From Dionysus to Heracles and the champions around Jason who sailed on the Argo, sixty-three years are reckoned. Asclepius and the Dioscuri sailed together with them, as Apollonius of Rhodes testifies in his Argonautica.
From the kingship of Heracles in Argos to the deification of Heracles himself and of Asclepius, thirty-eight years are reckoned, according to the chronographer Apollodorus. And from there to the deification of Castor and Polydeuces, fifty-three years. It is somewhere about this point that the capture of Troy also [falls].
But if we must also trust Hesiod the poet, let us hear him: 'And Atlas's daughter Maia bore to Zeus glorious Hermes, herald of the immortals, having gone up into the sacred bed. And Cadmus's daughter Semele bore to him a splendid son, having been united with him in love -- Dionysus, giver of much joy.'
Cadmus, the father of Semele, comes to Thebes in the time of Lynceus, and becomes the inventor of the Greek letters. Triopas is contemporary with Isis, in the seventh generation from Inachus.
But there are some who say [Isis] is Io, because she went wandering through the whole earth. Istrus, in his work On the Colonization of the Egyptians, says that she was the daughter of Prometheus. And Prometheus lived in the time of Triopas, in the seventh generation after Moses -- so that Moses even precedes the origin of mankind according to the Greeks.
Leon, who wrote a treatise on the gods of Egypt, says that Isis is called by the Greeks Demeter, who lived in the time of Lynceus, in the eleventh generation after Moses.
And Apis, king of Argos, founded Memphis, as Aristippus says in the first book of his Arcadica; and Aristeas of Argos says that he was surnamed Sarapis, and that he is the one whom the Egyptians worship.
Nymphodorus of Amphipolis, in the third book of his Customs of Asia, [says] that Apis the bull, when he died and was embalmed, was laid in a coffin in the temple of the honored deity, and from this was called Soroapis, and later Sarapis; and Apis was third [in descent] from Inachus.
Tityus was contemporary with Tantalus. It is fitting, then, that Pindar the Boeotian also writes, 'In time Apollo came to be.' Nor is this at all surprising, seeing that he is even found serving as bondsman to Admetus, together with Heracles, for a year.
Zethus and Amphion, the inventors of music, lived about the age of Cadmus. And if anyone tells us that Phemonoe was the first to give oracles, in the time of Acrisius, let him know that it was twenty-seven years after Phemonoe that Orpheus and Musaeus and Linus, the teacher of Heracles, [flourished].
Homer and Hesiod are much younger than the events of Troy, and after them, much younger still, are the lawgivers among the Greeks -- Lycurgus and Solon and the Seven Sages -- and those around Pherecydes the Syrian and the great Pythagoras, who arose much later, about the time of the Olympiads, as we have shown.
These things Clement also [says]. But since this subject before us was studied, even before our own [writers], by the children of the Hebrews themselves, it would be good to examine their [views] as well. And I shall use, in place of all others, the words of Flavius Josephus.
I will begin first from the records among the Egyptians. Now it is not possible to cite these themselves [in their own tongue]; but Manetho, an Egyptian by race, a man who had a share in Greek education, as is evident -- for he wrote the history of his fatherland in the Greek language, translating it, as he himself says, from the sacred writings -- and who refutes Herodotus on many points concerning Egyptian matters, [showing him] to have been deceived through ignorance -- this Manetho, then, in the second book of his Egyptian History, writes the following concerning us; and I shall set down his very words, as though bringing forward that man himself as a witness.
...whose name was Timaeus. In his reign, I know not how, God became averse to us; and unexpectedly, from the regions toward the east, men of obscure race, taking courage, marched against the land, and easily seized it by force without a battle. And [Manetho] adds shortly after:
Their whole nation was called Hyksos; and this means 'shepherd kings.' For 'Hyk' in the sacred language signifies 'king,' and '(ous)sos' means 'shepherd', or in the common dialect 'shepherds'; and thus compounded, it becomes 'Hyksos'.
But some say that they were Arabs. And in another copy, it is said that what is signified by the appellation 'Hyksos' is not 'kings,' but on the contrary 'captive shepherds'; for 'Hyk' in Egyptian, with the aspirated 'k', expressly denotes 'captives'.
