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-Project Gutenberg's History of the Jews, Vol. II (of 6), by Heinrich Graetz
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: History of the Jews, Vol. II (of 6)
-
-Author: Heinrich Graetz
-
-Release Date: June 29, 2013 [EBook #43057]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE JEWS, VOL. II ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Edwards, Charlie Howard, and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-HISTORY OF THE JEWS
-
-
-
-
-    HISTORY OF THE
-    JEWS
-
-    BY
-    HEINRICH GRAETZ
-
-    VOL. II
-
-    FROM THE REIGN OF HYRCANUS (135 B. C. E.) TO THE
-    COMPLETION OF THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD (500 C. E.)
-
-    [Illustration]
-
-    PHILADELPHIA
-
-    THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
-
-    5717-1956
-
-
-
-
-    Copyright, 1893, by
-    THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
-
-    _All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
-    reproduced in any form without permission in
-    writing from the publisher: except by a reviewer
-    who may quote brief passages in a review to be
-    printed in a magazine or newspaper._
-
-    PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
-
-  CHAPTER I.
-
-  JOHN HYRCANUS.
-
-  The Crowning Point of the Period--War with Antiochus Sidetes
-  --Siege of Jerusalem--Treaty of Peace--The Parthian War--
-  Hyrcanus joins Antiochus--Successful campaigns of Hyrcanus
-  against the Samaritans and Idumæans--The Idumæans forced
-  to embrace Judaism--Destruction of the Samaritan Temple at
-  Gerizim and of the Capital, Samaria--Internal Affairs--
-  The Parties: Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes--Their Rise
-  and Constitution--Their Doctrines and their Relations to
-  one another--The Synhedrion--Strained Relations between
-  Hyrcanus and the Pharisees--Death of Hyrcanus             _page_ 1
-
-  135-106 B. C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER II.
-
-  HYRCANUS'S SUCCESSORS, ARISTOBULUS I, ALEXANDER JANNÆUS, AND
-  SALOME ALEXANDRA.
-
-  Character of Aristobulus--Antigonus--Mythical Account of
-  his Death--Alexander Jannæus: his Character and Enterprises
-  --His Support of the Pharisees--Simon ben Shetach--
-  Alexander's Breach with the Pharisees, and its Consequences--
-  His last Wars and Death--Salome Alexandra's Relations to the
-  Opposing Parties--The Synhedrion--Judah ben Tabba and Simon
-  ben Shetach--Institutions against the Sadducees--Party
-  Hatred--Diogenes--Persecution of the Sadducees--Death of
-  Alexandra                                                _page_ 35
-
-  106-69 B. C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER III.
-
-  HYRCANUS II. ARISTOBULUS II.
-
-  Brothers contend for the throne--Arrangement between the
-  Brothers--The Idumæan Antipater--Hyrcanus's weakness--
-  Aretas besieges Jerusalem--Interference of Rome--Pompey
-  at Jerusalem--The Judæan colony in Rome--Flaccus in Asia
-  Minor--Cicero's oration against the Judæans--Weakening of
-  the power of the Synhedrion--Shemaya and Abtalion--Violent
-  death of Aristobulus and his son Alexander--Julius Cæsar
-  and the Judæans--Antipater's sons Phasael and Herod--Herod
-  before the Synhedrion--Operations of Cassius in Judæa--
-  Malich--Antigonus as King--Herod escapes to Rome         _page_ 57
-
-  69-40 B. C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER IV.
-
-  ANTIGONUS AND HEROD.
-
-  Weakness of Antigonus and Herod's Strength of Character--
-  Contest for the Throne--Herod becomes King--Proscriptions
-  and Confiscations--Herod's Policy--Abolition of the
-  Hereditary Tenure of the High Priesthood--Death of the High
-  Priest Aristobulus--War with the Arabians--The Earth-quake
-  --Death of the last of the Hasmonæans--Hillel becomes the
-  Head of the Synhedrion--His System of Tradition--Menahem
-  the Essene--Shammai and his School--Mariamne--Herod's
-  Magnificence and Passion for Building--Herod rebuilds the
-  Temple--Herod executes his Sons Alexander and Aristobulus--
-  Antipater and his Intrigues--The Pharisees under Herod--The
-  Destruction of the Roman Eagle--Execution of Antipater and
-  Death of Herod                                           _page_ 84
-
-  40-3 B. C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER V.
-
-  THE HERODIANS.
-
-  The Family of Herod--Partition of the Kingdom of Judæa
-  --Revolt against Archelaus--Sabinus and Varus--The
-  Adventurer-Chief Judas the Galilæan--Confirmation of
-  Herod's Will--Archelaus as Ruler--His brief Reign and his
-  Banishment--Judæa becomes a Roman Province--The Revolt
-  against the Census--The Schools of Hillel and Shammai--
-  Judas Founder of the Party of Zealots--Onerous Taxation--
-  Fresh Hostility of the Samaritans--Expulsion of the Judæans
-  from Rome by Tiberias--Pontius Pilate                   _page_ 118
-
-  3 B. C. E.-37 C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER VI.
-
-  MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS AND ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY.
-
-  The Messianic Hope--Various Conceptions of the Expected
-  Messiah--The Essene Idea of the Kingdom of Heaven--
-  John the Baptist, his Work and Imprisonment--Jesus of
-  Nazareth continues John's Labors--Story of his Birth--His
-  Success--His Relations to Judaism and the Sects--His
-  Miraculous Healing of the Sick and Exorcism of Demons--His
-  Secret Appearance as the Messiah--His Journey to Judæa--
-  Accusations against him, and his Condemnation--The First
-  Christian Community and its Chiefs--The Ebionites--Removal
-  of Pilate from Judæa--Vitellius, Governor of Syria, favors
-  the Judæans                                             _page_ 141
-
-  28-37 C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER VII.
-
-  AGRIPPA I. HEROD II.
-
-  Character of Agrippa--Envy of the Alexandrian Greeks towards
-  the Judæans--Anti-Judæan Literature--Apion--Measures
-  against the Judæans in Alexandria--Flaccus--Judæan
-  Embassy to Rome--Philo--Caligula's Decision against the
-  Judæan Embassy--Caligula orders his Statue to be placed in
-  the Temple--The Death of Caligula relieves the Judæans--
-  Agrippa's Advance under Claudius--His Reign--Gamaliel the
-  Elder and his Administration--Death of Agrippa--Herod II--
-  The False Messiah, Theudas--Death of Herod II           _page_ 174
-
-  37-49 C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER VIII.
-
-  SPREAD OF THE JUDÆAN RACE, AND OF JUDAISM.
-
-  Distribution of the Judæans in the Roman Empire and in Parthia
-  --Relations of the various Judæan Colonies to the Synhedrion
-  --Judæan Bandits in Naarda--Heathen Attacks upon Judaism
-  --Counter Attacks upon Heathenism by Judæan Writers--The
-  Judæan Sibyls--The Anti-heathen Literature--The Book of
-  Wisdom--The Allegorists--Philo's Aims and Philosophical
-  System--Proselytes--The Royal House of Adiabene--The
-  Proselyte Queen Helen--The Apostle Paul--His Character--
-  Change in his Attitude towards the Pharisees--His Activity
-  as a Conversionist--His Treatment of the Law of Moses--The
-  Doctrines of Peter--Judaic-Christians and Heathen Christians
-                                                          _page_ 200
-
-  40-49 C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER IX.
-
-  AGRIPPA II. AND OUTBREAK OF THE WAR.
-
-  Position of Affairs in Judæa--Roman Oppression--Character
-  of Agrippa II--The last High Priest--The Zealots and the
-  Sicarii--Eleazar ben Dinai--Quarrel with the Samaritans
-  --Violence in Cæsarea--The Procurators--Florus--
-  Insurrection in Cæsarea--Bloodshed in Jerusalem--The
-  Peace and War Parties--The Leader of the Zealots, Eleazar
-  ben Ananias--Menahem, chief of the Zealots--Massacres of
-  Heathens and Judæans--Defeat of the Romans--The Synhedrion
-  and its President, Simon ben Gamaliel--Position of the
-  Synhedrion                                              _page_ 233
-
-  49-66 C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER X.
-
-  THE WAR IN GALILEE.
-
-  Description of Galilee--Its Population and Importance--The
-  Rising in Galilee--John of Gischala--Flavius Josephus, his
-  Education and Character--His Conduct as Governor of Galilee
-  --Commencement of the War--Overthrow of Gabara--Siege and
-  Capture of Jotapata--Surrender of Josephus to the Romans--
-  Cruelty of Vespasian---Siege and Capture of Gamala and Mount
-  Tabor--Surrender of Gischala--Escape of John of Gischala to
-  Jerusalem                                               _page_ 272
-
-  66-67 C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER XI.
-
-  DESTRUCTION OF THE JUDÆAN STATE.
-
-  Galilæan Fugitives in Jerusalem--Condition of the Capital--
-  Internal Contests--The Idumæans--Eleazar ben Simon, John of
-  Gischala, and Simon Bar-Giora--Progress of the War--Affairs
-  in Rome--Vespasian created Emperor--Siege of Jerusalem
-  by Titus--Heroic Defense--Famine--Fall of the Fortress
-  Antonia--Burning of the Temple--Destruction of the City--
-  Number of the Slain                                     _page_ 291
-
-  67-70 C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER XII.
-
-  THE AFTER-THROES OF THE WAR.
-
-  Sufferings of the Prisoners--The Arena--Cruelty of Titus
-  --Enmity of the Antiochians--Triumph of the Emperor on the
-  occasion of the Conquest of Judæa--End of Simon Bar-Giora
-  and John of Gischala--Coins to Commemorate the Roman Triumph
-  --Fall of the last Fortresses: Herodium, Masada, and Machærus
-  --Resistance of the Zealots in Alexandria and Cyrene--End
-  of the Temple of Onias--The Last of the Zealots--Death
-  of Berenice and Agrippa--Flavius Josephus and his Writings
-                                                          _page_ 311
-
-  70-73 C. E.
-
-  CHAPTER XIII.
-
-  THE SYNHEDRION AT JABNE.
-
-  Foundation of the School at Jabne--Jochanan ben Zakkai
-  --The Last of the Herodians--Judæa and Rome--The
-  Tanaites--Gamaliel II. appointed Patriarch--The Power of
-  Excommunication--Deposition and Restoration of the Patriarch
-  --Steps towards Collecting the Mishna--Eliezer ben Hyrcanus
-  --Joshua ben Chananya--Akiba and his System--Ishmael--
-  Condition of the Synhedrion                             _page_ 321
-
-  70-117 C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER XIV.
-
-  INNER LIFE.
-
-  Inner Life of the Jews--Sphere of Action of the Synhedrion
-  and the Patriarch--The Order of Members and Moral Condition
-  of the Common People--Relation of Christianity towards
-  Judaism--Sects--Jewish Christians--Pagan Christians
-  --Ebionites--Nazarenes--The Gnostics--Regulations of
-  the Synhedrion against Christianity--Proselytes at Rome--
-  Aquilas and his translation of the Bible--Berenice and Titus
-  --Domitian--Josephus and the Romans                     _page_ 360
-
-
-  CHAPTER XV.
-
-  REVOLT OF THE JEWS AGAINST TRAJAN AND HIS SUCCESSORS.
-
-  Trajan and Asia--Revolt of the Jews--Hadrian--The Jewish
-  Sibylline Books--The Attempted Rebuilding of the Temple--
-  The Ordinances of Usha--Bar-Cochba--Akiba's Part in the War
-  --Bar-Cochba's Victories--Suppression of the Revolt--Siege
-  and Fall of Bethar                                      _page_ 393
-
-  96-138 C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER XVI.
-
-  CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR OF BAR-COCHBA.
-
-  Turnus Rufus persecutes the Jews--The Ten Martyrs--The Book
-  of Tobit--Relations between Judaism and Christianity--The
-  Return of the Schools to Palestine--The Synod at Usha--Meïr
-  --Simon ben Jochai--The Babylonian Synhedrion--Antonius
-  Pius and Aurelius Verus--The Revolt against Rome--The
-  Patriarchate of Simon                                   _page_ 421
-
-  135-170 C. E.
-
-  CHAPTER XVII.
-
-  THE PATRIARCHATE OF JUDAH I.
-
-  The Patriarch Judah I.--His Authority and Reputation--
-  Completion of the Mishna--The Last Generation of Tanaites
-  --Condition of the Jews under Marcus Aurelius, Commodus,
-  Septimius Severus, and Antonius Caracalla--Character and
-  contents of the Mishna--Death of Judah                  _page_ 450
-
-  175-219 C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER XVIII.
-
-  THE FIRST AMORAÏM.
-
-  Judah II.--Friendliness of Alexander Severus towards the Jews
-  --Joshua ben Levi--Hillel instructs Origen in Hebrew--The
-  _Hexapla_--The Palestinean Amoraïm--Chanina--Jochanan
-  --Simon ben Lakish--Joshua, the Hero of Fable--Simlai,
-  the Philosophical Agadist--Porphyry comments on the Book of
-  Daniel                                                  _page_ 479
-
-  219-280 C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER XIX.
-
-  THE JEWS OF THE PARTHIAN EMPIRE.
-
-  Increasing importance of the Jewish Community in Babylonia--
-  The Prince of the Captivity--The Babylonian Amoraim--Abba
-  Areka (Rab) and his royal friend Artaban--Samuel and King
-  Shabur--Important Political Changes under the Neo-Persians--
-  Anarchy in Rome--Zenobia and the Jews                   _page_ 503
-
-  219-279 C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER XX.
-
-  THE PATRIARCHATE OF GAMALIEL IV. AND JUDAH III.
-
-  The Amoraim in Palestine--Ami and Assi--The Brothers Chiya
-  and Simon Bar Abba in Tiberias--Abbahu in Cæsarea--The
-  Emperor Diocletian--Complete Separation from the Samaritans
-  --Character and Political Position of Abbahu--Huna in
-  Babylonia--Chama's Generosity--Huna's Contemporaries and
-  Successors--Judah ben Ezekiel--Chasda of Cafri--Mar
-  Sheshet--Nachman bar Jacob--Zeïra                       _page_ 531
-
-  279-320 C. E.
-
-  CHAPTER XXI.
-
-  THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY AND ITS RELATIONS TO JUDAISM.
-
-  Hillel II.--His Calendar--Heads of Judæan Schools:
-  Jonah, José, and Jeremiah--The Expansion of Christianity
-  --Constantine--The Decadence of the Jewish Schools in
-  Babylonia--The Pumbeditha School--Development of Talmudical
-  Dialectics--The Persian Queen Ifra and her son Shabur II.--
-  The Emperor Julian--Favor shown towards the Jews--Proposed
-  Rebuilding of the Temple--Roman Tolerance               _page_ 559
-
-  320-375 C. E.
-
-
-  CHAPTER XXII.
-
-  THE LAST AMORAÏM.
-
-  Decline of the Roman Empire--Ashi and the Redaction of the
-  Talmud--Jezdijird II--The Jews under the Emperor Theodosius
-  I and his successors--The extinction of the Patriarchate
-  --Chrysostom and Ambrosius--Fanaticism of the Clergy--
-  Jerome and his Jewish Teachers--Mar Zutra--Fifth and Sixth
-  Generations of Amoraïm--The Jews under Firuz--Jewish
-  Colonies in India--Completion of the Babylonian Talmud--Its
-  Spirit and Contents                                     _page_ 604
-
-  375-500 C. E.
-
-
-
-
-HISTORY OF THE JEWS.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-JOHN HYRCANUS.
-
-    The Crowning Point of the Period--War with Antiochus
-    Sidetes--Siege of Jerusalem--Treaty of Peace--The Parthian
-    War--Hyrcanus joins Antiochus--Successful campaigns of Hyrcanus
-    against the Samaritans and Idumæans--The Idumæans forced
-    to embrace Judaism--Destruction of the Samaritan Temple at
-    Gerizim and of the Capital, Samaria--Internal Affairs--The
-    Parties: Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes, their Rise and
-    Constitution--Their Doctrines and their Relations to one
-    another--The Synhedrion--Strained Relations between Hyrcanus
-    and the Pharisees--Death of Hyrcanus.
-
-    135.106 B. C. E.
-
-
-The reign of Hyrcanus is at once the pinnacle and the turning-point of
-this period. He not only carried on his father's work, but completed
-it. Under his predecessors Judæa was confined to a narrow space, and
-even within these bounds there were territories in the possession of
-foreign foes. Hyrcanus enlarged the boundaries to the north and to the
-south, and thus released the State from the external pressure that had
-been restricting its growth. His genius for war was aided by fortunate
-circumstances in bringing about these happy results.
-
-If the reign of Hyrcanus corresponds in brilliancy to that of Solomon,
-it resembles it also in another respect: both reigns commenced and
-ended amid disturbance, sadness and gloom, while the middle of each
-reign was happy and prosperous. When Solomon first came to the throne
-he was opposed by Adonijah, the pretender to the crown, whom he
-had to subdue; and upon Hyrcanus a similar but more difficult task
-devolved--that of carrying on a struggle with several opponents. One
-of these opponents was his brother-in-law, Ptolemy ben Habub, the
-murderer of his father, who had also sought after Hyrcanus's own
-life. It was only the support of the Syrian army, however, which
-could make Ptolemy dangerous, the inhabitants of Jerusalem having
-instantly declared themselves in favor of Hyrcanus as the successor of
-the murdered Simon. Still, both his safety and his duty called upon
-him to punish this unscrupulous enemy, and to avenge his father's
-death. Hyrcanus hastened, therefore, to attack him in his fortress
-before Antiochus could bring his troops to his relief. There is some
-uncertainty as to the progress of this siege and its result; according
-to one account, evidently somewhat embellished, Hyrcanus could not put
-his whole strength against the fortress, because his mother (by some
-it is said, together with his brothers) had been placed on the walls
-by Ptolemy, and was there horribly tortured. Like a true Hasmonæan,
-the heroic woman is said to have encouraged her son to continue the
-siege, without heeding her sufferings, and to persevere in his efforts
-until the murderer of her family should receive the chastisement due
-to his crimes. Hyrcanus's heart was torn by conflicting feelings;
-revenge towards his reckless foe urged him on, whilst tender pity for
-his mother held him back. The fact is, however, that Hyrcanus withdrew
-without accomplishing his purpose. It may have been the Sabbatical year
-which prevented him from proceeding with the siege, or, as is much
-more likely, his operations may have been interrupted by the approach
-of the Syrian king, who was advancing with his army to glean some
-advantage for himself from the troubles and the confusion in Judæa.
-After the withdrawal of Hyrcanus's troops, it is said that his mother
-and brothers were put to death by Ptolemy, who fled to Philadelphia,
-the former Ammonite capital (Rabbath Ammon), where he was favorably
-received by the governor, Zeno Cotylas. The name of Ptolemy is no more
-mentioned, and he disappears altogether from the page of history.
-
-A far greater danger now threatened Hyrcanus from Antiochus Sidetes,
-who was eager to avenge the recent defeat sustained by the Syrians
-(autumn 135). He marched forth with a large army, devastated the
-country round about, and approached the capital. Hyrcanus, doubtless
-feeling himself unable to cope with his enemy in the open field,
-shut himself up behind the strong walls of Jerusalem. Antiochus laid
-regular siege to the city and encircled it with elaborate preparations
-for its conquest. Seven camps were stationed around the city; on the
-north side, where the country is flat, a hundred three-storied towers
-were erected from which the walls could be stormed. A broad double
-trench was likewise made to prevent the sallies of the Judæans, who
-contrived nevertheless to come forth, thus bravely impeding the work of
-the enemy, and obstructing the progress of the siege. The Syrian army
-suffered much from the want of water and from sickness, the natural
-consequence of that deficiency. The besieged were well supplied with
-water, but food became scarce, and Hyrcanus found himself compelled to
-commit an act of cruelty. In order to husband the failing provisions,
-the inhabitants who could not bear arms were sent out of the city.
-Perhaps the hope was entertained that the enemy would take pity on
-them. But to the defenseless, foes are seldom generous. They were not
-allowed to pass the lines of the besieging army, and were thus exposed
-to death from both sides. In the meantime the summer passed, and still
-no prospect of storming the walls offered itself to the Syrians,
-whilst the Judæans, on account of the scarcity of provisions and the
-approaching holidays, were anxious for a truce. Hyrcanus made the first
-overtures, and asked for a cessation of arms during the seven days of
-the Feast of Tabernacles. Antiochus not only granted that request,
-but sent him presents of animals with gilded horns for sacrificial
-purposes, and golden vessels filled with incense. Negotiations for
-peace followed upon this truce. Antiochus was urged by his advisers
-to show the greatest severity in his demands upon the Judæans. They
-reminded him of the policy of Antiochus Epiphanes, who knew no other
-way of crushing out the hatred of mankind felt by the Judæans than that
-of obliging them to renounce their peculiar laws. If Antiochus Sidetes
-had listened to these prejudiced counselors, who saw, according to the
-biased views of that time, nothing but cynical exclusiveness in the
-singular customs of the Judæans, the cruel wars in which the people
-had fought for their faith would have been repeated. Happily for them,
-Antiochus had neither the harshness nor the strength to venture upon
-so dangerous a game. Antiochus contented himself with destroying the
-battlements of Jerusalem (autumn 134). With that act the dark cloud
-which had menaced the independence of Judæa passed away.
-
-No great injury had been inflicted upon the State, and even the traces
-of disaster that had been left were soon obliterated. For Hyrcanus now
-sent an embassy to Rome consisting of three delegates: Simon, the son
-of Dositheus, Apollonius, the son of Alexander, and Diodorus, the son
-of Jason, to entreat the Senate to renew, with the Jewish commonwealth,
-the friendly treaties, which Rome lavishly accorded to the smallest
-nations. At the same time they were to complain that Antiochus Sidetes
-had taken possession of several places in Judæa, and among them the
-important fortresses of Joppa and Gazara. Rome always sided with
-the weak against the strong, not from a sense of justice but from
-self-interested calculation. She desired especially to humble the royal
-house of the Seleucidæ, which had occasionally shown her a defiant,
-or at least a haughty mien. The Judæan ambassadors were consequently
-most favorably received, their requests listened to with attention,
-and a decree issued by which Antiochus was called upon to restore the
-fortresses he had taken, and to forbid his troops to march through
-Judæa; nor was he to treat its inhabitants as his subjects (about 133).
-Antiochus appears to have acquiesced in this decision.
-
-He was, moreover, obliged to assume a friendly demeanor towards
-Hyrcanus; for at that moment he was meditating an attack against
-Parthia, which had formerly belonged to, but had since separated itself
-from the kingdom of his ancestors. His brother, Demetrius Nicator,
-had likewise undertaken an expedition against the Parthians, but had
-sustained a defeat, and was kept in imprisonment for nearly ten years.
-Antiochus believed that he would be more fortunate than his brother. In
-addition to the army of 80,000 which he had assembled, he requested the
-aid of Judæan troops and of the forces of other surrounding nations,
-and Hyrcanus consented to join with his army in the expedition. The
-Syrian king treated his Judæan allies with the greatest regard. After
-a victory gained on the banks of the river Zab (Lycus), he ordered,
-according to the desire of Hyrcanus, that a two days' respite should
-take place, so that the Judæans might celebrate their Sabbath and the
-festival of the Feast of Weeks which followed it (129).
-
-Fortune, however, had changed sides since the time of Antiochus the
-Great, and no longer favored the Seleucidæan dynasty. Antiochus lost
-his life in this campaign, and his brother Demetrius, who had been
-set at liberty by the king of Parthia at the time of the invasion of
-Antiochus, to be opposed to him as a rival monarch, now reigned in
-his brother's stead (from 128-125). Hated by the Syrians on account
-of his long imprisonment in Parthia, Demetrius was opposed by a
-rival, Alexander Zabina, whom Ptolemy Physcon had set up against him.
-Demetrius was obliged to flee before Zabina, and could not even find
-a refuge in Accho, where his wife Cleopatra resided. Syria fell into
-a state of still greater confusion under his successors, when Zabina
-disputed the throne with the legitimate heir, Antiochus VIII, the
-latter finding likewise a competitor in his brother on the mother's
-side, Antiochus IX. The last pages of the history of Syria are stained
-with crimes caused by the deadly hatred of the various members of
-the Seleucidæan house against each other, and with the murders they
-committed. Soon after the death of her husband Demetrius, Cleopatra had
-one of her sons, Seleucus, killed, and mixed the poisoned cup for the
-other one, Antiochus Grypus, who forced her to drink it herself.
-
-Hyrcanus took advantage of this state of anarchy and weakness in
-Syria, which lasted several years, to enlarge the boundaries of Judæa,
-until his country attained its former limits. Soon after the death of
-Antiochus Sidetes, the last traces of vassalage to which the siege of
-Jerusalem had reduced Judæa were completely wiped out, and even the
-bonds of alliance were canceled, whilst Alexander Zabina was grateful
-to be acknowledged by Hyrcanus as king of Syria. It was at this period
-(124) that the inhabitants of Jerusalem, particularly those included
-in the great council, made an appeal to the Egyptian community and to
-the priest, Judas Aristobulus, teacher to the king, and of priestly
-lineage, to allow the anniversaries of the consecration of the Temple
-and of the victory over the sinners to be numbered among the memorial
-holidays of the nation. To strengthen their request they referred to
-the unexpected help which God had given His people in the evil days of
-Antiochus, enabling them to restore the sanctuary to its former purity.
-This appeal from Judæa was at the same time a hint to the Alexandrian
-community to acknowledge the new conditions that had arisen.
-
-John Hyrcanus, who until then had acted only in self-defense, was now,
-after the fall of Alexander Zabina (123), ready to strike energetically
-at Syria. Judæa at that time was encompassed on three sides by foreign
-tribes: on the south by the Idumæans, on the north by the hated
-Samaritans, and beyond the Jordan by the Greeks, who had never been
-friendly to the Judæans. Hyrcanus therefore considered it his mission
-to reconquer all those lands, and either to expel their inhabitants
-or to incorporate them with the Judæans; for so long as foreign and
-hostile tribes existed in the very heart of the country, its political
-independence and religious stability would be in constant danger.
-Not only were these hostile peoples ever ready to join surrounding
-nations, and assist them in their greed for conquest, but they also
-often interfered with the religious worship of the Judæans, thus
-frequently giving rise to acts of violence and bloodshed. Hyrcanus was
-consequently impelled by religious as well as by political motives to
-tear up these hotbeds of constant disturbance and hostility.
-
-To accomplish so great a task Hyrcanus required all the strength
-he could muster, and, in order not to tax too heavily the military
-resources of the nation, he employed mercenaries, whom, it is said,
-he paid out of the treasures he had found in David's sepulcher. The
-first place he attacked was Medaba, in the Jordan district. That city
-was taken after a six months' siege. Then the army moved on towards
-Samega, which, situated on the southern end of the Sea of Tiberias,
-must have been a place of great importance to the Judæans. Next in turn
-came the towns of Samaria; its capital, Shechem, as well as the temple
-erected on Mount Gerizim, which had always been a thorn in the side of
-the Judæans, were destroyed (21 Kislev, about 120). The anniversary of
-the destruction of this temple (Yom har Gerizim) was to be kept with
-great rejoicing, as the commemoration of a peculiarly happy event, and
-no fasting or mourning was ever to mar the brightness of the festival.
-From this time forth the glory of the Samaritans waned; for, although
-centuries to come still found them a peculiar people, and, at the
-present day even, they continue to exist and to offer sacrifice on
-Mount Gerizim, still, from the want of a central rallying point, they
-gradually decreased in numbers and prosperity.
-
-After his victory over the Samaritans, Hyrcanus marched against
-the Idumæans. This people, although fallen very low during the
-many vicissitudes of fortune attending the constant changes of the
-Macedonian and Asiatic dynasties, and forced by the Nabathæans to leave
-their dwellings, had alone, among all the tribes related by blood to
-the Judæans, been able to maintain themselves, and had preserved their
-ancient bitter animosity against them undiminished. Hyrcanus laid
-siege to their two fortresses, Adora and Marissa, and after having
-demolished them, gave the Idumæans the choice between acceptance of
-Judaism and exile. They chose the former alternative, and became,
-outwardly, followers of that faith. The temples of the Idumæan idols
-were, of course, destroyed, but the priests secretly adhered to their
-worship. Thus, after more than a thousand years of enmity, Jacob and
-Esau were again united--the elder serving the younger brother. For the
-first time Judaism, in the person of its head, John Hyrcanus, practised
-intolerance against other faiths, but it soon found out with deep pain
-how highly injurious it is to allow religious zeal for the preservation
-of the faith to degenerate into the desire to effect violent conversion
-of others. The enforced union of the sons of Edom with the sons of
-Jacob was fraught only with disaster to the latter. It was through the
-Idumæans and the Romans that the Hasmonæan dynasty was overthrown and
-the Judæan state destroyed.
-
-The first result of the conquest of the Idumæans and of their
-adoption of Judaism was a new contest with the city of Samaria, now
-chiefly inhabited by Macedonians and Syrians. A colony of Idumæans
-had been transplanted from Marissa to the vicinity of Samaria. They
-were attacked and ill-treated by their neighbors, who were urged
-on to their acts of aggression by the Syrian kings, Grypus and
-Cyzicenus. The latter, who resembled Antiochus Epiphanes in his folly
-and extravagance, manifested in particular a fierce hatred against
-Hyrcanus. His generals invaded Judæa, took several fortresses near
-the sea-coast, and placed a garrison in Joppa. Hyrcanus thereupon
-complained to the Roman Senate, which had guaranteed to Judæa the
-possession of this seaport, and sent five ambassadors to plead the
-justice of his cause at Rome. Among these was Apollonius, the son of
-Alexander, who had appeared before the Senate in a former embassy. Rome
-replied in fair words to the petition of Hyrcanus, and promulgated a
-decree forbidding Antiochus Cyzicenus to molest the Judæans, who were
-the allies of Rome, and commanding him to restore all the fortresses,
-seaports and territories which he had seized. It was further ordered
-that the Judæans should be allowed to ship their goods duty free
-from their ports, a favor not granted to any other allied nation or
-king, excepting the king of Egypt, who was regarded as the peculiar
-friend of Rome, and finally that the Syrian garrison should evacuate
-Joppa. Whether the sentence pronounced by Rome had any great effect
-upon Antiochus Cyzicenus or not, the fact that it was not adverse to
-Hyrcanus was so far a boon that it strengthened his cause. It appears
-to have restrained Cyzicenus within certain bounds.
-
-When, however, Hyrcanus, bent upon punishing Samaria for its enmity
-to the people of Marissa, besieged that city, causing famine within
-its walls by closely surrounding it with trenches and ramparts, and
-thus cutting off every possibility of exit, Cyzicenus came to its
-assistance. In an engagement with Aristobulus, the eldest son of
-Hyrcanus, who was conducting the siege conjointly with his younger
-brother Antigonus, Cyzicenus was defeated and forced to flee to
-Bethshean (Scythopolis). Too weak to confront the Judæans alone, he
-called to his help the co-regent of Egypt, Ptolemy VIII (Lathurus),
-who, inspired by the hatred entertained by the Egyptians against the
-Judæans, readily complied with that request. His mother Cleopatra,
-with whom the people had obliged him to share the government, was
-secretly in league against him, befriending, like her parents, the
-cause of Judæa. Two sons of Onias IV, Helkias and Ananias, sided with
-her. It was doubtless on that account that her son took an aversion
-to the Judæans, and gladly came forth at the call of Cyzicenus to
-compel Hyrcanus to withdraw from the siege of Samaria. Despite the
-wishes of his mother, Lathurus sent an army of six thousand men to
-support Cyzicenus against Judæa. Too weak to venture on meeting the
-Judæan troops in the open field, the operations were confined to laying
-waste the country around, in the hope of thus impeding the work of the
-besiegers. The Judæan princes, however, instead of being forced to
-abandon the siege, contrived by various manoeuvres to compel the king
-of Syria to leave the scene of action and to withdraw to Tripolis.
-During one of the battles in which Cyzicenus was beaten, it is said
-that a voice from the Holy of Holies was heard announcing to Hyrcanus,
-at the very moment in which it took place, the victory achieved by
-his sons. He is said to have heard the following words pronounced
-in Aramaic: "The young princes have defeated Antiochus." The two
-generals, Callimandrus and Epicrates, whom Lathurus had left behind to
-continue the hostilities, were not more fortunate than himself, for
-the first lost his life in some engagement, the second succumbed to
-bribery, and delivered into the hands of the Judæan princes the town
-of Bethshean, as well as other places in the plain of Jezreel, as far
-as Mount Carmel, which had been held by the Greeks or the Syrians. The
-heathen inhabitants were instantly expelled from the newly conquered
-cities, and the anniversaries of the recovery of Bethshean and of
-the Plain (Bekaata), 15-16 Sivan (June, 109), were added henceforth
-to the days of victory. Samaria, no longer able to rely upon foreign
-help, was obliged to capitulate, and after a year's siege was given
-up to the conqueror. Actuated either by revenge or prudence, Hyrcanus
-caused Samaria to be utterly destroyed, and ditches and canals to be
-dug through the place, so that not a trace should remain of the once
-flourishing city. The day of its surrender was added to the number of
-days of thanksgiving (25th Marcheshvan, November, 109).
-
-Thus Hyrcanus had carried out the comprehensive plans of the Hasmonæans
-and crowned them with success. The independence of Judæa was assured,
-and the country raised to the level of the neighboring states. The
-enemies who had menaced it from every side, Syrians, Idumæans,
-Samaritans, were nearly all conquered, and the land was delivered from
-the bonds which had hitherto prevented its development. The glorious
-era of David and Solomon seemed to have returned, foreign tribes were
-obliged to do homage to the ruler of Judæa, the old hatred between the
-latter and Idumæa was blotted out, and Jacob and Esau again became
-twin brothers. Moabitis, the daughter of Arnon, again sent presents to
-the mountain of the daughter of Zion. The banks of the Jordan, the
-sea-coast, the caravan tracks that passed from Egypt through Syria,
-were all under the dominion of Judæa. She saw also the humiliation of
-her enemy, Ptolemy Lathurus. The latter was living in constant discord
-with his mother, the co-regent, who at last aroused the anger of the
-people against him to such a degree that he was obliged to flee from
-Alexandria (108). He took refuge in the island of Cyprus, whither
-Cleopatra despatched an army in pursuit of him. But the troops sent to
-destroy him went over to his side. The Judæan soldiers who came from
-the province of Onion, commanded by the generals Helkias and Ananias,
-the sons of Onias, alone remained faithful to the Queen, and vigorously
-attacked Ptolemy to force him to leave the island. In Alexandria as
-in Judæa, at that time, the Judæans played a leading role, and worked
-together in a common cause for mutual advantage. They fought against
-common foes, against Lathurus and his ally, Antiochus Cyzicenus.
-
-After all he had achieved for his country, it was only natural that
-Hyrcanus should cause Judæan coins to be struck, and should inscribe
-them in old Hebrew characters, but he abandoned the modest example of
-his father and allowed his own name to appear on them, "Jochanan, High
-Priest." Upon some of the coins we find, next his name, the inscription
-"and the Commonwealth of the Judæans" (Cheber ha-Jehudim), as though
-he felt it necessary to indicate that it was in the name of the people
-that he had exercised the right of coinage. Upon other coins, however,
-we find the following words inscribed: "Jochanan, High Priest, and head
-of the Commonwealth of the Judæans" (Rosch Cheber ha-Jehudim). Instead
-of the lily which was graven on his father's coins, he chose an emblem
-similar to that of the Macedonian conquerors--the horn of plenty.
-Towards the end of his reign Hyrcanus assumed more the character of
-a worldly potentate, and became more and more ambitious. His constant
-aim was to enlarge his country and to increase his own power. Hyrcanus
-appears to have cast a wistful eye upon the widely-extended territory
-which commanded the route to Damascus. The conquest of Ituræa, a tract
-of country lying to the east of Mount Hermon, which his successors
-completed, appears to have been planned by him. But a formidable
-disturbance in the land, which he was unable to suppress, speedily
-followed by his own death, prevented him from carrying out this
-undertaking. And this disturbance, apparently insignificant in its
-beginning, took so unfortunate a turn that the great Hasmonæan edifice,
-built up with so much labor and care, was completely destroyed. For the
-second time the Judæan State, having reached its highest pinnacle of
-prosperity, ascertained that it was not to maintain itself in external
-greatness.
-
-The high tide of political development, which swept over Judæa
-whilst that country was under the dominion of John Hyrcanus and his
-predecessors, could not fail to permeate the life of the people, and
-in particular to stimulate all their spiritual powers. With only short
-interruptions they had, during half a century, been continually engaged
-in a warfare in which they were alternately victorious and defeated,
-and in which, being brought into contact with various nations, now
-as friends, now as foes, they attained a greater maturity, and their
-former simple existence rose to a more complex and a higher life. The
-hard struggles by which they had achieved independence caused them to
-examine more curiously into their own condition, and to hold fast to
-their national traits; but it led them also to adopt those foreign
-views and practices which appeared to blend harmoniously with their
-own. If the pious Judæans had formerly opposed with all their might
-everything that bore the Hellenic impress, many of them were now
-convinced that among the customs of Greece there might occasionally be
-something which they could adopt without prejudice or injury to their
-own faith. The Hasmonæans had not only learnt from their neighbors the
-arts of war, how to fashion arms and construct fortresses, but also
-the peaceful arts of coining money with artistic ornamentation, and
-the rules of Greek architecture. A magnificent palace, evidently built
-in the Grecian style, arose in Jerusalem. In front of the Hasmonæan
-Palace, near the valley-like hollow which divided the higher town from
-the Temple, there was a wide covered colonnade, called the "Xystum,"
-where the people assembled. A bridge led across from the Xystum to
-the west gate of the furthest court of the Temple. There was likewise
-a building erected in the higher town, devoted to judicial meetings,
-constructed according to Grecian art; with it was combined a Record
-Office, where important archives were kept. John Hyrcanus also erected,
-in the Grecian style, a family mausoleum in Modin, the birthplace of
-the Hasmonæans. It consisted of a lofty building of white polished
-marble. Around it was a colonnade, and on the columns were beautiful
-carvings of various weapons and figureheads of ships. Seven pyramids
-crowned the edifice, in memory of the progenitors of the Hasmonæans
-and their five heroic sons. The Hasmonæan mausoleum was of so great a
-height that it was visible from the sea.
-
-The tendency of the Judæans of that period, however, was more
-especially directed to the maintenance and development of all that
-belonged peculiarly to themselves than to the acquiring of the arts
-of foreign civilization. The Hebrew language, which, since the close
-contact of the people with Asiatic nations, had been almost superseded
-by the Aramaic, appeared now to be celebrating to a certain extent
-its renaissance; it was rejuvenated and became, for the second time,
-though in an altered form, the language of the people. It was rendered
-precious to them through the Holy Scriptural records which they had
-preserved from destruction, and which had ever been the source of their
-zeal and enthusiasm. Their coins were, as mentioned before, stamped in
-Hebrew, public records were written in Hebrew, and the songs of the
-people were sung in the same language. Though some prevalent Aramaic
-names were still retained, and Grecian numbers were adopted, the Hebrew
-language showed its strong vitality by enriching its vocabulary with
-new forms of words, and stamping the foreign elements it admitted with
-its own mark. The form that Hebrew assumed from this time forth is
-called the "New Hebrew." It was distinguished from the old Hebrew by
-greater clearness and facility, even though it lacked the depth and
-poetical fervor of the latter. At the same time Greek was understood
-by all the leaders and statesmen of the community. It was the language
-made use of in their intercourse with the Syrian kings, and was
-likewise spoken by their ambassadors to the Roman Senate. Along with
-Jewish names, Greek names appeared now more frequently than before.
-The character of the literature was also marked by the change which
-took place in the spirit of the people at this period of its revival.
-The sweet note of song was mute; not a trace of poetical creation has
-come down to us from this and the next epoch. The nation called no
-longer for the fiery inspiration which flows through the lyric songs
-of the Psalms, and it could not furnish matter for mournful elegies.
-What it required to promote religious sentiment and fervor was already
-provided by the poetry of the Temple, and in the rich stores of the
-Scriptures the people found knowledge and instruction. Sober history
-now took the place of triumphant hymns, and related facts and deeds
-for the use of posterity. History was the only branch of literature
-which was cultivated, and the recent past and the immediate present
-furnished the historian's pen with ample subjects. That Hebrew was used
-in historical writings is shown by the fragments which have come down
-to us. The so-called first book of the Maccabees, which was written in
-Hebrew, (but is now extant only in a Greek translation) is a proof of
-the inherent power of rejuvenescence belonging to the language.
-
-The change in the current of life, caused by political events, showed
-itself even more in the sphere of religion than in the literature
-and habits of the people in general. The victory over the Syrians,
-the expulsion of the Hellenists, the subjection of the Idumæans, the
-humiliation of the Samaritans, culminating in the destruction of the
-Temple of Gerizim, were so many triumphs of Judaism over its enemies,
-and were sanctioned as such by the champions of the religious party.
-In order to stamp them indelibly on the memory of future generations,
-their anniversaries were to be kept like the days of the consecration
-of the Temple. Religion was still the great underlying impulse in all
-movements, and showed its strength even in the abuse to which it gave
-rise when it forced Judaism upon the heathens. In the meantime the
-religious consciousness of the people shone with a clearer light in
-consequence of the wider field upon which it had entered; the wider
-view which had been gained into the various relations of life, the
-advance out of the narrow circle of tradition and inherited customs,
-produced schism and separation amongst the Judæans themselves. The
-strict religious party of Assidæans withdrew from the scene of passing
-events, and, in order to avoid mixing in public life, they sought a
-secluded retreat where they could give themselves up to undisturbed
-meditation. In this solitude they formed themselves into a distinct
-order, with strange customs and new views, and received the name of
-Essenes. Their example, however, of giving up all active share in
-the public weal was not followed by all the strictly devout Judæans,
-the majority of whom, on the contrary, whilst firmly adhering to the
-precepts of their faith, considered it a religious duty to further
-the independence of their country. Thus there arose a division among
-the pious, and a national party separated itself from the Assidæans
-or Essenes, which did not avoid public life, but, according to its
-strength and ability, took an active part in public affairs. The
-members of this numerous sect began at this time to bear the name of
-Pharisees (Perushim). But this sect, the very center, as it were,
-of the nation, having above all things at heart the preservation
-of Judaism in the exact form in which it had been handed down,
-insisted upon all political undertakings, all public transactions,
-every national act being tried by the standard of religion. To these
-demands, however, those who stood at the head of military or diplomatic
-affairs, and who saw how difficult it was always to deal with political
-matters according to the strict claims of their faith, would not or
-could not reconcile themselves. Thus a third party was formed--that
-of the Sadducees (Zadukim)--the members of which, without forsaking
-the religion, yet made the interests of the nation their chief care
-and object. Of these sects--the Assidæan-Essenes, the Pharisees, and
-the Sadducees--only the last two exerted a powerful influence upon
-the course of events. At what precise period opposition began to show
-itself among these several parties cannot be determined, as indeed the
-birth of new spiritual tendencies must ever remain shrouded from view.
-According to one account, the adverse parties first appeared at the
-time of Jonathan.
-
-The Pharisees (Perushim) can only be called a party figuratively and
-by way of distinction from the other two, for the mass of the nation
-was inclined to Phariseeism, and it was only in the national leaders
-that its peculiarities became marked. The Pharisees received their
-name from the fact of their _explaining_ the Scriptures in a peculiar
-manner, and of deriving new laws from this new interpretation. As
-expounders of the law the Pharisees formed the learned body of the
-nation. Their opinions were framed, their actions governed by one
-cardinal principle--the necessity of preserving Judaism. The individual
-and the State were to be ruled alike by the laws and customs of their
-fathers. Every deviation from this principle appeared to the Pharisees
-as treason to all that was most precious and holy. To their opponents,
-the Sadducees, who argued that, unless other measures were used for
-political purposes, weighty national interests would be often wrecked
-by religious scruples, the Pharisees replied that the fate of the
-State, like that of the individual, depended not upon man but upon
-God. It was not human strength, nor human wisdom, nor the warrior's
-prowess that could determine the weal or the woe of the Judæan people,
-but Divine Providence alone. Everything happened according to the
-eternal decrees of the Divine will. Man was responsible only for his
-moral conduct and the individual path he trod. The results of all human
-endeavors lay outside the range of human calculation. From this, the
-Pharisees' view of life, the rival opinion of the Sadducees diverged;
-whilst the Essenes, on the contrary, exaggerated it. Another view of
-the Pharisees was probably directed against the following objection
-urged by the Sadducees: If the fate of the individual or of the State
-did not depend upon the actions of the one or the policy of the other,
-there would be an end to Divine justice; misfortune might then assail
-the righteous man, whilst the sun of happiness smiled upon the sinner.
-This reproach the Pharisees set aside by the doctrine, borrowed from
-another source, which taught that Divine justice would manifest itself
-not during life but after death. God will rouse the dead out of the
-sleep of the grave; He will reward the righteous according to their
-works, and punish the wicked for their evil deeds. "Those will rise up
-to everlasting life, and these to everlasting shame."
-
-These views, however, precisely because they concerned only the inner
-convictions of men, did not mark the opposition between the parties
-so clearly as did the third dogma of the Pharisees, establishing the
-importance and all-embracing influence of religious injunctions. In a
-nation whose breath of life was religion, many customs whose origin
-was lost in the dim twilight of the past had taken their place by the
-side of the written Law. If these customs were not found in the books
-of the Law they were ascribed to the great teachers (the Sopherim and
-the great assembly--Keneseth hagedolah), which, at the time of the
-return of the Captivity, had given form and new vigor to the religious
-sentiment, and at the head of which stands the illustrious expounder
-of Scripture, Ezra. Such religious customs were called the legacies
-of the teachers of the Law (Dibre Sopherim). All these unwritten
-customs, which lived in the heart of the nation and, as it were, grew
-with its growth, gained an extraordinary degree of importance from the
-dangers that Judaism had encountered and the victories that it had
-achieved. The people had risked, in behalf of these very customs, their
-property and their life; and the martyrdom that many of the faithful
-had undergone, and the antagonism they felt towards the renegade and
-frivolous Hellenists, had much increased the reverence and attachment
-with which these customs were regarded. The Temple, especially, which
-had been so ruthlessly defiled and afterwards been reconsecrated
-in so marvelous a manner, had become doubly precious to the whole
-people, who were determined to keep it free from the faintest breath
-of desecration. The Levitical rules of purity, so far as they related
-to the Temple, were therefore observed with peculiar care and rigorous
-strictness.
-
-But this devotion to outward forms and ceremonies by no means excluded
-the religion of the heart. The Pharisees were acknowledged to be moral,
-chaste, temperate and benevolent. In their administration of justice
-they allowed mercy to prevail, and judged the accused not from the
-point of view of moral depravity but from that of human weakness. The
-following maxim was given by Joshua, the son of Perachia, one of the
-leaders of the sect, who, with his companion, Matthai of Arbela, lived
-in the time of Hyrcanus: "Take a teacher, win a friend, and judge every
-man from the presumption of innocence." His high moral temperament
-is indicated by this maxim. Their rigid adherence to the Law, and
-their lenient mildness and indulgence in other matters, gained for
-the Pharisees the deep veneration of the whole people. Of this sect
-were the pious priests, the teachers of the Law, and, above all, the
-magistrates, civil and religious, who at that time often combined both
-offices in one. The whole inner direction of the State and the Temple
-was in their hands. But the Pharisees owed their influence chiefly to
-their knowledge of the Law and to the application they made of it to
-the affairs of daily life, and they alone were called the interpreters
-and teachers of the Law. The degrading charge of hypocrisy, which was
-applied to them by their enemies in later times, they by no means
-merited, and, indeed, it is altogether preposterous to stigmatize a
-whole class of men as dissemblers. They were rather, in their origin,
-the noblest guardians and representatives of Judaism and strict
-morality. Even their rivals, the Sadducees, could not but bear witness
-to the fact that "they denied themselves in this world, but would
-hardly receive a reward in a future world."
-
-This party of the Sadducees, so sharply opposed to the Pharisees,
-pursued a national-political policy. It was composed of the Judæan
-aristocracy, the brave soldiers, the generals and the statesmen who
-had acquired wealth and authority at home, or who had returned from
-foreign embassies, all having gained, from closer intercourse with
-the outer world and other lands, freer thought and more worldly
-views. They formed the kernel of the Hasmonæan following, which in
-peace or war faithfully served their leaders. This sect doubtless
-included also some Hellenists, who, shrinking from the desertion of
-their faith, had returned to Judaism. The Sadducees probably derived
-their name from one of their leaders, Zadok. The national interests
-of the Judæan community were placed by the Sadducees above the Law.
-Burning patriotism was their ruling sentiment, and piety occupied but
-the second place in their hearts. As experienced men of the world,
-they felt that the independence of the State could not be upheld by
-the strictest observance of the laws of religion alone, nor by mere
-reliance upon Divine protection. They proceeded from this fundamental
-principle: man must exert his bodily strength and his spiritual powers;
-he must not allow himself to be kept back by religious scruples from
-forming political alliances, or from taking part in wars, although
-by so doing he must inevitably infringe some of the injunctions of
-religion. According to the Sadducæan views, it was for that purpose
-that God bestowed free will upon man so that he himself should work
-out his own well-being; he is master of his fate, and human concerns
-are not at all swayed by Divine interposition. Reward and punishment
-are the natural consequences of our actions, and are therefore quite
-independent of resurrection. Without exactly denying the immortality
-of the soul, the Sadducees completely repudiated the idea of judgment
-_after_ death. Oppressed by the abundance of religious ordinances,
-they would not admit their general applicability nor the obligation
-of keeping them. Pressed to give some standard by which the really
-important decrees might be recognized, they laid down the following
-rule: that only the ordinances which appeared clearly expressed in the
-Pentateuch were binding. Those which rested upon oral tradition, or had
-sprung up at various times, had a subordinate value and could not claim
-to be inviolable. Still they could not help occasionally recognizing
-the value of traditional interpretations.
-
-From a number of individual instances in which the Sadducees separated
-themselves from their rivals, one can mark the extent of their
-opposition to the latter. This appeared in their judiciary and penal
-laws and in the ritual they adopted, their worship in the Temple
-being in particular a subject of angry controversy. The Sadducees
-thought that the punishment ordered by the Pentateuch for the
-infliction of any bodily injury--"an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
-tooth"--should be literally interpreted and followed out, and obtained
-in consequence the reputation of being cruel administrators of justice;
-whilst the Pharisees, appealing to traditional interpretations of
-the Scriptures, allowed mercy to preponderate, and only required a
-pecuniary compensation from the offender. The Sadducees, on the other
-hand, were more lenient in their judgment of those false witnesses
-whose evidence might have occasioned a judicial murder, as they only
-inflicted punishment if the execution of the defendant had actually
-taken place. There were many points relating to the ritual which were
-warmly disputed by the two parties; for instance, the date of the Feast
-of Weeks, which, according to the Sadducees, should always fall upon
-a Sunday, fifty days from the Sabbath after the Passover; so also the
-pouring of water on the altar and the processions round it with willow
-branches during the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, which the
-Pharisees advocated and the Sadducees rejected. The latter objected
-to the providing of the national offerings out of the treasury of the
-Temple, and insisted that the required sacrifices should be left to
-the care and zeal of individuals. The manner in which the frankincense
-should be kindled on the Day of Atonement, whether before or after the
-entrance of the high priest into the Holy of Holies, was also the cause
-of bitter strife. On these and other points of dispute the Sadducees
-invariably followed the exact letter of the Law, which resulted in
-their occasionally enforcing stricter rules than the Pharisees, who
-have been so much abused for their rigid austerity. To one Levitical
-injunction, however, they paid but little attention--that of carefully
-avoiding the touch of any person or thing considered unclean--and when
-their rivals purified the vessels of the Temple after they had been
-subject to any contact of the sort, they ridiculed them, saying, "It
-wants but little, and the Pharisees will try and cleanse the sun."
-
-In spite of the relief which these less stringent views gave the
-people, the Sadducees were not popular; the feeling of the time was
-against laxity and in favor of strict religious observance. Besides,
-the Sadducees repelled their countrymen by their proud, haughty
-demeanor and their severe judicial sentences. They never gained the
-heart of the public, and it was only by force and authority that
-they were able to make their principles prevail. At that period the
-religious sentiment was so active that it gave birth to a religious
-order which far surpassed even the Pharisees in strictness and painful
-scrupulousness, and which became the basis of a movement that, mixing
-with new elements, produced a revolution in the history of the world.
-This order, which, from a small and apparently insignificant origin,
-grew into a mighty power, destined to exert an irresistible influence,
-was that of the Essenes.
-
-The origin of this remarkable Essene order, which called forth the
-admiration even of the Greeks and the Romans, can be dated from
-the period of great religious enthusiasm excited by the tyranny
-and persecutions of the Syrians. The Essenes had never formed a
-political party, but, on the contrary, avoided the glare and tumult
-of public life. They did not place themselves in harsh antagonism
-to the Pharisees, but rather assumed the position of a higher grade
-of Pharisaism, to which party they originally belonged. They sprang
-without doubt from the Assidæans, whom they resembled in their strict
-observance of the Sabbath. In their eyes the mere act of moving a
-vessel from one place to another would count as a desecration of that
-holy day. Even the calls of nature were not attended to on that day.
