The Greeks in Bactria and India c12.113

c12.113

One other point needs explanation, another sign of the adaptation of the Questions to propaganda purposes. As they stand, the answer of the Jewish Elders to every one of the questions contains, at the end of the answer, a reference to ‘God’ (or in one or two cases to the ‘Divine law’); and it will be noticed by anyone who cares to go through the answers that in practically every case the clause containing the word ‘God’ can be omitted from the answer without impairing the meaning in the least. The original Questions had nothing to do with the Jewish religion, and Pseudo-Aristeas has adapted them to his purpose by adding these references to ‘God’. He himself has made it clear (235) what he was doing: the Jews, he says, could outrun the philosophers because they took God for their starting-point.