ention
of [so famous a person as] "Jesus Christ."

[2] That the famous Antipater's or Antipas's father was also Antipater
or Antipas [which two may justly be esteemed one and the same frame,
the former with a Greek or Gentile, the latter with a Hebrew or Jewish
termination] Josephus here assures us, though Eusebias indeed says it
was Herod.

[3] This "golden vine," or "garden," seen by Strabo at Rome, has its
inscription here as if it were the gift of Alexander, the father of
Aristobulus, and not of Aristobulus himself, to whom yet Josephus
ascribes it; and in order to prove the truth of that part of his
history, introduces this testimony of Strabo; so that the ordinary
copies seem to be here either erroneous or defective, and the original
reading seems to have been either Aristobulus, instead of Alexander,
with one Greek copy, or else "Aristobulus the son of Alexander," with
the Latin copies; which last seems to me the most probable. For as to
Archbishop Usher's conjectures, that Alexander made it, and dedicated it
to God in the temple, and that thence Aristobulus took it, and sent
it to Pompey, they are both very improbable, and no way agreeable
to Josephus, who would hardly have avoided the recording both these
uncommon points of history, had he known any thing of them; nor would
either the Jewish nation, or even Pompey himself, then have relished
such a flagrant instance of sacrilege.

[4] These express testimonies of Josephus here, and Antiq. B. VIII. ch.
6. sect. 6, and B. XV. ch. 4. sect. 2, that the only balsam gardens,
and the best palm trees, were, at least in his days, near Jericho
and Kugaddi, about the north part of the Dead Sea, [whereabout also
Alexander the Great saw the balsam drop,] show the mistake of those that
understand Eusebius and Jerom as if one of those gardens were at the
south part of that sea, at Zoar or Segor, whereas they must either mean
another Zoar or Segor, which was between Jericho and Kugaddi, agreeably
to Josephus: which yet they do not appear to do, or else they directly
contradict Josephus, and were therein greatly mistaken: I mean this,
unless that balsam, and the best palm trees, grew much more southward
in Judea in the days of Eusebius and Jerom than they did in the days of
Josephus.

[5] The particular depth and breadth of this ditch, whence the stones
for the wall about the temple were probably taken, are omitted in our
copies of Josephus, but set down by Strabo, B. XVI.