1. In the former book, most honored Epaphroditus, I have
demonstrated our antiquity, and confirmed the truth of what I have
said, from the writings of the Phoenicians, and Chaldeans, and
Egyptians. I have, moreover, produced many of the Grecian writers as
witnesses thereto. I have also made a refutation of Manetho and
Cheremon, and of certain others of our enemies. I shall now (1)
therefore begin a confutation of the remaining authors who have
written any thing against us; although I confess I have had a doubt
upon me about Apion (2) the grammarian, whether I ought to take the
trouble of confuting him or not; for some of his writings contain
much the same accusations which the others have laid against us,
some things that he hath added are very frigid and contemptible, and
for the greatest part of what he says, it is very scurrilous, and,
to speak no more than the plain truth, it shows him to be a very
unlearned person, and what he lays together looks like the work of a
man of very bad morals, and of one no better in his whole life than
a mountebank. Yet, because there are a great many men so very
foolish, that they are rather caught by such orations than by what
is written with care, and take pleasure in reproaching other men,
and cannot abide to hear them commended, I thought it to be
necessary not to let this man go off without examination, who had
written such an accusation against us, as if he would bring us to
make an answer in open court. For I also have observed, that many
men are very much delighted when they see a man who first began to
reproach another, to be himself exposed to contempt on account of
the vices he hath himself been guilty of. However, it is not a very
easy thing to go over this man’s discourse, nor to know plainly what
he means; yet does he seem, amidst a great confusion and disorder in
his falsehoods, to produce, in the first place, such things as
resemble what we have examined already, and relate to the departure
of our forefathers out of Egypt; and, in the second place, he
accuses those Jews that are inhabitants of Alexandria; as, in the
third place, he mixes with those things such accusations as concern
the sacred purifications, with the other legal rites used in the
temple.
2. Now although I cannot but think that I have already demonstrated,
and that abundantly more than was necessary, that our fathers were
not originally Egyptians, nor were thence expelled, either on
account of bodily diseases, or any other calamities of that sort;
yet will I briefly take notice of what Apion adds upon that subject;
for in his third book, which relates to the affairs of Egypt, he
speaks thus: “I have heard of the ancient men of Egypt, that Moses
was of Heliopolis, and that he thought himself obliged to follow the
customs of his forefathers, and offered his prayers in the open air,
towards the city walls; but that he reduced them all to be directed
towards sun-rising, which was agreeable to the situation of
Heliopolis; that he also set up pillars instead of gnomons, (3)
under which was represented a cavity like that of a boat, and the
shadow that fell from their tops fell down upon that cavity, that it
might go round about the like course as the sun itself goes round in
the other.” This is that wonderful relation which we have given us
by this grammarian. But that it is a false one is so plain, that it
stands in need of few words to prove it, but is manifest from the
works of Moses; for when he erected the first tabernacle to God, he
did himself neither give order for any such kind of representation
to be made at it, nor ordain that those that came after him should
make such a one. Moreover, when in a future age Solomon built his
temple in Jerusalem, he avoided all such needless decorations as
Apion hath here devised. He says further, how he had “heard of the
ancient men, that Moses was of Hellopolis.” To be sure that was,
because being a younger man himself, he believed those that by their
elder age were acquainted and conversed with him. Now this
grammarian, as he was, could not certainly tell which was the poet
Homer’s country, no more than he could which was the country of
Pythagoras, who lived comparatively but a little while ago; yet does
he thus easily determine the age of Moses, who preceded them such a
vast number of years, as depending on his ancient men’s relation,
which shows how notorious a liar he was. But then as to this
chronological determination of the time when he says he brought the
leprous people, the blind, and the lame out of Egypt, see how well
this most accurate grammarian of ours agrees with those that have
written before him! Manetho says that the Jews departed out of
Egypt, in the reign of Tethmosis, three hundred ninety-three years
before Danaus fled to Argos; Lysimaehus says it was under king
Bocchoris, that is, one thousand seven hundred years ago; Molo and
some others determined it as every one pleased: but this Apion of
ours, as deserving to be believed before them, hath determined it
exactly to have been in the seventh olympiad, and the first year of
that olympiad; the very same year in which he says that Carthage was
built by the Phoenicians. The reason why he added this building of
Carthage was, to be sure, in order, as he thought, to strengthen his
assertion by so evident a character of chronology. But he was not
aware that this character confutes his assertion; for if we may give
credit to the Phoenician records as to the time of the first coming
of their colony to Carthage, they relate that Hirom their king was
above a hundred and fifty years earlier than the building of
Carthage; concerning whom I have formerly produced testimonials out
of those Phoenician records, as also that this Hirom was a friend of
Solomon when he was building the temple of Jerusalem, and gave him
great assistance in his building that temple; while still Solomon
himself built that temple six hundred and twelve years after the
Jews came out of Egypt. As for the number of those that were
expelled out of Egypt, he hath contrived to have the very same
number with Lysimaehus, and says they were a hundred and ten
thousand. He then assigns a certain wonderful and plausible occasion
for the name of Sabbath; for he says that “when the Jews had
traveled a six days’ journey, they had buboes in their groins; and
that on this account it was that they rested on the seventh day, as
having got safely to that country which is now called Judea; that
then they preserved the language of the Egyptians, and called that
day the Sabbath, for that malady of buboes on their groin was named
Sabbatosis by the Egyptians.” And would not a man now laugh at this
fellow’s trifling, or rather hate his impudence in writing thus? We
must, it seems, fake it for granted that all these hundred and ten
thousand men must have these buboes. But, for certain, if those men
had been blind and lame, and had all sorts of distempers upon them,
as Apion says they had, they could not have gone one single day’s
journey; but if they had been all able to travel over a large
desert, and, besides that, to fight and conquer those that opposed
them, they had not all of them had buboes on their groins after the
sixth day was over; for no such distemper comes naturally and of
necessity upon those that travel; but still, when there are many ten
thousands in a camp together, they constantly march a settled space
[in a day]. Nor is it at all probable that such a thing should
happen by chance; this would be prodigiously absurd to be supposed.
