A- tihmvy of Che t:heolo0ical ^emmarjD PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY •«^j> PRESENTED BY Mrs. Charles A. Aiken crr^. ISAi^C & REBEl&A Jf tvibixio J 0 ocj) h us ^ Tiiumlih of Mordecai. -JH i e a fi Q- THE I ^ SEP 28 me WORKS OF ^%gg/CILSiHg^ FLAVIUS^JOSEPHUS, THE LEARNED AND AUTHENTIC JEWISH HISTORIAN, AND CELEBRATED WARRIOR, CONTAINING TWENTY BOOKS OF THE JEWISH ANTIQUITIES, SEVEN BOOKS OF THE JEWISH WAR, WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL GREEK, ACCORDING TO HAVERCAMP's ACCURATE EDITION. TOGETHER WITH Embellished with Elegant Engravings. BY THE LATE WILLIAM WHISTON, A. M. PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIOOE. From the last London Edition of 1827. COMPLETE IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. STEREOTYPED BY THOMAS SEWARD. Pu'latfcl^iiw : PUBLISHED BY J. GRIGG, No. 9, NORTH FOURTH-ST. 1829. A^ THE WORKS OP FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS TO WHICH ARE ADDED, THREE DISSERTATIONS, CONCERNING JESUS CHRIST, JOHN THE BAPTIST, JAMES THE JUST, OOd's COMMAND TO ABRAHAM, ETC. WITH AN INDEX TO THE WHOLE. C5 PREFACE.* § 1. Those who undertake to write histories, do not, I per- ceive, take that trouble on one and the same account, but for many reasons, and those such as are very different one frotn another. For some of them apply themselves to this part of learning, to show their great skill in composition, and that they may therein acquire a reputation for speaking finely. 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 con- cerned in the facts, and so cannot excuse themselves from com- mitting them to writing, for the advantage of posterity. Nay, there are not a few who are induced 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 in- terested in that war which we Jews had with the Romans, and knew myself its particular actions, and what conclusion it had, I was iorced to give the history of it, because I saw that otliers 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 Greeksf worthy of their study; for it will * Thia preface of Josephus is excellent in its kind, and highly worthy the re- peated perusal of the reader, before he set about the perusal of the work itself, t That is, all the Gentilos, Ijpth Greeks and Romans. vi PREFACE. contain all our antiquities, and the constitution of our govern- ment, as interpreted out of the Hebrew Scriptures. And, in- deed, I did formerly intend, when I wrote of the war,* to ex- plain 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 unwillingly engaged in this last with the Romans; but because this work would take up a great compass, I separated it into a set treatise by itself, with a beginning of its own, and its own conclusion ; but in pro- cess of time, as usually happens to such as undertake great things, I grew weary, and went on slowly, it being a large sub- ject, 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, Epaphroditus,t a man who is a lover of all kind of learning, but is principally delighted with the knowledge of history; and this on account of his having been himself concerned in great affairs, and ma- ny turns of fortune, and having shown a wonderful vigour of an excellent nature, and an immovable virtuous resolution in them all. I yielded to this man's persuasions, who always excites such as have abilities in what is useful and acceptable to join their endeavours with his. I was also ashamed myself to per- mit any laziness of disposition to have a greater influence upon me than the delight of taking pains in such studies as were ve- ry useful : I thereupon stirred up myself, and went on with my work more cheerfully. Besides the foregoing motives, 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 considerable pains to know the affairs of our nation. * We may seasonably note here, that Josephus wrote his seven books of the Jewish War long before he wrote these his Antiquities. Those books of the war were published about A. D. 75, and these Antiquities, A. D. 93, about eighteen years later. t This Epaphroditus was certainly alive in the third year of Trajan, A. D. 100. See the note on Antiq. b. i. against Apion, sect. 1, vol. ii. Who he was we do not know ; for as to Epaphroditus, the freedman of Nero, and afterwards Domitian's secretary, who was put to death by Domitian in the 14th or 15th year of his reign, he could not be alive, in the tiiird of Trajan. PREFACE y^ 3. I found, therefore, that the second of the Ptolemies was a king, who was extraordinary diligent in what concerned learn- ing, and the collection of books ; that he was also peculiarly ambitious to procure a translation of our law, and of the con- stitution of our government therein contained, into the Greek tongue. Now Eleazer the high priest, one not inferior to any other of that dignity among us, did not envy the aforenamed king the participation of that advantage, which otherwise he would for certain have denied him ; but that he knew the cus- tom 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 interpre- ters gave him only the books of the law, while there was 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 actions 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- ceed well, even to an incredible degree, and the reward of fe- licity 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 accurate 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 worthy of him; and hath not ever ascri- bed to him such operations as become his power, and hath not preserved his writings 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 thousand years ago : at which vast distance of ages the poets themselves have not been so hardy as to fix even the genera- * Josephus here plainly alludes to the famous Greek proverb, If God be with us, every thing iliat is impossihtb becomes possible. PREFACE. tions 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 be- longs 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 some- what concerning him beforehand, though I shall do it briefly ; I mean, because otherwise, those that read my books may won- der how it comes to pass that my discourse, which promises an account of laws and historical facts, contains so much of phi- losophy. The reader is therefore to know, that Moses deemed it exceeding necessary that he who would conduct his own life well, and give laws to others, in the first place should consider the divine nature ; and, upon the contemplation of God's ope- rations, 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 contemplation ; nor would any thing he " should write tend to the proifiotion 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 a happy life upon those that follow him, but plunges such as do not walk in the paths of virtue into inevitable mise- ries. Now when Moses was desirous to teach this lesson to his countrymen, he did not begin the establishment of his laws af- ter the same manner that other legislators did ; I mean, upon contracts and other rights between one man and another; but by raising their minds upwards to regard God, and his creation of the world ; and by persuading them, that we men are the most excellent of the creatures of God upon earth. Now when once he had brought them to submit to religion, he easily per- suaded them to submit in all other things; for as to other legis- lators, they followed fables, and by their discourses transferred the most reproachful of human vices unto the gods, and so afforded wicked men the most plausible excuses