were commonly purchased of
the Romans with money. Many examples of this sort, both as to the
Romans and others in authority, will occur in our Josephus, both now
and hereafter, and need not be taken particular notice of on the several
occasions in these notes. Accordingly, the chief captain confesses
to St. Paul that "with a great sum he had obtained his freedom," Acts
22:28; as had St. Paul's ancestors, very probably, purchased the like
freedom for their family by money, as the same author justly concludes
also.

[23] This clause plainly alludes to that well-known but unusual and very
long darkness of the sun which happened upon the murder of Julius Cesar
by Brutus and Cassius, which is greatly taken notice of by Virgil,
Pliny, and other Roman authors. See Virgil's Georgics, B. I., just
before the end; and Pliny's Nat. Hist. B. IL ch. 33.

[24] We may here take notice that espousals alone were of old esteemed
a sufficient foundation for affinity, Hyrcanus being here called
father-in-law to Herod because his granddaughter Mariarune was betrothed
to him, although the marriage was not completed till four years
afterwards. See Matthew 1:16.

[25] This law of Moses, that the priests were to be "without blemish,"
as to all the parts of their bodies, is in Leviticus 21:17-24

[26] Concerning the chronology of Herod, and the time when he was first
made king at Rome, and concerning the time when he began his second
reign, without a rival, upon the conquest and slaughter of Antigonus,
both principally derived from this and the two next chapters in
Josephus, see the note on sect. 6, and ch. 15. sect. 10.

[27] This grievous want of water at Masada, till the place had like to
have been taken by the Parthians, [mentioned both here, and Of the War,
B. I. ch. 15. sect. 1,] is an indication that it was now summer time.

[28] This affirmation of Antigonus, spoken in the days of Herod, and in
a manner to his face, that he was an Idumean, i.e. a half Jew, seems
to me of much greater authority than that pretense of his favorite and
flatterer Nicolaus of Damascus, that he derived his pedigree from Jews
as far backward as the Babylonish captivity, ch. 1. sect. 3. Accordingly
Josephus always esteems him an Idumean, though he says his father
Antipater was of the same people with the Jews, ch. viii. sect. 1.
and by birth a Jew, Antiq. B. XX. ch. 8. sect. 7; as indeed all such
proselytes of justice, as the Idumeans, were in time esteemed