son's note upon this place, which I suppose to be the
truth: "Here is some mistake in Josephus; for when he had promised us
a decree for the restoration of Jerusalem he brings in a decree of far
greater antiquity, and that a league of friendship and union only.
One may easily believe that Josephus gave order for one thing, and his
amanuensis performed another, by transposing decrees that concerned the
Hyrcani, and as deluded by the sameness of their names; for that belongs
to the first high priest of this name, [John Hyrcanus,] which Josephus
here ascribes to one that lived later [Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander
Janneus]. However, the decree which he proposes to set down follows a
little lower, in the collection of Raman decrees that concerned the Jews
and is that dated when Caesar was consul the fifth time." See ch. 10.
sect. 5.

[14] Those who will carefully observe the several occasional numbers and
chronological characters in the life and death of this Herod, and of
his children, hereafter noted, will see that twenty-five years, and not
fifteen, must for certain have been here Josephus's own number for the
age of Herod, when he was made governor of Galilee. See ch. 23. sect.
5, and ch. 24. sect. 7; and particularly Antiq. B. XVII. ch. 8. sect. 1,
where about forty-four years afterwards Herod dies an old man at about
seventy.

[15] It is here worth our while to remark, that none could be put to
death in Judea but by the approbation of the Jewish Sanhedrim, there
being an excellent provision in the law of Moses, that even in criminal
causes, and particularly where life was concerned, an appeal should lie
from the lesser councils of seven in the other cities to the supreme
council of seventy-one at Jerusalem; and that is exactly according to
our Savior's words, when he says, "It could not be that a prophet should
perish out of Jerusalem," Luke 13:33.

[16] This account, as Reland observes, is confirmed by the Talmudists,
who call this Sameas, "Simeon, the son of Shetach."

[17] That Hyreanus was himself in Egypt, along with Antipater, at this
time, to whom accordingly the bold and prudent actions of his deputy
Antipater are here ascribed, as this decree of Julius Caesar supposes,
we are further assured by the testimony of Strabo, already produced by
Josephus, ch. 8. sect. 3.

[18] Dr. Hudson justly supposes that the Roman imperators, or generals
of armies, meant both here and sect. 2, who gave testimony to Hyrcanus