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[10]
I found, therefore, that the second of the Ptolemies was a king who
was extraordinarily diligent in what concerned learning, and the collection
of books; that he was also peculiarly ambitious to procure a translation
of our law, and of the constitution of our government therein contained,
into the Greek tongue. Now Eleazar the high priest, one not inferior to
any other of that dignity among us, did not envy the forenamed king the
participation of that advantage, which otherwise he would for certain have
denied him, but that he knew the custom of our nation was, to hinder nothing
of what we esteemed ourselves from being communicated to others. Accordingly,
I thought it became me both to imitate the generosity of our high priest,
and to suppose there might even now be many lovers of learning like the
king; for he did not obtain all our writings at that time; but those who
were sent to Alexandria as interpreters, gave him only the books of the
law, while there were a vast number of other matters in our sacred books.
They, indeed, contain in them the history of five thousand years; in which
time happened many strange accidents, many chances of war, and great actions
of the commanders, and mutations of the form of our government. Upon the
whole, a man that will peruse this history, may principally learn from
it, that all events succeed well, even to an incredible degree, and the
reward of felicity is proposed by God; but then it is to those that follow
his will, and do not venture to break his excellent laws: and that so far
as men any way apostatize from the accurate observation of them, what was
practical before becomes impracticable 1
and whatsoever they set about as a good thing, is converted into an incurable
calamity. And now I exhort all those that peruse these books, to apply
their minds to God; and to examine the mind of our legislator, whether
he hath not understood his nature in a manner worthy of him; and hath not
ever ascribed to him such operations as become his power, and hath not
preserved his writings from those indecent fables which others have framed,
although, by the great distance of time when he lived, he might have securely
forged such lies; for he lived two thousand years ago; at which vast distance
of ages the poets themselves have not been so hardy as to fix even the
generations of their gods, much less the actions of their men, or their
own laws. As I proceed, therefore, I shall accurately describe what is
contained in our records, in the order of time that belongs to them; for
I have already promised so to do throughout this undertaking; and this
without adding any thing to what is therein contained, or taking away any
thing therefrom.
1 Josephus here plainly alludes to the famous Greek proverb, If God be with us, every thing that is impossible becomes possible.
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