Eusebius Corrupted the Writings of Clement

[Stuart]

None are pristine. You create a straw man because I reject your analysis, by making false claims about my positions. This is why I call you an unscrupulous liar.

You do need therapy. On that I agree

[Secret Alias]

But not you. Those who deny they need therapy often need it the most.

[Secret Alias]

Another interesting stretch of text is that section we have been examining is the portion later cited by Eusebius in his Preparation for the Gospel Book Ten which reads:

'THE subject has indeed been carefully discussed by Tatian in his Discourse to the Greeks, and by Cassian in the first book of his Exegetics. But nevertheless my commentary demands that I also should run over what has been said upon the topic.

'Apion then the grammarian, who was surnamed Pleistonices, in the fourth Book of his Egyptian Histories, although being an Egyptian by birth he was so spitefully disposed towards the Hebrews as to have composed a book Against the Jews, when he mentions Amosis the king of Egypt and the transactions of his time, brings forward Ptolemaeus of Mendes as a witness.

'And his language is as follows:

'"But Avaris was demolished by Amosis, who lived in the time of Inachus the Argive, as Ptolemaeus of Mendes recorded in his Chronology."

'Now this Ptolemaeus was a priest, who published The Acts of the Kings of Egypt in three whole books, and says that the departure of the Jews out of Egypt under Moses as their leader took place in the time of Amosis king of Egypt; from which, it is clearly seen that Moses flourished in the time of Inachus.

'Now Dionysius of Halicarnassus teaches us in his Chronology that the history of Argos, I mean the history from Inachus downwards, is mentioned as older than any Hellenic history.

'Forty generations later than this is the Athenian history, beginning from Cecrops the so-called aboriginal of double sex, as Tatian says in so many words: and nine generations later the history of Arcadia from the time of Pelasgus, who also is called an aboriginal.

'More recent than this last by other fifty-two generations is the history of Phthiotis from the time of Deucalion. From Inachus to the time of the Trojan war twenty or twenty-one generations are reckoned, four hundred years, we may say, and more.

'And whether the Assyrian history is many years earlier than the Hellenic, will appear from what Ctesias says. In the four hundred and second year of the Assyrian empire, and in the thirty-second year of the reign of Beluchus the eighth, the movement of Moses out of Egypt took place in the time of Amosis king of Egypt, and of Inachus king of Argos.

'And in Hellas in the time of Phoroneus the successor of Inachus the flood of Ogyges occurred, and the reign in Sicyon, of Aegialeus first, then of Europs, and then of Telchis, and in Crete the reign of Cres.

'For Acusilaus says that Phoroneus was the first man: whence also the author of the poem "Phoronis" says that he was "the father of mortal men."

'Hence Plato in the Timaeus, following Acusilaus, writes: "And once when he wished to lead them on to a discussion about antiquity, he said that he attempted to speak of the most ancient things in this city, about Phoroneus who was called 'the first' man, and about Niobe, and the events that followed the flood." 45

'Contemporary with Phorbas was Actaeus, from whom Attica was called Actaea: and contemporary with Triopas were Prometheus, and Atlas, and Epimetheus, and the biform Cecrops, and Io: in the time of Crotopus there was Phaethon's conflagration, and the flood of Deucalion: and in the time of Sthenelaus was the reign of Amphictyon, and the arrival of Danaus in the Peloponnese, and the colonization of Dardania by Dardanus, whom Homer calls

"The first-born son of cloud-compelling Zeus," 46

and the abduction of Europa from Crete to Phoenicia.

'In the time of Lynceus was the rape of Core, and the foundation of the sanctuary at Eleusis, and the husbandry of Triptolemus, and the arrival of Cadmus in Thebes, and the reign of Minos. In the time of Proetus there was the war of Eumolpus against the Athenians: and in the time of Acrisius the migration of Pelops from Phrygia, and the arrival of Ion in Athens, and the second Cecrops, and the exploits of Perseus and Dionysus, and also Orpheus and Musaeus.

'And in the eighteenth year of the reign of Agamemnon Troy was taken, in the first year of the reign in Athens of Demophon son of Theseus, on the twelfth day of the month Thargelion, as Dionysius the Argive says.

'But Agius and Dercylus in their third Book say, on the eighth day of the last decade of the month Panemus: Hellanicus says, on the twelfth of Thargelion; and some of the writers of Athenian history say, on the eighth of the last decade, in the last year of the reign of Menestheus, at the full moon. The poet who wrote The Little Iliad says:

"At midnight, when the moon was rising bright." 47

But others say, on the same day of the month Scirophorion.

'Now Theseus, who was a rival of Hercules, is older than the Trojan war by one generation: Homer at least mentions Tlepolemus, who was the son of Hercules, as having joined in the expedition against Troy.

'Moses therefore is shown to be six hundred and four years older than the deification of Dionysus, if at least he was deified in the thirty-second year of the reign of Perseus, as Apollodorus says in his Chronicles.

'And from Dionysus to Hercules and the chiefs who sailed in the Argo with Jason, there are sixty-three years comprised. Asclepius too and the Dioscuri sailed with them, as Apollonius Rhodius testifies in the Argonautica.48

'From the reign of Hercules in Argos to the deification of Hercules himself and of Asclepius there are comprised thirty-eight years, according to Apollodorus the chronicler: and from that point to the deification of Castor and Pollux fifty-three years: and somewhere about this time was the capture of Troy.

'And if we are to believe the poet Hesiod, let us hear what he says:

"Admitted to the sacred couch of Zeus,
Fairest of Atlas' daughters, Maia bare
Renowned Hermes, herald of the Gods.
And linked with Zeus in sweetest bonds of love
Fair Semele conceived a glorious son,
Great Dionysus, joy of all mankind." 49

'Cadmus the father of Semele came to Thebes in the reign of Lynceus, and became the inventor of the Greek letters. And Triopas was contemporary with Isis in the seventh generation from Inachus.

'But there are some who say that she was called Io from her going (ἰένα) through all the earth in her wanderings: and Istrus in his book Of the migration of the Egyptians says that she was the daughter of Prometheus: and Prometheus was contemporary with Triopas, in the seventh generation after Moses; so that Moses would be earlier even than the origin of mankind was according to the Greeks.

'Now Leon, who wrote a treatise On the gods of Egypt, says that Isis was called by the Greeks Demeter, who is contemporary with Lynceus in the eleventh generation after Moses.

'Apis also the king of Argos was the founder of Memphis, as Aristippus says in the first Book of the Arcadica.

'Moreover Aristeas of Argos says that this Apis was surnamed Sarapis, and that it is he whom the Egyptians worship.

