SEVERAL LAWS. FJAJ 3.83
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. FJAJ 3.84
2. As for the priests, he prescribed to them a double degree of purity
(25)
These words of Josephus are remarkable, that the lawgiver of the Jews required
of the priests a double degree of parity, in comparison of that required
of the people, of which he gives several instances immediately. It was
for certain the case also among the first Christians, of the clergy, in
comparison of the laity, as the Apostolical Constitutions and Canons every
where inform us, 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. FJAJ 3.85
(26) We must here note with Reland, that the precept given to the priests of not drinking wine while they wore the sacred garments, is equivalent; to their abstinence from it all the while they ministered in the temple; because they then always, and then only, wore those sacred garments, which were laid up there from one time of ministration to another. Moreover, they offer sacrifices that are entire, and have no defect whatsoever. FJAJ 3.86
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. FJAJ 3.87
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. FJAJ 3.88
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. FJAJ 3.89
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. FJAJ 3.90