-They lived in all respects like the Nazarites, whose ideal it was to
-attain the highest sanctity of priestly consecration. It was their
-constant endeavor, not only to observe all the outward Levitical laws,
-but to attain through them to inward sanctity and consecration, to
-deaden their passions and to lead a holy life. The Levitical laws of
-cleanliness had, through custom and tradition, developed to such a
-pitch that their austere observers must have been in constant danger
-of being defiled by contact with persons and objects; and bathing and
-sacrifices were prescribed, through which they might recover a state of
-purity. A life-long Nazarite, or, what is the same thing, an Essene,
-was consequently obliged to avoid any intercourse with those who were
-less strict than himself, lest he should be contaminated by their
-proximity. Such considerations compelled him to frequent the society
-of, and to unite himself with, those only who shared his views. To
-keep their purity unspotted, the Essenes were thus induced to form
-themselves into a separate order, the first rule of which commanded
-implicit obedience to the laws of scrupulous cleanliness. It was only
-those whose views coincided with their own who could be allowed to cook
-food for them, and from such likewise had to be procured their clothes,
-tools, implements of trade and other things, in order to ensure that,
-in their manufacture, the laws of cleanliness had been duly carried
-out. They were thus completely set apart by themselves; and, in order
-to keep clear of any less strictly rigid observers, they thought it
-advisable to have their meals in common. Thus the Passover supper,
-which could be partaken of only in a circle of fellow-worshipers, must
-have been their ideal repast. It was almost impossible for Essenes
-to mix with women, as by the slightest contact with them they risked
-coming under the Levitical condemnation of uncleanliness, and, led on
-from one deduction to another, they began to avoid, if not to despise,
-the married state. How was it possible for the Essenes to maintain
-their excessive rigidity, especially in those warlike times? Not only
-the pagan enemy, but even the Judæan warriors returning from the
-battle-field, defiled by the touch of a corpse, might bring all their
-precautions to naught. These fears may have induced the Essenes to seek
-seclusion in some retired place, where they could remain unvexed by
-the sounds of war and undisturbed in their mode of life by any of its
-necessary incidents. They chose for their residence the desert to the
-west of the Dead Sea, and settled in the oasis of Engadi. The fruit
-of palm trees, which abound in this district, partly furnished their
-simple fare. All the Assidæans did not join in the asceticism of the
-Essenes, nor did all the Essenes betake themselves to the desert. Some
-continued to live in their own family circles and did not renounce
-marriage; but, in consequence of their rigid scruples, they were met
-by many difficulties.
-
-Thus it was that celibacy and repasts held in common came to be
-considered as the general and most important characteristics of the
-Essenes. This mode of living led the Essenes to divest themselves
-of all their private possessions. To a member of their sect private
-property could be of no use; each one placed his fortune in the common
-treasury, out of which the wants of the various members of the order
-were supplied. Hence the proverb, "A Chassid says, 'Mine and thine
-belong to thee'" (not to me). There were consequently neither rich nor
-poor among them, and this lack of all concern about material matters
-naturally led them to abstract their attention from everything mundane
-and to concentrate it upon religious matters. They thus avoided more
-and more all that pertained merely to the world, and followed with the
-enthusiasm of recluses a visionary, ideal tendency. The Essenes were
-distinguished also by other peculiarities. They were always clothed
-in white linen. Each of them carried a small shovel, with which, like
-the Israelites during their wanderings in the desert, they would cover
-their excrements with earth and thus hide impurity from sight. They
-also wore a sort of apron or handkerchief (knaphaim), with which to
-dry themselves after their frequent ablutions. In order to remove even
-unperceived impurities, they, like the priests before officiating in
-the Temple, bathed every morning in fresh spring water; and from these
-daily baths they were called "Morning Baptists" (_Toble Shacharith_).
-The name Essene appears likewise to have been derived from this
-peculiarity, as in the Chaldaic language it means a bather (_Aschai_,
-pronounced _Assai_).
-
-These outward forms were, however, only the steps that were to lead
-to inward purity and righteousness--the symbols of their close
-communion with God; to which, according to the opinion of antiquity,
-man could only attain by fleeing from the world, and devoting himself
-to an ascetic mode of life. The utmost simplicity in food and dress,
-abstinence, and the practice of morality and self-sacrifice were
-certainly virtues which adorned the Essenes, but were not peculiar
-to their sect, as they belonged equally to the Pharisees. The
-distinguishing traits of the Essenes, however, were their frequent
-prayers, their aversion to taking an oath, and their devoted pursuit
-of a kind of mystic doctrine. Before saying their prayers no profane
-word was permitted, and at the first dawn of day, after the _Shema_ had
-been read, they assembled for quiet meditation, preparatory to what
-was considered their real prayer, which was always to be a spontaneous
-effusion of the heart. To the Essenes their repasts were a kind of
-divine service, the table on which their food was spread, an altar,
-and the fare which they partook of, a holy sacrifice, which they ate
-in deep and pious meditation. No language of a worldly nature passed
-their lips during their meals, and these were generally partaken of
-in complete silence. This strange silence doubtless produced a great
-impression upon those who did not belong to the order; the more so,
-because the real nature of this exclusive sect was not known to its
-contemporaries, and everything concerning it assumed a mysterious and
-awful aspect.
-
-It was not, perhaps, at first the object of the Essenes to become
-absorbed in mystic lore; but their asceticism, their intensely quiet
-life, which gave them so much opportunity for meditation, their freedom
-from family cares, and, lastly, their religious visionariness, made
-them seek for other truths in Judaism than appear to less subtle
-minds. The name of God was to them a subject of deep contemplation,
-justified in some degree by the dread which existed among the Judæans
-of pronouncing the name of the Almighty, formed of the four letters
-J h w h. If the name of God be thus holy, surely something mysterious
-must belong to the letters themselves. Thus reasoned the Essenes, whose
-seclusion from the world gave them abundant leisure to ponder over
-this sacred enigma. So holy was the name of God in their estimation
-that they refused to take any oath which called for its use, and their
-statements were attested by a simple "yes" or "no." In close connection
-with the mystery attaching to the name of God was that which they
-applied to the names of angels. The Essenes faithfully handed down
-in their theosophic system the names, as well as the importance and
-position of the various angels. When they endeavored to explain the
-meaning of Holy Writ by their fantastic and newly discovered ideas,
-what fresh phases must have presented themselves to their distorted
-vision! Every word, every expression must have revealed a hitherto
-unsuspected meaning; the most difficult questions as to the being of
-God, and His relations to the heavenly powers and the lower creatures,
-were explained. Through their indifference to all that concerned the
-State, as well as the affairs of daily life, they gradually led Judaism
-(dependent as it was on the establishment of national prosperity) into
-the darkness and exaggerations of Mysticism. Their deep and mystic
-reverence for the Prophet and Lawgiver Moses carried them to the
-greatest excesses. His memory and name were endeared to all the Judæans
-within and beyond Palestine. They took oaths in the name of Moses,
-and bestowed that name on no other man. But the Essenes carried their
-devotion to such an extreme that he who spoke against the name of Moses
-was treated as one who blasphemed God.
-
-The final aim of the Essenes was, without doubt, the attainment to
-prophetic ecstasy so that they might become worthy of the Divine Spirit
-(_Ruach ha-Kodesh_). The Essenes believed that through an ascetic life
-they might re-awaken the long-silent echo of the Heavenly voice, and
-this end gained, prophecy would be renewed, men and youths would again
-behold Divine visions, once more see the uplifting of the veil which
-hides the future, and the great Messianic kingdom would be revealed.
-The kingdom of Heaven (_Malchuth Shamaim_) would commence, and all the
-pain and trouble of the times would, at one stroke, be at an end.
-
-The Essenes were considered not only holy men (on account of their
-peculiar mode of life and visionary views), but they were also admired
-as workers of miracles. People hung upon their words and hoped for
-the removal of impending evils through their means. Some of the
-Essenes bore the reputation of being able to reveal the future and
-interpret dreams; they were reverenced yet more by the ignorant, on
-account of their miraculous cures of so-called "possessed" persons.
-The intercourse of the Judæans with the Persians had brought with it,
-together with a belief in the existence of angels, a superstitious
-belief in malicious demons (_Shedim_, _Mazikin_). Imbeciles were
-thought to be possessed by evil demons, who could only be exorcised by
-a magic formula; and all extraordinary illnesses were attributed to
-such demons, for which the advice of the wonder-worker, and not that
-of the doctor, was sought. The Essenes occupied themselves with cures,
-exorcisms, etc., and sought their remedies in a book (_Sefer Refuoth_)
-which was attributed to King Solomon, whom the nation considered as the
-master of evil spirits. Their curative remedies consisted partly in
-softly-spoken incantations and verses (_Lechis'ha_), and partly in the
-use of certain roots and stones supposed to possess magic power. Thus
-the Essenes united the highest and the lowest aims,--the endeavor to
-lead a pious life and the most vulgar superstitions. Their exaggerated
-asceticism and fear of contact with others of a different mode of life
-caused a morbidly unhealthy development among them.
-
-The more rationally-minded Pharisees paid them but little attention;
-they made sport of the "foolish Chassid." Although sprung from a
-common root, the more the Pharisees and Essenes developed, the more
-widely they diverged. The one party saw in marriage a holy institution
-appointed for the good of mankind, and the other an obstacle to a
-thoroughly religious life. The Pharisees recognized man's free will in
-thought and action, and consequently deemed him responsible for his
-moral conduct. The Essenes, on the contrary, confined to the narrow
-circle of their self-same, daily-repeated duties, came to believe in
-a sort of divine fatalism, which not only governed the destiny of
-mankind but also ruled the acts of each individual. The Essenes avoided
-the Temple, the worship practised there being framed according to the
-doctrines of the Pharisees and unable to satisfy their ideals. They
-sent their offerings to the Temple, and thus fulfilled the duty of
-sacrificing without being themselves present at the ceremony. With
-them, patriotism became more and more subordinate to the devotion
-they felt towards their own order, and thus by degrees they loosed
-themselves from the strong bands of nationality. There lay concealed in
-Essenism an element antagonistic to existing Judaism, unsuspected by
-friends or foes.
-
-The Essenes had no influence whatever upon political events. Their
-number was small, and even at the time of their greatest prosperity the
-order consisted only of about four thousand members. Consequent upon
-the life of celibacy which they adopted, the losses made by death in
-their ranks could not naturally be replaced. To avoid dwindling away
-entirely, they had recourse to the expedient of enrolling novices and
-making proselytes. The new member was admitted with great solemnity,
-and presented with the white garment, the apron, and the shovel, the
-symbols of Essenism. The novice was not allowed, however, to enter
-immediately into the community, but was subjected by degrees to an ever
-stricter observance of the laws of abstinence and purity. There were
-three probationary degrees to be passed through before a new member was
-received into complete brotherhood. At his admission the novice swore
-to follow the mode of life of the Essenes, to keep conscientiously and
-to deliver faithfully the secret teachings of their order. He who was
-found to be unworthy was expelled.
-
-The unfriendly relationship between the Pharisees and Sadducees did not
-exist in the time of Hyrcanus. He made use of both parties according
-to their capabilities--the Sadducees as soldiers or diplomatists, and
-the Pharisees as teachers of the Law, judges, and functionaries in
-civil affairs. The one honored Hyrcanus as the head of the State, the
-other as the pious high priest. In fact, Hyrcanus personally favored
-the Pharisees, but as prince he could not quarrel with the Sadducees,
-among whom he found his soldiers, his generals and his counselors.
-Their leader Jonathan was his devoted friend. Until old age crept on
-him, Hyrcanus managed to solve the difficult problem of keeping in a
-state of amity two parties that were always on the verge of quarreling.
-He understood how to prevent either party from gaining the upper hand
-and persecuting its rival. But (as too often happens in such difficult
-situations) a word, a breath can upset the best-arranged plans,
-bringing to naught the most skilful calculations, and the slowly,
-carefully built edifice falls and crumbles in a day. A heedless word
-of this kind turned the zealous follower of Pharisaism into its bitter
-opponent. In the last years of his life Hyrcanus went quite over to the
-Sadducees.
-
-The cause of this change, which brought such unspeakable misery to
-the Judæan nation, was trivial in comparison with its results; but
-the antagonism of the two parties, which could only with the utmost
-difficulty be kept from breaking out into open discord, gave it a
-terrible and far-reaching importance. Hyrcanus had just returned from
-a glorious victory over one of the many nations in the northeast of
-Peræa (Kochalit?). Rejoicing in the happy result of his arms and in
-the flourishing state of his country, he ordered a feast to be held,
-to which he invited without distinction the leaders of the Sadducees
-and Pharisees. Around golden dishes laden with food were placed various
-plants that grew in the desert, to remind the guests of the hardships
-they had endured under the Syrian yoke, when the nobles of the land
-were obliged to hide themselves in the wilderness. Whilst the guests
-were feasting, Hyrcanus asked if the Pharisees could reproach him for
-any transgression of the Law? If so, he desired to be told in what
-he had failed. Was this apparent humility only a cunningly-devised
-plan to discover the real disposition of the Pharisees towards him?
-Had the Sadducees inspired him with suspicion against the Pharisees,
-and advised him to find some way of proving the sincerity of their
-attachment? In reply to the challenge thus thrown out, a certain
-Eleazer ben Poira arose and bluntly answered, "Hyrcanus should content
-himself with the crown of royalty, and should place on a worthier head
-the high priest's diadem. During an attack on Modin by the Syrians his
-mother, before his birth, was taken prisoner, and it is not fitting
-for the son of a prisoner to be a priest--much less the High Priest!"
-Although inwardly wounded by so outspoken an insult to his pride,
-Hyrcanus had sufficient self-possession to appear to agree with the
-bold speaker and ordered the matter to be examined. It was, however,
-proved to be an empty report; in fact, without the slightest foundation.
-
-Hyrcanus's anger was doubly roused against the Pharisees through the
-care taken by the Sadducees and his devoted friend Jonathan to persuade
-him that the former had invented the story purposely to lower him in
-the eyes of the people. Anxious to find out if the aspersion cast on
-his fitness for the high-priesthood was the act of the whole party
-or only the slander of an individual, he demanded that their leading
-men should punish the calumniator, and expected that the chastisement
-inflicted would be in proportion to his own exalted rank. But the
-Pharisees knew of no special penalty for the slanderer of royalty, and
-their judges only awarded him the lawful punishment of thirty-nine
-lashes. Jonathan, the leader of the Sadducees, failed not to use this
-circumstance as a means to rake up the fire in Hyrcanus's breast.
-He led him to see in this mild judgment of the court a deep-rooted
-aversion entertained by the Pharisees against him, thus estranging him
-completely from his former friends, and binding him heart and soul to
-the Sadducees. There is probably some exaggeration in the account of
-Hyrcanus's persecution of the adherents of the Pharisees, and of his
-setting aside all the decrees of the latter. There is, however, more
-truth in another report, from which we learn that Hyrcanus had deposed
-the Pharisees from the various high posts they had filled. The offices
-belonging to the Temple, to the courts of law and to the high council
-were given to the followers of the Sadducees. But this stroke of policy
-produced the saddest results. Naturally enough it awakened in the
-hearts of the Pharisees, and of the people who sided with them, a deep
-hatred against the house of the Hasmonæans, which bore civil war in its
-train and hastened the nation's decline. One act had been sufficient to
-cast a cloud over the brilliant days of the Hasmonæans.
-
-Hyrcanus lived but a short time after these events. He died in the
-thirty-first year of his reign, the sixtieth year of his age (106),
-leaving five sons, Aristobulus, Antigonus, Alexander, Absalom, and
-one other, whose name has not come down to us. Hyrcanus bore some
-resemblance to his prototype Solomon, inasmuch as that, after the
-death of both, dissensions broke out and the country became a prey to
-constant strife and discord.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-HYRCANUS'S SUCCESSORS, ARISTOBULUS I, ALEXANDER JANNÆUS, AND SALOME
-ALEXANDRA.
-
-    Character of Aristobulus--Antigonus--Mythical Account of his
-    Death--Alexander Jannæus: his Character and Enterprises--His
-    Support of the Pharisees--Simon ben Shetach--Alexander's
-    Breach with the Pharisees, and its Consequences--His
-    last Wars and Death--Salome Alexandra's Relations to the
-    Opposing Parties--The Synhedrion--Judah ben Tabbai and Simon
-    ben Shetach--Institutions against the Sadducees--Party
-    Hatred--Diogenes--Persecution of the Sadducees--Death of
-    Alexandra.
-
-    106.69 B. C. E.
-
-
-John Hyrcanus had proclaimed his wife queen, and his eldest son, Judah,
-high priest. The latter is better known by his Greek name Aristobulus,
-for he, like his brothers and successors, bore a Greek as well as a
-Hebrew name. But it was soon evident that the Greek custom of placing a
-female ruler at the head of the State was not looked upon with favor in
-Judæa. Thus Aristobulus was able to remove his mother from her official
-position without creating any disturbance, and he then united in his
-own person the two dignities of ruler and high priest. It is said that
-he was the first of the Hasmonæans to assume the royal title; but this
-title did not add in any way to his power or his importance. His coins,
-indeed, which have since been discovered, bear only the following
-inscription, "The High Priest Judah, and the Commonwealth of the
-Judæans," and they are engraved with the same emblem as those of his
-father, viz., a cornucopia, although this symbol of plenty was hardly a
-truthful characteristic of the times.
-
-The seed of discord sown by Hyrcanus grew and spread alarmingly in the
-reigns of his descendants. In vain did the successive rulers attempt
-to raise the importance of the royal dignity, in vain did they surround
-themselves with a body-guard of trusty hirelings and perform the most
-brilliant feats of valor, the breach between them and their subjects
-became irreparable, and no remedy proved effectual. The royal house and
-the people were no longer at one; political life was separated from
-religious life, and the two were pursuing opposite paths.
-
-The king, Aristobulus, not only supplanted his mother upon the
-throne, but he also imprisoned her with three of his brothers. His
-brother Antigonus alone, of like temperament to himself and his
-companion-in-arms, whom he tenderly loved, was permitted to take part
-in the government. In spite of the meager and unsatisfactory accounts
-of his short reign, we may gather from them that he followed the
-example of his father's last years, in remaining closely connected
-with the Sadducees, and in keeping the Pharisees from all power and
-influence. Aristobulus had but few friends in his own family, and he
-does not appear to have been beloved by his subjects. The fact of his
-having had a decided preference for Hellenism accounts for his surname,
-which was honored by the Greeks and hated by the Judæans--"Friend
-of the Hellenes." This one characteristic gave such offense to the
-people that they were ready to ascribe to him the authorship of any
-evil deed that might occur in the kingdom. Whilst the Greeks called
-him fair-minded and modest, the Judæans accused him of heartlessness
-and cruelty. His mother expired during her imprisonment, possibly of
-old age; evil report whispered that her own son was guilty of having
-allowed her to die of starvation. His favorite brother, Antigonus, was
-foully murdered (probably through the intrigues of the party hostile to
-the Hasmonæans); sharp-tongued calumny affirmed that the king, jealous
-of him, was the author of the foul deed, and tradition has woven a web
-of tragic incidents round the sad fate of Antigonus. But of this later.
-
-Aristobulus had inherited not only his father's military ability, but
-also his plans of extending Judæa in a northeasterly direction. The
-Ituræans and the Trachonites, who often left their mild, pastoral
-pursuits for the rougher trade of war, occupied the district
-surrounding the gigantic Mount Hermon, and eastwards as far as
-the lovely plain of Damascus. Against these half-barbaric tribes
-Aristobulus undertook a campaign, probably continuing what his father
-had commenced. His brother Antigonus, in whose company he had won his
-first laurels when fighting against the Samaritans and the Syrians, was
-once more his companion-in-arms. The fortunes of war were favorable to
-Aristobulus, as they had been to his father; he acquired new territory
-for Judæa, and, like his father, forced the Judæan religion upon the
-conquered people. Continued conquests in the same direction would have
-put the caravan roads leading from the land of the Euphrates to Egypt
-into the hands of the Judæans; which possession, combined with the
-warlike courage of the inhabitants and the defensive condition of the
-fortresses, might have permitted Judæa to attain an important position
-among the nations. But, as though it had been decreed by Providence
-that Judæa should not gain influence in such a manner, Aristobulus
-was forced by severe illness to abandon his conquests and to return
-to Jerusalem. Antigonus, it is true, carried on the war successfully
-for some little time; but after his return to the capital, for the
-celebration of the festivals in the approaching month of Tishri,
-neither he nor his royal brother was fated ever again to tread the
-arena of war. Antigonus fell, as was mentioned previously, by the hand
-of an assassin, and Aristobulus died of a malignant disease, after a
-reign of one year (106-105).
-
-The deaths of the two brothers following in close succession gave
-evil-tongued calumny the opportunity of inventing the following
-fearful tragedy: It was said that the opponents of Antigonus seized
-the occasion of his triumphal return to excite the suffering king's
-jealousy. Aristobulus, while still reposing confidence in his brother,
-sent for Antigonus, and intimated that he should appear unarmed. For
-greater protection he had his body-guard stationed in one of the
-passages, and gave orders that Antigonus was to be dispatched forthwith
-if he should enter armed. The queen, who hated Antigonus, made use of
-this order for the destruction of her brother-in-law, for she persuaded
-him to go fully equipped to the king's chamber, and in one of the dark
-passages of the tower of Straton the foul deed was executed. When the
-king heard that his commands had been carried out he was violently
-affected, and his grief caused a hemorrhage. His servant, in carrying
-away a vessel filled with the blood that he had lost, slipped upon the
-floor of the antechamber, still wet with the blood of the assassinated
-man, and, dropping the vessel, caused the blood of the two brothers to
-mingle. This accident was said to have had so overpowering an effect
-upon the king's mind that he instantly declared himself to be his
-brother's murderer, and the agony of remorse was the final cause of his
-death. Tradition adds that an Essene seer of the name of Judah had not
-only predicted the violent death of Antigonus, but also that it would
-take place in the tower of Straton.
-
-The commencement of the reign of Aristobulus's successor is involved in
-legend. From this we gather that Alexander, whose Judæan name Jannaï
-(Jannæus) is the abbreviation of Jonathan, had not only been imprisoned
-by his brother, but had been so hated by his father that he had been
-banished to Galilee. This was the result of a dream, in which it had
-been revealed to John Hyrcanus that his third son would one day be king
-of Judæa. The widow of Aristobulus is said to have released him from
-prison, and to have given him her hand with the crown. But in that case
-Alexander would have married a widow, which it was unlawful for him,
-as high priest, to do. It is more probable that Alexander ascended the
-throne, being the nearest heir to it, without the aid of the widow of
-Aristobulus. Nor is there any foundation for the story that Alexander
-commenced his reign by the murder of a brother with whom he had
-actually shared the sufferings of his captivity. Alexander appears to
-have begun by studying the people's wishes, for the Pharisees were once
-more allowed to appear at court. Simon ben Shetach, the brother of his
-wife, Queen Salome, the champion of the Pharisees, was constantly in
-the king's presence.
-
-Alexander Jannæus, who came to the throne at the age of twenty-three,
-was as warlike as the family from which he sprung, but he was wanting
-in the generalship and the judgment of his ancestors. He rushed madly
-into military undertakings, thus weakening the power of the people,
-and bringing the State more than once to the verge of destruction. The
-seven and twenty years of his reign were passed in foreign and civil
-wars, and were not calculated to increase the material prosperity of
-the nation. His good luck, however, was greater than his ability, for
-it enabled him to extricate himself from many a critical position into
-which he had brought himself, and also, upon the whole, to enlarge the
-territory of Judæa. Like his father, he employed mercenaries for his
-wars, whom he hired from Pisidia and Cilicia. He did not dare enroll
-Syrian troops, the hatred that existed between Judæans and Syrians
-being too deeply ingrained to permit the harmonious working of the two
-to be counted upon.
-
-Alexander's attention was principally directed to the seaports which
-had managed to free themselves from Syrian rule, owing to the rivalry
-that existed between the two half-brothers, Antiochus Grypus and
-Cyzicenus. He was particularly anxious to possess himself of the
-thickly-populated and important seaport town of Ptolemaïs, colonized by
-Judæans. Whilst his troops overran the district of Gaza, then under the
-dominion of Zoïlus, a captain of mercenaries, he pressed the seaport
-town himself with a persistent siege. The inhabitants of Ptolemaïs
-turned for help to the Egyptian prince Ptolemy Lathurus, who, at open
-warfare with his mother, had seized upon Cyprus. Lathurus, glad to have
-found an opportunity of acquiring greater power, and of being able
-at the same time to approach the caravan roads of Egypt, hastened to
-send thirty thousand men to the Judæan coast. He chose a Sabbath day
-for victoriously driving the Judæan army, consisting of at least fifty
-thousand men, from Asochis, near Sepphoris, back to the Jordan. More
-than thirty thousand of Alexander's troops remained on the field of
-battle, many were taken prisoners, whilst the others fled. Lathurus,
-with part of his army, marched through Judæa, slaughtering the
-inhabitants, without sparing women or children. He wished not only to
-revenge himself upon Alexander, but also upon the Judæans, for had they
-not been his enemies in Egypt? Accho likewise surrendered, and Gaza
-voluntarily opened its gates to him.
-
-This crushing defeat would doubtless have brought Judæa into the most
-revolting slavery, had not Cleopatra attempted to snatch the fruit of
-her son's triumphs from him before he could turn them against herself.
-She sent a mighty army against Lathurus, under the command of two
-Judæan generals, Helkias and Ananias, the two sons of Onias, to whom
-she was indebted for the integrity of her crown. Helkias died during
-the campaign, and his brother took his place in the council and in
-the field. The position of trust occupied by Ananias was of distinct
-advantage to his compatriots in Judæa. Cleopatra had been urged not
-to lose the favorable opportunity, when Judæa was unable to forego
-her help, of invading that country and of dethroning Alexander. But
-Ananias was indignant at this advice. He not only pointed out the
-disgrace of such faithlessness, but he made the queen understand the
-evil consequences that would follow upon such a step. Many Egyptian
-Judæans, who were the upholders of her throne against the threatened
-attacks of her son, would make common cause with her enemies, were she
-to strike a blow at the independence of their country. His words even
-contained the menace that he would, in such case, not only withhold his
-political knowledge and his generalship from her interests, but that he
-might possibly devote them to the cause of her opponents. This language
-had its desired effect upon the queen; she rejected the cunning advice
-of the enemies of the Jews, and made an offensive and defensive league
-with Alexander at Bethzur (98). Lathurus was obliged to leave Judæa and
-to retreat with his army to Cyprus. All the cities that had resisted
-the arms of the Judæan king were now visited by his wrath.
-
-But he was, above all things, determined upon retaking Gaza. This
-object was accomplished only after a year of desperate fighting, and
-was finally brought about by an act of treachery. All the cruelty
-inherent in Alexander was poured out upon the besieged inhabitants of
-Gaza. He executed some of the most distinguished amongst them, and the
-terror he inspired was so great that many of the men killed their own
-wives and children to prevent them from falling into Judæan slavery
-(96).
-
-The nine years of Alexander's reign had been too prolific in dangerous
-and perplexing situations to allow of his disturbing the internal
-harmony of his country. He appears to have been strictly neutral in
-the strife that was raging between the Pharisees and Sadducees. His
-wife Salome may have exercised her influence in urging him to maintain
-this neutral position, as she was a warm partisan of the once-hated
-Pharisees.
-
-Alexander appears to have made Simon ben Shetach the mediator between
-the two parties; the Pharisees being still somewhat in the background,
-and the Sadducees holding posts of trust. Ever since John Hyrcanus's
-secession from Pharisaism, the Great Council had been composed of
-Sadducæan members, and as long as one party was thus openly preferred
-to the other, peace and reconciliation seemed impossible. The king may,
-therefore, have been inspired by the wish to bring about some kind of
-equality between the two parties by dividing offices and dignities
-between them. But the Pharisees positively refused to act conjointly
-with their opponents and offered the most active resistance. Simon
-ben Shetach alone allowed himself to be chosen member of the Council,
-secretly determining to purge it by degrees of its Sadducæan element.
-
-Alexander's impartial conduct continued only so long as the critical
-position drew his attention away from home affairs. It changed visibly
-when he returned from his campaign, the conqueror of cities and
-provinces deeming himself the despotic master of his people. Either
-the newly acquired influence of the Pharisees threatened to be an
-obstacle in his path, or he may have wished to reward and attract the
-Sadducees upon whom he might rely for carrying on his campaigns, or he
-may have been influenced by his favorite, the Sadducee Diogenes; at
-all events, Alexander appeared as the inveterate opponent of Pharisaic
-teaching, and made his views public in a most insulting manner. Whilst
-officiating as high priest, during the Feast of Tabernacles, it was
-his duty, in accordance with an ancient custom, to pour the contents
-of a ewer of water upon the altar as an emblem of fruitfulness. But in
-order to show his contempt for a ceremony considered by the Pharisees
-as a religious one, Alexander poured the water at his feet. Nothing
-more was required to ignite the wrath of the congregation assembled in
-the outer court of the Temple. With reckless indignation they threw
-the branches and the fruit, which they carried in their hands in honor
-of the festival, at the heretical king, denouncing him as an unworthy
-high priest. Alexander would certainly have paid for this disgraceful
-action with his life had he not called in the help of the Pisidian and
-Cilician mercenaries, who had been ordered to be in waiting, and who
-fell upon the congregation, slaughtering 6000 within the precincts
-of the Temple (95). In order to avoid a repetition of such scenes,
-Alexander thenceforth prevented the worshipers from entering the court
-of sacrifices, by building up a partition wall. But these events gave
-rise to an implacable hatred between the king and the Pharisees. Thus,
-after three generations, the descendants of the great Hasmonæans had
-so far weakened the edifice raised at the expense of their ancestors'
-lives, that it appears marvelous how it could have continued to resist
-such repeated attacks. The bitter rivalry of the two kingdoms of Judah
-and Israel in the days of Rehoboam and Jeroboam was repeated in the
-history of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
-
-But Alexander did not see the breach that his hand had childishly and
-ruthlessly made; absorbed in magnificent schemes of future conquest he
-ignored the fact that if the harmonious intercourse between the king
-and his subjects, the very life of the State, were to cease, greater
-possessions would but weaken and not strengthen the kingdom. He had
-set his heart upon invading the trans-Jordanic land, still called
-Moabitis, and the southeastern provinces of the sea of Tiberias, called
-Galaditis or Gaulonitis. But his progress in this campaign was checked
-by the Nabathæan king Obeda, who lured him into a pathless country
-broken up by ravines, where Alexander's army found its destruction,
-and where the king himself escaped only with his life to Jerusalem
-(about 94). There the wrath of the Pharisees awaited him. They had
-excited the people to revolt, and six years of bloody uprisings against
-him were the consequence (94-89). Alexander succeeded in putting
-down one revolt after another by the aid of his mercenaries, but the
-horrible butcheries that took place on these occasions were a perpetual
-incentive to fresh uprisings. Alexander, worn out at length by these
-sanguinary proceedings, offered to make peace with the Pharisees. It
-was now, however, their turn to reject the proffered hand of peace,
-and to be guilty of an act of treachery towards their country which
-must remain as an indelible stain upon their party. Upon Alexander's
-question as to what conditions of peace they required, the Pharisaic
-leaders answered that the first condition was the death of the king.
-They had, in fact, secretly offered their aid to the Syrian monarch
-Eucærus to humble Alexander. Summoned by their promises, Eucærus
-advanced upon Judæa with 40,000 infantry and 3000 cavalry. Upon the
-news of this impending danger, Alexander marched out at the head of
-20,000 infantry and 1000 cavalry. In the terrible encounter that ensued
-at Shechem, Judæan fought against Judæan, Greek against Greek, for
-each army remained true to its leader and could not be bribed into
-desertion. The battle, disastrous for both sides, was finally gained by
-Eucærus, and Alexander was driven, through the loss of his mercenaries,
-to wander among the mountain-passes of Ephraim. There, his solitary
-position moved his people to pity, and six thousand of his Pharisaic
-opponents left the Syrian camp and went over to their king, who was now
-able to force Eucærus's retreat from Judæa.
-
-But the more relentless amongst the Pharisees still held out against
-Alexander, and after an unsuccessful battle in the open field, threw
-themselves for safety into the fortress of Bethome, which, however,
-they were obliged to surrender. Urged by his Sadducæan favorite
-Diogenes, and impelled by his own thirst for revenge, the king had
-eight hundred Pharisees crucified in one day. Tradition even relates
-that the wives and children of the victims were butchered before their
-eyes, and that Alexander, surrounded by his minions, feasted in the
-presence of this scene of carnage. But this exaggeration of cruelty was
-not required to brand him with the name of "Thracian"; the crucifixion
-of eight hundred men was enough to stigmatize him as a heartless
-butcher, and this action alone was to bring forth bitter fruits for the
-Sadducees who had witnessed it with malicious joy. During the civil
-wars that had lasted for six years, fifty thousand men of both parties
-had been sacrificed, but the Pharisees had suffered most. The remaining
-Pharisees trembled for their lives, and the night after the crucifixion
-of the eight hundred, eight thousand fled from Judæa, part of them to
-Syria and part to Egypt.
-
-The weakness of Alexander's position may readily be gauged by the fact
-of his powerlessness to prevent Judæa from being made the seat of
-war by the kings of Nabathæa and Syria. Yet his good fortune did not
-forsake him, for a sudden change in the affairs of Syria, resulting in
-the overthrow of its king, Aretas, worked to Alexander's advantage.
-Thereby he was enabled to engage in the siege of some important
-towns, colonized by Greeks and subject to Aretas: Diospolis, Pella
-and Gerasa. Marching north, he invaded the lower Gaulonitis, with its
-capital, Gamala, the upper province, with the town of Sogane, and the
-city of Seleucia. He forced the inhabitants of these towns to accept
-Judaism and the sign of the covenant. The city of Pella, making a
-show of resistance, was destroyed. He also recovered the cities lying
-east of the Red Sea, which had been taken from him by Aretas. The
-territory of Judæa now embraced within its circumference a number of
-important towns; it extended on the other side of the Jordan, from
-Seleucia in the north to Zoar, the city of palms, south of the Dead
-Sea; from Rhinokolura and Raphia in the south, on the shores of the
-Mediterranean, to the mountains of Carmel in the northwest. The cities
-on the sea-coast were of the most importance. Alexander ordered some
-coins to be struck for his Greek subjects, with the Greek inscription,
-"KING ALEXANDER," while an anchor was stamped upon one side, and upon
-the other, in Hebrew characters, "JONATHAN THE KING" (Jehonathan
-ha-Melech). His coins of an earlier date bore the same inscription as
-those of his predecessors, "THE HIGH PRIEST JONATHAN, THE COMMONWEALTH
-OF THE JUDÆANS."
-
-After a campaign of three years' duration Alexander returned to
-Jerusalem, where he was received with the honors due to a conqueror. He
-had caused his crimes in part to be forgiven. In the very center of the
-kingdom, on a mount near the Jordan, he built a strong fortress, called
-after him, ALEXANDRION; and in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea, upon
-a towering height, protected on all sides by deep ravines, he raised
-the citadel of Machærus, the formidable guardian of his trans-Jordanic
-conquests. These two mountain fortresses, together with the third,
-Hyrcanion, built by John Hyrcanus, on Middle Mountain, were so amply
-fortified by nature and by art that they were considered impregnable.
-
-Even in the last years of Alexander's reign, although he was suffering
-from an intermittent fever, he undertook the siege of some of the yet
-unconquered fortresses of the trans-Jordanic territory. During the
-siege of Argob, however, he was seized with so severe an attack that
-he was forced to prepare himself for death. The solemnity of his last
-hours led him to look upon his former actions in a new light. He was
-horror-stricken to think how cruelly and foolishly he had persecuted
-the Pharisees, and how in consequence he had alienated himself from
-his people. He earnestly enjoined upon his queen, whom he declared
-regent, to connect herself closely with the Pharisees, to surround
-herself with counselors from their ranks, and not to embark in any
-undertaking without having their consent. He also impressed upon her
-to keep his death secret from his army until the beleaguered fortress
-should have fallen, and then to resign his body to the Pharisees, that
-they might either vent their rage upon it or else generously inter it.
-From an obscure but more authentic source we gather that Alexander
-sought to allay the queen's anxiety with regard to the party strife
-rampant in Jerusalem by the following words: "Do not fear either the
-true Pharisees or their honest opponents, but be on your guard against
-hypocrites of both sides (the counterfeit ones), who, when they
-commit sins, like the dissolute Prince Zimri, expect to be rewarded
-like Phineas, who was zealous for the Law." Alexander died in the
-forty-ninth year of his life and the twenty-seventh of his reign (79),
-and left two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. The Pharisees ungenerously
-appointed the anniversary of his death as a day of rejoicing.
-
-It was indeed most fortunate for the Judæan nation that a woman of
-gentle nature and sincere piety should have been called to the head of
-the State after it had been torn asunder by the recklessness of its
-former ruler. She came like the refreshing dew to an arid and sunburnt
-soil. The excited passions and the bitter hatred of the two parties
-had time to abate during her reign, and the country rose above narrow
-partisanship to the worthier occupation of advancing the common welfare
-of the nation. Although Queen Salome, or, as she was called, Alexandra,
-was devoted with her whole soul to the Pharisees, entrusting them
-with the management of home affairs, yet she was far from persecuting
-the opposing party. Her authority was so greatly respected by the
-neighboring princes that they did not dare make war with Judæa, and she
-shrewdly succeeded in keeping a mighty conqueror, who had possessed
-himself of Syria, from the confines of her own kingdom. Even the
-heavens, during the nine years of her reign, showered their blessings
-upon the land. The extraordinarily large grains of wheat gathered
-during this time in the fields of Judæa were kept and exhibited during
-many subsequent years. The queen ordered coins to be struck, bearing
-the same emblems as her predecessors, with the Greek inscription,
-"QUEEN ALEXANDRA." On the whole, her reign passed peacefully and
-happily. The Law, which had fallen into great neglect, became a fixed
-institution, and if it occasionally affected the Sadducees, who were
-constantly breaking it, they could not consider themselves victims of
-caprice. The crowded prisons were opened; the Pharisees returned from
-exile, with their narrowed vision widened by the experience they had
-gained in foreign lands.
-
-Salome Alexandra proclaimed her eldest son Hyrcanus high priest; he was
-a weak prince, whose private life was irreproachable, but who was not
-fitted for a public post of importance.
-
-Simon ben Shetach, the brother of the queen, the oracle of the
-Pharisaic party, stood high in her favor. So great a part did he play
-in the history of that time that it was called by many "the days
-of Simon ben Shetach and of Queen Salome." The chief post in the
-Council of Seventy, hitherto possessed by the high priest, was now,
-however, given up to the Pharisees by order of the queen. The Nasi,
-or president of the Great Council, was from this time on, as a rule,
-the most learned and the most respected of the Pharisees. No one, of
-course, could lay juster claim to this distinction than Simon ben
-Shetach. But Simon was not an ambitious man, and he determined to waive
-his own rights of precedence in favor of Judah ben Tabbai, who was
-then residing in Alexandria, of whose profound learning and excellent
-character he had formed a high estimate. The Alexandrian Judæan
-community had probably entrusted this celebrated Palestinean scholar
-with some important office. A flattering epistle was sent to Judah,
-inviting him to return to Jerusalem and was couched in this form:
-"From me, Jerusalem, the holy city, to thee, Alexandria: my spouse
-dwells with thee, I am forsaken." Judah ben Tabbai responded to this
-appeal by hastening to Jerusalem. With the help of Simon he undertook
-the reorganization of the Council, the improvement of administration
-of the law, the re-establishment of neglected religious observances,
-the furthering of education, and generally the fashioning of such
-regulations as the times required. Like Ezra and Nehemiah of old,
-these two zealous men insisted upon a return to the strictest form of
-Judaism; and, if they were often obliged to employ severe and violent
-measures, these are not to be accounted to any personal malice, but to
-the sternness of the age itself. They were indeed scrupulously strict
-in their own conduct, and in directing those closely connected with
-them. From the days of Judah ben Tabbai and Simon ben Shetach, the rule
-of Judæan Law, according to the views of the Pharisees, may be said to
-have begun, and it grew and developed under each succeeding generation.
-These two celebrated men have therefore been called "Restorers of the
-Law," who "brought back to the Crown (the Law) its ancient splendor."
-
-Their work commenced with the reorganization of the Synhedrion. The
-Sadducæan members were deprived of their seats, the penal code which
-they had added to the Biblical penal laws was set aside, and the old
-traditionary methods again made valid. The people had nothing to
-complain of in this change, for they hated the severity of the "eye
-for eye" punishment of the Sadducees. On the other hand, certain
-days of rejoicing, disregarded by the Sadducees, were proclaimed as
-half-holidays by the Pharisees. Witnesses in the law courts were no
-longer to be questioned merely upon the place where and the time when
-they had seen a crime committed, but they were expected to give the
-most detailed and minute evidence connected with it, so that the judge
-might be better able to pronounce a correct judgment and to detect the
-contradictory statements of witnesses. This was particularly designed
-as a protection against the charges of informers, who were numerous
-enough in an age when conquerors and the conquered were constantly
-changing parts. A salutary measure also was enforced to lessen the
-number of divorce cases, which the literal interpretation of the
-Pentateuchal divorce laws, as administered by the Sadducees, had failed
-in doing. The High Court, as reorganized by the Pharisees, ordered the
-husband to give his repudiated wife a certain sum of money, by which
-she could support herself, and, as there was but little current coin
-amongst a people whose wealth consisted principally in the fruits of
-the soil or in cattle, the husband would often pause before allowing a
-momentary fit of passion or excitement to influence his actions.
-
-One of the reforms of this time expressly attributed to Simon ben
-Shetach was the promotion of better instruction. In all large towns,
-high schools for the use of young men from the age of sixteen sprung up
-at his instance. But all study, we may presume, was entirely confined
-to the Holy Scriptures, and particularly to the Pentateuch and the
-study of the Law. Many details or smaller points in the Law which had
-been partly forgotten and partly neglected during the long rule of the
-Sadducees, that is to say, from Hyrcanus's oppression of the Pharisees
-until the commencement of Salome's reign, were once more introduced
-into daily life. Neglected customs were renewed with all pomp and
-solemnity, the days of their re-introduction being celebrated with
-rejoicing, and any public mourning or fast thereon was suspended. Thus
-the ceremony of pouring a libation of water upon the altar during the
-Feast of Tabernacles, which had been mockingly ridiculed by Alexander,
-was in time reinstated with enthusiasm, and became a favorite and
-distinctive rite. Upon these occasions, on the night succeeding the
-first day of the festival, the women's outer court of the Temple was
-brilliantly illuminated until it glowed like a sea of fire. All the
-people would then crowd to the holy mount to witness or take part
-in the proceedings. At times these bore a lively character, such as
-torch-light processions and dancing; at others they took the more
-solemn form of musical services of song and praise. This jubilee would
-last the whole night. At break of day the priests announced with a
-blast of their trumpets that the march was about to commence. At every
-halting-place the trumpets gathered the people together, until a huge
-multitude stood assembled round the spring of Siloah. Thence the water
-was drawn in a golden ewer. In solemn procession it was carried back to
-the Temple, where the libation was performed. The water streamed over
-the altar, and the notes of the flute, heard only upon the most joyful
-occasions, mingled with the rapturous strains of melody that burst from
-countless instruments.
-
-A similar national festival was the half-holiday of the wood-feast,
-held in honor of the wood that was offered to the altar of the
-Temple; it fell upon the fifteenth day of Ab (August). A number of
-white-robed maidens were wont to assemble upon this occasion in some
-open space among the vine-trees, where, as they trod the measure of
-the dance, they chanted strophes of song in the Hebrew tongue. It was
-an opportunity for the Judæan youths, spectators of this scene, to
-select their partners for life. This festival, like the preceding one,
-was inaugurated by the Pharisees in opposition to Sadducæan customs.
-The Synhedrion seized upon the sacrificial ardor of the people to
-introduce a measure which, above all things, was calculated to arouse
-feelings of patriotism in the nation, and which was diametrically
-opposed to the views of their rivals. The Sadducees had declared that
-the daily offerings, and in fact the needs of the Temple, should not
-be paid for from a national treasury, but with individual, voluntary
-contributions. But the Council, in the reign of Salome Alexandra,
-decreed that every Israelite from the age of twenty--proselytes and
-freed slaves included--should contribute at least a half-shekel yearly
-to the treasury of the Temple. In this way the daily sacrifices
-acquired a truly national character, as the whole nation contributed
-towards them. Three collections were instituted during the year: in
-Judæa at the beginning of spring; in the trans-Jordanic countries, in
-Egypt and Syria, at the Feast of Weeks; and in the yet more distant
-lands of Babylonia, Media and Asia Minor, at the Feast of Tabernacles.
-These last collections were the richest, the Judæans who dwelt
-outside Palestine being very generous as well as very wealthy; thus,
-instead of the silver or copper shekel or denaria, they offered gold
-staters and darics. Central places in each land were chosen where the
-offerings should be deposited until they could be taken to Jerusalem.
-The most distinguished Judæans were selected to carry them thither,
-and they were called "holy messengers." In the Mesopotamian and
-Babylonian towns of Nisibis and Nahardea (Naarda), treasure-houses
-were built for these Temple gifts, whence, under a strong escort to
-protect them from the Parthian and Nabathæan robber-hordes, they were
-safely borne to Jerusalem. The communities of Asia Minor had likewise
-their treasure-houses, Apamea and Laodicea, in Phrygia, Pergamus and
-Adramyttium, in the country of Aeolis. From this stretch of land nearly
-two hundred pounds weight of gold was sent to Jerusalem about twenty
-years after the first proclamation had been issued. From this we may
-gather what an immense revenue poured into the Temple, leaving a large
-surplus after all the requisites for divine service had been obtained.
-The Temple of Jerusalem became thereby in time an object of envy and of
-greed.
-
-So far, the revival, introduced by Judah ben Tabbai and Simon ben
-Shetach, bore a harmless character; it reinstated old laws, created
-new ones, and sought means of impressing them upon the memory and
-attention of the people. But no reaction can remain within moderate
-bounds; it moves naturally towards excesses. The Sadducees, who were
-unwilling to adopt the Pharisaic rendering of the Law, were summoned
-to appear before the seat of justice and were unsparingly condemned.
-The anxiety to exalt the Law and to banish all opposition in the
-rival party was so great that upon one occasion Judah ben Tabbai had
-a witness executed who had been convicted of giving false testimony
-in a trial for a capital crime. He was, in this instance, desirous of
-practically refuting the Sadducæan views, forgetting that he was at the
-same time breaking a law of the Pharisees. That law required all the
-witnesses to be convicted of perjury before allowing punishment to be
-inflicted; and, as one witness alone could not establish an accusation,
-so one witness alone was not punishable. But the two chiefs were
-so clean-handed that Simon ben Shetach did not fail to upbraid his
-colleague on account of ill-advised haste, and Judah ben Tabbai evinced
-the profoundest remorse at the shedding of the innocent blood of the
-executed witness by resigning his office of president and by making
-a public acknowledgment of his contrition. A favorite maxim of Judah
-ben Tabbai reveals his gentle disposition. "Consider accused persons
-as lawbreakers only whilst before you for judgment; the moment that is
-rendered, look upon them as innocent."
-
-Simon ben Shetach, who succeeded Judah as President of the Council,
-does not seem to have relaxed in severity towards the infringers of
-the Law. The rare case of witchcraft was once brought before him, when
-eighty women were condemned for the offense, and crucified in Ascalon.
-On account of his unsparing severity, Simon ben Shetach brought upon
-himself such hatred of his opponents that they determined upon a
-fearful revenge. They incited two false witnesses to accuse his son of
-a crime punishable with death, in consequence of which he was actually
-condemned to die. On his way to the place of execution the young man
-uttered such vehement protestations of innocence that at last the
-witnesses themselves were affected, and confessed to their tissue of
-falsehoods. But when the judges were about to set free the condemned,
-the prisoner himself drew their attention to their violation of the
-law, which enjoined that no belief was to be given witnesses who
-withdrew their previous testimony. "If you wish," said the condemned
-youth to his father, "that the salvation of Israel should be wrought
-by your hand, consider me but the threshold over which you must pass
-without compunction." Both father and son showed themselves worthy of
-their sublime task, that of guarding the integrity of the Law; for to
-uphold it one sacrificed his life, and the other, his paternal love.
-Simon, the Judæan Brutus, let the law pursue its course, although he,
-as well as all the judges, were convinced of his son's innocence.
-
-The severity of the Pharisaic Synhedrion had naturally not spared
-the leaders of the Sadducees. Diogenes, the favorite of Alexander,
-and a number of others who had advised or authorized the execution
-of the 800 Pharisees, expiated this act of cruelty with their lives.
-The most distinguished of the Sadducees began to be uneasy at this
-constant persecution; they felt the sword of justice hanging over their
-heads, ready to descend upon them if they were guilty of the slightest
-infringement of the Law. In fear of their lives they turned to
-Alexander's second son, Aristobulus, who, without being a warm adherent
-of the Sadducees, was prepared to be the protector of their party. He
-sent their chiefs to Alexandra, commending them warmly to her mercy.
-When they appeared before the queen they reminded her of their services
-to the late king, and of the terror with which their name had once
-inspired Judæa's neighbors, and they threatened to offer their valuable
-services to the Nabathæan king Aretas or to the Syrian monarch. They
-implored the queen to grant them a safe retreat in some fortress where
-they would not be under the constant supervision of the Pharisees.
-The gentle-hearted queen was so much moved by the tears of these
-gray-haired warriors that she entrusted them with the command of most
-of the fortresses, reserving, however, the three strongest--Hyrcanion,
-Alexandrion, and Machærus.
-
-No political events of any great importance occurred during Alexandra's
-reign. Tigranes, king of Armenia, master of nearly the whole of Syria,
-had threatened to invade some of the Judæan provinces which had
-formerly belonged to the Syrian kingdom. The proximity of this ruler
-had greatly alarmed the queen, and she endeavored by gentle words and
-rich presents to prevent a contest with this powerful Armenian king.
-Tigranes had received the Judæan embassy, and accepted the queen's
-gifts most courteously, but they would hardly have prevented him from
-moving upon Judæa, had he not been compelled to devote himself to the
-defense of his own country from the attack of the Roman commander
-Lucullus (69).
-
-Alexandra fell hopelessly ill, and her illness occasioned the saddest
-of entanglements. The violent and ambitious Aristobulus, supposing
-that his mother destined his weak brother Hyrcanus as her successor,
-left the capital secretly, and arriving at the Galilean fortress of
-Gabata in the neighborhood of Sepphoris, upon the friendship of whose
-governor, the Sadducee Galaistes, he could rely, insisted upon its
-being entirely given up to him. He garrisoned it with mercenaries,
-furnished by some of the minor Syrian trans-Jordanic princes and the
-robber-hordes of Trachonitis, and was thus enabled to hold a large
-force at his command. Hyrcanus and the chiefs of the Synhedrion,
-fearing an impending civil war, entreated of the queen to take measures
-to prevent it, but without avail. Alexandra bade them trust to the
-army, to the fortresses that had remained faithful, and to the rich
-treasury, and devoted herself exclusively to preparation for death. She
-expired soon after, in the year 69, leaving her people and her kingdom
-to all the horrors of a civil war which was ultimately to destroy their
-dearly won independence. Salome Alexandra had reigned for only nine
-years; she had witnessed the happy days of her people's freedom, and,
-when lying on her death-bed, may have felt in her troubled soul the
-presentiment that the coming night of slavery was at hand. She was the
-only queen in Judæan history whose name has been handed down to us with
-veneration, and she was also the last independent ruler of Judæa.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-HYRCANUS II. ARISTOBULUS II.
-
-    Brothers contend for the throne--Arrangement between the
-    brothers--The Idumæan Antipater--Hyrcanus's weakness--Aretas
-    besieges Jerusalem--Interference of Rome--Pompey at
-    Jerusalem--The Judæan colony in Rome--Flaccus in Asia
-    Minor--Cicero's oration against the Judæans--Weakening of the
-    power of the Synhedrion--Shemaya and Abtalion--Violent death
-    of Aristobulus and his son Alexander--Julius Cæsar and the
-    Judæans--Antipater's sons Phasael and Herod--Herod before the
-    Synhedrion--Operations of Cassius in Judæa--Malich--Antigonus
-    as King--Herod escapes to Rome.
-
-    69.40 B. C. E.
-
-
-When Providence has decreed that a State shall be destroyed, no event
-is more certain to hasten its fall than the contentions between two
-rival parties for the possession of the throne. The noblest upholders
-of the nation's rights are then invariably arrayed against each other,
-until at last the civil wars in which they are engaged are usually
-referred to some foreign ruler, whose yoke is all the more galling
-as he appears invariably in the light of a peacemaker with the olive
-branch in his hand.
-
-The death of the queen gave the first incentive to the war which broke
-out between the two brothers and divided the nation into two camps.
-To Hyrcanus II, her eldest son, the dying mother had, in right of his
-birth, bequeathed the throne. He, whose virtues would have graced the
-modest life of a private individual, but who would have been but an
-indifferent ruler even in a peaceful era, was certainly not fitted to
-govern in troubled times. He did more harm by his good nature than many
-another could do by acts of tyranny. His younger brother was the direct
-opposite to him in character. Hyrcanus's cowardice contrasted vividly
-with the reckless courage of Aristobulus, a quality in which he
-resembled his father Alexander. Added to this, he possessed unlimited
-ambition, which blinded him to practical considerations and quitted him
-only with his last breath. His aim was to be the mighty ruler of Judæa,
-and with the means at his command to make the neighboring countries
-subject to his rule. But his rash impetuosity prevented him from
-being successful, and, instead of gathering laurels, he brought only
-contempt upon himself and his nation. Hardly had Alexandra expired when
-Aristobulus, at the head of his mercenaries and Sadducæan followers,
-marched upon Jerusalem for the purpose of dethroning his brother. Upon
-Hyrcanus's side were ranged the Pharisees, the people and the army. The
-wife and children of Aristobulus had been imprisoned as hostages in
-the citadel of Baris in Jerusalem. The brothers met at Jericho, each
-at the head of his army. Hyrcanus was defeated and fled to Jerusalem,
-the greater number of his troops going over to Aristobulus. The younger
-brother attacked and took the Temple, where many of his opponents had
-sought refuge. Hyrcanus was obliged to lay down his arms when he saw
-that the invader was master of the sanctuary and the capital. The two
-brothers met again, agreed upon making peace, and signed their covenant
-in the Temple. Aristobulus, as the one more capable of ruling, was to
-wear the royal crown, whilst Hyrcanus was to retain the high priest's
-diadem. This agreement was ratified by the marriage of Aristobulus's
-son Alexander to Alexandra, daughter of Hyrcanus.
