508 Egyptian canal completed (see 610, Egypt.) Pharaoh. 499 Macedon and Thrace tributary. Ionians revolt, and Athenians 486 Egypt revolts (and is again) 492 Two expeditions against Greece defeated. 484 Subdued. 490 Egypt revolts. 460 484 Xerxes succeeds Darius; subdues Egypt, Dan. II. 2. under Inarius, 480 Expedition against Greece fails. aided by Athens. 465 Xerxes murdered; Artaxerxes I.; Longim. succeeds, Neh. 2. 6; 448 Herodotus visits 454 Ezra visits Jeremiah. 445 Nehemiah. 425 424 Xerxes II. succeeds, and is assassinated; Sogdianus. 414 Egypt regains her independence. 350 405 Artaxerxes Mnemon. See p. 538. tæus; kings succeed; Pausiris, Psammitichus II., etc. Subdued by Ochus the Persian. See p. 538. nine CHAPTER IV. CIVIL AND MORAL HISTORY OF THE JEWS FROM MALACHI TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. Sec. 1. Sketch of the Civil History of the Jews during the Period between the Old and New Testaments. 108. Although we have no account of this period in Scripture, its events are frequently referred to in prophecy, and many of them throw light upon the New Testament. The following sketch is founded chiefly on Josephus and the books of the Maccabees. settling and improving the civil and religious institutions of their country. Simon died in the year 291 B.C. After the Jewish nation had been tributary to the kings of Egypt for about a hundred years (during the last sixty of which it enjoyed almost uninterrupted tranquillity under the shadow of their power), it became subject, in the reign of Antiochus the Great, to the kings of Syria (B.c. 198). They divided the land into five provinces; three of which were on the west side of Jordan, namely, Galilee, Samaria, and Judæa (though the whole country was frequently called Judæa after this time); and two on the eastern side, namely, Trachonitis and Peræa: but the Jews were still allowed to be governed by their own laws, under the high priest and council of the nation. Judæa, being situated between Syria and Egypt, was much affected by the frequent wars in which those countries were engaged. The evils to which it was thus exposed were aggravated by the corruption and misconduct of its high priests and chief men, and the increasing wickedness of the people. 112. God saw fit to punish the Jews for this defection by the hand Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, who came and The Syrians. plundered the city and temple of Jerusalem with every circumstance of cruelty and profanation, and slew or enslaved great numbers of the inhabitants (B.C. 170). For three years and a half they were altogether deprived of their civil and religious liberties. The daily sacrifice was taken away; the temple itself was dedicated by Antiochus to Jupiter, whose statue was erected on the altar of burnt offering; the observance of the law of God was prohibited under the severest penalties; every copy of the sacred writings which could be seized was burned; and the people were required, under pain of death, to sacrifice to idols. Never before had the Jews been exposed to so furious a persecution. Numerous as were the apostates, a remnant continued faithful: and these events were doubtless made instrumental in calling the attention of the heathen around to those great principles for which many of the Jews at that time were willing to peril their lives. The 113. At length God raised up a deliverer for his people in the noble family of the Asmonæans. Mattathias, a priest Asmonæans. eminent for his piety and resolution, and the father of five sons, encouraged the people, by his example and exhortations, "to stand up for the law:" and having collected around him a large number of faithful men, he undertook to free the nation from the oppression and persecution of the Syrians, and to restore the worship of the God of Israel; but being very old when he engaged in this arduous work, he did not live to see its completion. At his death, his eldest son, Judas, succeeded to the command of the army (B.C. 163), in which he was assisted by his four brothers, especially by Simon, the elder of them, who was a man of remarkable prudence. The motto on his standard was, Exod. 15. 11, “Who is like unto thee among the gods, O Jehovah?" The Hebrew words being Mi Camoka Baelim Jehovah; and from the initial letters of these words M CBI was derived the word Maccabi, or Maccabee, which became the surname of the family, and was applied also to all who joined their cause. After several victories over the troops of Antiochus, he gained possession of Jerusalem and the temple. His first care was to purify both from all traces of idolatry. The temple was consecrated anew to the service of God, and the daily sacrifices were resumed. This reconsecration of the temple and revival of worship was ever after celebrated by an annual feast of eight days. It occurred at the time of the winter solstice, and was called the feast of the dedication, John 10. 22. 114. Under the Maccabean princes, Judæa became a free state, supported by regular troops, strong garrisons, and alliances with other powers, including even Rome itself. The country began to enjoy its former fertility and peacefulness; and the boundaries of the state were extended in the direction of Syria, Phoenicia, Arabia, and Idumæa. This prosperity, however, was but of short duration. The decline of Egypt and Syria, and the gradual extension of the Roman power, soon led to the overthrow of the Jewish commonwealth. Pompey marched his army into Judæa, besieged and took Jerusalem, and made Judæa tributary to the Romans; though it was still governed by the Maccabean princes. The last of that family was conquered and deposed by Herod the Great, an Idumæan by birth, but of the Jewish religion; a favourite of Rome, and connected, by his marriage to Mariamne, with the Asmonæan family. He enlarged the kingdom, but reduced the power of the high priesthood, which, instead of being an hereditary office held for life, was now granted and held at the pleasure of the monarch. He was a cruel tyrant to his people, and even to his own children, three of whom he put to death; a slave to his passions, and indifferent by what means he gratified his ambition. But, to preserve the Jews in subjection, and to erect a lasting monument to his own name, he repaired the temple of Jerusalem at a vast expense, and greatly added to its magnificence. 