Book V - Snyder Bible

174
teemed a god among them, began to draw forth, as it were,
certain sparks from the stars, and to show them to men, in order
that the rude and ignorant might be astonished, as with a
miracle; and desiring to increase this estimation of him, he
attempted these things again and again, until he was set on
fire, and consumed by the demon himself, whom he accosted
with too great importunity.
Chapter XXVIII: Tower of Babel
hen, whereas they ought to
have abandoned the opinion which they bad conceived of him,
inasmuch as they had seen it confuted by his mortal punishment,
extolled him the more. For raising a sepulcher to his
honor, they went so far as to adore him as a friend of Yahweh,
and one who had been removed to heaven in a chariot of
lightning, and to worship him as if he were a living star. Hence
also his name was called Zoroaster after his death, that is, living
star, by those who, after one generation, had been taught
to speak the Greek language. In fine, by this example, even
now many worship those who have been struck with
lightning, honoring them with sepulchers, and worshipping
them as friends of Elohim. But this man was born in the fourteenth
generation, and died in the fifteenth, in which the
tower was built, and the languages of men were divided into
many.
Chapter XXIX: Fire-Worship of the Persians
magic art having been handed down to him as by a flash,
whom the Greeks also called Ninus, and from whom the city of
Nineveh took its name. Thus, therefore, diverse and erratic
superstitions took their beginning from the magic art. For, because
it was difficult to draw away the human race from the
love of Yahweh, and attach them to deaf and lifeless images,
the magicians made use of higher efforts, that men might be
turned to erratic worship, by signs among the stars, and motions
brought down as it were from heaven, and by the will of