Roman Emperors. Claudius, A. D. 41-54. Roman Procurators of no The Procurator con- The most celebrat- Pontius Pilate, A. D. 27-37.-He executed the sentence of the Sanhedrim upon the person of our Lord, A. D. 30. His tyrannical conduct excited the Jews to disaffection, and he was at length deposed and banished to Vienne in Gaul, where he died; and he was succeeded in the government by Procurators of no note. Tetrarchy of Galilee and Herodias seeing her brother Herod Agrippa had obtained the title of king, now persuaded her husband Antipas to apply to Caligula for a similar honour. But Herod Agrippa opposed the elevation of Antipas, and charged the latter with treason; and Antipas was deposed, and with his wife Herodias sent into exile. Tetrarchy of Iturea, etc., continued. Herod Agrippa I., king, 37-44.- He was the grandson of Herod the Great and Mariamne, and the brother of Herodias. The emperor Caligula now gave him the tetrarchy of Philip, and that of Abilene, near Lebanon, previously governed by Lysanias II., (sect. 28,) with the title of king, though his sovereignty was purely dependent on Rome. On the exile of his uncle Herod Antipas, Agrippa I. received also the tetrarchy of Galilee and Southern Peræa, from Caligula. On the death of the latter, Agrippa I. materially assisted Claudius in obtaining possession of the Roman empire, and, A. D. 41, as a reward for his services, Judæa, Samaria, and Idumæa were annexed to his dominions, which were now as extensive as those of Herod the Great. Herod Agrippa I., king of the whole country, 41-44.-Agrippa I. was popular amongst the Jews, but a violent persecutor of the Christian Church. He caused the apostle James, the brother of John, to be beheaded, and Peter to be cast into prison [A. D. 44. Acts Roman Emperors. Nero, A. D. 54-68. Galba, A. D. 69. Otho, A. D. 69. Vitellius, A. D. 69. Vespasian, A. D. 69-79. xii.]. In the account of his death there is that sort of agreement between the Christian and Jewish historian which bespeaks truth in each (Acts xii. 23. Joseph. Ant I. xix. c. 8). They both relate the place-Cæsarea; the time-the celebration of a public solemnity; the adulation of the people in calling him a god, and his allowing such praise to pass unnoticed. Before his death he induced Claudius to make his brother Herod king of the small territory of Chalcis in Syria. Country under Roman Procurators: Herod, king of Chalcis, over ecclesiastical affairs, 44-48.-Agrippa I. left one son, also named Agrippa, who was only 17 years of age. The emperor Claudius accordingly sent a Roman Procurator to govern the kingdom, and subsequently committed the nomination of the High Priest, the government of the Temple, and the expenditure of the sacred treasure, to Herod, king of Chalcis, who died A. D. 48. JUDEA, SAMARIA, IDUMEA, GALILEE, and SOUTHERN PEREA. Roman Procurators, 44-70.The following Procurators only will require mention here, viz. 1. Felix, 52.-Originally a freedman of the emperor Claudius. He induced Drusilla, daughter of Agrippa I., and sister of Agrippa II., to leave her husband Azirus, and live with him. She was an open apostate from the religion of her country, and was with Felix when Paul preached before him at Cæsarea of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come (Acts xxiv.). 2. Festus, 59.*-He heard Paul in the presence of Agrippa II., and then sent him to Rome (Acts XXV. xxvi.). 3. Albinus, 63.-He was cruel, and thought only of enriching himself. 4. Gessius Florus, 64.-The tumultuous risings among the people now burst into open war. The public peace was destroyed by enmity to the Romans; by false prophets and zealots, who stirred up the Jews; and by bands of robbers, who shared their plunder with the Procurators. The rebellion at length ended in the capture and destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Titus, A. D. 70. At NORTHERN PEREA, formerly held by Philip. Agrippa II., king of Chalcis, 48: obtains the tetrarchy formerly held by Philip, 52. the death of Herod, king of Chalcis, his little principality, together with his ecclesiastical authority in Palestine, descended to Agrippa II., son of Agrippa I., who subsequently exchanged the principality of Chalcis for the tetrarchy of Northern Peræa, formerly held by Philip; but the civil government of the remainder of Palestine still continued in the hands of the Roman Procurators. Agrippa II. dwelt at Jerusalem, as the head of ecclesiastical affairs, and appointed and deposed the High Priests at will. He lived incestuously with his sister Bernice, who had been previously married to her uncle Herod of Chalcis. At the beginning of their sway, both came to Cæsarea to greet the Roman Procurator, Festus, on which occasion Paul was placed before them (Acts xxv.). He was the last member of the family of Herod, and after him we find no further mention of tetrarchies in Palestine. This is the date fixed by Greswell, whose system of chronology we have followed throughout the present work. Other critics however make it a year or two later. General View of Herod's Family. I. Herod the Great, son of the Idumæan Antipater, after the expulsion of the Maccabees, reigned as king over the whole land of Judæa, B. c. 37-3. By five of his wives he had seven sons, viz. 1. Alexander, children of Mariamne, the daughter 2. Aristobulus, of Hyrcanus the Maccabee; both were strangled in Samaria. See Old Testament History, p. 301. 