-
-Aristobulus II, who had attained royal dignity by a successful stroke
-of arms, does not appear to have in any way excited the displeasure of
-the Pharisees. The position of the two parties in Judæa now assumed a
-different character, and they might have become extinct as parties, had
-it not been for the advent of a man whose measureless ambition and
-personal interest brought him to the fore, and who, together with his
-family, became the vampire of the nation, sucking its noblest blood
-away. This man was Antipater, the descendant of a distinguished Idumæan
-family, who, in common with all other Idumæans, had been compelled by
-John Hyrcanus to accept Judaism. Never had a mistaken action found its
-punishment more surely and swiftly. The fanaticism of Hyrcanus I was
-now to bring ruin upon his house and family. The wealth and diplomatic
-talents of Antipater had raised him to the post of satrap of Idumæa
-during the reign of Alexander Jannæus and of his queen. His courteous
-acts and generous presents had won the affections not only of his
-countrymen, but also those of the inhabitants of Gaza and Ascalon.
-
-Hyrcanus II, who required a guide in his helplessness, bestowed his
-confidence upon Antipater, who abused it, and exerted his influence
-to his own advantage. The Idumæan lost no opportunity of reminding
-Hyrcanus of the degrading part that he had had to play in having been
-called to the throne only to relinquish it to his younger brother. So
-successfully did Antipater work upon his feelings, making him believe
-that Aristobulus was actually planning his death, that Hyrcanus
-was tempted into breaking the covenant he had sworn to respect, by
-calling in a foreign ruler to decide between the claims of the two
-brothers. Antipater had laid his plans beforehand with Aretas, king
-of the Nabathæans. He fled one night from Jerusalem, bearing Hyrcanus
-with him, and arrived by forced marches at Petra, the capital of the
-Nabathæan king. Aretas was ready to help Hyrcanus, having been richly
-bribed by Antipater, and having the prospect of recapturing twelve
-cities east and south of the Dead Sea, which had been bought so dearly
-by the Hasmonæans. He marched, therefore, upon Judæa, with an army of
-fifty thousand men, whose numbers were augmented by the followers of
-Hyrcanus (66). Thus the peace which the nation had enjoyed for nearly
-three years was disturbed for many a long day by the scheming ambition
-of Antipater and the boundless folly of Hyrcanus.
-
-Aretas laid siege to Jerusalem in the beginning of the spring. To
-escape so deplorable a sight, many of the most distinguished Judæans
-(probably some of the Pharisaic leaders amongst them) fled from the
-capital to Egypt. The siege lasted for several months, the strong walls
-of the city to a certain extent making up for the insufficient numbers
-of Aristobulus's warriors. But provisions began to fail, and, what was
-a far more serious consideration for the pious Judæans, the animals
-necessary for sacrificial purposes, particularly for the coming Paschal
-feast, were sensibly diminishing. But Aristobulus relied, and rightly
-so, upon the piety of the Judæan besiegers, who would not dare refuse
-the required victims for the altar. He ordered baskets to be lowered
-each day from the walls, containing the price of the lambs that were
-placed in the baskets, and were drawn up in return. But as the siege
-dragged on, and as the end seemed far off, some counselor--we may
-imagine that it was Antipater--advised Hyrcanus to hurry on the final
-scene, and to desist from supplying the sacrificial lamb. The basket
-that was lowered after this advice had been tendered was found to
-contain, when received within the city walls, a pig. This insult to the
-Law created a feeling of disgust amongst the besieged, and so deeply
-affected them that subsequently the breeding of swine was forbidden by
-the Synhedrion.
-
-The adherents of Hyrcanus were guilty of yet another enormity. Amongst
-those who had left the besieged city was a pious man called Onias, who
-had once successfully prayed for rain in a drought. The soldiers of
-Hyrcanus dragged him from his solitary retreat, and believing that
-Heaven would again answer his prayer, commanded him to pronounce a
-curse upon Aristobulus and his followers. But instead of giving vent
-to a curse, the old man exclaimed with fitting dignity, "Lord of the
-universe, as the besieged and the besiegers both belong to Thy people,
-I entreat of Thee not to grant the evil prayers of either party." The
-coarse soldiers could not understand the feelings that prompted such
-words, and murdered him as if he had been a criminal. In this way they
-thought they could silence the spirit of Judaism rising to protest
-against this civil war. But although the mighty ones of the land defied
-all right and proper feeling, the people were grievously distressed,
-and believed that the earthquake and the hurricane that devastated
-Palestine and other parts of Asia at that time were the visible signs
-of Divine wrath.
-
-But more terrible than earthquake or hurricane was the harbinger of
-evil that appeared in Judæa, "the beast with iron teeth, brazen claws,
-and heart of stone, that was to devour much, and trample the rest under
-foot," which came to the Judæan nation, to drink its blood, to eat
-its flesh and to suck its marrow. The hour had struck when the Roman
-eagle, with swift flight, was to swoop down upon Israel's inheritance,
-circling wildly round the bleeding nation, lacerating her with cruel
-wounds and finally leaving her a corpse.
-
-Like inexorable fate, Rome watched over the destinies of the people of
-western Asia, plundering, dividing and destroying. Judæa was destined
-to the same lot. The bird of prey scented its booty from afar with
-astonishing precision, and hastened to put out the last spark of
-life. It came to Judæa for the first time in the person of Scaurus, a
-legate of Pompey. In leaving for Asia, Scaurus hoped to exchange an
-insignificant position in his own country for a powerful one in foreign
-lands. He had imagined that in Syria he might acquire wealth and
-honor, but finding that country already in possession of other birds of
-prey, he turned his attention to Judæa. There he was warmly welcomed
-by the rival brothers, who looked upon him as an arbitrator in their
-difficulties. They both sent ambassadors to meet him, and as they knew
-that the Romans were not indifferent to gold, they took care not to
-appear empty-handed before him. But Aristobulus's gifts prevailed; he
-sent three hundred talents, whilst Hyrcanus, or more properly speaking
-Antipater, gave little but promises. Roman interest accorded well with
-the greed of Scaurus. The Republic, fearing the growth of his power,
-began by insisting that the Nabathæan king should retire from the civil
-war in Palestine; Scaurus was therefore able to command Aretas to raise
-the siege of Jerusalem. Aretas complied, but was overtaken with his
-army at Rabbath Ammon by the troops of Aristobulus and defeated.
-
-For the moment Aristobulus might fancy that he was the victorious
-monarch of Judæa. The direction that Roman statesmanship had taken,
-and the slow, deliberate movements that the commander Pompey employed
-against Mithridates, lulled him into the delusion that his monarchy
-was one of lasting duration. A lover of war like his father, he began
-immediately to make inroads into neighboring provinces, and also
-organized a fleet for warlike purposes. For two years Aristobulus
-nursed this vain dream, and he may even have wished to establish a show
-of independence by ordering, during this interval, coins to be struck
-in his name. But Antipater's inventive genius soon dissipated this
-dream; for in the arts of bribery and diplomacy he was far superior
-to Aristobulus. Antipater had already induced Scaurus to side with
-Hyrcanus, and to win for him the favor of Pompey, who was at this time
-gathering laurels in Syria. Pompey looked upon the quarrel between
-the two brothers as an excellent means for adding another conquest
-to his long lists of triumphs. Although Aristobulus had made him a
-magnificent gift, valuable in point of art as of intrinsic merit, the
-contest had not been brought to an end. This gift consisted of a golden
-vine, bearing clusters of golden grapes and golden leaves, valued
-at five hundred talents, and it had probably been designed by King
-Alexander for the adornment of the Temple. This work of art aroused the
-admiration of all those who saw it, and for that reason Pompey hastened
-to send it to Rome, where it was placed in the Temple of Jupiter on
-the Capitol, as the harbinger of his triumphs. But the pious Judæans,
-naturally, would not allow their own sanctuary to be deprived of such
-an ornament, and spontaneously made contributions, some for golden
-grapes, others for golden leaves; so that another golden vine, in later
-days, graced the outer court of the Temple.
-
-Although Pompey's vanity was flattered by this magnificent present, he
-was far from deciding in favor of the donor. He had the insolence to
-command Antipater and Nicodemus, the two envoys of the rival brothers,
-to bid their masters appear in person at Damascus, where the vexed
-question should be discussed, and where he would decide in favor of one
-of the two princes. In spite of the deep humiliation which each felt,
-both Hyrcanus and Aristobulus appeared, and upheld their individual
-claims; the one resting upon his rights of birth, the other upon his
-capacity for governing. But a third party had also appeared before
-Pompey, which was to represent the right of the nation apart from the
-angry princes. Weary of the Hasmonæan quarrels, a republican party had
-sprung up, which was ready to govern the Judæan community, according to
-the letter of the Law, without an hereditary sovereign. The republicans
-especially complained that the last of the Hasmonæans had changed the
-Judæan form of government from a hierarchy to a monarchy, in order
-to reduce the nation to servitude. Pompey, however, gave ear neither
-to the murmurs of the republicans nor to the arguments of the two
-brothers. It was not his intention to put an end to the strife; what
-he desired was, in the guise of a peaceful arbitrator, to bring Judæa
-under the Roman rule. He soon saw that the weak-minded Hyrcanus (under
-the tutelage of a designing minister) would be better adapted for the
-part of a ward of Rome than the daring Aristobulus, and he inwardly
-determined to support the weaker prince. But as he feared that by
-too rash a decision he would only be involved in a long contest with
-Aristobulus in an inaccessible country, and that he would only delay
-his triumphal entry into Rome, he endeavored to put off the younger
-brother with empty promises. Aristobulus, however, saw through the
-snare that was prepared for him, and determined to make sure of his
-freedom whilst there was yet time. He, therefore, entrenched himself
-in the citadel of Alexandrion, intending to oppose the invasion of the
-enemy from the walls of the fortress. But Roman greed of conquest was
-now to manifest itself in all its abhorrent nakedness.
-
-The Roman commander was pleased to look upon this prince's justifiable
-act of self-defense as evidence of insubordination, and to treat him
-as an obstinate rebel. He crossed the Jordan at Bethshean, and taking
-the field against Aristobulus, commanded him to surrender, following
-up this command by a series of delusive promises and serious threats,
-such as would have induced a more wily man to take a false step.
-The unfortunate prince surrendered the fortress of Alexandrion, but
-soon repenting of this folly, returned to entrench himself behind
-the strong walls of the city of Jerusalem, whither Pompey followed
-him. When the Roman commander arrived at Jericho he heard, to his
-infinite satisfaction, of the suicide of Mithridates, the great and
-dangerous enemy of the Roman State, and he felt that he had now only
-to subdue Aristobulus before celebrating his triumphs in Rome. It
-seemed as if this end would be easily attained; for Aristobulus,
-impelled by fear, came penitently to the feet of Pompey, loading him
-with presents, and promising to deliver Jerusalem into his hands. For
-this purpose Aristobulus started for the capital, accompanied by the
-legate Gabinius; but their advance was repelled by the patriots, who
-closed the gates of Jerusalem upon them, and Pompey was compelled to
-lead his army against the city. The Hyrcanists, or lovers of peace, as
-they were called, opened their gates to the enemy; but the patriots
-entrenched themselves upon the Mount of the Sanctuary, and destroying
-the bridge that connected the Temple with the town, prepared for a
-desperate defense. Pompey, much against his will, found that he was
-involved in a regular siege, the Temple Mount being strongly fortified.
-Then he sent to Tyre for his battering-rams, and ordered trees to be
-felled for bridging over the moats. The siege lasted for a long while,
-and might have continued still longer, had not the storming of the
-fortress been rendered easier to the besiegers by the patriots' strict
-observance of the Sabbath-day. In accordance with either a Pharisaic
-or a Sadducæan rendering of the Law, the besieged declared that they
-were permitted to resist an attack of the invaders on the Sabbath,
-but that they were infringing upon the sanctity of that day if they
-merely defended the walls from the enemy's onslaughts. As soon as the
-Romans were aware of this distinction, they turned it to their own
-advantage. They let their weapons rest on the Sabbath-day, and worked
-steadily at the demolishing of the walls. Thus it happened that upon
-one Sabbath, in the month of Sivan (June, 63 B. C.), a tower of the
-Temple fell, and a breach was effected by which the most daring of the
-Romans prepared a way for entering the Sanctuary. The legions of Rome
-and the foreign mercenaries crowded into the court of the Temple, and
-killed the priests as they stood sacrificing before the altar. Many of
-the unfortunate victims threw themselves headlong from the battlements
-into the depths below, whilst others lit their own funeral pyre. It
-is believed that twelve thousand Judæans met their death upon this
-day. Pompey then penetrated into the Sanctuary, in order to satisfy
-his curiosity as to the nature of the Judæan worship, about which the
-most contradictory reports prevailed. The Roman general was not a
-little astonished at finding within the sacred recesses of the Holy of
-Holies, neither an ass's head nor, indeed, images of any sort. Thus the
-malicious fictions busily circulated by Alexandrian writers, and of a
-character so prejudicial to the Judæans, were now shown to be false.
-The entrance of the Roman conqueror into the Temple, though deplorable
-enough, was in a way favorable to Judaism. Whether he was penetrated by
-awe at the sublime simplicity of the Holy of Holies, or whether he did
-not wish to be designated as the robber of sanctuaries, we know not;
-but, wonderful to relate, Pompey controlled his greed for gold and left
-the treasury, containing 2000 talents, untouched. But the independence
-of the nation ceased forever from that hour. Exactly a century after
-the Maccabees had freed their people from the tyranny of the Syrians,
-their descendants brought down the tyranny of the Romans upon Judæa.
-
-What did Hyrcanus gain by his supplication for aid from the Republic?
-Pompey deprived him of his royal title, only leaving him the dignity
-of the high priesthood, with the doubtful appellation of ethnarch, and
-made him the ward of Antipater, who was named governor of the country.
-The walls of Jerusalem were razed to the ground, Judæa put into the
-category of conquered provinces, and a tax was levied upon the capital.
-The territory was brought within narrower confines, and its extent
-became once more what it had been in pre-Hasmonæan times. Several
-seaports lying along the coast, and inhabited by Greeks, as well as
-those trans-Jordanic towns which Hyrcanus and Alexander had conquered
-after hard fighting, and had incorporated with Judæa, were declared
-to be free towns by Pompey, and were placed under the guardianship
-of the Roman governor of Syria. But these cities, particularly the
-trans-Jordanic ones, joined together in a defensive and offensive
-league, calling themselves the Decapolis. Pompey ordered the most
-determined of his prisoners of war, the zealots, to be executed, whilst
-the rest were taken to Rome. The Judæan prince, Aristobulus, his son
-Antigonus, his two daughters, and his uncle Absalom were forced to
-precede Pompey's triumphal car, in the train of the conquered Asiatic
-kings and kings' sons. Whilst Zion veiled her head in mourning, Rome
-was reveling in her victories; but the Judæan prisoners that had been
-dragged to Rome were to become the nucleus of a community destined
-to carry on a new kind of warfare against long-established Roman
-institutions, and ultimately to modify or partly destroy them.
-
-There were, without doubt, many Judæans living in Rome and in other
-Italian cities before Pompey's conquests, who may have emigrated into
-Italy from Egypt and Asia Minor for commercial objects. As merchants,
-bringing grain from the Nile country, or tribute money from Asia Minor,
-they may have come into contact with the Roman potentates. But these
-emigrants could hardly have formed a regular communal organization, for
-there were no authorized teachers of the Law amongst them. Probably,
-however, some learned men may have followed in Pompey's train of
-captives, who were ransomed by their compatriots, and persuaded
-to remain in Rome. The descendants of these prisoners were called
-according to Roman law _libertini_ (the freed ones). The Judæan quarter
-in Rome lay upon the right bank of the Tiber, on the slope of Mount
-Vatican, and a bridge leading across that river to the Vatican was
-known for a long while by the name of the Bridge of the Judæans (Pons
-Judæorum). Theodus, one of the Judæans settled in Rome, introduced
-into his own community a substitute for the paschal lamb, which could
-not be eaten outside of Jerusalem, and the loss of which was a bitter
-deprivation to the exiles. This aroused the displeasure of the Judæans
-in the home country, who wrote to Theodus: "If thou wert not Theodus,
-we should excommunicate thee."
-
-The Roman Judæans influenced, to a certain extent, the course of
-Roman policy. For as the original emigrants, as well as the ransomed
-captives, enjoyed the power of voting in public assemblies, they were
-able at times, by their combined action on a preconcerted plan, by
-their assiduity, by their temperate and passionless conception of the
-situation, perhaps also by their keen intelligence, to turn the scale
-upon some popular question. So important was their quiet influence
-that the eloquent but intolerant Cicero, who had learned to hate the
-Judæans from his master Apollonius Molo, was afraid on one occasion
-to give vent to his anti-Judæan feelings in a public speech, for fear
-of stirring them up against him. He had to defend the unjust cause of
-a prætor Flaccus, who was accused of having been guilty of numerous
-extortions during his government of the Asia Minor provinces. Amongst
-other things, Flaccus had seized upon the votive offerings of the
-Temple (_aurum Judæorum_) given by the community of Asia Minor--about
-two hundred pounds of gold, collected by the Judæan inhabitants of
-the towns of Apamea, Laodicea, Adramyttium, and Pergamus (62). In
-order to justify his proceedings Flaccus cited a resolution of the
-Senate, by which all exportation of money was forbidden from Roman
-to foreign provinces; and although Judæa had been conquered by Roman
-arms, yet she did not enjoy the honor of being enrolled amongst the
-provinces of the Republic. The Roman Judæans were intensely interested
-in this trial, and many of them were present among the populace. The
-cowardly Cicero was so much afraid of them that he would have liked
-to speak in a low tone in order to be heard by the Judges but not by
-the Judæans. In the course of his defense he made use of an unworthy
-piece of sophistry, which might have made an impression upon some
-bigoted Roman, but which could hardly satisfy an intelligent mind. "It
-requires great decision of character," he said, "to oppose the barbaric
-superstitions of the Judæans and, for the good of our country, to show
-proper contempt towards these seditious people, who invade our public
-assemblies. If Pompey did not avail himself of a conqueror's rights,
-and left the treasures of the Temple untouched, we may be sure he did
-not restrain himself out of reverence for the Judæan sanctuary, but out
-of astuteness, to avoid giving the suspicious and slanderous Judæan
-nation an opportunity of accusing him; for otherwise he would hardly
-have spared foreign, still less Judæan, sanctuaries. When Jerusalem was
-unconquered, and when the Judæans were living in peace, they displayed
-a deeply-rooted antipathy to the glory of the Roman State, to the
-dignity of the Roman name, and to the laws of our ancestors. During the
-last war the Judæan nation proved most effectually how bitterly they
-hate us. How little this nation is beloved by the immortal gods is now
-evident, as her country is conquered and leased out." What impression
-this speech made upon the audience, and what decision was given to
-Flaccus, are unknown. A year later Cicero was punished by a sentence of
-banishment. He was not allowed to be seen within eighty miles of Rome,
-and his villas were razed to the ground.
-
-After Pompey's departure from Syria, the thraldom imposed upon
-dismembered Judæa became more onerous than before, because she was left
-in the anomalous condition of a partly conquered province and a partly
-independent country. The powerful minister of Hyrcanus contributed to
-make this condition lasting and oppressive. He endeavored to strengthen
-his connection with Rome by munificent presents, trusting that the
-Republic would support him, in spite of his unpopularity with the
-Judæan people, who hated him as the cause of their subjection. With the
-sweat from Judæa's brow he sustained the Roman commander Scaurus, who
-had opened a campaign against the Nabathæan king, Aretas. Meanwhile
-Alexander II, the eldest son of Aristobulus, escaping from captivity
-and arriving in Judæa, gained the support of the patriots, and putting
-himself at the head of fifteen hundred horse and ten thousand foot
-soldiers, marched upon Jerusalem. Hyrcanus, or more properly speaking
-his master Antipater, could not resist so great a force, and left the
-capital to Alexander, who entered and had it fortified. The great
-Roman power fought alternately upon either side, according to the
-bribes that were offered its officials. Alexander felt so secure of
-his position that he had coins struck with the following inscription
-in Greek and Hebrew, "King Alexander and High Priest Jonathan." Aulus
-Gabinius, however, the governor of Syria, and the most unscrupulous of
-the Roman extortioners of his times, succeeded in ending this revolt
-and in subduing Alexander. The death-stroke that awaited the latter was
-only warded off by his mother, who, embracing the knees of the Roman
-commander, entreated him to show mercy to her son.
-
-Gabinius succeeded in weakening the unity of the Judæan State,
-which had of late been so unworthily represented by the last of the
-Hasmonæans, but the integrity of which had always been so jealously
-watched over by the Great Council. Judæa was no longer to be an
-independent State with self-governing and legislative powers over the
-whole country, but was to be divided into five provinces, each having
-its own independent Senate or Synhedrion for the control of home
-affairs. These assemblies were held at specially appointed towns, at
-Jerusalem, Gazara, Emmaus, Jericho, and Sepphoris; and Judæans selected
-from the aristocratic party, who were well disposed towards Rome, were
-placed at the head of these councils.
-
-Although the fact of having dismembered the State testified in favor
-of Gabinius's political insight, yet he deceived himself as regarded
-the ultimate success of his plans. As the Synhedrion had grown out of
-the innermost life of the whole nation and had not been forced upon it
-by outside influences, it was no easy matter to break its centralizing
-power. The new scheme of dividing Judæa into five provinces was hardly
-introduced before it disappeared with Gabinius, leaving no trace of
-its existence. The Great Council remained as before the heart of the
-people, but its power was lessened by unfavorable circumstances. From
-that time it was called the "Synhedrion," and to distinguish it from
-the small Councils, the "Great Synhedrion." But it could not boast of
-any political power, for that was now entirely in the hands of the
-Romans. Simon ben Shetach, the celebrated president of the Council, was
-succeeded by his two most distinguished disciples, Shemaya (Sameas)
-and Abtalion (Pollion). We can trace the despairing sentiments of that
-generation in some of their sayings which have been handed down to us:
-"Love thy handicraft and shun governing; estrange thyself from worldly
-power." "Be prudent in your words," said Abtalion to the law-framers;
-"do not bring upon yourselves the penalty of exile, for your disciples
-would have to follow you into a land full of ensnaring influences
-(poisonous waters) which they would imbibe, and the sacred name of God
-would be through them profaned." These two presidents of the Synhedrion
-seem to have been Alexandrian Judæans, or at least they must have spent
-some years of exile in Alexandria, perhaps with their master Judah ben
-Tabbai.
-
-During their twenty-five years of official life (60-35), whilst the
-political power of the Synhedrion was waning, their energy appears to
-have been directed towards its inner or moral power. They assembled a
-circle of eager disciples around them, to whom they taught the tenets
-of the Law, their origin and application. They were indeed accredited
-in after ages with so profound a knowledge of the Law, that to cite
-Shemaya or Abtalion in support of an interpretation was considered
-indisputable proof of its accuracy. One of their most distinguished and
-most grateful disciples called them "the two great men of the era," and
-the peculiarly careful study of the Law, for which the Pharisees became
-so justly celebrated, may be said to have originated with them.
-
-For some little time the history of Judæa contains nothing but accounts
-of insubordination to Roman despotism and its unhappy consequences,
-of scenes of oppression and robbery, and of acts of spoliation of the
-Temple. Aristobulus, who had succeeded in escaping from Rome with his
-son Antigonus, now appeared in Judæa. The rule of the Romans was of so
-galling a character that Aristobulus, who had not been a favorite in
-the old days, was now received with unbounded enthusiasm. Sufficient
-arms could not be procured for the volunteers who flocked to his camp.
-He was joined by Pitholaus, a Judæan commander, who had once served as
-a general to Hyrcanus. Aristobulus placed himself at the head of 8000
-men, and began immediately to regarrison the citadel of Alexandrion,
-whence he hoped to exhaust the Romans by guerrilla warfare. But his
-impatient temper led him into open battle, in which a large part of his
-army was utterly destroyed, and the rest scattered. Still unsubdued,
-Aristobulus threw himself with the remnant of his followers into the
-citadel of Machærus, but at the approach of the Romans with their
-battering-rams he was obliged to capitulate, and for the second time
-was sent with his sons into captivity at Rome (56).
-
-Another insurrection, organized by his son Alexander, who had obtained
-his freedom from the then all-powerful Pompey, was doomed to come to
-as disastrous a termination. Galled by the oppression of the Governor
-of Syria, the inhabitants of that unfortunate country sent an army of
-30,000 men to join Alexander. They commenced by killing all the Romans
-who came in their way, Gabinius's troops not being strong enough to
-oppose them. But the Governor craftily succeeded in detaching some
-of Alexander's followers from his ranks, and then tempted the Judæan
-prince into open battle. At Mount Tabor (in 55), the Judæans were
-signally defeated.
-
-Meanwhile the three most eminent men of Rome--Julius Cæsar,
-distinguished by his brilliant sagacity, Pompey by his martial renown,
-and Crassus by his boundless wealth--had agreed to break the power
-of the Senate, and to manage the affairs of the State according to
-their own will. The triumvirs began by dividing the fairest lands
-into provinces, which they separately appropriated. Syria fell to
-the share of Crassus, who was intensely avaricious in spite of his
-vast riches. Judæa from this time on was annexed to Syria quite as a
-matter of course. Crassus went out of his way, when marching against
-the Parthians, to enter Jerusalem, being tempted thither by the rich
-treasury of the Temple. He made no secret of his wish to seize upon
-the two thousand talents that Pompey had spared. In order to satisfy
-his greed, a pious priest, Eleazer, delivered up to him a solid bar
-of gold, the existence of which, hidden as it was in a hollow staff
-of curiously carved wood, had been unknown to the priests. Upon the
-receipt of this gift, Crassus swore solemnly that he would spare the
-treasury of the Temple. But when was a promise known to be binding
-that was made by a Roman to a Judæan? He took the golden bar, the two
-thousand talents, and all the golden vessels of the Temple, which were
-worth another eight thousand talents (54). Laden with these and other
-spoils of the Sanctuary, Crassus marched against the Parthians; but
-the Roman arms had always failed to subdue this people. Crassus was
-slain, and his army was so entirely disabled that his legate, Cassius
-Longinus, returned to Syria with scarcely the tenth part of the army
-of one hundred thousand men (53). The Parthians pursued the weakened
-army, and the Syrians, weary of the Roman yoke, lent them secret aid.
-To the Judæans this seemed an auspicious moment also for their own
-emancipation.
-
-It fell to Pitholaus to call the army together, which he led against
-Cassius. Fortune, however, always deserted the Judæan arms when they
-were turned against the Romans. Shut up in Tarichea on the lake of
-Tiberias, the troops were obliged to surrender. Upon the urgent demand
-of Antipater, Pitholaus was sentenced to death by Cassius, and thirty
-thousand Judæan warriors were sold into slavery (52).
-
-But the imprisoned Aristobulus looked forward once again to the hope
-of placing himself upon his father's throne and of banishing Antipater
-into obscurity. Julius Cæsar, the greatest man that Rome ever
-produced, had openly defied the Senate, and broken with his associate
-Pompey. The bitter strife between the two Roman potentates lit the
-torch of war in the most distant provinces of the Roman empire. Cæsar
-had given Aristobulus his freedom, and in order to weaken Pompey's
-influence, had sent him with two legions to Palestine to create a
-diversion in his favor. But the partisans of Pompey contrived to
-poison the Judæan prince. His followers embalmed his body in honey
-and carried it to Jerusalem, where it was buried beside the bodies
-of the Hasmonæan princes. His eldest son, the gallant Alexander, was
-decapitated by order of Scipio, a follower of Pompey, at Antioch. The
-widow of Aristobulus and his surviving son Antigonus found protection
-with Ptolemy, prince of Chalcis, whose son Philippion had fallen in
-love with Alexandra, the daughter of Aristobulus, and had brought her
-to his father's court. But Ptolemy, out of criminal love to his own
-daughter-in-law, caused his son to be murdered and married the widow.
-
-Antipater continued to be Pompey's faithful ally, until the Roman
-general met with a miserable end in Egypt. Then the Idumæan offered
-his services to Cæsar. When the great general found himself in Egypt,
-without sufficient forces, without news from Rome, in the midst of a
-hostile population, Antipater evinced a touching eagerness to help
-him, which did not remain unrewarded. He provided the army of Cæsar's
-ally, Mithridates, king of Pergamus, with all necessaries, and sent him
-a contingent of Judæan troops; he aided him in conquering Pelusium,
-and conciliated the Egyptian-Judæans who had taken the part of his
-opponent. He was now well able to forego the favor of Hyrcanus. To no
-effect did Antigonus, the last surviving son of Aristobulus, seek an
-interview with Cæsar, in which he dwelt upon his father's and his
-brother's loyalty to the Roman general; Antipater had but to display
-his wounds, which he had received in the very last campaign, to gain
-the victory over his rival. Cæsar, who was an astute reader of men,
-and who had himself revolted from the legitimate order of things, knew
-well enough how to value Antipater's loyalty and energy, and did not
-support the rightful claims of Antigonus. Out of consideration for
-Antipater (47), Hyrcanus was proclaimed high priest and ethnarch, and
-to Judæa was given some relief from her burdens. The walls of Jerusalem
-were rebuilt, the provinces that formerly belonged to Judæa, namely,
-Galilee, the towns in the plains of Jezreel, and Lydda, were once
-more made part of her territory. The Judæans were no longer forced to
-provide winter quarters for the Roman legions, although the landowners
-were obliged to give the fourth part of their harvest every second year
-to the Roman troops.
-
-Cæsar was altogether benevolent to the Judæans, and rewarded them for
-their loyalty. To the Alexandrian Judæans he granted many privileges,
-confirming their long-enjoyed equality with the Greeks, and permitting
-them to be governed by a prince of their own (Ethnarch). Money was
-again liberally provided for the Temple. Cæsar enabled the supplies to
-reach their destination. He prevented the Greek inhabitants of Asia
-Minor from molesting the Judæans of those provinces, from summoning
-them before the courts of justice on the Sabbath, from interfering with
-their public assemblages and the building of their synagogues, and in
-general from disturbing them in their religious observances (47-44).
-Cæsar must also have extended his generosity to the Judæan community in
-Rome, for they evinced the warmest devotion to his memory.
-
-But in spite of all these favors, the Judæan nation as a whole
-remained cold and distant. The foreign communities of Judæans might
-bless Cæsar as their benefactor, but the Palestinean Judæans could see
-in him only the Roman, the patron of the hated Idumæan. So defiant was
-the attitude of the nation that Antipater felt himself compelled to
-threaten the disaffected with the triple wrath of Cæsar, of Hyrcanus
-and of himself, whilst he promised liberal bounty to the obedient and
-loyal Judæans. Meanwhile, a small body of men taken from the army of
-Aristobulus had assembled under the command of Ezekias upon one of
-the mountain heights of Galilee, where they only awaited an opportune
-moment for raising the standard of revolt against Rome. The Romans,
-it is true, only looked upon this little army as a band of robbers,
-and upon Ezekias as a robber chieftain, but to the Judæans they were
-the avengers of their honor and their freedom. For they were deeply
-mortified that Antipater had placed the reins of government in the
-hands of his sons, and that he cared only for the growing power of his
-house. Of the four sons born to him by Kypros, the daughter of the King
-of Arabia, he proclaimed Phasael, the eldest, Governor of Jerusalem and
-Judæa, and the second, Herod, a youth of the age of twenty, Governor of
-Galilee.
-
-This prince was destined to become the evil genius of the Judæan
-nation; it was he who brought her as a bound captive to Rome; it was he
-who placed his feet triumphantly upon her neck. Like an ominous cloud
-weighted down with misfortune, he seems from the very first to have
-thrown a dark shadow upon the life of the nation, which, as it slowly
-but surely advanced, quenched all light in the gathering darkness and
-withered all growth, until nothing remained but a scene of desolation.
-True to his father's policy, Herod began by basely flattering Rome
-and by wounding the Judæan spirit. In order to gain favor with Cæsar,
-and also to establish the security of his family, he undertook a
-campaign against the followers of Ezekias; he captured the leader of
-the band, and, without any trial or show of justice, sentenced him and
-his followers to decapitation. Eager were the words of praise and of
-thanks awarded to him by the Syrians and the Romans; he was called the
-"Robber-subduer"; but whilst he was loaded with favors by Sextus Cæsar,
-the Roman Governor of Syria, all true patriots mourned.
-
-The bitter degradation which the people suffered at the hands of
-this Idumæan family inspired some of the most distinguished Judæans
-to lay before the weak-minded Hyrcanus the true state of their own
-and of their High Priest's new position. They explained to him that
-his dignity was but an empty name, that all real power lay with
-Antipater and his sons. They pointed to the execution of Ezekias and
-his followers as an act of gross contempt for the Law. These bitter
-complaints would have had but little effect upon the weak Hyrcanus,
-had not the mothers of the slain torn his heart with their cries of
-anguish. Whenever he appeared in the Temple they threw themselves
-before him and entreated him not to let the death of their sons remain
-unavenged.
-
-At last Hyrcanus permitted the Synhedrion to summon Herod before the
-seat of justice. But Antipater did not fail to warn his son of the
-terrible storm that was gathering over his head, and of the danger
-of entering Jerusalem alone and unarmed; while at the same time he
-cautioned him not to appear surrounded by too many troops, and so
-arouse the suspicions of Hyrcanus. Herod appeared at the appointed
-time, but with an armed escort, and with a letter from Sextus Cæsar,
-making the king answerable for the life of the favorite. Thus the day
-arrived for the great trial to which all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
-were looking forward with feverish impatience. When the members of
-the court had taken their places, the accused, clad in purple, with
-aggressive demeanor, and escorted by his followers, appeared before
-them. At this sight most of the accusers felt their courage fail
-them; Herod's bitterest enemies looked downcast and shamefaced, and
-even Hyrcanus was embarrassed. A painful silence ensued, during which
-each man stood breathless. Only one member found words to save the
-waning dignity of the Council, the President, Shemaya. Quietly and
-calmly he spoke: "Is it not the intention of the accused to put us to
-death if we pronounce him guilty? And yet I must blame him less than
-the king and you, who suffer such contempt to be cast upon the Law.
-Know, then that he, before whom you are all trembling, will one day
-deliver you to the sword of the executioner." These words roused the
-fainting courage of the judges, and they soon showed themselves to be
-as determined as they had before appeared to be cowardly. But Hyrcanus
-was afraid of their growing wrath, and commanded the Council to adjourn
-the sitting. Meanwhile Herod withdrew from the anger of the people,
-and was cordially received at Damascus by Sextus Cæsar, who proclaimed
-him governor of Coelesyria (46). Overwhelmed with honors, he was on the
-point of wreaking his vengeance upon the king and the Council, when his
-father and his brother Phasael urged him to milder measures. But he
-silently nursed his revenge, determined to gratify it upon some future
-occasion.
-
-The wide-spread disturbance occasioned by the murder of Cæsar (44)
-involved Palestine in new troubles. The Roman Judæans justly were so
-inconsolable at the death of this great man that they spent several
-entire nights mourning beside the grave that contained his ashes. The
-internal struggles, the bloody warfare, the constant proscriptions,
-were but the labor-throes of Rome previous to the birth of a new
-order of things; but for Judæa they were to a certain extent a fresh
-attack of a fatal disease. The heads of the republican party supplanted
-those of the Cæsarian party, but merely to be supplanted by them again
-in a short time; and this was the case not only in Judæa, but in
-various parts of the Roman empire. The republican, Cassius Longinus,
-had arrived in Syria for the purpose of raising troops and money, and
-demanded that Judæa should supply him with 700 talents. Cassius was in
-desperate haste, for any moment might deprive him of the supreme power
-with which he ruled at that time over persons and events in Syria. Thus
-he threw the inhabitants of four Palestinean cities into chains and
-sold them into slavery, because their contributions were not delivered
-quickly enough.
-
-The eyes of the unfortunate monarch, Hyrcanus, were opened at last to
-the fact that the Idumæans were seeking only their own interest under
-the cloak of warm partisanship for his cause. He began to be suspicious
-in his dealings with them, and turned for support to a true and
-faithful friend, Malich, who had long since recognized the duplicity
-of the Idumæans. As yet Hyrcanus knew nothing of the fiendish plot by
-which he was to be dethroned, and which was to raise Herod, by the
-help of the Roman legions, to the throne of Judæa. But this rumor had
-reached the ears of Malich. Determined to rid the king of the hated
-Antipater, he contrived to poison him when he was feasting at a banquet
-with Hyrcanus (43). In cutting at the root, he failed, however, to
-destroy the growing evil, for Herod surpassed his father, not only in
-determination and in audacity, but also in duplicity. He avenged the
-death of Antipater by the assassination of Malich. All attempts to ruin
-the Idumæan brothers were unsuccessful. Even when Herod fell suddenly
-and grievously ill, Phasael was fortunate enough to subdue his enemies.
-A plot conceived by Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus II, supported by
-his kinsman Ptolemy of Chalcis, to deprive the Idumæans of their power,
-failed likewise, and Herod compelled Hyrcanus to crown him with the
-garland of victory when he made his entry into Jerusalem. As a means
-of disarming this terrible and mighty prince, Hyrcanus tried to attach
-him to his house, by betrothing him to his granddaughter Mariamne,
-celebrated in history no less for her beauty than for her misfortunes.
-The victim was to be bound to the executioner by the bonds of marriage,
-and her own mother, Alexandra, helped to bring about this miserable
-alliance.
-
-Fortune smiled so persistently upon the Idumæan that all changes in
-the political world, however they might appear to damage his cause,
-only gave him greater power. The republican army was completely
-routed at Philippi (in 42), the leaders, Brutus and Cassius,
-committed suicide, and the Roman world lay at the feet of the second
-triumvirate--Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus. Herod and Phasael looked
-upon these changes with a troubled eye; for had they not displayed
-the warmest zeal for the opponents of the triumvirate? Besides this,
-some of the Judæan nobles had hurried forth to meet the victor Antony
-in Bithynia, carrying to him their complaints of the rapacity of
-the Idumæan brothers. But Herod soon found the means to scatter the
-clouds. He also appeared before Antony with a smooth tongue and ready
-money. Antony did not fail to remember that he had formerly tasted of
-Antipater's hospitality. He turned a deaf ear to the Judæan nobles, and
-dismissed Herod with marks of favor. The voice of the nation, which
-made itself heard through its ambassadors, was no longer heeded. Antony
-sentenced some of the unfortunate envoys to be thrown into prison, and
-others to be executed, whilst he proclaimed the two Idumæan brothers
-governors of Judæa, with the title "Tetrarch."
-
-At one time it seemed as if this constant good fortune were about to
-desert the Idumæan brothers and to return to the Hasmonæan house. The
-Parthians, stimulated by the fugitive Roman republican Labienus, had
-made, under the command of their king's son Pacorus, and his commander,
-Barzapharnes, an inroad into Asia Minor and Syria, whilst Mark
-Antony was reveling at the court of the bewitching queen Cleopatra.
-The Parthians, enemies of the Roman republic, were also violently
-antagonistic to Herod and Phasael; they became doubly so on account of
-their connection with Lysanias, the son of Ptolemy, who was related to
-the house of Aristobulus, and who had promised great rewards to the
-Parthian commanders if they would sweep the hated brothers out of the
-way, dethrone Hyrcanus, and crown Antigonus. The Parthians agreed to
-this scheme, and, dividing their army into two detachments, marched
-by the sea-coast and the inland road upon Jerusalem. At every step
-they were met and joined by Judæan troops, who outstripped them in
-their haste to arrive at the capital. Upon entering Jerusalem they
-besieged the Hasmonæan palace, and flocked to the Mount of the Temple.
-The common people, in spite of being unarmed, supported the invaders.
-The festival of Pentecost was at hand, and a crowd of worshipers from
-all parts of Judæa were streaming into Jerusalem; they also declared
-themselves in favor of Antigonus. The Idumæans held the palace and its
-fortress, and the invaders, the city. Hyrcanus and Phasael were at last
-persuaded by Pacorus, the king's cup-bearer, to go as envoys of peace
-to the general, Barzapharnes, whilst Herod was closely watched. Upon
-arriving at Ecdippa the two unfortunate ambassadors were thrown into
-prison, where Phasael committed suicide, and where Hyrcanus had his
-ears mutilated, in order to incapacitate him thereafter for holding his
-priestly office. Plots were also laid to ensure the downfall of Herod,
-but, warned by some faithful followers of his brother, he contrived to
-escape from his palace at night. Accompanied by his bride Mariamne,
-and by the female members of his family, he hurried to the fortress
-Masada, which he left in command of his brother Joseph, retiring first
-into Arabia, then into Egypt, and finally to Rome. He was followed by
-the execrations of the people. Antigonus was now proclaimed king of
-Judæa (the Parthians carrying off Hyrcanus to Babylon), and feeling
-himself to be in truth a monarch, he had coins struck with his Hebrew
-and Greek names: "Mattathias, High Priest, and the Commonwealth of the
-Judæans," and also "King Antigonus." The Parthian auxiliary troops were
-dismissed, and Antigonus destroyed the last of the Roman contingent
-that still held some of the fortresses in Palestine. So Judæa was once
-more freed from foreign soldiery, and could indulge in the sweet dream
-of regained independence after thirty hard years of internal troubles
-and terrible warfare.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-ANTIGONUS AND HEROD.
-
-    Weakness of Antigonus and Herod's Strength of
-    Character--Contest for the Throne--Herod becomes
-    King--Proscriptions and Confiscations--Herod's
-    Policy--Abolition of the Hereditary Tenure of the High
-    Priesthood--Death of the High Priest Aristobulus--War with
-    the Arabians--The Earthquake--Death of the last of the
-    Hasmonæans--Hillel becomes the Head of the Synhedrion--His
-    System of Tradition--Menahem the Essene--Shammai and his
-    School--Mariamne--Herod's Magnificence and Passion for
-    Building--Herod rebuilds the Temple--Herod executes his Sons
-    Alexander and Aristobulus--Antipater and his Intrigues--The
-    Pharisees under Herod--The Destruction of the Roman
-    Eagle--Execution of Antipater and Death of Herod.
-
-    40.3 B. C. E.
-
-
-It is certain that Judæa derived her greatness and independence rather
-from the tact and foresight of the first Hasmonæans than from their
-skill in arms; and in like manner she suffered humiliation and bondage
-from the short-sightedness of the last Hasmonæan kings, who did not
-understand how to make use of the advantages within their grasp. Events
-were most favorable for Antigonus to acquire extended power. The Roman
-leaders were violently opposed to one another. The provinces in the
-east, unimportant in the eyes of Octavius, were looked upon by Antony
-as the abode of luxury and pomp rather than as an arena for warlike
-achievements. The soft arms of Cleopatra had made the rough couch of
-the war-goddess distasteful to him. The Parthians, who hated the greed
-of Rome, had valiantly repulsed her troops. Had Antigonus understood
-how to keep alive the hatred of the people towards the Idumæan house,
-the Romans themselves would have courted him as an ally instead of
-shunning him as an enemy, so eager were they for assistance in staying
-the progress of the Parthians. The mountain tribes of Galilee had
-already declared in favor of Antigonus; and Sepphoris, one of their
-cities, had been converted into an arsenal; besides, the caves of
-Arbela sheltered numerous bands of freebooters, who might have proved
-dangerous to the enemy's rear. But Antigonus was neither a statesman
-nor a general. He did not know how to turn to account the varied
-material which he had at hand. The whole of his strength was frittered
-away upon trivial aims; his leading passion was the revenge which he
-meditated against Herod and his brothers, and this retarded instead
-of stimulating his activity. He did not know how to rise to the truly
-royal height whence he could look down with contempt instead of with
-hatred upon the Idumæan upstarts. During his reign, which lasted three
-years and a half (40-37), he undertook nothing great or decisive,
-although the Roman officers, who for the sake of appearances pretended
-to support Herod, in point of fact usually occupied a neutral position.
-
-Even amongst his own people Antigonus did not know the secret of
-winning men of influence to his cause so that they would stand or fall
-with him. The very leaders of the Synhedrion, Shemaya and Abtalion,
-averse to Herod on account of his overwhelming audacity, were not
-partisans of Antigonus. It is somewhat difficult to understand entirely
-the reason of this aversion to the Hasmonæan king. Had Antigonus
-professed allegiance to Sadducæan principles, or was there personal
-jealousy between the representatives of the royal power and the
-teachers of the Law? We are led to believe from one circumstance,
-insignificant in itself, that the dislike originated from the latter
-cause. It happened once, upon the day of Atonement, that the entire
-congregation, according to custom, had followed the high priest,
-Antigonus, at the close of the divine service, from the Temple to his
-own residence. On the way they met the two Synhedrists, Shemaya and
-Abtalion; they quitted their priest-king to form an escort for their
-beloved teachers of the Law. Antigonus, vexed at this apparent insult,
-expressed his displeasure to the Synhedrists by an ironical obeisance,
-which they returned in the same offensive way. This unfortunate
-variance with the most influential men, coupled with Antigonus's lack
-of generalship and statecraft, brought misfortune upon himself, his
-house and the nation.
-
-His rival Herod, who possessed all those qualities in which he was
-deficient, was a man of a different stamp. When fortune frowned upon
-him for a time, he could always win back her smiles. His flight
-from Jerusalem had been so desperate for him that at one moment he
-contemplated suicide. His design to make an ally of the Nabathæan king
-failed. He wandered through the Judæan-Idumæan desert, an outcast and
-penniless, but yet unbroken, and revolving far-reaching schemes. He
-turned to Egypt; there Cleopatra offered to make him general of her
-army, but he refused, for he still clung to the hope of wearing the
-crown of Judæa. He took ship for Rome, and after being tempest-tossed
-and narrowly escaping shipwreck, he arrived at his destination at the
-favorable moment when Octavius and Antony had once more agreed upon
-the Brundisian treaty. He found no difficulty in persuading Antony
-that he could render him great service in repulsing the Parthians, and
-he convinced him that Antigonus, raised to the throne of Judæa by the
-Parthians, would always be an implacable enemy to the Romans. Antony
-was completely deceived by the craft and subtlety of Herod. He spoke
-favorably of him to Octavius, who dared not refuse him anything. Thus
-within seven days, Herod succeeded in having the Senate proclaim him
-King of Judæa, and Antigonus pronounced an enemy of Rome (40). This
-was the second death-blow that Rome had dealt the Judæan nation, in
-delivering her up to the mercy of an alien, a half-Judæan, an Idumæan,
-who had his own personal insults to avenge. Judæa was forced to submit,
-and in addition to pay tribute-money to Rome.
-
-Herod, seeing that his ambition was to be crowned with success, now
-left Antony (who had loaded him with honors), in order to assume the
-royal title conferred upon him. He left Rome and arrived at Acco (39).
-He was supplied with sums of money by various friends, and especially
-by Saramalla, the richest Judæan in Antioch. With these moneys he hired
-mercenaries and subdued a great part of Galilee. He then hastened
-southwards, to relieve the fortress of Masada, where his brother Joseph
-was hard pressed by the friends of Antigonus. This struggle was of long
-duration, as the Romans were unwilling to take an active part in the
-contest. Herod felt the necessity of appearing in person in Antony's
-camp, which at that moment was pitched before Samosata, there to plead
-his own cause. Partly in return for the services he rendered to the
-Roman commander upon this occasion, and partly through his persuasive
-powers, he induced Antony to send Sosius, one of his generals, at
-the head of two legions, to resolutely carry on the contest against
-Antigonus, and to establish upon the throne the king selected by Rome.
-
-This war was carried on by Herod with implacable severity. Five cities
-in the neighborhood of Jericho, with their inhabitants to the number
-of 2000, who had sided with Antigonus, he ordered to be burnt. In the
-following spring (37), he commenced the siege of Jerusalem. Previous
-to this, he celebrated in Samaria, with hands stained with the blood
-of its inhabitants, his nuptials with Mariamne, to whom he had now for
-several years been betrothed.
-
-As soon as Sosius had advanced into Judæa with a large army of Roman
-infantry, cavalry and Syrian mercenaries, the siege of Jerusalem was
-pressed. The besieging army numbered one hundred thousand men. They
-built ramparts, filled up the moats, and prepared their battering-rams.
-The besieged, though suffering from want of food, defended themselves
-heroically. They made occasional sorties, dispersed the workmen,
-destroyed the preparations for the siege, built up a new wall, and
-harassed the besiegers to such an extent that after one month's
-labor they had not advanced to any extent in their work. But the two
-Synhedrists, Shemaya and Abtalion, raised their voices against this
-opposition, and recommended their countrymen to open their gates to
-Herod.
-
-This division of purpose amongst the besieged, combined with the
-attacks of the invaders, may have hastened the fall of the northern
-wall, which took place at the end of forty days. The besiegers rushed
-into the lower town and into the outworks of the Temple, while the
-besieged, with their king, fortified themselves in the upper town and
-on the Temple Mount. The Romans were occupied during another fortnight
-with the storming of the south wall. On a Sabbath evening, when the
-Judæan warriors were least expecting an attack, a portion of the wall
-was taken, and the Romans rushed like madmen into the old part of the
-city and into the Temple. There, without distinction of age or sex,
-they slaughtered all who came in their way, even the priest beside his
-sacrifice. By a strange fatality, Jerusalem fell on the anniversary
-of the day on which, twenty-seven years previously, the Temple had
-been taken by Pompey. It was hardly possible for Herod to restrain his
-savage soldiery from plundering and desecrating the holy spot, and it
-was only by giving costly gifts to each soldier that he prevented the
-entire destruction of Jerusalem. Antigonus was thrown into chains and
-sent to Antony, who, upon Herod's persistent entreaties, and contrary
-to all custom and usage, had him tortured and then ignobly beheaded.
-This disgraceful treatment excited the opprobrium even of the Romans.
-
-Herod, or, as the people called him, the Idumæan slave, had thus
-reached the goal of his lofty desires. His throne, it is true, rested
-upon ruins and upon the dead bodies of his subjects; but he felt that
-he had the power to maintain its dignity, even if it were necessary to
-carry a broad river of blood round its base. The bitter hatred of the
-Judæan people, whose ruler he had become without the slightest lawful
-title, was nothing to him as compared with the friendship of Rome and
-the smile of Antony. His line of action was clearly marked out for him
-by the situation of affairs: he had to cling to the Romans as a support
-against the ill-will of his people, and meet this ill-will by apparent
-concessions, or control it by unrelenting severity. This was the policy
-that he followed from the first moment of his victory until he drew
-his last breath. During all the thirty-four years of his reign he
-followed this line of policy, cold and heartless as fate, and entailing
-the most terrible consequences. Even in the first confusion attendant
-upon the conquest of the Temple Mount, he had not lost his coolness
-and vigilance, but had ordered his satellite Costobar to surround the
-exits of Jerusalem with his soldiery, and thus to prevent the escape
-of the unfortunate fugitives. The followers of Antigonus were slain
-in large numbers, many amongst them being of the most distinguished
-families. Herod did not forget old grievances. The Synhedrists, who
-twelve years previously had decreed his death, were killed to a man,
-with the exception of Abtalion and Shemaya, who had been hostile
-to Antigonus. He seized the property of those whom he executed or
-otherwise condemned for the royal treasury; for this worthy pupil of
-Roman masters was fully alive to the advantages of proscription and
-confiscation. He passed over the Hasmonæan house in selecting a high
-priest, and chose a certain Ananel, a descendant of Aaron, but not
-of high-priestly family, for that office. He declared that his own
-was an old Judæan family which had returned from Babylonia, wishing
-in this way to obliterate the fact that he was descended from an
-Idumæan ancestor who had been forced to accept Judaism. The natives
-of Jerusalem, who had a good memory for his true extraction, did not
-indeed lend an ear to this invention, but foreign Judæans and heathens
-may perhaps have been deceived by it. His confidential friend and
-historian, Nicolaus of Damascus, relates this fiction as coming from
-his own lips. At the death of Shemaya and Abtalion, the presidents of
-the Synhedrion were chosen from a Babylonian-Judæan family, that of
-Bene Bathyra.
-
-Two persons still existed who might prove dangerous to Herod: an old
-man and a youth--Hyrcanus, who had once worn the crown and the priestly
-diadem, and his grandson Aristobulus, Herod's brother-in-law, who had
-claims upon both the royal and the priestly dignity. Herod could not
-devote himself to the calm enjoyment of his conquest until these two
-should be powerless. Hyrcanus, it was true, who had fallen captive to
-the Parthians, had been mutilated by them, and was therefore unfit to
-resume his priestly office; but his captors had generously granted
-him freedom, and the aged monarch had been joyfully and reverentially
-welcomed by the community of Babylonian Judæans. In spite of the
-devotion which he received from these people, Hyrcanus had an intense
-longing to return to his native land, and Herod was afraid that he
-might induce the Babylonian Judæans or the Parthians to take up his
-cause and help him regain his throne, from which the latter had torn
-him. Anxious to avert this danger, Herod bethought himself of taking
-Hyrcanus from Parthian influence and of bringing him under his own
-power. It was thus that the aged monarch received a pressing invitation
-to Jerusalem to share the throne and the power of king Herod, and
-to receive the thanks of the Idumæan for past acts of kindness that
-Hyrcanus had shown him. Vainly did the Babylonian Judæans warn the
-credulous prince not to let himself be drawn a second time into the
-eddy of public life; he hurried to his doom. Herod received him with
-every mark of respect, and gave him the place of honor at his table and
-in the Council, masking his treachery so completely that Hyrcanus was
-entirely deceived. He was unarmed and powerless in a golden cage.
