ns concerning several matters. And having done
these things he took away the priesthood from the high priest Joseph,
who is called Caiaphas." (Antiq. lib. xvii. c. 5, sect 3.)

XXII. (Michaelis, c. xi. sect. 11.) Acts xxiii. 4. "And they that stood
by said, Revilest thou God's high priest? Then said Paul, I wist not,
brethren, that he was the high priest?" Now, upon inquiry into the
history of the age, it turns out that Ananias, of whom this is spoken,
was, in truth, not the high priest, though he was sitting in judgment in
that assumed capacity. The case was, that he had formerly holden the
office, and had been deposed; that the person who succeeded him had been
murdered; that another was not yet appointed to the station; and that
during the vacancy, he had, of his own authority, taken upon himself the
discharge of the office. (Joseph. Antiq. 1. xx. c. 5, sect. 2; c. 6,
sect. 2; c. 9, sect. 2.) This singular situation of the high priesthood
took place during the interval between the death of Jonathan, who was
murdered by order of Felix, and the accession of Ismael, who was
invested with the high priesthood by Agrippa; and precisely in this
interval it happened that Saint Paul was apprehended, and brought before
the Jewish council.

XXIII. [p. 323.] Matt. xxvi. 59. "Now the chief priests and elders, and
all the council, sought false witness against him."

Joseph. Antiq. lib. xviii. e. 15, sect. 3, 4. "Then might be seen the
high priests themselves with ashes on their heads and their breasts
naked."

The agreement here consists in speaking of the high priests or chief
priests (for the name in the original is the same) in the plural number,
when in strictness there was only one high priest: which may be
considered as a proof that the evangelists were habituated to the manner
of speaking then in use, because they retain it when it is neither
accurate nor just. For the sake of brevity, I have put down from
Josephus only a single example of the application of this title in the
plural number; but it is his usual style.

Ib. [p. 871.] Luke ill. 1. "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of
Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Juries, and Herod
being tetrarch of Galilee, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests,
the word of God came unto John." There is a passage in Josephus very
nearly parallel to this, and which may at least serve to vindicate the
evangelist from objection, with respect to his giving the ti