Lampe on Church History: The Church after the Schism of the Tribes unto the Release from Babylonian Captivity

I.  The Chronology of this period, which is the fourth for us and numbers four hundred and forty-one years, has not a few difficulties, arising from the collation of the years that are given to the Kings of Judah with the years of the Kings of Israel.  So that these difficulties might be composed, it appears that a special account of those years that are given to the Kings of Judah has to be considered by us.  For, it is likely that often troubled state of the Kingdom of Israel had certain interregna, whereby the excessive number of years in the chronology of the Kings of Judah is abolished.

II.  Therefore, the calculated years of the Kings of Judah extend to three hundred and ninety and one half, in this manner:

Rehoboam reigned seventeen years.

Abijah:  three years.

Asa:  forty-one years.

Jehoshaphat:  twenty-five years.

Jehoram is said to have reigned eight years, but by a comparison of 2 Kings 3:1 with 2 Kings 8:16, 17, a portion of those passed with Jehoshaphat yet living:  therefore, they are not able to extend beyond five years.

Ahaziah:  one year.

Athaliah:  six years.

Joash:  forty years.

Amaziah:  twenty-nine years.

Azariah or Uzziah:  fifty-two years.

Jotham:  sixteen years.

Ahaz:  sixteen years.

Hezekiah:  twenty-nine years.

Manasseh:  fifty-five years.

Amon:  two years.

Josiah:  thirty-one years.

Jehoahaz:  three months.

Jehoiakim:  eleven years.

Jehoiachin:  three months.

Zedekiah:  eleven years.

Total:  three hundred and ninety years, and six months.

III.  These years precisely agree with the number of three hundred and ninety days, wherein Ezekiel commanded to bear the iniquity of Israel, Ezekiel 4:5; if from those you wish to separate forty years, wherein he was obliged to bear the iniquity of Judah separately, verse 6, and which we suppose to be reckoned from the frustrated reformation of Josiah, you will have four hundred and thirty years.  Begin them, if you please, from the building of Solomon’s temple, which according to the common consent, not hitherto defeated, of the best Chronologists remained for four hundred and twenty-seven years.  For, the three additional years in Ezekiel give a smaller interval of time, than that for that reason the Holy Spirit would reject a round number.  Unless on the end of this period you would prefer to extend to the last deportation of the Jews, which happened in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, and so the fourth year after the destruction of the temple, and in which the judgment of God against the Jews was consummated.

IV.  From the fourth year of Jehoiakim are reckoned the seventy years of the Babylonian captivity, Jeremiah 25:11; 29:10; Daniel 9:2; 2 Chronicles 36:21:  Nineteen of these, therefore, had already expired with the end of Zedekiah.  Add the fifty-one remaining to the three hundred and ninety years of the Kings of Judah, and you will have a period of four hundred and forty-one years.

V.  The oracles of the Prophets were of excellent service to the propagation of the doctrine of grace throughout this period of time, a sufficiently ample abundance of which is discovered in it.  Many of those left nothing written, of which sort were Ahijah the Shilonite, who belongs to the beginning of Jeroboam;[1] Shemaiah and Iddo, under Rehoboam;[2] Azariah the son of Oded, and Hanani, under Asa;[3] Jehu the son of Hanani, Jahaziel, and Eliezer, under Jehoshaphat;[4] Elijah and Micaiah, under Ahab;[5] Elisha, under Joram King of Israel;  Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, under Joash, and stoned with stones at Joash’s command;[6] Oded, under Pekah King of Israel;[7] Urijah, under Jehoiakim;[8] and Huldah the prophetess, under Josiah.[9]  Are added the schools of the Prophets, frequented at Bethel, Jericho, Gilgal, and elsewhere according to some.[10]

