In agreement with these is also Alexander Polyhistor, a man of great learning, and very well known to those Greeks who have not treated the fruit of education as a mere secondary matter; who, in his treatise Concerning the Jews, gives an account of the affairs concerning this Abraham, word for word, in the following manner:
Eupolemus, in his work Concerning the Jews of Assyria, says that the city of Babylon was first founded by those who survived the flood; and that they were giants, and that they built the tower which is told of in history.
And when this tower fell, by the working of God, the giants were scattered over the whole earth. In the tenth generation, he says, in the city of Babylonia called Kamarine, which some call the city Ourie—being, when translated, 'city of the Chaldeans'—in the thirteenth generation Abraham was born, surpassing all in nobility and wisdom, who indeed discovered both astrology and the Chaldean art, and, setting out toward piety, found favor with God.
This man, in obedience to the commands of God, came and settled in Phoenicia, and, having taught the Phoenicians the turnings of the sun and moon and all other things, found favor with their king. Afterward the Armenians made war upon the Phoenicians; and when they had won and taken captives, Abraham, coming to the aid [of the Phoenicians] with his servants, gained mastery over the captors, and took captive the children and wives of the enemy.
And when ambassadors came to him so that, by paying money, they might ransom these captives, he chose not to trample upon those who were unfortunate, but, taking only provisions for his young men, he gave back the captives; and he was received as a guest by the sacred city of Argarizin, which, translated, means 'mountain of the Most High.'
And he received gifts from Melchizedek, who was priest of God and reigned as king. And when a famine occurred, Abraham departed with his whole household into Egypt, and dwelt there; and the king of the Egyptians took his wife in marriage, since he had said she was his sister.
But he related further that the king was unable to have intercourse with her, and that it happened that his people and household were being afflicted. And when he summoned his diviners, they declared that the woman was not a widow; and thus the king of the Egyptians came to recognize that she was the wife of Abraham, and restored her to her husband.
And Abraham, living together with the priests of the Egyptians at Heliopolis, taught them many things in return, introducing to them astrology and the rest, saying that he himself and the Babylonians had discovered these things, but tracing their discovery back to Enoch, and saying that it was Enoch who first discovered astrology, not the Egyptians.
For the Babylonians say that Belus was born first, who is Kronos; and from him were born Belus and Canaan; and this Canaan begat the father of the Phoenicians; and his son was Chum, whom the Greeks call Asbolus, father of the Ethiopians, brother of Mestraim, father of the Egyptians; and the Greeks say that Atlas discovered astrology, and that Atlas is the same as Enoch; and that Enoch had a son Methuselah, who learned all things through the angels of God, and thus we too have come to know them.
Artapanus, in his Jewish History, says that the Jews are called Hermiuth, which, translated into the Greek tongue, means 'Jews'; and that they are called Hebrews from Abraham. He says that Abraham came with his whole household into Egypt, to the king of the Egyptians, Pharethones, and taught him astrology; and having remained there twenty years, he departed again to the regions of Syria; but many of those who had come with him remained in Egypt on account of the prosperity of the land.
And in [certain] anonymous writings we have found Abraham traced back to the giants, and that these, dwelling in Babylonia, were destroyed by the gods on account of their impiety, one of whom, Belus, escaping death, settled in Babylon, and built a tower and dwelt in it, which was named Belus after Belus who built it. And Abram, having been trained in the science of astrology, first came to Phoenicia and taught the Phoenicians astrology, and afterward arrived in Egypt.
But Molon, who wrote the compilation against the Jews, says that at the time of the flood the man who was left alive departed from Armenia with his sons, being driven out of his own lands by the natives; and having traversed the intervening country, he came to the mountainous region of Syria, which was uninhabited.