for their crimes ; but as for our legislator, when he had once demonstra^ ted that God was possessed of perfect virtue, he supposed that men also ought to strive after the participation of it ; and on PREFACE. ix those who did not so think, and so believe, he inflicted the severest punishments. I exhort, therefore, my readers to ex- amine this whole undertaking in that view; for thereby it will appear to them, that there is nothing therein disagreeable either to the majesty 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, plaiidy and expressly. However, those that have a mind to know the reasons of every thing, may find here a very curious philosophical theory, which I now in- deed shall wave the explication of; but if God afford me time for it,* I will set about writing it after I have finished the pre- sent work. I shall now betake myself to the history before me, after I have first mentioned what Moses 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 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 rcgrcted, I am inclina- ble, in part, to Fabricius's opinion, ap. Havercamp. p. G3, G4 : That " we need not doubt but, among some vain and frigid conjectures derived from Jewish ima- ginations, Josephus would have taught us a great number of excellent and use. ful 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 ex- tant." VOL. I. ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. BOOK I. CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OP THREE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE YEARS. FROM THE CREATIOJV TO THE DEATH OF ISAAC. CHAP. I. The Constitution of the World, and the Disposition of the Elements, § 1 . J.N the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. But when the earth did not come into sight, but was covered 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 one was Night, and the other he called Day ; and he named the beginning 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 everi now ; but because I have promised to give such reasons 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 crystalline [firmament] round it, and put it together in a manner agreeable to the earth, and fitted it for giving mois- ture and rain, and for affording the advantage 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 their motions and courses, that the vicissitudes of the seasons might be clearly signified. And on the fifth day he produced the living creatures, both those that swim and those that fly ; the former in the sea, the latter in the air. He also sorted 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 female. 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 direst 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,* begins to talk philoso- * Since Josephus, in his preface, sect. 4, says, Tiiat Moses wrote some things enigmatically, some alle- srorically, and the rest in plain words ; since, in his account of the first chapter of Genesis, and the three frrst verses of the second, he gives us no hints of any mystery at all ; but when he here comes to verse 4, S^c. he says, that Moses, after the seventh day was ovci, began to to.\k philosophically ; it is iiot very im 12 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. B. I. phically ; and concerning the formation of man says thus, That God took dust from the ground, and formed* man, 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 compounded 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 he gave them those names by which they are still called. But when he sa^w that Adam had no female companion, no society (for there was no such created), and that he wondered at the other animals which were male and female, he laid him asleep, and took away one of his ribs, and out of it formed 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 Issa ; but the name of this woman was Eve, which signifies tJie Mother of all living, 3, Moses says farther, that God planted a paradise in the East, flourishing with all sorts of trees ; and that among them was the T)-ee 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 watered by one river,| wliich 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 the sea, and is by the Greeks called Ganges. Euphrates also, as well as Tigris, goes down into tlie Red Sea.:}: Now the name Euphrates, or Phrath, denotes either a Dispersion or a Flower ; by Tigris or Diglath, is signified what is swift with narrowness ; 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 to them that if they touched it, it would prove their destruction. But while all the living creatures^ had one language at that time, the Serpent, vhich 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 probable that he understood the rest of the second and the third chapters in some enigmniical or alhgoru cal or philosophical sense. Tlie 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 Septuagint, does also not a little favour some such change in tiie narration or construction. * We may observe here, that Josephus supposed man to be compounded of spirit, soul, antinn, Rom. viii. 19—22, C. ir. ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 13 woman, out of a malicious mtention, to taste of the Tree of Knoicledge ; telling them, that in that tree was the Knowledge of good and evil ; which knowledge when they should obtain, they would lead a happy life ! nay, a life not inferior to Ihat 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 fruit, 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 modest)^, they thought they were happier than they were before, as they had discovered what they were in want of. But when God came into the garden, Adam, who was wont before to come and con- verse 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 a happy life, without any affliction, and care, and vexation of soul ; and that all things which might contribute to your enjoyment and pleasure should grow up by my providence, of their own accord, without your own labour and pains-taking ; M'hich state of labour and pains- taking would soon bring on old age, and death would not be at any remote dis- tance ; but now thou hast abused this my good-will, and hast disobeyed my com- mands ; 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 punishment, because he weakly submitted to tiie counsel of his wife ; and said, the ground should not henceforth yield its fruits of its own accord, but that when it should be harassed by their labour, it should bring forth some of its fruits, and refuse to bring forth others. He also made Eve li- able to the inconveniency of breeding, and the sharp pains of bringing forth children ; and this because she persuaded Adam with the same arguments where- with the Serpent had persuaded her, and had thereby brought him into a cala- mitous condition. He also deprived the Serpent of speech, out of indignation 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 direct their strokes against his head, that being the place wherein lay his mischievous design towards men, and it being easiest to take vengeance on him that way. And when he had deprived him of the use of his feet, he made him to go rolling all along, and dragging himself upon the ground. And when God had appointed these penalties for them, he removed Adam and Eve out of the garden into another place. CHAP. n. Concerning the Posterity of Adam, and the Ten Generations from him to tlie Deluge. § 1. Adam and Eve had two sons ; the elder of them was named