Against Apion

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APION BOOK 2 FOOTNOTES

(1) The former part of this second book is written against the
calumnies of Apion, and then, more briefly, against the like
calumnies of Apollonius Molo. But after that, Josephus leaves off
any more particular reply to those adversaries of the Jews, and
gives us a large and excellent description and vindication of
that theocracy which was settled for the Jewish nation by Moses,
their great legislator.

(2) Called by Tiberius Cymbalum Mundi, The drum of the world.

(3) This seems to have been the first dial that had been made in
Egypt, and was a little before the time that Ahaz made his
[first] dial in Judea, and about anno 755, in the first year of
the seventh olympiad, as we shall see presently. See 2 Kings
20:11; Isaiah 38:8.

(4) The burial-place for dead bodies, as I suppose.

(5) Here begins a great defect in the Greek copy; but the old
Latin version fully supplies that defect.

(6) What error is here generally believed to have been committed
by our Josephus in ascribing a deliverance of the Jews to the
reign of Ptolemy Physco, the seventh of those Ptolemus, which has
been universally supposed to have happened under Ptolemy
Philopater, the fourth of them, is no better than a gross error
of the moderns, and not of Josephus, as I have fully proved in
the Authentic. Rec. Part I. p. 200-201, whither I refer the
inquisitive reader.

(7) Sister's son, and adopted son.

(8) Called more properly Molo, or Apollonius Molo, as hereafter;
for Apollonins, the son of Molo, was another person, as Strabo
informs us, lib. xiv.

(9) Furones in the Latin, which what animal it denotes does not
now appear.

(10) It is great pity that these six pagan authors, here
mentioned to have described the famous profanation of the Jewish
temple by Antiochus Epiphanes, should be all lost; I mean so far
of their writings as contained that description; though it is
plain Josephus perused them all as extant in his time.

(11) It is remarkable that Josephus here, and, I think, no where
else, reckons up four distinct courts of the temple; that of the
Gentiles, that of the women of Israel, that of the men of Israel,
and that of the priests; as also that the court of the women
admitted of the men, (I suppose only of the husbands of those
wives that were therein,) while the court of the men did not
admit any women into it at all.

(12) Judea, in the Greek, by a gross mistake of the transcribers.

(13) Seven in the Greek, by a like gross mistake of the
transcribers. See of the War, B. V. ch. 5. sect. 4.

(14) Two hundred in the Greek, contrary to the twenty in the War,
B. VII. ch, 5. sect. 3.

(15) This notorious disgrace belonging peculiarly to the people
of Egypt, ever since the times of the old prophets of the Jews,
noted both sect. 4 already, and here, may be confirmed by the
testimony of Isidorus, an Egyptian of Pelusium, Epist. lib. i.
Ep. 489. And this is a remarkable completion of the ancient
prediction of God by Ezekiel 29:14, 15, that the Egyptians should
be a base kingdom, the basest of the kingdoms," and that "it
should not exalt itself any more above the nations."

(16) The truth of which still further appears by the present
observation of Josephus, that these Egyptians had never, in all
the past ages since Sesostris, had one day of liberty, no, not so
much as to have been free from despotic power under any of the
monarchies to that day. And all this bas been found equally true
in the latter ages, under the Romans, Saracens, Mamelukes, and
Turks, from the days of Josephus till the present ago also.

(17) This language, that Moses, "persuaded himself" that what he
did was according to God's will, can mean no more, by Josephus's
own constant notions elsewhere, than that he was "firmly
persuaded," that he had "fully satisfied himself" that so it was,
viz. by the many revelations he had received from God, and the
numerous miracles God had enabled him to work, as he both in
these very two books against Apion, and in his Antiquities, most
clearly and frequently assures us. This is further evident from
several passages lower, where he affirms that Moses was no
impostor nor deceiver, and where he assures that Moses's
constitution of government was no other than a theocracy; and
where he says they are to hope for deliverance out of their
distresses by prayer to God, and that withal it was owing in part
to this prophetic spirit of Moses that the Jews expected a
resurrection from the dead. See almost as strange a use of the
like words, "to persuade God," Antiq. B. VI. ch. 5. sect. 6.

(18) That is, Moses really was, what the heathen legislators
pretended to be, under a Divine direction; nor does it yet appear
that these pretensions to a supernatural conduct, either in these
legislators or oracles, were mere delusions of men without any
demoniacal impressions, nor that Josephus took them so to be; as
the ancientest and contemporary authors did still believe them to
be supernatural.

