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[413]
But now as the high priest Alcimus, was resolving to pull down the
wall of the sanctuary, which had been there of old time, and had been built
by the holy prophets, he was smitten suddenly by God, and fell down. 1
This stroke made him fall down speechless upon the ground; and undergoing
torments for many days, he at length died, when he had been high priest
four years. And when he was dead, the people bestowed the high priesthood
on Judas; who hearing of the power of the Romans, and that they had conquered
in war Galatia, and Iberia, and Carthage, and Libya; and that, besides
these, they had subdued Greece, and their kings, Perseus, and Philip, and
Antiochus the Great also; he resolved to enter into a league of friendship
with them. He therefore sent to Rome some of his friends, Eupolemus the
son of John, and Jason the son of Eleazar, and by them desired the Romans
that they would assist them, and be their friends, and would write to Demetrius
that he would not fight against the Jews. So the senate received the ambassadors
that came from Judas to Rome, and discoursed with them about the errand
on which they came, and then granted them a league of assistance. They
also made a decree concerning it, and sent a copy of it into Judea. It
was also laid up in the capitol, and engraven in brass. The decree itself
was this: "The decree of the senate concerning a league of assistance
and friendship with the nation of the Jews. It shall not be lawful for
any that are subject to the Romans to make war with the nation of the Jews,
nor to assist those that do so, either by sending them corn, or ships,
or money; and if any attack be made upon the Jews, the Romans shall assist
them, as far as they are able; and again, if any attack be made upon the
Romans, the Jews shall assist them. And if the Jews have a mind to add
to, or to take away any thing from, this league of assistance, that shall
be done with the common consent of the Romans. And whatsoever addition
shall thus be made, it shall be of force." This decree was written
by Eupolemus the son of John, and by Jason the son of Eleazar, 2
when Judas was high priest of the nation, and Simon his brother was general
of the army. And this was the first league that the Romans made with the
Jews, and was managed after this manner.
3
1 This account of the miserable death of Alcimus, or Jac-mus, the wicked high priest, (the first that was not of the family of the high priests, and made by a vile heathen, Lysias,) before the death of Judas, and of Judas's succession to him as high priest, both here, and at the conclusion of this book, directly contradicts 1 Macc. 9:54-57, which places his death after the death of Judas, and says not a syllable of the high priesthood of Judas. How well the Roman histories agree to this account of the conquests and powerful condition of the Romans at this time, see the notes in Havercamp's edition; only that the number of the senators of Rome was then just three hundred and twenty, is, I think, only known from 1 Macc. 8:15.
2 This subscription is wanting 1 Macc. 8:17, 29, and must be the words of Josephus, who by mistake thought, as we have just now seen, that Judas was at this time high priest, and accordingly then reckoned his brother Jonathan to be the general of the army, which yet he seems not to have been till after the death of Judas.
3 THAT BACCHIDES WAS AGAIN SENT OUT AGAINST JUDAS; AND HOW JUDAS FELL AS HE WAS COURAGEOUSLY FIGHTING.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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