(1) Those who have a mind to know all the family and descendants of Antipater the Idumean, and of Herod the Great, his son, and have a memory to preserve them all distinctly, may consult Josephus, Antiq.B.XVIII.ch.5.sect.4; and Of the War, B.I.
ch.28.sect.4; in Havercamp's edition, p.336; and Spanheim, lb.p.402--405; and Reland, Paleslin.Part I.p.178, 176.
(2) This is now wanting.
(3) Pheroras's wife, and her mother and sister, and Doris, Antipater's mother.
(4)His wife, her mother, and sister.
(5) It seems to me, by this whole story put together, that Pheroras was not himself poisoned, as is commonly supposed; for Antipater had persuaded him to poison Herod, ch.v.sect.1, which would fall to the ground if he wore himself poisoned; nor could the poisoning of Pheroras serve any design that appears now going forward; it was only the supposal of two of his freed-men, that this love-potion, or poison, which they knew was brought to Pheroras's wife, was made use of for poisoning him; whereas it appears to have been brought for her husband to poison Herod withal, as the future examinations demonstrate.
(6) That the ****** of images, without an intention to worship them, was not unlawful to the Jews, see the note on Antiq.BVIII.ch.7.sect.5.
(7) This fact, that one Joseph was made high priest for a single day, on occasion of the action here specified, that befell Matthias, the real high priest, in his sleep, the night before the great day of expiation, is attested to both in the Mishna and Talmud, as Dr.Hudson here informs us.And indeed, from this fact, thus fully attested, we may confute that pretended rule in the Talmud here mentioned, and endeavored to be excused lay Reland, that the high priest was not suffered to sleep the night before that great day of expiation; which watching would surely rather unfit him for the many important duties he was to perform on that solemn day, than dispose him duly to perform them.Nor do such Talmudical rules, when unsupported by better evidence, much less when contradicted there by, seem to me of weight enough to deserve that so great a man as Reland should spend his time in endeavors at their vindication.
(8) This eclipse of the moon (which is the only eclipse of either of the luminaries mentioned by our Josephus in any of his writings) is of the greatest consequence for the determination of the time for the death of Herod and Antipater, and for the birth and entire chronology of Jesus Christ.It happened March 13th, in the year of the Julian period 4710, and the 4th year before the Christian era.See its calculation by the rules of astronomy, at the end of the Astronomical Lectures, edit.Lat.p.451, 452.
(9) A place for the horse-races.
(10) When it is here said that Philip the tetrarch, and Archelaus the king, or ethnarch, were own brother, or genuine brothers, if those words mean own brothers, or born of the same father and mother, there must be here some mistake; because they had indeed the same father, Herod, but different mothers; the former Cleopatra, and Archclaus Malthace.They were indeed brought up together privately at Rome like when he went to have his kingdom confirmed to him at Rome, ch.9.sect.5; and Of the War, B.II.
ch.2.sect.1; which intimacy is perhaps all that Josephus intended by the words before us.
(11) These numbers of years for Herod's reign, 34 and 37, are the very same with those, Of the War, B.I.ch.33.sect.8, and are among the principal chronological characters belonging to the reign or death of Herod.See Harm.p.150--155.
(12) At eight stadia or furlongs a-day, as here, Herod's funeral, conducted to Herodium, which lay at the distance from Jericho, where he died, of 200 stadia or furlongs, Of the War, B.1.ch.
33.sect.9, must have taken up no less than twenty-five days.
(13) This passover, when the sedition here mentioned was moved against Archelaus, was not one, but thirteen months after the eclipse of the moon already mentioned.
(14) See Antiq.B.XIV.ch.13.sect.10; and Of the War; B.II.
ch.12.sect.9.
(15) These great devastations made about the temple here, and Of the War, B.II.ch.3.sect.3, seem not to have been full re-edified in the days of Nero; till whose time there were eighteen thousand workmen continually employed in rebuilding and repairing that temple, as Josephus informs us, Antiq.B.XX.ch.
9.sect.7.See the note on that place.