'But Nymphodorus of Amphipolis, in the third Book of The Customs of Asia, says that when Apis the bull died and was embalmed, he was deposited in a coffin (σορός) in the temple of the daemon who was worshipped there, and thence was called Soroapis and afterwards Sarapis. And Apis is the third from Inachus. 'Moreover Latona is contemporary with Tityus:

"For Leto erst he strove to violate,
The noble consort of immortal Zeus." 50

'And Tityus was contemporary with Tantalus. With good reason therefore the Boeotian Pindar writes:

"For late in time Apollo too was born." 51

'And no wonder, since he is found in company with Hercules serving Admetus

"A whole long year." 52

'Zethus too and Amphion, the inventors of music, lived about the age of Cadmus. And if any one tell us that Phemonoe was the first who uttered an oracle in verse to Acrisius, yet let him know that twenty-seven years after Phemonoe came Orpheus, and Musaeus, and Linus the teacher of Hercules.

'But Homer and Hesiod were much later than the Trojan war, and after them far later were the lawgivers among the Greeks, Lycurgus and Solon, and the Seven Sages, and Pherecydes of Syros, and the great Pythagoras, who lived some time later about the beginning of the Olympiads, as we proved.

'So then we have demonstrated that Moses was more ancient than most of the gods of the Greeks, and not merely than their so-called Sages and poets.'

This section requires Clement to have had at his disposal a rather extensive library to furnish all the quotes. The interesting thing for me at least is that it stands at the head of the entire section we just cited - what we might call, the 'chronology section' of Book One of the Stromata.

What is so odd of course is that the Stromata is not a chronology. Yet for some reason at the heart of Book One there is this massive section which basically lays out a series of chronological reckonings, which we have been examining here. Oddly enough the chronology itself starts with this section. Indeed it should be noted that Eusebius cites this section from Clement in chapter 10 of his Preparation as part of an extended argument about the antiquity of Moses. Yet as scholars have noted the Preparation as a whole is little more than a response to Celsus - Against Celsus being a work, ostensibly from Origen which we have demonstrated in another thread has been the subject of a systematic reworking by Eusebius. His terminology and language abounds in critical sections of Against Celsus and his Against Hierocles makes manifest that Celsus's claims about the lateness of Judaism and Christianity was very much on his mind.

My point here is to note that if - as we have already established with some degree of certainty - that Eusebius reworked the writings of Origen, it should not be surprising that the writings of Clement can be argued to have also been 'corrected' that the corrector would likely also have been Eusebius. Already this general idea is hinted in Jerome's attack against Rufinus - i.e. the Alexandrian Fathers and not just Origen were altered. The same notion arises in the Arian controversies in the writings of Athanasius - viz. the Arians allegedly altered the Alexandrian Fathers to make them support Arianism. But the overarching efforts of Eusebius against Celsus seem to have a much broader appeal. By re-constituting the Origen's response to Celsus Eusebius hoped to assist making Christianity more palatable to the Empire. Yet it has long been noted that echoes of Celsus and a Christian response to Celsus's ideas are also found in Clement. Could Clement have been re-constituted to help Eusebius in this fight too?

[Secret Alias]

This article is helping me make some more progress.
https://www.academia.edu/23019634/Justu ... _of_Israel In it the author making reference to the interrelation of the various chronicles notes that "n Contra Apionem 2.17 Apion is cited as explicitly dating the Exodus to the first year of the seventh Olympiad (= 752 B.C.E.), and, as Louis Feldman, among others, has pointed out, this contradicts the attribution of the Amosis (= Tethmosis) Exodus date to Apion." Hey wait a minute. 752 BCE is just one year more than the date of the founding of Rome which seems to be an obsession of Clement in the rest of the section.

[Secret Alias]

Feldman begins our journey into the world of Eusebian correction of ancient literature to suit his invented chronology:

According to Josephus (Against Apion 2.79) Apion had dated the Exodus in 753 B.C.E., whereas the Church Fathers Tatian, Clement, and Eusebius attribute to Apion a synchronism of Moses, Inachus, and Amosis and hence a date of 1976 B.C.E. He (Wacholder) suggests that Josephus and the Fathers may be quoting different parts of Apion's work, but this would still leave Apion contradicting himself within a comparatively short work; and, moreover, , Josephus takes the trouble to compare Apion's date with those of Manetho, Lysimachus and Apollonius Molon. Inasmuch as he is eager to refute the theory that the Exodus took place recently and to prove that Moses' claim to real antiquity is well-founded it would have been to his advantage to show that Apion had contradicted himself – and this Josephus does not do. A more likely hypothesis, we may suggest, is that Apion was interpolated by various redactors. Alternatively we may theorize that a work circulated under Apion's name which better suited the chronology of the Fathers https://books.google.com/books?id=MIUDD ... 22&f=false

Feldman is no 'mountainman.' He doesn't accuse Eusebius of the second interpolation. However the question has to be asked - why would any one care about such a stupid date and a stupid theory? If, as we tend to imagine, these old books were just sitting in a library somewhere, copied and recopied with little purpose other than to disseminate old knowledge, why the addition of a point which we see Eusebius was at such pains to confirm that he spends a lot of time in Book Ten of the Demonstration citing ancient authors like Josephus in defense of this stupid proposition.

The point then is that it can only be Eusebius who made the addition to Josephus and it can only be Eusebius also who added the long section to Clement's Stromata and various other works.

[Secret Alias]

Adler on the same situation:

If Josephus had been aware that his adversary Apion had already acknowledged in his Aegyptiaca that Inachus was king of Argos at the time of the Exodus, we can be confident that he would have seized upon it. According to Josephus, Apion dated the Exodus much later, in the seventh Olympiad at the time of the founding of Carthage.22 This curious contradiction raises the possibility that by the second century the text of like Manetho's Aegyptiaca, had fallen prey to a Jewish or Christian editor with an agenda.23

So there seems to be a consensus that there is a Christian interpolation somewhere. There are two dates for the Exodus - (1) Inachus/Amoses/the flood of Ogyges dating and (2) around the founding of Rome. So there is a situation where

a) Africanus to claim that Apion placed Moses' exodus during the reign of Amosis.
b) Tatian (Ad Gr. 38), Apion reported the claim by Ptolemy of Mendes that Amosis destroyed Avaris, and followed Ptolemy in placing Amosis in the time of Inachus. In the same passage from Tatian, Ptolemy of Mendes is reported (whether accurately or not) as having claimed that the Judeans, under Moses, left Egypt in the time of Amosis.
c) Clement Strom. 1.101.5 that Apion followed Ptolemy in dating the exodus to the time of Amosis.

Adler suggests that all of these were 'honest mistakes' on the part of the authors starting in the second century. They must have used a corrupted text. But isn't it odd that Eusebius is acknowledged to have been active responding to the charges of Celsus which were based around the idea of the very recent appearance of the Jews in human history? Can this really be seen as a series of 'honest mistakes'? Of course not.

One would have to assume that Tatian and Clement used a corrupted version of Manetho that circulated before the time of Celsus (unless Celsus is dated to the early second century which is ridiculous). As such the fact that Celsus's True Word is lurking in the background makes the 'corrupted Manetho text' hypothesis untenable. Celsus's line of argumentation (i.e. that the Jews were not the true logos or the original logos) albeit not argued by Celsus but an unknown precursor who must have lived in the first half of the second century - which is simply ridiculous.

