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[293]
Now there was one Jonathan, a very great friend of Hyrcanus's, but
of the sect of the Sadducees, whose notions are quite contrary to those
of the Pharisees. He told Hyrcanus that Eleazar had cast such a reproach
upon him, according to the common sentiments of all the Pharisees, and
that this would be made manifest if he would but ask them the question,
What punishment they thought this man deserved? for that he might depend
upon it, that the reproach was not laid on him with their approbation,
if they were for punishing him as his crime deserved. So the Pharisees
made answer, that he deserved stripes and bonds, but that it did not seem
right to punish reproaches with death. And indeed the Pharisees, even upon
other occasions, are not apt to be severe in punishments. At this gentle
sentence, Hyrcanus was very angry, and thought that this man reproached
him by their approbation. It was this Jonathan who chiefly irritated him,
and influenced him so far, that he made him leave the party of the Pharisees,
and abolish the decrees they had imposed on the people, and to punish those
that observed them. From this source arose that hatred which he and his
sons met with from the multitude: but of these matters we shall speak hereafter.
What I would now explain is this, that the Pharisees have delivered to
the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which
are not written in the laws of Moses; and for that reason it is that the
Sadducees reject them, and say that we are to esteem those observances
to be obligatory which are in the written word, but are not to observe
what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers. And concerning
these things it is that great disputes and differences have arisen among
them, while the Sadducees are able to persuade none but the rich, and have
not the populace obsequious to them, but the Pharisees have the multitude
on their side. But about these two sects, and that of the Essens, I have
treated accurately in the second book of Jewish affairs.
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