However, our admirable author Apion hath before told us
that “they came to Judea in six days’ time;” and again, that
“Moses went up to a mountain that lay between Egypt and Arabia,
which was called Sinai, and was concealed there forty days, and that
when he came down from thence he gave laws to the Jews.” But, then,
how was it possible for them to tarry forty days in a desert place
where there was no water, and at the same time to pass all over the
country between that and Judea in the six days? And as for this
grammatical translation of the word Sabbath, it either contains an
instance of his great impudence or gross ignorance; for the words
Sabbo and Sabbath are widely different from one another; for the
word Sabbath in the Jewish language denotes rest from all sorts of
work; but the word Sabbo, as he affirms, denotes among the Egyptians
the malady of a bubo in the groin.
3. This is that novel account which the Egyptian Apion gives us
concerning the Jews’ departure out of Egypt, and is no better than a
contrivance of his own. But why should we wonder at the lies he
tells about our forefathers, when he affirms them to be of Egyptian
original, when he lies also about himself? for although he was born
at Oasis in Egypt, he pretends to be, as a man may say, the top man
of all the Egyptians; yet does he forswear his real country and
progenitors, and by falsely pretending to be born at Alexandria,
cannot deny the (4) pravity of his family; for you see how justly he
calls those Egyptians whom he hates, and endeavors to reproach; for
had he not deemed Egyptians to be a name of great reproach, he would
not have avoided the name of an Egyptian himself; as we know that
those who brag of their own countries value themselves upon the
denomination they acquire thereby, and reprove such as unjustly lay
claim thereto. As for the Egyptians’ claim to be of our kindred,
they do it on one of the following accounts; I mean, either as they
value themselves upon it, and pretend to bear that relation to us;
or else as they would draw us in to be partakers of their own
infamy. But this fine fellow Apion seems to broach this reproachful
appellation against us, [that we were originally Egyptians,] in
order to bestow it on the Alexandrians, as a reward for the
privilege they had given him of being a fellow citizen with them: he
also is apprized of the ill-will the Alexandrians bear to those Jews
who are their fellow citizens, and so proposes to himself to
reproach them, although he must thereby include all the other
Egyptians also; while in both cases he is no better than an impudent
liar.
4. But let us now see what those heavy and wicked crimes are which Apion charges upon the Alexandrian Jews. “They came (says he) out of
Syria, and inhabited near the tempestuous sea, and were in the
neighborhood of the dashing of the waves.” Now if the place of
habitation includes any thing that is reproached, this man
reproaches not his own real country, [Egypt,] but what he pretends
to be his own country, Alexandria; for all are agreed in this, that
the part of that city which is near the sea is the best part of all
for habitation.