-
-But more dangerous to Herod seemed his young brother-in-law
-Aristobulus, the only brother of Mariamne, who, on account of his
-lineage, his youth, and his surpassing beauty, had attracted the love
-and devotion of all his people. Herod, in debarring him from the
-dignity of high priest, imagined that he had successfully destroyed his
-influence. But this was not so. Alexandra, the mother of Mariamne and
-Aristobulus, as well versed in intrigue as Herod himself, had succeeded
-in obtaining Antony's favor for her son. She had sent the portraits of
-her children, the most beautiful of their race, to the Roman triumvir,
-believing his weak nature might be worked upon most favorably through
-the senses. Antony, in truth, struck by the portraits, requested to
-see Aristobulus. But Herod, in order that this meeting should not
-take place, suddenly proclaimed the young Hasmonæan high priest, and
-Ananel was deprived of this dignity. But Alexandra was far from being
-satisfied, for she was secretly determined that her son should also
-wear the crown which his ancestors had worn. Herod, fully alive to his
-peril, was all the more determined to rid himself of this dangerous
-youth. Aristobulus had already gained the heart of the people, and
-whenever he appeared in the Temple, every eye hung upon his noble and
-perfect form, every glance seemed to avow that the Judæans were longing
-to see this last scion of the Hasmonæan house seated upon the royal
-throne. Herod durst not act with open violence against his rival, who
-was looked upon with special favor by Queen Cleopatra, but as usual
-he resorted to treachery. He invited Aristobulus to Jericho, and bade
-his followers dispatch the youth whilst he was disporting in the bath.
-Thus died, at the early age of seventeen, Aristobulus III., the last
-male representative of the Hasmonæan house. Herod then reappointed his
-puppet Ananel as high priest. It was vain for the Idumæan to affect
-deep grief at the death of his young brother-in-law, it was vain for
-him to throw sweet perfume upon his body; all the relations and friends
-of the murdered Hasmonæan accused Herod in their hearts of his death,
-although their lips gave no utterance to their thoughts.
-
-But this crime brought its own bitter punishment with it, and made
-Herod's whole life one long tale of misery. The agony of remorse that
-might have wrought some change upon a less hardened nature was not
-felt, but only an ever-increasing suspicion towards those of his own
-household, which urged him to heap crime upon crime, to murder his
-nearest relatives, even his own children, until he became at last the
-most terrible example of a sin-laden existence. Alexandra, who had
-staked her ambitious hopes upon the coronation of her son, and who
-now found herself so cruelly deceived, did not hesitate to accuse
-Herod before Cleopatra of the murder of Aristobulus. This queen, whose
-passions were uncontrolled, and who looked with an envious eye upon
-Herod's newly acquired kingdom, took advantage of his crime to make
-its author appear odious in the eyes of Antony. Herod was summoned to
-Laodicea. Trembling for his life, the vassal king obeyed the summons,
-but succeeded in ingratiating himself so thoroughly by costly gifts and
-by carefully chosen yet eloquent words, that not only was the death of
-Aristobulus overlooked, but he was distinguished by marks of esteem,
-and sent back to Jerusalem, full of happy self-confidence. He lost,
-however, one precious pearl from his crown. The far-famed district of
-Jericho, celebrated for its wealth of palm-trees and its highly-prized
-balsam, had been given by Antony to Cleopatra, and Herod was forced to
-accept two hundred talents in lieu as tribute-money from the queen. He
-could, however, rest well satisfied with this loss, when comparing it
-with the danger from which he had escaped.
-
-On the threshold of his palace, however, the demon of discord awaited
-him, ready to fill his whole being with despair. On the eve of his
-departure he had entrusted his wife Mariamne to the care of Joseph,
-the husband of his sister Salome, and had given him the secret command
-that, in case of his falling a victim to Antony's displeasure, Joseph
-should murder both Mariamne and Alexandra. Love for his beautiful wife,
-whom he could not bear to think of as belonging to another, added to
-hatred of Alexandra, who should not triumph in his death, prompted
-this fiendish resolve. But Joseph had betrayed his secret mission to
-Mariamne, and had thus plunged another dagger into the heart of that
-unhappy queen. When a false report of Herod's death became current in
-Jerusalem, Mariamne and her mother prepared to put themselves under
-Roman protection. Herod's sister Salome, who hated both her husband
-Joseph and her sister-in-law Mariamne, made use of this fact to
-calumniate them upon her brother's return, accusing them of a mutual
-understanding and undue intimacy. Herod at first turned a deaf ear to
-this calumny, but when Mariamne disclosed to her husband, amidst tears
-of indignation, that Joseph had confessed his secret mission to her,
-then the king's wrath knew no bounds. Declaring that he fully believed
-his sister's accusations, he beheaded Joseph, placed Alexandra in
-confinement, and would have had Mariamne slain, had not his love for
-his queen surpassed even his rage. From that day, however, the seeds of
-distrust and hatred were sown in the palace, and they grew and spread
-until one member of the royal family after another met with an untimely
-and violent death.
-
-Outwardly, however, fortune appeared to smile upon Herod, carrying him
-successfully over the most difficult obstacles in his path. Before the
-sixth year of his reign had ended, threatening clouds began to gather
-over his head. A surviving sister of the last Hasmonæan king Antigonus
-had arisen as the avenger of her brother and his race, and had, in some
-way or other, possessed herself of the fortress of Hyrcanion. Herod
-had hardly disarmed this female warrior before he was threatened by a
-more serious danger. Cleopatra, who had always hated the Judæans, and
-who had been most ungenerous to that community in Alexandria during a
-year of famine, had again attempted to effect Herod's ruin by awakening
-Antony's displeasure against him. Afraid of this violent and yet crafty
-queen, and alarmed at the hatred of his own people, who were longing
-for his downfall, Herod determined upon preparing some safe retreat,
-where his life would at all events be secure from his enemies. He chose
-for this purpose the fortress of Masada, which nature had rendered
-almost impregnable, and which he fortified still more strongly. But
-Cleopatra was already devising another scheme for the downfall of
-her enemy. She succeeded in entangling him in a war with Malich, the
-Nabathæan king, and thus endeavored to bring about the ruin of two
-equally hated monarchs. But Herod gained two decisive victories over
-the Nabathæans, which alarmed Cleopatra, and caused her to send her
-general Athenion to the aid of Malich. The Judæan army sustained a
-terrible defeat, and Herod was beaten back across the Jordan. This
-disaster was followed by an earthquake, which alarmed and dispirited
-the Judæan troops to such an extent that they lost all courage and
-were almost powerless before the enemy. But Herod, with true genius,
-succeeded in rousing his people, and in leading them victoriously
-against the Nabathæans. Malich was forced to become the vassal of the
-Judæan king.
-
-Hardly, however, was peace restored before a storm arose that
-threatened to shake the Roman world to its very depths and to destroy
-the favorite of the Roman generals. Ever since that day when Rome and
-her vast possessions lay at the feet of the triumvirs, who hated each
-other cordially, and each one of whom wished to be sole ruler of the
-state, the political atmosphere had been charged with destructive
-elements that threatened to explode at any given moment. Added to this,
-one of the three leaders was completely under the sway of the dissolute
-and devilish Queen Cleopatra, who had set her heart upon becoming
-mistress of Rome, even though this should entail the devastation of
-whole countries by fire and by sword.
-
-It was during this highly excited period that a Judæan author foretold,
-in beautiful Greek verse, written in the form of a sibylline prophecy,
-the coming destruction of the Roman-Greek state, and the reign of
-Belial, who would decoy the unhappy ones to their final destruction;
-but this Judæo-Greek seer also heralded the coming of a glorious
-Messiah. An era of crime had certainly begun, and a Belial had appeared
-in the person of the half-Judæan Herod, but as yet no Messianic dawn of
-better things was apparent.
-
-With the declaration of war between Octavius and Antony, a fierce
-strife broke out between the Western and the Eastern provinces of
-Rome; it was Europe against Asia--a war of nations. But it came to a
-sudden end with the fall of Antony in the battle of Actium (31). This
-blow struck Herod severely; neither he nor his friends doubted for one
-moment that he would be submerged in the ruin of his protector, for
-he had been closely allied to Antony. He was prepared for the worst,
-but he determined not to be outlived by the aged Hyrcanus, by his wife
-Mariamne, or by his mother-in-law Alexandra. He accused Hyrcanus of
-having conspired with the Nabathæan king, and ordered the innocent
-monarch to be executed. Mariamne and Alexandra he placed under the
-guardianship of the Ithuræan Soem in the fortress of Alexandrion. Herod
-then prepared to present himself before the conqueror, Octavianus
-Cæsar, and if he met with his death, as was most probable, Mariamne and
-her mother were to be instantly murdered.
-
-On the eve of Herod's departure, he found himself compelled to make
-some change in the Synhedrion, and to appoint the Babylonian Hillel,
-a man unknown until then, as one of the presidents. This gave a new
-direction to the spirit of Judaism, which has affected that faith
-down to the present. Hillel, born about the year 75, traced back his
-descent, on his mother's side, to the house of David. Although his
-lineage was a distinguished one, he was living in needy circumstances,
-and was supported by his rich brother, Shebna. He probably accompanied
-Hyrcanus on his return from Babylon to Jerusalem, and became one of the
-most devoted disciples of the Synhedrists, Shemaya and Abtalion, whose
-traditional lore he endeavored to transmit literally and faithfully.
-
-Hillel was particularly distinguished for his winning, dove-like
-gentleness, his intense love of humanity, which arose from his own
-humility, and from his deep faith in others, and lastly, for that
-perfect equanimity proceeding from his profound trust in God, that
-never wavered in the midst of trouble. In later ages he was revered as
-the ideal of modesty and gentleness. When he was once asked to express
-the essence of Judaism in one sentence, he uttered this golden maxim:
-"Do not unto others what thou wouldst not have done unto thyself.
-This is the principal commandment: all others are the development
-of that one." If strife and dissension arose, Hillel was invariably
-the peacemaker. His beneficence knew no bounds, and he had that rare
-delicacy of feeling which never humiliates the recipient by the gift,
-but which rather helps him to maintain his self-respect. His faith in
-God raised him triumphantly above every fear. All the members of his
-household were imbued through his example with the same faith; so much
-so that once, upon entering the town and hearing a cry of distress,
-he was able confidently to remark, "That cry cannot have proceeded
-from my house." Hillel has bequeathed a greater number of maxims to us
-than any of his predecessors. We read amongst them the following: "If
-I were not to care for myself (my soul), who would do so for me? If I
-care for myself alone, what can I effect? If not now, when then?" "Be
-of the disciples of Aaron, love peace, seek peace, love mankind, thus
-lead them to the Law." Impressed by the sublime mission of Israel, that
-of maintaining and teaching the pure belief in one God, he exclaimed
-at one of the festivals in the Temple: "If I (Israel) am here, then
-is everything here; if I should be wanting, who would be here?" The
-doctrines of Judaism were so profoundly revered by him that his
-indignation was roused whenever they were used as stepping-stones to
-the schemes of the ambitious. "He who wishes to raise his name, lowers
-it; he who does not seek the Law, does not deserve to live. He who
-does not progress in learning, retrogrades; he who uses the crown of
-the Law for his own ends, perishes."
-
-Hillel became in after years the very ideal of his co-religionists.
-The impetus given by him to the development of doctrinal Judaism marks
-an epoch in the history of that faith. He greatly enriched the mass of
-the traditional lore that he had imbibed from the Synhedrists, Shemaya
-and Abtalion. But far more important was his logical derivation of the
-statutes of the Law observed in his time. He traced them back to their
-first principles, and raised them out of the narrow circle of tradition
-and mere custom to the height of reason. The traditional law, according
-to Hillel, carries within itself its justification and binding power,
-it does not depend on authority alone. Thus, to a certain extent, he
-paved the way to a reconciliation between Pharisees and Sadducees by
-placing before them the principles common to both, from which neither
-of them could withhold their assent. On the one hand, Hillel agreed
-with the Sadducæan principle, that a law can only be valid if founded
-upon scriptural authority; but, on the other hand, he declared that
-this authority did not merely lie in the dead letter, but was also to
-be derived from the general spirit of the scriptural writings. After
-this demonstration by Hillel, no dispute amongst the schools could
-arise as to the binding power of traditional law. By the introduction
-of seven rules, or Middoth, the oral law could be imbued with the same
-weight and authority as that actually contained in the Scriptures.
-Through these seven rules the oral law assumed quite a different
-aspect; it lost its apparently arbitrary character; it became more
-universal and reasonable in its tendency, and might be looked upon as
-originating from Holy Writ itself.
-
-These explanatory rules were, moreover, intended not only to justify
-the oral law, but also to lay down instructions how to amplify the
-laws, and how to meet unforeseen cases of difficulty. At first they
-appear to have been unfavorably received. It is expressly narrated
-that Hillel introduced them at a council of the Bathyrene Synhedrion,
-but that assembly may either have misinterpreted them or have disputed
-their expediency. In the meantime an opportunity presented itself
-of having recourse to these explanatory rules, for a question was
-raised, the solution of which deeply excited the whole nation, and
-to this opportunity Hillel owed the dignified position of President
-of the Synhedrion. The eve of the festival on which the Paschal
-Lamb was to be sacrificed occurred on the Sabbath, a most unusual
-event at that time, and the Bathyrene Synhedrion could not throw any
-light upon the disputed question, whether it was permitted or not to
-sacrifice the Paschal Lamb on the Sabbath Day. Hillel, whose ability
-must have attracted the attention of the discerning before, had
-taken part in the discussion, and had proved that according to the
-explanatory rules, the Pesach, or Paschal Sacrifice, like every other
-whole offering, supersedes the Sabbath. The debate became heated, the
-mass of the people being warmly interested in the celebration of the
-festival. Expressions of approval and censure for Hillel were freely
-uttered. Some cried, "We have to look to the Babylonians for the best
-information"; others ironically asked, "What good can we expect from
-the Babylonians?"
-
-From that day Hillel's name became so popular that the Bathyrene
-Synhedrists resigned their offices--whether of their own free will,
-or because they were forced to do so by the people, is not known--and
-conceded the Presidency to Hillel himself (about 30). Hillel, far from
-being proud of his exalted position, expressed himself as dissatisfied,
-and angrily reproved the Synhedrists. "Why is it," he asked, "that I,
-an insignificant Babylonian, became President of the Synhedrion? Only
-because you have been too indolent to heed the teachings of Shemaya and
-Abtalion." Herod does not seem to have made any objection to the choice.
-
-One of the statutes which Hillel had introduced was of general
-interest, and proved that he had true insight into affairs of life.
-In the Sabbatical year all debts were by law canceled. At the time
-when the state was a republic based upon moral laws, this was a wise
-measure for equalizing property; but at a later period, when capital
-became a power in itself, the rich were not willing to relieve their
-less wealthy neighbors from their difficulties by giving them loans. On
-this account Hillel, without entirely abrogating the law which already
-existed, ruled that the creditor should give over the debt in writing
-to the Court, so that the Court might collect it, and the creditor be
-relieved from the necessity of violating the law. This timely statute,
-equally advantageous to debtor and creditor, was called by the Greek
-word _Prosbol_, because the debt was given over to the Council of the
-Elders.
-
-At Herod's particular desire, the second place of honor, that of
-Deputy of Hillel, was given to the Essene Menahem, to whom the king
-showed great partiality. The cause of this attachment was as follows
-(at least so the tale ran in later days): Menahem, by means of the
-prophetic power ascribed to the Essenes, had foretold during his
-childhood that Herod would one day be king in Jerusalem, and that his
-reign would be a brilliant one, but that he would fail in piety and
-justice. That which had appeared incredible to the youth recurred to
-the man when he wore the regal crown. But Menahem appears not to have
-found his office congenial, and soon withdrew in favor of Shammai,
-whose characteristics, opposed in many ways to those of Hillel, in
-reality supplemented them. Shammai was probably by birth a Palestinean,
-and therefore much interested in all the political and religious
-controversies of his native land. His religious views were strict to
-a painful extreme. But Shammai was not of a gloomy or misanthropical
-disposition; indeed, he encouraged friendliness in demeanor towards
-every one. This is indicated by the maxim which has come down to us,
-"Let your work in the Law be your principal occupation; speak little,
-but do much, and receive all men with a friendly countenance."
-
-The two Synhedrists, Hillel and Shammai, founded two separate
-schools, opposed to each other in many religious, moral, and legal
-questions, which, with their different tendencies, exerted a powerful
-influence, during the subsequent unsettled and warlike times, upon
-events of historical importance. Herod had no conception of the forces
-antagonistic to his house that were quietly developing within the
-seclusion of these schools.
-
-With a trembling heart he had presented himself at Rhodes before
-Octavianus Cæsar, who, since the defeat of Antony at Actium, was sole
-master of the Roman provinces. He, so haughty in his own country,
-appeared in meek and lowly guise at the footstool of the mighty ruler,
-yet not without a certain manly resolution. In his interview with
-Octavianus, Herod did not in any way conceal the position he had held
-with relation to Antony; but he took care to dwell upon the fact of his
-having refrained from aiding Antony after his defeat at Actium, thereby
-intimating to Octavianus what use he might make of the devotion and
-zeal which Herod was prepared to transfer from the cause of Antony to
-that of his conqueror. Octavianus was neither noble enough to despise
-so venal a man, nor did he feel secure enough to do without him.
-
-So he graciously encouraged the pleading Herod, bade him array himself
-as before in royal robes, and sent him back to his own country laden
-with honors (30). Herod found no difficulty in becoming as loyal a
-partisan of Octavianus as he had been for twelve long years of Antony.
-During the campaign of the second Cæsar against Egypt, he was met at
-Acco by Herod bearing rich presents, and the Judæan king supplied
-the Roman army with water and with wine during their march through
-an arid country. It is possible that Antony may have heard, before
-he put an end to his life, that Herod's loyalty was not founded on a
-rock. Herod had also the malicious joy of knowing that his persistent
-enemy, Cleopatra, who had failed to fascinate the conqueror by her
-attractions, had nothing left but to seek death. The Alexandrian
-Judæans, who had suffered from her hatred, shared Herod's feelings.
-For, but a short time previous to her death, this terrible woman had
-longed to assassinate with her own hands the Judæans who were living in
-the capital of Egypt, and who were devoted to the cause of Octavianus.
-The Egyptian Judæans were rewarded for their devotion by an official
-recognition of their equality with the rest of the inhabitants; in
-fact, Octavianus had such confidence in their loyalty that he placed
-the harbors of the Nile and of the sea under the control of the Judæan
-Alabarchs, who had held that office under former Egyptian monarchs.
-This was a special mark of favor, for the possession of Egypt, the
-Roman granary, and particularly of the harbor of Alexandria, was so
-precious to the first emperor of Rome that no Senator dared approach
-that country without the imperial permission. When the Alabarch who
-was then in office died, Octavianus allowed his successor to be chosen
-by the Alexandrian Judæans, and granted him all the rights of his
-predecessors. Whilst he governed the Greek Alexandrians with extreme
-severity on account of their depravity, their untrustworthiness and
-their love of sedition, and kept them strictly under his own rule, he
-appointed a Judæan Council to assist the Alabarchs or Ethnarchs. The
-Judæan community was thus governed by one of its own race, who decided
-all the judicial questions and provided for the carrying out of all
-imperial commands and behests.
-
-Octavianus also granted to the numerous Judæans who were settled
-in Rome, the Libertini, if not extraordinary privileges, at least
-the right of observing their own religious customs, and thus set a
-worthy example to his successors. The Judæans were allowed to build
-synagogues, where they worshiped according to their rites; they were
-also permitted to transmit their yearly contributions to the Temple in
-Jerusalem, although, in general, it was forbidden to send large sums
-out of Rome. The Roman Judæans also received their due portion of the
-grain that was distributed amongst the population. If the distribution
-happened to take place on a Sabbath, their portion was allotted to them
-on the following day. These were the orders of the emperor.
-
-Octavianus made over to Herod the splendid body-guard of Cleopatra,
-numbering four hundred Gauls, and he placed under his jurisdiction
-several seaports that had been torn from Judæa, as well as the
-territory of Jericho. Samaria, as also Gadara and Hippos in
-trans-Jordanic territory, were also incorporated with Judæa. The area
-of the kingdom was now identical with what it had been before the
-civil war between the royal brothers and the first intervention of the
-Romans; but different, indeed, were the circumstances under which she
-had regained her possessions! Probably it was due to Herod's boundless
-sycophancy to Rome that sacrifices were now regularly offered up for
-the welfare of the Cæsars, Augustus and his consort presenting in
-return golden vessels for the use of the Temple.
-
-Herod was now at the very zenith of his power; the untoward fortune
-that he had feared had not only been averted, but had actually
-assisted in exalting him. He was not, however, to enjoy his good
-fortune; the terrible consequences of his crimes clung to his footsteps
-and changed his cup of happiness into one of gall. In the narrow circle
-of his own home a tragedy was about to be enacted, far more terrible
-than could have been conceived by the imagination of a poet. Mariamne,
-who, as well as her mother Alexandra, had been in close confinement
-during the king's absence, had elicited from her gaoler Soem the fact
-that she would not have been permitted to outlive Herod. Upon the
-king's return she made no secret of her hatred for him, and when he
-spoke to her in words of tenderness and affection, she taunted him with
-the murders of her brother, her grandfather and many others of her
-relatives. Herod's heart was torn by the love he bore to this beautiful
-woman and by the wrath he felt at her persistent enmity to his person
-and his power. Whilst still a prey to these conflicting feelings he
-was only too ready to lend a willing ear to the malicious inventions
-of his sister Salome, who assured him that his cup-bearer had been
-bribed by Mariamne to poison him. During the investigation that ensued
-it transpired that Soem had disclosed his secret instructions to
-the queen, and this treachery on the part of a confidential servant
-let loose a host of wild passions within Herod's breast. Soem was
-decapitated on the spot. Whilst still moved by his ungovernable rage,
-Herod summoned a council, before whom he accused his wife of adultery
-and of an attempt to poison him. The judges passed the sentence of
-death upon her, and, wishing to curry favor with Herod, ordered the
-execution to take place forthwith. It was thus that the most beautiful
-woman in Judæa, the Hasmonæan princess, the pride of her people, was
-led to the scaffold. She went to her doom with remarkable fortitude,
-without the faintest tremor or the least display of feminine weakness,
-worthy of her heroic ancestry (29). We may take Mariamne as the symbol
-of Judæa, delivered up to the axe of the executioner by intrigue and
-passion.
-
-But Mariamne's death did not quench Herod's thirst for revenge; on
-the contrary, it brought on still fiercer paroxysms of rage. He could
-not endure her loss, and became a prey to sickness and insanity.
-He would call frantically upon her name in a passion of sobs and
-tears; and he had her body embalmed in honey, so that he might keep
-it in his presence. It was whilst traveling in Samaria that he fell
-so dangerously ill that the doctors despaired of his life, and when
-this intelligence reached his capital, Alexandra proceeded to possess
-herself of Jerusalem. But the king's vitality returned upon the rumor
-of this sudden peril to his throne, and Alexandra fell a victim to
-her sedition. She was the very last who bore the Hasmonæan name, and
-she had lived long enough to witness the violent and disgraceful
-deaths of her father-in-law Aristobulus II, her husband Alexander, her
-brother-in-law Antigonus, her son Aristobulus III, her father Hyrcanus
-II, and her daughter Mariamne.
-
-The remaining two-thirds of the Herodian reign are devoid of any
-real progress; the record of that time tells of cringing submission
-to Augustus and to Rome, of the erection of magnificent edifices,
-of the love of pomp and display, of deeply-rooted moral corruption,
-of unsuccessful conspiracies and court intrigues, leading to new
-crimes and further executions. In order to retain the favor of the
-all-powerful Augustus, Herod introduced into Jerusalem the celebration
-of the Actian games, occurring every fifth year, in remembrance of
-Augustus' victory over his rival, he also built theaters and arenas,
-where he organized combats between gladiators or wild beasts, thus
-arousing the displeasure of the national party, who rightly divined
-that it was intended that Judaism soon should be absorbed by a
-Pagan-Roman worship, and who recognized in the Roman trophies and
-eagles displayed in the theaters, the introduction of Roman deities.
-Herod gave his people another cause for umbrage, in the fact that
-he was not only ornamenting the hated city of Samaria, within a
-circumference of half a mile, with the most beautiful buildings,
-but that he also contemplated making that city the capital of his
-dominions, a dignity for which she was singularly adapted by her
-fortunate position. The newly-built Samaria was renamed Sebaste, just
-as the citadel Baris, the armory of the Hasmonæans in old days, on
-the northwest side of the Temple, had been called Antonia in honor of
-Antony. In fact, Judæa became crowded with cities and with monuments
-which bore the names of Herod's own family or those of his Roman
-protectors. The fortress of Straton on the sea was, by most lavish
-expenditure, converted into a beautiful city, with an extensive harbor,
-and received the name of Cæsarea, one of the towers on its walls being
-called Drusus, after the son of Augustus. Herod did not even hesitate
-to erect a Roman temple on the soil of the Holy Land. Two colossal
-figures were raised in Cæsarea, one of them representing, in gigantic
-proportions, the figure of Augustus as the Olympian Jupiter, and the
-other that of the city of Rome as the Argive Juno. At the splendid
-consecration of Cæsarea, the rebuilding of which had occupied twelve
-years, the inhabitants could have imagined themselves transported into
-a pagan city. On account of its name, its origin and its importance,
-the national party justly called it Little Rome. In later days it
-became the seat of the Roman governor, the rival of Jerusalem, and
-finally her conqueror. Whenever Cæsarea rejoiced, Jerusalem was sure to
-mourn. The harbor of Cæsarea, which grew in time to be a town itself,
-was called Sebastus. Herod had, without doubt, enhanced the beauty of
-Judæa, but, like a doomed victim, she was garlanded for the altar. His
-love of display found satisfaction in the magnificence of his edifices,
-but not his love of renown. Despairing of securing the affection of his
-own people, he resolved to compel the admiration of the stranger. He
-exhausted his people by taxation, redoubled his extortions, searched
-for hidden treasures in the ancient royal cemeteries, sold those who
-had been imprisoned for theft as slaves to neighboring countries, and
-then lavished all the funds he had gained by these practices upon the
-adornment of Syrian, Asiatic, and Greek cities. Huge were the sums of
-money that he withdrew from his own country for such enterprises.
-
-Herod may possibly have secured the admiration and affection of the
-Greeks, the Romans and the Judæans outside of Palestine; but the people
-of Jerusalem felt nothing but aversion for this grasping upstart, who
-sought to estrange them from the customs of their fathers. In spite
-of his having shown himself to be their generous benefactor, upon the
-occasion of a great famine (24), the nation now only beheld in him the
-murderer of the Hasmonæans, the usurper of their throne, the destroyer
-of the noblest citizens, the suppressor of freedom. He had disgraced
-the three dignities of Monarch, High Priest, and Synhedrist. The first
-he had arrogated to himself; the second, which until his reign had,
-with very few exceptions, descended by right of inheritance from father
-to son, he had given away, according to his own pleasure or to attain
-his own ends; and the power of the third he had curtailed by allowing
-it hardly any scope for action. Joshua, of the family of Phabi, had,
-through Herod's instrumentality, succeeded Ananel as High Priest; but
-the king having been fascinated by the beauty of another Mariamne,
-the daughter of an inferior priest, Simon, he dispossessed Joshua of
-his dignity, and raised Simon to his office, in order that his future
-wife's rank be not too strikingly below his own.
-
-This High Priest Simon was an Alexandrian, the son of Boëthus, and it
-was he who laid the foundation-stone of the greatness of the house
-of Boëthus, from which several high priests descended. He appears to
-have been the founder of the sect of the Boëthuseans, who followed
-the teachings of the Sadducees, but who were better able to grasp and
-apply those teachings than the Sadducees themselves, thanks to their
-Alexandrian readiness and sophistry.
-
-These despotic acts of Herod were not calculated to make him beloved
-by his people. He was perfectly aware of their ill-will towards him,
-but as he could not crush it, he at least sought to make it harmless.
-Thus he insisted upon all subjects taking an oath of allegiance,
-resolving to punish severely those who would refrain from doing so. The
-Essenes alone, who disapproved of oaths, were exempt; he had no cause
-for fear in their peaceful, contemplative lives; on the contrary, he
-warmly approved of such subjects, who would submit without murmuring
-to any law that he might choose to make. Those amongst the Pharisees
-who were the followers of the peace-loving Hillel seem to have taken
-the required oath without hesitation, but the followers of the sterner
-Shammai stubbornly refused to do so. Six thousand Pharisees in all
-refused to take the oath of allegiance, and to inflict corporal
-punishment upon so great a number appeared, even to Herod, a serious
-matter. So he heavily taxed the refractory, amongst whom was the wife
-of his brother Pheroras, an ardent devotee, strange to say, of strict
-Phariseeism.
-
-But, in spite of all these precautionary measures, Herod did not trust
-his subjects, and employed a number of spies to watch them. He himself
-would often appear in disguise at their popular assemblies, and woe
-to the unfortunate individual who, at that moment, might be giving
-utterance to a complaint against the existing order of things; he was
-doomed to be imprisoned in a fortress, or secretly despatched. But
-popularity is too sweet for the tyrant to forego it, and to Herod it
-was particularly important, as he wished to appear before the Romans
-in the character of a prince beloved by his people. This, besides his
-passion for building, was probably the motive that impelled him to
-convert the Temple, now five hundred years old, small and of an old
-fashion, into a magnificent edifice in a new style. The representatives
-of the nation, when he informed them of his plan, received the news
-with horror; they feared that Herod intended merely to destroy their
-old Temple, and that he would endlessly protract the work of the
-new building, thus robbing them entirely of their sanctuary. But he
-pacified them by the assurance that the old Temple should remain
-standing until all the workmen, with their material, were at hand for
-the construction of the new one. Thousands of carts, laden with quarry
-stone and marble, now appeared on the scene, and ten thousand skilled
-workmen were ready to commence operations. In the eighteenth year of
-Herod's reign (20) the building was begun, and in one year and a half
-(18) the inner part of the Temple was finished. The building of the
-outer walls, courts and galleries occupied a period of eight years, and
-long after this time, until just before the destruction, the workmen
-were still employed upon them.
-
-The Herodian Temple was a magnificent production, the exquisite
-beauty of which those who witnessed it could not sufficiently admire.
-It differed from the uncompleted Temple of Zerubbabel in being of
-vaster dimensions and of richer and more ornate decoration. The whole
-circumference of the Temple Mount (Har-ha-bayith), which was surrounded
-by a lofty and strong wall, besides the fortress at Antonia, with
-which it was in communication, exceeded three-quarters of a mile,
-and the ground rose in terraces. Owing to this commanding position
-the Sanctuary could be seen from afar. The long range of outer wall
-protected a series of courts and galleries, with their cedar ceilings
-and mosaic floorings. The first court was assigned as a place of
-assembly for the people, where the most important questions were
-discussed. Here the pagan and the unpurified were admitted; here Greek
-and Roman inscriptions, in large characters, and placed in prominent
-positions, caught the eye of him who entered. They ran as follows: "No
-foreigner is permitted to pass through this grating into the Sanctuary
-and its surroundings. If discovered there he has brought the punishment
-of death upon himself." The second court, which in former days had
-been protected by a wooden grating, was now shut in by a low wall.
-The internal arrangements of the Temple were but little changed, and
-consisted, as in the Temple of Zerubbabel, of three uncovered courts
-and of the Sanctuary, which was of a size to admit of the golden
-altar, the candlestick and the shewbread table, and, at the extreme
-end, of the Holy of Holies. But the outer parts of the Sanctuary
-vastly outshone those of the old Temple. Its walls were of snow-white
-marble, and as they rose on the highest summit of the Temple Mount,
-and towered above the outer walls and their fortifications, they
-presented a beautiful and striking appearance from all sides. The large
-space in front of the Sanctuary was partitioned into various smaller
-courts for the use of the women, the laymen, the priests, and for all
-those who were engaged in preparing the sacrifices for the altar. The
-space allotted to the female portion of the worshipers, whose visits
-to the Temple were now of frequent occurrence, was entirely shut off
-from the rest, and three large balconies were reserved for the use of
-the women, from which they were able to witness all celebrations of
-a public character. The gateway leading to this part of the Temple
-was closed by a magnificent door, cast in Corinthian brass, the gift
-of a rich and pious Alexandrian, after whom it was named the Gate of
-Nicanor. Fifteen steps led thence to the laymen's quarters, which
-were reached by passing through a gateway, called, on account of its
-commanding position, the High Gate. The outer court was entirely open;
-but, on the other hand, the Sanctuary was shut off by a gateway higher
-and broader than any other, containing double folding doors, thickly
-covered with a layer of gold. This was the Great Gate or the Gate of
-the Sanctuary. The high roof of the Sanctuary rose at intervals into
-sharp gilded points, the object of which was to prevent the birds from
-building their nests on this consecrated place, but probably quite
-unintentionally on the part of the builder, they may also have served
-as lightning conductors.
-
-The splendor of the dedication far exceeded that solemnized in King
-Solomon's time. Hecatombs upon hecatombs were offered up, and the whole
-nation was feasted. The celebration fell upon the very anniversary
-of the day when, twenty years previously, Herod, with blood-stained
-hands, had made himself master of Jerusalem--a terrible reminiscence.
-The hands that built the Temple had already lighted the torch for its
-destruction. Herod placed it under the protection of Rome. To the
-horror of the pious Judæans, a golden eagle, the symbol of Roman might,
-was hung over the principal entrance. Herod, moreover, constructed a
-subterranean passage, leading from the fortress of Antonia to the east
-gate of the Temple, in order to control the egresses of the Sanctuary.
-His soul was filled with distrust of his people.
-
-Towards the close of his reign the aged and sin-laden monarch was
-seized with a terrible malady. This threw him into a condition of such
-hopeless misery that one may say that all human feeling gave place
-to the fury of the wild beast. The corpses of his innocent victims
-rose up before his excited imagination, and made his life one long
-torment. Vainly he sought for one loving heart, one faithful soul,
-who would comfort and guide him. But he believed that his own flesh
-and blood--his sister and brother, Salome and Pheroras, even his own
-children--were his enemies, and were conspiring against his peace and
-his life. This terrible state of mind made him more dangerous than
-ever to those who ventured within his presence. The chief cause of his
-frenzy was the death of his beloved Mariamne. Besides two daughters,
-she had left him two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, who, as they
-grew to man's estate, took the death of their unfortunate mother
-deeply to heart, and could not conceal the aversion they felt for
-their father. As these princes were of Hasmonæan descent, Herod had
-decided upon making them his successors. He had sent them as youths
-to Rome, in order that they might gain the favor of Augustus, and be
-educated according to Roman fashion. He married the eldest, Alexander,
-to Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, King of Cappadocia, and the
-younger, Aristobulus, to Salome's daughter, Berenice. He thought
-that by these means he could secure peace amongst the members of
-his own family. But his wishes were defeated by the hatred that the
-revengeful Salome and her brother Pheroras bore to the descendants of
-the Hasmonæan Mariamne. Herod was induced by his sister to take to his
-heart and to adopt as a royal prince the son of his first wife, Doris,
-whom together with her child he had repudiated upon his marriage with
-Mariamne.
-
-Antipater, the son of Doris, had inherited all the malice, craft and
-cruelty of the Idumæans, and he spared neither his father nor his
-brothers. The three, Salome, Pheroras, and Antipater, although they
-hated one another mortally, were united in hatred against the sons of
-Mariamne. The more these princes were indulged by their father, and the
-more they were beloved by the people as descendants from the Hasmonæans
-on their mother's side, the more did their bitter foes fear and detest
-them. Antipater accused Alexander and Aristobulus of wishing to avenge
-the death of their mother upon the person of their father. Imprudent
-expressions, hastily uttered in moments of irritation, may have given
-some show of reason to these accusations. Herod's suspicions dwelt
-eagerly upon this calumny. He began to hate his sons, and, as a mark of
-displeasure towards them, led Antipater to believe that he should share
-in their rights of succession. This determination of the king served to
-embitter the Hasmonæan princes still more, and drove them to the most
-unwise outbursts of anger against their father. Antipater succeeded at
-the same time in laying proofs of an attempted conspiracy of the two
-brothers against Herod before him. Their friends and their servants
-were, by the king's commands, put to the torture, and upon the strength
-of their confession, wrung from them under agony, Alexander and
-Aristobulus were condemned to death by a council numbering one hundred
-and fifty of Herod's friends. Herod himself hastened the execution,
-and ordered the two princes to be torn from Jerusalem and hurried to
-Samaria, and there, where thirty years previously their unnatural
-father had celebrated his marriage with their mother, her two sons were
-mercilessly beheaded.
-
-However, the conspiracies against Herod's life did not cease with
-their death, but, on the contrary, acquired fresh vigor. Antipater,
-not feeling at all sure of his succession so long as his father was
-alive, actually conspired with Pheroras against the life of that
-father and benefactor. But his fiendish design came to light, and it
-was discovered that Antipater had undoubtedly intended poisoning his
-father. This disclosure was a terrible blow for Herod. The turmoil of
-his outraged feelings cannot be described, and yet he had to control
-himself, and even to pretend great affection for Antipater, in order
-to induce that prince to leave Rome and return to Jerusalem. Upon
-Antipater's arrival, his father loaded him with reproaches, and accused
-him before a tribunal, which was under the presidency of the Roman
-governor Quintilius Varus, of fratricide and attempted parricide.
-Vainly did the prince plead innocence; Herod's friend, Nicolaus of
-Damascus, appeared as his merciless accuser. His death sentence was
-passed, and Herod begged of Augustus to ratify it.
-
-Such constant and frequent alarms brought Herod, who had nearly reached
-his seventieth year, to his death-bed. All his hopes were frustrated;
-the result of so much labor, of so much guilt, of so much bloodshed,
-had become hateful to him. In which of his surviving sons could he have
-confidence? For the third time he altered the succession, and resolved
-that the throne should belong to his youngest son, Antipas I.
-
-His miserable state of mind, which might have made him gentler and
-more merciful, only led him into still greater cruelty. An unimportant
-rising on the part of some hot-headed youths called forth from the aged
-monarch an act of retaliation as heartless and as severe as in the days
-when his heart beat high with young and ambitious hopes. The Pharisees
-were no friends of his, especially those who were the disciples of
-Shammai. He therefore kept a suspicious eye upon the members of the
-Pharisaic schools, and the Pharisees, on their side, continued to
-incite the youths of their following against their monarch, whom they
-termed the Idumæan and the Roman. This they were able to do without
-incurring any danger to themselves, for they clothed their words in a
-metaphorical garb, applying the denunciations of the Hebrew prophets
-of old to the Idumæan nation, to express what they felt for Herod and
-his family.
-
-Amongst the Pharisees who were most bitterly opposed to Herod and the
-Romans, Judah ben Zippori and Matthias ben Margalot were distinguished
-for their ardor and recklessness, and were endeared to their people by
-these very characteristics. Upon hearing of Herod's mortal illness,
-they incited some of their young disciples to put an end to the
-desecration of the Temple, by hurling the Roman eagle from the gateway.
-The rumors of Herod's death, that were credited in Jerusalem, favored
-this bold undertaking. A number of youths armed with axes rushed to
-the Temple Gate, scaled it by means of a rope-ladder, and cut down
-the eagle. At the news of this rebellious action, the captain of the
-Herodian guard sent his troops to the spot, and they succeeded in
-capturing the two ringleaders and forty of their followers. They were
-brought into the king's presence, and the sight of these new victims
-revived his exhausted vitality. At their trial, which was conducted in
-his presence, he was forced to hear much that proved how incapable he
-had been in breaking the stubborn will of his people. The prisoners
-fearlessly confessed what they had done, boasting proudly of their
-performance, and replying to the question as to who had incited them to
-such an action, "The Law." They were all burnt alive as "desecrators of
-the Temple."
-
-But Herod was to be punished more effectually by eternal justice than
-would have been possible had he been arraigned before the severest
-earthly tribunal. Even the pleasure that was granted him before he
-entirely succumbed to his loathsome malady, the delight of being able
-to order the execution of his son, was soon followed by a paroxysm
-of pain in which he nearly caused his own destruction. His relative
-Achiab tore the knife from his hand, but the cry of horror that arose
-from his palace in Jericho at this suicidal attempt, came to the ear
-of Antipater, a prisoner in the same palace. He began to hope that
-his life might yet be spared, and he besought his gaoler to release
-him. But the gaoler, who feared to risk his own life, hurried into the
-king's apartments, to see if the cruel monarch still lived. When Herod
-heard that Antipater yet hoped to outlive him, he ordered his instant
-assassination, and his orders were forthwith obeyed. Although Antipater
-deserved his death tenfold, yet there was a general feeling of horror
-at the idea of a father who could sentence his three sons to death.
-Even Augustus, who did not show any tenderly paternal feelings to his
-daughter Julia, could not help exclaiming at the news of Antipater's
-execution, that "he would rather be Herod's swine than his son." A
-legend of later date tells how Herod was not satisfied with shedding
-the blood of his own children, but how, in a passion, he ordered all
-children under two years of age in Bethlehem and the surrounding
-country to be massacred, because he had heard that the Messiah of the
-House of David had been born in that place! But Herod, criminal as he
-was, was innocent of this crime.
-
-Herod's last thoughts dwelt, however, upon bloodshed. He insisted
-upon the most respected men of Judæa being brought to Jericho, and
-imprisoned in the great public arena, where they were closely guarded;
-he then left orders with his sister Salome and her husband that
-directly after his death had taken place they should be all massacred
-by his body-guard, so that the entire nation might be mourning their
-loved ones, and no one would have the heart to rejoice over his
-demise. Murder filled his thoughts from the first moment of his public
-life until he drew his last breath. He died five days after the
-execution of Antipater, in the sixty-ninth year of his life and the
-thirty-seventh of his reign, in the spring of the year 4 B. C. His
-flatterers called him "Herod the Great," but the nation only knew him
-as "the Hasmonæan slave." Whilst his body was being taken in all pomp
-to its resting-place in Herodium, under the escort of the Thracian,
-German and Gallic body-guard, the nation joyfully celebrated the day as
-a semi-festival.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-THE HERODIANS.
-
-    The Family of Herod--Partition of the Kingdom of Judæa--Revolt
-    against Archelaus--Sabinus and Varus--The Adventurer-Chief,
-    Judas the Galilæan--Confirmation of Herod's Will--Archelaus
-    as Ruler--His brief Reign and his Banishment--Judæa becomes
-    a Roman Province--The Revolt against the Census--The
-    Schools of Hillel and Shammai--Judas Founder of the
-    Party of Zealots--Onerous Taxation--Fresh Hostility of
-    the Samaritans--Expulsion of the Judæans from Rome by
-    Tiberius--Pontius Pilate.
-
-3 B. C. E.--37 C. E.
-
-
-However unfortunate the reign of Herod may have been, it yet contrasted
-favorably with that which followed. Herod's rule was at all events
-distinguished by external splendor, and by a certain amount of
-animation in the direction of public affairs. The boundaries of
-Judæa now extended far beyond the limits assigned to them in the
-most prosperous days of the Hasmonæans. Those tracts of land beyond
-the Jordan and the Hermon, which Aristobulus I and Alexander I had
-only partially conquered after years of useless fighting, fell into
-the possession of Herod merely by the stroke of a pen; but the new
-territories were less welcome, perhaps, on that account than if they
-had been won with toil and difficulty. The towns of Judæa had been
-restored with great magnificence, they were adorned with beautiful
-specimens of Greek sculpture and architecture; but the monuments
-which were erected perpetuated the fame of Roman dignitaries and the
-Herodian family, and not the greatness of the nation. The seaports, and
-especially the port of Cæsarea, were crowded with shipping, and trade
-was consequently encouraged, but the imports which naturally increased
-did not help to enrich the nation. The Temple was resplendent in
-its renovated glory, and outwardly recalled the days of Solomon, but
-the priests were forced to offer sacrifices for the welfare of those
-whom they hated in their hearts. The country even enjoyed a certain
-amount of independence, for the Roman fetters were not visible at a
-superficial glance. All this outward show--because it was only outward
-show--disappeared with the death of the one man who knew how to make
-use of it. As soon as death had torn the reins from Herod's hands,
-public affairs fell into an unsettled and disjointed state, which was
-the beginning of more lasting misfortunes. The edifice, superficially
-constructed, soon gave way, burying among its ruins everything that
-remained in Judæa of freedom and national existence.
-
-Herod had left several daughters and six sons. Some of them he favored
-in his will, others he slighted. The publication of this will (the
-contents of which were known to Ptolemy, the brother of the celebrated
-historian, Nicolaus of Damascus) proved how little he cared for the
-interests of Judæa, and how constantly he was actuated by the most
-selfish motives. Instead of keeping the unity of the country intact,
-he dismembered it, so as to subdivide it between three of his sons.
-The other three were not mentioned; these were--Herod, his son by
-the second Mariamne; another Herod, by Cleopatra of Jerusalem; and
-Phasael, by his wife Pallas. He bequeathed to his son Archelaus (whose
-mother was Malthace the Samaritan) the countries of Judæa and Samaria,
-with the title of sovereign. Herod Antipas (also the son of Malthace)
-became the possessor of the lands of Galilee and Peræa; Philip,
-the son of Cleopatra of Jerusalem, another tetrarchy--Gaulanitis,
-Batanæa, Trachonitis, and the country called Panias, which contained
-the source of the Jordan. He bequeathed to his sister Salome, as a
-reward for her faithfulness, the revenues of the towns of Jamnia,
-Azotus, and Phasaelis (to the north of Jericho). However, these last
-bequests were only expressed in the form of wishes, for he left to the
-emperor Augustus the right of deciding whether they should be put into
-execution, or whether the land should be otherwise divided, and another
-successor appointed to the throne.
-
-The sons, who had received but scanty proofs of affection from their
-father during his lifetime, were not united by any ties of brotherly
-love, and each envied the share which had fallen to his brother.
-Antipas grudged the large territories and the regal title of Archelaus,
-because in an earlier will he had been nominated as successor to
-the throne. Salome, in spite of her large possessions, was equally
-embittered against Archelaus, and did all in her power to dispute the
-succession. The discord which divided the house of Herod was handed
-down to their children and children's children. As the fulfilment of
-Herod's bequests depended on a higher authority, all the disputants
-tried to ingratiate themselves with the people, who, they hoped,
-would intercede in their favor with Augustus. Salome and her husband
-actually countermanded an order given by Herod for the execution of
-the imprisoned nobles, and persuaded the officers of the Herodian
-body-guard that Herod himself had disapproved of an execution on so
-large a scale.
-
-Archelaus, who had still more causes for currying favor with the
-people, appeared in the Court of the Temple after the period of
-mourning had expired, and addressing the multitude from a throne
-erected for the occasion, promised to abolish all the unjust laws
-sanctioned in his father's reign, and to resettle public affairs, so
-as to promote general peace and well-being. Emboldened by so much
-condescension, the people would not rest contented with royal promises;
-they insisted upon stating their grievances in a definite form, and
-demanded speedy and certain redress. There were five points on which
-the people were particularly resolute. They desired that the oppressive
-yearly taxes should be reduced, whilst the duties upon public sales
-and purchases should be completely taken off; that the prisoners who
-had languished for years in dungeons should be liberated; that the
-counselors who had voted the death-sentence when the Roman eagle had
-been destroyed be punished; and finally that the unpopular High Priest,
-Joaser, should be deposed, and one more worthy of his important office
-be named in his stead.
-
-All this was really nothing short of demanding both a new and a
-popular form of government and a public condemnation of the Herodian
-tyranny. However little Archelaus cared at heart for the reputation
-of his father, he could not possibly agree to all these requests.
-Nevertheless, he assented to everything, but he could not promise that
-their wishes should be accomplished until Herod's will had received
-the imperial sanction. But the crowds of people, consisting of several
-thousands, who had congregated from every part of Judæa to celebrate
-the Feast of Passover, incited by the Pharisees, who worked upon their
-feelings by picturing to them the martyrdom of Judas and Matthias, the
-destroyers of the eagle, would not be put off, and came forward full of
-anger and defiance. What their intentions may have been is not known.
-Archelaus, who feared a revolt, sent a troop of soldiers to quell any
-disturbance, but they were assailed with stones and forced to take to
-flight. In the meantime midday approached, and the people allowed their
-anger to cool. They were occupied with the rites of the festivals, and
-made no preparations either for defense or for commencing hostilities.
-Archelaus took advantage of their inactivity; he commanded all the
-infantry in Jerusalem to fall upon the sacrificing multitude, and to
-hew them down; the cavalry were to remain in the open plains to arrest
-the fugitives. Three thousand were killed on that day on the Mount of
-the Temple and in the surrounding country; those that escaped the sword
-of the enemy destroyed themselves. Heralds thereupon proclaimed to the
-whole town that Archelaus forbade the celebration of the Passover for
-that year, and no one was allowed to approach the Temple. This was the
-inauguration of the reign of Archelaus.
-
-Although his relatives would probably not have acted with more humanity
-than he did, they cried out against his cruelty, and made use of it as
-a weapon with which to serve their own purposes when in the presence of
-Augustus. The whole house of Herod traveled to Rome to lay the land of
-Judæa at the feet of the emperor, and to petition, according to their
-respective interests, for the alteration or the confirmation of the
-will.
-
-During their absence unexpected events took place, and the prize for
-which they were all contending very nearly escaped their possession
-altogether. Judæa became a huge battle-field, the arena of furious
-encounters. Men threw themselves into the affray, assuming the titles
-of kings or leaders of the people. The blood of the slain warriors, the
-groans of unarmed, wounded citizens, the smoke issuing from burning
-cities, filled every heart with dismay and with horrible forebodings of
-the downfall of Judæa. The tragical events which took place during the
-first year after the death of Herod are described in the Chronicle as
-the "War Period of Varus," the Governor of Syria.
-
-At the desire of Archelaus, Quintilius Varus had remained in Jerusalem
-after the departure of the Herodian family, so as to crush any attempt
-at revolt which might occur during the absence of the princes. The
-task was an easy one, for the patriots who were hostile to the
-Herodians had no decided plan of action, were insufficiently armed, and
-allowed themselves to be led away by their fierce hatred into unwise
-and useless demonstrations. Varus, seeing no further necessity for
-remaining in the Judæan capital, returned to Antioch, but he left a
-considerable number of troops to be in readiness in case of any signs
-of hostility.
-
-As soon as the governor Varus had left Jerusalem another cause of
-annoyance was given to the people by the arrival of Sabinus, the
-treasurer of Augustus. He had been sent to claim the treasures of
-Herod, and probably also all those belonging to the Temple, as if the
-emperor had been the acknowledged heir to Herod's possessions. Sabinus
-must have had some malevolent intention, for he hastened his journey
-to Jerusalem, notwithstanding that he had promised Varus to remain at
-Cæsarea until the Herodian disputes were settled. He took advantage of
-the reluctance with which the custodians complied with his demands to
-create a disturbance among the people, and thus obtain a pretext for
-entering the city.
-
-The Feast of Pentecost was drawing near, and, as usual, multitudes
-of people congregated from all parts of the country at Jerusalem.
-This time, the greater part of them were animated by hostile feelings
-against the Romans and the Herodians. The strife was not delayed. The
-people soon chose their leaders, and succeeded in occupying the Mount
-of the Temple and the Hippodrome, whence they defied the Romans, who
-had taken up their quarters in the palace of Herod. Sabinus, thinking
-himself lost, encouraged the Romans to besiege the Temple, and sent
-messages to Varus for more reinforcements. The Judæans, well protected
-behind the Temple walls, hurled their weapons and their huge stones
-down upon the Romans. Victory would have been theirs had not the enemy,
-with burning materials, set fire to the colonnade. The flames spread
-so rapidly that escape was impossible. Of the unfortunate combatants,
-some were victims of the fire, others fell before the swords of the
-Romans, and many of them killed themselves in reckless despair.
-
-As soon as the Temple was left unprotected, the Romans, tempted by
-the treasures which they knew it contained, rushed into the courts.
-Sabinus alone is said to have appropriated four hundred talents from
-the treasures of the Temple. The plunder of these treasures, the
-desecration of the Holy of Holies, and the destruction of the halls
-of the Temple, barely ten years after the sacred edifice had been
-completed, roused all the indignation and, at the same time, all the
-valor of the Judæans. Even a great part of the Herodian troops went
-over to the malcontents, and assisted them against the Romans. Thus
-strengthened, they besieged the palace of Herod, laid mines under
-the towers, and threatened the Romans with destruction if they did
-not retire immediately. Sabinus, anxiously awaiting the expected
-reinforcements, but vacillating between fear of the besiegers and a
-longing to obtain the mastery over them, remained for the time in the
-citadel of the palace.
-
-Thus all the horrors of anarchy were let loose in Judæa. Had the
-insurgents found skilful and trustworthy leaders their united efforts
-might have brought about such momentous events that the Herodian
-dispute would have come to a most unexpected termination. But there
-was no organization to give shape and purpose to all this patriotic
-fervor. It was nurtured by selfish adventurers, and was therefore
-hurtful to the country itself rather than dangerous to the enemy.
