Antiquities of the Jews — Book 12, Chapter 11

1. But when Demetrius was informed of the death of Nicanor, and of the
destruction of the army that was with him, he sent Bacchides again with
an army into Judea, who marched out of Antioch, and came into Judea, and
pitched his camp at Arbela, a city of Galilee; and having besieged and
taken those that were there in caves, [for many of the people fled into
such places,] he removed, and made all the haste he could to Jerusalem.
And when he had learned that Judas had pitched his camp at a certain
village whose name was Bethzetho, he led his army against him: they were
twenty thousand foot-men, and two thousand horsemen. Now Judas had no
more soldiers than one thousand. 29 When these saw the multitude of
Bacchides's men, they were afraid, and left their camp, and fled all
away, excepting eight hundred. Now when Judas was deserted by his own
soldiers, and the enemy pressed upon him, and gave him no time to gather
his army together, he was disposed to fight with Bacchides's army,
though he had but eight hundred men with him; so he exhorted these men
to undergo the danger courageously, and encouraged them to attack the
enemy. And when they said they were not a body sufficient to fight so
great an army, and advised that they should retire now, and save
themselves and that when he had gathered his own men together, then he
should fall upon the enemy afterwards, his answer was this: "Let not the
sun ever see such a thing, that I should show my back to the enemy and
although this be the time that will bring me to my end, and I must die
in this battle, I will rather stand to it courageously, and bear
whatsoever comes upon me, than by now running away bring reproach upon
my former great actions, or tarnish their glory." This was the speech he
made to those that remained with him, whereby he encouraged them to
attack the enemy.

2. But Bacchldes drew his army out of their camp, and put them in array
for the battle. He set the horsemen on both the wings, and the light
soldiers and the archers he placed before the whole army, but he was
himself on the right wing. And when he had thus put his army in order of
battle, and was going to join battle with the enemy, he commanded the
trumpeter to give a signal of battle, and the army to make a shout, and
to fall on the enemy. And when Judas had done the same, he joined battle
with them; and as both sides fought valiantly, and the battle continued
till sun-set, Judas saw that Bacehides and the strongest part of the
army was in the right wing, and thereupon took the most courageous men
with him, and ran upon that part of the army, and fell upon those that
were there, and broke their ranks, and drove them into the middle, and
forced them to run away, and pursued them as far as to a mountain called
Aza: but when those of the left wing saw that the right wing was put to
flight, they encompassed Judas, and pursued him, and came behind him,
and took him into the middle of their army; so being not able to fly,
but encompassed round about with enemies, he stood still, and he and
those that were with him fought; and when he had slain a great many of
those that came against him, he at last was himself wounded, and fell
and gave up the ghost, and died in a way like to his former famous
actions. When Judas was dead, those that were with him had no one whom
they could regard [as their commander]; but when they saw themselves
deprived of such a general, they fled. But Simon and Jonathan, Judas's
brethren, received his dead body by a treaty from the enemy, and carried
it to the village of Modin, where their father had been buried, and
there buried him; while the multitude lamented him many days, and
performed the usual solemn rites of a funeral to him. And this was the
end that Judas came to. He had been a man of valor and a great warrior,
and mindful of the commands of their father Matrathins; and had
undergone all difficulties, both in doing and suffering, for the liberty
of his countrymen. And when his character was so excellent [while he was
alive], he left behind him a glorious reputation and memorial, by
gaining freedom for his nation, and delivering them from slavery under
the Macedonians. And when he had retained the high priesthood three
years, he died.

FOOTNOTES

1 (return) [ Here Josephus uses the very word koinopltagia, "eating
things common," for "eating things unclean;" as does our New Testament,
Acts 10:14, 15, 28; 11:8, 9; Romans 14:14.]