And this seems to me more probable, and in keeping with ancient history; and [Manetho] says that these aforementioned kings, both those called 'of the shepherds' and their descendants, held sway over Egypt for five hundred eleven years.
After this, he says, the kings from the Thebaid and the rest of Egypt rose up against the shepherds, and a great and long war broke out. Under a king named Misphragmuthosis, he says the shepherds were defeated, and were driven out of the rest of Egypt, but were shut up in a place having a circuit of ten thousand arourae; the name of the place was Avaris.
Manetho says that this [king] surrounded the shepherds entirely with a great and strong wall, so that they might keep all their property, and their own plunder, secure.
And Thmuthosis, the son of Misphragmuthosis, attempted to take them by force through a siege, encamping against the walls with an army of four hundred eighty thousand men; but when he despaired of the siege, he made a treaty, that they should leave Egypt and all depart unharmed wherever they wished.
And on these terms, they journeyed with their entire households, together with their possessions, being no fewer than two hundred forty thousand, from Egypt through the desert into Syria.
But fearing the power of the Assyrians -- for at that time they held sway over Asia -- they built a city in what is now called Judea, sufficient for so great a number of tens of thousands of people, and named it Jerusalem.
Having next enumerated in order the succession of the kings of Egypt together with the duration of their reigns, he adds: 'These things Manetho [relates].' And it is clear, once the time is calculated from the years stated, that those called shepherds, who were our ancestors, having departed from Egypt, settled this land three hundred ninety-three years before Danaus came to Argos -- although the Argives consider him their most ancient [forefather].
Manetho, then, has testified for us two very great things from the records among the Egyptians: first, our arrival in Egypt from elsewhere; and second, our departure from there, so ancient in time that it precedes the events at Troy by nearly a thousand years.
But the matters from Egyptian history have thus been narrated at length by Josephus in this manner. And from the history of the Phoenicians, using as witnesses those who wrote the Phoenician history, he demonstrates that the temple in Jerusalem was built by King Solomon one hundred forty-three years and eight months before the Tyrians founded Carthage. Then, turning also to the history concerning the Chaldeans, he sets forth testimonies concerning the antiquity of the Hebrews.
But why should one heap up a multitude of proofs, since he who loves truth rather than contentiousness will be satisfied with what has been said, seeing that it contains a varied demonstration concerning the matter proposed? Our purpose was to show that the writings of Moses and the prophets are older than those of the Greeks.
Since, then, it has been shown that Moses lived long before the events at Troy, come, let us also look at all those who came after him. That Moses appeared in life last in time among the truly ancient Hebrews -- Eber and Abraham, from whom the very name was given to these men -- and among the rest of the God-beloved and ancient men, is clear from the history concerning him.
After Moses, then, Joshua led the nation of the Jews, as some say, for thirty years; then, as Scripture says, foreigners held power for eight years. Then Othniel for fifty years. After him Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years. After him Ehud for eighty years. After him again foreigners for twenty years; then Deborah and Barak for forty years. Then the Midianites for seven years; then Gideon for forty years; Abimelech for three years; Tola twenty-three; Jair twenty-two; the Ammonites eighteen; Jephthah six years; Ibzan seven years; Elon ten years; Abdon eight years; foreigners forty years; Samson twenty years; then Eli the priest, according to the Hebrew [text], forty years, in whose time the fall of Troy happens to occur. After Eli the priest, Samuel leads the people.
After him Saul reigns first over them, for forty years; then David for forty years; then Solomon for forty years, who was also the first to build the temple in Jerusalem. After Solomon, Rehoboam reigns for seventeen years; Abijah three years; Asa forty-one years; Jehoshaphat twenty-five years; Jehoram eight years; Ahaziah one year; Athaliah six years.
Joash forty years; Amaziah forty-nine years; Uzziah fifty-two years, in whose time Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, and Jonah prophesied. After Uzziah, [Jotham] reigned fifteen years; after him [Ahaz] fifteen years. In his time the first Olympiad was held, in which Coroebus of Elis won the foot-race.
