A Note on Contra Apionem 1.250: Further Evidence for Anti-Jewish Interpolation

Abstract

This article makes the case that the citation of Manetho’s Aegyptiaca found within Josephus’ Contra Apionem 1.250 is the work of a later anti-Jewish interpolator. Within the passage is an unnoticed chiasm that artificially binds the description of Osarsiph/Moses there with the Osarsephos introduced earlier in C. Ap. 1.238–9. It further suggests that the reason a negative depiction of Moses is not more fully integrated into Manetho’s story is the result of the interpolator inferring Manetho’s negative evaluation of the Jews as a result of his negative evaluation of the Hyksos. Manetho is, in other words, not the father of Egyptian anti-Judaism, though an anonymous editor may well be.