gods, and killed the holy animals of the Egyptians; but when Amenophis returned, after thirteen years, he defeated both the Hyksos and the Jews, and pursued them to the boundaries of Syria." We observe, on this account: 1. The fable about the leprosy of the Israelites, which, it is asserted, made them especially hateful in the eyes of the Egyptians, and which myth has been repeated even by modern writers, may perhaps be reduced to the miracle of the leprous hand of Moses, narrated in Exod. iv. 6, 7, and the sixth plague, that of boils (Exod. ix. 8-12), with which it was erroneously supposed the Israelites were infested, who spread the disease, by contagion, among the Egyptians. It is, on the contrary, evident, from Deut. xxviii. 27, that the Egyptians are chiefly subject to that epidemic, a fact which is confirmed by many other accounts.1 Moreover, the tenor of Manetho's story itself shows, that not the leprosy of the Israelites, but their dangerous position, induced the Egyptians to hostile measures. But this does not prevent us from admitting, that the Israelites also were not quite free from that disorder so common in Egypt, especially if we consider their oppressed social condition; which fact is besides corroborated by the minute precepts of the Mosaic law respecting the treatment of that disease. 2. The statement, that Moses (Osarsiph) was a priest of Osiris, is a fiction, although it has been repeatedly advanced.2 3. That the Hyksos, after having once been expelled from Egypt, had been called back by the Israelites to assist them against the Egyptians, is improbable in itself, and is at variance with other historical facts.3 4. The Hyksos (Solymites) cannot be imagined to have dwelt in Jerusalem so early as the time of the Exodus. 5. The Egyptian king may have pursued the Israelites northwards; but it is incredible that he should have followed them to the frontier of Syria; unless we understand thereby either the mere direction thither, or take Syria in its later sense, as comprising Palestine also. But, notwithstanding all this, the following facts are evident from that account:-1. The Israelites were compelled by the Egyptian king to hard labour, and were treated and persecuted as enemies. 2. Moses led them from Egypt. 3. Their Exodus was connected with a tem

1 See note on ix. 8.

2 See note on ii. 10

3 See note on i. 8.

porary ruin of the Egyptian power. 4. Moses gave to the Israelites laws, enjoining monotheism as the fundamental principle, and severely interdicting idolatry, and every connection with pagan nations. 5. The war between Pharaoh and the Israelites was partly a religious one, for, according to the Biblical narrative also, the doctrine of monotheism unfolded itself in the Hebrew nation, on the Egyptian soil, and in opposition to Egyptian animal-worship (see viii. 22).

II.—CHAEREMON (in the first half of the first century of the vulgar era; lived long in Alexandria, where he was chief librarian, and occupied himself much with Egyptian antiquities), narrates, in his History of Egypt: "Amenophis, exhorted by apparitions of the goddess of Isis, expelled 250,000 lepers, under their leaders Moses and Joseph, whose original Egyptian names were Tisithen and Peteseph. When they arrived at Pelusium they met a great number of people (380,000 men), whom Amenophis had refused to admit into Egypt. They joined them, marched back to Egypt, and caused Amenophis to flee to Ethiopia. But his wife, whom he had left in Egypt, bare, shortly afterwards, a son, who, when arrived at maturity, drove the Israelites to Syria, whereupon his father returned from Ethiopia." Without essentially deviating from the chief facts narrated by Manetho, this account of Chaeremon adds some new inaccuracies to those of his predecessor: 1. Joseph and Moses are represented as contemporaries; 2. the number of the Hyksos rises from 280,000 to 380,000.

was

III.—LYSIMACHUS (of Alexandria, later than Chaeremon, author of several historical works, relates: "A great famine having befallen Egypt, king Bocchoris commanded, by an oracle of Ammon, to drown the leprous Israelites, and to send the rest into the desert. The latter, after a night of fasting and consultation, were advised by Moses to proceed, and to overthrow all temples and altars on their way. They followed his council, arrived after many tribulations in Judea, built here a town, Hierosyla (so denominated from their plundering the temples), but changed its name later into Hierosolyma." We observe:-1. The drowning of the Israelites is probably nothing but the exposing of the Hebrew children in the Nile. 2. The night of fasting and

consultation refers most likely to the evening before the Exodus (xii. 32), and the rites of the Paschal-lamb; and 3. The destroying of the altars to commands, as those in xxiii. 24, etc. 4. The account about the name and the foundation of Jerusalem is entirely fabulous. 5. The Egyptian king, under whom the Israelites left the country, is here called Bocchoris, who is also mentioned by several other ancient historians. According to Diodorus, he lived about 900 B. C.; according to Manetho he belonged to the twenty-fourth dynasty; and Wilkinson dates the commencement of his reign at B. c. 812. This period is considerably too late for the Exodus, and was probably only adopted in an age in which the tendency prevailed to question the antiquity of the Hebrew nation.