Instead the only possible alternative is that all known sources which support Eusebius's claim that a pagan critic of Judaism - Apion - agreed with the early dating of Moses were inserted into the very texts cited by Eusebius by Eusebius himself:

CHAPTER X

[AFRICANUS] 33 'UNTIL the beginning of the Olympiads no accurate history has been written by the Greeks, the earlier accounts being all confused and in no point agreeing among themselves: but the Olympiads have been accurately recorded by many, because the Greeks compared the registers of them at no long interval of time, but every four years.

'For which, reason I shall collect and briefly run over the most celebrated of the mythical histories down to the first Olympiad: but of the later any which are remarkable I shall combine together in chronological order each to each, the Hebrew with the Greek, carefully examining the Hebrew and touching upon the Greek, and shall fit them together in the following manner. By seizing upon one action in Hebrew history contemporary with an action narrated by Greeks, and adhering to it, while either deducting or adding, and indicating what Greek or Persian or any one else synchronized with the Hebrew action, I shall perhaps succeed in my aim.

'Now a most remarkable event is the migration of the Hebrews, when carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, which continued seventy years, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah. Now Nebuchadnezzar is mentioned by Berossus the Babylonian.

'After the seventy years of the Captivity Cyrus became king of Persia, in the year in which the fifty-fifth Olympic festival was held, as one may learn from the Bibliotheca of Diodorus, and the histories of Thallus and Castor, also from Polybius and Phlegon, and from others too who were careful about Olympiads: for the time agreed in all of them.

'So then Cyrus in the first year of his reign, which was the first year of the fifty-fifth Olympiad, made the first partial dismissal of the people by the hand of Zerubbabel, contemporary with whom was Jesus the son of Josedek, after the completion of the seventy years, as is related in the Book of Ezra among the Hebrews. 34

'The narratives therefore of the reign of Cyrus and of the end of the Captivity synchronize: and the calculations according to the Olympiads will thus be found to agree down to our time; for by following them we shall fit the other histories also one to another according to the same principle.

'And the Athenian chronology computes the earlier events in the following way; from Ogyges, who was believed among them to be an aboriginal, in whose time that great and first flood occurred in Attica, when Phoroneus was king of Argos, as Acusilaus relates, down to the first Olympiad from which the Greeks considered that they calculated their dates correctly, a thousand and twenty years are computed, which agrees with what has been stated before, and will be shown to agree also with what comes after.

'For both the historians of Athens, Hellanicus and Philochorus who wrote The Attic Histories, and the writers on Syrian history, Castor and Thallus, and the writer on universal history, Diodorus the author of the Bibliotheca, and Alexander Polyhistor, and some of our own historians recorded these events more accurately even than all the Attic writers. If therefore any remarkable narrative occurs in the thousand and twenty years, it shall be extracted as may be expedient.'

And soon after he proceeds: 35

'We assert therefore on the authority of this work that Ogyges, who has given his name to the first deluge, as having been saved when many perished, lived at the time of the Exodus from Egypt of the people with Moses, proving it in. the following way.

'From Ogyges to the first Olympiad aforesaid there will be shown to be a thousand and twenty years: and from the first Olympiad to the first year of the fifty-fifth, that is the first year of the reign of Cyrus, which was the end of the Captivity, two hundred and seventeen years. From Ogyges therefore to Cyrus there were one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven years. And if any one would carry back a calculation of one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven years from the end of the Captivity, there is found by analysis the same distance to the first year of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt by the hand of Moses, as from the fifty-fifth Olympiad to Ogyges who founded Eleusis. Which is the more notable point to take as the commencement of the Athenian chronology.'

Again after an interval: 36

'So much for events prior to Ogygea. Now about his times Moses came out of Egypt: and that there is no reason to disbelieve that these events occurred at that time, we show in the following manner.

'From the Exodus of Moses to Cyrus, who reigned after the Captivity, there were one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven years. For the remaining years of Moses' life were forty: of Joshua, who became the leader after him, twenty-five years: of the elders who were judges after him, thirty years; and of those included in the Book of Judges, four hundred and ninety years. Of the priests Eli and Samuel, ninety years. Of the kings of the Hebrews, who came next, four hundred and ninety years: and seventy of the Captivity, the last year of which was, as we have said before, the first year of the reign of Cyrus.

'From Moses to the first Olympiad there were one thousand and twenty years, since there were one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven years to the first year of the fifty-fifth Olympiad: and the time in the Greek chronology agreed with this.

'But after Ogyges, on account of the great destruction caused by the flood, what is now called Attica remained without a king one hundred and eighty-nine years until the time of Cecrops. For Philochorus asserts that that Actaeon who comes after Ogyges, and the fictitious names, never even existed.'

And again: 37

'From Ogyges therefore to Cyrus there were as many years as from Moses to the same date, namely one thousand two hundred and thirty-seven. And some of the Greeks also relate that Moses lived about those same times; as Polemon in the first book of his Hellenic histories says, that "in the time of Apis son of Phoroneus a part of the Egyptian army was expelled from Egypt, who took up their abode not far from Arabia in the part of Syria called Palestine," being evidently those who went with Moses.

'And Apion the son of Poseidonius, the most inquisitive of grammarians, in his book Against the Jews, and in the fourth Book of his Histories, says that in the time of Inachus king of Argos, when Amosis was reigning in Egypt, the Jews revolted, with Moses as their leader.

'Herodotus also has made mention of this revolt and of Amosis in his second Book;38 and, in a certain way, of the Jews themselves, enumerating them among those who practise circumcision,39 and calling them the Assyrians in Palestine, perhaps on account of Abraham.

'And Ptolemaeus of Mendes, in writing the history of the Egyptians from the beginning, agrees with all these, so that the variation of the dates is not noticeable to any great extent.40

'But it is to be observed that whatever especial event is mentioned in the mythology of the Greeks because of its antiquity, is found to be later than Moses, their floods, and conflagrations, their Prometheus, Io, Europa, Sparti, Rape of Persephone, Mysteries, Legislations, exploits of Dionysus, Perseus, labours of Hercules, Argonauts, Centaurs, Minotaur, tale of Troy, return of the Heracleidae, migration of Ionians, and Olympic Festivals.

'It seemed good then to me, when about to compare the Hellenic histories with the Hebrew, to explain the aforesaid date of the monarchy in Athens: for it will be open to any one who will, by taking his starting-point from me, to calculate the number of years in the same way as I do.

'So then in the first year of the thousand and twenty years set forth from the time of Moses and Ogyges to the first Olympiad there occurs the Passover, and the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, and in Attica the flood in the reign of Ogyges; and very naturally.

'For when the Egyptians were being scourged by the wrath of God with hailstorms and tempests, it was natural that some parts of the earth should suffer with them; and that the Athenians should experience the same fate with the Egyptians was natural, being supposed to be emigrants from them, as is asserted, among others, by Theopompus in the Three-headed.41

'The intermediate time, in which no special event has been recorded by the Greeks, is passed by. But after ninety-four years, as some say, came Prometheus, who was said in the legend to form men; for being a wise man he tried to reform them out of their extreme uncouthness into an educated condition.'

