[131]. Exod. xxx. 11.
[132]. Numb. iii. 47.
[133]. A tale, not very credible, is related by the author of what is called the Third Book of the Maccabees, of Ptolemy Philopater’s attempting to compel the Jews in Egypt to forsake their religion. Josephus takes no notice of it in his Antiquities; it is found in the Latin translation of the Treatise against Apion. It may have had its foundation in some persecution raised against them by that king. See Prideaux’s Connection, under the year 216 B. C.
[134]. This explains the connection between the fourth and fifth verses, and may remove the suspicion of a corruption or interpolation of the fifth, alleged by Pearce, Mann, and Priestley.
[135]. Unächtheit der Jüdischen Münzen, Rostock, 1779.
[136]. De Numis Hebræo-Samaritanis, Valentiæ, 1781.
[137]. Possibly much later; for in the rebellion of the Jews under Trajan, they placed their own Maccabæan stamp over the imperial coin; so that the two impressions are still visible, mixed together. These inscriptions are also in the Samaritan character. Eckhel, iii. 472.
Transcriber’s Note
There a number of minor errors in the ‘Notes and Illustrations’ at the end of the text.