THE BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES OF PHILO
TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD LATIN VERSION
BY
M. R. JAMES, LITT.D., F.B.A.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
XLVIII. 2 At that time also Phinees laid himself down to die, and the Lord said unto him: Behold thou hast overpassed the 120 years that were ordained unto all men. And now arise and go hence and dwell in the mount Danaben and abide there many years, and I will command mine eagle and he shall feed thee there, and thou shalt not comedown any more unto men until the time come and thou be proved in the time. And then shalt thou shut the heaven, and at thy word it shall be opened. And after that thou shalt be lifted up into the place whither they that were before thee were lifted up, and shalt be there until I remember the world. And then will I bring you and ye shall taste what is death. 1 Kings 17:4
2. And Phinees went up and did all that the Lord commanded him. Now in the days when he appointed him to be priest, he anointed him in Silo. 1 Kings 17:1
3. And at that time, when he went up, then it came to pass that the children of Israel when they kept the passover commanded the children of Benjamin saying: Go up and take wives for yourselves by force.. because we cannot give you our daughters, for we sware in the time of our anger: and it cannot be that a tribe perish out of Israel. And the children of Benjamin went up and seized for themselves wives and built Gabaon for them selves and began to dwell there. Jud. 20:6
4. And whereas in the meanwhile the children of Israel were at rest, they had no prince in those days, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Jud. 21:25
5. These are the commandments and the judgments and the testimonies and the manifestations that were in the days of the judges of Israel, before a king reigned over them.
Footnotes
210:2 XLVIII. Phinehas identified with Elijah. See the passage quoted from Origen in the Introd., p. 11. In Pirke R. Eliezer the belief is stated twice: c. 29, when Elijah says: "I have been very zealous" (1 Kings 19:10), God says: Thou art always zealous. Thou wast zealous in Shittim. . . . because it is said: Phinehas . . . turned my wrath away, etc. Here also art thou zealous. c. 47. R. Eliezer said-- He called the name of Phinehas by the name of Elijah . . . He gave him the life of this world and the life of the world to come. In the Quaest. Hebr. in libros Regum it is said of the man of God who came to Eli (1 Sam. 2): Hunc uirum Dei Iudaei Phinees dicunt: quem et Eliam autumant.
Ye shall taste what is death: gustabitis quod est mortis.