Thus writes Africanus. And now let us pass on to another.

CHAPTER XI

[TATIAN] 42 'BUT now I think it behoves me to prove that our philosophy is older than the institutions of the Greeks. And Moses and Homer shall be set as our limits: for since each of them is very ancient, and the one the oldest of poets and historians, and the other the founder of all Barbaric wisdom, let them now be taken into comparison by us.

'For we shall find that our doctrines are older not only than the learning of the Greeks, but even than the invention of letters. And I shall not adopt our own native witnesses, but rather make use of Greeks as my allies. For the one course would be injudicious, because it would not be accepted by you; but the other, if proved, would be admirable, if at any time by opposing you with your own weapons I should bring against you proofs beyond suspicion.

'For concerning the poetry of Homer, and his parentage, and the time at which he flourished, previous investigations have been made by very ancient writers, as Theagenes of Ehegium who lived in the time of Cambyses, and Stesimbrotus of Thasos, and Antimachus of Colophon, Herodotus also of Halicarnassus, and Dionysius of Olynthus: and after them Ephorus of Cumae, and Philochorus of Athens, and Megacleides and Chamaeleon the Peripatetics: then the grammarians, Zenodotus, Aristophanes, Callimachus, Crates, Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, Apollodorus.

'Now of these Crates says that he flourished before the return of the Heracleidae, within eighty years after the Trojan war; but Eratosthenes says, after the hundredth year from the capture of Troy; while Aristarchus says, at the time of the Ionian migration, which is a hundred and forty years after the Trojan war; and Philochorus says, forty years after the Ionian migration, in the archonship at Athens of Archippus, a hundred and eighty years after the Trojan war; and Apollodorus says, a hundred years after the Ionian migration, which would be two hundred and forty years after the Trojan war: but some said that he lived before the Olympiads, that is four hundred years after the capture of Ilium; while others brought down the time, and said that Homer had been contemporary with Archilochus; now Archilochus flourished about the twenty-third Olympiad, in the time of Gyges king of Lydia, five hundred years after the Trojan war.

'With regard then to the times of the aforesaid poet, I mean Homer, and the dispute and disagreement among those who gave an account of him, let this our summary statement suffice for those who are able to examine the matter carefully. For it is in every man's power to show that their opinions also about the historical statements are false; for with those authors whose record of times is inconsistent, the history cannot possibly be true.'

Again shortly after: 43

'Granted, however, that Homer was not only not later than the Trojan war, but let him be supposed to have lived at that very time of the war, and further even to have shared in the expedition, with Agamemnon, and, if any wish to have it so, to have lived even before the invention of letters had taken place: for the aforesaid Moses will be shown to be very many years older than the actual capture of Troy, much more ancient too than the building of Troy was, and than Tros and Bardanus.

'And for proof of this I will employ the testimony of Chaldeans, Phoenicians, and Egyptians. But why need I say much? For one who professes to persuade ought to make his narration of the facts to his hearers very brief.

'Berossus, a Babylonian, a priest of their god Belus, who lived in the time of Alexander, composed the history of the Chaldaeans in three Books for Antiochus the third successor of Seleucus; and in setting forth the account of the kings he mentions the name of one of them Nabuchodonosor, who made an expedition against the Phoenicians and Jews; events which we know to have been announced by our prophets, and which took place long after the age of Moses, and seventy years before the Persian supremacy.

'Now Berossus is a most competent man, and a proof of this is given by Iobas, who writing Concerning the Assyrians says that he has learned their history from Berossus: he is the author of two books Concerning the Assyrians,

'Next to the Chaldaeans, the case of the Phoenicians is as follows. There have been among them three authors, Theodotus, Hypsicrates, Mochus. Their books were rendered into the Greek language by Laetus, who also wrote an accurate treatise on the lives of the philosophers.

'In the histories then of the aforesaid authors the rape of Europa is shown to have taken place in the time of one of the kings, also the arrival of Menelaus in Phoenicia, and the story of Hiram, who gave his daughter in marriage to Solomon king of the Jews, and presented him with timber of all kinds for the building of the Temple.

'Menander also of Pergamus wrote the record of the same events. Now the date of Hiram approaches somewhat near to the Trojan war; and Solomon the contemporary of Hiram is much later than the age of Moses.

'Then the Egyptians have accurate registers of dates. And Ptolemy, not the king but a priest of Mendes, the translator of their writings, in narrating the actions of their kings says that the journey of the Jews from Egypt to whatever places they chose, under the leadership of Moses, took place in the time of Amosis king of Egypt.

'And this is how he speaks: "Now Amosis lived in the time of king Inachus." After him Apion the grammarian, a man of great reputation, in the fourth Book of his Egyptian History (there are five of his Books) among many other things says that Amosis demolished Avaris, and that he lived in the time of Inachus the Argive, as Ptolemy of Mendes recorded in his Chronology.

'Now the time from Inachus to the capture of Troy makes up twenty generations; and the mode of the proof is as follows:

'The kings of the Argives have been these:----Inachus, Phoroneus, Apis, Argeius, Criasus, Phorbas, Triopas, Crotopus, Sthenelaus, Danaus, Lynceus, Abas, Proetus, Acrisius, Perseus, Eurystheus, Atreus, Thyestes, Agamemnon, in the eighteenth year of whose reign Troy was taken.

'Also the intelligent reader must understand quite distinctly that according to the tradition of the Greeks there was no written record of history among them. For Cadmus, who taught the aforesaid people the alphabet, landed in Boeotia many generations afterwards.

'After Inachus Phoroneus with difficulty put an end to their savage and wandering mode of life, and the people were brought into a state of order. Wherefore if Moses has been shown to have been contemporary with Inachus, he is four hundred years earlier than the Trojan war.

'And this is proved to be so both from the succession of the kings of Athens, and Macedonia, and the Ptolemies, and also those of the dynasty of Antiochus; "whence it is manifest that if the most illustrious deeds among the Greeks were recorded in writing and begin to be known after the time of Inachus, they were also later than the time of Moses.

'For as contemporary with Phoroneus who followed Inachus the Athenians mention Ogyges, in whose time the first flood occurred: and as contemporary with Phorbas Actaeus, from whom Attica was called Actaea: and as contemporary with Triopas Prometheus, and Epimetheus, and Atlas, and Cecrops of double sex, and Io.

'In the time of Crotopus there was Phaethon's conflagration, and Deucalion's flood: in the time of Sthenelaus was the reign of Amphictyon, and the arrival of Danaus in the Peloponnese, and the colonization of Dardania by Dardanus, and the abduction of Europa from Phoenicia to Crete.

'In the time of Lynceus there was the rape of Persephone, and the foundation of the sanctuary at Eleusis, and the husbandry of Triptolemus, and the arrival of Cadmus at Thebes, and the reign of Minos.

'In the reign of Proetus occurred the war of Eumolpus against the Athenians; and in that of Acrisius the crossing of Pelops from Phrygia, and the arrival of Ion at Athens, and the second Cecrops, and the exploits of Perseus. And in the reign of Agamemnon Troy was taken.

