Ante-Nicene Christian Library; Translations Of The Writings Of The Fathers Down To A.D. 325, Volume 4: The Writings Of Clement Of Alexandria, Volume 1

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Euphorus and many other historians say that there arosmen ave nations and longues, in consequence of hearing the statement mado by Moses : All the fouis that sprangsrom Jacob, which went doWn into Egypt, Were seVentPfive. According to the true rechoning, there appear to beseventy-t o generio dialecta, as our Scriptures hand doWn. The rest os tho vulgar longum are formed by the blendingos tWo, or three, or more dialocis. A dialect is a mode of speech whicli exhibiis a character peculiar to a locali , or amodo of speech whicli exhibita a character peculiar or commonto a race. The Greeks say, that among them aro five dialecis-the Attic, Ionic, Doric, Hilotic, and the fifth the Common ;and that tho languages of the barbarians, which are innumerabie, are not called dialecta, but longues. Plato attributes a dialect also to the god' forming this conjecture mainly srom dreams and oraclos, and especiallysrom demoniam, Who do not speah their oKn language ordialeci, but that of the demons who have ta n possession ofthem. He thinhs also that the irrational creatures have dialocis, whicli thoso that belong to the fame genus unde stand. Accordingly, When an elephant salis into the mudand bellows out, any other one that is at hand, on Meingviliat has happened, shortly turas, and brings with him a herdos elephanis, and faves the ono that has fallen in. It is inidatio in Libya, that a scorpion, is it does not succeed in sting-ing a man, Mes aWay and returns With severat more; and that, hanging on ono to the other like a chala, they maho in this way the attempt to succred in their cunning design.

The irrational creatures do not mahe use of an obscure

barous dialecta have tems by nature, since also men consessiliat prayers ultered in a barbarian longue are more poWeesul.

And Plato, in tho Cratylus, when M shing to interpret πυρ

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444 THE MLSCELLANIES

fire), says that it is a barbaric term . Ho testifies, accor ingly, stat the Phrygians use this term Mith a stight deviation. And nothing, in my opinion, aster these delatis, need standin the way os stating the periods of the Roman emperora, in

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the Lord camo in Jota, the wn of Zacharias. d again in the samo book: μ d Jesus was coming to His baptism, ing aboni thirty years old, in and w on. And that it was necessary for Him in preMh only a year, this also is initten: Ho hath sint mo to proclaim the acceptabis year of the Loes.' This both tho prophet Uahe, and the gospei. Α cordin*y, in fist-n years of Tiberius and fifteen years of Augustus; So Were completod the thirty years illi the timo He sufferta. And Dom tho timo that Ho suffered illi thodestruction Oi Jerusalem are fortΡtWo years and three monilis; and iram the destruction of Jerusalem to the deathos Commodus, a hundred and tWent eight years, ten months, and three dvs. From tho birth of Christ, thereiore, to thedeath of Commodus are, in all, a hundred and ninet'four ars, one month, thiri u days. And there ara those .

have determined not only tho year of our Loraes blath, butatio the dv; and they say that it took place in the twentPeighth year of Augustus, and in the twent fifth day of Pachon. And the followors of Basilidos hold tho day of his baptism as a festives, spending the night berare in readings. And they say that it mas the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, tho fiftoonth day of the monili Tubi; and wmo that

Jerusalem, the seven years and seven montha of the reim os Vespasian. For the tWo years are added to the fovent nmonius and eighisen dus of Otho, and Galba, and Vitellius;

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Mox Land the result is thres years and fix months, which is tho hal of the weeli,' as Daniel tho prophel said. For lio said that there mere two thousand three hundred dus iram the timothat tho abomination os Nero stood in the holy city, tili ita destruction. For thus tho declaration, Which is surioined, shows: How long shali be tho vision, the sacrifice inhona an the abomination os desolation, Which is oven, and tho

Theso two thousand throe hundred days, then, mahe fixyears laur months, during tho half of whicli Nero held sWay, and it was half a weeh; and for a half, Vespasian With otho, Galba, and Vitellius reigned. And on this account Daniel says, Blessed is he that cometh to the thousand three hundredand thiri sive dvs. y For up to these dvs Was War, andatior them it ceMed. And this number is demonstrated imma subsequent chapter, Which is as followsr And frem thotime of the change of continuation, and of the oving of the abomination os desolation, there shali bo a thousand two hundred and ninely days. Blessed is he that walteth, and cometh to tho thousand three hundred and thiri sive dvs.' Flavius Josephus tho Jew, Who composed tho histo of the JeWs, computing the periods, sus that Irom Moses to David vere fivo hundred and eighty-five years; imm David to the second year of Vespasian, a thousand one hundred and sevent nine; then from that in the tenth year of Antoninus, seventPseven. So that from Moses to the lanin year of Ant ianus there are, in all, tWo thousand one hundred and thir

three years.

