ble that those Antiquities of Jofephus were the very occafion of Tacitus giving us these stories, as we know from Jofephus himself, Contr. Apion B. I. § 1. that the fame Antiquities were the very occafion of Apion's publication of his equally fcandalous stories about them, and which Jofephus fo thoroughly confuted in his two books written against them. And if Tacitus, as I fuppofe, had also read these two books, his procedure in publishing fuch ftories, after he had seen fo thorough a confutation of them, was ftill more highly criminal. Nor will Tacitus's fault be much lefs, though we fuppofe he neither faw the Antiquities, nor the books against Apion, because it was fo very eafy for him, then at Rome, to have had more authentick accounts of the origin of the Jewish nation, and of the nature of the Jewish and Christian religions, from the Jews and Chriftians themselves, which he owns were very numerous there in his days; so that his publication of fuch idle ftories is ftill utterly inexcufable.

VIII. It is therefore very plain, after all, that notwithstanding the encomiums of feveral of our learned criticks upon Tacitus, and hard fufpicions upon Jofephus, that all the (involuntary) mistakes of Jofephus, in all his large works put together, their quality, as well as quantity, confidered, do not amount to near fo great a fum, as do thefe grofs errors and mifreprefentations of Tacitus's about the Jews amount to in a few pages, fo little reafon have fome of our later and leffer criticks to prefer the Greek and Roman profane hiftorians and writers to the Jewish, and particularly to Jofephus. Such later and leffer criticks fhould have learned more judgment and modefty from their great father Jofeph Scaliger, when, as we have feen, after all his deeper inquiries, he folemnly pronounces, De Emend. Temp. Prolegom. p. 17. That Jofephus was the moft diligent and the greatest lover of truth of all writers:" And is not afraid to affirm, That " it is more fafe 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 confpicuous." TABLE

TABLE of the JEWISH WEIGHTS and MEASURES, particularly of thofe mentioned in JOSEPHUS'S WORKS.

Of the JEWISH Meafures of LENGTH.

Cubit, the ftandard,

Inches.

21

10

7

3

Inch, or thumb's breadth,

1,16

Digit, or finger's breadth,

,875

Orgyia, or fathom,

84

7

Ezekiel's Cannch, or reed,

Arabian Canneh, or pole,

Schænus, line, or chain,

Sabbath day's journey,

Jewish mile,

Stadium, or furlong,

Stater, Siclus, or fhekel of the fanctuary, the.

Drachma Alexandrina, or Darchmon, or A

darchmon, one half,

Gerah, or Obolus, one twentieth,

Maneh, or Mna-100 fhekels in weight

21900 grains Troy.

Maneh, Mna, or Mina, as a coin-60 fhekels, 7 10

Talent of filver-3000 fhekels,
Drachma of gold not more than

375

4 4

1

648 O

TABLE of the JEWISH MONTHS in Jofephus, and others, with the names of the Syromacedonian names Jofephus gives them, and of the Fulian or Roman Months correfponding to them.

1

t

PRE F A C E.:

1.* THOSE who undertake to write hiftories, do not, I perceive, take that trouble on one and the fame account, but for many reafons, and thofe fuch as are very different one from another: For fome of them apply themfelves to this part of learning to fhew their great fkill in compofition, and that they may therein acquire a reputation for Speaking finely others of them there are who write hiftories, in order to gratify thofe that happen to be concerned in them, and on that account have fpared no pains, but rather gone beyond their own abilities in the performance; but others there are, who of neceffity, and by force, are driven to write hiftory, because they were concerned in the facts, and fo cannot excufe themfelves from committing them to writing, for the advantage of pofterity nay, there are not a few who are induced to draw their hiftorical facts out of darkness into light, and to produce them for the benefit of the publick, on account of the great importance of the facts themselves with which they have been concerned. Now of thefe feveral reafons for writing hif tory, I must profefs the two laft were my own reafons alfo : For fince I was myself interested in that war which we fews had with the Romans, and knew myfelf its particular actions, and what conclufion it had, was forced to give the hiftory of it, because I faw that others perverted the truth of thofe actions in their writings."

2. Now I have undertaken the prefent work, as thinking it will appear to all the + Greeks worthy of their ftudy: for it will contain all our antiquities, and the conftitution of our government, as interpreted out of the Hebrew fcriptures.

And

*This preface of Jofephus's is excellent in its kind, and highly worthy the repeated perufal of the reader, before he fet about the perufal of the work it felf.

↑ That is, all the Gentiles, both Greeks and Romans:

And indeed I did formerly intend, when I wrote of the War, to explain who the Jews originally were; what fortunes they had been fubject to; and by what legiflator they had been inftructed in piety, and the exercife of other virtues ; what wars alfo they had made in remote ages, till they were unwillingly engaged in this laft with the Romans: But be caufe this work would take up a great compafs, I feparated it into a fet treatife by itfelf, with a beginning of its own, and its own conclufion; but in procefs of time, as ufually happens to fuch as undertake great things, I grew weary, and went on flowly, it being a large fubject, and a difficult thing to tranflate our history into a foreign, and to us unaceuftomed language. However, fome perfons there were who defired to know our history, and fo exhorted me to go on with it; and above all the reft + Epaphroditus, a man who is a lover of all kind of learning, but is principally delighted with the knowledge of hiftory, and this on account of his having been himself concerned in great affairs, and many turns of fortune, and having fhewn a wonderful vigour of an excellent nature, and an immoveable virtuous refolution in them all. Iyielded to this man's perfuafions, who always excites fuch as have abilities in what is ufeful and acceptable, to join their endeavours with his. I was alfo afhamed myfelf to permit any laziness of difpofition to have a greater influence upon me, than the delight of taking pains in fuch ftudies as were very ufeful: I thereupon ftirred up myself, and went on with my work more cheerfully. Befides the foregoing motives, I had others which I greatly reflected on; and these were, that our forefathers were willing to communicate fuch things to others; and that fome of the Greeks took confiderable pain's to know the affairs of our nation.

3. I found therefore that the fecond of the Ptolemies was a King who was extraordinarily diligent in what concerned learning, and the collection of books; that he was alfo peculiarly ambitious to procure a tranflation of our law, and of

the

We may feafonably note here, that Jofephus wrote his feven books of the Jewish War long before he wrote these his Antiquities. Those books of the War were published about A. D. 75, and these Antiquities A. D. 93, about eighteen years later.

This Epaphroditus was certainly alive in the third year of Trajan, A. D. 100. See the note on Antiq. B. I. against Apion, § 1. Vol. VI. Who he was we do not know; for as to Epaphroditus, the freed man of Nero, and afterwards Domitian's fecretary, who was put to death by Domitian in the 14th o 5th year of his reign, he could not be alive in the third of Trajan,