Josephus, Antiquities, XII, 138-144 – King Antiochus’ Favorable Attitudes to the Jews

The first mention of the Jewish Gerousia (literally, “Council of Elders”), here termed the “senate,” occurs in this passage from Josephus speaking of the time of Antiochus the Great (223-187 B.C.E).

King Antiochus to Ptolemy, sendeth greeting: Since the Jews, upon our first entrance on their country, demonstrated their friendship towards us; and when we came to their city [Jerusalem], received us in a splendid manner, and came to meet us with their senate, and gave abundance of provisions to our soldiers, and to the elephants, and joined with us in ejecting the garrison of the Egyptians that were in the citadel, we have thought fit to reward them, and to retrieve the condition of their city, which hath been greatly depopulated by such accidents as have befallen its inhabitants, and to bring those that have been scattered abroad back to the city…