-Two thousand soldiers, probably Idumæans, whom Herod had dismissed
-shortly before his death, disturbed the regions of the south. A certain
-Simon, a slave of Herod, distinguished by great beauty and an imposing
-presence, collected a troop of malcontents, who hailed him as their
-king, and, at his command, burned to the ground many royal castles
-in the country, including the royal palace at Jericho. The palace of
-Betharamata was destroyed by a band of men, the name of whose leader
-is unknown. A third adventurer was a shepherd named Athronges, a giant
-in strength and stature, who was accompanied into the field of battle
-by four brothers, all of the same colossal build. After assuming the
-royal title, he fell upon the Romans, cut off their retreat, and fought
-valiantly till, after a long and fierce struggle, he was forced to
-yield. There was but one leader of all these free troopers who had a
-decided aim in view, and who might have proved a formidable foe, both
-to Romans and Herodians, had fortune favored him, or his countrymen
-given him their cordial help. This was Judas, known by the name of "the
-Galilean," a native of Gamala in Gaulanitis, and a son of Ezekias,
-fighting against whom Herod had won his first laurels. Judas had been
-imbued, from his birth, with a passionate love for his country, and
-as passionate a hatred towards the Romans. He became the leader of
-a faction which gradually came to rule the country, and eventually
-gave the Romans more difficulties to contend with than even the Gauls
-and the Germans. Judas was at this period in the prime of life. His
-intense zeal proved contagious, and he gained a considerable number of
-partisans among the powerful Galileans. With their assistance he took
-possession of the arsenal in Sepphoris, the Galilean capital. He then
-armed his followers, gave them stipends from the money found in the
-arsenal, and soon became the terror of the Romans and of all those who
-were favorably disposed towards them.
-
-Events in the region bordering on Syria were even more pressing than
-Sabinus in urging the governor to suppress the revolt, and to hasten
-to the rescue of the Roman troops. The terror of Varus himself was so
-great that he not only ordered all the Roman troops that were at his
-disposal (over twenty thousand men) to march against the insurgents,
-but summoned the armies under the command of the neighboring princes.
-Aretas, the king of the Nabathæans, placed his troops at the command of
-the Roman general, and as they formed the vanguard of the Roman army,
-they burnt and plundered all the villages through which they passed.
-Varus sent one division of his troops to Galilee to commence operations
-against Judas. There seems to have been a severe struggle at the town
-of Sepphoris; ultimately Varus set fire to it and sold the inhabitants
-as slaves, but Judas escaped. The town of Emmaus, where Athronges had
-established himself, shared the same fate, though the inhabitants had
-taken to flight. On his arrival at Jerusalem, Varus found that his task
-had become a light one, for the besiegers were alarmed at the report
-of the approach of his army, and had abandoned their struggle against
-Sabinus. Notwithstanding this, two thousand prisoners were crucified at
-the command of Varus.
-
-Such was the end of a revolt which had been fanned into existence by a
-natural feeling of anger and indignation, but had failed through the
-absence of wise and judicious guidance. It had only been successful
-in bringing the nation into a state of more humiliating dependence
-upon Rome, for a legion was retained to keep guard over the rebellious
-citizens of Jerusalem.
-
-During all this time the Herodians were still discussing their claims
-to the sovereignty of Judæa before the throne of Augustus, and their
-servile behavior and mutual accusations only convinced the Emperor
-how unworthy one and all were of holding the reins of government.
-Before Augustus could come to any decision, a Judæan embassy arrived,
-consisting of fifty men of position and importance, whose mission had
-been approved by Varus. They brought accusations against the Herodian
-government, and implored the Emperor to proclaim Judæa a Roman province
-in conjunction with Syria, but to grant the nation full liberty to
-conduct her own internal affairs. As the petition had the support
-of eight thousand Roman-Judæans, the Emperor was obliged to listen
-to it. However, after having heard both the demands of the embassy
-and the arguments of the pretenders to the throne, he decided upon
-confirming Herod's will, with this exception, that he did not grant the
-sovereignty immediately to Archelaus, but only recognized him as ruler
-(Ethnarch), promising him, however, that if he proved worthy of the
-royal title it should be granted to him eventually. Augustus could not
-entirely disregard the last wishes of a prince who had been his friend,
-and who had served the Romans with a devotion only equaled by the zeal
-with which he furthered his own egotistical ends. The imperial treasury
-suffered no diminution whether Judæa was called an ethnarchy or a
-province dependent upon Rome.
-
-The reign of Archelaus was short and uneventful (4 B. C.-6 C. E.).
-Herod's children had inherited little of their father's disposition,
-excepting his fancy for building and his cringing policy towards Rome.
-In other respects they were insignificant, and there was something
-small and contemptible even in their tyranny. At first Archelaus (who
-appears also under the name of Herod) attempted to conciliate the
-discontented members of the community, whose indignation he had aroused
-at the assembly in the courts of the Temple. He gave way to the general
-desire to depose the unpopular High Priest Joasar, and appointed in his
-stead the latter's brother, Eleazer, who was soon succeeded by Joshua
-of the family of Sié or Seth. But he in turn was replaced by Joasar,
-and thus three High Priests followed one another in the short space of
-nine years. The only war carried on by Archelaus was fought against
-Athronges, who had been able to hold his own for some time after the
-death of his four brothers; and such was the incapacity of Archelaus
-that he was long unable to subdue an adventurer, whose powers were
-almost exhausted, but who was still able to dictate the conditions of
-his own surrender.
-
-Archelaus offended the feelings of the pious Judæans by his marriage
-with his sister-in-law Glaphyra, the widow of Alexander, who had been
-executed. This daughter of the king of Cappadocia had had two sons; one
-of these, Tigranes, and his nephew of the same name, became, in later
-years, kings respectively of Greater and Lesser Armenia. Indifferent to
-the melancholy fate of her husband, she married, after his death, Juba,
-the king of Numidia; but was soon divorced from him, and contracted an
-alliance with Archelaus, the brother of her first husband, an alliance
-forbidden by Judæan laws. Little is known of the life of Archelaus;
-his acts of tyranny called forth the opprobrium of the Judæans and the
-Samaritans. He was taken before Augustus to answer for his misdeeds,
-but being unable to defend himself, he was dethroned and sent into
-exile among the Allobrogian races (6 C. E.). The principalities
-belonging to Herod Antipas and to Philip remained in their former
-condition, but the towns which had been in the possession of Salome
-came also under the Imperial sway, for Salome had bequeathed them at
-her death to the Empress Livia.
-
-Thus after enjoying a hundred and fifty years of real or apparent
-independence, Judæa became entirely subjugated to Roman authority,
-and was united with the province of Syria. Matters remained in this
-condition, with the exception of a short interval, till the final
-revolt. The Imperial representative in Judæa, who henceforth received
-the title of Procurator, had his seat of government in the seaport
-Cæsarea, which from that time became the hated rival of Jerusalem. The
-duties of the Procurator consisted in maintaining order in the country,
-and in enforcing the punctual payment of all taxes. He had even the
-power of pronouncing the death sentence, and also of supervising the
-Synhedrion's administration of the criminal law.
-
-The authority of the Synhedrion became more and more limited, and
-the political importance of that assembly, which had considerably
-diminished during the reign of Herod, dwindled entirely away. The
-Romans interfered in all the functions of the Synhedrion, and also
-in the installations of the High Priests. The Procurator named and
-deposed the High Priests according to their friendly or unfavorable
-inclinations towards Rome; he took charge of the sacerdotal ornaments,
-and only gave them up on the chief festivals. The vestments of the High
-Priests were kept under lock and key in the fortress of Antonia; they
-were removed in time for the festival by the officials of the Temple,
-and returned to their place of preservation in the presence of a Roman
-overseer. A light was burning constantly before the case containing the
-priestly vestments.
-
-The first Procurator whom Augustus sent to Judæa was the captain of the
-horse, Coponius. The Syrian Governor, Quirinius, came at the same time
-(6-7) to lay claim to the confiscated property of Archelaus. He was
-also instructed to take a census of the population, and to estimate the
-property of the country for the purpose of the new method of taxation.
-A tax was to be levied upon every individual, inclusive of women
-and slaves; however, female children under twelve and male children
-under fourteen years of age and very old people were to be exempt.
-Furthermore, an income tax was levied, and those who kept cattle were
-called upon to give up a part of their herds. The taxes on the land
-were to be paid out of the produce of the harvest.
-
-This method of levying imposts roused the indignation of all classes
-alike. Every one resented such interference in private as well as
-political affairs, and felt as if the land and property, and the very
-person of each individual were in the hands of the emperor, and made
-use of according to his pleasure. It is not surprising that, in their
-ignorance of the Roman constitution, the people should have looked
-upon the census as the herald of slavery, and anticipated with terror
-a repetition of the Babylonian captivity. Their dread of the census,
-exaggerated perhaps, but not wholly unjustifiable, caused greater
-agitation than any previous statute, and aroused new disputes, in
-which the old differences between Pharisee and Sadducee were entirely
-forgotten. New points of discussion were raised. The question of the
-supremacy of the oral law disappeared before the burning question of
-the day--whether the people should become slaves to the Romans, or
-whether they should offer stubborn and energetic resistance. This
-question brought dissension into the camp of the Pharisees. The new
-faction to which this discussion on the census had given rise sprang
-from the very center of the Synhedrion, and was connected with the
-names of Hillel, Shammai, and Judas of Galilee.
-
-Hillel and Shammai did not live to see the catastrophe which made Judæa
-a province of Rome. Hillel's death caused wide-spread mourning, and
-the oration at his grave began with the sad cry: "O pious, O gentle,
-O worthy follower of Ezra." The people, in their great affection for
-him, continued to distinguish his descendants with their favor, and
-the presidency of the Synhedrion became hereditary in his family for
-more than four centuries. Of Hillel's son and successor, Simon I,
-nothing but his name has been preserved. All the greatness which
-encircled Hillel's name was bequeathed to the school which he formed,
-and which inherited and faithfully preserved the spirit of its founder.
-The disciples of this school evinced in all their public dealings
-the peacefulness and gentleness, the conciliatory spirit which had
-distinguished their great master. They were guided and supported by
-these characteristic qualities during the political storms which long
-convulsed their unhappy country. There were about eighty members of
-this school who were most devotedly attached to Hillel, and were called
-the elders of the school. The names of only two of these have been
-recorded: Jonathan, the son of Uziel, and Jochanan ben Zaccai. The
-former is reputed, but without actual proof, to have been the author
-of a Chaldaic translation of the Prophets. He was disinherited by his
-father in favor of Shammai, probably from displeasure at his having
-joined the school of Hillel.
-
-In the same way as the school of Hillel endeavored to preserve the
-characteristic gentleness of their master, the followers of Shammai
-emulated and even exceeded the stern severity of the founder of
-their school. It seemed impossible to the school of Shammai to be
-sufficiently stringent in religious prohibitions; the decisions which
-they arrived at, in their interpretations of the law, were so generally
-burdensome that those which were milder in character were treasured up
-as rare exceptions. Thus, according to their opinion, no work should be
-attempted which, if commenced before the Sabbath, would, even without
-the aid of a Judæan, be completed on the Sabbath. It was prohibited on
-the Sabbath day to give sums of money for charitable purposes, to make
-arrangements for marriage contracts, to instruct children, to visit the
-sick, or even to bring comfort to the sorrowing. In their regulations
-concerning the purity of the Levites in their person and apparel,
-their exaggerations brought them very near the excesses of the Essenes.
-They were equally severe concerning matrimonial laws, and only allowed
-divorce to be granted in the case of the unchastity of the wife.
-
-In the school of Shammai, the Pharisaic principles were carried to
-the very extreme. It was only due to the yielding disposition of the
-followers of Hillel that peace was not disturbed, and that a friendly
-relationship existed between two schools of such opposite views and
-characters. The school of Shammai were not only severe in their
-explanations of the laws, but entertained very stern and rigid opinions
-on nearly all subjects; they were particularly harsh and repellant
-towards proselytes to Judaism. Any heathen who came to the school of
-Shammai, requesting to be received into the community might expect but
-a very cold and repellant reception. The school of Shammai cared not
-for proselytes. How dangerous to Judaism lukewarm proselytes may be,
-they had too often seen in the case of the converted Herodians. But in
-spite of their own rigid obedience to the Law, they did not exact the
-same obedience from the Judæan troops who were fighting against the
-national enemy. Originally there had been some hesitation about making
-war on the Sabbath, but now the school of Shammai were unreservedly
-in favor thereof; the siege of a hostile city, commenced before the
-Sabbath, was not to be raised, in spite of the transgressing of the
-Sabbath law, until the fortress surrendered. These ordinances were
-instituted by Shammai himself, in whom hatred of the heathen was even
-greater than religious devotion. The school of Shammai had a large
-number of adherents in the Synhedrion, as well as among the people.
-Their religious austerity, and their hatred of the heathens, found more
-sympathizers than the moderation and peacefulness of the followers of
-Hillel. They consequently formed the majority, and were able to carry
-all their resolutions. Among the followers of Shammai, several names
-have been preserved--Baba ben Buta, Dostai from Itome, and Zadok.
-
-It is possible that this Zadok may be the same of whom it is related
-that, excited by a fanatical hatred of the Romans, he joined with Judas
-the Galilean, and placed himself at the head of a religious republican
-faction who called themselves the _Zealots_ (Kannaim). The members
-of this faction were also called the Galileans. The watchword which
-Judas gave the party of the Zealots, and which was eagerly endorsed by
-Zadok, was that obedience to the Roman law was disregard of the Divine
-law, for God alone was ruler, and could alone demand obedience; that
-it became, therefore, a clear and solemn duty to strain every nerve,
-and sacrifice property, and life, and family in this struggle against
-the usurper, who exacted submission due to God alone. And they set up
-as an exemplar Phineas, the slayer of the chief Zimri, the only one
-who, in the presence of a neglectful tribe and a slothful nation, had
-served his God with zeal. Furthermore, Judas proclaimed that the Judæan
-state must be a republic, recognizing God alone as sovereign and His
-laws as supreme. This teaching found favor all the more readily as the
-Roman yoke was becoming more and more intolerable. The great purpose
-they had in view--the recovery of their freedom--electrified young and
-old, and the Zealots, a faction which at first only comprised followers
-of Shammai, soon included a great number of Judæans, who chafed
-indignantly under the weight of the Roman fetters.
-
-As soon as the law was passed that every one should give an accurate
-description of his family, his lands and his property, Zadok and Judas
-gave the signal for energetic resistance. In some places a conflict
-seems to have ensued. The more moderate, however, including the
-High Priest Joasar, tried to pacify the malcontents by explaining
-that the census would not be the precursor of slavery or of the
-confiscation of property, but was simply necessary in order to control
-the arrangements for taxation. It was useless, and the census was
-regarded with such suspicion and dislike that every fine was now called
-census (Kenas). Even the moderate party, although they endeavored to
-stem the agitation, were indignant at the encroachments made upon
-their liberties. The school of Hillel considered the taxation so
-unjustifiable that, conscientious as they were, they acceded to all
-measures by which it might be escaped.
-
-Such was the general abhorrence for this system of taxation, that
-all those who were officially occupied in carrying it out, whether
-as tax-collector (Moches) or as treasurer (Gabbai), were looked upon
-as dishonorable men; they were not tolerated in the higher ranks of
-the community, and their testimony as witnesses was discredited. Only
-mercenary motives and utter indifference to public opinion could
-induce any one to undertake the despised office. The designations of
-tax-gatherer and overseer became henceforth terms of opprobrium.
-
-Another change also originated with the Roman occupation of Judæa.
-All public documents, deeds of divorce, etc., were now to be dated
-according to the year of the reign of the Roman Emperor, and not, as
-formerly, that of the Judæan rulers. The Zealots were much annoyed at
-this innovation, and they accused the more moderate Pharisees, who had
-yielded to it, of indifference in matters of religion. "How could such
-an ignominy be perpetrated as to write the words, 'according to the
-laws of Moses and Israel'" (the usual formula in the separation deeds)
-"next to the name of the heathen ruler, and thus permit the holy name
-of the greatest prophet to be placed by the side of the name of the
-heathen ruler." In one matter Quirinius was forced to yield to the
-wishes of the people. He deposed the unpopular High Priest Joasar, and
-named in his stead Anan of the family of Seth, whose four sons also
-became high priests.
-
-Under Coponius, who entered upon his office of Procurator when
-Quirinius left, the old enmity between the Judæans and Samaritans
-revived. Several days before the Feast of Passover, the doors of the
-Temple were thrown open at midnight, on account of the great number of
-offerings which took place during that time. A few Samaritans stole
-into the first outer court, and threw some human bones in among the
-pillars, with the object of polluting the Temple. Henceforth the hatred
-between these two races became fiercer than ever, and the guards of the
-Temple, who were under the charge of the Levites, were strengthened,
-so as to prevent the recurrence of such a desecration. Not long after
-these events Coponius was recalled. He was followed by Marcus Ambivius,
-who in a short time was also recalled, and was succeeded by Annius
-Rufus. Thus there were three overseers in the short space of seven
-years (7-14), a disastrous circumstance, as each one was intent upon
-draining, as far as possible, all the wealth from the nation.
-
-The death of Augustus brought little change to Judæa; the latter simply
-became, with other provinces, the possession of Tiberius. Outwardly,
-these provinces may not have suffered under the new emperor's reign,
-for he was just to the people, though antagonistic to the aristocracy,
-which he endeavored to suppress. He listened to the complaints of
-the Judæans, and lightened the burdens of their almost unendurable
-taxation. He appointed as procurator Valerius Gratus, who occupied this
-post for eleven years (15-26) In reality, however, the antipathy of
-Tiberius to the Judæans was even greater than that of his predecessor
-and adopted father; it would seem as if the representative of
-imperialism in Rome had a foreboding of the mortal blow which Rome was
-destined to receive from Judaism. This antipathy had probably been
-stimulated by the fact that the Romans, and particularly the Roman
-women, had a leaning towards Judaism. The enthusiasm of the Judæans
-for their religion presented a striking contrast to the indifference
-with which the Romans, both the priests and the laity, regarded their
-national worship. The loss of freedom in imperial Rome had carried
-away with it that ideality which inspires highly-gifted souls; ardent
-and emotional minds sought in vain for some lofty interest to satisfy
-their longings. Several Roman proselytes, during the reign of Tiberius,
-gave evidence of their religious enthusiasm by sending offerings to the
-Temple at Jerusalem. It may have been a feeling of superstition, rather
-than conviction, which gave rise to conversions; for from the converts
-gained for the cult of Isis in Rome, it was evident that the unknown,
-the strange, the mystical exercised a strong fascination over those
-from whose lives all idealism was banished.
-
-The displeasure of Tiberius was incurred by the Roman proselytes for
-the first time under the following circumstances:--Fulvia, the wife of
-a very highly respected senator, had been converted to Judaism, and had
-sent offerings to the Temple through the agency of her teachers, who,
-however, had retained these offerings for themselves. As soon as these
-facts came to the ears of Tiberius, he presented a law against Judæans
-to the Senate. That body consequently resolved that Judæans must leave
-the city of Rome, on pain of becoming slaves for life, unless they
-abjured Judaism within a given time. This measure is said to have been
-urgently recommended by the minister Sejanus, who exercised a most
-powerful influence over Tiberius. Thousands of Judæan youths were,
-then and there, banished to Sardinia, to fight against the hordes of
-brigands that infested that island. Banishment to so uncongenial a
-climate was almost certain to be fatal to the unfortunate youths; but
-this consideration did not lead the Emperor, as hard-hearted as his
-senators, to take a milder course. The Judæans throughout Italy were
-threatened with banishment if they did not forsake their religious
-observances; all young men, in the prime of life, were forced to come
-armed into the camp on the Sabbath-day; severe punishment followed if
-religious scruples dictated a refusal. This was the first time that
-the Judæans had suffered religious persecution in Rome--their first
-martyrdom--destined to be the precursor of countless others.
-
-The Procurator Gratus, whom Tiberius had appointed, took as active
-a part as his predecessors in the internal affairs of Judæa. During
-the eleven years that he occupied his post he installed as many as
-five high priests, of whom some only retained their office during one
-year. These changes were sometimes due to the unpopularity of the high
-priests, but were far more often the result of bribery or of wanton
-arbitrariness.
-
-Although Judæa and the neighboring lands of Idumæa and Samaria were
-ruled by Procurators, the tetrarchy of Galilee and Peræa enjoyed
-a semblance of independence under the reign of Herod Antipas, and
-the lands of Batanæa and Trachonitis under that of Philip. These
-two princes were distinguished only for their passion for building
-and their submissiveness to Rome. Herod Antipas had at first made
-Sepphoris the capital of his tetrarchy, but as soon as Tiberius became
-emperor he built a new city in the lovely neighborhood of the lake of
-Gennesareth, which he named Tiberias, and where he established his
-court (24-26). But the pious Judæans objected to living in this new
-city; it had probably been built upon a site which had once served as
-a battle-field, as a quantity of human bones were discovered there.
-The inhabitants were consequently prevented by the strict Levitical
-regulations from visiting the Temple, and performing various religious
-observances. Antipas induced the Judæans to settle there only by
-holding out the most tempting offers and by using force; and a century
-actually elapsed before the more conscientious members of the people
-consented to take up their abode in the city of Tiberias.
-
-The town of Beth-Ramatha, in a situation similar to that of Jericho,
-and also rich in the produce of balsam plants, was renamed Livia, in
-honor of the wife of Augustus. Philip, whose revenue from the country
-only amounted to one hundred talents, also built two cities. One of
-these he built in the beautiful district near the source of the Jordan,
-and named it Cæsarea Philippi, to distinguish it from the seaport town
-of Cæsarea; the other, to the northeast of the Lake of Gennesareth,
-he named Julias, after the daughter of Augustus. Indeed, Judæa teemed
-with monuments erected in honor of the Cæsars. Philip's disposition
-was gentle, and seemingly unmarred by fierce passions, and his reign,
-which lasted seven-and-thirty years (4 B. C.-33 A. C.), was quiet
-and uneventful. Antipas, on the contrary, had inherited some of his
-father's wild and bloodthirsty nature.
-
-The successor to the Governor Valerius Gratus was Pontius Pilate, whose
-tenure of office (26-36) embraced a decade memorable in the history
-of the world. As soon as he was in power, he showed the determination
-to subject the Judæans to further humiliation, and to convince them
-that they must drink the cup of suffering to the dregs. The mere facts
-that Pilate was the creature of the deceitful minister Sejanus, before
-whom emperor and senate trembled alike, and that he was sent by him to
-Judæa, would suffice to describe his disposition. Pilate was worthy
-of his master; he certainly went far beyond any of his predecessors in
-wounding the susceptibilities of the Judæan nation. He attacked their
-religious scruples by endeavoring to induce them to pay homage to the
-emblems and insignia of imperialism. Till now the leaders of Roman
-troops had respected the aversion with which the Judæans were known to
-regard all images, and on entering Jerusalem the obnoxious emblems had
-always been removed from the Roman standards. Herod and his sons had
-never failed to observe this practice. Although Pilate well knew that
-the feelings of Judæans had never before been outraged on this subject,
-he paid no heed to them. It is not known whether he had received
-secret injunctions on this point from Sejanus, or whether he acted on
-his own authority, with the anticipation of a satisfactory bribe. He
-sent privately for all the imperial emblems in order to replace them
-upon the standards which were in Jerusalem. The command that these
-representations of human beings were to be worshiped as deities caused
-the deepest indignation throughout the land. Delegates from the people,
-who were even joined by members of the Herodian family, hastened to the
-Procurator at Cæsarea, and implored him to command the removal of the
-hated images.
-
-During five days the petitioners remained before the palace of the
-Procurator, sending up ceaseless supplications. On the sixth day
-Pilate attempted to terrify them, and threatened that they should
-be cut down by his legions if they did not immediately disperse.
-However, when he found that the Judæans were determined to sacrifice
-their lives, if necessary, rather than their religious convictions,
-and perhaps afraid of the disapproval of Tiberius, he at last gave
-way, and issued a command that the cause of their anger should be
-removed. But he provoked the indignation of the inhabitants of
-Jerusalem against himself a short time after. He purposed making an
-aqueduct from a spring at a distance of four geographical miles from
-the town of Jerusalem. In order to meet the necessary expenses, he
-possessed himself of the treasures in the Temple (the korban). He was
-in Jerusalem at the time, and was surrounded by an angry populace,
-who assailed him with execrations. He did not venture to call out his
-legions, but ordered a number of soldiers to disguise themselves in
-the Judæan dress, and to mingle with the crowd and attack them. The
-multitudes rapidly dispersed, but not before great numbers of them had
-been killed and wounded.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI.
-
-MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS AND ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY.
-
-    The Messianic Hope--Various Conceptions of the Expected
-    Messiah--The Essene Idea of the Kingdom of Heaven--John
-    the Baptist, his Work and Imprisonment--Jesus of Nazareth
-    continues John's Labors--Story of his Birth--His Success--His
-    Relations to Judaism and the Sects--His Miraculous Healing of
-    the Sick and Exorcism of Demons--His Secret Appearance as the
-    Messiah--His Journey to Judæa--Accusations against him, and his
-    Condemnation--The First Christian Community and its Chiefs--The
-    Ebionites--Removal of Pilate from Judæa--Vitellius, Governor of
-    Syria, favors the Judæans.
-
-    28-37 C. E.
-
-
-While Judæa was still trembling in fear of some new act of violence on
-the part of the governor, Pontius Pilate, which would again afflict the
-country with disturbances and troubles, a strange event occurred. At
-first but little heeded, it soon acquired, through the singularity of
-its origin and many favorable attendant circumstances, a considerable
-degree of notoriety. So great were the strides this movement rapidly
-made to influence and power, that radical changes were produced by it
-and new paths opened in the history of the world. The time had come
-when the fundamental truths of Judaism, till then thoroughly known
-and rightly appreciated only by profound thinkers, were to burst
-their shackles and go freely forth among all the people of the earth.
-Sublime and lofty views of God and of holy living for the individual
-as well as for the state, which form the kernel of Judaism, were now
-to be disseminated among other nations and to bring them a rich and
-beneficent harvest. Israel was now to commence in earnest his sacred
-mission; he was to become the teacher of nations. The ancient teaching
-about God and religious morality was to be introduced by him unto a
-godless and immoral world. Judaism, however, could gain admission into
-the hearts of the heathens only by taking another name and assuming new
-forms, for with its old designation and distinctive features it was not
-generally popular.
-
-It was due to the strange movement which arose under the governorship
-of Pilate that the teachings of Judaism won the sympathy of the
-heathen world. But this new form of Judaism, altered by foreign
-elements, became estranged from and placed itself in harsh antagonism
-to the parent source. Judaism, which had given birth to this new
-manifestation, could take no pleasure in her offspring, which soon
-turned coldly from her and struck out into strange, divergent paths.
-This new power, this old doctrine in a new garb, or rather this
-Essenism intermingled with foreign elements, is Christianity, whose
-advent and earliest course belong to the Judæan history of this epoch.
-
-Christianity owed its origin to an overpowering, mysterious feeling
-which reigned among the better classes of the Judæan nation, and
-which became daily stronger as their political position became more
-and more intolerable. The ever-recurring evils brought on them by the
-rapacity of their Roman rulers, the shamelessness of the Herodian
-princes, the cowardice and servility of the Judæan aristocracy, the
-debasement of the high priests and their families, and the dissensions
-of rival parties, had raised the longing for the deliverer announced
-in the prophetical writings--the Messiah--to so great a pitch that
-any highly-gifted individual, possessed of outward charm or imbued
-with moral and religious grace, would readily have found disciples,
-and believers in his Messianic mission. The most earnest thinkers of
-that time had long regarded the political condition of the Judæans
-since their return from the Babylonian exile as a temporary or
-preparatory state, which would only continue until the true prophet
-arose, and Elijah turned the hearts of the fathers to the children,
-and restored the tribes of Jacob. When the people, with solemn rites,
-elected the Hasmonæan Simon as their prince, they decreed that he and
-his descendants should hold that position only until the True Prophet
-appeared to assume the royal dignity, and it was only to a scion of the
-House of David, the Anointed that, according to prophecy, this dignity
-by right belonged.
-
-When, consequent upon the wars undertaken by the three powerful
-leaders, Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus, ostensibly to punish Cæsar's
-murderers, in reality to introduce a new form of government, the
-great political convulsion took place in the Roman Empire, and three
-divisions of the world were laid waste, a Judæan poet in Egypt was
-foretelling a far different outcome--the destruction of the whole
-heathen world and the dawn of the "Kingdom of God." In that kingdom
-a holy king--the Messiah--would hold the scepter. "When Rome shall
-vanquish Egypt, and govern her, then shall the greatest in the kingdom,
-the immortal King, arise in the world, and a holy King will come to
-rule over all the nations of the earth during all time." The Messiah,
-so confidently expected, was to bring forth quite a new state of
-things--a new heaven and a new earth. At the coming of Elijah, who was
-to be the precursor of the Messiah, the resurrection of the dead would
-take place, and a future world be revealed.
-
-This ardent longing for the Messiah, and the belief in his advent,
-swayed all classes of the Judæan nation, excepting the aristocracy
-and those who clung to Rome. These were satisfied with the present,
-and anticipated harm rather than benefit from any change. During the
-short space of thirty years a great number of enthusiastic mystics
-appeared, who, without any intention to deceive, and bent upon removing
-the load of care and sorrow that weighed so heavily upon the people,
-assumed the character of prophet or Messiah, and found disciples, who
-followed their banner faithfully unto death. But though it appears that
-every Messiah attracted ready believers, no one was acknowledged as
-such by the whole nation. The incessant friction between the various
-communities, and the deep study of the holy books, had awakened a
-critical spirit difficult to satisfy. The nation was also split into
-many parties, each entertaining a different idea of the future savior,
-and rendering it, therefore, impossible that any one aspirant should
-receive general recognition as the Messiah. The republican zealots,
-the disciples of Judas of Galilee, pictured the Messiah as delivering
-Israel from his enemies by the breath of his mouth, destroying the
-Roman Empire, and restoring the golden era of David's kingdom. The
-school of Shammai added to this representation of the Messiah the
-attributes of ardent religious zeal and perfect moral purity. The
-followers of Hillel, less swayed by fanaticism or political views,
-expected a prince of peace, who would bring tranquillity to the
-country itself, and introduce harmony into its relations with all its
-neighboring states. On one point, however, all agreed: the Messiah
-must spring from the branch of David; and thus, in the course of time,
-the expression "Ben David"--the son of David--became identical with
-the Messiah. According to the prevailing belief, the fulfillment of
-the Messianic prophecies required the return of the scattered tribes
-of Israel, richly laden with presents, expiatory offerings from the
-nations by which they had so long been oppressed. Even the most
-educated classes, who had felt the influence of Grecian culture, and
-were represented by Philo, the Judæan Plato, fully believed that the
-Messianic age was to be ushered in, and pictured it as an epoch of
-miracles. A heavenly apparition, only visible to the righteous, would
-lead back from Greece and barbarous lands the exiled and repentant
-Israelites. The latter would be found prepared for the Messianic time,
-following the holy life of the patriarchs, and imbued with a sublime
-and pious spirit, which would prevent them from falling into their
-old sins, and would surely call down upon them the full grace of God.
-Then would the streams of former happiness be again replenished from
-the eternal spring of Divine grace: the ruined cities would arise, the
-desert become a blooming land, and the prayers of the living would have
-the power of awakening the dead.
-
-It was the sect of Essenes that pictured the Messiah and the Messianic
-time in the most idealistic manner. The great object of their
-asceticism was to advance the kingdom of heaven (Malchuth Shamayim) and
-the coming era (Olam-ha-Ba). Their adherence would be granted alone
-to him who led a pure and spotless life, who renounced the world and
-its vanities, and gave proofs that the Holy Spirit (Ruach ha-Kodesh)
-dwelt within him. He must also have power over demons, reject Mammon,
-and inaugurate a system of community of goods, in which poverty and
-self-renunciation would be the ornaments of mankind.
-
-It was from the Essenes that for the first time the cry went forth,
-"The Messiah is coming! The kingdom of heaven is near!" He who first
-raised his voice in the desert little thought it would re-echo far away
-over land and sea, and that it would be answered by the nations of the
-earth flocking together round the banner of a Messiah. In announcing
-the kingdom of heaven, he only meant to invite the sinners among the
-Judæan people to penitence and reformation. The Essene who sent forth
-this call to the Israelites was John the Baptist (his name doubtless
-meaning the Essene, he who daily bathed and cleansed both body and
-soul in spring water). But few accounts have reached us of John the
-Baptist. He led the same life as the Essenes, fed upon locusts and wild
-honey, and wore the garb of the prophets of old, a cloak of camel-hair
-fastened by a leather girdle. John appears to have fully entertained
-the belief, that if only the whole Judæan nation would bathe in the
-river Jordan, acknowledge their sins, and adopt the strict rules of
-the Essenes, the promised Messianic time could be no longer deferred.
-He therefore called upon the people to come and receive baptism in the
-Jordan, to confess and renounce their sins, and thus prepare for the
-advent of the kingdom of heaven.
-
-John dwelt with other Essenes in the desert, in the vicinity of
-the Dead Sea, presumably in order to be ever at hand to teach the
-repentant sinners the deep moral signification of baptism. Bound up
-with that rite was doubtless the adoption of the rule of life of
-the Essenes. There were certainly many, imbued with an enthusiastic
-spirit, and saddened by the evils and the distress they witnessed,
-who eagerly responded to the cry of the Essene Baptist. Who would not
-gladly, were it only in his power to do so, further the great work of
-the Redemption, and help to advance the kingdom of heaven? Did the
-baptized persons return improved by their immersion in the waters of
-the Jordan? Was any great moral influence the result of this symbolical
-act? History tells us not; but our knowledge of the state of Judæa at
-that time can easily supply us with an answer to the question. The
-Judæan people did not as a whole, especially among the middle-class
-citizens, require this violent shock as a means of improvement; they
-were neither vicious nor depraved, and their form of public religious
-worship was sufficient to keep them in the right paths. By two sets
-of people, however, the call of John to repentance might have been
-heeded--it might have had a beneficial influence upon the higher and
-lower classes, upon the aristocracy and wealthy, who had been corrupted
-by Rome, and upon the miserable peasantry, brutalized by constant
-warfare. But the rich only laughed at the high-souled enthusiast, who
-taught that baptism in the water of the Jordan would bring about the
-miraculous Messianic era, and the sons of the soil were too obtuse and
-ignorant to heed the Baptist's earnest cry.
-
-His appeal, on the other hand, had nothing in its tenor and character
-to offend the Pharisees, or arouse any opposition among the ranks of
-that ruling party. John's disciples, those who were bound closest to
-him, and who carried out his mode of living, kept strictly to the words
-of the Law, and observed all its prescribed fasts. If the Pharisees,
-comprising at that time the schools of Hillel and of Shammai, did not
-greatly favor the enthusiasm and extravagance of the Essenes, they
-placed themselves in no direct antagonism to the Baptists.
-
-From their side, John would have met with no hindrance to his work, but
-the Herodians were suspicious of a man who drew such throngs around
-him, whose burning words moved the hearts of his hearers in their
-very depths, and could carry away the multitude to the performance
-of any enterprise he chose to undertake. Herod Antipas, governor of
-the province in which the Baptist dwelt, gave his soldiers orders to
-seize and imprison him. How long a time he was kept in confinement,
-and whether he was still alive when one of his disciples was being
-proclaimed as the Messiah, must, on account of the untrustworthiness of
-the sources from which our information is derived, remain doubtful. It
-is authentic, however, that he was beheaded by the order of Antipas,
-whilst the story of the young daughter of Herodias bringing to her
-mother the bloody head of the Baptist upon a platter is a mere legend.
-
-After the imprisonment of the Baptist, his work was carried on by some
-of his disciples, among whom no one exerted so powerful an influence
-as Jesus of Galilee. Jesus (short for Joshua), born in Nazareth,
-a small town in Lower Galilee, to the south of Sepphoris, was the
-eldest son of an otherwise unknown carpenter, Joseph, and of his wife
-Miriam or Mary, who bore him four more sons, Jacob, Josê, Judah, and
-Simon, and several daughters. Whether Joseph or Mary, the father and
-mother of Jesus, belonged to the family of David cannot be proved. The
-measure of his mental culture can only be surmised from that existing
-in his native province. Galilee, at a distance from the capital and
-the Temple, was far behind Judæa in mental attainments and knowledge
-of the Law. The lively interchange of religious thought, and the
-discussions upon the Law, which made its writings and teachings the
-common property of all who sought the Temple, were naturally wanting in
-Galilee. The country, which, at a later period, after the destruction
-of the Temple, contained the great schools of Uscha, Sepphoris, and
-Tiberias, was at that time very poor in seats of learning. But, on the
-other hand, morality was stricter in Galilee, and the observance of
-laws and customs more rigidly enforced. The slightest infringement was
-not allowed, and what the Judæans permitted themselves, the Galilæans
-would by no means consent to. They were also looked upon as fanatical
-dogmatists.
-
-Through their vicinity to the heathen Syrians, the Galilæans had
-adopted many superstitions, and, owing to their ignorance of the nature
-of disease, the sick were often thought to be possessed by demons,
-and various forms of illness were ascribed to the influence of evil
-spirits. The language of the Galilæans had also become corrupted by
-their Syrian neighbors, and was marred by the introduction of Aramaic
-forms and words. The Galilæans could not pronounce Hebrew with purity.
-They exchanged, and sometimes omitted, the guttural sounds, and thus
-often incurred the ridicule of the Judæans, who thought a great deal of
-correct articulation. The first word he spoke revealed the Galilæan,
-and, as his language provoked laughter, he was not often allowed to
-lead in the recital of the prayers. The birthplace of Jesus, Nazareth,
-offered no particular attraction; it was a small mountain-town, not
-more fertile than the other parts of Galilee, and bearing no comparison
-to the richly-watered Shechem.
-
-On account of his Galilæan origin, Jesus could not have stood high in
-that knowledge of the Law which, through the schools of Shammai and
-Hillel, had become prevalent in Judæa. His small stock of learning
-and his corrupt half-Aramaic language pointed unmistakably to his
-birthplace in Galilee. His deficiency in knowledge, however, was fully
-compensated for by his intensely sympathetic character. High-minded
-earnestness and spotless moral purity were his undeniable attributes;
-they stand out in all the authentic accounts of his life that have
-reached us, and appear even in those garbled teachings which his
-followers placed in his mouth. The gentle disposition and the humility
-of Jesus remind one of Hillel, whom he seems, indeed, to have taken as
-his particular model, and whose golden rule, "What you wish not to be
-done to yourself, do not unto others," he adopted as the starting-point
-of his moral code. Like Hillel, Jesus looked upon the promotion of
-peace and the forgiveness of injuries as the highest forms of virtue.
-His whole being was permeated by that deeper religiousness which
-consecrates to God not only the hour of prayer, a day of penitence, and
-longer or shorter periods of devotional exercise, but every step in the
-journey of life, which turns every aspiration of the soul towards Him,
-subjects everything to His will, and, with child-like trust, commits
-everything to His keeping. He was filled with tender brotherly love,
-which Judaism also teaches towards an enemy, and had reached the ideal
-of the passive virtues which the Pharisees inculcated: "Count yourself
-among the oppressed and not among the oppressors, receive abuse and
-return it not; do all from love to God, and rejoice in suffering."
-Jesus doubtless possessed warm sympathies and a winning manner, which
-caused his words to produce a deep and lasting effect.
-
-Jesus must, from the idiosyncrasies of his nature, have been powerfully
-attracted by the Essenes, who led a contemplative life apart from the
-world and its vanities. When John the Baptist--or more correctly the
-Essene--invited all to come and receive baptism in the Jordan, to
-repent and prepare for the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus hastened to obey
-the call, and was baptized by him. Although it cannot be proved that
-Jesus was formally admitted into the order of the Essenes, much in his
-life and work can only be explained by the supposition that he had
-adopted their fundamental principles. Like the Essenes, Jesus highly
-esteemed self-inflicted poverty, and despised the mammon of riches. The
-following proverbs, ascribed to him, appear to bear his stamp: "Blessed
-are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven" (Luke vi. 20). "It is
-easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich
-man to enter into the kingdom of God" (Matthew xix. 24). "No man can
-serve two masters, ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew vi. 24).
-Jesus shared the aversion of the Essenes to marriage: "It is not good
-to marry" (Matthew xix. 11). Community of goods, a peculiar doctrine
-of the Essenes, was not only approved of, but positively enjoined by
-Jesus; like them, he also reprobated every form of oath. "Swear not
-at all" (so Jesus taught), "neither by heaven nor by the earth, nor
-by your head--but let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay" (James
-v. 12). Miraculous cures, said to have been performed by him--such
-as the exorcism of demons from those who believed themselves to be
-possessed--were often made by the Essenes, so to say, in a professional
-capacity.
-
-After John had been taken and imprisoned by Herod Antipas, Jesus
-thought simply of continuing his master's work; like him, he preached
-"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," without perhaps having
-then a suspicion of the part he was afterwards to play in that kingdom
-of heaven looked forward to in the approaching Messianic time. Jesus
-apparently felt that if his appeal was not to be lost in the desert
-like that of the Baptist, but, on the contrary, bring forth lasting
-results, it must not be addressed to the whole nation, but to a
-particular class of the Judæans. The middle classes, the inhabitants of
-towns of greater or lesser importance, were not wanting in godliness,
-piety and morality, and consequently a call to them to repent and
-forsake their sins would have been meaningless. The declaration made to
-Jesus by the young man who was seeking the way of eternal life, "From
-my youth upwards, I have kept the laws of God; I have not committed
-murder, nor adultery, nor have I stolen, nor borne false witness;
-I have honored my father and mother, and loved my neighbor like
-myself,"--this declaration might have been made by the greater number
-of the middle-class Judæans of that time. The disciples of Shammai
-and Hillel, the followers of the zealot Judas, the bitter foes of the
-Herodians and of Rome, were not morally sick, and were not in need
-of the physician's art. They were ever ready for self-sacrifice, and
-Jesus wisely refrained from turning to them. Still less was he inclined
-to attempt to reform the rich, and he was repelled by the higher
-classes of Judæans. From these, the warning of the simple, unlearned
-moralist and preacher, his reproof of their pride, their venality
-and inconstancy, would only have elicited mockery and derision. With
-right judgment, therefore, Jesus determined upon seeking out those who
-did not belong to, or had been expelled from the community for their
-religious offenses, and who had either not been allowed or had not
-desired to return to it. They were publicans and tax-gatherers, shunned
-by the patriots, as promoters of Roman interests, who turned their
-backs upon the Law, and led a wild, unshackled life, heedless alike
-of the past and of the future. There existed in Judæa many who had no
-knowledge of the great healing truths of Judaism, who were ignorant
-of its laws, and indifferent as to the glorious history of its past
-or its possible future. These were known as transgressors of the Law
-(Abrianim), or sinners as they were called, the friends of Herod and
-of Rome. There were also ignorant, poor handicraftsmen and menials
-(Am ha-Arez), who were seldom able to visit the Judæan capital, or
-listen to Judæan teachings, which, indeed, they would probably not have
-understood. It was not for them that Sinai had flamed, or the prophets
-had uttered their cry of warning; for the teachers of the Law, more
-intent upon expounding doctrine than upon reforming their hearers,
-failed to make the Law and the prophets intelligible to those classes,
-and consequently did not draw them within their fold. It was to these
-outcasts that Jesus turned, to snatch them out of their torpor, their
-ignorance and ungodliness. He felt within himself the call to save "the
-lost sheep of the house of Israel." "They that be whole need not a
-physician, but they that are sick" (Matthew ix. 12).
-
-Intent upon the lofty mission which he had undertaken--to turn the
-ignorant and the godless, the sinner and the publican to repentance,
-and by virtue of the Essene mode of living to prepare them for the
-approaching Messianic time--Jesus first sought his native town of
-Nazareth. But there, where he had been known from his infancy, and
-where the carpenter's son was not considered to possess superior
-sanctity but only inferior knowledge, he was met with derision and
-contempt. When, on the Sabbath, he spoke in the synagogue about
-repentance, the listeners said to each other, "Is that not the son of
-Joseph the carpenter, and his mother and sisters, are they not all with
-us?" and they said to him, "Physician, heal thyself," and listened not
-to him. The ignominious treatment he received in his own birthplace
-caused him to utter the proverb, "The preacher is least regarded in his
-own country." He left Nazareth, never to return.
-
-A better result followed the teaching of Jesus in the town of Capernaum
-(Kefar Nahum), which was situated on the western coast of the Sea of
-Tiberias. The inhabitants of that delightfully situated town differed
-as much from the Nazarenes as their mild, fertile land from a rough
-and wild mountain gorge. In Capernaum there were doubtless a greater
-number of men steeped in effeminacy and vice, and there existed,
-probably, a wider gap between the rich and the poor. But just on that
-account Jesus had more scope to work there, and an easier access was
-found for the earnest, penetrating words which he poured forth from
-the depths of his soul. Many belonging to the lowest classes attached
-themselves to Jesus and followed him. Among his first disciples in
-Capernaum were Simon, called Kephas or Petrus (rock), and his brother
-Andrew, the sons of Jonah, both fishermen, the first, in some degree,
-a law-breaker, and also the two sons of a certain Zebedee, Jacob
-and John. He was also followed by a rich publican, called sometimes
-Matthew, sometimes Levi, in whose house Jesus often tarried, bringing
-with him companions from the classes then looked down upon with the
-greatest contempt. Women likewise of doubtful repute were among his
-followers, the most conspicuous of the number being a native of the
-town of Magdala, near Tiberias, Mary Magdalene, from whom seven devils
-(according to the language of the time) had to be driven out. Jesus
-converted these abandoned sinners into remorseful penitents. It was,
-doubtless, an unheard-of thing at that time for a teacher of Judaism to
-hold intercourse with women at all, more especially with any of that
-description.
-
-He, however, by word and example raised the sinner and the publican,
-and filled the hearts of those poor, neglected, thoughtless beings
-with the love of God, transforming them into dutiful children of their
-heavenly Father. He animated them with his own piety and fervor, and
-improved their conduct by the hope he gave them of being able to
-enter the kingdom of heaven. That was the greatest miracle that Jesus
-performed. Above all things, he taught his male and female disciples
-the Essene virtues of self-abnegation and humility, of the contempt of
-riches, of charity and the love of peace. He said to his followers,
-"Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass for your purses, neither
-two coats, neither shoes" (Matthew x. 9). He bade them become sinless
-as little children, and declared they must be as if born again if
-they would become members of the approaching kingdom of heaven. The
-law of brotherly love and forbearance he carried to the extent of
-self-immolation. "If you receive a blow on one cheek, turn the other
-one likewise, and if one takes your cloak, give him likewise your
-shirt." He taught the poor that they should not take heed for meat or
-drink or raiment, but pointed to the birds in the air and the lilies
-in the fields that were fed and clothed yet "they toil not, neither
-do they spin." He taught the rich how to distribute alms--"Let not
-thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." He admonished the
-hypocrite, and bade him pray in the secrecy of his closet, placing
-before him a short form of prayer--"Our Father which art in heaven,"
-which may possibly have been in use among the Essenes.
-
-Jesus made no attack upon Judaism itself, he had no idea of becoming
-the reformer of Jewish doctrine or the propounder of a new law; he
-sought merely to redeem the sinner, to call him to a good and holy
-life, to teach him that he is a child of God, and to prepare him
-for the approaching Messianic time. He insisted upon the unity of
-God, and was far from attempting to change in the slightest degree
-the Jewish conception of the Deity. To the question once put to him
-by an expounder of the Law, "What is the essence of Judaism?" he
-replied, "'Hear, O Israel, our God is one' and 'Thou shalt love thy
-neighbor as thyself.' These are the chief commandments" (Mark xii.
-28). His disciples, who had remained true to Judaism, promulgated the
-declaration of their Master--"I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill;
-till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass
-from the Law till all be fulfilled" (Matthew v. 17). He must have kept
-the Sabbath holy, for those of his followers who were attached to
-Judaism strictly observed the Sabbath, which they would not have done
-had their master disregarded it. It was only the Shammaitic strictness
-in the observance of the Sabbath, which forbade even the healing of
-the sick on that day, that Jesus protested against, declaring that
-it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Jesus made no objection to
-the existing custom of sacrifice, he merely demanded--and in this the
-Pharisees agreed with him--that reconciliation with one's fellow-man
-should precede any act of religious atonement. Even fasting found no
-opponent in him, so far as it was practised without ostentation or
-hypocrisy. He wore on his garments the fringes ordered by the Law, and
-he belonged so thoroughly to Judaism that he shared the narrow views
-held by the Judæans at that period, and thoroughly despised the heathen
-world. He was animated by that feeling when he said, "Give not that
-which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine,
-lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you."
-
-The merit of Jesus consists especially in his efforts to impart greater
-inner force to the precepts of Judaism, in the enthusiasm with which
-he obeyed them himself, in his ardor to make the Judæans turn to God
-with filial love as children to their father, in his fervent upholding
-of the brotherhood of men, in his insistence that moral laws be placed
-in the foreground, and in his endeavors to have them accepted by those
-who had been hitherto regarded as the lowest and most degraded of human
-beings.
-
-It was not to be expected, however, that through his teaching alone
-Jesus could attract devoted followers, or achieve great results;
-something more was required--something strange and wonderful to startle
-and inflame. His appearance, his mystical character, his earnest
-zeal produced, doubtless, a powerful effect, but to awaken in the
-dull and cold a lasting enthusiasm, to gain the confidence of the
-masses and to kindle their faith, it was necessary to appeal to their
-imagination by strange circumstances and marvelous surroundings. The
-Christian chronicles abound in extraordinary events and descriptions
-of miraculous cures performed by Jesus. Though these stories may in
-part be due to an inclination to exaggerate and idealize, they must
-doubtless have had some foundation in fact. Miraculous cures--such,
-for example, as the exorcism of those possessed by demons--belonged
-so completely to the personality of Jesus that his followers boasted
-more of the exercise of that power than of the purity and holiness of
-their conduct. If we are to credit the historical accounts of that
-period, the people also admired Jesus more for the command he displayed
-over demons and Satan than for his moral greatness. It was indeed on
-account of the possession of such power that he was first considered a
-supernatural being by the uncultured masses.
-
-Encouraged by the great effect he produced in Capernaum, where he
-found his first circle of disciples, Jesus wandered about in the towns
-of Galilee, remaining some time in its second capital, Bethsaida,
-in Magdala, and in Chorazin, where he gained many followers. His
-presence, however, in Bethsaida and Chorazin could not have produced
-any lasting result, as he bewailed--according to the words placed in
-his mouth, "Woe unto thee, Chorazin, woe unto thee, Bethsaida"--the
-spirit of opposition and indocility of their inhabitants. Like Sodom
-and Gomorrah, they were accursed. Still he had many faithful disciples,
-both men and women, who followed him everywhere, and obeyed him in all
-things. They renounced not only their former immoral and irreligious
-life, but also gave up all their possessions, carrying out the doctrine
-of the community of goods. The repasts they took in common formed, as
-it were, the connecting link which attached the followers of Jesus to
-one another, and the alms distributed by the rich publicans relieved
-the poor disciples of the fear of hunger, and thus bound them still
-more closely to Jesus.
-
-Among his followers Jesus selected as his peculiar confidants
-those who, distinguished by their superior intelligence or greater
-steadfastness of character, seemed best calculated to forward the
-aims he had in view. The number of these trusted disciples was not
-known, but tradition mentions twelve, and calls them the twelve
-apostles--representatives, as it were, of the twelve tribes of Israel.
-
-His great design, the secret desire of his heart, Jesus disclosed on
-one occasion to the most intimate circle of his disciples. He led them
-to a retired spot at the foot of Mount Hermon, not far from Cæsarea
-Philippi, the capital of the Tetrarch Philip, where the Jordan rushes
-forth from mighty rocks, and in that remote solitude he revealed to
-them the hidden object of his thoughts. But he contrived his discourse
-in such a manner that it appeared to be his disciples who at last
-elicited from him the revelation that he considered himself the
-expected Messiah. He asked his followers, "Who do men say that I, the
-son of man, am?" Some replied that he was thought to be Elijah, the
-expected forerunner of the Messiah; others, again, that he was the
-prophet whose advent Moses had predicted; upon which Jesus asked them,
-"But whom say ye that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art
-the Christ." Jesus praised Peter's discernment and admitted that he
-was the Messiah, but forbade his disciples from divulging the truth,
-or, for the present, from speaking about it at all. Such was the
-mysteriously-veiled birth of Christianity. When, a few days later, the
-most trusted of his disciples, Simon Peter and the two sons of Zebedee,
-James and John, timidly suggested that Elijah must precede the Messiah,
-Jesus declared that Elijah had already appeared, though unrecognized,
-in the person of the Baptist. Had Jesus from the very commencement of
-his career nourished these thoughts in the depths of his soul, or had
-they first taken shape when the many followers he had gained seemed to
-make their realization possible? Jesus never publicly called himself
-the Messiah, but made use of other expressions which were doubtless
-current among the Essenes. He spoke of himself as "the son of man,"
-alluding probably to Daniel vii. 13, "One like the son of man came
-with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days," a verse
-which referred probably to the whole people and its Messianic future,
-but which at that time was made to point to the Messiah himself. There
-was yet one other name which Jesus applied to himself in his Messianic
-character--the mysterious words "Son of God," probably taken from the
-seventh verse of the second Psalm, "The Lord hath said unto me, Thou
-art my son; this day have I begotten thee." Was this expression used by
-Jesus figuratively, or did he wish it to be taken in a literal sense?
-As far as we know, he never explained himself clearly on that subject,
-not even at a later date, when it was on account of the meaning
-attached to those words that he was undergoing his trial. His followers
-afterwards disagreed among themselves upon that matter, and the various
-ways in which they interpreted that ambiguous expression divided them
-into different sects, among which a new form of idolatry unfolded
-itself.
-
-When Jesus made himself known as the Messiah to his disciples,
-enjoining secrecy, he consoled them for the present silence imposed on
-them by the assurance that a time would come, when "What I tell you in
-darkness, that speak ye in light, and what ye hear in the ear, that
-preach ye upon the house-tops." What occurred was doubtless contrary to
-what Jesus and his disciples expected, for as soon as it was known (the
-disciples having probably not kept the secret) that Jesus of Nazareth
-not only came to preach the Kingdom of Heaven, but was proclaimed as
-the expected Messiah, the public sentiment rose against him. Proofs and
-signs of his being the Messiah were asked, which he was not able to
-give, and he thus was forced to evade the questions addressed to him.
