. Thus under divine influence they had fallen into a very great longing for the ancient land of their forefathers, from which that ancestor of theirs passed over into Egypt, either because God so determined, or he by some foresight of his own became most prosperous, so that from his time to the present the nation has existed and still continues, and is so exceedingly populous.'

Then after a few sentences he says:

'Their leader in this exodus and journey was a man superior in no respect, if you will have it so, to men in general; so often did they reproach him as a deceiver and a mischievous flatterer. Yet what a noble deceit and craft was that, whereby, when all the people were thirsty and hungry and ignorant of the way and in want of everything, he not only carried them through in perfect safety, and as it were in the midst of abundance, with free passage from the nations that lay between, but also kept them free from mutual dissension, and very obedient towards himself! This, too, he did not, as might be supposed, for a little while, but longer than even a single household would probably dwell together in unanimity and all abundance. And neither thirst nor hunger nor bodily disease, nor fear for the future, nor ignorance of what was to happen, stirred up against that deceiver the tribes who were deluded and perishing around him!

'Yet what would you have me say? That the man possessed any such great art, or power of eloquence, or wisdom, as to prevail over difficulties so many and so strange, which were leading them all on to destruction? For either we must admit that the men under him were not naturally ignorant nor discontented, but obedient and not wanting in provident, care for the future: or else, that though they were as bad as they could be, yet God soothed their discontents, and was, as it were, the presiding guardian both of their present and their future lot. For whichever of these cases may seem to you to be most true, it evidently is strongly in favour of praise and honour and admiration for the whole people.

'These then were the circumstances of the exodus. But after they had come into this land, how in time they became settled and got possession of the country, is shown in the sacred records. For my own part, however, I desire not so much to follow the method of history, as to describe what was probable according to any fair calculation concerning them.

'For which do you prefer, that still abounding in numbers, although they had been extremely afflicted, they were nevertheless strong, and then, with their arms in their hands, took forcible possession of the country, by conquering both Syrians and Phoenicians who were fighting in their own land? Or, are we to suppose that though they were unwarlike and unmanly, and extremely few, and unprovided with the means of war, they yet found respect in the eyes of these nations, and obtained the land with their willing consent? And that then after no long time they straightway built the Temple, and established the other requisites for religion and worship?

'These things seem to show that they were acknowledged even among their enemies to be most highly favoured of God. For enemies those necessarily were, whose land they had suddenly invaded, to take it from them.

'If then among these they met with respect and honour, is it not evident that they surpassed all others in good fortune? And what more than this are we to say next as the second or third point? Shall we speak of their good laws well obeyed, or of their holiness, and justice, and piety? So greatly did they admire that man, whoever he was who gave them their laws, that whatever he approved they approved also.

'Whether, therefore, he advised them from his own reasoning, or as he was divinely taught, they referred it all to God: and though many years have passed, I cannot say exactly how many, but more at all events than two thousand years, they have not altered even a single word of what had been written by him, but would rather endure to die ten thousand times, than yield to any persuasion contrary to his laws and customs.'

After these statements Philo gives an epitome of the civil government founded for the Jewish nation out of the laws of Moses, writing as follows:

CHAPTER VII

[PHILO IUD.] 'Is there then among that people any of these customs or anything like them, anything seemingly mild and gentle, admitting solicitations of justice, and pretexts, and delays, and assessments, and subsequent mitigations of penalties? Nothing; but all is simple and clear. If thou commit sodomy or adultery, if thou violate a child, not to speak of a boy, but even a girl, in like manner if thou prostitute thyself, if even at an unsuitable age thou have suffered, or seem, or intend to suffer, anything disgraceful, the penalty is death.

'If thou outrage either a slave or a free man, if thou keep him in bonds, if thou take him away and sell him, if thou steal either common things or sacred, if thou be guilty of blasphemy, not only by deed but even by a chance word, against God Himself I may not even say (God forgive me for the very thought of such a thing), but against father or mother or thine own benefactor, again it is death, and that no common or ordinary death; but he who has only spoken blasphemy must be stoned to death, as though for blasphemous deeds he could not have been worse.

'There were other laws again, such as, that wives should be ruled by their husbands, not from any motive of insult, but with a view to obedience in all things: that parents should rule their children, for safety and greater care: that every one should be master of his own possessions, unless at least he had invoked God's name upon them, or gave them up as to God. But if it should happen that he so promised merely by a word, he is no longer allowed to lay hand or finger upon them, but is to be at once excluded from all.

'Speak not of plundering what belongs to the gods, nor of stealing what others have offered; but even in regard to his own property, if, as I said, a word has fallen from him unawares, yet having spoken it, he must be deprived of all: but if he repents or tries to correct what he has said, even his life is to be taken from him.

'Also in the case of others over whom a man has authority, there is the same principle. If a man declare a wife's aliment to be consecrated, he must cease to support her: if a father does so to a son, or a ruler to his subject, the effect is the same. A release also of what had been consecrated was the most perfect and complete, when the High Priest absolved, for under God he had the right to receive it: but next to this, the absolution granted by those who in each case have greater authority is allowed to declare that God is propitiated, so that it is not compulsory to undertake the consecration.

'There are countless other rules besides these, all that either rest upon unwritten customs and usages, or are contained in the laws themselves. Let no man himself do what he hates to have done to him: let him not take up what he did not lay down, neither from garden, wine-press, nor threshing-floor: let him not steal from a heap anything whatever, great or small; let him not begrudge fire to one that asks it; not shut up running waters; but to beggars and cripples collecting food, give it. as a pious offering to God.

'Hinder not a corpse from burial, but help them to cast on more earth, enough at least for natural piety: disturb not at all the graves or monuments of the departed: add not bonds nor any further trouble to him who is in distress: destroy not the generative power of men by excision, nor of women by abortive drugs and other contrivances. Deal not with animals contrary to the way which either God or a lawgiver has enjoined: destroy not seed: enslave not thy offspring. Substitute not an unjust balance, nor a short measure, nor false coin: betray not the secrets of friends in a quarrel. What place then, in God's name, can we give to those famous Buzygia?

'But look at other precepts besides these. Separate not parents from children, not even if they are thy captives; nor wife from husband, even if thou art their master by lawful purchase. These, doubtless, are very grave and important commandments: but there are others of a trifling and ordinary character.2 Rifle not the bird's nest under thy roof: reject not the supplication of animals which flee as it were sometimes for protection: abstain from any harm that may be even less than these. You may say that these are matters of no importance; but at all events the law which governs them is important, and is the cause of very careful observance; the warnings also are important, and the imprecations of utter destruction, and God's oversight of such matters, and His presence as an avenger in every place.'

Then after a few sentences he says:

'Are you not surprised that during a whole day, perchance, or rather not one day only, but many, and these not following one another in immediate succession, but after intervals of as many as seven days (while the custom of the ordinary days always prevailed as is natural), they yet should not have transgressed one of these commandments? Does not this (you may ask) result merely from their practice of self-restraint, so that they are equally strong to work actively in any labour, and to cease from their work if necessary? Certainly not. But the Lawgiver thought it was necessary, even though at the cost of some great and extraordinary pains, that they should not only be able equally to do or leave undone all other things, but that they should be moreover well acquainted with their ancestral laws and customs.

'What then did he do on these seventh days? He required them to assemble in the same place, and to sit down one with another in reverent and orderly manner, and listen to the laws, in order that none might be ignorant of them.

'And so in fact they do always meet together and sit down one with another, most of them in silence, except when it is customary to add a word of good omen to what is being read. But some priest who is present, or one of the old men, reads to them the holy laws, and explains each separately till nearly eventide: and after that they are allowed to depart with a knowledge of their holy laws, and with great improvement in piety.

'Do you not think this is more necessary for them than the most urgent business? So then they do not come to oracular interpreters with questions about what they should do or not do, nor do they of themselves act recklessly from ignorance of the laws; but whomsoever of them you accost and interrogate about the national customs, he can tell you readily and easily; and each seems qualified to impart a knowledge of the laws, husband to wife, and father to children, and master to servants.

'Moreover it is easy to speak concerning the seventh year in like manner, though not perhaps quite the same. For they do not themselves abstain from work, as on those seventh days, but they leave their land fallow until the time comes again, for the sake of productiveness. For they think that it is much better after having had a rest, and that then it may be tilled for the next year, without having been exhausted by the continuance of cultivation.

'The same thing you may see conducing to strength in our bodies; since it is not with a view to health only that physicians prescribe intervals of rest and certain relaxations from work: for what is always continuous and monotonous, especially in the case of labour, seems to be hurtful.

'And this is a proof of it: for if any one were to promise to cultivate the land itself for them much more this seventh year than before, and to yield up all the fruits entirely to them, they would by no means accept it. For they think that they not only themselves need to rest from their labours (though even if they did so, it would be nothing strange), but that their land needs to get some relaxation and repose for a fresh beginning of care and cultivation afterwards.

'Else what was there, on God's part, to hinder them in the past year from letting the land beforehand, and collecting from those who cultivated it their tribute of the (seventh) year's produce?

But, as I said, they will in no wise accept anything of this kind, from care, as I think, for the land.

'And of their humanity, the following is in truth a great proof. For since they themselves rest from their work in that year, they think that they ought not to collect or store up the fruits that are produced, as not accruing to them from their own labours: but inasmuch as it is God who has provided for them these fruits, which the land produces of its own accord, they think it right that any who choose or are in want, travellers and others, should enjoy them with impunity.

'Now on these points you have heard enough. For as to their Law having already established these rules for the seventh-day sabbaths you are not likely to question me, having probably often heard of this before from many physicians, and physiologists, and philosophers, what kind of influence it has upon the nature of all things, and especially upon the nature of man. This is the account of the seventh day.'

So far Philo. A similar account to his is given also by Josephus, in the second Book of his work On the Antiquity of the Jews, where he too writes in the following manner:

[admin]

Part 2 of 3

CHAPTER VIII

[JOSEPHUS] 3 'BUT who it was that made the best laws, and attained the worthiest belief concerning God, it is easy for us to discern from the laws themselves by comparing them one with another: for it is time now to speak of these points.

'Now although the particular differences in the customs and laws received among all mankind are infinite, one may go over them thus in a summary way.

'For some entrusted the authority of their civil government to monarchies, and some to oligarchical dynasties, and others to the commons. Our Lawgiver, however, paid no regard at all to these, but rendered our government, as one might call it by a strained expression, a Theocracy, ascribing the authority and the power to God, and persuading all the people to look unto Him, as being the Author of all good things, both those which are possessed by all men in common, and whatever they themselves obtained by praying to Him in difficulties; persuading them also that it was not possible for any either of one's actions or of one's inward thoughts to escape His knowledge.

'But Him he represented as uncreated, and for ever unchangeable, surpassing in beauty all mortal form, and unknown in His essential nature, though known to us by His power.

'I do not now stay to show that the wisest among the Greeks were taught to entertain these thoughts of God from the principles which he supplied: but that these thoughts are honourable and becoming to God's nature and majesty, they have borne strong testimony; for Pythagoras and Anaxagoras and Plato, and the Stoic philosophers who came after him, and almost all others, have evidently entertained such thoughts of God's nature.

'But whereas these men addressed their philosophy to few, and did not dare to publish the truth of their doctrine to multitudes prejudiced with other opinions, our Legislator, inasmuch as he made his actions agree with his laws, not only persuaded the men of his own time, but also inspired those who were to be begotten of them in every age with a belief in God that nothing could remove.

'And the reason was, that he far surpassed all others in the tendency of his legislation towards utility. For he did not make religion a part of virtue, but made other things parts of religion, and so looked at them all together and established them: I mean justice, temperance, fortitude, and the agreement of fellow citizens one with another in all things.

'For all our actions and occupations, and all our discourse, have reference to piety towards our God: and none of these did he leave unexamined nor undetermined.

'For there are in all education and moral training two methods, the one of which instructs by word, and the other by the training of moral habits. Other legislators therefore were divided in their judgements, and having chosen the one of these ways, each whichever pleased him, neglected the other. As for instance the Lacedaemonians and Cretans used to educate by habits, not by words; but the Athenians, and nearly all the other Greeks, enjoined by the laws what things men ought to do or leave undone, but took little care to habituate them thereto by actual deeds.

'Our Lawgiver, however, combined both these ways with great care; for he neither left the practice of moral habits without explanation in words, nor suffered the teaching of the Law to go unpractised; but beginning at once from the nurture of infancy and from every man's domestic mode of life, he left none even of the smallest matters freely dependent upon the wishes of those who were to deal with them; but even about kinds of food, from which one must abstain, and which one must adopt, and concerning those who should live in common with them, and concerning their diligence in labour and on the other hand their rest, he himself made the Law a limit and a rule, in order that living under this as a father and a master we might neither wilfully nor through ignorance commit any sin.

'For he did not leave even the excuse from ignorance, but appointed the Law to be both the best and most necessary instruction, to be heard by them not merely once, nor twice nor many times; but every week he commanded them to desist from all other employments, and assemble for the hearing of the Law, and to learn it thoroughly and exactly, a thing which all legislators seem to have neglected.

'And so far are the greatest part of mankind from living according to their own laws, that they hardly even know them; but when they sin, then they learn from others, that they have transgressed the law. Those too who administer the greatest and most absolute powers among them acknowledge their ignorance, for they appoint those who profess to be expert in the laws to preside with them over the administration of affairs.

'But any one of us whom a man might ask about the laws would tell them all more easily th'an his own name. So by learning them thoroughly as soon as ever we become sensible of anything, we have them engraven as it were on our souls: and while there are few who transgress, no plea can possibly save from punishment.

'It is this before all things that has produced in us so wonderful an agreement. For to have one and the same opinion concerning God, and no difference between one and another, is our daily life and customs, produces a most excellent harmony in men's moral dispositions.

'For among us alone a man will hear no statements concerning God contradictory one to another, though such things are frequent in other nations; for not only by ordinary men is the casual feeling of each expressed, but even among some of the philosophers there has been the same rashness of utterance, some having undertaken to exterminate God's nature altogether by their arguments, while others deprive Him of His providence over mankind. Nor will one observe any difference in the habits of life; but among us there is a community in all men's actions, and unity of statement, in agreement with the Law, concerning God, declaring that He takes oversight of all things.

'Moreover in regard to our habits of life, a man may learn even from women and servants that all other things must have piety for their end. Hence also has resulted the charge which some bring against us, that we have not produced men who were inventors of novelties in words or in works.

'For others think it a fine thing to abide by no customs derived from their forefathers, and testify to the shrewd wisdom of those who are boldest in transgressing them: but we on the contrary have understood that the only wisdom and virtue is neither in act nor in thought to contradict at all the original enactments of our Law.

'And this conduct may reasonably be considered a proof that the Law was admirably ordained. For ordinances which have not this character are proved by the tests of experience to require amendment: but for us, who were persuaded that the Law was from the beginning ordained in accordance with God's will, it would thenceforth have been impious not to guard it safely.

'For what part of it could one have altered? Or what could one have discovered better, or what transferred from other laws as more useful? Should the whole constitution of the state have been altered? But what could be nobler or more just than the constitution which has made God ruler of the whole, and allows the administration of the chief affairs to the priests in common, but withal has entrusted the government over the other priests to the Chief Priest of all?

'These from the very first the Lawgiver appointed to their honourable office, not as superior in wealth nor in any other accidental advantages; but he placed the service of God in the hands of those of his companions who excelled others in persuasiveness and prudence.

'And herein was an exact care both of the Law and of the other institutions: for the priests were appointed overseers of all things, and judges of disputed matters, and punishers of those who had been condemned.

'What government then could be more holy than this? Or what honour more befitting to God, since the whole people were trained to religion, and the priests entrusted with an especial superintendence, and the whole state administered in the manner of a religious solemnity?

'For what other nations call "mysteries" and "solemnities," and cannot observe in practice for a few days, these things we observe through our whole lifetime with much delight and unalterable purpose.

'What then are these premonitions and proclamations? They are simple and easily known. And the first and leading precept is that which says of God, God holds all things together, being all-perfect, and blessed, sufficing for Himself and for all; He is the beginning, middle, and end of all things, manifest in His works and gifts, and more conspicuous than any other being whatsoever, but to us in form and magnitude most invisible.

'Every material, costly though it be, is unworthy to form His image; and every art unskilled to conceive a similitude: no likeness of Him was ever seen or conceived, or may without impiety be represented.

'His works we behold, light, heaven, earth, sun and moon, waters, generations of animals, produce of fruits. These things God made, not with hands, not with labour, not with need of any fellow workers, but when He willed them to be beautiful, at once they were born in beauty.

'Him all must follow, and serve Him in the practice of virtue; for this mode of worshipping God is the most holy.

'One temple of One God (for like is ever dear to like), a temple common to all men for the common God of all. The priests continually serve Him, and their leader is ever the first by birth. He together with his fellow priests is to offer sacrifices to God, to guard the laws, to judge of disputed matters, to punish the convicted. Whoever refuses to obey him must suffer punishment, as guilty of impiety towards God Himself.

'The sacrifices which we offer are not for our own surfeit and drunkenness (for these things are contrary to God's will, and may be made a pretext for insolence and extravagance), but are sober, orderly, and simply arranged, that in sacrificing men may be most temperate. Also at the sacrifices we must first pray for the common salvation, and then for ourselves, for we are made for fellowship; and he who esteems this higher than his private interest would be most acceptable to God.

'In prayer let God be invoked and entreated, not that He give good things (for He has given them of His own free will, and has imparted them in common to all), but that we may be able to receive them, and, when we have gotten, to keep them.

'At the offering of sacrifices the Law has prescribed purifications from mourning for the dead, from defilement, from conjugal intercourse, and many other things, which it would be too long now to write. Such is our doctrine concerning God and His worship, and the same is also our law.4

'Now what are the laws concerning marriages? Our law recognizes no other than the natural intercourse with a wife, and that, if it is to be for the sake of children. The intercourse of males it abhors; and should any one attempt it, the penalty is death.

'It bids men marry, not out of regard to dowry, nor by forcible abduction, nor yet by crafty and deceitful persuasion, but to ask a woman in marriage from him who has the right to give her, and a woman suitable in respect of kin. Woman, it says, is inferior to man in all things: therefore let her obey, not to be insulted, but that she may be ruled: for God gave power to the man.

'With her alone the husband must consort, and to attempt another's wife is unholy. But should any one do this, no entreaty can save him from death; nor if he should violate a virgin betrothed to another man, nor if he should entice a married woman.

'All children the Law ordered to be reared; and forbade women to cause abortion or to destroy what is begotten: but if discovered, she would be guilty of child-murder, for destroying life, and diminishing the human race.

'So then if any should proceed to defile the marriage-bed, he can no longer be pure. Even after the lawful intercourse of man and wife, the Law enjoins ablution: it supposed this act to involve a transference of part of the soul to another place. For by growing into union with bodies the soul suffers ill, and again when separated from them by death. For which reason, in all such cases, the Law appointed purifications.

'Moreover, not even on the birthdays of children did it permit us to celebrate a feast and make pretexts for drunkenness; but it directed the very beginning of education to be temperate, and commanded us to instruct children in the learning that relates to the laws, and that they should be acquainted with the deeds of their forefathers; in order that they may imitate these deeds, and being bred up in those laws may neither transgress them, nor have any excuse from ignorance.

'It provided for the reverence due to the dead, not by costly funeral rites, nor by erection of conspicuous monuments, but appointed the nearest relations to perform the usual obsequies, and made it customary for all who were passing by at the time of a burial to draw near and join in the mourning. It also commands that the house and its inhabitants be purified from the defilement of death, in order that one who has committed murder may be very far from thinking that he is undefiled.

'It ordained the honour of parents to be next to that of God; and the son who does not requite the benefits received from them, but fails in any point, it delivers over to be stoned.

'It also says that the young must pay honour to every elder, since the eldest of all things is God.

'It does not permit the concealment of anything from friends, because that is no friendship which does not trust in all things: and if any enmity occur, it has forbidden the disclosure of their secrets.

'Should any one acting as a judge take bribes, the penalty is death. If one disregards a suppliant, when it is in his power to help him, he is responsible. What a man did not lay down, he must not take up. He is not to touch anything belonging to another. If he has lent money, he must not take usury. These ordinances, and many like to these, bind close our fellowship with one another.

'But it is worth while to see also what was the mind of our Lawgiver in regard to equity towards men of other nations: for it will appear that he made the best of all provision, that we might neither destroy our own institutions, nor begrudge those who wished to share in them.

'For all who are willing to come and live under the same laws with us, he receives in a friendly spirit, considering that affinity consists not only in race, but also in the purpose of life: but those who come to us only casually he did not wish to be mixed up in close communion with us.

'He has, however, prescribed the other gifts which we are bound to impart; to supply to all that are in need fire, water, and food, to show them the roads, not to leave a corpse unburied.

'Also in the treatment of those who are judged to be our enemies we must be equitable: for he does not let us ravage their land with fire, nor has he permitted us to cut down fruit-trees; nay more, he has forbidden us to spoil those who have fallen in battle, and has provided for captives, that no outrage be done to them, especially to women.

'So far did he carry his zeal to teach us gentleness and humanity, that he did not neglect the care even of brute beasts; but permitted only the accustomed use of them, and forbade all other. Any of them which take refuge in our houses, like suppliants as it were, he forbade us to destroy; nor did he suffer us to slay the parents with the young: he bade us spare the labouring cattle even in an enemy's country, and not put them to death.

'Thus did he provide on all sides what tended to clemency, by using the aforesaid laws to instruct us, and on the other hand enacting the penal laws without any excuse against those who transgress. For most of the transgressors the penalty is death, if one commit adultery, if he violate a damsel, if he dare to make attempt on a man, if one so attempted submit to be abused.

'In the case of slaves, also, the Law is equally inexorable. Moreover, if any one should cheat in regard to measures or weights, or in an unfair and fraudulent sale, and if one steal another's property, and take up what he did not lay down, for all these there are penalties, not merely such as in other nations but more severe.

'For in regard to injury to parents, or impiety towards God, if a man even think of it, he is immediately put to death.

'For those, however, who act in all things according to the laws there is a reward not of silver nor gold, no, nor yet a crown of wild-olive or parsley, with a corresponding proclamation; but each man who has the testimony of his own conscience is persuaded by the prophetic declaration of the Lawgiver, and by God's confirmation of his faith, that to those who have constantly kept His laws, and would readily die, if it were needful in their defence, God granted that they should be born again, and receive in exchange a better life.

'I should hesitate to write thus now, were it not manifest to all by their actions that many of our countrymen many times ere now, to avoid uttering a word against the Law, have nobly preferred to endure all sufferings. And yet had it not been the case that our nation is well known to all men, and that our voluntary obedience to the laws is manifest, but had some one either read them to the Greeks, saying that he had written them himself, or had asserted that somewhere out of the limits of the known world he had met with men, who held such a reverent notion concerning God, and had through long ages lived in constant obedience to such laws, I think that all men would have marvelled, because of the continual changes among themselves. At all events when men have attempted to write anything of a like kind in regard to polity and laws, they charge them with having made a collection of marvels, and assert that they adopted impossible assumptions.

'And here I say nothing of those other philosophers who dealt with any such subject in their writings: but Plato, though admired among the Greeks, both as distinguished by gravity of life, and as having surpassed all who have been engaged in philosophy in power of expression and persuasiveness, is little better than scoffed at continually and ridiculed by those who claim to be clever in political matters.

'And yet any one examining his writings would constantly find things milder and more nearly like the customs of mankind in general. And Plato himself has confessed that it was not safe to publish the true opinion concerning God to the unintelligent multitudes. Some, however, think that Plato's discourses are empty words written in a fine style of great authority.

Among lawgivers Lycurgus has been most admired; and all men sing the praises of Sparta for having so long patiently endured his laws.

'Well then, let it be confessed that this is a proof of virtue, to be obedient to the laws. But let those who admire the Lacedaemonians compare their duration with the more than two thousand years of our political constitution: and let them further consider that though the Lacedaemonians seemed to observe their laws strictly so long as they retained their own liberty, yet when changes of fortune occurred to them they forgot almost all their laws: but we, though involved in countless vicissitudes, because of the changes of the ruling monarchs of Asia, yet never even in the extremities of danger betrayed our laws.'

These are the statements of Josephus concerning the political constitution of the Jews established by Moses. But with regard to the allegorical meaning shadowed out in the laws enacted by him, though I might say much, I think it sufficient to mention the narratives of Eleazar and Aristobulus, men originally of Hebrew descent, and, as to date, distinguished in the times of the Ptolemies.

Of these Eleazar, as we showed a little above, had been honoured with the dignity of the High-Priesthood, and when the ambassadors had come to him from the king for the sake of the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek tongue, he sketches out the nature of the allegorical sense in the sacred laws, and presents the doctrine of his discourse in the following form:

CHAPTER IX

[ARISTEAS] 5 'IT is worth while to mention briefly the information which he gave in answer to our inquiries: for some things included in the legislation usually seem to most persons to be over-scrupulous, I mean about meats and drinks, and the animals supposed to be unclean.

'For when we asked why, though there is but one and the same creation, some animals are considered unclean for eating and some even for touching, the legislation, which is superstitious in most things, is especially superstitious in these distinctions; in answer to this he began as follows.

'You observe, he said, what an effect is wrought in us by our modes of life and our associations, because, by associating with the bad, men catch their depravities, and are miserable through their whole life. But if they live with wise and prudent persons, instead of ignorance they secure an improvement in their mode of life.

'Our Lawgiver therefore determined first the things pertaining to godliness and righteousness, and gave particular instructions concerning them, not by prohibitions only, but also by examples, showing manifestly both the injurious effects, and the visitations wrought by God upon the guilty.

'For he explained first of all that God is One alone, and that His power is made manifest through all things, every place being filled with His dominion; and nothing that is secretly done by men on earth escapes His knowledge, but all a man's deeds stand open and manifest before Him, as also the things that shall be.

'Working out these truths therefore accurately, and having made them clear, he showed that if a man should even think of working wickedness, not to say, perpetrate it, he would not escape detection; for he showed that the power of God pervades the whole legislation.

'Having therefore made this commencement, he also showed that all mankind except ourselves believe that there are many gods, though they are themselves far more powerful than those whom they vainly worship. For when they have made statues of stone or wood, they say that they are images of those who invented something useful to them in life, and they fall down and worship them, though they have proof at hand of their insensibility.

'For to ascribe it to this cause, I mean to their invention, would be utterly foolish; since they only took some of the things already created, and by combining them showed more clearly that their constitution is most useful, but did not themselves make them: wherefore it was a vain and foolish thing to make gods of men like themselves.

'For even now there are many men more inventive and more learned than those of former times, and they should at once fall down and worship them!

'The makers of these images and authors of these legends think that they are the wisest of the Greeks. For of the other utterly foolish people why need we even speak, Egyptians and the like, who have placed their reliance upon wild beasts and most kinds of creeping things and cattle, and worship them, and offer sacrifice to them both while living and when dead?

'So then our Lawgiver in his wisdom having taken a comprehensive view of everything, and having been prepared by God for knowledge of the whole, hedged us round with unbroken ramparts and with walls of iron, so that we might not be mixed up at all with any of the other nations, but remain pure in body and soul, freed from vain imaginations, and worshipping the One God more than the whole creation.

'Hence the leading priests of the Egyptians, having looked closely into many matters, and gained a knowledge of our affairs, surname us men of God: a title which belongs to no others, except any who worship the true God; but the rest are men (not of God, but) of meats and drinks and clothing; for they are wholly disposed to betake themselves to these things.

'By our people such things are held in no esteem, but throughout their whole life their contemplation is concerned with the government of God. Lest therefore by sharing in any defilement, or associating with evil, we should ourselves become depraved, they hedged us round on all sides with rules of abstinence, by lawful meats and drinks, and touch, and hearing, and sight.

'For, speaking generally, all things are alike in reference to the natural order, as being governed by one power, and yet taken singly there is a deep reason in each case as to the things which we abstain from using, and those which we use in common.

'To give an example, I will run over one or two things and explain them to you. For I would not have you fall into the degraded notion that Moses enacted these laws from superstitious scruples on account of flies, and weasels, or such things as these; but all things have been reverently ordered with a view to holy circumspection, and perfecting of moral dispositions, for righteousness' sake.

'For all the birds that we use are tame and distinguished by cleanliness, feeding on various kinds of grain and pulse, as pigeons, doves, moor-fowls, partridges, geese also, and all other birds of this kind. But the birds which are forbidden you will find to be fierce and carnivorous, a tyrannizing over the others by the strength with which they are endowed, and feeding with cruelty upon the wasteful slaughter of the tame birds before-mentioned. And not only so, but they also seize lambs and kids, and hurt human beings too, whether alive or dead.

'So by calling them unclean he by them gave a sign, that those for whom the legislation is ordained must practise justice in their soul, and not tyrannize over any one in reliance upon their own strength, nor rob them of any single thing, but steer their course of life according to justice, as the tame animals among the birds before-mentioned consume the kinds of pulse that grow upon the earth, and do not tyrannize to the destruction either of those beneath them or of their own kind.

'The Lawgiver therefore taught that by such means as these indications are given to the wise, to be just, and accomplish nothing by violence, and not tyrannize over others in reliance upon their own strength.

'For whereas it was not proper even to touch the animals before-mentioned on account of their several dispositions, ought we not to guard by all means against our moral habits being broken down to this degree?

'So then all the permissions given in case of these birds and of the cattle he has set forth in a figurative sense. For the division of the hoof and separation of the claws is a sign that we should make a distinction in every particular of our actions towards the side of right. 'For the strength of our whole bodies when in action depends for support upon the shoulders and the legs: therefore by the signification herein given he obliges us to perform all our actions with discrimination towards justice; and especially because we have been distinctly set apart from all men.

'For the majority of the other nations defile themselves by promiscuous intercourse, working great iniquity; and whole districts and cities pride themselves hereupon. For they not only have intercourse with males, but also defile women after child-birth, and even daughters: but from these nations we have been distinctly separated.

'But as man is the object to which the aforesaid symbol of separation refers, so has the Lawgiver also characterized the symbol of memory as referring to him. For all animals which divide the hoof and chew the cud manifestly set forth to the thoughtful the idea of memory. For rumination is nothing else than a reminiscence of life and sustenance.

'For life is wont to be sustained by means of food. Wherefore he exhorts us by the Scripture in these words: "Thou shalt surely remember the Lord God, who wrought in thee those great and wonderful things." 6

'For when closely observed they are manifestly glorious, first the construction of the body, and the distribution of the food, and the distinction of each separate limb, and far more the orderly disposition of the senses, the action of the mind and its invisible movement, its quickness in acting according to each occurrence, and its invention of arts, have a delightful character.

'Wherefore he exhorts us to remember how the aforesaid parts are held together and preserved by a divine power. For he has marked out every place and time with a view to our continually remembering the God who rules them, while we observe the beginning, and the middle, and the end of each.

'For in the case of meats and drinks he bids us first consecrate a part, and then straightway use the rest. Moreover from the borders of our garments he has given us a symbol of remembrance: and in like manner he has commanded us also to set the inspired words upon our gates and doors, to be a remembrance of God. Also upon our hands he expressly commands the symbol to be fastened, clearly showing that we ought to perform every action in righteousness, keeping a remembrance of our own creation, but in all things remembering the fear of God.

'He bids men also when lying down to sleep, and rising up, and walking in the way, to meditate upon the works of God, not only in word, but also by observing distinctly their own movement and their self-consciousness, when they are going to sleep, and then their waking, how the alternation of these states is divine and incomprehensible.

'There has been shown to you also the excellence of the analogy in regard to distinction and memory, according to our explanation of the division of the hoof and the chewing of the cud. For the laws have not been enacted without consideration and just according to what came into the mind; but with a view to truth and to the indication of right reason.

'For after the several directions about meats and drinks and cases of touching, he bids us neither to do nor to listen to anything thoughtlessly, nor to resort to injustice by employing the mastery of language.

'In the case of the wild animals also the same principle may be discovered. For the disposition of the weasel, and of mice, and such animals as these, which have been expressly mentioned, is destructive. For mice defile and damage all things, not only for their own food, but even so far as to render utterly useless to man everything whatsoever it falls in their way to damage.

'The weasel-kind too is singular: for, besides what has been said above, it has a mischievous constitution; for it conceives through the ears, and brings forth by the mouth. For this reason therefore such a disposition is declared impure for mankind. For by embodying in speech all that they have received through hearsay, they involve others in evils, and being themselves utterly defiled by the pollution of their impiety, work no ordinary impurity.

'And your king, as we are informed, does quite right in destroying such men.

'Then, said I, you mean, I suppose, the informers; for he continually exposes them to tortures and to painful kinds of death.

'Why yes, he said, I do mean these: for watching for men's destruction is an unholy thing: and our law commands us to hurt nobody by word nor deed.

'On these subjects therefore it is enough for a brief description to have shown you, that all things have been regulated with a view to righteousness, and nothing has been appointed by the Scripture at random nor in a fabulous way; but in order that throughout our whole life we may in our actual conduct practise righteousness towards all men, remembering the God who is our Governor.

'So concerning lawful meats and things unclean, creeping things and wild beasts, the whole system aims at righteousness,and the just intercourse of mankind.

'To me then he seemed to have made a good defence on the several points. For with reference also to the calves and rams and goats which were to be offered, he said that we should take these from the herds and flocks and make them tame, and offer no wild or fierce animal, that the offerers of the sacrifices, having perceived the symbolic meaning of the lawgiver, might feel no arrogant self-consciousness.

'For he who brings the sacrifice makes the offering of the whole disposition, of his own soul. Therefore on these points also I think that the particulars of our conversation are worthy of consideration, because of the august character of the law, which I have been led on to explain clearly to you, Philocrates, for the love of learning which you entertain.'

These are the accurate distinctions concerning the idea set forth allegorically in the sacred laws, which the High Priest gave to those Greeks who had come to him, thinking them likely to meet with the translations of the Scriptures which were about to be published. But it is time to hear what Aristobulus, who had partaken of Aristotle's philosophy in addition to that of his own country, declared concerning the passages in the Sacred Books which are currently understood to refer to limbs of God's body. This is that very man who is mentioned in the beginning of the Second Book of Maccabees:7 and in his writing addressed to King Ptolemy he too explains this principle.

CHAPTER X

[ARISTOBULUS] 'WHEN, however, we had said enough in answer to the questions put before us, you also, O king, did further demand, why by our law there are intimations given of hands, and arm, and face, and feet, and walking, in the case of the Divine Power: which things shall receive a becoming explanation, and will not at all contradict the opinions which we have previously expressed.

'But I would entreat you to take the interpretations in a natural way, and to hold fast the fitting conception of God, and not to fall off into the idea of a fabulous anthropomorphic constitution.

'For our lawgiver Moses, when he wishes to express his meaning in various ways, announces certain arrangements of nature and preparations for mighty deeds, by adopting phrases applicable to other things, I mean to things outward and visible.

'Those therefore who have a good understanding admire his wisdom, and the divine inspiration in consequence of which he has been proclaimed a prophet;8 among whom are the aforesaid philosophers and many others, including poets, who have borrowed important suggestions from him, and are admired accordingly.

'But to those who are devoid of power and intelligence, and only cling close to the letter, he does not appear to explain any grand idea.

'I shall begin then to interpret each particular signification, as far as I may be able. But if I shall fail to hit upon the truth, and to persuade you, do not impute the inconsistency to the Lawgiver, but to my want of ability to distinguish clearly the thoughts in his mind.

'First then the word "hands" evidently has, even in our own case, a more general meaning. For when you as a king send out forces, wishing to accomplish some purpose, we say, The king has a mighty hand, and the hearers' thoughts are carried to the power which you possess.

'Now this is what Moses also signifies in our Law, when he speaks thus : "God brought thee forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand";9 and again: "I will put forth My hand," saith God, "and will smite the Egyptians." 10 Again in the account of the death of the cattle Moses says to Pharaoh : "Behold, the hand of the Lord shall be upon thy cattle, and upon all that are in the fields a great death." 11 So that the "hands" are understood of the power of God: for indeed it is easy to perceive that the whole strength of men and their active powers are in their hands.

'Wherefore our Lawgiver, in saying that the effects are God's hands, has made the word a beautiful metaphor of majesty. The constitution too of the world may well be called for its majesty God's standing; for God is over all, and all things are subject unto Him, and have received from Him their station, so that men may comprehend that they are immovable. Now my meaning is like this, that heaven has never become earth, and earth heaven, nor the sun become the shining moon, nor again the moon become the sun, nor rivers seas, nor seas rivers.

'And again in the case of living beings there is the same principle. For man will never be beast, nor beast man. In the case of all the rest too the same rule exists, of plants and all other things: they are not interchangeable, but are subject to the same changes in themselves, and to decay.

'In these ways then God may rightly be spoken of as standing, since all things are set under Him. It is said too in the book of the Law that there was a descent of God upon the mountain, at the time when He was giving the Law, in order that all might behold the operation of God: for this is a manifest descent; and so any one wishing to guard safely the doctrine of God would interpret these circumstances as follows.12

'It is declared that the mountain burned with fire, as the Lawgiver says, because God had descended upon it, and that there were the voices of trumpets, and the fire blazing so that none could withstand it.

'For while the whole multitude, not less than a thousand thousands, besides those of unfit age, were assembled around the mount, the circuit of it being not less than five days' journey, in every part of the view around them all as they were encamped the fire was seen blazing.

'So that the descent was not local; for God is everywhere. But whereas the power of fire is beyond all things marvellous because it consumes everything, he could not have shown it blazing irresistibly, yet consuming nothing, unless there were the efficacy given to it from God.

'For though the places were all ablaze, the fire did not actually consume any of the things which grew upon that mountain: but the herbage of all remained untouched by fire, and the voices of trumpets were loudly heard together with the lightning-like flashing of the fire, though there were no such instruments present nor any that sounded them, but all things were done by divine arrangement.

'So that it is plain that the divine descent took place for these reasons, that the spectators might have a manifest comprehension of the several circumstances, that neither the fire which, as I said before, burnt nothing, nor the voices of the trumpets were produced by human action or a supply of instruments, but that God without any aid was exhibiting His own all-pervading majesty.'

Thus far Aristobulus. Now since we have gone through the commandments of the Sacred Laws, and the nature of the idea allegorically expressed in them, it would be next in order to indicate the following point, that the whole Jewish nation is divided into two sections. And while the Lawgiver meant to lead the multitude on gently by the precepts of the laws as enjoined according to the literal sense, the other class, consisting of those who had acquired a habit of virtue, he meant to exempt from this sense, and required them to give attention to a philosophy of a diviner kind too highly exalted for the multitude, and to contemplation of the things signified in the meaning of the laws.

Now this was the class of Jewish philosophers at whose strict course of life thousands even of foreigners were struck with admiration, while the most distinguished of their own countrymen, Josephus and Philo, and many others deemed them worthy of everlasting remembrance. But passing by most of these statements, I will be content at present, just merely for the sake of an example, with the testimony of Philo concerning the said persons, which he has set down in many places of his own memoirs. And of these do you take and read the following from his Apology for the Jews:

[admin]

Part 3 of 3

CHAPTER XI

[PHILO] 13 'BUT our Lawgiver trained to community of living many thousands of his disciples, who are called Essenes because, as I suppose, of their holiness. They dwell in many cities of Judaea and many villages, and in large and populous societies.

'Their sect is formed not by family-descent, for descent is not reckoned among matters of choice, but on account of zeal for virtue and a longing for brotherly love.

'Accordingly there is among the Essenes no mere child, nor even a scarce-bearded lad, or young man; since of such as these the moral dispositions are unstable and apt to change in accordance with their imperfect age: but they are all men full-grown and already verging upon old age, as being no longer swept by the flood of bodily impulses, nor led by their passions, but in the enjoyment of the genuine and only real liberty.

'And their mode of life is an evidence of this liberty: none ventures to acquire any private property at all, no house, nor slave, nor farm, nor cattle, nor any of the other things which procure or minister to wealth; but they deposit them all in public together, and enjoy the benefit of all in common.

'And they dwell together in one place, forming clubs and messes in companies, and they pass their whole time in managing every kind of business for the common good.

'But different members have different occupations, to which they strenuously devote themselves, and toil on with unwearied patience, making no excuses of cold or heat or any changes of weather: but before the sun is up they turn to their usual employments, and hardly give up at its setting, delighting in. work no less than those who are being trained in gymnastic contests.

'For whatever occupation they follow, they imagine that these exercises are more beneficial to life, and more pleasant to soul and body, and more permanent than athletics, because they do not become unseasonable as the vigour of the body declines.

'For some of them labour in the fields, being skilled in matters relating to sowing and tillage, and others are herdsmen, being masters of all kinds of cattle; and some attend to swarms of bees.

'Others again are craftsmen in various arts, who, in order to avoid any of the sufferings which the wants of the necessaries of life impose, reject none of the innocent ways of gaining a livelihood.

'Of the men then who thus differ in occupation every one on receiving his wages gives them to one person who is the appointed steward: and he, on receiving them, immediately purchases the necessary provisions, and supplies abundance of food, and all other things of which man's life is in need.

'And they who live together and share the same table are content with the same things every day, being lovers of frugality, and abhorring prodigality as a disease of soul and body.

'Not only have they a common table, but also common raiment: for there are set out in winter thick cloaks, and in summer cheap tunics, so that any one who will may easily take'whichever he likes, since what belongs to one is considered to belong to all, and the property of all to be on the other hand the property of each one.

'Moreover if any of them should fall sick, he is medically treated out of the common resources, and attended by the care and anxiety of all. And so the old men, even if they happen to be childless, are wont to end their life in a very happy and bright old age, inasmuch as they are blest with sons both many and good, being held worthy of attention and honour by so many, who from free good will rather than from any bond of natural birth feel it right to cherish them.

'Further then as they saw with keen discernment the thing which alone, or most of all, was likely to dissolve their community, they repudiated marriage and also practised continence in an eminent degree. For no Essene takes to himself a wife, because woman is immoderately selfish and jealous, and terribly clever in decoying a man's moral inclinations, and bringing them into subjection by continual cajoleries.

'For when, by practising flattering speeches and the other arts as of an actress on the stage, she has deluded eyes and ears, then as having thoroughly deceived the servants she proceeds to cajole the master mind.

'And should she have children, she is filled with pride and boldness of speech, and what she formerly used to hint under the disguise of irony, all this she now speaks out with greater audacity, and shamelessly compels him to practices, every one of which is hostile to community of life.

'For the man who is either ensnared by the charms of a wife, or by force of natural affection makes children Ins first care, is no longer the same towards others, but has unconsciously become changed from a free man to a slave.

'So enviable then is the life of these Essenes, that not only private persons, but also great kings are filled with admiration and amazement at the men, and make their venerable character still more venerable by marks of approbation and honour.'

Let this quotation suffice from the aforesaid book: but from that on the theme That every good man is free, I will bring forward the following statements:

CHAPTER XII

[PHILO] 14 'ALSO Syria in Palestine, which is occupied by no small part of the very populous nation of the Jews, is not unproductive of honourable virtue.

'There are said to be some among them named Essenes, in number above four thousand, deriving their name, though not, according to my opinion, in an accurate form of the Greek language, from holiness (ὁσιότητος), because they have devoted themselves above all men to the service of God, not by offering animal sacrifices, but by endeavouring to render their own thoughts holy and reverent.

'These men, in the first place, dwell in villages, and avoid the cities because of the civilized vices of the citizens, knowing that an incurable contagion arises in the soul from a man's associates, just as a disease from a pestilential atmosphere.

'Of these men some benefit themselves and their neighbours by tilling the ground, and some by pursuing any arts that contribute to peace; not laying up treasures of silver and gold, nor acquiring large sections of land from desire of revenues, but procuring only enough for the necessary wants of life.

'For they alone of nearly all mankind having neither money nor possessions themselves (from set purpose more than from want of good fortune), are considered to be most wealthy, because they judge moderate wants and contentedness to be, as they really are, abundance.

'Of darts, or javelins, or daggers, or helmet, or breastplate, or shield, you would find no maker among them, nor in short any maker of arms or engines, or any one employed about implements of war: nor yet about things which in times of peace may easily slip into mischievous use: for of commerce, or trade, or ship-owning they do not even dream, abjuring the incentives to covetousness.

'There is not a single slave among them, but all are free, giving help to each other in turn: and masters they condemn, not only as unjust in outraging equality, but also as impious in destroying the holy law of nature, which like a mother having borne and nourished all alike, made them all genuine brothers, not only in name but in very truth.

'But this natural kinship has been thrown into disorder by the excessive prosperity of insidious covetousness, which has wrought alienation instead of kindred affection, and hatred instead of friendship.

'Of philosophy they have left the logical branch to word-catchers, as being unnecessary to the attainment of virtue, and the physical branch to star-gazers, as too high for human nature, except so much of it as is made a study concerning the existence of God and the creation of the universe, but the ethical branch they study very elaborately, under the training of their ancestral laws, the meaning of which it is impossible for the human soul to discern without divine inspiration.

'These laws they are repeatedly taught both at all other times, and especially on every seventh day. For the seventh day is regarded as holy, and on it they abstain from their other works, and come to their holy places, which are called synagogues, and sit in ranks according to their ages, the young below the elder, and listen attentively in becoming order: and while some one takes and reads their sacred books, another of the most experienced comes forward and expounds all that is not easily intelligible: for most subjects are treated among them by symbols with a zealous imitation of antiquity.

'So they are taught piety, holiness, justice, economy, statesmanship, and the knowledge of things which are in reality good, or bad. or indifferent; the choice of what is right, and the avoidance of the contrary, by using laws and rules of three kinds, namely the love of God, the love of virtue, and the love of mankind.

'First then of the love of God thousands of examples are supplied by the constant and uninterrupted purity of their whole course of life, such as their abstinence from oaths, their freedom from falsehood, their belief that the Deity is the cause of all good and of no evil: examples too of their love of virtue, in their freedom from the love of money, of glory, of pleasure, in their continence, their endurance, also their frugality, simplicity, contentedness, their freedom from conceit, their obedience to law, their steadfastness, and all qualities of like character to these: examples also are seen of their love of man in good-will, equality, and community of interests surpassing all description, about which nevertheless it will not be out of season to say a few words.

'In the first place then no single person has any private house, which is not found to be also common to all. For in addition to their living together in companies, the house is also thrown open to those of the same sect who come from other parts.

'Next there is one and the same store and expenditure for all: their garments also are common, and so is their food as they have formed themselves into messes. For among no other people could any one find a common use of the same roof, the same mode of life, and the same table, more firmly established in practice, and perhaps with good reason.

'For whatever they receive as wages after a day's work, they do not keep as their own, but bring it out in public, and supply the benefit of it in common for all who wish to use it. The sick also are not neglected because they are unable to earn anything, but have ready at hand from the common stock what is needed for their sick-diet, so as to spend with perfect freedom out of that larger abundance.

