Apollonius Molon on the Jews

Apollonius Molon - or Apollonius of Rhodes - is a name not well known outside of classicist circles, but it belongs to man who was an eminent Roman intellectual of the late Republican period and the tutor to two of history's most recognisable names: Cicero and Caesar. Molon is even less well known to have been an ardent and learned critic of the jews and on which subject he wrote a book that has not survived the ravages of time. We know relatively little about Molon himself other than that he was tutored and mentored by Poseidonius - another Greek anti-jewish intellectual - and that Molon was from - or had lived for a long period of time on - the island of Rhodes.

This knowledges of Molon's Rhodesian origins has allowed us to extrapolate that Molon had had some - and quite likely extensive - contact with the jews (as we know Rhodes had a sizeable jewish community at this point in time) and as such Molon cannot be styled an 'ignorant jew hater'. We know of Molon's strong anti-jewish views only through the medium of Josephus' 'Against Apion', which spends quite some time attacking Molon's arguments.

Unfortunately Josephus does not directly quote Molon and does not have a good record of fairly presenting the arguments of those he was arguing against having openly lied and misrepresented his sources on numerous occasions throughout 'Against Apion' - in particular relation to Megasthenes, (1) Clearchus of Soli, (2) Theophrastus of Eresos (3) and Pythagoras of Samos - (4) and we therefore have to be careful in taking Josephus' claims about what Molon argued on the strength of his word alone.

Molon's case against the jews appears to have been partly based - like many critics of the jews in the ancient world - on the unusual religion of the jews. In particular Molon argued that the jews did not worship the same gods as everyone else (5) and such the jews were either atheists (similar to Juvenal's later wry comment that the jews worship the clouds) (6) or were participants in a particularly barbaric mystery cult that included the performance of human sacrifice. (7)

It seems likely given what Josephus' says about Molon's arguments that he did not - or simply could not - believe that the jews worshipped an empty sanctuary (as what would be the point in doing so) and thus reasoned that the reports that Antiochus Epiphanes had - in the Temple of Solomon - discovered a statue of donkey's head (actually this was probably a horse's head) - (8) as well as a male Greek captive to be slaughtered in a ritual human sacrifice - were genuine.

We should observe that neither of these practices were that unlikely at the time as idols were commonly worshipped by the Israelites - for example Solomon's fire pits to the Canaanite god Baal and the jewish worship of Egyptian goddess Hathor in the Sinai desert - and the common belief that they are 'absurd inventions' rests on no evidence what-so-ever, but rather on the unqualified and oft unstated assumption that 'jews just wouldn't do that'.

The fact that the Tanakh contains repeated references to idol worship and the influence of other (explicitly pagan and blood sacrifice-based) religious systems on the jews - which if we are to believe the Tanakh jewish prophets kept being sent forth by Yahweh to correct - tells us that not only was such idol worship possible but likely.

Even more controversially - as I have pointed out elsewhere - (9) the unfortunate fact for believers in the assumed moral purity of the jews is that Judaism almost certainly derives directly from the religion of Canaan from whence Yahweh (the Canaanite King of Heaven) and his consort - the Shekhina of Judaism who is derived from the Canaanite goddesses Astarte and Asherah - come. (10) This means that the extensive but frequently veiled references in the Tanakh to human sacrifice are difficult not to attribute to jews in the period before Yahweh-purists gained the power to persecute.

If we understand this we can begin to see that the picture that Molon is drawing - which Josephus as a devout monotheist plus an intellectual champion of classical Judaism was ideologically required to attack and attempt to traduce - is actually quite a realistic one that puts the development of Judaism in the context of the Semitic religions of the Levant. Molon seems to suggest that Judaism simply started life as a heterodox cult to a particular deity (Yahweh and possibly his consort Asherah) that over time came to believe that there was Yahweh was the only god there ever was or had been (removing Asherah from his side and combining her with aspects of Astarte to make the 'female presence' of Yahweh).

The remnants of this cult - Molon seems to have believed - were found in the Temple of Solomon in that the 'donkey's head' should be simply read as an insulting variant by the Greeks who were recounting the episode of a 'horse's head', which was one of the symbolic manifestations of the Canaanite goddess Astarte and the Greek captive was probably to be burnt to death in front of an Asherah pole in a wood (as per Canaanite religious custom). This Josephus takes strong issue with as he refuses to believe this could have happened - and remember Josephus was hardly an impartial actor in this being a fervent believer in jewish monotheism - but this should not - as has traditionally been the case - be taken as ipso facto proof that the Greek claims are unfounded. In fact - as I have demonstrated - these claims are likely true precisely because they get some key small details right which would not be the case had they been made of whole cloth as is usually alleged.

