DS 116 .J7 182A v.1 Josephus, Flavius. The genuine works of Josephus FI avi u Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/genuineworksoffl01jose_0 FILAF2TO MSEMUTX ; WhiD.Sntith sc. s r v THE GENUINE WORKS OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS; translated bt WILLIAM WHISTON, A. M. CONTAINING FIVE BOOHS OF THE &utfcinUU0 of ti)i Sctos* TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED THREE DISSERTATIONS. YOL. I. NEir-YORK. PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM BORUADATLD, No. 130 Fulton-strcet. 1824 . . <* JIAHRS, Pin N'T cr. ----- 'S , v ' 1 \ V v v » • \ * v. . -tv- ?% - '• ■ - 4 THREE COSTAIOTN® I. The Testimonies of Josephus concerning Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, and James the Just, vindicated. II. Concerning God’s command to Abraham to offer up Isaac his son for a sacrifice. III. A Demonstration that Tacitus, the Roman his¬ torian, took his history of the Jews out of Josephus. DISSERTATION I. The Testimonies of Josephus concerning Jesus Christ, John the Baptist , and James the Just , vindicated. Since we meet with several important testimonies in Josephus, the Jewish historian, concerning John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus of Nazareth, concerning Jesus of Nazareth himself, and concerning James the Just, lhe brother of Jesus of Nazareth; and since the principal tes¬ timony, which is that concerning Jesus of Nazareth himself, has of late been greatly questioned by many, and rejected by some of the learned as spurious, it will be fit for me, who have ever declared my firm belief that these testimonies were gen¬ uine, to set down fairly some of the original evidence and citations I have met with in the first fifteen centuries con¬ cerning them, and then to make proper observations upon that evidence, for the reader’s more complete satisfaction. But before 1 produce the citations themselves out of Jose¬ phus, give me leave to prepare the reader’s attention, by set¬ ting down the sentiments of perhaps the most learned person, and the most competent judge that ever was, as to the au¬ thority of Josephus, T mean of Joseph Scaliger in the Pro¬ legomena to his book De Emendatione Temporam, p. YJ. “Josephus is the most diligent and the greatest lover of truth of all writers: nor are we afraid to affirm cf him, that it is more safe to believe him, not only as to the affairs of the Jews, but also as to those that are foreign to them, than all the Greek and Latin writers, and this, because his fidelity and his compass of learning are every where con¬ spicuous.” A 2 6 DISSERTATION I. THE ANCIENT CITATIONS OP THE TESTIMONIES OF JOSE¬ PHUS, PROM HIS OWN TIME TILL* THE END OF THE FIF¬ TEENTH CENTURY. About A. D. 110. Tacit. Anal. lib. xv. cap. 44. Nero, in order to stifle the rumour, (as if he had himself set Home on fire,) ascribed it to those people who were hated for thcr wicked practices, and called by the vulgar Christians: these he punished exquisitely. The author oj this name was Christ , who , in the reign of Tiberius , was brought to punish¬ ment by Pontius Pilate the Procurator. About A. D. 147. Just. Mart, Dialog, cum Trypho. p. 234. You [Jews] knew that Jesus was risen from the dead, and ascended into heaven, as the prophecies did foretell w ? as to happen. About A. D. 230. Origen. Comment, in Matth. p. 230. This James w T as of so shining a character among the peo¬ ple, on account of his righteousness, that Flavius Josephus, when, in his twentieth book of the Jewish Antiquities, he had a mind to set down what was the cause why the people suffered such miseries, till the very holy house was demol¬ ished, he said, that these things befell them by the anger of God, on account of what they had dared to do to James, the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ: and wonderful it is, that, while he did not receive Jesus for Christ, he did nev¬ ertheless bear witness that James was so righteous a man. He says farther, that the people thought that they suffered these things for the sake of James. About A. D. 250. Contr. Cels. lib. i .p. 35, 3.6. I would say to Celsus, who personates a Jew, that admit¬ ted of John the Baptist, and how he baptized Jesus, that one who lived but a little while after John and Jesus, wrote, how that John was a baptizer unto the remission of sins : for Jo¬ sephus testifies in the eighteenth book of Jewish Antiquities, that John was the Baptist, and that he promised purification to those that were baptized. The same Josephus also, al¬ though he did not believe in Jesus as Christ, when he was inquiring after the cause of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the demolition of the temple, and ought to have said, that their machinations against Jesus were the cause of those mis¬ eries coming on the people, because they had slain that DISSERTATION I. Christ who was foretold by the prophets, he, though as it were unwillingly, and yet as one not remote from the truth, says, “ These miseries befell the Jews by way of revenge for James the Just, who was the brother of Jesus, that was called Christ, because they had slain him who was a most righteous person.” Now this James was he whom that genuine disciple of Jesus, Paul, said he had seen as the Lord's brother $ (Gal. i. 19,) which relation implies not so much nearness of blood, or the sameness of education, as it does the agreement of manners and preaching. If, therefore, he says the desolation of Jeru¬ salem befell the Jews for the sake of James, with how much greater reason might he have said, that it happened for the sake of Jesus ? &c. About A. D. 324. Euseb. Demonstr. Evan. lib. iii. p. 124, Certainly the attestation of those I have already produced concerning our Saviour may be sufficient. However, it may not be amiss, if over and above, we make use of Josephus the Jew for a farther witness ; who, in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities, when he was writing the history of what happen¬ ed under Pilate, makes mention of our Saviour in these words : Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as had a veneration for truth; he drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles : he was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had spoken of these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; whence the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day. If therefore we have this historian’s testimony, that he not only brought over to himself the twelve apostles, with the seventy disciples, but many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles also, he must manifestly have had somewhat in him extraordinary above the rest of mankind ; for how otherwise could he draw over so many of the Jews and of the Gentiles, unless he performed admirable and amazing works, and used a method of teaching that was not common? Moreover, the Scripture of the Acts of the Apostles bears witness, that there were many ten thousands of the Jews who were per¬ suaded that he was the Christ of God, who was foretold by the prophets. (Acts xxi. 20.) 8 DISSERTATION I. About A. D. 339* Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. 11. Now the divine scripture of the gospel makes mention of John the Baptist as having his head cut off by the younger Herod. Josephus also concurs in this history, and makes mention of Herodias by name, as the wife of his brother, whom Herod had married, upon divorcing his former lawful wife. She was the daughter of Aretas, king of the Petrean Arabians; and which Herodias he had parted from her husband while he was alive : on which account also, when he had slain John, he made war with Aretas, [Aretas made war with him,] because his daughter had been used dishonourably : in which war, when it came to battle, he says that all Herod’s army was destroyed, and that he suffered this because of his wicked contrivance against John. Moreover, the same Josephus, by acknowledging John to have been a most righte¬ ous man, and the Baptist, conspires in his testimony with what is written in the gospels. He also relates, that Herod lost his kingdom for the sake of the same Herodias, together with whom he himself was condemned to be banished to Vi¬ enne, a city of Gaul. And this is his account in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities, where he writes thus of John ver¬ batim : Some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod’s army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment for what he did against John that was called the Baptist, for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and one that commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism, for that by this means the washing [with water] would appear acceptable to him; when they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the re¬ mission] of some sins [only,] but for the purification of the body, supposing still that the soul were thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were greatly delighted in hearing his words, Herod was afraid that this so great power of persuading men, might tend to some sedition or other, for they seemed to be disposed to do every thing he should advise them to; so he supposed it better to prevent any attempt for a mutation from him by cutting him off, than after any such mutation should be brought about, and the public should suffer, to repent [of such negligence.] Ac¬ cordingly, he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod’s suspicious temper, to Machaerus, the castle I before mentioned, and was DISSERTATION I. 9 there put to death.—When Josephus had said this of John, he makes mention also of our Saviour in the same history, after this manner: Now there was about this time one Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure ; he drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles also : he was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these, and ted thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And still the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not ex¬ tinct at this day. And since this writer, sprung from the Hebrews themselves, hath delivered these things above in his own work, concerning John the Baptist and our Saviour, what room is there for any farther evasion ? &c. Now James was so wonderful a person, and was so cele¬ brated by all others for righteousness, that the judicious Jews thought this to have been the occasion of that siege of Jerusalem, which came on presently after his martyrdom, and that it befell them for no other reason, than that impi¬ ous fact they were guilty of against him. Josephus there¬ fore, did not refuse to attest thereto in writing, by the words following : These miseries befell the Jews by way of revenge for James the Just, who was the brother of Jesus that was called Christ , on this account, that they had slain him who w r as a most righteous person. The same Josephus declares the manner of his death in f God or the true Messias of the Jews, but that this Jesus was distinguished from all oth¬ ers of that name, of which there were not a few, as mention¬ ed by Josephus himself, by the addition of the other name of Christ ; or that this person was no other than he whom all the world knew by the name of Jesus Christ, and his follow¬ ers by the name of Christians. This I esteem to be a clear case, and that from the arguments following : (lr) The Greeks and Romans, for whose use Josephus wrote his Antiquities, could no otherwise understand these words. The Jews indeed, and afterwards the Christians, who knew that a great Messias, a person that was to be Christ, the Anointed of God, that was to perform the office of a King, a Priest and a Prophet, to God’s people, might readily so understand this expression ; but Josephus, as I have already noted, wrote here, not to Jews or Christians, but to Greeks and Romans, who knew nothing of this, but knew very well that an eminent person living in Judea, whose name was Je¬ sus Chrest or Jesus Christ, had founded a new and a nume¬ rous sect, which took the latter of those names, and were ev¬ ery where from him called Chrestians, or Christians; in which sense alone could they understand these words of Jo¬ sephus, and in which sense I believe he desired they should understand them : nor does Josephus ever use the Hebrew term Messiah in any of his writings, nor the Greek term Christ in any such acceptation elsewhere. (2.) Josephus himself as good as explains his own mean¬ ing, and that by the last clause of this very passage, where he says the Christians were named from this Christ, without a syllable, as though he really meant he was the true Rlessi- ah } or Christ of God. He farther seems to me to explain this his meaning in that other place, where alone he else¬ where mentions this name of Christ, that is, when upon occasion of the mention of James, when he was condemned by Ananus, he calls him the Brother of Jesus, not that was the true Messiah , or the true Christ, but only that was called Christ DISSERTATION I. 21 (3.) It was quite beside the purpose of Josephus to de¬ clare himself here to be a Christian, or a believer in Jesus as the true Messiah. Had he intended so to do, he would surely have explained the meaning of the word Christ to his Greek and Roman readers ; he would surely have been a great deal fuller and larger in his accounts of Christ, and of the Christian religion : nor would such a declaration at that time have recommended him, or his nation, or his writings, to either the Greeks or the Romans; of his reputation with both which people he is known to have been, in the writing of these Antiquities, very greatly solicitous. (4.) Josephus’s usual way of writing is historical and de¬ clarative of facts, and of the opinions, unless we prudently gather it from what he says historically, or as the opinions of others. This is very observable in the writings of Josephus, and in particular as to what he says of John the Baptist, and of James the Just; so that this interpretation is most probable, as most agreeable to Josephus’s way of writing parallel cases. (5.) This seems to be the universal sense of all the an¬ cients without exception, who cite this testimony from him ; and though they almost every where own this to be the true reading, yet do they every where suppose Josephus to be still an unbelieving Jew, and not a believing Christian ; nay, Jerom appears so well assured of this interpretation, and that Josephus did not mean to declare any more by these words than a common opinion, that, according to his usual way of interpreting authors, not to the words but to the sense, of which we have, I think, two more instances in his accounts out of Josephus, now before us, ; he renders this clause credebatur esse Christus, i. e. he was believed to be Christ. Nor is the parallel expression of Pilate to be otherwise understood, when he made that inscription upon the cross, This is Jesus the king of the Jeios* ; which is well explained by himself elsewhere, and corresponds to the import of the present clause, What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christi ? And we may full as well prove from Pilate’s inscription upon the cross, that he thereby de¬ clared himself a believer in Christ for the real king of the Jews, as we can from these words of Josephus, that he here¬ by declared himself to be a real believer in him as the true Messiah. IV. Though Josephus did not design here to declare * Mattb, xxvii,$7. 1 Ibid, xxvii. 17, 22, 22 DISSERTATION I. himself openly to be a Christian, yet could he not possibly be¬ lieve all that he here asserts concerning Jesus Christ, unless he were so far a Christian as the Jewish Nazarenes or Ebion- ites then were, who believed Jesus of Nazareth to be the true Messiah, without believing he was more than a man ; who also believed the necessity of the observation of the cer¬ emonial law of Moses in order to salvation for all mankind, which were the two main articles of those Jewish Christians 5 faith, though in opposition to all the thirteen apostles of Je¬ sus Christ in the first century, and in opposition to the whole catholic church of Christ in the following centuries also. Accordingly, I have elsewhere proved, that Josephus was no other in his own conscience, than a Nazarene or Ebionite Jewish Christian ; and have observed that this entire testi¬ mony, and all that Josephus says of John the Baptist, and of James, as well as his absolute silence about all the rest of the apostles and their companions, exactly agrees to him un¬ der that character, and no other. And indeed to me it is most astonishing, that all our learned men, who have of late considered these testimonies of Josephus except the conver¬ ted Jew Galatinus, should miss such an obvious and natural observation. We all know this from St. James’s* own words, that so many ten thousands of Jews as believed in Christ , in the first century, iverc all zealous of the ceremoni¬ al, law, or were no other than Nazarene or Ebionite Chris¬ tians ; and, by consequence, if there were any reason to think our Josephus to be, in any sense, a believer or a Chris¬ tian, as from all these testimonies there were very great ones, all those, and many other reasons, could not but conspire to assure us, he was no other than a Nazarene or Ebionite Chris¬ tian ; and this I take to be the plain and evident key of this whole matter. V. Since, therefore, Josephus appears to have been in his own heart and conscience, no other than a Nazarene or Ebionite Christian, and, by consequence, with them rejected all our Greek gospels and Greek books of the New Testa¬ ment, and received only the Hebrew gospel of the Naza¬ renes or Ebionites, styled by them, The gospel according to the Hebrews ; or, according to the twelve apostles ; or even, according to Matthew, we ought always to have that Naza¬ rene or Ebionite gospel, with the other Nazarene or Ebionite fragments in view, when we consider any passages of Jose- h Acts xxi. 20. DISSERTATION I. 23 phus relating to Christ, or to Christianity. Thus, since that gospel omitted all that is in the beginning of our St. Mat¬ thew’s and St. Luke’s gospels, and began with the ministry of John the Baptist ; in which first parts of the gospel his¬ tory are the accounts of the slaughter of the infants, and of the inrolment or taxation under Augustus Caesar and Herod, it is no great wonder that Josephus has not taken care par¬ ticularly and clearly to preserve those histories to us. Thus, when we find that Josephus calls James, the brother of Christ, by the name of James the Just, and describes hirn as a most just or righteous man, in an especial manner, we are to remember that such is his name and character in the gospel according to the Hebrews, and the other Ebionitc remains of Hegesippus, but no where else, that I remem¬ ber, in the earliest antiquity : nor are we to suppose they herein referred to any other than that righteousness which was by the Jewish law, wherein St. Paul,* before he embra¬ ced Christianity, professed himself to have been blameless. Thus, when Josephus, with other Jews, ascribed the mise¬ ries of that nation under Vespasian and Titus, which the destruction of Jerusalem, to the barbarous murder of James the Just, we must remember, what we learn from the Eb- ionite fragments of Hegesippus, that these Ebionites inter¬ preted a prophecy of Isaiah as foretelling this very murder, and those consequent miseries : Let ??s take away the just one, for he is unprofitable to us ; therefore shall they eat the fruit of their oivn tvays. t Thus, when Josephus says, as we have seen, that the most equitable citizens of Jerusa¬ lem, and those that were most zealous of the law, were very uneasy at the condemnation of this James, and some of his friends or fellow-christians, by the high-priest and sanhe¬ drim, about A. D. 62, and declares, that he himself was one of those Jews who thought the terrible miseries of that na¬ tion effects of the vengeance of God for their murder of this James, about A. D. 68, we may easily see those opinions could only be the opinions of converted Jews or Ebionites. The high-priest and sanhedrim, who always prosecuted the Christians, and now condemned these Christians, and the body of those unbelieving Jews, who are supposed to suffer for murdering this James, the head of the Nazarene or Ebi- onite Christians in Judea, could not, to be sure, be of that opinion ; nor could Josephus himself be of the same opin¬ ion, as he declares he was, without the strongest inclination * Philip, iii. 4—6. t Latah Hi. 10. 