Dr. Helen Bond

So we're right at the end of the second century BCE here.

And Josephus says that one day John Hykenus has this dinner party and he invites the Pharisees and he says to them, oh, I'm trying to be so pious.

You know, let me know if I'm doing anything wrong.

And all the Pharisees just sort of say, oh, no, you're great.

You're great.

You're doing well.

And one of them then, this sort of cantankerous troublemaker called Eliezer, gets up and says, well, actually, there is something you could do.

You could stop being high priest because your mother was a prisoner of war under the Seleucids.

And so you may be illegitimate.

I mean, he doesn't spell it out, but this is what he's saying.

And so, you know, John Hickames is very upset.

and he says, this is what you all think.

And they say, no, no, no, no, no.

Then some Sadducees, the high priestly lot, the priests from the temple start to stir things up and say, ah, they do all think that.

And the way you can find that out is ask them what punishment they want to give Eliezer.

If they're lenient, then they agree with him.

If they're harsh, then they don't.

And Josephus kind of also says that Pharisees tend to be quite lenient in punishments.

And so because of their leniency,

They suggest just sort of whipping Eliezer.