'For elders there is reverence and care, such as parents receive from their own children, their old age being cherished by countless hands and thoughts amid all abundance. Such are the hardy athletes of virtue produced by the philosophy which is free from the superfluous pomp of Greek names, and proposes as exercises those praiseworthy actions, from which the freedom that cannot be enslaved derives its support.

'And of this there is proof, since many tyrants have at various times risen up against our country, who exhibited different natural dispositions and purposes: for some of them, endeavouring to surpass the untamed fierceness of wild beasts, omitted no measures of cruelty, nor ever ceased from slaughtering their subjects in droves, or even, like cooks, tearing them in pieces, limb from limb, while yet alive, until they suffered the same calamities themselves from the justice which keeps watch over human affairs.

'And others converting their wild excitement and frenzy into another kind of wickedness, contrived an indescribable cruelty, while talking gently, and under the disguise of softer language yet betraying the heavy wrath of their disposition, and fawning like venomous dogs, became the authors of irremediable mischief and left in every city memorials of their own impiety and hatred of mankind in the never-to-be forgotten miseries of the sufferers.

'But yet none either of those monsters of cruelty or of those masters of guile and treachery was able to lay anything to the charge of the aforesaid society of the Essenes or Saints; but all were overcome by the noble virtue of the men, and behaved towards them as being free and independent by nature, singing the praises of their joint meals and of that fellowship surpassing all description, which is the clearest proof of a perfect and most happy life.'

It may suffice then that the particulars of the philosophic kind of training and public life among the Jews are set forth by these extracts; and our discourse has previously described the other kind of life, which the divine laws ordained for the mass of the whole nation.

After this then what is left, but to prove also that the theological tenets of the moderns are in harmony with the religious beliefs of their forefathers, so that our discussion of this subject also may be rendered complete?

Since therefore the oracles of the inspired Scripture are set forth in the Book preceding this, let us on the present occasion closely examine the thoughts of the wise men among the Jews, that we may learn what qualities the Hebrews have shown both in theology and in excellence of speech. Again therefore we must have recourse to Philo, from his first Book On the Law.

CHAPTER XIII

[PHILO] 15 'FOR some who admired the world itself more than its Maker represented it as being uncreated and eternal, bringing a false and impious charge of great inactivity against God; whereas they ought on the contrary to have been struck with admiration of His powers as Creator and Father, instead of extolling the world beyond the bounds of moderation.

'But Moses having early attained to the very summit of philosophy, and having been taught by divine oracles the many most binding laws of nature, knew of course that in existing things there must necessarily be both an active cause, and passive principle: and that the active cause, the mind of the universe, is most pure and unmixed, superior to science, and superior to absolute goodness and absolute beauty; while the passive principle is without life, and incapable of self-movement, but having been moved, and newly fashioned, and animated by the mind, has changed this world into the most perfect work: those therefore who assert that it is uncreated have unconsciously cut away the most beneficial and indispensable of the inducements to piety, that is, Providence.

'For reason proves that the Father and Creator should care for that which He has made. For a human father aims at the preservation of his offspring, and an artificer of the works which he has made, and wards off by all means whatever is hurtful, but longs to provide in every way all that is useful and profitable; whereas towards that which he has not made there is no feeling of appropriation in him who has not made it.

'Thus it is an undesirable and unprofitable doctrine to maintain that there is anarchy in this world, as in a city, as though it had neither the ephor, nor arbitrator, nor judge, by whom lawfully all things should be administered and superintended.

'But that great man Moses deemed that the uncreated was most alien from the visible, since all that can be perceived by the senses is subject to generation and to changes, never remaining in the same conditions: he therefore attributed eternity to that which is invisible and only perceived by the mind, as being a brotherly and kindred quality, while to the sensible he assigned "creation" (γένεσιν) as its proper denomination.

'Since therefore this world is visible and sensible, it must necessarily be also created; wherefore it was not beside the mark that he described its creation with a noble description of the nature of God.'

This then is what he has said on the subject of the world haying been created. And the same author in his treatise On Providence states some very vigorous arguments on the question of the universe being administered by Providence, setting out first the objections of the atheists, and answering them in order. And since most of these, though they may appear to be rather long, are nevertheless necessary, I will set them forth in a concise form. He arranges the discussion in the following manner:

CHAPTER XIV

[PHILO] 16 'Do you say that a Providence exists amid so great confusion and disorder of affairs? For which of the conditions of human life has been arranged in order? Nay rather, which is not full of disorder and destruction? Or are you alone ignorant that good things come to the worst and most wicked of mankind in riotous abundance, riches, reputation, honours in the opinion of the multitude, chief power again, health, fine senses, beauty, strength, enjoyment of pleasures uninterrupted because both of the abundance of means, and of the perfectly settled and good constitution of the body, while those who love and practise wisdom and every kind of virtue are, I may almost say, all of them poor, obscure, unhonoured, and of low estate?'

After saying these and numberless other things besides in disproof of Providence, he next proceeds to solve the objections by the following arguments:

'God is not a tyrant who has practised cruelty and violence and all the acts of a despot's merciless rule, but as a king invested with gentle and lawful authority, He governs the whole heaven and the world in righteousness.

'Now a king has no more appropriate title than "father": for what parents are to children in human relationships, such is a king to a city, and God to the world, having combined in indissoluble union by unalterable laws of nature two most noble qualities, the authority of the ruler and the kindly care of a guardian.

'Just as parents therefore do not altogether neglect their dissolute sons, but taking compassion upon their unhappiness watch over and care for them, considering that it is the part of irreconcilable enemies to exult over their misfortunes, but of friends and kinsmen to lighten their disasters. And oftentimes they lavish their gifts upon these more than upon their well-conducted children, knowing certainly that the prudent conduct of the latter is an abundant source of wealth, while their parents are the only hope of the former, and if they lose this, they will be destitute even of the necessaries of life.

'In the same way God also, being the father of the rational intellect, cares for all who have been endowed with reason, and takes thought even for those who live a culpable life, both giving them opportunity for amendment, and at the same time not transgressing His own merciful nature, which has goodness for its attendant and such kindness towards man as is worthy to pervade the divinely ordered world.

'This then is one argument which thou, my soul, must meanwhile receive as a sacred deposit from Him, and a second consistent and harmonious with it of the following kind. Never be thou so far misled from the truth as to suppose any one of the wicked to be divinely favoured, even though he be richer than Croesus, and more sharp-sighted than Lynceus, and stronger than Milo of Crotona, and more beautiful than Ganymede,

"Whom for his beauty's sake the gods caught up
To heaven, to be the cupbearer of Zeus." 17

'His own divine faculty at least, I mean his mind, he has shown to be the slave of innumerable masters, of love, desire, pleasure, fear, sorrow, folly, intemperance, cowardice, injustice, and so could never be divinely favoured, even if the multitude, failing of a true judgement, think him so, through being bribed by a double evil, pride and false opinion, evils strong to ensnare and mislead souls without ballast, and about which most of mankind are anxious.

'If, however, with the eye of the soul steadily fixed thou shouldest desire to survey the thought of God, so far as is possible for human reason, thou wilt have a clearer perception of the only true good, and wilt laugh at the things of this world, which thou wert erewhile disposed to admire. For it is ever the case that in the absence of the better things the worse are held in honour, as inheriting their place: but when the better have appeared, they withdraw, and are content with the second prize. 'Being therefore struck with: admiration of that godlike goodness and beauty, thou wilt thoroughly understand, that with God none of the things before-mentioned has been held worthy in itself to be ranked as good; because mines of silver and of gold are the most useless part of the earth, wholly and utterly inferior to that which is given up to the production of fruits.

'For abundance of money is not the same thing as food, without which one cannot live. One most clear test of this is hunger, whereby what is really necessary and useful is put to proof: for a hungry man would gladly give all the treasures in the world in exchange for a little food.

'But when the abundance of the necessaries of life flows in an immense and unchecked stream, and is poured out over the cities, while indulging luxuriously in the gifts of nature, we disdain to rest content upon them alone, but making insolent surfeit the ruling principle of life, and eagerly pursuing gains of silver and gold, we equip ourselves with all things from which we may hope for any gain, and as if blinded by love of money we no longer discern in our mind that silver and gold are mere lumps of earth, for which instead of peace there is constant and uninterrupted war.

'Our garments indeed, as the poets somewhere say, are "the bloom of sheep," 18 and as to the artistic skill in making them they are the weavers' glory. And if any one thinks much of reputation, and welcomes the approval of the worthless, let him know that he is also worthless himself; for like takes pleasure in like. 'But let him pray to get a share of purifications for the healing of his ears, for through them the chief disorders invade the soul. Also let all who are proud of their bodily vigour learn not to be arrogant, by looking at the countless herds of animals tame and untamed, who are born with strength and vigour: for it is a most absurd thing for a man to pride himself on the good qualities of beasts, and that too though surpassed by them.

'And why should any man of good sense exult in bodily beauty, which a short time extinguishes by withering up its deceitful prime, before it has flourished its full time; and that too though in lifeless things he sees highly prized works of painters, and modellers, and other artists, in pictures, and statues, and embroidered tapestries----works renowned in every city both in Greece and in barbarous countries?

'Of these things therefore, as I said before, none is by God held worthy to be ranked as good. And why should we wonder, if they are not so esteemed by God? For neither are they so esteemed among men who are beloved of God, by whom true excellence and beauty are held in honour, as they enjoy a well-endowed nature, and have improved that nature by study and exercise, which are the creations of a genuine philosophy.

'But as many as devoted themselves to a spurious learning did not imitate even the physicians who heal the body that is the slave of the soul, though professing as they do to heal the mistress, the soul herself. For those physicians of the body, when any rich man has fallen sick, even if he be the great king, pass by all the colonnades, the men's chambers, the women's chambers, pictures, silver, gold uncoined or coined, abundance of drinking-vessels or of tapestries, and all the other celebrated ornaments of kings, and moreover disregard the crowd of servants, and the attendance of friends or relations and subjects high in office, even his bodyguards, and when they have reached the bedside pay no thought to the decorations of his person, nor wonder that the couches are inlaid with precious stones and are of solid gold, neither that the coverlets are of the finest web or embroidered linen, nor that the patterns of his garments are of varied beauty; but even pull off the blankets that cover him, and take hold of his hands, and pressing the veins note the pulsations carefully, whether they are healthy. Oftentimes too they even draw up his shirt, and examine whether the belly is distended, whether the chest is inflamed, whether the heart beats irregularly: and then they apply the proper treatment.

'And the philosophers also, who profess to practise the art of healing the kingly nature of the soul, ought to disregard all the vain figments of false opinions, and pass on within and feel the mind itself, whether its pulsations are unequally quickened by anger, and unnaturally excited: also to touch the tongue, whether it is rough and slanderous, whether it is given to wantonness and extravagance: to feel the belly also, whether it is distended with some insatiable form of desire: and to make a general examination of the several passions, disorders, and infirmities, if they seem to be complicated, in order that they may not mistake the remedies conducive to a cure.

'But now being dazzled by the brilliancy of the external things around them, as they are impotent to discern an intellectual light, they have been for ever wandering in error, not having been able to reach the sovereign reason; but coming hardly so far as the outer portals, and being struck with admiration of the attendants who stand at the gates of virtue, wealth and honour and health and things of the like kind, they proceeded to worship them.

'But in fact as it is the excess of madness to use the blind as judges of colour, or deaf men of musical sounds, so it is to take evil men as judges of what is truly good: for these likewise are blinded in their master faculty of thought, over which folly has shed a deep darkness.

'Do we then wonder now that a Socrates and this or that virtuous man continued in poverty, as men who never practised any of the arts which lead to gain, nor even deigned to accept what they might have taken from rich friends or from kings who offered them large gifts, because they regarded the attainment of virtue as the one thing good and beautiful, and while labouring at that took no account of whatever else was good?

'And who would not thus disregard things spurious to provide the genuine? And if as partakers of a mortal body, and burdened with the misfortunes of humanity, and living in the midst of such a multitude of unrighteous men, the number of whom it would not be easy to discover, if, I say, they were plotted against, why should we lay the blame on their nature, when we ought rather to reproach the cruelty of their assailants?

'For if they had been in a pestilential atmosphere, they must certainly have fallen sick; and wickedness is more, or certainly not less, destructive than a pestilential climate. And as the wise man, if he were to spend his time in the open air, when it is raining, must necessarily get wet through, and when a cold north wind is blowing must be pinched with cold and shivering, and in the height of summer must be scorched with heat, since it is a law of nature that our bodies are affected in accordance with the changes of the seasons; in the same way the man who dwells in places of this kind,

"Mid murders, famines, and all kinds of death," 19

must in return necessarily incur the penalties which result from such evils.

'For in the case of Polycrates, when for his dreadful deeds of injustice and impiety he met with a requital in the worse misery of his subsequent life----to which you must add how he was punished by the great king, and was impaled, in fulfilment of an oracle,----"I know," said he, "that not long ago I seemed to see myself being anointed by the sun and washed by Zeus." 20 For these enigmatical utterances expressed in figurative language, though originally obscure, received the most manifest confirmation through the facts which followed.

'And not only at the end, but throughout his whole life from the beginning, he had been unconscious that his soul was impaled before his body was: for he was worried by perpetual fear and trembling at the multitude of those who were plotting against him, and well knew that he had not one friend, but only enemies implacable because of their misery.

'The authors too of the history of Sicily bear witness to the: unavailing and perpetual caution (of Dionysius), and say that he entertained suspicions of the wife who was dearest to his soul.21 And a proof of it was this: he ordered the entrance into his apartment, by which she would have to come to him, to be loosely covered with planks, that she might never creep upon him unobserved, but might give notice of her arrival by the creaking and rattling of her passage over the boards; also that she was to come to him not simply undressed, but naked even in all those parts which ought not to be seen by men. And in addition to this, he ordered the continuity of the ground at the entrance to be cut across to the width and depth of a farm-dyke, because he feared lest some attempt at a plot should be concealed from observation, and this was sure to be detected by leaps or long strides.

'How full of miseries then was the man who took these precautions and devices in the case of a wife, whom he ought to have trusted before all others! But in fact he was like those who, in order to observe more clearly the natural phenomena in the sky, climb precipices on a rugged mountain, and when they have with difficulty reached an overhanging ledge are neither able to ascend any further from failure of strength for the remaining height, nor have courage to descend, but turn giddy at the sight of the chasms below.

'For having been enamoured of despotic power as a godlike and enviable lot, he began to suspect that it was neither safe to remain nor to run away: for if he remained, there were innumerable evils rushing on like a torrent one after another against him; and if he wished to run away, there was the risk of his life hanging over him, from men armed against him if not in their bodies yet certainly in their thoughts.

'And this is made manifest also by the practical test which Dionysius is said to have employed against the friend who praised the happy life of despotic rulers. For having invited him to a display of a most brilliant and costly banquet, he ordered a well-sharpened axe to be suspended over him by a very slight thread: and when on reclining he suddenly saw this, he was neither bold enough to rise up out of his place because of the tyrant, nor able from fear to enjoy any of the luxuries provided for him; but giving no heed to the abundant and costly pleasures, he sat with neck and eyes stretched upwards expecting his own destruction.

'And when Dionysius perceived it, he said, Do you then now understand this celebrated and enviable life of ours? For such, if one would not flatter himself, is its real nature, since it contains great abundance of supplies, without the enjoyment of any one good thing, but terrors coming one after another, and dangers for; which there is no remedy, and a disease more grievous than any cancerous and wasting sickness, which is continually threatening irremediable destruction.

'But the inexperienced multitude being deceived by the brilliant display are affected in the same way as those who are ensnared by ugly courtesans, who veil their ugliness by dress and gold ornaments, and pencil their eyes, and fabricate a false beauty for want of genuine to catch the beholders.

'Such is the heavy fate with which the over-prosperous are burdened, and of which they estimate the excessive evils in their own mind and do not conceal them; but, like those who are forced by pain to acknowledge their infirmities, they give utterance to perfectly sincere expressions which are forced from them by suffering, while they live surrounded with penalties both present and expected, like beasts that are being fatted for sacrifice; for these also receive the utmost care in order that they may be slaughtered to make a plentiful feast of meat.

'Some men also have been not obscurely but manifestly punished for sacrilegious gains: to give a list of their whole number would be a superfluous labour, but one fact may suffice to stand as an example of all. It is said then by the historians of the sacred war in Phocis, that whereas there was a law established that he who plundered a temple should be cast down a precipice, or drowned in the sea, or burnt to death, three men who had plundered the temple at Delphi, Philomelus, and Onomarchus, and Phayllus, divided the punishments among them. For the first was hurled down over a rugged and stony cliff by the fall of a rock, and crushed to death; the second was carried by his horse, which had run away, down to the sea, and being overwhelmed by the tide, went down, horse and all, into a yawning gulf. And Phayllus either wasted away by a consumptive disease (for the story about him is twofold), or perished by being burnt in the conflagration of the temple at Abae.

'To say that these things happened by mere chance is a very perverse contention. For though it would have been reasonable to allege the uncertainty of fortune as an explanation, if some only had been punished either at different times or by other kinds of punishment; yet when the whole band were punished, and that about the same time, and not by other punishments, but by those which were included in the laws, there is good reason to affirm that they were overtaken by the judgement of God.

'But if any of the violent men who have been left unmentioned, and who have risen up against the people, and enslaved not only other communities but also their native countries, remained unpunished to the end, there is nothing wonderful in that. For in the first place man judgeth not as God judgeth, because, while we search out only visible facts, He noiselessly enters into the recesses of the soul, and beholds the thought as clear as in the sunlight, stripping off the coverings in which it is wrapped up, and surveying its devices in their naked truth, and instantly distinguishing the false coinage from the true.

'Never therefore let us prefer our own judgement to that of God, and say that it is more unerring and more full of wisdom; for that is impious. For in the one the causes of error are many, illusions of the senses, insidious passions, the very formidable leaguer of vices; but in the other there is nothing that tends to deception, but justice and truth, whereby each action is judged and naturally rectified in a satisfactory manner.

'In the next place do not think, my good friend, that a temporary despotism brings no advantage, for neither is punishment unprofitable, but for the good it is either more beneficial, or not unnecessary, to suffer retribution; for which cause this is embodied in all laws that are rightly constituted, and the lawgivers are commended by all: for punishment is in a law what a tyrant is in a people.

'Whenever therefore a terrible want and scarcity of virtue has overtaken the cities, while an abundance of folly overflows them, then God desiring to draw off the stream of wickedness, as it were the flood of a winter torrent, in order to purify our race, gives strength and power to those who are in their natures fitted to rule.

'For wickedness is not purged away without the help of some stern soul. And in the same way as cities support public executioners to suppress murderers and traitors and sacrilegious persons, not because they approve the disposition of the men, but. because they find by experience the usefulness of their service; in the same way the guardian of the great metropolis of this world sets up tyrants like public executioners over the cities in which He perceives violence, injustice, impiety, and all the other evils in full flood, that so He may at length stop and abate them.

'Then also with regard to the agents, as having given their service from an impure and ruthless spirit, He thinks it right to prosecute them last of all, as being in a manner ringleaders. For just as the power of fire, after it has consumed the fuel thrown upon it, feeds at last upon itself, in the same way those also who have gained despotic power over peoples, when they have exhausted the cities and emptied them of men, perish after them at last in satisfaction of the vengeance due for all.

'And why do we wonder, if God makes use of tyrants to drive away a flood of wickedness spread abroad in cities and countries and nations? For He often does this by Himself without using other assistants, inflicting either famine or pestilence or earthquake and any other visitations of God, by which great crowds and multitudes of men perish every day and a large portion of the habitable world is left desolate, because of His desire to maintain virtue.

'Enough however, I think, at least for the present, has been said to prove that no wicked man is happy, a fact by which the existence of a providence is most strongly established. But if you are not yet convinced, speak out boldly the doubt still lurking in your mind: for by discussing the question both together we shall know which way the truth lies.'

And after other things he says again:

[PHILO IUD.] 22 'Storms of wind and rain were not wrought by God, as you used to think, for the hurt of those at sea, or of men who till the ground, but for the benefit of our whole race. For by rains He purifies the earth, and by winds the whole region beneath the moon; and by both together He nourishes plants and animals, and makes them grow, and brings them to perfection.

'And if sometimes He hurts those who are voyaging or tilling the earth out of due season, there is nothing wonderful in this; for they are but a small part, and His care is for the whole race of mankind. As therefore the anointing in the gymnasium is appointed for the benefit of all, yet the gymnasiarch, on account of political necessities, often changes the usual order of time, whereby some of those who were to be anointed are too late; so also God in His care for the whole world, as it were a city, is wont to make summers wintry, and winters like spring, for the general benefit, even though some shipmasters or tillers of the ground would probably be injured by the irregularities of these seasons.

'Knowing therefore that the mutual interchanges of the elements, out of which the world was compacted and still consists, is a very necessary work, He keeps them free from hindrance; and frosts and snows and other things of like kind follow upon the cooling of the atmosphere, and again lightnings and thunderstorms follow upon the collision and friction of the clouds: none of which things perhaps is the direct work of providence, but these are consequences of rains and winds which are the causes of life and nourishment and growth to things on earth.

'As for example, when from rivalry a gymnasiarch often incurs unlimited expenses, some of the ill-bred being drenched with oil instead of water, shake off drops upon the ground, and then immediately there is the most slippery mud, yet no one in his right senses would say that the mud and the slipperiness had been made by the intention of the gymnasiarch, but that they had been accidental consequences of the abundance of the supplies (of oil).

'Again, a rainbow and a halo and all things of like kind arc-consequences of the sun's rays being mingled with the clouds, not primary works of nature, but accidents which follow upon the natural operations. Not but what these also supply some necessary use to the wiser sort of men; for from these signs they draw conjectures, and so foretell calms and winds, and fine weather and storms.

'Do you not see the porticoes in the city? Most of these face towards the south, in order that those who walk in them may be warmed in winter, and catch the breeze in summer. But there is also another indirect consequence, which does not follow by the intention of the person who arranged them. And what is this? The shadows which fall away from our feet mark to our experience the different hours.

'Fire moreover is a most necessary product of nature, and smoke is a further consequence of it. But nevertheless smoke itself sometimes offers an advantage. For instance in the case of beacon fires at midday, when the fire grows dim from the beams of the sun shining down upon it, the approach of enemies is indicated by smoke.

'The same kind of explanation as in the case of the rainbow is also true of eclipses, for eclipses are the consequences of the divine natures of the sun and moon; and they are indications either of the death of kings, or of the destruction of cities, a fact to which Pindar obscurely alluded on the occasion of an eclipse in the passage previously quoted.23

'The circle too of the Milky Way partakes of the same essential nature as the other constellations, and though the cause of it is difficult to explain, those who are accustomed to investigate the principles of nature should not shrink from it; for the discovery of such things is most beneficial, and the inquiry is also most delightful in itself to those who are fond of learning.

'As therefore the sun and moon, so also all the heavenly bodies have been made by providence, even though we in our inability to trace out their several natures and powers may be silent about them.

'Earthquakes too, and pestilences and thunderbolts, and all tilings of this kind, though said to be sent from God. are not so in truth (for God is not the cause of any evil at all), but these are produced by the changes of the elementary atoms, and are not primary works of nature, but follow necessary laws as consequences of the primary operations.

'If then some of the more refined experience their share in the damage which these things cause, they must not lay the blame upon the administration. For in the first place it does not follow, if certain persons are held among us to be virtuous, that they are so in reality, since God's means of judgement are more exact than any formed according to the standard of the human mind. And in the second place foresight is content to look to the most comprehensive laws of the universe, just as in monarchies and military governments it looks to the cities and the armies, not to any one casual individual of the neglected and obscure.

'Some too say that just as it is customary when tyrants are slain that their relatives also should be put to death, in order that wrong doings may be checked by the magnitude of the punishment, in like manner also in pestilential diseases some of the innocent perish with the rest, in order that the others may prudently keep aloof; apart from the fact that those who venture into a pestilential atmosphere must necessarily fall sick, just as those on board ship in a storm share equally in the danger.

'Wild beasts too of great strength (for I must not pass over this in silence, although with your powerful eloquence you were inclined to anticipate my defence and pull it in pieces) have been created for the sake of training men for the conflicts of war. For gymnastic exercises and constant hunting are excellent for hardening and nerving men's bodies, and, what is more important than their bodies, accustom their souls in the steadfastness of their strength to disregard any sudden assaults of enemies.

'But those who are of a peaceable nature are allowed to pass their lives shut up not only within walls but also within chamber-doors, safe from hostile designs, with abundant herds of tame animals for their enjoyment; since boars, and lions, and other beasts of like disposition are by their own natural inclination driven far away from a town, from a desire to suffer no harm from the devices of men.

'And if any from indolence live carelessly amid the lairs of wild beasts unarmed and unprepared let them blame themselves and not nature for what happens, because they neglected to take precautions as they might have done. For instance, ere now at horse-races I have seen some persons give way to thoughtlessness, who when they ought to have been sitting in their places, and looking on in an orderly manner, stood in the course, and being knocked over by the rush of the four-horsed chariots, were crushed by the hoofs and wheels, and met the rewards of their folly.

'On this subject then enough has been said. But of reptiles the venomous kinds have not been created according to providential design, but in the way of natural consequence, as I said before. For they are quickened into life, when the moisture that is in them changes to excessive heat. Some also are vivified by putrefaction, as worms by putrid food, and lice by sweat. But all which have their origin from a proper substance, in the primary and natural way of seminal generation, are reasonably ascribed to providence.

'About these also, as having been created for the benefit of man, I have heard two accounts, which I must not conceal. The one was of the following kind: some said that the venomous reptiles were useful for many medical purposes, and that those who regularly pursue the art, by using them scientifically for suitable cases, are well supplied with antidotes, to the unexpected cure of persons in the most dangerous condition; and to the present day one may see those who undertake to practise medicine in no idle or careless fashion, employing the several venomous reptiles in the composition of their remedies, not without careful consideration.

'But the other story was not medical, but philosophical, as it seems. For it asserted that these animals are prepared by God as punishments for sinners, as scourges or even iron by generals and leaders. On which account, though quiet at other times, they are stirred up to violence against the condemned, whose nature passes sentence of death upon itself in its own incorruptible tribunal.

'But that they have their holes especially in houses is false, for they are usually seen outside a town in open fields and desert places, avoiding man as their master. Not but what, if it is true, there is some reason in it; for refuse and filth in large quantities are heaped up in corners, and they like to slip in under these, besides that the smell also has an attractive force.

'If swallows also live among us, it is nothing strange, for we abstain from hunting them. And the desire of safety is implanted not only in rational souls, but also in irrational. But none of those animals which we use for food lives among us, because of our designs against them, except in nations where the use of such animals is forbidden by law.

'On the sea-coast of Syria there is a city named Ascalon. Having been there at the time when I was journeying to the Temple of my fathers to offer prayers and sacrifices, I saw an incredible number of pigeons upon the roads and at every house. And when I asked the cause, they said that it was not lawful to catch them, for the inhabitants had been forbidden from ancient times to use them for food. So thoroughly has the animal grown tame from fearlessness, that it constantly came not only under the same roof but also to the same table, and revelled in its freedom from attack.

'But in Egypt there is a still more wonderful thing to be seen. For the crocodile, the most troublesome of all animals, addicted also to devouring men, being born and bred in the most sacred waters of the Nile, although it lives in the depths is conscious of the benefit bestowed upon it. For among the people by whom it is honoured it multiplies exceedingly, but never appears at all among those who injure it: so that in some places even the boldest of voyagers dare not put down even the tip of a finger where the crocodiles congregate in shoals, while in other places even the most timid persons leap out and swim in sport.

'But in the country of the Cyclopes, since their race is a legendary fiction, in the absence of sowing and husbandmen there grows no eatable fruit, just as nothing is produced out of that which does not exist. We must not accuse Greece of being poor and barren, for here also there is much deep rich soil. And if the country of the barbarians excels in fruitfulness, then though superabounding in food, it falls short in the people to be fed, for whose sake the food is produced. For Greece alone is truly the mother of men, as giving birth to a plant of heavenly origin, and a godlike germ which has been brought to perfection, namely reasoning united to science. And the cause is this: by the lightness of the atmosphere the mind is naturally sharpened.

'Wherefore also Heracleitus makes no mistake in saying, "Where the soil is dry, the soul is most wise and virtuous." 24 And this one might conjecture also from the fact that the sober and frugal are more intelligent, while those who are always filling themselves with drink and food are least sensible, inasmuch as their reason is drowned by the things which overlay it.

'Wherefore in the land of the barbarians plants and trunks of trees are very tall from being well nourished, and the most prolific of irrational animals it produces abundantly, but very little intelligence: because the successive and continuous exhalations of earth and water have prevailed to hinder it from being raised up out of the air which is its source.

'But the various kinds of fishes and birds and land animals are no reasons for accusing nature as inviting us to luxury, but a terrible reproach to our intemperate use of them. For to the completeness of the universe, that order might exist in every part of it, it was necessary that all species of animals should be produced; but it was not necessary that man, the creature most akin to wisdom, should rush to feast upon them, and change his nature into the fierceness of wild beasts.

'Wherefore even to the present day those who have regard to temperance abstain altogether from them all, and feed with the sweetest enjoyment upon green vegetables and fruits of trees as their dainties. But against those who think that the feasting upon the aforesaid animals is according to nature there have risen up in various cities teachers, censors, lawgivers, whose care it has been to check men's immoderate appetites, by not permitting an unscrupulous use of all things to them all.

'Roses also and crocuses, and all the other variety of flowers, are meant, if for health, yet not all for pleasure. For their virtues are infinite, and they are beneficial of themselves by their scents, filling us all with fragrance; and far more beneficial in the medicinal compositions of drugs. For some of them when compounded make their own virtues more conspicuous, just like the union of male and female for the generation of an animal, each separately not being fitted by nature to effect what both can do combined.

'These arguments I have been obliged to state in answer to the rest of the questions raised by you, and they are sufficient to produce a satisfactory belief, in those who are not contentious on the subject, of God's careful superintendence of human affairs.'

These then are the brief extracts which. I have made from the writer before mentioned, both by way of showing what sort of men the Hebrews have been according to the testimony of the moderns, and at the same time of clearly establishing the facts of their pious judgement concerning God, and of their agreement with their forefathers. But now it is time to pass from this point to the testimonies of foreigners on the same subjects.

[Footnotes numbered and moved to the end]

1. 355 c 1 Philo Iud. Hypothetica, a Fragment preserved by Eusebius

2. 359 b 6 Deut. xxii. 6

3. 361 c 2 Josephus, c. Apion, ii. 16

4. 366 a 9 Lev. xii. 2; xxii. 4

5. 370 c 1 Letter of Aristeas

6. 373 d 1 Cf. Deut. vii. 18

7. 375 d 8 2 Macc. i. 10

8. 376 c 3 Deut. xviii. 15, 18

9. d 11 Ex. xiii. 9, 16

10. d 12 Ex. iii. 20

11. 377 a 1 Ex. ix. 3

12. 377 c 2 Ex. xix. 18, 20

13. 379 a 1 Philo Judaeus, ii. p. 632 (Mang.), a Fragment preserved by Eusebius

14. 381 b 5 Philo Judaeus, That every good man is free, ii. p. 457 (Mang.)

15. 384 d 4 Philo Judaeus, On the Creation of the World, p. 2 (Mang.)

16. 386 a 1 Philo Judaeus, On Providence, a Fragment preserved by Eusebius, p. 634 (Mang.)

17. 387 b 1 Homer, Il. xx. 234

18. 388 a 6 Homer, Il. xiii. 599

19. 390 c 6 Empedocles 19 (Mullach)

20. d 1 Herodotus iii. 25

21. 391 a 2 Cicero, Tusc. Disput. v. 20

22. 394 c 5 Philo Jud. Fr. ii. p. 642 (Mang.)

23. 395 d 8 The Fragment 'previously quoted' is only preserved in Aucher's Latin translation from the Armenian version of Philo On Providence, 5 80

24. 399 a 6 Heracleiti Relliquiae, lxxiv-lxxvi (Bywater)

[admin]

Part 1 of 2

BOOK IX

CONTENTS

• I. The Greek historians who mentioned the Jewish nation p. 403 b
• II. Theophrastus concerning the Jews, from Porphyry On Abstinence from Animal Food, Bk. i p. 404 a
• III. Porphyry on the illustrious philosophy of the Jews in ancient times p. 404 c
• IV. Hecataeus concerning the Jews p. 408 a
• V. Clearchus on the same, from Bk. i, On Sleep p. 409 b
• VI. Clement, Strom. i, concerning those who have mentioned the Jewish nation. p. 410 b
• VII. Numenius the Pythagorean philosopher concerning the Jews, from Bk. i, On the Good p. 411 b
• VIII. The same concerning Moses and the Jews, from Bk. iii, On the Good p. 411 d
• IX. Choerilus the poet concerning the Jews p. 412 a
• X. Oracles of Apollo concerning the Hebrews, from the works of our contemporary Porphyry p. 412 d
• XI. The foreign historians who mentioned the Flood described by Moses, from Josephus, Antiquities, Bk. i p. 414 a
• XII. Concerning the Flood, from the writings of Abydenus p. 414 d
• XIII. The long life of the ancients mentioned by many authors, from Josephus, Antiquities p. 415 b
• XIV. On the building of the Tower, from Abydenus p. 416 a
• XV. Mention of the same by many others, from Josephus, Antiquities p. 416 d
• XVI. On Abraham the forefather of all the Hebrews, from the same p. 417 a
• XVII. Eupolemus concerning Abraham, from the work of Alexander Polyhistor On the Jews p. 418 c
• XVIII. Artapanus on the same, from the same work of Polyhistor p. 420 a
• XIX. Molon on the same, from the same work p. 420 d
• XX. Philo on the same p. 421 c
• XXI. Demetrius concerning Jacob p. 422 d
• XXII. Theodotus concerning the same p. 426 b
• XXIII. Artapanus concerning Joseph p. 429 b
• XXIV. Philo concerning Joseph p. 430 b
• XXV. Aristeas concerning Job p. 430 d
• XXVI. Eupolemus concerning Moses p. 431 c
• XXVII. Artapanus concerning the same p. 431 d
• XXVIII. Ezekiel concerning the same p. 436 d
• XXIX. Demetrius concerning the same p 439 b
• XXX. Eupolemus concerning David and Solomon and Jerusalem p. 447 a
• XXXI. Letter of Solomon to Vaphres, King of Egypt p. 448 a
• XXXII. Letter of Vaphres to King Solomon p. 448 b
• XXXIII. Letter of Solomon to Suron (Hiram), King of Phoenicia p. 448 d
• XXXIV. Letter of Suron to Solomon p. 449 b
• XXXV. Timochares concerning Jerusalem p. 452 b
• XXXVI. The Author of The Metrical Survey of Syria on the same p. 452 d
• XXXVII. Philo concerning the waters of Jerusalem p. 452 d
• XXXVIII. Aristeas concerning the same p. 453 c
• XXXIX. Eupolemus concerning the prophet Jeremiah p. 454 b
• XL. Berossus on the Captivity of the Jews by Nabuchodonosor p. 455 b
• XLI. Abydenus concerning Nabuchodonosor p. 456 d
• XLII. Josephus concerning the authors who have mentioned the Jewish nation p. 458 b

CHAPTER I

Now since we have surveyed the proofs that our acceptance of the Hebrew oracles has not been made without just reasoning, but with carefully tested judgement and thought, it is time to observe that the most illustrious of the Greeks themselves have not been unacquainted with the affairs of the Hebrews; but some of them testified to the truth of the historical narratives current among them as well as to their mode of life, while others treated doctrinal theology also in the same manner as they did.

I will bring forward in the first place the subjects which naturally come first, showing how many of the Greek historians have mentioned by name both Jews and Hebrews, and the philosophy anciently taught and practised among them, as well as the history of their forefathers from the earliest times.

And I shall begin my account with their mode of life, so as to teach you that it is not without sober reasoning that we have preferred their philosophy to that of the Greeks.

At all events not only their own sacred books, but also the most illustrious of the Greek philosophers, famous even in our own day, bear witness that the duties of practical morality are performed by them in accordance with the rules which have been already examined in the preceding Book. So now take and read the statements of Theophrastus contained in the writings of Porphyry On Abstinence from Animal Food, as follows:

CHAPTER II

[PORPHYRY] 1 'NEVERTHELESS,' says Theophrastus, 'though the Syrians [of Judaea], because of their original mode of sacrifice, continue to offer animal sacrifices at the present time, if any one were to bid us sacrifice in the same way, we should revolt from the practice. For instead of feasting upon what had been sacrificed, they made a whole burnt-offering of it by night, and by pouring much honey and wine over it they consumed the sacrifice more quickly, in order that even the all-seeing sun might not be a spectator of the dreadful deed.

'And while doing this they fast throughout the intermediate days; and all this time, as being a nation of philosophers, they converse with one another about the Deity, and at night they contemplate the heavenly bodies, looking up to them, and calling upon God in prayers. For these were the first to dedicate both the other animals, and themselves, which last they did from necessity and not from any desire.'

CHAPTER III

ALSO in the fourth book of the same treatise Porphyry narrates concerning the same people such things as the following:

[PORPHYRY] 2 'The Essenes then are Jews by birth, but united among themselves even more closely than the rest of the Jews.

'They abhor pleasures as wickedness, and regard self-control and resistance to the passions as virtue. Marriage they disdain for themselves, but choose the sons of others while still easily moulded towards learning; and regarding them as their kindred, impress them with their own moral dispositions: thus without destroying marriage, and the succession of the race thereby produced, they guard themselves against the wantonness of women.

'They despise riches, and there is among them a wonderful community of goods, so that it is impossible to find any one exceeding others in wealth. For they have a law that those who eater the sect give up their substance to the common fund of the order, so that among them all there is seen neither humiliation of poverty nor excess of wealth; but every one's possessions being mixed up together, they all have one property like brothers.

'Oil they consider a defilement, and if any one be anointed against his will, he has his body wiped: for they think it becoming to have a dry skin, and always to wear white.

'The superintendents of their common interests are elected, and they are severally chosen for their offices by the whole body. They have no one city of their own, but a number of them make their abode in each city, and their means are mutually thrown open to those of the sect who have come from elsewhere; and they are received as familiar friends by those whom they have never seen before: for which reason when they travel they bring nothing with them for expenses.

'They change neither robe nor sandals before they are altogether ragged, or worn out by time. They neither buy nor sell anything, but each gives what he has himself to the man that wants it, and receives from him in return what is useful to him: and even without this return there is no hindrance to their getting a share from whomsoever they will.

'With regard to the Deity, however, their piety is of a peculiar kind. For they utter no common words before the sun has risen, but address to him certain prayers handed down by their fathers, as if entreating him to rise. After this they are dismissed by the superintendents to the crafts known to each, and after working vigorously till the fifth hour they then assemble again in one place, and having girded themselves with loin-cloths, so proceed to wash their body with cold water.

'After this purification they meet in a building of their own, in which none of another sect is permitted to join them; but being themselves purified, they come into the dining-room as if entering some holy place. And when they have quietly taken their seats, the baker sets loaves in a row before them, and the cook sets before each a single dish of one kind of meat. Then the priest first says a prayer over the food, as being pure and clean, and it is unlawful for any to taste the food before the prayer. And when they have finished the meal he again offers a prayer, and thus they honour God both at the beginning and at the end.

'Then they lay aside their robes as holy, and turn to work again till evening; when they come back and sup in like manner, the guests sitting down with them, if there happen to be any present.

'And neither clamour nor tumult ever profanes their house, but in conversation they give way in turn to each other; and to those outside the silence of those within seems like some awful mystery. The cause of this is their constant sobriety, and their limitation of food and drink to the satisfying of hunger.

'To those who desire to join the sect admission is not immediately granted, but for the space of a year while one remains outside they prescribe the same mode of life, and give him a shovel, an apron, and a white robe. And when in this period he has given proof of self-control, he approaches more nearly to their mode of life, and partakes of the purer waters for ablution.

'He is not, however, admitted as yet to the life of the community. For after the proof of his endurance his moral disposition is tested by two more years, and, if found worthy, he is then enrolled in their company.

'But before he touches the common food, they make him swear tremendous oaths: first that he will reverently worship God, then that he will observe justice towards men, and will harm no man either of his own will or under command, but will always hate the unjust and succour the righteous; that he will show fidelity to all, but especially to those in power, for it is not without God's will that the government is acquired by any man: also that, if he be himself a ruler, he will never be insolent in using his authority, nor outshine his subjects in dress or any excessive adornment: that he will always love the truth, and expose liars; keep his hands clear of theft, and his soul of unholy gain; and will neither hide anything from the members of the sect, nor disclose any secret of theirs to others, though any one should press him by violence even unto death.

'In addition to this, he swears that to no one will he impart their doctrines otherwise than he himself received them, and will abstain from, robbery, and will guard with equal care the books of their sect, and the names of the angels.

'Such are the oaths; and those who are found guilty and expelled, perish by a miserable fate. For being bound by their oaths and by their customs, they cannot partake of the food which other men have, but eating grass and wasting away by famine, they thus perish. So for this reason they have taken compassion upon many in the extremity of their distress, and received them back, considering that they had suffered punishment enough for their offences in being thus tortured to death.

'The shovel they give to those who intend to be members of the sect, because they do not themselves sit down without having dug a trench a foot deep, and covered themselves with their cloak, so as not to insult the eyes of God. And so great is their simplicity and sparingness in regard to food, that they do not need to ease nature on the seventh day, which they are accustomed to keep for singing hymns to God and for rest.

'From this asceticism they have acquired so great endurance, that though they be racked and wrenched and burned, and pass through all the instruments of torture, in order to make them blaspheme their Lawgiver, or eat some unaccustomed food, they cannot endure to do either.

'And this they clearly showed in the war against the Romans: since they cannot endure either to fawn on their tormentors, or to shed tears, but smiling in the midst of their pains, and bantering those who applied the tortures, they cheerfully gave up their lives with the hope of receiving them again. For indeed this opinion is firmly fixed among them, that though their bodies are perishable, and their material substance not lasting, their souls remain for ever immortal; and coming from the subtlest ether, drawn down by some natural force, they become entangled with the body, but when they are released from the bonds of the flesh they then rejoice, as if delivered from long bondage, and are borne up aloft.

'From such a mode of life then, and from their training in truth and piety, there are naturally many among them, who even foreknow the tilings to come, as being brought up among sacred books, and various purifications and utterances of the prophets: and they seldom, if ever, go wrong in their predictions.'

This was the testimony of Porphyry, drawn probably from ancient records, both to the piety and the philosophy of the persons aforesaid, in the fourth book of his careful work On Abstinence from Animal Food.

CHAPTER IV

BUT Hecataeus of Abdera, who was both a philosopher and very competent in active life, devoted a special book to the history of the Jews, and gives very many details concerning them, from which it will for the present suffice to quote the following:

[JOSEPHUS] 3 'For most of the strongholds and villages in the country belong to the Jews; and one strong city Jerusalem, about fifty furlongs in circumference, which is inhabited by about a hundred and twenty thousand men, and is called Hierosolyma.

'And here about the middle of the city is a stone enclosure, about five hundred feet in length, and a hundred cubits wide, with two gates: and herein is a square altar, of unhewn stones collected and just put together in a rough state, twenty cubits long on each side, and the height ten cubits.

'And beside it is a large building, wherein, is an altar and a candlestick, both of gold, two talents in weight: and upon these is a light which is never extinguished either day or night. But there is no image nor any votive offering at all, nor any plant, absolutely nothing of the nature of a grove or anything of this kind. 'And there arc priests who pass both their nights and days in the temple, performing certain purifications, and never drinking any wine while there.'

After these statements, lower down:

'He has borne witness that they also served in the army of king Alexander, and afterwards of his successors. And I will quote what he says was done by a Jew in the expedition when he was himself present: he speaks as follows:

'When therefore I was marching towards the Red Sea, among the other Jewish horsemen who escorted us, we were accompanied by a man named Mosollam, a person of great spirit, and good strength, and acknowledged by all to be the best archer among either the Greeks or Barbarians.

'So while many were marching along the road, and a certain soothsayer was taking auguries, and requiring all to halt, this man asked what they were waiting for. And when the soothsayer showed him the bird, and said, that if it remained in the same place, it was expedient for all to halt, but if it rose and flew forward, they should advance, and if it flew back, they must retire again, then this man made no reply, but drew his bow and shot, and hit the bird and killed it.

'And when the soothsayer and some others were indignant and began to curse him, he said, Why are ye so mad, unhappy men? Then taking the bird into his hands, he said, For how could this bird, which could not foresee how to save itself, have given us any sound information concerning our march? For had it been able to foreknow what would happen, it would not have come to this place, for fear lest Mosollam the Jew should shoot at and kill it. These are the statements of Hecataeus.'

CHAPTER V

[JOSEPHUS] 4 'BUT Clearchus the Peripatetic philosopher, in his first book Concerning Sleep, attributes to Aristotle the philosopher a statement such as follows concerning the Jews, writing word for word thus:

'But though it would be too long to tell the greater part, it will not be amiss to go through those of his statements which are alike marvellous and philosophical. Now, said he, understand clearly, Hyperochides, I shall seem to you to relate what is as marvellous as dreams. Then Hyperochides modestly replied, Yes, that is the very reason why we all desire to hear it.

'Well then, said Aristotle, according to the rule of the rhetoricians, let us first describe the man's origin, that we may not disobey the teachers of the narrative style.

'Tell it so, if you please, said Hyperochides.

'Well then, the man was by origin a Jew, from Coele-Syria. Now these are descendants of the philosophers of India; and philosophers, it is said, are called among the Indians Calani, but among the Syrians they are called Judaeans, having taken their name from the place. For the place which they inhabit is called Judaea: and the name of their city is very awkward, for they call it Hierusalem.

'This man then, who was hospitably entertained by many on his way down from the inland districts to the sea-coasts, was Greek not only in language but also in spirit. And as at that time we were dwelling in Asia, the man having landed in the same neighbourhood fell into conversation with us and some others of the studious sort, to make trial of their wisdom. And as he had lived in intimacy with many of the learned, he imparted somewhat more than he received.'

Such is the story of Clearchus.

CHAPTER VI

THIS man is mentioned also by our Clement in his first Miscellany, in what he says as follows:

[CLEMENT] 5 'Clearchus the Peripatetic says that he knew a Jew who associated with Aristotle.'

And afterwards he adds:

'But Numa the king of the Romans, though he was a Pythagorean, received benefit from the teaching of Moses, and forbade the Romans to make an image of God in the shape of man or any animal. So in the first hundred and seventy years, though they built themselves temples, they made no image, neither in sculpture nor yet in painting.

'For Numa used to teach them in secret, that it was not possible for the Perfect Good to be reached by language, but only by the mind.'

