brethren to hate, began secretly to persecute his father. Bat when the king discovered his intrigues, he suddenly caused him to be decapitated. But before he was executed he begot Herod Agrippa, of whom we shall speak hereafter. CH. XXXm.—O/the birth of John the Baptist. THERE was, in the days of Herod, king of Judaea, in the twenty-ninth year of his reign, a priest of the name o f Zechariah, of the course of Abijah, and his wife Elizabeth was of the family of Aaron. For David, the king, wishing to increase the worship of the Lord, instituted twenty-four chief priests, of whom, however, one was the principal, wh o was called the Chief of the Priests. For he appointed sixteen men of the family of Eleazar, and eight of the family of Ithamar, and, according to lot, he gave each of them a week o f their turn. And Abijah had the eighth week, of whose family was Zechariah ; and when on the day of propitiation he was offering incense, an angel foretold to him that he should have a son born to him from his wife. But he, considering the barrenness of his wife and the age of both himself and her, did not believe it, and for this he was struck dumb till the day of her delivery. The angel also told him what should be the name of the child, and foretold to him his noble character and his abstinence. So Elizabeth conceived, and hid herself for five months. CH. XXXIV.—The Angel Gabriel is sent to the Virgin Mary. BUT in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent to Nazareth, to Mary, who had been espoused to Joseph ; and when he had saluted her and told her that she should bring forth Jesus, the Son of the Highest, and when he had enquired how this should be, seeing that she knew not a man, and had even vowed not to do so, unless God arranged it otherwise, the angel added that she should conceive, not by any man, but by the operation of the Holy Spirit, and told her that her cousin Elizabeth had already conceived. For the tribes of the priesthood and of the kingdom were mingled. For Aaron had a wife named Elizabeth, of the tribe of Judah, the sister of Naason ; and Jehoiada the priest had a wife named Jochabeth, the daughter of king Joram. And Mary answered, " Be it done to me according to thy word." And immediately Christ was conceived by the Virgin, a complete man in soul and