'Therefore from what has been said above Moses is shown to be older than all heroes, cities, or daemons: and he who preceded them in age ought rather to be believed, than the Greeks who drew his doctrines from the fountain-head without fully understanding them.

'For there were many sophists among them, who indulged a meddling curiosity, and these attempted to put a false stamp on all that they had learned from Moses and those who agreed, with his philosophy, in order first that they might be thought to say something original; and secondly that, disguising what they did not understand by a kind of rhetorical artifice, they might misrepresent the truth as being a mere fable.

'With regard, however, to our polity, and the history of our laws, and all that the learned among the Greeks have said, and how many and who they are that have mentioned us, proof shall be shown in my "Answer to those who have set forth opinions concerning God."

'But for the present I must endeavour with all accuracy to make it clear that Moses is earlier not only than Homer, but also than the writers before him, Linus, Philammon, Thamyris, Amphion, Orpheus, Musaeus, Demodocus, Phemius, the Sibyl, Epimenides the Cretan, who came to Sparta, Aristaeus of Pro-connesus, who wrote the Arimaspia, and Asbolus the Centaur, and Basis, and Drymon, and Euclus of Cyprus, and Horus of Samos, and Pronapides of Athens.

'For Linus was the teacher of Hercules, and Hercules has been shown to be one generation earlier than the Trojan war; and this is manifest from his son Tlepolemus, who joined the expedition against Troy.

'Orpheus was contemporary with Hercules; moreover, the writings afterwards attributed to him are said to have been composed by Onomacritus of Athens, who lived during the government of the Pisistratidae about the fiftieth Olympiad.

'Musaeus was a disciple of Orpheus. And as Amphion was two generations earlier than the Trojan war, this prevents our collecting more about him for the information of the studious. Demodocus too and Phemius lived at the very time of the Trojan war; for they abode, the one among the suitors, the other with the Phaeacians. Thamyris also and Philammon are not much more ancient than these.

'So then with regard to their work of various kinds and their dates and record, I think I have described them to you with all possible accuracy. But that we may also complete what is as yet deficient, I will further set forth the evidence concerning those who are considered the Sages.

'For Minos, who was considered to be pre-eminent in all wisdom, and sagacity, and legislation, lived in the time of Lynceus who reigned after Danaus, in the eleventh generation after Inachus. And Lycurgus, born long after the capture of Troy, made laws for the Lacedaemonians a hundred years before the commencement of the Olympiads.

'Draco is found to have lived about the thirty-ninth Olympiad, and Solon about the forty-sixth, and Pythagoras about the sixty-second. Now we showed that the Olympiads began four hundred and seven years after the Trojan war.

'So then, after these facts have been thus proved, a few more words will suffice to record the age of the Seven Sages. For as Thales the eldest of them lived about the fiftieth Olympiad, the approximate dates of those who came after him are thus stated concisely.

'This is what I have composed for you, O men of Greece, I, Tatian, a follower of the Barbarians in philosophy, born in the land of the Assyrians, but instructed first in your doctrines, and afterwards in such as I now profess to preach. And knowing henceforward who God is, and what is the doing of His will, I present myself to you in readiness for the examination of my doctrines, while my mode of life according to God's will remains incapable of denial.'

Thus much says Tatian. But let us now pass on to Clement.

CHAPTER XII

[CLEMENT] 44 'THE subject has indeed been carefully discussed by Tatian in his Discourse to the Greeks, and by Cassian in the first book of his Exegetics. But nevertheless my commentary demands that I also should run over what has been said upon the topic.

'Apion then the grammarian, who was surnamed Pleistonices, in the fourth Book of his Egyptian Histories, although being an Egyptian by birth he was so spitefully disposed towards the Hebrews as to have composed a book Against the Jews, when he mentions Amosis the king of Egypt and the transactions of his time, brings forward Ptolemaeus of Mendes as a witness.

'And his language is as follows:

'"But Avaris was demolished by Amosis, who lived in the time of Inachus the Argive, as Ptolemaeus of Mendes recorded in his Chronology."

'Now this Ptolemaeus was a priest, who published The Acts of the Kings of Egypt in three whole books, and says that the departure of the Jews out of Egypt under Moses as their leader took place in the time of Amosis king of Egypt; from which, it is clearly seen that Moses flourished in the time of Inachus.

'Now Dionysius of Halicarnassus teaches us in his Chronology that the history of Argos, I mean the history from Inachus downwards, is mentioned as older than any Hellenic history.

'Forty generations later than this is the Athenian history, beginning from Cecrops the so-called aboriginal of double sex, as Tatian says in so many words: and nine generations later the history of Arcadia from the time of Pelasgus, who also is called an aboriginal.

'More recent than this last by other fifty-two generations is the history of Phthiotis from the time of Deucalion. From Inachus to the time of the Trojan war twenty or twenty-one generations are reckoned, four hundred years, we may say, and more.

'And whether the Assyrian history is many years earlier than the Hellenic, will appear from what Ctesias says. In the four hundred and second year of the Assyrian empire, and in the thirty-second year of the reign of Beluchus the eighth, the movement of Moses out of Egypt took place in the time of Amosis king of Egypt, and of Inachus king of Argos.

'And in Hellas in the time of Phoroneus the successor of Inachus the flood of Ogyges occurred, and the reign in Sicyon, of Aegialeus first, then of Europs, and then of Telchis, and in Crete the reign of Cres.

'For Acusilaus says that Phoroneus was the first man: whence also the author of the poem "Phoronis" says that he was "the father of mortal men."

'Hence Plato in the Timaeus, following Acusilaus, writes: "And once when he wished to lead them on to a discussion about antiquity, he said that he attempted to speak of the most ancient things in this city, about Phoroneus who was called 'the first' man, and about Niobe, and the events that followed the flood." 45

'Contemporary with Phorbas was Actaeus, from whom Attica was called Actaea: and contemporary with Triopas were Prometheus, and Atlas, and Epimetheus, and the biform Cecrops, and Io: in the time of Crotopus there was Phaethon's conflagration, and the flood of Deucalion: and in the time of Sthenelaus was the reign of Amphictyon, and the arrival of Danaus in the Peloponnese, and the colonization of Dardania by Dardanus, whom Homer calls

"The first-born son of cloud-compelling Zeus," 46

and the abduction of Europa from Crete to Phoenicia.

'In the time of Lynceus was the rape of Core, and the foundation of the sanctuary at Eleusis, and the husbandry of Triptolemus, and the arrival of Cadmus in Thebes, and the reign of Minos. In the time of Proetus there was the war of Eumolpus against the Athenians: and in the time of Acrisius the migration of Pelops from Phrygia, and the arrival of Ion in Athens, and the second Cecrops, and the exploits of Perseus and Dionysus, and also Orpheus and Musaeus.

'And in the eighteenth year of the reign of Agamemnon Troy was taken, in the first year of the reign in Athens of Demophon son of Theseus, on the twelfth day of the month Thargelion, as Dionysius the Argive says.

