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[312]
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," 1
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.
1 That is the meaning of Hierosyla in Greek, not in Hebrew.
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