Let’s dive into a bit of ancient Egypt as seen through the eyes of Flavius Josephus, the first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, as he confronts some pretty wild accusations leveled against the Jewish people.
In his work Against Apion, Josephus takes aim at various anti-Jewish claims circulating in the ancient world. One of the biggest offenders? Manetho, an Egyptian priest and historian from the Ptolemaic era. Manetho spun quite a tale about the origins of the Jews, and it's… well, let's just say it wasn't flattering.
According to Josephus, Manetho claimed that the Jews were actually a bunch of diseased and defiled people who had been expelled from Egypt. He says that after being driven out, these people, led by a figure Manetho doesn't name Moses, made their way to what would become Judea and founded Jerusalem.
Josephus quotes Manetho as saying that "Amenophis returned back from Ethiopia with a great army, as did his son Ahampses with another army also, and that both of them joined battle with the shepherds and the polluted people…". He says that the Egyptians beat them, slew many, and pursued them to the bounds of Syria. Sounds pretty definitive, right? A nice, clean victory. But Josephus isn’t buying it.
Josephus is pretty blunt. He calls Manetho's account "arrant lies." He argues that Manetho contradicts himself. Manetho admits that the Jewish people weren't originally Egyptian, but came from elsewhere and conquered Egypt before leaving again. So, if that's true, how could they simultaneously be a group of diseased Egyptians?
Furthermore, Josephus wants to make it clear that Moses, the great leader who led the Israelites out of Egypt, wasn't one of these "polluted people." He intends to prove, using Manetho's own writings, that Moses lived many generations before this alleged expulsion of the diseased.
Why does all this matter? Well, these kinds of historical narratives – even the clearly biased ones – have power. They shape perceptions, fuel prejudices, and can have lasting consequences. Josephus understood this. By challenging Manetho's version of events, he was fighting back against a narrative that sought to demonize his people. He was setting the record straight, or at least, attempting to. It makes you wonder about the stories we tell ourselves today. What truths are being obscured? What biases are at play? And what can we do to ensure a more accurate and just telling of history?