Further than this, in what follows below, he speaks thus: 6

'But most plainly does Megasthenes, the historian who lived with Seleucus Nicator, write as follows in his third book On Indian Affairs.

'All that has been said about nature among the ancients is said also among the philosophers outside Greece, partly among the Indians by the Brachmans, and partly in Syria by those who are called Jews.'

Besides this Clement also mentions Aristobulus the Peripatetic and Numenius the Pythagorean, saying: 7

'Aristobulus, in his first book addressed to Philometor, writes in these words: Plato too has followed our legislation, and has evidently studied carefully the several precepts contained in it.

'And others before Demetrius, and prior to the supremacy of Alexander and of the Persians, have translated both the narrative of the Exodus of our fellow countrymen the Hebrews from Egypt, and the fame of all that happened to them, and their conquest of the land, and the exposition of the whole Law.

'So it is perfectly clear that the philosopher before-mentioned has borrowed much, for he is very learned; as also was Pythagoras, who transferred many of our precepts into his own system of doctrines.

'And Numenius, the Pythagorean philosopher, writes expressly: "For what is Plato, but Moses speaking in Attic Greek?" '

So far Clement.

CHAPTER VII

ALSO from the Pythagorean philosopher himself, I mean Numenius, I will quote as follows from his first book On the Good:

[NUMENIUS] 8 'But when one has spoken upon this point, and sealed it by the testimonies of Plato, it will be necessary to go back and connect it with the precepts of Pythagoras, and to appeal to the nations of good repute, bringing forward their rites and doctrines, and their institutions which are formed in agreement with those of Plato, all that the Brachmans, and Jews, and Magi, and Egyptians arranged.'

So much then on these points.

CHAPTER VIII

ALSO in his third book the same author makes mention of Moses, speaking as follows: 9

'And next in order came Jannes and Jambres, Egyptian sacred scribes, men judged to have no superiors in the practice of magic, at the time when the Jews were being driven out of Egypt.

'So then these were the men chosen by the people of Egypt as fit to stand beside Musaeus, who led forth the Jews, a man who was most powerful in prayer to God; and of the plagues which Musaeus brought upon Egypt, these men showed themselves able to disperse the most violent.'

Now by these words Numenius bears witness both to the marvellous wonders performed by Moses, and to Moses himself as having been beloved of God.

CHAPTER IX

[JOSEPHUS] 10 'CHOERILUS also, an ancient poet, has mentioned the Jewish nation, and how they served with king Xerxes in his expedition against Greece. And thus he speaks:

"Next passed a nation wondrous to behold,
Whose lips pronounced the strange Phoenician tongue;
Upon the hills of Solyma they dwelt
By the broad inland sea. Rough and unkempt
Their close-cropped hair, and on their heads they wore
The smoke-dried skin flayed from a horse's face."

'Now that he spake this concerning Jews is evident from the fact that Hierosolyma lies on the mountains called by the Greeks Solyma, and that near it is the Asphaltic lake, which is very broad as the poet says, and larger than any of the lakes in Syria.'

Such then is this man's testimony.

CHAPTER X

BUT Porphyry, in the first book of his Philosophy from Oracles, introduces his own god as himself bearing witness to the wisdom of the Hebrew race as well as of the other nations renowned for intelligence.

It is his Apollo who speaks as follows in an oracle which he is uttering; and while still explaining the subject of sacrifices, he adds words which are well worthy of attention, as being full of all divine knowledge:

[PORPHYRY] 'Steep is the road and rough that leads to heaven,
Entered at first through portals bound with brass.
Within are found innumerable paths,
Which for the endless good of all mankind
They first revealed, who Nile's sweet waters drink.
From them the heavenward paths Phoenicia learned,
Assyria, Lydia, and the Hebrew race:' 11

and so forth: on which the author further remarks:

'For the road to the gods is bound with brass, and both steep and rough; the barbarians discovered many paths thereof, but the Greeks went astray, and those who already held it even perverted it. The discovery was ascribed by the god to Egyptians, Phoenicians, Chaldeans (for these are the Assyrians), Lydians, and Hebrews.

'In addition to this Apollo also says in another oracle:

"Only Chaldees and Hebrews wisdom found
In the pure worship of a self-born God." 12

'And being asked again, for what reason men speak of many heavens, he gave the following response:

"One circle girds the world on every side,
In seven zones rising to the starlit paths:
These, in their sevenfold orbits as they roll,
Chaldees and far-famed Hebrews 'heavens' surnamed."'

"With regard then to the name Jews and Hebrews, and their religion and philosophy of old renown, let these extracts suffice: but concerning their ancestral history observe how many writers have agreed.

Moses, in his ancient history of the whole world, had given an account of a deluge, and how he whom the Hebrews call Noe was preserved with his family in an ark made of wood; and Josephus, in the first book of his Antiquities, sets forth in the following manner how the historical writers. Berossus the Chaldee, and Hieronymus the Egyptian, and Nicolaus of Damascus, make mention of the same things.

CHAPTER XI

[JOSEPHUS] 13 'THIS deluge and the ark are mentioned by all who have written histories of the Barbarians, among whom is Berossus the Chaldean. For in narrating the circumstances of the flood, he describes it thus:

'It is said that there is still a portion of the vessel in Armenia near the mountain of the Cordyaei, and that persons scrape off and carry away some of the pitch. And the people use what they carry away chiefly for charms to avert misfortunes.

'This is mentioned also by Hieronymus the Egyptian, who wrote The Archaeology of Phoenicia, and by Mnaseas, and several others. Nicolaus also of Damascus gives an account of them in his ninety-sixth book, speaking thus: There is above Minyas a great mountain in Armenia called Baris, to which, as the story goes, many fled for refuge at the time of the deluge and were saved; and a certain man borne on an ark landed on the top of the mountain, and the remains of the timbers were preserved for a long time. Now this must be the same of whom Moses, the Lawgiver of the Jews, wrote.'

So writes Josephus.

CHAPTER XII

BUT after mentioning the Median and Assyrian records from the work of Abydenus, I will set before you his statements concerning this same story, as follows:

[ABYDENUS] 14 'After him reigned among others Sisithrus, to whom Kronos foretold that there would be a great rain on the fifteenth day of Desius, and commanded him to hide everything connected with literature at Heliopolis in the country of the Sippari.

'And when Sisithrus had accomplished this, he straightway sailed up towards Armenia, and immediately what God had predicted overtook him. But on the third day, when the rain had abated, he proceeded to let loose some of the birds, to try whether they saw land anywhere that had emerged from the water.

'But as they were met by a vast unbroken ocean, and were at a loss where to find a haven, they came safe back to Sisithrus, and others after them did the same.

'But when he was successful with the third set, for they came back with their feet full of mud, the gods removed him from men's sight: but in Armenia the ship supplied the people of the country with wooden amulets as antidotes to poison.'

These then are his statements.

CHAPTER XIII

BUT again, as Moses asserted that the first generations of mankind had been long-lived, Josephus brings forward the Greek writers as witnesses of this statement also, speaking as follows:

[JOSEPHUS] 15 'From comparing the life of the men of old with the life now, and the short years that we live, let no one suppose that the statements concerning the former are false, inferring that they did not attain to that length of life from the fact that men do not now extend the time of their life so long.

'For as they were beloved of God, and created by God Himself, and as their kinds of food were better fitted for a longer continuance, it was natural for them to live so many years.

'Further, God may have granted them a longer life on account of their virtue, and the usefulness of the arts which they invented, astronomy and geometry, things which they could not have announced with certainty, had they not lived at least six hundred years, for by that number the great year is completed.

'And the truth of my argument is testified by all who have written on ancient history among Greeks and Barbarians. For both Manetho who recorded the Egyptian History, and Berossus who collected the Chaldean annals, and Molos, and Hestiaeus, and in addition to them the Egyptian Hieronymus, and the compilers of Phoenician history, agree with what I say. Hesiod too, and Hecataeus, and Hellanicus, and Acusilaus, and besides these Ephorus and Nicolaus record that the ancients lived a thousand years. So on these matters let men speculate each as it may please him.'

CHAPTER XIV

AGAIN, whereas Moses wrote an account of the building of the tower, and how from one language men passed into the confusion of many dialects, the author just before mentioned, in his work entitled Of Assyrian History, bears the like testimony, speaking as follows:

[ABYDENUS] 16 'But there are some who say that the men who first arose out of the earth, being puffed up by their strength and great stature, and proudly thinking that they were better than the gods, raised a huge tower, where Babylon now stands: and when they were already nearer to heaven, the winds came to the help of the gods, and overthrew their structure upon them, the ruins of which were called Babylon. And being up to that time of one tongue, they received from the gods a confused language; and afterwards war arose between Cronos and Titan.

[JOSEPHUS] 17 'And the place in which they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of what at first was clear in their language. For the Hebrews call confusion "Babel." '

CHAPTER XV

'THE Sibyl also mentions this tower and the diversity of language among mankind, speaking thus: 18

'"When all mankind were of one language, some built a very lofty tower, intending by it to mount up to heaven. But the gods sent winds against the tower and overthrew it, and gave to each man a peculiar language, and for this reason it came to pass that the city was called Babylon." And the plain which is called Sennaar in the country of Babylonia is mentioned by Hestiaeus, who speaks thus: "But those of the priests who escaped took the sacred things of Zeus Enyalios, and came to Sennaar in Babylonia: afterwards they were scattered thence, and everywhere formed their communities from speaking the same language, and took possession of the land which each lighted upon."'

CHAPTER XVI

AGAIN, as Moses has set forth at large the history of Abraham the forefather of the Hebrews, Josephus says that the foreign historians also bear witness to him, writing as follows:

[JOSEPHUS] 19 'Berossus mentions our father Abraham, not by name, but in these terms: "In the tenth generation after the flood there was among the Chaldeans a righteous and great man, experienced also in heavenly things."

'But Hecataeus has done something more than mentioning him; for he left behind him a book which he had composed concerning him.

'And Nicolaus Damascenus, in the fourth book of his Histories, speaks thus:20 "Abraham was king of Damascus, having come as a stranger with an army from the land which lies beyond Babylon, called Chaldaea. But after no long time he removed from this country also, and migrated with his own people into what was then called Canaan, but now Judaea, and so did afterwards the multitude of his descendants, concerning whom I shall relate in another discourse what is recorded in history. Even now the name of Abraham is glorified in the district of Damascus, and a village is pointed out which is called from him the Habitation of Abraham."

'When in later times a famine had fallen upon the land of Canaan, Abraham having been informed that the Egyptians were in prosperity was eager to cross over to them, both to partake of their abundance, and to be a hearer of their priests, to learn what they said about the gods; intending either to follow them, if they were found superior, or to bring them over to the better belief, if his own opinions were preferable.'

Then next he adds:

'And he associated with the most learned of the Egyptians, and the result was that his virtue and his consequent reputation became more illustrious from this cause.

'For whereas the Egyptians delight in different customs, and disparage one another's usages, and are for this reason ill-disposed towards each other, he by conferring with them severally, and discussing the arguments which they used in defence of their own practices, proved them to be empty and devoid of all truth.

'Being therefore admired by them in their conferences as a very wise man, and strong not only in intelligence but also in persuasive speech on whatever subjects he undertook to teach, he freely imparts to them the science of arithmetic, and also communicates to them the facts of astronomy. For before Abraham's arrival the Egyptians were ignorant of these subjects; for they passed from the Chaldees into Egypt, and thence came also to the Greeks.'

So writes Josephus.

CHAPTER XVII

AND with this agrees also Alexander Polyhistor, a man of great intellect and much learning, and very well known to those Greeks who have gathered the fruits of education in no perfunctory manner: for in his compilation, Concerning the Jews, he records the history of this man Abraham in the following manner word for word:

[ALEXANDER POLYHISTOR] 21 'Eupolemus in his book Concerning the Jews of Assyria says that the city Babylon was first founded by those who escaped from the Deluge; and that they were giants, and built the tower renowned in history.

'But when this had been overthrown by the act of God, the giants were dispersed over the whole earth. And in the tenth generation, he says, in Camarina a city of Babylonia, which some call the city Uria (and which is by interpretation the city of the Chaldees), + in the thirteenth generation + Abraham was born, who surpassed all men in nobility and wisdom, who was also the inventor of astronomy and the Chaldaic art, and pleased God well by his zeal towards religion.

'By reason of God's commands this man came and dwelt in Phoenicia, and pleased their king by teaching the Phoenicians the changes of the sun and moon and all things of that kind. And afterwards the Armenians invaded the Phoenicians; and when they had been victorious, and had taken his nephew prisoner, Abraham came to the rescue with his servants, and prevailed over the captors, and made prisoners of the wives and children of the enemy.

'And when there came to him ambassadors asking that he would ransom them for money, he did not choose to trample upon the unfortunate, but on receiving food for his young men restored the booty; he was also admitted as a guest into the temple of the city called Argarizin, which being interpreted is "Mount of the Most High," and received gifts from Melchizedek, who was the king, and the priest of God.

'But when there came a famine Abraham removed into Egypt with all his household, and dwelt there, and the king of Egypt took his wife in marriage, Abraham having said that she was his sister.

'He also related fully that the king was unable to consort with her, and that it came to pass that his people and his household were perishing. And when he had called for the soothsayers, they said that the woman was not a widow; and thus the king of Egypt learned that she was Abraham's wife, and gave her back to her husband.

'And Abraham dwelt with the Egyptian priests in Heliopolis and taught them many things; and it was he who introduced astronomy and the other sciences to them, saying that the Babylonians and himself had found these things out, but tracing back the first discovery to Enoch, and saying that he, and not the Egyptians, had first invented astrology.

'For the Babylonians say that the first man was Belus, who is Kronos; and that of him was born a son Belus, and Chanaan; and that this Chanaan begat the father of the Phoenicians, and that his son was Churn, who is called by the Greeks Asbolus, and is father of the Aethiopians, and a brother of Mestraim the father of the Egyptians. But the Greeks say that Atlas invented astrology, and that Atlas is the same as Enoch: and that Enoch had a son Methuselah, who learned all things through angels of God, and thus we gained our knowledge.'

CHAPTER XVIII

'ARTABANUS in his Jewish History says that the Jews were called Ermiuth, which when interpreted after the Greek language means Judaeans, and that they were called Hebrews from Abraham. And he, they say, came with all his household into Egypt, to Pharethothes the king of the Egyptians, and taught him astrology; and after remaining there twenty years, removed back again into the regions of Syria: but that many of those who had come with him remained in Egypt because of the prosperity of the country.

'In certain anonymous works, however, we found that Abraham traced Lack his origin to the giants, and that they dwelling in Babylonia were destroyed by the gods for their impiety; but that one of them, named Belus, escaped death and settled in Babylon, and lived in a tower which he had built, and which was called Belus from the Belus who built it: and that Abraham having been instructed in the science of astrology came first into Phoenicia, and taught astrology to the Phoenicians, and afterwards passed on into Egypt.'

CHAPTER XIX

'BUT Molon, the author of the collection Against the Jews, says that at the time of the Deluge the man who survived departed from Armenia with his sons, being driven out of his home by the people of the land; and after crossing the intermediate country came into the mountain-district of Syria which was uninhabited.

'After three generations Abraham was born, whose name is by interpretation "Father's friend," and that he became a wise man, and travelled through the desert. And having taken two wives, the one of his own country and kindred, and the other an Egyptian handmaiden, he begat by the Egyptian twelve sons, who went off into Arabia and divided the land among them, and were the first who reigned over the people of the country: from which circumstance there are even in our own day twelve kings of the Arabians, bearing the same names as the first.

'But by his lawful wife he had one son, whose name in Greek is Γέλως, "laughter." Abraham died of old age, but Gelos and a wife of his own country had eleven sons, and a twelfth, Joseph, and Moses was in the third generation from him.'

So much says Polyhistor; and to this he adds, after some sentences, what follows:

'But not long after God commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a whole burnt-offering to Him. And he led his son up to the mountain, and heaped up a pyre, and set Isaac thereon; but when about to slay him he was forbidden by an Angel, who provided him with a ram for the offering: and Abraham took down his son from the pyre, and offered the ram.'

CHAPTER XX

'PHILO also speaks of this in the first book of his work Concerning Jerusalem: 22

[PHILO] " Ἔκλυον ἀρχεγόνοισι τὸ μυρίον ὥς ποτε θεσμοῖς
Ἀβραὰμ κλυτοηχὲς ὑπέρτερον ἅμματι δεσμῶν
παμφαές, πλήμμυρε, μεγαυχητοῖσι λογισμοῖς,
θειοφιλῆ θέλγητρα. Λιπόντι γὰρ ἀγλαὸν ἕρκος
αἰνοφύτων, ἔκκαυμα βριήπυος αἰνετὸς ἴσχων,
ἀθάνατον ποίησεν ἑὴν φάτιν, ἐξ ὅτ' ἐκείνου
ἔκγονος αἰνογόνοιο πολύμνιον ἔλλαχε κῦδος."

and the rest: to which after a few lines he adds:

" Ἀρτίχερος θηκτοῖο ξιφηφόρον ἐντύνοντος
λήμματι, καὶ σφαράγοιο παρακλιδὸν ἀθροισθέντος,
ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν ἐν χείρεσσι κερασφόρον ὤπασε κριόν."

and the rest that follows this.'

This then from the fore-mentioned work of Polyhistor. But Josephus also in the first book of his Antiquities mentions the same author in the following passage:

[JOSEPHUS] 23 'Now it is said that this Afren made an expedition into Libya and subdued it; and his grandsons having settled there called the land Africa after his name.

'And my statement is confirmed by Alexander Polyhistor, who speaks thus:

'"But Cleodemus the prophet, who is also called Malchas, in narrating the history of the Jews even as Moses their Lawgiver has narrated it, says that by Chettura Abraham had many sons: and he also mentions their names, calling three of them Afer, Assur, and Afran.

'And from Assur Assyria was named; and from the other two, Afra and Afer, a city Afra and the country Africa. And these, he says, joined Hercules in his expedition against Libya and Antaeus: and Hercules having married the daughter of Afra begat of her a son Diodorus. And of him was born Sophonas, from whom the barbarian Sophae are called." '

Let it suffice then that the story of Abraham is briefly set forth in these quotations.

CHAPTER XXI

Now let us return to Polyhistor.

[ALEXANDER POLYHISTOR] 24 'Demetrius says that when Jacob was seventy (seven) years old he fled to Charran in Mesopotamia, having been sent away by his parents on account of the secret enmity with his brother Esau (the cause of which was that his father had blessed him thinking that he was Esau), and also in order that he might take a wife from that country.

'Jacob therefore set out for Charran in Mesopotamia, having left his father Isaac a hundred and thirty-seven years of age, and being himself seventy-seven years old.

'So after spending seven years there he married two daughters of his uncle Laban, Leah and Rachel, when he was eighty-four years old: and in seven years more there were born to him twelve sons; in the eighth year and tenth month Reuben, and in the ninth year and eighth month Symeon, and in the tenth year and sixth month Levi, and in the eleventh year and fourth month Judah. And as Rachel did not bear she became envious of her sister, and gave her own handmaid Zilpah to be Jacob's concubine, at which same time Bilhah conceived Nephthalim, in the eleventh year and fifth month, and bare a son in the twelfth year and second month, and Leah called him Gad: and of the same mother in the same year and twelfth month he begat another son, who was also named by Leah Asher.

'And in return for the mandrake apples, which Reuben brought ia and gave to Rachel, Leah again conceived in her womb, and her handmaid Zilpah at the same time, in the twelfth year and third month, and bare a son in the same year and twelfth month, and called his name Issachar.

'And again Leah bare another son in the thirteenth year and tenth month, and his name was Zabulon; and the same Leah bare a son named Dan in the fourteenth year and eighth month. And at the same time when Leah bare a daughter Dinah, Rachel also conceived in her womb, and in the fourteenth year and eighth month bare a son, who was named Joseph, so that in the seven years spent with Laban there were born twelve children.

'But when Jacob wished to go back to his father in Canaan, he was requested by Laban to stay six years more, so that in all he abode twenty years with Laban in Charran.

'And when he was on his way to Canaan an Angel of the Lord wrestled with him, and touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh, and he was benumbed and went lame: wherefore the sinew on the thigh of cattle is not eaten. And the Angel said to him, that henceforth he should no longer be called Jacob but Israel.

'And he came to another city of the land of Canaan called Sikima, having with him his children, Reuben twelve years and two months old, Symeon eleven years and four months, Levi ten years and six months, Judah nine years and eight months, Nephthalim eight years and ten months, Gad eight years and ten months, Asher eight years, Issachar eight years, Zabulon seven years and two months, Dinah six years and four months, Joseph six years and four months.

'Now Israel dwelt beside Emmor ten years; and Israel's daughter Dinah was defiled by Sychem the son of Emmor, she being sixteen years and four months old. And Israel's sons Symeon being twenty-one years and four months old, and Levi twenty years and six months, rushed forth and slew both Emmor and his son Sychem, and all their males, because of the defilement of Dinah: and at that time Jacob was a hundred and seven years old.

'So when he was come to Luz of Bethel, God said that his name was no longer to be Jacob but Israel. Thence he came to Chaphratha, and thence journeyed to Ephratha, which is Bethlehem, and begat there a son Benjamin; and Rachel died after giving birth to Benjamin, when Jacob had lived with her twenty-three years.

'Thence Jacob came to Mambri of Hebron, to his father Isaac. Now Joseph was at that time seventeen years old, and he was sold into Egypt, and had remained in the prison thirteen years, so that he was then thirty years old; and Jacob was a hundred and ten years old, one year before which time Isaac died, being a hundred and eighty years old.

'And Joseph having interpreted the king's dreams, governed Egypt seven years, in which time he married Aseneth daughter of Pentephres the priest of Heliopolis, and begat Manasseh and Ephraim: and then there followed two years of the famine.

'But though Joseph had prospered for nine years, he did not send to his father, because he was a shepherd, as were Joseph's brethren: and with the Egyptians it is disgraceful to be a shepherd. And that this was the reason why he did not send for him, Joseph himself declares. For when his kindred came, he told them that, if they should be summoned by the king and asked what was their occupation, they should say that they were breeders of cattle.

'And at the dinner they could not understand why in the world Joseph gave Benjamin a portion five times as much as theirs, as it was not possible for him to consume so much flesh. He had done this because his father had had seven sons by Leah, and two by his mother Rachel: therefore he set five portions before Benjamin, and himself took two; so they had seven portions, as many as the sons of Leah received.

'In like manner also while giving to each two changes of raiment, to Benjamin he gave five, and thirty pieces of gold, and sent to his father in the same proportion, so that his mother's house might be equal to the other.

'Now from the time when Abraham was chosen from among the Gentiles and migrated into Canaan they had dwelt in that land, Abraham twenty-five years, Isaac sixty years, Jacob a hundred and thirty years; so that all the years in Canaan were two hundred and fifteen.

'And in the third year of the famine in Egypt, Jacob came into Egypt, being a hundred and thirty years old, Reuben forty-five years, Symeon forty-four, Levi forty-three, Judah forty-two years and three months, Asher forty years and eight months, Nephthalim forty-one years and seven months, Gad forty-one years and three months, Zabulon forty years, Dinah thirty-nine years, Benjamin twenty-eight years.

'Joseph, it is said, was in Egypt thirty-nine years; and from Adam until Joseph's brethren came into Egypt there were three thousand six hundred and twenty-four years; and from the Deluge until Jacob's coming into Egypt one thousand three hundred and sixty years; and from the choice of Abraham from among the Gentiles and his coming from Charran into Canaan until Jacob and his family came into Egypt two hundred and fifteen years.

'But Jacob came from Charran to Laban, when he was eighty years old, and begat Levi, and Levi was afterwards seventeen years in Egypt from the time of his coming from Canaan into Egypt, so that he was sixty years old when he begat Clath; and in the same year in which Clath was born Jacob died in Egypt, after he had blessed the sons of Joseph, being himself one hundred and forty-seven years old and leaving Joseph fifty-six years old. And Levi was a hundred and thirty-seven years old when he died; and when Clath was forty years old he begat Amram, who was fourteen years old when Joseph died in Egypt being a hundred and ten years old: and Clath was a hundred and thirty-three years old when he died. Amram took to wife his uncle's daughter Jochabet, and when he was seventy-five years old begat Aaron and Moses; but when he begat Moses Amram was seventy-eight years old, and Amram was a hundred and thirty-six years old when he died.'

These statements I quote from the work of Alexander Polyhistor. Next let me add the following:

CHAPTER XXII

[THEODOTUS] 25 'Now Theodotus says in his work Concerning the Jews that Sikima took its name from Sikimius son of Emmor; for he was also the founder of the city: and in his book Concerning the Jews he describes its situation as follows:

"Rich was the land, well-watered, browsed by goats,
Nor far from field to city was the road.
No leafy copse the weary wanderer found:
Yet from it two strong mountains close at hand,
With grass and forest trees abounding, rise.
Midway a narrow path runs up the vale,
Beneath whose farther slope the sacred town
Of Sikima mid sparkling streams is seen
Deep down the mountain's side, around whose base
E'en from the summit runs the well-built wall."

'Afterwards, he says, it was subdued by the Hebrews, when Emmor was the ruler: for Emmor begat a son Sychem. Thus he speaks:

"Thence Jacob from the wandering shepherd-life
Sought Shechem's spacious streets, where o'er his tribe
Emmor with Sychem ruled, a stubborn pair."

'Then concerning Jacob and his arrival in Mesopotamia, and the marriage of his two wives, and the birth of his children, and his coming from Mesopotamia to Shechem, he says:

"To Syria rich in cattle Jacob came
From broad Euphrates' loud-resounding stream,
To shun his twin-born brother's bitter wrath.
Him Laban gladly welcomed to his home,
Laban his mother's brother, who alone
O'er Syria ruled, his sons as yet new-born.
He then his youngest daughter for a wife
To Jacob promised, but was loth to give.
Contriving thus a crafty wile, he sends
Leah, the elder, to the marriage-bed.
Such fraud could not escape the husband's eye,
But for the other daughter seven more years
He served, and both his cousins took to wife.
Eleven sons he gat both wise and brave,
And one fair daughter, Dinah, whose bright face
And faultless form a noble soul expressed."

'From the Euphrates Jacob, it is said, came to Shechem to Emmor; and he welcomed him, and gave him a part of his country. So Jacob himself was a landholder, but his sons, eleven in number, were shepherds, and his daughter Dinah and his wives wrought wool. And Dinah while yet a virgin came to Shechem when there was a great festival, wishing to see the city: and Sychem the son of Emmor saw her and loved her, and seized and carried her off to his own home, and ravished her.

'But afterwards he came with his father to Jacob, to ask her fur his partner in marriage; but he said he would not give her, until all the inhabitants of Shechem were circumcised and followed the customs of the Jews: and Emmor said he would persuade them.

'With regard to the need of their being circumcised, Jacob says:

"It is forbidden by our Hebrew laws
To bring a bridegroom to our daughters' home,
Save one who boasts to come of kindred race."

'Then a little lower down about circumcision:

"The God, who Abraham from his home had called,
Bade him from heaven to set the blood-stained seal
On flesh of every male; and it was done.
And changeless still the law which God decreed."

'When Emmor therefore was gone into the city, and was exhorting his subjects to be circumcised, one of Jacob's sons, whose name was Symeon, being unwilling to bear his sister's disgrace in a politic manner, determined to slay Emmor and Sychem: and this determination he communicated to his brother Levi, and took him as an accomplice and set forth to do the deed, alleging an oracle, that God said He would give ten nations to Abraham's descendants to destroy.

'And this is how Symeon speaks to Levi:

"For well have I remembered God's own word,
To give ten nations o'er to Abraham's sons."

'But God, it is said, had put this thought into their mind, because the inhabitants of Shechem were ungodly men. And this is what he says:

"The Shechemites who spared no guest that came,
Nor bad nor good regarded, God would smite.
No law nor justice in their state was found,
But all their thoughts were set on deeds of death."

'Levi therefore and Symeon came armed into their city, and first killed those who came in their way, and then murdered both Emmor and Sychem.

'And of their slaying them he speaks thus:

"So fiercely then on Emmor Symeon rushed,
And smote his head, and in his left hand seized
His throat, but quickly left him gasping still,
For other task appeared. Levi meanwhile
Seized Sychem, fiercely raging, by the hair
And dashed with force resistless to the earth:
Vainly he clasped the victor's knees, who drave
His keen sword deep twixt neck and shoulder-blade,
And swiftly from his breast the spirit fled."

'And when the other brethren heard of their deed, they came to their aid, and sacked the city, and rescuing their sister carried her back with the captives to their father's abode.'

CHAPTER XXIII

To this let us add what comes next concerning Joseph out of the same work of Polyhistor:

[ALEXANDER POLYHISTOR] 26 'Artapanus says, in his book Concerning the Jews, that Joseph was a descendant of Abraham and son of Jacob: and because he surpassed his brethren in understanding and wisdom, they plotted against him. But he became aware of their conspiracy, and besought the neighbouring Arabs to convey him across to Egypt: and they did what he requested; for the kings of the Arabians are offshoots of Israel, being sons of Abraham, and brethren of Isaac. And when he had come to Egypt and been commended to the king, he was made administrator of the whole country. And whereas the Egyptians previously occupied the laud in an irregular way, because the country was not divided, and the weaker were unjustly treated by the stronger, he was the first to divide the land, and mark it out with boundaries, and much that lay waste he rendered fit for tillage, and allotted certain of the arable lands to the priests.

'He was also the inventor of measures, and for these things he was greatly beloved by the Egyptians. He married Aseneth a daughter of the priest of Heliopolis, by whom he begat sons. And afterwards his father and his brethren came to him, bringing much substance, and were set to dwell in Heliopolis and Sais, and the Syrians multiplied in Egypt.

'These he says built both the temple in Athos and that in Ileliopolis, and were called Ermiuth. Soon afterwards Joseph died, as did also the king of Egypt. So Joseph while governor of Egypt stored up the corn of the seven years, which had been immensely productive, and became master of Egypt.'

CHAPTER XXIV

'PHILO also, in his fourteenth book Concerning Jerusalem, testifies to the truth of the sacred Scriptures, speaking as follows:

"For them the mighty lord of all the land
A happy home prepared----he, now most high,
Who from the ancient stock of Abraham
And Isaac sprang, and Jacob rich in sons
Claimed as his sire----Joseph of royal dreams
The wise interpreter, who seated high
On Egypt's throne now sways the sceptre's power,
Much tossed erewhile by waves of fickle fate:" 27

and so forth. So much concerning Joseph.'

CHAPTER XXV

BUT hear also what the same author tells concerning Job:

'Aristeas says, in his book Concerning the Jews, that Esau married Bassara in Edom and begat Job. This man dwelt in the land of Uz, on the borders of Idumaea and Arabia.

'He was a just man, and rich in cattle; for he had acquired "seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred she-asses at pasture"; 28 and he had also much arable land.

'Now this Job was formerly called Jobab: and God continually tried him, and invoked him in great misfortunes. For first his asses and oxen were driven off by robbers; then the sheep together with their shepherds were burned up by fire which fell from heaven, and not long after the camels also were driven off by robbers; then his children died, from the house falling upon them; and the same day his own body also was covered with ulcers.

'And while he was in evil case, there came to visit him Eliphaz the king of the Temanites, and Bildad the tyrant of the Shuhites, and Zophar the king of the Minnaei, and there came also Elihu the son of Barachiel the Zobite.

'But when they tried to exhort him, he said that even without exhortation he should continue steadfast in piety even in his sufferings. And God being pleased with his good courage, relieved him from his disease, and made him master of great possessions.'

So much says Polyhistor on this subject.

CHAPTER XXVI

AND concerning Moses the same author again brings forward many things, which are worth hearing:

[ALEXANDER POLYHISTOR] 'But Eupolemus says that the first wise man was Moses, and that he was the first to teach the Jews letters, and from the Jews the Phoenicians received them, and from the Phoenicians the Greeks, and that Moses was the first to give written laws to the Jews.' 29

[admin]

Part 2 of 2

CHAPTER XXVII

'AND Artapanus says, in his book Concerning the Jews, that after the death of Abraham, and of his son Mempsasthenoth, and likewise of the king of Egypt, his son Palmanothes succeeded to the sovereignty.

'This king behaved badly to the Jews; and first he built Kessa, and founded the temple therein, and then built the temple in Heliopolis.

'He begat a daughter Merris, whom he betrothed to a certain Chenephres, king of the regions above Memphis (for there were at that time many kings in Egypt); and she being barren took a supposititious child from one of the Jews, and called him Mouses (Moses): but by the Greeks he was called, when grown to manhood, Musaeus.

'And this Moses, they said, was the teacher of Orpheus; and when grown up he taught mankind many useful things. For he was the inventor of ships, and machines for laying stones, and Egyptian arms, and engines for drawing water and for war, and invented philosophy. Further he divided the State into thirty-six Nomes, and. appointed the god to be worshipped by each Nome, and the sacred writing for the priests, and their gods were cats, and dogs, and ibises: he also apportioned an especial district for the priests.

'All these things he did for the sake of keeping the sovereignty firm and safe for Chenepbres. For previously the multitudes, being under no order, now expelled and now set up kings, often the same persons, but sometimes others.

'For these reasons then Moses was beloved by the multitudes, and being deemed by the priests worthy to be honoured like a god, was named Hermes, because of his interpretation of the Hieroglyphics.

'But when Chenephres perceived the excellence of Moses he envied him, and sought to slay him on some plausible pretext. And so when the Aethiopians invaded Egypt, Chenephres supposed that he had found a convenient opportunity, and sent Moses in command of a force against them, and enrolled the body of husbandmen for him, supposing that through the weakness of his troops he would easily be destroyed by the enemy.

'But Moses with about a hundred thousand of the husbandmen came to the so-called Nome of Hermopolis, and there encamped; and sent generals to pre-occupy the country, who gained remarkable successes in their battles. He adds that the people of Heliopolis say that this war went on for ten years.

'So Moses, because of the greatness of his army, built a city in this place, and therein consecrated the ibis, because this bird kills the animals that are noxious to man. And he called it Hermes' city.

'Thus then the Aethiopians, though they were enemies, became so fond of Moses, that they even learned from him the custom of circumcision: and not they only, but also all the priests.

'But when the war was ended, Chenephres pretended to welcome him, while in reality continuing to plot against him. So he took his troops from him, and sent some to the frontiers of Aethiopia for an advanced guard; and ordered others to demolish the temple in Diospolis which had been built of baked brick, and build another of stone from the quarries of the neighbouring mountain, and appointed Nacheros superintendent of the building.

'And when he was come with Moses to Memphis, he asked him whether there was anything else useful for mankind, and he said the breed of oxen, because by means of them the land is ploughed: and Chenephres having given the name Apis to a bull, commanded the troops to found a temple for him, and bade them bring and bury there the animals which had been consecrated by Moses, because he wished to bury the inventions of Moses in oblivion. 'But when the Egyptians were alienated from him, he bound his friends by an oath not to report to Moses the plot which was being contrived against him, and he appointed the men who were to kill him.

'When however no one would obey him, Chenephres reproached Chanethothes, whom he had especially addressed; and he, on being thus reproached, promised to make the attempt when he found an opportunity.

'And Merris having died about this time, Chenephres professed to give the body to Moses and Chanethothes to carry it over into regions beyond Egypt and bury it, supposing that Moses would be slain by Chanethothes.

'But while they were on the way, one of those who were cognizant of the plot reported it to Moses; and he being on his guard buried Merris himself, and called the river and the city thereby Meroe. And this Merris is honoured by the people of the country not less highly than Isis.

'Then Aaron the brother of Moses, having learned about the plot, advised his brother to flee into Arabia; and he took the advice, and sailed across the Nile from Memphis, intending to escape into Arabia.

'But when Chanethothes was informed of the flight of Moses, he lay in ambush intending to kill him; and when he saw him coming, he drew his sword against him, but Moses was too quick for him, and seized his hand, and drew his sword and slew Chanethothes.

'So he made his escape into Arabia, and lived with Raguel the ruler of the district, having married his daughter. And Raguel wished to make an expedition against the Egyptians in order to restore Moses, and procure the government for his daughter and son-in-law; but Moses prevented it, out of regard for his own nation: and Raguel forbidding him to march against the Arabs, ordered him to plunder Egypt.

'About the same time Chenephres died, having been the very first person attacked by elephantiasis; and he is said to have incurred this misfortune because he ordered the Jews to wear linen garments and not to wear woollen clothing, in order that they might be conspicuous, and be punished by him.

'But Moses prayed to God now at last to put an end to the sufferings of the tribes. And God being propitiated, fire, it is said, suddenly blazed up out of the earth, and went on burning though there was no wood nor any other fuel in the place. And Moses was frightened at the occurrence and took to flight; but a divine voice spake to him, to march against Egypt, and rescue the Jews and lead them into their old country.

'So he took courage and determined to lead a hostile force against the Egyptians: but first he came to his brother Aaron. And when the king of Egypt heard of the arrival of Moses, he called him before him, and asked what he had come for: and he said, Because the Lord of the world commanded him to deliver the Jews.

'And when the king heard this, he shut him up in prison. But when it was night, all the doors of the prison-house opened of their own accord, and of the guards some died, and some were sunk in sleep, and their weapons broken in pieces.

'So Moses passed out and came to the palace; and finding the doors opened he went in, and the guards here also being sunk in sleep he woke up the king. And he being dismayed at what had happened bade Moses tell him the name of the God who sent him, scoffing at him: but Moses bent down and whispered in his ear, and when the king heard it he fell speechless, but was held fast by Moses and came to life again.

'And he wrote the name in a tablet and sealed it up; and one of the priests who made light of what was written in the tablet was seized with a convulsion and died.

'Also the king told him to work some sign for him, and Moses threw down the rod which he held and turned it into a serpent; and when they were all frightened, he seized it by the tail and took it up, and made it a rod again.

'Then he went forth a little, and smote the Nile with the rod, and the river became flooded and deluged the whole of Egypt, and it was from that time its inundation began: and the water became stagnant, and stank, and killed all living things in the river, and the people were perishing of thirst.

'But when these wonders had been wrought, the king said that after a month he would let the people go, if Moses would restore the river to its proper state; and he smote the water again with his rod, and checked the stream.

'When this was done, the king summoned the priests from above Memphis, and said that he would kill them all, and demolish the temples, unless they also would work some wonder. And then they by some witchcraft and incantations made a serpent, and changed the colour of the river.

'And the king, being puffed up with pride at what was done, began to maltreat the Jews with every kind of vengeance and punishment. Then Moses, seeing this, both wrought other signs, and also smote the earth with his rod, and brought up a kind of winged animal to harass the Egyptians, and all their bodies broke out in boils. And as the physicians were unable to heal the sufferers, the Jews thus again gained relief.

'Again Moses by his rod brought up frogs, and besides them locusts and lice. And for this reason the Egyptians dedicate the rod in every temple, and to Isis likewise, because the earth is Isis, and sent up these wonders when smitten by the rod.

'But as the king still persisted in his folly, Moses caused hail and earthquakes by night, so that those who fled from the earthquake were killed by the hail, and those who sought shelter from the hail were destroyed by the earthquakes. And at that time all the houses fell in, and most of the temples.

'At last after having incurred such calamities the king let the Jews go: and they, after borrowing from the Egyptians many drinking-vessels, and no little raiment, and very much other treasure, crossed the rivers on the Arabian side, and after traversing a wide space came on the third day to the Red Sea.

'Now the people of Memphis say, that Moses being acquainted with the country waited for the ebb, and took the people across the sea when dry. But the people of Heliopolis say, that the king hastened after them with a great force, having also with him the consecrated animals, because the Jews were carrying off the property which they had borrowed from the Egyptians.

'There came, however, to Moses a divine voice bidding him to smite the sea with the rod [and that it should divide]: and when Moses heard it, he touched the water with the rod, and so the stream divided, and the force passed over by a dry path.

'But when the Egyptians went in with them and were pursuing them, a fire, it is said, shone out upon them from the front, and the sea overflowed the path again, and the Egyptians were all destroyed by the fire and the flood: but the Jews having escaped this danger spent forty years in the wilderness, God raining down meal for them like millet, similar in colour to snow. And Moses they say was tall and ruddy, with long white hair, and dignified: and he performed these deeds when he was about eighty-nine years old.'

CHAPTER XXVIII

'WITH regard to Moses being exposed by his mother in the marsh, and taken up and reared by the king's daughter, Ezekiel the tragic poet gives an account, taking up the narrative from the beginning when Jacob and his family came into Egypt to Joseph. And he tells it as follows, bringing Moses forward as the speaker: 30

"When Jacob from the land of Canaan down
To Egypt came, with threescore souls and ten,
He there begat a multitudinous race,
Who much endured and long, by wicked men
And tyrant's hand to this our day crushed down.
For when he saw our people had waxed strong,
The king with subtle craft our fathers ruled,
And some in making bricks ho sore oppressed,
And some in raising heavy stones to build
His lofty towers, for their despite contrived.
Next he commands that all the Hebrew race
Cast every man-child in the Nile's deep flood.
And I have often heard my mother tell,
How at that time she hid me for three months:
Fearing detection then, she wrapped me close
In rough attire, and laid me secretly
'Mid the thick rushes by the river's bank.
My sister Miriam close at hand kept watch,
Till Pharaoh's daughter with her maids came down
To bathe her shining limbs in the cool stream.
She saw the babe, and straightway took it up,
And knew its Hebrew birth. My sister then
Ran up, and to the princess thus she spake:
'Wilt thou I find as nurse for this fair child
Some Hebrew wife?' The princess bade her speed,
And to her mother quick she told the tale,
Who came with speed, and took me in her arms.
Then spake the Pharaoh's daughter, 'Take this child
To nurse, good dame, and I will pay thy wage.'
'Moses' the name she gave, to mark the fact
That from the river's brink she drew me forth."

'To this farther on in the tragedy Ezekiel adds more on the following points, bringing Moses forward as speaking:

"So when my time of infancy was past,
My mother led me to the princess' home,
But first she told me all the tale, my birth
And kindred, and God's gifts of old.
The princess then through all my boyhood's years,
As I had been a son of her own womb,
In royal state and learning nurtured me.
But when the circle of the days was full,
I left the palace, urged to lofty deeds
By my own soul, and by the king's device.
Then the first day I saw two men at strife,
Egyptian one, and one of Hebrew race.
And when I saw that we were quite alone,
None else in sight, I to the rescue came,
Avenged my kinsman, and the Egyptian slew,
And buried in the sand, that none might see
What we had ventured, and lay bare the deed.
But on the morrow's dawn again I saw
Two of our kin in deadly strife, and cried,
'Why smitest thou thy weaker brother thus?'
But he replied, 'And who made thee a judge,
Or ruler here? Me also wouldest thou slay,
As that man yestermorn?' Then to myself
In fear I said, 'How came that deed abroad?'
All this was quickly carried to the king.
And Pharaoh sought to take away my life.
His plot I learned, and from his hands escaped,
And now to other lands am wandering forth."

'Then, concerning the daughters of Raguel he adds this:

"But here, behold! some seven fair maids I see."

'And on his asking them what maidens they were, Zipporah replies:

"The land, O stranger, bears the common name
Of Libya, but by various tribes is held
Of dark-skinned Aethiops: yet the land is ruled
By one sole monarch, and sole chief in war.
This city has for ruler and for judge
A priest, the father of myself and these."

'He then describes the giving drink to the cattle, and adds the account of his marriage with Zipporah, bringing forward Chum and Zipporah as speaking in alternate verses:

"Ch. 'Yet this thou need'st must tell me, Zipporah.'
Z. 'My father gave me for this stranger's wife.'"

CHAPTER XXIX

'DEMETRIUS described the slaying of the Egyptian, and the quarrel with him who gave information about the deceased man, in the same way as the writer of the Sacred Book. He says, however, that Moses fled into Midian, and there married Zipporah the daughter of Jothor, who was, as far as one may conjecture from the names, one of the descendants of Keturah, of the stock of Abraham, from Jexan who was the son of Abraham by Keturah: and from Jexan was born Dadan, and from Dadan Raguel, and from Raguel, Jothor, and Hobab: and from Jothor Zipporah, whom Moses married.

'The generations also agree; for Moses was seventh from Abraham, and Zipporah sixth. For Isaac, from whom Moses descended, was already married when Abraham at the age of a hundred and forty married Keturah, and begat by her a second son Isaar. Now he begat Isaac when he was a hundred years old; so that Isaar, from whom Zipporah derived her descent, was born forty-two years later than Isaac.

'There is therefore no inconsistency in Moses and Zipporah having lived at the same time. And they dwelt in the city Madiam, which was called from one of the sons of Abraham. For it says that Abraham sent his sons towards the East to find a dwelling-place: for this reason also Aaron and Miriam said at Hazeroth that Moses had married an Aethiopian woman.

'Ezekiel also speaks of this in the Exodus, adding to the tradition the dream that was seen by Moses and interpreted by his father-in-law. And Moses himself talks with his father-in-law in alternate verses, as follows: 31

"Methought upon Mount Sinai's brow I saw
A mighty throne that reached to heaven's high vault,
Whereon there sat a man of noblest mien
Wearing a royal crown; whose left hand held
A mighty sceptre; and his right to me
Made sign, and I stood forth before the throne.
He gave me then the sceptre and the crown,
And bade me sit upon the royal throne,
From which himself removed. Thence I looked forth
Upon the earth's wide circle, and beneath
The earth itself, and high above the heaven.
Then at my feet, behold! a thousand stars
Began to fall, and I their number told,
As they passed by me like an armed host:
And I in terror started up from sleep."

'Then his father-in-law thus interprets the dream:

"This sign from God bodes good to thee, my friend.
Would I might live to see thy lot fulfilled!
A mighty throne shalt thou set up, and be
Thyself the leader and the judge of men!
And as o'er all the peopled earth thine eye
Looked forth, and underneath the earth, and high
Above God's heaven; so shall thy mind survey
All things in time, past, present, and to come."

'With regard to the burning bush, and the mission of Moses to Pharaoh, he again brings Moses forward as holding converse alternately with God. Moses speaks thus:

"Ha! see! What sign is this from yonder bush?
A marvel such as no man might believe.
A sudden mighty fire flames round the bush,
And yet its growth remains all green and fresh.
What then? I will go forward, and behold
This wondrous sign, that passes man's belief."

'Then God speaks to him:

"Stay, Moses, faithful servant, draw not nigh,
Ere thou hast loosed thy shoes from off thy feet:
The place thou standest on is holy ground;
And from this bush God's word shines forth for thee.
Fear not, My son, but hearken to My words.
Of mortal birth, thou canst not see My face;
Yet mayest thou hear the words I came to speak.
Thy fathers' God, the God of Abraham,
Of Isaac, and of Jacob, I am God.
I do remember all My gifts to them,
And come to save My people Israel;
For I have seen their sorrows and their toils.
Go then, and signify thou in My name,
First to the Hebrews gathered by themselves,
Then to the king of Egypt, this My will,
That thou lead forth My people from the land."

