Daniel Gruber's book 'Rabbi Akiva's Messiah'
Daniel Gruber in his book: Rabbi Akiva's Messiah; The
Origins of Rabbinic Authority makes the following statement (Page 58):
The Pharisees did try to add weight to their tradition by
placing its origin as far back in the past as they could. "Josephus brings this
out when he says of the Jewish leaders, Their endeavor is to have everything
they ordain believed to be very ancient.'" (Italics mine.)
According to footnote 17, which is the citation associated with these words the
sources is:
C. Apion, II., xv 152, in A. Lukyn Williams, Talmudic Judaism and Christianity,
S.P.C.K, London 1933, P. 46. I have checked and his quote does appear in the
Williams text.
If this claim is correct, we have the following pieces of
fact:
1. The Jewish leaders (Pharisees according to Gruber) made
knowingly false claims about their traditions.
2. This appears explicitly in Josephus.
What marks this as curious at first reading is why would he
need to cite a secondary source for a work of Josephus, which is a common one
and easily obtainable? In fact he DOES quote from Josephus in the next two
footnotes. Moreover, on page 262 footnote 19 he actually mentions Contra Apion
itself! Let's look into this somewhat strangely cited passage.
Actually, his citation has an error. Section 152 is in
Paragraph 16 and not 15. I am not sure if the error is Williams or Gruber, but
in any case, why he does not look up a source that he is able to quote is surely
interesting. We shall soon see as to why it is a bit more then interesting.
Here is Paragraph 15 which introduces the issues. (I have
added the section numbers which do not appear in the online version I have taken
this from.
http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/josephus/apion2.html ):
“xv. (145) But now, since Apollonius Molo, and Lysimachus,
and some others, write treatises about our lawgiver Moses, and about our laws,
which are neither just nor true, and this partly out of ignorance, but chiefly
out of ill-will to us, while they calumniate Moses as an impostor and deceiver,
and pretend that our laws teach us wickedness, but nothing that is virtuous, I
have a mind to discourse briefly, according to my ability, about our whole
constitution of government, and about the particular branches of it. (146) For I
suppose it will thence become evident, that the laws we have given us are
disposed after the best manner for the advancement of piety, for mutual
communion with one another, for a general love of mankind, as also for justice,
and for sustaining labors with fortitude, and for a contempt of death. (147) And
I beg of those that shall peruse this writing of mine, to read it without
partiality; for it is not my purpose to write an encomium upon ourselves, but I
shall esteem this as a most just apology for us, and taken from those our laws,
according to which we lead our lives, against the many and the lying objections
that have been made against us. (148) Moreover, since this Apollonius does not
do like Apion, and lay a continued accusation against us, but does it only by
starts, and up and clown his discourse, while he sometimes reproaches us as
atheists, and man-haters, and sometimes hits us in the teeth with our want of
courage, and yet sometimes, on the contrary, accuses us of too great boldness
and madness in our conduct; nay, he says that we are the weakest of all the
barbarians, and that this is the reason why we are the only people who have made
no improvements in human life; (149) now I think I shall have then sufficiently
disproved all these his allegations, when it shall appear that our laws enjoin
the very reverse of what he says, and that we very carefully observe those laws
ourselves. (150) And if I he compelled to make mention of the laws of other
nations, that are contrary to ours, those ought deservedly to thank themselves
for it, who have pretended to depreciate our laws in comparison of their own;
nor will there, I think, be any room after that for them to pretend either that
we have no such laws ourselves, an epitome of which I will present to the
reader, or that we do not, above all men, continue in the observation of them.”
This work is a polemical one against those Greeks who were
attacking Judaism, its laws and beliefs. The issue continues in the next
paragraph, which also contains the text which the author quotes:
“xvi. (151) To begin then a good way backward, I would
advance this, in the first place, that those who have been admirers of good
order, and of living under common laws, and who began to introduce them, may
well have this testimony that they are better than other men, both for
moderation and such virtue as is agreeable to nature. (152) Indeed their
endeavor was to have every thing they ordained believed to be very ancient, that
they might not be thought to imitate others, but might appear to have delivered
a regular way of living to others after them. (153) Since then this is the case,
the excellency of a legislator is seen in providing for the people's living
after the best manner, and in prevailing with those that are to use the laws he
ordains for them, to have a good opinion of them, and in obliging the multitude
to persevere in them, and to make no changes in them, neither in prosperity nor
adversity. (154) Now I venture to say, that our legislator is the most ancient
of all the legislators whom we have ally where heard of; for as for the
Lycurguses, and Solons, and Zaleucus Locrensis, and all those legislators who
are so admired by the Greeks, they seem to be of yesterday, if compared with our
legislator, insomuch as the very name of a law was not so much as known in old
times among the Grecians. (155) Homer is a witness to the truth of this
observation, who never uses that term in all his poems; for indeed there was
then no such thing among them, but the multitude was governed by wise maxims,
and by the injunctions of their king. It was also a long time that they
continued in the use of these unwritten customs, although they were always
changing them upon several occasions. (156) But for our legislator, who was of
so much greater antiquity than the rest, (as even those that speak against us
upon all occasions do always confess,) he exhibited himself to the people as
their best governor and counselor, and included in his legislation the entire
conduct of their lives, and prevailed with them to receive it, and brought it so
to pass, that those that were made acquainted with his laws did most carefully
observe them.”
We need to make the following observations:
We must now conclude that, Williams has lied about what Josephus. As to Gruber, since he has already quoted from Contra Apion, he seems to be deceptive, using a distortion from a secondary source, when he has the primary available to himself.
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