the Idumeans, as having been proselytes
of justice since the days of John Hyrcanus, during about one hundred and
ninety-five years, were now esteemed as part of the Jewish nation, and
these provided of a Jewish commander accordingly. See the note upon
Antiq. B. XIII.. ch. 9. sect. 1.

[33] We see here, and in Josephus's account of his own life, sect. 14,
how exactly he imitated his legislator Moses, or perhaps only obeyed
what he took to be his perpetual law, in appointing seven lesser judges,
for smaller causes, in particular cities, and perhaps for the first
hearing of greater causes, with the liberty of an appeal to seventy-one
supreme judges, especially in those causes where life and death were
concerned; as Antiq. B. IV. ch. 8. sect. 14; and of his Life, sect. 14.
See also Of the War, B. IV. ch. 5. sect. 4. Moreover, we find, sect.
7, that he imitated Moses, as well as the Romans, in the number and
distribution of the subaltern officers of his army, as Exodus 18:25;
Deuteronomy 1:15; and in his charge against the offenses common among
soldiers, as Denteronomy 13:9; in all which he showed his great wisdom
and piety, and skillful conduct in martial affairs. Yet may we discern
in his very high character of Artanus the high priest, B. IV. ch. 5.
sect. 2, who seems to have been the same who condemned St. James, bishop
of Jerusalem, to be stoned, under Albinus the procurator, that when
he wrote these books of the War, he was not so much as an Ebionite
Christian; otherwise he would not have failed, according to his usual
custom, to have reckoned this his barbarous murder as a just punishment
upon him for that his cruelty to the chief, or rather only Christian
bishop of the circumcision. Nor, had he been then a Christian, could he
immediately have spoken so movingly of the causes of the destruction
of Jerusalem, without one word of either the condemnation of James,
or crucifixion of Christ, as he did when he was become a Christian
afterward.

[34] I should think that an army of sixty thousand footmen should
require many more than two hundred and fifty horsemen; and we find
Josephus had more horsemen under his command than two hundred and fifty
in his future history. I suppose the number of the thousands is dropped
in our present copies.

[35] I cannot but think this stratagem of Josephus, which is related
both here and in his Life, sect. 32, 33, to be one of the finest that
ever was invented and executed by any warrior