Praeparatio Evangelica 10 part 3/4

But our own account showed that Abraham was born in her time, whereas the philosopher's account establishes Moses as earlier still. And Semiramis is shown to have preceded the Trojan events by eight hundred whole years. Moses, then, according to the philosopher, will precede the Trojan events by that same number of years.

The first to reign over the Argives was Inachus, at a time when the Athenians did not yet possess either their city or their name. And this first ruler of the Argives lived in the time of the fifth Assyrian king after Semiramis, 150 years later than her and Moses—a period in which, as the Greeks record, nothing notable occurred. During this same period among the Hebrews, the Judges held sway.

Then again, three hundred years lower down in time, when more than 400 years in all had already been completed from Semiramis, Cecrops, celebrated among them as autochthonous, was the first to reign as king of the Athenians, while Triopas was ruling over Argos, being the seventh after Inachus, the first Argive.

Between these times is recorded the flood in the time of Ogyges, and Apis was first named a god in Egypt, and Io, the daughter of Inachus—whom the Egyptians, renaming her Isis, worship—and Prometheus and Atlas became known.

From Cecrops to the capture of Troy, other years are gathered, a little short of 400, in which the marvels among the Greeks are recounted in myth: the flood in the time of Deucalion, and the conflagration in the time of Phaethon—many local devastations of the earth having occurred, as is likely, in various places.

Cecrops is said to have been the first to call the god 'Zeus,' he not having been so named before among men; and thereafter to have been the first to set up an altar among the Athenians, and again the first to erect a statue of Athena, since not even these things had existed of old.

After him, all the gods among the Greeks are also given their genealogies. Among the Hebrews at this same time, those of the line of David reigned as kings, and the prophets after Moses were shining forth; so that, altogether, from Moses to the capture of Troy there are gathered more than 800 years, according to the testimony of the philosopher as set forth.

Still much later than the Trojan events are the things concerning Homer and Hesiod and the poets mentioned. And but yesterday and the day before, after these, around the fiftieth Olympiad, those around Pythagoras and Democritus, and the philosophers after them, came to be known—nearly seven hundred years after the Trojan events.

Moses, therefore, and the Hebrew prophets after him, are established as preceding the philosophers among the Greeks by one thousand five hundred years, according to the confession of the man just mentioned.

So much, then, we ourselves have said in summary. But it is time also to consider the demonstrations of those before us on the same subject. For there have arisen among us learned men, second to none of those trained in education, who have engaged with the divine writings not superficially, and who, having worked out the present subject with precision, established it in agreement with the antiquity found among the Hebrews, employing a rich and varied construction of proof.

For some of them reckoned the times from certain agreed-upon histories, while others confirmed their testimony by means of older writings. And some made use of Greek records, others of those who had written the records of the Phoenicians, the Chaldeans, and the Egyptians; and all of them together, having gathered the Greek and the barbarian records along with those found among the Hebrews themselves, and having set the histories of all peoples side by side, and having tested the one against the other, jointly investigated the events that took place among all peoples at the same times.

Then each, having constructed his demonstrations by his own methods, produced a proof that was consistent and in agreement with the rest. For this reason I have thought it best to yield the present discourse chiefly to their own words, so that the fathers of these arguments might not be deprived of the fruits of their own labor, and so that, through many witnesses rather than through one, the establishment of the truth might receive an unquestionable confirmation.

Up to the time of the Olympiads, nothing precise has been recorded by the Greeks, everything being confused and agreeing in no point with what came before it; but the records after this have been made precise by many, not because of too great an interval of time, but because the Greeks made their records at intervals of four years.

For this reason, having selected the most famous and most legendary histories, I shall run rapidly through them as far as the first Olympiad; and, joining together those that come after this according to their times, pairing—wherever any are notable—the Hebrew events with the Greek, narrating the affairs of the Hebrews in detail while only touching upon the Greek affairs, I shall apply the following method: taking hold of one Hebrew deed contemporary with a deed recorded by the Greeks, and keeping close to it, adding and subtracting, noting down which Greek, or Persian, or whoever else, was contemporary with the Hebrew event—in this way I may perhaps hit upon my aim.

