e any other reason for it, I suppose, than the great difficulty of
an exact translation.

BOOK 17 FOOTNOTES

[1] Those who have a mind to know all the family and descendants of
Antipater the Idumean, and of Herod the Great, his son, and have a
memory to preserve them all distinctly, may consult Josephus, Antiq.
B. XVIII. ch. 5. sect. 4; and Of the War, B. I. ch. 28. sect. 4; in
Havercamp's edition, p. 336; and Spanheim, lb. p. 402--405; and Reland,
Paleslin. Part I. p. 178, 176.

[2] This is now wanting.

[3] Pheroras's wife, and her mother and sister, and Doris, Antipater's
mother.

[4]His wife, her mother, and sister.

[5] It seems to me, by this whole story put together, that Pheroras
was not himself poisoned, as is commonly supposed; for Antipater had
persuaded him to poison Herod, ch. v. sect. 1, which would fall to the
ground if he wore himself poisoned; nor could the poisoning of Pheroras
serve any design that appears now going forward; it was only the
supposal of two of his freed-men, that this love-potion, or poison,
which they knew was brought to Pheroras's wife, was made use of for
poisoning him; whereas it appears to have been brought for her husband
to poison Herod withal, as the future examinations demonstrate.

[6] That the making of images, without an intention to worship them, was
not unlawful to the Jews, see the note on Antiq. B VIII. ch. 7. sect. 5.
[7] This fact, that one Joseph was made high priest for a single day,
on occasion of the action here specified, that befell Matthias, the real
high priest, in his sleep, the night before the great day of expiation,
is attested to both in the Mishna and Talmud, as Dr. Hudson here informs
us. And indeed, from this fact, thus fully attested, we may confute
that pretended rule in the Talmud here mentioned, and endeavored to be
excused lay Reland, that the high priest was not suffered to sleep the
night before that great day of expiation; which watching would surely
rather unfit him for the many important duties he was to perform on
that solemn day, than dispose him duly to perform them. Nor do such
Talmudical rules, when unsupported by better evidence, much less when
contradicted there by, seem to me of weight enough to deserve that
so great a man as Reland should spend his time in endeavors at their
vindication.

[8] This eclipse of the moon [which is the only eclipse of either of the
luminaries mentioned by our Josephus in any of his writi