Against Apion

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27. This is what the Egyptians relate about the Jews, with much
more, which I omit for the sake of brevity. But still Manetho
goes on, that "after this, Amenophis returned back from Ethiopia
with a great army, as did his son Ahampses with another army
also, and that both of them joined battle with the shepherds and
the polluted people, and beat them, and slew a great many of
them, and pursued them to the bounds of Syria." These and the
like accounts are written by Manetho. But I will demonstrate that
he trifles, and tells arrant lies, after I have made a
distinction which will relate to what I am going to say about
him; for this Manetho had granted and confessed that this nation
was not originally Egyptian, but that they had come from another
country, and subdued Egypt, and then went away again out of it.
But that. those Egyptians who were thus diseased in their bodies
were not mingled with us afterward, and that Moses who brought
the people out was not one of that company, but lived many
generations earlier, I shall endeavor to demonstrate from
Manetho's own accounts themselves.

28. Now, for the first occasion of this fiction, Manetho supposes
what is no better than a ridiculous thing; for he says that" king
Amenophis desired to see the gods." What gods, I pray, did he
desire to see? If he meant the gods whom their laws ordained to
be worshipped, the ox, the goat, the crocodile, and the baboon,
he saw them already; but for the heavenly gods, how could he see
them, and what should occasion this his desire? To be sure? it
was because another king before him had already seen them. He had
then been informed what sort of gods they were, and after what
manner they had been seen, insomuch that he did not stand in need
of any new artifice for obtaining this sight. However, the
prophet by whose means the king thought to compass his design was
a wise man. If so, how came he not to know that such his desire
was impossible to be accomplished? for the event did not succeed.
And what pretense could there be to suppose that the gods would
not be seen by reason of the people's maims in their bodies, or
leprosy? for the gods are not angry at the imperfection of
bodies, but at wicked practices; and as to eighty thousand
lepers, and those in an ill state also, how is it possible to
have them gathered together in one day? nay, how came the king
not to comply with the prophet? for his injunction was, that
those that were maimed should be expelled out of Egypt, while the
king only sent them to work in the quarries, as if he were rather
in want of laborers, than intended to purge his country. He says
further, that" this prophet slew himself, as foreseeing the anger
of the gods, and those events which were to come upon Egypt
afterward; and that he left this prediction for the king in
writing." Besides, how came it to pass that this prophet did not
foreknow his own death at the first? nay, how came he not to
contradict the king in his desire to see the gods immediately?
how came that unreasonable dread upon him of judgments that were
not to happen in his lifetime? or what worse thing could he
suffer, out of the fear of which he made haste to kill himself?
But now let us see the silliest thing of all: - The king,
although he had been informed of these things, and terrified with
the fear of what was to come, yet did not he even then eject
these maimed people out of his country, when it had been foretold
him that he was to clear Egypt of them; but, as Manetho says, "he
then, upon their request, gave them that city to inhabit, which
had formerly belonged to the shepherds, and was called Avaris;
whither when they were gone in crowds," he says, "they chose one
that had formerly been priest of Hellopolls; and that this priest
first ordained that they should neither worship the gods, nor
abstain from those animals that were worshipped by the Egyptians,
but should kill and eat them all, and should associate with
nobody but those that had conspired with them; and that he bound
the multitude by oaths to be sure to continue in those laws; and
that when he had built a wall about Avaris, he made war against
the king." Manetho adds also, that "this priest sent to Jerusalem
to invite that people to come to his assistance, and promised to
give them Avaris; for that it had belonged to the forefathers of
those that were coming from Jerusalem, and that when they were
come, they made a war immediately against the king, and got
possession of all Egypt." He says also that "the Egyptians came
with an army of two hundred thousand men, and that Amenophis, the
king of Egypt, not thinking that he ought to fight against the
gods, ran away presently into Ethiopia, and committed Apis and
certain other of their sacred animals to the priests, and
commanded them to take care of preserving them." He says further,
that" the people of Jerusalem came accordingly upon the
Egyptians, and overthrew their cities, and burnt their temples,
and slew their horsemen, and, in short, abstained from no sort of
wickedness nor barbarity; and for that priest who settled their
polity and their laws," he says," he was by birth of Hellopolis,
and his name was Osarsiph, from Osyris the god of Hellopolis, but
that he changed his name, and called himself Moses." He then says
that "on the thirteenth year afterward, Amenophis, according to
the fatal time of the duration of his misfortunes, came upon them
out of Ethiopia with a great army, and joining battle with the
shepherds and with the polluted people, overcame them in battle,
and slew a great many of them, and pursued them as far as the
bounds of Syria."