'Then lower down Moses himself speaks some lines in answer:

"I am not eloquent, O Lord, but slow
Of speech my tongue, and weak my stammering voice
To utter words of mine before the king?"

'Then God in answer to this says to him:

"Thy brother Aaron I will send with speed:
First tell thou him all I have told to thee;
And he before the king, and thou with
Me Alone shalt speak, he what he hears from thee."

'With regard to the rod, and the other wonders thus he speaks in alternate verse:

"God. 'Say, what is that thou holdest in thine hand? '
M. 'A rod, wherewith to smite or beasts or men.'
God. 'Cast it upon the ground, and flee in haste;
For a fierce serpent will affright thine eye.'
N. 'Lo! there I cast it. Save me, gracious Lord!
How huge, how fierce! In pity spare Thou me.
I shudder at the sight in every limb.'
God. 'Fear not: stretch forth thy hand, and seize the tail.
Again 'twill be a rod. Now thrust thy hand
Into thy bosom: take it out again.
See, at My word, 'tis leprous, white as snow.
Now thrust it in again, 'tis as before.' "

To this, after some words that he has interposed, he adds the following:

'Now this is what Ezekiel says in The Exodus, when he brings forward God speaking of the signs, as follows:

"With this thy rod thou shalt work all these plagues.
The river first shall flow all red with blood,
And every spring, and stream, and stagnant pool.
Then frogs and lice shall swarm o'er all the land.
Next ashes from the furnace sprinkled round
In ulcers sore shall burst on man and beast.
And swarms of flies shall come, and sore afflict
The bodies of the Egyptians. After that
On those hard hearts the pestilence and death
Shall fall. And heaven's wrath let loose on high
Shall pour down fire and hail and deadly storm
On man, and beast, and all the fruits of earth.
Then shall be darkness over all the land
For three whole days, and locusts shall devour
All food, all fruits, and every blade of grass.
Moreover I will slay each first-born child,
And crush this evil nation's wanton pride.
Yet none of these My plagues shall touch the king,
Until he see his first-born son lie dead:
Then will he send you forth in fear and haste.
This also speak to all the Hebrew race:
'This month shall be the first month of your year,
Wherein I bring you to that other land,
As to the fathers of your race I sware.'
Also command the people, in this month,
At evening ere the moon's full orb appear,
To sacrifice the Passover to God,
And strike the side-posts of the door with blood:
So shall My messenger of death pass by.
But the flesh eat ye roast with fire at night.
Then will the king drive forth your gathered host
In haste; but ere ye go, I will give grace
To this My people in the Egyptians' eyes,
So that each woman from her neighbour's store
All needful vessels freely shall receive,
Silver and gold, and raiment meet for man,
To make requital for their evil deeds.
And when ye shall have reached your promised land,
Take heed that, from the morn whereon ye fled
From Egypt and marched onward seven whole days,
From that same morn so many days each year
Ye eat unleavened bread, and serve your God,
Offering the first-born of all living things,
All males that open first the mother's womb."

'And again concerning this same feast he says that the poet has spoken with more careful elaboration:

"And when the tenth day of this month is come,
Let every Hebrew for his household choose
Unblemished lambs and calves, and keep them up
Until the fourteenth day; and then at eve
Offer the solemn sacrifice, and eat
The flesh and inward parts all roast with fire.
Thus shall ye eat it, with your loins girt up,
And shoes upon your feet, a staff withal
Held ready in your hand; for in great haste
The king will bid them drive you from his land.
Let each man's eating for the lamb make count;
And when the victim has been duly slain,
Take a full bunch of hyssop in your hand,
Dipped in the sacred blood, and therewith strike
The posts and upper lintel of the door;
That death may pass o'er every Hebrew's house.
Keep ever thus this feast unto the Lord,
Eating for seven days unleavened bread,
And in your houses let no leaven be found.
For ye shall be delivered, and the Lord
Shall lead you forth from Egypt in this month,
Henceforth to be tho first month of your year."

Again, after some other passages he further says:

'Ezekiel also, in the drama which is entitled The Exodus, brings forward a Messenger describing both the condition of the Hebrews and the destruction of the Egyptians, as follows:

"For when king Pharaoh from his house set forth
With all this crowd of countless men-at-arms,
With horsemen, and with four-horsed chariots,
In serried ranks in front and on each flank,
The embattled host was dreadful to behold.
The centre footmen held in phalanx deep
With spaces for the chariots to drive through.
And on the right wing and the left were set
The best of all the Egyptian chivalry.
The numbers of our army which I asked,
Were thousand thousands brave well-armed men.
The Hebrews, when o'ertaken by our host,
Lay some in groups hard by the Red Sea shore
Worn out with toil, and others with their wives
To feed their tender infants were intent:
Cumbered with flocks and herds and household goods.
The men themselves with hands not armed for fight,
At sight of us, set up a doleful cry,
And all, with hands uplift to heaven, invoked
Their fathers' God. Great was their multitude;
But on our side all jubilant our camp
Behind them close we pitched, where by the sea
There lies a city, Baal-zephon hight.
And as the sun was near his western couch,
We waited, longing for the fight at dawn,
Trusting our mighty host and deadly arms.
But now the signs of heaven's own wrath began,
A dread and wondrous sight. For suddenly
A pillar of cloud rose high above the earth
Midway between the Hebrew camp and ours:
And then their leader Moses took his rod
Of power divine, which late on Egypt wrought
So many baneful signs and prodigies.
Therewith he struck the waves, and the deep sea
Was cleft asunder; and with eager steps
Their host rushed swiftly o'er that briny path.
We then upon their track without delay
Trod the same path, and marching forward met
The darkness of the night; when suddenly,
As if fast bound in chains, our chariot wheels
Refused to turn; and from the sky a flame
As of a mighty fire before us shone.
Their God, methinks, was there to succour them:
For they no sooner reached the farther shore,
Than close at hand we heard the mighty roar
Of surging waves; and one in terror cried:
'Flee from the vengeful hand of the Most High,
For it is He that helps our enemies,
And works for our destruction.' Then the sea
Surged o'er our path, and overwhelmed our host."

And again soon after:

'Thence they went forward three days, as Demetrius himself says, and the Holy Scripture agrees with him: but as he found there no sweet water, but bitter, at God's command he cast the wood of a certain tree into the fountain, and the water became sweet. And thence they came to Elim, and found there twelve springs of water, and threescore and ten palm-trees. As to these, and the bird which appeared there, Ezekiel in The Exodus introduces some one who speaks to Moses concerning the palm-trees and the twelve springs thus:

''See, my lord Moses, what a spot is found
Fanned by sweet airs from yonder shady grove.
For as thyself mayest see, there lies the stream,
And thence at night the fiery pillar shed
Its welcome guiding light. A meadow there
Beside the stream in grateful shadow lies
And a deep glen in rich abundance pours
From out a single rock twelve sparkling springs.
There tall and strong, and laden all with fruit,
Stand palms threescore and ten; and plenteous grass
Well watered gives sweet pasture to our flocks."

'Then lower down he gives a full description of the bird that appeared:

"Another living thing we saw, more strange
And marvellous than man e'er saw before.
The noblest eagle scarce was half as large:
His outspread wings with varying colours shone;
The breast was bright with purple, and the legs
With crimson glowed, and on the shapely neck
The golden plumage shone in graceful curves:
The head was like a gentle nestling's formed:
Bright shone the yellow circlet of the eye
On all around, and wondrous sweet the voice.
The king he seemed of all the winged tribe,
As soon was proved; for birds of every kind
Hovered in fear behind his stately form:
While like a bull, proud leader of the herd,
Foremost he marched with swift and haughty step."

And after a few words he adds that:

'Some one asked how the Israelites got weapons, as they came out unarmed. For they said that after they had gone out a three days' journey, and offered sacrifice, they would return again. It appears therefore that these who had not been overwhelmed in the sea made use of the others' arms.'

CHAPTER XXX

'BUT Eupolemus says, in some comment on the prophecy of Elias, that Moses prophesied forty years; then Jesus the sou of Nave thirty years, and he lived a hundred and ten years, and pitched the holy tabernacle in Silo.

'And afterwards Samuel rose up as a prophet: and then by God's -will Saul was chosen king by Samuel, and died after a reign of twenty-one years.

'Then his son David reigned, who subdued the Syrians which live beside the river Euphrates, and Commagene, and the Assyrians in Galadene, and the Phoenicians; he also made expeditions against the Edomites, and Ammonites, and Moabites, and Ituraeans, and Nabathaeans, and Nabdaeans.

'And again he made an expedition against Suron king of Tyre and Phoenicia; and compelled these nations to pay tribute to the Jews; and contracted a friendly alliance with Vaphres king of Egypt.

'And when David wished to build a temple for God, he entreated God to point out to him a place for the altar; whereupon there appeared to him an angel standing above the place, where the altar is built in Jerusalem, who commanded him not to build the temple, because he was defiled with men's blood and had passed many years in war.

'And the angel's name was Dianathan; and he bade him commit the building of the temple to his son, but himself to prepare the things pertaining to the building, gold, silver, brass, stones, cypress wood and cedar.

'And on bearing this David built ships in Aelan a city of Arabia, and sent miners to the island Drphe which lies in the Red Sea, and contains gold mines. And thence the miners transported the gold into Judaea.

'When David had reigned forty years he gave over the government to Solomon his son, who was twelve years old, in the presence of Eli the High Priest and the twelve princes of the tribes, and delivered to him the gold and silver and brass and stone and cypress wood and cedar. Then David died, and Solomon was king, and wrote to Vaphres king of Egypt the letter which is transcribed below.

CHAPTER XXXI

'"KING SOLOMON TO VAPHRES KING OP EGYPT, HIS FATHER'S FRIEND, GBEETING.

"KNOW thou that I have succeeded to the kingdom of my father David by the help of the Most High God, who has also enjoined on me to build a temple to the God who made heaven and earth: and withal to write to thee, to send me some of thy peoples, who shall stay and help me, until we shall have completed all things that are required, according to the injunction laid on me."

CHAPTER XXXII '"KING VAPHRES TO SOLOMON THE GREAT KING GEEETING.

"I REJOICED much when I read thy letter, and both I and all my kingdom kept a festive day in honour of thy succession, to the throne after a man so good and approved by so great a God. But as to what thou writest to me concerning the men among our peoples here, I have sent thee eighty thousand, and have clearly explained to thee their numbers and the places from which they come: from the Sebrithitic nome tea thousand, and from the Mendesian and Sebennytic twenty thousand: from the nomes of Busiris Leonto-polis and Athribites ten thousand each. And do thou carefully provide what things they require, and for the rest, that they may be in good order, and may be restored to their own country, as soon as they cease to be wanted."

CHAPTER XXXIII

'"KING SOLOMON TO SURON KING OP TYRE AND SIDON AND PHOENICIA, HIS FATHER'S FRIEND, GREETING.

"KNOW thou that I have received the kingdom from my father David by help of the Most High God, who also enjoined on me to build a temple to the God who made the heaven and the earth, and withal to write to thee to send me some men from thy peoples, who shall stay and help us until we have fulfilled the requirement of God, according to the injunction laid upon me. I have written also to Galilee, and Samaria, and the land of Moab, and Ammon, and Gilead, to supply them with necessaries from the country every month, ten thousand cors of corn (a cor is six artabae) and ten thousand homers of wine (the homer of wine is ten measures): and oil and the rest shall be supplied to them from Judaea, and from Arabia, victims for sacrifice on which to feed."

CHAPTER XXXIV

'"SURON TO SOLOMON THE GREAT KING GREETING.

"BLESSED be God, who made the heaven and the earth, who hath chosen a worthy son of a worthy father. As soon as I read thy letter I rejoiced greatly, and gave praise to God for thy succession to the kingdom.

"And as to what thou writest concerning the men in our various peoples, I have sent thee of Tyrians and Phoenicians eighty thousand, and as chief architect I have sent thee a man of Tyre, of a Jewish mother of the tribe of David: on whatsoever thou shalt ask him of all things under heaven, relating to architecture, he will give thee advice, and will carry out the work.

"And with regard to necessary provisions, and to the servants whom I send to thee, thou wilt do well in commanding the local governors, that all things necessary he provided." '

'When Solomon with his father's friends had passed over to mount Lebanon with the Sidonians and Tyrians, he transported the timber which had previously been cut by his father to Joppa by sea, and thence by land to Jerusalem. And he began to build the temple of God when he was thirteen years old: and the work was done by the nations before-mentioned, and the twelve tribes of the Jews supplied the hundred and sixty thousand with all things necessary, one tribe each month; and they laid the foundations of the temple of God, sixty cubits in length, and sixty cubits in breadth, but the breadth of the building and of the foundations was ten cubits, for so had Nathan the prophet of God commanded him.

'And they built alternately a course of stone and a beam of cypress-wood, fastening the two courses together with bronze cramps of a talent in weight. And when he had built it thus, he boarded it outside with planks of cedar and cypress, so that the stone building was not visible: and covered the temple with gold on the inside, by piling up bricks of gold five cubits long, and nailing them to the walls with silver nails of a talent in weight, four in number, and shaped like a breast.

'Thus he covered it with gold from floor to roof, and the ceiling he made of golden panels, and the roof he made of brass, that is of brass tiles, having smelted brass and poured it into moulds. He made also two columns of brass, and covered them with pure gold, a finger's breadth in thickness.

'And the columns were as high as the temple, and in size each pillar ten cubits in circumference: and they stood one on the right side of the house, and the other on the left. He made also golden lamp-stands, weighing ten talents each, having taken as a pattern the lamp-stand set by Moses in the tabernacle of the Testimony.

'And he set them on either side of the shrine, some on the right and some on the left. He made also seventy golden lamps, so that there might be seven burning on each lamp-stand. He built also the gates of the temple, and adorned them with gold and silver, and roofed them over with panels of cedar and cypress.

'He made a porch also on the north side of the temple, and supported it on forty-eight pillars of brass. He made also a brazen laver, twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in width, and five cubits high. And upon it he made a brim projecting on the outside towards the base one cubit, in order that the priests might stand up on it, and wash their feet and hands. Also he made the bases of the laver, twelve in number, molten and chased, and of the height of a man, and set them at the hinder side beneath the laver, on the right side of the altar.

'He made also a brazen step two cubits high, near the laver, that the king might stand upon it, when praying, so that he might be seen by the Jewish people. Also he built the altar of twenty-five cubits by twenty cubits, and twelve cubits high.

'He made also two brazen rings of chain-work, and set them upon machines rising twenty cubits in height above the temple, and they cast a shadow over the whole temple: and to each net-work he hung four hundred brass bells of a talent in weight, and the net-works he made solid, that the bells might sound, and frighten away the birds, that they might not settle upon the temple, nor nest upon the panels of the gates and porches, and defile the temple with their dung.

'He also surrounded the city Jerusalem with walls and towers and moats, and built a palace for himself.

'And the Lord's house was at first called the Temple of Solomon (Ἱερὸν Σολομῶνος); afterwards by a corruption the city was named Hierusalem from the Temple, but by the Greeks was called Hierosolyma after the king's name.

'And when he had completed the Temple and the walls of the city, he went to Shiloh, and offered a thousand oxen for a burnt-offering. And he took the Tabernacle, and the altar, and the vessels which Moses made, and brought them to Jerusalem, and put them in the house.

'Moreover the Ark, and the golden altar, and the lamp-stand, and the table, and the other vessels he deposited there, as the prophet commanded him.

'And he offered to God an immense sacrifice, two thousand sheep, three thousand five hundred calves. And the whole amount of gold which was expended upon the two pillars and the temple was four millions six hundred thousand talents: and upon the nails and the rest of the furniture one thousand two hundred and thirty-two talents of silver: and of brass for the columns and the laver and the porch eighteen thousand and fifty talents.

'And Solomon sent away both the Egyptians and the Phoenicians each to their own country, having given to every man ten shekels of gold; now the shekel is a talent. And to Vaphres the king of Egypt he sent ten thousand measures of oil, a thousand measures of dates, a hundred vessels of honey, and spices.

'And to Suron at Tyre he sent the golden pillar which is dedicated in the temple of Zeus at Tyre.

'But Theophilus says that Solomon sent the gold that remained over to the king of Tyre; and that he made a life-sized figure as an image of his daughter, and made the golden column into a covering for the statue.

'And Eupolemus says that Solomon made also a thousand golden shields, each of which weighed five hundred staters of gold. He lived fifty-two years, of which he reigned forty in peace.'

CHAPTER XXXV

'TIMOCHARES, in his Life of Antiochus, says that Jerusalem has a circuit of forty furlongs, and is difficult to take, being shut in on all sides by abrupt ravines: and that the whole city is flooded with streams of water, so that even the gardens are irrigated by waters which flow off from the city. But the country from the city as far as forty furlongs is without water: but beyond the forty furlongs again it is well watered.'

CHAPTER XXXVI

'THE author of the Metrical Survey of Syria says in his first book that Jerusalem lies upon a lofty and rugged site: and that some parts of the wall are built of polished stone, but the greater part of rubble; and that the city has a circuit of twenty-seven furlongs, and that there is also within the place a spring which spouts up abundance of water.

CHAPTER XXXVII

'PHILO too says, in his Account of Jerusalem, that there is a fountain, and that it is dried up in winter, but becomes full in summer. And in his first Book he speaks thus:

"Νηχόμενος δ' ἐφύπερθε τὸ θαμβηέστατον ἄλλο
δέρκηθρον συναοιδὰ μεγιστούχοιο λοετροῖς
ῥεύματος ἐμπίπλησι βαθὺν ῥόον ἐξανιείσης." 32

'And so forth. Again, lower down he adds to these a description of the refilling:

"For flashing from on high the joyous stream,
Flooded by rain and snow, rolls swiftly on
Beneath the neighbouring towers, and spreading o'er
The dry and dusty ground, far-shining shows
The blessings of that wonder-working fount."

'And the rest that follows. Then again, concerning the High Priest's fountain and the canal that carries off the water, he proceeds as follows:

"A headlong stream by channels under ground
The pipes pour forth,"

'And all that follows this.'

Thus far then our quotations from Alexander Polyhistor.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

BUT Aristeas also, in the book which he wrote Concerning the Interpretation of the Law of the Jews, gives the following account of the waters in Jerusalem:

[ARISTEAS] 33 'Now the house looks towards the East, and the back part of it to the West. The whole site is paved with stone, and has slopes towards the proper places for the influx of the waters for the purpose of washing away the blood from the sacrifices: for many myriads of cattle are offered on the several feast-days.

'And there is an inexhaustible reservoir of water, as would be expected from an abundant spring gushing up naturally from within; there being moreover wonderful and indescribable cisterns under ground, of five furlongs, according to their showing, all round the foundation of the temple, and countless pipes from them, so that the streams on every side met together. And all these works have been fastened with lead at tbe bottom and the side-walls, and over these has been spread a great quantity of plaster, all having been carefully wrought.'

CHAPTER XXXIX

BESIDES this, as Polyhistor has made mention of the prophecy of Jeremiah, it would be a most unreasonable thing for us to pass it over in silence. Let this then also be set down:

[POLYHISTOR] 'Then Jonachim: in his time prophesied Jeremiah the prophet. He was sent by God, and found the Jews sacrificing to a golden image, the name of which was Baal.

'And he foreshowed to them the calamity which was to come. Jonachim then attempted to burn him alive: but he said that with that fuel they should cook food for the Babylonians, and as prisoners of war should dig the canals of the Tigris and Euphrates.

'When Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians, had heard of the predictions of Jeremiah, he summoned Astibares, the king of the Medes, to join him in an expedition. And having taken with him Babylonians and Medes, and collected a hundred and eighty thousand infantry and a hundred and twenty thousand cavalry, and ten thousand chariots, he first subdued Samaria, and Galilee, and Scythopolis, and the Jews who lived in the region of Gilead; and afterwards took Jerusalem, and made Jonachim, the king of the Jews, a prisoner. And the gold that was in the temple, and the silver and brass, they chose out and sent to Babylon, except the Ark and the tables that were in it: but this Jeremiah retained.'

CHAPTER XL

To this I must necessarily append also the account of the captivity of the Jews under Nebuchadnezzar:

[JOSEPHUS] 34 'Nebuchadnezzar having encountered the rebel and joined battle with him, both mastered him, and brought the country at once under his own rule.

'And it happened that his father Nabopallasar fell sick at this time, and departed from life in the city of Babylon, after having reigned twenty-one years. And when Nebuchadnezzar heard soon after of his father's death, he set in order the affairs of Egypt and of the rest of the country, and having committed the prisoners of the Jews and Phoenicians and Syrians, the nations near Egypt, to certain of his friends, came to Babylon.'

After other statements he says:

'So then Nebuchadnezzar, after be had begun the wall before-mentioned, fell sick and died, after a reign of forty-three years, and his son Evil-Merodach became master of the kingdom.

'He governed the affairs of the kingdom in a lawless and outrageous manner, and was plotted against and put to death by his sister's husband Neriglisar, after having reigned two years.

'And after he was slain Neriglisar, who had plotted against him, succeeded to the government and reigned four years. His son Chabaessoarach succeeded to the kingdom, though he was but a boy, and held it nine mouths; but because be showed many evil dispositions, a plot was made against him by his friends, and he was beaten to death.

'Upon his death, those who had plotted against him met together, and by common consent conferred the kingdom on Nabonuedus, who was a Babylonian and one of the same conspiracy.

'In his reign the walls of Babylon adjacent to the river were handsomely repaired with baked brick and asphalt. And in the seventeenth year of his reign Cyrus came from Persia with a great force, and, after subduing all the rest of the kingdom, invaded Babylonia.

'Nabonnedus, on being informed of his advance, met him with his army, and having joined battle was defeated, and fled with a few attendants, and was shut up in the city Borsippus.

'And Cyrus having taken Babylon, and ordered the demolition of the outer walls of the city because the city had proved very troublesome to him, and hard to take, moved his army to Borsippus, to besiege Nabonnedus.

'But as Nabonnedus did not wait for the siege, but gave himself up beforehand, Cyrus treated him in a kindly manner, and, giving him Carmania to dwell in, sent him away from Babylonia. The rest of his time therefore Nabonnedus passed in that country, and there ended his life.

'This narrative contains the truth in agreement with our books. For in them it is written that Nebuchadnezzar in the eighteenth year of his reign laid waste our temple, and it remained unregarded fifty years. But in the second year of the reign of Cyrus the foundations were laid, and it was completed again in the tenth year of the reign of Darius.'

Thus far Josephus.

CHAPTER XLI

I FOUND also the following statements concerning Nebuchadnezzar in the work of Abydenus Concerning the Assyrians:

[ABYDENUS] 'Now Megasthenes says that Nebuchadnezzar was braver than Hercules, and made an expedition against Libya and Iberia, and, having subdued them, settled a part of their inhabitants on the right shore of Pontus.

'And afterwards, the Chaldeans say, he went up to his palace, and being possessed by some god or other uttered the following speech:

'"O men of Babylon, I Nebuchadnezzar here foretell to you the coming calamity, which neither Belus my ancestor, nor Queen Beltis are able to persuade the Fates to avert.

'"There will come a Persian mule, aided by the alliance of your own deities, and will bring you into slavery. And the joint author of this will be a Mede, in whom the Assyrians glory. O would that before he gave up my citizens some Charybdis or sea might swallow him up utterly out of sight; or that, turning in other directions, he might be carried across the desert, where there are neither cities nor foot of man, but where wild beasts have pasture and birds their haunts, that he might wander alone among rocks and ravines; and that, before he took such thoughts into his mind, I myself had found a better end."

'He after uttering this prediction had immediately disappeared, and his son Amil-marudocus became king. But he was slain by his kinsman Iglisar, who left a son Labassoarask. And when he died by a violent death, Nabannidochus, who was not at all related to him was appointed king. But after the capture of Babylon, Cyrus presents him with the principality of Carmania.'

Also concerning the building of Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar the same author writes thus:

'It is said that all was originally water, and called a sea. But Belus put a stop to this, and assigned a district to each, and surrounded Babylon with a wall; and at the appointed time he disappeared.

'And afterwards Nebuchadnezzar built the wall which remained to the time of the Macedonian empire, and was furnished with gates of brass.'

After other statements he adds:

'When Nebuchadnezzar had succeeded to the kingdom, he fortified Babylon with a triple circuit of walls in fifteen days, and he changed the course of the river Armacales, which is a branch of the Euphrates, and also of the Acracanus. To protect the city of the Sippareni he dug out a reservoir having a circuit of forty parasangs and a depth of twenty fathoms, and put gates to it, by opening which they irrigated the plain; and they call them Echetognomones.

'He also walled off the inundation of the Red Sea, and built the city Teredon at the place of the incursions of the Arabs. His palace too he adorned with trees, and gave it the name of the Hanging Gardens.'

I have wished to make these quotations from the book before mentioned, because in the prophecy of Daniel it is said that Nebuchadnezzar, walking in the palace of his kingdom in Babylon, in proud thought spoke out arrogantly and said: 'Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty? ' 35 While the word is yet in his mouth the catastrophe which followed has come upon him.

This then is enough for me to have quoted on the present subject.

CHAPTER XLII

BUT after all let me add the statements from the Antiquity of the Jews by Josephus, where, after quoting word for word the sayings of numberless writers, he adds the following:

[JOSEPHUS] 36 'Nevertheless the records of the Syrians and Chaldeans and Phoenicians suffice for the proof of our antiquity, and in addition to them so many writers among the Greeks, and yet further in addition to those mentioned Theophilus, and Theodotus, and Mnaseas, and Aristophanes, and Hermogenes, Euemerus also, and: Conon, and Zopyrion, and many others perhaps (for I have not read all the books) have made no slight or passing mention of us.

'Most, however, of the persons mentioned missed the truth of our earliest history because they had not read our Sacred Books: nevertheless all alike have borne testimony concerning our antiquity, the subject on which I proposed to speak at this time. Demetrius Phalereus, however, and Philo the elder, and Eupolemus, did not go far astray from the truth. And they deserve to be excused, for it was not in their power to follow our scriptures with entire accuracy.'

So says Josephus. And any one who is pleased to read his statements concerning the Antiquity of the Jews will find very many testimonies agreeing with those which I have set forth.

Also there pours in upon me a further great crowd of writers both ancient and modern as witnesses, who set their seal upon the like judgement with the authors who have been quoted; but being anxious to preserve the due limits of my discourse, I leave their utterances for students to search out and examine, and will myself pass on to fulfil the remainder of my promise.

[Footnotes numbered and moved to end]

1. 404 a Porphyry. On Abstinence from Animal Food, ii. 26

2. 404 d 2 Porphyry, On Abstinence from Animal Food, iv. 11 = Josephus, Jewish War, II. viii. 2-12

3. 408 b 1 Josephus, Against Apion, i. 22, p. 456

4. 409 b 3 Josephus, Against Apion, p. 454

5. 410 b 3 Clement of Alexandria, Strom, i. c. 15, p. 358 (Potter)

6. 410 c 12 Clement Al., Strom. i. c. 15, p. 360

7. d 9 ibid. c. 22, p. 410

8. 411 c 1 Numenius, On the Good, a Fragment preserved by Eusebius.

9. d 3 Numenius, ibidem

10. 412 a 4 Josephus, Against Apion, i. 22, p. 454

11. 412 d 10 Porphyry, Of the Philosophy to be derived from Oracles, a Fragment preserved by Eusebius.

12. 413 c 1 Quoted by Justin M., Exhortation to the Greeks, c. xi B, and c. xxiv E

13. 414 a 1 Josephus, Ant. i. c. 3, � 6

14. 414 d 4 Abydenus, Assyrian History. Cf. Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian, i. p. 8

15. 415 c 2 Josephus, Ant. i. 3, 9

16. 416 b 3 Abydenus, Assyrian History. Cf. Cyril of Alexandria, ibidem, p. 9

17. 416 c 3 Josephus. Ant. i. e. 4, � 3

18. d 2 Cf. Rzach, Sibylline Oracles, iii. 97-110

19. 417 b 4 Josephus, Ant. i. c. 7, � 2

20. 417 c 1 Nicolaus Damascenus, Universal History, a Fragment.

21. 418 c 7 Alexander Polyhistor, Of the Jews, a Fragment preserved by Eusebius.

22. 421 c 3-422 a 1 Unintelligible Fragments referring to Abraham and Isaac from a so-called poem on Jerusalem by a certain Philo.

23. 422 a 6 Josephus, Ant. i. c. 15

24. 422 d 2 Alexander Polyhistor, Fragment; cf. p. 418 c 1

25. 426 b 1 Theodotus, On the Jews, a Fragment preserved by Polyhistor.

26. 429 c 1 Alexander Polyhistor.

27. 430 c 1 Philo, Concerning Jerusalem.

28. d 6 Job i. 3

29. 431 c 3 A Fragment of Eupolemus, On the Kings of Judaea, quoted by Clement of Alexandria, Strom, i. c. 23, p. 413 P

30. 487 a 1 Ezekiel, The Exodus; cf. Clement of Alexandria, Strom. i. 414 P

31. 440 a 2 Ezekiel, The Exodus.

32. 453 a 3 These lines are so corrupt as to defy translation.

33. 453 d 1 Aristeas, ? 88 (Wendland).

34. 455 b 3 Josephus, Against Apion, i. 19

35. 457 d 9 Dan. iv. 30

36. 458 b 5 Josephus, Against Apion, i. 23

[admin]

Part 1 of 2

BOOK X

CONTENTS

• I. How the serious branches of learning passed from Barbarians to Greeks: also concerning the antiquity of the Hebrews p. 460 a
• II. Of the plagiarism of the Greek writers, from Clement p. 461 d
• III. That the Greeks were plagiarists. From Porphyry, The Lecture on Literature, Bk. i p. 464 a
• IV. That, not unreasonably, we have preferred the theology of the Hebrews to the Greek philosophy p. 468 d
• V. That in all things the Greeks have profited by the Barbarians p. 473 d
• VI. On the same subject, from Clement p. 475 b
• VII. On the same subject, from Josephus p. 477 a
• VIII. Diodorus, the author of the Bibliotheca, on the same subject p. 480 a
• IX. On the antiquity of Moses and the Hebrew Prophets p. 483 b
• X. From Africanus p. 487 d
• XI. From Tatian p. 491 c
• XII. From Clement p. 496 d
• XIII. From Josephus p. 500 c
• XIV. That the times of the Greek Philosophers are more recent than the whole history of the Hebrews p. 502 c

CHAPTER I

WE have previously explained for what reasons we (Christians) have preferred the philosophy of the Hebrews to that of the Greeks, and on what kind of considerations we accepted the sacred Books current among the former people; and then afterwards we proved that the Greeks themselves were not ignorant of that people, but mentioned them by name, and greatly admired their mode of life, and have given a long account both of their royal capital, and other matters of their history. Now then let us go on to observe how they not only deemed the record of these things worthy to be written, but also became zealous imitators of the like teaching and instruction in some of the doctrines pertaining to the improvement of the soul.

I shall show then almost immediately how, from various sources, one and another of these wonderful Greeks, by going about among the Barbarians, collected the other branches of learning, geometry, arithmetic, music, astronomy, medicine, and the very first elements of grammar, and numberless other artistic and profitable studies.

In the previous part of my discourse I proved that they had received from Barbarians their opinion concerning a multitude of gods, and their mysteries and initiations, and moreover their histories, and their fabulous stories about gods, and their physical explanations of the fables as expressed in allegory, and the rest of their superstitious error. This, I say, was proved at the time when we convicted the Greeks of having wandered over much of the earth, and then set up their own. theology on all points, not indeed without labour and care, but by contributions from the learning current among Barbarians: and soon it shall be proved that from no other source than from Hebrews only could they have procured the knowledge of the worship of the One Supreme God, and of the doctrines most in request for the benefit of the soul, which of course would also be most conclusive of their discussions on philosophy.

Or otherwise, if any one should say that they were moved to the same conclusions by innate conceptions, even this would be in our favour, that we preferred to be zealous followers of the doctrines delivered not only to Hebrews from the earliest ages by prophets who spake of God, but also, if not to all, yet to some, and those certainly the very men who were greatly renowned in Greece, doctrines carefully examined also in the discussions of the philosophers.

Now these men you would find to be few in number, because all excellence is proverbially difficult to attain; but nevertheless they have been honoured with the first place among the philosophers of Greece, so that through their great fame they overshadow the reputation of their fellows.

But you must not be surprised if we say that possibly the doctrines of the Hebrews have been plagiarised by them, since they are not only proved to have stolen the other branches of learning from Egyptians and Chaldees and the rest of the barbarous nations, but even to the present day are detected in robbing one another of the honours gained in their own writings.

At all events one after another they surreptitiously steal the phrases of their neighbours together with the thoughts and whole arrangement of treatises, and pride themselves as if upon their own labours. And do not suppose that this is my statement, for you shall again hear the very wisest of them convicting one another of theft in their writings.

And this very fact, since we have once mentioned it, we must consider as evidence before all else of the character of the said persons. Our Clement then, in his sixth Miscellany, has arranged the proof of this point at full length: so take and read me his words first, such as the following:

CHAPTER II

[CLEMENT] 1 'Now after having shown, that the significance of Greek thought was illumined on all sides from the truth bestowed on us through the Scripturess according to the sense which we took in proving that the theft of the truth (if it be not offensive to say so) came home to them; let us proceed to bring forward the Greeks as witnesses of the theft against themselves.

'For they who so openly filch their own works one from another establish the fact that they are thieves, and betray, however unwillingly, that they are secretly appropriating to their own countrymen the truth borrowed from us. For if they do not keep their hands off even from one another, it is not likely that they will from our writers.

'Now of their philosophical doctrines I shall say nothing, since the very men who have divided themselves into sects, confess in writing, in order that they may not be convicted of ingratitude, that they have received the most important of their doctrines from Socrates. But after employing a few testimonies of men familiarly known and renowned among the Greeks, and exposing their style of plagiarism, by dealing with various periods, I shall turn to the subjects next in order.'

After these statements by way of preface, he brings forward his proofs in order, using all kinds of evidence, and calls the poets first to account as having stolen the thoughts from other poets, by a comparison of their respective utterances.

Then next he adds the following:

'In order that we may not allow philosophy, nor history, nor even rhetoric to pass free from the same charge, it is reasonable to bring forward a few passages from them also.' 2

Then he successively compares passages of Orpheus, Heracleitus, Plato, Pythagoras, Herodotus, Theopompus, Thucydides, Demosthenes, Aeschines, Lysias, Isocrates, and ten thousand others, of whose sayings it is superfluous for me to make a catalogue, as the author's work is ready at hand, in which, after the evidences concerning the said authors, he again speaks as follows:

'Let then these specimens of Greek plagiarism in thought suffice, being such as they are, for a clear example to one who has any power of discernment. But further they have been detected not only in filching and paraphrasing the thoughts and the expressions, but, as shall be shown, they have stolen the works of others wholesale, and brought them out as their own; as Eugamon of Cyrene stole the entire book Concerning the Thesprotians from Musaeus.' 3

Clement having afterwards added to these very many proofs of his argument, again at the end makes this addition:

'Life would fail me, should I attempt to go over in particular detail the proof of the selfish plagiarism of the Greeks, and how they claim as their own the discovery of the noblest doctrines current among them, which they have taken from us.4

'But now they are convicted not only of stealing their doctrines from the Barbarians, but also of copying our records of deeds so wonderfully wrought of old by the divine power through men of holy lives for our study, and exhibiting them in the marvellous stories of Greek mythology.

'And so we shall inquire of them whether these stories which they relate are true or false. False they would not say; for they would not willingly convict themselves of the great folly of recording falsehoods; but they would of necessity confess that they are true.

'But how then do the deeds miraculously exhibited by Moses and the other prophets any longer appear incredible to them? For the Almighty God in His care for all men tries to convert them to salvation, some by commandments, some by threatenings, some by miraculous signs, and some by gentle promises.

'Moreover, once when a drought was for a long time ruining Greece, and a dearth of food prevailed, the Greeks, those of them who were left, it is said, because of the famine came as suppliants to Delphi, and asked the Pythoness how they might be delivered from the danger. And she answered them that there was only one way of escape from the calamity, that they should employ the prayer of Aeacus, So Aeacus was persuaded by them, and went up to the Hellenic Mount, and, stretching out his pure hands to heaven, called upon God as the common Father, and prayed Him to have pity upon Hellas in her distress.

'And while he was yet praying there was a portentous sound of thunder, and all the surrounding air grew clouded, and violent and continuous rains burst forth and filled the whole country. Thence an abundant and rich harvest, produced by the husbandry of the prayers of Aeacus, is brought to perfection. 5

'"And Samuel (says the Scripture) called upon the Lord, and the Lord gave thunder and rain in the day of harvest.6 Seest thou that there is One God, who sendeth rain upon the just and unjust 7 by means of the powers subject to Him? "' And the rest.

To this Clement subjoined countless instances, and convicted the Greeks of having been plagiarists by indisputable proofs. But if you do not think him trustworthy, inasmuch as he, like us, has himself preferred the philosophy of the Barbarians to that of Greece, well then let him be dismissed, although he conducted his argument not in words of his own, but in those of Greeks themselves. But what would you say. if you should learn the like facts even from your noble philosophers themselves? Listen then to their testimonies also.

CHAPTER III

[PORPHYRY] 8 'WHEN Longinus was entertaining us in Athens at the banquet in memory of Plato, he had invited among many others Nicagoras the Sophist, and Major, and Apollonius the Grammarian, and Demetrius the Geometer, and Prosenes the Peripatetic, and Callietes the Stoic.

'With these reclined the host himself making seven, and while supper was going on, and some question about Ephorus had arisen among the others, he said, Let us hear what is this clamour about Ephorus? Now the disputants were Caystrius and Maximus: for the latter was for preferring him to Theopompus, while Caystrius called him a plagiarist.

'"For what," said he, "belongs properly to Ephorus, who transfers from the writings of Daimachus, and Callisthenes, and Anaximenes word for word sometimes as much as three thousand whole lines?"

'In answer to whom Apollonius the Grammarian said, "Yes, for you are not aware that even Theopompus, whom you prefer, is infected with the same fault, as having in the eleventh book of his History of Philip copied word for word from the Areopagiticus of Isocrates that famous passage, "that nothing good and nothing evil comes to men quite of itself," 9 and the rest.

'And yet he despises Isocrates, and says that his master was defeated by himself in the contest in honour of Mausolus. Then he has committed a theft of facts, by transferring what he found told of some men to others, that in this way he might also be convicted of falsehood.

'For whereas Andron in The Tripod, writing of the philosopher Pythagoras, had narrated the story of his predictions, and said that once at Metapontium having been thirsty, and having drawn up and drunk water from a certain well, he foretold that on the third day there would be an earthquake. And after adding some other remarks to these, he proceeds:

'"So whereas Andron had told this story concerning Pythagoras, Theopompus filched it all. If he had mentioned Pythagoras, perhaps others also would have known about it, and said, The Master also said that. But now the change of the name has made the plagiarism manifest; for he has made use of the same facts, but substituted another name: and he has represented Pherecydes of Syros 10 as uttering this prediction.

'And not only by this name does he try to conceal the theft, but also by a change of localities: for the prophecy of the earthquake narrated by Andron as spoken in Metapontium, Theopompus says was uttered in Syria. And the incident about the ship was observed, he says, not from Megara in Sicily, but from Samos: and the capture of Sybaris he has transferred to that of Messene.

'But in order that he might seem to say something more than common, he has also added the name of the stranger, saying that he was called Perilaus." "I too," says Nicagoras, "in reading his Hellenics and Xenophon's, have detected him in transferring many things from Xenophon; and the mischief is that he has changed them for the worse.

'"For instance, the account of the conference of Pharnabazus with Agesilaus through the mediation of Apollophanes of Cyzicus, and their conversations with each other under a truce, which Xenophon in his fourth Book recorded very gracefully and in a manner becoming to both, Theopompus has transferred into the eleventh Book of his Hellenics, and deprived of all vigour, and movement, and effect.

'"For while, in order to hide his theft, he strives to throw in and to display forcible and elaborate language, he appears slow, and hesitating, and procrastinating, and destroys the animation and vigour of Xenophon."

'After Nicagoras had thus spoken, Apollonius said, But what wonder that the vice of plagiarism infected Theopompus and Ephorus, who were merely very dull men, when even Menander was full of this infirmity, though in censuring him Aristophanes the Grammarian, because of his excessive friendship for him, dealt gently in his parallel extracts from him and from those whom he plagiarised. But Latinus in six books, which he entitled Of Menander's Appropriations, exposed the multitude of his plagiarisms.

'In the same way Philostratus of Alexandria began a treatise On the Plagiarism of Sophocles. And Caecilius, thinking that he has discovered something of great importance, says that Menander transcribed a whole drama, The Augur of Antiphaues, from beginning to end, into The Superstitious Man.

'But since, says he, it has seemed good to you, I know not how, to bring forward the plagiarists, I myself also inform against the charming Hyperides as having stolen many things from Demosthenes, both in the speech Against Diondas and in the one Concerning the bribes of Eubulus.

'And that one of them has borrowed from the other is manifest: but as they were contemporaries it must be your task, Apollonius, says he, to track the plagiarist from the dates. Now I suspect that the one who has stolen is Hyperides: but as it is uncertain which it was, I admire Demosthenes, if he borrowed from Hyperides and made appropriate corrections; but I blame Hyperides if he borrowed from Demosthenes, and perverted it for the worse.'

And soon after he says:

'"Why need I tell you, how the Barbarian Customs of Hellanicus is a compilation out of the works of Herodotus and Damastes? Or how Herodotus in his second Book has transferred many passages of Hecataeus of Miletus from the Geography, verbally with slight falsifications, as the account of the bird Phoenix, and of the hippopotamus, and of the hunting of crocodiles?

'Or how the statements in Isaeus concerning torture, in his oration Concerning the inheritance of Cylon, are found also in the Trapeziticus of Isocrates, and in the oration of Demosthenes Against Onetor on an action of ejectment are expressed almost in the same words?

'Or how Dinarchus in his first speech Against Cleomedon in an action for assault has transferred many things word for word from the speech of Demosthenes Against Conon for assault?

'Or how this sentiment of Hesiod's,

"Nought can man better than a good wife win,
Nor find a worse bane than a vicious shrew," 11

was borrowed by Simonides in his eleventh Book, who took it thus:

"Of all the prizes man can win, a wife
If good is best, if evil far the worst." 12

'And by Euripides in Melanippe the Captive:

"For than a bad wife nought can e'er be worse,
Nor aught excel a virtuous woman's worth;
But of their natures there is difference great." 13

'And whereas Euripides said:

"A race most wretched we poor women are," 14

Theodectes says in the Alcmaeon:

"Tis a true proverb in the mouths of men,
Than woman nought more wretched e'er was born." 15

This author has not only taken the suggestion from that passage, but has also employed the very words; and he craftily preferred to give it a proverbial character, and to employ it as a saying used by many, rather than to seem to have taken it from its original author.

'Antimachus too steals Homer's verse, and blunders in correcting it. For Homer having said:

"Idas was strongest born of men on earth," 16

Antimachus says:

"Idas was strongest of all men on earth." 17

And Lycophron praises the alteration on the ground that the line is thereby strengthened.

'As to Homer's

"Τὸν δ' ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφη κρείων Διομήδης"

I say nothing, since Homer has been ridiculed in comedy by Cratinus because of his frequent repetition of

"Τὸν δ' ἀπαμειβόμενος"

which, though so trite, Antimachus did not hesitate to borrow.

'The line,

"The tribes he ruled with mild paternal sway," 18

is Homer's: and again in another place it is written,

"They on either side
In closer ranks the deep battalions ranged." 19

But Antimachus, by transferring half-lines, has made the verse

"Of all the tribes they ruled
In closer ranks the deep battalions ranged." 20

'But lest while charging others with plagiarism I should be convicted as a plagiarist myself, I will indicate those who have treated this subject. There are two books of Lysimachus Concerning the Plagiarism of Ephorus. Alcaeus also, the poet of the vituperative Iambics and Epigrams, has detected and parodied the plagiarisms of Ephorus: then there is an epistle of Pollio to Soteridas Concerning the Plagiarism of Ctesias, and a book of the same author Concerning the Plagiarism of Herodotus, and in the book entitled The Searchers there are many statements concerning Theopompus, and there is a treatise of Aretades Concerning Coincidence, from which works one may learn many examples of this kind.'

After other passages he adds: 21

'Prosenes also said, The other plagiarists you have detected: but that even this hero Plato himself, after whom the feast which . we are celebrating to-day is named, makes use of many works of his predecessors (for in his case I feel too much respect to use the term "plagiarism"), this you have not proceeded to discover.

'What say you? said Callietes. I not only say, replied Prosenes, but I also offer the proof of my statement. Now the books of Plato's predecessors are rare: else perhaps one might have detected more of the philosopher's plagiarisms. As to one, however, which I myself lighted upon by chance, in reading the discourse of Protagoras Concerning Being against those who represent "Being " as one, I find him employing answers of the following kind; for I was careful to remember wlfat he said in his very words.'

And after this preface he sets out the proofs at large.

But I think that out of numberless examples those which have been mentioned are sufficient to show what was the character of the Greek writers, and that they did not spare even the exposure one of another. Yet in farther preparation for showing the benefit which has overflowed to the Greeks from the Hebrew Scriptures, I think it will be right and necessary for me to prove generally that all the celebrated learning and philosophy of the Greeks, both their elementary studies, and their grand system of logical science, have been collected by them from Barbarians, so that none of them may any longer lay blame upon us, because forsooth we have preferred the religion and philosophy of the Barbarians to their grand doctrines.

CHAPTER IV

You may judge that not without sound reason have we given a secondary place to the doctrines of the Greek philosophy, and preferred the theology of the Hebrews, when you learn that even among the Greeks themselves those who have most of all treated philosophy correctly, and thought out something more and better than the vulgar talk about the gods, have discovered no other true doctrines than those which had received a previous sanction among the Hebrews.

For some of them, being carried away hither and thither by various false opinions, were driven about into an abyss of idle prating; while others, who have in some degree employed candid reasoning, have shown themselves partakers in the teaching of the Hebrews in those points wherein they attained to the conception of the truth.

It is probable at all events that having become very learned, and having curiously investigated both the customs and the learning of the nations, they were not unacquainted with the philosophy of the people just mentioned, being younger in time, so to speak, than all men, not Hebrews only, nor yet Phoenicians and Egyptians only, but also than the ancient Greeks themselves.

