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| Chapter IX.—The antiquity of Moses proved by Greek writers.
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Moses’ writings" title="277" id="viii.vi.ix-p1.1"/>Greek writers" title="277" id="viii.vi.ix-p1.2"/>I will
begin, then, with our first prophet and lawgiver, Moses; first explaining
the times in which he lived, on authorities which among you are worthy of
all credit. For I do not propose to prove these things only from our own
divine histories, which as yet you are unwilling to credit on account of
the inveterate error of your forefathers, but also from your own
histories, and such, too, as have no reference to our worship, that you
may know that, of all your teachers, whether sages, poets, historians,
philosophers, or lawgivers, by far the oldest, as the Greek histories
show us, was Moses, who was our first religious teacher.2534
| 2534 The incongruity in this sentence is
Justin’s. | For in the times of Ogyges and Inachus, whom
some of your poets suppose to have been earth-born,2535
| 2535 [Autochthones]. That is, sprung from the
soil; and hence the oldest inhabitants, the aborigines. | Moses
is mentioned as the leader and ruler of the Jewish nation. For in this
way he is mentioned both by Polemon in the first book of his
Hellenics, and by Apion son of Posidonius in his book against the
Jews, and in the fourth book of his history, where he says that during
the reign of Inachus over Argos the Jews revolted from Amasis king of the
Egyptians, and that Moses led them. And Ptolemæus the Mendesian, in
relating the history of Egypt, concurs in all this. And those who write
the Athenian history, Hellanicus and Philochorus (the author of The
Attic History), Castor and Thallus and Alexander Polyhistor, and also
the very well informed writers on Jewish affairs, Philo and Josephus,
have mentioned Moses as a very ancient and time-honoured prince of the
Jews. Josephus, certainly, desiring to signify even by the title of his
work the antiquity and age of the history, wrote thus at the commencement
of the history: “The Jewish antiquities2536
| 2536 Literally, archæology. | of
Flavius Josephus,”—signifying the oldness of the history by
the word “antiquities.” And your most renowned historian
Diodorus, who employed thirty whole years in epitomizing the libraries,
and who, as he himself wrote, travelled over both Asia and Europe for the
sake of great accuracy, and thus became an eye-witness of very many
things, wrote forty entire books of his own history. And he in the first
book, having said that he had learned from the Egyptian priests that
Moses was an ancient lawgiver, and even the first, wrote of him in these
very words: “For subsequent to the ancient manner of living in
Egypt which gods and heroes are fabled to have regulated, they say that
Moses2537
| 2537 Unfortunately,
Justin here mistook Menes for Moses. [But he may have so read the name in
his copy. See Grabe’s note on Diodorus, and the quotation following
in another note.] | first persuaded the people to use written
laws, and to live by them; and he is recorded to have been a man both
great of soul and of great faculty in social matters.” Then, having
proceeded a little further, and wishing to mention the ancient lawgivers,
he mentions Moses first. For he spoke in these words: “Among the
Jews they say that Moses ascribed his laws2538
| 2538 This sentence must be so completed from the context in
Diodorus. See the note of Maranus. | to that God who is called
Jehovah, whether because they judged it a marvellous and quite divine
conception which promised to benefit a multitude of men, or because they
were of opinion that the people would be the more obedient when they
contemplated the majesty and power of those who were said to have
invented the laws. And they say that Sasunchis was the second Egyptian
legislator, a man of excellent understanding. And the third, they say,
was Sesonchosis the king, who not only performed the most brilliant
military exploits of any in Egypt, but also consolidated that warlike
race by legislation. And the fourth lawgiver, they say, was Bocchoris the
king, a wise and surpassingly skilful man. And after him it is said that
Amasis the king acceded to the government, whom they relate to have
regulated all that pertains to the rulers of provinces, and to the
general administration of the government of Egypt. And they say that
Darius, the father of Xerxes, was the sixth who legislated for the
Egyptians.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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