Cain; which name, when it is interpreted, signifies a Possession ; the younger was Abel, which signifies Sorrow. They had also daughters. Now the two brethren were pleased with different courses of life ; for Abel the younger was a lover of righteousness ; and, believing that God was present at all his actions, he excelled in virtue ; and his emplojTnent was that of a shepherd. But Cain was not 07ily very 14 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. B. 1. wicked in other respects, but was wholly intent upon getting : and he first con. trived to plough the ground. He slew his brother on the occasion following. They had resolved to sacrifice to God. Now Cain brought the fruits of the earth, and of his husbandry ; but Abel brought rnilk, and the first fruits of his fiock : but God was more delighted with the latter oblation,* when he was honoured with what grew naturally of its own accord, than he was with 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 days ; whereas he used to see them con- versing together at other times. But Cain was in doubt with himself, and knew not what answer to give to God. At first he said. That he himself was at a loss about his brother's disappearing ; but when he was provoked by God, who pressed him vehemently, as resolving to know what the matter was, he replied. He was not his brother's guardian or keeper, 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 wandering about he should fall among the wild beasts, and by that means perish, God bid him not to entertain such a melancholy 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 called, and there he settled his abode ; where also he had children. However he did not accept of his punishmer.l in order to amendment, but to increase his wickedness ; for he only aimed to pro- cure every thing that was for his own bodily pleasure, though it obliged him to be injurious to his neighbours. 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 vvicked courses. He also introduced a change in that way of simplicity wherein men lived before ; 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 cunning crafl;iness. He first of all set boundaries about lands ; he built a city, and fortified i( with walls, and he compelled his family to come together to it ; and called that city Enoch, after the name of his eldest son Enoch. Now Jared was the son of Enoch, whose son was Malaleel, whose son was Methusela, whose son was Lamech, who had seventy-seven children by two wives, Silla and Ada. Of those children by Ada, one was Jabel ,- he erected tents, and loved the life of a shepherd. But Jubal, who was born of the same mother with him, exercised himself in musicjf and invented the psaltery and the harp. But Tubal, one of his children by the other wife, exceeded all men in strength, and was very expert and famous in martial performances. He pro- cured what tended to pleasures of the body by that method ; and first of all in- vented the art of making brass. Lamech was also the father of a daughter, * St. Jolm's accnniit of the reason why God accepted the sacrifice of Abel, and rejected that of Cain ; as also wh}- Cain slew Abel, on account of that his acceptance with God, is much better than this of JoFcpljus. I mean, because Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And, wherefore slew he him? Becavse his mvn works wei-e evil, and his brother''s righteous. 1 John, iii. 12. Josephub's rea- son seems to be no better than a Pharisaical notion or tradition. •f From this Jubal, not improbably, came Jobel, tlie trumpet of Jobel or Jubilee, that large and loud niut-ical instrument, used in proclaiming the liberty at llie year of Jubilee. C. III. ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 15 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 exceeding wicked, every one successively dying one after another, 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 behaviour, 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 Abel was slain, and Cain fled away on account of his murder, was solicitous for posterity, and had a vehement desire of children, he being two hundred and thirty years old ; after which time he lived other seven hundred, and then died. He had indeed 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 proceed from Seth. Now this Seth, when he was brought up, and came to those years in which he could discern what was good, he became a virtuous man ; and, as he was him- self of an excellent character, so did he leave childrenf behind him, who imita- ted his virtues. All these proved to be of good dispositions. They also inhabi- ted the same countiy without dissensions, and in a happy condition, without any misfortunes falling upon them, till they died. They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies and their order. And, that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufli- ciently known, upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity o-f water, they made two pillars ;:}: the one of brick, the other of stone ; they in- scribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should bo destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those disco- veries 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. HI. Concerning tJie Flood ; and after what manner Noah was saved in an Arh, 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 fore- fathers ; and did neither pay those honours to God which were appointed them, nor had they any«concern to do justice towards 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 * The number of Adam's children, as says the old tradition, was thirty-three sons, and twenty-three daiif^hters. t What is here said of Seth and his posterity, that they were very good and virtuous, and at the same time very happy, without any considerable misfortunes, for seven ^generations [see chap. ii. sect. 1, be- fore, and chap. iii. sect. 1, hereafter], is exactly agreeable to the state of the world, and the conduct of Providence in all the first ages. t Of .losephus's mistake here, when he took Seth the son of Adam for Seth or Sesostris, king of Egypt, the erector of these pillars in the land of Siriad, see Essay on the Old Testament, Appendix, p. 159, 160. Although the main of this relation might be true ; and Adam might foretell a Conflagration and a De- luge, which all antiquity witnesses to be an ancient tradition ; nay, Scth's posterity might engrave their inventions in astronomy on two such pillars ; yet, it is no way credible that they could survive the fie- lugo, which has buried all such pillars and edifices far under ground, in the sediment of its waters, espe- cially since the like pillars of the Egyptian Seth or Sesostris were extant after the flood, in the land of Siriad, and perhaps in the days of Josephus also, as is shown in the place here rsferred to. 16 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. B. I. manv angels* of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the contidence 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 displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and their actions 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 condemn- ed those other men for their wickedness, but 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, but one hundred and twenty only,f he turned the dry land into sea ; and thus were all these men destroyed ; but Noah alone was saved ; for God sug- gested to him the following contrivance and way of escape : That he should make an ark of four stories high, three hundred cubits long,:}: fift)^ cubits broad, and thirty cubits high. Accordingly he entered mto that ark, and his wife, and sons, and their wives, and put into it not only other provisions to support their w ants there, but also sent in with the rest all sorts of living creatures, the male and his female, for the preservation 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 overborn by the violence of the water. And thus was Noah, with his family, preserved. Now he was the tenth from Adam, as being the son of Lamech, whose father was Methusela ; he was the son of Enoch, the son of Jared ; and Jared 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 of Noah's governmeni [age], in the second month,§ called by the Macedonians Dius, but by the He- brews MarJiesvan ; for so did they order their year in Egypt. But Moses ap- pointed that Nisan, which is the same with Xanthiciis, should be the first month of 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, emd other ordinary aflairs. Now he says, that this fiood 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, II those who then lived having noted down with great accuracy both the births and the deaths of illustrious men. * This notion, tliat the fallen angels were in some sense the fathers of the old giants, was the constant opinion of antiquity. t Josephiis here supposes, that the life of these giants (for of them only do I uijflerstand him) was now reduced to 120 years ; which is confirmed by the Iragmentof Enoch, sect. 10, in Authent. Rec. part 1, 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 gradu- ally shortened till the days of Moses, and then fixed [for some time] at 120, chap. vi. sect. 5. Nor in- deed need we suppose that either Enoch or Josephus meant to interpret these 120 years for the life of men before the flood, to be different from the 120 years of God's patience [perhaps while the ark was prepmr- iiigl 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 years. t A cubit is about 21 English inches. { Josephus here truly determines, that the year at the flood began about the autumnal equinox ; as to wiiat (lay of the month the flood began, our Hebrew and Samaritan, and perhaps Josephus'sown 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 7th month, as Gen. vii. ult. with viii. 3. |( Josephus here takes notice, that these ancient genealogies were first set down by those that then liv- ed, aiid from them were transmitted down to posterity ; which I suppose to be the true account of that matter. J'or tiiere is no reason to imagine that men were not taught to 7X(id and write soon after they were taught to .yeak : and perhaps all by the Messiah himself, who, under the Father, was the Crea- or or Governor of inankimi, ;iiid who frequently in those early days appeared to tiiem. C. II r. ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 17 4. For indeed Seth was born when Adam was in his two hundred and thirtieth vear, who lived nine hundred and thirty years. Seth begat Enoch in his two hundred and fitth 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 hundred and five years. Cainan, when he had lived nine hundred and ten years, had his son Malaleel, who was born in his hundred and seventieth year. This Malaleel, having lived eight hundred and ninety.five years, died, leaving his son Jared, whom he begat when he was at his hundred and sixty-filth 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, Avhen he had lived three hundred ■and sixty.five years, departed, and went to God ; whence it is that they have not written down his death. Now Methusela, 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 govern- ment 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 extended their lives all 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 tlie reason why there were no greater number preserved, since they had no place to fly to. When the rain ceased, the water did but just begin to abate after one hundred and fifty days ; that is, on the seventeenth day 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 wa- ter was decreased to a greater degree, he sent out a raven, as desirous to learn Avhether 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 se- ven days, he sent out a dove, to know the state of the ground, 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 more days, he sent the living creatures out of the ark, and both he and his fa- mily went out, when he also sacrificed to God, and feasted with his companions. However, the Armenians call this place* ATTo^aT/siov, the Place of Descent ; for the ark being saved in that place, its remains are showed there by the inhabi- tants to this day. G. Now all the writers of the barbarian histories make mention of this flood, and of this ark ; among whom is Berossus 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 Cordyajans ; and that some people carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they take away, and use * This a.rrc?>u.riffiov, or place of descent, is tiie proper rendering of the Armenian name of this very city. It is called in Ptolemy, JYaxvana, and by Moses Chorenensis, the Armenian historian, llshcuan,- but at the place itself, JVachidsheuan, which signifies the frst place of descent ; and is » lasting monu- ment of tli£ preservation of Noah in the ark, upon the top of that mountain, at whose fo6t it was built, as the first city or town after the flood. See Antiq. B. xx. cliap. ii. sect. 3, and Moses Cliorenensis, p. 71, 72 ; who also says, p. 19, that another town was related by tradition to have been called Scro)i,_ or the place of dispersion, on account of tiie dispersion of Xisuthrus, or Noah's sons, from thence first made. Whetncr any remains of this ark be still preserved, as the people of the country suppose, lean- not certainly tell. Mons. Turnefort had not very long since a mind to see the place himself, but met M-ith too great dangers and difficulties to venture through them. VOL. I. c 18 » A.NTIQLITIKS OF THE JEAVS. B. L chiefly as amulets, for the averting of mischiefs." — Hieronj-miis the Egyptian also, who wrote the Phenician antiquities, and Manases, and a great many more, make mention of the same. Nay, Nicholas of Damascus, in his ninety. sixth book, hath a particular relation about them ; where he speaks thus : " There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris, upon which it is re- ported, that many who fled at the time of the deluge were saved ; and that one who was carried in an ark, came on shore upon the top of it ; and that the re- mains of the timber were a great while preserved. This might be the man about Avhom Moses the legislator of the Jews wrote." 