24 DISSERTATION I. to the Christian religion, or without being secretly a Chris¬ tian Jew, i. e. a Nazarene or Ebionite ; which thing is, by the way, a very great additional argument that such he was, and no other. Thus, lastly, when Josephus is cited in Sui- das as affirming that Jesus officiated with the priests in the temple, this account is by no means disagreeable to the pre¬ tensions of the Ebionites. Hegesippus affirms the very same of James the Just also. VI. I he first citation of the famous testimony concerning our Saviour from Tacitus, almost all that was true of the Jews is directly taken by him out of Josephus, as will be demonstra¬ ted under the third Dissertation hereafter. VII. The second author I have alleged for it is Justin Martyr, one so nearly coeval with Josephus, that he might be born about the time when he wrote his Antiquities, ap¬ peals to the Antiquities by that very name ; and though he does not here directly quote them, yet docs he seem to me to allude to this very testimony in them concerning our Saviour when he affirms in this place to Trypho the Jew, That his nation originally knew that Jesus was risen from the dead , and ascended into heaven , as the prophecies did foretell teas to happen. Since there neither now is, nor probably in the days of Justin was any other Jewish testi¬ mony extant, which is so agreeable to what Justin here af¬ firms of those Jews, as is this of Josephus the Jew before us; nor indeed does he seem to me to have had any thing else particularly in his view here, but this very testimony, where Josephus says, that Jesus appeared to his followers alive the third day after his crucifixion , as the divine pro- phets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. VIII. The third author I have quoted for Josephus's testimony of John the Baptist, of Jesus of Nazareth, and of James the Just, is Origen, who is indeed allowed on all hands to have quoted him for the excellent characters of John the Baptist, and of James the Just, but whose sup¬ posed entire silence about this testimony concerning Christ is usually alleged as the principal argument against its be¬ ing genuine, and particularly as to the clause, This was the Christ, and that, as we have seen, because he twice as¬ sures us, that in his opinion, Josephus did not himself ack- noiclcdge Jesus for Christ. Now as to this latter clause, I have already showed, that Josephus did not here, in wri¬ ting to Greeks and Romans, mean any such thing by those DISSERTATION I. 25 words as Jews and Christians naturally understand by them : I have also observed, that all the ancients allow still, with Origin, that Josephus did not, in the Jewish and Christian sense, acknowledge Jesus for the true Messiah, or the true Christ of God, notwithstanding their express quota¬ tion of that clause in Josephus as genuine; so that unless we suppose Origin to have had a different notion of these words from all the other ancients, we cannot conclude from this assertion of Origin's, that he had not those words in his copy, not to say that it is, after all, much more likely that his copy a little differed from the other copies in this clause, or indeed omitted it entirely, than that he, on its account must be supposed not to have had the rest of this testimony therein, though indeed I see no necessity of mak¬ ing any such supposal at all. However, it seems to me, that Origin affords us four several indications that the main parts at least of this testimony itself were in his copy. (l.) When Origin introduces Josephus’s testimony con¬ cerning James the Just, that lie thought the miseries of the Jews were an instance of divine vengeance on that nation for putting James to death instead of Jesus, he uses an ex¬ pression no way necessary to this purpose, nor occasioned by any words of Josephus there, that they had slain that Christ which tons foretold in the prophecies. Whence could this expression come here into Origin’s mind, when he was quoting a testimony of Josephus’s concerning the brother of Christ, but from his remembrance of a clause in the testimony of the same Josephus concerning Christ him¬ self, that the prophets had for told his death and resur¬ rection, and ten thousand other wonderful things concern¬ ing him? (2.) How came Origin to be so surprised at Josephus’s ascribing the destruction of Jerusalem to the Jews murder¬ ing of James the Just, and not to their murdering of Jesus, as we have seen he was, if he had not known that Josephus had spoken of Jesus and his death before, and that he had a very good opinion of Jesus, which } r et he could learn no way so authentically as from this testimony? Nor do the words he here uses, that Josephus was not remote from the truth, perhaps allude to any thing else but to this very testi¬ mony before us. (3.) How came the same Origin upon another slight oc¬ casion, when he had just set down that testimony of Josephus concerning James the Just, the brother of Jesus, who was VOL r. C DISSERTATION I. 26 called Christ , to say, that it may he questioned whether the Jews thought Jesus to be a man, or whether they did not sup¬ pose him to be a being of a diviner kind? This looks so very like to the fifth and sixth clauses of this testimony in Josephus, that Jesus was a wise man , if it be lawful to call him a man , that it is highly probable Origin thereby al¬ luded to them: and this is the more to be depended on, be¬ cause all the unbelieving Jews, and all the rest of the Na- zarene Jews, esteemed Jesus with one consent, as a mere man , the son of Joseph and Mary; and it is not, I think, possible to produce any one Jew but Josephus, who in a sort of compliance with the Romans and the catholic Chris¬ tians, who thought him a God, would say any thing like his being a God. (4.) How came Origin to affirm twice, so expressly, that Josephus did not himself own, in the Jewish and Christian sense that Jesus was Christ, notwithstanding his quotations of such eminent testimonies out of him for John the Baptist his forerunner, and for James the Just his brother, and one of his principal disciples ? There is no passage in all Jo¬ sephus so likely to persuade Origin of this as is the famous testimony before us, wherein, as he and all other ancients understood it, he was generally called Christ indeed,, but not any otherwise than as the common name whence the sect of Christians was derived, and where he all along speaks of those Christians as a sect then in being, whose author was a wonderful person, and his followers great lovers of him, and of the truth, yet as such a sect as he had not joined himself to: which exposition, as it is a very natural one, so was it, I doubt, but too true of our Josephus at that time ; nor can I devise any other reason but this, and the parallel language of Josephus elsewhere, when he speaks of James as the brother not of Jesus who was Christ, but of Jesus who was called Christ, that could so naturally induce Origin and others to be of that opinion. IX. There are two remarkable passages in Suidas and Theophylact, already set down, as citing Josephus; the former, that Jesus officiated with the priests in the temple, and the latter, that the destruction of Jerusalem, and miseries of the Jews, were owing to their putting Jesus to death , which are in none of our present copies, nor cited thence by any ancienter authors, nor indeed do they seem alto¬ gether consistent with other more authentic testimonies: however, since Suidas cites his passage from a treatise of DISSERTATION I. 27 Josephus’s, called Memoirs of the Jews’ captivity , a book never heard of elsewhere, and since both citations are not at all disagreeable to Josephus’s character as a Nazarene or Ebionite, I dare not positively conclude they are spurious, but must leave them in suspence for the farther consideration of the learned. X. As to that great critic Photius, in the ninth century, who is supposed not to have had this testimony in his copy of Josephus, or else to have esteemed it spurious, because in his extracts out of Josephus’s. Antiquities it is not expressly mentioned. This is a strange thing indeed ! that a section which had been cited out of Josephus’s copies all along before the days of Photius, as well as it has been all along cited out of them since his days, should be supposed not to be in his copy, because he does not directly mention it in certain short and imperfect extracts, no way particularly relating to such matters. Those who lay a stress on this silence of Photius, seem little to have attended to the nature and brevity of those extracts. They contain little or nothing, as he in effect pro¬ fesses at their entrance, but what concerns Antipater, Herod the great, and his brethren, and family, with their exploits, till the days of Agrippa,j>’w». and Cumanes, the governor of Judea, fifteen years after the death of our Saviour, without one word of Pilate, or what happened under his government, which yet was the only proper place in which this testimony could come to be mentioned. However, since Photius seems therefore, as we have seen, to suspect the treatise ascribed by some to Josephus, of the Universe, because it speaks very high things of the eternal generation and divinity of Christ, this looks very like his knowledge and belief of somewhat really in the same Josephus, which spake in a lower manner of him, which could be hardly any other passage than this testimony before us. And since, as we have seen, when he speaks of the Jewish history of Justus of Tiberias, as infected with the prejudices of the Jews, in taking no manner of no¬ tice of the advent, of the acts, and of the miracles of Jesus Christ, while yet he never speaks so of Josephus himself, this most naturally implies also, that there was not the like occa¬ sion here as there, but that Josephus had not wholly omitted that advent, those acts, or miracles, which yet he has do.ne every where else, in the books seen by Photius, as well as Justus of Tiberias, but in this famous testimony before us, so that it it is most probable Photius not only had this testimony in his copy, but believed it to be genuine also. 28 DISSERTATION I. XI. As to the silence of Clement of Alexandria, who cites the Antiquities of Josephus, but never cites any of the testi¬ monies now before us, it is no strange thing at all, since he never cites Josephus but once, and that for a point of chro¬ nology onl 3 r , to determine how many years had passed from the days of Moses to the days of Josephus, so that his silence snay almost as well be alleged against an hundred other remarkable passages in Josephus’s works as against these before us. XII. Nor does the like silence of Tertullian imply that these testimonies, nor any of them, were not in the copies of his age. Tertullian never once hints at any treatises of Josephus’s but those against Apion, and that in general only, for a point of chronology: nor does it in any way appear that Tertullian ever saw any of Josephus’s writings besides, and far from being certain that he saw even those. He had particular occasion in his dispute against the Jews to quote Josephus, above any other writer, to prove the completion of the prophecies of the Old Testament in the destruction of Jerusalem, and miseries of the Jews at that time, of which he there discourses, yet does he never once quote him upon that solemn occasion; so that it seems to me, that Tertullian never read either the Greek Antiquities of Josephus, or his Greek books of the Jewish wars ; nor is this at all strange in Tertullian, a Latin writer, that lived in Africa, by none of which African writers is there any one clause, that I know of, cited out of any of Josephus’s writings: nor is it worth my while, in such numbers of positive citations of these clauses, to mention the silence of other later writers, as being here of very small consequence. DISSERTATION II. Concerning God’s command to Abraham to offer up Isaac his son for a sacrifice. Since this command of God to Abraham* * * § has of late been greatly mistaken by some, who venture to reason about very ancient facts from very modern notions, and this without a due regard to either the customs, or opinions, or circumstances of the times whereto those facts belong, or indeed to the true reasons of the facts themselves; since the mistakes about those customs, opinions, circumstances, and reasons, have of late so far prevailed, that the very same actions of Abraham’s, which was so celebrated by St. Paul,f St. James,£ the author to the Hebrews,§ Philo,|| and Josephus,^ in the first century, and by innumerable others since, as an uncommon instance of signal virtue, of heroic faith in God, and piety towards him: nay, is in the sacred **history highly commended by the divine angel of the covenant , in the name of God himself, and promised to be plentifully rewarded ; since this command, I say, is now at last in the eighteenth century become a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence among us, and that some¬ times to persons of otherwise good sense, and of a religious disposition of mind also, I shall endeavour to set this mat¬ ter in its true, i. e. in its ancient and original light, for the satisfaction of the inquisitive. In order whereto we are to consider : 1. That till this very profane age, it has been, I think, universally allowed by all sober persons, who owned them¬ selves the creatures of God, that the Creator has a just right over all his rational creatures, to protract their lives to * Gen. xxii. t Rom. iv 16—25. t James ii. 21, 22. § Heb. xi. 17—19 |j Phil, de Gyant. p. 294 IT Jos. Antif], B. i. eh. xiii ** Gen- xxii. 15—18. C 2 so DISSERTATION II. what length he pleases; to cut them off when and by what instruments he pleases; to afflict them with what sicknesses he pleases; and to remove them from one estate or place in this his great palace of the universe to another as he plea¬ ses ; and that all those rational creatures are bound in duty and interest to acquiesce under the divine disposal, and to resign themselves up to the good providence of God in all such his dispensations towards them. 1 do not mean to in¬ timate that God may, or ever does act in these cases after a mere arbitrary manner, or without sufficient reason, believ¬ ing, according to the whole tenor of natural and revealed re¬ ligion, that he hateth nothing that he hath made;* that what¬ soever he does, how melancholy soever it may appear at first sight to us, is really intended for the good of his crea¬ tures, and at the upshot of things, will fully appear so to be; but that still he is not obliged, nor does in general give his creatures an account of the particular reasons of such his dis¬ pensations towards them immediately, but usually tries and exercises their faith and patience, their resignation and obe¬ dience, in their present state of probation, and reserves those reasons to the last day, the day of the revelation of the righte¬ ous judgment of God. t 2. That the entire histories of the past ages, from the days of Adam till now, show’, .that Almighty God has ever exercised his power over mankind, and that without giving them an immediate account of the reasons of such his con¬ duct ; and that withal the best and wisest men in all ages, heathens as well as Jews and Christians, Marcus Antoninus as well as the patriarch Abraham and St. Paul, have ever humbly submitted themselves to this conduct of the divine providence, and always confessed that they were obliged to the undeserved goodness and mercy of God for every enjoy¬ ment, but could not demand any of them of his justice, no. not so much as the continuance of that life wheieto those enjoyments appertain. When God was pleased to sweep the wicked race of men away by a flood, the young inno¬ cent infants as well as the guilty old sinners: when he was pleased to shorten the lives of men after the flood, and still downward till the days of David and Solomon; when he was pleased to destroy impure Sodom and Gomorrha by fire and brimstone from heaven, and to extirpate the main body of the Amorites out of the land of Canaan, as soon as their \ * Wftd. si- 21. t Rom. n. 5. DISSERTATION II. 31 iniquities were full* and in these instances included the young innocent infants, together with the old hardened sin¬ ners ; when God was pleased to send an angel, and by him to destroy 185,000 Assyrians, (the number attested to by Be- rous the Chaldean, as well as by our own Bibles,) in the days of Hezekiah, most of whom seem to have no other pe¬ culiar guilt upon them than that common to soldiers in w ar, of obeying without reserve, their king Sennacherib, his gene¬ rals and captains; and when at the plague of Athens, Lon¬ don, or Marseilles, &c. so many thousand righteous men and women, with innocent babes, were swept away on a sudden by a fatal contagion, I do not remember that sober men have complained that God dealt unjustly with such his creatures, in those to us seemingly severe dispensations: nor are we certain when any such seemingly severe dispensations are really such, nor do we know but shortening the lives of men may sometimes be the greatest blessing to them, and prevent or put a stop to those courses of gross wickedness which might bring them to greater misery in the world to come: nor is it indeed fit for such poor, weak, and ignorant crea¬ tures as we are, in the present state, to call our Almight}', and All-wise, and All-good Creator and Benefactor, to an account on any such occasion; since we cannot but acknow¬ ledge, that it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves ;f that we are nothing, and have nothing of ourselves, indepen¬ dent on him, but that all we are, all we have, and all we hope for, is derived from him, from his free and undeserved boun¬ ty, which therefore, he may justly take from us in what way soever and whensoever he pleases; all wise and good men still say in such cases with the pious Psalmist, xxxix. 9. 1 was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it; and with patient Job, i. 21. ii. 40. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall not we receive evil? The hard gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. If therefore this shortening or taking away the lives of men be no objection against any divine command for that purpose, it is full as strong against the present system of the world, against the conduct of divine providence in general, and against natural religion, which is founded on the justice of that providence, and is no way peculiar to revealed religion , or to the fact of Abraham now before us : nor in this case much different from what was soon after the days of Abra¬ ham thoroughly settled, after Job’s and his friends debates, * Gen. xv. 16. f Psalm c. 3. 32 DISSERTATION II. by the inspiration of Alihu, and the determination of God himself, where the divine providence was at length tho¬ roughly cleared and justified before all the world, as it will be, no question, more generally cleared and justified at the final judgment. 3. That till this profane age, it has also, I think, been universally allowed by all sober men, that a command of God, when sufficiently made known to be so, is abundant authority for the taking away the life of any person whom¬ soever. I doubt both ancient and modern princes, gene¬ rals of armies, and judges, even those of the best reputation also, have ventured to take many men’s lives away upon much less authority: nor indeed do the most skeptical of the moderns care to deny this authority directly ; they ra¬ ther take a method of objecting somewhat more plausible, though it amount to much the same : they say, that the ap¬ parent disagreement of any command to the moral attri¬ butes of God, such as this of the slaughter of an only child seems plainly to be, will be a greater evidence that such a command does not come from God, than any pretended re¬ velation can be that it does. But as to this matter, though the divine revelations have so long ceased, that we are not well acquainted with the manner of conveying such revela¬ tion with certainty to men, and by consequence, the appa¬ rent disagreement of a command with the moral attributes of God, ought at present, generally, if not constantly, to de¬ ter men from acting upon such a pretended revelation, yet was there no such uncertainty in the days of the old prophets of God, or of Abraham, the friend of God* who are ever found to have had an entire certainty of those their revela¬ tions : and what evidently shows they were not deceived, is this, that the events and consequences of things afterward always corresponded, and secured them of the truth of such divine l'evelations. Thus the first miraculous voice from heaven,+ calling to Abraham not to execute this command, and the performance of those eminent promises made by the second voice ,\ on account of his obedience to that command, are demonstrations that Abraham’s commission for what he did was truly divine, and an entire justification of his conduct in this matter. The words of the first voice from heaven will come hereafter to be set down in a fitter place, but the glorious promises made to Abraham’s obedience by the se¬ cond voice, must here be produced from verse 15, if), 17, * Isaiah sli. 8. t Gen. xxii. 11,12. IGen.xxii 17,18. DISSERTATION II. 33 18. And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sivorn , saith the Lord, for because thou hast clone this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me, that in blsssing I will bless thee, and in multiply ing 1 will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea¬ shore ; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed , because thou hast obeyed my voice. Every one of which promises have been eminently fulfilled ; and, what is chiefly remarkable,the last and principal of them, that in Abiaham’s seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed, was never promised till this time. It had been twice promised him, chap. xii. ver. 3, and xviii. 18, that in himself should all the families of the earth be blessed ; but that this blessing was to belong to future times, and to be bestowed by the means of one of his late posterity, the Messias, that great seed and son of Abraham only, was never revealed before, but on such an amazing instance of his faith and obedience as was this his readiness to offer up his only begotten son Isaac, was now first promised, and has been long ago performed, in the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the son of David, the son of Abraham ,* which highly deserves our observation in this place: nor can we suppose that anything else than clear conviction that this command came from-God, could induce so good a man, and so tender a lather as Abraham was, to sacrifice his own beloved son, and to lose thereby all the comfort he received from him at present, and all the expectation he had of a numerous and happy posterity from him hereafter. 4. That long before the days of Abraham, the daemons or heathen gods had required and received human sacrifices, and particularly that of the offerer’s own children, and this both before and after the deluge. This practice had been indeed so long left off in Egypt, and the custom of sacrificing animals there was confined to so few kinds in the days of Herodotus, that he would not believe they had ever offered human sacrifices at all: for he says,t That the fable, u as if Hercules was sacrificed to Jupiter in Egypt, was feigned by the Greeks, who were entirely unacquainted with the na¬ ture of the Egyptians and their law’s; for how should they sacrifice men with whom it is unlawful to sacrifice any brute beast ? (boars, and bulls, and pure calves, and ganders, only * Matth. i. 1, t Ap. Marsh. Chron. p. 303. 34 DISSERTATION II. excepted.”) However, it is evident from Sanchoniatho. Manetho, Pausanias, Diodorus Siculus, Philo, Plutarch, and Porphyry, that such sacrifices were frequent both in Phoeni¬ cia and Egypt, and that long before the days of Abraham, as Sir John Marsham and Bishop Cumberland have fully proved : nay, that in other places, (though not in Egypt,) this cruel practice continued long after Abraham, and this till the very third, if not also to the fifth century of Christianity, before it was quite abolished. Take the rvordsof the original authors in English, as most of them occur in their originals in Sir John Marsham’s Chronicon, p. 76 —78, 300—304. “ Cronus,* * * § offered up his only begotten son, as a burnt- offering, to his father Ouranus, when there was a famine and a pestilence.” “ tCronus, whom the Phoenicians name Israel , [it should be I/,] and who was after his death consecrated into the star Saturn, when he was king of the country, and had by a nymph of that country, named Anobrct , an only begotten son, whom, on that account, they called Jeud, [the Phoenicians to this day calling an only begotten son, by that name,) he in his dread of very great dangers that lay upon the country from war, adorned his son with royal apparel, and built an altar, and offered him in sacrifice.” “ The ^Phoenicians, when they were in great dangers by war, by famine, or by pestilence, sacrificed to Saturn, one of the dearest of their people, whom they chose by public suffrage for that purpose : and Sanchoniatho’s Phoenician history is full of such sacrifices. [These hitherto I take to have been before the flood.”] In Arabia, the Dumatii sacrificed a child every year.”§ “||They relate, that of old, the [Egyptian] kings sacri¬ ficed such men as were of the same colour with Typho, at the sepulchre of Osiris.” “^[Manetho relates, that they burnt Typhonean men alive in the city Idithyia, [or Ilithya,] and scattered their ashes like chaff that is winnowed ; and this was done publicly, and at a set season, in the dog-days.” a **The barbarous nations did a long time admit of the slaughter of children, as of an holy practice, and acceptable * Philo. Bib. ex Sanchon. p. 76. || Diod. p. 78. t Ibid. p. 77. IT Plutarch, p 78. X Porphyry, p. 77. ** Nonnulliap. Philon. p. 17. § Porphyry, p. 77, DISSERTATION II. to the gods.—And this thing both private persons, and kings, and entire nations, practice at proper seasons.” u *The human sacrifices that were enjoined by the Do- donean oracle, mentioned in Pausanias’s Achaics, in the tragical story of Croesus and Callirrhoe, sufficiently intimate that the Phoenician and Egyptian priests had set up this Do- donean oracle before the time of Amosis, who destroyed that barbarous practice in Egypt.” - Isque adylis hoec tristia dicta reporlat, Sanguine placaslis ventos, et virgine catsa, Cum primum iKacas Danaivenistis ad or as ; Sanguine quatrendi reditus, animaque litandum Jirgolica\. -He frothe gods this dreadful answer brought, O Grecians, when the Trojan shores you sought, Your passage with a virgin’s blood wa3 bought; So must your safe return be bought again, And Grecian blood once more atone the main. Dryden. These bloody sacrifices were, for certain, instances of the greatest degree of impiety, tyranny, and cruelty, in the world, that either wicked dsemons, or wicked men, who neither made, nor preserved mankind, who had therefore no right over them, nor were they able to make them a- rnends in the next world for what they thus lost or suffered in this, should, after so inhuman a manner, command the taking away the lives of men, and particularly of the offerer’s own children, without the commission of any crime. This was, I think, an abomination derived from him who was a \murderer from the beginning; a crime truly and properly diabolical. 