Of the Hebrews, then, the most notable event is their deportation, when they were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, which lasted seventy years, as Jeremiah prophesied. This Nebuchadnezzar is also mentioned by Berossus the Babylonian.

After the seventy years of the captivity, Cyrus became king of the Persians, in which very year the fifty-fifth Olympiad was held, as can be found from the Libraries of Diodorus and the histories of Thallus and Castor, and further of Polybius and Phlegon, and of others besides who concerned themselves with the Olympiads; for the reckoning of time agreed among all of them.

Cyrus, then, in the first year of his rule—which was the first year of the fifty-fifth Olympiad—through Zerubbabel, in whose time Jesus [Joshua] the son of Josedek also lived, made the first, partial sending-away of the people, once the seventy years had been fulfilled, as is recorded in Ezra among the Hebrews.

The histories, then, agree concerning both the reign of Cyrus and the end of the captivity, and the matters concerning the Olympiads will thus be found, as they have come down to us, to be in agreement; for following these, we shall likewise fit together the remaining histories with one another according to the same principle.

As for the times before these, the Attic chronology is reckoned in this way: from Ogyges, believed among them to have been autochthonous, in whose time occurred the great and first flood in Attica, while Phoroneus was reigning over the Argives, as Acusilaus records, up to the first Olympiad—from which the Greeks thought it right to reckon their times precisely—1,020 years are gathered in all, as agrees both with what has been said before and with what will be shown in what follows.

For this is what those who wrote the history of the Athenians record—both Hellanicus and Philochorus, the author of the Atthides, and those who wrote of Syrian affairs, Castor and Thallus, and Diodorus, the author of the Libraries, who wrote of all things, and Alexander Polyhistor—men who recorded all Attic matters more precisely than we do. If, then, within these 1,020 years there is any notable history, it will be selected as useful.

And after a few words he adds: 'We say, then, on the basis of this very writing, that Ogygus, who became the eponym of the first flood, was preserved when many perished, and that this took place—in the following manner—at the time of the exodus of the people from Egypt under Moses.'

To the aforesaid first Olympiad from Ogygus there will be shown to be 1,020 years; and from the first Olympiad to the first year of the fifty-fifth Olympiad, that is, to the first year of the reign of Cyrus, which was the end of the captivity, 217 years. From Ogygus, then, to Cyrus, 1,237 years. But if one, reckoning up from the end of the captivity, computes 1,290 years, by this analysis the same interval is found reaching to the first year of Israel's exodus from Egypt through Moses, just as the interval from the fifty-fifth Olympiad to Ogygus, who founded Eleusis. Hence it is possible to grasp more clearly the Attic chronography.

And after other matters: 'So much, then, before Ogygus; but in his times Moses went forth from Egypt. And that it is not incredible that these things happened then, we show as follows:'

From the exodus of Moses to Cyrus, who became king after the captivity, 1,290 years. For the remaining years of Moses were forty; of Joshua, who led after him, twenty-five years; of the elders after Joshua, thirty years; and of the Judges after Joshua, so many years as are contained in the book of Judges. Of the priests Eli and Samuel, six years. Of the kings of the Hebrews who followed, four hundred and six years. And of the captivity, seventy years, whose last year was the first year of the reign of Cyrus, as we have said above.

And to the first Olympiad from Moses, 1,020 years, since to the first year of the fifty-fifth Olympiad there are 1,290 years; and the reckoning agrees also with the Greek records.

But after Ogygus, on account of the great destruction wrought by the flood, the land now called Attica remained without a king until Cecrops, for 189 years. For Philochorus says that Actaeus, who is said to have reigned after Ogygus, or whatever else is among the fabricated names, did not even exist.

And again: 'From Ogygus, then, to Cyrus, as many years as from Moses to the same time, namely 1,290 years. And some of the Greeks too record that Moses lived at these same times: Polemon, for instance, in the first book of his Greek Histories, says that in the time of Apis son of Phoroneus a portion of the Egyptian army was driven out of Egypt, and that these settled in what is called Syria Palestine, not far from Arabia — clearly those who were with Moses.'

Apion, son of Posidonius, the most meddlesome of grammarians, says in his book Against the Jews and in the fourth book of his Histories, that in the time of Inachus, king of Argos, when Amosis was reigning over the Egyptians, the Jews revolted, and that Moses led them.

