THE BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES OF PHILO
TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD LATIN VERSION
BY
M. R. JAMES, LITT.D., F.B.A.
CHAPTER XXII.
XXII. And it came to pass after these things, when Jesus and all Israel had heard that the children of Ruben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasse which dwelt about Jordan had built them an altar and did offer sacrifices thereon and had made priests for the sanctuary, all the people were troubled above measure and came unto them to Silon. Jos. 22
2. And Jesus and all the elders spake to them saying: What be these works which are done among you, while as yet we are not settled in our land? Are not these the words which Moses spake to you in the wilderness saying: See that when ye enter into the land ye spoil not your doings, and corrupt all the people? And now wherefore is it that our enemies have so much abounded, save because ye do corrupt your ways and have made all this trouble, and therefore will they assemble against us and overcome us.
3. And the children of Ruben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasse said unto Jesus and all the people of Israel: Lo now hath God enlarged the fruit of the womb of men, and hath set up a light that that which is in darkness may see, for he knoweth what is in the secret places of the deep, and with him light abideth. Now the Lord God of our fathers knoweth if any of us or if we ourselves have done this thing in the way of iniquity, but only for our posterity's sake, that their heart be not separated from the Lord our God lest they say to us: Behold now, our brethren which be beyond Jordan have an altar, to make offerings upon it, but we in this place that have no altar, let us depart from the Lord our God, because our God hath set us afar off from his ways, that we should not serve him. Jos. 22:21
4. And then verily spake we among ourselves: Let us make us an altar, that they may have a zeal to seek the Lord. And verily there be some of us that stand by and know that we are your brothers and stand guiltless before your face. Do ye therefore that which is pleasing in the sight of the Lord.
5. And Jesus said: Is not the Lord our king mightier than woo sacrifices? And wherefore taught ye not your sons the words of the Lord which ye heard of us? For if your sons had been occupied in the meditation of the law of the Lord, their mind would not have been led aside after a sanctuary made with hands. Or know ye not that when the people were forsaken for a moment in the wilderness when Moses went up to receive the tables, their mind was led astray, and they made themselves idols? And except the mercy of the God of your fathers had kept us, all the synagogues should have become a byword, and all the sins of the people should have been blazed abroad because of your foolishness.
6. Therefore now go and dig down the sanctuaries that ye have builded you, and teach your sons the law, and they shall be meditating therein day and night, that the Lord may be with them for a witness and a judge unto them all the days of their life. And God shall be witness and judge between me and you, and between my heart and your heart, that if ye have done this thing in subtlety it shall be avenged upon you, because you would destroy your brothers: but if ye have done it ignorantly as ye say, God will be merciful unto you for your sons' sake. And all the people answered: Amen, Amen.
7. And Jesus and all the people of Israel offered for them 1,000 rams for a sin-offering (lit. the word of excusing), and prayed for them and sent them away in peace: and they went and destroyed the sanctuary, and fasted and wept, both they and their sons, and prayed and said: O God of our fathers, that knowest before the heart of all men, thou knowest that our ways were not wrought in iniquity in thy sight, neither have we swerved from thy ways, but have served thee all of us, for we are the work of thy hands: now therefore remember thy covenant with the sons of thy servants. Acts 1:24
8. And after that Jesus went up unto Galgala, and reared up the tabernacle of the Lord, and the ark of the covenant and all the vessels thereof, and set it up in Silo, and put there the Demonstration and the Truth (i.e. the Urim and Thummim). And at that time Eleazar the priest which served the altar did teach by the Demonstration all them of the people that came to inquire of the Lord, for thereby it was shown unto them, but in the new sanctuary that was in Galgala, Jesus appointed even unto this day the burnt offerings that were offered by the children of Israel every year.
9. For until the house of the Lord was builded in Jerusalem, and so long as the offerings were made in the new sanctuary, the people were not forbidden to offer therein, because the Truth and the Demonstration revealed all things in Silo. And until the ark was set by Solomon in the sanctuary of the Lord they went on sacrificing there unto that day. But Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest of the Lord ministered in Silo.
