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1. 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, 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.
2. 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.
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