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fourth year of the captivity, was released from an imprisonment which had continued for thirty-six years, and was preferred in point of rank to all the kings who were then at Babylon, either as hostages, or for the purpose of paying homage to the Chaldæan monarch. He was treated as the first of the kings; he ate at the table of his conqueror, and received an annual allowance, corresponding to his royal rank. These circumstances of honour must have reflected a degree of dignity on all the exiles, sufficient to prevent their being ill-treated or despised. They were probably viewed as respectable colonists, enjoying the peculiar protection of the sovereign. In the respect paid to Jehoiachin, his son Shealiel and his grandson Zerubbabel undoubtedly partook. If that story of the discussion before Darius, in which Zerubbabel is said to have won the prize, be a mere fiction, still it is at least probable that the young prince, though he held no office, had free access to the court; a privilege which must have afforded him many opportunities of alleviating the unhappy circumstances of his countrymen. It is therefore not at all surprising, that, when Cyrus gave the Hebrews permission to return to their own country, many, and perhaps even a majority of the nation, chose to remain behind, believing that they were more pleasantly situated where they were, than they would be in Judæa. It is not improbable that the exiles (as is implied in the story of Susanna, and as the tradition of the Jews affirms) had magistrates and a

prince from their own number. Jehoiachin, and after him
Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, might have been regarded as their
princes, in the same manner as Jozadak and ♬ shua were as
their high-priests. At the same time it cannot be denied
that their humiliation, as a people punished by their God,
was always extremely painful, and frequently drew on them
expressions of contempt. The peculiarities of their religion
afforded many opportunities for the ridicule and scorn of the
Babylonians and Chaldæans, a striking example of which is
given in the profanation of the sacred vessels of the temple.
(Dan. v.) By such insults they were made to feel so much
the more sensibly the loss of their homes, their gardens, and
fruitful fields; the burning of their capital and temple; and
the cessation of the public solemnities of their religion.
Under such circumstances, it is not strange that an inspired
minstrel breaks out into severe imprecations against the
scornful foes of his nation. (Psal. cxxxvii. 8, 9.)
"If the Israelites were ill-treated in Assyria after the over-
throw of Sennacherib in Judæa, as the book of Tobit inti-
mates, this calamity was of short duration; for Sennacherib
was soon after assassinated. The Israelites of Media appear
to have been in a much better condition, since Tobit advised
his son to remove thither. (Tobit xiv. 4. 12, 13.) This is
the more probable, as the religion of the Medes was not
grossly idolatrous, and bore considerable resemblance to tha
of the Jews."

CHAPTER II.

POLITICAL STATE OF THE JEWS, FROM THEIR RETURN FROM THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY TO THA SUBVERSION OF THEIR CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY

SECTION I.

POLITICAL STATE OF THE JEWS UNDER THE MACCABEES, AND THE SOVEREIGNS OF THE HERODIAN FAMILY.

1. Brief account of the Maccabees.—II. Sovereigns of the Herodian family :—1. Herod the Great.-St. Matthew's narrairos of the murder of the infants at Bethlehem confirmed.-2. Archelaus.—3. Herod Antipas.-4. Philip.-5. Herou Agrippa -6. Agrippa junior.-7. Bernice and Drusilla.

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ON the subversion of the Babylonian empire by Cyrus tained a religious war for twenty-six years with five successive the founder of the Persian monarchy (B. c. 543), he author- kings of Syria; and after destroying upwards of 200,000 of ized the Jews by an edict to return into their own country, their best troops, the Maccabees finally established the indewith full permission to enjoy their laws and religion, and pendence of their own country and the aggrandizement of caused the city and temple of Jerusalem to be rebuilt. In their family. This illustrious house, whose princes united the following year, part of the Jews returned under Zerub- the regal and pontifical dignity in their own persons, admibabel, and renewed their sacrifices: the theocratic government, nistered the affairs of the Jews during a period of one hunwhich had been in abeyance during the captivity, was re-dred and twenty-six years; until, disputes arising between sumed; but the re-erection of the city and temple being in- Hyrcanus II. and his brother Aristobulus, the latter was deterrupted for several years by the treachery and hostility of feated by the Romans under Pompey, who captured Jerusa the Samaritans or Cutheans, the avowed enemies of the Jews, lem, and reduced Judæa to a tributary province of the republic. the completion and dedication of the temple did not take place (B. c. 59.) until the year 511 B. C., six years after the accession of Cy- II. SOVEREIGNS OF THE HERODIAN FAMILY.-1. Julius rus. The rebuilding of Jerusalem was accomplished, and Cæsar, having defeated Pompey, continued Hyrcanus in the the reformation of their ecclesiastical and civil polity was ef-high-priesthood, but bestowed the government of Judæa upon fected by the two divinely inspired and pious governors, Ezra Antipater, an Idumæan by birth, who was a Jewish prose and Nehemiah. After their death the Jews were governed lyte, and the father of Herod surnamed the Great, who was by their high priests, in subjection however, to the Persian subsequently king of the Jews. Antipater divided Judæa kings, to whom they paid tribute (Ezra iv. 13. vii. 24.), but between his two sons Phasael and Herod, giving to the for with the full enjoyment of their other magistrates, as well mer the government of Jerusalem, and to the latter the proas their liberties, civil and religious. Nearly three centuries vince of Galilee; which being at that time greatly infested of uninterrupted prosperity ensued, until the reign of Anti- with robbers, HEROD signalized his courage by dispersing ochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, when they were most cruelly them, and shortly after attacked Antigonus the competitor of oppressed, and compelled to take up arms in their own de- Hyrcanus in the priesthood, who was supported by the Tyfence. rians. In the mean time, the Parthians having invaded Ju Under the able conduct of Judas, on account of his heroic dæa, and carried into captivity Hyrcanus the high-priest and exploits surnamed Maccabæus, ( мakaвI the Hammerer) Phasael the brother of Herod; the latter fled to Rome, where the son of Mattathias, surnamed Asmon (from whom is de- Mark Antony, with the consent of the senate, conferred on rived the appellation Asmonæans, borne by the princes de- him the title of king of Judæa. By the aid of the Roman scended from him), and his valiant brothers, the Jews main-arms Herod kept possession of his dignity; and after three