5. That, accordingly, Almighty God himself, under the Jewish dispensation, vehemently condemned the Pagans, and sometimes the Jews themselves for this crime; and for this, among other heinous sins, cast the idolatrous nations (nay, sometimes the Jews too,) out of Palestine. Take the principal texts hereto relating, as they lie in order in the Old Testament. " “§Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech.—Defile not yourselves in any of these things, for in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out be¬ fore you,” &c. * Cumber]. Sacbon p. 378. f John viii. 41. t Virg. iEneid. B. ii. ver. 115- § Lev. xviii. 21, 24. 36 DISSERTATION II. a ^Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech, he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.” “ tTake heed to thyself, that thou be no* snared by£ fol¬ lowing the nations, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods ? even so will Ido likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God; for every abomination of the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters have they burnt in the fire to their gods.” See chap, xviii. 10. 2 Kings xvii. 17* “ JAnd Ahaz made his son to pass through the fire, ac¬ cording to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel.” il ^Moreover, Ahaz burnt incence in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children [his son in Josephus] in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.” “ 11And the Sepharvites burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sephar- vaim,” &c. “ffAnd Josiah defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Ilinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.” «*#Yea they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto daemons; and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.” See Isaiah lvii. 5. “ttThe children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord; they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it: and they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the val¬ ley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daugh¬ ters in the fire, which I commanded them not, nor came it into my heart.” u $$Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, be- 16 Lev. xs. 2 t Deut. xii.30.31. } 2 Kings xvi. 3. § 2 Chron. xxviii. 3. il 2 Kings xvii. 31, IT 2 Kings xxiii. lO ** Psalm xvi. 37, 88. it Jer. vii.30—32. it Jer. xix. 3—5 DISSERTATION II. 3 7 hold I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth his ears shall tingle, because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burnt incense unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents. They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind,” &c. “ *They built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech, which I com¬ manded them not, neither came it into my mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.” w “ tMoreover, thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them ?” See ch. xx. 26. 1 Cor. x. 20. “ ^Thou hateclst the old inhabitants of thy holy land, for doing most odious works of witchcraft, and wicked sacrifi¬ ces ; and also those merciless murderers of children, and devourers of man's flesh, and feasts of blood, with their priests, out of the midst of their idolatrous crew, and the parents that killed with their own hands souls destitute of help.” 6. That Almighty God never permitted, in any one in¬ stance, that such a human sacrifice should actually be offer¬ ed to himself, (though he had a right to have required it, if he had so pleased,) under the whole Jewish dispensation, which yet was full of many other kinds of sacrifices, and this at a time when mankind generally thought such sacrifi¬ ces of the greatest virtue for the procuring pardon of sin, and the divine favour. This the ancient records of the heathen world attest. Take their notion in the words of Philo Byblius, the translator of Sanehoniatho. §“It was the custom of the ancients, in the greatest calamities and dangers, for the governors of the city or nation, in order to avert the destruction of all, to devote their beloved son to be slain, as a price of redemption to the punishing [or aven¬ ging] damions ; and those so devoted were killed after e * Jer. xxxii. 35. i Ezek. xvi. 20, 21. vot. t. t Wisd. xii. 4, 6. § Ap. Marsh, n. 76, 77. D 38 DISSERTATION II. mystical manner.” This the history of the king of Moab,* when he was in great distress in his war against Israel and Judah, informs us of; who then took his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt- offering upon the city wall. This also the Jewish prophet Micahl implies, when he inquires, Wherewith shall 1 come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God ? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old ? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of fat kids of the goats f Shall 1 give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? No certainly ; for he hath shelved thee, 0 man, what is good ; and ivhut doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to humble thyself, to walk with thy God? It is true, God did here try the faith and obedience of Abra¬ ham to himself whether they were as strong as the Pagans exhibited to their daemons or idols ; yet did he withal take effectual care, and that by a miraculous interposition also, to prevent the execution, and provided himself a ram as a vica¬ rious substitute, to supply the place of Isaac immediately. \And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham, and said, Abraham, Abraham; and he said, Here am I: And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him ; for now I know that thou fcarest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and be¬ hold a ram caught in the thicket by his horns ; and Abra¬ ham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt- offering in the stead of his son. Thus Jephthah^, has by many been thought to have vowed to offer up his only daugh¬ ter and child for a sacrifice, and that as bound on him, upon supposition of his vow, by a divine law, Lev. xxvii. 28, 29. of which opinion I was once myself; yet upon more mature consideration I have, for some time, thought this to be a mistake, and that his vow extended only to her being devo¬ ted to serve God at the tabernacle, or elsewhere, in a state of perpetual virginity ; and that neither that law did en¬ join any human sacrifices, nor do we meet with any exam¬ ple of its execution in this sense afterwards. Philo never mentions any such law, no more than Josephus : and when Josephus thought that Jephthah had made such a vow, and * 2 Kings iii. 27. i Micah yi. 6—8. t Gen xxii. 11—13. § Judges si. 86—3t>, DISSERTATION II. 39 executed it, he is so far from hinting at its being done in compliance with any law of God, that he expressly con¬ demns him for it, as having acted contrary thereto ; or in his own words,* u as having offered an oblation neither con¬ formable to the law, nor acceptable to God, nor weighing with himself what opinion the hearers would have of such a practice.” 7- That Isaac being at this time, according to Josephus,t who is herein justly followed by Archb. Usher,| no less than twentyrfive years of age, and Abraham being, by con¬ sequence, one hundred and twenty-five, it is not to be sup¬ posed that Abraham could bind Isaac, in order to offer him in sacrifice, but by his own free consent; which free con¬ sent of the party who is to suffer seems absolutely necessary in all such cases : and which free consent St. Clement, as well as Josephus, distinctly takes notice of on this occasion. St. Clement describes it thus u Isaac being fully persua¬ ded of what he knew was to come, cheerfully yielded him¬ self up tor a sacrifice.” And for Josephus, |j after introdu¬ cing Abraham in a pathetic speech, laying before Isaac the divine command, and exhorting him patiently and joyfully to submit to it, he tells us, that u Isaac very cheerfully con¬ sented ;” and then introduces him in a short but very pious answer, acquiescing in the proposal; and adds, that-“ he then immediately and readily went to the altar to be sacri¬ ficed.” Nor did Jephthah,^} perform his rash vow, what¬ ever it were, till his daughter had given her consent to it. 8. It appears to me that Abraham never despaired entire¬ ly of the interposition of providence for the preservation of Isaac, although in obedience to the command, he prepared to sacrifice him to God. This seems to me intimated in Abra¬ ham’s words to his servants, on the third day, when he was in sight of the mountain on which he was to offer his son Isaac, W s will go and worship, and we will come again to you. As also in his answer to his son, when he inquired, **Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering. Both these * Antiq. B. v. 7—10. || Antiq B. i • liap xiii. sec. 3. 1 Wntiq’B i chap ii. IT Judges xi. 36, 37. $ Ush. Annal. ad A. M. 2133. ** Gen. xxji. 5—8. $ 1 Clem. sec. 31. 1 40 DISSERTATION II. passages look to me somewhat like such an expectation. However, 9. It appeal's most evident, that Abraham, and I suppose Isaac also, firmly believed, that if God should permit Isaac to be actually slain as a sacrifice, he would certainly and speedily raise him again from the dead. This, to be sure, is supposed in the words already quoted, that he and his son would go and worship, and come again to the servants; and is clearly and justly collected from this history by the author to the Hebrews, chap, xi IT —19. By faith Abra¬ ham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting or reasoning that God was able to raise him from the dead. And this reasoning was at once very obvi¬ ous, and wholly undeniable, that since God was truth itself, and had over and over promised that he would* multiply Abra¬ ham exceedingly ; that he should be a father of many nations ; that his name should be no longer Abram, but Abraham, be¬ cause a father of many nations God had made him, &c.; that Sarai his wife should be called Sarah ; that he would bless her, and give Abraham a son also of her ; and that he would bless him, and she should become a mother of nations, and kings of people should be of her, 8fc .; and that in Isaac should his seed be called. And since withal it is here suppo¬ sed, that Isaac was to be slain as a sacrifice, before he was married, or had any seed, God was, for certain, obliged by his promises, in these circumstances to raise Isaac again from the dead: and this was an eminent instance of that faith wherebyj; Abraham believed God, and it wasimputcd to him for righteousness, viz. that if God should permit Isaac to be sacrificed, he would certainly and quickly raise him up again from the dead, whence also he received him in a figure, as the author to the Hebrews here justly observes. 10. That the firm and just foundation of Abraham’s faith 'and assurance in God for such a resurrection was this, be¬ sides the general consideration of the divine veracity, that during the whole time of his sojourning in strange countries, in Canaan and Egypt, ever since he had been called out of Ch E 50 DISSERTATION III. Besides which, they are idle on every # seventh year, SS being pleased with a lazy life. Others say, that they do ho* * nour thereby to tSaturn; or perhaps the Idaei gave them this part of their religion, who [as we said above,] were ex¬ pelled, together with Saturn, and who, as we have been in¬ formed, were the founders of this nation ; or els* * §3 it was be¬ cause the star Saturn moves in the highest orb, and of the seven planets exerts the principal part of that energy whereby mankind are governed : and indeed the most of the heavenly bodies exert their power, and perform their courses accord¬ ing to the number seven .t Chap. V.] These rites, by what manner soever they were first begun, are supported by their antiquity.^ The rest of their institutions are |jawkward, impure, and got ground by their pravity; for ever}? vile fellow, despising the rites of his forefathers, brought thither their tribute and contribu¬ tions, by which means the Jewish commonwealth was aug¬ mented. And because among themselves there is an unalter¬ able fidelity and kindness always ready at hand, but bitter en¬ mity towards all others,they are a people separated from others in their food, and in their beds; though they be the lewdest nation upon earth ,** yet will they not corrupt foreign women, though ftnothing be esteemed unlawful among them¬ selves. seventh or sabbath-day’s rest, after the six days of creation. Every Jew;, as well as every Christian, could have informed him of those mat¬ ters. * A strange hypothesis of the origin of the sabbatic year, and w ithout all good foundation. Tacitus probably bad never heard of the Jews' year of jubilee, so he says nothing of it. t As if the Jews, in the days of Moses, or long before, knew that the Greeks and Romans vvould long afterward call the seventh day of the week Saturn’s-ilay; which Dio observes was not so called of old time; and it is a question whether before the Jew's fell into idolatry they ever heard of such a star or god as Saturn. Amos v. 25. Acts vii. 43. f That the sun, moon, and stars, rule over the affairs of mankind, was an heathen and notaJew'ish notion: neither Jews nor Christians were permitted to deal in astrology, though Tacitus^seems to have been deep in it. § This acknowledgment of the antiquity of Moses, and of his Jewish settlement, was what the heathen cared not always to own. || What these pretcn\led awkward and impure institutions were, Ta¬ citus does not inform us. 1! Josephus shows the contrary, as to the laws of Moses, contr. Apion Book ii. sec. 22. vol. vi. ** An entirely false character, and contrary to their many law;$ against uncleanness. See Josephus’s Antiq. B. iii. cap. xi. sec. 12 it An high, and l cjpubt a false coqnaendation of the Jew's. DISSERTATION III. 51 They have ordained circumcision of the part used in gene¬ ration, that they may thereby be distinguished from other peo¬ ple; the ^proselytes to their religion have the same usage. They are taught nothing sooner than to despise the gods, to renounce their country, and to have their parents, children, and brethren in the utmost contempt;+ but still they take care to increase and multiply, for it is esteemed utterly un¬ lawful to kill any of their children. They also look on the souls of those that die in battle, or are put to death for their crimes, as eternal. Hence comes their love of posterity, and contempt of death. They derive their ^custom of burying, instead of burning their dead from the Egyptians : they have also the same care of the dead with them, and the same persuasion about the in¬ visible world below : but of the gods above, their opinion is contrary to theirs. The Egyptians worship abundance of animals, and images of various sorts. The Jews have no notion of any thing more than one divine being,§ and that known only by the mind. They esteem such to be profane who frame images of gods out of perishable matter, and in the shape of men. That this being is supreme and eternal, immutable and imperishable, is their doctrine. Accordingly they have no images in their cities, much less in their temples: they never grant this piece of flattery to kings, or this kind of honour to emperors.I| But because their priests, when the play on the pipe and th« y timbrels, wear ivy round their heads, and a golden ffvine has been found in their temple, some have thought that they worshipped our * The proselytes of justice only, not the proselytes of the gates, t How does this agree with that unalterable fidelity and kindness which Tacitus told us the Jews had towards one another? unless he only means that they preferred the divine command before their nearest rela¬ tions, which is the highest degree of Jewish and Christian piety. t This custom is at least as old among the Hebrews as the days of Abraham, and the cave of Machpelah, long before the Israelites went into Egypt. Gen. xxiii. 1—20. xxv. 8—10. § These are valuable concessions, which Tacitus here makes as to the unspotted piety of the Jewish nation, in the worship of one infinite, in¬ visible God, and absolute rejection of all idolatry, and of alt worship of images, nay, of the image of the emperor Caius himself, or of affording it a place in their temple. || All these concessions were to be learned from Josephus, and almost only from him ; out of whom therefore I concluded Tacitus took the finest part of his character of the Jews. If This particular fact, that there was a golden vine in the front of the Jewish temple, was in all probability taken by Tacitus out of Josephus; but as the Jewish priests were never adorned with ivy, the signal of Bacchus, how Tacitus came to imagine this l cannot tell. 52 DISSERTATION III. father Bacchus, the conqueror of the East: whereas the ce¬ remonies of the Jews do not at all agree with those of Bac¬ chus, for he appointed rites that were of a jovial nature, anct fit for festivals, while the practices of the Jews are absurdand sordid. Chap VI.] The limits of Judea easterly are bounded by Arabia: Egypt lies on the south : on the west are Phoenicia and the [greatj sea. They have a prospect of Syria, on their north quarter, as at some distance from them.* * * § The bodies of the men are healthy, and such as "will bear great labours. They have not many showers qf rain: their soil is very fruitful: fire produce of their land is like ours, in great plenty .t They have also besides ours, two trees peculiar to them¬ selves; the balsam tree, and the palm tree. Their groves of palms are tall and beautiful. The balsam tree is not very large. As soon as any branch is swelled, the veins quake as for fear, if you bring an iron knife to cut them. They are to be opened with a broken piece of stone, or with the shell of a fish. The juice is useful in physic. Libanus is their principal mountain, and is very high, and yet what is very strange to be related, it is always shadowed with trees, and never free from snow. The same mountain supplies the river Jordan with water, and affords it its foun¬ tains also. Nor is this Jordan carried into the sea; it passes through one and a second lake, undiminished, but it is stopped by the third.I This last lake is vastly great in circumference, as if it were a sea.^i It is of an ill taste, and is pernicious to the adjoin¬ ing inhabitants by its strong smell. The wind raises no waves there, nor will it maintain either fishes, or such birds as use the water. The reason is uncertain; but the fact is this* that bodies cast into it are borne up, as by somewhat solid. * See the chorography ol Judea in Josephus, of the War. B. iii sec. 3. vol. v. whence most probably Tacitus framed Ibis short abridgement of it. It comes in both authors naturally before Vespasian’s first campaign f The latter branch of this, Tacitus might have from Josephus, of the War, B iii. cap. iii. see. 2, 3, 4. vol. v. The other is not in the pre¬ sent copies. t These accounts of Jordan, of its fountains derived from Mount Li- banus, and of the twolakes it runs through and its stoppage by the third, are exactly agreeable to Josephus, of the War, B. iii. cap. x. sec. 7, 8 vol. v. § Mo less than 580 furlongs long, and 150 broad, in Josephus, of the War, B> iv. cep. viii. sec. 4. vol. r. DISSERTATION III. Those who can, and those who cannot swim, are equally borne up by it. # At a certain time of the tyear it casts out bitumen: the manner of gathering it, like other arts, has been taught by experience. The liquor is of its own nature of a black colour; and, if you pour vinegar upon it, it clings together, and swims on the top. Those whose business it is, take it in their hands, and pull it into the upper parts of the ship, after which it follows, without further attraction, and fills the ship full, till you cut it off: nor can you cut it off either with a brass or an iron instrument; but it cannot bear the touch of blood, or of a cloth wet with the menstrual pur¬ gations of women, as the ancient authors say. But those that are acquainted with the place assure us, that these waves of ‘ bitumen are driven along, and by the hand drawn to the shore, and that when they are dried by the warm steams from the . earth, and the force of the sun, they are cut in pieces with axes, and wedges, as timber and stones are cut in pieces. Chap VII.] Not far from this lake are those plains, which are related to have been of old fertile, and to have had many [cities full of people, but to have been burnt up by a stroke of lightning: it is also said, that the footsteps of that destruction still remain, and that the earth itself appears as burnt earth, and has lost its natural fertility; and that as an ar¬ gument thereof, all the plants that grow of their own accord, or are planted by the hand, whether they arrive at the degree of an herb, or of a flower, or at complete maturity, become black and empty, and, as it were, vanish into ashes. As for myself, as I am willing to allow that these once famous ci¬ ties were burnt by fire from heaven, so I would suppose that the earth is infected with the vapour ©f the lake, and the spirit [or air] that is over it thereby corrupted, and that by this means the fruits of the earth, both corn and grapes rot away, both the soil and the air being equally unwholesome. The river Belus does also run into the sea of Judea; and the sands that are collected about its mouth, when you mix ni- * Strabo says, that a man could not sink into the water of this lake so deep as the navel. t Josephus never says (hat this bitumen was cast out at a certain lime of the year only; and Strabo says the direct contrary, but Pliny agrees with Tacitus. | This is exactly according to Josephus, and must have been taken from him in the place forecited, and particularly, because it is peculiar to him, so far as 1 know, in all antiquity. The rest thought the cities were in the same place where now the lake is, but Josephus and Ta¬ citus say they were in its neighbourhood only, which is Mr. Reload's opinion also, DISSERTATION III. 54 tre with them, are melted into glass: this sort of shore is but small, but its sand, for the use of those that carry it off, is inexhaustible. Chap. VIII.] A great part of Judea is composed of scat¬ tered villages; it also has large towns: Jerusalem is the capi¬ tal city of the whole nation. In that city there was a temple of immense wealth ; in the first parts that are fortified is the city itself, next it the royal palace. The temple is enclosed in its most inward recesses. A Jew can come no further than the gates; all but the priests are excluded by their threshold. While the east was under the dominion of the Assyrians, the Medes, and the Persians, the Jews were of all slaves the most despicable.