115. In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Herod, while Augustus was emperor of Rome, the Saviour of the world was born. Herod. Herod was succeeded in the government of part of Palestine by his son Archelaus, who acted with great cruelty; and in the tenth year of his government, upon a complaint being made against him by the Jews, he was banished by Augustus to Vienne, in Gaul, where he died. Publius Sulpitius Quirinius (who, according to the Greek way of writing the name, is by Luke called Cyrenius), the president of Syria, was then sent to reduce the countries over which Archelaus had reigned to a Roman province; and a governor of Judæa was appointed under the title of procurator, subordinate to the president of Syria. During our Saviour's ministry, Judæa and Samaria were governed by a Roman procurator, who had the power of life and death; while Galilee was governed under the authority of the Romans by Herod Antipas, a son of Herod the Great, with the title of tetrarch. Sec. 2. Sketch of the Moral and Religious History of the Jews, during the period between the Old and New Testaments. 116. Between the close of the Old Testament canon, and the time of our Lord, the Jews appear in a somewhat new light. Their intercourse with Gentiles in Babylon, and elsewhere, and the severe chastisements they had undergone, checked their tendency to idolatry, and confirmed them in their own faith. The Scriptures were also more frequently consulted than under the earlier monarchy, and synagogues were established in most of the cities of Palestine. Effect of intercourse with the heathen. The intercourse of the Jews with other nations, had become during the same period more general. As early as the time of the captivity, a colony was formed in Egypt; thus violating the law (Deut. 12.), and weakening the ties which bound them to the holy city. Their earlier connection with Egypt had been a scourge, and now it became a snare. From choice or necessity, settlers established themselves in Asia Minor, in Greece, in Africa, and in Italy, so that when our Lord appeared, there was scarcely a country in the whole Roman empire in which a Jewish colony might not be found. It was well nigh literally true that Moses had in every city those that preached him, Acts 15. 21. As a consequence of this intercourse, the original language of Palestine, which had been subject, as we have seen, to various influences (Pt. i. § 34), was forgotten by many of the Jews, and Greek became as familiar in the towns of Judæa as Aramaan. Hence the translation of the Old Testament into Greek, the admission by the Jews into their purer faith of some of the absurdities of heathen philosophy. Hence, also, an extensive acquaintance among the Gentiles with the Jewish Scriptures, and a general expectation throughout all the east of the coming of the Messiah. 117. Other influences were also at work, of a directly religious kind. Most of the rites of the law derived their significance from their Other insymbolical character. They were doctrines in action; fluences. and though some were intended merely to preserve the Jews distinct from neighbouring nations, most were intended to teach lessons of piety and morality, or to point attention to the office and work of the Messiah. Towards the close of this period, however, all that was spiritual in the law was overlooked; the ritual alone being regarded. Hence arose a variety of sects, a knowledge of whose tenets helps us to appreciate the allusions of our Lord. This knowledge, moreover, is highly instructive in illustrating the deceitfulness of human nature, and its tendencies in our own age. We may notice, in fact, in Judæa, the direction which the mind of man everywhere takes as true religion decays. There was first the traditional tenPharisaism, dency, under whose influence foreign human elements Sadduceeism, were mingled with the Divine. Forms which comEssenes. pressed and destroyed the substance of piety were substituted for such as grew of it: the law was made void through traditions. In the place of the real essence there came the dead ceremonial. This was Pharisaism, or legal Judaism. But extremes confirm one another. The foreign additions introduced by one sect were disowned by others; and with the rejection of the additions came the rejection of much that was true. Hence arose Sadduceeism, or rationalistic Judaism, ending often in infidelity. In time, it was earlier than Pharisaism, but it never flourished till that system became prevalent. Neither error met the wants of men of warmer devotional feeling. The Pharisee believed too much, the Sadducee too little. Both failed, in the opinion of this third sect, to see the import of Scripture, which is not on the surface, but beneath, and must be reached by profound meditation and allegorical interpretations. Hence arose the Essenes, the representatives of the monasticism of all ages. How easy to avoid the errors of others, and yet have errors no less fatal of our own! It is worthy of remark, that the three Grecian sects-the Stoics, the Epicureans, and the Pythagoreans--did not widely differ from |