11 Esdras iii. iv. Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xi. c. 3.

He is, however, most generally supposed to have derived this name from a cabalistical word, formed of M. C. B. 1. the initial letters of the Hebrew Text, Mi Chamoka Baelim Jehovah, i. e. who among the gods is like unto thee, O Jehovah? (Exod. xv. 11.) which letters might have been displayed or his sacred standard, as the letters S. P. Q, R. (Senatus, Populus Que Rom inus), were on the Roman ensigns. Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. i. p 599.

years of sanguínary and intestine war with the partisans of Antigonus, he was confirmed in his kingdom by Augustus." This prince is characterized by Josephus as a person of singular courage and resolution, liberal and even extravagant Jahn's History of the Hebrew Commonwealth, vol. i. pp. 161. 163. Beausobre, Introd to the New Test (B. Watson's Tracts, vol. iii. ■

119

in his expenditure, magnificent in his buildings, especially in the temple of Jerusalem, and apparently disposed to promote the happiness of every one. But under this specious exterior he concealed the most consummate duplicity; studious only how to attain and to secure his own dignity, he regarded no means, however unjustifiable, which might promote that object of his ambition; and in order to supply his lavish expenditure, he imposed oppressive burdens on his subjects. Inexorably cruel, and a slave to the most furious passions, he imbrued his hands in the blood of his wife, his children, and the greater part of his family; such, indeed, were the restlessress and jealousy of his temper, that he spared neither his people, nor the richest and most powerful of his subjects, not even his very friends. It is not at all surprising that such a conduct should procure Herod the hatred of his subjects, especially of the Pharisees, who engaged in various plots against him and so suspicious did these conspiracies render him, that he put the innocent to the torture, lest the guilty should escape. These circumstances sufficiently account for Herod and all Jerusalem with him being troubled at the arrival of the Magi, to inquire where the Messiah was born. (Matt. ii. 1-3.) The Jews, who anxiously expected the Messiah "the Deliverer," were moved with an anxiety made up of hopes and fears, of uncertainty and expectation, blended with a dread of the sanguinary consequences of new tumults; and Herod, who was a foreigner and usurper, was apprehensive lest he should lose his crown by the birth of a rightful heir. Hence we are furnished with a satisfactory solution of the motive that led him to command all the male children to be put to death, who were under two years of age, in Bethlehem and its vicinity. (Matt. ii. 16.)

tion.

No very long time after the perpetration of this crime, Herod died, having suffered the most excruciating pains, in the thirty-seventh year of his being declared king of the Jews by the Romans. The tidings of his decease were received by his oppressed subjects with universal joy and satisfacHerod had a numerous offspring by his different wives, although their number was greatly reduced by his unnatural cruelty in putting many of them to death: but, as few of his descendants are mentioned in the Sacred Volume, we shall notice only those persons of whom it is requisite that some account should be given for the better understanding of the New Testament. The annexed table2 will, perhaps, be found useful in distinguishing the particular persons of this family, whose names occur in the evangelical histories.

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HEROD, misnamed the Great, by his will divided his dominions among his three sons, Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Herod Philip.