7. But as for Noah, he was afraid, since God had determined to destroy man- kind, 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 calamity ; for that otherwise these last must be more miserable than the first, and that they must be condemned to a worse condition than the others, unless they be suffered to es- cape entirelv; that is, if they be reserved for another deluge, while they must be aftiicted with the terror and 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 permitted to go on cheerfully in cultivating the same ; to build cities, and live happily in them ; and that they might not be depriv-ed of any of those good things 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 OAvn wickedness ; and that he had not brought men into the world, if he had himself determined 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 punishment upon them. But I Avill leave off' for the time to come to require such punishments, the effects of so great wrath, for their future wicked actions, and 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 overspread the earth. However, I require you to aljstain from shed- ding the blood of men, and to keep yourselves 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 Avalk on the land, and of 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 boiv (whereby is meant the rainbow, for the}^ de- termined that the rainhoii) was the how of God). And, when God had said aild promised thus, he went away. 9. Now when Noah had lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood, and that 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 v.ith the few years which we now live, think, that what we have eaid of them is false ; or make the shortness of our lives at present an argu- ment, 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 C. IV. ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. jtj years ; and besides, God aflbrdcd them a longer time of life on account of their virtue, and the good use they made of it in astronomical and geometrical disco- veries, which would not have alibrded the 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 Ma- netho, who wrote the Egyptian history, and Berossus, who collected the ChaU dean monuments, and Mochus and Hestiseus, and besides these Hieronymus the Egyptian, and those that composed the Phenician history, agree to what I here say. Hesiod also, and Hecata;us, and Hellanicus, and Acusilaus ; and, be- sides 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 tJie Confusion of Tongues. § ] . Now the sons of Noah were three, Shem, and Japhet, and Ham, born one hundred years betbre the deluge. These first of all descended from the moun- tains into the plains, and fixed their habitation there ; and persuaded others who were greatly afraid of the lower grounds on account of the flood, and so were very loath to come down from the higher places, to venture to follow their ex- amples. 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 themselves, but might cultivate a great part of the earth, and enjoy its fruits after a plentiful manner. But they were so ill instructed that they did not obey God ; for which reason tLey fell in- to 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 thev 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 therefoi*e ordered to send out separate colonies, that being divided asunder, they might the more easily be oppressed. 2. Now it was Ninfirod who excited them to such an afiront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own cou- rage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the govern- ment into tyranny, seeing no other w ay of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his own 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 determination 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 thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burned brick, cemented togetlier with mortar made of fttV^wien, 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' C2 20 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS B. I. 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 cans- ing, that through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to 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 Babel confusion. The Sibyl also makes mention of this tower, and of the confusion of the language, when she says thus : " When all men were of one language, some of them built a 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 reason it was that the city was called Babylon." But as to the plain of Shinar, in the country of Babylonia, Hestia^us mentions it, when he says thus: " Such of the priests as were saved took the sacred vessels of Jupiter Enyalius, and came to Shinar 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 of their languages, and went out by colonies every where ; and each colony took possession of that land which they lighted upon, and unto which God led them, so that the whole continent was filled with them, both the inland 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 Avere 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 themselves the glory of antiquity ; giving names to the nations that sounded well [in Greek], that they might be better understood among themselves ; and setting agreeable forms of government over them, as if they were a people derived from them- selves. CHAP. VI. How every Nation was denominated from their first Inhabitants. § 1. Now they were the grandchildren of Noah, in honour of whom names were imposed on the nations by those that 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 Tanais, and along Europe to Cadiz ; and settling themselves on the lands they lighted upon, which none had inhabited before, they called the nations by their own names. For Gomer founded those whom the Greeks now call Galatians [Galls], but were then called Gomerites. Magog founded those that from him were na. med Magogites, but who are by the Greeks called Scythians. Now as to Javan and Madai, the sons of Japhet ; from Madai came the Medeans, which are call- ed Medes by the Greeks ; but from Javan, Jonia and all the Grecians are de- rived. Thobel founded the Thobelites, which are now called Iberes , and the Mosocheni were founded by Mosoch ; now they are Cappadocians. There is C. VI. ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 21 also a mark of their ancient denominations still to be showed ; for there is even now among them a city called Mazaca, which may inform those that are able to understand, that so was the entire nation once called. Thiras also called those whom he ruled over Thirasian; but the Greeks changed the name into Thracians. And so many were the countries that had the children of Japhet for their inha- bitants. Of the three sons of Gomer, Aschanaz founded the Aschanasians, who are now called by the Greeks Rheginians. So did Riphath found the Ri- pheans, now called Paphlagonians ; and Thrugramma the Thrugrammeans, who, as the Greeks resolved, were named Phrygians. Of the three sons of Javan also, the son of Japhet, Elisa gave name to the Elisians, who were his sub- jects ; they are now the ^Eolians. Tharsus to the Tharsians, for so was Cili- cia of old called; the sign of which is this, that the noblest city they have, and a metropolis also, is Tarsus, the Tau being by change put for the Theta. Ce- thimus possessed the island Cethima ; it is now called Cyprus; and from that it is, that all islands, and the greatest part of the sea-coasls, are named Cethium by the Hebrews ; and one city there is in Cyprus that has been able to preserve its denomination; it is called Citius by those who use the language of the Greeks, and has not, by the use of that dialect, escaped the name of Cethium. And so many nations have the children and grandchildren of Japhet possessed. Now when I have premised somewhat, which perhaps the Greeks do not know, I will return and explain what I have omitted ; for such names are pronounced here after the manner of the Greeks, to please my readers ; for our own coun- try language does not so pronounce them. But the names in all cases are of one and the same ending ; for the name we here pronounce Noeas, is there Noah ; and in every case retains the same termination. 