“Ex quibus omnibus aperte demonstrari potest Hebræos olim usque a Davidis, et Salmonis ætate totum pene terrarum orbem replenisse: eosdemque tributa, nec pauca, nec parvi precii quot annis manu supremi tributorum Principis misisse Hierosolymam.”—Villalpandus in Ezechielum, vol. ii., part ii., p. 544.
E.
Polybius, Ptolemy, Pliny, and Strabo have mentioned a people inhabiting Andalusia and the modern Algarve, differing from all their neighbours, speaking a peculiar language, using refined grammatical rules, and possessing inscribed monuments of antiquity, as also poems, and even laws in verse. Strabo mentions that they say “their laws are of 6,000 years.” Palmerius proposes to read “six thousand verses,” by [♦]introducing ἐπῶν instead of ἐτῶν. Men of great erudition and research maintained that that people was a Jewish population, descendants of the old colonists in the times of Solomon, Amaziah, and Nebuchadnezzar. They also maintained that the books of Genesis, Exodus, and Deuteronomy contained poems, to which may be added the Psalms and Proverbs. The above-mentioned district also included Tarshish; and many other arguments were advanced to prove that it was a Jewish colony. However, the theory is rejected by others, and I must say that I think on too slender grounds. It is argued that “these people are denominated Turdetani and Turduli, by authors whose information was extensive upon national peculiarities, and who were at least so well acquainted with the Jews as to have been able to pronounce at once, if warranted by facts, that these Andalusians were of that nation.” Now, it might as well be argued that the people whom Haman sought to destroy were no Jews, because he did not pronounce them so at once. He only “said unto King Ahasuerus, there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people, neither keep they the king’s laws, therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them.”—Esther iii. 8. The acquaintance of the heathen authors with the history of the Jews, is nothing more than an assumption. Trogus Pompeius, a writer in the time of Augustus, professes to have been best acquainted with the Jews, indeed, at that time he ought to have been so. He wrote the history of all nations in forty-five volumes, of which we have only an abridgment by Justin. Judge from the following chapter of the acquaintance which the heathen had with Jewish history:—
[♦] ‘iutroducing’ replaced with ‘introducing’
“Namque Judæis origo Damascena, Syriæ nobilissima civitas; unde et Assyriis regibus genus ex regina Semirami fuit. Nomen urbi a Damasco rege inditum; in cujus honorem Syrii sepulcrum Arathis uxoris ejus pro templo coluere, deamque exinde sanctissimæ religionis habent. Post Damascum Azelus, mox Adores et Abraham et Israhel reges fuere. Sed Israhelem felix decem filiorum proventus majoribus suis clariorem fecit. Itaque populum in decem regna divisum filiis tradidit, omnesque ex nomine Judæ, qui post divisionem decesserat, Judæos appellavit; colique ejus memoriam ab omnibus jussit, cujus portio omnibus accesserat. Minimus ætate inter fratres Joseph fuit; cujus excellens ingenium veriti fratres, clam inceptum peregrinis mercatoribus vendiderunt. A quibus deportatus in Ægyptum, cum magicas ibi artes solerti ingenio percepisset, brevi ipsi regi percarus fuit. Nam et prodigiorum sagacissimus erat, et somniorum primus intelligentiam condidit; nihilque divini juris humanique ei incognitum videbatur: adeo, ut etiam sterilitatem agrorum ante multos annos providerit; perissetque omnis Ægyptus fame, nisi monitu ejus rex edicto servari per multos annos fruges jussisset; tantaque experimenta ejus fuerunt, ut non ab homine, sed a Deo responsa dari viderentur. Filius ejus Moses fuit, quem præter paternæ scientiæ hereditatem, etiam formæ pulcritudo commendabat. Sed Ægypti, quum scabiem et vitiliginem paterentur, responso moniti, eum cum ægris, ne pestis ad plures serperet, terminis Ægypti pellunt. Dux igitur exsulum factus, sacra Ægyptiorum furto abstulit: quæ repetentes armis Ægyptii, domum redire tempestatibus compulsi sunt. Itaque Moses Damascena antiqua patria repetita montem Synæ occupat; quo septem dierum jejunio per deserta Arabiæ cum populo suo fatigatus, cum tandem venisset, septimum diem more gentis Sabbatum appellatum in omne ævum jejunio sacravit, quoniam illa dies famem illis erroremque finierat. Et quoniam metu contagionis pulsos se ab Ægypto meminerant, ne eadem causa invisi apud incolas forent, caverunt, ne cum peregrinis communicarent: quod ex causa factum paulatim in disciplinam religionemque convertit. Post Mosen etiam filius ejus Aruas, sacerdos sacris Ægyptiis, mox rex creatur; semperque exinde hic mos apud Judæos fuit, ut eosdem, reges et sacerdotes haberent; quorum justitia religione permixta, incredibile quantum coaluere.”—Justini, lib. xxxvi., cap. ii.
F.
“Et Britanniam Strabo passim appellat Βρεττανικην, et uno T Βρετανικην. Porro Bretanica mihi quidem nihil videtur esse aliud quam ברת־אנך Barat-anac, id est, ager, seu terra stanni et plumbi. ברא bara, et in regimine ברת barat Syris agrum esse sciunt omnes, et ex Daniele abunde notum.... Et אנך anac stannum aut plumbum Hebræi explicant in Amos 7, 7. Nempe utrumque significat.... Mihi docuisse sufficit ab horum metallorum fœcunditate has insulas, ut a Græcis Cassiteridas, ita a Phœnicibus dictas fuisse ברת־אנך barat anac agrum stanni et plumbi.”—Samuel Bochart, vol. i., col. 647–650.