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Going down, the God-seer Moses, in the things after the flood, says thus: “And Cush begat Nimrod. He began to be a giant upon the earth. He was a giant hunter before the Lord. Therefore they will say: As Nimrod the giant. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babylon, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and built Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah. this is the great city.” And it is clear from these things that the beginning of the kingdom of the Babylonians, that is, the Chaldeans, came from Nimrod, who flourished 630 years after the flood. And it is necessary for those who correctly attend to the divine scriptures not to accept any Chaldean or Egyptian history before the flood that is reported in writing, even if, stealing some things about the flood and the larnax, that is, the ark, from the divinely inspired scriptures, they made them their own, through which the more simple-minded, also paying attention to the other nonsense, are easily harmed, I speak of the myriads of years reckoned by sars, and ners, and sosses. In which they also speak about the Annedoti, certain creatures, part fish-shaped and part man-shaped, living on land by day and taking no food, but by night plunging into the sea, and handing over to men letters and the experiences of learning and of arts and the founding of cities and the establishment of temples and the introduction of laws and the gatherings of seeds; and they say that from that time nothing has been invented among men. Seeing all these things and many others full of much idle talk and inconsistent with our divine scriptures, those who have written Christian histories, I wonder how they brought themselves to submit to a canonical arrangement things that are altogether unworthy of any remembrance, whom I think it superfluous to name, out of respect for the men, on account of whom I too am compelled to use the same arrangement, so that the work might not seem incomplete. Therefore, since the Chaldean beginning 17 from Nimrod has been demonstrated, it is clearly also co-demonstrated that the things about the Egyptian dynasties written by Manetho of Sebennytus for Ptolemy Philadelphus are full of falsehood and fabricated in imitation of Berossus at about the same time, or a little later; nevertheless, though they are unprofitable, they will be arranged from what has been canonized by many historians. In the 1058th year of the world the Watchers descended and continued in the transgression until the flood. The second cycle of 532 years was completed, and the third began in the 1065th year of the world, the 270th of Mahalalel. One who carefully considers the two underlying canons will immediately have full assurance that the conception of both of these is fabricated, as has been said before, that of Berossus and that of Manetho, wanting to glorify his own nation, the one that of the Chaldeans, the other that of the Egyptians. And let one wonder how they were not ashamed to set the beginning of their monstrous writings from one and the same year, but Berossus recorded through sars and ners and sosses, of which the sar signifies a period of 3600 years, the ner 600 years, and the sossos 60. And he compiled 120 sars through ten kings, that is, a period of 43 myriads and 2000 years. And some of our historians have conjecturally reckoned these years as days, blaming Eusebius son of Pamphilus for not understanding the years of the sars as days. But they blame him in vain in this. For how could he, being a man of great learning and knowing the Greek opinion that confessed many ages, that is, myriads of years to have passed from the cosmic genesis, according to their mythical movement of the zodiac in the opposite direction from the beginning of Aries and back to it again? And what need did they have to reconcile falsehood with truth? Of Africanus concerning the mythical chronology of the Egyptians and Chaldeans The Egyptians therefore, in a more boastful manner, superfluous periods of time and myriads

