' account of the
antediluvian giants. Berosus, the Chaldean historian, quoted by
Josephus, and Abidenus by Eusebius, Plutarch, Lucian, Molo, Nicholas
Damascenus, as well as many of the heathen poets, mention the deluge;
and some traditions respecting it are to be found among the Americans
and Chinese; not to mention what some modern travelers have fabulously
related concerning some ruins of the ark, said to remain on Mount
Ararat, and to have been seen there a few centuries ago. Alexander
Polyphistor quotes Artapanus and Eupolemus, as mentioning the Tower of
Babel; and the former speaks of it as built by Belus. Strabo, Tacitus,
Pliny, etc., give us an account of the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah and the neighboring cities, in the main agreeable to that of
Moses. Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, etc., mention circumcision as a
rite used by several of those nations into which, according to Moses,
Abraham traveled, or which were descended from him. Berosus, and
several others, make express and honorable mention of Abraham and some
of his family. Eupolemus and Dius, as quoted by Eusebius and Grotius,
mention many remarkable circumstances of David and Solomon, agreeing
with the Old Testament story. As for the mention of Nebuchadnezzar,
and some of the succeeding kings of Babylon, as well as of Cyrus and
his successors, it is so common in ancient writers, as not to need a
more particular notice of it. And very many passages of the Old
Testament are mentioned by Celsus, and objections to Christianity
formed upon them. Is not all this in favor of the credibility of the
Old Testament? And with respect to the New Testament, we have the
testimony of Tacitus and Suetonius to the existence of Jesus Christ,
the Founder of the Christian religion, and to His crucifixion in the
reign of Tiberius, and during the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate,
the time in which the evangelists place that event. Porphyry, also,
though an inveterate enemy to Christianity, not only allowed that
there was such a person as Christ, but honored Him as a most wise and
pious man, translated into heaven as being approved by the gods; and
accordingly quotes some oracles, referring both to His sufferings and
virtues, with their subsequent rewards. Celsus, likewise, an Epicurean
philosopher, full of enmity to the Christian religion, mentions
numberless circumstances in the history of Christ, indeed so many,
that an abstract of the Christian history might almost be t