Herodotus also mentions this revolt and Amosis in his second book; and in a certain way he mentions the Jews themselves too, numbering them among those who practice circumcision, and calling those in Palestine 'Assyrians,' perhaps on account of Abraham.

And Ptolemy of Mendes, in recording the ancient history of the Egyptians, agrees with all these; so that the discrepancy in the chronology is not even worth remarking upon further.

It should be noted that whatever is celebrated among the Greeks as especially ancient is found to be later than Moses: the floods and conflagrations, Prometheus, Io, Europa, the Sown Men, the rape of the Maiden, the mysteries, the legislations, the deeds of Dionysus, Perseus, the labors of Heracles, the Argonauts, the Centaurs, the Minotaur, the events concerning Ilium, the return of the Heraclidae, the colonization of the Ionians, and the Olympiads.

It seemed good to me, then, to set forth the aforesaid duration of the Attic kingdom, since I am about to set the Greek histories side by side with the Hebrew. For it will be possible for anyone who wishes, taking the starting-point from me, to calculate the number in the same way as I have.

Of the one thousand and twenty years, then, reckoned from Moses and from Ogygus up to the first Olympiad, in the first year occurred the Passover and the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, while in Attica the flood in the time of Ogygus took place — and this is reasonable.

For since the Egyptians were being scourged by the wrath of God with hailstorms and tempests, it was likely that certain regions of the earth suffered along with them; and it was likely that the Athenians shared in the same experience as the Egyptians, being supposed to be colonists of theirs, as others say, and also Theopompus in his Tricaranus.

The time in between has been passed over, since nothing remarkable is recorded among the Greeks in it. But ninety-four years later there lived Prometheus, as some say, who was fabled to fashion men; for being wise, he reshaped them from their utter rudeness by education. So much, then, from Africanus. Let us now turn to another matter.

Now I think it fitting for me to demonstrate that our philosophy is more ancient than the practices found among the Greeks. Our reference points shall be Moses and Homer; for since each of these two is extremely ancient — the one being the most venerable of poets and historians, the other the founder of all barbarian wisdom — let them now be taken up by us for comparison.

For we shall find that our teachings are older not only than the culture of the Greeks, but even than the invention of letters itself. And I shall not take witnesses from among my own people, but shall rather make use of Greeks as my helpers. For the former course would be senseless, since it would not even be accepted by you; but the latter, if it can be demonstrated, is admirable — when, resisting you with your own weapons, I bring against you proofs that cannot be suspected.

For concerning the poetry of Homer, his lineage, and the time in which he flourished, inquiry was made earliest of all by Theagenes of Rhegium, who lived under Cambyses, and Stesimbrotus of Thasos, and Antimachus of Colophon, and Herodotus of Halicarnassus, and Dionysius of Olynthus; after them, Ephorus of Cyme, and Philochorus the Athenian, and Megaclides and Chamaeleon, the Peripatetics; then the grammarians Zenodotus, Aristophanes, Callimachus, Crates, Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, and Apollodorus.

Of these, the school of Crates say that he flourished before the return of the Heraclidae, within eighty years after the Trojan War; the school of Eratosthenes, that it was a hundred years after the capture of Ilium; the school of Aristarchus, at the time of the Ionian colonization, which is a hundred and forty years after the events at Ilium; Philochorus says forty years after the Ionian colonization, in the archonship of Arxippus at Athens, that is a hundred and eighty years after the events at Ilium; the school of Apollodorus, a hundred years after the Ionian colonization, which would be two hundred and forty years after the events at Ilium; some said he lived before the Olympiads, that is four hundred years after the capture of Ilium; others brought the time down still further, saying that Homer lived together with Archilochus. And Archilochus flourished about the twenty-third Olympiad, in the time of Gyges the Lydian, five hundred years after the events at Ilium.

Concerning the dates of the aforesaid poet, that is, of Homer, and the disagreement and lack of concord among those who have written about him, let what has been said suffice for us as a summary for those capable of examining the matter with precision. For it is possible for anyone to show that opinions about such matters are false; for wherever the record of dates is inconsistent, there the facts of the history cannot be true either.

