the very
same people with the Jews.

[29] It may be worth our observation here, that these soldiers of Herod
could not have gotten upon the tops of these houses which were full of
enemies, in order to pull up the upper floors, and destroy them beneath,
but by ladders from the out side; which illustrates some texts in the
New Testament, by which it appears that men used to ascend thither
by ladders on the outsides. See Matthew 24:17; Mark 13:15; Luke 5:19;
17:31.

[30] Note here, that Josephus fully and frequently assures us that there
passed above three years between Herod's first obtaining the kingdom at
Rome, and his second obtaining it upon the taking of Jerusalem and death
of Antigonus. The present history of this interval twice mentions the
army going into winter quarters, which perhaps belonged to two several
winters, ch. 15. sect. 3, 4; and though Josephus says nothing how long
they lay in those quarters, yet does he give such an account of the long
and studied delays of Ventidius, Silo, and Macheras, who were to see
Herod settled in his new kingdom, but seem not to have had sufficient
forces for that purpose, and were for certain all corrupted by Antigonus
to make the longest delays possible, and gives us such particular
accounts of the many great actions of Herod during the same interval, as
fairly imply that interval, before Herod went to Samosata, to have
been very considerable. However, what is wanting in Josephus, is fully
supplied by Moses Chorenensis, the Armenian historian, in his history
of that interval, B. II ch. 18., where he directly assures us that
Tigranes, then king of Armenia, and the principal manager of this
Parthian war, reigned two years after Herod was made king at Rome, and
yet Antony did not hear of his death, in that very neighborhood, at
Samosata, till he was come thither to besiege it; after which Herod
brought him an army, which was three hundred and forty miles' march, and
through a difficult country, full of enemies also, and joined with him
in the siege of Samosata till that city was taken; then Herod and Sosins
marched back with their large armies the same number of three hundred
and forty miles; and when, in a little time, they sat down to besiege
Jerusalem, they were not able to take it but by a siege of five months.
All which put together, fully supplies what is wanting in Josephus, and
secures the entire chronology of these times beyond contradiction.

BOOK 15 FOOTNO