* * f After the dominion of the Macedonians prevailed, king Antiochus tried to conquer their superstition, and to intro¬ duce the customs of the Greeks; but he was disappointed of his design, which was to give this most profligate nation a change for the better, and that was by his war with the Parthi- ans, for at this time, Arsaces had fallen off [from the Macedo¬ nians.] Then it was that the Jews set kings over them, be¬ cause the Macedonians were become weak, the Parthians were not yet very powerful, and the Romans were very re¬ mote ; which kings, when they had been expelled by the no¬ bility of the vulgar, and had recovered their dominion by war, attempted the same things that kings used to do, i mean they introduced the destruction of cities, the slaughter of brethren, of wives, and parents, but still went on in their superstition; for they took upon them withal the honourable dignity of the high-priesthood, as a firm security to their power and authority. Chap IX.] The first of the Romans that conquered the Jews was Cneius Pompeius, who entered the temple by right of victory. Thence the report was every where divulged, that therein was no image of a God, but an empty place, and mysteries, most secret places that have nothing in them. The walls of Jerusalem were then destroyed, but the temple continued still. Soon afterward arose a civil war among us ; and when therein these provinces were reduced under Mar¬ cus Antonius, Pacorus, king of the Parthians, got possession of Judea, but was himself slain by Paulus Ventidius, and the Parthians were driven beyond Euphrates : and for the Jews, " 1 ' * A great slander against the Jews, without any just foundation Josephus would have informed him better. t Here begins Josephus's and Tacitus's true accounts of the Jews preliminary to the last war. gee of the War, Proaem. sec. 7. vol. v. DISSERTATION III. Caius Socius subdued them. Antonius gave the kingdom to Herod ; and when Augustus conquered Antonius, he still augmented it. After Herod’s death, one Simon, without waiting for the disposition of Ca;sar, took upon him the title of King, who w'as brought to punishment by [or under] Quintilius Varus, when he was president of Syria. Afterward the nation was reduced, and the children of Herod governed it in three par¬ titions. ~ • Under Tiberius the Jews had rest. After some time they were enjoined to place Caius Caesar’s statue in the temple; but rather than permit that, they took up arms ;* which se¬ dition was put an end to by the death of Caesar. Claudius, after the kings were either dead, or reduced to smaller dominions, gave the province of Judea to Roman knights, or to freed men, to be governed by them. Among whom was Antonius Felix, one that exercised all kind of bar¬ barity and extravagance, as if he had royal authority, but with the disposition of a slave. He had married Drusilla, the grand-daughter of Antonius, so that Felix was the grand¬ daughter’s husband, and Claudius the grand-son of the same Antonius. ANNAL. BOOK XII. But he that was the brother of Pallas, whose sirname was Felix, did not act with the same moderation, [as did Pallas himself.] He had been a good while ago set over Judea, and thought that he might be guilty of all sorts of wickedness with impunity, while he relied on so sure an authority. The Jews had almost given a specimen of sedition; and even after the death of Caius was known, and they had not obeyed his command, there remained a degree of fear, lest some future prince should renew that command, [for the set¬ ting up of the prince’s statue in their temple.] And, in the mean time, Felix, by the use of unseasonable remedies, blew up the coals of sedition into a flame, and was imitated by his partner in the government, Ventidius Cumanus, the countr\ r being thus divided between them, that the nation of the Gali¬ leans were under Cumanus, and the Samaritans under Felix ; which two nations were of old at variance, but now out of contempt of their governors, did less restrain their hatred : * They came to Petronius, the president of Syria, in vast numbers, but without arms, and as humble supplicants only. See Tacitus pre>- sently, where he afterwards sets this matter almost right, according to Josephus, and hy way of correction, for that account is in his annals, which were written after this, which is in his histories. 56 DISSERTATION III. they then began to plunder one another, to send in parties of robbers, to lie in wait, and sometimes to fight battles, and tvithal to bring spoils and preys to the proem ators, [Cumanus and Felix.] Whereupon these procurators began to rejoice; yet when the mischief grew considerable, soldiers were sent to quiet them, but the soldiers were killed ; and the province had b^en in the flame of war, had not Quadratus, the presi¬ dent of Syria afforded his assistance. Nor was it long in dispute, whether the Jews, who had killed the soldiers in the mutiny, should be put to death : it was agreed they should die; only Cumanus and Felix occasioned a delay, for Claudius, upon hearing the causes as to this rebellion, had given [Quad¬ ratus] authority to determine the case, even as to the procu¬ rators themselves: but Quadratus showed Felix among the judges,and took him into hisseat of Judgment, on purpose that he might discourage his accusers. So Cumanus was condemn¬ ed for those flagitious actions, of which both he,and Felix had been guilty, and peace was restored to the province.* HISTOR. BOOK V.-CHAP. X. However, the Jews had patience till Gessius Floras was made procurator. Under him it was that the war began. Then Cestius Gallus, the president of Syria, attempted to ap¬ pease it, tried several battles, but generally with ill success. Upon his death,f whether it came by fate, or that he was weary of his life, is uncertain, Vespasian had the good fortune, by his reputation, and excellent officers, and a victorious ar¬ my, in the space of two summers, to make himself master of all the open country, and of all the cities, Jerusalem ex¬ cepted. [Flavius Vespasianus, whom Nero had chosen for his ge¬ neral, managed the Jewish war with three legions, Histor. B. i. chap, x.] The next year, which was employed in a civil war [at jiome,] so far as the Jews were concerned, passed over in peace. When Italy was pacified, the care of foreign parts was revived. The Jews were the only people that stood out, which increased the rage [of the Romans.] It was also thought most proper that Titus should stay with the army, to prevent any accident or misfortune which the new govern¬ ment might be liable to. [Vespasian had put an end to the Jewish nation : the siege * Here seems to be a great mistake about the Jewish affairs in Taci¬ tus. See of the War, B. ii. rap. xii. sec- 8 vol. v. t Josephus says nothing of the death of Cestius; so Tacitus seems te iiavo known nothing in particular about it- DISSERTATION III. 57 or Jerusalem was the only enterprise remaining, which was a Work hard and difficult, but rather from the nature of the mountain, and the obstinacy of the Jewish superstition, than because the besieged had strength enough to undergo the dis¬ tresses [of a siege.] We have already informed [the read¬ er] that Vespasian had with him three legions, well exer¬ cised in war. Histor. Book ii. chap, v.] When Vespasian was a very young man, it was promised him that he should arrive at the highest pitch of fame: but: what did first of all seem to confirm the omen, was his tri¬ umphs and consulship, and the glory of his victories over the Jews. , When he had once obtained these, he believed it wa$ portended that he should come to the empire.* There is between Judea and Syria a mountain and a god, both called by the same name of Carmel , though our prede¬ cessors have informed us that this god had no image, and no temple, and indeed no more than an altar and solemn wor¬ ship. Vespasian was once offering a sacr fiee there, at a time when he had some secret thought in his mind : the priest, whose name was Basilides , when he over and over looked at the entrails, said, Vespasian, whatever thou art about, whe¬ ther the building of thy house, or enlargement of thy lands, or augmentation of thy slaves, thou art granted a mighty seat, very large bounds, an huge number of men. These doubt¬ ful answers were soon spread abroad bv fame, and at this time were explained: nor was any thing so much in public vogue, and very many discourses of that nature were made before him, and the more because they foretold what he expected. Mucianus and Vespasianus went away, having fully- agreed on their designs ; the former to Antioch, the latter to Caesa- rea. Antioch is the capital of Syria, and Caesarea the capi¬ tal of Judea. The commencement of Vespasian’s advance¬ ment to the empire was at Alexandria, where Tiberius Al¬ exander made such haste, that he obliged the legions to take the oath of fidelity to him on the kalends of July, which was ever after celebrated as the day of his inauguration, f although * Josephus takes notice in general of these nia v --mens ot Vespa- sian’s advancement to the empire and distinctly adds his own remark able prediction of it also Aatiq, B. iii cap. viii. sec. 3, 9. t this although seems to imply that Vespasian was proclaimed em¬ peror in Judea before he was so proclaimed at Alexandria, as the whole history of Josephus implies, and the place where now Vespasian was, which was no other than Judea, requires also, though the inauguration day alight he celebrated afterward from his first proclamation al the great city Alexandria, only then the nones or ides in Tacitus and Sueto- jiius must be of June, and not of July. 58 DISSERTATION III. the army in Judea had taken that oath on the fifth of the nones of July, with that eagerness, that they would not stay for his son Titus, who was then on the road, returning out of Syria. Chap, lxxix. Vespasian delivered over the strongest part of his forces to Titus, to enable him to finish what re¬ mained of the Jewish war. Hist. Book iv. chap, li. During those months in which Vespasian continued at Al¬ exandria, waiting for the usual set time of the summer gales of wind, and stayed for settled fair weather at sea, many mi¬ raculous events happened, by which the good will of heaven, and a kind of inclination of the Deity in his favour was de¬ clared. A certain man of the vulgar sort at Alexandria, well known for the decay of his eyes, kneeled down by him, and groaned, and begged of him the cure of his blindness, as by the ad¬ monition of Serapis, that God which this superstitious nation worships above others. He also desired that the emperor Would be pleased to put some of his spittle upon the balls of his eyes. Another infirm man there, who was lame of his hand, prayed Caesar as by the same god’s suggestion, to tread upon him with his foot. Vespasian at first began to laugh at them, and to reject them; and when they were instant with him, he sometimes feared he should have the reputation of a vain person, and sometimes upon the solicitation of the infirm, he flattered himself, and others flattered him with the hopes of succeeding. At last he ordered the physicians to give their opinion, whether this sort of blindness and lame¬ ness were curable by the art of man or not? The physicians answered uncertainly, that the one had not his visual faculty utterly destroyed, and that it might be restored, if the obsta¬ cles were removed; that the other’s limbs were disordered, but if an healing virtue were made use of, they were capable of being made whole. Perhaps, said they, the gods are wil¬ ling to assist, and that the emperor is chosen by divine interpo¬ sition ; however, they said at last that if the cures succeed, Caesar would have the glory; if not, the poor miserable objects would only be laughed at. Whereupon Vespasian imagined, that his good fortune would be universal, and that nothing on that account could be incredible, so he looked cheerfully, and in the sight of the multitude, who stood in great expect¬ ation, he did what they desired him : upon which the lame hand was recovered, and the blind man saw immediately. Both these # cures are related to this day by those that were present, and when speaking falsely will get no reward. * The miraculous cures done by Vespasian are attested to both by Suetonius in Vespasian, sec. 7, and by Dio, p. 217, and seem to me well DISSERTATION III. 59 BOOK V.-CnAP. I. At the beginning of the same year, Titus Caesar, who was pitched upon by his father to finish the conquest of Judea, and while both he and his father were private persons, was celebrated for his marshal conduct, acted now with greater vigour and hopes of reputation, the kind inclinations both of the provinces and of the armies striving one with another who should most encourage him. He was also himself in a dis¬ position to show that he was more than equal to his fortune 5 and when he appeared in arms, he did all things after such a ready and graceful way, treating all after such an affable manner, and with such kind words, as invited the good-will and good wishes of all. He appeared also in his actions and in his place in the troops ; he mixed with common soldiers, yet without any stain to his honour as a general.* * He was received in Judea by three legions, the fifth and the tenth, and the fifteenth, who were Vespasian’s old soldiers. Syria also afforded him the twelfth, and Alexandria soldiers out of the twenty-second and twenty-third legions. Twenty fco¬ horts of auxiliaries accompanied, as also eight troops of horse. King Agrippa also was there, and king Sohemus, and the auxiliaries of king Antiochus, and a strong body of Arabians, who, as is usual in nations that are neighbours to one an¬ other, went with their accustomed hatred against the Jews, with many other out of the city of Rome, as every one’s hopes led him of getting early into the generals favour, be¬ fore others should prevent them. He entered into the borders of the enemies country with these forces, in exact order of war: and looking carefully attested. Our Saviour seems to have over-ruled the heathen oracle of Serapis to procure (he divine approbation to Vespasian’s advancement to the empire of Rome, as he suggested the like approbation to the advance¬ ment both of Vespasian and Titus to Josephus, which two were to be his chosen instruments in bringing on that terrible destruction upon the Jewish nation, which he had threatened to execute by these Roman ar¬ mies. Nor could any other Roman generals than Vespasian and Titus, at that time, in human probability, have prevailed over the Jews and destroyed Jerusalem, as this wholehistory in Josephus implies Josephus also every where supposes Vespasian and Titus raised up to command against Judea a»d Jerusalem, and to govern the Roman empire by di¬ vine providence, and not in the ordinary way : as also he always sup¬ poses this destruction a divine judgment on the Jews for their sins. * This character of Titus agrees exactly with the history of Josephus upon all occasions. t These 20 cohorts, and 8 troops of horse, are not directly enumerat ed by Josephus. Antiq. B. v. cap. i. sec. 6. 1 ■ 60 DISSERTATION III. about him, and being ready for battle, he pitched his camp not far from Jerusalem. Chap. N.] When therefore he had pitched his camp, as we said just now before the walls of Jerusalem he pompous- ' ly # showed his legions ready for an engagement. Chap. XI.] The Jews formed their camp under the very f walls [of the city ;] and if they succeeded, they resolved to venture farther, but if they were beaten back, that was their place of refuge. When a body of ^cavalry were sent against them, and with them cohorts, that were expedite and nim¬ ble, the fight was doubtful; but som afterwards the enemies gave ground, and on the following days there were frequent skirmishes before the gates, till after many losses they were driven into the city. The Romans then betook themselves to the siege, for it did not seem honourable to stay till the enemies were reduced by famine.^ The soldiers were very eager to expose themselves to dangers, part of them out of true valour, many out of a brutish fierceness, and out of a desire of rewards. Titus had Rome, and the riches and pleasures of it before his eyes, all which seemed to be too long delayed, unless Je¬ rusalem could be soon destroyed. The city stood on an high elevation, and it had great works, and ramparts to secure it, such indeed as were suffi¬ cient for its fortifications, had it been on plain ground, for here were two hills of a vast height, which were enclosed by walls made crooked by art, or [naturally] bending inwards, that they might flank the besiegers, and cast darts on them sideways. The extreme parts of the rock were craggy, and the towers, when they had the advantage of the ground, were 60 feet high : when they were built on the plain ground they were not built lower than 120 feet: they were of uncommon beauty", and to those who looked at them at a great distance, 4 This word in Tacitus, pompously showed his legions, look as if that pompous show which was some months afterwards, in Josephus, ran in his mind. Antiq. B. v. cap. ix. sec. 1. t These first bickerings and battles near the walls of Jerusalem, are at large in Josephus. Antiq. B. v. cap. ii. t Josephus distinctly mentions these horsemen of cavalry, 600 in number, among whom Titus had like to have been slain or taken pri¬ soner. Antiq. B. v. cap. ii. sec. 1—3. § Such a deliberation and resolution, with this very reason, that it would be dishonourable to stay till the Jews were starved out by fam¬ ine, is in Josephus. Antiq. B. v. cap. xii. see. 1. DISSERTATION III. Cl they seemed equal.* * * § Other walls there were beneath the royal palace, besides the tower of Antonia, with its top par¬ ticularly conspicuous. It was called so by Herod, in honour of Marcus Antonius. Chap. XII.] The temple was like a citadel, having walls of its own, which had more labour and pains bestowed on them than the rest. The cloisters wherewith the temple was enclosed were an excellent fortification. They had a fountain of water that ran perpetually ; and the mountains were hollowed underground ; they had more- overt pools and cisterns for the preservation of the rain wa¬ ter. They that built this city foresaw, that from the difference of their conduct of life from their neighbours, they should have frequent wars ; thence it came to pass that they had provision for a long siege. After Pompey’s conquest also, their fear and experience had taught them generally what they should want.]; Moreover, the covetous temper that prevailed under Clau¬ dius, gave the Jews an opportunity of purchasing for money §leave to fortify Jerusalem ; so they built walls in time of peace, as if they were going to war, they being augmented in number by those rude multitudes of people that retired thither on the ruin of the other cities, for every obstinate fellow ran away thither, and there became more seditious than before. There were three captains, and as many armies. Simon had the remotest and the largest parts of the walls under him. John, who was also called Bar Gioras, [the son of Gioras,] had the middle parts of the city under him : and Eleazar had * This description of the city of Jerusalem, its two hills, its three walls, and four towers, fee. are in this place at large in Josephus. An- tiq. B v. cap. iv See also Pompey’s Siege. B. xiv. Gap. iv. sec. 2. t Of these pools, see Josephus, B. v. cap. xi. sec. 4. The cisterns are not mentioned by him here, though they be mentioned by travel¬ lers. See Reland’s Palestine, tom i. p. 304. $ This is Tacitus’s or the Romans’ own hypothesis, unsupported by Josephus. § This sale of leave for the Jews to build the walls of Jerusalem for money, is also Tacitus’s or the Romans’ own hypothesis, unsupported by Josephus. Nor is Josephus’s character of Claudius near so bad, ae to other things also, as it is in Tacitus and Suetonius. Dio says, he was far from covetousness in particular. The others seems to have misre¬ presented his meek and quiet temper, and learning, but without ambi¬ tion, and his great kindness to the Jews, as the most contemptible folly. See Antiq. B. six cap. ix. sec. 4. He was indeed much ruled at first by a very bad minister, Pallas; and at last was ruled and poisoned by a very bad wife, Agrippina. VOL. 1. F DISSERTATION III. m fortified the temple itself. John and Simon were superior in multitude and strength of arms, Eleazar was superior by his situation ; but battles, factions, and burning, were common to them all; and a great quantity of corn was consumed by fire. After a while, John sent some, who, under the pre¬ tence of offering sacrifice, might slay Eleazar and his body of troops, which they did, and got the temple under their power. So the city now was parted into two factions, until, upon the coming of the Romans, this war abroad produced peace between those that were at home. Chap. X 1 IL] Such* prodigies had happened as this na¬ tion, which is superstitious enough in its own way, would not agree to expiate by the ceremonies of the Roman reli¬ gion, nor would they atone the gods by sacrifices and vows, as these used to do on the like occasions. Armies were seen to fight in the sky, and their armour looked of a bright light colour, and the temple shone with sudden flashes of fire out of the clouds. The doors of the temple svere opened on a sudden, and a voice greater than human was heard, that the gods were retiring, and at the same time was there a great motion perceived, as if they were going out of it, which some esteemed to be causes of terror. The greater part had a firm belief that it was contained in the old sacerdotal books, that at this very time the east would prevail, and that some that came out of Judea should obtain the empire of the world, which obscure oracle foretold Vespasian and Titus ; but the generality of the common people, as usual, indulged their own inclinations, and when they had once interpreted all to fore¬ bode grandeur to themselves, adversitjr itself could not per¬ suade them to change their minds, though it were from false¬ hood to truth.f We have been informed, that the number of the besieged, of every age, and of both sexes, male and female, was six hundred thousand.J There were weapons for all that could carry them, and more than could be expected, for their num¬ ber were bold enough to do so. The men and the women were equally obstinate ; and when they supposed they were * These prodigies, and more, are at large in Josephus. Antiq. B. vi. cap. v sec. 3. t This interpretation and reflections are in Josephus. Antiq. B. vi cap. v sec 4. vol. ii. t The number 600,000 for the besieged is no where in Josephus, but is there for the poor buried at the public charge, Antiq. B. v. cap. xiii sec 7. which might be about the number of the besieged, under Cestius Galbis, though they were many more afterwards at Titus’s siege, as Josephus implies. Antiq. B. vi. cap is. sec. 3. DISSERTATION III. 63 to be carried captive, they were more afraid of life than of death. Against this city and nation Titus Caesar resolved to fight by ramparts and ditches, since the situation of the place did not admit of taking it by storm or surprise. He parted the duty among the legions ; and there were no farther engage¬ ments, until whatever had been invented for the taking of cities by the ancients, or by the ingenuity of the moderns, was got ready. ANNAL. BOOK XV. Nero, in order to stifle the rumour, [as if he had himself set Rome on fire,] ascribed it to those people who were hated for their wicked practices, and called by the vulgar Chris¬ tians ; these he punished exquisitely. The author of this name was Christ, who in the reign of Tiberius was brought to punishment by Pontius Pilate the procurator.* For the present this pernicious superstition was in part suppressed, but it brake out again, not only over Judea, whence this mis¬ chief first sprang, but in the city of Rome also, whither do run from every quarter and make a noise, all the flagrant and shameful enormities. At first therefore, those were seized who confessed, afterwards a vast multitude were detected by them, and were convicted, not so much as really guilty of setting the city on fire, but as hating all mankind ; nay, they made a mock of them as they perished, and destroyed them by putting them into the skins of wild beasts, and setting dogs upon them to tear them to pieces. Some were nailed to crosses, and others flamed to death : they were also used in the night-time instead of torches, for illumination. Nero had offered his own gardens for this spectacle. He also gave them Circensian games, and dressed himself like the driver of a chariot, sometimes appearing among the common people, sometimes in the circle itself; whence a commiseration arose, though the punishments were levelled at guilty per. ^s, and such as deserved to be made the most flagrant examples, as if these people were destroyed, not for the public advantage, but to satisfy the barbarous humour of one man. N. B. Since I have set down all the vile calumnies of Ta¬ citus upon the Christians as well as the Jews, it will be pro¬ per, before I come to my observations, to set down two hea- * This passage seems to have been directly taken from Josephus’s fa¬ mous testimony concerning Christ, and the Christians. Antic]- B. xviii. cap. iii. sec. 3, vol. iv. of which Dissert. I. before. 