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THE MISCELLAMES. 447mother os the Lota. For,' it is sald, froni Abraham to David am Aurisen generations; and irom David to thocarrying aWay into Babylon are fourteen generations; andisom the car ing a V into Babylon illi Christ aro li Wiso other laurieen generations,'-three mystic intervals complete l

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OX TΗΕ GRΕΕΚ TRANSLATION OF THE OLD TESTAM T. much for the dotalis rospecting dates, as stated variousty by many, and as set doWn by us. It is said that tho Scripturos both of tho lamand of the propheis Wero translated from thedialect of the HobreWs into tho Greeli language in thoreign os Ptolemy the son of Lagos, or, according to othera, of Ptolemy surnamed Philadelphus; Demetrius Phalereus bringing to this task the greatest earnesiness, and emptosngpainstahing accuracy on the materials sor the translation. For tho Macedonians being stili in possession of Asia, and

tho hing being ambitious os adorning tho libra he had at

Alexandria With ail Writings, destred the people of Jerusalem to translate the prophecies they possessed into tho Grook dialeci. And thoy being the subjecis of the Macedonians,

solected from those of highest character among them Seven

eiders, versed in the Scriptures, and shillod in tho Grook dialeci, and sent them to him with tho divino books. Andoach having severalty translated cach prophetic book, and allthe translations being compared together, they aneed both

in meaning and expression. For it Was the counsul os God carried out sor the benefit os Grecian ears. It was not aliento the inspiration os God, Who gave the prophe , also toproduce the translation, and maho it as it mere Greoli prophecy. Since tho Scriptures having perished in the captivityos Nabuchodonosor, Esdras the Levite, the primi, in the timeos Artaxerxes hing of the Perstans, having become inspired, in the exercise of prophecy restored again the wholo of thoancient Scriptures. And Mistobulus, in his fini book ad-

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BOOK LJTHE MISCELLANIES 449Mossed to Philometor, writes in these Worti: And Plato followed the la s inven to us, and had manifestly studiodali that is iniit in them.' And bosors Demetrius there hadbeen translated by another, previous to the dominion of Ale ander and of tho Perstans, tho account of the departuro ofour countomen the Hebre s from Egyph and the fame ofati that happened to them, and their taking possession os theland, and tho account of the whole code of laws; so that itis perfectly clear that the abou mentioned philosopher derived a meat deal from this fource, sor he was very learned, as also Pythagoras, Who transferred many things hom ourbooks to his οὐ system os doctrines. And Numenius, the Pythagorem philosopher, expressty writes: μ For What is Plato, but Moses speining in Attic Greoli ' This Mosos Was a theologian and prophet, and as Aome say, an interpreteros sacred lans. His family, his deeiis, and lis' are related by the Scriptures themselves, Which are Worthy of ali credit; bur have neverthelem to be stated by us also as Weli as We

can.

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having received a royal education, the folloWing are the es cumstances of his history. The HebroWs haring increased in Egypt to a meat multitude, and the hing of the coniitrybsing ahaid of insurrection in consequence of their numbere, he ordored ali the semale childron bom to tho Hebre sto be reared Woman being unfit for War), but the malo tobe destroed, betag suspicious of stat art youth. But thechild being goodly, his parenis nursed him secretly three monilis, natural affection being reo strong for tho monarch's

the marshy river. The chil aes sister stood at a distance, and

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mother in bo nurse for a stipulated fee, as is sho had Mensome other person. Thereupon the queen gave the babo thenamo Oi Moses, With etymological proprie , iram his bring Mawn out of tho mater,'-for the Egyptians catl Water mou,' n which he had Men ex sed to die. For they callu es ono who μ Who breathed fon Ming taevi iram inowater.' It is clear that previs ly the parenis gave a nameto tho child on his circumcision; and he was called Joachim. And ho had a third name in heaven, after his ascension, astho mystim say-Melchi. Having reached the proper age, he was taught arithmetic, geometo, poeto, harmony, and b sidos, medicine and music, by those that excelled in these arisamong the Egyptians; and besides, the philosophy Which is conveyed by symbola, Which they potnt out in the hieroglyphical inscriptions. The rest of the usual course of instruction, Greelis taught him in Egypt as a royal child, as Philosus in his life of Moses. Ηe learned, besides, the literatureos the Egyptians, and the knowledge of the heavenly bodies froin the Chaldeans and tho Egyptians; Whince in the Acts ho is sald to havo been instructod in ali the wisdom of tho Egyptians.' And Eupolemus, in his book On the Mus in

Iuria, says that Moses Was the fidit Wiso man, and the fini

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education os Moses, we shali find a harmonious account in Ezehiel, the composer of Je isti tragedios in tho dramaontilled The Modus. Ho thus Writes in the person of

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