'But Agius and Dercylus in their third Book say, on the eighth day of the last decade of the month Panemus: Hellanicus says, on the twelfth of Thargelion; and some of the writers of Athenian history say, on the eighth of the last decade, in the last year of the reign of Menestheus, at the full moon. The poet who wrote The Little Iliad says:

"At midnight, when the moon was rising bright." 47

But others say, on the same day of the month Scirophorion.

'Now Theseus, who was a rival of Hercules, is older than the Trojan war by one generation: Homer at least mentions Tlepolemus, who was the son of Hercules, as having joined in the expedition against Troy.

'Moses therefore is shown to be six hundred and four years older than the deification of Dionysus, if at least he was deified in the thirty-second year of the reign of Perseus, as Apollodorus says in his Chronicles.

'And from Dionysus to Hercules and the chiefs who sailed in the Argo with Jason, there are sixty-three years comprised. Asclepius too and the Dioscuri sailed with them, as Apollonius Rhodius testifies in the Argonautica.48

'From the reign of Hercules in Argos to the deification of Hercules himself and of Asclepius there are comprised thirty-eight years, according to Apollodorus the chronicler: and from that point to the deification of Castor and Pollux fifty-three years: and somewhere about this time was the capture of Troy.

'And if we are to believe the poet Hesiod, let us hear what he says:

"Admitted to the sacred couch of Zeus,
Fairest of Atlas' daughters, Maia bare
Renowned Hermes, herald of the Gods.
And linked with Zeus in sweetest bonds of love
Fair Semele conceived a glorious son,
Great Dionysus, joy of all mankind." 49

'Cadmus the father of Semele came to Thebes in the reign of Lynceus, and became the inventor of the Greek letters. And Triopas was contemporary with Isis in the seventh generation from Inachus.

'But there are some who say that she was called Io from her going (ἰένα) through all the earth in her wanderings: and Istrus in his book Of the migration of the Egyptians says that she was the daughter of Prometheus: and Prometheus was contemporary with Triopas, in the seventh generation after Moses; so that Moses would be earlier even than the origin of mankind was according to the Greeks.

'Now Leon, who wrote a treatise On the gods of Egypt, says that Isis was called by the Greeks Demeter, who is contemporary with Lynceus in the eleventh generation after Moses.

'Apis also the king of Argos was the founder of Memphis, as Aristippus says in the first Book of the Arcadica.

'Moreover Aristeas of Argos says that this Apis was surnamed Sarapis, and that it is he whom the Egyptians worship.

'But Nymphodorus of Amphipolis, in the third Book of The Customs of Asia, says that when Apis the bull died and was embalmed, he was deposited in a coffin (σορός) in the temple of the daemon who was worshipped there, and thence was called Soroapis and afterwards Sarapis. And Apis is the third from Inachus. 'Moreover Latona is contemporary with Tityus:

"For Leto erst he strove to violate,
The noble consort of immortal Zeus." 50

'And Tityus was contemporary with Tantalus. With good reason therefore the Boeotian Pindar writes:

"For late in time Apollo too was born." 51

'And no wonder, since he is found in company with Hercules serving Admetus

"A whole long year." 52

'Zethus too and Amphion, the inventors of music, lived about the age of Cadmus. And if any one tell us that Phemonoe was the first who uttered an oracle in verse to Acrisius, yet let him know that twenty-seven years after Phemonoe came Orpheus, and Musaeus, and Linus the teacher of Hercules.

'But Homer and Hesiod were much later than the Trojan war, and after them far later were the lawgivers among the Greeks, Lycurgus and Solon, and the Seven Sages, and Pherecydes of Syros, and the great Pythagoras, who lived some time later about the beginning of the Olympiads, as we proved.

'So then we have demonstrated that Moses was more ancient than most of the gods of the Greeks, and not merely than their so-called Sages and poets.'

So far Clement. But since the question before us was carefully studied before our Christian writers by the Hebrews themselves, it would be well to consider also what they have said: and I shall use the language of Flavius Josephus as representative of them all.

CHAPTER XIII

[JOSEPHUS] 53 'I WILL begin then first with the writings of the Egyptians. It is not possible, however, to quote their own actual words; but Manetho an Egyptian by birth, a man who had a knowledge of Hellenic culture, as is evident from his having written the history . of his own country in the Greek language, and translated it, as he says himself, out of the sacred books, who also convicts Herodotus of having from ignorance falsified many things in Egyptian history----this Manetho then, I say, in the second Book of his Egyptian History writes concerning us as follows: and I will quote his words, just as if I brought himself forward as a witness.

'"We had a king whose name was Timaeus. In his time God was angry with us, I know not why, and men from the Eastern parts, of obscure origin, were strangely emboldened to invade the country, and easily took possession of it by force without a battle." '

And soon after he adds:

'"The name of their whole nation was Hycsos, that is 'shepherd-kings.' For 'Hyc' in the sacred language means 'king,' and Sos is 'shepherd,' and 'shepherds' in the common dialect: and thus combined it becomes 'Hycsos.' But some say that they were Arabs."

'But in another copy 54 he says that "kings" are not meant by the name "Hyc," but on the contrary "captive-shepherds" are signified. For Hyc in Egyptian, and Hac, aspirated, expressly means "captives." And this seems to me more probable, and in agreement with ancient history.

'Now these before-named kings, both those of the so-called "Shepherds," and their descendants, ruled over Egypt, he says, five hundred and eleven years.

'But after this, he says, there was a revolt of the kings from the Thebaid and the rest of Egypt against the Shepherds, and a great and long war broke out. But in the time of a king 'whose name was Misphragmuthosis, he says that the Shepherds were defeated, and though, driven out of the rest of Egypt, they were shut up in a place having a circumference of ten thousand arurae: the name of the place was Avaris.

'The whole of this. Manetho says, the Shepherds surrounded with a great and strong wall, that so they might have all their possessions and their booty in a stronghold.

'But Thmouthosis the son of Misphragmouthosis attempted to subdue them by a siege, having sat down against their walls with four hundred and eighty thousand men: but after giving up the siege in despair, he made terms of agreement with them, that they should leave Egypt, and all go away uninjured whithersoever they chose. And upon these conditions they with their whole families and possessions, being not less in number than two hundred and forty thousand, made their way from Egypt across the desert into Syria.

'But being afraid of the power of the Assyrians (for they were at that time the rulers of Asia), they built a city in what is now called Judaea, to suffice for so many thousands of inhabitants, and called it Jerusalem.'

Next to this he recounts the succession of the kings of Egypt, together with the duration of their reigns, and adds: 55

'So says Manetho. And when the time is calculated according to the number of years mentioned, it is evident that the so-called Shepherds, our ancestors, departed from Egypt and colonized this country three hundred and ninety-three years before Danaus arrived in Argos: and yet he is considered by the Argives as very ancient.

'Two things therefore of the greatest importance Manetho has testified in our favour out of the writings of the Egyptians. First their arrival in Egypt from some other country, and afterwards the departure thence at so ancient a date as to be nearly a thousand years before the Trojan war.'