(19) This whole very large passage is corrected by Dr. Hudson
from Eusebius's citation of it, Prep. Evangel. viii. 8, which is
here not a little different from the present MSS. of Josephus.

(20) This expression itself, that "Moses ordained the Jewish
government to be a theocracy," may be illustrated by that
parallel expression in the Antiquities, B. III. ch. 8. sect. 9,
that "Moses left it to God to be present at his sacrifices when
he pleased; and when he pleased, to be absent." Both ways of
speaking sound harsh in the ears of Jews and Christians, as do
several others which Josephus uses to the heathens; but still
they were not very improper in him, when he all along thought fit
to accommodate himself, both in his Antiquities, and in these his
books against Apion, all written for the use of the Greeks and
Romans, to their notions and language, and this as far as ever
truth would give him leave. Though it be very observable withal,
that he never uses such expressions in his books of the War,
written originally for the Jews beyond Euphrates, and in their
language, in all these cases. However, Josephus directly supposes
the Jewish settlement, under Moses, to be a Divine settlement,
and indeed no other than a real theocracy.

(21) These excellent accounts of the Divine attributes, and that
God is not to be at all known in his essence, as also some other
clear expressions about the resurrection of the dead, and the
state of departed souls, etc., in this late work of Josephus,
look more like the exalted notions of the Essens, or rather
Ebionite Christians, than those of a mere Jew or Pharisee. The
following large accounts also of the laws of Moses, seem to me to
show a regard to the higher interpretations and improvements of
Moses's laws, derived from Jesus Christ, than to the bare letter
of them in the Old Testament, whence alone Josephus took them
when he wrote his Antiquities; nor, as I think, can some of these
laws, though generally excellent in their kind, be properly now
found either in the copies of the Jewish Pentateuch, or in Philo,
or in Josephus himself, before he became a Nazarene or Ebionite
Christian; nor even all of them among the laws of catholic
Christianity themselves. I desire, therefore, the learned reader
to consider, whether some of these improvements or
interpretations might not be peculiar to the Essens among the
Jews, or rather to the Nazarenes or Ebionites among the
Christians, though we have indeed but imperfect accounts of those
Nazarenes or Ebionite Christians transmitted down to us at this
day.

(22) We may here observe how known a thing it was among the Jews
and heathens, in this and many other instances, that sacrifices
were still accompanied with prayers; whence most probably came
those phrases of "the sacrifice of prayer, the sacrifice of
praise, the sacrifice of thanksgiving." However, those ancient
forms used at sacrifices are now generally lost, to the no small
damage of true religion. It is here also exceeding remarkable,
that although the temple at Jerusalem was built as the only place
where the whole nation of the Jews were to offer their
sacrifices, yet is there no mention of the "sacrifices"
themselves, but of "prayers" only, in Solomon's long and famous
form of devotion at its dedication, 1 Kings 8.; 2 Chronicles 6.
See also many passages cited in the Apostolical Constitutions,
VII. 37, and Of the War, above, B. VII. ch. 5. sect. 6.

(23) This text is no where in our present copies of the Old
Testament.

(24) It may not be amiss to set down here a very remarkable
testimony of the great philosopher Cicero, as to the preference
of "laws to philosophy: - I will," says he, "boldly declare my
opinion, though the whole world be offended at it. I prefer this
little book of the Twelve Tables alone to all the volumes of the
philosophers. I find it to be not only of more weight,' but also
much more useful." - Oratore.

(25) we have observed our times of rest, and sorts of food
allowed us [during our distresses].

(26) See what those novel oaths were in Dr. Hudson's note, viz.
to swear by an oak, by a goat, and by a dog, as also by a gander,
as say Philostratus and others. This swearing strange oaths was
also forbidden by the Tyrians, B. I. sect. 22, as Spanheim here
notes.

(27) Why Josephus here should blame some heathen legislators,
when they allowed so easy a composition for simple fornication,
as an obligation to marry the virgin that was corrupted, is hard
to say, seeing he had himself truly informed us that it was a law
of the Jews, Antiq. B. IV. ch. 8. sect. 23, as it is the law of
Christianity also: see Horeb Covenant, p. 61. I am almost ready
to suspect that, for, we should here read, and that corrupting
wedlock, or other men's wives, is the crime for which these
heathens wickedly allowed this composition in money.

(28) Or "for corrupting other men's wives the same allowance."

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