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The Antiquities of the Jews - Table of Contents
The Antiquities of the Jews
Written by Flavius Josephus
Translated by William Whiston
Book Three
Chapter 12
Several Laws
1. As for adultery, Moses forbade it entirely, as esteeming it a
happy thing that men should be wise in the affairs of wedlock;
and that it was profitable both to cities and families that
children should be known to be genuine. He also abhorred men's
lying with their mothers, as one of the greatest crimes; and the
like for lying with the father's wife, and with aunts, and
sisters, and sons' wives, as all instances of abominable
wickedness. He also forbade a man to lie with his wife when she
was defiled by her natural purgation: and not to come near brute
beasts; nor to approve of the lying with a male, which was to
hunt after unlawful pleasures on account of beauty. To those who
were guilty of such insolent behavior, he ordained death for
their punishment.
2. As for the priests, he prescribed to them a double degree of
purity (25) for he restrained them in the instances above, and
moreover forbade them to marry harlots. He also forbade them to
marry a slave, or a captive, and such as got their living by
cheating trades, and by keeping inns; as also a woman parted
from her husband, on any account whatsoever. Nay, he did not
think it proper for the high priest to marry even the widow of
one that was dead, though he allowed that to the priests; but he
permitted him only to marry a virgin, and to retain her. Whence
it is that the high priest is not to come near to one that is
dead, although the rest are not prohibited from coming near to
their brethren, or parents, or children, when they are dead; but
they are to be unblemished in all respects. He ordered that the
priest who had any blemish, should have his portion indeed among
the priests, but he forbade him to ascend the altar, or to enter
into the holy house. He also enjoined them, not only to observe
purity in their sacred ministrations, but in their daily
conversation, that it might be unblamable also. And on this
account it is that those who wear the sacerdotal garments are
without spot, and eminent for their purity and sobriety: nor are
they permitted to drink wine so long as they wear those
garments. (26) Moreover, they offer sacrifices that are entire,
and have no defect whatsoever.
3. And truly Moses gave them all these precepts, being such as
were observed during his own lifetime; but though he lived now
in the wilderness, yet did he make provision how they might
observe the same laws when they should have taken the land of
Canaan. He gave them rest to the land from ploughing and
planting every seventh year, as he had prescribed to them to
rest from working every seventh day; and ordered, that then what
grew of its own accord out of the earth should in common belong
to all that pleased to use it, making no distinction in that
respect between their own countrymen and foreigners: and he
ordained, that they should do the same after seven times seven
years, which in all are fifty years; and that fiftieth year is
called by the Hebrews The Jubilee, wherein debtors are freed
from their debts, and slaves are set at liberty; which slaves
became such, though they were of the same stock, by
transgressing some of those laws the punishment of which was not
capital, but they were punished by this method of slavery. This
year also restores the land to its former possessors in the
manner following: When the Jubilee is come, which name denotes
liberty, he that sold the land, and he that bought it, meet
together, and make an estimate, on one hand, of the fruits
gathered; and, on the other hand, of the expenses laid out upon
it. If the fruits gathered come to more than the expenses laid
out, he that sold it takes the land again; but if the expenses
prove more than the fruits, the present possessor receives of
the former owner the difference that was wanting, and leaves the
land to him; and if the fruits received, and the expenses laid
out, prove equal to one another, the present possessor
relinquishes it to the former owners. Moses would have the same
law obtain as to those houses also which were sold in villages;
but he made a different law for such as were sold in a city; for
if he that sold it tendered the purchaser his money again within
a year, he was forced to restore it; but in case a whole year
had intervened, the purchaser was to enjoy what he had bought.
This was the constitution of the laws which Moses learned of God
when the camp lay under Mount Sinai, and this he delivered in
writing to the Hebrews.
4. Now when this settlement of laws seemed to be well over,
Moses thought fit at length to take a review of the host, as
thinking it proper to settle the affairs of war. So he charged
the heads of the tribes, excepting the tribe of Levi, to take an
exact account of the number of those that were able to go to
war; for as to the Levites, they were holy, and free from all
such burdens. Now when the people had been numbered, there were
found six hundred thousand that were able to go to war, from
twenty to fifty years of age, besides three thousand six hundred
and fifty. Instead of Levi, Moses took Manasseh, the son of
Joseph, among the heads of tribes; and Ephraim instead of
Joseph. It was indeed the desire of Jacob himself to Joseph,
that he would give him his sons to be his own by adoption, as I
have before related.
5. When they set up the tabernacle, they received it into the
midst of their camp, three of the tribes pitching their tents on
each side of it; and roads were cut through the midst of these
tents. It was like a well-appointed market; and every thing was
there ready for sale in due order; and all sorts of artificers
were in the shops; and it resembled nothing so much as a city
that sometimes was movable, and sometimes fixed. The priests had
the first places about the tabernacle; then the Levites, who,
because their whole multitude was reckoned from thirty days old,
were twenty-three thousand eight hundred and eighty males; and
during the time that the cloud stood over the tabernacle, they
thought proper to stay in the same place, as supposing that God
there inhabited among them; but when that removed, they
journeyed also.
6. Moreover, Moses was the inventor of the form of their
trumpet, which was made of silver. Its description is this: In
length it was little less than a cubit. It was composed of a
narrow tube, somewhat thicker than a flute, but with so much
breadth as was sufficient for admission of the breath of a man's
mouth: it ended in the form of a bell, like common trumpets. Its
sound was called in the Hebrew tongue Asosra. Two of these being
made, one of them was sounded when they required the multitude
to come together to congregations. When the first of them gave a
signal, the heads of the tribes were to assemble, and consult
about the affairs to them properly belonging; but when they gave
the signal by both of them, they called the multitude together.
Whenever the tabernacle was removed, it was done in this solemn
order: At the first alarm of the trumpet, those whose tents were
on the east quarter prepared to remove; when the second signal
was given, those that were on the south quarter did the like; in
the next place, the tabernacle was taken to pieces, and was
carried in the midst of six tribes that went before, and of six
that followed, all the Levites assisting about the tabernacle;
when the third signal was given, that part which had their tents
towards the west put themselves in motion; and at the fourth
signal those on the north did so likewise. They also made use of
these trumpets in their sacred ministrations, when they were
bringing their sacrifices to the altar as well on the Sabbaths
as on the rest of the [festival] days; and now it was that Moses
offered that sacrifice which was called the Passover in the
Wilderness, as the first he had offered after the departure out
of Egypt.
Continue on to
Book
Three,
Chapter 13,
The Antiquities of the Jews
by
Flavius Josephus
Return to
The Antiquities of the Jews - Table of Contents
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