2 (return) [ The great number of these Jews and Samaritans that were
formerly carried into Egypt by Alexander, and now by Ptolemy the son of
Lagus, appear afterwards in the vast multitude who as we shall see
presently, were soon ransomed by Philadelphus, and by him made free,
before he sent for the seventy-two interpreters; in the many garrisons
and other soldiers of that nation in Egypt; in the famous settlement of
Jews, and the number of their synagogues at Alexandria, long afterward;
and in the vehement contention between the Jews and Samatitans under
Philometer, about the place appointed for public worship in the law of
Moses, whether at the Jewish temple of Jerusalem, or at the Samaritan
temple of Gerizzim; of all which our author treats hereafter. And as to
the Samaritans carried into Egypt under the same princes, Scaliger
supposes that those who have a great synagogue at Cairo, as also those
whom the Arabic geographer speaks of as having seized on an island in
the Red Sea, are remains of them at this very day, as the notes here
inform us.]

3 (return) [ Of the translation of the other parts of the Old Testament
by seventy Egyptian Jews, in the reigns of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, and
Philadelphus; as also of the translation of the Pentateuch by seventy-
two Jerusalem Jews, in the seventh year of Philadelphus at Alexandria,
as given us an account of by Aristeus, and thence by Philo and Josephus,
with a vindication of Aristeus's history; see the Appendix to Lit.
Accorap. of Proph. at large, p. 117—152.]

4 (return) [ Although this number one hundred and twenty drachmeae [of
Alexandria, or sixty Jewish shekels] be here three times repeated, and
that in all Josephus's copies, Greek and Latin; yet since all the copies
of Aristeus, whence Josephus took his relation, have this sum several
times, and still as no more than twenty drachmae, or ten Jewish shekels;
and since the sum of the talents, to be set down presently, which is
little above four hundred and sixty, for somewhat more than one hundred
thousand slaves, and is nearly the same in Josephus and Aristeus, does
better agree to twenty than to one hundred and twenty drachmae; and
since the value of a slave of old was at the utmost but thirty shekels,
or sixty drachmae; see Exodus 21:32; while in the present circumstances
of these Jewish slaves, and those so very numerous, Philadelphus would
rather redeem them at a cheaper than at a dearer rate;—there is great
reason to prefer here Aristeus's copies before Josephus's.]

5 (return) [ We have a very great encomium of this Simon the Just, the
son of Onias, in the fiftieth chapter of the Ecclesiasticus, through the
whole chapter. Nor is it improper to consult that chapter itself upon
this occasion.]

6 (return) [ When we have here and presently mention made of
Philadelphus's queen and sister Arsinoe, we are to remember, with
Spanheim, that Arsinoe was both his sister and his wife, according to
the old custom of Persia, and of Egypt at this very time; nay, of the
Assyrians long afterwards. See Antiq. B. XX. ch. 2. sect. 1. Whence we
have, upon the coins of Philadelphus, this known inscription, "The
divine brother and sister."]

7 (return) [ The Talmudists say, that it is not lawful to write the law
in letters of gold, contrary to this certain and very ancient example.
See Hudson's and Reland's notes here.]

8 (return) [ This is the most ancient example I have met with of a
grace, or short prayer, or thanksgiving before meat; which, as it is
used to be said by a heathen priest, was now said by Eleazar, a Jewish
priest, who was one of these seventy-two interpreters. The next example
I have met with, is that of the Essenes, [Of the War, B. II. ch. 8.
sect. 5,] both before and after it; those of our Savior before it, Mark
8:6; John 6:11, 23; and St. Paul, Acts 27:35; and a form of such a grace
or prayer for Christians, at the end of the fifth book of the
Apostolical Constitutions, which seems to have been intended for both
times, both before and after meat.]

9 (return) [ They were rather political questions and answers, tending
to the good and religious government of mankind.]

10 (return) [ This purification of the interpreters, by washing in the
sea, before they prayed to God every morning, and before they set about
translating, may be compared with the like practice of Peter the
apostle, in the Recognitions of Clement, B. IV. ch. 3., and B. V. ch.
36., and with the places of the Proseuchre, or of prayer, which were
sometimes built near the sea or rivers also; of which matter see Antiq.
B. XIV. ch. 10. sect. 9,3; Acts 16:13. 16.]

11 (return) [ The use of oil was much greater, and the donatives of it
much more valuable, in Judea, and the neighboring countries, than it is
amongst us. It was also, in the days of Josephus, thought unlawful for
Jews to make use of any oil that was prepared by heathens, perhaps on
account of some superstitions intermixed with its preparation by those
heathens. When therefore the heathens were to make them a donative of
oil,: they paid them money instead of it. See Of the War, B. II. ch. 21.
sect. 2; the Life of Josephus, sect. 13; and Hudson's note on the place
before us.]