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ὑποκατιὼν ὁ θεόπτης Μωϋσῆς ἐν τοῖς μετὰ τὸν κατακλυσμὸν οὕτω φησί· «Χοὺς δὲ ἐγέννησε τὸν Νεβρώδ. οὗτος ἤρξατο εἶναι γίγας ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. οὗτος ἦν γίγας κυνηγὸς ἔναντι κυρίου. διὰ τοῦτο ἐροῦσιν· ὡς Νεβρὼδ γίγας. καὶ ἐγένετο ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ Βαβυλών, Ὀρὲχ καὶ Ἀρχὰδ καὶ Χαλάνη ἐν τῇ γῇ Σεναάρ. ἐκ τῆς γῆς ἐκείνης ἐξῆλθεν Ἀσούρ, καὶ ᾠκοδόμησε τὴν Νινευὴ καὶ τὴν Ῥοβὼθ πόλιν καὶ τὴν Χαλάχ. αὕτη ἡ πόλις ἡ μεγάλη.» φανερὸν δὲ ἐκ τούτων ὅτι ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς τῶν Βαβυλωνίων βασιλείας ἤτοι Χαλδαίων ἀπὸ Νεβρὼδ τοῦ μετὰ τὸν κατακλυσμὸν εἰς ἔτη χλʹ ἀκμάσαντος γέγονε. καὶ χρὴ πᾶσαν ἱστορίαν Χαλδαϊκὴν ἢ Αἰγυπτιακὴν πρὸ τοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ τῇ γραφῇ ἀπαγγελλομένην μὴ ἀποδέχεσθαι τοὺς προσέχοντας ὀρθῶς ταῖς θείαις γραφαῖς, εἰ καί τινα περὶ κατακλυσμοῦ καὶ λάρνακος ἤτοι κιβωτοῦ κλέψαντες ἐκ τῶν θεοπνεύστων γραφῶν ἰδιοποιήσαντο, δι' ὧν οἱ ἁπλούστε ροι καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς ληρήμασι προσέχοντες εὐχερῶς βλάπτονται, λέγω δὲ περὶ μυριάδων ἐτῶν διὰ σάρων καὶ νήρων καὶ σώσσων καταλεγομένων. ἐν οἷς καὶ περὶ ἀννιδοτίων φάσκουσι ζῴων τινῶν ἰχθυομόρφων ἐν μέρει καὶ ἀνθρωπομόρφων, ἡμέρας μὲν ἐν τῇ γῇ διαιτωμένων καὶ μηδεμίαν τροφὴν προσφερομένων, νυκτὸς δὲ ἐν τῷ πελάγει καταδυνόντων, παραδιδόντων τε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις γράμματα καὶ μαθημάτων καὶ τεχνῶν ἐμπειρίας καὶ πόλεων συνοικισμοὺς καὶ ἱερῶν ἱδρύσεις καὶ νόμων εἰσηγήσεις σπερμάτων τε συναγωγάς· καὶ ἀπὸ τότε φασὶ χρόνους μηδὲν παρὰ ἀνθρώποις ἐφευ ρεθῆναι. ἅτινα πάντα καὶ ἄλλα πλεῖστα πολλῆς ἀδολεσχίας γέμοντα ὁρῶν τες καὶ ταῖς θείαις ἡμῶν γραφαῖς ἀνακόλουθα οἱ τὰς Χριστιανικὰς ἱστο ρίας συγγράψαντες, θαυμάζω πῶς κατεδέξαντο ὅλως κανονικῇ στοιχειώσει ὑποβαλεῖν ἀνάξια πάσης ὄντα μνήμης, οὓς κατ' ὄνομα λέγειν περισσὸν ἡγοῦμαι αἰδοῖ τῶν ἀνδρῶν, δι' οὓς ἀναγκάζομαι κἀγὼ τῇ αὐτῇ στοιχειώσει χρήσασθαι, ἵνα μὴ δόξῃ ἀτελὲς εἶναι τὸ πόνημα. τῆς οὖν Χαλδαϊκῆς ἀρχῆς 17 ἀπὸ Νεβρὼδ ἀποδεδειγμένης συναποδέδεικται δηλονότι καὶ τὰ περὶ τῶν Αἰγυπτιακῶν δυναστειῶν ὑπὸ Μανεθῶ τοῦ Σεβεννύτου πρὸς Πτολεμαῖον τὸν Φιλάδελφον συγγεγραμμένα πλήρη ψεύδους καὶ κατὰ μίμησιν Βηρώσ σου πεπλασμένα κατὰ τοὺς αὐτοὺς σχεδόν που χρόνους ἢ μικρὸν ὕστερον· πλὴν καὶ αὐτὰ ἀνωφελῆ ὄντα στοιχειωθήσεται ἐκ τῶν παρὰ πολλοῖς ἱστορικοῖς κανονισθέντων. Τῷ ανηʹ ἔτει τοῦ κόσμου οἱ ἐγρήγοροι κατῆλθον καὶ διήρκεσαν ἐν τῇ παραβάσει ἕως τοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ. Ὁ δεύτερος κύκλος τῶν φλβʹ ἐτῶν ἐπληρώθη, καὶ ἤρξατο ὁ τρίτος τῷ αξεʹ ἔτει τοῦ κόσμου, σοʹ τοῦ Μαλελεήλ. Ὁ ἀκριβῶς ἐφιστάνων τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις δυσὶ κανονίοις αὐτόθεν ἕξει πᾶσαν πληροφορίαν ὅτι ἐπίπλαστός ἐστιν ἡ τούτων ἐπίνοια ἀμφοτέρων, ὡς προείρηται, τοῦ τε Βηρώσσου καὶ τοῦ Μανεθῶ τὸ ἴδιον ἔθνος θέλοντος δοξάσαι, τοῦ μὲν τὸ τῶν Χαλδαίων, τοῦ δὲ τὸ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων. θαυμαζέτω δὲ πῶς οὐκ ᾐσχύνθησαν ἀφ' ἑνὸς καὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἔτους ἀρχὴν θέσθαι ταῖς τερατώδεσιν αὐτῶν συγγραφαῖς, ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν Βήρωσσος διὰ σάρων καὶ νή ρων καὶ σώσσων ἀνεγράψατο, ὧν ὁ μὲν σάρος γχʹ ἐτῶν χρόνον σημαίνει, ὁ δὲ νῆρος ἐτῶν χʹ, ὁ δὲ σῶσσος ξʹ. καὶ συνῆξε σάρους ρκʹ διὰ βασιλέων δέκα, ἤτοι χρόνον ἐτῶν μυριάδων μγʹ καὶ β. ταῦτα δὲ ἔτη τινὲς τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς ἱστορικῶν ἡμέρας ἐλογίσαντο στοχαστικῶς μεμψάμενοι τὸν Παμφίλου Εὐσέβιον, ὡς μὴ νοήσαντα τὰ ἔτη τῶν σάρων ἡμέρας. μάτην δὲ αὐτὸν ἐν τούτῳ μέμφονται. πῶς γὰρ τὸ μὴ ὂν εἶχε νοῆσαι πολυμαθὴς ὢν καὶ εἰδὼς τὴν Ἑλληνικὴν δόξαν πολλοὺς αἰῶνας ὁμολογοῦσαν, ἤτοι μυριάδας ἐτῶν παρεληλυθέναι ἀπὸ τῆς κοσμικῆς γενέσεως κατὰ τὴν παρ' αὐτοῖς μυθικὴν τοῦ ζωδιακοῦ ἐπὶ τὰ ἐναντία κίνησιν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρχῆς τοῦ κριοῦ καὶ πάλιν εἰς αὐτὴν ἀποκατάστασιν; ποίαν δὲ αὐτοὶ ἀνάγκην εἶχον συμβιβάζειν τὸ ψεῦδος τῇ ἀληθείᾳ; Ἀφρικανοῦ περὶ τῆς τῶν Αἰγυπτίων καὶ Χαλδαίων μυθώδους χρονολογίασ Αἰγύπτιοι μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ τὸ κομπωδέστερον χρόνων περιττὰς περιόδους καὶ μυριάδας