" This
is also stated in the Jewish Encyclop?¦dia (New York and Lond.,
_Alexandria_ I., 362a): "Philo distinctly states that at the time of
Augustus the 'gerusia' assumed the position of the 'genarch.' This is
the word he uses for 'ethnarch,' _Contra Flaccum_, ?§ 10. Origen to
Africanus, ?§ 14, writes of this privilege as having been granted by
'C?¦sar' without specifying which C?¦sar, and though he does not name
Alexandria, his words ????????µ?? ????± ???µ???µ?????±????????? probably imply that place."
These references do not of course prove that the Jews in Babylonia had
the like privileges, but they shew, as Origen saw, a parallel case.
Perhaps those who are in favour of the Alexandrian origin of Susanna
might use this to shew that the writer had transferred to Babylonia the
circumstances of his own day; but his own day would almost certainly be
before the time of Augustus.
There is no mention of any government except the Jews' internal
administration; but then the native population of Babylon (unless
perchance it be in the shape of the servants) does not enter into the
story.
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