Now if the Jews gained that part of the city by force, and
have kept it hitherto without impeachment, this is a mark of
their valor; but in reality it was Alexander himself that gave
them that place for their habitation, when they obtained
equal privileges there with the Macedonians. Nor call I devise
what Apion would have said, had their habitation been at
Necropolis? and not been fixed hard by the royal palace [as it
is]; nor had their nation had the denomination of
Macedonians given them till this very day [as they have]. Had
this man now read the epistles of king Alexander, or those of
Ptolemy the son of Lagus, or met with the writings of the
succeeding kings, or that pillar which is still standing atAlexandria, and contains the privileges which the great
[Julius] Caesar bestowed upon the Jews; had this man, I say,
known these records, and yet hath the impudence to write in
contradiction to them, he hath shown himself to be a wicked
man; but if he knew nothing of these records, he hath shown
himself to be a man very ignorant: nay, when lie appears to
wonder how Jews could be called Alexandrians, this is
another like instance of his ignorance; for all such as are
called out to be colonies, although they be ever so far remote
from one another in their original, receive their names from
those that bring them to their new habitations. And what
occasion is there to speak of others, when those of us Jews
that dwell at Antioch are named Antiochians, because
Seleucns the founder of that city gave them the privileges
belonging thereto? After the like manner do those Jews that
inhabit Ephesus, and the other cities of Ionia, enjoy the same
name with those that were originally born there, by the grant
of the succeeding princes; nay, the kindness and humanity of
the Romans hath been so great, that it hath granted leave to
almost all others to take the same name of Romans upon
them; I mean not particular men only, but entire and large
nations themselves also; for those anciently named Iberi, and
Tyrrheni, and Sabini, are now called Romani. And if Apion
reject this way of obtaining the privilege of a citizen of
Alexandria, let him abstain from calling himself an
Alexandrian hereafter; for otherwise, how can he who was
born in the very heart of Egypt be an Alexandrian, if this way
of accepting such a privilege, of which he would have us
deprived, be once abrogated? although indeed these Romans,
who are now the lords of the habitable earth, have forbidden
the Egyptians to have the privileges of any city whatsoever;
while this fine fellow, who is willing to partake of such a
privilege himself as he is forbidden to make use of, endeavors
by calumnies to deprive those of it that have justly received
it; for Alexander did not therefore get some of our nation to
Alexandria, because he wanted inhabitants for this his city, on
whose building he had bestowed so much pains; but this was
given to our people as a reward, because he had, upon a
careful trial, found them all to have been men of virtue and
fidelity to him; for, as Hecateus says concerning us,
“Alexander honored our nation to such a degree, that, for the equity
and the fidelity which the Jews exhibited to him, he permitted them
to hold the country of Samaria free from tribute. Of the same mind
also was Ptolemy the son of Lagus, as to those Jews who dwelt at
Alexandria.” For he intrusted the fortresses of Egypt into their
hands, as believing they would keep them faithfully and valiantly
for him; and when he was desirous to secure the government of Cyrene,
and the other cities of Libya, to himself, he sent a party of Jews
to inhabit in them. And for his successor Ptolemy, who was called
Philadelphus, he did not only set all those of our nation free who
were captives under him, but did frequently give money [for their
ransom]; and, what was his greatest work of all, he had a great
desire of knowing our laws, and of obtaining the books of our sacred
Scriptures; accordingly, he desired that such men might be sent him
as might interpret our law to him; and, in order to have them well
compiled, he committed that care to no ordinary persons, but
ordained that Demetrius Phalereus, and Andreas, and Aristeas; the
first, Demetrius, the most learned person of his age, and the
others, such as were intrusted with the guard of his body; should
take care of this matter: nor would he certainly have been so
desirous of learning our law, and the philosophy of our nation, had
he despised the men that made use of it, or had he not indeed had
them in great admiration.
5. Now this Apion was unacquainted with almost all the kings of
those Macedonians whom he pretends to have been his progenitors, who
were yet very well affected towards us; for the third of those
Ptolemies, who was called Euergetes, when he had gotten possession
of all Syria by force, did not offer his thank-offerings to the
Egyptian gods for his victory, but came to Jerusalem, and according
to our own laws offered many sacrifices to God, and dedicated to him
such gifts as were suitable to such a victory: and as for Ptolemy
Philometer and his wife Cleopatra, they committed their whole
kingdom to the Jews, when Onias and Dositheus, both Jews, whose
names are laughed at by Apion, were the generals of their whole
army. But certainly, instead of reproaching them, he ought to admire
their actions, and return them thanks for saving Alexandria, whose
citizen he pretends to be; for when these Alexandrians were making
war with Cleopatra the queen, and were in danger of being utterly
ruined, these Jews brought them to terms of agreement, and freed
them from the miseries of a civil war.
