Chapter X—Training and inspiration of Moses.33    [Consult the ponderous learning of Warburton’s Divine Legation, passim.]

These things, ye men of Greece, have been recorded in writing concerning the antiquity of Moses by those who were not of our religion; and they said that they learned all these things from the Egyptian priests, among whom Moses was not only born, but also was thought worthy of partaking of all the education of the Egyptians, on account of his being adopted by the king’s daughter as her son; and for the same reason was thought worthy of great attention, as the wisest of the historians relate, who have chosen to record his life and actions, and the rank of his descent, —I speak of Philo and Josephus. For these, in their narration of the history of the Jews, say that Moses was sprung from the race of the Chaldæans, and that he was born in Egypt when his forefathers had migrated on account of famine from Phœnicia to that country; and him God chose to honour on account of his exceeding virtue, and judged him worthy to become the leader and lawgiver of his own race, when He thought it right that the people of the Hebrews should return out of Egypt into their own land. To him first did God communicate that divine and prophetic gift which in those days descended upon the holy men, and him also did He first furnish that he might be our teacher in religion, and then after him the rest of the prophets, who both obtained the same gift as he, and taught us the same doctrines concerning the same subjects. These we assert to have been our teachers, who taught us nothing from their own human conception, but from the gift vouchsafed to them by God from above.

Ταῦτα, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἕλληνες, οἱ ἔξωθεν τῆς ἡμετέρας θεοσεβείας περὶ τῆς ἀρχαιότητος Μωϋσέως ἱστοροῦντες γεγράφασι, καὶ ταῦτα πάντα παρ' Αἰγυπτίων ἱερέων μεμαθηκέναι φήσαντες, παρ' οἷς οὐκ ἐτέχθη Μωϋσῆς μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάσης τῆς Αἰγυπτίων παιδεύσεως μετασχεῖν ἠξιώθη, διὰ τὸ ὑπὸ θυγατρὸς βασιλέως εἰς παιδὸς ᾠκειῶσθαι χώραν καὶ διὰ τὴν προειρημένην πρόφασιν πολλῆς ἠξιώσθαι σπουδῆς, ὡς ἱστοροῦσιν οἱ σοφώτατοι τῶν ἱστοριογράφων, οἱ καὶ τὸν βίον αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰς πράξεις καὶ τὸ τοῦ γένους ἀξίωμα ἀναγράψασθαι προελόμενοι, Φίλων τε καὶ Ἰώσηπος. Οὗτοι γάρ, τὰς Ἰουδαίων ἱστοροῦντες πράξεις, ἀπὸ μὲν τοῦ Χαλδαίων γένους τὸν Μωϋσέα γεγενῆσθαί φασι: τῶν δὲ προγόνων αὐτοῦ διὰ λιμοῦ πρόφασιν ἀπὸ τῆς Φοινίκης ἐπὶ τὴν Αἴγυπτον μεταναστάντων ἐκεῖ τὸν ἄνδρα τετέχθαι φασίν, ὃν δι' ὑπερβάλλουσαν ἀρετὴν ὁ θεὸς τιμῆσαι προὔθετο, καὶ ἄρχοντα καὶ στρατηγὸν καὶ νομοθέτην γενέσθαι τοῦ ἑαυτοῦ γένους ἠξίωσεν, ὁπηνίκα ἀπὸ τῆς Αἰγύπτου τὸ τῶν Ἑβραίων πλῆθος ἐπὶ τὴν οἰκείαν χώραν ἐπανελθεῖν ἐδικαίωσεν. Τούτῳ πρῶτον ὁ θεὸς καὶ τὴν ἄνωθεν ἐπὶ τοὺς ἁγίους ἄνδρας θείαν καὶ προφητικὴν τηνικαῦτα κατιοῦσαν παρέσχε δωρεάν, καὶ πρῶτον τῆς θεοσεβείας ἡμῶν διδάσκαλον γενέσθαι παρεσκεύασεν, εἶτα μετ' αὐτὸν τοὺς λοιποὺς προφήτας, τοὺς καὶ αὐτοὺς τῆς αὐτῆς αὐτῷ τυχόντας δωρεᾶς καὶ τὰ αὐτὰ περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν διδάξαντας ἡμᾶς. Τούτους ἡμεῖς τῆς ἡμετέρας θρησκείας διδασκάλους γεγενῆσθαί φαμεν, μηδὲν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης αὐτῶν διανοίας διδάξαντας ἡμᾶς, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῆς ἄνωθεν αὐτοῖς παρὰ θεοῦ δοθείσης δωρεᾶς.