64 DISSERTATION III. then records in their favour, and those hardly inferior in an¬ tiquity , and of much greater authority than Tacitus, I mean Pliny’s epistle to Trajan when he was proconsul of Bithy- nia, with Trajan’s answer or rescript to Pliny, cited by Ter- tullian, Eusebius, and Jerom. These are records of so great, esteem with Havercamp, the last editor of Josephus, that he. thinks they not only deserve to be read, but almost to be lear¬ ned by heart also. PLINY’S EPISTLE TO TRAJAN. About A. D. 112. Sir, It is my constant method to apply myself to you for the resolution of all my doubts, for who can better govern my dilatory way of proceeding, or instruct my ignorance ? I have never been present at the examination of the Christians [by others,] on which account I am unacquainted with what uses to be inquired into, and what and how far they used to be pu¬ nished : nor are my doubts small, whether there be not a dis¬ tinction to be made between the ages [of the accused,] and whether tender youth ought to have the same punishment with strong men ? whether there be not room for pardon upon repentance ?* or whether it may not be an advantage to one that had been a Christian, that he has forsaken Chris¬ tianity ? whether the bare name,t without any crimes be¬ sides, or the crimes adhering to that name, be to be punished? In the mean time, I have taken this course about those who have been brought before me as Christians. I asked them, whether they were Christians or not ? If they confessed that they were Christians, I asked them' again, and a third time, intermixing threatenings with the questions : if they persevered in their confession, I ordered them to be executed ;f for I did not doubt but, let their confession be of any sort whatsoever, this positiveness and inflexible obstinacy deserv¬ ed to be punished. There have been some of this mad sect whom I took notice of in particular as Roman citizens, that . _ . . . - - --* * Till now it seems repentance was not commonly allowed those that had been once Christians, but though they recanted, and returned to idolatry, yet were they commonly put to death. This was persecti' lion in perfection ! > t This was the just and heavy complaint of the ancient Christians, that they commonly suffered for that bare name without the pretence of any crimes they could prove against them. This was also persecu* lion in perfection! t Amazing doctrine! that a firm and fixed resolution of keeping a good conscience should be thought without dispute to deserve death, and this by such comparatively excellent heathens as Pliny and Trajan, DISSERTATION III. 65 they might be sent to that city.* After some time, as is usu¬ al in such examinations, the crime spread itself and many more cases came before me. A libel was sent me, though without an author, containing many names [of persons accu¬ sed.] These denied that they were Christians now, or ever had been. They called upon the gods, and supplicated to yourt image, which I caused to be brought before me for that purpose, with frankincense and wine : they alsoi; cursed Christ: none of which things, as it is said, can any of those that are really Christians be compelled to do ; so I thought lit to let them go. Others of them that were named in the libel, said they were Christians, but presently denied it again, that indeed they had been Christians, but had ceased to be so some three years, some many more ; and one there was that said, he had not been so these twenty years. All these worshipped your image, and the images of our gods : these also cursed Christ. However, they assured me, that the main of their fault, or of their mistake, was this, that they were wont, on a stated day, to meet together before it was light, and to sing a hymn to Christ, as to a god, alternat ely} and to oblige themselves by a sacrament [or oath,] not to do any thing that was ill, but that they would commit no theft, ■or pilfering, or adultery ; that they would not break their promises, or deny what was deposited with them, when it was required back again : after which it was their custom to de¬ part, and to meet again at a common but innocent^ meal, which yet they had left off upon that edict which I published at your command, and wherein I had forbidden any such conventicles. These examinations made me think it neces¬ sary to inquire by torments, what the truth was, which I did of two servant-maids, which were called deaconesses ; but still I discovered no more, than that they were addicted to a bad, and to an extravagant superstition. Hereupon I have put off any farther examinations, and have recourse to you, for the affair seems to be well worth consultation, especially * This was the case of St. Paul, who being a citizen ot Rome was allowed to appeal unto Casar, and was sent to Rome accordingly. Acts xxii. 25—26. xxv. 25- sxvi. 32. xxvii. 24. t Amazing stupidity ! that the emperor's image, even while he was alive, should be allowed capable of divine worship, even by such com¬ paratively excellent heathens as Pliny and Trajan ! f Take here a parallel account of the martyrdom of Polycarp, sec. 9. The proconsul said, “Reproach Christ.” Polycarp replied, “ Eighty and six years have l now served Christ, and he lias never done me the ft.ast wrong, how then cau I blaspheme my King, and my Saviour:” } This must most probably be the feast of charity. F % 66 DISSERTATION III. on account of the* number of those that are in danger ; for there are many of every age, of every rank, and of both sex¬ es, which are now and hereafter likely to be called to account, and to be in danger, for this superstition is spread like a con¬ tagion, not only in cities and towns, but in country villages also, which yet there is reason to hope may be stopped and corrected. To be sure, the temples, which were almost for¬ saken, begin already to be frequented ; and, the holy solem¬ nities, which were long intermitted, begin, to be revived. The sacrifices begin to sell well every where, of which very few purchasers had of late appeared ; whereby it is easy to suppose how great a multitude of men may be amended, if place for repentance be admitted. TRAJAN’S EPISTLE TO PLINY. My Pliny, you have taken the method which you ought, in examining the causes of those that had been accused as Christians, for indeed no certain and general form of judging can be ordained in this case. These people are not to be sought for ; but if they be accused, and convicted, they are to be punished, but with this caution, that he who denies him¬ self to be a Christian, and makes it plain that he is not so by supplicating to our gods, although he had been so formerly, may be allowed pardon, upon his repentance. As for libels sent without an author, they ought to have no place in any ac¬ cusation whatsoever, for that would be a thing of very ill ex¬ ample, and not agreeable to my reign. OBSERVATIONS UPON THE PASSAGES TAKEN OUT OP TACITUS. I. We see here what great regard the best of the Roman historians of that age, Tacitus, had to the history of Josephus, while, though he never names him, as he very rarely names any of those Roman authors, whence he derives other parts of his history, yet does it appear that he refers to his Seven Books of the Jewish Wars, several times in a very few pages, and almost always depends on his accounts of the affairs of the Romans and Parthians, as well as of the Jews, during no fewer than 240 years, to which those books extend. .. ” Some of late are very loth to believe that the Christians were nu¬ merous in the second century ; but this is such an evidence that they were very numerous, at least in Bithynia, even in the beginning of that century, as is wholly undeniable. DISSERTATION III. 67 II. Yet does it appear that when he now and then followed other historians or reports concerning the Romans, the Par- thians, or the Jews, during that long interval, he was com¬ monly mistaken in them, and had better have kept close to Josephus, than hearken to any of his other authors or infor¬ mers. III. It also appears highly’ - probable that Tacitus had seen the Antiquities of Josephus, and knew that the most part of the accounts he produced of the origin of the Jewish nation entiiely contradicted those Antiquities. He also could hard¬ ly avoid seeing that those accounts contradicted one another also, and were childish, absurd and supported by no good evi¬ dence whatsoever : as also he could hardly avoid seeing that Josephus’s accounts in those antiquities were authentic, substantial, and thoroughly attested to by the ancient records of the nation, and of the neighbouring nations, which indeed no one can now avoid seeing, that carefully peruses and con¬ siders them. IV. Tacitus therefore, in concealing the greatest part of the true ancient history of the Jewish nation, which lay be¬ fore him in Josephus, and producing such fabulous, ill-ground¬ ed, and partial histories, which he had from the heathens, acted a most unfair part : and this procedure of his is here the more gross, in regard he professed such great impartiality. Hist. B. i. cap. i. and is allowed to have observed that impar¬ tiality in the Roman affairs also. V. Tacitus’s hatred and contempt of God’s peculiar peo¬ ple, the Jews, and his attachment to the grossest idolatry, su¬ perstition, and astral fatality of the Romans, were therefore so strong in him, as to overbear all restraints of sober reason and equity in the case of those Jews, though he be allowed so exactly to have followed them on other occasions relating to the Romans. VI. Since therefore Tacitus was so bitter against the Jews and since he knew that Christ was a Jew himself, and that his apostles and first followers were Jew's, and also knew that the Christian religion was derived into the Roman provinces from Judea, it is no wonder that this hatred and contempt of the Jews extended itself to the Christians also, whom the Romans usually confounded with the Jews : as therefore his hard words of the Jews appear to have been generally ground¬ less, and hurt his own reputation, instead of theirs, so ought we to esteem his alike hard words of the Christians to be blots on his own character, and not on theirs. VH. Since therefore Tacitus, soon after the publication of Josephus’s Antiquities, and in contradiction to them, was dee DISSERTATION III, 68 termined to produce such idle stories about the Jews, ami since one of those idle stories is much the same with that pub¬ lished in Josephus against Apion, from Manetho and Lysima- chus, and no where else met with so fully in ail antiquity, it is most probable that these Antiquities of Josephus were the very occasion of Tacitus giving us these stories, as we know from Josephus himself, contr. Apion, B. i. sec. 1. that the same Antiquities were the very occasion of Apion’s publica¬ tion of his equally scandalous stories about them, and which Josephus so thoroughly confuted in his two books written against them. And if Tacitus, as I suppose, had also read these two books, his procedure in publishing such stories, af¬ ter he had seen so thorough a confutation of them, was still more highly criminal. Nor will Tacitus’s fault be much less, though we suppose he neither saw the Antiquities, nor the books against Apion, because it was so very easy for him, then at Rome, to have had more authentic accounts of the origin of the Jewish nation, and of the nature of the Jewish and Christian religions, from the Jews and Christians them¬ selves, which he owns were very numerous there in his days : so that his publication of such idle stories is still utterly inex¬ cusable. VIII. It is therefore very plain, after all, that notwithstand¬ ing the encomiums of several of our learned critics upon Tacitus, and hard suspicions upon Josephus, that all the [in¬ voluntary] mistakes of Josephus, in all his large works put togetlier, their quality as well as quantity , considered, do not amount to near so great a sum, as do these gross errors and misrepresentations of Tacitus’s about the Jews amount to in a few pages, so little reason have some of our later and lesser critics to prefer the Greek and Roman profane historians and writers to the Jewish, and particularly to Josephus. Such later and lesser critics should have learned more judgment and modesty from their great father Joseph Scaliger, when, as we have seen, after all his deeper inquiries, he solemnly pro¬ nounces, De Emend. Temp. Erolcgom. p. 17, That “ Jose¬ phus was the most diligent and the greatest lover of truth of all writersand is not afraid to affirm, that (i it is more safe to believe him, not only as to the affairs of the Jews, but also as to those that are foreign to them, than all the Greek and Latin writers, and this because his fidelity and compass of learning are every where vonspipuoiTs.” TABLE QF THE JEWISH WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, PARTICULARLY 0# THOSE MENTIONED IN JOSEPHUS’S WORKS. OF THE JEWISH MEASURES OF LENGTH. Inches. Feet. Inches. Cubit, the standard, . . . . 21 . . . . 1 9 Zereth, or large span, . . 10 1-2 ... 0 ’ 0 Small span,. , , , 0 0 Palm, or hand’s-breadth, . . .31-2 ... 0 0 Inch, or thumb’s-breadth, . . 1,16 . . . 0 0 Digit,or finger’s-breadth, . . . ,875 ... 0 0 Orgyia, or fathom, . . . . . 84 . ... 7 0 Ezekiel’s Canneh, or reed, . . 126 . . . . 10 6 Arabian Canneh, or pole, . . 168 . . . . 14 0 Schaenus, line or chain, . 1680. . . . 140 0 Sabbath-day’s journey, . . 42000 . . . 3500 0 Jewish mile, . . . . . 84000 . . ; 7000 0 Stadium, or furlong, . . . 8400 . . . 7 00 0 Parasang,. 252000 . . . 21000 0 OF THE JEWISH MEASURES OF CAPACITY. Cub. Inches. Pints or Pounds . Hath, or Epha, .... 807 ,274 . 37 ,83 Corus, or Chomer, . . . 8072 ,74 . 27 S >5 Seah, or Saton,. 269 ,091 . . 9 ,266 Ditto according to Josephus, 828 ,28 . . 28 ,5 Hin,. ,54 . . 4 ,4633 Ditto according to Josephus, 414 ,12 . . 14 ,8 Omer, or Assaron, . . , . 80 ,727 • 2 ,78 Cab,. ,859 . 1 ,544 Lo g,. ,21 . -• • ,39 Metretes, or Syrian firkin, . 207 *- • . 7 ,125 OF THE JEWISH WEIGHTS AND COINS. £ S. ik Stater, Siclus, or shekel of the sanctuary, the stan¬ dard, 0 2 6 70 JEWISH WEIGHTS, &c. I £ Tyrian Coin, equal to the shekel, .... 0 Bekah, half of the shekel,.0 Drachma Attica, one fourth,.0 Drachma Alexandria, or Drachmon, or Adrach- mon, one half,.0 Gerah, or Obolus, one twentieth, .... 0 Maneh,or Mna—100 shekels in weight—21900 grains Troy,. Maneh, Mna, or Mina, as a coin,—60 shekels, 7 Talent of silver,—3000 shekels, . . . .375 Drachma of gold not more than .... 0 Shekel of gold not more than.0 Daric of gold,.1 8 . 2 1 0 1 0 10 0 1 4 0 (I. 6 3 7 3 1 1-2 1-2 Talent of gold not more than 6048 0 0 1 4 4 0 TABLE OF THE JEWrSH MONTHS IN JOSEPHUS AND OTHERS, WITH THE NAMES OF THE SYROMACEDONIAN NAMES JOSEPHUS GIVES THEM, AND OF THE JULIAN OR ROMAN MONTHS CORRESPON¬ DING TO THEM. Hebrew Names. Syromaccdonian Names. Roman Names. 1. 2 . •3 4. 5. 6 . 7. 8 . 9- 10 . 11 . 12 . Nisan Jyap Si van Tamuz Ab Elul Tisri Marhesvan Cafleu Tebeth Shebat Adar Xanthicus Artemisius Daesius Panemus Lous Gorpiaeus Hyperberetaeus Dius Apellaeus Audinaeus Peritius Dystrus .... Ve Adar, or The second Adar, intercalated. March and April. April and May. May and June. June and July. July and August. August and September. September and October. October and November. November and December December and January. January and February. February and March. ANTIQUITIES THE JEWS. PREFACE. fc±~Trr’S §1. *Those who undertake to write histories, do not, I perceive, take that trouble on one and the same account, but for many reasons, and those such as are very different one from another; for some of them appty themselves to this part of learning to show their great skill in composition, and that they may therein acquire a reputation for speaking fine¬ ly ; others of them there are who write histories, in order to gratify those that happen to be concerned in them, and on that account have spared no pains, but rather gone beyond their own abilities in the performance; but others there are, who of necessity, and by force, are driven to write history, because they were concerned in the facts, and so cannot ex¬ cuse themselves for committing them to writing, for the ad¬ vantage of posterity; nay, there are not a few who are in¬ duced to draw their historical facts out of darkness into light, and to produce them for the benefit of the public, on account of the great importance of the facts themselves with which they have been concerned. Now of these several reasons for writing history, I must profess the two last were my own reasons also : for since I was myself interested in that war which we Jews had with the Romans, and knew myself its particular actions, and what conclusion it had, I was forced to give the history of it, because I saw that others perverted the truth of those actions in their writings. 2. Now I have undertaken the present work as thinking it will appear to all the f Greeks worthy of their study; for it will contain all our antiquities, and the constitution of our government, as interpreted out of the Hebrew scriptures. * This preface of Josephus’s is excellent in its kind, and highly wor¬ thy the repeated perusal of the reader, before he set about the perusal of the work itself. 1 That is, all the Gentiles, both Greeks and Roman?. VOL I. G 74 PREFACE. And indeed I did formerly intend, when I *vvrote of the war, to explain who the Jews originally were; what fortunes they had been subject to ; and by what legislator they had been instructed in piety, and the exercise of other virtues; what wars also they had made in remote ages, till they were un¬ willingly engaged in this last with the Romans : but because this work would take up a great compass, 1 separated it into a set treatise by itself, with a beginning of its own, and its own conclusion; but in process of time, as usually happens to such as undertake great things, I grew weary, and went on slowly, it being a large subject, and a difficult thing to translate our history into a foreign, and to us unaccustomed language. However, some persons there were who desired to know our history, and so exhorted me to go on with it; and above all the rest fEpaphroditus, a man who is a lover of all kind of learning, but is principally delighted with the knowledge of history, and on this account of his having been himself concerned in great affairs, and many turns of fortune, and having shown a wonderful vigour of an excellent nature, and an immoveable virtuous resolution in them all. I yield¬ ed to this man’s persuasions, who always excites such as have abilities in what is useful and acceptable, to join their en¬ deavours with his. I was also ashamed myself to permit any laziness of disposition to have a greater influence upon me, than the delight of taking pains in such studies as were very useful; I thereupon stirred up myself, and went on with my work more cheerfully 7 . Besides the foregoing mo¬ tives, I had others which I greatly reflected on; and these were, that our forefathers were willing to communicate such things to others; and that some of the Greeks took conside¬ rable pains to know the affairs of our nation. 3. I found therefore that the second of the Ptolemies was a king who was extraordinary diligent in what concerned learning, and the collection of books; that he was also pe¬ culiarly 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 * We may seasonably note here, that Josephus wrote his Seven Books of the Jewish war long before he wrote these his Antiquities. These books of the War were published about A. D. 75, and these An> tiquities, A. D 93, about eighteen years later. t This Epaphroditus was certainly alive in the third year of Trajan,. A. D. 100. Seethe note on Antiq B. i. against Apion, sec. i. vol. vi. Who he was we do not know; for as to Epaphroditus, the freed man of Nero, and afterwards Domitian’s secretary, who was pnt to death by Domitian in the 14th or 15th year of his reign, he could not be alive in Ihe third of Trajan. PREFACE. inferior to any other of that dignity among us, did not envy the fore-named 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 ac¬ tions 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 suc¬ ceeded 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 ac¬ curate observation of them *what was practicable before becomes impracticable; 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 wor¬ thy of him; and hath not ever ascribed to him such opera¬ tions as become his power, and hath not preserved his wri¬ tings 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 thou¬ sand years ago: at which vast distance of ages the poets themselves have not been so hardy as to fix even the gene¬ rations 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. 4. But because almost all our constitution depends on the wisdom of Moses, our legislator, I cannot avoid saying sorac- * Josephus here plainly alludes to the famous Greek proverb, If God 6s with us, every thing that is impossible becomes possible, PREFACE. I TO ( what concerning him beforehand, though I shall do it briefly; I mean, because otherwise those that read my books may Wonder how it came to pass that my discourse, which pro¬ mises an account of laws and historical facts, contains so much of philosophy. The reader is therefore to know that Moses deemed it exceeding necessary that he w ho would conduct his own life well, and give laws to others, in the first place should consider the divine nature; and upon the con¬ templation of God’s operations, should thereby imitate the best of all patterns, so far as it is possible for human nature to do, and to endeavour to follow after it; neither could the legislator himself have a right mind without such a contem¬ plation; nor would anything he should write tend to the promotion of virtue in his readers ; I mean, unless they be taught first of all, that God is the Father and Lord of all things, and sees all things, and that thence he bestows an happy life upon those that follow him; but plunges such as do not walk in the paths of virtue in inevitable miseries. Now when Moses was desirous to teach this lesson to his countrymen, he did not begin the establishment of his laws after the same manner that other legislators did; J mean, upon contracts, and other rights between one man and an¬ other, but by raising their minds upwards to regard God, and his creation of the world ; and by persuading them that w'e men are the most excellent of the creatures of God upon earth. Now wdien once he had brought them to submit to religion, he easily persuaded them to submit in all other things : for as to other legislators, they followed fables, and by their discourses transferred the most reproachful of hu¬ man vices unto the gods, and so afforded wicked men the most plausible excuses for their crimes; but as for our le¬ gislator, when he had once demonstrated that God was pos¬ sessed of perfect virtue, he supposed that men also ought to strive after the participation of it; and on those who did not so think and so believe, he inflicted the severest punish¬ ments. I exhort, therefore, my readers to examine this whole' undertaking in that view : for thereby it will appear to them, that there is nothing therein disagreeable either to the majes¬ ty of God, or to his love to mankind; for all things have here a reference to the nature of the universe; while our legislator speaks some things wisely, but enigmatically, and others under a decent allegory, but still explains such things as required a direct explication plainly' 1 and expressly'. How¬ ever, those that have a mind to know the reasons of every¬ thing, may find here a very curious philosophical theory, which I now indeed shall wave the explication of, but if God 1 PREFACE. a afford me time for it, # I will set about writing it after I have finished the present work. I shall now betake myself to one history before me, after I have first mentioned what Mo¬ ses says of the creation of the world, which I find described in the sacred books after the manner following. * As to this intended work of Josephus’s concerning the reasons of many of the Jewish laws, and what philosophical or allegorical sense they would bear, the loss of which work is by some of the learned not much regretted, I am inclinable, in part, to Fabricius’s opinion, ap. Ha* vercamp, p. 63, 64. That'“ we need not doubt but, among some vain and frigid conjectures derived from Jewish imaginations, Josephus would have taught us a greater number of excellent and useful things, which perhaps nobody, neither among the Jews, nor among the Chris¬ tians, can now inform us of: so that I would give a great deal to find it still extant-” ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. BOOK I. CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF 3S33 YEARS, [From the Creation to the death of Issac.] CHAP. I. The constitution of the World, and the disposition of the Ele¬ ments. . § 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. But when the earth did not come into sight, but was cover¬ ed with thick darkness, and a wind moved upon its surface, God commanded that there should be light: and when that was made, he considered the whole mass, and separated the light and the darkness ; and the name he gave to the one was Night, and the other he called Day : and he named the be¬ ginning of light and the time of rest, the Evening and the Morning. And this was indeed the first day. But Moses said it was one day : the cause of which I am able to give even now; but because I have promised to give such rea¬ sons for all things in a treatise by itself, I shall put off its exposition till that time. After this, on the second day, he placed the heaven over the whole world, and separated it from the other parts, and he determined it should stand by itself. He also placed a crystaline [firmament] round it, and put it together in a manner agreeable to the earth, and fitted it for giving moisture and rain, and for affording the ad¬ vantage of dews. On the third day he appointed the dry land to appear, with the sea itself round about it; and on the very same day he made the plants and the seeds to spring out of the earth. On the fourth day he adorned the heaven with the sun, the moon, and the other stars, and appointed them so ANTIQUITIES Bool: l their motions and courses, that the vicissitudes of the seasons might be clearly signified. And on the fifth day he produc¬ ed the living creatures, both those that swim and those that fly; the former in the sea, the latter in the air: he also sort¬ ed them as to society, and mixture for procreation, and that their kinds might increase and multiply. On the sixth day he created the four-footed beasts, and made them male and fe¬ male; on the same day he also formed man. Accordingly Moses says, that in just six days the world and all that is therein was made. And that the seventh day was a rest,and a release from the labour of such operations; whence it is that we celebrate a rest from our labours on that day, and call it the Sabbath ; which word denotes rest in the Hebrew tongue. 