VI.  Now, with the era passing, many taught the people, not only by mouth, but also in writing.  Among the ten tribes, Jonah is believed to have prophesied under Jeroboam II.[11]  His history appears to lie hidden under the cover of the fables concerning Andromeda[12] and Hercules swallowed by a ceto/ whale.[13]  The prophecy of Hosea also has regard to the times of the same King.  But a fuller harvest of prophetic Writers is found in the kingdom of Judah.  Amos lived under Uzziah.[14]  Joel is referred to the kingdom of the same.  Whether also Obadiah, is considered to be less certain.  Isaiah and his σύγχρονος/contemporary flourished under Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.[15]  The final days of Hezekiah are assigned to Nahum.  Habakkuk is set as one σύγχρονος/contemporary with him.  Zephaniah prophesied under Josiah.[16]  They were followed by Jeremiah under Josiah and the following Kings unto the Babylonian captivity,[17] and Ezekiel and Daniel putting forth many prophecies in Babylon itself.  And, since in these times the Books of Kings leave off, it is probable, that they were written no later.  But the Books of Baruch, Tobit, and Judith, as also the Prayer of Manasseh, and also the History of Susanna and Bel, which are supposed to be appendices to Daniel, we reject as ὑποβολιμαίους/supposititious.  But the dispersion of the Jews among the nations laid out for them a path to the knowledge of the true God, at least of some sort.

VII.  Public worship, sometimes left off in the temple, was soon restored; according as the Kings of Judah were more or less worshipping the true God.  Indeed, the temple itself, repeatedly spoiled,[18] profaned by idols,[19] sometimes also shut up, restored again and again,[20] and finally completely destroyed.[21]  Among the reformers of sacred worship, three are especially commended, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah.  With the last restoring the temple, a copy of the law, for a long time lost, was discovered; and Josiah, moved by the reading of it, applied still greater zeal in removing superstition, celebrated the Passover,[22] and also commanded that the ark of the covenant, moved from its place in the Holy of Holies (it is unknown by what accident), to be returned,[23] which nevertheless in the destruction of the temple was removed and lost.  But the Priestly order enjoyed a constant succession and was not cast into confusion by the deportation of the Jews.  And, although the sacrifices ceased, we gather from certain passages of Scripture that assemblies were organized here and there among the captive Jews for the sake of religion.

VIII.  Meanwhile, the grossest corruption invaded religion.  The ten Tribes declined from the way more swiftly and to a greater extent, with the worship of the calves in Dan and Beth-el introduced by Jeroboam.[24]  The worship of Baal was added through Ahab especially;[25] and of Baal-Zebub, the idol of Ekron, through Ahaziah.[26]  Add Miphlezeth, the idol of Maachah.[27]  Now, with them taken away into captivity, Shalmaneser led idolatrous peoples, which received the name of Cuthites from the principal part among them, into Israel, who coalesced with the few remaining people of the land; and, although from a certain Priest they learned the manner of worshipping Jehovah, yet next to Him they worshipped Succoth-benoth, Nergal, Ashima, Nibhaz, Tartak, Adrammelech, and Anammelech.[28]

IX.  Little-by-little their example sadly prevailed over the Jews, the attendant of the Davidic kingdom, partly placing all their confidence in the external worship, and in the temple itself, but not taking care with respect to life and manners; partly, with the temple left behind, sacrificing in the high places and groves; partly even worshipping Baal, Ashtaroth, Moloch, Gad, Meni,[29] and other idols, with Priest also instituted, called כְּמָרִים, idol-priests,[30] or those clothed in black;[31] I will not say anything now concerning the altar of Damascus brought into the temple[32] and of the brazen serpent destroyed by Hezekiah.[33]  With that captivity now begun, this furor did not cool, to which pertain the idol of Jealousy, and the weeping for Tammuz made by women in the temple.[34]

X.  Thus the rod of the divine anger was provoked again and against, not only frequently applied through intestine wars, but also through the rousing of the Kings of the nations, by whom the Israelitish people were obliged to endure many hardships.  For, although I here place the Edomites and others among the lesser nations sent, in the Sacred Books occur principally four greater empires set in opposition to the people of God, Egypt, Syria, Assyria, and Babylon; since frequent mention of these occurs in the Sacred Writings, a few things concerning each.

