the Egyptians. I have examined, fo far as I know, all their authorities for it, and they appear to me by no means any good foundation for the fuperftructure they raise thereon, which I hope will be now alfo the judgment of the reader. Mr. Voltaire's affertion, that the Jews imitated the circumcifion of the Arabs examined, and fome reflections upon the manner and time of the Egyptians beginning the ufe of circumcifion, which conclude this article. As to Mr. Voltaire's faying, in the fame fentence which was already produced, that the Jews imitated the circumcifion of the Arabs, it is a pofition which cannot detain us long; for I do not know any antient writer who affords any handle for pretending they took it from them. Indeed, I know no author of this clafs at all, who mentions the prevalence of circumcifion among the Arabs by name, except Jofephus, who, in a paffage *before quoted, tells us, "That being Ishmael's defcendants, they circumcise ⚫ their children in the thirteenth year.' But it is remony, which is all Jofephus aimed to establish. At any rate, whether these words relate to circumcifion chiefly or not, they cannot authorize us to conclude, that Jofephus thought the Jews derived circumcifion from Egypt, or that his countrymen owned it, after what hath been observed on the import of fuch phrases, part 1. fec. 2. p. 9, 10. &c. * See part 1 ct laft, p. 41. Antiq. 1. 12. 2. Apabes de μετα ετός τριςκαιδέκατον (εθος εχεσι) ποιείσθαι τας περιτομας· Ισμαήλος γαρ ό κτιςης το εθνός, Αβραμω γενομενος εκ της παλλακής, εν τέτω περιτέμνεται τῷ χρόνῳ· περι & τον παντα λογον εκθησομαι μετα πολans cxpiberas. This treatife of Jofephus, however, concerning circumcifion, if ever he wrote it, is loft, fo that no light can be derived from it, plain he furnishes no pretence to affirm, it was obferved by them antecedently to its appointment unto Abraham: for he makes their being fprung from Ishmael, who was his fon by Hagar, and circumcised in the thirteenth year of his age, because he was fo old at the time God enjoined his father this rite, the ground of their circumcifing their children at the fame time of life, though Mr. Voltaire+ will have them also to have learned the ceremony from the Egyptians. It is true, the Arabians fometimes come under the name of Ethiopians with the antients, as Arabia is sometimes called Ethiopia by them. Even the Jewish hiftorian himself, is supposed to use this ftile fometimes: for he speaks of a war with the Ethiopians, in which Mofes commanded the Egyptian forces against them, and befieged Saba a capital city of Ethiopia. Now here the word, it is faid, must have that meaning, Saba being + metropolis of Arabia. And upon this hypothefis, that the Arabs are called Ethiopians by the antients, there are many authorities for their having obferved circumcifion, as must have been remarked by every attentive reader of this section, and among others, the paffage concerning the Troglodites, fince they were a people of + Phil. Diction. p. 130. 'Where is the improbability of the He⚫ brews having imitated the Egyptians in circumcision? It was no more 'than their neighbours the Arabs had done.' Antiq. 2. 10. 2. + So Diodorus Siculus, who in his fecond book appropriates the name of Arabia to the country between Syria and Egypt, makes Sabas, or, as others read, Saba, the metropolis of the Arabians, lib. 3. fect. 47 Edit. Rhodom. p. 126. Weffeling. 215. TO SE EARNS THTY μητροπολις εσιν ἦν καλεσι Σαβας επ' όρος ωκισμένη. eaftern Ethiopia, or Ethiopia on the Arabic gulf. But ftill there is no fhadow of teftimony, that the Jews borrowed circumcifion from them, unless the meaning of our author be, that they learned it from the Egyptians, who had themselves been taught it by them, as indeed the Ethiopians must be fuppofed to have given out. And in this fenfe, it coincides with the affertion of their taking it from the Egyptians, which hath been already confidered, and fhewed to be ill-grounded; there being no proof it was known to them fooner than to Abraham and his pofterity. We may then rest satisfied, that circumcifion was commanded to Abraham and his pofterity, and in pursuance of the divine injunction practised by them, ere it was in ufe among the Egyptians and other nations; as indeed I believe this opinion will of its own accord arife in the mind of every unbiaffed and unprejudiced person, who reads the relation of its appointment by God, and obfervance by them, which we have in the book of Genefis, inftead of the conceit, that it was then common to others with them. Should any now enquire, whence or when the Egyptians began to obferve circumcifion, as a national, or at least as a facerdotal rite, fince they were not in poffeffion of it before the Abrahamic family? I reply, it is difficult to fay. About this point, learned men have gone into very different fentiments, there being fuch a defectiveness of evidence for one aċcount of its entrance among them beyond another. For fome have afcribed it to the influence of Abraham himself; fome to the credit and authority of Jofeph, while in reward of his eminent fervice he had fupreme rule over Egypt next to the king, together with the example of his father and brethren, who fettled there during his administration of public affairs; fome to the obfervation of the prodigious fruit *To this opinion it hath been objected, that' It was an abomi'nation to the Egyptians to eat bread with the Hebrews,' Gen. xliii. 