Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 21

We will address a little later the question of whether the philosophers' doctrines were found among the Hebrews, but first, as is fitting, we must speak of the times of Moses, through which it will be demonstrated beyond dispute that the Hebrew philosophy is the most ancient of all wisdom. Tatian has already treated these matters accurately in his *Against the Greeks*, and Cassian has also done so in the first of his *Exegetical Works*; nevertheless, this memorandum requires us to run through the relevant statements in their proper place. Apion the grammarian, surnamed Plistonicus, in the fourth book of his *Egyptian Histories* — though hostile toward the Hebrews, being Egyptian by birth, and having even composed a book against the Jews — mentions Amosis, king of the Egyptians, and the events of his reign, and cites Ptolemaeus of Mendes as a witness. Ptolemaeus writes: "Amosis, who became Inachus in the Argive reckoning, dug up Avaris," as recorded in his *Chronicles*. This Ptolemaeus was a priest; having set forth the deeds of the Egyptian kings in three complete books, he states that under Amosis, king of Egypt, the Jews made their exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Moses, from which it follows that Moses flourished in the time of Inachus. The most ancient of the Greek traditions are the Argolic ones, those stemming from Inachus, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus teaches in his *Chronicles*; and of these, the Attic traditions, which derive from Cecrops — who was two-natured and autochthonous, as Tatian says word for word — are forty generations later, while the Arcadian traditions, which derive from Pelasgus, are nine generations later.