XI.  Already in the time of Rehoboam, the Monarchy of the Egyptians rose to a tremendous height in Shishak, who doubtlessly was the same with that oft repeated Sesostris[35] of Herodotus and Vexoris of Justinus, holding the rod and ax.  Rehoboam was subjugated by this one.[36]  He was succeeded by his son, Ramesses, builder of the Labyrinth:[37]  with whom yet living, his son Amenophis, who appears to have been the same with the Memnon of the Greeks, having been received into a share of the royal power, ruled over the Ethiopians.  Learned men think that he was the same as Zerah the Cushite, who attacked Asa, King of Judah, with a million men and three hundred chariots, and was routed by him.[38]  After the defeat of this one, broken were the affairs of the Egyptians, who were even made subject to the Kings of the Ethiopians, among whom were So or Seve[39] and Tirhakah,[40] mentioned in the history of Hoshea and Hezekiah, until Psammeticus restored them, whose son, Necho II, invaded Asia with a great army, and in transit overcame Josiah, King of Judah.[41]  His son is called Apries, who vainly undertook to bring help to the Jews against Nebuchadnezzar, Monarch of the Chaldeans, he himself having been reduced to order by him.[42]

XII.  The Monarchy of Syria, already established in the times of Saul and David, were often troublesome to the people of Israel after the schism of the tribes, especially under the Leadership of the Ben-hadads and Hazael.  Even less happily did Ben-hadad the third and Rezin conduct the matter, who being the last ally of Pekah King of Israel, made war on Ahah King of Judah, and took many captives:  but he was killed by Tiglath-Pileser, King of Assyria, called by Ahaz to help.  He also stormed that most ancient city of Damascus, the metropolis of the Syrian kingdom, and, with its inhabitants taken to the region of Kir, completely overthrew this monarchy.[43]

XIII.  The beginnings of the Assyrian Empire are altogether uncertain.  It is likely that they were modest before Pul, mentioned in 2 Kings 15:19, who is reckoned by some to be the same with Bel; and he, extending the borders of the empire, even entered into the region of Israel, but, with a thousand talents paid by King Menahem, he withdrew without any injury done.  His successor, Tiglath-Pileser, after the destruction of the kingdom of Syria, compelled the tribes of Israel settled on the other side of Jordan to emigrate into Assyria, and made both Pekah of Israel and Ahaz of Judah tributaries to himself.  He was succeeded by Shalmaneser, who took the remaining tribes of Israel away into a most doleful captivity, to be dispersed throughout Media, Babylonia, and other provinces of the East,[44] but in the process of time to be so broken that they cease to be a people, which Isaiah graphically threatened in Isaiah 7:8 was going to happen within sixty-five years.  In addition to Shalmaneser is mentioned Sennacherib, shutting up Jerusalem, but defeated by a might Angel of the Lord,[45] to whom succeeded Esar-haddon his son,[46] whom it is thought foreign Writers called Sardanapalus, as if you should say Sarhadonphul.  But, that Nineveh was overthrown in the times of Josiah, Jerome testifies, which is able to be reconciled with Herodotus, who relates that Cyaxares King of the Medes, with Nineveh conquered, destroyed the kingdom of the Assyrians.  About the beginning of the kingdom of Zedekiah, the last King of Judah, this destruction appears to have happened.  Among those that hold the books of Judith and Tobit as true history, you will find such that refer both to the end of the Assyrian empire.

XIV.  What things are related concerning the most ancient Kings of the Babylonians, labor under much obscurity.  It is likely, that they were conducted to various fates, that sometimes they were under the power of the Assyrian Monarchy, sometimes their affairs were in their own hands.  The first among the Kings of the Babylonians is called Nabonassar[47] by Ptolemy,[48] whence the Epoch of Nabonassar begins; nevertheless, he appears to have assumed only vicarious royal power in the name of the Assyrians.  In the fifth place in the same parcel appears Mardocempadus,[49] Merodach-baladan in Scripture, who perhaps attempted to shake off the yoke of the Assyrians, when he sent legates to Jerusalem, to Hezekiah, a most bitter enemy of the Assyrians, to congratulate him concerning his recovered health, and to enter into a covenant with him.[50]  But in the course of time the Babylonians appear to have been reduced again to order, until under the auspices of Nabopolassar,[51] who, as Alexander Polyhistor[52] testifies, had formerly been a General of Seracus or Sardanapalus, they again revolted from the Assyrians.  He after the destruction of Niniveh, with the help of the Medes expelled Necho King of Egypt from all Syria at Carchemish,[53] and subject all the Kings and Rulers of Palestine and the neighboring regions to his scepter.  But, since the same were acting treacherously, and had a clandestine covenant with the Egyptians, he sent his son and associate in the kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar, who thoroughly tamed them with many defeats.