22. and that all shepherds (such as they were) were an abomination to the ' Egyptians,' Gen. xlvi. 34. How then can it be thought the Egyptians would copy the rite of circumcifion from them in that age? But it may be answered, so were the Greeks an abomination to the Egyptians: for neither would they falute a Greek, nor use the knife, or spit, or kettle of a Greek, left they should be defiled by his embrace, after he had been partaker of food which they counted unlawful, of which fort were cows, and with many of them fheep, or by the touch of thefe utenfils, after they had been employed about the fame prohibited victuals. See Herodotus, 2. cap. 41, 42. and Diod. Sicul. (Rhodom. 77.) Weffeling. 97. But will it follow therefore that the Egyptians never borrowed any custom from the Greeks?-Strabo gives the Jews a good character at their departure from Egypt, and settlement in Paleftine, which, though it relate to them in a later period than Jofeph's government, I fhall give at once here, for he fays, 'That Mofes, one of the Egyptian priests, poffeffing a certain district of the country, departed thence, having disliked the appointed rites, and many who honoured • the Deity went out with him, πολλοι τιμώντες το θείον αυτῷ συνεξε npar, for he taught them, &c.' as above quoted, p. 288.' And perfua⚫ded not a few well-minded perfons to accompany him; that he founded ⚫ no contemptible kingdom in the country where Jerufalem now stands, ⚫ all around having eagerly joined him, as he promised to establish 'fuch a worship, and fuch a priesthood, as would not be uneafy by ex -- pences or topopia, proceffions with images of the gods, or other ab⚫furd practices, and affured that those who lived foberly and righteously ought to expect always fome gift from God, but they of an oppofite character ought to look for no benefit. That they who fucceeded, continued fome ages in the fame fentiments, doing juftly ⚫ and being truly pious, till firft fuperftitious men, and afterwards tyrannical men intruded into the priesthood, when from fuperftition ' proceeded abstinences from meats, which the nation uses still, and ⚫ circumcifions, and excifions, and fuch cuftoms, and from oppreffions, fulness and increase of the Ifraelites who used it, and the undeniable difcoveries of divine favour toward them, at their removal thence; and fome to the friendship that was established between the Jewish nation robberies: for they who revolted, haraffed both that country and ⚫ the neighbourhood, but they who took part with the rulers, plun⚫dered what belonged to others, and fubdued a good part of Syria and Phenicia. Οι δε διαδεξαμένοι χρονες μεν τινας εν τοις αυτοις διεμεινον δικαιοπραγοντες και θεοσέβεις ως αληθώς οντες, &c. Thus Strabo, lib. 16. p. 761. edit, Almel. 1104. and what an honourable account is it of the Jews, in the beginning of their state! Justin too fpeaks well of them; for having said, 'That after Arvas, Moses's fon, ⚫ was made king, the Jews had the fame persons for priests and kings,' he adds, The justice of these priests and kings mixed with piety, acquired them an incredible power, Quorum juftitia religione per⚫ mixta, incredibile quantum convaluere.' 36. 2. Were these Jews then fuch in earlier times, as to be thought unworthy of imitation in any of their customs?-Besides do not we ourselves know a nation, which is ready to imitate the fashions of another nation, though to this nation, there is, on many accounts, a strong aversion and antipathy. It is eafy on this fuppofition to answer Dr. Middleton's query, with whatever air of triumph he has proposed it; Letter to Dr. Waterland, ibid. pp. 30, 31. • Which then is the more probable, that a people great and powerful, famed every where abroad, and valuing themselves highly at home for their wisdom and learning, should 'borrow fo remarkable a custom from a nation they always hated and defpifed, or that the lawgiver of a petty infant ftate, should copy 'that as well as many others of his conftitutions, from the practice of ⚫ a great and flourishing kingdom?' for the Jews were not so abhorred and contemned by them in those days, as appears from the intercourse between the two kingdoms, mentioned in Scripture, 1 Kings, iii. 1. and x. 28, 29. 2 Kings, xvii. 4. xviii. 21. 24. Isaiah, xxx. xxxi. Ezek. xxix. 6, 7. Nor will Dr. Middleton's quotation from Jofephus contra Apion, 1. 13. prove they were always hated and flighted by them against such proofs of the contrary; for Jofephus never intended his words, which run thus, 'All the Egyptians in common were especi |