“But then (says Apion) Onias brought a small army afterward upon the
city at the time when Thorruns the Roman ambassador was there
present.” Yes, do I venture to say, and that he did rightly and very
justly in so doing; for that Ptolemy who was called Physco, upon the
death of his brother Philometer, came from Cyrene, and would have
ejected Cleopatra as well as her sons out of their kingdom, that he
might obtain it for himself unjustly. (5) For this cause then it was
that Onias undertook a war against him on Cleopatra’s account; nor
would he desert that trust the royal family had reposed in him in
their distress. Accordingly, God gave a remarkable attestation to
his righteous procedure; for when Ptolemy Physco (6) had the
presumption to fight against Onias’s army, and had caught all the
Jews that were in the city [Alexandria], with their children and
wives, and exposed them naked and in bonds to his elephants, that
they might be trodden upon and destroyed, and when he had made those
elephants drunk for that purpose, the event proved contrary to his
preparations; for these elephants left the Jews who were exposed to
them, and fell violently upon Physco’s friends, and slew a great
number of them; nay, after this Ptolemy saw a terrible ghost, which
prohibited his hurting those men; his very concubine, whom he loved
so well, (some call her Ithaca, and others Irene,) making
supplication to him, that he would not perpetrate so great a
wickedness. So he complied with her request, and repented of what he
either had already done, or was about to do; whence it is well known
that the Alexandrian Jews do with good reason celebrate this day, on
the account that they had thereon been vouchsafed such an evident
deliverance from God. However, Apion, the common calumniator of men,
hath the presumption to accuse the Jews for making this war against
Physco, when he ought to have commended them for the same. This man
also makes mention of Cleopatra, the last queen of Alexandria, and
abuses us, because she was ungrateful to us; whereas he ought to
have reproved her, who indulged herself in all kinds of injustice
and wicked practices, both with regard to her nearest relations and
husbands who had loved her, and, indeed, in general with regard to
all the Romans, and those emperors that were her benefactors; who
also had her sister Arsinoe slain in a temple, when she had done her
no harm: moreover, she had her brother slain by private treachery,
and she destroyed the gods of her country and the sepulchers of her
progenitors; and while she had received her kingdom from the first
Caesar, she had the impudence to rebel against his son: (7) and
successor; nay, she corrupted Antony with her love-tricks, and
rendered him an enemy to his country, and made him treacherous to
his friends, and [by his means] despoiled some of their royal
authority, and forced others in her madness to act wickedly. But
what need I enlarge upon this head any further, when she left Antony
in his fight at sea, though he were her husband, and the father of
their common children, and compelled him to resign up his
government, with the army, and to follow her [into Egypt]? nay, when
last of all Caesar had taken Alexandria, she came to that pitch of
cruelty, that she declared she had some hope of preserving her
affairs still, in case she could kill the Jews, though it were with
her own hand; to such a degree of barbarity and perfidiousness had
she arrived. And doth any one think that we cannot boast ourselves
of any thing, if, as Apion says, this queen did not at a time of
famine distribute wheat among us? However, she at length met with
the punishment she deserved. As for us Jews, we appeal to the great
Caesar what assistance we brought him, and what fidelity we showed
to him against the Egyptians; as also to the senate and its decrees,
and the epistles of Augustus Caesar, whereby our merits [to the
Romans] are justified. Apion ought to have looked upon those
epistles, and in particular to have examined the testimonies given
on our behalf, under Alexander and all the Ptolemies, and the
decrees of the senate and of the greatest Roman emperors. And if
Germanicus was not able to make a distribution of corn to all the
inhabitants of Alexandria, that only shows what a barren time it
was, and how great a want there was then of corn, but tends nothing
to the accusation of the Jews; for what all the emperors have
thought of the Alexandrian Jews is well known, for this distribution
of wheat was no otherwise omitted with regard to the Jews, than it
was with regard to the other inhabitants of Alexandria. But they
still were desirous to preserve what the kings had formerly
intrusted to their care, I mean the custody of the river; nor did
those kings think them unworthy of having the entire custody
thereof, upon all occasions.
6. But besides this, Apion objects to us thus: “If the Jews (says
he) be citizens of Alexandria, why do they not worship the same gods
with the Alexandrians?” To which I give this answer: Since you are
yourselves Egyptians, why do you fight it out one against another,
and have implacable wars about your religion? At this rate we must
not call you all Egyptians, nor indeed in general men, because you
breed up with great care beasts of a nature quite contrary to that
of men, although the nature of all men seems to be one and the same.
Now if there be such differences in opinion among you Egyptians, why
are you surprised that those who came to Alexandria from another
country, and had original laws of their own before, should persevere
in the observance of those laws? But still he charges us with being
the authors of sedition; which accusation, if it be a just one, why
is it not laid against us all, since we are known to be all of one
mind. Moreover, those that search into such matters will soon
discover that the authors of sedition have been such citizens of
Alexandria as Apion is; for while they were the Grecians and
Macedonians who were ill possession of this city, there was no
sedition raised against us, and we were permitted to observe our
ancient solemnities; but when the number of the Egyptians therein
came to be considerable, the times grew confused, and then these
seditions brake out still more and more, while our people continued
uncorrupted. These Egyptians, therefore, were the authors of these
troubles, who having not the constancy of Macedonians, nor the