2. Moreover Moses, after the seventh day was over, # be- gins to talk philosophically; and concerning the formation of man, says thus, That God took dust from the ground, and formed tman, and inserted in him a spirit and a soul. This man was called Adam, which in the Hebrew tongue signifies one that is red, because he was formed out of red earth com¬ pounded together; for of that kind is virgin and true earth. God also presented the living creatures, when he had made them, according to their kinds, both male and female,to Adam, and gave them those names by which they are still called. But when he saw that Adam had no female companion, no society, for there was no such created, and that he wonder¬ ed at the other animals u'hich were male and female, he laid him asleep, and took away one of his ribs, and out of it form¬ ed the woman; whereupon Adam knew her when she was brought to him, and acknowledged that she was made out of himself. Now a woman is called in the Hebrew tongue 7s- sa; but the name of this woman w r as Eve, which signifies the Mother of all living. * Since Josephus in his preface, sec. 4, says that Moses wrote some things enigmatically, some allegorically, and the res* in plain words: since in his account of the first chapter of Genesis, and the three first verses of the second, he gives us no hints of any mystery at all; but when he here com es to ver. 4, &c. he says, that Moses, after the seventh day was over, began to talk philosophically, it is not very improbable that he understood the rest of the second and the third chapters in some enigmatical, allegorical, or philosophical sense. The change of the name of God, just at this place, from Elohim to Jehovah Elohim ; from God to Lord God in the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Sepluagint, does also not a little favour some such change in the narration or construction. t We may observe here, that Josephus supposed man to be com¬ pounded of spirit, soul, and body, with St. Paul, 1 Thess. v. 23, and the rest of the ancients : he elsewhere says also, that the blood of ani¬ mals was forbidden to be eaten, as having in it soul and spirit. Antiq. B. iii. chap xi. sec. 2. OF THE JEWS. 81 Chap. I. 3. Moses says further, that God planted a paradise in the Eas't, flourishing with all sorts of trees ; and that among them was the Tree of Life, and another of Knowledge, whereby was to be known what was Good and Evil: and that when he had brought Adam and his wife into this garden, he commanded them to take care of the plants. Now the garden was wa¬ tered by *one river, which ran round about the whole earth, and was parted into four parts. And Phison, which denotes a Multitude , running into India, makes its exit into thesea, and is by the Greeks called Ganges. Euphrates also, as well as Tigris, goes down into the IRed Sea. Now the name Eu¬ phrates, or Phrath, denotes either a Dispersion or a Floicer: by Tigris or Diglath, is signified ichat is sioift icitli narrow- ness : and Geon runs through Egypt, and denotes what arises from the East , which the Greeks call Nile. 4. God therefore commanded that Adam and his wife should eat of all the rest of the plants, but to abstain from the Tree of Knowledge ; and foretold them, that if they touch¬ ed it, it would prove their destruction. But while all the living creatures had Jone language at that time, the Ser- * Whence this strange notion came, which yet is riot peculiar to Jose¬ phus, but, as Dr Hudson says here, is derived from elder authors, as if four of the greatest rivers in the world, running two of them at vast dis¬ tances from the other two, by some means or other watered Paradise, is Lard to say Only since Josephus has already appeared to allegorize this history, and takes notice that these four names had a particular sig¬ nification ; Phison for Ganges, a Multitude ; Phrath for Euphrates, ei¬ ther Dispersion or a Flower ; Diglath for Tigris, what is sivifl with nar¬ rowness; and Geon for Nile, which arises from the East, we perhaps mis¬ take him when we suppose he literally means those four rivers ; espe¬ cially as to Geon or Nile, which arises from the East, while he very well knew the literal Nile arises from the south ; though what further allego- vical sense he had in view, is now I fear impossible to be determined. t By the Red Sea is not here meant the Arabian Gulf, which alone we now cal) by that name, but all that South Sea, which included the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, as far as the East-Indies ; as Reland and Hudson here truly note from the old geographers. t Hence it appears, that Josephus thought several, at least, of the brute animals, particularly the Serpent, could speak before the Fall. And I think few of the-more perfect kinds of those animals want the organs of speech at this day. Many inducements there are also to a no¬ tion, that the present state they are in is not their original state ; and that their capacities have been once much greater than we now see them, and are capable of being restored to their former condition. But as to this most ancient and authentic, and probably allegorical account of that grand affair of the fall of our first parents, 1 have somewhat more to say in way of conjecture; but being only a conjecture, I omit it: only thus far, that the impulation of the sin ofour first parents to their posterity, any further than as some way the cause or occasion of man’s mortality, seems almost entirely groundless; and that both man, and the S2 ANTIQUITIES Booh 1. pent, which then lived together with Adam and his wife, showed an envious disposition, at his supposal of their living happily, and in obedience to the commands of God; and imagining that when they disobeyed them, they would fall into calamities, he persuaded the woman, out of a malicious intention, to taste of the Tree of Knowledge, telling them, that in that tree was the Knowledge of Good and Evil; which knowledge when they should obtain, they would lead an happy life, nay, a life not inferior to that of a god: by which means he overcame the woman, and persuaded her to despise the command of God. Now when she had tasted of that tree, and was pleased with its fruits, she persuaded Adam to make use of it also. Upon this they perceived that they were become naked to one another; and being- ashamed thus to appear abroad, they invented somewhat to cover them; for the tree sharpened their understanding; and they covered themselves with fig-leaves; and tying these before them, out of modesty, they thought they were hap¬ pier than they were before, as they had discovered what they were in want of. 13ut when God came into the garden, Adam, who was wont before to come and converse with him, being conscious of his wicked behaviour, went out of the way. This behaviour surprised God; and he. asked what was the cause of this his procedure ? and why he, that before delighted in that conversation, did now fly from it, and avoid it? when he made no reply, as conscious to himself that he had transgressed the command of God, God said, “ I had before determined about you both, how you might lead an happy life, without any affliction, and care, and vexation of soul; and that all things which might contribute to your en¬ joyment and pleasure should grow up by my providence, of their own accord, without your own labour or pains-taking; which state of labour and pains-taking would soon bring on old age, and death would not be at any remote distance: but now thou hast abused this my good-will, and hast disobeyed my commands; for thy silence is not the sign of thy virtue, but of thy evil conscience.” However, Adam excused his sin, and entreated God not to be angry at him, and laid the blame of what was done upon his wife: and said, that he was deceived by her, and thence became an offender ; while she again accused the Serpent. But God allotted him pu¬ nishment, because he weakly submitted to the counsel of his wife; and said, the ground should not henceforth yield its other subordinate creatures, are hereafter to he delivered from the curse then brought upon them, and at last to be delivered from that bon » dugc of corruption. Rom. viii. 19—22. OP THE JEWS. S3 Chap. 71. fruits of its own accord, but that when it should be harrassed by their labour, it should bring forth some of its fruits, and refuse to bring forth others. He also made Eve liable to the inconveniency of breeding, and the sharp pains of bring¬ ing forth children, and this because she persuaded Adam with the same arguments wherewith the Serpent had persuaded her, and had thereby brought him into a calamitous condi¬ tion. He also deprived the Serpent of speech, out of indig¬ nation at his malicious disposition towards Adam. Besides this, he inserted poison under his tongue, and made him an enemy to men : and suggested to them that they should di¬ rect their strokes against his head, that being the place wherein lay his mischievous designs towards men, and it be¬ ing easiest to take vengeance on'him that way: and when he had deprived him of the use of his feet, he made him to t go rolling all along, and dragging himself upon the ground. And when God had appointed these penalties for them, he re¬ moved Adam and Eve out of the garden into another place. CHAP II. Concerning the posterity of Adam , and the ten generations from him to the Deluge. §1. Adam and Eve had two sons; the elder of them was named Cam, which name, when it is interpreted, signifies a possession. The younger was Abel, which signifies Sorrotc. They had also daughters. Now the two brethren were pleased with different courses of life; for Abel the young¬ er, was a lover of righteousness, and believing that God was present at all his actions, he excelled in virtue; and his em¬ ployment was that of a shepherd. But Cain was not only very wicked in other respects, but was wholly intent upon getting; and he first contrived to plough the ground. He slew his brother on the occasion following : they had resolv¬ ed to sacrifice to God. Now Cain brought the fruits of the earth, and of his husbandry; but Abel brought milk, and the first fruits of his flocks: but *God was more delighted with the latter oblation, when he was honoured with what * St. John’s account of the reason why God accepted the sacrifice of Abel, and rejected that of Cain, as also why Cain slew Abel, on ac¬ count of that his acceptance witli God, is much better than this of Jose¬ phus’s; I mean, because Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And t cherefore slew he him ? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. Job iii. 12 Josephus’s reason seems to he no better than a Pharisaical notion or tradilion. 34 ANTIQUITIES Boole 7 . grew naturally of its own accord, than he was with what was the invention of a covetous man, and gotten by forcing the ground; whence it was that Cain was very angry that Abel was preferred by God before him, and he slew his brother, and hid his dead body, thinking to escape discovery. But God, knowing what had been done, came to Cain, and asked him, What was become of his brother? because he had not seen him of many clays, whereas he used to observe them conversing together at other times. But Cain was in doubt with himself, and knew not what answer to give God. At first he said, that he was himself at loss about his brother’s disappearing; but when he was provoked by God, w ho press¬ ed him vehemently, as resolving to know what the matter was, he replied, He was no't his brother’s guardian or keep er, nor was he an observer of what he did. .But in return God convicted Cain, as having been the murderer of his brother, and said, I wonder at thee, that thou knowest not what is become of a man whom thou thyself hast destroyed.” God therefore did not inflict the punishment [of death] upon him, on account of his offering sacrifice, and thereby making supplication to him not to be extreme in his wrath to him, but he made him accursed, and threatened his posterity in the seventh generation. He also cast him, together with his wife, out of that land. And when he was afraid, that in wan¬ dering about, he should fall among wild beasts, and by that means perish, God bid him not to entertain such a melan¬ choly suspicion, and to go over all the earth without fear of what mischief he might suffer from wild beasts ; and setting a mark upon him, that he might be known, he commanded him to depart. 2. And when Cain had travelled over many countries, he, with his wife, built a city, named Nod, which is a place so ealled, and there he settled his abode ; where also he had children. However, he did not accept of his punishment in order to amendment, but to increase his wickedness, for he only aimed to procure every thing that was for his own bodi¬ ly pleasure, though it obliged him to be injurious to his neigh¬ bours. He augmented his household substance with much wealth, by rapine and violence; he excited his acquaintance to procure pleasure and spoils by robbery, and became a great leader of men into wicked courses. He also introdu¬ ced a change in that way of simplicity wherein men lived be¬ fore ; and was the author of measures and weights : and whereas they lived innocently and generously while they knew nothing of such arts, he changed the world into cun¬ ning craftiness. He first of all set boundaries about lands : OF THE JEWS. S3 Chap. II. lie built a city, and fortified it with walls, and lie compelled his family to come together to it $ and called that city Enoch a after the name of his eldest son Enoch. Now Jared was the son of Enoch ; whose son was Malaleel ; whose son was Mathusela ; whose son was Lamech ; who had seventy-seven children by two wives, Sillaand Ada. Of those children by Ada, one was Jabal; he erected tents, and loved the life of a shepherd. But Juhal, who was born of the same mother with him, exercised himself in* music ; and invented the psaltry and harp. But Tubal, one of his children by the other wife, exceeded all men in strength, and was very ex¬ pert and famous in martial performances. He procured what tended to pleasures of the body by that method : and first of all invented the art of making brass. Lamech was also the father of a daughter, whose name was Naamah ; and because he was so skilful in matters of divine revelation, that he knew he was to be punished for Cain’s murder of his brother, he made that known to his wives. Nay, even while Adam was alive, it came to pass that the posterity of Cain became ex¬ ceeding wicked, every one successively dying one after an¬ other more wicked than the former. They were intolerable in war, and vehement in robberies ; and if any one were slow to murder people, yet was he bold in his profligate be¬ haviour, in acting unjustly, and doing injuries for gain. 3. Now Adam, who was the first man, and made out of the earth, (for our discourse must now be about him,) after Abe! w r as slain, and Cain fled away, on account of his murder, was solicitous for posterity, and had a vehement desire of chil¬ dren, he being two hundred and thirty years old ; after which time he lived other seven hundred and then died. He had indeedt many other children, but Seth in particular. As for the rest, it would be tedious to name them ; I will therefore only endeavour to give an account of those that proceeded from Seth. Now this Seth, when he was brought up, and eame to those years in which he could discern what was good, became a virtuous man ; and as he was himself of an ex¬ cellent character, so did he leave t children behind him who * From tins Jubal, not improbably, cam eJubel, the trumpet of JobeL, or Jubilee, that large and loud musical instrument, used in proclaiming the liberty at the Year of Jubilee. t The number of Adam’s children, as says the old tradition, was thir¬ ty-three sons, and twenty-three daughters t What is here said of Seth and his posterity, that they were ver^ good and virtuous, and at the same time very happy, without any con¬ siderable misfortunes, for seven generations, [see chap ii. sec. 1, before, and chap. iii. sec. 1 hereafter,] is exactly agreeable to the state of the w T orld, and the conduct of providence, in all the first ages. VOL- I. H 3G ANTIQUITIES Boole L imitated his virtues. All these proved to be of good dispc- sftions. They also inhabited the same country without dis- sentions, and in a happy condition, without any misfortunes falling upon them, till they died. They also were the inven¬ tors of that peculiar sort of wisdom, which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order. And that their inven¬ tions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam’s prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of jire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water , they made* two pillars ; the one of brick, the other of stone : they inscribed their disco¬ veries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, end exhibit those discoveries to mankind : and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day. CHAP. III. Concerning the Flood; and after what manner Noah was saved in the ark , with his kindred, and afterwards dwelt in the plain of Shinar. § 1. Now this posterity of Seth continued to esteem God as the Lord of the universe, and to have an entire regard to virtue, for seven generations; but in process of time they were perverted, and forsook the practices of their forefa¬ thers, and did neither pay those honours to God which were , appointed them, nor had they any concern to do justice to¬ wards men, but for what degree of zeal they had formerly shown for virtue, they now showed by their actions a double degree of wickedness ; whereby they made God to be their * enemy. For manyt angels of God accompanied with wo- * Of Josephus’s mistake here, when he took Seth, the son of Adam, for Selh or Sesostris, king of Egypt, the erector of these pillars in the land of Siriad ; see Essay on the Old Testament, Appendix, p. 159, ICO. Although the main of this resolution might be true, and Adam might foretel a conflagration, and a deluge, which all anticpiity witnesses to be an ancient tradition ; nay, Seth’s posterity might engrnve their inven* tions in astronomy on two pillars, yet it is no way credible that they could survive the deluge, which has buried all such pillars and edifices far under ground, in the sedirneut of its waters, especially since the like pillars of the Egyptian Seth or Sesostris were extant, after the flood, in the land of Siriad, and perhaps iu the days of Josephus also, as is shown in the place here referred to. t This notion, that tiie fallen angels were, in some sense* (he fafherj of the old Giants, was the constant opinion of antiquity. OF THE JEWS. Chap. HI. Sf men and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength ; for the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call Giants. But Noah was very uneasy at what they did ; and being dis¬ pleased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dis¬ positions, and their acts, for the better : but seeing they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, .he was afraid they would kill him, together with his wife and children, and those they had married ; so he departed out of that land. 2. Now God loved this man for his righteousness : yet he not only condemned those other men for their wickedness, and determined to destroy the whole race of mankind, and to make another race that should be pure from wickedness, and cutting short their lives, and making their years not so many as they formerly lived,* one hundred and twenty only, he turned the dry land into sea ; and thus were all these men destroyed : but Noah alone was saved ; for God suggested to him the following contrivance and way of escape ; that he should make an ark of four stories highj three hundred; cu¬ bits long, fifty cubits broad, and thirty cubits high. Accord¬ ingly he entered into the ark, and his wife and sons, and their wives, and put into it not only other provisions, to sup¬ port their wants there, but also sent in with the rest all sorts of living creatures, the male and his female, for the preser¬ vation of their kinds : and others of them by sevens. Now this ark had firm walls, and a roof, and was braced with cross beams, so that it could not be any way drowned, or over¬ borne by the violence of the water. And thus was Noah, with his family, preserved. Now he was the tenth from Adam, being the son of Lamech, whose father was IVlathu- sala : he was the son of Enoch, the son of Jared ; and Jared * Josephus here supposes, that the life of these Giants, for of them only do I understand him, was now reduced to 120 years; which is con¬ firmed by the fragment of Enoch, sec. 10. in Authent. Rec part i. p •268. For as to the rest of mankind, Josephus himself confesses their lives were much longer than 120 years for many generations after the flood, as we shall see presently; and he says they were gradually sbor tened, till the days of Moses, and then fixed [for some time] at 120, cap. vi. sec. 5 Nor indeed need we suppose, that either Enoch or Josephus meant to interpret these 120years for the life of men before the flood, to be different from the 120 years of God’s patience [perhaps while the ark was preparing] till the deluge; which I take to be the meaning of God when he threatened this wicked world, that if they so long continued impenitent, their days should be no more than 120 ijtars. i A cubit is 21 English inches. 