Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XII.—Antiquity of Moses proved.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Moses’ writings" title="278" id="viii.vi.xii-p1.1"/>Greek writers" title="278" id="viii.vi.xii-p1.2"/>And I think
it necessary also to consider the times in which your philosophers lived,
that you may see that the time which produced them for you is very
recent, and also short. For thus you will be able easily to recognise
also the antiquity of Moses. But lest, by a complete survey of the
periods, and by the use of a greater number of proofs, I should seem to
be prolix, I think it may be sufficiently demonstrated from the
following. For Socrates was the teacher of Plato, and Plato of Aristotle.
Now these men flourished in the time of Philip and Alexander of Macedon,
in which time also the Athenian orators flourished, as the Philippics of
Demosthenes plainly show us. And those who have narrated the deeds of
Alexander sufficiently prove that during his reign Aristotle associated
with him. From all manner of proofs, then, it is easy to see that the
history of Moses is by far more ancient than all profane2540
| 2540 Literally, “without,” not
belonging to the true faith. | histories. And, besides, it is
fit that you recognise this fact also, that nothing has been accurately
recorded by Greeks before the era of the Olympiads, and that there is no
ancient work which makes known any action of the Greeks or Barbarians.
But before that period existed only the history of the prophet Moses,
which he wrote in the Hebrew character by the divine inspiration. For the
Greek character was not yet in use, as the teachers of language
themselves prove, telling us that Cadmus first brought the letters from
Phœnicia, and communicated them to the Greeks. And your first of
philosophers, Plato, testifies that they were a recent discovery. For in
the Timæus2541
he wrote that Solon, the wisest of the wise men, on his
return from Egypt, said to Critias that he had heard this from a very
aged Egyptian priest, who said to him, “O Solon, Solon, you Greeks
are ever children, and aged Greek there is none.” Then again he
said, “You are all youths in soul, for you hold no ancient opinion
derived through remote tradition, nor any system of instruction hoary
with time; but all these things escape your knowledge, because for many
generations the posterity of these ancient ages died mute, not having the
use of letters.” It is fit, therefore, that you understand that it
is the fact that every history has been written in these
recently-discovered Greek letters; and if any one would make mention of
old poets, or legislators, or historians, or philosophers, or orators, he
will find that they wrote their own works in the Greek character.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
