[
79]
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,
1
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 -
2
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;
3
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.