88 Boole 1. ANTIQUITIES was the son of Malaleel, who, with many of his sisters, were the children of Cain, the son of Enos. Now Enos was the son of Seth, the son of Adam. 3. This calamity happened in the six hundredth year ot Noah’s government, [age] in the* second month, called by the Macedonians Dins, but by the Hebrews Marhesven ; for so did they order their year in Egypt. But Moses appoint¬ ed that Nisan, which is the same with Xanthicus, should be the first month for their festivals, because he brought them out of Egypt in that month : so that this month began the year, as to all the solemnities they observed to the honour of God, although he preserved the original order of the months as to selling and buying, and other ordinary affairs. Now he says, that this flood began on the twenty-seventh [seventeenth] day of the forementioned month ; and this was two thousand six hundred and fifty-six [one thousand five hundred and fifty-six] years from Adam the first man, and the time is written down in our sacred books, thoset who then lived having noted down, with great accuracy, both the births and deaths of illustrious men. 4. For indeed Seth was born when Adam was in his two hundred and thirtieth year, who lived nine hundred and thir¬ ty years. Seth begat Enoch in his two hundred and fifth year; who, when he had lived nine hundred and twelve years, delivered the government to Cainan his son, whom he had at his hundred and ninetieth year. He lived nine bun-, dred and five years. Cainan, when he had lived nine hun¬ dred and ten years, had his son Malaleel, who was born in his hundred and seventieth year. This Malaleel having liv¬ ed five hundred and ninety-five years, died, leaving his son Jared, whom he begat when he was at his hundred and sixty- fifth year. He lived nine hundred and sixty-two years; and then his son Enoch succeeded him, who was born when his father was one hundred and sixty-two years old. Now he. * Josephus here truly determines, that the year at the flood began about the autumnal equinox ; as to what day of the month the flood be¬ gan, our Hebrew and Samaritan, and perhaps Josephtis’s own copy, more rightly placed it on the 17th day instead of the 27th, as here ; for Josephus agrees with them as to the.distance of 150 days to the 17th day of the seventh month, as Gen. vii ult. with viii. 3 t Josephus here takes notice, that these ancient genealogies were first set down by those that then lived, und from them were transmitted down to posterity; which 1 suppose to be the true account of that mat¬ ter: for there h no reason to imagine that men were not taught to read and write soon after they were taught to speak; and perhaps all by the Messiah himself, who, under the Father, was the Creator or Governor of mankind, and who frequently in those early days appeared to them.-. OF THE JEWS. 89 Chap. III. when he had lived three hundred and sixty-five years, depar¬ ted and went to God ; whence it is that they have not writ¬ ten down his death. Now Mathusala, the son of Enoch, who was born to him when he was one hundred and sixty- five years old, had Lamech for his son, when he was one hundred and eighty-seven years of age ; to whom he deliver¬ ed the government when he had retained it nine hundred and sixty-nine years. Now Lamech, when he had governed seven hundred and seventy-seven years, appointed Noah his son to be ruler of the people, who was born to Lamech when he was one hundred and eighty-two years old, and retained the government nine hundred and fifty years. These years collected together make up the sum before set down. But let no one inquire into the deaths of these men ; for they ex¬ tended their lives along together with their children and grand¬ children, but let him have regard to their births only. 5. When God gave the signal, and it began to rain, the water poured down forty entire days, till it became fifteen cubits higher than the earth ; which was the reason why there were no greater number preserved, since they had no place to flee to. When the rain ceased, the water did but just begin to abate after one hundred and fifty days, that is, on the seventeenth of the seventh month, it then ceasing to subside for a little while. After this the ark rested on the top of a certain mountain in Armenia : which, when Noah understood, he opened it, and seeing a small piece of land about it, he continued quiet, and conceived some cheerful hopes of deliverance. But a few days afterward, when the water was decreased to a great degree, he sent out a raven, as desirous to learn whether any other part of the earth were left dry by the water, and whether he might go out of the ark with safety ; but the raven returned not. And after seven days he sent out a dove, to know the state of theground, which came back to him covered with mud, and bringing an olive branch : hereby Noah learned, that the earth was become clear of the flood. So after he had stayed seven days more, he sent the living creatures out of the ark ; and both he and his family went out, when he also sacrificed to God, and feasted with his companions. However, the Ar¬ menians call this place * A nroCdmov^ The place of descent; This AwoGalmov, or place of descent, is the proper rendering of the Armenian name of this very city. It is called in Ptolemy Naxuana, and by Moses Chorenensis, the Armenian historian, Idsheuan ; but at the place itself, ffachaisheuan, which signifies the first place of descent; and ,fs a lasting monument of the presevation of INoah in the ark, upon the 'op of that mountain, at whose foot it was built, as the first cilv or town 90 ANTIQUITIES Boole 1. for the ark being saved in that place, its remains are showed there by the inhabitants to this day. 6. Now some writers of barbarian histories make mention of this flood, and of this ark ; among whom is Berosus the Chaldean. For when he was describing the circumstances of the flood, he goes on thus : “ It is said there is still some part of this ship in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cor- dyaeans ; and that some people carry off pieces of the bitu¬ men, which they take away, and use chiefly as amulets, for the averting of mischiefs.” Hieronymus the Egyptian also, who wrote the Phoenician Antiquities, and Manaseas, and a great many more, make mention of the same. Nay, Nicolaus of Damascus, in bis ninety-sixth book, hath a particular rela¬ tion about them ; where he speaks thus : C( There is a great mountain in Armenia, overMinyas, called Baris, upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the deluge were saved; and that one who was carried in an ark and came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved : this might be the man about whom Moses the legislator of the Jew's wrote.” 7. But as for Noah, he was afraid, since God had deter¬ mined to destroy mankind, lest he should drown the earth every year ; so he offered burnt-offerings, and besought God that nature might hereafter go on in its former orderly course, and that he would not bring on so great a judgment any more, by which the whole race of creatures might be in danger of destruction ; but that, having now punished the wicked, he would of his goodness spare the remainder, and such as he had hitherto judged fit to be delivered from so severe a ca¬ lamity, for that otherwise these last must be more miserable than the first, and that the}' must be condemned to a worse condition than the others, unless they be suffered to escape entirely; that is, if they be reserved from another deluge, while they must be afflicted with the terror of the sight of the first deluge, and must also be destroyed by a second. He also entreated God to accept of his sacrifice, and to grant that the earth might never again undergo the like effects of his wrath ; that men might be deprived of any of those good things after the flood. See Antiq. B. xx. ch. ii. § 3. vol. iv. and Moses Chore- nensis, p. 71, 72, Who also says, p. 19, that another towm was related by tradition to have been called Seron, or the place oj dispersion, on ac¬ count of the dispersion of Xisuthrus’s or Noah’s sons from thence first made. Whether any remains of this ark be still preserved, as the peo¬ ple of the country suppose, I cannot certainly tell. Mons. Tournefort had not very long sin<.e a mind to see the place himself, but met with too great dangers and difficulties to venture through them. OF THE JEWS. 91 Chap. III. which they enjoyed before the flood ; but might attain to the like length of days and old age, which the ancient people had arrived at before. 8. When Noah had made these supplications, God, who loved the man for his righteousness, granted entire success to his prayers ; and said, that it was not he who brought the destruction on a polluted world, but that they underwent that vengeance on account of their own wickedness ; and that he had not brought men into the world, if he had himself deter¬ mined to destroy them, it being an instance of greater wisdom not to have granted them life at all, than, after it was granted, to procure their destruction : but the injuries, said he, they offered to my holiness and virtue, forced me to bring this pun¬ ishment upon them. But I will leave off for the time to come to require such punishments, the effects of so great wrath, for their future wicked actions, especially on account of thy prayers. But if I shall at any time send tempests of rain, in an extraordinary manner, be not affrighted at the largeness of the showers, for the water shall no more over¬ spread the earth. However, I require you to abstain from shedding the blood of men, and to keep yourself pure from murder; and to punish those that commit any such thing. I permit you to make use of all the other living creatures at your pleasure, and as your appetites lead you ; for I have made you lords of them all, both of those that walk on the land, and those that swim in the waters, and of those that fly in the regions of the air on high, excepting their blood, for therein is the life. But I will give you a sign that I have left off my anger, by my bow, (whereby is meant the rain¬ bow, for they determined that the rainboio was the bow of God.) And when God had said and promised thus, he went away. 9. Now when Noah had lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood, and all that time happily, he died, having lived the number of nine hundred and fifty years. But let no one upon comparing the lives of the ancients with our lives, and with the few years which we now live, think that what we have said of them is false ; or make the short¬ ness of our lives at present an argument, that neither did they attain to so long a duration of life, for those ancients were beloved of God, and [lately] made by God himself; and because their food was then fitter for the prolongation of life, might well live so great a number of years : and besides, God afforded them a longer time of life on account of their virtue, and the good use they made of it in astronomical and geometrical discoveries, which would not have afforded the 92 ANTIQUITIES Booh I. time for foretelling [the periods of the stars,] unless they had lived six hundred years ; for the Great Year is completed in that interval. Now I have for witnesses to what I have said, all those that have written Antiquities, both among the Greeks and Barbarians : for even Manetho, who wrote the Egyptian history, and Berosus, who collected the Chaldean monuments, and Mochus, Hestiaeus, and besides these, Hieronymus the Egyptian, and those that composed the Phoenician history, agree to what I here say : Hesiod also, and Hecataeus, and Hellanicus, and Acusilaus ; and, besides these, Ephorus and Nicolaus relate, that the ancients lived a thousand years. But as to these matters, let every one look upon them as they think fit. CHAP. IV. Concerning the Tower of Babylon , and the confusion of Tongues. § 1. Now the sons of Noah were three, Shem, Japhet, and Ham, born one hundred years before the deluge. These first of all descended from the mountains into the plains, and fixed their habitations there ; persuaded others who were greatly afraid of the lower grounds on account of the flood, and so were very loth to come down from the higher places, to venture to follow their examples. Now the plain in which they first dwelt was called Shinar. God also commanded them to send colonies abroad, for the thorough peopling of the earth, that they might not raise seditions among them¬ selves, but might cultivate a great part of the earth, and enjoy its fruits after a plentiful manner. But they were so ill in¬ structed that they did not obey God 5 for which reason they tell into calamities, and were made sensible by experience, of what sin they had been guilty : for when they flourished with a numerous youth, God admonished them again to send out colonies ; but they imagining that the prosperity they enjoy¬ ed was not derived from the favour of God, but supposing that their own power was the proper cause of the plentiful condition they were in, did not obey him. Nay, they added to this their disobedience to the divine will, the suspicion that they were therefore ordered to send out separate colonies, that being divided asunder they might the more easily be oppressed. 2. Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of pod. He was the grand-son of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them pot to ascribe it to God, as if it tvas through OF THE JEWS, 93 Chap. V. his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also grad¬ ually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence upon his power. He also said, He would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach; and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers.” 3 . Now the multitude were very ready to follow the deter¬ mination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God ; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thick¬ ness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that there), by its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than i£ really was. It was built of burnt bricks, cemented together with mortar, made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water When God saw that they acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners, but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them divers languages, and causing that through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able 10 understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower, is now called Babylon , because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before : for the Hebrews mean by the word Ba¬ bel, Confusion. The Sibyl also makes mention of this tow¬ er, and of the confusion of the language, when she says thus : (( When all men were of one language, some of them built an high tower, as if they would thereby ascend up to heaven, but the gods sent storms of wind and overthrew the tower, and gave every one his peculiar language ; and for this rea¬ son it was that the city was called Babylon .” But as to the plain of Shinar, in the country of Babylonia, Hestiaeus men¬ tions it, when he says thus: “ Such of the priests as were saved, took the sacred vessels of Jupiter Enyalius, and came to Shiniar of Babylonia.” CHAP. V. After what manner the posterity of Noah sent out colonies and inhabited the whole earth. § 1. After this they were dispersed abroad, on account af their languages, and went out by colonies every where 5 04 ANTIQUITIES Booh I and each colony took possession of that land which they light upon, and unto which God led them, so that the whole conti¬ nent was filled with them, both the island and the maritime countries. There were some also who passed over the sea in ships, and inhabited the islands : and some of those nations do still retain the denominations which were given them by their first founders ; but some have lost them also, and some have only admitted certain changes in them, that they might be the more intelligible to the inhabitants. And they were the Greeks who became the authors of such mutations : for when, in after ages, they grew potent, they claimed to them¬ selves the glory of antiquity; giving names to the nations that sounded well [in Greek,] that they might be better un¬ derstood among themselves ; and setting agreeable forms of government over them, as if they were a people derived from themselves. CHAP. VI. Slow every nation xvas denominated from their first inhabit¬ ants. § 1. Now they were the grand-children of Noah, in hon¬ our of whom, names were imposed on the nations by those ♦hat first seized upon them. Japhet, the son of Noah, had seven sons : they inhabited so, that beginning at the moun¬ tains Taurus and Amanus, they proceeded along Asia, as far as the river Tanis, and along Europe to Cadiz ; and settling themselves on the lands they light upon, which none had in¬ habited before, they called the nations by their own names. JFor Gomer founded those whom the Greeks now call Gala¬ tians, [Galls,] but were then called Gomerites. Magog foun¬ ded those that from him were named Magogites, but who are by the Greeks called Scythians. Now as to Javan and Ma- dai, the sons of Japhet; from Madai came the Madeans, which are called Medes by the Greeks : but from Javan, and Jonia, all the Grecians are derived. Thobel founded the Thobelites, which are now called Ibrrrs; and the Mosocheni were founded by Mosoch ; now they are Cappa- 401, and Phi¬ lo de nominum mulationc, p. 1059, write the name Benjamin , but ex - .plain it not the son of his right hand, but the son of days. B0©1£ XX. CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF 220 YEARS, f From the death of Isaac, to the Esodus out of Egypt.] CHAP. I. 0 • ’ How Esau and Jacob, the sons of Isaac, divided their habit¬ ation ; and Esau possessed Idumea , and Jacob Canaan . § 1. After the death of Isaac, his sons divided their ha¬ bitations respectively. Now they did retain what they had before ; but Esau departed from the city of Hebron, and left it to his brother, and dwelt in Seir, and ruled over. Idumea. He called the country by that name from himself, for he was named Adorn ; which appellation he got on the following oc¬ casion. One day returning from the toil of hunting, very hungry, (it was when he was a child in age,) he lighted on his brother when he was getting ready lentile-pottage for his din¬ ner which was of a very red colour ; on which account he the more earnestly longed for it, and desired him to give him some of it to eat : but he made advantage of his brother’s hunger, and forced him to resign up to him his birthright, and he being pinched with famine, resigned it up to him under an oath. Whence it came, that, on account of the redness of ‘his pottage, he was in a way of jest, by his cotemporaries, called Adorn, for the Hebrews call what is red Adorn ; and this was the name given to this country : but the Greeks give it a more agreeable pronunciation, and named it Idumea. 2. He became the father of five sons : of whom Jaus, and Jalomus, and Coreus, were by one wife, whose name was Ali- bama $ but of the rest, Aliphaz was born to him by Ada, and Raguel by Bazemath ; and these were the sons of Esau. Aliphaz had five legitimate sons, Theman, Omer, Saphus, Gotham, and Kanaz ; for Amalek was not legitimate, but by h concubine, whose name was Tamana. These dwelt in that part of Idumea which was called Gebalitis, and that denomi¬ nated from Amalek, Amclekitis; for Idumea was a large country, and did then preserve the name of the whole, while in its several parts it kept the names of its peculiar inhabit¬ ants. 132 ANTIQUITIES Book II. CHAP. II. IIow Joseph, the youngest of Jacob's sons, was envied by his brethren, when certain dreams had foreshoiced his fu¬ ture happiness. § 1. It happened that Jacob came to so great happiness as rarely any other person has arrived at. He was richer than the rest of the inhabitants of that country : and was at once envied and admired for such virtuous sons, for they were deficient in nothing, but were of great souls, both for labour¬ ing with their hands, and enduring of toil ; and shrew d also in understanding. And God exercised such a providence over him, and such a care of his happiness, as to bring him the greatest blessings, even out of what appeared to be the most sorrowful condition ; and to make him the cause of our fore¬ fathers’ departure out of Egypt, him and his posterity. The occasion was this ; when Jacob had this son Joseph born to him by Rachel, his father loved him above the rest of his sons, both because of the beauty of his body, and the virtues of his mind, for he excelled the rest in prudence. This affection of his father excited the envy and the hatred of his brethren ; as did also his dreams which he saw, and related to his father and to them, which foretold his future happiness, it being usual with mankind to envy their very nearest relations such their pros¬ perity. Now the visions which Joseph saw in his sleep were these : 2. When they were in the middle of harvest, and Joseph was sent by his father with his brethren, to gather the fruits of the earth, he saw a vision in a dream, but greatly exceeding the accustomary appearances that come when we are asleep ; which, when he was got up, he told his brethren, that they might judge what it portended. He said, u He saw the last night, that his w’heat sheaf stood still in the place where he set it, but that their sheaves ran to bow down to it, as ser¬ vants bow down to their masters.” But as soon as they per¬ ceived the vision foretold that he should obtain power and great wealth, and that his power should be in opposition to them, they gave no interpretation of it to Joseph, as if the dream were not by them understood : but they prayed that no part of what they suspected to be its meaning might come to pass ; and they bare a still greater hatred to him on that ac¬ count. -3. But God, in opposition to their envy, sent a second vision to Joseph which Was much more wonderful than the former ; for it seemed to him that the sun took with him the OF THE JEWS. 133 Chap. III. moon, and the rest of the stars, and came down to the earth, and bowed down to him. ile told this vision to his father, and that, as suspecting nothing of ill-will from his brethren, when they were there also, desired him to interpret what it should signify. Now Jacob was pleased with the dream ; for, considering the prediction in his mind, and shrewdly and wisely guessing at its meaning, he rejoiced at the great things thereby signified, because it declared the future happiness of his son ; and that, by the blessing of God, the time should come, when he should be honoured, and thought worthy of worship by his parents and brethren, as guessing that the moon and sun were like his mother and father; the former, as she that gave increase and nourishment to all things, and the latter, he that gave form and other powers to them; and that the stars were like his brethren, since they were eleven in number, as were the stars that receive their power from the sun and moon 4. And thus did Jacob make a judgment of his vision, and that a shrewd one also. But these interpretations caused very great grief to Joseph’s brethren : and they were affect¬ ed to him hereupon, as if he were a certain stranger, that was to have those good things which were signified by the dreams, and not as one that was a brother, with whom it was probable they should be joint partakers; and as they had been part¬ ners in the same