483
[Whiston sect. 1] [sect. 297] WHEN Eliashib the high priest was dead, his son Judas succeeded in
the high priesthood; and when he was dead, his son John took that dignity;
on whose account it was also that Bagoses, the general of another Artaxerxes's
army, 484
polluted the temple, and imposed tributes on the Jews, that out of the
public stock, before they offered the daily sacrifices, they should pay
for every lamb fifty shekels. Now Jesus was the brother of John, and was
a friend of Bagoses, who had promised to procure him the high priesthood.
In confidence of whose support, Jesus quarreled with John in the temple,
and so provoked his brother, that in his anger his brother slew him. Now
it was a horrible thing for John, when he was high priest, to perpetrate
so great a crime, and so much the more horrible, that there never was so
cruel and impious a thing done, neither by the Greeks nor Barbarians. However,
God did not neglect its punishment, but the people were on that very account
enslaved, and the temple was polluted by the Persians. Now when Bagoses,
the general of Artaxerxes's army, knew that John, the high priest of the
Jews, had slain his own brother Jesus in the temple, he came upon the Jews
immediately, and began in anger to say to them," Have you had the
impudence to perpetrate a murder in your temple?" And as he was aiming
to go into the temple, they forbade him so to do; but he said to them,"
Am not I purer than he that was slain in the temple?" And when he
had said these words, he went into the temple. Accordingly, Bagoses made
use of this pretense, and punished the Jews seven years for the murder
of Jesus.
[Whiston sect. 2] [sect. 302] Now when John had departed this life, his son Jaddua succeeded in
the high priesthood. He had a brother, whose name was Manasseh. :Now there
was one Sanballat, who was sent by Darius, the last king [of Persia], into
Samaria. He was a Cutheam by birth; of which stock were the Samaritans
also. This man knew that the city Jerusalem was a famous city, and that
their kings had given a great deal of trouble to the Assyrians, and the
people of Celesyria; so that he willingly gave his daughter, whose name
was Nicaso, in marriage to Manasseh, as thinking this alliance by marriage
would be a pledge and security that the nation of the Jews should continue
their good-will to him.
Ch. 8