3. Antipater, put to death shortly before his father's decease. Old Test. Hist. p. 301. 4. Philip, not the tetrarch, but a rich private person, the first husband of Herodias. 5. Archelaus, who ruled over Judæa, and, in a. D. 7, was banished to France. 6. Antipas, who possessed Galilee, and with IIerodias was, A. D. 39, banished to France. 7. Philip, the tetrarch of Peræa, who died A. D. 34. Aristobulus (No. 2) had a son, namely, II. Agrippa I., who became king of all Palestine, and died A. D. 44. His brother and sister were, Herod, king of Chalcis, the first husband of Ber- Herodias, the wife first of Philip, by whom she had III. Agrippa II., who received the tetrarchy of Philip, and died at Rome A. D. 90. His sisters were, Bernice, the wife of her uncle Herod of Chalcis, and afterwards mistress of her brother Agrippa II. Drusilla, wife of Felix the procurator. 4 General expectation of a Messiah.-About this time a very general expectation prevailed, not only in Palestine, but also amongst the Gentiles, that an extraordinary person was about to appear.and effect some great change in the condition of mankind.* The ancient and primitive idea of a Messiah must have been that of an Antagonist of Evil, or Purifier of man's corrupt nature; but now both Jews and Gentiles expected a Universal King, and at this precise time. It is therefore most probable that the expectation was immediately derived from the Jews themselves, who had entertained the peculiar notion of dominion from having interpreted the later prophets literally; and also from the later Jewish Scriptures, which alone fixed the exact time when the Messiah was to appear. Doubtless there existed in the heathen mind a divine consciousness of the necessity for a new revelation, and a longing desire for a new order of things; and therefore the notion of a Messiah, carried about by the Jews in their intercourse with different nations, everywhere found a point of contact with the religious sense of man, and became widely spread throughout the whole civilized world. I. Birth and Childhood of our Lord, and John the TIME, OCT. 5, B. c. 6, to a. D. 8. Preface to Luke's Gospel.-"Forasmuch as many 5 have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eye-witnesses, and ministers of the word; it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus. That thou Testimonies from Tacitus, Suetonius, and Virgil.-Tacitus (Hist. lib. v. c. 13) and Suetonius (Vespasian, c. 4) limit this expectation of a Messiah to the eastern world, and nothing is more probable than that the prophecies of Daniel, which stated the exact time that the Messiah was to appear, should be especially familiar to the Persian magi. Virgil (Eclogue 4) applied the expectation to Augustus. Indications of it are also found in the Gospels, see sect. 302. 6 mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed." Luke i. 1—4. JUDEA. Gabriel appears to Zacharias.-In the days of Herod, Zacharias the priest, and his wife Elizabeth, who was also descended from Aaron, were living righteously before God, but were childless and aged. One day whilst Zacharias, who was of the course of Abia,† was burning incense in the Temple, whilst the multitude were praying without, an angel appeared on the right side of the altar. Zacharias was troubled, but the angel said, "Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Zacharias said, "Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years." The angel answered, "I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these * Date of Gabriel's announcement.-The birth of John the Baptist was probably foretold to Zacharias about the time of the feast of Tabernacles, Oct. 5, B. c. 6. The courses of the priests.-In the reign of king David, the priests became too numerous to officiate in the Temple all together. David, therefore, divided them into 24 classes or courses, which were each to serve a week in rotation. The course of Abia was the eighth in order at their original classification. After the captivity, only 4 of these classes returned, but they were again divided into 24, each of which class, or course, had a chief or head, which are supposed to be the Chief Priests of the New Testament. |