And a little further on: 'But let it be granted that Homer is not only later than the events at Ilium, but let it even be supposed that he lived at the very time of the war itself, and moreover that he campaigned together with Agamemnon's forces — and if one wishes, even that he lived before the invention of the alphabet — the aforesaid Moses will still be shown to be older than the capture of Ilium itself by very many years, and far more ancient still than the founding of Ilium and than Tros and Dardanus.'

For the sake of demonstration I shall use as witnesses the Chaldaeans, the Phoenicians, and the Egyptians. And why should I say more? For one who professes to persuade must make his accounts of these matters to his hearers as concise as possible.

Berossus, a Babylonian man, a priest of their god Bel, who lived in the time of Alexander, arranged the history of the Chaldaeans in three books, dedicating it to Antiochus the third after Seleucus; and in setting forth the deeds of the kings, he narrates concerning one of them named Nebuchadnezzar, who campaigned against the Phoenicians and the Jews — matters which we know to have been proclaimed by our own prophets — events which occurred much later than the age of Moses, but seventy years before the Persian empire.

Berossus is a most competent authority; and proof of this is Juba, who, writing his work On the Assyrians, says that he learned the history from Berossus; and his books On the Assyrians are two in number.

After the Chaldaeans, the case of the Phoenicians stands thus: among them there arose three men, Theodotus, Hypsicrates, and Mochus. Their books were translated into the Greek tongue by Laetus, who also composed with great accuracy the Lives of the Philosophers.

In the histories of the aforesaid men it is shown that in the time of a certain king the rape of Europa occurred, and the arrival of Menelaus in Phoenicia, and the matters concerning Hiram, who gave his own daughter in marriage to Solomon, king of the Jews, and presented him with timber of every kind for the construction of the temple.

And Menander of Pergamum also made a record of these same matters. Now the time of Hiram already comes close to the events at Ilium; and Solomon, who was contemporary with Hiram, is far later than the age of Moses.

The Egyptians, moreover, have accurate records of their chronology. And the interpreter of their writings was Ptolemy — not the king, but the priest of Mendes — who, setting forth the deeds of the kings, says that under Amosis, king of Egypt, the journey of the Jews out of Egypt to whatever regions they wished took place, with Moses as their leader.

He speaks as follows: 'Amosis lived at the time of King Inachus.' And after him, Apion the grammarian, a most esteemed man, in the fourth book of his Egyptian History (he has five books in all), among many other things, says that Amosis razed Avaris, having lived in the time of Inachus the Argive, as Ptolemy of Mendes recorded in his Chronicles.

The time from Inachus to the capture of Ilium fills up twenty generations. And the proof of this is as follows.

The kings of the Argives were the following: Inachus, Phoroneus, Apis, Argeius, Criasus, Phorbas, Triopas, Crotopus, Sthenelaus, Danaus, Lynceus, Abas, Proetus, Acrisius, Perseus, Eurystheus, Atreus, Thyestes, Agamemnon — in the eighteenth year of whose reign Ilium was captured.

And the man of sense must understand with all precision that, according to the tradition of the Greeks, there was among them no written record of history at all. For Cadmus, who handed down the alphabet to the aforesaid people, arrived in Boeotia only after many generations.

After Inachus, it was only under Phoroneus that the brutish and nomadic manner of life was, with difficulty, brought to a close, and men were reordered into a settled way of life. Therefore, since Moses is shown to have lived in the time of Inachus, he is older than the events at Ilium by four hundred years.

This is proved to be so from the succession of the kings of Attica, and of the Macedonians and the Ptolemies, and further of the Seleucids. Hence, if the most notable deeds among the Greeks were written down and are known to have occurred after Inachus, it is clear that they occurred after Moses as well.

