CHAPTER FOUR PORPHYRY'S ACCOUNT OF SANCHUNIATHON Translation of Texts Discussed (Eusebius) (S03: 19) Sanchuniathon narrates these things. He was a most an­ cient man and, as they say, lived before the time of the Trojan War. He is declared to have been approved! because of the accuracy and veracity of his Phoenician History. (S03: 22) Philo (of Byblos, not the Hebrew) published Sanchuniathon's entire work, translating it from the Phoenician language into Greek. (S03: 24) In our own times, the author of the intrigue against us mentions these things in the fourth book of his study directed against us, testifying thus, word for word, about the man. 2 (Porphyry) (S03: 26) Sanchuniathon of Beirut gives the truest account concerning the Jews, since it agrees best with their places and their names. (S03: 2S) For he took the treatises written by Hierombalos, the priest of the god Ieuo, who dedicated his work to Abibalos, the king of Beirut. (S04: 2) [Hierombalos' work was] accepted as correct by Abibalos and by those who investigated the truth in his time (S04: 3) The times of these people fall before that of the Trojan War and, roughly speaking, approach those of Moses, as the succession of Phoenician kings reveals. (S04: 6) Moreover, Sanchuniathon (who, with a love of truth, collected and wrote up in the Phoenician language, the complete ancient history from the records in each city and from the texts in the 1 I take U1tODEXSfjVUl as the aorist passive infinitive of U1tODtxoIlUl, following Gifford, Eusebius, Vol. I, p. 35. Cf. Miiller, FHG, Vol. 3, p. 563. 2 Cf. Williams, p. 69. 42 PORPHYRY'S ACCOUNT OF SANCHUNIATHON temples), lived around the time of Semiramis, Queen of the Assyrians, who was recorded to have lived either before the Trojan War or at that very time, (804: 11) Philo of Byblos translated Sanchuniathon's work into the Greek language, ii 803: 19 Sanchuniathon, There is no longer any doubt that the name which Eusebius wrote as Luyxol)vui9wv 3 or Luyxwvui9wv4 is a tran~literation of the well­ known Phoenician name l11'l:lC, This name has been found in an inscription of the third century B,c, at Hadrumetus,5 and in the vaTiant form 111'1:lq?,6 The pattern of transliteration of Hebrew names in the Septuagint confirms Eusebius' transliteration,7 By analogy with other Phoenician names such as 111":117,8 and 111"17:1,9 Sanchuniathon must mean the god Skn gave,1° and must be a personal name.ll Although the role and function of the Phoenician god Skn are not directly relevant to understanding the passage from Eusebius, a few comments seem appropriate. A scholarly consensus, which has three parts, has been reached concerning Skn : 12 (l) in its fullest form, the god's name should be written *Sakkun, with a double k and with u as the final vowel; (2) *Sakkun was the "administrator" or "super- 3 P.E. I. 9, 19, and following. 4 P.E. 10, 9, 11-16 = Jacoby's Eus2 of the critical apparatus to I. 28. Theodoretus, Gr. AI! Cur. 2, 44 also wrote IuyxwvuiSwv, but Theodoretus is not independent and is evidence only of what he read in Eusebius. See below, p. 46. 5 NE 432b2. 6 See Chabot, "Punica," p. 6. 7 III':lN of I Kings 2: 39 becomes Ayxou~ in Greek, the :l rendered by Greek yx. The Hebrew n is usually transliterated by 9 in the Septuagint: e.g., n1':1l of Gen. 28: 9 becomes NuJ3ul(09. 8 CIS I, 112a. 9 CIS I, 118. 10 lU9wv is a perfect of the *qatol form. See Harris, Grammar, par. 13, p. 41. See further MlA.KlU9wvo~ in CIS I, 89. II Cf. the older interpretations of Orelli, pp. x-xi, and Movers, p. 99. Movers in particular so doubted Sanchuniathon's humanity that he tried to interpret his name as the title of a book. The correct interpretation of the name was first proposed by N61deke, "Inscriptions," p. 1829. 12 This consensus is well represented by the discussion of Skn in KAI, Vol. 3, p. 72. Cf. Benz, Personal Names, p. 365. .