29. Now Manetho does not reflect upon the improbability of his
lie; for the leprous people, and the multitude that was with
them, although they might formerly have been angry at the king,
and at those that had treated them so coarsely, and this
according to the prediction of the prophet; yet certainly, when
they were come out of the mines, and had received of the king a
city, and a country, they would have grown milder towards him.
However, had they ever so much hated him in particular, they
might have laid a private plot against himself, but would hardly
have made war against all the Egyptians; I mean this on the
account of the great kindred they who were so numerous must have
had among them. Nay still, if they had resolved to fight with the
men, they would not have had impudence enough to fight with their
gods; nor would they have ordained laws quite contrary to those
of their own country, and to those in which they had been bred up
themselves. Yet are we beholden to Manethe, that he does not lay
the principal charge of this horrid transgression upon those that
came from Jerusalem, but says that the Egyptians themselves were
the most guilty, and that they were their priests that contrived
these things, and made the multitude take their oaths for doing
so. But still how absurd is it to suppose that none of these
people's own relations or friends should be prevailed with to
revolt, nor to undergo the hazards of war with them, while these
polluted people were forced to send to Jerusalem, and bring their
auxiliaries from thence! What friendship, I pray, or what
relation was there formerly between them that required this
assistance? On the contrary, these people were enemies, and
greatly differed from them in their customs. He says, indeed,
that they complied immediately, upon their praising them that
they should conquer Egypt; as if they did not themselves very
well know that country out of which they had been driven by
force. Now had these men been in want, or lived miserably,
perhaps they might have undertaken so hazardous an enterprise;
but as they dwelt in a happy city, and had a large country, and
one better than Egypt itself, how came it about that, for the
sake of those that had of old been their enemies, of those that
were maimed in their bodies, and of those whom none of their own
relations would endure, they should run such hazards in assisting
them? For they could not foresee that the king would run away
from them: on the contrary, he saith himself that "Amenophis's
son had three hundred thousand men with him, and met them at
Pelusium." Now, to be sure, those that came could not be ignorant
of this; but for the king's repentance and flight, how could they
possibly guess at it? He then says, that "those who came from
Jerusalem, and made this invasion, got the granaries of Egypt
into their possession, and perpetrated many of the most horrid
actions there." And thence he reproaches them, as though he had
not himself introduced them as enemies, or as though he might
accuse such as were invited from another place for so doing, when
the natural Egyptians themselves had done the same things before
their coming, and had taken oaths so to do. However, "Amenophis,
some time afterward, came upon them, and conquered them in
battle, and slew his enemies, and drove them before him as far as
Syria." As if Egypt were so easily taken by people that came from
any place whatsoever, and as if those that had conquered it by
war, when they were informed that Amenophis was alive, did
neither fortify the avenues out of Ethiopia into it, although
they had great advantages for doing it, nor did get their other
forces ready for their defense! but that he followed them over
the sandy desert, and slew them as far as Syria; while yet it is
rot an easy thing for an army to pass over that country, even
without fighting.

30. Our nation, therefore, according to Manetho, was not derived
from Egypt, nor were any of the Egyptians mingled with us. For it
is to be supposed that many of the leprous and distempered people
were dead in the mines, since they had been there a long time,
and in so ill a condition; many others must be dead in the
battles that happened afterward, and more still in the last
battle and flight after it.

