Question XXXI. Whether the ancient writers remembered so great a miracle?

If [the question] is asked about the ancient writers whom blind Heathendom has left to us, none of them remembers this standstill. For when St. Augustine wished to gather similar [instances] to make [this] credible to the Gentiles (book 21 of the City of God, chapter 8), he nevertheless adduced nothing except the change of Hesperus [the evening star], concerning which above (question 25), from Varro. And indeed, of all the things which happened before the Trojan War, there is a stupid ignorance and the deepest silence among all the Gentiles; or, if anything was stammered by them, it is most full of fables — so that Varro called the earlier ages “mythical” [μυθικά], and Diodorus Siculus acknowledges the same (at the beginning of his Library), [as do] Ptolemy (in the Almagest) [and] Plutarch (in [the lives of] Theseus, Numa, Aristides, and others). But if any ancient writers whatever — even Israelites — are sought, one is cited by the Latin and Hebrew text itself (verse 13): “Is not this written,” it says, “in the book of the Just [Jasher]?” The Seventy do not indeed have it in this place, but other Greek [copies do], as is understood from Theodoret (question 13). But to me it seems in no way probable, what Arias insinuates — that perhaps this book was written by a Heathen. For the old Scripture never cites Gentiles, nor would it wish to give the Jews — then still weak, and too prone to the superstitions of the Gentiles — any occasion of reading them. And that this book is much later than Joshua’s times is understood from 2 Kings [2 Samuel], chapter 1, verse 18, where it is said that there is written in the same [book] about the sad slaughter of Saul and Jonathan. And so that appears [to be true] which I said in the Prolegomena: that certain clauses were added to this Book [of Joshua] by later [writers] — not, however, [that] it was written by some one of [those] later [men], as nevertheless Theodoret here judges (question 13), when he explains why our Joshuan [author] cites that book. The words are: “The author, wishing to teach us the power of this Prophet — namely, that by a word alone he had checked the advance of the great luminaries, until he should conquer, for the dignity of [his] command — suspecting lest anyone should not give credence to the words, said that this is found in an ancient record.” Wherefore it is established from this place that some one of the later [men] wrote this [other] book, the occasion being taken from another book.