For these ancients some doctrines derived from Phoenicia were arranged by Cadmus son of Agenor; and others concerning the gods from Egypt or elsewhere, mysteries and rites, the setting up of statues, and hymns, odes, and epodes, either by the Thracian Orpheus, or some other Greek or Barbarian, who became their leaders in error: for the Greeks themselves would acknowledge that they know no men more ancient than these.

They say at least that Orpheus nourished first of all, then Linus, and afterwards Musaeus about the time of the Trojan war, or a little before. But certainly in their time nothing more than the theology of the Phoenicians and Egyptians, with its manifold errors, had a home among the Greeks.

Moreover, among the other nations, in all countries and cities, these very doctrines and others similar to them were carefully observed in sacrifices and mysteries. At all events, the aforesaid doctrine concerning the gods largely prevailed among all mankind: and very beautiful shrines were everywhere furnished and adorned with all kinds of statues and offerings: moreover, images of all kinds of material were moulded into every form of mortal animals and tastefully finished.

And further, there was among them all a manifold and profuse abundance of oracles. Indeed a certain god especially revered and mighty among the Greeks was at that time most nourishing, the Pythian, Clarian, and Dodonaean god: and then Amphiaraus, and Amphi-lochus, and after these flowed on a countless multitude of soothsayers rather than of poets and rhapsodists.

But at length, long ages after them, philosophy arrived among the Greeks, and found among their forefathers nothing that properly belonged to herself, but discovered that the sanctities and antiquities of the theology which had come to them from their fathers, and even the marvellous and universally famous divinities and oracles, were in reality superfluous and unprofitable.

Wherefore she proceeded to put these back into a secondary place, as they could not be of any use to her for the discovery of things necessary and true: and thenceforth, as one naked and destitute of any reasonings or learning of her own, she went about examining the foreign and barbarous systems, and providing, collecting, and borrowing what was useful to her from all sides, whatever she found among the several nations.

For indeed she began to discover that not only the true theology was lacking to the Greeks, but also the most useful in daily life of all the other arts and sciences. Indeed the Greeks themselves confess that it was after Orpheus, Linus, and Musaeus, the most ancient of all their theologians and the first to introduce among them the error of polytheism, that their seven men whom they surnamed Sages were celebrated for wisdom. And these nourished about the time of Cyrus king of Persia.

Now this was the time in which the very latest of the Hebrew prophets were prophesying, who lived more than six hundred years after the Trojan war, and not less than fifteen hundred years after the age of Moses: and this will be manifest to you when presently going through the records of the chronology.

Born somewhere about this recent period the Seven Sages are remembered for a reform of moral conduct, but nothing more is recorded of them than their celebrated maxims. But somewhat late, and lower down in time, the philosophers of the Greeks are reported to have flourished.

First among these Pythagoras the pupil of Pherecydes, who invented the name 'philosophy,' was a native, as some say, of Samos, but according to others of Tyrrhenia; while some say that he was a Syrian or Tyrian, so that yon must admit that the first of the philosophers, celebrated in the mouth of all Greeks, was not a Greek but a Barbarian.

Pherecydes also is recorded to have been a Syrian, and Pythagoras they say was his disciple. He is not, however, the only teacher with whom, as it is said, Pythagoras was associated, but he spent some time also with the Persian Magi; and became a disciple of the Egyptian prophets, at the time when some of the Hebrews appear to have made their settlement in Egypt, and some in Babylon.

In fact the said Pythagoras, while busily studying the wisdom of each nation, visited Babylon, and Egypt, and all Persia, being instructed by the Magi and the priests: and in addition to these he is related to have studied under the Brahmans (these are Indian philosophers); and from some he gathered astrology, from others geometry, and arithmetic and music from others, and different things from different nations, and only from the wise men of Greece did he get nothing, wedded as they were to a poverty and dearth of wisdom: so on the contrary he himself became the author of instruction to the Greeks in the learning which he had procured from abroad.

Such then was Pythagoras. And first in succession from him the so-called Italian philosophy was formed, which derived its title to the name from its abode in Italy: after this came the Ionic school, so called from Thales, one of the seven Sages: and then the Eleatic, which claimed as its founder Xenophanes of Colophon. '

Even Thales, however, as some relate, was a Phoenician, but as others have supposed, a Milesian: and he too is said to have conferred with the prophets of the Egyptians.

Solon also who was himself one of the Seven Sages, and is said to have legislated for the Athenians, is stated by Plato to have resorted in like manner to the Egyptians, at the time when Hebrews were again dwelling in Egypt. At least he introduces him in the Timaeus as receiving instruction from the Barbarian, in the passage where the Egyptian says to him, 'O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children, and there is not one old man among the Greeks, .... nor is there among you any learning grown hoary with time.' 22

This same Plato, too, after having attended the teaching of the Pythagoreans in Italy, was not contented with his studying with them only, but is said to have sailed to Egypt and devoted a very long time to their philosophy. This testimony indeed he himself bears to the Barbarians in many passages of his own discourses, and therein, I think, does well, and candidly confesses that the noblest doctrines are imported into philosophy from the Barbarians. Accordingly in many places, and especially in the Epinomis, you may hear him mentioning both Syrians and Egyptians in the following manner:

[PLATO] 23 'The cause of this is that he who first observed these phenomena was a Barbarian: for it was a very ancient region which bred those who first took notice of these things because of the beauty of the summer season, which both Egypt and Syria fully enjoy. . . . Whence the knowledge has reached to all countries, including our own, after having been tested by thousands of years and time without end.'

And lower down he next adds:

'Let us take it then that, whatever Greeks may have received from Barbarians, they work out and finish it with greater beauty.' 24

So says Plato. But Democritus also, still earlier, is said to have appropriated the ethical doctrines of the Babylonians. And somewhere, boasting about himself, he says:

[DEMOCRITUS] 25 'But of the men of my time I have wandered over the most land, investigating the most distant parts, and have seen the most climates and soils, and listened to the greatest number of learned men, nor did any one ever yet surpass me in the construction of lines accompanied by demonstration, nor yet those Egyptians who are called Arpedonaptae, for all which purposes I passed as much as five years in foreign lands.'

For this man also visited Babylon, and Persia, and Egypt, and was a disciple of the Egyptians and their priests.

What if I were to count up to you Heracleitus and all the other Greeks, by whom civil life among the Greeks is proved to have been left for long ages very poor, and devoid of all learning.

It was embellished indeed with temples of the gods, and images and statues, and prophecies and oracles, and the manifold pomp of the fraudulent daemons, but of true wisdom and of useful science it was utterly destitute.

Nor did their useless oracles contribute aught to the discovery of good counsels: but even their wonderful Pythian god did not help them at all in philosophy, nor did any other deity assist them in the pursuit of any needful good. But wandering hither and thither, and running about all their life they bedecked themselves, according to the fable, with borrowed plumes; so that now their whole philosophy consisted of what they begged.

For by copying different sciences from different nations, they got geometry from the Egyptians, and astrology from the Chaldeans, and other things again from other countries; but nothing among any other nations like the benefit which some of them found from the Hebrews.

For this was the knowledge of the God of the universe, and the condemnation of their own gods, which our argument as it proceeds a little farther will prove.

But thus much at present it indicates to the readers, that the ancient Greeks were destitute not only of true theology, but also of the sciences which are profitable to philosophy; and not of these only, but also of the common habits of civil life.

And I believe that this indication will assist me in the demonstration of the object which I have proposed; inasmuch as my proposal is to uphold the plea, that we have not unreasonably preferred the theology of the Hebrews, and that of the Barbarians, as they would call it, to the philosophy of the Greeks.

If then it should be seen they have themselves gathered it all long before from Barbarians, and have received from their own gods no help at all in philosophy, but have even found fault justly with their gods; and if some of them for these reasons have preferred atheism to the worship of the gods, then what right have they any more to find fault with us, instead of welcoming and commending us, because from having loved the better part, or rather from having found and recovered that which alone is true, we have withdrawn from the falsehood, without either turning round like the wise men of the Greeks to atheistic reasoning, or on the other hand mixing up the error of polytheism with the knowledge of the Supreme God, in a similar way to their admirable philosophers, nor yet have confused the falsehood with the truth?

Let us not, however, discuss these points yet, but first let me ask you to consider those proofs by which, the Greeks are convicted of having stolen everything from Barbarians, not only their philosophical science, but also the common inventions which are useful in daily life.

CHAPTER V

FIRST therefore he who introduced to the Greeks the common letters, even the very first elements of grammar, namely Cadmus, was a Phoenician by birth, from which circumstance some of the ancients have surnamed the alphabet Phoenician.

But some say that the Syrians were the first who devised letters. Now these Syrians would be Hebrews who inhabited the neighbouring country to Phoenicia, which was itself called Phoenicia in old times, but afterwards Judaea, and in our time, Palestine. And it is evident that the sound of the Greek letters is very closely connected with these.

For example, each letter among the Hebrews has its name from some significant idea, a circumstance which it is not possible to trace among the Greeks: on which account especially it is admitted that the letters are not originally Greek.

Now the Hebrews have in all twenty-two letters: of which the first is 'Alph,' which translated into the Greek language would mean 'learning': and the second 'Beth,' which is interpreted 'of a house': the third is 'Gimel,' which is 'fullness': the fourth 'Delth,' which signifies 'of tablets': the fifth 'He,' which is 'this.' And all these together make up a meaning of this kind, 'Learning of a house, fullness of tablets this.'

Then after these is a sixth letter called among them 'Wau,' which is 'in it': then 'Zai',' which is 'liveth': after which comes 'Heth,' which is 'the living': that the whole may be 'in it liveth the living.'

After these a ninth letter, 'Teth,' which is 'good': then 'Yoth,' which is interpreted 'beginning'; the two together, 'good beginning.' After these 'Chaph,' which is 'nevertheless': then 'Labd,' which is 'learn': the whole being 'nevertheless learn.'

'After these is a thirteenth letter 'Mem,' which is 'from them': then 'Nun,' which is 'eternal.' Then 'Samch,' which is interpreted 'help': that the meaning may be, 'from them eternal help.'

After these is 'Am,' which being translated signifies 'fountain,' or 'eye': then 'Phe,' 'mouth.' Then next 'Sade,' 'righteousness': of which the meaning is 'fountain (or 'eye') and mouth of righteousness.'

After these is a letter 'Koph,' which is interpreted 'calling': then 'Res,' which is 'head': and after these 'Sen,' which is 'teeth': last of all the twenty-second letter is called with them 'Thau,' which means 'signs.' And the sense would be, 'calling of the head, and signs of the teeth.'

Among the Hebrews such is the paraphrase and interpretation of the letters, making up a meaning in words appropriate to the learning and promise of the letters. But the like you cannot find among the Greeks, whence, as I said, it must be acknowledged that they do not belong originally to the Greeks, but have been imitated directly from the language of the Barbarians.

This is also proved from the very name of each letter. For in what does 'Alpha' differ from 'Alph'? Or 'Beta' from 'Beth'? Or 'Gamma' from 'Gimel'? Or: Delta' from 'Delth'? Or 'Epsilon' from 'He'? Or 'Zeta' from 'Zai'? Or 'Theta' from 'Teth'? And all the like cases.

So that it is indisputable that these names belong not originally to the Greeks: therefore they belong to the Hebrews, among whom each of them shows some signification. And having originated with them the letters passed on to other nations, and so to the Greeks. About the letters of the alphabet I have said enough: but you must hear also what Clement says in dealing with the subject before us.

CHAPTER VI

[CLEMENT] 26 'THE healing art is said to have been invented by Apis the Egyptian . . . and afterwards improved by Aesculapius. Atlas the Libyan was the first who built a ship, and sailed the sea. . . .

'Astrology also was first made known among men by the Egyptians and Chaldeans. . . . Some, however, say that prognostication by the stars was devised by the Carians. The Phrygians were the first to observe the flights of birds.

'The inspection of sacrificial victims was accurately practised by the Tuscans who border on Italy. The Isaurians and Arabians perfected augury, and the Telmessians, doubtless, divination by dreams.

'The Tyrrhenians invented the trumpet, and Phrygians the flute; for both Olympus and Marsyas were Phrygians. . . . The Egyptians again first taught men to burn lamps, and divided the year into twelve months, and forbade intercourse with women in temples, and enacted that none should enter temples after intercourse without bathing.

'The same people again were the inventors of geometry. . . . Kelmis and Damnameneus, the Idaean Dactyls, first discovered iron in Cyprus. And the tempering of bronze was invented by Delas, another Idaean, or, as Hesiod says, a Scythian. 'Certainly Thracians were the first who invented the so-called scimitar, which is a curved sword, and they first used targes on horseback: in like manner the. Illyrians invented the so-called targe (πέλτη). Further they say that the Tuscans invented the art of moulding clay: and Itanus, who was a Samnite, fashioned the long shield.

'Cadmus the Phoenician invented stone-cutting, and discovered the gold mines near Mount Pangaeus. Moreover another nation, the Cappadocians, first invented the so-called "nabla," as the Assyrians the lyre of two strings.

'The Carthaginians were the first to fit out a quadrireme, and it was built off hand by Bosporus. Medea of Colchis, the daughter of Aeetes, first devised the dyeing of the hair.

'The Noropes (a Paeonian tribe, now called Noricum) worked copper, and were the first to refine iron. Amyous, the king of the Bebryces, invented boxing-thongs.

'With regard to music, Olympus the Mysian was fond of practising the Lydian harmony: and the so-called Troglodytes invented a musical instrument, the sambuca.

'They say also that the slanting pipe was invented by Satyrus the Phrygian, and in like manner the trichord, and the diatonic harmony by Hyagnis who also was a Phrygian: notes likewise by Olympus the Phrygian; as the Phrygian harmony and the Mixo-Phrygian, and the Mixo-Lydian by Marsyas, fellow countrymen of those just named: and the Dorian was invented by Thamyris the Thracian.

'We have heard too that the Persians were the first who made a carriage, and couch, and footstool, and that the Sidonians first built a trireme. The Sicilians who are close to Italy were the first to invent a lyre, not far inferior to the harp, and devised castanets.

'Robes of fine linen are said to have been invented in the time of Semiramis, queen of the Assyrians: and Atossa who reigned over the Persians is said by Hellanicus to have been the first to use folded letters.

'These things then were related by Scamon of Mitylene, and Theophrastus of Ephesus, and Cydippus of Mantinea, also by Antiphanes, and Aristodemus, and Aristotle, and besides these by Philostephanus, and Straton the Peripatetic in the books Concerning Inventions. And I have quoted a few of them in confirmation of the inventive and practical genius of Barbarians, from whom the Greeks have received the benefit of their institutions.'

These things Clement states in these very words in the Miscellanies. And to what has now been mentioned I think it well to append also the extracts from the writing of Josephus the Hebrew, which he composed in two books, Of the Antiquity of the Jews, on the point that the Greeks are a young nation, and have received help from the Barbarians, and have dissented from each other in their writings. This too will contribute to the accurate and sure confirmation of my statements. Hear therefore what he also writes, word for word.

CHAPTER VII

[JOSEPHUS] 27 'MY first thought then is of utter astonishment at those who think it right to attend to none but Greeks concerning the most ancient facts, and to seek to learn the truth from them, but to disbelieve us and the rest of mankind.

'For I see that the very opposite is the case, if at least we are not to follow vain opinions, but draw the just conclusion from the facts themselves. For you will find all things among the Greeks to be recent, having come into existence, as one might say, yesterday or the day before; I mean the foundation of their cities, and their invention of the arts, and the registration of their laws: and the writing of their histories is almost the latest object of their attention.

'Doubtless, however, they themselves admit that the most ancient and most constant traditional record is that of the events which have occurred among the Egyptians, and Chaldeans, and Phoenicians (for at present I omit to include ourselves with these).

'For they all inhabit regions which are least subject to destruction from the surrounding atmosphere, and have taken much care to leave none of the facts of their history unrecorded, but to have all continually enshrined by their wisest men in public registers.

'But the region about Greece has been invaded by thousands of destructive plagues, which blotted out the memory of past events: and as they were always setting up new modes of life, they each of them supposed that their own was the beginning of all.

'Tardily and painfully they learned the nature of letters. Those at least who assign the greatest antiquity to their use of them boast of having learned it from the Phoenicians and Cadmus.

'Nevertheless no one could show any record that is preserved even from that time either in temples or on public monuments: seeing that there has been great doubt and inquiry, whether even those who so many years later went on the expedition to Troy, made use of writing; and the true opinion is rather that they were ignorant of the use now made of written letters.

'In short, there is no undisputed writing found among the Greeks older than Homer's poetry: and he was evidently later than the Trojan war. They say too that even he did not leave his poetry in writing, but that it was transmitted by memory and afterwards put together from the songs, and that this is the cause of its many discrepancies.

'Those, however, among them who undertook to write histories ----I mean Cadmus of Miletus and Acusilaus of Argos, and any others who are said to have come after him----lived but a short time before the expedition of the Persians against Greece.

'Moreover all with one voice acknowledge, that the first among the Greeks who philosophized about things celestial and divine, as Pherecydes the Syrian, and Pythagoras, and Thales, got their learning from Egyptians and Chaldeans, and wrote but little: and these writings are thought by the Greeks to be the oldest of all, and they do not quite believe that they were written by those authors.

'Is it not then necessarily unreasonable for the Greeks to have been puffed up, as though they alone understood the events of early times, and handed down the truth concerning them correctly? Or who could not easily learn from the same historians, that they had no certain knowledge of anything which they wrote, but gave each their own conjectures about the facts?

'Accordingly in their books they frequently refute one another, and do not hesitate to make the most contrary statements concerning the same events. But it would be superfluous labour for me to teach those who know better than myself on how many points Hellanicus has dissented from Acusilaus in regard to the genealogies, and how often Acusilaus sets Hesiod right; or in what fashion Ephorus exposes Hellanicus as making very many false statements, and Ephorus is exposed by Timaeus, and Timaeus by those who came after him, and Herodotus by them all.

'Nor did Timaeus deign to agree with Antiochus and Philistus or Callias about Sicilian history, nor again have the authors of Athenian histories followed each other's statements about the affairs of Attica, nor the historians of Argos about the affairs of Argolis.

'And why need I speak about the smaller affairs of the several states, seeing that the most celebrated authors have disagreed about the Persian invasion and the events which happened therein? And on many points even Thucydides is accused by some of falsehood, although he is thought to write the history of his own time with the greatest accuracy.

'Now of dissension such as this many other causes might perhaps be brought to light by those who wish to seek for them; but I myself attach the greatest importance to two causes which shall now be set forth.

'And I will mention first that which seems to me to be the more decisive. For the fact that from the beginning there was no zealous care among the Greeks to have public records kept of contemporary events----this most of all was the cause of error, and gave impunity for falsehood to those who afterwards wished to write about ancient history.

'For not only among the other Greeks was the care of the records neglected, but even among the Athenians themselves, who are said to be aborigines and studious of culture, nothing of this kind is found to have been done: but the oldest of their public records they say are the laws about murder written for them by Draco, a man born a little before the tyranny of Peisistratos.

'What need is there to speak of the Arcadians, who boast of antiquity? For they even at a later period were scarcely instructed in the use of letters.

'Inasmuch therefore as no record had been published, which would have taught those who wished to learn, and convicted those who were guilty of falsehood, there ensued the great disagreement of the historians among themselves.

'But besides this there is that other second cause to be assigned. For those who set themselves to write made no serious study of the truth----although they have always this profession ready at hand----but tried to display their power of language; and adapted themselves to any style in which they thought to surpass the rest in reputation on this point; and some of them turned to writing mythical tales, and some, to gain favour, took to eulogizing cities or kings; while others had recourse to censuring men's actions or those who had described them, thinking that they should gain reputation herein.

'In short they are constantly doing what is of all things the most contrary to history. For it is a test of true history, whether all spake and wrote the same accounts of the same events; but these men imagined that if they wrote different accounts from others, they should thus appear to:be themselves;most truthful of all.'

So much, says Josephus. And these statements may be confirmed by the testimony of Diodorus, which I shall quote from the first Book of the Bibliotheca compiled by him, and which is word for word as follows:

CHAPTER VIII

[DIODORUS] 28 'AFTER having thoroughly explained these points, I must state how many of those who have been famed among the Greeks for intelligence and culture made a voyage to Egypt in ancient times, in order that they might gain some knowledge of its customs and culture.

'For the priests of the Egyptians report from the records in their sacred books that they were visited by Orpheus, and Musaeus, and Melampus, and Daedalus, and besides these by the poet Homer, and Lycurgus the Spartan; also by Solon the Athenian, and Plato the philosopher; and that there came also Pythagoras of Samos, and Eudoxus the mathematician, Democritus of Abdera also, and Oenopides of Chios.

'And as evidences of all these they point to the images of some, and the names of places or buildings called after others. Also from the branch of learning studied by each the priests bring proofs of the fact that they had brought over from Egypt everything whereby they gained admiration among the Greeks.

'Thus Orpheus, they say, brought away from the Egyptians most of the mystic rites, and the orgiastic celebration of his own wandering, and the fable concerning those in Hades. For the rite of Osiris is the same as that of Dionysus: and that of Isis is very similar to that of Demeter, with only the change of names. And the punishments of the ungodly in Hades, and the meadows of the godly, and the making of moulded images (of the shades) common among the multitude he is said to have introduced in imitation of the Egyptian customs in regard to burial.

'For Hermes the conductor of souls, according to the ancient custom among the Egyptians, having brought up the body Of Apis to a certain place gives it over to him who wears the face of Cerberus. And after Orpheus had made this known among the Greeks, Homer, it is said, following him wrote in his poem:

''Cyllenian Hermes waved his golden wand,
And summoned forth the souls of heroes slain."' 29

Then again farther on he adds: 30

'They say that Melampus brought from Egypt the customary rites performed in honour of Dionysus among the Greeks, and the mythological tales concerning Kronos, and those concerning the war of the Titans, and the entire history of the sufferings of the gods.

'Daedalus, it is said, imitated the winding of the labyrinth which remains up to the present time, but was built, as some say, by Mendes, or, as others say, by king Marus many years before the reign of Minos: the proportion too of the ancient statues in Egypt is said to be the same with that of the statues made by Daedalus in Greece.

'Daedalus was also said to have been the architect of the very beautiful vestibule of Hephaestus in Memphis, for which he was admired, and received a wooden statue in the said temple, wrought by his own hands. And at last being held in great honour for his genius, and having made many more discoveries, he received divine honours. For in one of the islands near Memphis there is still a temple of Daedalus venerated by the inhabitants.

'Of Homer's visit to Egypt they bring forward among other proofs especially the drugging of Telemachus by Helen in the house of Menelaus, and his oblivion of the evils that had befallen him.31 For it is evident that the poet had carefully examined the soothing drug which he says that Helen had obtained from Egypt, from Polydamna the wife of Thon.

'Even at the present time they still say that the women in this country use the same medicine, and they assert that a remedy for anger and sorrow has been discovered from ancient times among the women of Diospolis only: and that Thebes and Diospolis are the same city: also that among the inhabitants Aphrodite is called the "golden" from an ancient tradition, and that near the city named Momemphis there is a so-called "plain of golden Aphrodite."

'Also the mythical tales concerning Zeus and Hera and their intercourse, and their travelling to Ethiopia, Homer is said to have brought thence. For among the Egyptians, year by year, the shrine of Zeus is carried across the river into Libya, and after some days it returns again, as if the god were come from Ethiopia: and that the intercourse of these deities takes place when at their festivals both their shrines are carried up into a mountain crowned with all kinds of flowers by the priests.

'They say that Lycurgus also, and Plato, and Solon, inserted many of the customs of Egypt in, their codes of law, and that Pythagoras learned from the Egyptians the doctrines of the Sacred Word, and the theories of geometry, and the science of numbers, and besides these the migration of the soul into every kind of animal.

'They suppose also that Democritus spent five years among them, and was taught many of the principles of astrology; and that Oenopides in like manner lived with the priests and astrologers and learned, among other things, that the sun's orbit has an oblique path, and that he is carried in the opposite direction to the other heavenly bodies.

'In like manner also it is said that Eudoxus studied astrology with them, and published much useful information to the Greeks, whereby he acquired a notable reputation.

'And of; all the ancient statuaries those whose names are most widely known had sojourned with them, Telecles and Theodorus the sons of Rhoecus, who had -made the statue of the Pythian Apollo for the Samians.'

Thus far Diodorus. But here I must let this argument, with such proof as has been given, come to an end. Henceforth then we ought not to be charged with unreasonableness, if in our desire for the true religion we have ourselves resorted to the teachers of the wise Greeks and even of their philosophers, I mean the Barbarians, if at least the Hebrews, are Barbarians.

Now it would be well to examine their chronology, I mean the dates at which Moses and the prophets after him nourished: since this would be one of the most conclusive evidences for the argument before us, that before dealing with the learned men among the people we should first decide about their antiquity; in order that, if the Greeks should be found to hold the same doctrines with the prophets and theologians of the Hebrews, you may no longer be in doubt who were likely to have borrowed from the others; whether the elder from the younger, Hebrews from Greeks, and Barbarians from philosophers, whose language even they were not likely to understand; or, what is more likely, that the younger borrowed from, the elder, and that those Greeks who had most busily studied the history of the various nations were not unacquainted with the writings of the Hebrews, which had been long before translated into the Greek language.

[admin]

Part 2 of 2

CHAPTER IX

WITH regard to Moses and the antiquity of the prophets who came after him, very many others have carefully laid down the evidence in their own writings, from which I shall presently make some few quotations.

But I myself shall take a more novel course than the said authors, and shall adopt the following method. As there is an acknowledged agreement between the times of the Roman emperor Augustus and the birth of our Saviour, and as Christ began to teach the gospel in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, any one who may choose to count up the number of the years from this point proceeding to the earlier times, until Darius king of the Persians, and the restoration in his time of the temple in Jerusalem, which took place after the return of the Jewish nation from Babylon, will find that from Tiberius to the second year of Darius there are five hundred and forty-eight years.

For the second year of Darius coincides with the first year of the sixty-fifth Olympiad: and the fifteenth of the reign of Tiberius at Rome falls in with the fourth year of the two hundred and first Olympiad,

The Olympiads therefore between Darius the Persian and Tiberius the Roman emperor are a hundred and thirty-seven, which make up a period of five hundred and forty-eight years, four years being counted to the Olympiad.

But since the seventieth year of the desolation of the temple in Jerusalem was in the second year of Darius, as the records of Hebrew history show, if we run back from this point again, from the second year of Darius to the first Olympiad there would be made up two hundred and fifty-six years, sixty-four Olympiads: and the same you would find to be the number of years from the last year of the desolation of the said temple going back to the fiftieth year of Uzziah king of Judah, in whose time prophesied Isaiah and Hosea, and all who were contemporary with them. So that the first Olympiad of the Greeks falls in with the time of the prophet Isaiah and his contemporaries.

Again, going back from the first Olympiad to the previous times as far as the capture of Troy, you will find a sum of four hundred and eight years, as contained in the chronological records of the Greeks.

And according to the Hebrews, from the fiftieth year of Uzziah king of Judah going back to the third year of Labdon as judge of Israel, you will make up the same number of years, four hundred and eight; so that the capture of Troy was in the times of Labdon the judge, seven years before Samson ruled over the Hebrews, who is said to have been irresistible in strength of body, like the famous Hercules among the Greeks.

If from this point also you go back to the earlier generations, and count up to yourself four hundred years, you will find among the Hebrews Moses, and among the Greeks Cecrops the earthborn.

Now the history of the events so celebrated among the Greeks is later than the times of Cecrops. For after Cecrops comes the deluge in the time of Deucalion, and the conflagration in the time of Phaethon, and the birth of Erichthonius, and the rape of Persephone, and the mysteries of Demeter, the establishment of the Eleusinian mysteries, the husbandry of Triptolemus, the abduction of Europa by Zeus, the birth of Apollo, the arrival of Cadmus at Thebes, and, still later than these, Dionysus, Minos, Perseus, Asclepius, the Dioscuri, and Hercules.

Now Moses is proved to have been older than all these, as having been in the prime of life at the time of Cecrops. And going back again from Moses to the first year of the life of Abraham, you will find five hundred and five years. And counting up as many for the earlier time from the aforesaid year of the reign of Cecrops, you will come to Ninus the Assyrian, who is said to have been the first ruler of all Asia except India: after him was named the city Ninus, which among the Hebrews is called Nineve; and in his time Zoroastres the Magian reigned over the Bactrians. And the wife of Ninus and his successor in the kingdom was Semiramis; so Abraham was contemporary with these.

Now in the Canons of Chronology composed by us these events were proved to demonstration to be as I have said. But on the present occasion in addition to what has been stated I shall adduce as witness of the antiquity of Moses the very bitterest and fiercest enemy both of the Hebrews and of us Christians, I mean that philosopher of our time, who having in his excessive hatred published his compilation against us, subjected not us only, but also the Hebrews and Moses himself and the prophets after him, to the like slanders. For I believe that I shall thus confirm my promise beyond controversy by the confession of our enemies.

Well then in the fourth Book of his compilation against us Porphyry writes what follows, word for word:

[PORPHYRY] 32 'The truest history of the Jews, as being that which most perfectly accords with their localities and names, is that of Sanchuniathon of Berytus, who received their records from Hierombalus the priest of the God Jevo; he dedicated his history to Abelbalus king of Berytus, and was approved by him and by his examiners of truth. Now the times of these men fall before the date of the Trojan war, and approach closely to that of Moses, as is shown by the successions of the kings of Phoenicia. And Sanchuniathon, who with careful regard to truth made a collection of all ancient history from the records of each city and the registers of the temples, and wrote it in the language of the Phoenicians, lived in the time of Semiramis queen of Assyria.'

So says Porphyry. We must then calculate the proposed dates as follows. If Sanchuniathon lived in the time of Semiramis, and she is acknowledged to have been, long before the Trojan war, Sanchuniathon also must be older than the Trojan war.

But he is said to have received the records from others older in time than himself: and they being themselves older than he are said to have approached closely to the times of Moses, though not even themselves contemporary with Moses, but approaching closely to his times: so that Sanchuniathon was as much younger than Moses, as he was later than his own predecessors who were acknowledged to approach near to Moses.

It is difficult, however, to say by how many years Moses probably preceded those of whom I speak: for which reason I think it well to pass over this point. But granting that Moses lived in the very time of this Sanchuniathon, and no earlier, I shall follow up the proof in this way.

If Sanchuniathon was becoming well known in the time of Semiramis queen of Assyria, even granted that Moses was no earlier, but nourished in his time, then he too would be contemporary with Semiramis,

But whereas our calculation went to show that Abraham was in her time, our philosopher's calculation proves that even Moses was older. Now Semiramis is shown to have been full eight hundred years before the Trojan war. Therefore Moses also will be as many years earlier than the Trojan war according to the philosopher.

Now the first king of Argos is Inachus, the Athenians at that time having as yet no city and no name. But the first ruler of the Argives is contemporary with the fifth king of Assyria after Semiramis, a hundred and fifty years after her and Moses, in which time nothing remarkable is recorded to have happened among the Greeks. But at this period of time the Judges were ruling among the Hebrews.

Then again more than three hundred years later, when more than four hundred were now completed from the time of Semiramis, the first king of the Athenians is Cecrops their celebrated Autochthon when Triopas was ruler of Argos, who was seventh from Inachus the first Argive king.

And in the interval between these the flood in the time of Ogyges is recorded, and Apis was the first to be called a god in Egypt, and Io the daughter of Inachus, who is worshipped by the. Egyptians under the altered name of Isis, became known, as also Prometheus and Atlas.

From Cecrops to the capture of Troy are reckoned little short of other four hundred years, in which fall the marvellous tales of Greek mythology, the flood in the time of Deucalion, and the conflagration in the time of Phaethon, there having been, probably, many catastrophes on the earth in various places.

Now Cecrops is said to have been the first to call God Zeus, He not having been previously so named among men: and next to have been the first to found an altar at Athens, and again the first to set up an image of Athena, as even these things were not existing of old.

After his time come the genealogies of all the gods among the Greeks. But among the Hebrews at this time the descendants of David were reigning, and the prophets who succeeded Moses were flourishing: so that according to the published testimony of the philosopher there are more than eight hundred years reckoned in all from Moses to the capture of Troy.

But far more recent still than the Trojan war are the traditional times of Homer and Hesiod and the rest. And after these, only yesterday as it were, about the fiftieth Olympiad, Pythagoras and Democritus and the subsequent philosophers gained a name, somewhere about five hundred years after the Trojan war.

Moses therefore and the Hebrew prophets who succeeded him are proved to be fifteen hundred years earlier than the philosophers of the Greeks, according to the confession of the aforesaid author.

Such, then is in brief my statement. But it is time to examine also the arguments upon the same subject of those who have preceded me. There have been then among us men of learning, second to none of the cultivated class, who have also devoted themselves with no little care to sacred literature, and who, after an accurate examination of the present subject, defended the antiquity of the Hebrews by the use of a rich and varied arrangement of proof.

For some of them computed the times from certain well acknowledged histories, and others confirmed their testimony by quotations of an earlier date. And some made use of Greek authors, and others of those who had recorded the history of the Phoenicians and of the Chaldeans and Egyptians. But all of them together, having collected the Greek and the Barbarian records and those of the Hebrews themselves, and having set all their histories side by side, and, as it were, shaken them together one against the other, have made a combined examination of the things done about the same periods in all those nations.

Then, after each had made his arrangement of the events to be proved by methods of his own, they brought forward their proof with common consent and agreement. And for this reason especially I thought it right to give place in the present discussion to their own words, in order that the authors of the arguments might not be deprived of their due rewards, and at the same time the maintenance of the truth might receive indisputable confirmation not by one witness but by many.

CHAPTER X

[AFRICANUS] 33 'UNTIL the beginning of the Olympiads no accurate history has been written by the Greeks, the earlier accounts being all confused and in no point agreeing among themselves: but the Olympiads have been accurately recorded by many, because the Greeks compared the registers of them at no long interval of time, but every four years.

'For which, reason I shall collect and briefly run over the most celebrated of the mythical histories down to the first Olympiad: but of the later any which are remarkable I shall combine together in chronological order each to each, the Hebrew with the Greek, carefully examining the Hebrew and touching upon the Greek, and shall fit them together in the following manner. By seizing upon one action in Hebrew history contemporary with an action narrated by Greeks, and adhering to it, while either deducting or adding, and indicating what Greek or Persian or any one else synchronized with the Hebrew action, I shall perhaps succeed in my aim.

'Now a most remarkable event is the migration of the Hebrews, when carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, which continued seventy years, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah. Now Nebuchadnezzar is mentioned by Berossus the Babylonian.

'After the seventy years of the Captivity Cyrus became king of Persia, in the year in which the fifty-fifth Olympic festival was held, as one may learn from the Bibliotheca of Diodorus, and the histories of Thallus and Castor, also from Polybius and Phlegon, and from others too who were careful about Olympiads: for the time agreed in all of them.

'So then Cyrus in the first year of his reign, which was the first year of the fifty-fifth Olympiad, made the first partial dismissal of the people by the hand of Zerubbabel, contemporary with whom was Jesus the son of Josedek, after the completion of the seventy years, as is related in the Book of Ezra among the Hebrews. 34

'The narratives therefore of the reign of Cyrus and of the end of the Captivity synchronize: and the calculations according to the Olympiads will thus be found to agree down to our time; for by following them we shall fit the other histories also one to another according to the same principle.

'And the Athenian chronology computes the earlier events in the following way; from Ogyges, who was believed among them to be an aboriginal, in whose time that great and first flood occurred in Attica, when Phoroneus was king of Argos, as Acusilaus relates, down to the first Olympiad from which the Greeks considered that they calculated their dates correctly, a thousand and twenty years are computed, which agrees with what has been stated before, and will be shown to agree also with what comes after.

'For both the historians of Athens, Hellanicus and Philochorus who wrote The Attic Histories, and the writers on Syrian history, Castor and Thallus, and the writer on universal history, Diodorus the author of the Bibliotheca, and Alexander Polyhistor, and some of our own historians recorded these events more accurately even than all the Attic writers. If therefore any remarkable narrative occurs in the thousand and twenty years, it shall be extracted as may be expedient.'

And soon after he proceeds: 35

'We assert therefore on the authority of this work that Ogyges, who has given his name to the first deluge, as having been saved when many perished, lived at the time of the Exodus from Egypt of the people with Moses, proving it in. the following way.

'From Ogyges to the first Olympiad aforesaid there will be shown to be a thousand and twenty years: and from the first Olympiad to the first year of the fifty-fifth, that is the first year of the reign of Cyrus, which was the end of the Captivity, two hundred and seventeen years. From Ogyges therefore to Cyrus there were one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven years. And if any one would carry back a calculation of one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven years from the end of the Captivity, there is found by analysis the same distance to the first year of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt by the hand of Moses, as from the fifty-fifth Olympiad to Ogyges who founded Eleusis. Which is the more notable point to take as the commencement of the Athenian chronology.'

Again after an interval: 36

'So much for events prior to Ogygea. Now about his times Moses came out of Egypt: and that there is no reason to disbelieve that these events occurred at that time, we show in the following manner.

'From the Exodus of Moses to Cyrus, who reigned after the Captivity, there were one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven years. For the remaining years of Moses' life were forty: of Joshua, who became the leader after him, twenty-five years: of the elders who were judges after him, thirty years; and of those included in the Book of Judges, four hundred and ninety years. Of the priests Eli and Samuel, ninety years. Of the kings of the Hebrews, who came next, four hundred and ninety years: and seventy of the Captivity, the last year of which was, as we have said before, the first year of the reign of Cyrus.

'From Moses to the first Olympiad there were one thousand and twenty years, since there were one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven years to the first year of the fifty-fifth Olympiad: and the time in the Greek chronology agreed with this.

'But after Ogyges, on account of the great destruction caused by the flood, what is now called Attica remained without a king one hundred and eighty-nine years until the time of Cecrops. For Philochorus asserts that that Actaeon who comes after Ogyges, and the fictitious names, never even existed.'

And again: 37

'From Ogyges therefore to Cyrus there were as many years as from Moses to the same date, namely one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven. And some of the Greeks also relate that Moses lived about those same times; as Polemon in the first book of his Hellenic histories says, that "in the time of Apis son of Phoroneus a part of the Egyptian army was expelled from Egypt, who took up their abode not far from Arabia in the part of Syria called Palestine," being evidently those who went with Moses.

'And Apion the son of Poseidonius, the most inquisitive of grammarians, in his book Against the Jews, and in the fourth Book of his Histories, says that in the time of Inachus king of Argos, when Amosis was reigning in Egypt, the Jews revolted, with Moses as their leader.

'Herodotus also has made mention of this revolt and of Amosis in his second Book;38 and, in a certain way, of the Jews themselves, enumerating them among those who practise circumcision,39 and calling them the Assyrians in Palestine, perhaps on account of Abraham.

'And Ptolemaeus of Mendes, in writing the history of the Egyptians from the beginning, agrees with all these, so that the variation of the dates is not noticeable to any great extent.40

'But it is to be observed that whatever especial event is mentioned in the mythology of the Greeks because of its antiquity, is found to be later than Moses, their floods, and conflagrations, their Prometheus, Io, Europa, Sparti, Rape of Persephone, Mysteries, Legislations, exploits of Dionysus, Perseus, labours of Hercules, Argonauts, Centaurs, Minotaur, tale of Troy, return of the Heracleidae, migration of Ionians, and Olympic Festivals.

'It seemed good then to me, when about to compare the Hellenic histories with the Hebrew, to explain the aforesaid date of the monarchy in Athens: for it will be open to any one who will, by taking his starting-point from me, to calculate the number of years in the same way as I do.

'So then in the first year of the thousand and twenty years set forth from the time of Moses and Ogyges to the first Olympiad there occurs the Passover, and the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, and in Attica the flood in the reign of Ogyges; and very naturally.

'For when the Egyptians were being scourged by the wrath of God with hailstorms and tempests, it was natural that some parts of the earth should suffer with them; and that the Athenians should experience the same fate with the Egyptians was natural, being supposed to be emigrants from them, as is asserted, among others, by Theopompus in the Three-headed.41

'The intermediate time, in which no special event has been recorded by the Greeks, is passed by. But after ninety-four years, as some say, came Prometheus, who was said in the legend to form men; for being a wise man he tried to reform them out of their extreme uncouthness into an educated condition.'

Thus writes Africanus. And now let us pass on to another.

CHAPTER XI

[TATIAN] 42 'BUT now I think it behoves me to prove that our philosophy is older than the institutions of the Greeks. And Moses and Homer shall be set as our limits: for since each of them is very ancient, and the one the oldest of poets and historians, and the other the founder of all Barbaric wisdom, let them now be taken into comparison by us.

'For we shall find that our doctrines are older not only than the learning of the Greeks, but even than the invention of letters. And I shall not adopt our own native witnesses, but rather make use of Greeks as my allies. For the one course would be injudicious, because it would not be accepted by you; but the other, if proved, would be admirable, if at any time by opposing you with your own weapons I should bring against you proofs beyond suspicion.

'For concerning the poetry of Homer, and his parentage, and the time at which he flourished, previous investigations have been made by very ancient writers, as Theagenes of Ehegium who lived in the time of Cambyses, and Stesimbrotus of Thasos, and Antimachus of Colophon, Herodotus also of Halicarnassus, and Dionysius of Olynthus: and after them Ephorus of Cumae, and Philochorus of Athens, and Megacleides and Chamaeleon the Peripatetics: then the grammarians, Zenodotus, Aristophanes, Callimachus, Crates, Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, Apollodorus.

'Now of these Crates says that he flourished before the return of the Heracleidae, within eighty years after the Trojan war; but Eratosthenes says, after the hundredth year from the capture of Troy; while Aristarchus says, at the time of the Ionian migration, which is a hundred and forty years after the Trojan war; and Philochorus says, forty years after the Ionian migration, in the archonship at Athens of Archippus, a hundred and eighty years after the Trojan war; and Apollodorus says, a hundred years after the Ionian migration, which would be two hundred and forty years after the Trojan war: but some said that he lived before the Olympiads, that is four hundred years after the capture of Ilium; while others brought down the time, and said that Homer had been contemporary with Archilochus; now Archilochus flourished about the twenty-third Olympiad, in the time of Gyges king of Lydia, five hundred years after the Trojan war.

'With regard then to the times of the aforesaid poet, I mean Homer, and the dispute and disagreement among those who gave an account of him, let this our summary statement suffice for those who are able to examine the matter carefully. For it is in every man's power to show that their opinions also about the historical statements are false; for with those authors whose record of times is inconsistent, the history cannot possibly be true.'

Again shortly after: 43

'Granted, however, that Homer was not only not later than the Trojan war, but let him be supposed to have lived at that very time of the war, and further even to have shared in the expedition, with Agamemnon, and, if any wish to have it so, to have lived even before the invention of letters had taken place: for the aforesaid Moses will be shown to be very many years older than the actual capture of Troy, much more ancient too than the building of Troy was, and than Tros and Bardanus.

'And for proof of this I will employ the testimony of Chaldeans, Phoenicians, and Egyptians. But why need I say much? For one who professes to persuade ought to make his narration of the facts to his hearers very brief.

'Berossus, a Babylonian, a priest of their god Belus, who lived in the time of Alexander, composed the history of the Chaldaeans in three Books for Antiochus the third successor of Seleucus; and in setting forth the account of the kings he mentions the name of one of them Nabuchodonosor, who made an expedition against the Phoenicians and Jews; events which we know to have been announced by our prophets, and which took place long after the age of Moses, and seventy years before the Persian supremacy.

'Now Berossus is a most competent man, and a proof of this is given by Iobas, who writing Concerning the Assyrians says that he has learned their history from Berossus: he is the author of two books Concerning the Assyrians,

'Next to the Chaldaeans, the case of the Phoenicians is as follows. There have been among them three authors, Theodotus, Hypsicrates, Mochus. Their books were rendered into the Greek language by Laetus, who also wrote an accurate treatise on the lives of the philosophers.

'In the histories then of the aforesaid authors the rape of Europa is shown to have taken place in the time of one of the kings, also the arrival of Menelaus in Phoenicia, and the story of Hiram, who gave his daughter in marriage to Solomon king of the Jews, and presented him with timber of all kinds for the building of the Temple.

'Menander also of Pergamus wrote the record of the same events. Now the date of Hiram approaches somewhat near to the Trojan war; and Solomon the contemporary of Hiram is much later than the age of Moses.

'Then the Egyptians have accurate registers of dates. And Ptolemy, not the king but a priest of Mendes, the translator of their writings, in narrating the actions of their kings says that the journey of the Jews from Egypt to whatever places they chose, under the leadership of Moses, took place in the time of Amosis king of Egypt.

'And this is how he speaks: "Now Amosis lived in the time of king Inachus." After him Apion the grammarian, a man of great reputation, in the fourth Book of his Egyptian History (there are five of his Books) among many other things says that Amosis demolished Avaris, and that he lived in the time of Inachus the Argive, as Ptolemy of Mendes recorded in his Chronology.

'Now the time from Inachus to the capture of Troy makes up twenty generations; and the mode of the proof is as follows:

'The kings of the Argives have been these:----Inachus, Phoroneus, Apis, Argeius, Criasus, Phorbas, Triopas, Crotopus, Sthenelaus, Danaus, Lynceus, Abas, Proetus, Acrisius, Perseus, Eurystheus, Atreus, Thyestes, Agamemnon, in the eighteenth year of whose reign Troy was taken.

'Also the intelligent reader must understand quite distinctly that according to the tradition of the Greeks there was no written record of history among them. For Cadmus, who taught the aforesaid people the alphabet, landed in Boeotia many generations afterwards.

'After Inachus Phoroneus with difficulty put an end to their savage and wandering mode of life, and the people were brought into a state of order. Wherefore if Moses has been shown to have been contemporary with Inachus, he is four hundred years earlier than the Trojan war.

'And this is proved to be so both from the succession of the kings of Athens, and Macedonia, and the Ptolemies, and also those of the dynasty of Antiochus; "whence it is manifest that if the most illustrious deeds among the Greeks were recorded in writing and begin to be known after the time of Inachus, they were also later than the time of Moses.

'For as contemporary with Phoroneus who followed Inachus the Athenians mention Ogyges, in whose time the first flood occurred: and as contemporary with Phorbas Actaeus, from whom Attica was called Actaea: and as contemporary with Triopas Prometheus, and Epimetheus, and Atlas, and Cecrops of double sex, and Io.

'In the time of Crotopus there was Phaethon's conflagration, and Deucalion's flood: in the time of Sthenelaus was the reign of Amphictyon, and the arrival of Danaus in the Peloponnese, and the colonization of Dardania by Dardanus, and the abduction of Europa from Phoenicia to Crete.

'In the time of Lynceus there was the rape of Persephone, and the foundation of the sanctuary at Eleusis, and the husbandry of Triptolemus, and the arrival of Cadmus at Thebes, and the reign of Minos.