And after three generations Abraham was born, whose name, translated, means 'friend of the father'; being a wise man, he pursued the life of the wilderness; and having taken two wives, the one a native, a kinswoman, the other an Egyptian, a maidservant, he begat by the Egyptian woman twelve sons, who, departing into Arabia, divided the land among themselves and were the first to rule as kings over the natives; whence, even down to our own time, there are twelve kings of the Arabs bearing the same names as those sons.
And by his lawful wife a son was born to him, who in Greek was named Gelos [Laughter]. And Abraham died in old age; and from Gelos and a native wife eleven sons were born, and a twelfth, Joseph; and from him, in the third generation, Moses.
So much says Polyhistor, to which, after other matters, he adds, saying: 'Not long afterward, God commanded Abraham to offer up his son Isaac as a whole burnt offering to him. And he, having brought the boy up onto the mountain, heaped up a pyre and laid Isaac upon it; and as he was about to slay him, he was prevented by an angel, who provided him a ram for the burnt offering; and Abraham took the boy down from the pyre, and offered up the ram instead.'
Philo also speaks of this in the first book of his work Concerning Jerusalem, saying in verse: 'I have heard how once, according to the ordinances given of old to our forefathers, the far-famed and surpassing fame of Abraham overflowed all-radiant, bound by the ties of proud reasoning—charms beloved of God. For when he had left the splendid enclosure of his kin, holding fast the praised kindling of the loud-thundering God, he made his own report immortal, from the time when the offspring of that dread-begotten one obtained abundant renown,' and so forth. To this, after a few lines, he adds: 'even as the hand, having sharpened the blade, was making ready to grasp the sword, and the throat was already drawn aside for the blow, he put into his hands instead a horned ram,' and what follows upon this.
These things, then, are from the aforementioned writing of Polyhistor. And Josephus also, in the first book of the Antiquities, mentions the same man through the following words: 'It is said that this Aphren, having campaigned against Libya, took possession of it, and his grandsons, settling in it, named the land after his name, Africa.'
Alexander Polyhistor bears witness to my account, speaking as follows: 'Cleodemus the prophet, also called Malchas, in recounting the affairs concerning the Jews, just as Moses their lawgiver also recorded, says that from Keturah were born to Abraham a good number of children; and he also gives their names, naming three: Apher, Assur, Aphran.'
And from Assur was named Assyria, and from the two, Aphra and Apher, the city Aphra and the land Africa were named. These joined with Heracles in campaigning against Libya and Antaeus; and Heracles, having married the daughter of Aphra, begat by her a son, Diodorus. And from him was born Sophon, from whom the barbarians are called Sophaces. Concerning Abraham, then, let so much, though brief, be set forth.
Let us return again to Polyhistor: Demetrius says that Jacob, being seventy-five years old, fled to Haran of Mesopotamia, sent away by his parents on account of the secret enmity of his brother Esau, because their father, thinking him to be Esau, had blessed him, and also so that he might take a wife from there.
So Jacob set out for Haran of Mesopotamia, leaving behind his father Isaac, who was one hundred thirty-seven years old, while he himself was seventy-seven years old.
So he, having spent seven years there, married the two daughters of Laban his mother's brother, Leah and Rachel, being eighty-four years old; and in another seven years twelve children were born to him: in the eighth year, in the tenth month, Reuben; and in the ninth year, in the eighth month, Simeon; and in the tenth year, in the sixth month, Levi; and in the eleventh year, in the fourth month, Judah. And Rachel, since she bore no children, envied her sister, and gave to Jacob himself, to lie with him, her own maidservant Zilpah, at the same time that Bilhah also conceived Naphtali, in the eleventh year, in the fifth month, and bore, in the twelfth year, in the second month, a son, who was named by Leah Gad; and from the same maidservant, in the same year and the twelfth month, she bore another, who likewise was called by Leah Asher.
And Leah again, in return for the mandrake apples that Reuben brought to Rachel, conceived; and at the same time her handmaid Zilpah too, in the twelfth year, in the third month; and in that same year, in the twelfth month, she bore a son, and gave him the name Issachar.