-Many of his followers seem to have been repelled by his assumption of
-the Messianic character, and so left him at once. "From that time many
-of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him" (John vi. 66).
-In order not to be discredited in the eyes of his disciples, it was
-essential that he should perform some miracle that would crown his work
-or seal it with his death. It was expected that he would now appear in
-Jerusalem before the whole nation in the character of the Messiah, and
-it is stated that his own brothers entreated of him to go there, so
-that his achievements might at last become visible to his disciples.
-"For there is no man that doeth anything in secret and he himself
-seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to
-the world" (John vii. 4). Jesus thus found himself almost obliged to
-enter upon the path of danger. He was, moreover, no longer safe in
-Galilee, and appears to have been tracked and pursued from place to
-place by the servants of the Tetrarch Herod Antipas. It was at that
-time that Jesus said to one of his followers who clung to him in his
-distress, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests,
-but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head" (Matthew viii. 20).
-He wished to prevent any misconception as to his desire to alter the
-Law, and his reply to the Pharisee who asked what would be required of
-him if he became his disciple was, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep
-the commandments, sell what thou hast and give to the poor." When he
-had passed Jericho and was approaching Jerusalem, Jesus took up his
-abode near the walls of the capital, in the village of Bethany, at the
-Mount of Olives, where the lepers who were obliged to avoid the city
-had their settlement. It was in the house of one of these that shelter
-was given him. The other disciples whom he found at Bethany belonged
-also to the lower orders. They were Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and
-Martha. Only one resident of wealth and position in Jerusalem, Joseph
-of Arimathea, is said to have become a disciple of Jesus.
-
-The entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem and his appearance in the Temple
-have been glorified by a halo of legends which contain but little
-historical truth. They show us Jesus accompanied in triumph by the
-people singing hosannas, the same people who a few days later were to
-demand his death. Both reports were inventions: the first was designed
-to prove that he was recognized as the Messiah by the people; the
-second, to throw the guilt of his execution upon all Israel. Equally
-unhistorical is the account of Jesus entering the Temple by force,
-throwing down the tables of the money-changers, and chasing away those
-who were selling doves. An act that must have given rise to intense
-excitement would not have been omitted from other chronicles of that
-period. It is not mentioned in any other writings of that time that the
-stalls of money-changers and dealers in doves had a place in the Temple.
-
-It is just the most important facts of the life of Jesus--the account
-of the attitude he assumed at Jerusalem before the people, the
-Synhedrion and the different sects, the announcement of himself as the
-Messiah, and the manner in which that announcement was received--that
-are represented in such various ways in the chronicles that it is
-impossible to separate the historical kernel from its legendary
-exaggerations and embellishments. Prejudice certainly existed against
-him in the capital. The educated classes could not imagine the
-Messiah's saving work to be performed by an unlearned Galilæan; indeed,
-the idea that the Messiah, who was expected to come from Bethlehem,
-out of the branch of David, should belong to Galilee, overthrew the
-long-cherished conviction of centuries. It is probably from this
-time that the proverb arose: "Can there any good thing come out of
-Nazareth?" (John i. 46). The devout took offense at his going about
-eating and drinking with sinners, publicans, and women of a degraded
-class. Even the Essenes, John's disciples, were displeased at his
-infringement of rules and customs. The Shammaites were scandalized
-at his healing the sick on the Sabbath day, and could not recognize
-the Messiah in one who desecrated the Sabbath. He also roused the
-opposition of the Pharisees by the disapproval he expressed here and
-there of their interpretations of the laws, and of the conclusions they
-drew from them. From Jesus the zealots could not look for deeds of
-heroism, for, instead of inspiring his followers with hatred of Rome,
-he advocated peace, and in his contempt for mammon admonished them to
-submit willingly to the Roman tax-gatherers. "Render therefore unto
-Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things which are
-God's" (Matt. xxii. 21). These startling peculiarities, which seemed
-to contradict the preconceived idea of the Messianic character, caused
-the higher and the learned classes to be coldly indifferent to him,
-and it is certain that he met with no friendly reception in Jerusalem.
-These various objections, however, to the mode of life and the tenets
-of Jesus afforded no ground for any legal accusation against him.
-Freedom of speech had, owing to the frequent debates in the schools
-of Shammai and Hillel, become so firmly established a right that no
-one could be attacked for expressing religious opinions, unless indeed
-he controverted any received dogma or rejected the conception of the
-Divinity peculiar to Judaism. It was just in this particular that
-Jesus laid himself open to accusation. The report had spread that he
-had called himself the Son of God--words which, if taken literally,
-wounded the religious feelings of the Judæan nation too deeply to allow
-him who had uttered them to pass unscathed. But how was it possible to
-ascertain the truth, to learn whether Jesus had really called himself
-the Son of God, and to know what meaning he attached to these words?
-How was it possible to discover what was the secret of his sect?
-To bring that to light it was necessary to seek a traitor among his
-immediate followers, and that traitor was found in Judas Iscariot,
-who, as it is related, incited by avarice, delivered up to the judges
-the man whom he had before honored as the Messiah. One Judæan account,
-derived from what appears a trustworthy source, seems to place in
-the true light the use made of this traitor. In order to be able to
-arraign Jesus either as a false prophet or a seducer of the people,
-the Law demanded that two witnesses had heard him utter the dangerous
-language of which he was accused, and Judas was consequently required
-to induce him to speak whilst two hidden witnesses might hear and
-report his words. According to the Christian writings, the treachery
-of Judas manifested itself in pointing out Jesus through the kiss of
-homage that he gave his master as he was standing among his disciples,
-surrounded by the people and the soldiers. No sooner had Jesus been
-seized by the latter than his disciples left him and sought safety in
-flight, Simon Peter alone following him at some distance. At dawn of
-day on the 14th of Nissan, the Feast of the Passover, that is to say,
-on the eve of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Jesus was led, not before
-the great Synhedrion, but before the smaller court of justice, composed
-of twenty-three members, over which the High Priest, Joseph Caiaphas,
-presided. The trial was to determine whether Jesus had really claimed
-to be, as the two witnesses testified, the Son of God; for one cannot
-believe that he was arraigned before that tribunal because he had
-boasted that it was in his power to destroy the Temple and rebuild it
-in three days. Such a declaration, if really uttered by him, could not
-have been made a cause of complaint. The accusation doubtless pointed
-to the sin of blasphemy, and to the supposed affirmation of Jesus that
-he was the Son of God. Upon the question being put to him on that
-score, Jesus was silent and gave no answer. When the presiding judge,
-however, asked him again if he were the Son of God, he is said to have
-replied, "Thou hast said it," and to have added, "hereafter shall ye
-see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in
-the clouds of Heaven." If these words were really spoken by Jesus, the
-judges could infer that he looked upon himself as the Son of God. The
-High Priest rent his garments at the impious assertion, and the court
-declared him guilty of blasphemy. From the account of the proceedings
-given by Christian authorities, there is no proof that, according to
-the existing penal laws, the judges had pronounced an unjust verdict.
-All appearances were against Jesus. The Synhedrion received the
-sanction of the death-warrant, or rather the permission to execute it,
-from the governor, Pontius Pilate, who was just then present for the
-festival at Jerusalem.
-
-Pilate, before whom Jesus was brought, entering into the political side
-of the question, asked him if he declared himself to be not only the
-Messiah but the King of the Judæans, and as Jesus answered evasively,
-"Thou hast said it," he likewise decreed his execution, which he indeed
-alone had the power to enforce. That Pilate on the contrary found Jesus
-innocent and wished to save him, while the Judæans had determined upon
-putting him to death, is unhistorical and merely legendary. When Jesus
-was scoffed at and obliged to wear the crown of thorns in ironical
-allusion to the Messianic and royal dignity he had assumed, it was
-not the Judæans who inflicted those indignities upon him, but the
-Roman soldiers, who sought through him to deride the Judæan nation.
-Among the Judæans who had condemned him there was, on the contrary, so
-little of personal hatred that he was treated exactly like any other
-criminal, and was given the cup of wine and frankincense to render
-him insensible to the pains of death. That Jesus was scourged before
-his execution proves that he was treated according to the Roman penal
-laws; for by the Judæan code no one sentenced to death could suffer
-flagellation. It was consequently the Roman lictors who maliciously
-scourged with fagots or ropes the self-styled King of the Judæans.
-They also caused Jesus (by the order of Pilate) to be nailed to the
-cross, and to suffer the shameful death awarded by the law of Rome. For
-after the verdict of death was pronounced by the Roman authorities,
-the condemned prisoner belonged no more to his own nation, but to the
-Roman state. It was not the Synhedrion but Pilate that gave the order
-for the execution of one who was regarded as a State criminal and a
-cause of disturbance and agitation. The Christian authorities state
-that Jesus was nailed on the cross at nine o'clock in the morning, and
-that he expired at three o'clock in the afternoon. His last words were
-taken from a psalm, and spoken in the Aramaic tongue--"God, my God, why
-hast Thou forsaken me?" (Eli, eli, lama shebaktani.) The Roman soldiers
-placed in mockery the following inscription upon the cross: "Jesus of
-Nazareth, King of the Judæans." The cross had been erected and the body
-was probably buried outside the town, on a spot which was the graveyard
-of condemned criminals. It was called Golgotha, the place of skulls.
-Such was the end of the man who had devoted himself to the improvement
-of the most neglected, miserable, and abandoned members of his people,
-and who, perhaps, fell a victim to a misunderstanding. How great was
-the woe caused by that one execution! How many deaths and sufferings
-of every description has it not caused among the children of Israel!
-Millions of broken hearts and tragic fates have not yet atoned for his
-death. He is the only mortal of whom one can say without exaggeration
-that his death was more effective than his life. Golgotha, the place
-of skulls, became to the civilized world a new Sinai. Strange, that
-events fraught with so vast an import should have created so little
-stir at the time of their occurrence at Jerusalem, that the Judæan
-historians, Justus of Tiberias and Josephus, who relate, to the very
-smallest minutiae, everything which took place under Pilate, do not
-mention the life and death of Jesus.
-
-When the disciples of Jesus had somewhat recovered from the panic
-which came upon them at the time he was seized and executed, they
-re-assembled to mourn together over the death of their beloved Master.
-The followers of Jesus then in Jerusalem did not amount to more than
-one hundred and twenty, and if all who believed in him in Galilee
-had been numbered, they would not have exceeded five hundred. Still,
-the effect that Jesus produced upon the unenlightened masses must
-have been very powerful; for their faith in him, far from fading away
-like a dream, became more and more intense, their adoration of Jesus
-rising to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. The only stumbling-block
-to their belief lay in the fact that the Messiah who came to deliver
-Israel and bring to light the glory of the kingdom of heaven, endured a
-shameful death. How could the Messiah be subject to pain? A suffering
-Messiah staggered them considerably, and this stumbling-block had to
-be overcome before a perfect and joyful belief could be reposed in
-him. It was at that moment probably that some writer relieved his own
-perplexities and quelled their doubts by referring to a prophecy in
-Isaiah, that "He will be taken from the land of the living, and will
-be wounded for the sins of his people." The humble, wavering disciples
-of Jesus were helped over their greatest difficulty by the Pharisees,
-who were in the habit of explaining the new or the marvelous by
-interpretations of Scripture. By this means they afforded indirectly
-a solution and support to Christianity, and thus belief was given
-to the most senseless and absurd doctrines, and the incredible was
-made to appear certain and necessary. Without some support, however
-feeble, from Holy Writ, nothing new would have been received or could
-have kept its ground. By its help everything that happened was shown
-to have been inevitable. Even that Jesus should have been executed
-as a malefactor appeared pregnant with meaning, as it fulfilled the
-literal prophecy concerning the Messiah. Was it not written that he
-should be judged among the evil-doers? His disciples declared they had
-heard Jesus say that he would be persecuted even unto death. Thus his
-sufferings and death were evident proofs that he was the Messiah. His
-followers examined his life, and found in every trivial circumstance
-a deeper Messianic significance; even the fact that he was not born
-in Bethlehem, but in Nazareth, appeared to be the fulfillment of a
-prophecy. Thus he might therefore be called a Nazarene (Nazarite?), and
-thus were his followers persuaded that Jesus, the Nazarene, was Christ
-(the Messiah). When the faithful were satisfied on that point, it was
-not difficult to answer the other question which naturally offered
-itself--When would the promised kingdom of heaven appear, since he who
-was to have brought it had died on the cross? Hope replied that the
-Messiah would return in all his glory, with the angels of heaven, and
-then every one would be rewarded according to his deeds. They believed
-that some then alive would not taste death until they had seen the
-Son of Man enter his kingdom. His disciples were hourly expecting
-the return of Jesus, and only differed from the Judæans in so far as
-they thought that the Messiah had already appeared in human form and
-character.
-
-This kingdom was to last a thousand years: the Sabbath year of jubilee,
-after the six thousand years of the world, would be founded by Jesus
-when he returned to the earth, bringing the blessing of peace and
-perfect happiness to the faithful. This belief required the further
-conviction that Jesus had not fallen a prey to death, but that he would
-rise again. It may have been the biblical story of Jonah's entombment
-for three days in the bowels of a fish which gave rise to the legend
-that Jesus after the same interval came forth from his sepulcher, which
-was found to be empty. Many of his disciples declared they had seen
-him after his death, now in one place, now in another; that they had
-spoken to him, had marked his wounds, and had even partaken of fish and
-honey with him. Nothing seemed to stagger their faith in the Messianic
-character of Jesus; but greatly as they venerated and glorified him,
-they had not yet raised him above humanity; in spite of the enthusiasm
-with which he inspired them, they could not look upon him as God. They
-regarded him only as a highly gifted man who, having obeyed the Law
-more completely than any other human being, had been found worthy to be
-the Messiah of the Lord.
-
-They deviated in no degree from the precepts of Judaism, observing the
-Sabbath, the rite of circumcision, and the dietary laws, whilst they
-also reverenced Jerusalem and the Temple as holy places. They were,
-however, distinguished from the other Judæans in some peculiarities
-besides the belief they cherished that the Messiah had already
-appeared. The poverty which they willingly embraced in accordance
-with the teaching of Jesus was a remarkable trait in them. From this
-self-imposed poverty they were called Ebionites (poor), a name they
-either gave themselves or received from those who had not joined them.
-They lived together, and each new disciple was required to sell his
-goods and chattels and to pour the produce into the common purse.
-
-To this class belonged the early Christians, or Judæan Christians, who
-were called Nazarenes, and not, according to their origin, Essenes.
-Seven administrators were appointed, as was usual among the Judæans,
-to manage the expenditure of the community, and to provide for their
-common repasts. They abstained from meat, and followed the way of the
-Essenes, whom they also resembled in their practice of celibacy, in
-their disuse of oil and superfluous garments, a single one of white
-linen being all each possessed. It is related of James, the brother of
-Jesus, who, on account of his near relationship to the founder, was
-chosen leader of the early Christian community, and was revered as
-an example, that he drank no wine or intoxicating beverages, that he
-never ate meat, allowed no scissors to touch his hair, wore no woolen
-material, and had only one linen garment. He lived strictly according
-to the Law, and was indignant when the Christians allowed themselves to
-transgress it. Next to him at the head of the community of Ebionites
-stood Simon Kephas or Petrus, the son of Jonas, and John the son of
-Zebedee, who became the pillars of Christianity. Simon Peter was the
-most energetic of all the disciples of Jesus, and was zealous in his
-endeavors to enroll new followers under the banner of Christianity. In
-spite of the energy he thus displayed, he is described as being of a
-vacillating character. The Christian chronicles state that when Jesus
-was seized and imprisoned he denied him three times, and was called by
-his master "him of little faith." He averred, with the other disciples,
-that they had received from Jesus the mission of preaching to the lost
-children of the house of Israel the doctrine of the brotherhood of
-man and the community of goods; like Jesus and John the Baptist, they
-were also to announce the approaching kingdom of heaven. Christianity,
-only just born, went instantly forth upon her career of conquest and
-proselytism. The disciples asserted that Jesus had imparted to them the
-power of healing the sick, of awakening the dead, and of casting out
-evil spirits. With them the practice of exorcism became common, and
-thus the belief in the power of Satan and demons, brought from Galilee,
-first took form and root. In Judaism itself the belief in demons was
-of a harmless nature, without any religious significance. Christianity
-first raised it to be an article of faith, to which hecatombs of human
-beings were sacrificed. The early Christians used, or rather misused,
-the name of Jesus for purposes of incantation. All those who believed
-in Jesus boasted that it was given to them to drive away evil spirits,
-to charm snakes, to cure the sick by the laying on of their hands, and
-to partake of deadly poisons without injury to themselves. Exorcism
-became by degrees a constant practice among Christians; the reception
-of a new member was preceded by exorcism, as though the novice had till
-then been possessed by the devil. It was, therefore, not surprising
-that the Christians should have been looked upon by Judæans and
-heathens as conjurors and magicians. In the first century, however,
-Christians attracted but little attention in Judæan circles, escaping
-observation on account of the humble class to which they belonged. They
-formed a sect of their own, and were classed with the Essenes, to whom,
-in many points, they bore so great a resemblance. They might probably
-have dwindled away altogether had it not been for one who appeared
-later in their midst, who gave publicity to the sect, and raised it to
-such a pinnacle of fame that it became a ruling power in the world.
-
-An evil star seems to have shone over the Judæan people during the
-hundred years which had elapsed since the civil wars under the last
-Hasmonæans, which had subjected Judæa to Rome. Every new event appeared
-to bring with it some new misfortune. The comforting proverb of
-Ecclesiastes, that there is nothing new under the sun, in this instance
-proved false. The Messianic vision which had indistinctly floated in
-the minds of the people, but which had now taken a tangible form, was
-certainly something new; and this novel apparition, with its mask of
-death, was to inflict new and painful wounds upon the nation.
-
-Christianity, which came from Nazareth, was really an offshoot of the
-sect of the Essenes, and inherited the aversion of that sect for the
-Pharisaic laws by which the life of the people was regulated. This
-aversion rose to hatred in the followers, stimulated by grief at the
-death of their founder. Pontius Pilate had greatly contributed to
-increasing of the enmity of the Christians against their own flesh
-and blood. He it was who added mockery and scorn to the punishment of
-death; he had bound their Messiah to the cross like the most abject
-slave, and in derision of his assumed royalty had placed the crown of
-thorns on his head. The picture of Jesus nailed to the cross, crowned
-with thorns, the blood streaming from his wounds, was ever present to
-his followers, filling their hearts with bitter thoughts of revenge.
-Instead of turning their wrath against cruel Rome, they made the
-representatives of the Judæan people, and by degrees the whole nation,
-responsible for inhuman deeds. They either intentionally deceived
-themselves, or in time really forgot that Pilate was the murderer of
-their master, and placed the crime upon the heads of all the children
-of Israel.
-
-At about this period the anger of Pilate was kindled against a
-Samaritan self-styled Messiah or prophet, who called his believers
-together in a village, promising to show them on Mount Gerizim the
-holy vessels used in the time of Moses. The Governor, who looked
-with suspicion upon every gathering of the people, and regarded
-every exciting incident as fraught with possible rebellion against
-the Roman Empire, led his troops against the Samaritans, and ordered
-the ringleaders, who had been caught in their flight, to be cruelly
-executed. Judæans and Samaritans jointly denounced his barbarity to
-Vitellius, the Governor of Syria, and Pilate was summoned to Rome to
-justify himself. The degree of favor shown to the Judæans by Tiberius
-after the fall of Sejanus, explains the otherwise surprising leniency
-evinced towards the Judæan nation at that time. The Judæans had found
-an advocate at court in Antonia, the sister-in-law of Tiberius. The
-latter, who was the friend of a patriotic prince of the house of Herod,
-had revealed to Tiberius the plot framed against him by Sejanus, and
-in grateful recognition Tiberius repealed the act of outlawry against
-the Judæans. Vitellius, the Governor of Syria, was graciously inclined
-towards the Judæans, and not only inquired into their complaints,
-but befriended them in every way, showing a degree of indulgence and
-forbearance most unusual in a Roman, in those subjects on which they
-were peculiarly sensitive. When, on the occasion of the Feast of
-Passover, Vitellius repaired to Jerusalem in order to make himself
-acquainted with all that was going on there, he sought to lighten as
-much as possible the Roman yoke. He remitted the tax on the fruits
-of the market, and as the capital was mainly dependent upon that
-market for its requirements, a heavy burden was thus removed from the
-inhabitants of Jerusalem. He further withdrew the pontifical robes from
-behind the lock and bolts of the fort of Antonia, and gave them over to
-the care of the College of Priests, who kept them for some time. The
-right of appointing the High Priest was considered too important to
-the interests of Rome to be relinquished, and Vitellius himself made
-use of it to install Jonathan, the son of Anan, in the place of Joseph
-Caiaphas. Caiaphas had acted in concert with Pilate during all the time
-he had governed, and from his good understanding with the latter had
-doubtless become distasteful to the Judæan nation. The favor granted
-to the Judæans by Vitellius was in accordance with the wishes of the
-Emperor, who commanded him to aid the nation with all the available
-Roman forces in an unjust cause--that of Herod Antipas against King
-Aretas. Antipas, who was married to the daughter of Aretas, king of the
-Nabathæans, had nevertheless fallen in love with Herodias, the wife of
-his half-brother Herod, who, disinherited by his father Herod I., led
-a private life, probably in Cæsarea. During a journey to Rome, Antipas
-became acquainted with Herodias, who, doubtless repining at her obscure
-position, abandoned her husband, and after the birth of a daughter
-contracted an illegal marriage with his brother. Antipas' first wife,
-justly exasperated at his shameless infidelity, had fled to her father
-Aretas, and urged him to make war upon her faithless husband. Antipas
-suffered a great defeat, which was no sooner made known to the Emperor
-than he gave Vitellius orders instantly to undertake his defense
-against the king of the Nabathæans. As Vitellius was about to conduct
-two legions from Ptolemais through Judæa, the people took offense at
-the pictures of the Emperor which the soldiers bore on their standards,
-and which were to have been carried to Jerusalem, but out of regard
-to the scruples of the Judæans, Vitellius, instead of leading his
-army through Judæa, conveyed it along the farther side of the Jordan.
-Vitellius himself was received with the greatest favor in Jerusalem,
-and offered sacrifices in the Temple. Of all the Roman governors he was
-the one who had shown most kindness to the Judæans.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII.
-
-AGRIPPA I. HEROD II.
-
-    Character of Agrippa--Envy of the Alexandrian Greeks towards
-    the Judæans--Anti-Judæan Literature--Apion--Measures
-    against the Judæans in Alexandria--Flaccus--Judæan Embassy
-    to Rome--Philo--Caligula's Decision against the Judæan
-    Embassy--Caligula orders his Statue to be placed in the
-    Temple--The Death of Caligula relieves the Judæans--Agrippa's
-    Advance under Claudius--His Reign--Gamaliel the Elder and his
-    Administration--Death of Agrippa--Herod II--The False Messiah,
-    Theudas--Death of Herod II.
-
-    37.49 C. E.
-
-
-After the murder of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, when the Senate
-indulged for the moment in the sweet dream of regaining its liberty,
-Rome could have had no forebodings that an enemy was born to her in
-Jerusalem, in the half-fledged Christian community, which would in
-time to come displace her authority, trample upon her gods, shatter
-her power, and bring about a gradual decadence, ending in complete
-decay. An idea, conceived and brought forth by one of Judæan birth and
-developed by a despised class of society, was to tread the power and
-glory of Rome in the dust. The third Roman Emperor, Caius Caligula
-Germanicus, was himself instrumental in delivering up to national
-contempt the Roman deities, in a sense the corner-stone of the Roman
-Empire. The throne of the Cæsars had been alternately in the power of
-men actuated by cruel cowardice and strange frenzy. None of the nations
-tributary to Rome suffered more deeply from this continual change in
-her masters than did the Judæans. Every change in the great offices of
-state affected Judæa, at times favorably, but more often unfavorably.
-The first years of Caligula's reign appeared to be auspicious for
-Judæa. Caligula specially distinguished one of the Judæan princes,
-Agrippa, with marks of his favor, thus holding out the prospect of a
-milder rule. But it was soon evident that this kindness, this good-will
-and favor, were but momentary caprices, to be followed by others of a
-far different and of a terrible character, which threw the Judæans of
-the Roman Empire into a state of fear and terror.
-
-Agrippa (born 10 B. C. E., died 44 C. E.) was the son of the prince
-Aristobulus who had been assassinated by Herod, and grandson of the
-Hasmonæan princess Mariamne; thus in his veins ran the blood of the
-Hasmonæans and Idumæans, and these two hostile elements appeared to
-fight for the mastery over his actions, until at last the nobler was
-victorious. Educated in Rome, in the companionship of Drusus, the son
-of Tiberius, the Herodian element in Agrippa was the first to develop.
-As a Roman courtier, intent upon purchasing Roman favor, he dissipated
-his fortune and fell into debt. Forced to quit Rome for Judæa, after
-the death of his friend Drusus, he was reduced to such distress that
-he, who was accustomed to live with the Cæsars, had to hide in a remote
-part of Idumæa. It was then that he contemplated suicide. But his
-high-spirited wife, Cypros, who was resolved to save him from despair,
-appealed to his sister Herodias, Princess of Galilee, for instant
-help. And it was through the influence of Antipas, the husband of
-this princess, that Agrippa was appointed overseer of the markets of
-Tiberias. Impatient of this dependent condition, he suddenly resigned
-this office and became courtier to Flaccus, governor of Syria. From
-this very doubtful position he was driven by the jealousy of his own
-brother Aristobulus. Seemingly abandoned by all his friends, Agrippa
-determined upon once more trying his fortune in Rome. The richest and
-most distinguished Judæans of the Alexandrian community, the Alabarch,
-Alexander Lysimachus, with whom he had taken refuge, provided him with
-the necessary means for his journey. This noblest Judæan of his age,
-guardian of the property of the young Antonia, the daughter of the
-triumvir, had evidently rendered such services to the imperial family
-that he had been adopted into it, and was allowed to add their names to
-his own--Tiberius Julius Alexander, son of Lysimachus. He possessed,
-without doubt, the fine Greek culture of his age, for his brother Philo
-was a man of the most exquisite taste in Greek letters. But none the
-less did the Alabarch Alexander cling warmly to his people and to his
-Temple. Resolved to save Agrippa from ruin, but distrustful of his
-extravagant character, he insisted that his wife Cypros should become
-hostage for him.
-
-A new life of adventure now commenced in Rome for Agrippa. He was met
-on the Isle of Capri by the Emperor Tiberius, who, in remembrance
-of Agrippa's close connection with the son he had lost, received
-him most kindly. But upon hearing of the enormous sum of money that
-Agrippa still owed to the Roman treasury, Tiberius allowed him to fall
-into disgrace. He was saved, however, by his patroness Antonia, the
-sister-in-law of the emperor, who maintained a friendly remembrance
-of Agrippa's mother Berenice. By her mediation he was raised to new
-honors, and became the trusted friend of the heir to the throne, Caius
-Caligula. But, as though Agrippa were destined to be the toy of every
-caprice of fortune, he was soon torn from his intercourse with the
-future emperor and thrown into prison. In order to flatter Caligula,
-Agrippa once expressed the wish, "Would that Tiberius would soon expire
-and leave his throne to one worthier of it." This was repeated by a
-slave to the emperor, and Agrippa expiated his heedlessness by an
-imprisonment of six months, from which the death of Tiberius at last
-set him free (37).
-
-With the accession to the throne of his friend and patron, Caligula,
-his star rose upon the horizon. When the young emperor opened the
-prison-door to Agrippa he presented him with a golden chain, in
-exchange for the iron one that he had been forced to wear on his
-account, and placed the royal diadem upon his head, giving him the
-principality of Philip, that had fallen to the Empire of Rome. By
-decree of the Roman Senate he also received the title of Prætor. So
-devoted was Caligula to Agrippa that, during the first year of his
-reign, the Roman emperor would not hear of his quitting Rome, and when
-at length Agrippa was permitted to take possession of his own kingdom,
-he had to give his solemn promise that he would soon return to his
-imperial friend.
-
-When Agrippa made his entry into Judæa as monarch and favorite of the
-Roman emperor, poor and deeply in debt though he had been when he left
-it, his wonderful change of fortune excited the envy of his sister
-Herodias. Stung by ambition, she implored of her husband also to repair
-to Rome and to obtain from the generous young emperor at least another
-kingdom. Once more the painful want of family affection, common to all
-the Herodians, was brought to light in all its baseness. Alarmed that
-Antipas might succeed in winning Caligula's favor, or indignant at
-the envious feelings betrayed by his sister, Agrippa accused Antipas
-before the emperor of treachery to the Roman Empire. The unfortunate
-Antipas was instantly deprived of his principality and banished to
-Lyons, whither he was followed by his faithful and true-hearted wife.
-Herod's last son, Herod Antipas, and his granddaughter, Herodias,
-died in exile. Agrippa, by imperial favor, became the heir of his
-brother-in-law, and the provinces of Galilee and Peræa were added to
-his other possessions.
-
-The favor evinced by Caligula towards Agrippa, which might naturally
-be extended to the Judæan people, awakened the envy of the heathens,
-and brought the hatred of the Alexandrian Greeks to a crisis. Indeed,
-the whole of the Roman Empire harbored secret and public enemies of the
-Judæans. Hatred of their race and of their creed was intensified by a
-lurking fear that this despised yet proud nation might one day attain
-to supreme power. But the hostile feeling against the Judæans reached
-its climax amongst the restless, sarcastic and pleasure-loving Greek
-inhabitants of Alexandria. They looked unfavorably upon the industry
-and prosperity of their Judæan neighbors, by whom they were surpassed
-in both these respects, and whom they did not excel even in artistic
-and philosophical attainments. These feelings of hatred dated from
-the time when the Egyptian queen entrusted Judæan generals with the
-management of the foreign affairs of her country, and they increased
-in intensity when the Roman emperors placed more confidence in the
-reliable Judæans than in the frivolous Greeks. Slanderous writers
-nourished this hatred, and in their endeavors to throw contempt upon
-the Judæans they falsified the history of which the Judæans were justly
-proud.
-
-The Stoic philosopher Posidonius circulated false legends about the
-origin and the nature of the divine worship of the Judæans, which
-legends had been originally invented by the courtiers of Antiochus
-Epiphanes. The disgraceful story of the worship of an ass in the Temple
-of Jerusalem, besides other tales as untrue and absurd, added to the
-assertion that the Judæans hated all Gentiles, found ready belief in
-a younger, contemporary writer, Apollonius Malo, with whom Posidonius
-had become acquainted in the island of Rhodes, and by whom they were
-widely circulated. Malo gave a new account of the history of the Judæan
-exodus, which he declared was occasioned by some enormity on the
-part of the Judæans; he described Moses as a criminal, and the Mosaic
-Law as containing the most abominable precepts. He declared that the
-Judæans were atheists, that they hated mankind in general; he accused
-them of alternate acts of cowardice and temerity, and maintained that
-they were the most uncultured people amongst the barbarians, and could
-not lay claim to the invention of any one thing which had benefited
-humanity. It was from these two Rhodian authors that the spiteful and
-venom-tongued Cicero culled his unworthy attack upon the Judæan race
-and the Judæan Law. In this respect he differed from Julius Cæsar, who,
-in spite of his associations with Posidonius and Malo, was entirely
-free from all prejudice against the Judæans.
-
-The Alexandrian Greeks devoured these calumnies with avidity,
-exaggerated them, and gave them still wider circulation. Only three
-Greek authors mentioned the Judæans favorably--Alexander Polyhistor,
-Nicolaus of Damascus, the confidant of Herod, and, lastly, Strabo,
-the most remarkable geographer of ancient times, who devoted a fine
-passage in his geographical and historical work to Judaism. Although
-he mentions the Judæans as having originated from Egypt, he does not
-repeat the legend that their expulsion was occasioned by some fault of
-their own. Far otherwise he explains the Exodus, affirming that the
-Egyptian mode of life, with its unworthy idolatry, had driven Moses
-and his followers from the shores of the Nile. He writes in praise of
-the Mosaic teaching relative to the unity of God, as opposed to the
-Egyptian plurality of deities, and of the spiritual, imageless worship
-of the Judæans in contrast to the animal worship of the Egyptians, and
-to the investing of the divinity with a human form among the Greeks.
-"How can any sensible man," he exclaims, "dare make an image of the
-Heavenly King?" Widely opposed to the calumniators of Judaism, Strabo
-teaches that the Mosaic Law was the great mainstay of righteousness,
-for it holds out the divine blessing to all those whose lives are pure.
-For some time after the death of their great lawgiver, Strabo maintains
-that the Judæans acted in conformity with the Law, doing right and
-fearing God. Of the sanctuary in Jerusalem he speaks with veneration,
-for, although the Judæan kings were often faithless to the Law of Moses
-and to their subjects, yet the capital of the Judæans was invested with
-its own dignity, and the people, far from looking upon it as the seat
-of despotism, revered and honored it as the Temple of God.
-
-One author exceeded all the other hostile writers in the outrageous
-nature of his calumnies; this was the Egyptian Apion, who was filled
-with burning envy at the prosperous condition of the Judæans. He
-gave a new and exaggerated account of all the old stories of his
-predecessors, and gained the ear of the credulous multitude by the
-readiness and fluency of his pen. Apion was one of those charlatans
-whose conduct is based on the assumption that the world wishes to be
-deceived, and therefore it shall be deceived. As expounder of the
-Homeric songs, he traveled through Greece and Asia Minor, and invented
-legends so flattering to the early Greeks that he became the hero of
-their descendants. He declared that he had witnessed most things of
-which he wrote, or that he had been instructed in them by the most
-reliable people; and even affirmed that Homer's shade had appeared to
-him, and had divulged which Grecian town had given birth to the oldest
-of Greek bards, but that he dared not publish that secret. On account
-of his intense vanity he was called the trumpet of his own fame, for
-he assured the Alexandrians that they were fortunate in being able to
-claim him as a citizen. It is not astonishing that so unscrupulous a
-man should have made use of the hatred they bore to the Judæans to do
-the latter all the injury in his power.
-
-But the hostility of the Alexandrians, based on envy and religious
-and racial antipathy, was suppressed under the reign of Augustus and
-Tiberius, when the imperial governors of Egypt sternly reprimanded all
-those who might have become disturbers of the peace. Affairs changed,
-however, when Caligula came to the throne, for the Alexandrians
-were then aware that the governor Flaccus, who had been a friend of
-Tiberius, was unfavorably looked upon by his successor, who was ready
-to lend a willing ear to any accusation against him. Flaccus, afraid of
-drawing the attention of the revengeful emperor upon himself, was cowed
-into submission by the Alexandrians, and became a mere tool in their
-hands. At the news of Agrippa's accession to the throne, they were
-filled with burning envy, and the delight of the Alexandrian Judæans,
-with whom Agrippa came into contact through the Alabarch Alexander,
-only incensed them still more and roused them to action.
-
-Two most abject beings were the originators and leaders of this
-anti-Judæan demonstration; a venal clerk of the court of justice,
-Isidorus, who was called by the popular wits, the Pen of Blood, because
-his pettifoggery had robbed many of their life, and Lampo, one of those
-unprincipled profligates that are brought forth by a burning climate
-and an immoral city. These two agitators ruled, on the one hand, the
-weak and helpless governor, and, on the other, they led the dregs of
-the people, who were prepared to give vent to their feelings of hatred
-towards the Judæans upon a sign from their leaders.
-
-Unfortunately, Agrippa, whose change of fortune had been an offense in
-the eyes of the Alexandrians, touched at their capital upon his return
-from Rome to Judæa (July, 38), and his presence roused the enemies
-of the Judæans to fresh conspiracies. These began with a farce, but
-ended for the Judæans in terrible earnest. At first Agrippa and his
-race were insultingly jeered at. A harmless fool, Carabas, was tricked
-out in a crown of papyrus and a cloak of plaited rushes; a whip was
-given him for a scepter, and he was placed on an eminence for a throne,
-where he was saluted by all passers-by as Marin (which, in the Chaldaic
-tongue, denotes "our master"). This was followed by the excitable mob's
-rushing at the dawn of the next day into the synagogues, carrying
-with them busts of the emperor, with the pretext of dedicating these
-places of worship to Caligula. In addition to this, at the importunate
-instance of the conspirators, the governor, Flaccus, was induced to
-withdraw from the Judæan inhabitants of Alexandria what they had held
-so gratefully from the first emperors--the right of citizenship. This
-was a terrible blow to the Judæans of Alexandria, proud as they were of
-their privileges, and justly entitled to the credit of having enriched
-this metropolis by their learning, their wealth, their love of art and
-their spirit of commerce equally with the Greeks. They were cruelly
-driven out of the principal parts of the city of Alexandria, and were
-forced to congregate in the Delta, or harbor of the town. The mob,
-greedy for spoil, dashed into the deserted houses and work-shops, and
-plundered, destroyed and annihilated what had been gathered together by
-the industry of centuries.
-
-After committing these acts of depredation, the infuriated Alexandrians
-surrounded the Delta, under the idea that the unfortunate Judæans
-would be driven to open resistance by the pangs of hunger or by the
-suffocating heat they were enduring in their close confinement. When
-at last the scarcity of provisions impelled some of the besieged to
-venture out of their miserable quarters, they were cruelly ill-treated
-by the enemy, tortured, and either burnt alive or crucified. This
-state of things lasted for a month. The governor went so far as to
-arrest thirty-eight members of the Great Council, to throw them into
-prison and publicly to scourge them. Even the female sex was not
-spared. If any maidens or women crossed the enemy's path they were
-offered pig's flesh as food, and upon their refusing to eat it they
-were cruelly tortured. Not satisfied with all these barbarities,
-Flaccus ordered his soldiers to search the houses of the Judæans for
-any weapons that might be concealed there, and they were told to
-leave not even the chambers of modest maidens unsearched. This reign
-of terror continued until the middle of September. At that time an
-imperial envoy appeared to depose Flaccus and to summon him to Rome,
-not on account of his abominable conduct towards the Judæans, but
-because he was hated by the emperor. His sentence was exile and he was
-eventually killed.
-
-The emperor alone could have settled the vexed question as to whether
-the Judæans had the right of equal citizenship with the Greeks in
-Alexandria; but he was then in Germany or in Gaul celebrating childish
-triumphs, or in Britain gathering shells on the seashore. When he
-returned to Rome (August, 40) with the absurd idea of allowing himself
-to be worshiped as a god, and of raising temples and statues to
-his own honor, the heathen Greeks justly imagined that their cause
-against the Judæans was won. They restored the imperial statues in
-the Alexandrian synagogues, convinced that in the face of so great a
-sacrilege the Judæans would rebel and thereby arouse the emperor's
-wrath. This was actually the cause of a fresh disturbance, for the
-new governor of Alexandria took part against the Judæans, courting
-in this way the imperial favor. He insisted that the unhappy people
-should show divine honors to the images of the emperor, and when they
-refused on the ground that such an act was contrary to their Law, he
-forbade their observance of the Sabbath day. In the following words he
-addressed the most distinguished of their race: "How would it be if
-you were suddenly overwhelmed by a host of enemies, or by a tremendous
-inundation, or by a raging fire; if famine, pestilence or an earthquake
-were to overtake you upon the Sabbath day? Would you sit idly in your
-synagogues, reading the Law and expounding difficult passages? Would
-you not rather think of the safety of parents and children, of your
-property and possessions, would you not fight for your lives? Now
-behold, if you do not obey my commands, I will be all that to you,
-the invasion of the enemy, the terrible inundation, the raging fire,
-famine, pestilence, earthquake, the visible embodiment of relentless
-fate." But neither the rich nor the poor allowed themselves to be
-coerced by these words; they remained true to their faith, and prepared
-to undergo any penalties that might be inflicted upon them. Some few
-appear to have embraced paganism out of fear or from worldly motives.
-The Judæan philosopher, Philo, gives some account of the renegades of
-his time and his community, whom he designates as frivolous, immoral,
-and utterly unworthy. Amongst them may be mentioned the son of the
-Alabarch Alexander, Tiberius Julius Alexander, who forsook Judaism, and
-was consequently raised to high honors in the Roman State.
-
-Meanwhile, the Judæans determined upon pleading their cause before
-the emperor. Three men (who were specially adapted for their mission)
-were selected to be sent as envoys to Rome. One of these, the Judæan
-philosopher, Philo, was so far distinguished through birth, social
-standing, profound culture, and brilliant eloquence, that no better
-pleader for the cause of justice could have been found. Through the
-medium of his powerful writings Philo has so largely influenced not
-only his contemporaries but also those who came after him, both within
-and without the Judæan community, that the scanty accounts of his
-life must not be passed over. As brother of the Alabarch Alexander,
-Philo belonged to the most distinguished and wealthy family of the
-Alexandrian community. He received in his youth the usual education
-which all well-born parents held as necessary for their sons. Possessed
-of unquenchable love for learning, he obtained complete mastery over
-his studies. His taste for metaphysical research was developed at a
-very early age, and he devoted himself to it untiringly for a time,
-taking delight in that alone. He affirms enthusiastically that he had
-no desire for honors, wealth, or material pleasures, so long as he
-could revel in ethereal realms, in company with the heavenly bodies. He
-belonged to the few elect who do not creep on the earth's surface, but
-who free themselves from all earthly bondage in the sublime flight of
-thought. He rejoiced in being exempt from cares and occupations. But
-though he gloried in philosophy, Judaism, which he termed the "true
-wisdom," was still dearer to his heart. When he gathered the beautiful
-blossoms of Grecian learning, it was to twine them into a garland with
-which to adorn Judaism. Philo had been leading the retired life of a
-student for some time, when, as he bitterly remarked, an event drew him
-unmercifully into the whirlpool of political troubles: the miserable
-condition of his people had probably disturbed his contemplative life.
-In later years he looked back with longing upon his former occupation,
-and lamented that practical life had obscured his vision for
-intellectual things, and had materially interfered with his range of
-thought; but he consoled himself with the knowledge that in undisturbed
-hours he was still able to lift his mind to noble objects. Philo's
-philosophical researches not only furnished food for his intellect,
-but helped to inspire him with true nobility of character, developing
-in him a nature that regarded all acts of human folly, vulgarity, and
-vice as so many enigmas which he could not solve.
-
-His wife, who was justly proud of him, emulated him in the simplicity
-of her life. When asked by some of her brilliantly attired friends why
-she, who was so rich, should disdain to wear gold ornaments, she is
-said to have answered, "The virtue of the husband is adornment enough
-for the wife." Philo's contemporaries were never weary of praising
-his style; so forcibly indeed did it remind them of Plato's beautiful
-diction that they would observe, "Plato writes like Philo, or Philo
-like Plato." Philo's principal aim was to harmonize the spirit of
-Judaism with that of the philosophy of the age, or, more rightly
-speaking, to show that Judaism is the truest philosophy. And this was
-not merely to be an intellectual exercise, but to him it was a sacred
-mission. He was so completely absorbed in these ideas that, as he
-relates of himself, he often fell into trances, when he fancied that
-revelations were vouchsafed to him which he could not have grasped at
-ordinary times.
-
-This was the man who was to present himself before the emperor, as
-the representative of the Alexandrian Judæan community. The heathen
-Alexandrians also sent a deputation, headed by Apion, to which also
-belonged the venom-tongued Isidorus. Not only were the envoys concerned
-with the privileges of the community they represented, but they
-were pledged to raise their voices against the cruel persecution of
-their race. For the first time in history were Judaism and Paganism
-confronted in the lists, each of them being represented by men of Greek
-culture and learning. Had the two forms of faith and civilization
-been judged by their exponents, the decision for Judaism would not
-have been doubtful. Philo, dignified and earnest, seemed in himself
-to embody faithful search after truth, and the purest moral idealism;
-whilst Apion, frivolous and sarcastic, was the very incarnation
-of smooth-tongued vainglory, and bore the stamp of the vanity and
-self-conceit of fallen Greece. But the outcome of this contest remains
-doubtful. Caligula was too passionate a partisan to be a just umpire.
-He hated the Judæans because they would not recognize and worship
-him as their deity, and his hatred was fanned by two contemptible
-creatures, whom he had dragged from the mire and had attached to
-himself--the Egyptian Helicon and Apelles of Ascalon.
-
-The Judæan envoys were hardly permitted to speak when they were
-admitted to the imperial presence, and Caligula's first word was one
-of jarring reproof: "So you are the despisers of God, who will not
-recognize me as the deity, but who prefer worshiping a nameless one,
-whilst all my other subjects have accepted me as their god." The Judæan
-envoys declared that they had offered up three successive offerings
-in honor of Caligula: the first upon his accession to the throne; the
-second upon his recovery from a severe illness; and the third after his
-so-called victory over the Teutons. "That may be," answered Caligula,
-"but the offerings were made _for me_ and _not to me_; for such I do
-not care. And how is it," he continued, awakening the ribald merriment
-of his pagan audience, "how is it that you do not eat pig's flesh,
-and upon what grounds do you hold your right of equality with the
-Alexandrians?" Without waiting for a reply, he turned his attention
-to something else. Later on when he dismissed the Judæan envoys, he
-remarked that they seemed less wicked than stupid in not being willing
-to acknowledge his divinity.
-
-Whilst the unfortunate ambassadors were vainly seeking to gain ground
-with the emperor, they were suddenly overwhelmed with tidings that
-struck terror into their hearts. One of their own race burst into their
-presence, exclaiming, amidst uncontrollable sobs, that the Temple in
-the holy city had been profaned by Caligula. For not only were the
-imperial statues to be erected in the synagogues, but also in the
-Temple of Jerusalem. The governor of Syria, Petronius, had received
-orders to enter Judæa with his legions and to turn the Sanctuary into a
-pagan temple. It is easy to conceive the mortal anguish of the Judæan
-nation when these orders became known to them. On the eve of the Feast
-of Tabernacles a messenger appeared in Jerusalem, who converted this
-feast of rejoicing into mourning. Petronius and his legions were at
-Accho, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but, as the rainy season was at
-hand, and as obstinate resistance was expected, the Roman commander
-resolved to await the spring before commencing active operations.
-Thousands of Judæans hastened to appear before Petronius, declaring
-that they would rather suffer the penalty of death than allow their
-Temple to be desecrated. Petronius, perplexed as to how he should carry
-out this mad scheme of Caligula's, consulted the members of the Royal
-Council, entreating of them to influence the people in his favor. But
-the Judæan aristocracy, and even Agrippa's own brother Aristobulus,
-held with the people. Petronius then sent a true statement of the case
-to the emperor, hoping that he might be induced to abandon his scheme.
-Meanwhile he pacified the people by telling them that nothing could be
-effected until fresh edicts arrived from Rome, and begged of them to
-return to their agricultural duties, and thus to avert the possibility
-of a year of famine.
-
-But before Petronius' letter was in the hands of the emperor,
-Caligula's intentions had been frustrated by Agrippa. The Judæan
-king had acquired so extraordinary an influence over Caligula that
-the Romans called him and Antiochus of Commagene, his teachers in
-tyranny. Agrippa, who was living at that time near the person of
-the emperor, could not have been indifferent to the desecration of
-the Temple, but he was too accomplished a courtier openly to oppose
-this imperial caprice. On the contrary, he seemed dead to the cry of
-anguish that arose from his people, and only occupied in preparing,
-with the most lavish expenditure, a magnificent feast for the emperor
-and his favorites. But under this garb of indifference he was really
-working for his people's cause. Caligula, flattered by the attentions
-that were lavished upon him, bade Agrippa demand a boon, which should
-be instantly granted. His astonishment was indeed boundless when the
-Judæan monarch begged for the repeal of the imperial edict concerning
-images. He had little thought that his refined courtier would prove so
-unselfish a man, so pious, and so thoroughly independent of the will of
-the emperor. Cunning as he was, Caligula was helplessly entrapped, for
-he could not retract his pledged word. Thus he was forced to write to
-Petronius annulling his former decree. Meanwhile he received Petronius'
-letter, in which the governor detailed what difficulties he would
-encounter, were he to attempt to execute the orders of his master. More
-than this was not required to lash Caligula's passionate and excitable
-nature into a fury. A new and stringent order was given to proceed
-with the introduction of the statues into the Temple of Jerusalem.
-But before this order, terrible to the Judæans and full of danger to
-Petronius himself, had arrived in Jerusalem, it was announced that the
-insane Caligula had met with his death at the hands of the Prætorian
-Tribune Chereas (24 Jan., 41). These tidings came to Jerusalem on the
-22d of Shebat (March, 41), and the day was afterwards celebrated as one
-of great rejoicing.
-
-Caligula's successor upon the throne of the Cæsars was Claudius, a
-learned pedant and a fool. He owed his crown to chance, and to the
-diplomacy of King Agrippa, who had induced the reluctant Senate to
-accept the choice of the Prætorians. Rome must indeed have fallen low
-when a somewhat insignificant Judæan prince was allowed to speak in the
-Senate House, and, in some measure, to have influence in the choice
-of her ruler. Claudius was not ungrateful to his ally; he lauded him
-before the assembled Senate, raised him to the dignity of consul, and
-made him king of all Palestine, for Judæa and Samaria were incorporated
-with the monarchy.
-
-As a remembrance of these events, the emperor ordered an inscription
-to be engraved on tablets of bronze, in pedantic imitation of the
-classical age, and coins to be struck, bearing on one side two clasped
-hands, with these words, "Friendship and comradeship of King Agrippa
-with the Senate and the Roman people." On the other side was the
-emperor between two figures, and the inscription: "King Agrippa, friend
-of the emperor." The kingdom of Judæa had thus recovered its full
-extent; indeed, it had acquired even a greater area than it possessed
-formerly under the Hasmonæans and Herod I.
-
-Herod II., brother and son-in-law of King Agrippa, received from
-Claudius the rank of Prætor, and was made prince of Chalcis, in
-Lebanon. The Alexandrian Judæans greatly benefited by the new order
-of things which was brought about in the vast Roman Empire by the
-death of Caligula. The emperor Claudius freed the Alabarch Alexander,
-with whom he was on friendly terms, from the imprisonment into which
-his predecessor had thrown him, and settled the disputes of the
-Alexandrians in favor of the Judæans. Caligula's prejudice against that
-unfortunate community had developed their independence, and their
-strength was far from being broken. Their rights and privileges were
-fully re-established by an edict of the new emperor, and they were
-placed on an equal footing with the Greek inhabitants of Egypt. The
-dignity of the Alabarch was restored by the emperor, and this was most
-important to the Judæans, for it assured them of the leadership of one
-of their own race, and made them independent of the Roman officials. It
-was during this reign that Philo gave the wealth of his learning to a
-wide circle of readers, and was instrumental in bringing Judæan-Greek
-culture to its zenith. Claudius extended his goodwill to the Judæans of
-the entire Roman Empire, granting them complete religious freedom, and
-protecting them from the interference of the pagans.
-
-When Agrippa, laden with honors, left Rome for Judæa to take possession
-of his kingdom, his subjects remarked that some great change was
-manifest in him, and that the stirring revolution in Rome, by which
-a headstrong emperor had been dethroned in favor of a weak one, had
-deeply impressed their own monarch. The frivolous Agrippa returned
-an earnest-minded man; the courtier had given place to the patriot;
-the pleasure-loving prince to the conscientious monarch, who was
-fully aware of what he owed his nation. The Herodian nature had, in
-fact, been entirely subdued by the Hasmonæan. For the last time,
-Judæa enjoyed under his reign a short span of undisturbed happiness;
-and his subjects, won by his generous affection, which even risked
-forfeiting the good will of Rome in their cause, repaid him with
-untiring devotion, the bitterest enemies of his scepter becoming his
-ardent supporters. Historians do not weary of praising Agrippa's loving
-adherence to Judaism; it seemed as if he were endeavoring to rebuild
-what had been cast down by Herod. He mixed freely with the people
-when they carried the first fruits into the Temple, and bore his own
-offering of fruit or grain to the Sanctuary. He re-established the
-old law that obliged the king to read the book of Deuteronomy in the
-Court of the Temple at the close of each year of release. Facing the
-congregation, Agrippa performed this act for the first time in the
-autumn of the year 42, and when he came to the verse, "From amongst
-your brethren shall you choose a king," he burst into a passion of
-tears, for he was painfully aware of his Idumæan descent, and knew that
-he was unworthy of being a king of Judæa. But the assembled multitude,
-and even the Pharisees, exclaimed with enthusiasm: "Thou art our
-brother; thou art our brother!"
-
-Agrippa's careful government made itself felt throughout the entire
-community. Without doubt the Synhedrion, under the presidency of
-Gamaliel I. (ha-Zaken, the elder), the worthy grandson of Hillel, was
-permitted to take the management of home affairs into its own hands.
-The presidency acquired greater importance under Gamaliel than it
-had enjoyed before; for the Synhedrion, modeled upon the political
-constitution of the country, partook somewhat of a monarchical
-character. The consent of the president was required for the
-interpolation of a leap year, and all letters or mandates addressed
-to near or distant communities were sent in his name. The formulæ of
-these letters, which have in some instances been handed down to us, are
-extremely interesting, both in contents and form, for they prove that
-all Judæan communities, as well as their representatives, acknowledged
-the supreme authority of the Synhedrion. Gamaliel would address a
-foreign community through the pen of his accomplished secretary,
-Jochanan, in these terms: "To our brethren in Upper and Lower Galilee,
-greeting: We make known to you that the time has arrived for the
-ingathering of the tithes of your olive yards." "To our brethren, the
-exiles in Babylon, Media, Greece (Ionia), and to all other exiles,
-greeting: We make known to you that as in this season the lambs are
-still very small, and the doves have not yet their full-grown wings,
-the spring being very backward this season, it pleases me and my
-colleagues to prolong the year by thirty days."
