At that time also, when Herod, the first of foreign race, had taken over the kingdom of the Jewish nation, the prophecy delivered through Moses received its fulfilment, which had said that 「a ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until he come for whom it is reserved」—whom it also declares shall be the expectation of the nations.
Indeed the things foretold remained unfulfilled so long as it was permitted them to live under rulers of their own nation—beginning from Moses himself above, and lasting down to the reign of Augustus; in whose time Herod, the first of foreign race, was entrusted by the Romans with the rule over the Jews. He was, as Josephus relates, an Idumaean by race on his father's side and an Arab on his mother's; but as Africanus—and he too was no ordinary writer—says, those who are accurate about his affairs report that he was the son of Antipater, and that this Antipater was the son of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of those called temple-slaves attached to the temple of Apollo.
This Antipater, having as a child been taken captive by Idumaean brigands, remained with them, because his father, being poor, was unable to pay a ransom for him. Brought up in their customs, he was afterward befriended by Hyrcanus the high priest of the Jews; and to this man was born the Herod who lived in the days of our Saviour.
So then, when the kingdom of the Jews had passed into the hands of such a man, the expectation of the nations also was now at the very doors, in accordance with the prophecy—seeing that from that time those who from Moses himself had ruled and led them in succession had failed.
Before their captivity and removal to Babylon, they were ruled by kings, beginning from Saul first and David; and before the kings, rulers governed them, those called Judges, who themselves also bore rule after Moses and his successor Joshua.
And after the return from Babylon they did not cease to employ a form of government that was aristocratic with an oligarchy; for the high priests presided over affairs, until Pompey the Roman general came upon them and besieged Jerusalem by force, defiled the holy places, advancing as far as the inner sanctuary of the temple, and sent off to Rome in chains, together with his children, the one who up to that time had endured by ancestral succession as both king and high priest—Aristobulus was his name. To Hyrcanus, this man's brother, he handed over the high priesthood, and made the whole nation of the Jews from that time tributary to the Romans.
Immediately, at all events, when Hyrcanus—upon whom the succession of the high priests last devolved—was taken captive by the Parthians, Herod, the first of foreign race, as I have said, was put in charge of the nation of the Jews by the Roman senate and the emperor Augustus.
In his time, the coming of Christ having plainly drawn near, there followed, in accordance with the prophecy, the expected salvation and calling of the nations. From that time, when the rulers and leaders from Judah—I mean those from the nation of the Jews—had failed, naturally the affairs of the high priesthood too, which had hitherto passed steadily by descent from forefathers to the nearest successors generation by generation, were forthwith thrown into confusion.
You have Josephus too as a trustworthy witness of these things, showing that when Herod had been entrusted by the Romans with the kingdom, he no longer appointed high priests from the ancient stock, but assigned the honour to certain obscure men; and that Archelaus his son, and after him the Romans who took over the rule of the Jews, did the like to Herod in the appointing of the high priests.
The same writer makes plain also that Herod was the first to shut up the sacred vestment of the high priest under his own seal, no longer permitting the high priests to keep it under their own control; and that Archelaus after him, and after him the Romans, did the same.
And let these things too be said by us as a further demonstration of a prophecy fulfilled at the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ. For most plainly, in Daniel, the word, having comprised by name a certain number of weeks down to Christ the ruler—concerning which we have treated elsewhere—prophesies that after the completion of these weeks the anointing among the Jews shall be utterly destroyed. And this is plainly shown to have been fulfilled at the time of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Let these things have been observed beforehand by us of necessity, as a confirmation of the truth of the chronology.