35. Now this man did not discover and mention the same king with
the others, but feigned a newer name, and passing by the dream
and the Egyptian prophet, he brings him to [Jupiter] Hammon, in
order to gain oracles about the scabby and leprous people; for he
says that the multitude of Jews were gathered together at the
temples. Now it is uncertain whether he ascribes this name to
these lepers, or to those that were subject to such diseases
among the Jews only; for he describes them as a people of the
Jews. What people does he mean? foreigners, or those of that
country? Why then' dost thou call them Jews, if they were
Egyptians? But if they were foreigners, why dost thou not tell us
whence they came? And how could it be that, after the king had
drowned many of them in the sea, and ejected the rest into desert
places, there should be still so great a multitude remaining? Or
after what manner did they pass over the desert, and get the land
which we now dwell in, and build our city, and that temple which
hath been so famous among all mankind? And besides, he ought to
have spoken more about our legislator than by giving us his bare
name; and to have informed us of what nation he was, and what
parents he was derived from; and to have assigned the reasons why
he undertook to make such laws concerning the gods, and
concerning matters of injustice with regard to men during that
journey. For in case the people were by birth Egyptians, they
would not on the sudden have so easily changed the customs of
their country; and in case they had been foreigners, they had for
certain some laws or other which had been kept by them from long
custom. It is true, that with regard to those who had ejected
them, they might have sworn never to bear good-will to them, and
might have had a plausible reason for so doing. But if these men