Chapter VI. Clement, Strom. I, Concerning Those Who Have Mentioned the Jewish Nation

THIS man is mentioned also by our Clement in his first Miscellany,in what he says as follows:

[CLEMENT] [1] ‘Clearchus the Peripatetic says that he knew a Jew who associated with Aristotle.’

And afterwards he adds:

‘But Numa the king of the Romans, though he was a Pythagorean, received benefit from the teaching of Moses, and forbade the Romans to make an image of God in the shape of man or any animal. So in the first hundred and seventy years, though they built themselves temples, they made no image, neither in sculpture nor yet in painting.

‘For Numa used to teach them in secret, that it was not possible for the Perfect Good to be reached by language, but only by the mind.’

Further than this, in what follows below, he speaks thus: [2]

‘But most plainly does Megasthenes, the historian who lived with Seleucus Nicator, write as follows in his third book On Indian Affairs.

‘All that has been said about nature among the ancients is said also among the philosophers outside Greece, partly among the Indians by the Brachmans, and partly in Syria by those who are called Jews.’

Besides this Clement also mentions Aristobulus the Peripatetic and Numenius the Pythagorean, saying: [3]

‘Aristobulus, in his first book addressed to Philometor, writes in these words: Plato too has followed our legislation, and has evidently studied carefully the several precepts contained in it.

‘And others before Demetrius, and prior to the supremacy of Alexander and of the Persians, have translated both the narrative of the Exodus of our fellow countrymen the Hebrews from Egypt, and the fame of all that happened to them, and their conquest of the land, and the exposition of the whole Law.

‘So it is perfectly clear that the philosopher before-mentioned has borrowed much, for he is very learned; as also was Pythagoras, who transferred many of our precepts into his own system of doctrines.

‘And Numenius, the Pythagorean philosopher, writes expressly: “For what is Plato, but Moses speaking in Attic Greek?” ‘

So far Clement.