And again, Leah, in the thirteenth year, in the tenth month, bore another son, whose name was Zebulun; and the same woman, in the fourteenth year, in the eighth month, bore a son named Dan. At that time Rachel also conceived, at the same time that Leah also bore a daughter, Dinah; and she bore, in the fourteenth year, in the eighth month, a son, who was named Joseph, so that in the seven years spent with Laban twelve children had been born.
But Jacob, wishing to go to his father in Canaan, was persuaded by Laban to remain six more years, so that in all he remained with Laban in Haran twenty years.
As he journeyed to Canaan, an angel of God wrestled with him and touched the broad part of Jacob's thigh, and Jacob, his thigh benumbed, went limping; for this reason the sinew in the thighs of cattle is not eaten. And the angel said to him that from then on he should no longer be called Jacob, but Israel.
And he came from the land of Canaan to another city, Shechem, having children: Reuben, twelve years and two months old; Simeon, eleven years and four months; Levi, ten years and six months; Judah, nine years and eight months; Naphtali, eight years and ten months; Gad, eight years and ten months; Asher, eight years old; Issachar, eight years old; Zebulun, seven years and two months; Dinah, six years and four months; Joseph, six years and four months.
Israel sojourned with Hamor for ten years, and Israel's daughter Dinah was violated by Shechem, Hamor's son, being then sixteen years and four months old. And Israel's sons, rushing out — Simeon being twenty-one years and four months old, and Levi twenty years and six months — killed Hamor and Shechem his son and all the males, on account of the violation of Dinah; and Jacob was then a hundred and seven years old.
So when he came to Luz, that is Bethel, God said that he should no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. From there he came to Chaphratha, and from there arrived at Ephrath, which is Bethlehem; and there he begot Benjamin, and Rachel died after bearing Benjamin, Jacob having lived together with her for twenty-three years.
From there Jacob came to Mamre in Hebron, to Isaac his father. Joseph was then seventeen years old, and he was sold into Egypt, and remained in prison thirteen years, so that he was thirty years old, and Jacob a hundred and ten, at which time — one year before — Isaac had died, being a hundred and eighty years old.
And Joseph, having interpreted the dreams for the king, ruled Egypt for seven years, during which he also took to wife Asenath, daughter of Potipherah, priest of Heliopolis, and begot Manasseh and Ephraim; and the famine came upon the land for two years.
And Joseph, for nine years having prospered, did not send for his father, because he and his brothers were shepherds; and shepherding was a matter of reproach among the Egyptians; and it has been shown that it was for this reason that he did not send for him. For when his kinsmen came, he told them that if they should be called by the king and asked what they did, they should say that they were keepers of cattle.
It is a matter of inquiry why Joseph, at the banquet, gave Benjamin a portion five times as large, though he could not consume so much meat. He did this, then, because his father had had seven sons by Leah, and two by Rachel his mother; for this reason he set before Benjamin five portions, and himself took two; so that together there came to be seven, as many as the sons born of Leah.
In the same way also with the giving of robes: to each he gave two, but to Benjamin five, together with three hundred gold pieces; and to his father he sent likewise, so that the house of his mother should be equal in honor to the rest.
And they dwelt in the land of Canaan; from the time Abraham was chosen out of the nations and moved to Canaan — Abraham being twenty-five years old, Isaac sixty, Jacob a hundred and thirty — the total number of years in the land of Canaan came to two hundred and fifteen.
And in the third year of the famine in Egypt, Jacob came into Egypt, being a hundred and thirty years old; Reuben being forty-five years old, Simeon forty-four, Levi forty-three, Judah forty-two years and three months, Asher forty years and eight months, Naphtali forty-one years and six months, Gad forty-one years and three months, Zebulun forty years, Dinah thirty-nine years, Benjamin twenty-eight years.
