Book: A Theologico Political Treatise [Part II]

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Endnote 15. (1) "Othniel, son of Kenag, was judge for forty years." (2)
Rabbi Levi Ben Gerson and others believe that these forty years which the
Bible says were passed in freedom, should be counted from the death of
Joshua, and consequently include the eight years during which the people
were subject to Kushan Rishathaim, while the following eighteen years
must be added on to the eighty years of Ehud's and Shamgar's judgeships. (3)
In this case it would be necessary to reckon the other years of subjection
among those said by the Bible to have been passed in freedom. (4) But the
Bible expressly notes the number of years of subjection, and the number of
years of freedom, and further declares (Judges ii:18) that the
Hebrew state was prosperous during the whole time of the judges. (5)
Therefore it is evident that Levi Ben Gerson (certainly a very learned man),
and those who follow him, correct rather than interpret the Scriptures.

(6) The same fault is committed by those who assert, that Scripture, by this
general calculation of years, only intended to mark the period of the
regular administration of the Hebrew state, leaving out the years of anarchy
and subjection as periods of misfortune and interregnum. (7) Scripture
certainly passes over in silence periods of anarchy, but does not, as they
dream, refuse to reckon them or wipe them out of the country's annals. (8)
It is clear that Ezra, in 1 Kings vi., wished to reckon absolutely all the
years since the flight from Egypt. (9) This is so plain, that no one versed
in the Scriptures can doubt it. (10) For, without going back to the
precise words of the text, we may see that the genealogy of David given at
the end of the book of Ruth, and I Chron. ii., scarcely accounts for so
great a number of years. (11) For Nahshon, who was prince of the tribe of
Judah (Numb. vii;11), two years after the Exodus, died in the desert, and
his son Salmon passed the Jordan with Joshua. (12) Now this Salmon,
according to the genealogy, was David's great-grandfather. (13) Deducting,
then, from the total of 480 years, four years for Solomon's reign, seventy
for David's life, and forty for the time passed in the desert, we find that
David was born 366 years after the passage of the Jordan. (14) Hence we
must believe that David's father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-
great-grandfather begat children when they were ninety years old.

Endnote 16. (1) "Samson was judge for twenty years." (2) Samson was born
after the Hebrews had fallen under the dominion of the Philistines.

Endnote 17. (1) Otherwise, they rather correct than explain Scripture.

Endnote 18. (1) "Kirjath-jearim." Kirjath-jearim is also called Baale of
Judah. (2) Hence Kimchi and others think that the words Baale Judah, which I
have translated "the people of Judah," are the name of a town. (3) But this
is not so, for the word Baale is in the plural. (4) Moreover, comparing this
text in Samuel with I Chron. Xiii:5, we find that David did not rise up
and go forth out of Baale, but that he went thither. (5) If the author of
the book of Samuel had meant to name the place whence David took the ark, he
would, if he spoke Hebrew correctly, have said, "David rose up, and set
forth from Baale Judah, and took the ark from thence."


CHAPTER X.

Endnote 19. (1) "After the restoration of the Temple by Judas Maccaboeus."
(2) This conjecture, if such it be, is founded on the genealogy of King
Jeconiah, given in 1 Chron. iii., which finishes at the sons of Elioenai,
the thirteenth in direct descent from him: whereon we must observe that
Jeconiah, before his captivity, had no children; but it is probable that he
had two while he was in prison, if we may draw any inference from the names
he gave them. (3) As to his grandchildren, it is evident that they were born
after his deliverance, if the names be any guide, for his grandson, Pedaiah
(a name meaning God hath delivered me), who, according to this chapter, was
the father of Zerubbabel, was born in the thirty-seventh or thirty-eighth
year of Jeconiah's life, that is thirty-three years before the restoration
of liberty to the Jews by Cyrus. (4) Therefore Zerubbabel, to whom Cyrus
gave the principality of Judaea, was thirteen or fourteen years old. (5) But
we need not carry the inquiry so far: we need only read attentively
the chapter of 1 Chron., already quoted, where (v. 17, sqq.) mention is made
of all the posterity of Jeconiah, and compare it with the Septuagint version
to see clearly that these books were not published, till after Maccabaeus
had restored the Temple, the sceptre no longer belonging to the house of
Jeconiah.

Endnote 20. (1) "Zedekiah should be taken to Babylon." (2) No one could then
have suspected that the prophecy of Ezekiel contradicted that of Jeremiah,
but the suspicion occurs to everyone who reads the narrative of Josephus.
(3) The event proved that both prophets were in the right.

Endnote 21. (1) "And who wrote Nehemiah." (2) That the greater part of the
book of Nehemiah was taken from the work composed by the prophet Nehemiah
himself, follows from the testimony of its author. (See chap. i.). (3) But
it is obvious that the whole of the passage contained between chap. viii.
and chap. xii. verse 26, together with the two last verses of chap. xii.,
which form a sort of parenthesis to Nehemiah's words, were added by the
historian himself, who outlived Nehemiah.

Endnote 22. (1) "I suppose no one thinks" that Ezra was the uncle of the
first high priest, named Joshua (see Ezra vii., and 1 Chron. vi:14), and
went to Jerusalem from Babylon with Zerubbabel (see Nehemiah xii:1). (2) But
it appears that when he saw, that the Jews were in a state of anarchy, he
returned to Babylon, as also did others (Nehem. i;2), and remained there
till the reign of Artaxerxes, when his requests were granted and he went a
second time to Jerusalem. (3) Nehemiah also went to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel
in the time of Cyrus (Ezra ii:2 and 63, cf. x:9, and Nehemiah x:1). (4) The
version given of the Hebrew word, translated "ambassador," is not supported
by any authority, while it is certain that fresh names were given to those
Jews who frequented the court. (5) Thus Daniel was named Balteshazzar,
and Zerubbabel Sheshbazzar (Dan. i:7). (6) Nehemiah was called Atirsata,
while in virtue of his office he was styled governor, or president.
(Nehem. v. 24, xii:26.)

Endnote 23. (1) "Before the time of the Maccabees there was no canon of
sacred books." (2) The synagogue styled "the great" did not begin before the
subjugation of Asia by the Macedonians. (3) The contention of Maimonides,
Rabbi Abraham, Ben-David, and others, that the presidents of this synagogue
were Ezra, Daniel, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, &c., is a pure fiction,
resting only on rabbinical tradition. (4) Indeed they assert that the
dominion of the Persians only lasted thirty-four years, and this is their
chief reason for maintaining that the decrees of the "great synagogue," or
synod (rejected by the Sadducees, but accepted by the Pharisees) were
ratified by the prophets, who received them from former prophets, and so in
direct succession from Moses, who received them from God Himself. (5) Such
is the doctrine which the Pharisees maintain with their wonted obstinacy.
(6) Enlightened persons, however, who know the reasons for the convoking of
councils, or synods, and are no strangers to the differences between
Pharisees and Sadducees, can easily divine the causes which led to the
assembling of this great synagogue. (7) It is very certain that no prophet
was there present, and that the decrees of the Pharisees, which they style
their traditions, derive all their authority from it.


End of Endnotes to Part II. - Chapters VI to X.




End of Part II of

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