Some of the most striking among other legend- ary additions are the following: * Before the Fall all living creatures spoke a common language (Ané. I, 41), and the serpent for his malignity was punished by the loss of speech and feet (Ané. I. 50; so Jubilees, iii. 28, ‘and on that day was closed the mouth of all beasts... for they had all spoken one with another with one lip and with one tongue’; see Charles’ note; also the Targum of pseudo-Jonathan, ‘upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thy feet shall be cut off’), Adam had daughters as well as sons (Anfé. 1. 52; Jub. iv. 1). Cain averted the punishment of death by a pro- pitiatory sacrifice, and was banished with his wife and lived a life of luxury (Ané. 1. 58ff.). *The descendants of Seth invented astronomy, and left a record of their discoveries on two pillars of brick and stone, that they might not be lost to mankind in the flood or the fire which Adam had predicted (Ant. 1. 69ff.; cf. Jwb. viii. 3, Cainan after the Flood finds an inscription which had been carved on the rock by the Watchers con- cerning the heavenly bodies). In An¢#. I. 118 the Sibyl is quoted for the statement that the winds were employed by the gods to overthrow the Tower of Babel (cf. Orac. Sibyl. iii. 101 ff.). Abra- ham’s knowledge of astronomy leads him to believe in one God (Ant. I. 155 ff.); in Egypt, God by an insurrection punishes Pharaoh for taking Sarah ; while Abraham consorts with the most learned of the Egyptians, and teaches them mathematics and astronomy (Ané. I. 164ff.). Potiphar’s wife selects for her temptation of Joseph the occasion of a public festival, from which she begs to be excused on the plea of illness (Andé. 11. 45). The interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams was shown him in his sleep, but forgotten by him (Ané. II. 75). * The birth of Moses was foretold to Pharaoh by a lepoypaymarevs, and to his father Amram by God (Ant. 1. 205, 217); his mother was granted an easy deliverance, and so the birth escaped detection (Ant. 11. 218). Moses’ height and beauty (Ané. 11. 224) were a common topic in tradition (cf. Ac 7%). * Josephus tells a story of how the child was brought to Pharaoh, and how, when the king play- fully placed his diadem on bis head, the child cast it away and trampled on it; and how the lepoypap- parev’s detected that this was he whose birth he had predicted (Ant. 11. 232 ff.; ef. the tragedian Ezekiel, ap. Euseb. Prep. Ev. ix. 440). But the most noticeable addition to the history of Moses
+ The scene of a battle between the Philistines and Israelites, unnamed in the OT (1S 28}), is given as‘Peyay (Ant. VI. 326). This, however, as Mez has suggested, may be a corruption of Ga poy,
i
470. JOSEPHUS
JOSEPHUS
is the account of his * Ethiopian campaign (Ant. II, 238-253). The Egyptians, whose country had long been ravaged by the Ethiopians, at God’s advice appoint Moses as their general. He, after ridding the country of the serpents which infested the line of march, gained a complete victory over the enemy, with the help of Tharbis, the daughter of the Ethiopian king, whom he marries. This account should be compared with that of Arta- panus (in Euseb. Prep. Hv. ix. 482c), who is probably the ultimate source from whom many of the Moses legends are derived by Josephus. In Artapanus, king Chenephres envies Moses, and sends him against the Ethiopians, hoping that he will be killed. The war lasts ten years; Moses ultimately gains the affection of the Ethiopians, and teaches them to practise circumcision. The Rabbinical accounts (see Edersheim, Dict. Christ. Biog. iii. 456) are rather different, representing Moses as fighting on the side of the Ethiopians. The story in its various forms has, no doubt, grown out of the reference to ‘the Cushite woman’ whom Moses married (Nu 12!). Murmurs against Moses are magnified into attempts to stone him (Ané. 1. 327, UI. 12; with 11. 307 cf. Nu 14"). The pro- hibition to priests to marry innkeepers (Ané. III. 276, cf. Lv 217) is to be explained, as Edersheim suggests, by the fact that, in the story of Rahab, Josephus, in common with the Targum, translates mit (harlot) by ‘innkeeper.’ *Balaam is said to have counselled Balak to entice the Israelites by the beauty of the women of Midian, and go to draw them away from their religion (this does not occur in the narrative in Nu 24-25, but a hint of it is given later in Nu 311%), He foretells slight disasters to Israel to be followed by renewed pros- perity (Ant. Iv. 128 ff.). As to Moses’ end, we are told that he was accompanied to Mount Abarim by ‘the senate,’ Eleazar, and Joshua; the senate was then dismissed, and, while the prophet was still conversing with Eleazar and Joshua, a cloud covered him and he disappeared in a ravine. He described his own death in Scripture, for fear that it should be said that he had been translated to God (Ant. Iv. 324 ff.).
For additional legal ordinances, we may note the injunction that the evidence of women and slaves is not to be accepted (Ant. Iv. 219); the forty stripes allowed by Dt 25* become, in accordance with the later Rabbinical practice, ‘forty stripes save one’ (Ant, Iv. 238, 248; cf. Targ. Jerus. i; 2Co 11*); mention is made of the seven judges (Ant. Iv. 214, 287); * the sexes are not to exchange dress, especially in battle (Ant. Iv. 301; ef. Dt 22°; Bloch refers to Nazir 59a); the extraordinary statement that the Jews were not allowed to blaspheme the gods of other nations, or to rob their temples (Ant. Iv. 207; ¢. Ap. ii. 237), seems to rest on the LXX of Ex 2278 Geods ob xaxodoyhoers (where the Targums render o7x by ‘the judges’).