age in which he lived; and after this, none of his neighbours durst any more cope with him, but he enjoyed the remainder of his time in full quiet from all foreign

wars.

Anno 108.

canus 28.

But in the latter end of his life he met with some trouble from the Pharisees, a busy and muJohn Hyr- tinous sect among the Jews. These, by their pretences to a more than ordinary strictness of religion, had gained to themselves a great reputation and interest among the common people; and for this reason Hyrcanus endeavoured to gain them to him by all manner of favours. He had been bred up in their discipline from the beginning, and therefore, professing himself of their sect, had always given them all manner of countenance and encouragement; and farther to ingratiate himself with them about this time, invited the heads of the party to an entertainment, and, having therein regaled them with all manner of good cheer, he spake to them to this effect: "That the fixed purposes of his mind, as they well knew, had always been to be just in his actions towards men, and to do all things towards God, that should be well pleasing to him, according to the doctrines which the Pharisees taught; and therefore he desired, that, if they saw any thing in him wherein he failed of his duty, in either of these two branches of it, they should give him their instructions, that thereby it might be reformed and amended." In answer hereto, they all applauded his conduct, all gave him the praise of a just and religious governour, excepting only one man, and Hyrcanus was mightily pleased hereat. But when all these had done with their encomiums, this one man, named Eleazar, a very ill natured person, and one that much delighted in making disturbances, stood up, and, addressing himself to Hyrcanus, said, "Since you are desirous to be told the truth, if you would approve yourself a just man, quit the high priesthood, and content yourself with having the government of the people." Whereon Hyrcanus asking him what reason there was for this, he replied, "Because we are assured, by the testimony

Joseph. Antiq. lib. 13, e. 18.

of the ancients among us, that your mother was a captive taken in the wars, and therefore, as born of her, you are incapable of the high priesthood, and cannot hold it by the law." And, had the matter of fact been true, his inference had been right. For, whoever was born of any prohibited marriage, was by the law of Moses profane, and so was, by the same law, incapable of being priest, or high priest. Now, these prohibited marriages among the Jews were, in respect of the different degrees of the persons to whom they were prohibited, of three different sorts. First. Such as were prohibited to all Israel; and these were, the marrying within the prohibited degrees of kindred, and the marrying any of another nation. Second. Such as were prohibited to priests; and these were, the marrying of a whore, or a divorced woman, or one that was profane. Third. Such as were prohibited to the high priest, who, over and above all these other prohibited marriages, was also forbidden to marry a widow. For the words of the law are, that he should take none other to wife but a virgin of his own people. And therefore, if an high priest had a son by any of these prohibited marriages, or a priest by any of those prohibited to him, that son was profane, and thereby rendered incapable of being either priest or high priest. For, as the prohibited marriages of the first sort abovementioned, as well as those of the second, were forbidden the priest, so all three were forbidden the high priest; that is, the first sort as he was an Israelite, the second as he was a priest, and the third as he was high priest. And therefore, had Hyrcanus' mothere been an alien taken captive in war, or any other, when first

y Levit. xxi, 15. Maimonides in Issure Biah, c. 19.

z For the priest was to be holy, Levit. xxi, 8, but profane is opposite to holy. a Levit. xviii. b Deut. vii, 3. d Levit. xxi, 13, 14.

c Levit. xxi, 7.

e The words of Eleazar in Josephus may be construed to import her not to have been an alien taken in war by the Jews, but a Jewish woman taken captive by the heathen, and made a slave among them, and afterwards redeemed but which way of the two it be, it comes to the same thing: for whatever Jewish woman was thus taken captive by any heathen people, was always supposed to have been deflowered by them; and such an one was not to be married either to a priest or an high priest; and, if she were, all her children were reckoned profane, and consequently incapable of being either priest or high priest.

married to his father, than one whose marriage was allowed to a priest (for Simon was no more than a priest when he first married her,) every son born of her would have been profane, and consequently incapable of being either priest or high priest. But the matter of fact, Josephus (from whom alone we have this story) assures us, was all false, and a most notorious calumny; and therefore the objecting of it was disapproved of, and resented with great indignation by all that were present; and it afterwards became the origin of great disturbances. For, Hyrcanus not being able to bear that his mother should be thus defamed, and the purity of his birth and his capacity for the high priesthood be hereby called in question, was exceedingly exasperated hereat; which one Jonathan, a zealous disciple of the Sadducees (the opposite sect to the Pharisees,) and an intimate friend of Hyrcanus, observing, laid hold of this opportunity to set him against the whole party, and draw him over to that of the Sadducees. For this purpose, he suggested to Fyrcanus, that this was not the single act of Eleazar, but most certainly a thing concerted by the whole party; that, Eleazar in speaking of it out was no more than the mouth of all the rest; and, that he needed do no more for the full assuring of himself of the truth hereof, than to refer it to them for their opinion what punishment the calumniator deserved; for if he would be pleased, urged Jonathan, to make this experiment, he would certainly find, by the lenity of their sentence against the criminal, that they were all parties with him in the crime. Hyrcanus, hearkening to the suggestion of Jonathan, followed his advice, and accordingly proposed it to the heads of the Pharisees, for their opinion what punishment Eleazar deserved, for thus defaming the prince and high priest of his people, expecting from them no lesser sentence than that of death. Their answer hereto was, that defamation and calumny were no cap. ital crimes, and therefore, could be punished no farther than with whipping and imprisonment. Whereon

f Antiq. lib. 13, c. 18.