The extracts from Egyptian history have been recorded thus somewhat at large by Josephus. But from Phoenician history, by employing the testimony of those who have written on Phoenician affairs, he proves that the Temple in Jerusalem had been built by King Solomon a hundred and forty-three years and eight months earlier than the foundation of Carthage by the Tyrians: then he passes on, and quotes from the history of the Chaldaeans their testimonies concerning the antiquity of the Hebrews.

[andrewcriddle]

Another interesting stretch of text is that section we have been examining is the portion later cited by Eusebius in his Preparation for the Gospel Book Ten which reads:

'THE subject has indeed been carefully discussed by Tatian in his Discourse to the Greeks, and by Cassian in the first book of his Exegetics. But nevertheless my commentary demands that I also should run over what has been said upon the topic.

'Apion then the grammarian, who was surnamed Pleistonices, in the fourth Book of his Egyptian Histories, although being an Egyptian by birth he was so spitefully disposed towards the Hebrews as to have composed a book Against the Jews, when he mentions Amosis the king of Egypt and the transactions of his time, brings forward Ptolemaeus of Mendes as a witness.

'And his language is as follows:

'"But Avaris was demolished by Amosis, who lived in the time of Inachus the Argive, as Ptolemaeus of Mendes recorded in his Chronology."

'Now this Ptolemaeus was a priest, who published The Acts of the Kings of Egypt in three whole books, and says that the departure of the Jews out of Egypt under Moses as their leader took place in the time of Amosis king of Egypt; from which, it is clearly seen that Moses flourished in the time of Inachus.

'Now Dionysius of Halicarnassus teaches us in his Chronology that the history of Argos, I mean the history from Inachus downwards, is mentioned as older than any Hellenic history.

'Forty generations later than this is the Athenian history, beginning from Cecrops the so-called aboriginal of double sex, as Tatian says in so many words: and nine generations later the history of Arcadia from the time of Pelasgus, who also is called an aboriginal.

'More recent than this last by other fifty-two generations is the history of Phthiotis from the time of Deucalion. From Inachus to the time of the Trojan war twenty or twenty-one generations are reckoned, four hundred years, we may say, and more.

'And whether the Assyrian history is many years earlier than the Hellenic, will appear from what Ctesias says. In the four hundred and second year of the Assyrian empire, and in the thirty-second year of the reign of Beluchus the eighth, the movement of Moses out of Egypt took place in the time of Amosis king of Egypt, and of Inachus king of Argos.

'And in Hellas in the time of Phoroneus the successor of Inachus the flood of Ogyges occurred, and the reign in Sicyon, of Aegialeus first, then of Europs, and then of Telchis, and in Crete the reign of Cres.

'For Acusilaus says that Phoroneus was the first man: whence also the author of the poem "Phoronis" says that he was "the father of mortal men."

'Hence Plato in the Timaeus, following Acusilaus, writes: "And once when he wished to lead them on to a discussion about antiquity, he said that he attempted to speak of the most ancient things in this city, about Phoroneus who was called 'the first' man, and about Niobe, and the events that followed the flood." 45

'Contemporary with Phorbas was Actaeus, from whom Attica was called Actaea: and contemporary with Triopas were Prometheus, and Atlas, and Epimetheus, and the biform Cecrops, and Io: in the time of Crotopus there was Phaethon's conflagration, and the flood of Deucalion: and in the time of Sthenelaus was the reign of Amphictyon, and the arrival of Danaus in the Peloponnese, and the colonization of Dardania by Dardanus, whom Homer calls

"The first-born son of cloud-compelling Zeus," 46

and the abduction of Europa from Crete to Phoenicia.

'In the time of Lynceus was the rape of Core, and the foundation of the sanctuary at Eleusis, and the husbandry of Triptolemus, and the arrival of Cadmus in Thebes, and the reign of Minos. In the time of Proetus there was the war of Eumolpus against the Athenians: and in the time of Acrisius the migration of Pelops from Phrygia, and the arrival of Ion in Athens, and the second Cecrops, and the exploits of Perseus and Dionysus, and also Orpheus and Musaeus.

'And in the eighteenth year of the reign of Agamemnon Troy was taken, in the first year of the reign in Athens of Demophon son of Theseus, on the twelfth day of the month Thargelion, as Dionysius the Argive says.

'But Agius and Dercylus in their third Book say, on the eighth day of the last decade of the month Panemus: Hellanicus says, on the twelfth of Thargelion; and some of the writers of Athenian history say, on the eighth of the last decade, in the last year of the reign of Menestheus, at the full moon. The poet who wrote The Little Iliad says:

"At midnight, when the moon was rising bright." 47

But others say, on the same day of the month Scirophorion.

'Now Theseus, who was a rival of Hercules, is older than the Trojan war by one generation: Homer at least mentions Tlepolemus, who was the son of Hercules, as having joined in the expedition against Troy.

'Moses therefore is shown to be six hundred and four years older than the deification of Dionysus, if at least he was deified in the thirty-second year of the reign of Perseus, as Apollodorus says in his Chronicles.

'And from Dionysus to Hercules and the chiefs who sailed in the Argo with Jason, there are sixty-three years comprised. Asclepius too and the Dioscuri sailed with them, as Apollonius Rhodius testifies in the Argonautica.48

'From the reign of Hercules in Argos to the deification of Hercules himself and of Asclepius there are comprised thirty-eight years, according to Apollodorus the chronicler: and from that point to the deification of Castor and Pollux fifty-three years: and somewhere about this time was the capture of Troy.

'And if we are to believe the poet Hesiod, let us hear what he says:

"Admitted to the sacred couch of Zeus,
Fairest of Atlas' daughters, Maia bare
Renowned Hermes, herald of the Gods.
And linked with Zeus in sweetest bonds of love
Fair Semele conceived a glorious son,
Great Dionysus, joy of all mankind." 49

'Cadmus the father of Semele came to Thebes in the reign of Lynceus, and became the inventor of the Greek letters. And Triopas was contemporary with Isis in the seventh generation from Inachus.

'But there are some who say that she was called Io from her going (ἰένα) through all the earth in her wanderings: and Istrus in his book Of the migration of the Egyptians says that she was the daughter of Prometheus: and Prometheus was contemporary with Triopas, in the seventh generation after Moses; so that Moses would be earlier even than the origin of mankind was according to the Greeks.

'Now Leon, who wrote a treatise On the gods of Egypt, says that Isis was called by the Greeks Demeter, who is contemporary with Lynceus in the eleventh generation after Moses.

'Apis also the king of Argos was the founder of Memphis, as Aristippus says in the first Book of the Arcadica.

'Moreover Aristeas of Argos says that this Apis was surnamed Sarapis, and that it is he whom the Egyptians worship.