2. The children of Ham possessed the land from Syria and Amanus, and the mountains of Libanus ; seizing upon all that was on its sea-coasts, and as far as the ocean, and keeping it as their own. Some, indeed, of its names are utter- ly vanished away ; others of them being changed, and another sound given them, are hardly to be discovered, yet a few there are, which have kept their denominations entire. For of the four sons of Ham, time has not at all hurt the name of Chus ; for the Ethiopians, over whom he reigned, are even at this day, both by themselves and by all men in Asia, called Chusites. The memory also of the Mesraites is preserved in their name ; for all we who inhabit this country [of Judea] call Egypt Mestre, and the Egyptians Mesireans. Phut also was the founder of Libya, and called the inhabitants PhulUcs, from himself; there is also a river in the country of the Moors, which bears that name ; whence it is that we may see the greatest part of the Grecian historiographers mention that river, and the adjoining country, by the appellation of Phut ; but the name it has now has been by change given it from one of the sons of 3Ies- tpaim, who was called Lyhyos. We will inform you presently what has been the occasion why it has been called Africa also. Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, inhabited the country now called Judea, and called from his own name Canaan. The children of these [four] were these : Sabas, who found- ed the Sabeans ; Evilas, who founded the Evileans, who are called Getuli ; Sabathes founded the Sabathens; they are now called by the Greeks Asta- horans ; Sabactas settled the Sabactens ; and Ragmus the Ragmeans ; and he had two sons, the one of which, Judadas, settled the Judadeans, a nation of the western Ethiopians, and left them his name ; as did Sabas, to the Sa- beans. But Nimrod, the son of Chus, stayed and tyrannized at Babylon, as we have already informed you. Now all the children of Mesraim, being eight in number, possessed the country from Gaza to Egypt, though it re- tained the name of one only, the Philestim, for the Greeks called part of that country Palestine. As for the rest, Ludiem, and Enemim, and La-bim, who alone inhabited in Libya, and called the country from himself; Nedim and Pethrosim, and Chesloim, and Cephthorim, we know nothing of thera 22 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. B. 1. besides their names ; for the Ethiopic war,* which we shall describe hereafter, was the cause that those cities were overthrown. The sons of Canaan were these : Sidonius, who also built a city of the same name ; it is called, by the Greeks Sidon ; Amathus inhabited in Amathine, which is even now called Amw the by the inhabitants, although the Macedonians named it Epiphania, from one of his posterity ; Arudeus possessed the island Aradus ; Arucas possessed Acre, which is in Libanus. But for the seven others [Eueus], Chetteus, Jehuseus, Amorreus, Gerfreseus, Eudeus, Sineus, Samareus, we have nothing in the sa- cred books but their names, for the Hebrews overthrew their cities ; and their calamities came upon them on the occasion following. 3. Noah, when after the deluge the earth was resettled in its former condition, set about its cultivation ; and when he had planted it with ^'ines, and when the fruit was ripe, and he had gathered the grapes in their season, and the wine was ready for use, he offered sacrifice, and feasted, and being drunk, he fell asleep, and iay naked in an unseemly manner. When his youngest son saw this, he came laughing, and showed him to his brethren ; but they covered their father's nakedness. And when Noah was made sensible of what had been done, he prayed for posterity to his other sons ; but for Ham, he did not curse him, by reason of his nearness in blood, but cursed his posterity. And M'hen the rest of them escaped that curse, God inflicted it on the children of Canaan. But as to these matters, we shall speak more hereafter. 4. Shem, the third son of Noah, had five sons, who inhabited the land that began at Euphrates, and reached to the Indian Ocean. For Elam left behind him the Elamites, the ancestors of the Persians. Ashur lived at the city Ni- nive ; and named his subjects Assyrians, who became the most fortunate nation beyond others. Arphaxad named the Arphaxadites, who are now called Chal- deans. Aram had the Aramites, which the Greeks call Syrians ; as Laud found- ed the Laudites, which are now called Lydians. Of the four sons of Aram, Uz founded Trachonitis and Damascus ; this country lies between Palestine and Celosyria. Ul founded Armenia ; and Gather the Bactrians ; and Mesa the Mesaneans ; it is now called Charax Spasini. Sala was the son of Arphaxad ; and his son was Heber, from whom they originally called the Jewsj- Hebrews. Heber begat Joctan and Phaleg ; he was called Phaleg because he was born at the dispersion of the nations to their several countries ; for Phaleg among the Hebrews sii^nifies division. Now Joctan, one of the sons of Heber, had these sons, Elmodad, Saleph, Asermoth, Jera, Adoram, Aizel, Decla, Ebal, Abimael, S'abeus, Ophir, Euilat, and Jobab. These inhabited from Cophen, an Indian river, and in part of Aria adjoining to it. And this shall suffice concerning the sons of Shem. 5. I will now treat of the Hebrews. The son of Phaleg, whose father was Heber, was Regau ; Avhose son was Serug, to whom was born Nahor ; his son was Terah, who was the father of Abram, who accordingly was the tenth from Noah, and was born in the two hundred and ninety-second year after the de- luore ; for Terah begat Abram in his seventieth year. Nahor begat Haran, when he was one hundred and twenty years old ; Nahor was born to Serug at his hundred aud thirty-second year ; Ragau had Serug at one hundred and * One obcen-ation ought not to be here neglected, with regard to that Ethiopic war, which Moses, as pmeral of the Egyptians, put an end to, Antiq. B. ii. ch. x. and about which our late writers seem very tmconcemed : vFi. that it was a war of that consequence, as to occasion the removal or destruction of sis or ^even nations of the posterity of Mitzraira, with their cities ; which Josephus would not have said, if he had not had ancient records to' justify those assertions, though those records be all now lost. f That the Jews were called Hebrews from this tlieir progenitor Heber, our author Josephus here ri-htlv affirms ; and not from Abram the Hebrew, or Passenger over Euphrates, as man}' of the mod- em'i suppose. Shem is also called \he Father of all the children of Heber, or of all the Hebrews, m a l.istorv- long before Abiam passed over Euphrates, Gen. x. 21, though it must be confessed, that, Gen. xiv. 13, wlicre the ori-'inal savs, they told Abram the Heorew, the Septuagmt renders it the Passenger, jr=,:^^5- but this is spoken only of Abram himself, who had then lately passed over Euphrates, and is another signification of the Hebrew word, taken as an appeUative and not as a proper name. C. VII. ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 23 thirty ; at the same time also Phaleg had Regau ; Heber begat Phaleg in his hundred and thirty-fourth year ; he himself being begotten by Sala, when he was a liundred and thirty years old, Avhom Arphaxad had for his son at the hun- dred and thirty-fifth year of his age. Arphaxad was the son of Shem ; and born twelve years after the deluge. Now Abram had two brethren, Nahor and Haran ; of these Haran left a son. Lot ; as also Sarai and Milcha his daugh- ters ; and died among the Chaldeans, in a city of the Chaldeans called Ur ; and his monument is showed to this day. These married their nieces. Nahor mar- ried Rlilcha, and Abraham married Sarai. Now Terah hating Chaldea, on ac- count of his mourning for Haran, they all removed to Haran of Mesopotamia, where Terah died, and was buried, when he had lived to be two hundred and iivc years old ; for the life of man was already by degrees diminished, and be- came shorter than before, till the birth of Moses ; after whom the term of hu- man life was one hundred and twenty years, God determining it to the length that Moses happened to live. Now Nahor had eight sons by Milcha ; Uz, and Buz, Kemuel, Chesed, Azau, Pheldas, Jadelp, and Bethuel. These were all the genuine sons of Nahor ; for Teba, and Gaam, and Tachas, and Macha, were born of Reuma his concubine ; but Bethuel had a daughter Rebecca, and a son Laban. CHAP. vn. How Ahram our Forefather went out of the Land of the Chaldeans, and lived in the Land then called Canaan, hut now Judea. § 1. Now Abram, having no son of his own, adopted Lot, his brother Haran's son, and his wife Sarai's brother ; and he left the land of Chaldea when he was seventy-live years old, and at the command of God went into Canaan, and there- in he dwelt hinis-elf, and left it to his posterity. He was a person of great sagacity, both for understanding all things, and persuading his hearers, and not mistaken in his opinions ; for which reason he began to have higher notions of virtue than others had, and he determined to renew and to change the opinion all men happened then to have concerning God ; for he was the first that ventured to publish this notion, that there was but One God, the Creator of tlie Universe ; and that as to other [gods], if they contributed any thing to the happiness of men, that each of them afforded it only according to his ap- pointment, and not by their own power. This his opinion was derived from the irregular phenomena that were visible both at land and sea, as well as those that happen to the sun, and moon, and all the heavenly bodies ; thus, " if [said he] these bodies had power of their own, they would certainly take care of their own regular motions ; but since they do not preserve such regularit)', they make it j)lain that so far as they co-operate to our advantage, they do it not of their own abilities, but as they are subservient to him that commands them, to whom alone we ought justly to offer our honour and thanksgiving." For which doc- trines, when the Chaldeans, and other people of Mesopotamia, raised a tumult against him, he thought fit to leave that country ; and at the command, and by the assistance of God, he came and lived in the land of Canaan. And when he was there settled, he built an altar, and performed a sacrifice to God. 2. Bcrossus mentions our father Abram without naming him, when he says thus : " In the tenth generation after the flood, there was among the Chaldeans a man, righteous and great and skilful in the celestial science." But Hecateus does more than barely mention him ; for he composed, and left behind him, a book concerning him. And Nicolaus of Damascus, in the fourth book of his history, says thus ; " Abram reigned at Damascus, being a foreigner, who came 24 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. B. I. ■with an army out of the land above Babylon, called the land of the Chaldeans j but, after a long tima, he got him up, and removed from that country also, with his people, and went into the land then called the land of Canaan, but now the land of J'udea, and this when his posterity were become a multitude ; as to v/hich posterity of his, we relate their history in another work. Now the name of Abram is even still famous in the country of Damascus ; and there is showed a village named from him, The Habitation of Abram.'^ CHAP. VIII. That when there was a Famine in Canaan, Abram went thence into Egypt ; and after he had continued there a while, he returned hack again. § 1. Now after this, when a famine had invaded the land of Canaan, and Abram had discovered that the Egyptians were in a flourishing condition, he was dispo- sed to go down to them, both to partake of the plenty they enjoyed, and to be- come an auditor of their priests, and to know what they said concerning the gods ; designing either to follow them, if they had better notions than he, or to convert them into a better way, if his own notions proved the truest. Now see- ing he was to take Sarai with liim, and was afraid of the madness of the Egyp- tians with regard to women, lest the king should kill him on occasion of his wife's great beauty, he contrived this device ; — He pretended to be her brother, and directed her in a dissembling way to pretend the same ; for he said it would be for their benefit. Now as soon as they came into Egypt, it happened to Abram as he supposed it would, for the fame of his wife's beauty was greatly talked of; for Avhich reason Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, would not be satisfied with what was reported of her, but would needs see her himself, and was pre- paring to enjoy her ; but God put a stop to his unjust inclinations, by sending upon him a distemper, and a sedition against his government. And when he in- quired of the priests, how he might be freed from those calamities, they told him that his miserable condition was derived from the wrath of God, upon account of his inclinations to abuse the stranger's wife. He then, out of fear, asked Sarai, who she was ? and who it was that she brought along with her 1 And when he had found out the truth, he excused himself to Abram, that supposing the woman to be his sister, and not his wife, he set his afiections on her, as de- siring an affinity with him by marrying her ; but not as incited by lust to abuse her. He also made him a large present in money ; and gave him leave to en- ter into conversation with the most learned among the Egyptians ; from which conversation, his virtue and his reputation became more conspicuous than they had been before. 2. For whereas the Egyptians were formerly addicted to different customs, and despised one another's sacred and accustomed rites, and were ver)'^ angiy one with another on that accoimt, Abram conferred with each of them, and con- futing the reasonings they made use of, every one for their own practices, he demonstrated that such reasonings were vain, and void of truth ; whereupon he v/as admired by them, in those conferences, as a very Avise man, and one of great sagacity when he discoursed on any subject he undertook ; and this not only in understanding it, but in persuading other men also to assent to him. He communicated to them arithmetic, and delivered to them the science of astrono- my ; for, before Abram came into Egypt, they were unacquainted with those parts of learning ; for that science came from the Chaldeans into Egypt, and from thence to the Greeks also. 3. As soon as Abram was come back into Canaan, he parted the land be- tween him and Lot, upon account of the tumultuous behaviour of their shepherds. C. X. ANTIQUITIES OF Tilt JEWS. 25 concerning Iho pastures wherein they should feed their flocks. However, he as, without dispute, insomuch that, on this account, he was made the priest of God ; however, they afterward called it iialetn Jerusalem. Now this Melchisedec supplied Ahram's army in an hospita- ble manner, and gave them provisions in abundance ; and as they were feasting, he beoan to praise him, and to bless God for subduing his enemies under him. And when Abram gave him the tenth part of his prey, he accepted of the gift. But the King of Sodom desired Abram to take the prey ; but entreated that he might have those men restored to him whom Abram had saved from the Assyri- ans, because they belonged unto him. But Abram would not do so ; nor would make any other advantage of that prey, than what his servants had eaten ; but still insisted that he should afford a part to his friends that had assisted him in the battle. The first of them was called Eschol and then Enncr, and Mamhre. 