g This punishment among the Jews was not to exceed forty stripes, (Deut. xxv, 3,) and therefore the whip with which it was inflicted being

Hyrcanus, being fully persuaded that all that Jonathan suggested was true, became thenceforth a bitter enemy to the whole sect of the Pharisees; for he forthwith abrogated all their traditionary constitutions, enjoined a penalty upon all that should observe them; and, utterly renouncing their party, went over to that of the Sadducees.

· An. 107.

canus 29.

k

But Hyrcanus did not long live after this ruffle; for he died the next year after, after having been from the death of Simon his father, high priest John Hyrand prince of the Jews twenty-nine years. He was, saith Josephus, honoured with three of the highest dignities; for he was, according to him, a prophet, as well as a prince and high priest; of which there are given two instances, first, That he foretold, that Aristobulus and Antigonus, his two eldest sons, should not live long after him, but that the succession of the government should come to Alexander, his third son; and second, That when Aristobulus and Antigonus vanquished Antiochus Cyzicenus in battle," was made known to him the very same moment in which the victory was gained, though he were then at Jerusalem, at the distance of two days journey from the field of battle. The former, they say, was revealed to him in a dream of the night," and the other by a voice from heaven, which the Jews call Bath Kol, that is,

made with three thongs, and each blow giving three stripes, they never inflicted upon any criminal more than thirteen blows, because thirteen of these blows made thirty-nine stripes; and to add another blow would be to transgress that law, by adding two stripes over and above forty, contrary to its prohibition. And in this manner was it that St. Paul, when whipped of the Jews, received forty stripes save one, (2 Cor. xi, 24,) that is, thirteen blows with this three-fold whip, which made thirty nine stripes, that is, forty save one.

h That is, by embracing their doctrine against the traditions of the elders, added to the written law, and made of equal authority with it; but not their doctrine against the resurrection and a future state; for this cannot be sup posed of so good and righteous a man as John Hyrcanus is said to be. It is most probable, that at this time the Sadducees had gone no further in the doctrines of that sect, than to deny all their unwritten traditions, which the Pharisees were so fond of. For Josephus mentions no other difference at this time between them, neither doth he say that Hyrcanus went over to the Sadducees in any other particular, than in the abolishing of all the traditional constitutions of the Pharisees, which our Saviour condemned as well as he.

i Joseph. Antiq. lib. 13, c. 18. Euseb. in Chronico.

k Joseph. ibid.

n Ibid. & c. 20.

VOL. III.

1 Ibid. & c. 20.

o Ibid. & c. 18.

55

m Ibid. & c. 18.

The daughter of a voice, or the daughter voice: for the Jewish writers hold, that there were three sorts of revelations anciently among them; the first by Urim and Thummim; the second by the spirit of prophecy; and the third by Bath Kol. The first, they say, was in use from the erecting of the tabernacle to the building of the temple; the second from the beginning of the world (but mostly under the first temple) till the death of Malachi under the second temple. But, that, after the death of Malachi, the spirit of prophecy P wholly ceased in Israel, and thats thenceforth they had Bath Kol in its stead, which, they say, was a voice from heaven. That they called it Bath Kol, that is, the daughter voice, or the daughter of a voice (for it may be interpreted both ways,) seems to be with respect to the oracular voice delivered from the mercy-seat, when God was there consulted by Urim and Thummim. That was the grand and primary voice of revelation, this of a secondary dignity, and inferiour to it, as the daughter is to the mother: and therefore, in respect to it, and as succeeding in its stead, it is called the daughter voice, the other being to it as the mother in precedence both of time and dignity. That it may be understood what kind of oracle this was, I shall here give the reader one instance of it out of the Talmud: it is as followeth: "Rabbi Jochanan, and Rabbi Simeon Ben Lachish, desiring to see the face of R. Samuel, a Babylonish doctor, let us follow, said they, the hearing of Bath Kol. Travelling, therefore, near a school, they heard the voice of a boy reading these words out of 1 Sam. xxv, 1, And Samuel died; they observed this, and inferred from hence, that their friend Samuel was dead and so they found it had happened; for Samuel of Babylon was then dead." Many more instances of this sort may be produced out of the Jewish writings;

p Talmud. Bab. in Tract. Sanhedrin. fol. 11. q See Lightfoot's Works, vol. i, p. 485.

r There is also another reason given for this name, that is, that it came out of thunder; that the thunder-clap always went first, and then the Bath Kol out of it; and that therefore the thunder was as the mother voice, and Bath Kol as the daughter coming out of it. But this cannot be true; for most of the instances which the Jewish writers give us of their Bath Kož are without any such thunder preceding.

s In Shabbath, fol. 8, col. 3.