From the Taking of Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes to the Death of Herod the Great - Flavius Josephus
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as <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r cities, Sebaste and Agrippias, had <strong>the</strong>ir names changed, and<br />
<strong>the</strong>se given <strong>the</strong>m from Sebastus and Agrippa. But Alexandra died before she<br />
could punish Aris<strong>to</strong>bulus for his disinheriting his bro<strong>the</strong>r, after she had<br />
reigned nine years.<br />
Footnotes:<br />
1. Mat<strong>the</strong>w 16:19; 18:18. Here we have <strong>the</strong> oldest and most au<strong>the</strong>ntic<br />
Jewish exposition <strong>of</strong> binding and loosing, for punishing or absolving<br />
men, not for declaring actions lawful or unlawful, as some more modern<br />
Jews and Christians vainly pretend.<br />
2. Strabo, B. XVI. p. 740, relates, that this Selene Cleopatra was besieged<br />
<strong>by</strong> Tigranes, not in P<strong>to</strong>lemais, as here, but after she had left Syria, in<br />
Seleucia, a citadel in Mesopotamia; and adds, that when he had kept her<br />
a while in prison, he put her <strong>to</strong> death. Dean Aldrich supposes here that<br />
Strabo contradicts <strong>Josephus</strong>, which does not appear <strong>to</strong> me; for although<br />
<strong>Josephus</strong> says both here and in <strong>the</strong> Antiquities, B. XIII. ch. 16. sect. 4,<br />
that Tigranes besieged her now in P<strong>to</strong>lemais, and that he <strong>to</strong>ok <strong>the</strong> city, as<br />
<strong>the</strong> Antiquities inform us, yet does he no where intimate that he now<br />
<strong>to</strong>ok <strong>the</strong> queen herself; so that both <strong>the</strong> narrations <strong>of</strong> Strabo and<br />
<strong>Josephus</strong> may still be true notwithstanding.<br />
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