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Address to the Greeks

Tatian

Chapter 36

About this work

Tatian attacks Greek claims to cultural and philosophical superiority, defends Christian teaching about God, creation, resurrection, and ethics, and argues for the antiquity of biblical wisdom.

Author: Tatian
Date: c. AD 165–175
Origin: Rome or the eastern Mediterranean
Genre: Apology

Testimony of the Chaldeans to the Antiquity of Moses.

But let Homer be not later than the Trojan war

‹ Chapter 35 Chapter 37 ›

;

let

it

be

granted

that

he

was

contemporary

with

it

,

or

even

that

he

was

in

the

army

of

Agamemnon

,

and

,

if

any

so

please

,

that

he

lived

before

the

invention

of

letters

.

The

Moses

before

mentioned

will

be

shown

to

have

been

many

years

older

than

the

taking

of

Troy

,

and

far

more

ancient

than

the

building

of

Troy

,

or

than

Tros

and

Dardanus

.

To

demonstrate

this

I

will

call

in

as

witnesses

the

Chaldeans

,

the

Phœnicians

and

the

Egyptians

.

And

what

more

need

I

say

?

For

it

behoves

one

who

professes

to

persuade

his

hearers

to

make

his

narrative

of

events

very

concise

.

Berosus

,

a

Babylonian

,

a

priest

of

their

god

Belus

,

born

in

the

time

of

Alexander

,

composed

for

Antiochus

,

the

third

after

him

,

the

history

of

the

Chaldeans

in

three

books

;

and

,

narrating

the

acts

of

the

kings

,

he

mentions

one

of

them

,

Nabuchodonosor

by

name

,

who

made

war

against

the

Phœnicians

and

the

Jews

,

—

events

which

we

know

were

announced

by

our

prophets

,

and

which

happened

much

later

than

the

age

of

Moses

,

seventy

years

before

the

Persian

empire

.

But

Berosus

is

a

very

trustworthy

man

,

and

of

this

Juba

is

a

witness

,

who

,

writing

concerning

the

Assyrians

,

says

that

he

learned

the

history

from

Berosus

:

there

are

two

books

of

his

concerning

the

Assyrians

.