3. And God commended his virtue, and said, Thou shalt not however lose the rewards thou hast deserved to receive by such thy glorious actions. He an- swered, And what advantage will it be to me to have such rewards, when I have none to enjoy them after me ? for he was hitherto childless. And God promised that he should have a son, and that his posterity should be very numerous ; in- somuch that their number should be like the stars. When he heard that, he of- fered a sacrifice to God, as he commanded him. The manner of the sacrifice was this :* He took an heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of tliree years old, and a ram in like manner of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a pi- geon ; and, as he was enjoined, he divided the three former, but the birds he did not divide. After which, before he built his altar, where the birds of prey flew about as desirous of blood, a divine voice came to him, declaring that their neighbours would be grievous to his posterity, when they should be in Egypt, for four hundred years ;f during w'hich time they should be afHicted, but after- wards should overcome their enemies, should conquer the Canaanites in war, and possess themselves of their land and of their cities. 4. Now Abram dwelt near the oak called Ogyges ; the place belongs to Ca- naan, not far from the city of Hebron. But being uneasy at his wife's barren- ness, he entreated God to grant that he might have male issue ; and God requir- ed of him to be of good courage ; and said, that he would add to all the rest of the benefits that he had bestowed upon him, ever since he led him out of" Meso- potamia, the gift of children. Accordingly Sarai, at God's command, brought to his bed one of her handmaidens, a woman of Egyptian descent, in order to obtain children by her ; and when this handmaid was with child, she triumphed, and ventured to affront Sarai, as if the dominion were to come to a son to be born of her. But when Abram resigned her into the hands of Sarai, to punish her, she contrived to fly away, as not able to bear the instances of Sarai's seve- rity to her; and she entreated God to have compassion on her. Now a divine Angel met her, as she was going forward in the wilderness, and bid her return to her master and mistress, for if she would submit to that wise advice, she would live better hereafter ; for that the reason of her being in such a misera- ble case was this, that she had been ungrateful and arrogant towards her mis- tress. He also told her, that if she disobeyed God, and went on still in her way, she should perish ; but if she would return back, she should become the mother of a son, who should reign over that country. These admonitions she obeyed, and returned to her master and mistress, and obtained forgiveness. A little * It is worth noting here, that God required no other sacrifices under the law of Moses than wliat were taken from these five kinds of animals wliich he here required of Abrani. IVor did the Jews Red upon any other domestic animals than the three here iiamed, as Reland observes on Antiq. B. iv. oh. iv. sect. 4. ' i As to this affliction of Abraham's posterity for 400 years, see Antiq. B. ii. ch. ix. sect. 1. C. Xr. ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 27 while afterwards slie bare Ismael, which may be interpreted, Heard of God, be- cause God had hemrl his mother's prayer. 5. Tlie fore-mentioned son was born to Abram, wlien he was eighty-six years old ; but when he was ninety-nine, God appeared to him, and promised him, that he should have a son by Sarai, and conmianded that his name should be Isaac ; and showed him, that from this son should spring great nations and kings, and that they should obtain all the land of Canaan by war, from Sidon to Egypt. But he charged him in order to keep his posterity immixed with others, that they should be circumcised in the flesh of their foreskin, and that this should be done on the eighth day after they were born ; the reason of which cir- cumcision, I will explain in another place. And Abram inquiring also con- cerning Ismael, whether he should live or not, God signified to him, tliat he should live to be very old, and should be the father of great nations. Abram therefore gave thanks to God for these blessings ; and then he, and all his fami- ly, and his son Ismael, were circumcised immediately ; the son being that day thirteen years of age, and he ninety-nine. CHAP. XL How God overthrew the Nation of the Sodomites, out of his Wrath against them for their Sins. § 1. About this time the Sodomites grew proud, on account of their riches and great wealth ; they became unjust towards men, and impious towards God, inso- much that they did not call to mind the advantages they received from him ; they hated strangers, and abused themselves with sodomitical practices. God was therefore much displeased at them, and determined to punish them for their pride, and to overthrow their city, and to lay waste their country, until there should neitlier plant nor fruit grow out of it. 2. When God had thus resolved concerning the Sodomites, Abraham, as he sat by the oak of Mambre, at the door of his tent, saw three angels ; and think- ing them to be strangers, he rose up, and saluted them, and desired they would accept of an entertainment, and abide with him ; to which, when they agreed, he ordered cakes of meal to be made presently ; and Avhen he had slain a calf, he roasted it, and brought it to them, as they sat under the oak. Now they made a show of eating ; and besides, they asked him about his wife Sarah, where she was ? and when he said, she was within, they said, they should come again hereafter, and find her become a mother. Upon whicli the woman laughed, and said, that it was impossible she should bear children, since she was ninety years of age, and her liusband was a hundred. They then concealed themselves no longer, but declared that they were angels of God : and that one of them was sent to inform them about the child, and two of the overthrow of Sodom. 3. When Abraham heard this, he was grieved for the Sodomites; and he rosQ vip, and besought God for them, and entreated him that he would not destroy the rigliteous with the wicked. And when God had replied. That there was no good man among the Sodomites ; for if there were but ten such men among them, he would not punish any of them for their sins, Abraham held his peace. And tlie angels came to the city of the Sodomites ; and Lot entreated them to accept of a lodging whh him ; for he was a very generous and hospitable man, and one that had learned to imitate the goodness of Abraham. Now when the Sodomites siiw the young men to be of beautiful countenances, and this to an extraordinary de- gree, and that they took up their lodgings with Lot, they resolved themselves to