2. TO ARCHELAUS he assigned Judæa, Samaria, and Idumæa, with the regal dignity, subject to the approbation of Augustus, who ratified his will as it respected the territorial division, but conferred on Archelaus the title of Ethnarch, or chief of the nation, with a promise of the regal dignity, if he should prove himself worthy of it. Archelaus entered upon his new office amid the loud acclamations of his subjects, who considered him as a king; hence the evangelist, (Matt. ii. 22.) His reign, however, commenced inauspiin conformity with the Jewish idiom, says that he reigned ciously: for, after the death of Herod, and before Archelaus could go to Rome to obtain the confirmation of his father's will, the Jews having become very tumultuous at the temple in consequence of his refusing them some demands, Archelaus ordered his soldiers to attack them; on which occasion upwards of three thousand were slain. On Archelaus going to Rome to solicit the regal dignity (agreeably to the prac tice of the tributary kings of that age, who received their crowns from the Roman emperor), the Jews sent an embassy, consisting of fifty of their principal men, with a petition to Augustus that they might be permitted to live according to their own laws, under a Roman governor. To this circumstance our Lord evidently alludes in the parable related by Saint Luke. (xix. 12-27.) A certain nobleman (wyers, a man of birth or rank, the son of Herod), went into a far country (Italy), to receive for himself a kingdom (that of Judæa) and to return. But his citizens (the Jews) hated him and sent a message (or embassy) after him (to Augustus Cæsar), saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us." The Jews, however, failed in their request, and Archelaus, having received the kingdom (or ethnarchy), on his return inflicted a severe vengeance on those who would not that he should reign over them. The application of this parable is to Jesus Christ, who foretells, that, on his ascension, he would go into a distant country, to receive the kingdom from his Father; and that he would return, at the destruction of Jeru

1 "When Herod," says the accurate Lardner, "had gained possession of Jerusalem by the assistance of the Romans, and his rival Antigonus was taken prisoner, and in the hands of the Roman general Sosius, and by him carried to Mark Antony, Herod, by a large sum of money, persuaded Antony to put him to death. Herod's great fear was, that Antigonus might some time revive his pretensions, as being of the Asmonæan family. Aristobulus, brother of his wife Mariamne, was murdered by his directions at eighteen years of age, because the people at Jerusalem had shown some affection for his person. In the seventh year of his reign from the death of Antigonus, he put to death Hyrcanus, grandfather of Mariamne, then eighty years of age, and who had saved Herod's life when he was prose. cuted by the Sanhedrin; a man who, in his youth and in the vigour of his life, and in all the revolutions of his fortune, had shown a mild and peaceable disposition. His beloved wife, the beautiful and virtuous Mariamne, had a public execution, and her mother Alexandra followed soon after. Alexan der and Aristobulus, his two sons by Mariamne, were strangled in prison by fris order upon groundless suspicions, as it seems, when they were at man's estate, were married, and had children. I say nothing of the death of his eldest son Antipater. If Josephus's character of hitn be just, he was a misereant, and deserved the worst death that could be inflicted; in his last sick-salem, to take vengeance on those who rejected him. The ness, a little before he died, he sent orders throughout Judæa, requiring the presence of all the chief men of the nation at Jericho. His orders were ebeyed, for they were enforced with no less penalty than that of death. When these men were come to Jericho, he had them all shut up in the circus, and calling for his sister Salome, and her husband Alexas, he told them. My life is now but short; I know the dispositions of the Jewish people, and nothing will please them more than my death. You have these men in your custody; as soon as the breath is out of my body, and before ruy death can be known, do you let in the soldiers upon them and kill them. All Judæa and every family will then, though unwillingly, mourn at my death. Nay, Josephus says, That with tears in his eyes he conjured them by their love to him, and their fidelity to God, not to fail of doing him this honour; and they promised they would not fail;' these orders, indeed, were not executed. But as a modern historian of very good sense observes, the history of this his most wicked design takes off all objection against the truth of murdering the innocents, which may be made from the incredibility of so barbarous and horrid an act. For this thoroughly shows, that there can nothing be imagined so cruel, barbarous, and horrid, which this Dan was not capable of doing.' It may also be proper to observe, that almost all the executions I have instanced, were sacrifices to his state jealousy, and love of empire." Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xiv. c. 23. 25, 26. 28. lib. XVI. c. 7, 8. 11, 12. lib. xvii. c. 6. Lardner's Credibility, part i. book ii. c. 2.31.

From Schulz's Archæologia Hebraica, p. 54. Reland has given a gene ological table of the entire Herodian fatuily. (Palæstina, tom. i. p. 174.)

subsequent reign of Archelaus was turbulent, and dis graced by insurrections of the Jews against the Romans, and also by banditti and pretenders to the crown: at length, after repeated complaints against his tyranny and mal-administra tion, made to Augustus by the principal Jews and Samari tans, who were joined by his own brothers, Archelaus was deposed and banished to Vienne in Gaul, in the tenth year of his reign; and his territories were annexed to the Roman province of Syria.

3. HEROD ANTIPAS (or Antipater), another of Herod's sons, received from his father the district of Galilee and

This circumstance probably deterred the Holy Family from settling in Judæa on their return from Egypt; and induced them by the divine adinonition to return to their former residence at Nazareth in Galilee. (Matt. i 22, 23.) Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii. p. 717.

Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xvii. c. 9. § 3. c. 11. Harwood's Introduction vol. i. p. 294.

