Josephus, the first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, takes on Apion's wild accusations in his work Against Apion, and it’s a doozy. Apion, in his eagerness to smear the Jewish people, concocts a tale so outrageous it’s almost comical. He claims that Antiochus, while raiding the Temple in Jerusalem, discovered a secret chamber. Inside, he found a Greek man living in luxury, surrounded by a table laden with delicacies.
The man, according to Apion, was being fattened up for a gruesome ritual: a yearly sacrifice where the Jews would kill a Greek, taste his entrails, and swear eternal enmity against all Greeks. Can you believe this? Apion even has the man begging Antiochus for rescue, pleading with him to thwart the Jews' bloodthirsty plot.
Now, Josephus isn't laughing. He's indignant. He points out the sheer implausibility of the story. First of all, Apion is more interested in defending a sacrilegious king than telling the truth. He's trying to excuse Antiochus's greed and perfidy, his desecration of the Temple for money. But even if such a thing were happening, would that excuse Antiochus's actions? Of course not!
Josephus asks, how could all the Jews possibly gather for such a sacrifice? And how could one man's entrails possibly feed them all? He also wonders why Antiochus wouldn't have paraded this rescued Greek hero through the streets, garnering praise and support from the Greek world. It makes absolutely no sense.
But more importantly, Josephus highlights the fundamental misunderstanding – or, more likely, deliberate misrepresentation – of Jewish Temple practices. He reminds us that the Temple was structured with a series of increasingly restricted courts. As Josephus says, there were four courts: one for everyone (even foreigners!), one for Jewish women, one for Jewish men, and the innermost court for the priests. Each had its own rules about who could enter and when. The holiest place, the Kodesh Hakodashim, the Holy of Holies, was only accessible to the High Priest, and only on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
"All such as ever saw the construction of our temple, of what nature it was, know well enough how the purity of it was never to be profaned," Josephus declares.
He emphasizes the meticulous care taken to maintain ritual purity. Priests could only enter at specific times, and even then, only with the proper garments and for specific purposes. Nothing extraneous was allowed inside – only the altar of incense, the table of shewbread, the censer, and the candlestick, as prescribed by Jewish law.
As we find in Midrash Rabbah, the details of Temple service were meticulously planned and executed, leaving no room for secret, gruesome rituals. The Talmud, in Tractate Yoma, further elaborates on the High Priest's preparations and actions on Yom Kippur, underscoring the solemnity and transparency of the Temple service.
Josephus concludes by calling out Apion's blatant fabrication. He accuses him of inventing a preposterous tale about secret feasts and forbidden access to the Temple. It’s a “voluntary lie,” Josephus says, designed to mislead those who won't bother to investigate the truth. It’s a stark reminder of how easily prejudice and misinformation can spread, especially when fueled by malice.
Apion's story, though demonstrably false, reveals a deeper truth: the enduring power of prejudice and the importance of critical thinking. How often do we hear narratives that, upon closer inspection, crumble under the weight of their own absurdity? And what responsibility do we have to challenge those narratives and seek out the truth?
8. He adds another Grecian fable, in order to reproach us. In reply to which, it would be enough to say, that they who presume to speak about
Divine worship ought not to be ignorant of this plain truth, that it is a degree of less impurity to pass through temples, than to forge wicked calumnies of its priests. Now such men as he are more zealous to justify a sacrilegious king, than to write what is just and what is true about us, and about our temple; for when they are desirous of gratifying
Antiochus, and of concealing that perfidiousness and sacrilege which he was guilty of, with regard to our nation, when he wanted money, they endeavor to disgrace us, and tell lies even relating to futurities.