31. It now remains that I debate with Manetho about Moses. Now
the Egyptians acknowledge him to have been a wonderful and a
divine person; nay, they would willingly lay claim to him
themselves, though after a most abusive and incredible manner,
and pretend that he was of Heliopolis, and one of the priests of
that place, and was ejected out of it among the rest, on account
of his leprosy; although it had been demonstrated out of their
records that he lived five hundred and eighteen years earlier,
and then brought our forefathers out of Egypt into the country
that is now inhabited by us. But now that he was not subject in
his body to any such calamity, is evident from what he himself
tells us; for he forbade those that had the leprosy either to
continue in a city, or to inhabit in a village, but commanded
that they should go about by themselves with their clothes rent;
and declares that such as either touch them, or live under the
same roof with them, should be esteemed unclean; nay, more, if
any one of their disease be healed, and he recover his natural
constitution again, he appointed them certain purifications, and
washings with spring water, and the shaving off all their hair,
and enjoins that they shall offer many sacrifices, and those of
several kinds, and then at length to be admitted into the holy
city; although it were to be expected that, on the contrary, if
he had been under the same calamity, he should have taken care of
such persons beforehand, and have had them treated after a kinder
manner, as affected with a concern for those that were to be
under the like misfortunes with himself. Nor ;was it only those
leprous people for whose sake he made these laws, but also for
such as should be maimed in the smallest part of their body, who
yet are not permitted by him to officiate as priests; nay,
although any priest, already initiated, should have such a
calamity fall upon him afterward, he ordered him to be deprived
of his honor of officiating. How can it then be supposed that
Moses should ordain such laws against himself, to his own
reproach and damage who so ordained them? Nor indeed is that
other notion of Manetho at all probable, wherein he relates the
change of his name, and says that "he was formerly called
Osarsiph;" and this a name no way agreeable to the other, while
his true name was Mosses, and signifies a person who is preserved
out of the water, for the Egyptians call water Moil. I think,
therefore, I have made it sufficiently evident that Manetho,
while he followed his ancient records, did not much mistake the
truth of the history; but that when he had recourse to fabulous
stories, without any certain author, he either forged them
himself, without any probability, or else gave credit to some men
who spake so out of their ill-will to us.

32. And now I have done with Manetho, I will inquire into what
Cheremon says. For he also, when he pretended to write the
Egyptian history, sets down the same name for this king that
Manetho did, Amenophis, as also of his son Ramesses, and then
goes on thus: "The goddess Isis appeared to Amenophis in his
sleep, and blamed him that her temple had been demolished in the
war. But that Phritiphantes, the sacred scribe, said to him, that
in case he would purge Egypt of the men that had pollutions upon
them, he should be no longer troubled. with such frightful
apparitions. That Amenophis accordingly chose out two hundred and
fifty thousand of those that were thus diseased, and cast them
out of the country: that Moses and Joseph were scribes, and
Joseph was a sacred scribe; that their names were Egyptian
originally; that of Moses had been Tisithen, and that of Joseph,
Peteseph: that these two came to Pelusium, and lighted upon three
hundred and eighty thousand that had been left there by
Amenophis, he not being willing to carry them into Egypt; that
these scribes made a league of friendship with them, and made
with them an expedition against Egypt: that Amenophis could not
sustain their attacks, but fled into Ethiopia, and left his wife
with child behind him, who lay concealed in certain caverns, and
there brought forth a son, whose name was Messene, and who, when
he was grown up to man's estate, pursued the Jews into Syria,
being about two hundred thousand, and then received his father
Amenophis out of Ethiopia."

