[6343] The Pharisees never forgave this. It is quite true that this plea for their opposition to the Asmonæans is for the first time reported during a later reign - that of John Hyrcanus I. - and that it was then ostensibly based on the ground of Hyrcanus' mother having been a captive of war. But see our remarks on this point further on.
[6344] The story, however, differently told by Josephus (Ant. Xiii. 4. 3). I have followed the account in 1 Macc., which is generally regarded as the more trustworthy, though I am not without misgivings, since Josephus evidently had the Book of Maccabees before him.
[6345] The derivation of the name Hyrcanus, or in Rabbinical writings Horqenos, proposed by Grätz (Geesch. d. Juden. vol. ii. p. 55), and supported by Hamburger (Real. Encycl. für Bibel u. Talmud, sect ii. p. 421, note 15) is untenable, in view of the fact, that not a few Rabbinical authorities bore the same name (comp. Ab. ii. 8; Sanh. 68 a). It could not, therefore, the victory of Hyrcanus over Cendeboeus, the Hyrcanian.'
[6346] The name Jannai is supposed to have been an abbreviation of Jochanan. Many Rabbinic teachers of that name are mentioned. Derenbourg (Hist. de la Palest. p. 95) regards it as an abbreviation of Jonathan, but his reasoning is not convincing.
[6347] According to Jer. Soath ix. 13, and Sot. 33 a, a Bath Qol,' or Heavenly Voice, issuing from the Most Holy Place, had announced to Hyrcanus, while officiating in the Temple, the victory of his sons at Samaria. Josephus (Ant. xiii. 10. 7), assigns on this ground to Hyrcanus the prophetic, as well as the priestly and royal, title.
[6348] These are the 15th and 16th Sivan, the 16th Adar, and the 7th Iyar. Comp. the Meg. Taan.
[6349] Schürer (Neutest. Zeitg. p. 113) does not give this inscription correctly. Comp. Levy, Gesch. d. Jud. Munzen, pp. 52, 53. See especially Madden. Coins of the Jews,' pp. 74-81, where all the varieties of inscription are given.
[6350] We dismiss the fanciful readings and explanations of the word {hebrew} by De Saulcy and Ewald. But I cannot agree with Schürer in applying it to the people as a whole. Even the passage which he quotes (Ber, iv. 7, with which the corresponding Gemara should be compared), proves that the word is not used loosely for the people, but with reference to their ecclesiastical nexus. Comp, also Meg. 27 b.
[6351] Comp. Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Time of Christ,' pp. 233, 234.
[6352] Josephus calls him Eleazar, but the Talmud (Kidd. 66 a) Jehudah ben Gedidim, for which Hamburger would read Nedidim, the sect of the solitaries,' which he regards as another designation for the extreme Chasidim.
[6353] By a curious mistake, Schürer locates Ituræa north instead of east of the Lake of Galilee, and speaks of Jewish tradition' as drawing such a dark picture of Aristobulus. Dr. S. must refer to Josephus, since Jewish tradition never named Aristobulus (Neuest. Zeitg. p. 118).
[6354] For the coins of that reign comp. Madden, u. s. pp. 83-93. I have however arranged them somewhat differently.
[6355] According, on the second series of coins, which date from his return to Jerusalem, and breach with the Pharisees, we have on the reverse the device of an anchor with two cross-bars.
[6356] Jewish tradition, of course, vindicates a much earlier origin for the Sanhedrin, and assumes its existence not only in the time of Moses, David, and Solomon, but even in that of Mordecai! (Comp. Buxtorf, Lex. Chald. Talmud col. 1514.)
[6357] In quoting this passage, Derenbourg (u. s. p 111) and Schürer leave out these words. [They are ommitted in the corresponding account of this story in Vayy. R. 35, ed. Warsh. p. 54 a; in Siphré, ed. Friedmann, p. 80 a; also in Siphra, ed. Weiss, p. 110 d, where the whole connected is very much as in Vavy. R.] Yet the words are, in one sense, most significant, since these fertilising rains, descending on these two nights when it was specially forbidden to go out, since on them innumerable demons haunted on the air (Pes. 112 b, line 10 from the bottom), indicated an exceptional blessing. The reason why these two nights are singled out as dangerous is, that Chanina b. Dosa, of whom Rabbinic tradition has so many miracles to relate, conceded them to the hurtful sway of Agrath bath Machlath and her 18 myriads of Angels. See App. xiii. In view of this, M. Derenbourg's explanatory note would seem to require to be modified. But, in general, rain even on the night before the Sabbath was regarded as a curse (Vayy. R. 35), and it has been ingeniously suggested that the {hebrew} in the Midrash must be taken in the sense in which that word is explained in Taan. 6 a, viz. as the ordinary time of rain. Why the night before Wednesday and Friday night are represented as left in the power of hurtful demons might open an interesting field for speculation.