Molon's belief that Judaism was an unusual outgrowth of more orthodox Semitic paganism is also found in Josephus attack on him: when the latter talks of Molon's description of Moses - whom Josephus describes in the Greek manner as the 'lawgiver' of the jews - and that he was an 'imposter and deceiver'. (11) This indicates that Molon was following the tradition of the Exodus that the jews had come out of Egypt with Moses and that Moses was accordingly the creator of classical Judaism.

We may further add that Josephus' stylizing of Molon's argument that Moses was a false prophet and liar is very much indicative of the vein of other anti-jewish arguments of the time - such as those made by Diodorus - (12) which styled Moses as a sorcerer and religious subversive who was thrown out of Egypt for having tried to overthrow Pharaoh. Josephus could accept neither of these positions as if he had done then his whole system of religious belief would have been called into direct question so he not choice but to attempt to traduce them.

We may presume that Molon had used this classic anti-jewish argument, which seems to have first appeared first in Manetho's history of Egypt and with which we may reasonably assume - on the basis of what Josephus says - (13) that Molon was somewhat familiar.

We may further note that Molon appears to have also followed both Diodorus (14) and Strabo (15) in styling the jews as 'haters of mankind' as Josephus claims that Molon asserted that the jews were 'haters of man'. (16) We may also note that Molon reproached the jews - possibly following Strabo - (17) with being a nation of merchants and being generally unmanly when Josephus talks of Molon attacking the 'lack of courage' shown by the jews. (18)

This likely sparked Josephus' famous and much (ab)used claim that the jews were a 'nation of warriors' (19) although one should wryly remark that this isn't very accurate, but rather the jews are the original religious terrorists of history and fought their wars not for geopolitical reasons per se, but rather as religious wars of extermination against non-believers.

That Molon understood this and seems to have used this in his argument is suggested when Josephus claims that there is a contradiction in Molon's argument in that he reproaches the jews with being a nation of unmanly cowards, but at the same time suggests that the jews are very bold and have a frightening madness in their conduct. (20)

Josephus - true to deceptive form - doesn't comprehend (by design or misunderstanding) what Molon seems to have been getting at in so far as the jews were cowards in his view, but were also frequently religious nut-cases who showed not the intelligent heroism that the classical world delighted in, but rather than the demented religious fanaticism that was regarded as a barbarian mentality (and peculiar to the East).

This is hinted at by what Josephus then describes Molon arguing the jews are the 'weakest of all barbarians': (21) in so far as they are weak, because they are religious fanatics who do not treasure the exploits of heroes for their intellectual aesthetics or their prowess of arms, but rather give their lives for an illogical and superstitious Eastern religion which they ignorant believe in without qualification.

Thus to Molon the jews are the 'weakest of all barbarians', because they are intellectually feeble religious fanatics who cannot - in Molon's view - apply reason and logic to their conduct, but rather dementedly charge at the nearest Greek phalanx or Roman cohort only to meet a pointless and inglorious death on the point of a Greek pike or Roman gladius.

This may be further seen in Josephus' mention that Molon asserted that the jews invented nothing and like true barbarians had made no improvements to their own lives, (22) because they were too busy trying to immolate passing sheep on burning pyres to Yahweh or attacking those who tried to bring some modicum of civilization to their settlements.

After all is not the Tanakh largely the story of perpetual assassinations, massacres and open battles between jewish religious fundamentalist fanatics and jewish religious liberals over the issue of compromise on hard-line monotheism?

Josephus further mentions that Molon occasionally suggested that the jews were essentially atheists (23) and I would suggest - per my previous comments on this - that Molon had difficulty perceiving what the jews actually worshipped as he seems to have believed that the jews had to worship something (hence his belief in the story about Antiochus Epiphanes finding a horse's head statue and a male Greek captive who was to be ritually sacrificed in the Temple of Solomon), but yet didn't seem to overtly do so.