33. This is the account Cheremon gives us. Now I take it for
granted that what I have said already hath plainly proved the
falsity of both these narrations; for had there been any real
truth at the bottom, it was impossible they should so greatly
disagree about the particulars. But for those that invent lies,
what they write will easily give us very different accounts,
while they forge what they please out of their own heads. Now
Manetho says that the king's desire of seeing the gods was the
origin of the ejection of the polluted people; but Cheremon
feigns that it was a dream of his own, sent upon him by Isis,
that was the occasion of it. Manetho says that the person who
foreshowed this purgation of Egypt to the king was Amenophis; but
this man says it was Phritiphantes. As to the numbers of the
multitude that were expelled, they agree exceedingly well (24)
the former reckoning them eighty thousand, and the latter about
two hundred and fifty thousand! Now, for Manetho, he describes
those polluted persons as sent first to work in the quarries, and
says that the city Avaris was given them for their habitation. As
also he relates that it was not till after they had made war with
the rest of the Egyptians, that they invited the people of
Jerusalem to come to their assistance; while Cheremon says only
that they were gone out of Egypt, and lighted upon three hundred
and eighty thousand men about Pelusium, who had been left there
by Amenophis, and so they invaded Egypt with them again; that
thereupon Amenophis fled into Ethiopia. But then this Cheremon
commits a most ridiculous blunder in not informing us who this
army of so many ten thousands were, or whence they came; whether
they were native Egyptians, or whether they came from a foreign
country. Nor indeed has this man, who forged a dream from Isis
about the leprous people, assigned the reason why the king would
not bring them into Egypt. Moreover, Cheremon sets down Joseph as
driven away at the same time with Moses, who yet died four
generations (25) before Moses, which four generations make almost
one hundred and seventy years. Besides all this, Ramesses, the
son of Amenophis, by Manetho's account, was a young man, and
assisted his father in his war, and left the country at the same
time with him, and fled into Ethiopia. But Cheremon makes him to
have been born in a certain cave, after his father was dead, and
that he then overcame the Jews in battle, and drove them into
Syria, being in number about two hundred thousand. O the levity
of the man! for he had neither told us who these three hundred
and eighty thousand were, nor how the four hundred and thirty
thousand perished; whether they fell in war, or went over to
Ramesses. And, what is the strangest of all, it is not possible
to learn out of him who they were whom he calls Jews, or to which
of these two parties he applies that denomination, whether to the
two hundred and fifty thousand leprous people, or to the three
hundred and eighty thousand that were about Pelusium. But perhaps
it will be looked upon as a silly thing in me to make any larger
confutation of such writers as sufficiently confute themselves;
for had they been only confuted by other men, it had been more
tolerable.

34. I shall now add to these accounts about Manethoand Cheremon
somewhat about Lysimachus, who hath taken the same topic of
falsehood with those forementioned, but hath gone far beyond them
in the incredible nature of his forgeries; which plainly
demonstrates that he contrived them out of his virulent hatred of
our nation. His words are these: "The people of the Jews being
leprous and scabby, and subject to certain other kinds of
distempers, in the days of Bocchoris, king of Egypt, they fled to
the temples, and got their food there by begging: and as the
numbers were very great that were fallen under these diseases,
there arose a scarcity in Egypt. Hereupon Bocehoris, the king of
Egypt, sent some to consult the oracle of [Jupiter] Hammon about
his scarcity. The god's answer was this, that he must purge his
temples of impure and impious men, by expelling them out of those
temples into desert places; but as to the scabby and leprous
people, he must drown them, and purge his temples, the sun having
an indignation at these men being suffered to live; and by this
means the land will bring forth its fruits. Upon Bocchoris's
having received these oracles, he called for their priests, and
the attendants upon their altars, and ordered them to make a
collection of the impure people, and to deliver them to the
soldiers, to carry them away into the desert; but to take the
leprous people, and wrap them in sheets of lead, and let them
down into the sea. Hereupon the scabby and leprous people were
drowned, and the rest were gotten together, and sent into desert
places, in order to be exposed to destruction. In this case they
assembled themselves together, and took counsel what they should
do, and determined that, as the night was coming on, they should
kindle fires and lamps, and keep watch; that they also should
fast the next night, and propitiate the gods, in order to obtain
deliverance from them. That on the next day there was one Moses,
who advised them that they should venture upon a journey, and go
along one road till they should come to places fit for
habitation: that he charged them to have no kind regards for any
man, nor give good counsel to any, but always to advise them for
the worst; and to overturn all those temples and altars of the
gods they should meet with: that the rest commended what he had
said with one consent, and did what they had resolved on, and so
traveled over the desert. But that the difficulties of the
journey being over, they came to a country inhabited, and that
there they abused the men, and plundered and burnt their temples;
and then came into that land which is called Judea, and there
they built a city, and dwelt therein, and that their city was
named Hierosyla, from this their robbing of the temples; but that
still, upon the success they had afterwards, they in time changed
its denomination, that it might not be a reproach to them, and
called the city Hierosolyma, and themselves Hierosolymites."

