38 armin d. baum
69 these, being all of virtuous character, inhabited the same country with-
out dissension and in prosperity, meeting with no untoward incident to the
day of their death; they also discovered the science of the heavenly bodies
and their orderly array.
70 Moreover, to prevent their discoveries form being lost to mankind and
perishing before they became known—adam having predicted a destruc-
tion of the universe, at one time by a violent fire and at another by a mighty
deluge of water—they erected two pillars, one of brick and the other of
stone, and inscribed these discoveries on both; so that, if the pillar of brick
disappeared in the deluge, that of stone would remain to teach men what
was graven thereon and to inform them that they had also erected one of
brick. It exists to this day in the land of seiris.
Josephus, antiquitates 10.267
Josephus believed that the sixth century prophet daniel himself wrote the
Book of daniel (possibly including various apocryphal additions).52
for the books which he (i.e., daniel) wrote and left behind are still read by
us even now, and we are convinced by them that daniel spoke with god, for
he was not only wont to prophesy future things, as did the other prophets,
but he also fixed the time at which these would come to pass.
Josephus, antiquitates 10.272–280
Josephus was convinced that the second half of the Book of daniel
(daniel 7–12) contained extraordinarily exact predictions from the sixth
century bce which had been accurately fulfilled in later centuries.53
this, daniel writes, is what he saw in the plain of susa, and he relates that
god interpreted to him the form of the vision as follows... 276 and these
misfortunes our nation did in fact come to experience under antiochus
epiphanes, just as daniel many years before saw and wrote that they would
happen. In the same manner daniel also wrote about the empire of the
romans and that Jerusalem would be taken by them and the temple laid
waste. 277 all these things, as god revealed them to him, he left behind in
his writings, so that those who read them and observe how they have come
to pass must wonder at daniel’s having been so honoured by god, and learn
from these facts how mistaken are the epicureans, 278 who exclude Provi-
dence from human life and refuse to believe that god governs its affairs or
that the universe is directed by a blessed and immortal Being to the end that
the whole of it may endure, but say that the world runs by its own movement
52 trans. by r. Marcus, lCl 326:305, 307.
53 trans. by Marcus, lCl 326:309, 311.
