Chapter XIX.

Their high antiquity, first of all, claims authority for these writings.  With you, too, it is a kind of religion to demand belief on this very ground. Well, all the substances, all the materials, the origins, classes, contents of your most ancient writings, even most nations and cities illustrious in the records of the past and noted for their antiquity in books of annals,—the very forms of your letters, those revealers and custodiers of events, nay (I think I speak still within the mark), your very gods themselves, your very temples and oracles, and sacred rites, are less ancient than the work of a single prophet, in whom you have the thesaurus of the entire Jewish religion, and therefore too of ours. If you happen to have heard of a certain Moses, I speak first of him: he is as far back as the Argive Inachus; by nearly four hundred years—only seven less—he precedes Danaus, your most ancient name; while he antedates by a millennium the death of Priam. I might affirm, too, that he is five hundred years earlier than Homer, and have supporters of that view. The other prophets also, though of later date, are, even the most recent of them, as far back as the first of your philosophers, and legislators, and historians.  It is not so much the difficulty of the subject, as its vastness, that stands in the way of a statement of the grounds on which these statements rest; the matter is not so arduous as it would be tedious. It would require the anxious study of many books, and the fingers busy reckoning.  The histories of the most ancient nations, such as the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, the Phœnicians, would need to be ransacked; the men of these various nations who have information to give, would have to be called in as witnesses. Manetho the Egyptian, and Berosus the Chaldean, and Hieromus the Phœnician king of Tyre; their successors too, Ptolemy the Mendesian, and Demetrius Phalereus, and King Juba, and Apion, and Thallus, and their critic the Jew Josephus, the native vindicator of the ancient history of his people, who either authenticates or refutes the others. Also the Greek censors’ lists must be compared, and the dates of events ascertained, that the chronological connections may be opened up, and thus the reckonings of the various annals be made to give forth light. We must go abroad into the histories and literature of all nations. And, in fact, we have already brought the proof in part before you, in giving those hints as to how it is to be effected. But it seems better to delay the full discussion of this, lest in our haste we do not sufficiently carry it out, or lest in its thorough handling we make too lengthened a digression.

CAPUT XIX.

Primam igitur instrumentis istis auctoritatem summa antiquitas vindicat . Apud vos 0382A quoque religionis est instar, fidem de temporibus asserere.

(Quae sequuntur uncis inclusa primus e cod. Fuldensi Havercampus publici juris fecit, sed alteri scriptoris recognitioni tribuens sub finem editionis suae experimenda curavit).

[Primus enim prophetes Moyses, qui mundi conditionem et generis humani pullulationem et mox ultricem iniquitatis illius aevi vim cataclysmi de praeterito exorsus est, per vaticinationem usque ad suam aetatem et deinceps per res suas futurorum imagines edidit, penes quem et temporum ordo digestus ab initio supputationem saeculi praestitit: superior invenitur annis circiter trecentis, quam ille antiquissimus penes vos Danaus in Argo transvenisset ; 0383A Trojano denique praelio ad mille annos ante est, unde et ipso Saturno. Secundum enim historiam Thalli , qua relatum est bellum Assyriorum et Saturnum Titanorum regem cum Jove dimicasse, ostenditur bellum CCCXX. et duobus annis Iliacum exitium antecessisse. Per hunc Moysen etiam illa lex propria Judaeis a Deo missa est. Deinceps multa et alii prophetae vetustiores litteris vestris. Nam et qui ultimo cecinit, aut aliquantulo praecucurrit, aut certe concurrit aetate sapientiae auctoribus, etiam latoribus legis. Cyri enim et Darii regno fuit Zacharias, quo in tempore Thales physicorum princeps, sciscitanti Croeso nihil certum de Divinitate respondit, turbatus scilicet vocibus prophetarum, Solon eidem regi finem longae vitae intuendum praedicavit non aliter, quam Prophetae ; adeo respici potest, tam jura vestra quam studia de lege deque 0383B divina doctrina concepisse. Quod prius est, hoc sit 0384A semen necesse est. Inde quaedam nobiscum vel prope nos habetis. De sophia amor ejus philosophia vocitatus est, de prophetia affectatio ejus poeticam vaticinationem depuravit . Gloriae homines , si quid invenerant, ut proprium facerent, adulteraverunt; etiam fructibus a semine degenerare contigit . Multis adhuc de vetustate modis consisterem divinarum litterarum, si non major auctoritas illis ad fidem de veritatis suae viribus, quam aetatis annalibus suppetisset. Quid enim potentius patrocinabitur testimonio earum, nisi dispunctio quotidiana saeculi totius, cum dispositiones regnorum , cum casus urbium, cum exitus gentium, cum status temporum ita omnibus respondent, quemadmodum ante millia annorum praenuntiabantur? Unde et spes nostra, quam ridetis, animatur, et fiducia, quam praesumptionem vocatis, corroboratur. 0384B Idonea est enim recognitio praeteritorum 0385A ad disponendam fiduciam futurorum: eadem voces praedicaverunt utramque partem , eadem litterae notaverunt. Unum est tempus apud illas, quod apud nos separari videtur. Ita omnia quae supersunt improbata sunt nobis, quia cum illis, quae probata sunt, tunc futuris praedicabantur. Habetis, quod sciam , et vos Sibyllam, quatenus appellatione ita vera vates dei veri passim super caeteros, qui vaticinari videbantur, usurpata est, sicut vestrae Sibyllae nomen de veritate mentitae, quemadmodum et dei vestri .]

Omnes itaque substantias, omnesque materias, origines, 0386A ordines, venas veterani cujusque styli vestri, gentes etiam plerasque et urbes insignes, historiarum canas , et memoriarum, ipsas denique effigies litterarum, indices custodesque rerum, et (puto adhuc minus dicimus) ipsos inquam deos vestros, ipsa templa et oracula et sacra unius interim prophetae scrinium saeculis vincit, in quo videtur thesaurus collocatus totius Judaici sacramenti, et inde etiam nostri. Si quem audistis interim Moysen, Argivo Inacho pariter aetate est; quadringentis pene annis, nam et septem minus, Danaum, et ipsum 0387A apud vos vetustissimum, praevenit , mille circiter cladem Priami antecedit; possem etiam dicere, quingentis amplius et Homerum, habens quos sequar. Caeteri quoque prophetae, etsi Moysi posthumant, extremissimi tamen eorum non retrosiores deprehenduntur primoribus vestris sapientibus et legiferis et historicis. Haec quibus ordinibus probari possint, non tam difficile est nobis exponere, quam enorme, nec arduum, sed interim longum. Multis instrumentis, cum digitorum supputariis gesticulis assidendum est. Reseranda antiquissimarum etiam gentium archiva, Aegyptiorum, Chaldaeorum, Phoenicum; advocandi etiam municipes eorum, per quos notitia subministrata est; aliqui Manethon Aegyptius, et Berosus Chaldaeus, sed et Iromus 0387B Phoenix Tyri rex ; sectatores quoque eorum Mendesius Ptolemaeus, et Menander Ephesius, et Demetrius Phalereus, et rex Juba, et Appion, et Thallus, 0388A et qui istos aut probat aut revincit , judaeus Josephus antiquitatum Judaicarum vernaculus vindex . Graecorum etiam censuales conferendi, et quae quando sint gesta, ut concatenationes temporum aperiantur, per quae luceant annalium numeri. Peregrinandum est in historias et litteras orbis. Et tamen quasi partem jam probationis intulimus, quum per quae probari possint, aspersimus. Verum differre praestat, ne vel minus persequamur festinando, vel diutius evagemur persequendo.