'In the reign of Proetus occurred the war of Eumolpus against the Athenians; and in that of Acrisius the crossing of Pelops from Phrygia, and the arrival of Ion at Athens, and the second Cecrops, and the exploits of Perseus. And in the reign of Agamemnon Troy was taken.

'Therefore from what has been said above Moses is shown to be older than all heroes, cities, or daemons: and he who preceded them in age ought rather to be believed, than the Greeks who drew his doctrines from the fountain-head without fully understanding them.

'For there were many sophists among them, who indulged a meddling curiosity, and these attempted to put a false stamp on all that they had learned from Moses and those who agreed, with his philosophy, in order first that they might be thought to say something original; and secondly that, disguising what they did not understand by a kind of rhetorical artifice, they might misrepresent the truth as being a mere fable.

'With regard, however, to our polity, and the history of our laws, and all that the learned among the Greeks have said, and how many and who they are that have mentioned us, proof shall be shown in my "Answer to those who have set forth opinions concerning God."

'But for the present I must endeavour with all accuracy to make it clear that Moses is earlier not only than Homer, but also than the writers before him, Linus, Philammon, Thamyris, Amphion, Orpheus, Musaeus, Demodocus, Phemius, the Sibyl, Epimenides the Cretan, who came to Sparta, Aristaeus of Pro-connesus, who wrote the Arimaspia, and Asbolus the Centaur, and Basis, and Drymon, and Euclus of Cyprus, and Horus of Samos, and Pronapides of Athens.

'For Linus was the teacher of Hercules, and Hercules has been shown to be one generation earlier than the Trojan war; and this is manifest from his son Tlepolemus, who joined the expedition against Troy.

'Orpheus was contemporary with Hercules; moreover, the writings afterwards attributed to him are said to have been composed by Onomacritus of Athens, who lived during the government of the Pisistratidae about the fiftieth Olympiad.

'Musaeus was a disciple of Orpheus. And as Amphion was two generations earlier than the Trojan war, this prevents our collecting more about him for the information of the studious. Demodocus too and Phemius lived at the very time of the Trojan war; for they abode, the one among the suitors, the other with the Phaeacians. Thamyris also and Philammon are not much more ancient than these.

'So then with regard to their work of various kinds and their dates and record, I think I have described them to you with all possible accuracy. But that we may also complete what is as yet deficient, I will further set forth the evidence concerning those who are considered the Sages.

'For Minos, who was considered to be pre-eminent in all wisdom, and sagacity, and legislation, lived in the time of Lynceus who reigned after Danaus, in the eleventh generation after Inachus. And Lycurgus, born long after the capture of Troy, made laws for the Lacedaemonians a hundred years before the commencement of the Olympiads.

'Draco is found to have lived about the thirty-ninth Olympiad, and Solon about the forty-sixth, and Pythagoras about the sixty-second. Now we showed that the Olympiads began four hundred and seven years after the Trojan war.

'So then, after these facts have been thus proved, a few more words will suffice to record the age of the Seven Sages. For as Thales the eldest of them lived about the fiftieth Olympiad, the approximate dates of those who came after him are thus stated concisely.

'This is what I have composed for you, O men of Greece, I, Tatian, a follower of the Barbarians in philosophy, born in the land of the Assyrians, but instructed first in your doctrines, and afterwards in such as I now profess to preach. And knowing henceforward who God is, and what is the doing of His will, I present myself to you in readiness for the examination of my doctrines, while my mode of life according to God's will remains incapable of denial.'

Thus much says Tatian. But let us now pass on to Clement.

CHAPTER XII

[CLEMENT] 44 'THE subject has indeed been carefully discussed by Tatian in his Discourse to the Greeks, and by Cassian in the first book of his Exegetics. But nevertheless my commentary demands that I also should run over what has been said upon the topic.

'Apion then the grammarian, who was surnamed Pleistonices, in the fourth Book of his Egyptian Histories, although being an Egyptian by birth he was so spitefully disposed towards the Hebrews as to have composed a book Against the Jews, when he mentions Amosis the king of Egypt and the transactions of his time, brings forward Ptolemaeus of Mendes as a witness.

'And his language is as follows:

'"But Avaris was demolished by Amosis, who lived in the time of Inachus the Argive, as Ptolemaeus of Mendes recorded in his Chronology."

'Now this Ptolemaeus was a priest, who published The Acts of the Kings of Egypt in three whole books, and says that the departure of the Jews out of Egypt under Moses as their leader took place in the time of Amosis king of Egypt; from which, it is clearly seen that Moses flourished in the time of Inachus.

'Now Dionysius of Halicarnassus teaches us in his Chronology that the history of Argos, I mean the history from Inachus downwards, is mentioned as older than any Hellenic history.

'Forty generations later than this is the Athenian history, beginning from Cecrops the so-called aboriginal of double sex, as Tatian says in so many words: and nine generations later the history of Arcadia from the time of Pelasgus, who also is called an aboriginal.

'More recent than this last by other fifty-two generations is the history of Phthiotis from the time of Deucalion. From Inachus to the time of the Trojan war twenty or twenty-one generations are reckoned, four hundred years, we may say, and more.

'And whether the Assyrian history is many years earlier than the Hellenic, will appear from what Ctesias says. In the four hundred and second year of the Assyrian empire, and in the thirty-second year of the reign of Beluchus the eighth, the movement of Moses out of Egypt took place in the time of Amosis king of Egypt, and of Inachus king of Argos.

'And in Hellas in the time of Phoroneus the successor of Inachus the flood of Ogyges occurred, and the reign in Sicyon, of Aegialeus first, then of Europs, and then of Telchis, and in Crete the reign of Cres.

'For Acusilaus says that Phoroneus was the first man: whence also the author of the poem "Phoronis" says that he was "the father of mortal men."

'Hence Plato in the Timaeus, following Acusilaus, writes: "And once when he wished to lead them on to a discussion about antiquity, he said that he attempted to speak of the most ancient things in this city, about Phoroneus who was called 'the first' man, and about Niobe, and the events that followed the flood." 45

'Contemporary with Phorbas was Actaeus, from whom Attica was called Actaea: and contemporary with Triopas were Prometheus, and Atlas, and Epimetheus, and the biform Cecrops, and Io: in the time of Crotopus there was Phaethon's conflagration, and the flood of Deucalion: and in the time of Sthenelaus was the reign of Amphictyon, and the arrival of Danaus in the Peloponnese, and the colonization of Dardania by Dardanus, whom Homer calls

"The first-born son of cloud-compelling Zeus," 46

and the abduction of Europa from Crete to Phoenicia.

'In the time of Lynceus was the rape of Core, and the foundation of the sanctuary at Eleusis, and the husbandry of Triptolemus, and the arrival of Cadmus in Thebes, and the reign of Minos. In the time of Proetus there was the war of Eumolpus against the Athenians: and in the time of Acrisius the migration of Pelops from Phrygia, and the arrival of Ion in Athens, and the second Cecrops, and the exploits of Perseus and Dionysus, and also Orpheus and Musaeus.

'And in the eighteenth year of the reign of Agamemnon Troy was taken, in the first year of the reign in Athens of Demophon son of Theseus, on the twelfth day of the month Thargelion, as Dionysius the Argive says.

'But Agius and Dercylus in their third Book say, on the eighth day of the last decade of the month Panemus: Hellanicus says, on the twelfth of Thargelion; and some of the writers of Athenian history say, on the eighth of the last decade, in the last year of the reign of Menestheus, at the full moon. The poet who wrote The Little Iliad says:

"At midnight, when the moon was rising bright." 47

But others say, on the same day of the month Scirophorion.

'Now Theseus, who was a rival of Hercules, is older than the Trojan war by one generation: Homer at least mentions Tlepolemus, who was the son of Hercules, as having joined in the expedition against Troy.

'Moses therefore is shown to be six hundred and four years older than the deification of Dionysus, if at least he was deified in the thirty-second year of the reign of Perseus, as Apollodorus says in his Chronicles.

'And from Dionysus to Hercules and the chiefs who sailed in the Argo with Jason, there are sixty-three years comprised. Asclepius too and the Dioscuri sailed with them, as Apollonius Rhodius testifies in the Argonautica.48

'From the reign of Hercules in Argos to the deification of Hercules himself and of Asclepius there are comprised thirty-eight years, according to Apollodorus the chronicler: and from that point to the deification of Castor and Pollux fifty-three years: and somewhere about this time was the capture of Troy.

'And if we are to believe the poet Hesiod, let us hear what he says:

"Admitted to the sacred couch of Zeus,
Fairest of Atlas' daughters, Maia bare
Renowned Hermes, herald of the Gods.
And linked with Zeus in sweetest bonds of love
Fair Semele conceived a glorious son,
Great Dionysus, joy of all mankind." 49

'Cadmus the father of Semele came to Thebes in the reign of Lynceus, and became the inventor of the Greek letters. And Triopas was contemporary with Isis in the seventh generation from Inachus.

'But there are some who say that she was called Io from her going (ἰένα) through all the earth in her wanderings: and Istrus in his book Of the migration of the Egyptians says that she was the daughter of Prometheus: and Prometheus was contemporary with Triopas, in the seventh generation after Moses; so that Moses would be earlier even than the origin of mankind was according to the Greeks.

'Now Leon, who wrote a treatise On the gods of Egypt, says that Isis was called by the Greeks Demeter, who is contemporary with Lynceus in the eleventh generation after Moses.

'Apis also the king of Argos was the founder of Memphis, as Aristippus says in the first Book of the Arcadica.

'Moreover Aristeas of Argos says that this Apis was surnamed Sarapis, and that it is he whom the Egyptians worship.

'But Nymphodorus of Amphipolis, in the third Book of The Customs of Asia, says that when Apis the bull died and was embalmed, he was deposited in a coffin (σορός) in the temple of the daemon who was worshipped there, and thence was called Soroapis and afterwards Sarapis. And Apis is the third from Inachus. 'Moreover Latona is contemporary with Tityus:

"For Leto erst he strove to violate,
The noble consort of immortal Zeus." 50

'And Tityus was contemporary with Tantalus. With good reason therefore the Boeotian Pindar writes:

"For late in time Apollo too was born." 51

'And no wonder, since he is found in company with Hercules serving Admetus

"A whole long year." 52

'Zethus too and Amphion, the inventors of music, lived about the age of Cadmus. And if any one tell us that Phemonoe was the first who uttered an oracle in verse to Acrisius, yet let him know that twenty-seven years after Phemonoe came Orpheus, and Musaeus, and Linus the teacher of Hercules.

'But Homer and Hesiod were much later than the Trojan war, and after them far later were the lawgivers among the Greeks, Lycurgus and Solon, and the Seven Sages, and Pherecydes of Syros, and the great Pythagoras, who lived some time later about the beginning of the Olympiads, as we proved.

'So then we have demonstrated that Moses was more ancient than most of the gods of the Greeks, and not merely than their so-called Sages and poets.'

So far Clement. But since the question before us was carefully studied before our Christian writers by the Hebrews themselves, it would be well to consider also what they have said: and I shall use the language of Flavius Josephus as representative of them all.

CHAPTER XIII

[JOSEPHUS] 53 'I WILL begin then first with the writings of the Egyptians. It is not possible, however, to quote their own actual words; but Manetho an Egyptian by birth, a man who had a knowledge of Hellenic culture, as is evident from his having written the history . of his own country in the Greek language, and translated it, as he says himself, out of the sacred books, who also convicts Herodotus of having from ignorance falsified many things in Egyptian history----this Manetho then, I say, in the second Book of his Egyptian History writes concerning us as follows: and I will quote his words, just as if I brought himself forward as a witness.

'"We had a king whose name was Timaeus. In his time God was angry with us, I know not why, and men from the Eastern parts, of obscure origin, were strangely emboldened to invade the country, and easily took possession of it by force without a battle." '

And soon after he adds:

'"The name of their whole nation was Hycsos, that is 'shepherd-kings.' For 'Hyc' in the sacred language means 'king,' and Sos is 'shepherd,' and 'shepherds' in the common dialect: and thus combined it becomes 'Hycsos.' But some say that they were Arabs."

'But in another copy 54 he says that "kings" are not meant by the name "Hyc," but on the contrary "captive-shepherds" are signified. For Hyc in Egyptian, and Hac, aspirated, expressly means "captives." And this seems to me more probable, and in agreement with ancient history.

'Now these before-named kings, both those of the so-called "Shepherds," and their descendants, ruled over Egypt, he says, five hundred and eleven years.

'But after this, he says, there was a revolt of the kings from the Thebaid and the rest of Egypt against the Shepherds, and a great and long war broke out. But in the time of a king 'whose name was Misphragmuthosis, he says that the Shepherds were defeated, and though, driven out of the rest of Egypt, they were shut up in a place having a circumference of ten thousand arurae: the name of the place was Avaris.

'The whole of this. Manetho says, the Shepherds surrounded with a great and strong wall, that so they might have all their possessions and their booty in a stronghold.

'But Thmouthosis the son of Misphragmouthosis attempted to subdue them by a siege, having sat down against their walls with four hundred and eighty thousand men: but after giving up the siege in despair, he made terms of agreement with them, that they should leave Egypt, and all go away uninjured whithersoever they chose. And upon these conditions they with their whole families and possessions, being not less in number than two hundred and forty thousand, made their way from Egypt across the desert into Syria.

'But being afraid of the power of the Assyrians (for they were at that time the rulers of Asia), they built a city in what is now called Judaea, to suffice for so many thousands of inhabitants, and called it Jerusalem.'

Next to this he recounts the succession of the kings of Egypt, together with the duration of their reigns, and adds: 55

'So says Manetho. And when the time is calculated according to the number of years mentioned, it is evident that the so-called Shepherds, our ancestors, departed from Egypt and colonized this country three hundred and ninety-three years before Danaus arrived in Argos: and yet he is considered by the Argives as very ancient.

'Two things therefore of the greatest importance Manetho has testified in our favour out of the writings of the Egyptians. First their arrival in Egypt from some other country, and afterwards the departure thence at so ancient a date as to be nearly a thousand years before the Trojan war.'

The extracts from Egyptian history have been recorded thus somewhat at large by Josephus. But from Phoenician history, by employing the testimony of those who have written on Phoenician affairs, he proves that the Temple in Jerusalem had been built by King Solomon a hundred and forty-three years and eight months earlier than the foundation of Carthage by the Tyrians: then he passes on, and quotes from the history of the Chaldaeans their testimonies concerning the antiquity of the Hebrews.

CHAPTER XIV

BUT why need I heap up proofs upon proofs, when every one who is a lover of truth, and not of spitefulness, is satisfied with what has been stated, as containing varied confirmation of the proposed argument? For our proposal was to prove that Moses and the Prophets were more ancient than Greek history.

Since therefore Moses has been proved to have lived long before the Trojan war, let us look also at all those who came after him. Now that Moses appeared in the world later in time than those former true Hebrews, Heber and Abraham, from whom the derived name has been applied to the people, and than all the other godly men of old, is manifest from his own history.

Next to Moses therefore Jesus ruled the nation of the Jews thirty years, as some say: then, as the Scripture says, foreigners ruled eight years. Then Gothoniel,56 fifty years: after whom Eglom king of Moab eighteen years: after whom Ehud eighty years. After him strangers again twenty years: then Debbora and Barak forty years. Then the Madianites seven years: then Gredeon forty years. Abimelech three years. Tola twenty-three years: Jair twenty-two years: the Ammonites eighteen years: Jephtha six years: Esbon seven years: Aealon ten years:57 Labdon eight years: strangers forty years: Samson twenty years: then Eli the Priest, as the Hebrew says, forty years; about whose time the capture of Troy occurred. And after Eli the Priest Samuel was the ruler of the people.

After him their first king Saul reigned forty years: then David forty years: then Solomon forty years; who also was the first to build the Temple in Jerusalem. After Solomon Soboam reigns seventeen years: Abia three years: Asa forty-one years: Jehoshaphat twenty-five years: Joram eight years: Ahaziah one year: Athaliah seven years: Joash forty years: Amaziah twenty-seven years: Uzziah fifty-two years; in whose reign prophesied Hosea, Amos, Esaias, Jonah: and after Uzziah Jotham reigned sixteen years: after whom Ahaz sixteen years. In his time was held the first Olympic festival, in which Coroebus of Elis won the foot-race.

Hezekiah succeeds Ahaz for twenty-nine years; and in his time Romulus built Home and became king. And after Hezekiah Manasses reigned fifty-five years: then Amon two years: then Josiah thirty-one years; in whose time prophesied Jeremiah, Baruch, Huldah, and other prophets.

Then Jehoahaz three months: after whom Jehoiachim eleven years; and after him last of all Zedekiah twelve years. In his time Jerusalem having been besieged by the Assyrians, and the Temple burned, the whole nation of the Jews is carried away to Babylon, and there Daniel prophesies, and Ezekiel.

And after the number of seventy years Cyrus becomes king of Persia, and he remitted the captivity of the Jews, and allowed those of them who would to return to their own land, and to raise up the Temple again: at which time Jesus the son of Josedek returned, and Zerubbabel the son of Salathiel, and they laid the foundations, when Haggai, and Zechariah, and Malachi prophesied last of all, after whom there has been no more a prophet among them.

In the time of Cyrus Solon of Athens was flourishing, and the so-called Seven Sages among the Greeks, than whom their records mention no more ancient philosopher.

Of these seven then Thales of Miletus, who was the first natural philosopher among the Greeks, discoursed concerning the solar tropics and eclipse, and the phases of the moon, and the equinox. This man became most distinguished among the Greeks.

A pupil of Thales was Anaximander, the son of Praxiades, himself also a Milesian by birth. He was the first designer of gnomons for distinguishing the solar tropics, and times and seasons, and equinox.

And a pupil of Anaximander was Anaximenes son of Eurystratus of Miletus; and his pupil was Anaxagoras, son of Hegesibulus, of Clazomenae. He was the first who clearly defined the subject of first principles. For he not only published his opinions concerning the essence of all things, like his predecessors, but also concerning the moving cause thereof. 'For in the beginning,' he says, 'all things were confused together. But mind entered and brought them out of disorder into order.' 58

Anaxagoras had three pupils, Pericles, Archelaus, and Euripides. Pericles became the first man of Athens, and excelled his contemporaries both in wealth and birth: Euripides turned to poetry, and was called by some 'the philosopher of the stage':59 and Archelaus succeeded to the school of Anaxagoras in Lampsacus, but migrated to Athens and lectured there, and had many Athenians as pupils, and among them especially Socrates.

At the same time with Anaxagoras there flourished the physical philosophers Xenophanes and Pythagoras. Pythagoras was succeeded by his wife Theano, and his sons Telauges and Mnesarchus.

A pupil of Telauges was Empedocles, in whose time Heracleitus 'the obscure' became famous. Xenophanes is said to have been succeeded by Parmenides, and Parmenides by Melissus, and Melissus by Zeno the Eleatic, who, they say, concocted a plot against the tyrant of that time, and was caught, and when tortured by the tyrant that so he might give a list of those who were his accomplices, paid no regard to the tyrant's punishments, but bit through his tongue, and spat it at him, and died in this obstinate endurance of the tortures.

He had for his pupil Leucippus, and Leucippus Democritus, and he Protagoras, in whose time Socrates flourished. One may also find scattered here and there other physical philosophers who lived before Socrates: all, however, beginning with Thales appear to have flourished later than Cyrus king of Persia: and it is manifest that Cyrus lived long after the carrying away of the Jewish nation into captivity at Babylon, when the Hebrew prophets had already ceased, and their holy city had been besieged. So you must admit that Greek philosophy was much later than Moses and the Prophets who came after him; and especially the philosophy of Plato, who having been at first a hearer of Socrates, afterwards associated with the Pythagoreans, and shot far beyond all his predecessors both in eloquence and wisdom and in his philosophical doctrines.

Now Plato lived about the end of the Persian monarchy, a little earlier than Alexander of Macedon, and not much more than four hundred years before the Emperor Augustus.

If therefore it should be shown to you that Plato and his successors have agreed in their philosophy with the Hebrews, it is time to examine the date at which he lived, and to compare the antiquity of the Hebrew theologians and prophets with the age of all the philosophers of Greece.

But since this has been already proved, it is now the proper time to turn back and observe that the wise men of the Greeks have been zealous imitators of the Hebrew doctrines, so that our calumniators can no longer reasonably find fault with us, if we ourselves, admiring the like doctrines with their philosophers, have determined to hold the Hebrew oracles in honour.

[Footnotes numbered and moved to the end]

1. 461 d 4 Clement, Miscellanies, vi. c. 2, § 4

2. 462 c 2 Clement, Miscellanies, vi. c. 2, § 16

3. d 3 ibid. § 25

4. d 14 Clement, Miscellanies, vi. c. 2, § 27

5. 463 a 1 ibid. c. 3, § 28

6. 463 d 5 I Sam. xi. 18

7. d 7 Matt. v. 45

8. 464 a 1 Porphyry, Lecture on Literature, Bk. i, Fragment preserved by Eusebius

9. c 5 Isocrates, Areopagiticus, p. 140 d

10. 465 a 3 Or 'Pherecydes the Syrian'

11. 466 c 10 Hesiod, Works and Days, 702

12. d 3 Simonides, Fr. 6 (Bergk), 224 (Gaisf.)

13. d 6 Euripides, Fr. 29 (511)

14. d 10 Euripides, Medea, 231

15. d 12 Theodectes, Fr. 2 (Wagner)

16. 467 a 7 Hom. Il. i. 558

17. b 1 Antimachus, Fr. 34 (Dubner)

18. c 2 Hom. Od. ii. 334

19. c 4 Hom. Il. xvi. 563

20. c 7 Antimachus, Fr. 34

21. d 14 Porphyry, Lecture on Literature, Bk. i

22. 471 c 10 Plato, Timaeus, 22 B; cf. Clement, Miscellanies, i. c. 15.

23. 471 d 12 Pseudo-Plato, Epinomis, 986 E

24. 472 a 6 ibid. 987 E

25. b 1 Clement, l. c.

26. 475 b 3 Clement, Miscellanies, i. c. 16

27. 477 a 3 Josephus, Against Apion, i. 2

28. 480 a 5 Diodorus Siculus, i. 96

29. 481 a 1 Homer, Od. xxiv. 1

30. a 4 Diod. Sic. i. 97

31. c 6 Homer, Od. iv. 220-230

32. 485 b 1 Porphyry, Against the Christians, bk. iv; cf. p. 31 a

33. 487 d 6 Africanus, Chronography, bk. iii. Cf. Routh, Rell. Sacr. ii. p. 269

34. 488 d 1 Ezra 1

35. 489 b 1 Cf. Routh, Rell. Sacr. ii. p. 272

36. c 10 Cf. ibid. ii. 374

37. 490 a 11 Cf. Routh, l. c., ii. p. 275

38. c 1 Cf. Herod, ii. c. 162

39. c 3 ibid. c. 104

40. 490 c 5 Cf. 497 a 6

41. 491 a 10 Cf. Pausanias, vi. c. 18

42. c 1 Tatian, Address to the Greeks, c. 31

43. 492 d 6 Tatian, l. c., c. 36

44. 496 d 1 Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, i. c. 21

45. 497 d 9 Plato, Timaeus, 22 A

46. 498 a 8 Hom. Il. xx. 215

47. c 7 Little Iliad, Fr. 6

48. d 12 Cf. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, i. 146

49. 499 a 5 Hesiod, Theogony, 938

50. 499 d 6 Hom. Od. xii. 579

51. d 10 Pind. Fr. 11 (114)

52. d 13 Cf. Hom. Il. xxi. 443

53. 500 c 1 Josephus, Against Apion, i. 14

54. 501 a 1 Josephus, l. c.

55. 501 d 8 Josephus, Against Apion, c. 15

56. 502 d 8 Cf. Judges iii. 8, ibid. 9 'Othniel'

57. 503 a 5 Judges xii. 10-13

58. 504 b 4 cf. Diogenes, Laortius, ii. 6.

59. c 1 Cf. Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, v. 71

[admin]

Part 1 of 3

BOOK XI

CONTENTS

• Preface concerning the argument. p. 507 c
• I. How the philosophy of Plato followed that of the Hebrews in the most essential points p. 508 d
• II. Atticus on the threefold division, of Plato's philosophy p. 509 b
• III. Aristocles on the philosophy of Plato p. 510 b
• IV. On the ethical doctrines of the Hebrews p. 511 d
• V. On the logical method of the Hebrews p. 513 a
• VI. On the correctness of Hebrew names p. 514 d
• VII. On the natural philosophy of the Hebrews p. 521 a
• VIII. On the philosophy of the intelligible world p. 523 b
• IX. Moses and Plato on true being p. 523 d
• X. Extract from Numenius, the Pythagorean, Concerning the good, Bk. ii p. 525 c
• XI. From Plutarch's treatise entitled On the Εἶ at Delphi p. 527 d
• XII. That the divine nature is ineffable p. 529 d
• XIII. That God is One only p. 530 c
• XIV. On the Second Cause p. 531 d
• XV. Philo on the Second Cause p. 533 b
• XVI. Plato on the Second Cause p. 534 b
• XVII. Plotinus on the same p. 535 b
• XVIII. Numenius on the Second Cause p. 536 d
• XIX. Amelius on the theology of our Evangelist John p. 540 b
• XX. On the three primary Hypostases p. 541 b
• XXI. On the essence of the good p. 542 a
• XXII. Numenius on the good p. 543 b
• XXIII. On the Ideas in Plato p. 545 a
• XXIV. Philo on the Ideas in Moses p. 546 d
• XXV. Clement on the same p. 548 d
• XXVI. The Hebrews and Plato on the adverse powers p. 549 c
• XXVII. The Hebrews and Plato on the immortality of the soul. p. 550 c
• XXVIII. Porphyry on the same p. 554 b
• XXIX. That the world is created p. 557 c
• XXX. On the luminaries in heaven p. 558 b
• XXXI. That all the works of God are good p. 558 d
• XXXII. On the alteration and change of the world p. 559 a
• XXXIII. On the return of the dead to life, from the same p. 561 b
• XXXIV. Again concerning the end of the world p. 562 a
• XXXV. That Plato records that dead have been raised in accordance with the statements of the Hebrews p. 562 d
• XXXVI. Plutarch on the like matter p. 563 d
• XXXVII. That Plato describes the so-called celestial earth in like manner as the Hebrews p. 564 d
• XXXVIII. That Plato agrees with the Hebrews in believing that there will be the judgement after death p. 567 b

PREFACE CONCERNING THE ARGUMENT

THE preceding Book, which is the tenth of the Evangelical Preparation, was intended to prove by no statements of my own, but by external testimonies, that as the Greeks had contributed no additional wisdom from their own resources, but only their force and elegance of language, and had borrowed all their philosophy from Barbarians, it was not improbable that they were also not unacquainted with the Hebrew Oracles, but had in part seized upon them also; seeing that they did not keep their hands clean from theft even of the literary efforts of their own countrymen. For, as I said, it was not my statement but their own that proved them to be thieves.

Moreover in the same Book we learned by the comparison of dates that they were very young in age as well as in wisdom, and fell very far short of the ancient literature of the Hebrews.

Such were the contents of the preceding Book: but in this present one we hasten on at once to pay as it were a debt, I mean the promise which was given, and to exhibit the agreement of the Greek philosophers with the Hebrew Oracles in some if not in all their doctrinal theories. Dismissing therefore those of whom it is superfluous to speak, we call up the leader of the whole band, deeming it right to adopt as umpire of the question Plato alone as equivalent to all: since it is likely that as he surpassed all in reputation he will be sufficient by himself for the settlement of our question.

But if at any point it should be necessary, for the sake of giving clearness to his thought, I shall also make use of the testimony of those who have studied his philosophy, and shall set forth their own words for the settlement of the question before us.

Let me, however, make this reservation, that not every matter has been successfully stated by the master, although he has expressed most things in accordance with truth. And this very point also we shall prove at the proper season, not in order to disparage him, but in defence of the reason for which we confess that we have welcomed the Barbarian philosophy in preference to the Greek.

CHAPTER I

WHEREAS Plato divided the whole subject of philosophy into three branches, Physics, Ethics, Logic, and then again divided his Physics into the examination of sensibles, and the contemplation of incorporeals, you will find this tripartite form of teaching among the Hebrews also, seeing that they had dealt with the like matters of philosophy before Plato was born.

It will be right then to hear Plato first, and so afterwards to examine the doctrines of the Hebrews. And I shall quote the opinions of Plato from those who give the highest honour to his system; of whom Atticus, a man of distinction among the Platonic philosophers, in the work wherein he withstands those who profess to support the doctrines of Plato by those of Aristotle, recounts the opinions of his master in the following manner:

CHAPTER II

[ATTICUS] 1 'SINCE therefore the entire system of philosophy is divided into three parts, the so-called Ethical topic, and the Physical,and also the Logical; and whereas the aim of the first is to make each one of us honourable and virtuous, and to bring entire households to the highest state of improvement, and finally to furnish the whole commonalty with the most excellent civil polity and the most exact laws; while the second pertains to the knowledge of things divine, and the actual first principles and causes, and all the other things that result from them, which part Plato has named Natural Science; the third is adopted to help in determining and discovering what concerns both the former. Now that Plato before and beyond all others collected into one body all the parts of philosophy, which had till then been scattered and dispersed, like the limbs of Pentheus, as some one said, and exhibited philosophy as an organized body and a living thing complete in all its members, is manifestly asserted by every one.

'For it is not unknown that Thales, and Anaximenes, and Anaxagoras, and as many as were contemporary with them spent their time solely on the inquiry concerning the nature of existing things. Nor moreover is any one unaware that Pittacus, and Periander, and Solon, and Lycurgus, and those like them, applied their philosophy to statemanship. Zeno too, and all this Eleatic School, are also well known to have studied especially the dialectic art. But after these came Plato, a man newly initiated in the mysteries of nature and of surpassing excellence, as one verily sent down from heaven in order that the philosophy taught by him might be seen in its full proportions; for he omitted nothing, and perfected everything, neither falling short in regard to what was necessary, nor carried away to what was useless.

'Since therefore we asserted that the Platonist partakes of all three, as studying Nature, and discussing Morals, and practising Dialectic, let us now examine each point separately.'

So speaks Atticus, And the Peripatetic Aristocles also adds his testimony to the same effect, in the seventh Book of the treatise which he composed Of Philosophy, speaking thus word for word:

CHAPTER III

[ARISTOCLES] 2 'IF any man ever yet taught a genuine and complete system of philosophy, it was Plato. For the followers of Thales were constantly engaged in the study of Nature: and the school of Pythagoras wrapped all things in mystery: and Xenophanes and his followers, by stirring contentious discussions, caused the philosophers much dizziness, but yet gave them no help.

'And not least did Socrates, exactly according to the proverb, add fire to fire, as Plato himself said. For being a man of great genius, and clever in raising questions upon any and every matter, he brought moral and political speculations into philosophy, and moreover was the first who attempted to define the theory of the Ideas: but while still stirring up every kind of discussion, and inquiring about all subjects, he died too early a death.

'Others took certain separate parts and spent their time upon these, some on Medicine, others on the Mathematical Sciences, and some on the poets and Music. Most of them, however, were charmed with the powers of language, and of these some called themselves rhetoricians and others dialecticians.

'In fact the successors of Socrates were of all different kinds, and opposed to each other in their opinions. For some sang the praises of cynical habits, and humility, and insensibility; but others, on the contrary, of pleasures. And some used to boast of knowing all things, and others of knowing absolutely nothing.

'Further some used to roll themselves about in public and in the sight of all men, associating with the common people, while others on the contrary could never be approached nor accosted.

'Plato however, though he perceived that the science of things divine and human was one and the same, was the first to make a distinction, asserting that there was one kind of study concerned with the nature of the universe, and another concerned with human affairs, and a third with dialectic.

'But he maintained that we could not take a clear view of human affairs, unless the divine were previously discerned: for just as physicians, when treating any parts of the body, attend first to the state of the whole, so the man who is to take a clear view of things here on earth must first know the nature of the universe; and man, he said, was a part of the world; and good was of two kinds, our own good and that of the whole, and the good of the whole was the more important, because the other was for its sake.

'Now Aristoxenus the Musician says that this argument comes from the Indians: for a certain man of that nation fell in with Socrates at Athens, and presently asked him, what he was doing in philosophy: and when he said, that he was studying human life, the Indian laughed at him, and said that no one could comprehend things human, if he were ignorant of things divine.

'Whether this, however, is true no one could assert positively: but Plato at all events distinguished the philosophy of the universe, and that of civil polity, and also that of dialectic.'

Such being the philosophy of Plato, it is time to examine also that of the Hebrews, who had studied philosophy in the like manner long before Plato was born. Accordingly you will find among them also this corresponding tripartite division of Ethical, and Dialectical, and Physical studies, by setting yourself to observe in the following manner:

CHAPTER IV

As to Ethics then, if you thoroughly examine what the Hebrews taught, you will find that this subject before all others was zealously studied among them in deeds much earlier than in words. Since as the end of all good, and the final term of a happy life, they both admired and pursued religion and that friendship with God which is secured by the right direction of moral habits; but not bodily pleasure, like Epicurus; nor again the threefold kinds of good, according to Aristotle, who esteems the good of the body, and external good on an equality with the good of the soul; no, nor yet the utter void of knowledge and instruction, which some have announced by a more respectable name as 'suspension of judgement'; nay, nor even the virtue of the soul; for how much is there of this in men, and what can it contribute by itself without God to the life that knows no sorrow?

For the sake of that life they fastened their all on hope in God, as a cable that could not break, and declared that the friend of God was the only happy man: because God the dispenser of all good, the purveyor of life and fountain of virtue itself, being the provider of all good things for the body, and of outward fortune, must be alone sufficient for the happy life to the man who by thoroughly true religion has secured His friendship.

Hence Moses, the wisest of men and the first of all to commit to writing the life of the godly Hebrews before his time, has described in an historical narrative their mode of life both political and practical. In beginning that narrative he drew his teaching from universal principles, assuming God as the cause of the universe, and describing the creation of the world and of man.

Thus from universal principles he next advanced in his argument to particulars, and by the memory of the men of old urged his disciples on to emulation of their virtue and piety; and moreover being himself declared the author of the holy laws enacted by him, it must be manifest that on all points he was careful to promote the love of God by his attention to moral habits, a point which in fact our argument anticipated and made clear in what has gone before.

It would be too long to set down in this place the prophets who came in succession after Moses, and their arguments to encourage virtue, and dissuade from all kinds of vice. But what if I were to bring before you the moral precepts of the all-wise Solomon, to which he devoted a special treatise and called it a book of Proverbs, including in one subject many concise judgements of the nature of apophthegms?

And in this way from old times, before the Greeks had learned even the first letters, the Hebrews were both themselves instructed in the ethical branch, and freely imparted of the same instruction to those who came to them.

CHAPTER V

ALSO the dialectic branch of Hebrew philosophy they thought it right to pursue not, as the Greeks were wont, with clever sophistries, and arguments cunningly framed to deceive, but by the conception of actual truth, which with souls illumined by divine light their religious philosophers discovered, and were by it enlightened.

And to make those who were being instructed in the learning of their country more keen in pursuit of this truth, they used even from the age of infancy to deliver to them recitations of holy words, and tales from sacred histories, and metrical compositions of psalms and canticles, problems also and riddles, and certain wise and allegorical theories, combined with beauty of language, and eloquent recitation in their own tongue.

Moreover they had certain expositors (δευτερωταί) of primary instruction (for so it pleases them to name the interpreters of their scriptures), who by translation and explanation made clear what was obscurely taught in riddles, if not to all, at least to those who were fitted to hear these things.

Thus again Solomon the wisest among them started from this principle in the beginning of his book of Proverbs, teaching us that this was mainly the cause of his writing, by stating in express terms that every man ought to know wisdom, and instruction, and to discern the words of understanding, and to perceive the turns of language, and understand true righteousness, and give right judgement. 'That I may give,' he says, 'subtilty to the simple, and to the young man perception and thoughtfulness. For the wise man will hear these things and be wiser, and the man of understanding will obtain guidance: he will understand a proverb and a dark saying, the words of the wise, and riddles.' 3

Suet were the terms of the promise of the said book: and the particular Questions proposed and their solutions, and the dialectic treatment carried through all their prophetic scriptures in a manner proper to the wisdom and language of the authors, any one who wishes may learn by taking in hand and studying at leisure the books of their discourse. And if any one were also to study the language itself with critical taste, he would see that, for Barbarians, the writers are excellent dialecticians, not at all inferior to sophists or orators in his own language.

There would also be found among them poems in metre, like the great Song of Moses and David's 118th Psalm, composed in what the Greeks call heroic metre. At least it is said that these are hexameters, consisting of sixteen syllables: also their other compositions in verse are said to consist of trimeter and tetrameter lines, according to the sound of their own language.

While such is the relation of their diction to its logical sense, the thoughts must not be brought into comparison with those of men. For they comprise the oracles of God and of absolute truth to which they have given utterance, prophecies, and predictions, and religious lessons, and doctrines relating to the knowledge of the universe.

And of the authors' accuracy in reasoning you may find indications from their correctness in the application of names, concerning which it will be evident that Plato also bears witness to the opinion of the Hebrews, and is on this very point in agreement with the philosophy of their authors, as indeed it is easy to discern from what follows.

CHAPTER VI

LONG before the name of philosophy was known to the Greeks, Moses had been the first throughout all his writing to treat in numberless instances of the giving of names, and sometimes had arranged the names of all things about him in exact accordance with their nature, and at other times referred to God the decision of the new name given to devout men, and had taught that names are given to things by nature and not conventionally; Plato in following him assents to the same opinions, and does not omit to mention Barbarians, and affirm that this custom is maintained among them, hinting probably at the Hebrews, since it is not easy to observe a theory of this kind among other Barbarians.

He says, at all events, in the Cratylus:

[PLATO] 'The name of anything is not whatever men agree to call it, pronouncing over it some small portion of their own language, but there is a kind of natural correctness in names, the same for all both Greeks and Barbarians.' 4

And then farther on he says:

'So then as long as the legislator, whether here or among the Barbarians, assigns to each thing the form of name that properly belongs to it, whatever syllables he may use, you will not deem him to be a worse legislator, whether in this country or anywhere else.' 5

Then again after asserting that the man who understands the correctness of names is a dialectician and a legislator, he next speaks thus: 6

'A carpenter's work then is to make a rudder under the superintendence of a pilot, if the rudder is to be a good one.

'Evidently.

'And a legislator's work, as it seems, is to give a name, having a dialectician to direct him, if the name is to be rightly given.

'That is true.

'The giving of names then, Hermogenes, is likely to be no light matter, as you suppose, nor a work for light persons, nor for chance comers: and Cratylus speaks truly, when he says that things have their names by nature, and that not every one is an artist in names, but only that man who looking to the name which by nature belongs to each thing is able to impose its form upon both the letters and the syllables.'

After these statements, and many more, he again brings up the mention of the Barbarians, and then expressly acknowledges that most of the names have come to the Greeks from the Barbarians, saying in exact words: 7

'I have an idea that the Greeks, and especially those who live under the Barbarians, have taken many names from them.

'Well, what then?

'If any one should try to find how these names are fitly given according to the Greek language, and not according to that language from which each name happens to be derived, you know that he would be in difficulty.

'Naturally.'

So says Plato. He is anticipated, however, by Moses; for hear what he says, as being a wise legislator and withal a dialectician. 'And out of the ground God formed all the beasts of the field and all the fowls of the heaven, and brought them to Adam, to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called a living being, that was the name thereof.' 8

For by saying 'that was the name thereof does he not show that the appellations were given in accordance with nature? For the name just now given, he says, was long before contained in the nature, and that in each of the things named there existed from the beginning this name which the said man inspired by a superior power has given it.

Moreover the very name Adam, being originally a Hebrew noun, would become with Moses an appellation of the earth-born man, because among the Hebrews the earth is called Adam, wherefore also the first man made out of the earth is with true etymology called by Moses Adam.

But the name may also have another meaning, being otherwise taken for 'red,' and representing the natural colour of the body. However, by the appellation 'Adam' he signified the earthlike, and earthly, and earthborn, or the man of body and of flesh.

But the Hebrews also call man otherwise, giving him the name 'Enos,' 9 which they say is the rational man within us, different in nature from the earthlike 'Adam.' Enos also has a meaning of its own, being in the Greek language interpreted 'forgetful.'

And such the rational part within us is by nature apt to be, on account of its combination with the mortal and irrational part. For the one being altogether pure, and incorporeal, and divine, and rational, comprehends not only the memory of the things that are past, but also the knowledge of the things that are to come, through the supreme excellence of its vision. While the other close-packed in flesh, pierced through with bones and nerves, and laden with the great and heavy burden of the body, was seen by the Hebrew Scripture to be full of forgetfulness and ignorance, and called by an apt designation 'Enos,' which means 'the forgetful.'

It is written at least in a certain Prophet 'What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?' 10 For which the Hebrew, in the first naming of 'man,' contains the word 'Enos': as if he said more plainly, What is this forgetful one, that Thou, O God, rememberest him, forgetful though he is? And the other clause, 'Or the son of man that Thou visitest him? is read among the Hebrews, 'Or the son of Adam': so that the same man is both Adam and Enos; the fleshly nature being represented by Adam, and the rational by Enos.

In this way do the Hebrew oracles distinguish the etymology of the two words. But Plato asserts that man is called ἄνθρωπος in the Greek language from looking upward, saying:

'But man no sooner sees, that is the meaning of ὄπωπε, than he both looks up (ἀναθρεῖ), and considers that which he has seen, that he may be one who looks up at what he sees (ἀναθρῶν ἂ ὄπωπε).' 11

Again the Hebrews call the man 'Ish' (Εἷς): and the name is derived by them from Ἔς, by which they signify fire, that the man may be so named because of the hot and fiery temper of the masculine nature.

But the woman, since she is said to have been taken out of man, also shares the name in common with the man: for the woman is called among them 'Issha,' as the man is 'Ish.' But Plato says that the man (ἀνήρ) is so named because of the upward flux (τὴν ἄνω ῥοήν); and he adds----

'And γυνή (woman) seems to me to be the same as γονή (birth).' 12

Again Moses calls the heaven in the Hebrew tongue the firmament etymologically, because the first thing after the incorporeal and intellectual essence is the firm and sensible body of this world. But Plato says that the name οὐρανός is rightly given to the heaven, because it makes us look upward (ὁραν ἄνω). 13

Again the Hebrews say that the highest and proper name of God may not be spoken or uttered, nor even conceived in the imagination of the mind: but this actual name by which they speak of God, they call Elohim, from El, as it seems: and this they interpret as 'strength,' and 'power'; so that among them the name of God has been derived by reasoning from His power and strength, by which He is conceived as Allpowerful and Almighty, as having established all things. But Plato says that the names θεός and θεοί (god and gods) were given because the luminaries in heaven are always running (θέειν). 14

Of some such kind, to speak generally, are the investigations of the Hebrews and those of Plato on the correctness of names. The names also among men, Plato says, have been given with some meaning, and he tries to render the reason of them: for he says that Hector somehow or other is named from having and ruling (ἔχειν καὶ κρατεῖν) because he was king of the Trojans;15 and Agamemnon because he was very persistent (ἄγαν μένειν), and persevered vigorously and constantly in his determinations about the Trojans;16 Orestes because of the mountainous (ὀρεινόν) and fierce and savage quality of his disposition;17 and Atreus, because of his having been a mischievous (ἀτηρόν) sort of person in character;18 and Pelops as one who saw nothing at a distance, but only the things that were close and near (πέλας).19 Tantalus, he says, means a most miserable man (ταλάντατον) because of the misfortunes which beset him.20

These examples and countless others such as these you will find stated by Plato, in endeavouring to teach that the first men had their names given to them by nature and not by convention.

But you would not say that the explanations found also in Moses are forced, nor framed according to any sophistical invention of words, when you have learnt that the Hebrew 'Cain' is translated among the Greeks as 'jealousy'; and the person in question was judged deserving of this appellation because he was jealous of his brother Abel. 21

'Abel' also is interpreted 'sorrow,' because he too became the cause of such suffering to his parents, who by some diviner foresight gave these names to their children at birth.

But what if I should quote Abraham to you? He was a kind of meteorologist, and formerly, while he was acquiring the wisdom of the Chaldees, he had become learned in the contemplation of the stars and in the knowledge of the heavens, and was called Abram; and this in the Greek language means 'high father.'

But God leading him on from things of this world to things invisible and lying beyond the things that are seen, employs an appropriate change of name, saying, 'Thy name shall no more be called Abram, but Abraham shall be thy name; for a father of many nations have I made thee.' 22

Now it would be long to tell with what thought this is connected: but it is sufficient in this matter also to adopt Plato as a witness to my statement, when he says that some names have been given by a more divine power.

He says indeed in express words:

'For here most of all ought care to have been taken in the giving of names: and perhaps some of them may even have been given by a higher power than that of men.' 23

This very point is also certified by many examples in the sacred Scriptures of the Hebrews; and first of all by Moses, who taught that Abraham, and his son Isaac, and also Israel, received their names from a diviner power. 'Isaac' is interpreted 'laughter,' bringing with it the token of the virtuous joy, which God has promised to give as a special reward to the friends of God.

His son Israel had formerly borne the name of 'Jacob,' but instead of 'Jacob' God bestows upon him the name 'Israel,' transforming the active and practical man into the contemplative. 24

For 'Jacob' is interpreted 'supplanter,' as one who strives in the contest of virtue:25 but 'Israel' is interpreted 'seeing God,' a description which would suit the mind in man that is capable of knowledge and contemplation.26

Why need I now refer to the perfect wisdom of Moses, or to the sacred oracles of the Hebrews, to explain, by countless other examples, the correctness of their imposition of proper names, when the details of the subject require longer leisure?

To go no farther, the Greeks would be unable to state the etymologies even of the letters of the alphabet, nor could Plato himself tell the meaning or the reason of the vowels or the consonants.

But the Hebrews would tell us the reason of 'Alpha,' which with them is called 'Al'ph,' and this signifies 'learning':27 and of 'Beta,' which it is their custom to call 'Beth,' which name they give to a house; so as to show the meaning, 'learning of a house,' or as it might be more plainly expressed, 'a kind of teaching and learning of household economy.'

'Gamma' also is with them called 'Gimel': and this is their name for 'fullness.' Then since they call tablets 'Delth,' they gave this name to the fourth letter, signifying therewith by the two letters, that 'written learning is a filling of the tablets.'

And any one going over the remaining letters of the alphabet, would find that they have been named among the Hebrews each with some cause and reason. For they say also that the combination of the seven vowels contains the enunciation of one forbidden name, which the Hebrews indicate by four letters and apply to the supreme power of God, having received the tradition from father to son that this is something unutterable and forbidden to the multitude.