XV.  This Nebuchadnezzar the Great or Nabuch-odon-osor I, Nabocolassar, and Labynetus I, who led the Babylonian monarchy to its ἀκμὴν/zenith, was that rod of divine wrath, whereby the Jews were chastened repeatedly, and taken away into captivity.  Six deportations of them are distinctly commemorated:

1.  In the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, in the fourth of Jehoiakim, 2 Chronicles 36:6; Daniel 1:1-4.

2.  In the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, in the ten of Jehoiakim, 2 Kings 24:1, 2; Jeremiah 52:28.

3.  Near the end of the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar, when King Jehoiachin was taken away, 2 Kings 24:10-16; 2 Chronicles 36:9, 10.

4.  In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah 52:29.

5.  In the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, when the city and temple were destroyed, Jeremiah 39; 52:12-27; 2 Kings 25; 2 Chronicles 36:12-21.

6.  In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah 52:30.  The first, third, and fourth deportations were greater, but the remaining were lesser.

XVI.  Under the empire of this Prince milder were the circumstances of the Church in Babylon.  The tempest raised by the idolatrous Colossus, erected at the command of Nebuchadnezzar, threatening the Jewish people, was quickly stilled through the miraculous deliverance of the associates of Daniel from the fiery furnace.[54]  The King, lifted up by his good fortune, by a notable judgment of God is made to wander the wilds for seven years after the likeness of a wild beast, with which elapses he returned to his senses, in such a way that none might doubt that he was saved.[55]  He reigned, if you add the two years during which he had been the associate of his Father in the kingdom, for forty-five years.  It is noteworthy that with these beginning of the Babylonian Monarchy coincides the building of the city of Rome, which was going to be spiritual Babylon.

XVII.  The successors of Nabuchodonosor, in Josephus and Eusebius out of the Fragments of Berosus and others, are thus ordered:  The first was Evil-merodach, his son, for two years.  He was removed by Neriglissar, the husband of his sister, a Mede by nation, as it appears to some.  He, having died after four years, was succeeded by Laborosoardokhos, his son, and grandson of the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, but he received only nine months.  For, having been slain by conspirators, because he had given himself too much to luxury and pleasures, his kingdom was translated to Nabonidus or Nabonnedus.  He was the last of the Babylonian Kings, whom the Persian Cyrus invaded with war; and, with him defeated, after Nabonidus had ruled for seventeen years, Cyrus granted Nabonidus his life with the prefecture of Caramania,[56] but transferred the Babylonian monarchy to himself.

XVIII.  From the number of these, beyond controversy there were two Kings after Nebuchadnezzar commemorated in the Prophecies of Daniel, Belshazzar and Darius the Mede.  In whom those are to find their correspondence, is zealously disputed; to us they appear to stray not very far from the truth, who think that Belshazzar was Evil-merodach, and Darius the Mede was his successor Neriglissar.

XIX.  To the singular support of the kingdom of Satan in this period pertain Polytheism, increasing to a vast extent.  In addition to the things mention above are to be noted out of the Sacred books the idols Merodach,[57] Rimmon,[58] Nisroch,[59] Bel,[60] and Nebo.[61]  Human sacrifices, offered to their godlings, bear witness, not only to the universal insanity of the people, but also how the infernal Drago is eager for human blood, and what then is the persuasion of the necessity of vicarious sacrifice among those very nations.  In the literature of the Greeks, the fables of the Poets, among whom are Homer and Hesiod, increased the number of gods to a vast extent.