parentage, so should they be of the same happiness. They also resolved to kill the lad ; and having fully ratified that intention of theirs, as soon as their collection ©f the fruits was over, they went to Schechem, which is a country good for feeding of cattle, and for pasturage, there they fed their flocks, without acquainting their father with their removal thither: whereupon he had melancholy suspi¬ cions about them, as being ignorant of his sons’ condition, and receiving no messenger from the flocks that could inform him of the true state they were in; so, because he was in great fear about them, he sent Joseph to the flocks, to learn the circumstances his brethren were in, and to bring him word how they did. CIIAP. III. How Joseph mas thus sold by his brethren into Egypt, by rea¬ son of their hatred to him; and how he there, grew famous and illustrious, and had his brethren under his power. •§ 1. Now these brethren rejoiced, as soon as they saw their brother coming to them, not indeed Tts at the presence of r vot. x. M 134 ANTIQUITIES Book II. near relation, or as at the presence of one sent by their father, but a? at the presence of an enemy, and one that by divine providence was delivered into their hands; and they already resolved to kill him, and not let slip the opportunity that lay before them. But when Reubel, the eldest of them, saw them thus disposed, and that they had agreed together to execute their purpose, he tried to restrain them, showing them the heinous enterprise they were going about, and the horrid nature of it: that this action would appear wicked in the sight of God, and impious before men, even though they should kill one not related to them, but much more flagi¬ tious and detestable to appear to have slain their own bro¬ ther ; by which act the father must be treated unjustly in the son’s slaughter, and the * mother also be in perplexity while she laments that her son is taken away from her, and this hot in a natural way neither. So he entreated them to have a regard to their own consciences, and wisely to consider what mischief would betide them on the death of so good a child, and their youngest brother; that they would also fear God, who was already both a spectator and a witness of the designs they had against their brother; that he would love them if they abstained from this act, and yielded to repent¬ ance and amendment: but in case they proceeded to do the fact, all sorts of punishments would overtake them from God for this murder of their brother, since they polluted his pro¬ vidence, which was every where present, and which did not overlook what was done either in deserts or cities; for where¬ soever a man is, there ought he to suppose that God is also. He told them further, that their consciences would be their enemies, if they attempted to go through so wicked an enter¬ prise, which they can never avoid, whether it be a good con¬ science, or whether it be such an one as they will have with¬ in them, when once they have killed their brother. He also added this besides to what he had before said, that it was not a righteous thing to kill a brother, though he had injured them; that it is a good thing to forget the actions of such near friends, even in things wherein they might seem to have offended; but that they were going to kill Joseph, who had been guilty of nothing that was ill towards them, in whose case the infir¬ mity of his small age should rather procure him mercy # and * We may here observe, that in correspondence to Joseph’s second dream, which implied, that his mother , who was then alive, as well as his father, should come and how down to him, Josephus represents her here as still alive after she w r as dead, for the decorum of the dream that foretold it, as the interpretation of that dream does also in all our copies, Gen. xxxvii. 10. OF THE JEWS. 135 Chap.Ill . move them to unite together in the care of his preservation. That the cause of killing him made the act itself much worse, while they determined to take him off out of envy at his fu¬ ture prosperity ; an equal share of which thoy would natu¬ rally partake while lie enjoyed it, since they were to him not strangers, but the nearest relations, for they might reckon up¬ on what God bestowed upon Joseph as their own, and that it was fit for them to believe that the anger of God would for this cause be more severe upon them, if they slew him who was judged by God to be worthy of that prosperity which was to be hoped for ; and while, by murdering him, they made it impossible for God to bestow it upon him. 2. Reubel said these, and many other things, and used en¬ treaties to them, and thereby endeavoured to divert them from the murder of their brother. But when he saw that his dis¬ course had not mollified them at all, and that they made haste to do the fact, he advised them to alleviate the wickedness they were going about, in the manner of taking Joseph off; for as he had exhorted them first, when they were going to revenge themselves, to be dissuaded from doing it, so since the sentence for killing their brother had prevailed, he said that they would not, however, be so grossly guilty if they would be persuaded to follow his present advice, which would include what they were so eager about, but was not so very bad, but, in the distress they were in, of a lighter nature. He begged of them, therefore, not to kill their brother with their own hands, but to cast him into the pit that was hard by, and so let him die; by which they would gain so much, that they would not defile their own hands with his blood. To tb># the young men readily agreed ; so Reubel took the lad, and tied him to a cord, and let him down gently into the pit, for it had no water at all in it; who, when he had done this, went his way to seek for such pasturage as was fit for feeding their flocks. But Judas, being one of Jacob’s sons also, seeing some Arabians, of the posterity of Ishmael, carrying spices and Syrian wares out of the land of Gilead to the Egyptians, af¬ ter Reubel was gone, advised his brethren to draw Joseph out of the pit, and sell him to the Arabians ; for if he should die among strangers a great way off, they should be freed from this barbarous action. This, therefore was resolved on : so they drew Joseph up out of the pit, and sold him to the mer¬ chants for* twenty pounds. He was rmw seventeen years old. * The Sepluagiiit have 20 ces ot g. ■>. e : lament of Gad 30; the Hebrew and Samaritan 20 of silver; and the vulgar Latin 30. What ',ras the true number, and true sum, cannot therefore now bo known. 136 ANTIQUITIES Book Jf. But Reubcl coming in the night-time to the pit, resolved to save Joseph, without the privity of his brethren ; and when, upon his calling to him, he made him no answer, he was afraid that they had destroyed him after he was gone ; of which he Complained to his brethren, but when they had told him what they had done, Reubel left off his mourning. 4. When Joseph’s brethren had done thus to him, they considered what they should do to escape the suspicions of their father. Now they had taken away from Joseph the coat which he had on when he came to them, at the time they let him down into the pit; so they thought proper to tear that coat to pieces, and to dip it into goat’s blood, and then to Carry it, and show it to their father, that he might believe he was destroyed by wild beasts. And when they had so done, they came to the old man, but this not till what had happened to his son had already come to his knowledge : then they said that they had not seen Joseph, nor knew what mishap had befallen him, but that they had found his coat bloody, and torn to pieces, whence they had a suspicion that he had fallen among wild beasts, and so perished, if that was the coat he had on when he came from home. Now Jacob had before some better hopes that his son was only made a cap¬ tive ; but now he laid aside that notion, and supposed that this coat was an evident argument that he was dead, for he well remembered that this was the coat he had on when he sent hitn to his brethren ; so h< hereafter lamented the lad as now dead, as if he had been the father of no more than one, without taking any comfort in the rest; and so he was also effected with his misfortune before he met with Joseph’s brethren, when he also conjectured that Joseph was destroy¬ ed by wild beasts, lie sat down also clothed in sackloth and in heavy affliction, insomuch that be found no ease when his sons comforted him, neither did his pains remit by length oi time. CHAP. IV. Concerning the signal chastity of Joseph. § 1. Now Potiphar, an Egyptian, who was chief cook to king Pharaoh, bought Joseph of the merchants, who sold him to him. He had him in the greatest honour, and taught him the learning that became a free man, and gave him leave to make use of a diet better than was allotted to slaves. He intrusted also the care of his house to him. So he enjoyed these advantages ; yet did not leave that virtue which he had OF THE JEWS. Chap. Il r . I nV ST Ijefore, upon such a change of his condition, but he demon¬ strated that wisdom was able to govern the uneasy passions of life, in such as have it in reality, and do not only put it on for a show, under a present state of prosperity. 2. For when his master’s wife was fallen in love with him, both on account of his beauty of body, and his dexterous management of affairs ; and supposed, that if she should make it known to him, she should easily persuade him to come and lie with her, and that he would look on it as a piece of happy fortune that his mistress should entreat him, as re¬ garding that state of slavery he was in, and not his moral character, which continued after his condition was changed : so she made known her naughty inclinations ; and spake to him about lying with her. However, be rejected her entrea¬ ties, not thinking it agreeable to religion to yield so far toiler, as to do what would tend to the affront and injury of him that purchased him, and had vouchsafed him so great honours. He, on the contrary, exhorted her to govern that passion ; and laid before her the impossibility of her obtaining her de¬ sires, which lie thought might be conquered, if she had no hope of succeeding ; and he said, that as to himself, he would endure any thing whatever, before he would be persuaded to it; for although it was fit for a slave as he was, to do nothing contrary to his mistress, he might well be excused in a case where the contradiction was to such sort of commands only. But this opposition of Joseph’s, when she did not expect it, made her still more violent in her love to him ; and she was sorely beset with this naughty passion, so she resolved to compass her design by a second attempt. 3. When therefore there was a public festival coming on, in which it was the custom for women to come to the public solemnity, she pretended to her husband that she was sick, as contriving an opportunity for solitude and leisure, that she might entreat Joseph again : which opportunity being obtain¬ ed, she used more kind words to him than before ; and said, that it had been good for him to have yielded to her first so- - licitution, and to have given her no repulse, both because of the reverence he ought to bear to her dignity, who solicited, him, and because of the vehemency of her passion, by which she was forced, though she were his mistress, to condescend beneath her dignity, but that he may now, by taking more prudent advice, wipe off the imputation of his former folly j for whether it were that he expected a repetition of her soli¬ citations, she had now made it, and that with greater earnest¬ ness than before, for that she had pretended sickness on this verv account, and had preferred his conversation before the M 2 138 ANTIQUITIES Book 1L festival and its solemnity ; or whether he opposed her former discourses, as not believing she could be in earnest, she now gave him sufficient security, by thus repeating her application, that she meant not in the least by fraud to impose upon him : and assured him that if he complied with her affections he might expect the enjoyment of the advantages he already had j and if he were submissive to her, he should have still greater advantages; but that he must look for revenge and hatred from her, in case he rejected her desires, and preferred the reputation of chastity before his mistress ; for that he would gain nothing by such procedure, because she would then be¬ come his accuser, and would falsely pretend to her husband that he attempted her chastity ; and that Potiphar would hear¬ ken to her words rather than to his, let this be never so agree¬ able to the truth. 4. When the woman had said thus, and even with tears in her eyes, neither did pity dissuade Joseph from his chastity, nor did fear compel him to a compliance with her ; but he opposed her solicitations, and did not yield to her threaten- ings, and was afraid to do any ill thing, and chose to undergo the sharpest punishment, rather than to enjoy his present ad¬ vantages, by doing what his own conscience knew would just¬ ly deserve that he should die for it. He also put her in mind that she was a married woman, and that she ought to cohabit with her husband only ; and desired her to suffer these con¬ siderations to have more weight with her than the short plea¬ sures of lustful dalliance, which would bring bet to repent¬ ance afterwards ; would cause trouble to her, and yet would not amend what had been done amiss. He also suggested to her the fear she would be in, lest they should be caught; and that the advantage of concealment was uncertain, and that only while the wickedness was not known [would there be any quiet for them ;] but that she might have the enjoyment of her husband's company without any danger. And he told her, that in the company of her husband she might have great boldness, from a good conscience, both before God, and be¬ fore men. Nay, that she would act better 1 like his mistress, nnd make use of her authority over him better, while she per¬ sisted in her chastity, than when they were both ashamed for what wickedness they had been guilty of; and that it is much better to depend on a good life, well acted, and known to have been so, than upon the hopes of the concealment of evil practices. 5. Joseph, by saying this, and more, tried to restrain the violent passion of the woman, and to reduce her affections within the rules of reason ; but she grew more ungovernable OF THE JEWS. 139 Chap. IV. and earnest in the matter ; and since she despaired of per¬ suading him, she laid hands upon him, and had a mind to force him. But as soon as Joseph had got away from her anger, leaving also his garment with her, for he left that to her, and leaped out of her chamber, she was greatly afraid lest he should discover her lewdness to her husband, and .greatly troubled at the affront he had offered her, so she resol¬ ved to be beforehand with him, and to accuse Joseph falsely to Potiphar, and by that means to revenge herself on him for the pride and contempt of'her; and she thought it a wise thing in itself, and also becoming a woman, thus to prevent his accusation. Accordingly she sat sorrowful, and in con¬ fusion, framing herself so hypocritically and angrily, that the sorrow, which was really for her being disappointed of her lugt, might appear to be for the attempt upon her chastity ; so that when her husband came home, and was disturbed at the sight of her, and inquired what was the cause of the dis¬ order she was in, she began to accuse Joseph : and said, “ O husband, mayest thou not live a day longer, if thou dost not punish the wicked slave, who has desired to defile thy bed ; who has neither minded who he was, when he came to our house, so as to behave himself with modesty ; nor has he been mindful of what favours he had received from thy bounty, (as he must be an ungrateful man indeed, unless he, in every re¬ spect, carry himself in a manner agreeable to us :) this man, I say, laid a private design to abuse thy wife, and this at the time of a festival, observing when thou wouldst be absent. So that it is now clear, that his modesty, as it appeared to be formerly, was only because of the restraint he was in out of fear of thee, but that he was not really of a good disposition. This has been occasioned by his being advanced to honour beyond what he deserved, and what he hoped for, insomuch that he concluded, that he who was deemed lit to be entrusted with thy estate, and the government of thy family, and was preferred above thy eldest servants, might be allowed to touch thy wife also.*’ Thus when she had ended her dis¬ course, she showed him his garment, as if he then left it with her when lie attempted to force her. But Potiphar, not be¬ ing able to disbelieve what his wife’s tears showed, and what his wife said, and what he saw himself, and being seduced by his love to his wife, did not set himself about the examination of the truth, but taking it for granted that his wife was a mo¬ dest woman, and condemning Joseph as a wicked man, he threw him into the malefactor’s prison ; and bad a still higher opinion of his wife, and bare her witness, that she was a wo* man of a becoming modesty and chastity. 140 ANTIQUITIES Booh II. CHAP. V. What things befel Joseph in prison. ^ 1. Now Joseph, commending all his affairs to God, did not betake himself to make his defence, nor to give an ac¬ count of the exact circumstances of the fact, but silently un¬ derwent the bonds and the distress he was in, firmly believing that God, who knew the cause of his affliction, and the truth of the fact, would be more powerful than those that inflicted the punishments upon him ; a proof of whose providence he quickly received ; for the keeper of the prison taking notice of his care and fidelity in the affairs he had set him about, and the dignity of his countenance, relaxed his bonds, and thereby made his heavy calamity lighter, and more supporta¬ ble to him : he also permitted him to make use of a diet bet¬ ter than that of the rest of the prisoners. Now as his fellow-prisoners, when their hard labours were over, fell to discoursing one among another, as is usual in such as are equal sufferers, and to inquire one of another what were the occasions of their being condemned to a prison. Among them, the king’s cup-bearer, and one that had been respected b} r him, was put in bonds upon the king’s anger at him. This man was under the same bonds with Joseph, and grew fnore familiar with him ; and upon his observing that Joseph had a better understanding than the rest had, he told him of a dream he had, and desired he would interpret its meaning, complaining, that besides the afflictions he underwent from the king, God did also add to him trouble from his dreams. 2. He therefore said, that in his sleep he saw three clus¬ ters of grapes hanging upon three branches of a vine, large already, and ripe for gathering ; and that he squeezed them into a cup, which the king held in his hand ; and when he had strained the wine, he gave it to the king to drink, and that he received it from him with a pleasant countenance. This he said was what he saw ; and he desired Joseph, that if he had any portion of understanding in such matters, he would tell him what this vision foretold ; who bid him be of good cheer, and expect to be loosed from his bonds in three days' time, because the king desired his service, and was about to restore him to it again : for he let him know, that God bestows the fruit of the vine upon men for good ; which wine is poured out to him, and is the pledge of fidelity and mutual confidence among men ; and puts an end to their quarrels, takes away passion and grief out of the minds of them that use it, and makes them cheerful. Thou sayest that OF TEIE JEWS. 141 Chap. V. thou didst squeeze this wine from three clusters of grapes, with thine hands, and that the king received it; know there* fore, that this vision is for thy good, and foretels a release from thy present distress, within the same number of days as the branches had, when thou gatheredst thy grapes in thy sleep. However, remember what prosperity 1 have foretold thee, when thou hast found it true by experience : and when thou art in authority, do not overlook us in this prison, where¬ in thou wilt leave us when thou art gone to the place we have foretold ; for we are not in prison for any crime, but, for the sake of our virtue and sobriety, are we condemned to suffer the penalty of malefactors, and because we are not willing to injure him that has thus distressed us though it were for our own pleasure. The cup-bearer, tnerefore, as was natural to do, rejoiced to hear such an interpretation of his dream, and waited the completion of what had been thus showed him be¬ forehand 3. But another servant there was of the king’s, who had been chief baker, and was now bound in prison with the cup¬ bearer, lie also was in good hope, upon Joseph’s interpreta¬ tion of the other’s vision, for he had seen a dream also ; so he desired that Joseph would tell him what the visions, he had seen the night before, might mean. They were these that follow. Methought, says he, I carried three baskets upon my head ; two were full of loaves, and the third full of sweet¬ meats, and other eatables, such as are prepared for kings ; but that the fowls came flying, and eat them all up, and had no regard to my attempt to drive them away. And he expec¬ ted a prediction like that of the cup-bearer’s. But Joseph, considering and reasoning about the dream, said to him, that he would willingly be an interpreter of good events to him, and not f such as his dream denounced to him $ but he told him, that he had only three days in all to live ; for that the [three] baskets signify, that on the third day he should be Crucified, and devoured by fowls, while he was not able to help himself. Now both these dreams had the same several events that Joseph foretold they shoul have, and this to both the parties ; for on the third day before mentioned, when the. king solemnized his birth-day, he crucified the chief baker, but set the but er free from his bonds, and restored him to his former ministration. 4. But God freed Joseph from his confinement, after he had endured his bonds two years, and had received no assis¬ tance from the cup-bearer, who did not remember what he had said to him formerly ; and God contrived this method of deliverance for him. Pharaoh, the king, had seen in his sleep, 142 ANTIQUITIES Book li¬ the same evening, two visions ; and after them had the inter¬ pretation of them both given him. He had forgotten the latter, but retained that of the dreams themselves. Being therefore troubled at what he had seen, for it seemed to him to be all of a melancholy nature, the next day he called to¬ gether the wisest men among the Egyptians, desiring to learn from them the interpretation of his dreams : but when they hesitated about them, the king was so much the more disturb¬ ed. And now it was that the memory of Joseph, and his skill in dreams, came into the mind of the king’s cup-bearer, when he saw the confusion that Pharaoh was in, so he came and mentioned Joseph to him, as also the vision he had seen in prison, and how the event proved as he had said ; as also that the chief baker was crucified on the very same day ; and that this also happened to him, according to the interpretation of Joseph. That Joseph himself was laid in bonds by Poti- phar, who was his head cook as a slave ; but he said, he was one of the noblest of the stock of the Hebrews : and said far¬ ther, that his father lived in great splendour. If, therefore, thou wilt send for him, and not despise him on the score of his misfortunes, thou wilt learn what thy dreams signify. So the king commanded that they should bring Joseph into his presence ; and those, who received the command, came and brought him with them, having taken care of his habit, that it might be decent, as the king had enjoined them to do. 5. But the king took him by the hand ; and said,