And one of the wise Greeks having learned this, I know not whence, hinted it obscurely in verse, saying as follows:

'Seven vowels tell My Name,----the Mighty God,
The everlasting Father of mankind:
The immortal lyre am I, that guides the world,
And leads the music of the circling spheres.' 28

You would find also the meanings of the remaining Hebrew letters, by fixing your attention on each; but this we have already established by our former statements, when we were showing that the Greeks have received help in everything from the Barbarians.

And any one diligently studying the Hebrew language would discover great correctness of names current among that people: since the very name which is the appellation of the whole race has been derived from Heber; and this means the man that 'passes over,' since both a passage and the one who passes over are called in the Hebrew language 'Heber.' 29

For the term teaches us to cross over and pass from the things in this world to things divine, and by no means to stay lingering over the sight of the things that are seen, but to pass from these to the unseen and invisible things of divine knowledge concerning the Maker and Artificer of the world. Thus the first people who were devoted to the one All-ruler and Cause of the Universe, and adhered to Him with a pure and true worship, they called Hebrews, naming men of this character as travellers who had in mind passed over from earthly things.

But why should I spend more time in collecting all the instances of the propriety and correctness of the Hebrew names, when the subject requires a special treatise of its own. However, speaking generally, I think that even by what has been said I have supplied the evidence of the art of reasoning among the Hebrews: if indeed, as Plato said, it is a task for no mean or ordinary men, but for a wise lawgiver and dialectician, to discover the kind of names naturally belonging to things,----a man such as Moses who has made known to us the Hebrew oracles. So then what follows next after the subject of Dialectics, but to examine what was the condition of the Hebrew people in regard to Physics?

CHAPTER VII

THIS third branch also of Hebrew philosophy which, we said, is Physics, was divided among them also into the contemplation of things incorporeal and discerned only by the mind, and the Natural Science of things sensible. This too their all-accomplished Prophets knew, and mingled in their own discourses, when the occasion required; for they had not learned it by conjectures and by application of human thought, nor did they boast of men as their teachers, but ascribed their knowledge to the inspiration of a Higher Power, and the afflatus of a divine Spirit.

From this source came their countless prophecies concerning future events, and countless physical explanations of the constitution of the world, and descriptions likewise countless of the nature of animals, and very many things concerning plants which each set down in his own prophecies.

And Moses, understanding also the qualities of precious stones extremely well, exercises a very careful consideration of them in the case of the High Priest's dress. Again that Solomon, above all others, excelled in knowledge of the nature of such things is testified by the sacred Scripture in the following words:

'And Solomon spake three thousand proverbs, and his songs were five thousand; and he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And there came all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, as many as heard his wisdom.' 30

Starting from this description the author who ascribed to his person the perfection of wisdom, spake also thus: 'For Himself gave me an unerring knowledge of the things that are, to know the constitution of the world, and the operation of the elements; the beginning and end and middle of times, the alternations of the solstices and the changes of seasons, the circuits of the year and the positions of stars; the natures of living creatures and the ragings of wild beasts, the violences of winds and the thoughts of men, the diversities of plants, and the virtues of roots; and all things that are either secret or manifest I learned, for Wisdom the artificer of all things taught me.' 31

And again the same Solomon, explaining the nature of the fleeting substance of bodies, says in Ecclesiastes: 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit hath man in all his labour, wherein he laboureth under the Sun.' 32 And he adds: 'What is that which hath been? The very thing that shall be. And what is that which hath been done? The very thing that shall be done. And there is nothing new under the sun.' 33

For these and such as these were his physiological conclusions concerning corporeal substance. And you will find, if you go on, that the other wise Hebrews were not without a share of the like science. At all events, as I said before, there are numberless sayings of theirs about plants and animals, whether of the land or of the water, and moreover about the nature of birds.

Nay further, about the constellations in the heaven also: since there is conveyed in the writings of the said authors especial mention of Arctos and Pleias, Orion and Arcturus, which the Greeks are wont to call Arctophylax and Bootes.

Also concerning the constitution of the world, and the revolution and change of the universe, and concerning the essence of the soul, and the creation of the nature both visible and invisible, of all rational beings, and the universal Providence, and still earlier than these, the . opinions concerning the First Cause of the universe, and the doctrine of the divinity of the Second Cause, and the arguments and speculations about the other things thai can be perceived only by thought, they have comprehended accurately and well: so that one would not err in saying, that those among the Greeks who have afterwards investigated the nature of these things have been like younger men following the guidance of the old.

This then is what we have to say of their Natural Science of the Universe. But as they divided this subject into two parts, the one which concerns things perceived by the senses they did not think it necessary to make known accurately to the multitude, nor to teach the common people the causes of the nature of existing things, except only so far as it was necessary for them to know that the universe has not been self-created, and has not been produced causelessly and by chance from an irrational impetus, but is led on by the Divine Reason as its guide, and governed by a power of ineffable Wisdom.

With regard, however, to things seen only by the mind, that they exist, and what they are, and what their condition is in regard to arrangement, power, and diversity, has been already mentioned and is laid down in the Sacred Books, and has been audibly delivered to all men, so far as the knowledge was necessary for those who profess religion, with a view to the recovery of a pious and sober life.

But the deep and occult reason of these things they left to be sought out and learned in secret communications by those who were capable of being initiated in matters of this kind. It will be well, however, to describe in a general way a few points in the contemplation of these matters, and to show that herein also Plato entertained the sentiments which were dear to the said people.

CHAPTER VIII

BUT in fact it is manifest from his own words that the admirable Plato followed the all-wise Moses and the Hebrew Prophets in regard also to the teaching and speculation about things incorporeal and seen only by the mind; whether it were that he learned from hearsay which had reached him (since he is proved to have made his studies among the Egyptians at the very time when the Hebrews, having been driven the second time out of their own country, were in the habit of visiting Egypt during the Persian supremacy), or whether of himself he hit upon the true nature of the things, or, in whatever way, was deemed worthy of this knowledge by God. 'For God,' says the Apostle, 'manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived by means of the things that are made, even His eternal power and divinity, that they may be without excuse.' 34 And you may learn what I have stated by examining the matter as follows:

CHAPTER IX

MOSES in his declarations of sacred truth uttered a response in the person of God: 'I AM THAT I AM. Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you,' 35 and so represented God as the sole absolute Being, and declared Him to have been properly and fitly honoured with this name.

And Solomon again spake concerning the origin and the decay of things corporeal and sensible: 'What is that which hath been? The very thing that shall be. And what is that which hath been done? The very thing that shall be done. And there is nothing new under the sun, whereof a man shall speak and say, See, this is new. It hath been already, in the ages which were before us.' 36

In accordance with them we also divide the All into two parts, that which can be perceived only by the mind, and that which can be perceived by the senses: and the former we define as incorporeal and rational in its nature, and imperishable and immortal; but the sensible as being always in flux and decay, and in change and conversion of its substance. And all things being summed up and referred to one beginning, we hold the doctrine that the uncreate, and that which has proper and true being, is One, which is the cause of all things incorporeal and corporeal.

Now see in what manner Plato, having imitated not only the thought, but also the very expressions and words of the Hebrew Scripture, appropriates the doctrine, explaining it more at large, as follows:

'What is that which always is and has no becoming? And what is that which is always becoming and never is? The former is that which may be comprehended by intelligence combined with reason, being always in the same conditions. The latter is that which may be conjectured by opinion with the help of unreasoning sensation, becoming and perishing but never really being.' 37

Does it not plainly appear that the admirable philosopher has altered the oracle which in Moses declared 'I AM THAT I AM' 38 into 'What is that which always is and has no becoming?' And this he has made still clearer when he says that true 'being' is nothing else than that which is not seen by eyes of flesh, but is conceived by the mind. So having asked, What is 'being'? he makes answer to himself, saying: 'That which may be comprehended by intelligence combined with reason.'

And as to Solomon's maxim which said, 'What is that which hath been? The very thing that shall be. And what is that which hath been done? The very thing that shall be done,' 39 it must be evident that he translated this almost in the very words, saying, 'But that which may be conjectured by means of irrational sensation is becoming and perishing, but never really "being."' To which he also adds: 40

'For all these are parts of time, the "was" and "shall be"; which we unconsciously but wrongly transfer to the eternal essence. For we say that "It was, and is, and shall be." But to this essence the "is" alone is truly appropriate; and the "was" and the "will be" are proper to be spoken of the generation in time, for they are movements. But to that which is always immovably in the same conditions it belongs not to become either older or younger through time: nor that it ever became, nor has now become, nor will be hereafter at all, nor be subject to any of the conditions which becoming attaches to the things which pass to and fro in sensation: but these are forms of time, imitating eternity and moving by number in a circle. And besides these there are such expressions as the following; what has become is become, and what becomes is becoming, and what will become is about to become.'

And lest any one should suppose that I am misinterpreting the philosopher's words, I will make use of commentaries which explain the meaning of these statements. There are indeed many who have set themselves to the consideration of these matters; but at present it is enough for me to quote the expressions of an illustrious man, Numenius the Pythagorean, which he uses in his second Book Concerning the Good, as follows:

CHAPTER X

[NUMENIUS] 41 'COME then, let us mount up as nearly as we possibly can to true "being," and let us say that "being" neither at any time "was," nor ever can "become," but always "is" in a definite time, the present only.

'If, however, any one wishes to rename this present time eternity, I too am willing. But the time past we ought to consider altogether gone, already so gone away and escaped as to exist no longer: and on the other hand the time to come as yet is not, but professes to be able at some future time to come into being.

'It is not therefore reasonable to suppose "being," at least in one and the same sense, either not to be or to be no longer, or not yet. Since when this is so stated, there arises in the statement one great impossibility, that the same thing at the same time should both be and not be.

'For if this were so, scarcely would it be possible for anything else to be, if "being" itself in regard to its very "being" be not. For "being" is eternal and constant, ever in the same condition, nor has it been generated and destroyed, nor increased and diminished: nor did it ever yet become more or less: and certainly neither in other senses nor yet locally will it be moved.

'For it is not right for it to be moved, either backward or forward: nor upward ever, nor downward: neither to the right hand nor to the left shall "being" ever pass: nor shall it ever be moved around its own centre; but rather it shall stand fast, and shall be fixed and set firm, ever in the same conditions and same mode.'

And then, after other statements, he adds:

'So much then for my introduction. But for my own part I will no longer make pretences, nor say that I do not know the name of the incorporeal; for now at length it seems likely to be pleasanter to speak than not to speak it. And so then I say that its name is that which we have so long been examining.

'But let no one laugh, if I affirm that the name of the incorporeal is "essence" and "being." And the cause of the name "being" is that it has not been generated nor will be destroyed, nor is it subject to any other motion at all, nor any change for better or for worse; but is simple and unchangeable, and in the same idea, and neither willingly departs from its sameness, nor is compelled by any other to depart.

'Plato too said in the Cratylus 42 that names are exactly adapted to a likeness of the things. Be it granted then and agreed that "being" is the incorporeal.'

Then lower down he adds:

'I said that "being" is incorporeal, and that this is that which can be perceived by the mind only. Their statements then, so far as I can remember, were certainly of this kind: but any one who feels the want of an explanation I am willing to encourage with just this suggestion, that if these statements do not agree with the doctrines of Plato, yet at least he must consider them to be those of some other great man of the highest ability, such as Pythagoras.

'Plato at all events says 43 ----come, let me remember how he says it----What is that which, always is and has no becoming? And what that which is always becoming, and never is? The first that which may be comprehended by intelligence combined with reason, and the other that which may be conjectured by opinion with the aid of unreasoning sensation, becoming and perishing, but never really "being."

'For he was inquiring what is "being," and saying that it is unquestionably without beginning. For he said that for "being" there is no becoming: for then it would be changed, but that which is liable to change is not eternal.'

Then below he says:

'If then "being" is altogether and in every way eternal and unchangeable, and by no means departs in any way from itself, but abides in the same conditions, and remains fixed in the same manner, this surely must be that which can be comprehended by intelligence combined with reason.

'But if body is in flux and is carried off by the change of the moment, it passes away and no longer exists. Wherefore is it not utter folly to deny that this is something undefinable, and that can only be conjectured by opinion, and, as Plato says, becoming and perishing, but never really "being"? '

Thus then speaks Numenius, explaining clearly both Plato's doctrines and the much earlier doctrines of Moses. With reason therefore is that saying currently attributed to him, in which it is recorded that he said, 'For what else is Plato than Moses speaking Attic Greek?'

But see, besides this, whether Plutarch in further unfolding the same thought may not agree both with the statements of philosophers which have been brought forward, and the theological doctrines of the Hebrews set forth again in other places, whereby at one time the God who makes answer is introduced as saying: 44 'For I am the LORD your God, and I am not changed': and at another time the Prophet directs his speech with a view to Him, saying that the things which are seen would all some time be changed and removed, 'but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.' 45 Observe then whether----when He who spake in Moses, as if proposing a question, said,'I AM THAT I AM,' and, 'I am the LORD your God, and I am not changed': and again, 'But Thou art (εἶ) the same'----whether, I say. Plutarch would not seem to be interpreting the meaning of this in his treatise Concerning the Εἶ at Delphi, when he speaks word for word thus: 46

CHAPTER XI

'NEITHER number therefore, nor order, nor conjunction, nor any other of the non-significant particles, does the letter seem to indicate. But it is an address and appellation of the god complete in itself, which as soon as the word is uttered sets the speaker thinking of the power of the god.

'For the god, welcoming as it were each of us who approach him here, addresses to us the words "Know thyself," which is nothing less than "Hail": and we answering the god again say "Thou art" (Εἶ), rendering to him the appellation of "being" as his true and unerring and solely appropriate name.

'For we have in reality no share in "being," but every mortal nature is set in the midst between becoming and perishing, and presents a phantom and a faint and uncertain seeming of itself.

'And if any one closely press the thought, from wishing to grasp it, then just as the violent grasping of water by pressing and squeezing it together causes what was enclosed to slip through and be lost, so when Reason seeks too much actuality in any thing passible and subject to change, it goes astray on this side to the part that is becoming, and on that to the part that is perishing, being unable to lay hold of anything permanent, or of any true "being."

'For it is not possible, according to Heracleitus,47 to step twice into the same river, nor to touch a mortal substance twice in the same condition, but by the swiftness and suddenness of its change it scatters and again collects, or rather we must not say "again" nor "afterwards," but it is at the same time both combining and passing away, both coming on and going off.

'Wherefore neither does the part that is becoming attain to being, because the becoming never ceases nor stands still; but from a seed by constant change it makes an embryo, then a babe, then a child, in due order a youth, a young man, a man, an elder, an old man, destroying the first becomings and ages by those which come after.

'We, however, are ridiculously afraid of one death, although we have already died and are dying so many. For not only, as Heracleitus used to say, is "the death of fire the birth of air," 48 but still more manifestly in our own case the man in his prime perishes when the old man is coming, and the young man has passed away into the man in his prime, and the child into the young man, and the infant into the child, and the man of yesterday has died into the man of to-day, and the man of to-day (is dying) into the man of to-morrow; and not one abides nor is one, but we become many, while matter is circulating around some one phantom and common mould, and then slipping away.

'Else how is it, if we remain the same, that we delight now in some things, formerly in others, that we love and hate the contrary things, and praise and blame, use different language, have different feelings, retain no more the same appearance, form, or thought?

'For neither is it natural to have different feelings without a change, nor can one who changes be the same. But if he is not the same, he is not, but is changing from this, and becoming other from other: and our sense, through ignorance of true "being," falsely declares the apparent to "be."

'What then is true "being"? The eternal and uncreate, and imperishable, to which no time brings change. For time is something moveable, and imagined in connexion with the movement of matter, and ever flowing and not holding water, as it were a vessel of perishing and becoming. And so when it is said of time "after" and "before," and "will be" and "has been," there is at once an acknowledgement of "not-being."

'For to say of that which has not yet come into being, or has already ceased from being, that it "is" is silly and absurd. But at the very moment when, trying to fix our perception of time, we say "it is present," "it is here," and "now," our reason slips away again from this and loses it. For it is thrust aside into the future and into the past, just as a visual ray is distorted with those who try to see what is necessarily separated by distance.

'And if the nature which is measured is subject to the same conditions as the time which measures it, this nature itself has no permanence, nor "being," but is becoming and perishing according to its relation to time.

'Hence nothing of this kind may be said of "being," such as "was" or "will be": for these are a kind of inflexions, and transitions, and alternations of that which is not fitted by nature to continue in ''being."

'But we ought to say of God, HE is, and is in relation to no time, but in relation to eternity the motionless, and timeless, and changeless, in which is no "before" nor "after," nor future, nor past, nor elder nor younger: but being One He has filled the "Ever" with the one "Now"; and is the sole self-dependent real "Being," having neither past nor future, without beginning and without end.

'Thus then ought we in worship to salute and address Him, or even indeed as some of the ancients did, THOU ART ONE, For the Deity is not many, as each of us is, a promiscuous assemblage of all kinds compounded of numberless differences arising in its conditions: but "being" must be One, just as One must be "being": for otherness, as a differentia of "being," inclines towards a becoming of "not-being."'

CHAPTER XII

WHEREAS Moses and all the Hebrew Prophets teach that the Divine nature is ineffable, and indicate the symbol of the ineffable Name by the notation which may not be pronounced among them, hear how Plato also in agreement with them speaks in his great Epistle word for word.

[Ps.-PLATO] 'For it can by no means be defined in words as other branches of learning, but from long converse on the subject itself, and from living with it, on a sudden a light, as it were kindled from a spark leaping out of the fire, comes to the soul, and thenceforth is self-sustained.' 49

This example also of 'light' another Hebrew Prophet had previously set forth, saying, 'The light of Thy countenance, O Lord, was shown upon us.' 50 And again another, 'In Thy light shall we see light.' 51

CHAPTER XIII

As Moses declared concerning the God of all the world, 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD,' 52 Plato again concurring with him teaches that there is one God as also one heaven, speaking thus in the Timaeus:

[PLATO] 'Have we then been right in speaking of one heaven, or was it more correct to say that there are many and infinite? One, if indeed it is to have been created according to the pattern. For that which includes the ideals of all living creatures whatsoever cannot possibly be second to another.' 53

But that he has a knowledge of one God, even though in accordance with the custom of the Greeks he commonly speaks of them as many, is evident from the Epistle to Dionysius, in which, giving marks to distinguish his letters written in earnest from those thrown off at random, he said that he would put the name of 'The gods' as a sign at the head of those which contained nothing serious, but the name of 'God' at the head of those which were thoughtfully composed by him. Accordingly he thus speaks word for word: 54

[PS.-PLATO] 'With regard then to the distinctive mark concerning the letters which I may write seriously, and which not, though I suppose you remember it. nevertheless bear it in mind and give great attention to it. For there are many who bid me to write, whom it is not easy for me openly to refuse. So then the serious letter begins with "God," and the less serious with "gods." '

And the same author expressly acknowledges that he has learned the doctrine of the one 'God' from men of old, as he says in the Laws:

'God then, as the old tradition says, holding the beginning and end and middle of all things that exist, passes straight through while travelling round in nature's course. Justice is ever His companion, taking vengeance on those who depart from the divine law: and the man who is to be happy holds fast to her and follows on humbly in orderly array. But if any man lifted up by arrogance, or elated by riches or honours, or personal beauty, has his soul inflamed with youthfulness and folly combined with insolence, as feeling no need of a ruler or guide, but being competent even to guide others, he is left forsaken of God: and when he is thus forsaken, and has also taken to himself others of like mind, he prances about and throws all things into confusion, and to many he seems to be somebody, but after no long time pays to justice no contemptible penalty, and brings utter destruction upon himself as well as on his family and city.' 55

Thus Plato writes. And now beside the description, 'God holding the beginning and end and middle of all things that exist,' set thou this from Hebrew prophecy, 'I God am first and I am with the last':56 and beside the sentence, 'passes straight through while travelling on in nature's course,' set this, 'His countenance doth behold uprightness.' 57

Also with the phrase, 'Justice is ever His companion, taking vengeance on those who depart from the divine law,' compare this, 'Righteous is the LORD, and He loveth righteousness';58 and this, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, saith the LORD ';59 and this, 'For the Lord is an avenger, and repayeth them that work exceeding proudly';60 and with this, 'the man who is to be happy holds fast to her and follows on humbly in orderly array,' there agrees,'Thou shalt walk after the LORD thy God.' 61 And with this, 'But he that is lifted up by pride is left forsaken of God,' agrees, 'God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble';62 and, 'But the joy of the ungodly is a sudden fall.' 63 These then are a few out of countless passages concerning Him who is God over all. But observe also the passages concerning the Second Cause.

[admin]

Part 2 of 3

CHAPTER XIV

IN regard then to the First Cause of all things let this be our admitted form of agreement. But now consider what is said concerning the Second Cause, whom the Hebrew oracles teach to be the Word of God, and God of God, even as we Christians also have ourselves been taught to speak of the Deity.

First then Moses expressly speaks of two divine Lords in the passage where he says, 'Then the LORD rained from the LORD fire and brimstone upon the city of the ungodly ': 64 where he applied to both the like combination of Hebrew letters in the usual way; and this combination is the mention of God expressed in the four letters, which is with them unutterable.

In accordance with him David also, another Prophet as well as king of the Hebrews, says, 'The LORD said unto my Lord, sit Thou on My right hand,' 65 indicating the Most High God by the first LORD, and the second to Him by the second title. For to what other is it right to suppose that the right hand of the Unbegotten God is conceded, than to Him alone of whom we are speaking?

This is He whom the same prophet in other places more clearly distinguishes as the Word of the Father, supposing Him whose deity we are considering to be the Creator of the universe, in the passage where he says, 'By the Word of the LORD were the heavens made firm.' 66

He introduces the same Person also as a Saviour of those who need His care, saying, 'He sent His Word and healed them.' 67

And Solomon, David's son and successor, presenting the same thought by a different name, instead of the 'Word' called Him Wisdom, making the following statement as in her person:

'I Wisdom made prudence my dwelling, and called to my aid knowledge and understanding.' 68 Then afterwards he adds, 'The LORD formed me as the beginning of His ways with a view to His works: from everlasting He established me, in the beginning before He made the earth, . . . before the mountains were settled, and before all hills He begat me. . . . When He was preparing the heaven, I was beside Him.' 69

And there is this again of the same author, 'God by Wisdom founded the earth, and by understanding He prepared the heavens.' 70 The following also is said to be the same author's: 'And all things that are either secret or manifest I learned: for Wisdom, the artificer of all things, taught me.' 71

Then he adds, 'But what wisdom is, and how she came into being, I will declare, and will not hide mysteries from you, but will trace her out from the beginning of creation.' 72

And afterwards he gives such explanations as the following: 'For she is a spirit quick of understanding, holy, alone in kind, manifold, subtil, freely moving, clear in utterance, unpolluted, . . . all-powerful, all-survey ing, and penetrating through all spirits, that are quick of understanding, pure, most subtil. For wisdom is more mobile than any motion; yea, she pervadeth and penetrateth all things by reason of her pureness. For she is a breath of the power of God, and a clear effluence of the glory of the Almighty. Therefore can nothing defiled find entrance into her. For she is an effulgence from everlasting light, and an unspotted mirror of the operation of God, and an image of His goodness.73 . . . And she reacheth from end to end with full strength, and ordereth all things graciously.'74 Thus the Scripture speaks: but Philo the Hebrew, explaining the meaning of the doctrine more clearly, represents it in the manner following:

CHAPTER XV

[PHILO] 75 'FOR it becomes those who have made companionship with knowledge to desire to behold the true Being, but should they be unable, then at least to behold His image, the most holy Word.'

Also in the same treatise he says this: 76

'But even if one be not as yet worthy to be called the son of God, let him strive earnestly to be adorned after the likeness of His first-begotten Word, who is the eldest of the Angels, and as an Archangel has many names.

'For He is called the Beginning, and the Name of God, and the Word, and the Man after God's image, and He who seeth Israel. For which cause I was induced a short time ago to praise the virtues of those who assert that we are all sons of one Man.77

'For even if we have not yet become fit to be deemed children of God, yet surely we may be children of His eternal Image, the most holy Word: for His eldest Word is the Image of God.'

And again he adds: 78

'I have, however,heard also one of the companions of Moses utter an oracle of this kind: Behold I the man whose name is the East.79 A very strange appellation, if you suppose the man who is composed of body and soul to be meant: but if you mean that incorporeal Being who wears the divine form, you will fully acknowledge that the 'East' was happily given to Him as a most appropriate name: for the Universal Father made Him rise as His eldest Son, whom elsewhere He named "First-begotten." And indeed He that was begotten, imitating the ways of His Father, looked to His archetypal patterns in giving form to the various species.'

Let it suffice at this point to have made these quotations from, the Hebrew Philo, taken from the treatise inscribed with the title, On the worse plotting against the better.80 But already in an earlier part of The Preparation for the Gospel, in setting forth the doctrines of the religion of the ancient Hebrews, I have also sufficiently discussed those which relate to the Second Cause, and to those passages I will now refer the earnest student. Since therefore these have been the theological opinions held among the Hebrews in the way that I have described concerning the Second Cause of the Universe, it is now time to listen to Plato speaking as follows in the Epinomis:

CHAPTER XVI

[PLATO] 81 'AND let us not, in assigning offices to them, give to this one a year, and to that a month, and to others appoint no portion, nor any time in which to perform his course, and help to complete the order, which Reason (λόγος), of all things most divine, appointed; Reason, which the happy man at first admires, and then gets a desire to understand, as much as is possible for mortal nature.'

Also in the Epistle to Hermeias, and Erastus, and Coriscus, he has laid down the doctrine with excellent caution, writing as follows word for word: 82

'This letter you three must all read, together if possible; but if not, by two and two together, as you can, as often as possible: and must make an agreement and valid law, adding an oath as is right, and with earnestness not unworthy of the Muses, and with culture the sister of earnestness, invoking the God who is the Ruler of all things that are and that shall be, and Father and Lord of Him who is the Ruler and the Cause: Whom, if we rightly study philosophy, we all shall know clearly as far as is possible for favoured mortals.'

Does it not seem to you that in speaking thus Plato has followed the doctrines of the Hebrews? Or from what other source did it occur to him to name another God who is mightier than the cause of all things, whom also he calls Father of the All-ruler? And whence came his idea of setting the name of Lord on the Father of the Demiurge, though never before him had any one brought this to the ears of the Greeks, nor even set it down in. his own mind.

And if we yet want other witnesses for an indisputable confirmation of the philosopher's meaning, and of the construction of our argument, hear what explanations Plotinus gives in the treatise which he composed Concerning the three Primary Hypostases, writing as follows:

CHAPTER XVII

[PLOTINUS] 83 'IF any one admires this world of sense, beholding at once its greatness and beauty and the order of its eternal course, and the gods that are therein, some visible, and some invisible, the daemons, and animals and all kinds of plants, let him mount up to its original pattern and to the more real world, and there let him see all intelligible things, and things which are of themselves eternal in their own understanding and life, see also the pure intelligence and the infinite wisdom that presides over them.'

Then afterwards in addition to this he says:

'Who then is He that begat Him? He who is simple, and prior to a plurality of this kind, who is the cause both of His being, and of His plurality. For number came not first: since before the duad is the one; and the duad is second, and produced from the one.' 84

And again he goes on and adds: 85

'How then and what must we conceive concerning that abiding substance? A light shining around and proceeding from it, while it remains itself unchanged, as from the sun proceeds the bright surrounding light that runs around it, ever produced out of it, while it remains unchanged itself.

'And all existing things, so long as they remain, give forth necessarily from their own essence and from the power present in the substance which surrounds them externally and is dependent upon them, being as it were an image of the archetypes from which it sprang.

'Thus fire gives forth the heat which proceeds from it, and snow does not merely retain its cold within itself. And especially all fragrant things bear witness to this fact: for as long as they exist, a something from them goes forth around them, which is enjoyed by whatever is near.

'Moreover all things as soon as they are perfect begin to generate: so that which is always perfect is always generating a something eternal, and what it generates is less than itself.

'What then must we say concerning the Most Perfect? That He either generates nothing from Himself, or the things which are the greatest next to Himself. But after Him mind is the greatest and the second. For the mind beholds Him and has need of Him alone, but He has no need of it: and that which is begotten from a superior mind, must be mind; and mind is superior to all things, because all the rest come after it.'

After this he says further: 86

'Now everything desires and loves that which begat it, and especially when that which begat and that which is begotten exist alone. And when that which begat is also the very best, the begotten is necessarily so joined with it, as to be separated only by its otherness. But, since it is necessary to speak more plainly, I mean that mind is His image.'

And to this again he adds: 87

'This is the reason also of Plato's trinities: for he says that around the King of all are all the primaries, and around the second the secondaries, and around the third the tertiaries. He says also that the Cause has a Father, meaning that Mind is the Cause, for with Plato Mind is the Creator.

'And Mind, he says, makes the Soul in that cup of his. And the Cause which is Mind has for its Father, he says, the Good, and that which transcends both Mind and essence. But in many places he speaks of Being and of Mind as the Idea. So that Plato recognizes Mind as proceeding from the Good, and the Soul from Mind: and these are no new doctrines, nor now first stated, but long since, though not publicly divulged: and the doctrines of the present time have been interpretations of the former, which by the testimony of Plato's own writings have confirmed the antiquity of these opinions.'

This is what Plotinus says. And Numenius highly commending Plato's doctrines in his treatise Of the Good gives his own interpretation of the Second Cause, as follows:

CHAPTER XVIII

[NUMENIUS] 88 'THE man who is to understand about the First and Second God must previously distinguish the several questions by some orderly arrangement: and after this seems to be set right, he must then endeavour also to discuss the matter in a becoming manner, or otherwise not at all. Else he who handles it prematurely, before the first steps have been taken, will find his treasure become dust, as the saying is.

'Let us then not suffer the same; but after invoking God to be the guide of our discussion concerning Himself, and to show us the treasure of His thoughts, so let us commence. At once we must offer our prayer, and then make our distinction.

'The First God, being in Himself, is simple, because, being united throughout with Himself, He can never be divided. God however the Second and Third is one: but by being associated with matter which is duality, He makes it one, but is Himself divided by it, because it has a tendency to concupiscence, and is always in flux.

'Therefore by not adhering to the intelligible (for so He would have been adhering to Himself), because He regards matter and gives attention to it, He becomes regardless of Himself.

'And He lays hold of the sensible and busies Himself with it, and moreover from setting His desire upon matter He takes it tip into His own moral nature.'

And after other statements he says:

'For it is not at all becoming that the First God should be the Creator; also the First God must be regarded as the father of the God who is Creator of the world.

'If then we were inquiring about the creative principle, and asserting that He who was pre-existent would thereby be preeminently fit for the work, this would have been a suitable commencement of our argument.

'But if we are not discussing the creative principle, but inquiring about the First Cause, I renounce what I said, and wish that to be withdrawn, but will pass on in pursuit of my argument, and hunt it out from another source.

'Before capturing our argument, however, let us make an agreement between ourselves such as no one who hears it 'can doubt, that the First God is free from all kinds of work and reigns as king, but the Creative God governs, and travels through the heaven.

'And by Him comes also our equipment for the chase, mind being sent down in transmission to all who have been appointed to partake of it. .

'So when God is looking at and turned towards each of us, the result is that our bodies then live and revive, while God cherishes them with His radiations. But when He turns away to the contemplation of Himself, these bodies become extinguished, but the mind is alive and enjoying a life of blessedness.'

This is what Numenius writes. And now do you set beside it the passages from David's prophecy, sung of old among the Hebrews in the following fashion: 'How mighty are Thy works, O Lord: in wisdom hast Thou made them all. The earth is filled with Thy creation.89 ... All things wait upon Thee, to give them their meat in due season. When Thou givest it them, they will gather it; and when Thou openest Thine hand, they all will be satisfied with goodness. But when Thou turnest away Thy face, they will be troubled: if Thou takest away their breath, they will die, and turn again to their dust. Thou wilt send forth Thy Spirit, and they will be created, and Thou wilt renew the face of the earth.' 90

For in what would this differ from the thought of the philosopher, which declares, as we saw, that 'When God is looking at and turned towards each of us, the result is that our bodies then live and revive, while God cherishes them with His radiations; but when God turns to the contemplation of Himself, these become extinguished.'

And again, whereas with us the Word of Salvation says, 'I am the vine, . . . My Father is the husbandman, ... ye are the branches,'91 hear what Numenius says concerning the deity of the Second Cause.

[NUMENIUS] 92 'And as again there is a relation between the husbandman and him that planteth, exactly in the same way is the First God related to the Demiurge. The former being the seed of all soul sows it in all things that partake of Himself. But the Lawgiver plants, and distributes, and transplants into each of us the germs which have been previously deposited from that higher source.'

And afterwards again he speaks as follows of the mode in which the Second Cause arose out of the First.93

'Now all things which, when given, pass to the receiver, and have left the giver, such as are attendance, property, silver unstamped or coined,----these things, I say, are mortal and human: but divine things are such as, when they are distributed and have come from one to another, have not forsaken the former, and have brought with them benefit to the latter, without hurting the other; nay, have brought him a further benefit by recalling to memory what he understood before.

'Now this excellent thing is that good knowledge which brings profit to the receiver and is not lost to the giver. Just as you may see a lamp lit from another lamp shining with a light of which it did not deprive the former, but had its own material kindled at the other's flame.

'Such a thing is knowledge, which when given and received remains the same with the giver, and is communicated to the receiver.

'And the cause of this, my friend, is not anything human; but that the state and essence which possesses knowledge is the same both in God who has given, and in you and me who have received it.

'Wherefore also Plato said that wisdom was brought to mankind "with a brilliant flame of fire by Prometheus."' 94

And again afterwards lower down he says:

'Now the modes of life of the First God and of the Second are these: evidently the First God will be at rest, while the Second on the contrary is in motion. So then the First is engaged with intelligibles, and the Second with both intelligibles and sensibles. 'And be not surprised at my saying this, for you are going to hear something far more surprising. For instead of that motion which belongs to the Second I assert that the rest which belongs to the First is His natural motion, from which both the order of the world, and its eternal continuance, and its safety is diffused throughout the universe.' 95

After this in the sixth Book also he adds the following: 96

'Since Plato knew that the Creator alone was known among men, but that the First Mind, which is called Absolute Being, is altogether unknown among them, therefore he spoke in this way, just as if one were to say; The First Mind, my good sirs, is not that which you imagine, but another mind before it, more ancient and more divine.'

And after other passages he adds:

'A pilot when driven along in mid ocean, sits high above the helm, and steers the ship by the tillers, but his eyes and mind are strained directly at the sky, looking at things aloft, as his course passes across the heaven above, while he sails upon the sea below. So also the Creator having bound matter together in harmony that it may neither break out nor slip away, is Himself seated above matter, as above a ship on the sea: and in directing the harmony He steers by the ideas, while instead of the sky He looks to the High God who attracts His eyes, and takes His judgement from that contemplation, and His energy from that impulse.'

Also the Word of our Salvation says, 'The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing.' 97 Enough, however, has been said by Numenius on this subject: and there is no need to add anything to his own words to show that he was explaining not his own opinions but Plato's. And that Plato is not the first who has made these attempts, but has been anticipated by the Hebrew sages, has been proved by the examples already set forth. Naturally therefore Amelius also, who was distinguished among recent philosophers, and above all others an admirer of Plato's philosophy, who moreover called the Hebrew theologian a Barbarian, even though he did not deign to mention John the Evangelist by name, nevertheless bears witness to his statements, writing exactly what follows word for word:

CHAPTER XIX

[AMELIUS] 98 'AND this then was the Word, on whom as being eternal depended the existence of the things that were made, as Heracleitus also would maintain,99 and the same forsooth of whom, as set in the rank and dignity of the beginning, the Barbarian maintains that He was with God and was God: through whom absolutely all things were made; in whom the living creature, and life, and being had their birth: and that He came down into bodies, and clothed Himself in flesh, and appeared as man, yet showing withal even then the majesty of His nature; aye, indeed, even after dissolution He was restored to deity, and is a God, such as He was before He came down to dwell in the body, and the flesh, and Man.'

This, it must be evident, is paraphrased from the Barbarian's theology, no longer under any veil, but openly at last and 'with forehead bold and bare.' 100 And who was this Barbarian of his but our Saviour's Evangelist John, a Hebrew of the Hebrews? Who in the beginning of his own Scripture states the doctrine of the deity thus, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that hath been made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.101 . . . And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father.'102

Hear also what another Hebrew theologian says concerning the same Person: 'Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation: for in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, whether visible or invisible,... and by Him all things consist, and in Him were they all created.'

But since we have found such agreement between the philosophers of the Greeks and the doctrines of the Hebrews concerning the constitution and substantiation of the Second Cause, let us then pass on to other matters.

CHAPTER XX

WHEREAS next to the doctrine of Father and Son the Hebrew oracles class the Holy Spirit in the third place, and conceive the Holy and Blessed Trinity in such a manner as that the third Power surpasses every created nature, and that it is the first of the intellectual essences constituted through the Son, and third from the First Cause, observe how Plato also intimated some such thoughts, speaking thus in his Epistle to Dionysus:

[PLATO] 103 'I must explain it to you then in riddles, that if the tablet suffer any harm in the remote parts of sea or land, the reader may learn nothing. For the matter is thus: Around the King of the Universe are all things, and all are for His sake, and that is the cause of all things beautiful: and around the Second are the secondary things, and around the Third the tertiary. The soul of man therefore strains after them to learn what sort of things they are, looking upon the things akin to its own nature.'

These statements are referred, by those who attempt to explain Plato, to the First God, and to the Second Cause, and thirdly to the Soul of the Universe, defining it also as a third God. But the sacred Scriptures regard the Holy and Blessed Trinity o'f Father and Son and Holy Ghost as the beginning, according to the passages already set forth.

The next point to this is to examine the nature of the Good.

CHAPTER XXI

THE Sacred Scripture of the Hebrews explains the nature of the Good in various ways, and teaches that the Good itself is nothing else than God, both in the statement, 'The LORD is good to all them that wait for Him, to the soul that will seek Him,'104 and in this, 'O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever';105 and also by what the Word of our Salvation declared to the man who asked Him concerning this, saying,'Why askest thou Me concerning that which is good? None is good save one, even God.'106

Now then listen to what Plato says in the Timaeus: 107

'Let me then tell you for what cause the Creator formed a creation, and made this universe. He was good. And in one who is good no jealousy of anything ever finds place: and being free from jealousy He desired that all things should be made as like to Himself as possible.'

In the Republic also he speaks thus: 108

'Is it not true then that the sun though not itself sight, is yet the cause of sight, and is itself discerned by this very sight? It is so, said he. Well then, said I, you may say that this is he whom I call the offspring of the good, whom the good begat as analogous to itself, that this should be in the visible world in relation to sight and the things of sight, what the good is in the intellectual world in relation to mind and the things of mind.'

And afterwards he adds:

'Well then, this which imparts truth to the things which are known, and bestows on the knower his faculty of knowledge, this you may call the idea of the good.' 109

And again he says:

'You would say, I suppose, that the sun imparts to visible things not only their power of being seen, but also their generation, growth, and nourishment, though he is not himself generation. How could it be otherwise? You would also say then that things which become known receive from the good not only the property of being known, but also their existence and their essence, though the good is not an essence, but far transcends essence in dignity and power.' 110

Herein Plato says most distinctly that the intellectual essences receive from 'the good,' meaning of course from God, not merely the property of being known, but also their existence and essence; and that'the good ' is 'not an essence, but far transcends essence in dignity and power.' So that he does not regard the ideas as co-essential, nor yet suppose that they are unbegotten, because they have received their existence and their essence from Him who is not an essence, but far transcends essence in dignity and power, whom alone the Hebrew oracles with good reason proclaim as God, as being the cause of all things.

So then things which have neither their existence nor their essence from themselves, nor yet are of the nature of the good, cannot reasonably be regarded as gods, since the good does not belong to them by nature: for to One only and to no other can this be ascribed, to the Only Good, which Plato admirably proclaimed as 'far transcending all essence both in dignity and power.' Again Numenius also in his treatise Of the Good, in explaining Plato's meaning, discourses in the following manner:

CHAPTER XXII

[NUMENIUS] 111 'BODIES, therefore, we may conceive by inferences drawn from observing similar bodies, and from the tokens existing in the bodies before us: but there is no possibility of conceiving the good from anything that lies before us, nor yet from anything simil'ar that can be perceived by the senses. For example, a man sitting on a watch-tower, having caught a quick glimpse of a small fishing-boat, one of those solitary skiffs, left alone by itself, and caught in the troughs of the waves, sees the vessel at one glance. Just so, then, must a man withdraw far from the things of sense, and commune in solitude with the good alone, where there is neither man nor any other living thing, nor body great or small, but a certain immense, indescribable, and absolutely divine solitude, where already the occupations, and splendours of the good exist, and the good itself, in peace and benevolence, that gentle, gracious, guiding power, sits high above all being.

'But if any one, obstinately clinging to the things of sense, fancies that he sees the good hovering over them, and then in luxurious living should suppose that he has found the good, he is altogether mistaken. For in fact no easy pursuit is needed for it, but a godlike effort: and the best plan is to neglect the things of sense, and with vigorous devotion to mathematical learning to study the properties of numbers, and so to meditate carefully on the question, What is being? '

This is in the first Book. And in the fifth he speaks as follows: 112

'Now if essence and the idea is discerned by the mind, and if it was agreed that the mind is earlier than this and the cause of it, then mind itself is alone found to be the good. For if God the Creator is the beginning of generation, the good is the beginning of essence. And God the Creator is related to the good, of which He is an imitator, as generation is to essence, of which it is a likeness and an imitation.

'For if the Creator who is the author of generation is good, the Creator also of essence will doubtless be absolute good, innate in essence. For the second god, being twofold, is the self-maker of the idea of Himself, and makes the world as its Creator: afterwards He is wholly given to contemplation.

'Now as we have by our reasoning gathered names for four things, let them be these four. The first, God, absolute good; His imitator, a good Creator: then essence, one kind of the first God, another of the Second; and the imitation of this essence, the beautiful world, adorned by participation in the beautiful.'

Also in the sixth Book he adds:

'But the things which partake of Him participate in nothing, else, but only in wisdom: in this way then, but in no other, they may enjoy the communion of the good. And certainly this wisdom has been found to belong to the First alone. If then this belongs exclusively to Him alone, from whom all other things receive their colouring and their goodness, none but a stupid soul could doubt any longer.

'For if the second God is good, not of Himself but from the First, how is it possible that He, by communion with whom this Second is good, should not Himself be good, especially if the Second has partaken of Him as being good?

'It is in this way that Plato has shown by syllogistic reasoning to any one who is clear-sighted that the good is one.'

And again afterwards he says:

'But Plato represented these things as true differently in different places; for in the Timaeus peculiarly he wrote the common inscription on the Creator, saying, "He was good." 113 But in the Republic he called the good the idea of good: meaning that the idea of the Creator was the good, because to us He is manifested as good by participation in the First and only Good.

'For as men are said to have been fashioned by the idea of man, and oxen by that of an ox, and horses by the idea of a horse; so also naturally if the Creator is good by participation in the First Good, the first Mind would be an idea, as being absolute good.'

CHAPTER XXIII

[PLATO] 'AND having been created in this way' (evidently the world is meant) 'it has been framed with a view to that which is apprehended by reason and thought and which is unchangeable. And if this be so, it necessarily follows that this world is an image of something.114 . . . For that contains in itself all intelligible beings, just as this world contains us.'115

So Plato speaks in the Timaeus. And the meaning of his statements I will set forth from the collections of Didymus Concerning the Opinions of Plato: and this is how he writes:

[DIDYMUS] 116 'He says that the Ideas are certain patterns arranged class by class of the things which are by nature sensible, and that these are the sources of the different sciences and definitions. For besides all individual men there is a certain conception of man: and besides all horses, of a horse; and generally, besides the animals, a conception of an animal uncreated and imperishable.

'And in the same way as many impressions are made of one seal, and many images of one man, so from each single idea of the objects of sense a multitude of individual natures are formed, from the idea of man all men, and in like manner in the case of all other things in nature.

'Also the idea is an eternal essence, cause, and principle, making each thing to be of a character such as its own.

'As, therefore, the particular archetypes, so to say, precede the bodies which are perceived by sense, so the Idea which includes in itself all Ideas, being most beautiful and most perfect, exists originally as the pattern of this present world; for that has been made by its Creator like this Idea, and wrought according to the providence of God out of the universal essence.'

These are extracts from the aforesaid author. Moses, however, the all-wise, anticipates even these doctrines, teaching us that before the visible sun and stars and before the heaven that we behold, which he calls the firmament, and before this our dry land, and before our day and night, another light besides the light of the sun, and day and night, and the rest, had been made by God the universal Ruler and Cause of all.

Moreover the Hebrews who came after Moses declare that there is a certain incorporeal sun not visible to all, nor subjected to mortal eyes, as says the Prophet speaking in the person of God, 'And to them that fear Me shall the Sun of righteousness arise.' 117

Also righteousness itself, not that of a certain kind among men, but the Idea of that, is known to another Hebrew Prophet, who said concerning God,'Who raised up righteousness from the East? He called it before His face, and it shall go forth as it were before the nations.' 118

Also a divine Word, incorporeal and essential, was just lately shown to us by our ordinary word in the previous quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures: concerning which Word there is also the following statement among the same people: 'Who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.' 119

He is called also Life, He is called Wisdom, and Truth. Also the Scriptures of the Hebrews (since the Apostles also and disciples of our Saviour are Hebrews) make known to us all things which have essential being and subsistence, nay more, they show us myriads of other incorporeal powers beyond both heaven and all material and fleeting essence; and the images of these powers, they say, He expressed in things sensible, after which they have now received the name each of its image.

Man, for instance, they have expressly stated to be the image of an ideal pattern, and the whole life of men passeth on in an image. Moses in fact says, 'And God created man, in the image of God created He him.' 120 And again another Hebrew writer, following the philosophy of his forefathers, says, 'Surely man walketh in an image.' 121 And now hear how the interpreters of the sacred laws explain the thought contained in the writings of Moses. The Hebrew Philo, in fact, speaks thus word for word in interpreting the doctrines of his forefathers.

CHAPTER XXIV

[PHILO] 122 'Now if any one should wish to use names in a plainer way, he would not call the intelligible world anything else than the Word (or, Reason) of God already engaged in the creation of a world. For neither is the intelligible city anything else than the reasoning of the architect, when already designing to build the visible city [by help of the intelligible].

'But this is Moses' doctrine, not mine. For instance, in recording the creation of man he expressly avows, in what follows, that he was fashioned after the image of God.123

'Now if the part (man) is an image of an image, evidently also the whole species, I mean the whole of this visible world, which is greater than the human image, is a copy of a divine image; and the archetypal seal, as we call the intelligible world, must itself evidently be the archetypal pattern, the Idea of the Ideas, the Word (Reason) of God.

