e
other writers, who are all much later, are not to be followed against
such evidence, though perhaps Epiphanes might have him by a woman of no
family. The king of Egypt also, Philometor, soon gave him his daughter
in marriage, which he would hardly have done, had he believed him to
be a counterfeit, and of so very mean a birth as the later historians
pretend.

[2] Since Jonathan plainly did not put on the pontifical robes till
seven or eight years after the death of his brother Judas, or not till
the feast of tabernacles, in the 160th of the Seleucidm, 1 Macc. 10;21,
Petitus's emendation seems here to deserve consideration, who, instead
of "after four years since the death of his brother Judas," would have
us read, "and therefore after eight years since the death of his brother
Judas." This would tolerably well agree with the date of the Maccabees,
and with Josephus's own exact chronology at the end of the twentieth
book of these Antiquities, which the present text cannot be made to do.

[3] Take Grotius's note here: "The Jews," says he, "were wont to present
crowns to the kings [of Syria]; afterwards that gold which was paid
instead of those crowns, or which was expended in making them, was
called the crown gold and crown tax." On 1 Macc. 10:29.

[4] Since the rest of the historians now extant give this Demetrius
thirteen years, and Josephus only eleven years, Dean Prideaux does not
amiss in ascribing to him the mean number twelve.

[5] It seems to me contrary to the opinion of Josephus, and of the
moderns, both Jews and Christians, that this prophecy of Isaiah, 19:19,
etc., "In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the midst of
the land of Egypt," etc., directly foretold the building of this temple
of Onias in Egypt, and was a sufficient warrant to the Jews for building
it, and for worshipping the true God, the God of Israel, therein. See
Authent. Rec. 11. p. 755. That God seems to have soon better accepted of
the sacrifices and prayers here offered him than those at Jerusalem, see
the note on ch. 10. sect. 7. And truly the marks of Jewish corruption
or interpolation in this text, in order to discourage their people
from approving of the Worship of God here, are very strong, and highly
deserve our consideration and correction. The foregoing verse in Isaiah
runs thus in our common copies, "In that day shall five cities in the
land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan," [the Hebrew language; shall
be ful