There is an impressive application of this parable in Mr. Jones's Lee tures on the figurative Language of Scripture, lect. v. near the beginning (Works, vol. iii. pp. 35, 36.) Josephus, Aut. Jud. lib. xvii. c. 11. (al. xii.) § 2. c. 13. al xiv.)

Peræa, with the title of Tetrarch. He is described by Jose- | returned to her brother, and became the mistress, first of phus as a crafty and incestuous prince, with which character Vespasian, and then of Titus, who would have married her; the narratives of the evangelists coincide; for, having de- but that he was unwilling to displease the Romans, who serted his wife, the daughter of Aretas king of Arabia, he were averse to such a step.7 forcibly took away and married Herodias the wife of his brother Herod Philip, a proud and cruel woman, to gratify whom he caused John the Baptist to be beheaded (Matt. xiv. 3 Mark v.. 17. Luke iii. 19.), who had provoked her vengeance by his faithful reproof of their incestuous nuptials; though Josephus ascribes the Baptist's death to Herod's apprehension, lest the latter should by his influence raise an insurrection among the people. It was this Herod that laid snares for our Saviour; who, detecting his insidious intentions, termed him a fox (Luke xiii. 32.), and who was subsequently ridiculed by him and his soldiers. (Luke xxiii. 7— 11.) Some years afterwards, Herod, aspiring to the regal dignity in Judæa, was banished together with his wife, first to Lyons in Gaul, and thence into Spain.

(2.) DRUSILLA, her sister, and the youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa, was distinguished for her beauty, and was equally celebrated with Bernice for her profligacy. She was first espoused to Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus, King of Comagena, on condition of his embracing the Jewish religion; but as he afterwards refused to be circumcised, she was given in marriage, by her brother, to Azizus king of Emessa, who submitted to that rite. When Felix came into Judæa, as procurator or governor of Judæa, he persuaded her to abandon her husband and marry him. Josephus says that she was induced to transgress the laws of her country, and become the wife of Felix, in order to avoid the envy of her sister Bernice, who was continually doing her ill offices ov account of her beauty.9

SECTION II.

4. PHILIP, tetrarch of Trachonitis, Gaulonitis, and Batanæa, is mentioned but once in the New Testament. (Luke iii. 1.) He is represented by Josephus as an amiable prince, beloved by his subjects, whom he governed with mildness and equity: on his decease without issue, after a reign of thirty-seven years, his territories were annexed to the POLITICAL STATE OF THE JEWS UNDER THE ROMAN procura. province of Syria.4

5. AGRIPPA, or Herod Agrippa I., was the son of Aristobulus, and grandson of Herod the Great, and sustained various reverses of fortune previously to his attaining the royal dignity. At first he resided at Rome as a private person, and ingratiated himself into the favour of the emperor Tiberius: but being accused of wishing him dead that Caligula might reign, he was thrown into prison by order of Tiberius. On the accession of Caligula to the empire, Agrippa was created king of Batanæa and Trachonitis, to which Abilene, Judæa, and Samaria were subsequently added by the emperor Claudius. Returning home to his dominions, he governed them much to the satisfaction of his subjects (for whose gratification he put to death the apostle James, and meditated that of St. Peter, who was miraculously delivered, Acts xii. 2—17.); but, being inflated with pride on account of his increasing power and grandeur, he was struck with a noisome and painful disease, of which he died at Cæsarea in the manner related by St. Luke. (Acts xii. 21 -23.)5

6. HEROD AGRIPPA II., or Junior, was the son of the preceding Herod Agrippa, and was educated under the auspices of the emperor Claudius: being only seventeen years of age, at the time of his father's death, he was judged to be unequal to the task of governing the whole of his dominions. These were again placed under the direction of a Roman procurator or governor, and Agrippa was first king of Chalcis, and afterwards of Batanæa, Trachonitis, and Abilene, to which other territories were subsequently added, over which he seems to have ruled, with the title of king. It was before this Agrippa and his sister Bernice that St. Paul delivered his masterly defence (Acts xxvi.), where he is expressly terined a king. He was the last Jewish prince of the Herodian family, and for a long time survived the destruction of Jeru

salem.

6

7. Besides Herodias, who has been mentioned above, the two following princesses of the Herodian family are mentioned in the New Testament; viz.

(1.) BERNICE, the eldest daughter of king Herod Agrippa I. and sister to Agrippa II. (Acts xxv. 13. 23. xxvi. 30.) was first married to her uncle Herod king of Chalcis; after whose death, in order to avoid the merited suspicion of incest with her brother Agrippa, she became the wife of Polemon, king of Cilicia. This connection being soon dissolved, she

1 Concerning the meaning of this term learned men are by no means agreed. In its primary and original signification it implies a governor of the fourth part of a country; and this seems to have been the first meaning etixed to it. But afterwards it was given to the governors of a province, whether their government was the fourth part of a country or not: for Herod divided his kingdom only into three parts. The Tetrarchs, however, were regarded as princes, and sometimes were complimented with the title of king. (Matt. xiv. 9.) Beausobre's Introd. to the New Test. (Bp. Watson's Tracts, vol. iii. p. 123.) The Romans conferred this title on those rinces whom they did not choose to elevate to the regal dignity; the Teraich was lower in point of rank than a Roman governor of a province. Schulzii, Archæol. Hebr. pp. 18, 19. Jahn, Archæol. Bibl. § 240. Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xviii. c. 7.

ibid. lib. xvii c. 8. § 1. lib. xviii. c. 5. § 4. De Bell. Jud. lib. i. c. 33. §8. lib. 1. c. 6. §3.

