Against Apion.(1)

by Flavius Josephus




Translated by William Whiston




BOOK 1.

1. I Suppose that by my books of the Antiquity of the Jews, most
excellent Epaphroditus, (2) have made it evident to those who
peruse them, that our Jewish nation is of very great antiquity,
and had a distinct subsistence of its own originally; as also, I
have therein declared how we came to inhabit this country wherein
we now live. Those Antiquities contain the history of five
thousand years, and are taken out of our sacred books, but are
translated by me into the Greek tongue. However, since I observe
a considerable number of people giving ear to the reproaches that
are laid against us by those who bear ill-will to us, and will
not believe what I have written concerning the antiquity of our
nation, while they take it for a plain sign that our nation is of
a late date, because they are not so much as vouchsafed a bare
mention by the most famous historiographers among the Grecians. I
therefore have thought myself under an obligation to write
somewhat briefly about these subjects, in order to convict those