6
but was born five years after Christ's passion, and
tras thirty-five years old at the time of the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem.
Q. Was Herod of the seed or blood-royal of the tribe of Judah?
A. Herod was a man of Idumea, and being rich, politic, and ambitious, and very comely, every way qualified for a courtier, that Hyrcanous, king of Ju- elen, of the house of David, gave te him his daugh- ter in marriage, and made him governor in Galilee ; and when Hyrcanus was taken prisoner by the Par, thians, and carried to that country, Herod fled to Rome, and there, by the favour of Mark Antony obtained the kingdom of Judea, though his father- in-law was still alive in Parthia. No sooner had he tuken possession of the kingdom of Judva, than lie kärsed all the blood-royal to be put to death, as like- wise his wife Marianne, with forty of the principle men of Judea, and all'the Sanhedrim, of suventy- two Senators, that'ruled the people; and burnt a!! the chronicles, and genealogies ef all the kings and princes of Judea, causing Nicholas Damasceus to draw ont his pedigree, and to affirm that he descend, ed froni the ancient kings of that country; yet when all this was done, Jesus, of the same liouse and line of David, tvas born in Bethlehem; and then was ex- actly fulfilled the prophecy of eld Jacobs, that the steptre, &c.
R. Was there not several imposters that took the advantage, and declared themselves to be Christ?
A. As all the traditions of the ancient Jews point- ed at the coming of the Messias in the reign of An- yustus, and all the people had such expectation of him, that several impostors took upon them that they were Christ, and led away much people, as Indas Goselius (and another Judas) both lewd fel.