4 Ibid. Ant. Jud. lib. xviii. c. 4. $6.

Ibid. lib. xviii. cc. 5-8.

lbid. lib. xix. c. 9. De Bell. Jud. lib. ii. ec. 12, 13.

I.

TORS, TO THE SUBVERSION OF THEIR CIVIL AND ECCLESIAS-
TICAL POLITY.

Powers and functions of the Roman procurators-II. Political and civil state of the Jews under their administration. -III. Account of Pontius Pilate-IV. And of the procura

tors Felix and Festus.

in favour of Herod the Great, was of short duration; expirI. THE Jewish kingdom, which the Romans had created ing on his death, by the division of his territories, and by the dominions of Archelaus, which comprised Samaria, Judæa, and Idumæa, being reduced to a Roman province annexed to Syria, and governed by the ROMAN PROCURATORSimperial revenues, but also had the power of life and death in These officers not only had the charge of collecting the capital causes: and on account of their high dignity they are sometimes called governors (Hyuk). They usually had a council, consisting of their friends and other chief Romans in the province; with whom they conferred on important ques was very unusual for the governors of provinces to take tions.10 During the continuance of the Roman republie, it their wives with them. Augustus" disapproved of the introduction of this practice, which, however, was in some nied Germanicus12 into Germany and Asia, and Plancina was instances permitted by Tiberius. Thus Agrippina accompa with Piso, whose insolence towards Germanicus she con tributed to inflame :13 and though Cacina Severus afterwards offered a motion to the senate, to prohibit this indulgence (on account of the serious inconveniences,-not to say abuses, that would result from the political influence which the wives might exercise over their husbands), his motion was rejected, and they continued to attend the procurators to their respective provinces. This circumstance will account for Pilate's wife being at Jerusalem. (Matt. xxvii. 19.) The procurators of Judæa resided principally at Cæsarea,15 which was reputed to be the metropolis of that country, and occupied the splendid palace which Herod the Great had erected apprehended, they repaired to Jerusalem, that, by their there. On the great festivals, or when any tumalts were presence and influence, they might restore order. For this purpose they were accompanied by cohorts (Erupas, Acts x. 1.), or bands of soldiers, not legionary cohorts, but distinct companies of military: each of them was about one thousand strong.16 Six of these cohorts were constantly garrisoned in Judæa; five at Cæsarea, and one at Jerusalem, part of which was quartered in the tower of Antonia, so as to com

ii.

Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xix. c. 1. §1. lib. xx. c. 7. §3 Tacitus, Hist. lib.
c. 81. Suetonius in Tito, c. 7. Juvenal, Sat. vi. 155.
Ant. Jud. lib. xx. c. 7. §1, 2. Acts xxiv. 24.

Schulzii Archæologia Hebraica, pp. 49-59. Pritii Intred. ad Nov. Test. pp. 429-444. Dr. Lardner's Credibility, vol. i. book i. ch. 1. §9 1-11 Works, vol. i. pp. 11-30. 8vo. or vol. i. pp. 9-18. 4to.) Carpzovii Antiquitates Hebræ Gentis, pp. 15-19.

10 Josephus (Ant. Jud. lib. xx. c. 4. §4. and de Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 16. § 1. mentions instances in which the Roman procurators thus took council with their assessors.

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SECT. II.]

UNDER THE ROMAN PROCURATORS.

mand the temple, and part in the prætorium or governor's palace.

III. Of the various procurators that governed Judæa under the Romans, PONTIUS PILATE is the best known, and most Judæa govern These procurators were Romans, sometimes of the eques-frequently mentioned in the sacred writings.-He is supposed trian order, and sometimes freedmen of the emperor: Felix to have been a native of Italy, and was sent to (Acts xxiii. 24-26. xxvi. 3. 22-27.) was a freedman of the about the year A. D. 26 or 27. Pilate is characterized by emperor Claudius,' with whom he was in high favour. Josephus as an unjust and cruel governor, sanguinary, obstíThese governors were sent, not by the senate, but by the nate, and impetuous; who disturbed the tranquillity of Judæa Cæsars themselves, into those provinces which were situated by persisting in carrying into Jerusalem the effigies of Tibeon the confines of the empire, and were placed at the empe- rius Cæsar that were upon the Roman ensigns, and by other ror's own disposal. Their duties consisted in collecting and acts of oppression, which produced tumults among the Jews." remitting tribute, in the administration of justice, and the Dreading the extreme jealousy and suspicion of Tiberius, he repression of tumults; some of them held independent juris- delivered up the Redeemer to be crucified, contrary to the dictions, while others were subordinate to the proconsul or conviction of his better judgment: and in the vain hope of held his office for ten years, having caused a number of ingovernor of the nearest province. Thus Judæa was annexed conciliating the Jews whom he had oppressed. After he had to the province of Syria. nocent Samaritans to be put to death, that injured people sent an embassy to Vitellius, proconsul of Syria; by whom he was ordered to Rome, to give an account of his mal-administration to the emperor. But Tiberius being dead before he arrived there, his successor Caligula banished him to Gaul, where he is said to have committed suicide about the year of Christ 41.6