'But Nymphodorus of Amphipolis, in the third Book of The Customs of Asia, says that when Apis the bull died and was embalmed, he was deposited in a coffin (σορός) in the temple of the daemon who was worshipped there, and thence was called Soroapis and afterwards Sarapis. And Apis is the third from Inachus. 'Moreover Latona is contemporary with Tityus:

"For Leto erst he strove to violate,
The noble consort of immortal Zeus." 50

'And Tityus was contemporary with Tantalus. With good reason therefore the Boeotian Pindar writes:

"For late in time Apollo too was born." 51

'And no wonder, since he is found in company with Hercules serving Admetus

"A whole long year." 52

'Zethus too and Amphion, the inventors of music, lived about the age of Cadmus. And if any one tell us that Phemonoe was the first who uttered an oracle in verse to Acrisius, yet let him know that twenty-seven years after Phemonoe came Orpheus, and Musaeus, and Linus the teacher of Hercules.

'But Homer and Hesiod were much later than the Trojan war, and after them far later were the lawgivers among the Greeks, Lycurgus and Solon, and the Seven Sages, and Pherecydes of Syros, and the great Pythagoras, who lived some time later about the beginning of the Olympiads, as we proved.

'So then we have demonstrated that Moses was more ancient than most of the gods of the Greeks, and not merely than their so-called Sages and poets.'

This section requires Clement to have had at his disposal a rather extensive library to furnish all the quotes. The interesting thing for me at least is that it stands at the head of the entire section we just cited - what we might call, the 'chronology section' of Book One of the Stromata.

What is so odd of course is that the Stromata is not a chronology. Yet for some reason at the heart of Book One there is this massive section which basically lays out a series of chronological reckonings, which we have been examining here. Oddly enough the chronology itself starts with this section. Indeed it should be noted that Eusebius cites this section from Clement in chapter 10 of his Preparation as part of an extended argument about the antiquity of Moses. Yet as scholars have noted the Preparation as a whole is little more than a response to Celsus - Against Celsus being a work, ostensibly from Origen which we have demonstrated in another thread has been the subject of a systematic reworking by Eusebius. His terminology and language abounds in critical sections of Against Celsus and his Against Hierocles makes manifest that Celsus's claims about the lateness of Judaism and Christianity was very much on his mind.

My point here is to note that if - as we have already established with some degree of certainty - that Eusebius reworked the writings of Origen, it should not be surprising that the writings of Clement can be argued to have also been 'corrected' that the corrector would likely also have been Eusebius. Already this general idea is hinted in Jerome's attack against Rufinus - i.e. the Alexandrian Fathers and not just Origen were altered. The same notion arises in the Arian controversies in the writings of Athanasius - viz. the Arians allegedly altered the Alexandrian Fathers to make them support Arianism. But the overarching efforts of Eusebius against Celsus seem to have a much broader appeal. By re-constituting the Origen's response to Celsus Eusebius hoped to assist making Christianity more palatable to the Empire. Yet it has long been noted that echoes of Celsus and a Christian response to Celsus's ideas are also found in Clement. Could Clement have been re-constituted to help Eusebius in this fight too?

One argument against regarding this section as basically Eusebian is that it conflicts with Eusebius' own chronology as preserved in the Chronicon of Jerome.
Clement has

it is clearly seen that Moses flourished in the time of Inachus.

while the Chronicon has Inachus as contemporary with the Patriarchs hundreds of years before Moses.

Andrew Criddle

[Secret Alias]

But is the assumption that the Jerome Chronicle = Eusebius Chronicle iron clad? Are they any other known inconsistencies with Eusebius? Have to check. But it is worth noting that the inconsistency has been recognized and commentators have been left scratching their heads regardless of the issue of Eusebius 'correcting' earlier authors:

The impression one gets while reading this passage is that Eusebius is quoting this synchronism approvingly; accordingly, it should be noted that Eusebius does not actually follow it in his Canons (Inachus is synchronized with Jacob, see Jerome’s Chronicle, ed. Helm, pp. 27a–27b), as indeed Eusebius tells us explicitly further on in his preface, pp. 9–10; see W. Adler, ‘Eusebius’ Chronicle and Its Legacy,’ Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism, ed. H.W. Attridge and G. Hata, Studia Post-Biblica 42, Leiden 1992, p. 471; idem, ‘The Origins of the Proto-Heresies: Fragments from a Chronicle in the First Book of Epiphanius’ Panarion,’ JThS 41 (1990), pp. 479–481. On Eusebius’s Chronological Canons see A.A. Mosshammer, The Chronicle of Eusebius and Greek Chronographic Tradition, Lewisburg 1979, 29–83; T.D. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, Cambridge and London 1981, pp. 111–114; W. Adler, Time Immemorial: Archaic History and its Sources in Christian Chronography from Julius Africanus to George Syncellus, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 26, Washington 1989. An excellent discussion of the complicated transmission history of this work is found in Mosshammer, and a short adequate summary in Barnes; see also W. Adler, ‘Eusebius’ Chronicle and Its Legacy,’ pp. 481–484.https://www.preteristarchive.com/Books/ ... sephus.pdf

[Secret Alias]

Eusebius (Chronica, p. 7 [ed. Helm] ) is also aware of this tradition, but he apparently did not accept it. For some reason, he chose to date Inachus earlier than Moses; in his Chronicle he makes Cecrops Moses' contemporary and Inachus a contemporary of Isaac and Jacob (Chronica, pp. 10, 27b, 41a-b [Helm]). Indeed, Syncellus (70-71, ed. Mosshammer) later criticizes him sharply for departing from the earlier tradition. an antiquity even greater than that of Inachus, declaring that Moses was a contemporary of Ninus and Semiramis. This would give Moses a tremendous antiquity, since Greek chroniclers, following Castor of Rhodes, considered. Ninus the first datable king in Asia. In Eusebius' Chronicle Ninus is said to be contemporary with Abraham, from whose birth Eusebius dates all subsequent events.

[FransJVermeiren]

Thank you SA for this very instructive thread.

Why was Eusebius so focused on chronology, not only concerning the antiquity of the Jews, but also concerning Jesus and his time? Maybe he has lifted a tip of the veil himself in PE XI: For with those authors whose record of times is inconsistent, the history cannot possibly be true.

Just like his precursors (with Origen as the most important one), Eusebius knew about the chronological problem of the origins of Christianity: a war story that had been disguised as an ‘under Pilate’ story. In Eusebius's eyes this chronological inconsistency caused a major truthfulness problem for Christianity. With the 'under Pilate' story being much less embarrassing in the Roman empire than the rebellion story, maybe Eusebius aimed at definitively settling the plea in favor of the 'under Pilate' story. No more inconsistency, one single chronology, albeit a forged one. To that end he not only created the TF, he also forged several other writings. In the OP text above he casts doubts on the established chronology of the Roman emperors ‘in order to the demonstration of the Saviour’s birth’. John's activity under Tiberius (Lk 3:1) is important in Eusebius's construction, so of course he tries to connect John and Jesus chronologically.
In my opinion the sentence ‘We have to add to our chronology the following’ is highly revealing. Speaking about his chronology, does Eusebius mean that he is just describing the established chronology in his text? Or might this be a slip of the tongue? Maybe Eusebius is telling here what it’s all about: he is creating his own chronology in an attempt to consolidate the forged chronology of the origins of Christianity for once and for all. Because Christianity was so important to him and chronological inconsistency would undermine its truthfulness, he felt forced to do so.