Seized by the Persians

Seized by the Persians.

No events during the Persian period are recorded with any certainty. Josephus has a story that one Bagoses (Bagoas), "the general of Artaxerxes' army," used a quarrel between the high priest John and his brother Jesus (in which the latter was slain) as a pretext to enter the Temple with his Persian soldiers and to "punish the Jews for seven years" ("Ant." xi. 7, § 1; Eusebius, ed. Schoene, ii. 112). This Bagoas is supposed to be the general of the same name under Artaxerxes Ochus (357-338), who with Memnon put down an Egyptian revolt. The identification is quite uncertain, in spite of the authority of Nöldeke ("Aufsätze," p. 78), Wellhausen ("I. J. G." p. 146), and Cheyne ("Introduction to Isaiah," p. 360). Winckler places the occurrence under Cambyses (Schrader, "K. A. T." 3d ed., pp. 120, 291).


Jerusalem