XX.  Nevertheless, the study of Wisdom began to flourish more and more.  At least Seven, whom the call the Wise Men of Greece,[62] pertain to this period.  Contemporaneous with this is Æsop, whom the Arabs, as some think, called Lochman, who expressed moral knowledge by fables.  The method of wrapping doctrines in symbols, enigmas, acute proverbs, and fables, certainly increased after Solomon among many.[63]  Eminent Lawgivers are added, by whose influence the beastly customs of men were shaped for the better, namely, Minos,[64] Lycurgus,[65] Zaleucus,[66] Charondas,[67] Theseus,[68] Solon,[69] and Cecrops:[70]  the mention of whom is all the less to be neglected here, because it is hardly able to be doubted that they stole from the treasures of Moses.  To this time we also refer the beginnings of the Philosophical Sects, the Ionic, which held Thales as Master;[71] the Eleatic, the founder of which was Xenophanes of Colophon.[72]  Many think that there was some intercourse between these and the Hebrews.  I will not now mention Atlas in Libya,[73] Anacharsis and Abaris among the Scythians,[74] the Brahmins and Gymnosophists in India,[75] Pherecydes the Syrian,[76] the Druids and Bards among the Celts, the Turdetani in Spain,[77] the Magi in Persia, and finally Confuscius among the Chinese, if it is nevertheless true, what is related, that he lived five hundred and fifty years before Christ, and so at the end of this period, with others very much doubting that he is of so great antiquity.  Now, although by some of those a certain bar appears to have been placed against idolatrous superstition, by sinister reasonings the same opened a wide door to Atheism.

[1] 1 Kings 11:29-39; 12:15; 14; 15:29, 30; 2 Chronicles 9:29; 10:15.

[2] 1 Kings 12:22-24; 2 Chronicles 11:1-4; 12:5-15.

[3] 2 Chronicles 15; 16.

[4] 2 Chronicles 19:1-3; 20:14-18, 34, 37.

[5] 1 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 18.

[6] 2 Chronicles 24:20-22.

[7] 2 Chronicles 28:9-11.

[8] Jeremiah 26:20-23.

[9] 2 Kings 22:14-20; 2 Chronicles 34:22-28.

[10] 1 Samuel 7:16; 19:20, 21; 2 Kings 2.

[11] See 2 Kings 14:25.

[12] In Greek mythology, Cassiopeia, the wife of Cepheus, King of Æthiopia, boasts that her daughter, Andromeda is more beautiful than the Nereids.  Poseidon is provoked to wrath, and send a sea monster, Cetus, to terrorize the coast of Æthiopia.  Andromeda is chained to a rock as a sacrifice, but is rescued from Cetus by Perseus, wielding Medusa’s head.

[13] In Greek mythology, Laomedon, king of Troy, having provoked Neptune, was required to offer his daughter Hesione to be devoured by a sea-monster.  She was chained to a rock, but Hercules intervened, leapt into the mouth of the beast, and spent three days cutting up the entrails of the monster, before escaping.

[14] Amos 1:1.

[15] Isaiah 1:1; Micah 1:1.

[16] Zephaniah 1:1.

[17] Jeremiah 1:1-3.

[18] See, for example, 1 Kings 14:25, 26; 15:18; 2 Kings 12:18; 14:14, 15.

[19] See, for example, 2 Kings 16:10-16; Ezekiel 8.

[20] See, for example, 2 Chronicles 28:24; 29:1-9; 34.

[21] See, for example, 2 Kings 24; 25; 2 Chronicles 36.

[22] See 2 Kings 22; 23.

[23] 2 Chronicles 35:3.

[24] See 1 Kings 12:26-33.

[25] 1 Kings 16:30-33.

[26] 2 Kings 1.

[27] 1 Kings 15:13:  “And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol (‎מִפְלֶצֶת/miphlezeth, an horrid thing) in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron.”  פָּלַץ signifies to shudder.

[28] 2 Kings 17.

[29] Isaiah 65:11:  “But ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop (‎לַגַּד, for Gad), and that furnish the drink offering unto that number (‎לַמְנִי, for Meni).”

[30] See, for example, 2 Kings 23:5:  “And he put down the idolatrous priests (‎הַכְּמָרִים), whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.”

[31] כמר can signify to be dark or gloomy, or to lay prostrate.

[32] 2 Kings 16:10-16.

[33] 2 Kings 18:4.

[34] Ezekiel 8.

[35] Sesostris was an ancient Egyptian king, said to have led a successful expedition of conquest through Asia Minor into Europe.  It is difficult to draw solid historical conclusion concerning him.

[36] 1 Kings 14:25, 26; 2 Chronicles 12:2-9.

[37] The Labyrinth was a complex structure, probably of funerary temples, at the foot of the Pyramid at Hawara.

[38] 2 Chronicles 14:9-15.

[39] 2 Kings 17:4.

[40] 2 Kings 19:9; Isaiah 37:9.

[41] 2 Kings 23:29-35; 2 Chronicles 35:20-36:4.