For in the time of Phoroneus, who came after Inachus, Ogygus is remembered among the Athenians, in whose time occurred the first flood; in the time of Phorbas, Actaeus, from whom Attica was called Actaea; in the time of Triopas, Prometheus and Epimetheus and Atlas and the two-natured Cecrops and Io;

in the time of Crotopus, the conflagration under Phaethon and the flood under Deucalion; in the time of Sthenelaus, the kingship of Amphictyon and the arrival of Danaus in the Peloponnese and the founding of Dardania by Dardanus, and the bringing of Europa from Phoenicia to Crete;

in the time of Lynceus, the rape of the Maiden and the founding of the sanctuary at Eleusis, and the agriculture of Triptolemus, and the arrival of Cadmus at Thebes, and the kingship of Minos;

in the time of Proetus, the war of Eumolpus against the Athenians; in the time of Acrisius, the crossing of Pelops from Phrygia, and the arrival of Ion in Athens, and the second Cecrops, and the deeds of Perseus; and in the reign of Agamemnon, Ilium was captured.

It is clear, then, from what has been said, that Moses is shown to be older than the aforesaid heroes, cities, and deities. And one ought to give credence to that which has priority in age, rather than to the Greeks, who drew from the source but produced doctrines not in accordance with true knowledge of it.

For many among their sophists, given to over-elaborate curiosity, attempted to falsify whatever they had learned from those of Moses' circle and from those who philosophized in a similar way to him — first, so that they might be thought to say something of their own; and second, so that, veiling under some artificial rhetoric the things they did not understand, they might distort the truth into mythology.

Concerning our own manner of life, then, and the history relating to our laws, and whatever has been said by the learned men among the Greeks, and how many and who they are who have made mention of it — this will be shown in the treatise against those who have declared their views concerning God.

But for the present matter, we must hasten to make it clear with all precision that Moses is older not only than Homer, but even than those writers before him — Linus, Philammon, Thamyris, Amphion, Orpheus, Musaeus, Demodocus, Phemius, the Sibyl, Epimenides the Cretan, who came to Sparta, Aristeas of Proconnesus and the author of the Arimaspeia, Asbolus the Centaur, and Isatis, Drymon, and Euclus the Cyprian, and Horus the Samian, and Pronapides the Athenian.

For Linus was the teacher of Heracles, and Heracles is shown to be earlier than the Trojan events by one generation. This is evident from his son Tlepolemus, who campaigned against Ilium.

Orpheus lived at the same time as Heracles; moreover, the works attributed to him are said to have been composed by Onomacritus the Athenian, who lived under the rule of the Pisistratids, about the fiftieth Olympiad.

And Musaeus was a disciple of Orpheus. As for Amphion, who preceded the Trojan events by two generations, the wish to compose more for the benefit of studious readers restrains us from dwelling further on him. Demodocus and Phemius lived at the very time of the Trojan War itself; for the one spent his time among the suitors, and the other among the Phaeacians. And Thamyris and Philammon are not much more ancient than these.

Concerning the treatment of each of these matters, then, and their dates and record, I have, I think, set them out for you with the utmost precision. But let us also fill in what is still lacking up to now. I shall further furnish the proof concerning those who are reputed to be wise.

For Minos, who was thought to excel in all wisdom, both in shrewdness and in legislation, lived in the time of Lynceus, who reigned after Danaus, in the eleventh generation after Inachus. Lycurgus, born long after the capture of Ilium, gave laws to the Lacedaemonians a hundred years before the Olympiads.

Draco is found to have lived about the thirty-ninth Olympiad; Solon about the forty-sixth; Pythagoras in the sixty-second. And we have shown that the Olympiads began four hundred and seven years after the events at Ilium.

Now that these things have thus been demonstrated, we shall briefly record also the age of the Seven Sages. For since Thales, the eldest of those mentioned, lived about the fiftieth Olympiad, what concerns those after him has, in effect, already been briefly stated by us.

These things, O men of Greece, I, Tatian, who philosophize according to the barbarians, have composed — I who was born in the land of the Assyrians, and was educated first in your ways, and second in those things which I now profess to proclaim. Knowing, then, at last who God is and what is the creation that comes from him, I present myself to you ready for the examination of these doctrines, while my manner of life according to God remains undenied by me. So much, then, from Tatian. Let us now pass on also to Clement.

These matters, then, have been treated with precision by Tatian in his Address to the Greeks, and they have also been treated by Cassian in the first book of his Exegetica. Nevertheless, the present treatise requires that we too run through what has been said on this topic.

