we to esteem his alike hard words of the Christians to be blots upon his own character, and not upon theirs. VII. Since therefore Tacitus, soon after the publication of Josephus's Antiquities, and in contradiction to them, was determined to produce such idle stories about the Jews, and since one of those idle stories is much the same with that published in Josephus against Apion, from Manetho and Lysimachus, and no where else met with so fully in all antiquity, it is most probable that those Antiquities of Josephus were the very occasion of Tacitus giving us these stories, as we know from Josephus himself, contr. Apion, B. i. sect. 1, that the same Antiquities were the very occasion of Apion's publication of his equally scandalous stories about them, and which Josephus so thoroughly confuted in his two books written against them. And if Tacitus, as I suppose, had also read these two books, his procedure in publishing such stories after he had seen so thorough a confutation of them, was still more highly criminal. Nor will Tacitus's fault be much less, though we suppose he neither saw the Antiquities, nor the books against Apion, because it was not so very easy for him, then at Rome, to have had more authentic accounts of the origin of the Jewish nation, and of the nature of the Jewish and Christian religion, from the Jews and Christians themselves, which he owns were very numerous there in his days; so that his publication of such idle stories is still utterly inexcusable. VIII. It is therefore very plain, after all, that notwithstanding these encomiums of several of our learned critics upon Tacitus, and hard suspicions upon Josephus, that all the (involuntary) mistakes of Josephus, in all his large works put together, their quality as well as quantity, considered, do not amount to near so great a sum, as do these gross errors and misrepresentations of Tacitus's about the Jews amount to in a few pages, so little reason have some of our later and lesser critics to prefer the Greek and Roman profane historians and writers to the Jewish, and particularly to Josephus. Such later and lesser critics should have learned more judgment and modesty from their great father Joseph Scaliger, when, as we have seen, after all his deeper inquiries, he solemnly pronounces, De Emend. Temp. Prolegom. p. 17. That "Josephus was the most diligent and the greatest lover of truth of all writers:" and is not afraid to affirm, that "it is more safe to believe him, not only as to the affairs of the Jews, but also as to those that are foreign to them, than all the Greek and Latin writers, and this because his fidelity and compass of learning are every where conspicuous." TABLE of the JEWISH WEIGHTS and MEASURES, particularly of those mentioned in JOSEPHUS'S WORKS. Small span Inches. 21 Feet. Inches. 1 9 101 7 Stater, Siclus, or shekel of the sanctuary, Drachma or Alexandrina, or Darchmon, or 9,266 28,3 4,4633 14,3 2,78 1,544 ,39 7,125 £. S. d. 21900 grains Troy Maneh, Mna, or Mina, as a coin-60 shekels 7 10 0 Talent of silver-3000 shekels Drachma of gold not more than Shekel of gold not more than Daric of gold Talent of gold not more than 375 0 0 0 1 1 0 4 4 Table of the Jewish Months in Josephus and others, with the names of the Syromacedonian names Josephus gives them, and of the Julian or Roman months corresponding to them. Hebrew Names. Roman Names. March and April Dæsius May and June (4.) Tamuz Panemus June and July INDEX. The first number is that of the respective Volume, the second refers to the Page. AARON, i. 97. Is made high- Abdastartus, king of the Tyrians, Abdemon, a Tyrian, i. 411. iv. 295. 248. Abel, i. 11. His sacrifice, ib. Abia, or Abijah, the son of Reho- boam, i. 428. Succeeds his fa- king of the Arabians, iii. 164. 295. Abigail, i. 311. Married to David, 313. Amasa's mother, i. 361. Abimelech tyrannizes over the She- Abinadab, i. 265, 392, and ii. 99. Abishai, i. 313. Abner, son of Ner, i. 325. Saul's Abram, or Abraham, the son of Te- 43. Absalom, i. 335. Flies to Geshur, Acencheres, king of Egypt, iv. 292, lom's favourite, i. 356. Gives Acme, iii. 20. Her letters to An- Abishag, a virgin, David's nurse, i. Actium, battle at, in the seventh 379. year of Herod's reign, ii. 336, 315. Ada, the wife of Lamech, i. 12. Adam created, i. 8. His fall, 10. Adonias, or Adonijah, pretends to nations for wisdom, 393. Learn- Ægyptian false prophet put to flight Obodas in Arabia, ii. 416. Agag, king of the Amalekites, i. Agar, or Hagar, and Ishmael are sent away by Abraham, i, 36. Ageus, or Haggai, the prophet, ii. 101. He prophesies at the re- rod, 380. Makes equal returns Agrippa the Great, or Elder, He- his son by Cypros, iii. 389. iii. 173. , son of Felix and Drusilla, Fonteius slain, iv. 244. |