And Joseph, he says, was in Egypt for thirty-nine years. And from Adam to the entry of Joseph's kinsmen into Egypt there were 3,624 years. And from the flood to Jacob's arrival in Egypt, so many years; and from the time Abraham was chosen out of the nations and came from Haran into Canaan, until Jacob's people came into Egypt, was two hundred and fifteen years.
Jacob came from Haran to Laban when he was eighty years old, and he begot Levi. Levi lived on in Egypt seventeen years from when he came from Canaan into Egypt, so that he was sixty years old, and he begot Kohath. In the same year in which Kohath was born, Jacob died in Egypt, having blessed the sons of Joseph, being a hundred and forty-seven years old, and leaving Joseph fifty-six years old. Levi died at the age of a hundred and thirty-seven; and Kohath, being forty years old, begot Amram, who was fourteen years old when Joseph died in Egypt, being a hundred and ten years old; and Kohath died at the age of a hundred and thirty-three. Amram took to wife his uncle's daughter Jochebed, and at the age of seventy-five years he begot Aaron and Moses; and Amram begot Moses when he was seventy-eight years old, and Amram died at the age of a hundred and thirty-six. Let this stand, then, from the writing of Alexander Polyhistor; and next let the following also be added.
Theodotus, in his work On the Jews, says that Shechem took its name from Sikimius, son of Hermes; for he it was who also founded the city. He describes its situation in his work On the Jews thus: 'It was a good land, rich in pasture for goats and well-watered, and no long road led to the city from the countryside, nor did the shaggy thickets ever cause hardship. Very near to it appear two strong mountains, full of grass and woodland; and between them a narrow footpath is cut, a hollow defile; and on the other side sacred Shechem comes into view, a sacred town, built below upon its foundation, and round about a smooth wall skirts the mountain's base, and beneath it runs a steep-descending rampart.'
Afterward, he says, it was taken possession of by the Hebrews, when Hamor was ruling; for Hamor begot a son, Shechem. And he says thus: 'Stranger, from a place of shepherding Jacob came to the broad city of Shechem; and over those men in those years ruled Hamor together with his son Shechem, two men of great vigor.'
Then he speaks of Jacob and his sojourn in Mesopotamia, and his marriage to the two women, and the birth of the children, and his coming from Mesopotamia to Shechem, saying: 'To Syria, land of pasturing flocks, Jacob came, leaving behind the broad stream of the resounding river Euphrates; for having fled from there, escaping the bitter reproach of his own brother, he was received gladly into the house of Laban, who was indeed his cousin, but at that time ruled alone over Syria, having been allotted a kindred blood. And to him Laban promised the marriage of his younger daughter, and gave his consent; yet he had no intention at all of fulfilling it, but wove a deceit, and sent to the man's bed Leah, who was the elder. Yet it did not escape him altogether; he perceived the wicked scheme, and received the other maiden as well, and lay with both of the sisters. To him there were born eleven sons, exceedingly wise in mind, and a daughter, Dinah, possessing surpassing beauty, a comely form and a blameless spirit.'
He says that from the Euphrates Jacob came to Shechem, to Hamor; and Hamor received him, and gave him a portion of the land. And Jacob himself worked the land, while his sons, eleven in number, tended the flocks, and his daughter Dinah and the wives worked wool; and Dinah, being a virgin, went to Shechem, there being a festival, wishing to see the city; and Shechem, the son of Hamor, seeing her, fell in love with her, and having seized her, carried her off to his own house and violated her.
Then, coming again together with his father to Jacob, he asked for her in marriage; but Jacob said he would not give her unless all who dwelt in Shechem were circumcised and became Jews; and Hamor said he would persuade them. And Jacob speaks concerning the necessity of their being circumcised:
'For this is not lawful among the Hebrews, to bring sons-in-law from elsewhere, or daughters-in-law, into the house, but only one who can claim to be of the same stock.'
