le, that this Banus, by
this his description, might well be a follower of John the Baptist, and
that from him Josephus might easily imbibe such notions, as afterwards
prepared him to have a favorable opinion of Jesus Christ himself, who
was attested to by John the Baptist.]

[Footnote 4: We may note here, that religious men among the Jews, or at
least those that were priests, were sometimes ascetics also, and, like
Daniel and his companions in Babylon, Daniel 1:8-16, ate no flesh, but
figs and nuts, etc. only. This was like the austere diet of the
Christian ascetics in Passion-week. Constitut. V. 18.]

[Footnote 5: It has been thought the number of Paul and his companions
on ship-board, Acts 27:38, which are 276 in our copies, are too many;
whereas we find here, that Josephus and his companions, a very few years
after the other, were about 600.]

[Footnote 6: See Jewish War, B. II. ch. 18. sect. 3.]

[Footnote 7: The Jews might collect this unlawfulness of fighting
against their brethren from that law of Moses, Leviticus 19:16, "Thou
shalt not stand against the blood of thy neighbor;" and that, ver. 17,
"Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy
people; but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;" as well as from
many other places in the Pentateuch and Prophets. See Antiq. B. VIII.
ch. 8. sect. 3.]

[Footnote 8: That this Herod Agrippa, the father, was of old called
a Great King, as here, appears by his coins still remaining; to which
Havercamp refers us.]

[Footnote 9: The famous Jewish numbers of twelve and seventy are here
remarkable.]

[Footnote 10: Our Josephus shows, both here and every where, that he was
a most religious person, and one that had a deep sense of God and his
providence upon his mind, and ascribed all his numerous and wonderful
escapes and preservations, in times of danger, to God's blessing him,
and taking care of him, and this on account of his acts of piety,
justice, humanity, and charity, to the Jews his brethren.]

[Footnote 11: Josephus's opinion is here well worth noting:-- That every
one is to be permitted to worship God according to his own conscience,
and is not to be compelled in matters of religion: as one may here
observe, on the contrary, that the rest of the Jews were still for
obliging all those who married Jewesses to be circumcised, and become
Jews, and were ready to destroy all that would not submit to do so. See
sect. 31, and Luke 11:54.]