Sophia Scriptura

Oration to the Greeks 38

Tatian · Oration to the Greeks · ca. 165–172 · Rome · Read in context

Summary: Egyptian chronology places the Exodus under King Amosis, a contemporary of Inachus of Argos, twenty generations before the fall of Troy.

Greek text · Otto 6:146–148

Αἰγυπτίων δέ εἰσιν αἱ ἐπʼ ἀκριβὲς χρόνων ἀναγραφαί· καὶ τῶν κατʼ αὐτοὺς πραγμάτων ἑρμηνεύς ἐστι Πτολεμαῖος, οὐχ ὁ βασιλεύς, ἱερεὺς δὲ Μένδητος. Οὗτος τὰς τῶν βασιλέων πράξεις ἐκτιθέμενος κατʼ Ἄμωσιν βασιλέα Αἰγύπτου γεγονέναι Ἰουδαίοις φησὶ τὴν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου πορείαν, εἰς ἅπερ ἦλθον χωρία, Μωυσέως ἡγουμένου. Λέγει δὲ οὕτως· Ὁ δὲ Ἄμωσις ἐγένετο κατʼ Ἴναχον βασιλέα. Μετὰ δὲ τοῦτον Ἀπίων ὁ γραμματικός, ἀνὴρ δοκιμώτατος, ἐν τῇ τετάρτῃ τῶν Αἰγυπτιακῶν (πέντε δέ εἰσιν αὐτῷ γραφαί) πολλὰ μὲν καὶ ἄλλα, φησὶ δὲ ὅτι Κατέσκαψε τὴν Αὔαριν Ἄμωσις κατὰ τὸν Ἀργεῖον γενόμενος Ἴναχον, ὡς ἐν τοῖς Χρόνοις ἀνέγραψεν ὁ Μενδήσιος Πτολεμαῖος. Ὁ δὲ ἀπʼ Ἰνάχου χρόνος ἄχρι τῆς Ἰλίου ἁλώσεως ἀποπληροῖ γενεὰς εἴκοσι. Καὶ τὰ τῆς ἀποδείξεως ἔχει τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον.

English · Claude translation

The Egyptians have accurate chronicles; and the interpreter of their history is Ptolemy, not the king, but a priest of Mendes. Setting out the deeds of the kings, he says that the Jews made their journey out of Egypt, to the regions they went to, under the leadership of Moses, in the time of Amosis, king of Egypt. He speaks thus: “Amosis lived in the time of King Inachus.” After him Apion the grammarian, a most highly esteemed man, in the fourth book of his Egyptian History (he wrote five books), says, among much else, that “Amosis destroyed Avaris, living in the time of Inachus of Argos, as Ptolemy of Mendes wrote in his Chronicles.” The time from Inachus to the capture of Troy fills twenty generations. And that is how the proof stands.

About this passage

Source
Otto 6:146–148 · Johann Carl Theodor Otto, ed., Tatiani Oratio ad Graecos, Corpus apologetarum Christianorum saeculi secundi 6 (Jena: Mauke, 1851) · Greek text: J. C. T. Otto, Tatiani Oratio ad Graecos (Corpus apologetarum Christianorum saeculi secundi 6, 1851), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Otto, CorpApol 6. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Otto (1851); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)
Scripture
Topics
Scripture and canon

Notes

Translation notes

  • Amosis (Ahmose I) expelled the Hyksos from Avaris; Ptolemy of Mendes and Apion identified this with the Exodus.

Cite this passage

Tatian, Or. Graec. 38 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tatian-oration/38/).

Plain text
Tatian, Or. Graec. 38 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tatian-oration/38/).

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