ARTAPANUS. — Jewish historian who lived in Egypt before the Christian era.
His work *The Book of the Jews* served as a source for Flavius Josephus and was cited by Eusebius (*Praeparatio evangelica* 9, 18.23.27), Clement of Alexandria (*Stromata*, I, 23), and the *Chronicon Paschale* (PL 92, 201), to whom we owe the few fragments that have survived. From these fragments, the work appears tendentious, claiming to demonstrate that every culture, including the worship of the gods, was brought into the world by the Hebrews. Abraham is said to have taught the Egyptians astrology, Joseph agriculture, and Moses—identified with Musaeus, the teacher of Orpheus—is credited with introducing navigation, architecture, writing, and philosophy.
BIBL.: E. Schürer, *Geschichte des Jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi*, III, 4th ed., Leipzig 1909, pp. 477–79. The fragments in C. Müller, *Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum*, III, Paris 1852, pp. 207–208. Angelo Penna