Against Apion

Against Apion

Against Apion (lat. Contra Apionem or In Apionem) was a polemical work written by Flavius Josephus as a defense of Judaism as a classical religion and philosophy, stressing its antiquity against what he perceived as more recent traditions of the Greeks.

Text

Against Apion 1:8 also defines which books he viewed as being in the Jewish Scriptures:

“ For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing from and contradicting one another, [as the Greeks have,] but only twenty-two books, (8) which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine; and of them five belong to Moses, which contain his laws and the traditions of the origin of mankind till his death. This interval of time was little short of three thousand years; but as to the time from the death of Moses till the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, who reigned after Xerxes, the prophets, who were after Moses, wrote down what was done in their times in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and precepts for the conduct of human life. It is true, our history hath been written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that time; and how firmly we have given credit to these books of our own nation is evident by what we do; for during so many ages as have already passed, no one has been so bold as either to add any thing to them, to take any thing from them, or to make any change in them; but it is become natural to all Jews immediately, and from their very birth, to esteem these books to contain Divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and, if occasion be willingly to die for them. ”

Some anti-Semitic allegations attributed by Josephus to Apion (who Josephus states is not Greek), and myths as old as Manetho's are exposed there as well, though there was apparently some confusion between Manetho's references to the Hyksos and the Hebrews. Assuming that Josephus was completely familiar with Manetho's points, Manetho may have simply written a blanket condemnation of all Semitic peoples. The Hyksos were possibly Semites of Western Asian origin. Their exact ethnic or national identity is unknown.

Josephus on Apion's blood libel (Against Apion 2:8):

“ Apion becomes other men's prophet upon this occasion, and says that "Antiochus found in our temple a bed, and a man lying upon it, with a small table before him, full of dainties, from the [fishes of the] sea, and the fowls of the dry land... he fell down upon his knees, and begged to be released; and that when the king bid him sit down, and tell him who he was, and why he dwelt there, and what was the meaning of those various sorts of food that were set before him the man made a lamentable complaint, and with sighs, and tears in his eyes, gave him this account of the distress he was in; and said that he was a Greek and that as he went over this province, in order to get his living, he was seized upon by foreigners, on a sudden, and brought to this temple, and shut up therein, and was seen by nobody, but was fattened by these curious provisions thus set before him; and that truly at the first such unexpected advantages seemed to him matter of great joy; that after a while, he inquired of the servants that came to him and was by them informed that it was in order to the fulfilling a law of the Jews, which they must not tell him, that he was thus fed; and that they did the same at a set time every year: that they used to catch a Greek foreigner, and fat him thus up every year, and then lead him to a certain wood, and kill him, and sacrifice with their accustomed solemnities, and taste of his entrails, and take an oath upon this sacrificing a Greek, that they would ever be at enmity with the Greeks; and that then they threw the remaining parts of the miserable wretch into a certain pit."

Now this is such a most tragical fable as is full of nothing but cruelty and impudence; how comes it about that we take an oath, and conspire only against the Grecians, and that by the effusion of their blood also? Or how is it possible that all the Jews should get together to these sacrifices, and the entrails of one man should be sufficient for so many thousands to taste of them, as Apion pretends? Or why did not the king carry this man, whosoever he was, and whatsoever was his name, [which is not set down in Apion's book,] with great pomp back into his own country? when he might thereby have been esteemed a religious person himself, and a mighty lover of the Greeks, and might thereby have procured himself great assistance from all men against that hatred the Jews bore to him. But I leave this matter; for the proper way of confuting fools is not to use bare words, but to appeal to the things themselves that make against them...

 ”

References

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Apion — (20s BC c. 45 AD), Graeco Egyptian grammarian, sophist and commentator on Homer, was born at the Siwa Oasis, and flourished in the first half of the 1st century AD.He studied at Alexandria, and headed one of the deputations sent to Caligula (in… …   Wikipedia

  • APION° — (first century C.E.), Greek rhetorician; anti Jewish propagandist in Alexandria, against whom josephus wrote his Contra Apionem. Evidently of Egyptian origin, Apion was born at the end of the first century B.C.E. or the beginning of the first… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Blood libel against Jews — Blood libels against Jews are false accusations that Jews use human blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays. Although the first known instance of blood libel against Jews was in the writings of Apion, an early 1st century …   Wikipedia

  • Menander of Ephesus — For other meanings of Menander, see Menander (disambiguation). Menander of Ephesus (c. early 2nd century BC) was the historian whose lost work on the history of Tyre was used by Josephus, who quotes Menander s list of kings of Tyre in his… …   Wikipedia

  • APOLOGETICS — introduction against hellenism in the talmud and midrash in relation to christianity medieval apologetics sefer ha kuzari islam spain and southern france northern france 14TH AND 15TH CENTURY SPAIN italy the rest of europe In the 18th Century In… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Josephus — For other uses, see Josephus (disambiguation). A Roman portrait bust said to be of Josephus[1] Titus Flavius Josephus (37 – c. A.D. 100),[2] also called Joseph ben Matityahu (Bibl …   Wikipedia

  • Timeline of antisemitism — This timeline of antisemitism chronicles the facts of antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group. It includes events in the history of antisemitic thought, actions taken to combat or relieve the… …   Wikipedia

  • Origins of the Hyksos — The Hyksos rulers of the fifteenth dynasty of Egypt were of non Egyptian origin. There are various hypotheses as to their ethnic identity. Most archaeologists describe the Hyksos as Semitic peoples from Asia since the names of their rulers such… …   Wikipedia

  • Josephus, Flavius — orig. Joseph Ben Matthias born AD 37/38, Jerusalem died с 100, Rome Jewish priest, scholar, and historian. Born of a priestly family, Josephus joined the Pharisees. While on a diplomatic mission he was impressed by the culture and sophistication… …   Universalium

  • JOSEPHUS FLAVIUS — (c. 37–after 100 C.E.), Jewish historian and one of the chief representatives of Jewish Hellenistic literature. BIOGRAPHY Early Life Born in Jerusalem into an aristocratic priestly family belonging to the mishmeret of Jehoiarib, through his… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”