prudence of Grecians, indulged all of them the evil manners of the
Egyptians, and continued their ancient hatred against us; for what
is here so presumptuously charged upon us, is owing to the
differences that are amongst themselves; while many of them have not
obtained the privileges of citizens in proper times, but style those
who are well known to have had that privilege extended to them all
no other than foreigners: for it does not appear that any of the
kings have ever formerly bestowed those privileges of citizens upon
Egyptians, no more than have the emperors done it more lately; while
it was Alexander who introduced us into this city at first, the
kings augmented our privileges therein, and the Romans have been
pleased to preserve them always inviolable. Moreover, Apion would
lay a blot upon us, because we do not erect images for our emperors;
as if those emperors did not know this before, or stood in need of
Apion as their defender; whereas he ought rather to have admired the
magnanimity and modesty of the Romans, whereby they do not compel
those that are subject to them to transgress the laws of their
countries, but are willing to receive the honors due to them after
such a manner as those who are to pay them esteem consistent with
piety and with their own laws; for they do not thank people for
conferring honors upon them, When they are compelled by violence so
to do. Accordingly, since the Grecians and some other nations think
it a right thing to make images, nay, when they have painted the
pictures of their parents, and wives, and children, they exult for
joy; and some there are who take pictures for themselves of such
persons as were no way related to them; nay, some take the pictures
of such servants as they were fond of; what wonder is it then if
such as these appear willing to pay the same respect to their
princes and lords? But then our legislator hath forbidden us to make
images, not by way of denunciation beforehand, that the Roman
authority was not to be honored, but as despising a thing that was
neither necessary nor useful for either God or man; and he forbade
them, as we shall prove hereafter, to make these images for any part
of the animal creation, and much less for God himself, who is no
part of such animal creation. Yet hath our legislator no where
forbidden us to pay honors to worthy men, provided they be of
another kind, and inferior to those we pay to God; with which honors
we willingly testify our respect to our emperors, and to the people
of Rome; we also offer perpetual sacrifices for them; nor do we only
offer them every day at the common expenses of all the Jews, but
although we offer no other such sacrifices out of our common
expenses, no, not for our own children, yet do we this as a peculiar
honor to the emperors, and to them alone, while we do the same to no
other person whomsoever. And let this suffice for an answer in
general to Apion, as to what he says with relation to the
Alexandrian Jews.
7. However, I cannot but admire those other authors who furnished
this man with such his materials; I mean Possidonius and Apollonius
[the son of] Molo, (8) who, while they accuse us for not worshipping
the same gods whom others worship, they think themselves not guilty
of impiety when they tell lies of us, and frame absurd and
reproachful stories about our temple; whereas it is a most shameful
thing for freemen to forge lies on any occasion, and much more so to
forge them about our temple, which was so famous over all the world,
and was preserved so sacred by us; for Apion hath the impudence to
pretend that” the Jews placed an ass’s head in their holy place;”
and he affirms that this was discovered when Antiochus Epiphanes
spoiled our temple, and found that ass’s head there made of gold,
and worth a great deal of money. To this my first answer shall be
this, that had there been any such thing among us, an Egyptian ought
by no means to have thrown it in our teeth, since an ass is not a
more contemptible animal than (9) and goats, and other such
creatures, which among them are gods. But besides this answer, I say
further, how comes it about that Apion does not understand this to
be no other than a palpable lie, and to be confuted by the thing
itself as utterly incredible? For we Jews are always governed by the
same laws, in which we constantly persevere; and although many
misfortunes have befallen our city, as the like have befallen
others, and although Theos [Epiphanes], and Pompey the Great, and
Licinius Crassus, and last of all Titus Caesar, have conquered us in
war, and gotten possession of our temple; yet have they none of them
found any such thing there, nor indeed any thing but what was
agreeable to the strictest piety; although what they found we are
not at liberty to reveal to other nations. But for Antiochus [Epiphanes],
he had no just cause for that ravage in our temple that he made; he
only came to it when he wanted money, without declaring himself our
enemy, and attacked us while we were his associates and his friends;
nor did he find any thing there that was ridiculous. This is
attested by many worthy writers; Polybius of Megalopolis, Strabo of
Cappadocia, Nicolaus of Damascus, Timagenes, Castor the chronotoger,
and Apollodorus; (10) who all say that it was out of Antiochus’s
want of money that he broke his league with the Jews, and despoiled
their temple when it was full of gold and silver. Apion ought to
have had a regard to these facts, unless he had himself had either
an ass’s heart or a dog’s impudence; of such a dog I mean as they
worship; for he had no other external reason for the lies he tells
of us. As for us Jews, we ascribe no honor or power to asses, as do
the Egyptians to crocodiles and asps, when they esteem such as are
seized upon by the former, or bitten by the latter, to be happy
persons, and persons worthy of God. Asses are the same with us which
they are with other wise men, viz. creatures that bear the burdens
that we lay upon them; but if they come to our thrashing-floors and
eat our corn, or do not perform what we impose upon them, we beat
them with a great many stripes, because it is their business to
minister to us in our husbandry affairs. But this Apion of ours was
either perfectly unskillful in the composition of such fallacious
discourses, or however, when he begun [somewhat better], he was not
able to persevere in what he had undertaken, since he hath no manner
of success in those reproaches he casts upon us.