-
-Many excellent laws emanated from Gamaliel; they were principally
-directed against the abuses that had crept in, or were aimed at
-promoting the welfare of the whole community. It was the true spirit of
-Hillel that pervaded the laws framed by Gamaliel for the intercourse
-between the Judæans and the heathens. The heathen poor were permitted
-to glean the fields in the wake of the reapers, and were treated
-exactly like the Judæan poor, and the pagans were given the peace
-greetings upon their own festivals when they were following their
-own rites. The poor in all towns of mixed population received equal
-treatment; they were helped in time of distress, their sick were
-nursed, their dead were honorably treated, their sorrowing ones were
-comforted, whether they were pagans or Judæans. In these ordinances, so
-full of kindly feeling towards the heathen, the influence of Agrippa
-is plainly visible. Rome and Judæa had for the moment laid aside their
-mutual antipathy, and their intercourse was characterized by love and
-forbearance. The generosity of the emperor towards the Judæans went so
-far that he severely punished some thoughtless Greek youths in the town
-of Dora for attempting to introduce his statues into the synagogues.
-The governor Petronius was ordered to be strict in the prevention of
-such desecration.
-
-Agrippa had inherited from his grandfather Herod the wish to be popular
-among the Greeks. As Herod had sent presents to Athens and other Greek
-and Ionian towns, so his grandson conferred a great benefit upon the
-degenerate city, once mother of the arts, a benefit which her citizens
-did not easily forget. He also showered favors upon the inhabitants
-of Cæsarea, the city that Herod had raised as a rival of Jerusalem,
-and upon the Greeks of the seaboard Sebaste, who lived in their own
-special quarter. These recipients of his benefits exerted themselves to
-give proofs of their gratitude. The people of Sebaste raised statues
-to his three daughters, and struck coins in his honor, bearing the
-inscription--"To the great king Agrippa, friend of the emperor." The
-last years of this monarch's reign were happy for his nation, both
-within and without the kingdom of Judæa. They were like the rosy
-flush in the evening sky that precedes, not the dawn of day, but the
-blackness of night. In some respects they call to mind the reign of
-King Josiah in the earlier history of the nation, when the kingdom
-enjoyed tranquillity at home and independence abroad, with no dearth of
-intellectual activity.
-
-Philo visited Jerusalem during Agrippa's reign, and was able to take
-part in the people's joy at the revocation of Caligula's edicts. Never
-before had the first fruits been carried into the Temple with greater
-solemnity or with more heartfelt rejoicing. To the bright strains of
-musical instruments the people streamed into the Sanctuary with their
-offerings, where they were received by the most distinguished of their
-race. A psalm was then chanted, which described how the worshipers had
-passed from sorrow into gladness.
-
-It was at this time that a great queen, followed by her numerous
-retinue, arrived in Jerusalem, she having renounced paganism for
-Judaism, thus filling to the brim the cup of gladness of the once
-persecuted but now honored race.
-
-The happy era of Agrippa's reign was, however, not to be of long
-duration. Although he had gained the complete confidence of the
-emperor, the Roman dignitaries looked upon him with suspicion,
-and beheld in each step made by the Judæan king some traces of
-disaffection; and they were not far wrong. For, however much Agrippa
-might coquet with Rome, he was yet determined to make Judæa capable
-of resisting that great power, should an encounter, which he deemed
-inevitable, occur between the two. His people should not be dependent
-upon the caprice of one individual. Thus he resolved to strengthen
-Jerusalem. He chose for this purpose the suburb of Bezetha, to the
-northeast of the city, and there he ordered powerful fortifications
-to be built. They were to constitute a defense for the fortress of
-Antonia, which lay between Bezetha and Jerusalem. He applied to Rome
-for the necessary permission, which was readily granted by Claudius,
-who could deny him nothing, and the Roman favorites who would have
-opposed him were silenced by gifts. The fortifications were commenced,
-but their completion was interrupted by the governor of Syria, Vibius
-Marsus. He saw through Agrippa's scheme, plainly told the emperor of
-the dangers that would surely menace Rome if Jerusalem could safely
-set her at defiance, and succeeded in wringing from Claudius the
-revocation of his permission. Agrippa was forced to obey, not being in
-the position to openly offer resistance. But at heart he determined
-upon weakening the Roman sway in Judæa. To attain these ends, he
-allied himself secretly with those princes with whom he was connected
-by marriage or on terms of friendly relationship, and invited them to
-a conference at Tiberias, under the pretext of meeting for general
-amusement and relaxation. There came at his call to the Galilean
-capital Antiochus, king of Commagene, whose son Epiphanes was affianced
-to Agrippa's youngest daughter; Samsigeranus, king of Emesa, whose
-daughter Jatape was married to Agrippa's brother Aristobulus; then
-Cotys, king of Armenia Minor, Polemon, prince of Cilicia, and lastly,
-Herod, Agrippa's brother, prince of Chalcis. All these princes owed
-their positions to Agrippa, and were therefore liable to lose them
-at the accession of the next emperor or at the instigation of some
-influential person at the court of Claudius. But Marsus, suspicious of
-this understanding between so many rulers, and distrustful of the cause
-that brought them together, suddenly presented himself in their midst,
-and, with the ancient Roman bluntness, bade them return each man to his
-own city. So tremendous was the power of Rome, that at one word from
-an underling of the emperor the meeting was annulled. But the energy
-and perseverance of Agrippa would probably have spared Judæa from any
-possible humiliation, and assured her future safety, had his life been
-prolonged; he met, however, with an unexpected death at the age of
-fifty-four. Judæa's star sank with that monarch, who died, like Josiah,
-the last great king of the pre-exilian age, a quarter of a century
-before the destruction of his State.
-
-It soon became evident that the Greek inhabitants of Palestine had but
-dissembled their true feelings in regard to King Agrippa. Forgetful of
-that monarch's benefits, the Syrians and Greeks of the city of Cæsarea,
-and of the seaboard of Sebaste, solaced themselves by heaping abuse
-upon his memory, and by offering up thank-offerings to Charon for his
-death. The Roman soldiery quartered in those towns made common cause
-with the Greeks, and carried the statues of Agrippa's daughters into
-brothels.
-
-Claudius was not indifferent to the insults offered to his dead
-friend's memory. He was, on the contrary, anxious to raise Agrippa's
-son, Agrippa II., to the throne of Judæa. But in this he was opposed by
-his two all-powerful favorites, Pallas and Narcissus, on the plea of
-the prince's youth (he was seventeen years of age), and Judæa was thus
-allowed to sink once more into a Roman province.
-
-However, out of affection and respect to the dead king, the emperor
-gave the Judæan governor Cuspius Fadus a somewhat independent position
-in regard to the Syrian governor Vibius Marsus, who had always been
-hostile to Agrippa and the Judæans. It was his soldiery who had
-insulted the memory of the Judæan monarch, and for this cowardly
-action they were to be punished and exiled to Pontus. They managed,
-however, to extort a pardon from the emperor, and remained in Judæa,
-a circumstance which contributed not a little to excite the bitterest
-feelings of the national party, which they fully returned. They could
-ill control their hatred of the Judæans, stinging the latter into
-retaliation. Companies of freebooters under daring leaders prepared, as
-after the death of Herod, to free their country from the yoke of Rome.
-But Fadus was prepared for this rising. It was his desire to strengthen
-the Roman rule in Judæa, and to give it the same importance that it had
-had before the reign of Agrippa; and to this end he attempted to keep
-the selection of the high priest and the sacred robes in his own hands.
-But in this he met resistance both in the person of the high priest and
-at the hands of Agrippa's brother, Herod II.
-
-Jerusalem was so greatly excited by these proceedings that not
-only did the governor Fadus appear within the city, but he was
-accompanied by Caius Cassius Longinus at the head of his troops.
-Herod and his brother Aristobulus begged for a truce of hostilities,
-as they were anxious to send envoys to Rome. This they were allowed
-to do, only on the condition that they surrendered themselves as
-hostages for the preservation of peace. Having willingly complied,
-an embassy, consisting of four men--Cornelius, Tryphon, Dorotheus,
-and John--started for Rome. When they arrived in that city they
-were introduced to the emperor by the young Agrippa. Claudius, still
-faithful to his old affection for the Herodians, granted the Judæans
-full right to follow their own laws, and gave Herod permission to
-choose the high priest of the Sanctuary. Taking instant advantage of
-this permission, Herod raised Joseph, of the house of Camith, to the
-high priesthood in the place of Elionai, his brother's choice. To a
-certain extent Herod II. may be regarded as king of Judæa, but he
-exerted no influence upon the course of political events. All legal
-power was vested in the hands of the governor; the Synhedrion lost,
-under the sway of his successor, the power which it had regained under
-Agrippa.
-
-Fadus was confronted with a rising of another nature during his
-governorship. A certain Theudas appeared as prophet or messiah, and was
-followed by four hundred disciples, for the messianic redemption was
-quickly growing into a necessity for the nation. To give proof of his
-power he declared that he would divide the waters of the Jordan, and
-would lead his followers safe across the bed of the river. But when his
-band of disciples approached the riverside, carrying with them much of
-their worldly possessions, they were confronted by a troop of Fadus's
-cavalry soldiers, who slew some, made others prisoners, and decapitated
-their leader.
-
-Shortly after these events Fadus was recalled from Jerusalem, and his
-place was taken by Tiberius Julius Alexander, son of the Alabarch
-Alexander, nephew of the Judæan philosopher Philo. Tiberius, who had
-espoused paganism, bore already the dignity of a Roman knight. The
-Emperor believed doubtless that in naming a Judæan of a distinguished
-house as governor over the land, he was giving proof of his
-friendliness to the nation. He did not imagine that their sensitive
-natures would be violently opposed to the fact of being governed by a
-renegade. The people seem indeed to have been most uncomfortable under
-the rule of Tiberius; the zealots lifted up their heads and excited
-an insurrection. They were led by Jacob and Simon and the sons of the
-zealot Judah, but no details of this revolt are extant. To judge by the
-severity of the sentence passed upon the ringleaders by the governor,
-it must have been of a grave character, for the two brothers suffered
-crucifixion, the most degrading form of capital punishment amongst
-the Romans. Tiberius Alexander remained only two years at his post.
-He was afterwards named governor of Egypt, and exercised considerable
-influence in the choice of the emperor.
-
-Herod II., king of Chalcis, titular king of Judæa, died at this time
-(48), and with him the third generation of Herodians sank into the
-grave.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII.
-
-SPREAD OF THE JUDÆAN RACE, AND OF JUDAISM.
-
-    Distribution of the Judæans in the Roman Empire and in
-    Parthia--Relations of the various Judæan Colonies to the
-    Synhedrion--Judæan Bandits in Naarda--Heathen Attacks upon
-    Judaism--Counter Attacks upon Heathenism by Judæan Writers--The
-    Judæan Sibyls--The Anti-heathen Literature--The Book of
-    Wisdom--The Allegorists--Philo's Aims and Philosophical
-    System--Proselytes--The Royal House of Adiabene--The Proselyte
-    Queen Helen--The Apostle Paul--His Character--Change in
-    his Attitude towards the Pharisees--His Activity as a
-    Conversionist--His Treatment of the Law of Moses--The Doctrines
-    of Peter--Judaic-Christians and Heathen-Christians.
-
-    40.49 C. E.
-
-
-Round the very cradle of the Judæan race there had rung prophetic
-strains, telling of endless wanderings and dispersions. No other people
-had ever heard such alarming predictions, and they were being fulfilled
-in all their literal horror. There was hardly a corner in the two great
-predominant kingdoms of that time, the Roman and the Parthian, in which
-Judæans were not living, and where they had not formed themselves into
-a religious community. The shores of the great midland sea, and the
-outlets of all the principal rivers of the old world, of the Nile, the
-Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Danube, were peopled with Judæans. A
-cruel destiny seemed to be ever thrusting them away from their central
-home. Yet this dispersion was the work of Providence and was to prove
-a blessing. The continuance of the Judæan race was thus assured.
-Down-trodden and persecuted in one country, they fled to another, where
-the old faith, which became ever dearer to them, found a new home.
-Seeds were scattered here and there, destined to carry far and wide the
-knowledge of God and the teachings of pure morality. Just as the Greek
-colonies kindled in various nations the love of art and culture, and
-the Roman settlements gave rise in many lands to communities governed
-by law, so had the far wider dispersion of the oldest civilized people
-contributed to overthrow the errors and combat the sensual vices of the
-heathen world. In spite of being thus scattered, the members of the
-Judæan people were not completely divided from one another; they had a
-common center of union in the Temple of Jerusalem and in the Synhedrion
-which met in the hall of hewn stone, and to these the dispersed
-communities clung with loving hearts. Towards them their looks were
-ever fondly directed, and by sending their gifts to the Temple they
-continued to participate, at least by their contributions, in the
-sacrificial worship. From the Synhedrion they received their code of
-laws, which they followed the more willingly as it was not forced
-upon them. The Synhedrion, from time to time, sent deputations to the
-different communities, both far and near, to acquaint them with the
-most important decisions.
-
-The visits paid to the Temple by the Judæans who lived out of
-Palestine, strengthened the bond of unity, and these visits must have
-been of frequent occurrence, for they necessitated the creation of
-many places of worship in Jerusalem where the various foreign Judæans
-met for prayer. The capital contained synagogues of the Alexandrians,
-Cyrenians, Libertines, Elymæans, and Asiatics. One can form some
-idea of the vast numbers of Judæans existing at that period if one
-considers that Egypt alone, from the Mediterranean to the Ethiopian
-boundary, contained nearly a million. In the neighboring country
-of Cyrenaica, there were likewise many Judæans, some having been
-forcibly transplanted thither from Egypt, whilst others were voluntary
-emigrants. In many parts of Syria, and especially in its capital,
-Antioch, the Judæans formed a considerable portion of the population.
-The kings of Syria who succeeded Antiochus Epiphanes had reinstated
-them in all their rights, of which the half-insane Epiphanes had robbed
-them. One of these kings had even given them some of the utensils taken
-from the Temple, and these were preserved in their synagogue. About ten
-thousand Judæans lived at Damascus, and one of their nobles was made
-ethnarch over them by the Nabathæan king, Aretas Philodemus, just as in
-Alexandria one of their most distinguished members was elected chief of
-the community. To the great capital of the world, Rome, the point of
-attraction for the ambitious and the grasping, the discontented and the
-visionaries, the Judæans returned in such masses after their expulsion
-by Tiberius, that when the Emperor Claudius determined, from some
-unknown cause, upon expelling them again, he was only deterred, by fear
-of their great numbers, from endeavoring to carry out his intention.
-Meanwhile he forbade their religious meetings. Towards the end of his
-reign, however, on account of some disturbances occasioned by a certain
-Christian apostle, Chrestus, they were probably, but only in part,
-banished from Rome.
-
-Even greater than in Europe, Syria and Africa was the number of Judæans
-in the Parthian Empire. They were the descendants of former exiles,
-who owned large tracts of country in Mesopotamia and Babylonia. Two
-youths from Naarda (Nahardea on the Euphrates) called Asinaï (Chasinaï)
-and Anilaï (Chanilaï) founded in the vicinity of that town a robber
-settlement, which spread terror along the bordering countries. Just
-as Naarda and Nisibis became the central points for the countries of
-the Euphrates, there arose in every land a central nucleus from which
-Judæan colonies spread themselves out into neighboring lands, from Asia
-Minor on the one side, towards the Black Sea on the other, towards
-Greece and the Islands. Athens, Corinth, Thessalonica, and Philippi
-contained Judæan communities. There is no doubt that from Rome Judæan
-colonies went forth westward to the south of France and Spain.
-
-The effect produced by the Judæans upon the heathens was at first
-repellent. Their peculiar mode of living, their dress and their
-religious views, caused them to be considered as strange, enigmatical,
-mysterious beings, who at one moment inspired awe, and at another
-derision and contempt. So thorough was the opposition between the
-Judæans and the heathens that it manifested itself in all their
-actions. Everything that was holy in the eyes of the heathens
-was looked upon with horror by the Judæans, whilst objects of
-indifference to the former were considered sacred by the latter. The
-withdrawal of the Judæans from the repasts enjoyed in common by their
-fellow-citizens, their repugnance to intermarriages with the heathens,
-their abhorrence of the flesh of swine, and their abstinence from warm
-food on the Sabbath, were considered as the outcome of a perverse
-nature, whilst their keeping aloof from intimate intercourse with
-any but their own coreligionists was deemed a proof of their enmity
-towards mankind in general. The serious nature of the Judæans, which
-prevented their participation in childish amusements and mimic combats,
-appeared to those around them the sign of a gloomy disposition, which
-could find no pleasure in the bright and the beautiful. Superficial
-persons, therefore, regarded Judaism only as a barbarous superstition,
-which instilled hatred towards the generality of men, whilst the more
-thoughtful and discerning were filled with admiration by the pure and
-spiritual worship of one God, by the affection and sympathy which bound
-the Judæans together, and by the virtues of chastity, temperance and
-fortitude which characterized them.
-
-Paganism, with the immoral life which sprang from it, stood revealed in
-all its nakedness to the keen sight of the Judæans. The dreary idolatry
-of the heathen, with its fabulous mythology which made divine nature
-even lower than the human, the madness which allowed wicked emperors
-to be worshiped as gods, the sensuality which had prevailed since the
-fall of Greece and the closer connection of the Romans with demoralized
-nations, the daily spectacle of evil lives and broken marriage
-vows, the bacchanalian intoxication of superstition, unbelief, and
-bestialities, fostered the pride of the Judæans in their own spiritual
-and intellectual possessions, and urged them to make the superiority of
-Judaism over heathenism manifest. In places where the Grecian language
-facilitated exchange of thought, as in Egypt, Asia Minor and Greece,
-there was considerable mental friction between the Judæans and the
-heathens. Judaism, as it were, summoned paganism to appear before the
-tribunal of truth, and there placed its own sublime faith beside the
-low, degrading forms of belief of its adversary.
-
-The Judæans were deeply anxious to impart the burning convictions that
-filled their hearts to the blind, deluded heathens, and to attain that
-object, their religion being hated by the latter, some of the most
-cultivated among the Judæans had recourse to a sort of pious fraud,
-by which heathen poets and soothsayers were made to bear witness to
-the beauty and grandeur of Judaism. Skilful imitations in verse,
-enunciating Judæan doctrines, were placed by Judæan-Grecian writers in
-the mouth of the mist-shrouded singer Orpheus, and introduced among
-the strains of Sophocles, the tragic poet who had celebrated the
-all-powerful gods. When Rome had extended her empire far and wide,
-and the legends of the prophetic Sibyls had become known through
-many lands, Judæan poets hastened to make the latter stand sponsors
-to tenets and views which they durst not proclaim themselves, or
-which, if given in their own name, would have obtained no hearing.
-In an oracular form the Sibyl was made to reveal the deep meaning of
-Judaism, to stir the hearts of the people by pictures of the awful
-result of infidelity to God, and to offer to nations engaged in bloody
-conflict the olive branch of peaceful amity, opening out to them bright
-prospects of the happier times, predicted by the Seers, to those
-who believed in the eternal God of Judaism; and the Sibyl spoke in
-prophetic strains of the glorious future, when all the nations of the
-earth would rejoice in the blessings of the Messianic kingdom.
-
-    "Unhappy Greece, cease proudly to exalt thyself; offer prayers
-    for help to the immortal and lofty One, and take heed of thy
-    ways. Serve the mighty God, so that thou also mayest find thy
-    portion among the good when the end will have come and the day
-    of judgment, according to the will of God, will rise up before
-    man. Then will the teeming earth give abundantly to mortals
-    the fairest fruits of the vine and the olive and choicest
-    nourishing seeds. Also sweet honey dropping from heaven, and
-    trees with their fruit, and fat sheep. Likewise oxen and lambs
-    and the kids of the goat. For them rivers of milk will flow,
-    sweet and white. The cities will be filled with merchandise,
-    the earth will be rich, and there will be no more war or
-    fearful sound of fighting. Nor will the earth, loud groaning,
-    quake and be rent. War will cease, and there will be no drought
-    upon the lands, no more famine or fruit-destroying hail. But
-    great peace will reign over all the world, and to the end of
-    time each king will be the other's friend, and under one law
-    will the people of the whole world be governed by the Eternal
-    God, enthroned in the starry heavens--one law for all weak,
-    pitiable men; for He is one God, and there is no other, and the
-    wicked He will cast into the flames."
-
-The aim of a long series of prose writings of the Judæan-Grecian school
-was to set forth the futility and defects of paganism on the one hand,
-and on the other to display Judaism in its most favorable light, and
-thus to induce the heathen to become acquainted with the tenets of the
-latter. Heathen kings who had been convinced that idolatry was empty
-and vain, and that by Judaism, on the contrary, truth was revealed were
-pointed out as examples.
-
-"The Book of Wisdom" was even more decided and vigorous in its
-denunciations of paganism than the Sibylline writings. Its unknown
-author gave with philosophical acumen, but in a poetical garb, a
-truthful exposition of idolatry, showed it to be the cause of vice and
-immorality, and then, in marked contrast to these dark shadows, made
-Judaism shine with increased purity and luster. It was the wisdom of
-Judaism, embodied, as it were, in the wise King Solomon, that presented
-these views, and in his name, turning to the monarchs of the earth
-(the Roman governors), rebukes their shameless self-deification. "Love
-righteousness, ye rulers of the earth," exclaims the Wisdom of Solomon,
-"recognize the Lord in goodness, and seek Him in simplicity of heart"
-(Book of Wisdom, i. 1). According to this author, the invention of
-idols was the cause of lasciviousness, and leads to the destruction
-of life. Idolatry did not exist from the beginning, neither will it
-last forever. It arose through the vanity and ignorance of man, and
-would endure but a short time. A father, suddenly plunged into deepest
-grief by the death of a child, perhaps made for himself an image of
-the latter; by degrees he worshiped the lifeless figure as a god, and
-insisted upon the observance by his dependants of mystical rites in
-its honor. In the course of time this godless practice became law, and
-images, by the order of despots, received the worship of the people. In
-the absence of the monarch, when he could not be personally adored by
-his subjects, the tyrant was flattered by the incense offered to his
-image. The ambition of the artist also fostered the growth of idolatry
-among the ignorant masses. To please the potentates of the earth he
-strove to make his images as beautiful as possible, and the public,
-dazzled by the splendor and grace of the work, worshiped as gods those
-whom they previously reverenced as men. Such beautiful productions of
-art became a snare to those whom misfortune or tyranny had enslaved,
-and induced them to deify carved stone and wood, and to bestow on them
-the uncommunicable name of God. Not alone do the people err in their
-religious creed, but they live in constant strife with one another
-and call it peace; infanticide is celebrated as a rite, they observe
-dark, mysterious ceremonies, and are guilty of unchastity. Each one
-plays the part of spy on the other, or wounds his friend in his dearest
-honor. All, without distinction, thirst for blood, love plunder, and
-practice cunning, perjury, deceit, ingratitude, and every description
-of impurity. For the worship of vain idols is the beginning, cause,
-and end of every evil thing. "For health he calleth upon that which is
-weak, for life prayeth to that which is dead, for aid humbly beseecheth
-that which hath least means to help" (Book of Wisdom, xiii. 18).
-
-After the author has thus shown the vanity of idolatry, he attempts to
-describe the fundamental truths of Judaism:
-
-    "There is no God but Him whom the Jews adore. Divine wisdom
-    preserved the first-born, saved the righteous (Noah) from the
-    flood, upheld the righteous (Abraham) in innocence before God,
-    delivered the holy seed (the Judæan people) from the oppression
-    of the nations, filled the soul of the servant of God (Moses),
-    who appeared before kings with terrible signs and wonders.
-    Israel is the upright one whom God has chosen. He possesses the
-    knowledge of the Divine Being, and may call himself the Son of
-    God, who in His mercy sustains and upholds him."
-
-These righteous ones will have eternal life. When Israel is persecuted
-by the rulers of the earth, because his path lies apart from theirs,
-and he condemns their godless ways, turns from them as unclean, and
-calls God his Father; when the nations of the earth torture him and put
-him to a shameful death--these are only trials imposed by God on His
-chosen one, to prove him and make him worthy of His grace. He tries him
-like gold in the furnace, and accepts him as a pure offering. Israel
-shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their
-God shall reign forever.
-
-    "Then will the upright one stand firmly before his oppressors.
-    They will be troubled with great fear; they will be amazed
-    at his glorious salvation, and repenting they will say,
-    'This was he whom we had in derision, and of whom we made a
-    laughing-stock. Ignorantly we accounted his life madness, and
-    his end to be without honor. And now he is numbered among the
-    children of God and his lot is among the saints. We strayed
-    from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness did not
-    shine for us.' Israel was the instrument through which God
-    gave the world the undying light of the law. In all things did
-    the Lord magnify His people and glorify them; He abandoned
-    them not, but assisted them in every time and place." (Book of
-    Wisdom.)
-
-Like the Babylonian Isaiah, the Alexandrian-Judæan sage contemplated
-his ideal in Israel, of whom a noble mission was required, and who
-would hereafter shine in glory.
-
-Whilst the Alexandrian Judæans were absorbed in Grecian literature
-and philosophy, and were using that melodious language as a weapon
-against paganism and the immorality it fostered, they were carried
-beyond the object they had in view. Their desire was to make Judaism
-acceptable to the cultivated Greeks, but in following out that design
-it was, in some degree, lost to themselves. Greek conceptions had so
-completely taken possession of their thoughts that at last they came
-to find in the teachings of Judaism the current speculations of the
-Greeks. The faith that they had inherited was, however, still dear
-to them, and they managed, through sophistical means, to deceive
-themselves into a belief of the genuineness of their exposition. The
-Holy Scripture could not, indeed, always offer apposite passages to
-the prevailing philosophy, but the Judæan-Alexandrian authors knew how
-to help themselves out of that difficulty. They followed the example
-of Greek writers, who found their own views of the world in the poems
-of Homer, or put them there, and to accomplish that feat, employed a
-peculiar kind of sophistical word-pictures. Thus the Judæan thinkers
-of that period, in their interpretations of the Holy Scriptures, had
-recourse to allegory, and instead of the plain, natural meaning
-of a work, often gave it a different and seemingly higher import.
-Starting with the assumption that the Scriptures cannot always receive
-a literal explanation without the divine glory's being tarnished and
-many biblical characters being degraded, they resorted to the arts of
-allegory and metaphor. This method became so general that even the
-masses lost all pleasure in the simple stories of the Holy Scriptures,
-and took more delight in artificial explanations than in the plain
-lessons and sublime laws of their sacred books. The pious men, who
-were wont to explain the Scriptures on the Sabbath, were obliged, in
-compliance with the taste of the time, to allegorize both the history
-and the lessons contained in them. One result of this method was the
-indifference that manifested itself among the cultivated Judæans of
-Alexandria to the practice of the religion of their fathers. Allegory
-undermined the ramparts that fenced the Law. If the latter was only the
-garment in which philosophical ideas were robed, if the Sabbath was
-merely intended to record the power of uncreated divinity, and the rite
-of circumcision was only meant to show the necessity of placing a curb
-on the passions, it would be sufficient to understand and adopt the
-ideas underlying those forms. Of what use would be the practice of the
-latter? From indifference to the practice of the laws to the desertion
-of Judaism itself there was only one step, and thus can be explained
-the apostasy to paganism of some Judæans who were unable to withstand
-the difficulties and constant pressure they had to encounter. It was
-also among the Alexandrian Judæans that the conflict between science
-and faith first appeared.
-
-The indifference towards Judaism was combated, indeed, by many who had
-not wholly given themselves up to Greek culture. Philo, the greatest
-genius which Alexandrian Judaism produced, opposed the lukewarm spirit
-and the feelings of contempt which had grown up against the practice of
-the Law. In his elevated and inspired diction he urged the obligation
-of adhering to the letter of the Law, and induced his co-religionists
-to regard it again with love and reverence. Philo indeed shared some
-of the errors and prejudices of his contemporaries, but with his clear
-intelligence, he soared above the mists which enthroned them. He
-likewise made exaggerated use of the allegorical method employed by
-his predecessors, and agreed with them in applying it to the entire
-Pentateuch, or at least to the greater part of its history and laws.
-To carry out this metaphorical line of scriptural interpretation he
-devised symbolic numbers, explained Hebrew by Greek words, and from
-one and the same sentence deduced different and opposite conclusions.
-To Philo allegorical exposition became almost a necessity. Had he not
-already found it in use, he would doubtless have invented it.
-
-He wished to give the sanction of Holy Writ to the great thoughts
-which were partly the productions of his own rich mind, partly adopted
-from the philosophical schools of the Academy, the Stoics and the
-Neo-Pythagoreans. Sharing, and indeed, surpassing in perversity the
-allegorical explanations he found in vogue, he departed from them
-just in that essential point which told against the necessity of the
-practice of the Law, and in that lay his chief importance. He expresses
-himself with decision and force against those who, satisfied with the
-spiritual meaning contained in the Law, are indifferent to the Law
-itself. He calls them superficial and thoughtless, acting as though
-they lived in a desert, or as incorporeal beings who knew neither
-of town nor village nor dwelling, or who, in fact, entertained no
-intercourse with human beings, despising what is dear to mankind,
-and seeking only abstract spiritual truths. The holy word, however,
-while teaching us to seek out diligently the deepest spiritual meaning
-of the Law, does not cancel our obligation of adhering to customs
-introduced by inspired men who were in all things infinitely greater
-than ourselves. Shall we, because we know the spiritual meaning of the
-Sabbath, neglect its prescribed observance? "Shall we," he exclaims,
-"make use of fire on the Sabbath, till the ground, carry burdens, plead
-in courts of justice, enforce the payment of debts, and, in fact,
-transact all our usual daily business? Shall we, because a festival
-symbolizes the peace of the soul, and is intended as an expression of
-gratitude to God, cease to observe the festival itself? Or shall we
-give up the rite of circumcision now that we are acquainted with its
-symbolic significance? In that case we should likewise renounce our
-reverence for the sanctity of the Temple and abandon many religious
-observances. But, on the contrary, both the inner truth contained in
-the Law, and the Law itself, should be equally prized--the one as the
-soul, the other as the body. Just as we take care of the body, looking
-upon it as the habitation of the soul, so also should we value the
-letter of the Law. By strict observance of the Law we shall attain a
-clearer insight into its deepest meaning, and shall likewise escape the
-remarks and reproaches of the people."
-
-It is in the Hebrew Scriptures, according to Philo, that the most
-profound wisdom is contained. All that is taught by the sublimest
-philosophy the Judæans found in their precepts and customs--the
-knowledge of the eternal God, the vanity of idols, and the universal
-laws of humanity and kindness. "Is not the highest honor due," he
-exclaims, "to those laws which teach the rich to share their wealth
-with the needy, which console the poor by enabling them to look forward
-to the time when they will no longer beg at the rich man's door, but
-will have recovered their alienated property; for, at the opening
-of the seventh year, prosperity would return again to the widow and
-the orphan, and would restore to well-being those whom fortune had
-disinherited?"
-
-In opposition to the abuse hurled against Judaism by a Lysimachus and
-an Apion, Philo brings forward the spirit of humanity which breathes
-through the Judæan Law, and which affects even the treatment of animals
-and plants. "And yet, though Judaism is founded in truth on love, these
-miserable sycophants accuse it of misanthropy and egotism." In order
-to ensure a better comprehension of the Judæan ethics by the cynics
-and lawbreakers of his own race, as also by the Greeks, who had only a
-false conception of Judaism, Philo arranged his writings so that they
-should form a kind of philosophical commentary on the Pentateuch, with
-the further object that the truths of Judaism might be brought within
-the province of philosophy.
-
-But if, on the one hand, Philo stood firmly on Judæan ground, on the
-other he was no less imbued with the dogmas of the Grecian schools,
-which ran counter to the former, and he seems to have been equally
-swayed by the spirit of Judaism and that of Greece. Vainly he attempted
-to bring the contradictory ideas into harmony. They were so completely
-opposed from their very inception that they could not be reconciled. To
-solve the difficulty between the conflicting views of a creating God
-and a perfect deity who does not come into contact with matter, Philo's
-system takes a middle course. God created first the spiritual world of
-ideas, which were not merely the archetypes of all future creations,
-but at the same time active powers which formed the latter. Through
-these spiritual powers which surround God like a train of servitors,
-He works indirectly in the world. Spiritual power acting, as it were,
-intermediately between God and the world is, according to Philo, the
-Logos, or creative reason, the divine wisdom, the spirit of God, the
-source of all strength. In Philo's more mystical than philosophical
-description, the Logos is the first-born son of God, who, standing on
-the border-land of the finite and infinite, links both together. He
-is neither uncreated like God, nor created like the things that are
-finite. The Logos is the prototype of the universe, the delegate of
-God, whose behests it communicates to the world, the interpreter who
-reveals His will and constantly accomplishes it, the archangel who
-shows forth his works, the high priest and intercessor between the
-world and God. Early Christianity made use of this doctrine of the
-Logos in order to assume a philosophic aspect.
-
-The princely philosopher of the house of the Alabarchs combated
-the Greek and Roman paganism, steeped in vice and bestiality. His
-exposition of the Judæan Law was designed to darken still more, by
-comparison with the pure light of Judaism, the shadows of idolatry, the
-sexual looseness, frivolity, vanity and corruption which existed in the
-Grecian-Roman world. He tried to show how false were the accusations
-hurled against Judaism, and to make known the sublime grandeur and
-beauty of its tenets. His principal works were written for his own
-people and co-religionists, though he frequently addressed those who
-stood outside that circle. Against the few laws of humanity which the
-Greeks boasted to have possessed from ancient times, as, for example
-that of granting fuel to any one requiring it, or of showing a wayfarer
-the right path, Philo could have no difficulty in enumerating a long
-array of benevolent duties contained in Scripture or transmitted by
-word of mouth. At the head of unwritten laws he placed Hillel's golden
-saying, "What is hateful to yourself do not unto others." Judaism does
-not merely forbid any one to refuse fire or water, but commands that
-what the poor and feeble require shall be given to them. It prohibits
-the use of false weights and measures, the coinage of false money. It
-does not allow children to be taken from their parents, or wives to
-be separated from their husbands, even when they have been legally
-acquired as slaves. Even towards animals the duty of mercy is impressed
-upon man. "What, in comparison to these," he cries to the Greeks, "are
-the few laws descending from primeval times, of which you boast so
-much?"
-
-In the following tone of mockery Philo answered malicious accusations
-against the Lawgiver:
-
-    "Yes, verily, Moses must have been a sorcerer, not only to have
-    preserved a whole people, and supplied them abundantly whilst
-    they were journeying through many nations, exposed to the
-    danger of hunger and thirst, and ignorant of the way they were
-    pursuing, but likewise to have made them, in spite of their
-    mutinous spirit, which often broke out against himself, docile
-    and pliant."
-
-Of the three great moralists who followed each other within a century,
-Hillel the Babylonian, Jesus of Nazareth, and Philo the Alexandrian,
-it was the last who in all things, great and small, upheld most
-strenuously the glory of Judaism. He was superior to them likewise
-in beauty of style and in depth of thought, whilst he was animated
-with equally fervent convictions. The first two simply created an
-impulse, but it was through their disciples that their ideas, variously
-transformed, were introduced into a larger circle; whereas Philo,
-by his own eloquent writings, made an important and lasting effect.
-His works were perhaps read by cultivated heathens even more than by
-Judæans, though all were affected by the warmth and glow which pervaded
-everything he wrote about God, Moses, and the spirit of the Law.
-
-Philo and the Alexandrian sages continued to promote the great work
-of the prophets Isaiah, Habakkuk and Jeremiah, and laid bare all the
-unreasonableness, the instability, the perversion and immorality
-of the heathen religions. The transparent, shimmering ether with
-which the Greeks invested Olympus, these writers resolved into mists
-and vapors. Greeks and Romans, who felt deeply on the subject, were
-moved to turn with contempt from a religion which not only gave so
-unworthy a representation of the Divinity, but actually seemed to
-sanctify immorality by the example set before them in the history
-of their deities. Like most oriental people, the heathens felt the
-need of religion, and those who were searching for true and elevated
-teaching embraced Judaism, which was daily being brought more and more
-home to them in the Greek translations of Judæan writings through
-Greek-Alexandrine literature, and also through intercourse with
-cultivated Judæans.
-
-During the last ten years which preceded the destruction of the Judæan
-State, there were more proselytes than there had been at any other
-time. Philo relates from his own experience that in his native country
-many heathens, when they embraced Judaism, not only changed their faith
-but their lives, which were henceforth conspicuous by the practice
-of the virtues of moderation, gentleness and humanity. "Those who
-left the teachings in which they had been educated, because they were
-replete with lying inventions and vanities, became sincere worshipers
-of the truth, and gave themselves up to the practice of the purest
-piety." Above all, the women, whose gentle feelings were offended by
-the impurity of the mythological stories, seemed attracted towards the
-childlike and sublime scenes in Biblical history. The greater part of
-the women in Damascus were converted to Judaism, and it is related that
-in Asia Minor there were also many female proselytes. Some over-eager
-Judæans may have traveled with the intention of making converts, as was
-proved in the story of the Roman patrician Fulvia.
-
-It was by similar zeal for conversion that the Judæan faith was
-introduced into an Asiatic court, the members of which remained
-steadfast adherents to Judaism during several generations. Adiabene,
-a province on the banks of the Tigris, situated where once lay the
-Assyrian kingdom, was governed by a royal pair, Monobaz and Helen.
-It was a small, but not unimportant state, and although it touched
-the great domains of Rome and Parthia, it had been able to hold its
-independence during some centuries. Monobaz had many children, the
-offspring both of Helen and of other wives, but the youngest of all,
-Izates, was the favorite of both parents. In order that he should not
-suffer from the jealousy which that favoritism had caused among the
-elder brothers, Monobaz sent him to the court of a neighboring king,
-of the name of Abinerglus (Abennerig), who was so greatly pleased with
-the young prince confided to his care, that he gave him his daughter in
-marriage. A Judæan merchant by the name of Anania traded at this court,
-and whilst he showed his merchandise to the princesses, he dilated at
-the same time upon the tenets of Judaism with such success that he
-converted them to his faith. Izates, whose wife, Samach, was one of the
-converts, became interested in Anania, discoursed with him, and became
-a sincere adherent of Judaism, which he openly embraced in the year 18
-C. E. His mother, the queen Helen, had also, without the knowledge of
-her son, been won over to Judaism. The deep impression which the Judæan
-precepts had made upon the royal converts was proved when the throne
-became vacant. The dying Monobaz passed over his eldest sons and named
-Izates as his successor. When Helen related her husband's wishes to the
-nobles of Adiabene, they suggested that the elder brothers should be
-put to death, and thus prevent a civil war, to which their hatred and
-jealousy might not improbably give rise. But Helen, softened by her
-conversion to Judaism, would not follow this sanguinary advice, and
-only kept the brothers in confinement, with the exception of her eldest
-son, Monobaz II, to whom she confided the regency. When Izates arrived
-at the capital of Adiabene, and had, according to his father's last
-testament, received the crown from the hand of Monobaz, he considered
-it an unmanly act of cruelty to leave his brothers to languish in
-confinement, and he sent them as hostages into honorable banishment,
-some to Rome and some to the Parthian capital.
-
-Once on the throne, Izates intended to adopt Judaism, and even to
-submit to the rite of circumcision, but he was dissuaded from doing so
-by his mother, and by his physician, also named Anania, who, being an
-Hellenic Judæan, represented to him that the latter was not essential.
-Izates felt reassured for the time; but another Judæan, a Galilæan
-of the name of Eleazar, and a strict follower of the Law, came to
-his court and offered a contrary opinion. Eleazar, seeing the king
-engrossed in reading the Pentateuch, probably a Greek translation,
-could not help observing that to belong to the Judæan faith it was
-not sufficient to read the Law, but it was necessary also to practise
-its precepts. Thereupon Izates, and, according to some authorities,
-also his elder brother Monobaz, secretly submitted to the rite of
-circumcision. The queen-mother had anticipated dangerous results from
-so decided a step, but they were not immediately forthcoming. Not only
-was there perfect peace after the accession of Izates, but he was so
-much respected that he was chosen to be arbitrator between the Parthian
-king Artaban and the rebellious nobles of that monarch.
-
-Some time later, when several of the king's relations avowed their
-conversion to Judaism, some of the nobles of Adiabene formed a
-conspiracy, and secretly induced Abia, the king of Arabia, to declare
-war against him. Izates, however, was successful, and Abia killed
-himself in despair. The nobles then conspired with Vologeses, the king
-of Parthia, to make war against their king, who had been faithless
-to the religion of his forefathers. This war, however, which might
-have been most calamitous for Izates, Vologeses was prevented from
-undertaking, and henceforth his reign, which lasted about thirty
-years, continued undisturbed. Queen Helen, fired by the enthusiasm of
-the Judæan faith, desired to visit Jerusalem, and, accompanied by her
-son, she accomplished this long journey in about the year 43. Izates
-sent five of his own sons to Jerusalem to learn the religion and the
-language of the Hebrews.
-
-How grand and joyous must have been the welcome offered by the
-inhabitants of Jerusalem to a queen come from the far distant East
-with the sole view of paying homage to their God and His Law! Was not
-the word of prophecy fulfilled before their very eyes, that the second
-Temple should be greater than the first, inasmuch as the heathens
-should come and worship the one God?
-
-Helen soon had the opportunity of appearing as the benefactress of the
-people. A famine prevailed which created great distress in the country,
-and the poorer classes especially suffered severely. Queen Helen sought
-to relieve them by bringing from Alexandria and Cyprus whole ship-loads
-of wheat and figs, which she distributed among the starving people
-(48 C. E.). Abundant means were given her by Izates to carry out her
-generous impulses. Her offering to the Temple consisted of a golden
-shell-shaped portal for the door of the inner Temple, to receive and
-reflect the first rays of the morning sun, and thus announce the break
-of dawn to the officiating priests.
-
-The piety and benevolence of the proselyte Helen were long remembered
-with love and gratitude by the nation. She survived her son Izates,
-who died at the age of fifty-five (55 C. E.); he is said to have left
-twenty-four sons and the same number of daughters. He was succeeded
-by his elder brother, Monobaz II, who declared himself also to be a
-firm adherent to Judaism. When Helen died, Monobaz caused her remains,
-as well as those of his brother, to be removed to Jerusalem, and to
-be buried within the magnificent tomb which she had constructed there
-during her lifetime. This mausoleum, which was about thirty stadia
-north of Jerusalem, had beautiful pillars of alabaster, and was
-considered a great work of art. Helen had built a palace in the lower
-part of the town, and her granddaughter, the Princess Grapte, erected
-another in that part of Jerusalem known as Ophla. Monobaz, who also had
-his palace in Jerusalem, had golden vessels made for use in the Temple
-on the Day of Atonement. The people of Adiabene remained firm friends
-of the Judæan nation, and were always ready to give their powerful help
-in times of danger.
-
-This leaning towards Judaism, evinced by so many religiously inclined
-heathens, was utilized by the teachers of the Nazarene creed. They took
-advantage of and worked upon this enthusiasm, and thus laid the first
-step to their future conquest of the world.
-
-Two Judæans, both coming from countries where the Greek language was
-spoken, Saul of Tarsus (known as Paul) and Jose Barnabas of Cyprus,
-declared their intention of proselytizing the heathen. They thus
-widened the sphere of the small community, and raised it from being
-an insignificant sect of Judaism to the position of a distinct and
-separate religious body, but in order to do so they were obliged to
-change its original character and purpose.
-
-During the short decade following the death of its founder the small
-community had been augmented by Essenes and some Judæan inhabitants
-of Greek countries. The former, who had hitherto lived in a mystic
-land of visions and trusted to miraculous intervention for the arrival
-of the kingdom of heaven, may have seen their dreams fulfilled in
-the advent of Jesus. The Essenes, who had no families, were obliged
-to augment their numbers from without. They could only add to
-the community by dint of mystical persuasions, and, as believing
-followers of Jesus, they continued their propaganda and attracted new
-adherents from the lower classes, whom the leaders of the Pharisees
-had neglected or avoided. Their untiring zeal incited the activity of
-the first Christians, who had been awaiting, not so much an increase
-of believers, as the speedy re-appearance of Jesus, enthroned in the
-clouds of heaven. Apostles were now sent out from Jerusalem, where
-they were chiefly established, to propagate the belief that Jesus
-was the true Messiah. In order, however, to gain many converts, a
-greater power of oratory was required than the simple fishermen and
-mechanics of Galilee possessed. This want was supplied by the addition
-of Greek-speaking Judæans. From Asia Minor, Egypt, Cyrene, from the
-islands of Crete and Cyprus, there was an annual pilgrimage of Judæans
-to Jerusalem at the time of the Passover festival. Besides men of
-piety and enthusiasts, there were adventurers, seekers after novelty,
-and beggars, ignorant of the Law. Of these pilgrims, numbers eagerly
-adopted the new faith. Many adventurers among the Greek Judæans were
-easily persuaded to accept the doctrine of the community of goods,
-which the Ebionite Christians had retained from their Essene origin,
-and which found great favor with these homeless wanderers. All those
-who possessed any property sold it to increase the contents of the
-general treasury, and those who were utterly impecunious lived without
-any cares in the community. These Greek Judæans, who had learnt from
-their heathen neighbors the art of speaking on every subject, and
-even of veiling almost meaningless expressions in an attractive and
-persuasive manner, presented the new religion in an attractive form.
-They were best adapted to become the preachers and missionaries. When
-converted themselves, they used all their efforts to convert others.
-The Greek element soon predominated over the Galilæan, Ebionite and
-Essene elements, of which the community had previously been composed.
-
-These Greek Judæans, who had never been taught the Law in the schools
-of Jerusalem and were, indeed, generally ignorant of its tenets,
-transgressed them, sometimes unwillingly, but at times intentionally.
-When taken to task they justified their actions by the belief which
-they entertained in the Messianic character of Jesus, who, they
-alleged, had also put aside the authority of the Law. In Jerusalem,
-still considered as the holy city, each practice and observance was
-made a matter of deep importance. People began to suspect that the
-Nazarenes, who spoke in foreign tongues, were introducing innovations
-and endeavoring to bring the Law into contempt, and the disciples of
-Jesus were thenceforth watched, and their utterances in the synagogues
-and in the market-places were carefully noted. Amongst those who were
-most fanatical against the Nazarenes was Saul of Tarsus, a zealous
-follower of the Pharisaic school, who held that no edict of either
-the oral or the written Law might be tampered with. As he spoke Greek
-himself, he was able to measure the boldness of the utterances of the
-Judæan-Christian Greeks who were in Jerusalem, and his indignation was
-great against them. One of these Greeks, of the name of Stephen, was
-particularly violent in his attacks, and had recklessly spoken against
-the holiness of the Law and the Temple. It appears that Saul proclaimed
-him to be a blasphemer, and that he was stoned, whether after a
-judicial trial or by an angry populace is not known. After that time
-the Nazarenes were viewed with still greater suspicion, and were called
-upon to defend themselves; and again it was Saul who watched the
-proceedings of these Greek adherents of the new sect, and caused them
-to be brought up for trial. They were imprisoned, and those who were
-found guilty of contempt of the Law by their belief in the Messianic
-attributes of Jesus were not punished by death, but were sentenced
-to be scourged. The foreign Nazarenes, terrified by this severity,
-hastened away from Jerusalem and dispersed in various Greek towns
-in which there dwelt Judæan communities, among whom they continued
-their work of proselytizing. Those followers of Jesus, however, who,
-notwithstanding their new faith, did not deny the holiness of the
-Law, remained unmolested. Their three leaders, James, a brother or a
-relation of Jesus, Kephas or Peter, and John, son of Zebedee, lived at
-Jerusalem without fear of persecution.
-
-The other Nazarenes zealously continued the work of conversion in
-foreign places. Homeless themselves, they endeavored to introduce into
-their circle of followers the doctrine of the community of goods, which
-would enable them to live on from day to day without care or thought
-for the morrow. They were particularly attracted towards the towns of
-Antioch and Damascus, where they found a large field for their labors
-in the Greek-speaking community of men and women. The half-educated
-multitude listened eagerly to the words of messengers who announced
-that a heavenly kingdom was at hand, and to enter it they must accept
-only baptism, and the belief that Jesus was the Messiah who had
-actually appeared, had been crucified, and had risen again.
-
-Soon these two Greek cities saw a Nazarene community settling within
-their walls, who seemed to be Judæans, who lived according to Judæan
-rule, who prayed, sang psalms, and ended their songs of praise with
-the customary "Amen"; but who yet showed certain signs of forming a
-new sect. They assembled together at a meal which they called Agape,
-spoke the blessing over the wine, drank after one another from the same
-vessel, broke their bread in remembrance of the last hours of Jesus,
-and gave each other, men and women indiscriminately, the kiss of peace.
-Then, in convulsive excitement, some arose and prophesied, others spoke
-in strange tongues, whilst others again effected miraculous cures in
-the name of Jesus. An unnatural and highly wrought state of enthusiasm
-prevailed in these Greek-Nazarene circles, which would probably have
-been deemed ridiculous, and would have evaporated in time; in short,
-Christianity might have died a noiseless death, if Saul of Tarsus had
-not appeared, and given it a new direction, a great scope, and thereby
-imparted to it vital powers and vigor. Without Jesus, Saul would not
-have made his vast spiritual conquests, but without Saul, Christianity
-itself would have had no stability.
-
-Saul (born in Tarsus in Cilicia, at the beginning of the Christian
-epoch, and belonging to the tribe of Benjamin) had a very remarkable
-nature. Weak and fragile in body, he was possessed of a tenacity which
-nothing could daunt. He was excitable and vehement, could not endure
-any opposition to his opinions, and was one-sided and bitter in his
-treatment of those who differed from him in the slightest degree. He
-had a limited knowledge of Judæan writings, and was only familiar
-with the Scriptures through the Greek translation; enthusiastic and
-fanciful, he believed in the visions of his imagination and allowed
-himself to be guided by them. In short, Saul combined a morbid and an
-iron nature; he seemed created to establish what was new, and to give
-form and reality to that which seemed impossible and unreal.
-
-He had persecuted the Greek Nazarenes, hunted them out of their
-haunts of concealment to give them over to punishment, because they
-had seceded from Pharisaic Judaism. But that did not suffice. Hearing
-that some of them were established in Damascus, he followed them
-thither with all zeal, intending, with implacable persecuting zeal, to
-exterminate the community. But his disposition towards them suddenly
-changed. In Damascus many heathens, particularly many of the female
-population, had gone over to Judaism. The conversion of the royal house
-of Adiabene had caused much excitement. Saul had probably himself
-witnessed the great triumph of Judaism, the entry of Queen Helen, the
-Princes of Adiabene and their retinue into Jerusalem. She probably
-stayed in Damascus on her journey, and there must have received the
-thanks of the Judæan inhabitants of that city. These events must
-have made a deep impression on Saul, and may have given rise to the
-thought: Had not the time foreseen by the prophets now arrived, when
-every nation should recognize the God of Israel, bow down and swear
-allegiance to Him alone?
-
-If he was occupied with these thoughts he must also have been prepared
-to wrestle with many doubts to which they gave rise. Would it be
-possible to convert the heathen world if the Law were to bind them with
-its trammels, if they were to be forced to observe the Sabbath and
-the festivals, to keep the dietary laws, to distinguish between the
-clean and the unclean, and even to submit to circumcision? Should the
-heathen be required to follow even the severe Pharisaic ordinances?
-In that case it would be impossible that other nations should enter
-the Judæan community. But, on the other hand, could not the Law be
-abrogated for the sake of the heathens, and might they not merely be
-taught the knowledge of God and a loftier morality? Yet, as the whole
-law originated from God, by whom it was revealed, and who had expressly
-commanded that it should be fulfilled, how could it be set aside? A
-saying of his teachers may then have occurred to Saul, that the Law
-was only binding until the time of the Messiah, and that as soon as
-the Redeemer came its importance and significance would cease. If the
-Messiah had really appeared, then all the difficulties that surrounded
-the conversion of the heathen would disappear. This train of thought
-engrossed the mind of Saul. His nervous temperament and imaginative
-nature easily dispelled all doubts, and he believed firmly and truly
-that Jesus had made himself manifest to him. Much later he said of
-the vision which had appeared: "If it were in the flesh I know not,
-if it were supernatural I know not, God knows; but I was carried up
-beyond the third heaven." This is not very reliable evidence to an
-actual fact. Legend has adorned this conversion, which was of such
-great importance to Christianity, in a fitting manner. It describes
-Saul traveling to Damascus, and his path illumined by a great light.
-Beholding this light, he is said to have fallen in terror to the earth,
-and to have heard a voice, which called to him, "Saul, Saul, why dost
-thou persecute me?" Blinded by the vision, he reached Damascus; and
-after an interview with a Christian, who advised him to be baptized,
-the scales at length fell from his eyes.
-
-With the certainty that he had actually beheld Jesus, another doubt
-was banished from Saul's mind, or a different Messianic point of
-view was revealed to him. Jesus had certainly died--or rather had
-been crucified--but, as he appeared to Saul, he must have risen from
-the dead; he must have been the first who had been brought to life
-again, and had therefore confirmed the fact that there would be a
-Resurrection, which fact had been a matter of contention between the
-various schools: and Jesus had also thereby announced the advent of
-the kingdom of heaven, of which, as the prophet Daniel had predicted,
-the resurrection of the dead was to be the forerunner. Thus the former
-Pharisee of Tarsus was firmly convinced of three things--that Jesus
-had arisen; that he was the true Messiah who had been predicted; and
-that the kingdom of heaven, the period of the resurrection, was near,
-and that the then existing generation, or rather the true believers
-in Jesus, would soon witness its arrival. This belief led to further
-results. If the Messiah had already appeared, or if Jesus were actually
-the Christ, then the Law was of itself abrogated, and the heathens
-could participate in the blessing of Abraham, without observing the
-Law. This belief acted as an incentive to Saul. He felt himself called
-upon to convert the depraved world of heathendom, and, through Christ,
-to lead it back to the Father of all. No time was allowed to elapse
-between the inception of this idea and its realization. Assuming the
-name of Paul, he joined the Nazarenes of Damascus, who were not a
-little astonished that their persecutor had now become their colleague,
-and was seeking to make fresh converts.
