Book Description

Excerpt from The Religion of Israel to the Fall of the Jewish State, Vol. 3 After Nehemiah had left tho stage of history, the Jews remained under Persian rule for nearly a century. Our information as to their fortunes during that time is very defective. Flavius Josephus gives us but a single fact, and that of such a nature that it makes a very sad impression. The high-priest Johanan had a brother named Jeshun, who managed to ingratiate himself with Bagoses, a general of Artaxerxes II. surnamed Mnemnon (401-361, B.C.), and obtained from him the promise that he should be appointed high-priest in Johanan's place. Probably this promise became known, or Jeshua, to hasten its fulfilment, sought a quarrel with his brother. At any rate the two brothers came to blows in the temple and Johanan killed Jeshua. Bagoses thereupon forced his way into the sanctuary and laid a heavy impost upon the people. Thus the union of the spiritual and temporal power in one person already bore bitter fruit. The high-priesthood was made an object of intrigue; foreigners considered themselves qualified to bestow it and saw in it a means for their own profit. This incident, also, does not give us a favourable opinion of the spirit which prevailed in the family of tho high-priest. There are no other accounts which make amends for the silence of the Jewish historian. It may he assumed as probable, that during the wars and disorders which foretold the approaching fall of the Persian monarchy, Palestine did not remain unharmed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.