;
Antiq. B. XII. ch. 6. sect. 2.

[20] Josephus's copies, both Greek and Latin, have here a gross mistake,
when they say that this first year of John Hyrcanus, which we have
just now seen to have been a Sabbatic year, was in the 162nd olympiad,
whereas it was for certain the second year of the 161st. See the like
before, B. XII. ch. 7. sect. 6.

[21] This heliacal setting of the Pleiades, or seven stars, was, in the
days of Hyrcanus and Josephus, early in the spring, about February, the
time of the latter rain in Judea; and this, so far as I remember, is the
only astronomical character of time, besides one eclipse of the moon in
the reign of Herod, that we meet with in all Josephus; the Jews being
little accustomed to astronomical observations, any further than for the
uses of their calendar, and utterly forbidden those astrological uses
which the heathens commonly made of them.

[22] Dr. Hudson tells us here, that this custom of gilding the horns of
those oxen that were to be sacrificed is a known thing both in the poets
and orators.

[23] This account in Josephus, that the present Antiochus was persuaded,
though in vain, not to make peace with the Jews, but to cut them off
utterly, is fully confirmed by Diodorus Siculus, in Photiua's extracts
out of his 34th Book.

[24] The Jews were not to march or journey on the sabbath, or on such
a great festival as was equivalent to the sabbath, any farther than a
sabbath day's journey, or two thousand cubits, see the note on Antiq. B.
XX. ch. 8. sect. 6.

[25] This account of the Idumeans admitting circumcision, and the entire
Jewish law, from this time, or from the days of Hyrcanus, is confirmed
by their entire history afterward. See Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 8. sect. 1;
B. XV. ch. 7. sect. 9. Of the War, B. II. ch. 3. sect. 1; B. IV. ch.
4. sect. 5. This, in the opinion of Josephus, made them proselytes of
justice, or entire Jews, as here and elsewhere, Antiq. B. XIV. ch.
8. sect. 1. However, Antigonus, the enemy of Herod, though Herod were
derived from such a proselyte of justice for several generations, will
allow him to be no more than a half Jew, B. XV. ch. 15. sect. 2.
But still, take out of Dean Prideaux, at the year 129, the words of
Ammouius, a grammarian, which fully confirm this account of the Idumeans
in Josephus: "The Jews," says he, are such by nature, and from the
beginning, whilst the Idumeans were not Jews from the beginning, but
Phoenicians and Syrians; but b