8. He adds another Grecian fable, in order to reproach us. In reply
to which, it would be enough to say, that they who presume to speak
about Divine worship ought not to be ignorant of this plain truth,
that it is a degree of less impurity to pass through temples, than
to forge wicked calumnies of its priests. Now such men as he are
more zealous to justify a sacrilegious king, than to write what is
just and what is true about us, and about our temple; for when they
are desirous of gratifying Antiochus, and of concealing that
perfidiousness and sacrilege which he was guilty of, with regard to
our nation, when he wanted money, they endeavor to disgrace us, and
tell lies even relating to futurities. Apion becomes other men’s
prophet upon this occasion, and says that “Antiochus found in our
temple a bed, and a man lying upon it, with a small table before
him, full of dainties, from the [fishes of the] sea, and the fowls
of the dry land; that this man was amazed at these dainties thus set
before him; that he immediately adored the king, upon his coming in,
as hoping that he would afford him all possible assistance; that he
fell down upon his knees, and stretched out to him his right hand,
and begged to be released; and that when the king bid him sit down,
and tell him who he was, and why he dwelt there, and what was the
meaning of those various sorts of food that were set before him the
man made a lamentable complaint, and with sighs, and tears in his
eyes, gave him this account of the distress he was in; and said that
he was a Greek and that as he went over this province, in order to
get his living, he was seized upon by foreigners, on a sudden, and
brought to this temple, and shut up therein, and was seen by nobody,
but was fattened by these curious provisions thus set before him;
and that truly at the first such unexpected advantages seemed to him
matter of great joy; that after a while, they brought a suspicion
him, and at length astonishment, what their meaning should be; that
at last he inquired of the servants that came to him and was by them
informed that it was in order to the fulfilling a law of the Jews,
which they must not tell him, that he was thus fed; and that they
did the same at a set time every year: that they used to catch a
Greek foreigner, and fat him thus up every year, and then lead him
to a certain wood, and kill him, and sacrifice with their accustomed
solemnities, and taste of his entrails, and take an oath upon this
sacrificing a Greek, that they would ever be at enmity with the
Greeks; and that then they threw the remaining parts of the
miserable wretch into a certain pit.” Apion adds further, that” the
man said there were but a few days to come ere he was to be slain,
and implored of Antiochus that, out of the reverence he bore to the
Grecian gods, he would disappoint the snares the Jews laid for his
blood, and would deliver him from the miseries with which he was
encompassed.” Now this is such a most tragical fable as is full of
nothing but cruelty and impudence; yet does it not excuse Antiochus
of his sacrilegious attempt, as those who write it in his
vindication are willing to suppose; for he could not presume
beforehand that he should meet with any such thing in coming to the
temple, but must have found it unexpectedly. He was therefore still
an impious person, that was given to unlawful pleasures, and had no
regard to God in his actions. But [as for Apion], he hath done
whatever his extravagant love of lying hath dictated to him, as it
is most easy to discover by a consideration of his writings; for the
difference of our laws is known not to regard the Grecians only, but
they are principally opposite to the Egyptians, and to some other
nations also for while it so falls out that men of all countries
come sometimes and sojourn among us, how comes it about that we take
an oath, and conspire only against the Grecians, and that by the
effusion of their blood also? Or how is it possible that all the
Jews should get together to these sacrifices, and the entrails of
one man should be sufficient for so many thousands to taste of them,
as Apion pretends? Or why did not the king carry this man, whosoever
he was, and whatsoever was his name, (which is not set down in
Apion’s book,) with great pomp back into his own country? when he
might thereby have been esteemed a religious person himself, and a
mighty lover of the Greeks, and might thereby have procured himself
great assistance from all men against that hatred the Jews bore to
him. But I leave this matter; for the proper way of confuting fools
is not to use bare words, but to appeal to the things themselves
that make against them. Now, then, all such as ever saw the
construction of our temple, of what nature it was, know well enough
how the purity of it was never to be profaned; for it had four
several courts (12) encompassed with cloisters round about, every
one of which had by our law a peculiar degree of separation from the
rest. Into the first court every body was allowed to go, even
foreigners, and none but women, during their courses, were
prohibited to pass through it; all the Jews went into the second
court, as well as their wives, when they were free from all
uncleanness; into the third court went in the Jewish men, when they
were clean and purified; into the fourth went the priests, having on
their sacerdotal garments; but for the most sacred place, none went
in but the high priests, clothed in their peculiar garments. Now
there is so great caution used about these offices of religion, that
the priests are appointed to go into the temple but at certain
hours; for in the morning, at the opening of the inner temple, those
that are to officiate receive the sacrifices, as they do again at
noon, till the doors are shut. Lastly, it is not so much as lawful
to carry any vessel into the holy house; nor is there any thing
therein, but the altar [of incense], the table [of shew-bread], the
censer, and the candlestick, which are all written in the law; for
there is nothing further there, nor are there any mysteries
performed that may not be spoken of; nor is there any feasting
within the place. For what I have now said is publicly known, and
supported by the testimony of the whole people, and their operations
are very manifest; for although there be four courses of the
priests, and every one of them have above five thousand men in them,
yet do they officiate on certain days only; and when those days are
over, other priests succeed in the performance of their sacrifices,
and assemble together at mid-day, and receive the keys of the
temple, and the vessels by tale, without any thing relating to food
or drink being carried into the temple; nay, we are not allowed to
offer such things at the altar, excepting what is prepared for the
sacrifices.
