1
I SUPPOSE that by my books of the Antiquity of the Jews, most excellent
Epaphroditus, 2
have made it evident to those who peruse them, that our Jewish nation is
of very great antiquity, and had a distinct subsistence of its own originally;
as also, I have therein declared how we came to inhabit this country wherein
we now live. Those Antiquities contain the history of five thousand years,
and are taken out of our sacred books, but are translated by me into the
Greek tongue. However, since I observe a considerable number of people
giving ear to the reproaches that are laid against us by those who bear
ill-will to us, and will not believe what I have written concerning the
antiquity of our nation, while they take it for a plain sign that our nation
is of a late date, because they are not so much as vouchsafed a bare mention
by the most famous historiographers among the Grecians. I therefore have
thought myself under an obligation to write somewhat briefly about these
subjects, in order to convict those that reproach us of spite and voluntary
falsehood, and to correct the ignorance of others, and withal to instruct
all those who are desirous of knowing the truth of what great antiquity
we really are. As for the witnesses whom I shall produce for the proof
of what I say, they shall be such as are esteemed to be of the greatest
reputation for truth, and the most skillful in the knowledge of all antiquity
by the Greeks themselves. I will also show, that those who have written
so reproachfully and falsely about us are to be convicted by what they
have written themselves to the contrary. I shall also endeavor to give
an account of the reasons why it hath so happened, that there have not
been a great number of Greeks who have made mention of our nation in their
histories. I will, however, bring those Grecians to light who have not
omitted such our history, for the sake of those that either do not know
them, or pretend not to know them already.