Then, going on, concerning circumcision, he says: 'He who once led noble Abraham out of his own country, he himself, from heaven, commanded the man, together with his whole household, to strip away the flesh of the foreskin; and this he accomplished; and it stands unshakeable, since God himself spoke it.'
So Hamor having gone into the city and urged his subjects to be circumcised, one of Jacob's sons, named Simeon, resolved to kill both Hamor and Shechem, not wishing to bear the outrage against his sister as a matter to be tolerated for the sake of civic peace; and having formed this resolve, he shared it with his brother Levi; and having won him over as an accomplice in the deed, he further urged him on, citing an oracle in which God had declared that he would give the descendants of Abraham ten nations.
And Simeon speaks thus to Levi: 'For I have heard well the word of God; for he once said that he would give ten nations to the sons of Abraham.' And God put this thought into them, because the people in Shechem were impious. And he says: 'God brought harm upon the inhabitants of Shechem, for they showed no honor to whoever came among them, whether he were base or noble; nor did they render just judgments in the city, nor observe the laws; but deeds of ruin were the works that concerned them.'
And he speaks of their slaying thus: 'Then indeed Simeon rushed upon him, and struck his head, and seized his throat in his left hand, and left him still gasping, since another labor had arisen. Meanwhile unrestrained fury seized Levi also, against Shechem, who was clutching at his hair and knees, raving beyond all measure; he drove his sword through the middle of the collarbone; the sharp blade sank through the entrails, through the breast, and the soul left the body at once.' And when his other brothers learned of their deed, they came to their aid, and sacked the city, and having rescued their sister, they carried her off together with the captives to their father's dwelling.
To these let there also be joined what follows concerning Joseph, from the same writing of Polyhistor. Artapanus, in his work On the Jews, says that Joseph was a descendant of Abraham, and son of Jacob; and that, excelling the others in intelligence and prudence, he was plotted against by his brothers; and foreseeing the conspiracy, he begged the neighboring Arabs to carry him off into Egypt; and they did what was asked of them; for the kings of the Arabs were descendants of Israel, sons of Abraham, and brothers of Isaac.
And he came into Egypt, and being commended to the king, became administrator of the whole country. And whereas previously the Egyptians had farmed the land in disorder, because it was undivided, and the lesser were wronged by the more powerful, he was the first to divide the land and mark it out with boundaries, and to render much fallow land fit for cultivation, and he allotted certain of the fields to the priests.
He also devised weights and measures, and for these things he was greatly beloved by the Egyptians. He married Asenath, daughter of the priest of Heliopolis, by whom he begot children. After this, his father and his brothers came to him, bringing much substance, and settled in the city of Kessan, and the Syrians multiplied in Egypt.
He says that these, called the Esmiuth, built the temple both at Athos and at Heliopolis. After this, both Joseph and the king of the Egyptians died. Joseph, while ruling over Egypt, stored up the grain of the seven years, which had come in immeasurable abundance according to the harvest, and became master of Egypt.
Philo also, in the fourteenth book of his work On Jerusalem, bears witness to the sacred books, speaking thus: '...for them the Most High Ruler founded a great and blessed dwelling-place for the whole people; and before, from Abraham and Isaac, came Joseph, offspring of Jacob rich in children, who was an interpreter of dreams, a scepter-bearer upon the thrones of Egypt, having secretly turned about in the flood-tide of time's allotted fate' — and so on. This, then, is what he says concerning Joseph.
Hear also what the same author relates concerning Job. Aristeas, in his work On the Jews, says that Esau, having married Bassara in Edom, begot Job; and that he dwelt in the land of Ausitis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia.
And he became righteous and possessed of many flocks; for he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred grazing female donkeys; and he also had ample farmland.
This Job was formerly named Jobab. And God, testing him, found him steadfast, yet surrounded him with great misfortunes. For first his donkeys and oxen were driven off by robbers; then his sheep were burned up, together with the shepherds, by fire falling from heaven; and not long after, his camels too were driven off by robbers; then his children died, when the house collapsed; and on that same day his own body was also covered with sores.