12 (return) [ This, and the like great and just characters, of the
justice, and equity, and generosity of the old Romans, both to the Jews
and other conquered nations, affords us a very good reason why Almighty
God, upon the rejection of the Jews for their wickedness, chose them for
his people, and first established Christianity in that empire; of which
matter see Josephus here, sect. 2; as also Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 10. sect.
22, 23; B. XVI. ch. 2. sect. 4.]

13 (return) [ The name of this place, Phicol, is the very same with that
of the chief captain of Abimelech's host, in the days of Abraham,
Genesis 21:22, and might possibly be the place of that Phicol's nativity
or abode, for it seems to have been in the south part of Palestine, as
that was.]

14 (return) [ Whence it comes that these Lacedemonians declare
themselves here to be of kin to the Jews, as derived from the same
ancestor, Abraham, I cannot tell, unless, as Grotius supposes, they were
derived from Dores, that came of the Pelasgi. These are by Herodotus
called Barbarians, and perhaps were derived from the Syrians and
Arabians, the posterity of Abraham by Keturah. See Antiq. B. XIV. ch.
10. sect. 22; and Of the War, B. I. ch. 26. sect. l; and Grot. on 1
Macc. 12:7. We may further observe from the Recognitions of Clement,
that Eliezer, of Damascus, the servant of Abraham, Genesis 15:2; 24.,
was of old by some taken for his son. So that if the Lacedemonians were
sprung from him, they might think themselves to be of the posterity of
Abraham, as well as the Jews, who were sprung from Isaac. And perhaps
this Eliezer of Damascus is that very Damascus whom Trogus Pompeius, as
abridged by Justin, makes the founder of the Jewish nation itself,
though he afterwards blunders, and makes Azelus, Adores, Abraham, and
Israel kings of Judea, and successors to this Damascus. It may not be
improper to observe further, that Moses Chorenensis, in his history of
the Armenians, informs us, that the nation of the Parthians was also
derived from Abraham by Keturah and her children.]

15 (return) [ This word" Gymnasium" properly denotes a place where the
exercises were performed naked, which because it would naturally
distinguish circumcised Jews from uncircumcised Gentiles, these Jewish
apostates endeavored to appear uncircumcised, by means of a surgical
operation, hinted at by St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 7:18, and described by
Celsus, B. VII. ch. 25., as Dr. Hudson here informs us.]

16 (return) [ Hereabout Josephus begins to follow the First Book of the
Maccabees, a most excellent and most authentic history; and accordingly
it is here, with great fidelity and exactness, abridged by him; between
whose present copies there seem to be fewer variations than in any other
sacred Hebrew book of the Old Testament whatsoever, [for this book also
was originally written in Hebrew,] which is very natural, because it was
written so much nearer to the times of Josephus than the rest were.]

17 (return) [ This citadel, of which we have such frequent mention in
the following history, both in the Maccabees and Josephus, seems to have
been a castle built on a hill, lower than Mount Zion, though upon its
skirts, and higher than Mount Moriah, but between them both; which hill
the enemies of the Jews now got possession of, and built on it this
citadel, and fortified it, till a good while afterwards the Jews
regained it, demolished it, and leveled the hill itself with the common
ground, that their enemies might no more recover it, and might thence
overlook the temple itself, and do them such mischief as they had long
undergone from it, Antiq. B. XIII. ch. 6. sect. 6.]

18 (return) [ This allegation of the Samaritans is remarkable, that
though they were not Jews, yet did they, from ancient times, observe the
Sabbath day, and, as they elsewhere pretend, the Sabbatic year also,
Antiq. B. XI. ch. 8. sect. 6.]

