(2) An eminent example of the care of the Jews about their
genealogies, especially as to the priests. See Against Ap. B. 1
sect. 7.

(3) When Josephus here says, that from sixteen to nineteen, or
for three years, he made trial of the three Jewish sects, the
Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essens, and yet says presently,
in all our copies, that he stayed besides with one particular
ascetic, called Banus, with him, and this still before he was
nineteen, there is little room left for his trial of the three
other sects. I suppose, therefore, that for, with him, the old
reading might be, with them; which is a very small emendation,
and takes away the difficulty before us. Nor is Dr. Hudson's
conjecture, hinted at by Mr. Hall in his preface to the Doctor's
edition of Josephus, at all improbable, that this Banus, by this
his description, might well be a follower of John the Baptist,
and that from him Josephus might easily imbibe such notions, as
afterwards prepared him to have a favorable opinion of Jesus
Christ himself, who was attested to by John the Baptist.

(4) We may note here, that religious men among the Jews, or at
least those that were priests, were sometimes ascetics also, and,
like Daniel and his companions in Babylon, Daniel 1:8-16, ate no
flesh, but figs and nuts, etc. only. This was like the, or
austere diet of the Christian ascetics in Passion-week.
Constitut. V. 18.

(5) It has been thought the number of Paul and his companions on
ship-board, Acts 27:38, which are 276 in our copies, are too
many; whereas we find here, that Josephus and his companions, a