On the Origins or the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language

That surely argues that the spirit of God is not present there; those writings are indeed harmonious, but joined to the glory and ambition of men. These, on the contrary, without any rhetorical apparatus, brought forward nakedly and simply, are held to be so true by the elect that, for asserting them, they would not even flee from death itself—which is deservedly placed by mortals in the highest class of terrors—but many men of singular prudence and notable innocence deem it to be sought after, even though it is filled with every kind of torture and cruelty. Let antiquity make much of one or two who brought death upon themselves. Cato, when coming into the hands of an implacable enemy, had to undergo it, not indeed voluntarily, but coerced. The same for Hannibal, Brutus, Antony, Lucretia, Cleopatra. But all of them, either chasing human glory or wanting to escape the hand of enemies, brought it upon themselves, or ordered their hands to be brought to them by their own; all of them, however, striving for the immortality which they were falsely seeking through a middle way. But truly, how many myriads of thousands of men could you find here, who could have been most great and happy, if the condition of a life ungrateful to God had been pleasing, who only for asserting the word of God, voluntarily suffered, not death once, but a hundred times, so that at last that sweeter heavenly life might shine forth? Let no one wonder that I wanted to treat this argument among Christians now; I know to whom I have written. By these reasons I think I have sufficiently shown the certainty of the writings of Moses, and the faith and diligence of Josephus, whom I follow as his interpreter above all. To the matter, therefore. Noah had three sons before the general flood of waters: Shem, Ham, Japheth. To Shem and his own, Asia; to Ham, Africa; to Japheth, a part of Europe with the islands of our sea and Asia Minor fell by lot. We will now speak of each, leading the beginning from the progeny of Ham, or Africa. Ham had four sons: Cush, Mizraim, Phut, Canaan. In the year about