Arguments Of Celsus, Porphyry, And The Emperor Julian, Against The Christians Part 6

"Cherilus also, a still more ancient writer [than Herodotus], and a poet, makes mention of our nation, and informs us that it came to the a.s.sistance of king Xerxes in his expedition against Greece. For in his enumeration of all those nations, he last of

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all inserts ours among the rest, when he says: "At the last, there pa.s.sed over a people wonderful to behold; for they spake the Phoenician tongue, and dwelt in the Solymaean mountains, near a broad lake. Their heads were sooty; they had round rasures on them; their heads and faces were like nasty horse heads, also, that had been hardened in the smoke."--Whiston's Josephus, vol. iv. p. 299.

EXTRACTS FROM THE FIFTH BOOK OF TACITUS RESPECTING THE JEWS, AS TRANSLATED BY MURPHY.

"Being now to relate the progress of a siege that terminated in the destruction of that once celebrated city [Jerusalem], it may be proper to go back to its first foundation, and to trace the origin of the people. The Jews we are told were natives of the Isle of Crete. At the time when Saturn was driven from his throne by the violence of Jupiter, they abandoned their habitations, and gained a settlement at the extremity of Libya. In support of this tradition, the etymology of their name is adduced as a proof. Mount Ida, well known to fame, stands in the Isle of Crete: the inhabitants are called Idaeans; and the word by a barbarous corruption was changed afterwards to that of Judaeans.

According to others they were a colony from Egypt, when that country, during the reign of Isis,

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overflowing with inhabitants poured forth its redundant numbers under the conduct of Hierosolymus and Juda. A third hypothesis makes them originally Ethiopians, compelled by the tyranny of Cepheus, the reigning monarch, to abandon their country. Some authors contend that they were a tribe of a.s.syrians, who for some time occupied a portion of Egypt, and afterwards transplanting themselves into Syria, acquired in their own right a number of cities, together with the territories of the Hebrews.

There is still another tradition, which ascribes to the Jews a more ill.u.s.trious origin, deriving them from the ancient Solymans, so highly celebrated in the poetry of Homer. By that people the city was built, and from its founder received the name of Hierosolyma.

"In this clash of opinions, one point seems to be universally admitted.

A pestilential disease, disfiguring the race of man, and making the body an object of loathsome deformity, spread all over Egypt. Bocchoris, at that time the reigning monarch, consulted the oracle of Jupiter Ammon, and received for answer that the kingdom must be purified by exterminating the infected mult.i.tude as a race of men detested by the G.o.ds. After diligent search, the wretched sufferers were collected together, and in a wild and barren desert abandoned to their misery.

In that distress, while the vulgar herd was

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sunk in deep despair, Moses, one of their number, reminded them, that by the wisdom of his counsels they had been already rescued out of impending danger. Deserted as they were by men and G.o.ds, he told them that if they did not repose their confidence in him, as their chief by divine commission, they had no resource left. His offer was accepted.

Their march began they knew not whither. Want of water was their chief distress. Worn out with fatigue they lay stretched out on the bare earth, heart-broken, ready to expire; when a troop of wild a.s.ses, returning from pasture, went up the steep ascent of a rock covered with a grove of trees. The verdure of the herbage round the place, suggested the idea of springs near at hand. Moses traced the steps of the animals, and discovered a plentiful vein of water. By this relief the fainting mult.i.tude was raised from despair. They pursued their journey for six days without intermission. On the seventh they made a halt, and having expelled the natives took possession of the country, where they built their city and dedicated their temple.

"In order to draw the bond of union closer, and to establish his own authority, Moses gave a new form of wors.h.i.+p, and a system of religious ceremonies, the reverse of every thing known to any other age or country. _Whatever is held sacred by_

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_the Romans, with the Jews is profane: and what in other nations is unlawful and impure, with them is fully established_. The figure of the animal that guided them to refres.h.i.+ng springs is consecrated in the sanctuary of their temple*. In contempt of Jupiter Hammon they sacrifice a ram. The ox wors.h.i.+ped in Egypt for the G.o.d Apis is slain as a victim by the Jews. From the flesh of swine they abstain altogether. An animal subject to the same leprous disease that infected their whole nation, is not deemed proper food. The famine with which they were for a long time afflicted, is frequently commemorated by a solemn fast. Their bread, in memory of their having seized a quant.i.ty of grain to relieve their wants, is made without leaven. The seventh day is sacred to rest, for on that day their labours ended; and such is their natural propensity to sloth, that in consequence of it every seventh year is devoted to repose and sluggish inactivity. For this septennial custom some account in a

* Conformably to this, see what Diodorus Siculus says (in the extract given from him, p. 49.): Josephus denies that the figure of an a.s.s was consecrated in the sanctuary of the Jewish temple. But this does not invalidate the testimony of Diodorus Siculus to the contrary. For Antiochus when he subdued the Jews might have found the image of this animal in their temple; but in the time of Josephus the a.s.s might not have been consecrated by them.

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different manner: they tell us that it is an inst.i.tution in honour of Saturn; either because the Idaeans, expelled, as has been mentioned, from the Isle of Crete, transmitted to their posterity the principles of their religious creed; or because among the seven planets that govern the universe, Saturn moves in the highest orbit, and acts with the greatest energy. It may be added that the period in which the heavenly bodies perform their revolutions is regulated by the number seven.

"These rites and ceremonies, from whatever source derived, owe their chief support to their antiquity.