[42] 2 Kings 24:7; Jeremiah 37.

[43] 2 Kings 16.  See Isaiah 7-9.

[44] See 2 Kings 17.

[45] 2 Kings 18:13-19:36; 2 Chronicles 32:1-22; Isaiah 36:1-37:37.

[46] 2 Kings 19:37; Isaiah 37:38.

[47] Nabonassar was King of Babylon from 747 to 734 BC.

[48] Claudius Ptolemæus (c. 90-c. 168), of Roman Alexandria, was a scientist and thinker of great profundity; and his contribution to the fields of geography and astronomy in the Western world has been enormous.

[49] Marduk-apla-iddina reigned from 722 to 710 BC.

[50] 2 Kings 20:12; Isaiah 39:1.

[51] Nabopolassar reigned from 626 to 605 BC, founding the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

[52] Alexander Polyhistor was a first century Greek historian and geographer, who wrote forty-two volumes on the countries of the ancient world, including Israel.  His work survives only in fragments.

[53] In 605 BC, the Egyptian forces of Necho in Syria were decisively defeated at Carchemish.

[54] Daniel 3.

[55] Daniel 4.

[56] The Kerman province is in southeastern Iran.

[57] Jeremiah 50:2.

[58] 2 Kings 5:18.

[59] 2 Kings 19:37; Isaiah 37:38.

[60] Isaiah 46:1; Jeremiah 50:2; 51:44.

[61] Isaiah 46:1.

[62] Namely, Thales of Miletus, Pittacus of Mytilene, Bias of Priene, Solon of Athens, Cleobulus of Lindos, Myson of Chenæ, and Chilon of Sparta.

[63] See Proverbs 1:1-6.

[64] In Greek mythology, Minos was the king of Knossos three generations before the Trojan War.  He received the legislation for the island from Zeus.

[65] Lycurgus (seventh century BC) was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, establishing its military-oriented society.  According to legend, his reforms were confirmed by the oracle at Delphi.

[66] Zaleucus (seventh century BC) was the lawgiver of Epizephyrian Locri, a Greek colony in southern Italy, and is said to have devised the first written Greek law code, the Locrian code.

[67] Charondas (probably to be associated with the sixth century BC) was the lawgiver of Catania, Sicily, delivering his body of laws in the name of Saturn.

[68] Theseus was the mythological founder of Athens, responsible for the unification of Attica.

[69] Solon (c. 638-558 BC) was one of the Seven Wise men of Greece, and is remembered as one of the great Athenian lawmakers, issuing his decrees in the name of Minerva.

[70] Cecrops is the legendary founder of Athens, said to have given to the Athenians the first rudiments of civilization, including legislation pertaining to marriage, religious worship, and political organization.

[71] The Ionic school of philosophy (sixth and fifth centuries BC) was centered in Miletus, and sought rational explanations for the universal and natural phenomena, without recourse to the supernatural.  Thales (c. 635-c. 543) is among the oldest extant Greek philosophers.  It was Thales’ position that the most basic component of all material substance is water.

[72] The Eleatic school of philosophy (fifth century BC) was centered in Elea, Italy, and asserted that reality is one and unchanging.  Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570-c. 478) BC was a Greek philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic.

[73] In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan.  Having lost the war with the Olympian gods, Atlas was condemned to hold up the Heavens, bearing the celestial sphere upon his shoulders, and preventing it from reuniting with the earth.

[74] Anacharsis (sixth century BC) is a legendary philosopher-prince of the Scythians.  He is said to have traveled to Greece, and to have adopted Greek beliefs and customs.  In Greek mythology, Abaris the Hyperborean was said to have learned skills in medicine and priestcraft in his homeland.  He traveled the world, dressed as a Scythian, communicating wisdom and rendering aid.

[75] The Brahmins an ancient Hindu religious cast, serving as teachers and priests.  The Gymnosophists were an ancient Indian, ascetic sect.  They believed that food and clothing were hindrances to the contemplative life.

[76] Pherecydes of Syros (sixth century BC) was an ancient Greek mythographer and philosopher, from the Greek island of Syros.

[77] The Turdetani were an ancient people of the Iberian Peninsula (pre-dating the Romans), reputed as the most civilized and well-ordered people of Iberia.