Hezekiah succeeds Ahaz, for twenty-nine years, in whose time Romulus founded Rome and became king. After Hezekiah, Manasseh reigns for fifty-five years; then Amon for two years; then Josiah for [thirty-one] years, in whose time Jeremiah, Baruch, Huldah, and other prophets prophesied.
Then Jehoahaz for three months. After him Jehoiakim for eleven years. After him, last of all, Zedekiah for twelve years; in his time, Jerusalem was besieged by the Assyrians and the temple suffered destruction by fire, and the whole nation of the Jews was led away to Babylon; and there Daniel and Ezekiel prophesied.
After a certain number of years, Cyrus becomes king of the Persians, who also released the Jews from captivity, permitting those of them who wished to return to their own land and rebuild the temple; at which time also Jeshua son of Jozadak and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel went up. And they laid the foundations, while Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi prophesied last of all; after whom no prophet ever again arose among them.
In the time of Cyrus, Solon the Athenian became known, along with those among the Greeks called the Seven Sages, before whom no philosopher older than they is remembered among them.
Of these seven, Thales of Miletus, having become the first natural philosopher among the Greeks, discoursed on the solstices of the sun, and eclipse, and the illuminations of the moon, and the equinox; and this man became the most distinguished among the Greeks.
Anaximander became a disciple of Thales -- son of Praxiades, and himself also a Milesian by birth. He was the first to construct gnomons for determining the solstices of the sun, and the times and seasons, and the equinox.
A disciple of Anaximander became Anaximenes, son of Eurystratus, a Milesian; and of him [a disciple] was Anaxagoras, son of Hegesibulus, of Clazomenae. This man was the first to articulate systematically the discourse concerning first principles. For he declared not only concerning the substance of all things, as those before him did, but also concerning the cause that moves it; for he says: 'In the beginning all things were mixed together, but Mind entered in and brought them from disorder into order.'
Three men became disciples of Anaxagoras: Pericles, Archelaus, Euripides. Pericles became the foremost of the Athenians, and surpassed his contemporaries both in wealth and in birth. Euripides, having turned to poetry, was called by some 'the philosopher of the stage.' Archelaus succeeded to Anaxagoras's school at Lampsacus, and having moved to Athens, taught there, and had many Athenians as disciples, among them also Socrates.
At the same time as Anaxagoras, natural philosophers flourished -- Xenophanes and Pythagoras. Pythagoras was succeeded by his wife Theano, and by his sons Telauges and Mnesarchus.
Empedocles became a disciple of Telauges, in whose time Heraclitus 'the obscure' became known. Xenophanes is said to have been succeeded by Parmenides, Parmenides by Melissus, and Melissus by Zeno of Elea; of whom it is said that, having formed a conspiracy against the tyrant then reigning, he was caught, and though tortured by the tyrant so as to make him name those who had conspired with him, he did not yield to the tyrant's torments, but bit off his own tongue and spat it at him, and thus, enduring the torments to the end, he died.
Leucippus became his disciple, and Democritus [a disciple] of Leucippus, and Protagoras [a disciple] of Democritus, in whose time Socrates flourished. And one can find scattered here and there other natural philosophers who lived before Socrates; but all of them, beginning from Thales, evidently flourished later than Cyrus, king of the Persians. And Cyrus clearly arose a long time after the captivity of the Jewish nation into Babylon, when the prophets among the Hebrews had already ceased, and their sacred metropolis had been besieged; so that you must confess that the philosophy of the Greeks came into being much later than Moses and the prophets after him -- and especially the philosophy according to Plato, who, having first been a disciple of Socrates, and then having associated with the Pythagoreans, surpassed all who came before him in eloquence, in understanding, and in the doctrines of philosophy.
Plato lived about the last period of the Persian kingdom, a little before Alexander of Macedon, and nearly four hundred years before Augustus the revered.
If, then, Plato and those after him should be shown to have philosophized in agreement with the Hebrews, it is time to consider the period in which he lived, and to set the antiquity of the theologians and prophets among the Hebrews against the age of all the Greek philosophers.
But now that these things have been demonstrated, it is time to return and behold the sages of the Greeks as having become emulators of the Hebrew doctrines, so that our accusers may no longer reasonably reproach us, if indeed we too, having embraced things like those their own philosophers [embraced], have resolved to honor the oracles of the Hebrews.