35. Now this man did not discover and mention the same king with
the others, but feigned a newer name, and passing by the dream
and the Egyptian prophet, he brings him to [Jupiter] Hammon, in
order to gain oracles about the scabby and leprous people; for he
says that the multitude of Jews were gathered together at the
temples. Now it is uncertain whether he ascribes this name to
these lepers, or to those that were subject to such diseases
among the Jews only; for he describes them as a people of the
Jews. What people does he mean? foreigners, or those of that
country? Why then' dost thou call them Jews, if they were
Egyptians? But if they were foreigners, why dost thou not tell us
whence they came? And how could it be that, after the king had
drowned many of them in the sea, and ejected the rest into desert
places, there should be still so great a multitude remaining? Or
after what manner did they pass over the desert, and get the land
which we now dwell in, and build our city, and that temple which
hath been so famous among all mankind? And besides, he ought to
have spoken more about our legislator than by giving us his bare
name; and to have informed us of what nation he was, and what
parents he was derived from; and to have assigned the reasons why
he undertook to make such laws concerning the gods, and
concerning matters of injustice with regard to men during that
journey. For in case the people were by birth Egyptians, they
would not on the sudden have so easily changed the customs of
their country; and in case they had been foreigners, they had for
certain some laws or other which had been kept by them from long
custom. It is true, that with regard to those who had ejected
them, they might have sworn never to bear good-will to them, and
might have had a plausible reason for so doing. But if these men
resolved to wage an implacable war against all men, in case they
had acted as wickedly as he relates of them, and this while they
wanted the assistance of all men, this demonstrates a kind of mad
conduct indeed; but not of the men themselves, but very greatly
so of him that tells such lies about them. He hath also impudence
enough to say that a name, implying "Robbers of the temples,"
(26) was given to their city, and that this name was afterward
changed. The reason of which is plain, that the former name
brought reproach and hatred upon them in the times of their
posterity, while, it seems, those that built the city thought
they did honor to the city by giving it such a name. So we see
that this fine fellow had such an unbounded inclination to
reproach us, that he did not understand that robbery of temples
is not expressed By the same word and name among the Jews as it
is among the Greeks. But why should a man say any more to a
person who tells such impudent lies? However, since this book is
arisen to a competent length, I will make another beginning, and
endeavor to add what still remains to perfect my design in the
following book.

APION BOOK 1 FOOTNOTES

(1) This first book has a wrong title. It is not written against
Apion, as is the first part of the second book, but against those
Greeks in general who would not believe Josephus's former
accounts of the very ancient state of the Jewish nation, in his
20 books of Antiquities; and particularly against Agatharelddes,
Manetho, Cheremon, and Lysimachus. it is one of the most learned,
excellent, and useful books of all antiquity; and upon Jerome's
perusal of this and the following book, he declares that it seems
to him a miraculous thing "how one that was a Hebrew, who had
been from his infancy instructed in sacred learning, should be
able to pronounce such a number of testimonies out of profane
authors, as if he had read over all the Grecian libraries,"
Epist. 8. ad Magnum; and the learned Jew, Manasseh-Ben-Israel,
esteemed these two books so excellent, as to translate them into
the Hebrew; this we learn from his own catalogue of his works,
which I have seen. As to the time and place when and where these
two books were written, the learned have not hitherto been able
to determine them any further than that they were written some
time after his Antiquities, or some time after A.D. 93; which
indeed is too obvious at their entrance to be overlooked by even
a careless peruser, they being directly intended against those
that would not believe what he had advanced in those books
con-the great of the Jewish nation As to the place, they all
imagine that these two books were written where the former were,
I mean at Rome; and I confess that I myself believed both those
determinations, till I came to finish my notes upon these books,
when I met with plain indications that they were written not at
Rome, but in Judea, and this after the third of Trajan, or A.D.
100.

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