19 (return) [ That this appellation of Maccabee was not first of all
given to Judas Maccabeus, nor was derived from any initial letters of
the Hebrew words on his banner, "Mi Kamoka Be Elire, Jehovah?" ["Who is
like unto thee among the gods, O Jehovah?"] Exodus 15:11 as the modern
Rabbins vainly pretend, see Authent. Rec. Part I. p. 205, 206. Only we
may note, by the way, that the original name of these Maccabees, and
their posterity, was Asamoneans; which was derived from Asamoneus, the
great-grandfather of Mattathias, as Josephus here informs us.]

20 (return) [ The reason why Bethshah was called Scythopolis is well
known from Herodotus, B. I. p. 105, and Syncellus, p. 214, that the
Scythians, when they overran Asia, in the days of Josiah, seized on this
city, and kept it as long as they continued in Asia, from which time it
retained the name of Scythopolis, or the City of the Scythians.]

21 (return) [ This most providential preservation of all the religious
Jews in this expedition, which was according to the will of God, is
observable often among God's people, the Jews; and somewhat very like it
in the changes of the four monarchies, which were also providential. See
Prideaux at the years 331, 333, and 334.]

22 (return) [ Here is another great instance of Providence, that when,
even at the very time that Simon, and Judas, and Jonathan were so
miraculously preserved and blessed, in the just defense of their laws
and religion, these other generals of the Jews, who went to fight for
honor in a vain-glorious way, and without any commission from God, or
the family he had raised up to deliver them, were miserably disappointed
and defeated. See 1 Macc. 5:61, 62.]

23 (return) [ Since St. Paul, a Pharisee, confesses that he had not
known concupiscence, or desires, to be sinful, had not the tenth
commandment said, "Thou shalt not covet," Romans 7:7, the case seems to
have been much the same with our Josephus, who was of the same sect,
that he had not a deep sense of the greatness of any sins that proceeded
no further than the intention. However, since Josephus speaks here
properly of the punishment of death, which is not intended by any law,
either of God or man, for the bare intention, his words need not to be
strained to mean, that sins intended, but not executed, were no sins at
all.]

24 (return) [ No wonder that Josephus here describes Antiochus Eupator
as young, and wanting tuition, when he came to the crown, since Appian
informs us [Footnote Syriac. p. 177: that he was then but nine years
old.]

25 (return) [ It is no way probable that Josephus would call Bacchidoa,
that bitter and bloody enemy of the Jews, as our present copies have it,
a man good, or kind, and gentle, What the author of the First Book of
Maccabees, whom Josephus here follows, instead of that character, says
of him, is, that he was a great man in the kingdom, and faithful to his
king; which was very probably Josephus's meaning also.]

26 (return) [ Josephus's copies must have been corrupted when they here
give victory to Nicanor, contrary to the words following, which imply
that he who was beaten fled into the citadel, which for certain belonged
to the city of David, or to Mount Zion, and was in the possession of
Nicanor's garrison, and not of Judas's. As also it is contrary to the
express words of Josephus's original author, 1 Macc. 7:32, who says that
Nicanor lost about five thousand men, and fled to the city of David.]

27 (return) [ This account of the miserable death of Alcimus, or Jac-
mus, the wicked high priest, [the first that was not of the family of
the high priests, and made by a vile heathen, Lysias,] before the death
of Judas, and of Judas's succession to him as high priest, both here,
and at the conclusion of this book, directly contradicts 1 Macc. 9:54-
57, which places his death after the death of Judas, and says not a
syllable of the high priesthood of Judas. How well the Roman histories
agree to this account of the conquests and powerful condition of the
Romans at this time, see the notes in Havercamp's edition; only that the
number of the senators of Rome was then just three hundred and twenty,
is, I think, only known from 1 Macc. 8:15.]

28 (return) [ This subscription is wanting 1 Macc. 8:17, 29, and must be
the words of Josephus, who by mistake thought, as we have just now seen,
that Judas was at this time high priest, and accordingly then reckoned
his brother Jonathan to be the general of the army, which yet he seems
not to have been till after the death of Judas.]

29 (return) [ That this copy of Josephus, as he wrote it, had here not
one thousand, but three thousand, with 1 Macc 9:5, is very plain,
because though the main part ran away at first, even in Josephus, as
well as in 1 Macc. 9:6, yet, as there, so here, eight hundred are said
to have remained with Judas, which would be absurd, if the whole number
had been no more than one thousand.]