[1087] Meg. Taan xi, 1, ed Warsh, p. 16 a.
[1088] The Megillath Taanith itself, or Roll of Fasts,' does not mention the death of Herod. But the commentator adds to the dates 7th Kislev (Nov.) and 2nd Shebhat (Jan.), both manifestly incorrect, the notice that Herod had died - on the 2nd Shebhat, Jannai also - at the same time telling a story about the incarceration and liberatio of seventy of the Elders of Israel,' evidently a modification of Josephus' account of what passed in the Hiprodrome of Jericho. Accordingly, Grätz (Gesch. vol. iii. p. 427) and Derenbourg (pp. 101, 164) have regarded the 1st of Shebhat as really that of Herod's death. But this is impossible; and we know enough of the historical inaccuracy of the Rabbis not to attach any serious importance to their precise dates.
[1089] Jos. War i. 23. 5.
[1090] Jos. Ant. xvii. 6. 1; War i. 32. 7.
[1091] Herod had married no less than ten times. See his genealogical table.
[1092] Batanæa, Trachonitis, Auranitis, and Panias.
[1093] Jos. War i. 23. 5.
[1094] Ant. xvii 8. 2.
[1095] Ant. xvii 8. 4; 9. 5.
[1096] Ant. xvii 8. 4.
[1097] Ant. xvii. 9. 1-3.
[1098] Ant. xvii. 11. 1; War ii. 6. 1.
[1099] I cannot conceive on what ground Keim (both in Schenkel's Bible Lex, and in his Jesu von Nazara') speaks of him as a pretender to the throne.
[1100] This may have been the historical basis of the parable of our Lord in St. Luke xix. 12-27.
[1101] The revenues of Antipas were 200 talents, and those of Philip 100 talents.
[1102] This is admitted even by Braun (Söhne d. Herodes, p. 8). Despite its pretentiousness this tractate is untrustworthy, being written in a party spirit (Jewish).
[1103] We gather this from the expression, When he heard that Archelaus did reign.' Evidently Joseph had not heard who was Herod's successor, when he left Egypt. Archdeacon Farrar suggests, that the expression reigned' (as a king,' basileei - St. Matt. ii. 22) refers to the period before Augustus had changed his title from King' to Ethnarch. But this can scarcely be pressed, the word being used of other rule than that of a king, not only in the New Testament and in the Apocrypha, but by Josephus, and even by classical writers.
[1104] The language of St. Matthew (ii. 22, 23) seems to imply express Divine direction not to enter the territory of Judæa. In that case he would travel along the coast-line till he passed into Galilee. The impression left is, that the settlement at Nazareth was not of his own choice.
[1105] St. Luke ii. 40.
[1106] Yeled, the newborn babe, as in Is. ix. 6; Yoneq, the suckling, Is. xi. 8; Olel, the suckling beginning to ask for food, Lam. iv. 4; Gamul, the weaned child, Is. xxviii. 9; Taph, the child clinging to its mother, Jer. xl. 7; Elem, a child becoming firm; Naar, the lad, literally, one who shakes himself free;' and Bachur, the ripened one. (See Sketches of Jewish Social Life,' pp. 103. 104.)
[1107] This is still the common, almost universal, designation of Christ among the Jews.
[1108] Comp. ch. iv. of this book.
[1109] In accordance with Jer. xxiii. 5; xxxiii. 15; and especially Zech. iii 18.
[1110] See Appendix IX.
[1111] So in Be R. 76.
[1112] Comp. Buxtorf, Lexicon Talm. p. 1383.
[1113] All this becomes more evident by Delitzsch's ingenious suggestion (Zeitschr. fur luther. Theol. 1876, part iii. p. 402), that the real meaning, though not the literal rendering, of the words of St. Matthew, would be {hebrew} - for Nezer ['branch'] is His Name.'
[1114] One of the most absurdly curious illustrations of this is the following: He who blows his nose in the presence of his Rabbi is worthy of death' (Erub, 99 a, line 11 from bottom). The dictum is supported by an alteration in the reading of Prov. viii. 36.