They have other inst.i.tutions, in themselves corrupt, impure, and even abominable; but eagerly embraced, as if their very depravity were a recommendation. The sc.u.m and refuse of other nations, renouncing the religion of their country, flocked in crowds to Jerusalem, enriching the place with gifts and offerings. Hence the wealth and grandeur of the state. Connected amongst themselves by the most obstinate and inflexible faith, the Jews extend their charity to all of their own persuasion, while towards the rest of mankind they nourish a sullen and inveterate hatred. Strangers are excluded from their tables. Unsociable to all others, they eat and lodge with one another only; and though addicted to sensuality, they admit no intercourse with women

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from other nations. Among themselves their pa.s.sions are without restraint. Vice itself is lawful. That they may know each other by distinctive marks, they have established the practice of circ.u.mcision.

All who embrace their faith, submit to the same operation. The first elements of their religion teach their proselytes to despise the G.o.ds, to abjure their country, and forget their parents, their brothers, and their children. With the Egyptians they agree in their belief of a future state; they have the same notion of departed spirits, the same solicitude, and the same doctrine. With regard to the Deity their creed is different. The Egyptians wors.h.i.+p various animals, and also symbolical representations, which are the work of man: the Jews acknowledge one G.o.d only, and him they adore in contemplation; condemning as impious idolaters all who, with perishable materials wrought into the human form, attempt to give a representation of the Deity. Their priests made use of fifes and cymbals; they were crowned with wreaths of ivy, and a vine wrought in gold was seen in their temple. Hence some have inferred that Bacchus, the conqueror of the East, was the object of their adoration. But the Jewish forms of wors.h.i.+p have no conformity to the rites of Bacchus. The latter have their festive days which are always celebrated with mirth and carousing banquets. Those of the Jews are a gloomy ceremony,

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fall of absurd enthusiasm, rueful, mean, and sordid."

"Chaeremon *, professing to write the history of Egypt, says, that under Amenophis and his son Ramessis two hundred and fifty thousand leprous and polluted men were cast out of Egypt. Their leaders were Moses the scribe, and Josephus, who was also a sacred scribe. The Egyptian name of Moses was Tisithen, of Joseph Peteseph. These coming to Pelusium, and finding there 380,000 men left by Amenophis, which he would not admit into Egypt, making a league with them, they undertook an expedition against Egypt. Upon this Amenophis flies into Ethiopia, and his son Messenes drives out the Jews into Syria, in number about 200,000, and receives his father Amenophis out of Ethiopia. I know Lysimachus**

a.s.signs another king and another time in which Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, and that was when Bocchoris reigned in Egypt; the nation of the Jews, being infected with leprosies and scabs and other diseases, betook themselves to the temples to beg their living, and many being tainted with the disease, there happened a dearth in Egypt. Whereupon Bocchoris consulting

* Joseph, lib. i. contra Apionem.

** Idem.

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with the oracle of Ammon, received for answer that the leprous people were to be drowned in the sea, in sheets of lead, and the scabbed were to be carried into the wilderness; who choosing Moses for their leader, conquered that country which is now called Judaea."--Greaves Pyramidograpkia, p. 26.

EXTRACTS FROM THE WORKS OF THE EMPEROR JULIAN RELATIVE TO THE CHRISTIANS.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Julian]

EXTRACT FROM EPISTLE LI. TO THE ALEXANDRIANS.

"As the founder of your city was Alexander, and your ruler and tutelar deity King Serapis, together with the virgin his a.s.sociate, and the queen of all Egypt, Isis, * * *, you do not emulate a healthy city, but the diseased part dares to arrogate to itself the name of [the whole]

city. By the G.o.ds, Men of Alexandria, I should be very much ashamed, if, in short, any Alexandrian should acknowledge himself to be a Galilaean.

"The ancestors of the Hebrews were formerly slaves to the Egyptians.

But now, Men of Alexandria, you, the conquerors of Egypt (for Egypt was conquered by your founder), sustain a voluntary servitude to the despisers of your national dogmas, in opposition to your ancient sacred inst.i.tutions. And you do not recollect your former

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felicity, when all Egypt had communion with the G.o.ds, and we enjoyed an abundance of good. But, tell me, what advantage has accrued to your city from those who now introduce among you a new religion? Your founder was that pious man Alexander of Macedon, who did not, by Jupiter! resemble any one of these, or any of the Hebrews, who far excelled them. Even Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, was also superior to them. As to Alexander, if he had encountered, he would have endangered even the Romans. What then did the Ptolemies, who succeeded your founder? Educating your city, like their own daughter, from her infancy, they did not bring her to maturity by the discourses of Jesus, nor did they construct the form of government, through which she is now happy, by the doctrine of the odious Galilaeans.

"Thirdly: After the Romans became its masters, taking it from the bad government of the Ptolemies, Augustus visited your city, and thus addressed the citizens: 'Men of Alexandria, I acquit your city of all blame, out of regard to the great G.o.d Serapis,

and also for the sake of the people, and the grandeur of the city. A third cause of my kindness to you is my friend Areus.' This Areus, the companion of Augustus Caesar, and a philosopher, was your fellow-citizen.

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"The particular favours conferred on your city by the Olympic G.o.ds were, in short, such as these. Many more, not to be prolix, I omit. But those blessings which the apparent G.o.ds bestow in common every day, not on one family, nor on a single city, but on the whole world, why do you not acknowledge? Are you alone insensible of the splendour that flows from the sun? Are you alone ignorant that summer and winter are produced by him, and that all things are alone vivified and alone germinate from him? Do you not, also, perceive the great advantages that accrue to your city from the moon, from him and by him the fabricator of all things?