That’s exactly what we find ourselves facing when we delve into the writings of Lysimachus, a figure who, according to Josephus in his work Against Apion, spun a tale so incredibly hateful about the Jewish people that it practically screams its own falsehood.
Now, remember, Josephus wrote Against Apion specifically to defend the Jewish people against such slanders, so we’re getting this story secondhand, through his rebuttal. But what a story it is!
Lysimachus, this character assassin, claims that the Jews were once a mass of leprous and scabby people living in Egypt during the reign of King Bocchoris. Can you imagine? He says they were so numerous and diseased that they caused a famine. To solve this, Bocchoris supposedly consulted the oracle of [Jupiter] Hammon (that's Zeus-Ammon, the syncretic Greco-Egyptian deity). The oracle, according to Lysimachus, demanded that Egypt be purged of these "impure" people. The leprous ones? Drowned in lead-lined boxes in the sea. The rest? Abandoned in the desert to die.
It gets worse, believe it or not.
These abandoned, supposedly diseased people, according to Lysimachus, didn't just roll over and die. Oh no. They banded together. And here's where the real kicker comes in: Moses appears. The Moses. But not the law-giving, God-fearing leader we know from the Torah. This Moses, as portrayed by Lysimachus, is an evil instigator. He urges them to travel together, showing kindness to no one, always advising others to do the worst, and, get this, to overturn every temple and altar they encounter.
Seriously?
So, this band of supposed lepers, led by an evil Moses, does exactly that. They rampage through the desert, pillaging and burning temples until they arrive in a land they call Judea. They build a city, initially naming it Hierosyla, meaning "robbery of temples," a delightful little detail, don't you think? Eventually, ashamed of the name (according to Lysimachus, anyway), they change it to Hierosolyma – Jerusalem – and call themselves Hierosolymites.
Wow. Just… wow.
Josephus, of course, tears this narrative to shreds. He points out the obvious inconsistencies and the blatant anti-Jewish sentiment fueling the entire story. But it’s important to remember these kinds of narratives existed. They circulated, and they poisoned the well of public opinion.
What’s truly striking is the sheer audacity of Lysimachus’s fabrication. The blatant inversion of Jewish values – kindness, justice, and monotheism – into their opposites. It serves as a stark reminder of how easily narratives can be twisted and weaponized to demonize entire groups of people. And how important it is to be critical of the stories we hear, especially those that seem too good (or in this case, too awful) to be true.
34. I shall now add to these accounts about Manethoand Cheremon somewhat about Lysimachus, who hath taken the same topic of falsehood with those forementioned, but hath gone far beyond them in the incredible nature of his forgeries; which plainly demonstrates that he contrived them out of his virulent hatred of our nation. His words are these: "The people of the Jews being leprous and scabby, and subject to certain other kinds of distempers, in the days of Bocchoris, king of Egypt, they fled to the temples, and got their food there by begging: and as the numbers were very great that were fallen under these diseases, there arose a scarcity in Egypt. Hereupon Bocehoris, the king of Egypt, sent some to consult the oracle of [Jupiter] Hammon about his scarcity. The god's answer was this, that he must purge his temples of impure and impious men, by expelling them out of those temples into desert places; but as to the scabby and leprous people, he must drown them, and purge his temples, the sun having an indignation at these men being suffered to live; and by this means the land will bring forth its fruits. Upon Bocchoris's having received these oracles, he called for their priests, and the attendants upon their altars, and ordered them to make a collection of the impure people, and to deliver them to the soldiers, to carry them away into the desert; but to take the leprous people, and wrap them in sheets of lead, and let them down into the sea. Hereupon the scabby and leprous people were drowned, and the rest were gotten together, and sent into desert places, in order to be exposed to destruction. In this case they assembled themselves together, and took counsel what they should do, and determined that, as the night was coming on, they should kindle fires and lamps, and keep watch; that they also should fast the next night, and propitiate the gods, in order to obtain deliverance from them. That on the next day there was one Moses, who advised them that they should venture upon a journey, and go along one road till they should come to places fit for habitation: that he charged them to have no kind regards for any man, nor give good counsel to any, but always to advise them for the worst; and to overturn all those temples and altars of the gods they should meet with: that the rest commended what he had said with one consent, and did what they had resolved on, and so traveled over the desert. But that the difficulties of the journey being over, they came to a country inhabited, and that there they abused the men, and plundered and burnt their temples; and then came into that land which is called Judea, and there they built a city, and dwelt therein, and that their city was named Hierosyla, from this their robbing of the temples; but that still, upon the success they had afterwards, they in time changed its denomination, that it might not be a reproach to them, and called the city Hierosolyma, and themselves Hierosolymites."