Apion the grammarian, then, surnamed Pleistonices, in the fourth book of his Egyptian History — although he was disposed with hostility toward the Hebrews, being Egyptian by race, insofar as he even composed a book against the Jews — when he makes mention of Amosis, king of the Egyptians, and of the deeds done in his time, cites Ptolemy of Mendes as his witness.

And his exact words are as follows: 'Amosis razed Avaris, having lived in the time of Inachus the Argive, as Ptolemy of Mendes recorded in his Chronicles.'

This Ptolemy was a priest, and having set forth the deeds of the Egyptian kings in three whole books, he says that under Amosis, king of Egypt, and with Moses leading them, the journey of the Jews out of Egypt took place — from which it may be gathered that Moses flourished in the time of Inachus.

That the Argive events — I mean those reckoned from Inachus — are recorded as older than the rest of the Greek events, Dionysius of Halicarnassus teaches in his Chronicles.

Than these, the Attic events are forty generations younger — those reckoned from Cecrops, the two-natured and earthborn one, as Tatian says in these very words — and the Arcadian events are nine generations younger, those reckoned from Pelasgus, who is likewise said to be earthborn.

Than these other two, the Phthiotic events, those from Deucalion, are younger. As for the time down to the Trojan events, reckoned from Inachus, twenty generations, or one more, are counted, and the years, one might say, amount to six hundred or more.

But if Ctesias says that the events of the Assyrians are older by many years than the Greek events, it will be shown that in the four hundred and second year of the Assyrian empire, and in the thirty-second year of the eighth dynasty of Beluchus, occurred the departure of Moses from Egypt, in the time of Amosis the Egyptian and Inachus the Argive.

And in Greece, in the time of Phoroneus, who came after Inachus, occurred the flood in the time of Ogygus, and the kingship at Sicyon, first of Aegialeus, then of Europs, then of Telchis, and that of Cres in Crete.

For Acusilaus says that Phoroneus was the first of men; hence also the poet of the Phoronis called him 'the father of mortal men.'

Hence Plato in the Timaeus, following Acusilaus, writes that he once wished to lead them into discourse about ancient matters, attempting to tell the most ancient things concerning the city -- concerning Phoroneus, who was called 'the first', and Niobe, and the events after the flood.

In the time of Phorbas, Actaeus, from whom Attica was called Actaea; in the time of Triopas, Prometheus and Atlas and Epimetheus and the two-formed Cecrops and Io; in the time of Crotopus, the conflagration under Phaethon and the great flood of rain under Deucalion; in the time of Sthenelaus, the kingship of Amphictyon and the arrival of Danaus in the Peloponnese and the founding of Dardania by Dardanus, whom Homer says was the firstborn -- 'him cloud-gathering Zeus begot'.

and the return from Crete to Phoenicia; in the time of Lynceus, the rape of the maiden, and the establishment of the sacred precinct at Eleusis, and the husbandry of Triptolemus, and the arrival of Cadmus in Thebes, and the kingship of Minos; in the time of Proetus, the war of Eumolpus against the Athenians; in the time of Acrisius, the crossing of Pelops from Phrygia and the arrival of Ion in Athens, and the second Cecrops, and the deeds of Perseus and of Dionysus, and Orpheus and Musaeus.

In the eighteenth year of the reign of Agamemnon, Troy was captured, in the first year of the reign of Demophon son of Theseus at Athens, on the twelfth day of the month Thargelion, as Dionysius of Argos says.

But Agias and Dercylus [say] in the third [book], on the eighth day from the end of the month Panemus; Hellanicus [says] on the twelfth of Thargelion; and some of those who have written the history of Attica [say] on the eighth day from the end, in the last year of the reign of Menestheus, when the moon was full: 'It was the middle of the night,' says the poet who composed the Little Iliad, 'and the bright moon was rising.'

Others [say it happened] on the same day of Scirophorion. Theseus, being an emulator of Heracles, is older than the Trojan events by one generation; for indeed Homer mentions Tlepolemus, who was a son of Heracles, as having campaigned against Troy.

Moses is therefore shown to be earlier than the deification of Dionysus by six hundred four years, if indeed he was deified in the thirty-second year of the reign of Perseus, as Apollodorus says in his Chronicles.