Book summary
Краткое содержание: Против Апиона
- Чтение: 8 мин.
- 8 key ideas
- Аудио скоро
A Jewish priest and former general answers slurs about Moses and the Temple with witnesses from Tyre and Babylon.
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Против Апиона — кратко о книге
Краткое содержание: 8 min на чтение
- Время чтения
- Около 2 h 25 min1 h 55 min fast, 2 h 50 min slow
- Длительность
- Слов: 34 400
- Уровень в библиотеке
- Сложное чтение long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- Первая публикация
- около 97 г. н. э.by Иосиф Флавий
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Сколько времени нужно на чтение классики · Обновлено
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Против Апиона in short
Against Apion makes one argument in two books. In the first, Josephus shows that the Jews are ancient and that Greek silence proves nothing. The Greeks wrote late and kept poor records, while the Jews, Egyptians, Phoenicians and Babylonians kept careful ones.
What Против Апиона is about
Why would a Jewish priest, once a general in Galilee, sit down in Rome and write a book to prove that his people are old? Because critics said they were not. If the Jews were truly ancient, the famous Greek historians would have mentioned them, and the Greeks stayed silent.
Flavius Josephus wrote Against Apion as a reply, addressed to a patron named Epaphroditus. He follows his larger Antiquities of the Jews by letting outsiders speak. He calls Egyptian, Phoenician, Chaldean and Greek writers to the stand, and he takes apart the stories of accusers such as the Egyptian scholar Apion. You get a sharp argument about records and belief, quotations from lost books, and a portrait of Jewish law and worship.
Для кого. This book suits readers who love ancient history, lively quarrels between scholars, the Jewish world under Rome, and a writer who defends a whole people with evidence and wit.
The 8 key ideas
Key idea 1 · free to read
The Greeks are younger and less reliable than they claim
Josephus begins with the problem. Some say the Jews are recent because the Greek historians never mention them. He answers that the Greeks are late arrivals to history. The Egyptians, Chaldeans and Phoenicians, whom the Greeks themselves admit kept the oldest memory, wrote their past into public records.
Greece, by contrast, suffered endless disasters that wiped out the past, so each generation began afresh. Even the Greek alphabet came late, and the oldest work all Greeks accept is the poems of Homer. Their first historians lived only shortly before the Persian invasion. Even Pythagoras and Thales admit they learned from Egyptians and Chaldeans.
Then he turns to the quarrels. Hellanicus disagrees with Acusilaus, Ephorus shows that Hellanicus lied, and Timaeus attacks Ephorus. He gives two causes. The Greeks kept no public records of early events, and many writers cared more about style than truth. Some wrote fables, some flattered kings, and some made a name by finding fault.
So a reader should ask who kept records, who was present and who was merely clever. Old does not mean reliable, and eloquence is no proof of accuracy.
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Jewish records were kept by priests with great care
If the Greeks kept poor records, how did the Jews keep theirs?
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Distance from the sea explains Greek silence
Now Josephus meets the main complaint.
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Egyptians, Tyrians and Babylonians confirm Jewish antiquity
Josephus chooses his witnesses with care.
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Greek writers did notice the Jews after all
Some readers will trust only Greeks.
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Egyptian slanders about Moses defeat themselves
Josephus now comes to the bitter part.
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Apion's charges against Alexandria's Jews and the Temple
The second book begins with Apion, a scholar from Egypt.
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The Mosaic constitution and why it has lasted
In the closing sections Josephus does more than defend.
Read all 8 key ideas now
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Вопросы о книге Против Апиона
What is Against Apion about?
It is a defense of the Jewish people against slanders. Josephus argues that the Jews are ancient, answers Egyptian and Greek writers who mocked them, and describes the law of Moses and the worship of the temple.
Who was Apion?
Apion was a scholar and grammarian from Egypt who lived in Alexandria and wrote attacks on the Jews. Josephus answers his stories about the Exodus, the Sabbath, the Alexandrian Jews and a golden ass's head in the temple.
Why did Josephus write Against Apion?
Some people said the Jews must be a recent nation because Greek historians never mention them. Josephus writes to prove their great age with foreign witnesses and to refute the lies told about Moses and the temple.
Is Against Apion worth reading today?
It is worth reading for its quotations from lost ancient writers, its picture of Jewish life under Rome, and its lively arguments about evidence. Josephus writes in a direct, pleading voice that keeps each point clear.
What does Josephus say about Moses and Jewish law?
He presents Moses as the oldest lawgiver and no impostor. He says the law joins piety with justice, courage and self-control, is taught to every child and has been kept faithfully through exile and hardship.
Как сослаться на это издание
Flavius Josephus. Against Apion. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/against-apion.
Flavius Josephus. (2026). Against Apion. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/against-apion (Original work published ca. 97)
Flavius Josephus. Against Apion. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/against-apion.
@book{josephus2026against,
author = {Flavius Josephus},
title = {Against Apion},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/against-apion},
note = {First published ca. 97}
}
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