9. What then can we say of Apion, but that he examined nothing that
concerned these things, while still he uttered incredible words
about them? but it is a great shame for a grammarian not to be able
to write true history. Now if he knew the purity of our temple, he
hath entirely omitted to take notice of it; but he forges a story
about the seizing of a Grecian, about ineffable food, and the most
delicious preparation of dainties; and pretends that strangers could
go into a place whereinto the noblest men among the Jews are not
allowed to enter, unless they be priests. This, therefore, is the
utmost degree of impiety, and a voluntary lie, in order to the
delusion of those who will not examine into the truth of matters;
whereas such unspeakable mischiefs as are above related have been
occasioned by such calumnies that are raised upon us.
10. Nay, this miracle or piety derides us further, and adds the
following pretended facts to his former fable; for be says that this
man related how, “while the Jews were once in a long war with the Idumeans, there came a man out of one of the cities of the Idumeans,
who there had worshipped Apollo. This man, whose name is said to
have been Zabidus, came to the Jews, and promised that he would
deliver Apollo, the god of Dora, into their hands, and that he would
come to our temple, if they would all come up with him, and bring
the whole multitude of the Jews with them; that Zabidus made him a
certain wooden instrument, and put it round about him, and set three
rows of lamps therein, and walked after such a manner, that he
appeared to those that stood a great way off him to be a kind of
star, walking upon the earth; that the Jews were terribly affrighted
at so surprising an appearance, and stood very quiet at a distance;
and that Zabidus, while they continued so very quiet, went into the
holy house, and carried off that golden head of an ass, (for so
facetiously does he write,) and then went his way back again to Dora
in great haste.” And say you so, sir! as I may reply; then does
Apion load the ass, that is, himself, and lays on him a burden of
fooleries and lies; for he writes of places that have no being, and
not knowing the cities he speaks of, he changes their situation; for
Idumea borders upon our country, and is near to Gaza, in which there
is no such city as Dora; although there be, it is true, a city named
Dora in Phoenicia, near Mount Carmel, but it is four days’ journey
from Idumea. (12) Now, then, why does this man accuse us, because we
have not gods in common with other nations, if our fathers were so
easily prevailed upon to have Apollo come to them, and thought they
saw him walking upon the earth, and the stars with him? for
certainly those who have so many festivals, wherein they light
lamps, must yet, at this rate, have never seen a candlestick! But
still it seems that while Zabidus took his journey over the country,
where were so many ten thousands of people, nobody met him. He also,
it seems, even in a time of war, found the walls of Jerusalem
destitute of guards. I omit the rest. Now the doors of the holy
house were seventy (13) cubits high, and twenty cubits broad; they
were all plated over with gold, and almost of solid gold itself, and
there were no fewer than twenty (14) men required to shut them every
day; nor was it lawful ever to leave them open, though it seems this
lamp-bearer of ours opened them easily, or thought he opened them,
as he thought he had the ass’s head in his hand. Whether, therefore,
he returned it to us again, or whether Apion took it, and brought it
into the temple again, that Antiochus might find it, and afford a
handle for a second fable of Apion’s, is uncertain.
11. Apion also tells a false story, when he mentions an oath of
ours, as if we “swore by God, the Maker of the heaven, and earth,
and sea, to bear no good will to any foreigner, and particularly to
none of the Greeks.” Now this liar ought to have said directly that”
we would bear no good-will to any foreigner, and particularly to
none of the Egyptians.” For then his story about the oath would have
squared with the rest of his original forgeries, in case our
forefathers had been driven away by their kinsmen, the Egyptians,
not on account of any wickedness they had been guilty of, but on
account of the calamities they were under; for as to the Grecians,
we were rather remote from them in place, than different from them
in our institutions, insomuch that we have no enmity with them, nor
any jealousy of them. On the contrary, it hath so happened that many
of them have come over to our laws, and some of them have continued
in their observation, although others of them had not courage enough
to persevere, and so departed from them again; nor did any body ever
hear this oath sworn by us: Apion, it seems, was the only person
that heard it, for he indeed was the first composer of it.
