The Nobility of Priestly Lineage

Now my lineage is not an obscure one, having descended from the priests since the beginning, and just as nobility of birth has a different foundation for each people, among us, membership in the priesthood marks the sure sign of illustrious ancestry. And not only do I hail from a sacerdotal ancestry, but also from the first of the twenty-four courses, a significant distinction, and I belong to the most excellent of the clans belonging to this course. I belong, moreover, to royal ancestry by way of my mother, since the children of Asamoneus, from whom she was descended, for quite a long time served as high priests and reigned as kings over our nation. [ . . . ] And while still a boy, around fourteen years of age, I used to be praised by everyone for my devotion to letters, such that the chief priests and leading men of the city would frequently come to me, in order to learn from me a more accurate understanding of some point of the law.

Translated by William Whiston, adapted by Aaron Samuels.