Moses and Joseph as Scribes

Next after Manetho, I wish to inquire into Cheremon, for this man also, while claiming to write the Egyptian history, and having given the same name for the king as Manetho, that being Amenophis, as well as the name Ramesses for his son, asserts that Isis appeared before Amenophis during his sleep, blaming him that her temple had been demolished during the war; and that Phritiphantes, the sacred scribe, said to him that, if he purged Egypt of its polluted people, his state of terror would cease. And that Amenophis, having selected two hundred and fifty thousand of those who were diseased, banished them; and that the Egyptians used to be led by scribes, both Moses and Joseph—the latter also being a sacred scribe—and they had Egyptian names, that of Moses being Tisithen, and that of Joseph, Peteseph; and that these men came to Pelusium and crossed paths with three hundred and eighty thousand people who had been left there by Amenophis, those whom he had denied entry into Egypt. The men forged an alliance with these people and made an expedition against Egypt.

Translated byWilliam Whiston, adapted byAaron Samuels.