140 JOSEPHUS

of falling among )^ild beasts, agreeing with the Mid-
rash that all the animals assembled to avenge the
blood of Abel,* but God forbade them to destroy Cain
on pain of their own destruction. Seth he describes
as the model of the virtuous, and of him the Rabbis
likewise say, " From Seth dates the stock of all genera-
tions of the virtuous/^ He pictures him also as a great
inventor and the discoverer of astronomy, and tells
how he set up pillars of brick and stone recording
these inventions, so that they might not be forgotten
if the world was destroyed either by fire or water; here
again agreeing with the Book of Jubilees, which re-
lates that Cainan found an inscription in which his
forefathers had described their inventions. Examples
might be multiplied from the first chapters of the
Antiquities of the way in which Josephus weaves into
the Bible account traditional Midrashim, but these in-
stances will suffice.
Besides embroidering the Bible text with Haggadic
legends, Josephus is prone to place in the mouths of
the characters rhetorical speeches in the Greek style,
either expanding a verse or two in the Bible or com-
posing them entirely. Thus God says to Adam and
Eve in the Garden of Eden after the fall :

I had before determined about you that you might lead
a happy life without affliction and care and vexation of
soul; and that all things which might contribute to your
enjoyment and pleasure should grow up by My Provi-
dence of their own accord. And death would not overtake



* Gen. R. xxii.