'He says too that "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth";124 taking the beginning to be not, as some suppose, the beginning in time; for time was not before the world, but either has begun with it, or after it.

'For since time is the interval of the motion of the universe, and motion could not begin before that which was to be moved, but must necessarily be established either after it or with it, so time also must necessarily either have been of the same age as the universe or younger than it, and to venture to represent it as older is unphilosophical.

'But if in the present passage the beginning is not taken to be the beginning in time, then the beginning according to number would naturally be signified, so that in the beginning God created would be equivalent to "first He created the heaven." '

Then afterwards he says: 125

'First, therefore, the Maker proceeded to make an immaterial heaven, and an invisible earth, and an ideal form of air and of empty space, the former of which He called darkness, because the air is by nature black, and the latter He called the deep, for the empty space is very deep and vast.

'Then He made the incorporeal essence of water and of wind, and over all the essence of light, the seventh in order, which again was incorporeal, and then an intelligible model of the sun. and of all stars that were destined to be established as luminaries in the heaven.

'And the wind and the light were honoured with special privilege: for the one he called the Spirit of God, because spirit is the most life-giving thing, and God is the author of life; and light, because it excels in beauty. For the intelligible is, I suppose, as much more brilliant and radiant than the sensible, as the sun is than darkness, and day than night, and the mind, which is the guide of the whole soul, than the criteria of sense, and the eyes than the body.

'But that invisible and intelligible light is made an image of the Divine Word, which explained its origin; and it is a super-celestial star the source of the visible stars, which one would not be wrong in calling "universal light," from which sun and moon and the other planets and fixed stars draw their appropriate splendours in proportion to the power of each, while that unmingled and pure light becomes obscured, whenever it begins to turn in direction of the change from intelligible to sensible; for of the things subject to sense none is pure.'

Also after a few words he adds: 126

'But when light came, and darkness yielded and retired, and bounds were set in the intervals between them, namely evening and morning, there was at once completed, according to the necessary measure of time, that which the Creator rightly called "day," and not the first day but one day, which it is called because of the singleness of the intelligible world, which has the nature of unity.

'So then the incorporeal world was now complete, being founded in the divine Reason (Word); and after the model thereof the sensible world was now to be produced in its perfection: so the Creator proceeded to make first that which was also the best of all its parts, namely the heaven, which He rightly named the firmament, as being corporeal. For body is by nature solid, because it is of three dimensions: and what other idea is there of a solid and a body, except extension in every direction? Naturally therefore He called this the firmament, as contrasting the sensible and corporeal world with the intelligible and incorporeal.'

So writes Philo. And Clement also agrees with him, speaking as follows in the Fifth Miscellany.

CHAPTER XXV

[CLEMENT] 127 'AND again the Barbarian philosophy knows one world of thought, and another of sense, the one an archetype, and the other an image of the fair model. And the former it assigns to Unity, as being perceptible to thought only; but the sensible it assigns to the number six: for among the Pythagoreans six is called marriage, as a number that generates.

'And in the Unity it establishes an invisible heaven, and a holy earth, and an intellectual light. For "In the beginning," says Moses, "God created the heaven and the earth: and the earth was invisible."128 Then he adds, "And God said, let there be light, and there was light."129 But in the cosmogony of the sensible world He creates a solid heaven (and the solid is sensible), and a visible earth, and a light that is seen.

'Does it not seem to you from this passage that Plato leaves the idsas of living creatures in the intelligible world, and creates the sensible species after their kinds in the intelligible world?

'With good reason then Moses says that the body was fashioned out of earth, which Plato calls an "earthly tabernacle,"130 but that the reasonable soul was breathed by God from on high into man's face.131

'For in this part, they say, the ruling faculty is seated, interpreting thus the accessory entrance of the soul through the organs of sense in the case of the first-formed man; for which reason also man, they say, is made after the image and likeness of God. For the image of God is the divine and royal Word, the impassible Man; and an image of that image is the human mind.'

But let us now listen to what remains to be said.

CHAPTER XXVI

FURTHER than this Plato follows the doctrines of the Hebrews, when he says that there are not only good incorporeal powers but also those of opposite nature, writing as follows in the tenth Book of the Laws:

[PLATO] 132 'As then the soul directs and inhabits all things that move in any direction, must we not say that it also directs the heaven? Of course. One soul, or more? More, I will answer for you. Less than two surely we must not suppose, the one that does good, and the other that has power to work evil.'

Then lower down he says: 133

'For since we have agreed that the heaven is full of many good things and also of many evil things, and these the more numerous, a conflict of this kind, we say, is immortal, and requires marvellous watchfulness. But gods and daemons are our allies, and we are their possessions.'

Whence these ideas came to Plato, I cannot explain: but what I can truly say is that thousands of years before Plato was born this doctrine also had been acknowledged by the Hebrews.

Accordingly their Scripture says,134 'And there was, as it were, this day when the angels of God came to stand before God; and the devil came in the midst of them, after going round the earth and walking about in it'; where it calls the adverse power devil, and the good powers angels of God.

And these good powers it also calls divine spirits, and God's ministers, where it says, 'Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire.' 135

Moreover the conflict of the adverse powers is thus represented by him who said, 'Our wrestling is not against Wood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.' 136

Also the oracle of Moses which said, 'When the Most High was dividing the nations, when He was separating the children of Adam, He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God,' 137 seems to be directly paraphrased by Plato in the words whereby he defined the whole human race to be 'the possessions of gods and daemons.'

CHAPTER XXVII

IN the doctrine of the immortality of the soul Plato differs not at all in opinion from Moses. For Moses was the first to define the soul in man as being an immortal essence, when he said that it is originally an image of God, or rather has been made 'after the image of God.' For his words were, 'God said, Let us make man after our image, and after our likeness. . . . And God made man, in the image of God made He him.' 138

And afterwards dividing the compound man in his description into the visible body and the man of the soul that is discerned only by the mind, he adds, 'And God took dust from the earth and formed man, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.' 139

Moreover he says that man was made fit to be ruler and king of all the creatures upon earth. So he says,140 'And God said, Let us make man after our image, and after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and over the fowls of the heaven, and over the cattle, and over all the earth. . . . And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him.'

Now in what other way could an image and likeness of God be conceived than in reference to the powers that are in God, and to the likeness of virtue? Hear then how in the Alcibiades Plato speaks on this point also as one who had been taught by Moses:

[PLATO] 141 'Can we then mention any part of the soul that is more divine than that with which knowledge and wisdom have to do?

'We cannot.

'This then is the part of it like God; and any one who by looking upon this has learned all that is divine, both God and wisdom, will thus get to know himself also most perfectly.

'It is evident.

['So then, just as there are mirrors clearer than the mirror in the eye, and purer and brighter, so God is something purer and brighter than the best that is in our soul.

'It seems so, Socrates.

'In looking then on God, we should be using that noblest mirror of man's nature also for looking into the virtue of the soul; and in this way should best see and learn to know ourselves. Certainly.'] 142

This is in the Alcibiades. But in the dialogue On the Soul observe how he explains these topics more at length. 143

'May we then, said he, assume two kinds of existing things, one visible and the other invisible?

'Let us assume it, said he.

'And the invisible constant and immutable, but the visible never constant?

'This also let us assume.

'Well then, said he, is not the one part of ourselves body, and the other soul?

'Exactly so, said he.

'To which class then should we say that the body is more like and more akin?

'Oh, that is manifest to every one, said he; to the visible.

'And what of the soul? Is it visible or invisible?

'Not visible at any rate by men, Socrates.

'But we surely were speaking of the things that are visible or not visible to the nature of man; or was it, think you, to some other nature?

'To man's nature.

'What do we say then about the soul? Is it visible or invisible?

'Invisible.

'Then it is unseen?

'Yes.

'Soul then is more like the unseen than body is, and body like the visible?

'It must certainly be so, Socrates.

'Well then, were we not also saying long ago, that whenever the soul uses the help of the body to examine anything, either by sight, or by hearing, or by any other sense (for this is what is meant by "the help of the body," to examine a thing by the help of sense), that then she is dragged by the body into the midst of these ever-changing objects, and loses her own way, and becomes confused, and giddy as if drunken, from trying to lay hold of things of this same kind?

'Quite so.

'But whenever she is contemplating anything by herself alone, she passes at once into yonder world, to the pure, and eternal, and immortal, and unchangeable, and there and with that world she ever communes as one of kindred nature, whenever she can be alone, and have opportunity; and so she has rest from her wandering, and with that world she is constant and unchangeable, as trying to lay hold of things of this same kind. And this condition of the soul is called thoughtfulness.

'Very nobly and truly spoken, Socrates, said he.

'To which class then does it now seem to you, from both our former and our present arguments, that the soul is more like and more akin?

'Every one, I think, Socrates, said he, even the most stupid, would from this method of inquiry agree that soul is in every way much more like to that which is ever constant than to that which is not.

'And what of the body?

'More like the other.

'Look at it then again in this way; that, when soul and body are combined in one, nature orders the body to serve and to obey, and the soul to rule and to govern. Now in these respects again which of the two seems to you to be like the divine, and which like the mortal? Do you not think that the divine is naturally fitted to rule and to lead, and the mortal to be ruled and to serve?

'I think so.

'To which of the two then is the soul like?

'Evidently, Socrates, the soul is like the divine, and the body like the mortal.

'Consider then, Cebes, said he, whether from all that has been said we obtain these results: that soul is most like the divine, and immortal, and intelligible, and uniform, and indissoluble, and ever unchangeable and self-consistent; and the body on the other hand most like the human, and mortal, and unintelligible, arid multiform, and dissoluble, and never consistent with itself.

'Have we anything else to say against this, my dear Cebes, to show that it is not so?

'We have not.

'Well then? This being so, is it not a property of body to be quickly dissolved, but of soul on the other hand to be altogether indissoluble, or nearly so?

'Certainly.

'Do you then observe, that after a man is dead, the body, the part of him which is visible and lies in the visible world, and is called a corpse, the property of which is to be dissolved, and decomposed, and scattered by the winds, does not at once suffer any change of this kind, but remains for a considerable time----if the man die with his body in a vigorous state and at a vigorous time of life, for a very considerable time indeed. For when the body has shrunk and been embalmed, like those who were embalmed in Egypt, it remains almost entire an incredible time. And even if the body be decayed, some parts of it, bones and sinews and all such parts, are nevertheless, so to say, immortal, are they not?

'Yes.

'But then the soul, the unseen, that has passed to another place like herself, noble, and pure, and unseen, the true Hades, to the presence of the good and wise God, whither, if it be God's will, my own soul is presently to go----is then, I say, this soul of ours, such as she is and so endowed by nature, on being released from the body, immediately scattered to the winds and lost, as most men say?

'Far from it, my dear Cebes and Simmias; but the truth is much rather this. If the soul is pure when released, drawing nothing of the body after her, as she never during this life had any communication with it willingly, but shrank from it, and was gathered up into herself, as making this her constant study, and this is nothing else than practising true philosophy, and preparing in reality to die cheerfully,----Or would not this be a preparation for death?

'Certainly.

'In this condition then the soul departs to that world which is like herself, the unseen, the divine, and deathless, and wise: and on arriving there she finds ready for her a happy existence, released from error, and folly, and fears, and wild desires, and all other human ills, and, as they say of the initiated, she truly passes the rest of her time with the gods. Is it thus, Cebes, that we ought to speak, or otherwise?

'Thus assuredly, said Cebes.

'But, I suppose, if when she departs from the body she is polluted and impure, from being in constant communion with the body, and cherishing it, and loving it, and having been so bewitched by it, I mean by its desires and pleasures, as to think that nothing else is true except the corporeal, just what a man might touch, and see, and eat, and drink, and use for his lusts----but accustomed to hate and fear and shun what to the eyes is dark and invisible, but intelligible to thought and attainable by philosophy----in this condition then do you suppose that a soui will depart pure in herself and unalloyed?

'By no means, said he.'

This is what Plato says. And his meaning is explained by Porphyry in the first Book of his Answer to Boethus Concerning the Soul, where he writes in the following manner:

[admin]

Part 3 of 3

CHAPTER XXVIII

[PORPHYRY] 144 'FOR example, he said, the argument from similarity was thought by Plato to be forcible in proof of the immortality of the soul. For if she is like that which is divine, and immortal, and invisible, and inseparable, and indissoluble, and essential, and firmly established in incorruption, how can she fail to be of the corresponding class to the pattern?

'For whenever there are two extremes manifestly contrary, as rational and irrational, and it is a question to which side some third thing belongs, this is one mode of proof, by showing to which of the opposites it is like. For thus, although the human race in the first stage of life is held down in an irrational condition, and although many even to old age are full of the errors of unreason, nevertheless, because it has many similarities to that which is purely rational, this race was believed to be from the beginning rational.

'Since therefore there is a divine constitution manifestly incapable of admixture and of damage, namely that of the gods, and since there is evidently on the other hand the earthly, and soluble, subject to corruption, and since with some it is doubted to which side of the said opposition the soul is attached, Plato's opinion was that we should trace out the truth from similarity.

'And since she is in no way like to the mortal and soluble and irrational and inanimate, which is therefore also tangible, and sensible, and becoming, and perishing, but like the divine, and immortal, and invisible, and intelligent, which partakes of life, and is akin to truth, and has all the properties which he enumerates as belonging to her,----since this is so, he thought it not right, while granting that she had the other points of likeness to God, to consent to deny her the similarity of essence, which is the cause of her having received these very properties.

'For as the things which were in their operations unlike God were at once found to differ also in the constitution of their essence, so he thought it followed, that the things which partook in a measure of the same operations had previously possessed the similarity of essence. For because of the quality of the essence the operations also were of a certain quality, as flowing from it, and being offshoots of it.'

Hear then what Boethus, in detracting from the force of this argument, has written in the very beginning of his treatise, as follows:

[BOETHUS] 145 'To show whether the soul is immortal, and is a nature too strong for any kind of destruction, a man must persistently travel round many arguments.

'But one would not need much discussion to believe that nothing about us is more like God than the soul, and that, not only because of the continuous and incessant motion which she generates within us, but also because of the mind belonging to her.

'In view of which fact the physical philosopher of Crotona said that the soul as being immortal naturally shrank from all quiescence, like the bodies that are divine.

'But also to the man who had once discerned the idea of the soul, and especially how great purposes and what impulses the mind that rules within us often sets in motion, there would gradually appear a great likeness to God.'

And afterwards he adds:

'For if the soul is shown to be of all things most like to the divine, of what further use is it to require by way of preface all the other arguments in proof of her immortality, instead of reckoning this as one among the many, sufficient as it is to convince the fair-minded, that the soul would not have participated in the activities which are similar to those of the divine, if she were not also divine herself.

'For if, although buried in the body which is mortal, and soluble, and unintelligent, and by itself dead, and constantly perishing and wasting away towards its change of final destruction, the soul both forms it and holds it together, and displays her own divine essence, although she is obstructed and impeded by the all-ruinous mould which lies around her, must she not, if by our hypothesis she were separated as gold from the clay plastered round it, at once display her own specific form as being like God alone, and moreover preserving through her participation in Him the similarities in her operations, and even in her most mortal condition (as she is when imprisoned in the mortal body) escaping dissolution for this reason, that she is, as we said, of the nature which has nothing in common with decay? '

And lower down he says:

'But naturally she appears to be both divine from her assimilation to the Indivisible, and mortal from her approaches to the mortal nature: and she descends and ascends, and is both akin to the mortal, and yet like the immortals.

'For even he who stuffs himself full and hastes to be surfeited like the cattle is a man: and he too is a man, who by knowledge is able in perils by sea to save the ship, and he who can save life in diseases, and he who discovers truth, and has devised methods for the attainment of knowledge, and inventions for kindling fire, and observations of horoscopes, and manufactures imitations of the works of the Creator.

'For it was a man who thought of fashioning upon earth the conjunctions of the seven planets together with their motions, imitating by mechanism the phenomena in heaven. And in fact what did not man devise, showing thereby the mind within him that is divine and on a par with God?

'And though thereby he displayed the daring efforts of an Olympian and divine and altogether immortal being, yet because the multitude through the selfishness of their own downward inclination were not able to discern his character, he misled them into supposing from the outward appearances that he was like themselves of mortal nature: there being but this one mode of deriving consolation from their baseness, that because of external appearances they found satisfaction in seeing others share equally in their wretchedness, and persuaded themselves that as in external things so also in their inner nature all men are alike.'

Of all these doctrines Moses has been seen to be the teacher, for in describing the first creation of man in the language already quoted, he by his assimilation to the divine confirmed the arguments concerning the immortality of the soul.

But since the opinions of Moses and Plato were in full harmony and accord concerning the incorporeal and invisible essence, it is time to review the remaining portions of Plato's philosophy, and to show that he was friendly to the Hebrews on all points, except where perchance he was led astray and induced to speak more after the manner of man, than in accordance with the word of truth.

For instance, all the philosopher's sayings which have been rightly expressed will be found to agree with the doctrines of Moses, but in whatever he assumed that did not agree with Moses and the prophets, his argument will not be well established. And this we shall prove at the proper season. But meanwhile, since his positions in the contemplation of the intelligible world have been discovered to be in perfect agreement and harmony, it is time to go back again to the physical theory of the sensible world, and briefly run over the philosopher's agreement with the doctrines of the Hebrews.

CHAPTER XXIX

MOSES declared that this universe had a beginning as having been made by God; he says at all events in the commencement of his own writing, 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,' 146 and after the particulars he adds, 'This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when they were created, in the day that God made the heaven and the earth.' 147 And now listen to Plato, how close he keeps to the thought, when himself writing as follows: 148

'And again all that comes into existence must of necessity proceed from some cause; for it is impossible for anything to have been generated without a cause.'

And he adds: 149

'The whole heaven then or world, or by whatever other name it would most acceptably be called, so let us call it----we have first to ask a question concerning it, which it is assumed that one must ask on every subject at the outset----did it always exist, without any beginning of generation, or has it been generated and had some beginning?

'It has been generated: for it is visible, and tangible, and has a body; and all such things are sensible: and all sensible things were shown to be apprehensible by opinion and generated. But that which is generated must, we say, have been generated by some cause. It is a hard task, however, to discover the maker and artificer of this universe, and after discovering Him it is impossible to speak of Him to all men.'

And again afterwards he says: 150

'Thus therefore we must say, according to probable reason, that this world was in truth made through the providence of God a living being endowed with soul and mind.'

CHAPTER XXX

AGAIN Moses, by what he said of the heavenly bodies, taught that they also are created: 'And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; . . . and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and for years. . . . And God made the two great lights, ... and the stars; and set them in the firmament of the heaven.' 151

In like manner Plato speaks: 152

'Such then being the reason and the thought of God in regard to the generation of time, in order that time might be brought into existence there have been created the sun and moon and five other bodies which are called planets, for distinguishing and preserving the numbers of time. And when He had made their bodies, God set them in their orbits.'

Now observe whether Plato's expression,'Such then being the reason (λόγου) and thought of God,' must not be like that of the Hebrew who says, 'By the word (λόγῳ) of the LORD were the heavens established, and all the powers thereof by the breath of His mouth.' 153 Moreover as Moses said, 'And He set (ἔθετο) them in the firmament,' Plato has used a like word, 'set,' when he says, 'And when He had made their bodies, God set (ἔθηκεν) them in their orbits.'

CHAPTER XXXI

As the Hebrew Scripture after each of the creations adds the phrase, 'And God saw that it was good,' and after the summing up of all says, 'And God saw them all, . . . and behold they were very good';154 now hear how Plato speaks:

'If then indeed this world is fair, and its Creator good, it is evident that he was looking to that pattern which is eternal.' 155

And again:

'For the world is the fairest of things created, and He the best of causes.' 156

CHAPTER XXXII

ON this point also the whole Hebrew Scripture speaks throughout, at one time saying, 'And the heaven shall be rolled together as a scroll,' 157 and at another adding, 'And the heaven shall be new, and the earth new, . . . which I make to remain before Me, saith the LORD ';158 and again at another time saying, 'For the fashion of this world passeth away.'159 Hear then how Plato also confirms the doctrine, saying in the Timaeus:

[PLATO] 160 'And He established a visible and tangible heaven: and for these reasons, and out of these elements such as I have described, being four in number, the body of the world was formed in harmony by due proportion, and gained from them a friendly union, so that having entered into unity with itself it became indissoluble by everything else except Him who bound it together.'

Then afterwards he says:

'So then time has come into existence together with the heaven, that having been produced together they may also be dissolved together, if there should ever be any dissolution of them.' 161

And again he adds:

'Ye gods and sons of gods, the works whereof I am the Creator and Father are indissoluble save by my will.' 162

Afterwards he adds:

'Therefore though all that is bound may be dissolved, yet only an evil being would wish to dissolve that which is well combined and in right condition. Wherefore also since ye have been created, though ye are not altogether immortal nor indissoluble, nevertheless ye shall not be dissolved, nor incur the fate of death, since in my will ye have found a still stronger and more valid bond than those by which ye were bound together at the time of your creation.' 163

Also in the Politicus or Statesman the same author speaks as follows: 164

'For there is a time when God Himself goes round with the universe, which He helps to guide and wheel; and there is a time when the revolutions having now completed their proper measure of time, He lets it go, and the universe, being a living creature and having received intelligence from Him who arranged it at first, revolves again of its own accord in the opposite direction. And this retrogression has of necessity been implanted in its nature for the following reason.

'For what reason, pray?

'Because it is a property of none but the most divine things to be always changeless in condition and self-consistent and the same, and bodily nature is not of this class. And though that which we have called the heaven and the world has been endowed by its Creator with many blessings, nevertheless it also partakes of body; whence it is impossible for it to be always free from change; as far as possible however, and in a very great degree, it moves in the same orbit in one and the same relative course, because the reversal to which it is subject is the least possible alteration of its proper motion.

'But it is almost impossible for anything to continue for ever turning itself, except for the Ruler of all things that are moved. And for Him to move anything now one way, and now again in the opposite way, would not be right. From all this then we must neither say that the world always turns itself, nor that it is all turned by God in two opposite courses, nor again that some two gods, who are of opposite minds, turn it, but, as was said just now, and this alone remains possible, that at one time it is guided in its course by another divine cause, acquiring again its life, and receiving from its Creator a restored immortality, and at another time when let go it moves of itself, having been let go at such a time that it travels backwards during countless periods, because being of vast size and most perfectly balanced it moves upon the smallest pivot.

'Certainly all the details which you have described seem to be very probable.

'Let us then draw our conclusions and consider closely the effect produced from what I have just mentioned, which effect we said was the cause of all the wonders: for surely it is this very thing.

'What thing?

'The fact that the course of the world at one time is guided in the direction of its present revolution, and at another time in the opposite direction.

'How then?

'This change we must believe to be the greatest and most complete of all variations in the heavenly motions.

'It seems so indeed.

'We must suppose therefore that very great changes occur at that time to us who dwell under the heaven.

'This too is probable.

'But do we not know that animal nature ill endures many great and various changes occurring at the same time?

'Of course.

'Very great destruction therefore of all other animals necessarily occurs at that time, and moreover very little of the human race survives. And with regard to these survivors, among many other marvellous and strange effects which occur the greatest is this, which also follows immediately upon the reversal of the motion of the universe at the time when the revolution opposite to that which is at present established takes place.'

Afterwards lower down he adds to all this the following remarks on the restoration of the dead to life, taking a similar course to the opinions of the Hebrews.165

CHAPTER XXXIII

'BUT how were animals produced in those days, Stranger, and in what way were they begotten one of another?

'It is evident, Socrates, that the generation of one animal from another did not exist in the order of nature at that time, but the earth-born race which was said to exist formerly----this it was that in this other period sprang up out of the earth again. The tradition was recorded by our earliest ancestors, who in the following period were not far from the end of the former revolution, but were born in the beginning of the present: for they were the heralds to us of these traditions, which are now disbelieved by many without good reason.

'For we ought, I think, to observe what follows therefrom. With the fact that old men pass on to the natural condition of the child it is consistent, that from those who have died and been laid in the earth, some being brought together again there and restored to life should follow the changed order, the wheel of generation being at the same time turned back in the opposite direction: and so in this manner necessarily springing up out of the earth they are thus named and accounted earth-born, except any whom God reserved for another destiny.

'This is certainly quite consistent with what was said before.'

Then again, as he goes on further, he discourses in the following manner concerning the consummation of the world, in agreement with the doctrines of the Hebrews:

CHAPTER XXXIV

[PLATO] 166 'FOR when the period of all these events was completed, and a change was to take place, and moreover the earth-born race had now all perished, each soul having fulfilled all its generations, and fallen into the earth for as many sowings as were appointed for each, then at length the pilot of the universe let go, as it were, the handle of the rudder, and withdrew into his own watch-tower, and Fate and an innate desire began to turn the course of the world back again.

'So all the gods who locally share the government of the chief divinity, as soon as they learnt what was going on, let go in turn the portions of the world belonging to their charge. And the world turning back and clashing together, as having received an opposite impulse from before and from behind, was mightily convulsed in itself, and wrought another destruction of animals of all kinds.

'And after this in long process of time the world ceasing from tumults and confusion and convulsions welcomed a calm, and entered in orderly array upon its own accustomed course, having charge and control over itself and all things in it.'

Again after a little while he says:

'Wherefore God, who had first set the world in order, when at length He saw that it was in helpless strait, being anxious that it should not be shattered in the confusion of the storm, and sink down into the infinite gulf of disorder, again takes His seat at the helm, and having turned back what had suffered harm and dissolution into the former circuit appointed by Himself, He arranges and restores it, and endows it with immortality and perpetual youth. Here then the story of the end of all things is told.' 167

CHAPTER XXXV

[PLATO] 168 'THESE things, then, said I, are nothing in number nor in greatness in comparison with those other rewards which await each of them after death. And you ought to hear them, in order that each may receive in full what is due to be told to them by our argument.

'You may speak, said he, as to one who will not find the story too long, but listen all the more gladly.

'But indeed, said I, it is not the story of Alcinous that I am going to tell you, but that of a brave man Er the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian by birth, who was killed in battle, and when the dead were gathered up after ten days in a state of putrefaction, his body was taken up undecayed and carried home to be buried, and on the twelfth day when laid on the funeral pile, he came back to life, and after his revival told what he had seen in the other world.

'And he said that when his soul had departed from his body, it travelled with many others, until they came to a certain wonderful place, in which were two chasms in the earth close to each other, and others opposite to them in the heaven above.

'And between them there sat judges, who, after they had decided each case, commanded the just to proceed by the way on the right hand leading upward through the heaven, having hung around them on their breast the records of the judgements given, and the unjust by the way leading downwards on the left, these also having on their backs the records of all their deeds.

'And when he himself came forward, they said that he must be the messenger to mankind of what was done there, and they commanded him to hear and see everything in that place.'

So Plato speaks. And Plutarch also in the first Book Concerning the Soul tells a story similar to this:

CHAPTER XXXVI

[PLUTARCH] 169 'WE were present ourselves with this Antyllus: but let me tell the story to Sositeles and Heracleon. For he was ill not long ago, and the physicians thought that he could not live: but having recovered a little from a slight collapse, though he neither did nor said anything else showing derangement, he declared that he had died and been set free again, and was not going to die at all of that present illness, but that those who had carried him away were severely reproved by their lord; for having been sent for Nicandas, they had brought him back instead of the other. Now Nicandas was a shoemaker, besides being one of those who frequent the palaestrae, and familiar and well known to many. Wherefore the young men used to come and mock him, as having run away from his fate, and as having bribed the officers sent from the other world. It was evident, however, that he was himself at first a little disturbed and disquieted; and at last he was attacked by a fever, and died suddenly on the third day. But this Antyllus came to life again, and is alive and well, and one of our most agreeable friends.'

I wish to quote these statements because of the fact that in the Hebrew Scriptures there are cases mentioned of restoration to life. But since in their promises it is also contained that a certain land shall be given to the friends of God only, according to the oracle which says, 'But the meek shall inherit the land,'170 and that this is a heavenly land is made clear by the saying which declares, 'But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all';171 the prophet also intimates in an allegorical way that this same city consists of costly and precious stones, saying, 'Behold, I prepare for thee a carbuncle for thy stone, and will make thy battlements jasper, and thy foundations sapphire . . . and thy border choice stones':172 now see how Plato also confesses in the dialogue Concerning the Soul that he is persuaded of the truth of these very things, or the like. He assigns the statement to Socrates in the following manner:

CHAPTER XXXVII

[PLATO] 173 'BUT indeed, Simmias, I do not think it requires the skill of Glaucus to describe to you what it is: but to decide whether it be true, appears to me too hard even for Glaucus' skill. And not only should I perhaps find myself unable to do so, but even if I knew how, my life seems hardly long enough, Simmias, for an argument of such length. Nevertheless there is nothing to prevent my describing to you the figure of the earth, such as I am convinced it is, and its various regions. 'Well, said Simmias, even that is enough. 'My own conviction, then, said he, is first of all that, if the earth is spherical and placed in the centre of the heaven, it has no need either of air to prevent its falling, or of any other similar sustaining force, but that the perfect uniformity of the heaven in all its parts, and the very equilibrium of the earth, are sufficient to sustain it: for a thing in equilibrium placed in the centre of a similar body, will have no reason to incline more or less in any direction, but being evenly balanced will remain undeflected. This then, said he, is my first conviction. 'And quite correct, said Simmias.

'Further then, said he, I am persuaded that it is of vast size, and that we who live between the Pillars of Hercules and the Phasis occupy a very small part of it, dwelling round the sea, just as ants or frogs round a pond, and that there are many others elsewhere living in many like regions.

'For in every direction round the earth there are many hollows of various kinds both in shape and size, into which the waters and the mist and the air have flowed together; but the earth itself is pure and situated in a pure part of the heaven, wherein are the stars, and which most of those who are accustomed to speak of such things call the ether, of which these three (water, mist, and air) are a sediment, and are always flowing together into the hollows of the earth.

'We therefore are unconscious that we live in the hollows, and suppose that we are living above on the surface of the earth, just as if any one living in the midst of the bottom of the sea should suppose that he was living on the surface, and seeing the sun and the other luminaries through the water should imagine the sea to be heaven, but through sluggishness and weakness had never come up to the top of the water, nor, by rising and lifting his head up out of it into this region of ours, had ever seen how much purer and fairer it is than their own, nor had ever heard this from any one who had seen it. .

'We then are in this very same case: for while living in some hollow of the earth we imagine that we are living on the surface, and call the air heaven, as if this were the heaven through which the stars run their courses. But the fact is the same, that from weakness and sluggishness we are not able to pass out to the surface of the air: for if any one were to reach the top of it, or take wings and fly up to it. he would put out his head, and, just as the fishes here who jump up out of the water and see the objects on earth, so would a man survey the world beyond: and, if his nature were strong enough to endure the sight, he would learn that yonder is the true heaven, and the true light, and the true earth.

'For this earth and the stones and the whole region here are decayed and corroded, as the things in the sea by the brine: and there is nothing worth mentioning that grows in the sea, nor anything that is, so to say, perfect; but there are caves, and sand, and vast slime and mud-banks wherever there is land, all utterly unworthy to be compared with the beautiful things of our world.

'But on the other hand yonder world would be seen far more to surpass everything of ours. For if I must tell you a pretty fable, it is worth your while, Simmias, to hear what is the nature of the objects on that earth which lie close under the heaven.

'We certainly, Socrates, said Simmias, should be delighted to hear this fable.

'Well then, my friend, said he, it is said in the first place that the earth itself, if any one were to see it from above, is just such to look upon as the balls which are covered with twelve pieces of leather, variegated and marked by different colours, of which the colours used by our painters here on earth are, as it were, samples. But there the earth is wholly made up of colours such as these, and far more brilliant and pure.

'For part of it is purple and of marvellous beauty, and part like gold, and the part that is white is whiter than chalk or snow, and in like manner it is made up of all the other colours, and yet more in number and more beautiful than all that we have ever seen.

'For even these mere hollows of it, filled as they are with water and air, present a certain species of colour, as they gleam amid the diversity of the other colours, so that its form appears as one continuous variegated surface.

'And in this earth such as I have described it, the plants that grow are in like proportion, both trees and flowers, with their fruits; and the mountains again in like manner, and the stones have their smoothness and transparency greater in the same proportion, and their colours more beautiful: and of these the gems here, these that are so prized, are fragments, carnelians, and jaspers, and emeralds, and all such as these: but there everything without exception is of this kind, and still more beautiful than these.

'And the cause of this is that those stones are pure, and not eaten away or spoiled, like those here, by decay and brine, and by the sediments collected here, which cause ugliness and diseases in stones and earth, and in animals and plants as well. But the real earth is adorned with all these jewels, and with gold and silver besides, and all other things such as these. For they shine out on the surface, being many in number and of great size and in many places of the earth, so that to see it must be a sight for the blessed to behold.'

CHAPTER XXXVIII

THE Hebrew Scripture foretells that there shall be a tribunal of God and a judgement of souls after their departure hence, in countless other passages, and where it says: 'The judgement was set, and the books were opened, . . . and the Ancient of days did sit. ... A river of fire flowed before Him; ten thousand times ten thousands ministered unto Him, and thousand thousands stood before Him.' 174 Now hear how Plato mentions the divine judgement, and the river even by name, and how he describes the many mansions of the pious, and the various punishments of the impious, in agreement with the language of the Hebrews.

For he speaks as follows in the dialogue Concerning the Soul: 175

'And midway between these a third river issues forth, and near its source falls into a vast region burning with a great fire, and forms a lake larger than our sea, boiling with water and mud: and thence it proceeds in a circular course turbid and muddy, and as it rolls round the earth, arrives, among other places, at the extremity of the Acherusian lake, but does not mingle with its water; and after making many circuits underground, it pours into a depth below Tartarus.

'Now this is it which they call Pyriphlegethon, fragments of which are thrown up by our volcanoes, wherever they occur in the earth. Opposite again to this the fourth river falls out first, as the tale goes, into a fearful and savage region, which is wholly of a colour like lapis lazuli; this is called the Stygian region, and the lake which the influx of the river forms is called Styx. Then after falling into the lake, and receiving strange properties in its water, the river sinks under the earth, and is whirled round in its course in the opposite direction to Pyriphlegethon, and meets it from the opposite side in the Acherusian lake; and its water also mingles with no other, but after flowing round in a circle this river too falls into Tartarus opposite to Pyriphlegethon: and its name is, as the poets say, Cocytus.

'Such being the nature of these regions, as soon as the dead have arrived at the place to which each is conveyed by his genius, first of all they undergo a trial, both those who have lived good and holy and just lives, and those who have not. And those who are found to have led tolerable lives proceed to Acheron, and embarking on such vessels as there are for them, they arrive on board these at the lake; and there they dwell, and by undergoing purification and suffering punishment for their evil deeds they are absolved from any wrongs they have committed, or receive rewards for their good deeds, each according to his deserts. But any who are found to be incurable by reason of the greatness of their sins, having either perpetrated many great acts of sacrilege, or many nefarious and lawless murders, or any other crimes of this kind----these are hurled by their appropriate doom into Tartarus, whence they never come forth.

'But those who are found to have committed sins which are great though not incurable, as for instance if in anger they have done any violence to father or mother, and passed the rest of their life in penitence, or have committed homicide in any other similar way, these must also be thrown into Tartarus, but after they have been thrown in and have continued there a year, they are cast out by the wave, the homicides by way of Cocytus, and the parricides by way of Pyriphlegethon: and when they arrive all on fire at the Acherusian lake, there with loud cries they call upon those whom they either slew or outraged; and having summoned them they intreat and beseech them to let them come out into the lake, and to receive them kindly: and if they persuade them, they come out, and cease from their troubles; but if not, they are carried again into Tartarus, and thence back into the rivers, and never have rest from these sufferings, until they have won over those whom they wronged; for this was the sentence appointed for them by the judges.

'But any who are found to have been pre-eminent in holiness of life----these are they who are set free and delivered from these regions here on earth, as, from prison-houses, and attain to the pure dwelling place above, and make their abode upon the upper earth. And of this same class those who have fully purified themselves by philosophy live entirely free from troubles for all time to come, and attain to habitations still fairer than these, which it is neither easy to describe, nor does the time suffice at present. But for the sake of these things which I have described we ought, Simmias, to make every effort to gain a share of virtue and of wisdom in our lifetime: for fair is the prize, and great the hope.'

So speaks Plato. And now with that passage, 'And they attain to fairer habitations, which it is neither easy to describe, nor does the time suffice at present,' you will compare that which with us runs as follows:

'For eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
Neither have entered into the heart of man,
The things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.' 176

And with the 'habitations' mentioned compare the statement that 'in the Father's house are many mansions,' 177 promised to those beloved of Him. And with what is said about Pyriphlegethon compare the eternal fire threatened to the ungodly, according to the Hebrew prophet who says to them, 'Who shall announce to us that the fire is kindled? Who shall announce to us the place of eternity?' 178 And again, 'Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be for a spectacle to all flesh.' 179

Now observe how Plato also, after saying in agreement with this that the impious will go into Tartarus, adds, 'whence they never come out.' And again after saying that the pious shall live in abodes of bliss, he adds the words, 'entirely and for all time to come.' Moreover the expression used by him 'free from troubles' is like 'pain and sorrow and sighing flee away.' 180

And when he says that those who go away to Acheron not simply arrive there, but 'embarking first in what vessels there are for them,' what vessels then does he mean to indicate but their bodies, in which the souls of the deceased embark, and share their punishment, according to the established opinions of the Hebrews? But now as this subject has been sufficiently discussed, I will pass on to the twelfth Book of the Preparation for the Gospel.

[Footnotes numbered and placed at the end]

1. 509 b 1 Atticus, Fragment preserved by Eusebius. Cf. Mullach, fr. Phil. Gr. iii. 185

2. 510 b 2 Aristocles, De Philosophia; cf. Mullach, iii. p. 206

3. 513 d 4 Prov. i. 2

4. 515 a 8 Plato, Cratylus, 383 A

5. b 1 ibid. 390 A

6. b 9 ibid. 390 D

7. d 6 Plato, Cratylus, 409 D

8. 616 a 1 Gen. ii. 19

9. 516 c 4 Gen. vi. 4

10. d 8 Ps. viii. 4

11. 517 a 9 Plato, Cratylus, 399 C

12. b 11 ibid. 414 A

13. c 5 ibid. 396 C

14. d 5 ibid. 397 D

15. 517 d 13 Plato, Cratylus, 393 A

16. 518 a 1 395 A

17. a 4 394 E

18. a 6 395 B

19. a 8 395 C

20. a 9 395 E

21. b 5 Gen. iv. 1

22. d 1 Gen. xvii. 5

23. d 9 Plato, Cratylus, 397 B

24. 519 a 6 Gen. xxxii. 28

25. a 9 Gen. xxvii. 36

26. a 10 Gen. xxxii. 28

27. 519 c 2 Cf. p. 474 b

28. 520 a 1 Cf. Jacobs, Greek Anthology, vol. xii. p. 34

29. 620 b 5 Gen. xiv. 13

30. 521 c 6 i Ki. iv. 32

31. d 6 Wisdom vii. 17

32. 522 a 4 Eccles. i. 1

33. a 6 ibid. 9

34. 523 c 8 Rom. i. 20

35. d 2 Ex. iii. 14

36. 524 a 2 Eccles. i. 9

37. 524 b 8 Plato, Timaeus, 27 D

38. c 2 Ex. iii. 14

39. c 9 Eccles. i. 9

40. d 6 Plato, Timaeus, 37 E

41. 525 c 1 Numenius, a Fragment preserved by Eusebius only

42. 526 c 1 Plato, Cratylus, 430 A, and frequently.

43. d 1 Plato, Timaeus. 27 D; see p. 524 b above

44. 527 b 6 Malachi iii. 6

45. 527 b 10 Ps. ci. 28

46. d 1 Plutarch, Moralia, 391 F

47. 528 b 3 Heracleitus, Fr. xii, xlii (Bywater)

48. c 5 Heracleitus, Fr. xxv.

49. 530 a 6 Ps.-Plato, Ep. vii. p. 341 C

50. b 2 Ps. iv. 7

51. b 3 Ps. xxxvi. 9

52. c 2 Deut. vi. 4

53. c 5 Plato, Timaeus, 31 A

54. d 1 Ps.-Plato, Ep. xiii. p. 363 B

55. 531 a 2 Plato, Laws, iv. 715 E

56. b 10 Is. xli. 4

57. c 2 Ps. xi. 7

58. c 5 Ps. xi. 7

59. c 6 Rom. xii. 20; (cp. Beat, xxxii. 35)

60. c 71 Thess. iv. 6, and Ps. xxxi. 23

61. d 1 Deut. xiii. 4

62. d 3 Ja. iv. 6

63. d 4 Job xx. 5 (Sept.)

64. 532 a 7 Gen. xix. 24

65. b 4 Ps. cx. 1

66. c 3 Ps. xxxiii. 6

67. 532 c 6 Ps. cvii. 20

68. c 12 Prov. viii. 12

69. d 2 Prov. viii. 22

70. d 7 Prov. iii. 19

71. d 10 Wisdom vii. 21

72. d 12 Wisdom vi. 22

73. d 16 Wisdom vii. 22

74. 533 a 7 Wisdom viii. 1

75. b 3 Philo Iudaeus, On the Confusion of Tongues, c. xx

76. c 2 ibid. c. xxviii

77. c 9 Gen. xlii. 11.

78. d 5 Philo Iudaeus, l.c., c. xiv

79. d 6 Zech. vi. 12

80. 534 a 5 A wrong reference; the quotations are from The Confusion of Tongues

81. b 6 Ps.-Plato, Epinomis, 986 C

82. c 10 Ps.-Plato, Ep. vi. 323 C

83. 535 b 1 Plotinus, Ennead, v. bk. i. p. 484 D

84. c 4 ibid. p. 486 A

85. c 10 ibid. p. 487 D

86. 536 a 10 Plotinus, ibid. p. 488

87. b 7 ibid. p. 489.

88. d 5 Numenius, Of the Good, a Fragment preserved by Eusebius. Cf. Mullach, iii. 167

89. 537 d 8 Ps. (ciii) civ. 24

90. 538 a 2 ibid. 27

91. b 7 John xv. 1, 5

92. c 1 Numenius, Fr. 10.

93. c 9 Numenius, ibid.

94. 539 a 5 Plato, Philebus, 16 C

95. a 8 Numenius, Fr. 10

96. b 11 Numenius, ibid.

97. d 10 John v. 19

98. 540 b 2 Amelius, a Fragment preserved by Eusebius

99. b 4 Heracleitus, Fr. ii

100. d 4 Plato. Phaedrus, 243 B (Jowett)

101. 540 d 8 John i. 1

102. 541 a 2 Col. i. 15

103. c 6 Ps.-Plato, Ep. ii. 312.

104. 542 a 4 Lam. iii. 25. Nahum i. 7

105. a 5 Ps. cvi. 1

106. a 8 Matt. xix. 7

107. b 4 Plato, Timaeus, 29 E

108. b 10 ibid. Republic, 508 B

109. 542 c 6 Plato, Republic, 508 E

110. c 10 ibid. 509 B

111. 643 b 4 Numenius, Fragment preserved by Eusebius. Cf. Mullach, iii. p. 170

112. 544 a 3 Numenius, ibid.

113. 544 d 4 Plato, Timaeus, 29 E

114. 545 a 1 Plato, Timaeus, 29 A

115. a 5 ibid. 30 E

116. b 6 Areius Didymus, De Platonis opiniombus, a Fragment preserved by Eusebius

117. 546 a 4 Mal. iv. 2

118. a 8 Isa. xli. 2

119. b 6 I Cor. i. 30

120. c 9 Gen. i. 27

121. d 2 Ps. xxxix. 7

122. d 7 Philo Judaeus, On the Creation of the World, § 5

123. 547 a 5 Gen. i. 27

124. b 2 Gen. i. 1

125. 547 c 8 Philo Judaeus, ibid. § 6

126. 548 b 3 ibid. § 7

127. d 1 Clement of Alexandria, Miscellany, v. 14

128. 549 a 2 Gen. i. 1

129. a 4 ibid. i. 3

130. b 1 Plato, Phaedrus, 246 C; Timaeus, 64 C

131. 549 b 2 Gen. ii. 7

132. d 1 Plato, Laws, x. 896 D

133. d 7 ibid. x. 906 A

134. 650 a 4 Job i. 13 a, 6 b

135. a 10 Ps. civ. 4, Heb. i. 7

136. b 3 Eph. vi. 12

137. b 7 Deut. xxxii. 8

138. d 6 Gen. i. 26

139. d 11 Gen. ii. 7

140. 651 a 3 Gen. i. 26

141. 551 b 1 Ps-Plato, Alcibiades, i. 133 C

142. b 8 The passage in brackets is not in the MSS. of Plato

143. c 6 Plato, Phaedo, 79 A

144. 554 c 1 Porphyry, Answer to Boethus Concerning the Soul

145. 555 b 10 Boethus, a Fragment preserved by Eusebius

146. 557 d 1 Gen. i. 1

147. d 3 ibid. ii. 4

148. d 7 Plato, Timaeus, 28 A

149. 557 d 11 Plato, Timaeus, 28 B

150. 558 a 8 ibid. 30 B

151. b 3 Gen. i. 14

152. c 5 Plato, Timaeus, 38 C

153. d 2 Ps. xxxiii. 6

154. 559 a 2 Gen. i. 31

155. a 4 Plato, Timaeus, 29 A

156. a 7 ibid.

157. b 2 Isa. xxxiv. 4

158. b 3 Isa. Ixv. 17, lxvi. 32

159. b 6 i Cor. vii. 31

160. c 1 Plato, Timaeus, 32 B

161. 550 c 9 Plato, Timaeus, 38 B

162. c 14 ibid. 41 A

163. d 2 ibid.

164. d 12 Plato, Politicus, 269 C

165. 561 b 2 Plato, Politicus, 271 A

166. 562 a 1 Plato, Politicus, 272 D

167. c 8 ibid. 273 D

168. d 7 Plato, Republic, x. 614 A

169. 563 d 1 Plutarch, On the Soul, Fragment iii, preserved by Eusebius

170. 564 b 3 Ps. xxxvii. 11, Matt. v. 5

171. b 5 Gal. iv. 26

172. b 8 Isa. liv. 13

173. d 1 Plato, Phaedo, 108 D

174. 567 b 4 Dan. vii. 10, 9

175. c 6 Plato, Phaedo, 113 A

176. 568 b 5 1 Cor. ii. 9

177. b 9 John xiv. 3

178. c 2 Isa. xxxiii. 14

179. c 4 ibid. lxvi. 24

180. d 2 Isa. xxxv. 10