Demetrius the chronographer

Demetrius the Chronographer (or Demetrius the Chronicler; Greek: Δημήτριος) was a Jewish chronicler (historian) of the late 3rd century BCE, who lived probably in Alexandria and wrote in Greek.

His text is almost lost and only a few fragments have survived in the following ancient texts: Eusebius's Praeparatio Evangelica, the Stromata of Clement of Alexandria and in quotations from the book About Jews of the historian Alexander Polyhistor (used by Eusebius).

From the orthography of proper names, and from various expressions used, it is evident that Demetrius used the Septuagint text of the Bible. For the determination of certain dates he relied on the Biblical exegesis in use among the Palestinian Jews. Josephus used Demetrius' chronicles for his Antiquities of the Jews and adopted his chronological system.

Demetrius is not an apologist in the usual meaning: his main focus is patriarchal chronology, and there is no attention given to theological matters.

There are six fragments usually considered Demetrius' work. The first short fragment (found in Praeparatio Evangelica 9.19.4) is about the sacrifice of Isaac (Gen. 22).

The second fragment is the longest we have. It is found in Praeparatio Evangelica 9.21.1-19 and deals with the history of Jacob from the time of his emigration to Mesopotamia till his death. Demetrius endeavors to establish the Biblical chronology and gives the date of every incident in Jacob's life, even fixing the year and month in which each of Jacob's children was born. The excerpt concludes with the genealogy of Levi back to the birth of Aaron and Moses.

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