Apion becomes other men's prophet upon this occasion, and says that
"Antiochus found in our temple a bed, and a man lying upon it, with a small table before him, full of dainties, from the [fishes of the] sea, and the fowls of the dry land; that this man was amazed at these dainties thus set before him; that he immediately adored the king, upon his coming in, as hoping that he would afford him all possible assistance; that he fell down upon his knees, and stretched out to him his right hand, and begged to be released; and that when the king bid him sit down, and tell him who he was, and why he dwelt there, and what was the meaning of those various sorts of food that were set before him the man made a lamentable complaint, and with sighs, and tears in his eyes, gave him this account of the distress he was in; and said that he was a Greek and that as he went over this province, in order to get his living, he was seized upon by foreigners, on a sudden, and brought to this temple, and shut up therein, and was seen by nobody, but was fattened by these curious provisions thus set before him; and that truly at the first such unexpected advantages seemed to him matter of great joy; that after a while, they brought a suspicion him, and at length astonishment, what their meaning should be; that at last he inquired of the servants that came to him and was by them informed that it was in order to the fulfilling a law of the Jews, which they must not tell him, that he was thus fed; and that they did the same at a set time every year: that they used to catch a Greek foreigner, and fat him thus up every year, and then lead him to a certain wood, and kill him, and sacrifice with their accustomed solemnities, and taste of his entrails, and take an oath upon this sacrificing a Greek, that they would ever be at enmity with the Greeks; and that then they threw the remaining parts of the miserable wretch into a certain pit." Apion adds further, that,
"the man said there were but a few days to come ere he was to be slain, and implored of Antiochus that, out of the reverence he bore to the
Grecian gods, he would disappoint the snares the Jews laid for his blood, and would deliver him from the miseries with which he was encompassed." Now this is such a most tragical fable as is full of nothing but cruelty and impudence; yet does it not excuse Antiochus of his sacrilegious attempt, as those who write it in his vindication are willing to suppose; for he could not presume beforehand that he should meet with any such thing in coming to the temple, but must have found it unexpectedly. He was therefore still an impious person, that was given to unlawful pleasures, and had no regard to God in his actions. But [as for Apion], he hath done whatever his extravagant love of lying hath dictated to him, as it is most easy to discover by a consideration of his writings; for the difference of our laws is known not to regard the
Grecians only, but they are principally opposite to the Egyptians, and to some other nations also for while it so falls out that men of all countries come sometimes and sojourn among us, how comes it about that we take an oath, and conspire only against the Grecians, and that by the effusion of their blood also? Or how is it possible that all the Jews should get together to these sacrifices, and the entrails of one man should be sufficient for so many thousands to taste of them, as Apion pretends? Or why did not the king carry this man, whosoever he was, and whatsoever was his name, [which is not set down in Apion's book,] with great pomp back into his own country? when he might thereby have been esteemed a religious person himself, and a mighty lover of the Greeks, and might thereby have procured himself great assistance from all men against that hatred the Jews bore to him. But I leave this matter; for the proper way of confuting fools is not to use bare words, but to appeal to the things themselves that make against them. Now, then, all such as ever saw the construction of our temple, of what nature it was, know well enough how the purity of it was never to be profaned; for it had four several courts [12] encompassed with cloisters round about, every one of which had by our law a peculiar degree of separation from the rest. Into the first court every body was allowed to go, even foreigners, and none but women, during their courses, were prohibited to pass through it; all the Jews went into the second court, as well as their wives, when they were free from all uncleanness; into the third court went in the Jewish men, when they were clean and purified; into the fourth went the priests, having on their sacerdotal garments; but for the most sacred place, none went in but the high priests, clothed in their peculiar garments. Now there is so great caution used about these offices of religion, that the priests are appointed to go into the temple but at certain hours; for in the morning, at the opening of the inner temple, those that are to officiate receive the sacrifices, as they do again at noon, till the doors are shut. Lastly, it is not so much as lawful to carry any vessel into the holy house; nor is there any thing therein, but the altar [of incense], the table [of shew-bread], the censer, and the candlestick, which are all written in the law; for there is nothing further there, nor are there any mysteries performed that may not be spoken of; nor is there any feasting within the place.
For what I have now said is publicly known, and supported by the testimony of the whole people, and their operations are very manifest; for although there be four courses of the priests, and every one of them have above five thousand men in them, yet do they officiate on certain days only; and when those days are over, other priests succeed in the performance of their sacrifices, and assemble together at mid-day, and receive the keys of the temple, and the vessels by tale, without any thing relating to food or drink being carried into the temple; nay, we are not allowed to offer such things at the altar, excepting what is prepared for the sacrifices.