II. The Jews endured their subjection to the Romans with great reluctance, on account of the tribute which they were obliged to pay: but in all other respects they enjoyed a large measure of national liberty. It appears from the whole tenor of the New Testament (for the particular passages are too numerous to be cited),2 that they practised their own reliIV. On the death of king Herod Agrippa, Judæa being gious rites, worshipped in the temple and in their synagogues, followed their own customs, and lived very much according to their own laws. Thus they had their high-priests, and again reduced to a Roman province, the government of it council or senate; they inflicted lesser punishments; they was confided to ANTONIUS FELIX; who had originally been could apprehend men and bring them before the council; and the slave, then the freedman of Nero, and, through the influ if a guard of soldiers was necessary, could be assisted by ence of his brother Pallas, also a freedman of that emperor, them, on requesting them of the governor. Further, they was raised to the dignity of procurator of Judæa. He libecould bind men and keep them in custody; the council could rated that country from banditti and impostors (the very likewise summon witnesses and take examinations; they worthy deeds alluded to by Tertullus, Acts xxiv. 2.); but he could excommunicate persons, and they could inflict scourg- was in other respects a cruel and avaricious governor, inconing in their synagogue (Deut. xxv. 3. Matt. x. 17. Mark tinent, intemperate, and unjust. So oppressive at length did xiii. 9.); they enjoyed the privilege of referring litigated his administration become, that the Jews accused him before questions to arbitrators, whose decisions in reference to them Nero, and it was only through the powerful interposition of the Roman prætor was bound to see put in execution. Pallas that Felix escaped condign punishment. His third Beyond this, however, they were not allowed to go; for, wife, Drusilla, has already been mentioned. It was before when they had any capital offenders, they carried them before these persons that St. Paul, with singular propriety, reasoned the procurator, who usually paid a regard to what they of righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come. (Acts stated, and, if they brought evidence of the fact, pronounced xxiv. 25.) On the resignation of Felix, A. D. 60, the governsentence according to their laws. He was the proper judgement of Judea was committed to PORTIUS FESTUS, before in all capital causes; for, after the council of the Jews had whom Paul defended himself against the accusations of the taken under their consideration the case of Jesus Christ, Jews (Acts xxv.), and appealed from his tribunal to that of which they pretended was of this kind, they went with it Cæsar. Finding his province overrun with robbers and murimmediately to the governor, who re-examined it and pro- derers, Festus strenuously exerted himself in suppressing That they had not the power of life and their outrages. He died in Judæa about the year 62.8 nounced sentence. death is evident from Pilate's granting to them the privilege of judging, but not of condemning Jesus Christ, and also from their acknowledgment to Pilate-It is not lawful for us to put any man to death (John xviii. 31.); and likewise from the power vested in Pilate of releasing a condemned criminal to them at the passover (John xviii. 39, 40.), which he could not have done if he had not had the power of life and death, as well as from his own declaration that he had power to crucify and power to release Jesus Christ. (John xix. 10.)

1 Suetonius in Claudio, c. 28.

See Dr. Lardner's Credibility, part i. book ii. c. 2. where the various passages are adduced and fully considered. Cod. lib. i. tit. 9. 1. 8. de Judæis.-As the Christians were at first re

garded as a sect of the Jews, they likewise enjoyed the same privilege. This circumstance will account for Saint Paul's blaming the Corinthian Christians for carrying their causes before the Roman prætor, instead of leaving them to referees chosen from among their brethren. (1 Cor. vi. 1-7.)

The celebrated Roman Jurist, Ulpian, states that the governors of the Roman provinces had the right of the sword; which implied the authority of punishing malefactors; an authority which was personal, and not to be transferred. (Lib. vi. c. 8. de Officio Proconsulis.) And Josephus states (De Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 8. § 1.) that Coponius, who was sent to govern Judæa as a province after the banishment of Archelaus, was invested by Augustus with the power of life and death. (Bp. Gray's Connection of Sacred and Profane Literature, vol. i. p. 273. See also Dr. Lardner's Credibility, c. 2. § 6.) The case of the Jews stoning Stephen (Acts vii. 56, 57.) has been urged by some learned men as a proof that the former had the power of life and death, but the circumstances of that case do not support his assertion. Stephen, it is true, had been examined before the great council, who had heard witnesses against hi.2, but nowhere do we read hat they had collected votes or proceeded to the giving of sentence, or

