neighbouring shores (for the poσevɣal were destroyed), and standing in a most pure place, they lift up their voices with one accord."2 Josephus gives us a decree of the city of Halicarnassus, permitting the Jews to build oratories; a part of which decree runs thus ;"We ordain, that the Jews, who are willing, men and women, do observe the Sabbaths, and perform sacred rites according to the Jewish laws, and build oratories by the sea-side."3 Tertullian, among other Jewish rites and customs, such as feasts, sabbaths, fasts, and unleavened bread, mentions" orationes litorales," that is, prayers by the river side.* XV. [p. 255.] Acts xxvi. 5. "After the most straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee." Joseph. de Bell., lib. i. c. 5, sect. 2. "The Pharisees were reckoned the most religious of any of the Jews, and to be the most exact and skilful in explaining the laws." In the original there is an agreement not only. in the sense but in the expression, it being the same Greek adjective, which is rendered "strait' in the Acts, and "exact" in Josephus. 2 Philo in Flacc., p. 982. Joseph. Antiq., xiv. c. 10, sect. 23. "The XVI. [p. 255.] Mark vii. 3, 4. Pharisees and all the Jews, except they wash, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders; and many other things there be which they have received to hold." "The Joseph. Antiq., lib. xiii. c. 10, sect. 6. Pharisees have delivered to the people many institutions, as received from the fathers, which are not written in the law of Moses." XVII. [p. 259.] Acts xxiii. 8. "For the Sadducees say, that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both." Joseph. de Bell., lib. ii. c. 8, sect. 14. "They (the Pharisees) believe every soul to be immortal, but that the soul of the good only passes into another body, and that the soul of the wicked is punished with eternal punishment." On the other hand (Antiq., lib. xviii. c. 1, sect. 4), “It is the opinion of the Sadducees, that souls perish with the bodies." XVIII. [p. 268.] Acts v. 17. "Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and were filled with indignation." Saint Luke here intimates, that the high priest was a Sadducee; which is a character one would not have expected to meet with in that station. This circumstance, remarkable as it is, was not, however, without examples. Joseph. Antiq., lib. xiii. c. 10, sect. 6, 7. "John Hyrcanus, high priest of the Jews, forsook the Pharisees, upon a disgust, and joined himself to the party of the Sadducees." This high priest died one hundred and seven years before the Christian æra. Again (Antiq., lib. xx. c. 9, sect. 1). "This Ananus the younger, who, as we have said just now, had received the high priesthood, was fierce and haughty in his behaviour, and, above all men, bold and daring, and, moreover, was of the sect of the Sadducees." This high priest lived little more than twenty years after the transaction in the Acts. XIX. [p. 282.] Luke ix. 51. "And it came to pass, when the time was come that He should be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face. And they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for Him. And they did not receive Him, because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem." Joseph. Antiq,, lib. xx. c. 6, sect. 1. "It was the custom of the Galileans, who went up to the holy city at the feast, to travel through the country of Samaria. As they were in their journey, some inhabitants of the village called Ginæa, which lies on the borders of Samaria and the great plain, falling upon them, killed a great many of them." XX. [p. 278.] John iv. 20. "Our Fathers," said the Samaritan woman, "worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Joseph. Antiq. lib. xviii. c. 4, sect. 1. "Commanding them to meet him at Mount Gerizzim, which is by them (the Samaritans) esteemed the most sacred of all mountains." XXI. [p. 312.] Matt. xxvi. 3. "Then assembled together the chief priests, and the elders of the people, into the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas." That Caiaphas was high priest, and high priest throughout the presidentship of Pontius Pilate, and consequently at this time, appears from the following account:-He was made high priest by Valerius Gratus, predecessor of Pontius Pilate, and was removed from his office by Vitellius, president of Syria, after Pilate was sent away out of the province of Judea. Josephus relates the advancement of Caiaphas to the high priesthood in this manner: "Gratus gave the high priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus. He, having enjoyed this honour not above a year, was succeeded by Joseph, who is also called Caiaphas. After this, Gratus went away for Rome, having been eleven years in Judea; and Pontius Pilate came thither as his successor." Of the removal of Caiaphas from his office, Josephus likewise afterwards informs us; and connects it with a circumstance which fixes the time to a date subsequent to the determination of Pilate's government-" Vitellius," he tells us, "ordered Pilate to repair to Rome; and after that, went up himself to Jerusalem, and then gave directions concerning several matters. And having done these things, he took away the priesthood from the high priest Joseph, who is called Caiaphas." 4 XXII. (Michaelis, c. xi. sect. 11.) Acts xxiii. "And they that stood by, said, Revilest thou God's high priest? Then said Paul, Į wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest." Now, upon inquiry into the history of the age, it turns out, that Ananias, of whom this is spoken, was, in truth, not the high priest, though he was sitting in judgment in that assumed capacity. The case was, that he had formerly held the office, and had been deposed; that the person who succeeded him had been murdered; Antiq., lib. xviii. c. 2, sect. 2. |