326. Some MSS read “unusually” (ἀήθως for ἀληθῶς).
327. The table of shew-bread.
328. Or “candlestick.”
329. Or “solemnity” or “sanctity.”
330. Or “of the affairs of the community.”
331. Text doubtful.
332. Lit. “with fear.”
333. Lit. “towards the deity.”
334. Most MSS “his breakfast.”
335. Other MSS “sustenance.”
336. Or “when they ask an alms.”
337. Or “display”; lit. “just stewards” or “dispensers.”
338. Or “leaders in.”
339. MSS “the person who.”
340. Or “roots that act as charms.”
341. i. e. probably, charms or amulets.
342. On this paragraph see Lightfoot, Colossians, 8 p. 89 f. note. Lightfoot, connecting the passage with Ant. VIII. 2. 5, § (6) above, regards the “writings” as Solomonian books and the Essenes as primarily dealers in charms, rather than physicians.
343. The inconsistency of this with the attitude of the sect towards swearing as recorded in a previous paragraph is remarkable.
344. Lit. “the Divinity.”
345. Cf. Rom. xiii. 1.
346. Or “detected in.”
347. Usual meaning “a hoe”; Lightfoot tr. “spade.”
349. i. e. the sun-god, to whom they pray (see above and cf. Lightfoot, Col., p. 85 note 2).
350. As Lightfoot (Col. 363, note) points out, the passage must be read in connexion with the account of the admission to the order (above). A comparison shows that the two year period there mentioned comprises “the period spent in the second and third grades, each extending over a year. After passing through these three stages in three successive years, he enters upon the fourth and highest grade, thus becoming a perfect member.”
351. Or, perhaps, “the simplicity of their mode of life and their regular habits.”
352. φυσικός here apparently used of the occult laws of nature (v. Liddell-Scott Lex.).
353. Lit. “the Sisyphuses,” etc.
354. Or “superior,” “special.”
355. For these Essene fortune-tellers, see Lightfoot, Col. 89, note 1 (“We may conjecture that with the Essenes this acquisition was connected with magic or astrology. At all events it is not treated as a direct inspiration”), and the instance of Menahem, § (59), below.
356. Meaning a little uncertain.
357. i. e. “co-operates.”
358. Gr. “Hades.”
359. Gr. “we.”
361. ὁ λόγος. Whiston, “follow the guidance of reason”; but ὁ λ. must, it seems, have the same meaning as in the corresponding opening sentences in the paragraphs on Sadducees and Essenes, (?) “doctrine” or “tenets.”
362. Text doubtful.
363. Another reading (κρᾶσιν for κρίσιν), “that there should be a blend between....”
365. Or “vows.”
366. Lit. “revenue.”
367. Lit. “the common precincts.” Whiston, “the common court of the Temple.”
368. πολισταῖς (i.e. “Founders” or “Colonisers”), Scaliger’s emendation of the MS reading πλείστοις; cf. the allusion in Strabo 296 to a Thracian tribe who live without wives and are called Founders (κτίσται).
370. Perhaps, with a slight transposition of letters, “invincible” (Bekker).
373. Another reading “John.”
374. Or, according to another reading, “to be convinced.”
376. Ragaba.
377. Conj. Niese; MSS “send for their soldiers.”
378. Another reading, “fifty years save one.”
380. Reading αὐτῆς; lit. “grew up beside into her power” (like suckers round a tree). With the reading αὐτῇ, “Beside A. there rose to power....”
381. By taking the oath of allegiance to him.
382. Jos. uses this form and “Essenes” interchangeably.
384. Gr. “Manæmus” (throughout).
385. Text doubtful. Perhaps “will begin happily.”
386. Lit. “laid claim to the laws.” But the text is doubtful. Others read, “... observance of the laws of their fathers, and pretended that the Deity took delight in them (the Pharisees).”
387. Cf. Rom. ii. 18 (“knowest the will”).
388. That is, apparently, the women of Herod’s family. The word denotes the harem of a prince.
389. Text and meaning doubtful.
390. Herod’s brother.
391. Herod’s sister.
392. Or “had associated themselves with.”
393. Gr. “Pharisee’s.”
394. These words occur only in Eusebius’s citation (Præp. Ev. VIII. 8), not in the MSS of Josephus.
395. Or, according to another reading, “unbegotten.”
396. Lit. “to time everlasting.”
397. Or “essence.”
398. Lit. “the truth of the doctrine.”
399. The four cardinal virtues of the Platonic School, except that Harmony (συμφωνία) here replaces the usual Wisdom (φρόνησις).
400. The Greek word is that used in Socrates’ famous saying, “The life which is unexamined is not worth living” (Plato, Apology 38A).
401. Lit. “dumb.”
402. Or “diet.”
403. Lit. “and concerning strenuous application to labours and contrariwise rest.”
404. Cf. Gal. iii. 24, “the law hath been our tutor.”
405. Or “appointed.”
406. For the Rabbinical tradition that Moses introduced the custom of the public reading of the Law on Festivals and Sabbaths, see an art. by Dr. Büchler in the Jewish Quart. Review, V. 420 (1893).
407. As in the Olympic games.
408. As in the Isthmian and Nemean games.
409. Text doubtful.
410. ἐκ περιτροπῆς should, perhaps, be read in the light of the kindred passage, B.J. III. 374 (§ (43), p. 124 above), ἐκ περιτροπῆς αἰώνων. Or translate simply “in exchange,” “in turn.”
412. i. e. Egyptians, Babylonians, Chaldæans and Phœnicians, as opposed to the Greeks, who neglected to keep records of antiquity
413. Reading ἀρχείων. MSS “from the ancients” (ἀρχαίων).
414. Or “college of priests.”
415. Or, perhaps, “from the archives” (ἀρχείων).
416. Unlike the Greeks.
417. Lit. “tens of thousands.”
418. Eusebius reads, “which are justly believed to be divine.”
419. See on this and the following paragraph Appendix, Note VII.
420. The earlier editions insert ἀρχῆς (“till the reign of ...”), not found in Niese’s MS. Perhaps we should read simply “until Artaxerxes” (μέχρις for μέχρι τῆς).
421. In Jos. Artaxerxes = Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther (Ant. XI. 6. 1 (184)); Xerxes = Artaxerxes of Ezra-Nehemiah.
422. Gr. (as quoted by Eusebius) “approach.” The MSS of Jos. read “we have trusted.”
423. Or “doctrines.”
424. Or “the surest of all tests” (lit. “assayers”).
425. The text of this sentence is uncertain. I adopt Niese’s conjecture.
426. Perhaps we should read “their writings” (Niese).
427. Or “friendly communion.”
428. Niese reads “nor a single barbarian race.”
429. Reading πάντως (with Niese).
430. Elsewhere (Ant. IV. 4. 4 [73]) Jos., like Mark, renders simply, and correctly, “a gift.”
431. Tradition also connects Z. ben Jeberechiah (Isa. viii. 2) and Zacharias, father of John the Baptist, with the N.T. passage.
432. Translated from T.J., Taanith iv. 5, by G. F. Moore in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. xxvi. (1906), pp. 317 ff.; cf. Lightfoot Horæ Hebraiacæ on Matt. l. c.
433. After Virg. Æn. VIII. 528 f.
434. Fürst (Kanon des A.T.), p. 4.