The situation of the Jews under the two last-mentioned procurators was truly deplorable. Distracted by tumults, excited on various occasions, their country was overrun with robbers that plundered all the villages whose inhabitants refused to listen to their persuasions to shake off the Roman yoke. Justice was sold to the highest bidder; and even the sacred office of high-priest was exposed to sale. But, of all the procurators, no one abused his power more than GESSIUS avaricious that he shared with the robbers in their booty, and FLORUS, a cruel and sanguinary governor, and so extremely allowed them to follow their nefarious practices with impuwith their families, abandoned their native country; while nity. Hence considerable numbers of the wretched Jews, those who remained, being driven to desperation, took up arms against the Romans, and thus commenced that war, which terminated in the destruction of Judæa, and the taking away of their name and nation.10

even to pronounce him guilty: all which ought to have been done, if the a sudden tumult arose; the people who were present rushed with one proceedings had been regular. Before Stephen could finish his defence, accord upon him, and casting him out of the city, stoned him before the affair could be taken before the Roman procurator. Pritii Introd. ad Nov, Test. p. 592.

Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xviii. c. 3. §§ 1, 2.

Ibid. lib. xviii. c. 4. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. cc. 7, 8.
Claudii Commentatio de Felice, pp. 62, 63.

14. $ 1.

Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xx. c. 8. §§ 9, 10. De Bell. Jud. lib. i.
Ibid. lib. xx. cc. 8. 11. Ibid. lib. ii. cc.

10.
1 Schulzii Archæologia Hebraica, pp. 59--66

CHAPTER III.

COURTS OF JUDICATURE, LEGAL PROCEEDINGS, AND CRIMINAL LAW OF THE FEWS.

SECTION I.

JEWISH COURTS OF JUDICATURE AND LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.1

Seat of Justice.-II. Inferior Tribunals.—III. Appeais.-Constitution of the Sanhedrin or Great Council.-IV. Time of Trials.-Form of legal Proceedings among the Jews.-1. Citation of the Parties.-2, 3. Form of Pleading in civil and criminal Cases.-4. Witnesses.-Oaths.-5. The Lot, in what Cases used judicially.-6. Forms of Acquittal.-7. Sum. mary Justice, sometimes clamorously demanded.-V. Execution of Sentences, by whom and in what manner performed.

I. In the early ages of the world, the Gate of the City was the SEAT OF JUSTICE, where conveyances of titles and estates were made, complaints were heard and justice done, and all public business was transacted. Thus Abraham made the acquisition of the sepulchre in the presence of all those who entered in at the gate of the city of Hebron. (Gen. xxiii. 10. 18.) When Hamor and his son Shechem proposed to make an alliance with Jacob and his sons, they spoke of it to the people at the gate of the city. (Gen. xxxiv. 24.) In later times Boaz, having declared his intention of marrying Ruth, at the gate of Bethlehem caused her kinsman to resign his pretensions, and give him the proper conveyance to the estate. (Ruth iv. 1-10.) From the circumstance of the gates of cities being the seat of justice, the judges appear to have been termed the Elders of the Gate (Deut. xxii. 15. xxv. 7.); for, as all the Israelites were husbandmen, who went out in the morning to work, and did not return until night, the city gate was the place of greatest resort. By this ancient practice, the judges were compelled, by a dread of public displeasure, to be most strictly impartial, and most carefully to investigate the merits of the causes which were brought before them. The same practice obtained after the captivity. (Zech. viii. 16.) The Ottoman court, it is well known, derived its appellation of the Porte, from the distribution of justice and the despatch of public business at its gates. During the Arabian monarchy in Spain, the same practice obtained; and the magnificent gate of entrance to the Moorish palace of Alhamra at Grenada to this day retains the appellation of the Gate of Justice or of Judgment. To the practice of dispensing justice at the gates of cities, there are numerous allusions in the Sacred Volume. For instance, in Job v. 4. the children of the wicked are said to be crushed in the gate; that is, they lose their cause, and are condemned in the court of judgment. The Psalmist (cxxvii. 5.), speaking of those whom God has blessed with many children, says that they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate; that is, those who are thus blessed shall courageously plead their cause, and need not fear the want of justice when they meet their adversaries in the court of judicature. Compare Prov. xxii. 22. and xxxi. 23. Lament. v. 14. Amos v. 12., in all which passages the gate, and elders of the land or of the gate, respectively denote the seat of justice and the judges who presided there. And as the gates of a city constituted its strength, and as the happiness of a people depended much upon the wisdom and integrity of the judges who sat there, it may be that our Saviour alluded to this circumstance, when he said, The gates of hell shall not prevail against his church (Matt. xvi. 18.); that is, neither the strength nor policy of Satan or his instruments shall ever be able to overcome it.

or less honourable place in the synagogue. And the context shows, that judges and judicial causes were the subjects of the apostle's thoughts.3