12. However, Apion deserves to be admired for his great prudence, as
to what I am going to say, which is this,” That there is a plain
mark among us, that we neither have just laws, nor worship God as we
ought to do, because we are not governors, but are rather in
subjection to Gentiles, sometimes to one nation, and sometimes to
another; and that our city hath been liable to several calamities,
while their city [Alexandria] hath been of old time an imperial
city, and not used to be in subjection to the Romans.” But now this
man had better leave off this bragging, for every body but himself
would think that Apion said what he hath said against himself; for
there are very few nations that have had the good fortune to
continue many generations in the principality, but still the
mutations in human affairs have put them into subjection under
others; and most nations have been often subdued, and brought into
subjection by others. Now for the Egyptians, perhaps they are the
only nation that have had this extraordinary privilege, to have
never served any of those monarchs who subdued Asia and Europe, and
this on account, as they pretend, that the gods fled into their
country, and saved themselves by being changed into the shapes of
wild beasts! Whereas these Egyptians (15) are the very people that
appear to have never, in all the past ages, had one day of freedom,
no, not so much as from their own lords. For I will not reproach
them with relating the manner how the Persians used them, and this
not once only, but many times, when they laid their cities waste,
demolished their temples, and cut the throats of those animals whom
they esteemed to be gods; for it is not reasonable to imitate the
clownish ignorance of Apion, who hath no regard to the misfortunes
of the Athenians, or of the Lacedemonians, the latter of whom were
styled by all men the most courageous, and the former the most
religious of the Grecians. I say nothing of such kings as have been
famous for piety, particularly of one of them, whose name was Cresus,
nor what calamities he met with in his life; I say nothing of the
citadel of Athens, of the temple at Ephesus, of that at Delphi, nor
of ten thousand others which have been burnt down, while nobody cast
reproaches on those that were the sufferers, but on those that were
the actors therein. But now we have met with Apion, an accuser of
our nation, though one that still forgets the miseries of his own
people, the Egptians; but it is that Sesostris who was once so
celebrated a king of Egypt that hath blinded him. Now we will not
brag of our kings, David and Solomon, though they conquered many
nations; accordingly we will let them alone. However, Apion is
ignorant of what every body knows, that the Egyptians were servants
to the Persians, and afterwards to the Macedonians, when they were
lords of Asia, and were no better than slaves, while we have enjoyed
liberty formerly; nay, more than that, have had the dominion of the
cities that lie round about us, and this nearly for a hundred and
twenty years together, until Pompeius Magnus. And when all the kings
every where were conquered by the Romans, our ancestors were the
only people who continued to be esteemed their confederates and
friends, on account of their fidelity to them.(16)
13. “But,” says Apion, “we Jews have not had any wonderful men
amongst us, not any inventors of arts, nor any eminent for wisdom.”
He then enumerates Socrates, and Zeno, and Cleanthes, and some
others of the same sort; and, after all, he adds himself to them,
which is the most wonderful thing of all that he says, and
pronounces Alexandria to be happy, because it hath such a citizen as
he is in it; for he was the fittest man to be a witness to his own
deserts, although he hath appeared to all others no better than a
wicked mountebank, of a corrupt life and ill discourses; on which
account one may justly pity Alexandria, if it should value itself
upon such a citizen as he is. But as to our own men, we have had
those who have been as deserving of commendation as any other
whosoever, and such as have perused our Antiquities cannot be
ignorant of them.
14. As to the other things which he sets down as blameworthy, it may
perhaps be the best way to let them pass without apology, that he
may be allowed to be his own accuser, and the accuser of the rest of
the Egyptians. However, he accuses us for sacrificing animals, and
for abstaining from swine’s flesh, and laughs at us for the
circumcision of our privy members. Now as for our slaughter of tame
animals for sacrifices, it is common to us and to all other men; but
this Apion, by making it a crime to sacrifice them, demonstrates
himself to be an Egyptian; for had he been either a Grecian or a
Macedonian, [as he pretends to be,] he had not shown any uneasiness
at it; for those people glory in sacrificing whole hecatombs to the
gods, and make use of those sacrifices for feasting; and yet is not
the world thereby rendered destitute of cattle, as Apion was afraid
would come to pass. Yet if all men had followed the manners of the
Egyptians, the world had certainly been made desolate as to mankind,
but had been filled full of the wildest sort of brute beasts, which,
because they suppose them to be gods, they carefully nourish.
However, if any one should ask Apion which of the Egyptians he
thinks to he the most wise and most pious of them all, he would
certainly acknowledge the priests to be so; for the histories say
that two things were originally committed to their care by their
kings’ injunctions, the worship of the gods, and the support of
wisdom and philosophy. Accordingly, these priests are all
circumcised, and abstain from swine’s flesh; nor does any one of the
other Egyptians assist them in slaying those sacrifices they offer
to the gods. Apion was therefore quite blinded in his mind, when,
for the sake of the Egyptians, he contrived to reproach us, and to
accuse such others as not only make use of that conduct of life
which he so much abuses, but have also taught other men to be
circumcised, as says Herodotus; which makes me think that Apion is
hereby justly punished for his casting such reproaches on the laws
of his own country; for he was circumcised himself of necessity, on
account of an ulcer in his privy member; and when he received no
benefit by such circumcision, but his member became putrid, he died
in great torment. Now men of good tempers ought to observe their own
laws concerning religion accurately, and to persevere therein, but
not presently to abuse the laws of other nations, while this Apion
deserted his own laws, and told lies about ours. And this was the
end of Apion’s life, and this shall be the conclusion of our
discourse about him.