I shall now add to these accounts about Manetho and Cheremon somewhat
about Lysimachus, who hath taken the same topic of falsehood with those
forementioned, but hath gone far beyond them in the incredible nature of
his forgeries; which plainly demonstrates that he contrived them out of
his virulent hatred of our nation. His words are these: "The people
of the Jews being leprous and scabby, and subject to certain other kinds
of distempers, in the days of Bocchoris, king of Egypt, they fled to the
temples, and got their food there by begging: and as the numbers were very
great that were fallen under these diseases, there arose a scarcity in
Egypt. Hereupon Bocehoris, the king of Egypt, sent some to consult the
oracle of [Jupiter] Hammon about his scarcity. The god's answer was this,
that he must purge his temples of impure and impious men, by expelling
them out of those temples into desert places; but as to the scabby and
leprous people, he must drown them, and purge his temples, the sun having
an indignation at these men being suffered to live; and by this means the
land will bring forth its fruits. Upon Bocchoris's having received these
oracles, he called for their priests, and the attendants upon their altars,
and ordered them to make a collection of the impure people, and to deliver
them to the soldiers, to carry them away into the desert; but to take the
leprous people, and wrap them in sheets of lead, and let them down into
the sea. Hereupon the scabby and leprous people were drowned, and the rest
were gotten together, and sent into desert places, in order to be exposed
to destruction. In this case they assembled themselves together, and took
counsel what they should do, and determined that, as the night was coming
on, they should kindle fires and lamps, and keep watch; that they also
should fast the next night, and propitiate the gods, in order to obtain
deliverance from them. That on the next day there was one Moses, who advised
them that they should venture upon a journey, and go along one road till
they should come to places fit for habitation: that he charged them to
have no kind regards for any man, nor give good counsel to any, but always
to advise them for the worst; and to overturn all those temples and altars
of the gods they should meet with: that the rest commended what he had
said with one consent, and did what they had resolved on, and so traveled
over the desert. But that the difficulties of the journey being over, they
came to a country inhabited, and that there they abused the men, and plundered
and burnt their temples; and then came into that land which is called Judea,
and there they built a city, and dwelt therein, and that their city was
named Hierosyla, from this their robbing of the temples; but that
still, upon the success they had afterwards, they in time changed its denomination,
that it might not be a reproach to them, and called the city Hierosolyma,
and themselves Hierosolymites."
Now this man did not discover and mention the same king with the
others, but feigned a newer name, and passing by the dream and the Egyptian
prophet, he brings him to [Jupiter] Hammon, in order to gain oracles about
the scabby and leprous people; for he says that the multitude of Jews were
gathered together at the temples. Now it is uncertain whether he ascribes
this name to these lepers, or to those that were subject to such diseases
among the Jews only; for he describes them as a people of the Jews. What
people does he mean? foreigners, or those of that country? Why then' dost
thou call them Jews, if they were Egyptians? But if they were foreigners,
why dost thou not tell us whence they came? And how could it be that, after
the king had drowned many of them in the sea, and ejected the rest into
desert places, there should be still so great a multitude remaining? Or
after what manner did they pass over the desert, and get the land which
we now dwell in, and build our city, and that temple which hath been so
famous among all mankind? And besides, he ought to have spoken more about
our legislator than by giving us his bare name; and to have informed us
of what nation he was, and what parents he was derived from; and to have
assigned the reasons why he undertook to make such laws concerning the
gods, and concerning matters of injustice with regard to men during that
journey. For in case the people were by birth Egyptians, they would not
on the sudden have so easily changed the customs of their country; and
in case they had been foreigners, they had for certain some laws or other
which had been kept by them from long custom. It is true, that with regard
to those who had ejected them, they might have sworn never to bear good-will
to them, and might have had a plausible reason for so doing. But if these
men resolved to wage an implacable war against all men, in case they had
acted as wickedly as he relates of them, and this while they wanted the
assistance of all men, this demonstrates a kind of mad conduct indeed;
but not of the men themselves, but very greatly so of him that tells such
lies about them. He hath also impudence enough to say that a name, implying
"Robbers of the temples," note
was given to their city, and that this name was afterward changed. The
reason of which is plain, that the former name brought reproach and hatred
upon them in the times of their posterity, while, it seems, those that
built the city thought they did honor to the city by giving it such a name.
So we see that this fine fellow had such an unbounded inclination to reproach
us, that he did not understand that robbery of temples is not expressed
By the same word and name among the Jews as it is among the Greeks. But
why should a man say any more to a person who tells such impudent lies?
However, since this book is arisen to a competent length, I will make another
beginning, and endeavor to add what still remains to perfect my design
in the following book.
