I. SECT. on i embaffy being fent to him to redeem them, he nobly difdained to infult a vanquished foe; and, content with merely accepting pay for his foldiers, he restored his prisoners to their liberty. Afterwards, in the holy city Argarizin, he received gifts from Melchizedek the priest of God. In process of time, he was driven by stress of famine into Egypt. The beauty of his wife, whom he called his fifter, attracted the attention of the king. But certain marks of divine wrath pursuing that prince, he learnt upon inquiry, that she was the wife of Abraham, and immediately restored her to her husband". 3. Artapanus. It is fuperfluous to make any remarks upon the coincidence of this narrative with that of Mofes; their minute resemblance to each other fufficiently fhews that they are only different hiftories of the fame facts. 3. Artapanus affirms, that the Jews were t Anglice, of Mount Gerizim; a circumstance, which seems to fhew, that Eupolemus had received this part of his narrative at leaft from the Samaritans. "Eufeb. Præp. Evang. lib. ix. c. 17. called ས. called Hebrews from their ancestor Abra- CHAP. ham. In this affertion he is doubtlefs miftaken; but it ferves nevertheless to shew, that the fame of the great father of the Jewish nation had reached his ears*. The fame Author mentions the circumftance of this Patriarch's having travelled into Egypt; the prince of which country he styles Pharethoy. 4. Abraham is faid by Melo to have married two wives, one his kinfwoman, and the other an Egyptian flave. The latter of these bore him twelve children, who made themselves mafters of Arabia; the former a single son, whose name was equivalent in fignification to the Greek word Gelos. As for Abraham himself, he died in a good old age; but his fon Gelos became the father of twelve children, one of whom was Jofeph. Abraham, fometime previous to his death, received a command from God to facrifice his fon; but, when he was on the very point of putting it in execution, he was prevented by an angel, * See fome judicious remarks upon the name Heber, by Mr. Bryant; Anal. vol. iii. p. 424. y Eufeb. Præp. Evang. lib. ix. c. 18. * Anglice, Laughter. Q 2 and 4. Melo. SECT. and the intended victim was exchanged .I. for a rama. Notwithstanding the errors in this account, respecting the immediate offspring of the Egyptian wife, and alfo of Isaac, or as Melo calls him Gelos; it is obvious, that the narrative is, in fubftance, the with that of Scripture. very fame 5. The whole of the hiftory of Abraham is related in different parts of the Koran; and though this circumftance undoubtedly cannot be brought as a confirmation of Scripture, inasmuch as the one account is borrowed from the other; yet it ferves to fhew the high degree of veneration, in which the memory of that Patriarch was held throughout the eaft. In fhort, as it is obferved by Hyde, his fame was diffufed over the whole oriental world, and his memory revered by almost every Afiatic nation. V. A tradition of the facrifice of Ifaac Eufeb. Præp. Evang. lib. ix. c. 19. feems V. seems to have been preferved among the CHAP. Phenicians; at least Porphyry is inclined. to derive the bloody rites, with which they venerated Chronus, or Moloch, from that circumftance. According to this Author, "Chronus, whom the Phenicians call If"rael, formerly reigned in Palestine, and "had an only fon born to him from the nymph Anobret, whom he named Jehud, a word fignifying only-begotten. This "fon, to avert the dangers of a calamitous 66 war, he facrificed to the Gods upon an "altard." In the word Jehud is evidently recognized the Hebrew term 'n' Jehid; by which Ifaac is frequently diftinguished, as being the only fon born to Abraham of Sarah. As for Anobret, it feems to be derived from ay-in An-Obrith; an allusion to the name "ay Hebri, by which Abraham and his pofterity were distinguished. VI. The history of Jacob is given at d Κρονος, τοινυν, ὃν οἱ Φοίνικες Ισραηλ προσαγορεύουσι, βασίλευων της χώρας, και ύσερον μετα την τε βίου τελευτην εις τον τε Κρόνου ασερά καθιερωθείς, εξ επιχωρίας νύμφης Ανω ρετ λεγομενης, υἱον εχων μονογενη όν δια τετο Ιεεδ εκαλεν, τε μονογενες έτως ετι και νυν και λεμενε παρα τοις Φοινιξι· κινδύνων εκ πολεμε μεγίςων κατειληφότων την χώραν, βασιλικῳ κοσμησας σχηματι τὸν υἱον, βωμον τε κατασκευασάμενος, KATEJUσ. EUSEB. Præp. Evang. lib. i. c. 10, VI. Jacob. SECT. large by Demetrius, who is cited by AlexI. ander Polyhiftor. This writer diftinctly enumerates the diffenfion between that Patriarch and his brother Efau; his flight into Mefopotamia; his marriage with the two daughters of Laban; the fruitfulness of the one and the fterility of the other; the birth of the twelve Patriarchs; the rape of Dinah; the felling of Jofeph into Egypt, and his subsequent promotion; his reception of his brethren, who were forced by ftrefs of famine to buy corn in that country; and lastly, the descent of Jacob with his whole family into Egypt, VII. Jofeph. VII. Artapanus is equally explicit in detailing the history of Jofeph. He relates, that this Patriarch, being hated by his brethren, and dreading the plots which they were daily contriving against him, befought the neighbouring Arabs to carry him into Egypt. Here, he gained fo much upon the favour of the king, that he was appointed governor of the whole country; which, from previously lying in an uncultivated ftate, foon affumed under his management a very different afpect. He di Eufeb. Præp. Evang. lib. ix. c. 21. |