Note 61 — Chapter I · THE HEBREW PATRIARCHS

Philo Byblius in his work ‘On the Jews,’ as quoted by Eusebius (Præp. Evang. i, 10), stated that ‘Kronos, whom the Phœnicians call El, the king of the country, who was afterwards deified in the planet Saturn, had an only son by a nymph of the country called Anôbret. This son was named Yeud, which signifies in Phœnician an only son. His country having fallen into distress during a war, Kronos clothed his son in royal robes, raised an altar, and sacrificed him upon it.’ In his account of the Phœnician mythology, the same writer describes the sacrifice a little differently: ‘A plague and a famine having occurred, Kronos sacrificed his only son to his father the Sky, circumcised himself, and obliged his companions to do the same’ (Euseb. l. c.).