IV.--ARTAPANUS (author of a history of the Jews, writes on the transit over the Red Sea :-"The Memphites relate, that Moses, being well acquainted with the country, watched the influx of the tide, and made the multitude pass through the dry bed of the sea. But the Heliopolitans relate, that the king, at the head of a great army, and accompanied by the sacred animals, pursued after the Jews, who had carried off with them the wealth of the Egyptians; and Moses, having been directed by a Divine vision to strike the sea with his staff, touched the water with it, and so the fluid divided itself, and the hosts passed over the gulf as on a dry path. But when the Egyptians tried the same, and pursued them in the bed of the sea, it is said that fire flashed against them in front, and the sea, returning to its old place, overwhelmed them in the passage. Thus the Egyptians perished both by fire and by the reflux of the tide.'

V.-STRABO (between about 66 B.C. and 25 A.C.) gives the following account: "The most generally received opinion is, that the Israelites are descendants of the Egyptians; a certain Moses, a priest, dissatisfied with the state of things in Egypt, emigrated, accompanied by many who worshipped the Deity." That the Hebrews are represented as descendants of the Egyptians, may originate in the circumstance, that the family of Joseph, who married the daughter of an Egyptian priest (Gen. xli. 45), could in some respects be considered as Egyptian. According to Strabo, the Hebrews left Egypt with their free will, whilst the other profane historians describe the Exodus generally as an expulsion.

VI. DIODORUS (of Sicily, in the time of Caesar and Augustus) relates, that "Antiochus Epiphanes, after having taken Jerusalem, was most urgently entreated, by many of his friends, to destroy that town, and to devastate the whole country. For the Jews, they said, were a people which alone of all other nations, repudiates every alliance or friendship with others; their forefathers had been expelled from Egypt as impious men, and as creatures hateful to the gods, especially on account of their leprosy, and had then settled in the vicinity of Jerusalem." But in another passage he writes, that "a pestilence once broke out in Egypt, in consequence of the many foreigners who refused to revere the native gods; these strangers were therefore expelled; the more distinguished and vigorous of them emigrated, under the leadership of Danaus and Cadmus, to Greece, whilst the rest marched, under Moses, to Judea, which was at that time quite desolate, but where Moses built Jerusalem and the temple, and organized the state by peculiar laws." The chronology is here stated with correctness, but, in all other respects, these two accounts of Diodorus share the mistakes of both Manetho and Chaeremon; and the invidiousness with which the Israelites are mentioned must be attributed to the spirit of intolerance peculiar to that time, and to the hostile disposition of Antiochus Epiphanes, who vied with Pharaoh in cruelty against the Jews and surpassed him.

VII.-APION (about 40 A.C., who follows Lysimachus) says: "That Moses, of Heliopolis, led leprous, lame and blind Jews out of Egypt, in the first year of the seventh Olympiad, in which he asserts, the Phoenicians built Carthage, and arrived, after a journey of six days, safely in Judea." Josephus, who severely criticises and ridicules this fabulous statement of Apion, remarks, concerning the chronology, that Hiram, the contemporary of Solomon, lived above 150 years earlier than the building of Carthage.

VIII. The most remarkable is the account given by TACITUS, perhaps the most eminent historian of antiquity, whose sagacity, impartiality, and calm estimation of the circumstances and events, generally entitle him to be considered as a most competent authority, but who advances, with regard to the Israelites, nearly the same confused fables which Lysimachus offers, although it must have

been very easy for him, considering the time in which he lived (60-117 A.C.) to obtain the most authentic information concerning that remarkable nation. He first enumerates (Hist. v. 2) the different ancient opinions concerning the origin of the Jews, who are described either as Cretans, (Ideans, from mount Ida), or as Egyptians, (who had immigrated in the time of Isis, and escaped under the leadership of Hierosolymus and Judea), or as Ethiopians (who left their land in the reign of Cepheus), or as Assyrians (a wandering tribe, which once took possession of a part of Egypt, but soon found undisputed abodes in Palestine), or as the Solymi, mentioned in Homer, who called the city which they built Hierosolyma, from their own name. Then he continues, about the Exodus (v. 3): "Very many historians agree, that a hideous pestilence having broken out in Egypt, king Bocchoris, eager to obtain a remedy, consulted the oracle of Hammon, which commanded him to purify the land by expelling into other countries that people (the Israelites) which was hateful to the gods. They were, therefore, gathered from all parts, and being driven into a dreary desert, and breaking out into despair and lamentations, Moses alone, of all the exiles, exhorted them not to expect any assistance, either from the gods or from men, as they had been deserted by both, but only to trust themselves to him as a celestial leader by whose aid they had already conquered their present miseries. They assented, and commenced, in perfect ignorance, their planless march." The affinity of this narration of Tacitus with the account of Lysimachus will be easily perceived, and as to his conjecture concerning the descent of the Israelites from Crete, Egypt, Ethiopia, or Assyria, this contradictory uncertainty alone is sufficient to make it highly questionable, although the fourth account representing the Hebrews successively as Assyrian emigrants, sojourners in Egypt, and conquerors of Palestine, agrees essentially with the Biblical narration. these notices are to us an interesting and warning instance with what careful consideration the remarks of ancient writers concerning the origin and history of foreign nations are to be read and used.1

But

1 The origin and character of the Christians are not treated with greater consideration by Tacitus, who narrates, that Nero charged with having caused the conflagration of Rome "those who are commonly called