Thus Molon dithered between ascribing to the jews the worship of nothing (or atheism to the Graeco-Roman world-view) or the worship of secret idols and the use of forbidden religious practices such as human sacrifice. The latter eventuality seems to have been more probable to Molon, but - with his experience with the jews on Rhodes - he was likely aware that they had no such statues in their houses of worship and was thus still in two minds on the issue.

The solution to this conundrum Molon seems to not have worked out: in that we have here the two competing parties in Judaism: the strict monotheists (Molon's atheists) and polytheistic liberals (the cult in the Temple of Solomon). Both were equally of the jewish nation, but represented two sides of a religious war that had been fought for centuries even then.

Molon however did realise that the jews were a people who were utterly intolerant of the beliefs of others as Josephus imitates twice. (24) Josephus tries to counter this on two scores - although not before hilariously and falsely claiming Plato himself had stolen his better ideas from Moses - (25) firstly by claiming that the jews respect others gods (and do not 'laugh at and revile them') because they are told to in the Torah (26) [which isn't true as they aren't] and secondly that the jews are not alone in wanting nothing to do with foreigners or their religions. (27)

However in making this rebuttal Josephus reveals what Molon's argument was - and also the deceptiveness of his own reply - in so far as he tells us that the jews do not tolerate other gods to be worshipped among them or in their presence as they do not hold other gods to be merely local representations of their own, but rather as a false gods and meaningless idols.

Or put in other words: Molon is correctly asserting - certainly if we are to base our understanding of Judaism on the Torah (as Molon probably did) - that the jews are absolute intolerant of other religions and yet further seek to stamp them out, while demanding others tolerate their own. We may also suggest that Molon seems to have stated - following Moses' actions in Exodus - that the jews simply butchered those who would not worship Yahweh as Josephus spends an entire section trying to nullify this claim by desperately asserting that the Greeks did the same thing. (28)

Indeed if we refer this back to our above discussion in regard to Molon's comments about the jews being the most barbarous of all nations, having invented nothing in particular and also Moses' status as a false prophet and sorcerer. We can see that Molon's argument is rather logical as it takes the beliefs of the jews and exposes them for what they were (i.e., idiosyncratic, intolerant and ignorant), which is what seems to have angered Josephus enough to spend a large portion of his counter-blast against the Greek critics of the jews 'Against Apion' explicitly attacking Molon.

This jewish behaviour that Josephus tries to gloss over is used by Molon to argue that the jews - in Josephus' words - are the 'vilest of all mankind' (29) and with that also ends Josephus' mentions of Molon and his critique of the jews.

We can see from this that Molon was an ardent and intellectually astute critic of the jews who was more than capable of presenting a difficult proposition to attack to one of most learned jews of that epoch Josephus and so much so that Josephus had to misrepresent both his own religion and what Molon had said in order to find an intellectual angle to assault this classical thinker.

It is to our great loss that Molon's book on the jews has not come down to us, as from what little we can glean from Josephus' incoherent blustering: it was both brutally accurate and quite persuasive.

After all: why else would Josephus go to the lengths he did to single out and attack Molon?

References

(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/megasthenes-on-the-jews

(2) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/clearchus-of-soli-aristotle-and-the

(3)  See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/theophrastus-of-eresos-on-the-jews

(4) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/hermippus-of-symrna-pythagoras-of

(5) Joseph. Cont. Ap. 2:7

(6) Juv. 14

(7) Joseph. Cont. Ap. 2:7; I have discussed the claim of ritual sacrifice in Judaism in the following article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/reconstructing-the-first-jewish-ritual

(8) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/the-golden-ass-of-the-jews-in-the

(9) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/reconstructing-the-first-jewish-ritual

(10) See John Day, 2002, 'Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan', 2^nd Edition, Sheffield Academic Press: New York

(11) Joseph. Cont. Ap. 2:15

(12) Diod. 34

(13) Joseph. Cont. Ap. 2:2

(14) Diod. 34

(15) Strabo 16:2.26-29

(16) Joseph. Cont. Ap. 2:15

(17) Strabo 16:2.28

(18) Joseph. Cont. Ap. 2:15

(19) Ibid. 1:12

(20) Ibid. 2:15

(21) Ibid.

(22) Ibid.

(23) Ibid.

(24) Ibid. 2:34; 37

(25) Ibid. 2:37

(26) Ibid. 2:34

(27) Ibid. 2:37

(28) Ibid. 2:38

(29) Ibid. 2:34