Chapter XXXVIII.—The Egyptians Place Moses in the Reign of Inachus.

Of the Egyptians also there are accurate chronicles. Ptolemy, not the king, but a priest of Mendes, is the interpreter of their affairs. This writer, narrating the acts of the kings, says that the departure of the Jews from Egypt to the places whither they went occurred in the time of king Amosis, under the leadership of Moses. He thus speaks: “Amosis lived in the time of king Inachus.” After him, Apion the grammarian, a man most highly esteemed, in the fourth book of his Ægyptiaca (there are five books of his), besides many other things, says that Amosis destroyed Avaris in the time of the Argive Inachus, as the Mendesian Ptolemy wrote in his annals. But the time from Inachus to the taking of Troy occupies twenty generations. The steps of the demonstration are the following:—

38.1 Αἰγυπτίων δέ εἰσιν ἀκριβεῖς χρόνων ἀναγραφαί, καὶ τῶν κατ' αὐτοὺς γραμμάτων ἑρμηνεύς ἐστι Πτολεμαῖος, οὐχ ὁ βασιλεύς, ἱερεὺς δὲ Μένδητος. οὗτος τὰς τῶν βασιλέων πράξεις ἐκτιθέμενος κατ' Ἄμωσιν Αἰγύπτου βασιλέα γεγονέναι Ἰουδαίοις φησὶ τὴν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου πορείαν εἰς ἅπερ ἤθελον χωρία, Μωυσέως ἡγουμένου. λέγει δὲ οὕτως· _ὁ_ _δ_ὲ_ _ _ _Α_μ_ω_σ_ι_ς_ _ἐ_γ_έ_νετο κατ' Ἴναχον βασιλέα. μετὰ δὲ τοῦτον Ἀπίων ὁ γραμματικὸς ἀνὴρ δοκιμώτατος, ἐν τῇ τετάρτῃ τῶν Αἰγυπτιακῶν (πέντε δέ εἰσιν αὐτῷ γραφαί) πολλὰ μὲν καὶ ἄλλα, φησὶ δὲ καὶ ὅτι _κ_α_τ_έ_σ_κ_α_ψ_ε_ _τ_ὴ_ν_ _ _̓_Α_ο_υ_α_ρ_ί_α_ν_ _ _ _Α_μ_ω_σ_ι_ς_ _κ_α_τ_ὰ_ _τ_ὸ_ν_ _ _̓_Α_ρ_γ_ε_ῖ_ο_ν_ _γ_ε_ν_όμενος Ἴναχον, ὡς ἐν τοῖς Χρόνοις ἀνέγραψεν ὁ Μενδήσιος Πτολεμαῖος. ὁ δὲ ἀπ' Ἰνάχου 38.2 χρόνος ἄχρι τῆς Ἰλίου ἁλώσεως ἀποπληροῖ γενεὰς εἴκοσι καὶ τὰ τῆς ἀποδείξεως τοῦτον ἔχει τὸν τρόπον.