Note 94 — Chapter VII · EGYPT

This fragment, of the authenticity of which little doubt can be entertained, must be distinguished from the books attributed to Hecataeus about the Jews and Abraham. Josephus uses both in his “Defense” against Apion (i. 22 seq.), but their authenticity was questioned even in ancient times (cf. Herennius Philo, cited by Origenes, C. Cels. i. 15; Reinach, Textes, p. 157). They are almost certainly Jewish works of the first century B.C.E.

The text of the real Hecataeus (Reinach, Textes, p. 14 seq.) is anything but certain. We have it only in a long citation by Diodorus, xl. 3. This book of Diodorus, however, has disappeared, and is found only in the Bibliotheca made by the Byzantine patriarch Photius in the ninth century C.E. (cod. 244).