While he was in this wretched condition, there came to visit him Eliphaz, king of the Temanites, and Baldad, ruler of the Sauchites, and Sophar, king of the Minaeans; and there also came Elihu, son of Barachiel the Zobite. And though urged to abandon his piety, he declared that even without such urging he would remain steadfast both in piety and amid his sufferings. And God, admiring his fortitude of soul, freed him from his disease and made him master of many possessions. So much, then, does Polyhistor also relate concerning these matters.
And concerning Moses, too, the same author again sets forth a great deal, which it is worth hearing. Eupolemus says that Moses was the first wise man, and that he was the first to hand down writing to the Jews; that the Phoenicians received it from the Jews, and the Greeks from the Phoenicians; and that Moses was the first to write laws for the Jews.
Artapanus, in his work On the Jews, says that when Abraham died, and his son Mempsasthenoth, and likewise also the king of the Egyptians, that king's son Palmanothes received the sovereignty.
This man begot a daughter, Merris, whom he betrothed to a certain Chenephres, who ruled over the regions above Memphis; for at that time many ruled over parts of Egypt. She, being barren, adopted the child of a certain one of the Jews, and named him Moses; and when he grew to manhood, he was called by the Greeks Musaeus.
This Moses became the teacher of Orpheus; and when he grew to manhood, he handed down to mankind many useful things. For he invented boats and machines for the placing of stones, and Egyptian weapons, and instruments for irrigation and for war, and philosophy; moreover, he divided the land into thirty-six nomes, and assigned to each of the nomes the deity to be worshiped, and the sacred writings to the priests; there were also cats, dogs, and ibises assigned as sacred to particular nomes; and he allotted to the priests a choice portion of land as well.
He did all this for the sake of preserving the monarchy secure for Chenephres. For previously the disorderly masses would at one time depose, at another time set up kings, often the same ones, and sometimes others.
For these reasons, then, Moses was beloved by the masses, and was deemed by the priests worthy of honor equal to the gods, and was called Hermes, on account of his interpretation of the sacred writings.
But Chenephres, seeing the excellence of Moses, envied him, and sought some plausible pretext by which to destroy him. And indeed, when once the Ethiopians made war upon Egypt, Chenephres, supposing he had found a suitable occasion, sent Moses against them as general with an army; and he mustered for him a multitude of farmers, supposing that Moses would easily be destroyed by the enemy on account of the weakness of his soldiers.
Moses, coming to the nome called the Hermopolite, having about a hundred thousand farmers, encamped there; and he sent generals who took command over the region, and who plainly had the advantage in the battles. And the people of Heliopolis, he says, call this war one that lasted ten years.
So Moses and his men, on account of the size of the army, founded a city in this place, and consecrated the ibis there, because this bird destroys the creatures that harm mankind; and they called it Hermopolis, the City of Hermes.
Thus the Ethiopians, although they were enemies, came to love Moses so much that they even learned from him the circumcision of the private parts -- not only they, but all the priests as well.
But Chenephres, once the war was ended, welcomed him in word, but in deed plotted against him. Accordingly, taking away his troops, he sent some of them to the borders of Ethiopia for the sake of a garrison, while he ordered others to tear down the temple in the city of Dios, which had been built of baked brick, and to construct another one of stone, quarrying the neighboring mountain, and he appointed Nacheros as overseer of the building.
And he, having come with Moses to Memphis, inquired of him whether there was anything else useful to mankind; and Moses said, the breed of oxen, because the land was ploughed by them. And Chenephres, naming a bull Apis, ordered the crowds to establish a temple for it, and commanded them to bring there and bury the animals that had been consecrated by Moses, wishing thereby to hide away Moses' inventions.
And when the Egyptians had turned against him, Chenephres bound his own friends by oath not to disclose to Moses the plot being formed against him, and put forward men to kill him.