[Page 329.]—Prophecies which pointed to Judæa for their accomplishment.] “Percrebuerat Oriente toto vetus et constans opinio, esse in fatis ut eo tempore Judæa profecti rerum potirentur.” Suet. Vesp. 4. Tac. Hist. v. 13. Jos. Bell. Jud. vi. 5. 4,
[Page 330.]—Submitting to circumcision.] That among the Jews themselves there was a variety of opinion respecting the necessity of circumcision, is evident from the story of Izates, (Jos. Ant. xx. 2.) who was first converted by a Jew who advised him to neglect this rite, as a non-essential of Judaism, and afterwards was induced to submit to it by a more rigid missionary.
[Page 331.]—The tribunal which sat in the gate of Nicanor.] According to the Rabbins, two tribunals sat in the temple, one in the gate of Nicanor, another beside the entrance to the court of Israel. Mishna, Surenh. v. 332.
[Page 333.]—The Dionysian festivals of the Greeks.] The remark of Myron, respecting the similarity of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles to the Dionysia, is founded on a passage of Plutarch, Probl. Symp. iv. Prob. vi. vol. iii. p. 745, ed. Wyttenb. 8vo. The similarity is certainly striking, and, according to the reasoning which was once commonly applied to such coincidences, would be regarded as a proof that the rites of the heathens were derived from the Jews. In the present state of historical criticism, such a supposition would be thought improbable, especially as none of all the circumstances in which the similarity appears, is found in the institution of the festival by Moses, nor even in the account of the first celebration of it after the captivity.
[Page 336.]—The last day of the Feast.] It is doubtful whether “the great day of the feast” (John vii.) were the seventh or the eighth. Jennings (Jew. Ant. ii. 228.) supposes that the Feast of Tabernacles lasted seven days, and that the eighth was the Feast of Ingathering.
[Page 338.]—Day of rejoicing in the law.] Josephus represents it as an injunction of Moses, that the law should be read every sabbath; (c. Apion. ii. 17.) but this is only true of the practice of the Jews in later times, after the establishment of synagogues.
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