II. On the settlement of the Israelites in the land of Ca naan, Moses commanded them to appoint judges and officers in all their gates, throughout their tribes (Deut. xvi. 18.); whose duty it was to exercise judicial authority in the neigh bouring villages; but weighty causes and appeals were carried before the supreme judge or ruler of the commonwealth. (Deut. xvii. 8, 9.). According to Josephus, these inferior judges were seven in number, men zealous in the exercise of virtue and righteousness. To each judge (that is, to each college of judges in every city) two officers were assigned out of the tribe of Levi. These judges existed in the time of that historian ; and, although the rabbinical writers are silent concerning them, yet their silence neither does nor can outweigh the evidence of an eye-witness and magistrate, who himself appointed such judges.

The Priests and Levites, who, from their being devoted to the study of the law, were, consequently, best skilled in its various precepts, and old men, who were eminent for their age and virtue, administered justice to the people: in consequence of their age, the name of elders became attached to them. Many instances of this kind occur in the New Tes tament; they were also called rulers, aportes. (Luke xii. 58. where ruler is synonymous with judge.) The law of Moses contained the most express prohibitions of bribery (Exod. xxii. 8.) and partiality; enjoining them to administer justice without respect of persons, and reminding them, that a judge sits in the seat of God, and, consequently, that no man ought to have any pre-eminence in his sight, neither ought he to be afraid of any man in declaring the law. (Exod. xxiii. 3. 6, 7. Lev. xix. 15. Deut. i. 17. xvi. 18, 19.) The prophet Amos (viii. 6.) reproaches the corrupt judges of his time, with taking not only silver, but even so trifling an article of dress as a pair of (wooden) sandals, as a bribe, to condemn the innocent poor who could not afford to make them a present of equal value. Turkish officers and their wives in Asia, to this day, go richly clothed in costly silks given them by those who have causes depending before them. It is probable, at least in the early ages after the settlement of the Jews in Canaan, that their judges rode on white asses, by way of distinction (Judges v. 10.), as the Mollahs or men of the law do to this day in Persia, and the heads of families returning from their pilgrimage to Mecca.

III. From these inferior tribunals, appeals lay to a highe court, in cases of importance. (Deut. xvii. 8—12.) In Jeru salem, it is not improbable that there were superior courts, in which David's sons presided. Psalm cxxii. 5. seems to allude to them: though we do not find that a supreme tri

• Macknight on James ii. 2.

In the time of Jesus Christ the Jews held courts of judica-bunal was established at Jerusalem earlier than in the reign ture in their synagogues, where they punished offenders by of Jehoshaphat. (2 Chron. xix. 8-11.) It was composed of Scourging. (Matt. x. 17. Acts xxii. 19. xxvi. 11.) After their example, Dr. Macknight thinks it probable, that the first Christians held courts for determining civil causes, in the places where they assembled for public worship, called your synagogue in the epistle of James. (ii. 2. Gr.) It is evident, he adds, that the apostle speaks not of their assembly, but of the place where their assembly was held, from his mentioning the litigants as sitting in a more honourable

Besides the authorities incidentally cited in the course of this section, the following works have been consulted for it, throughout; viz. Schulzii Archæologia Hebraica, pp. 66-81.; Calmet, Dissertation sur la Police des Hebreux (Dissertations, tom. i. pp. 187-204.); Alber, Hermeneutica Vet. Test. pp. 234-238.; Pritii Introd. ad Nov. Test. pp. 575-594.: Brunings Antiq. Br. pp. 99-107.; Home's Hist. of the Jews, vol. ii. pp. 30-41.; Jahn, Archæol. Biblica, $$ 213-218.; Ackermann, Archæol. Bibl. 55 237

-213.

Murphy's Arabian Anti uities of Spain, plates xiv. xv. pp. 8, 9.

Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. iv. c. 14. Schulzii Prolusio de variis Judæo rum erroribus in Descriptione Templi ii. 5 xv. pp. 27-32.; prefixed to his edition of Reland's Treatise De Spoliis Templi Hierosolymitani Trajecti ad Josephus, De Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 20. § 5.

Rhenum, 1775. 8vo.

• Ernesti Institutio Interpretis Novi Testamenti, part iii. c. 10. § 73. p. 356. Morier's Second Journey, p. 136.

Harmer's Observations, vol. ii. p. 317.

"We met, one day, a procession, consisting of a family returning from the pilgrimage to Mecca. Drums and pipes announced the joy falfevent. A white-bearded old man, riding on a white ass, led the way with patriarchal grace; and the men who met him, or accompanied him, were con tinually throwing their arms about his neck, ard alinost dismounting him with their salutations. He was followed by his three wives, each riding on a high camel; their female acquaintances running on each side, while they occasionally stooped down to salute them. The women continually uttered a remarkably shrill whistle. It was impossible, viewing the old man who led the way, not to remember the expression in Julges v. 10 Jowett's Christian Researches, p. 122

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