-
-Paul found many opportunities for converting in Damascus, as a strong
-feeling in favor of Judaism prevailed there, and the sacrifice
-incumbent on its followers alone kept many aloof. The newly-converted
-Apostle could render this step easier, as he relieved them of all
-duties to the Law by means of a belief in Jesus. He does not, however,
-seem to have found a warm reception for his faith, resting as it did on
-sophistry, even amongst his own countrymen. His theory that the whole
-Law might be set aside was probably not considered as quite acceptable.
-The people also seem to have felt distrust of their former persecutor.
-In short, Saul-Paul could not maintain his ground in Damascus, and
-fled to Arabia (Auranitis), where Judæan communities also existed.
-When, however, he returned to Damascus for the second time, and his
-coreligionists had acquired greater confidence in him, he could indulge
-his love of proselytism. But his brusque, inconsiderate manner, and
-his assertion that the Law was no longer in force, aroused the Judæan
-community of Damascus against him. The Judæan ethnarch of the town, who
-had been appointed or confirmed by Aretas Philodemus, sought to take
-him prisoner. His companions saved him, by lowering him in a basket
-from a window in the wall. Thus he escaped from those who rightly
-considered him as the destroyer of Judaism. He returned to Jerusalem
-three years after his conversion. He felt that there was a wide
-difference between himself and the Galilæan Christians, and that he
-would not be able to make terms with them. Paul was filled with the one
-thought, that the blessing for all generations, the promise (evangel)
-made to Abraham that he should be father of many nations, and that
-the wealth of the heathen should belong to the children of Abraham,
-was now finally to be realized, and that he (Paul) was called upon to
-effect this work. He wished to put an end to the difference between the
-Judæans and the Greeks, between slaves and freemen, and to make all
-brothers in the covenant of Abraham--as the seed of Abraham--according
-to the promise given in by-gone years. This was the glad message which
-he brought to the people; it was a far-reaching thought, of which
-the Ebionites in Jerusalem and the so-called main Apostles had no
-understanding.
-
-After a short stay in Jerusalem, Saul, accompanied by his disciple,
-the Cyprian Joseph Barnabas, repaired to Cilicia, Paul's native
-place, and traversed Asia Minor and Macedonia to Achaia. There his
-endeavors were crowned with marvelous results. He founded in various
-places Greek-Christian communities, especially in Galatia, in Ephesus,
-Philippi, and Thessalonica, and in the town of Corinth. This result
-may partly be laid to the credit of Judaism; for when Paul wished to
-win over the heathens, he had to unfold to them the glorious past of
-the Judæan nation, in order to speak of Jesus. He also had to contrast
-the pure belief in God with the wild practices of heathendom. He found
-a susceptibility for the pure teachings of Judaism among the heathen.
-Not a few felt disgust at the mythological stories of the gods and
-the deification of human beings. The remembrance was yet fresh in
-their memories how all nations of the Roman kingdom, with unexampled
-abjectness, had dedicated altars to the monster Caligula, and had
-recognized and worshiped him as a god. Despairing and pure spirits
-sought a God to whom they might elevate themselves, but they did not
-find him. Now Paul had come and brought them this God, surrounded,
-it is true, with wonderful stories, which, however, pleased them, on
-account of the mythological strain in them. The heathen nations could
-better comprehend the "Son of God" than the "Messianic Redeemer." The
-wide-spread disease of immorality, which was rife throughout the Roman
-empire, rendered the Judæan teachings acceptable and proper. Paul's
-orations, delivered with the fire of enthusiasm, and uttered by one
-who threw his whole soul into his words, could not fail to make an
-impression on the better-disposed and purer-minded heathens. To this
-was added the fear of the approach of the end of the world, which Paul,
-through his firm belief in the resurrection and reappearance of Jesus,
-had transformed into the hope that the dead would arise, in refulgent
-form, at the trumpet-call, and that the living would be carried up into
-heaven in a cloud.
-
-Thus Paul appealed to the imagination of many heathens in his apostolic
-wanderings from Jerusalem to Illyria. At first he aroused only people
-of the lower classes, slaves, and especially women, by his glad
-tidings. To the cultivated Greeks the Christianity which Paul preached,
-based on the so-called resurrection of Jesus, appeared as a ridiculous
-absurdity. The Judæans were naturally displeased with him. Paul's chief
-topics, on which he dilated to the heathens whom he wished to convert,
-were the Judæan nation, Judæan writings, and the Judæan Law; without
-these his preaching about a Messiah or salvation had no foundation.
-The Greeks must have been told about Israel and Jerusalem, or his
-words would have fallen on deaf ears. He, therefore, could only resort
-to those towns where Judæan communities dwelt, from whom the heathen
-nations had received some faint notion of the history and doctrines of
-Judaism.
-
-Paul's efforts were directly aimed at destroying the bonds which
-connected the teachings of Christ with those of Judaism. He therefore
-inveighed against the Law, as it proved a hindrance to the reception of
-heathen proselytes. He asserted that it was detrimental to the pursuit
-of a higher spiritual life and to following the way of truth. Paul not
-only disapproved of the so-called ceremonial laws of Judaism, but also
-of those relating to morality. He affirmed that without laws men would
-not have given way to their evil desires. "Thou shalt not covet" had
-first aroused covetousness; thus through the Law the knowledge of sin
-had arisen. Man is sensual and inclined to sin, for flesh is weak and
-inclined to resist the Law. Paul set up a new teaching. He maintained
-that man had only become sensual, weak and sinful because the first
-man had sinned. Adam's fall had given birth to an inextinguishable
-hereditary sin, and by this means death had come upon humanity. The
-Law was not able to overcome this hereditary sin. In order to destroy
-sin and death, God had made a special dispensation. He had given up
-the Messiah, His son, to death, and again re-animated him, and he
-had become the second Adam, who was to obliterate hereditary sin,
-to conquer death, and establish everlasting life. Thus the Redeemer,
-instead of bringing about the redemption of nations from the yoke
-imposed on them, had redeemed them from sin.
-
-Paul therefore conceived Christianity to be the very opposite of
-Judaism. The one was founded on law and compulsion, the other owed
-its origin to freedom and grace. Jesus or Christianity had brought
-about the holy state foretold by the prophets. The ancient times had
-departed, and a new state of things had arisen; the old covenant
-(Testament) must yield to the new one; Abraham himself had not
-been judged as just through the Law, but through faith. Thus Paul
-sophistically explained the Scriptures. From the Law it is to be
-inferred that whosoever does not abide by it, and refuses wholly and
-entirely to comply with its precepts, stands under a curse. The great
-service which Jesus had rendered was that he had delivered all men
-from this curse, for through his means the Law had been set aside. How
-could the Judæans submit to this open desecration of the Law of Sinai
-for which their forefathers had suffered death, and for which, but a
-short time since, under Caligula, they had determined to sacrifice
-their lives? It is not to be wondered at that they rose against the
-man who despised the Law, and persecuted him. They, however, contented
-themselves with flogging Paul when he fell into their hands, but they
-left his life unharmed; five times, as he himself relates, he was
-chastised with thirty-nine strokes. Not only the Judæans but also the
-Nazarenes, or Judæan Christians, were incensed against Paul for his
-attack on the Law, and by this means dissension and schisms arose
-in the midst of young Christianity. Peter, or Kephas, who came as a
-messenger to the Judæans, taught a Christianity which differed from
-that of Paul, and that of the other Apostles who sought to make
-converts amongst the heathen; whilst Apollos from Alexandria, and a
-certain Chrestus preached another version.
-
-The Judaic Christians saw with terror the fruits of the ceremonial
-freedom preached by Paul in the communities founded by him in Corinth
-and Ephesus, where every species of vice and immorality was rife. Other
-Apostles, therefore, followed Paul, and proclaimed his teachings full
-of error and misrepresentation, and maintained that the Law of Judaism
-was binding on Christians, as it was only by this Law that the lower
-passions could be held in check. In Antioch a violent quarrel arose
-between Paul and the Judaic-Christian Apostle. Peter, who till then had
-disregarded the dietary laws and eaten at one table with the heathens,
-was censured by the leaders of the severe party of the Apostle James,
-and was now obliged to acknowledge his fault, and to speak openly
-against Paul's contempt of the Law. Paul, on the other hand, reproached
-him with hypocrisy. The influence of the severe, Law-loving Judaic
-Christians was, however, so great that all the Judæan Christians of
-Antioch gave up eating at the tables of the heathen, and their example
-was even followed by Barnabas, the disciple of Paul.
-
-Racial feelings also helped to widen the breach between the two
-parties. The Greek Christians despised the Judaic Christians in the
-same way as the Hellenes had looked down upon the Judæans. Paul sent
-out violent epistles against the adherents of the Law, and laid a
-curse on those who preached salvation in a manner differing from his
-own. These did not spare him either, and related how he had loved
-the daughter of a high priest; how, on being despised by her, he had
-in disgust written against circumcision, the Sabbath, and the Law.
-Thus, within barely thirty years after the death of its founder,
-Christianity was split into two parties, namely, a Judaic-Christian
-and a heathen-Christian sect. The Judaic Christians remained attached
-to the foundations of Judaism, compelled their converts to adhere to
-the Law, and clung to Jerusalem, where they awaited the return of
-the Messiah. The heathen Christians, on the other hand, separated
-themselves more and more from Judaism, and took up an inimical position
-towards it.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX.
-
-AGRIPPA II. AND OUTBREAK OF THE WAR.
-
-    Position of Affairs in Judæa--Roman Oppression--Character
-    of Agrippa II.--The last High Priest--The Zealots
-    and the Sicarii--Eleazar ben Dinai--Quarrel
-    with the Samaritans--Violence in Cæsarea--The
-    Procurators--Florus--Insurrection in Cæsarea--Bloodshed
-    in Jerusalem--The Peace and War Parties--The Leader of
-    the Zealots, Eleazar ben Ananias--Menahem, chief of the
-    Zealots--Massacres of Heathens and Judæans--Defeat of
-    the Romans--The Synhedrion and its President, Simon ben
-    Gamaliel--Position of the Synhedrion.
-
-    49.66 C. E.
-
-
-Whatever triumph Judaism might celebrate by the accession of
-proselytes, and bright as seemed the dawn of the day predicted by the
-prophet, when the peoples of the earth would turn their eyes to Zion,
-and towards the light issuing thence to illumine the human race, yet in
-their native land, and more especially in Jerusalem, the yoke of the
-Romans weighed heavily on the Judæans, and became daily more oppressive.
-
-The pitiable state of existing affairs crushed down all joyful feelings
-as to the prospective dominion of Judaism. A veil of sadness had for
-the last twenty years been spread over the nation, and no joyful
-feelings could exist beneath it. The last decades exhibit the nation as
-a captive who, continually tormented and goaded on by his jailer, tugs
-at his fetters, with the strength of despair, until he wrenches them
-asunder. The bloody contest between Rome, strong in arms and fertile
-in stratagem, and Judæa, poor in outward means of warfare and powerful
-only through indomitable will, inspires the deepest interest because,
-in spite of the disproportion between the combatants, the weak
-daughter of Zion would probably have gained the victory had she not
-been torn by conflicting parties and surrounded by treachery. Perhaps,
-had she awaited a more favorable moment, success might have been hers;
-but Providence had decreed the destruction of her national life.
-
-This great combat, to which few struggles in the history of the world
-are comparable, was waged not merely for liberty, like the wars in
-which the Gauls, Germans, and Britons were engaged against Rome, but
-had likewise a religious character. The Judæan people were daily
-wounded in their religious sentiments by the arbitrary rule of Rome,
-and desired to gain their independence in order to acquire and maintain
-the free exercise of their religion. Such being their aim, the frequent
-reverses they sustained could not abate the ardent longing they felt to
-be free; on the contrary, it rose with each fresh disaster, and in the
-most trivial circumstances they saw and resented an attack upon their
-most sacred convictions. It was seldom, indeed, that Rome outraged
-the religious feelings of the Judæans as she had done under Caligula;
-on the contrary, she rather indulged their susceptibilities, but she
-often wounded them unintentionally through her despotic and jealous
-supervision.
-
-The higher classes, poisoned by the seductive arts of Rome, had become
-deaf to the voice of duty, and the wise and vigilant among the nation
-feared, with reason, that the whole body would be infused with the
-moral prostration of its highest members. The aristocratic families
-were, indeed, so deeply steeped in immorality that the middle classes
-could hardly escape its contaminating influence. The bad example was
-set by the last members of the house of Herod, who were educated either
-in Rome itself or in the small courts of the princely Roman vassals.
-Agrippa II (born 27, died 91-93), son of the last noble Judæan king
-Agrippa I, a mere stripling of seventeen years at the time of his
-father's death, drank in the poisoned air of the Roman court, where
-the Messalinas and Agrippinas openly displayed the most hideous vices.
-After the demise of Herod II, the Emperor Claudius gave Agrippa the
-tiny kingdom of Chalcis (about 50). It was whispered that this last
-scion of the Hasmonæan and Herodian houses led an incestuous life with
-his beautiful sister Berenice, who was a year younger than himself, and
-a widow on the death of her husband, Herod II. There was probably some
-truth in the rumor, as Agrippa found himself forced to silence it. He
-betrothed his sister to Polemon, king of Cilicia, who, perhaps allured
-by her wealth even more than by her beauty, adopted Judaism to obtain
-her hand. But impelled by her inconstant humor, Berenice soon left
-Polemon, and was free again to indulge in her licentious intrigues.
-
-Agrippa's second sister, Mariamne II (born 34), married to a native
-of Palestine, Julius Archelaus, dissolved that union, though she had
-borne him a daughter, and became the wife of the Judæan Demetrius
-of Alexandria, probably the son of the Alabarch Alexander, and in
-that case the brother of the apostate Tiberius Alexander. Still more
-depraved was his youngest sister, the beautiful Drusilla (born 38). Her
-father had promised her, when still a child, to the prince Epiphanes,
-the son of his friend Antiochus of Commagene, but only upon condition
-of his becoming a convert to Judaism. After Agrippa's death, however,
-Epiphanes refused to accept Judaism, and the young Agrippa gave his
-sister Drusilla to Aziz, king of Emesa, who declared himself willing
-to embrace her faith. Heedless, however, of conjugal duty, Drusilla
-soon abandoned her husband, married a Roman, the Governor Felix, and
-for his sake gave up her faith and became a pagan. The envy with which
-Berenice inspired Drusilla was supposed to have been the motive of
-the infidelity of the younger sister both to her husband and to her
-religion.
-
-Although Agrippa was only prince of Chalcis, he was looked upon as
-the king of Judæa. Rome certainly had not deprived him of the royal
-title, but had divested him of all power, and made use of him only as
-a pliant tool and as a guard upon the movements of the surrounding
-nations. Agrippa was devoted to the imperial house, styling himself the
-emperor's friend. He displayed weakness and impotency when it behooved
-him to put bounds to the usurpations, insolence, and arrogance of Rome,
-and only showed his strength when he opposed the struggles of his
-people to regain their freedom and liberty. The whole house of Agrippa,
-including his most distant connections, Antipas and the two brothers
-Costobar and Saul, were all immoral, rapacious, and hostile to their
-own people. The only authority which Claudius, or rather his council,
-had left in the hands of the titular king, and which was ratified by
-his successors, was that which he was allowed to exercise over the
-Temple, and which enabled him to appoint the high priest. It was not
-religious zeal or moral worth that swayed Agrippa in the choice of the
-high priest, but simply the sentiments felt by the candidate for that
-office towards Rome. He who carried servility and the surrender of
-national aspirations furthest gained the prize. In barely twenty years
-Agrippa had named at least seven high priests. Among that number was
-Ananias (son of Eleazar?), whose enormous wealth, either acquired or
-inherited, allowed him to ingratiate himself with all who were open to
-bribery, and set him free to practise acts of lawlessness and violence.
-Since the time when Herod had lowered the dignity of the high priest's
-office by permitting it to be sold or gained by pandering to most
-degraded sentiments, there were certain families who seemed to have
-acquired a right to it--those of Boëthus, Cantheras, Phabi, Camith, and
-Anan or Seth, and it was but seldom that any one was elected outside
-that circle. The members of these families vied with each other in
-dishonorable conduct and frivolous thoughtlessness. Often their fierce
-jealousy broke out in acts of violence, and the streets of Jerusalem
-occasionally were the scenes of bloody skirmishes between the followers
-of those hostile rival houses. Each succeeding high priest tried to
-gain as much as possible out of his office, giving--heedless of the
-worth or fitness of the recipient--the most lucrative places in the
-Temple to his relatives and friends. So reckless were the high priests
-in the use, or rather abuse, of their power, that they would send their
-slaves, armed with clubs, to the barns to seize for themselves the
-tithes which every one was legally free to give to whichever priest he
-might select. Those priests who had not the good fortune to be related
-to the high priest were thus deprived of the means of subsistence,
-and fell into stringent poverty. Avarice and greed of power were the
-mainsprings of the actions of those who were elected to represent the
-highest ideal of morality; the Temple was despoiled by its dignitaries
-even before the enemy forced his way into it with his weapons of murder.
-
-From this time, according to tradition, the visible signs of divine
-mercy ceased to appear in the Temple. Like some cankerous affection,
-this demoralization of princes and high priests extended ever more
-and more to the classes closest to them, producing evils which are
-depicted in dark colors by the pen of a contemporary. Since the penal
-laws were administered in the name of the emperor, and were placed
-under the control of the governors, the judiciary became dependent
-upon the Romans and the wealthy and influential classes. Selfishness,
-bribery, calumny, and cowardice, according to the painter of the
-manners and morality of that period, were ever increasing. "They throw
-off," he bitterly exclaims, "the yoke of heaven, and place themselves
-under the yoke of men; their judgments are false and their actions
-perverse. The vain and thoughtless are made great, while the nobler
-citizens are despised." Frivolity in the women and licentiousness in
-the men were so completely the order of the day that the most eminent
-teacher of morality of that time, Jochanan ben Zaccai, found himself
-obliged to abolish the ritual hitherto used in cases of suspicion of
-adultery. With deep sorrow, the nobler-minded Judæans lamented a state
-of things in which outward forms of worship stood higher than morality,
-and the defiling of the Temple caused more scandal and wrath than an
-act of murder. In the lower classes, crime of another but of a not
-less alarming nature appeared. The frequent insurrections which had
-been stimulated and fomented by the Zealots since Rome had arrogantly
-treated Judæa like a conquered province, had given rise to bands of
-free troops, which roved wildly about the country, confounding liberty
-with licentiousness, and trampling upon both customs and laws. They
-crowded the caves and hollows which abound in the rocky mountains of
-Judæa, and from those retreats made frequent irruptions to gratify
-their love of unbridled liberty. Some bands of Zealots, led by Eleazar
-ben Dinai and Alexander, were incited by feelings of patriotism to
-deeds of cruelty. They had sworn destruction and death to the Romans,
-and they included among the latter all those who consorted with them;
-they would not recognize them as Judæans, and deemed it no crime
-to plunder and destroy them. The degenerate friends of Rome were,
-according to their views, and the oaths they had taken, mere outlaws,
-and the Zealots kept their oath only too well. They attacked the nobles
-as often as they fell in their way, ravaged their possessions and did
-them as much harm as lay in their power. If there was any wrong to be
-avenged upon the enemy of their country, they were the first to lend
-their sword in defense of their outraged nationality.
-
-Another band of Zealots, grown wild and savage, forgot the original aim
-of liberating their country, and turned their attacks upon the foes of
-the latter into profit for themselves. They were called Sicarii, from
-the short dagger "sica," which they wore concealed under their cloaks,
-and with which, either openly or insidiously, they struck and killed
-their enemies. The Sicarii belonged to the very refuse of the Zealots.
-Later they acknowledged the grandsons of Judas of Galilee, Menahem and
-Eleazar ben Jair, as their leaders, but at the commencement of this
-epoch they were under no discipline whatever. They wandered about the
-country without any defined object, lending their assistance to those
-who either offered them a reward or an opportunity for satisfying their
-thirst for revenge. Armed with daggers, they wandered among the various
-groups that thronged the colonnade of the Temple during the festivals,
-and unperceived, struck down those they had marked out as their
-victims. These murders were committed with such extraordinary rapidity
-and skill, that for a long time the assassins remained undiscovered,
-but all the greater were the dread and horror excited by those dark,
-mysterious deeds. Murders became so frequent that Jochanan ben Zaccai
-and the teachers of the Law found it necessary to abrogate the
-sin-offering for the shedding of innocent blood, as too many animals
-would have been slaughtered for the human victims. It may have been
-about this time that the Great Synhedrion, which witnessed with intense
-grief the constant increase of lawlessness and immorality, gave up its
-functions and transferred its place of meeting from the Hewn-stone Hall
-to the Commercial Hall in Bethany, an act which seemed to imply its
-dissolution.
-
-To stem, if possible, the confusion and disorder which existed,
-the noblest citizens combined, and keeping aloof from conflicts
-and strifes, sought to further by all means in their power the
-spiritual advancement of Judaism. To keep the Law intact was their
-self-imposed, sacred task. In Jochanan ben Zaccai they found a fitting
-representative. He was considered, next to the president of the
-Synhedrion, Simon ben Gamaliel (and perhaps even before him), as the
-greatest teacher of that time. On account of his deep knowledge of the
-Law and of the worth and dignity of his character, Jochanan ben Zaccai
-was made vice-president of the Synhedrion. That position gave him the
-power to cancel such laws as could not be enforced in that stormy
-period. His chief office, however, was that of teacher. In the cool
-shade cast by the Temple walls, he sat, encircled by his disciples, to
-whom he delivered the laws that were to be observed, and expounded the
-Scriptures.
-
-Besides the spirit of anarchy there was another source of discord
-and misery. As the existing situation became more and more sad and
-hopeless, the longing in the hearts of faithful believers for the
-expected deliverer who was to bring peace to Judæa became more and more
-intense. Messianic hopes were rifer among the people now than they
-had been even during the time of the first Roman governors; and these
-hopes stirred up enthusiasts who proclaimed themselves to be prophets
-and Messiahs, and who inspired belief and obtained followers. Freedom
-from the yoke of Rome was the one great aim of all these enthusiasts.
-What the disciples of Judas attempted to bring about by force of arms,
-the disciples of Theudas hoped to accomplish without fighting, having
-recourse only to signs and miracles. A Judæan from Egypt calling
-himself a prophet, found no less than three, or according to another
-account, four thousand followers. These he summoned to the Mount of
-Olives, and there promised to overthrow the walls of Jerusalem with
-the breath of his mouth and to defeat the Roman soldiers. He was not
-the only one who, carried away by the fervor of desire, prophesied the
-approach of better times. And well may those enthusiasts have found
-acceptance among the people. A nation that had enjoyed so rich a past
-and looked forward even to a more glorious future, might allow itself
-to be lulled into forgetfulness of the dismal present by pictures of
-freedom and happiness. These visions and prophecies, harmless enough
-in themselves, derived a sad importance from the bitter and savage
-animosity with which they inspired the Roman governors. If the people,
-jealous of any interference with their religion, looked upon the
-slightest offense to it as an attack upon Judaism itself, and made
-the governors, the emperor, and the Roman state responsible for the
-delinquency, the imperial officials in Judæa were not less susceptible,
-for they treated the most trivial agitation among the people as an
-insult to the majesty of Rome and the emperor, and punished with equal
-severity the innocent and the guilty. Vain was the favor shown to
-the Judæan nation by the emperors Claudius and Nero--the procurator
-constantly over-stepped the limit of his authority, and urged on by
-greed and the love of power, acted the part of tyrant. Judæa had the
-misfortune to be almost always governed by depraved creatures, who
-owed their position to the reckless favorites who ruled at court.
-They rivaled one another in acts of wickedness and cruelty, thus ever
-increasing the discontent and provoking the wrath of the people.
-Cumanus, who succeeded Tiberius Alexander (about 48-52), was the first
-of five such avaricious and bloodthirsty procurators. He governed
-only the provinces of Judæa and Samaria, Claudius having bestowed
-the command of the province of Galilee on Felix, the brother of his
-favorite, Pallas. Cumanus and Felix became deadly foes.
-
-It was the governor of Judæa who first excited the resentment of the
-people. Jealous suspicion of any great concourse of people assembled
-in the Temple, a suspicion which, since the revolt at the time of the
-census, had become traditional among the Roman governors, induced
-Cumanus, at the time of the Passover, to place an armed cohort in the
-colonnade of the Temple to watch the throngs which gathered there
-during that festival. On that occasion a soldier, with the recklessness
-often exhibited by the inferior Roman troops, made an offensive gesture
-towards the sanctuary, which the people interpreted as an insult
-to their Temple. Carried away by indignation and anger, they threw
-stones at the soldiers and abused the governor. A tumult ensued, which
-threatened to become a serious sedition. Cumanus ordered fresh troops
-to advance and take possession of the fortress of Antonia, and assuming
-a menacing aspect, alarmed the people assembled round the Temple, who
-now hastened to escape from his reach. In their anxiety to get away,
-the crowds pressed fearfully through the various places of exit, and it
-is believed that more than ten or indeed twenty thousand persons were
-suffocated or trampled to death.
-
-A similar occasion might have led to a like disastrous result, had
-not Cumanus prudently complied with the wishes of the people. On the
-highway, not far from Bethoron, a band of Sicarii having fallen upon
-and robbed a servant of the emperor, Cumanus resolved that all the
-neighboring villages should suffer bitterly for the act of violence
-committed in their vicinity. One of the Roman soldiers, infuriated by
-an attack upon a fellow-countryman, got possession of a Book of the
-Law, tore it in pieces and threw the fragments into the fire. Here
-was a new cause for angry excitement and wrathful reproaches in the
-desecration of what they held most sacred. Countless bands flocked to
-Cumanus at Cæsarea, crying out against the blasphemer. Much rather,
-they exclaimed, would they suffer the worst fate themselves than see
-their Holy Scriptures profaned; and in tones of fury they called for
-the death of the guilty man. The governor yielded this time to the
-counsel of his friends, and ordered the soldier to be executed in the
-presence of those whose religious feelings he had outraged.
-
-Another occurrence took a more serious form and led to strife and
-bloodshed. Some Galilæans who were on their way to a festival at
-Jerusalem, passed through Samaria, and whilst in the town of Ginæa,
-on the southeastern end of the plain of Jezreel, they were murdered
-in a fray with the hostile Samaritans. Was this only an accidental
-mischance, or the result of the burning hatred which existed between
-the Judæans and the Samaritans? In either case the representatives
-of Galilee were justified in demanding vengeance at the hands of the
-governor upon the murderers. But Cumanus treated the affair with
-contemptuous indifference, and thus obliged the Judæans to deal with
-the matter themselves. The leaders of the Zealots, Eleazer ben Dinai
-and Alexander, incited both by the Galilæans and their governor,
-Felix, took the matter into their own hands, entered with their troops
-the province of Acrabatene, inhabited by Samaritans, and pitilessly
-destroyed and killed all within their reach. The Samaritans appealed to
-Cumanus for redress for this attack upon their province, and he gave
-them permission to take up arms, sending at the same time Roman troops
-to assist them in a fearful massacre.
-
-This proof, as they considered it, of the partisanship of the emperor's
-officials roused the anger of the inhabitants of Jerusalem to such
-a degree that, spurred on among others by Dortus, a man of some
-position, they were on the point of attacking the troops of Cumanus,
-which would doubtless have seriously increased the gravity of the
-situation, and might have hastened the final catastrophe by twenty
-years. The principal inhabitants of Jerusalem, however, alarmed at the
-possible consequences of an outbreak against the Roman arms, strove to
-prevent so dangerous an act, and, clothed in deep mourning, implored
-the irritated multitude to pause and think of the future. At their
-prayer the people laid down their arms. But neither the Judæans nor the
-Samaritans were really pacified, and still smarting under the wrongs
-mutually received, they sent deputies to the Syrian governor, Umidius
-Quadratus, accusing each other, and asking him to investigate the whole
-dispute. To effect that object, Quadratus visited Samaria; but he was
-not an impartial judge, and many of the captive Judæans were doomed
-to perish on the cross. It was only after those executions had taken
-place that he formed a tribunal of justice, and summoned both parties
-to appear before it. In the meantime, however, Felix having taken the
-part of the Galilæans against the Samaritans, such entanglements ensued
-that Quadratus would not venture to adjudicate between the disputants,
-and ordered them to send deputies to Rome to obtain the decision of the
-emperor. Among the Judæan envoys were Jonathan, the former high priest,
-and Anan, the governor of the Temple. Cumanus was also obliged to leave
-his post in order to appear at Rome and justify himself there.
-
-All the intricate court intrigues were brought into play by this trial,
-which took on a more serious aspect from the fact that the governor
-himself was one of the accused. The emperor caused a tribunal to be
-formed, but the verdict was given not by himself, but by his depraved
-wife, the notorious Agrippina, who was the paramour of Pallas, the
-brother of Felix. It had been arranged between the Judæan deputies
-and Pallas that after sentence was pronounced against Cumanus, the
-emperor should be asked to name Felix governor of Judæa in his stead.
-The verdict given in favor of the Judæans could not be considered an
-impartial one, and was not in itself a proof that the Samaritans had
-been the aggressors. Many of them were pronounced guilty and executed,
-and Cumanus was sent into banishment. At the same time, probably also
-through the intercession of the empress, a kingdom in the northeast
-of Judæa was bestowed upon Agrippa; it consisted of that part of
-the country which had once belonged to Philip's tetrarchy, Batanæa,
-Gaulanitis, Auranitis, Trachonitis, as well as Paneas and Abilene. On
-Judæa proper Rome kept a firm grasp, and would never allow a native
-prince, however much he might be under Roman influence and control, to
-exercise in that domain any regal prerogatives.
-
-Felix, whose appointment had been sought of the emperor by the former
-high priest, Jonathan, succeeded Cumanus as governor of Judæa. He
-married Drusilla, King Agrippa II's beautiful sister, who thereupon
-went over to paganism. During his long administration, Felix surpassed
-all his predecessors in arrogance and audacity. He gave himself up
-entirely to the acquisition of riches and the satisfaction of his
-appetites. He continued to exercise his evil power even after the death
-of Claudius (54). For although the young emperor, Nero, or his mother,
-Agrippina, was as favorable to the house of Herod as Claudius had been,
-and had given Agrippa four considerable towns with their surrounding
-districts as well as the important city of Tiberias near Tarichea in
-Galilee, Judæa was allowed to remain under the iron rule of its cruel
-governor. Felix pretended to attack only the seditious mutineers; but
-the fact of his consorting with the wild Sicarii showed how little
-truth there was in that assumption. Numerous, indeed, must have been
-the victims who suffered death at his hands under the plea that they
-were the enemies of Rome, for even the former high priest, Jonathan,
-at whose request the emperor had given Felix his appointment, now
-bitterly reproached him for his misdeeds. Exasperated by his boldness
-the governor caused him to be assassinated, employing the Sicarii to
-seize and murder him in the broad light of day. Ishmael II, of the
-house of Phabi, was named high priest by Agrippa in about the year 59.
-It was during his pontificate that the family of the high priest gained
-such power in the state that, aided by a strong rabble, they were able
-to compel the landowners to pay them all the tithes, thus robbing the
-lower priests of their incomes and causing many of them to perish from
-want.
-
-The arrogance with which the governors treated the nation was not
-without its baneful influence upon the conduct of the foreigners who
-dwelt in great numbers in the towns on the sea-coast. The Greeks
-and Romans that had settled in Judæa openly showed their hatred to
-their neighbors, and usurped the position of masters in the land. The
-fearful picture drawn by the great prophet seemed now on the point
-of being literally fulfilled: "The stranger in thy midst will ever
-rise higher, but thou wilt ever sink lower." The most shameless in
-their conduct towards the Judæans were the Greek Syrians who lived in
-Cæsarea--even the civil rights of the former were disputed by them. But
-the Judæans of Cæsarea, who far surpassed their heathen fellow-citizens
-in industry, wealth and courage, would not allow themselves to be
-deprived of their rights of citizenship, and fierce disputes and
-fights in the streets were consequently of almost daily occurrence. On
-one occasion, some Judæan youths having avenged with blows an insult
-they had received from a party of Syrians, and obliged the latter to
-flee, Felix took up the affair, called in some troops, which, being
-chiefly composed of Greeks and Syrians, sided heartily with their own
-countrymen. Many Judæans lost their lives, many were imprisoned, and
-the houses of the rich were plundered and destroyed. The actual point
-in dispute remained undecided, both sides being only more embittered by
-the blood that had been shed. The rival parties sent deputies to Rome,
-and Nero was called upon to pronounce judgment between them. Bribery
-gained the favor of Burrus, the secretary of the emperor, to the cause
-of the Syrians of Cæsarea. His verdict was consequently given against
-the Judæans, who were deprived of their civil rights.
-
-Festus, the successor of Felix, governed for only a short time (from 59
-to 61). During that period the unsatisfactory state of things remained
-unchanged, or, if possible, became still worse. A new enthusiast,
-proclaiming himself the Messiah, awoke the hope of the people for
-liberty and redemption, drew followers around him, and then shared
-the fate of his predecessors. The jealous spite which animated the
-different parties became more and more violent. The king, Agrippa, at
-length took up his residence in Jerusalem, in the Hasmonæan palace,
-which was just opposite the Temple. In order to overlook the courts of
-the latter he added to the height of his palace, and from the hall in
-that building, where he took his repasts, he could watch every movement
-that took place in the Temple. The Temple authorities took umbrage at
-this, and complained that Agrippa encroached upon their privileges;
-and in order to hide the Temple from his view they had a high wall
-built on its western side. This aroused the displeasure of Agrippa
-and of the governor, who wished to demolish the hardly finished wall.
-Bitter words were used on both sides; but at last prudence prevailed,
-and it was resolved that the dispute should be settled by the emperor.
-Twelve deputies, among whom were the high priest Ishmael and the
-treasurer Hilkia, were sent to represent the case at Rome. It was not
-Nero, however, but his paramour, Poppea Sabina, who gave the verdict.
-This beautiful but shameless woman had, strangely enough, a preference
-for Judaism, and as at Nero's court all state affairs were conducted
-by intrigue, the Judæan deputies profited by that happy chance and
-won their cause. The deputies brought back the imperial order that
-the jealous guard kept over the Temple should be discontinued. A few
-years later Poppea interceded again on behalf of two Judæans who had
-been condemned by Felix and sent as prisoners to Rome. In order not
-to infringe upon the laws of their religion they, like Daniel and his
-friends, refused, whilst in prison, to eat anything but fruit. But at
-the desire of Poppea, who had now become empress, Nero granted the
-self-denying captives their liberty.
-
-After the death of Festus, Nero named Albinus governor, and in
-comparison with those who preceded and those who came after him he was
-looked upon as a just ruler. Before he entered the province, Anan the
-high priest attempted to revive the half-extinct Sadducæism, and to put
-its penal code again into force; a tribunal was elected by him, and
-innocent men were condemned. The Pharisees were so dissatisfied with
-this illegal Synhedrion that they demanded of Agrippa the dismissal of
-the high priest.
-
-The new governor Albinus was met on his way by accusations against
-Anan, who it was said had infringed upon the authority of Rome by
-punishing criminals himself. His enemies were successful, and he was
-obliged to resign his office of high priest after having filled it for
-three months. Joshua ben Damnai succeeded him, but in a short time he
-had to give way to Joshua ben Gamala (63 or 64). Ben-Gamala had married
-a widow of great wealth, Martha, a daughter of the house of the high
-priest Boëthus, and it is said that she induced King Agrippa II, by the
-offer of a large bribe, to confer the office of high priest upon her
-husband. Between Joshua ben Damnai and his more fortunate successor
-there burned so fierce a hatred that their respective followers could
-not meet in the streets without insulting and even attacking each other.
-
-Joshua ben Gamala can, however, by no means be ranked among the worst
-of the high priests. The improvement in education, which began with
-him, testified to the interest he took in the useful institutions of
-the community. He established schools for boys from the age of five
-years in every town. But Ben-Gamala did not long retain his high
-office; he was obliged to resign it to Matthia ben Theophilus (65),
-the last of the twenty-eight high priests who owed their election to
-Rome and the house of Herod. Albinus the governor, who was bent upon
-the destruction of the fanatical Sicarii, embittered the people by the
-heavy taxes laid upon them, a part of which he kept for himself. Upon
-learning that a successor had been appointed, he caused those of the
-Sicarii who had been imprisoned for serious offenses to be executed,
-and those who were suffering for lighter misdeeds were, upon paying
-a fine, set at liberty. The Sicarii thus released from imprisonment
-took part afterwards in the insurrections of the people against their
-oppressors, and stained the good cause with many acts of cruelty.
-
-The last of the procurators, Gessius Florus, who also was appointed by
-Poppea, hastened by his shameless partiality, avarice, and inhumanity,
-the execution of the long-cherished plan of the malcontents to shake
-off the tyrannical yoke of Rome. Florus was one of those utterly
-profligate beings to whom nothing is sacred; who sacrifice everything
-to their greed, and disregard, without scruple, the most solemn oaths.
-What his predecessors had done with a pretense at least to some form,
-or under the shadow of secrecy, he accomplished openly in brazen-faced
-defiance of the Law. Inaccessible to pity, he had indulgence only
-for the Sicarii, who gave him a portion of their plunder. In the two
-years during which his administration lasted (64-66), many towns were
-completely sacked. The Sicarii were allowed to carry on unmolested
-their nefarious practices, the rich being obliged to purchase their
-favor as well as that of their patrons.
-
-So unbearable was this condition of the state that even a cowardly
-nation must have lost patience, and the courage of the Judæan people,
-in spite of the thousand disasters which had befallen them, of the
-heavy weight of the Roman yoke, and of the daily acts of violence of
-which they were the victims, was not yet broken. Rome at that time
-resembled a community of madmen, among whom the emperor Nero, confiding
-in the favor of the Senate and the people, perpetrated one folly after
-another, and was guilty of a succession of crimes. Thus, excepting
-through their own endeavors, there appeared no chance of deliverance
-for the Judæans. This was the opinion of the best and greatest among
-them, of all those who were not the tools of Rome, or blinded by her
-false splendor, or paralyzed by terror of her strength. The boldest
-were already thinking of rebellion. The governor, Cestius Gallus, had,
-in the meantime, been informed of the exasperation and angry feeling
-that existed among the Judæan people, and reported the state of Judæa
-at the court of Rome, failing not to make known there that the nation
-was brooding over conspiracy and revolt. But no one listened to his
-warning voice. Nero was too busy to attend to such trifles; he had to
-play the zither, to perform on the stage, to indulge in orgies, and
-to devise murders. The Empress Poppea, the friend of the Judæans, was
-dead. The creatures of the court resembled the monster Gessius Florus,
-and doubtless derided what they considered the puerile fears of Gallus.
-The latter thereupon devised a plan to bring prominently before Nero's
-court the vastness of the population of Judæa, and the imprudence of
-underrating it. It was arranged between Agrippa and the high priest
-Matthia that at the Feast of the Passover a great though peaceful
-demonstration should take place, through a peculiar manner of numbering
-the people. Circulars were sent to the community, residing both within
-and outside Judæa, bidding vast numbers appear at the coming festival.
-Crowds of worshipers, a greater concourse than had ever assembled
-before, obeyed the summons. In the spring of the year 66 they flocked
-to celebrate the Feast of Passover; from the towns and villages of
-Judæa, from Syria, even from countries bordering the Euphrates, and
-from Egypt, they streamed into Jerusalem, which could hardly contain
-the vast multitude. On their way towards the Temple, some of the
-pilgrims were crushed in the crowd, and this feast was thereafter
-called the Passover of the Crushing. The numbering of the people was
-carried on in the following way:--From each offering a kidney was taken
-for the priests, the kidneys thus appropriated being counted; and it
-was reckoned that each lamb that was eaten in company, was partaken of
-by at least ten persons. The result of these calculations proved that
-nearly three millions were at that time present in Jerusalem.
-
-Cestius Gallus had himself come to Jerusalem to conduct the
-investigation, and all appealed to him to have pity on their
-unspeakable woes, and to deliver them from their country's scourge.
-Florus, who was present, only smiled, but the governor of the city
-promised to use his influence in softening the procurator's heart
-towards them, and he acquainted Rome with the imposing concourse
-he had seen with his own eyes at Jerusalem. He was, however, much
-deceived as to the effect produced by his device of proving how great
-were the numbers of the people. Nero, at that time, had reached the
-highest point of his arrogance and pride. "Should Nero, whose triumphs
-surpassed those of Pompey, Cæsar, and Augustus, fear Judæa?" The
-account sent by Cestius Gallus of the crowds assembled at Jerusalem
-during the Feast of Passover was probably not even read by Nero, or, if
-looked at, only thrown to the winds.
-
-In Judæa, and above all in the capital, men, young and old, became
-daily more impatient to break the galling chains of Rome. Patience
-was exhausted; they awaited only the favorable moment when they could
-strike at their foe with a chance of success. A trifling incident,
-which brought to light the unparalleled insolence of Florus, fanned the
-spirit of impatience and closed the lips of prudence. Fresh causes of
-disagreement had arisen between the Judæans and the Syrians in Cæsarea;
-the former could not forget that Nero had lowered them in the eyes of
-their fellow-citizens, and the latter, elated by the preference given
-them, made the Judæans feel their degraded position. The irritation
-thus caused, stirred up the religious hatred and racial animosity which
-slumbered under the surface in both communities. A piece of ground
-belonging to a heathen in Cæsarea, which happened to be just in front
-of the synagogue, was covered by him with shops, so that only one
-narrow entrance to the sacred building remained. The hot-headed Judæan
-youths tried to interrupt the construction of these booths, and Florus,
-won over by a large sum of money, refrained from interfering; and,
-in order not to be a witness of the probable scene of contention, he
-absented himself and went to Samaria, leaving the two bitterly-opposed
-parties to the undisturbed exercise of their passionate animosity. On a
-certain Sabbath, while the Judæans were assembled in worship, a Greek
-placed a vessel in front of the synagogue and sacrificed birds upon it,
-to signify that the Judæans were descendants of outcast lepers. This
-calumny concerning the origin of their race was not taken quietly by
-the Judæan youths, who instantly armed themselves and fell upon their
-mocking foes. The fight ended in the defeat of the Judæans, all of
-whom thereupon, carrying away their holy books, betook themselves to
-the neighboring small town of Narbata, and thence sent an embassy of
-twelve men, among whom was the rich tax-gatherer Jonathan, to Florus
-in Samaria. The deputies reminded him of the sum he had received, and
-of his promise to afford them protection. But instead of listening
-to their supplications he received them harshly, and threw them into
-prison. When tidings of this new act of violence reached Jerusalem,
-the anger of the whole population was aroused, but before they had
-time to form any plan of action, Florus sent them another exasperating
-message. He desired the warden of the Temple to hand over out of the
-sacred treasury seventeen talents, which he declared were required in
-the service of the emperor. This command, the intention of which was
-plainly discerned by the inhabitants of Jerusalem, made them flock
-around the Temple as though they would shield the threatened Sanctuary.
-The timid broke forth in lamentations, and the fearless reviled the
-Roman governor, and carried a box about as though they were collecting
-alms for the indigent Florus. The latter, anticipating opportunities
-to satisfy his avarice and thirst for blood, now came himself to
-Jerusalem, and by his presence added fuel to the fire. Florus placed
-himself as judge in front of the palace of Herod, and called upon the
-high priest and the men of greatest standing to appear before him,
-demanding them to deliver into his hands those who had dared mock him.
-Trembling, they endeavored to offer excuses for what had taken place,
-and implored his mercy. But Florus heeded them not, and gave orders
-to the Roman soldiers to plunder the upper market-place, a quarter
-inhabited by the wealthy. Like very demons the wild soldiers threw
-themselves into the market and the adjoining streets, killed men, women
-and children, ransacked houses and carried off their contents. On that
-one day (16th Iyar), more than three thousand six hundred men perished.
-The prisoners, by the command of Florus, were scourged and crucified.
-In vain had the princess or queen Berenice knelt before Florus,
-imploring him to stay the work of bloodshed and destruction; he was
-deaf to her entreaties, and in fear for her own safety she was obliged
-to seek refuge and safety in her palace.
-
-Some days after, vast crowds gathered in the now half-ruined upper
-town (Zion), uttering lamentations for those who had been killed and
-pronouncing execrations upon their murderer Florus, and it was not
-without much difficulty that the heads of the people succeeded in
-silencing them. But this only increased the audacity of Florus, who
-demanded, as a proof of their present peaceable intentions, that the
-people with the nobles should go forth to meet the incoming troops
-and welcome them in a friendly spirit. The representatives of the
-Sanctuary could hardly induce the people to comply with that request,
-for the patriots rebelled against the new humiliation thus thrust
-upon them, and persuaded many to share their sentiments. At length,
-however, the high priest succeeded in persuading the people to offer
-an amicable reception to the Roman cohorts. But soon the deceitful
-intention of the governor manifested itself. The people fulfilled
-the heavy sacrifice they had with heavy hearts undertaken to perform,
-and greeted the troops with forced friendliness; but the soldiers,
-having received their instructions from Florus, looked grimly at them
-and made no response. At the first murmur of discontent caused by
-the strange manner of the Roman troops, the latter rushed upon the
-people with drawn swords, driving them before them, whilst the horses
-trampled on the fugitives. A fearful crush took place at the gates of
-the city, and the road from Bezetha was strewn with the wounded and the
-killed. When it was perceived that the soldiers were directing their
-steps towards Fort Antonia and the Temple, the designs of Florus upon
-the treasures contained in it could no longer be concealed, and the
-people hastened to the Sanctuary to protect it, if possible, from his
-sacrilegious project. They threw stones at the soldiers, barred their
-passage through the narrow entrance, demolished the colonnade which
-connected the fortress Antonia with the Temple, and thus frustrated the
-governor's hope of becoming a second Crassus. Without being aware of it
-themselves, the inhabitants of Jerusalem had by that step commenced the
-war of insurrection.
-
-Before the determined attitude of the people the courage of Florus
-forsook him. He informed the representatives of the capital that
-in order to restore peace to Jerusalem, he would quit the city and
-withdraw the greater number of the troops, leaving only a small
-garrison behind. Upon representations being made to him that the
-greater part of the army was hated by the people, on account of
-the inhumanity of which it had been guilty, he bade them choose
-those soldiers who had taken least part in the recent butchery. The
-representatives of Judæa selected the soldiers who served under
-Metilius, whose weak disposition appeared to them a pledge of
-forbearance. But hardly had Florus left Jerusalem, when the heated
-ferment resolved itself into determined action. The people were divided
-into two parties, one was the party of peace, the other the party that
-favored revolution. The latter party was composed chiefly of the young
-and strong, who shared the views and principles of the Zealots. They
-were ready to risk their lives in their endeavor to overthrow the yoke
-of pagan, tyrannical Rome, and regain their cherished liberty.
-
-The revolutionary party was not devoid of statesmanlike discretion; it
-had already formed an alliance with the princely house of Adiabene,
-which was warmly devoted to Judaism, and had likewise managed to
-interest the Parthian-Babylonian community in its cause. The advocates
-of war, bold and fearless, looked down upon their more timid brethren.
-Men of strength, filled with lofty aspirations, they swore a solemn
-oath to die rather than submit to Rome; and well did they keep that
-oath in the raging war, under the hail of the catapults, tortured
-by the rack, and in the arena of wild beasts. The soul of the
-revolutionary party in Jerusalem was Eleazar ben Ananias, who belonged
-to a high-priestly family. He was well versed in the Law, and belonged
-to the strict school of Shammai, which generally agreed with the
-Zealots.
-
-On the side of peace were the followers of Hillel, who abhorred war
-on principle; the nobles who were basking in the brilliant sunshine
-of Rome; the wealthy, whose possessions would be exposed to jeopardy
-through so great a revolution--all these, though smarting under the
-insolence of Florus, desired the continuance of the present state
-of things under the imperial power of Rome. The honest friends of
-peace, however, failed to perceive that the evil from which the Judæan
-community suffered did not depend upon any one person who might be
-accidentally in power, but upon the system of tutelage and robbery,
-and on the fundamental difference which existed between the foreign
-rulers and the people they governed. Even the best governors, those who
-truly desired to preserve order and peace, could not have prevented the
-susceptibility of the nation from being frequently wounded, nor the
-constant irritation of the people.
-
-The people, although aroused and embittered, appeared undecided, and
-paused before taking the final step, each party trying to draw the
-populace to its side. The friends of peace, whilst they strove to
-moderate the anger of the masses, endeavored likewise to justify their
-revolt against Florus before the Syrian governor, Cestius, and to
-explain that Florus was in fault for the disturbance which had broken
-out. They acquainted Cestius with everything that had occurred, and
-begged him to come to Jerusalem to see with his own eyes the misery and
-ruin caused by the acts of the last governor, and to convince himself
-of the friendly demeanor of its inhabitants. Cestius, too indolent to
-come and inquire into the matter himself, sent a deputy, Neapolitanus,
-in his stead.
-
-The leaders of the revolutionary party had, in the meantime, been so
-successful that the payment of taxes to Rome was withheld. The king,
-Agrippa, who, from motives of self-interest, was in favor of peace,
-called the people together, and attempted to open their eyes to the
-danger into which they were blindly running. Standing upon a high
-gallery opposite the Temple he spoke to the people. At his side was the
-Princess Berenice, who had interceded for the injured and downtrodden,
-to cover him with the shield of her popularity.
-
-His speech, containing every argument that reason or sophistry could
-urge against war with Rome, made at first some impression upon the
-people. A great number of them cried out that they had no ill-will
-against the Romans, but only desired to be delivered from the yoke
-of Florus. Thereupon Agrippa exhorted the assembled multitude to
-show that they were really peacefully inclined by replacing the
-broken columns they had thrown down and paying the taxes due to the
-emperor. For the moment it appeared as though their angry feelings
-were about to subside. The shattered colonnade was to be repaired,
-and in the adjoining towns and villages taxes were gathered. When
-Agrippa found what an advantage he had gained he went a step further,
-and tried to persuade the people to obey Florus as their governor
-until his successor should be appointed. But this last demand spoilt
-all. The revolutionary party again won the upper hand, and Agrippa
-was obliged to flee from Jerusalem. Those who had so often suffered
-from the cruelty and injustice of Florus, at the very mention of his
-name feared to become again his miserable dupes and the victims of
-cunning intrigue. After Agrippa's departure there was no question
-of taxes. Universal was the satisfaction at their abolition, and
-the tax-gatherers durst not confront the prevailing excitement by
-attempting to enforce their payment. The day on which it was resolved
-not to pay the taxes, the 25th Sivan (June), was henceforth to be kept
-as the anniversary of a victory. The Sicarii now also began to bestir
-themselves. They assembled under the command of Menahem, a descendant
-of Judas, the founder of the Zealots, and took the fortress of Masada;
-they put its Roman garrison to death, possessed themselves of their
-weapons, and being thus well armed, appeared on the field of battle.
-
-Eleazar, the head of the Zealots, fanned the revolutionary spirit
-of the people, and drove them on to complete rupture with Rome. He
-dissuaded the priests from receiving any presents or sacrifices from
-heathens, and so great was the power he exerted that the officiating
-priests discontinued offering the daily sacrifice for the emperor
-Nero. That was the starting-point of the revolution. Allegiance to the
-emperor was thenceforth renounced. The party of peace saw also the
-grave importance of this step and tried to retrace it. Learned teachers
-of the Law, doubtless of the school of Hillel, explained to a large
-gathering of the people that it was unlawful to shut out the offerings
-of heathens from the Temple, and aged priests declared that it was an
-ancient custom to receive such offerings. The officiating priests,
-however, remained unconvinced, and threw themselves without reserve
-into the maelstrom of revolution. From that time on, the Temple obeyed
-its chief, Eleazar, and became the hotbed of the insurrection.
-
-The advocates of peace saw with sorrow the progress made by the rival
-party, and tried to smother the flames before they could accomplish
-the work of destruction and ruin; but the means they employed to
-quench the revolutionary fire only made it burn the more fiercely.
-They sent deputies to Florus and Agrippa, earnestly entreating that a
-sufficiently large number of troops should be instantly despatched to
-Jerusalem. The former, actuated either by timidity or by the spirit of
-revenge which made him desire that the hated Judæans should become more
-and more hopelessly entangled, refused to comply with that request.
-Agrippa, on the other hand, sent 3,000 horsemen, Auranites, Batanæans,
-and wild Trachonites, under the command of Philip of Bathyrene, and
-Darius, a commander of cavalry, to help the party that wished to remain
-at peace with Rome. When these troops arrived, they found the Mount
-on which the Temple stood, as well as the lower town, already in the
-possession of the Zealots. The aristocratic quarter of the higher town
-alone remained open to them. A fierce combat took place between the
-two parties, the royal troops joining the few soldiers left of the
-Roman garrison. Fighting continued for seven days, with no decided
-results.
-
-At the time of the festival of wood-carrying (15th Ab), however, the
-situation changed. The Zealots barred the entrance of the Temple
-against any one belonging to the peace party, and gained over to their
-side the masses who had brought wood for the altar, as well as the
-Sicarii who had made their way into the Temple through the crowd.
-Strengthened by the increase of numbers, the Zealots drove away their
-opponents and became masters of the upper town. The anger of the people
-was roused against the friends of Rome, they set fire to the palaces of
-King Agrippa and Princess Berenice, devoting to the flames likewise the
-house of the rich priest Ananias, and the public archives, among which
-the bonds of debtors were kept. Some of the partisans of Rome crept in
-terror into the sewers, while others took refuge with the troops in the
-western palace of Herod. Shortly after this the Zealots attacked the
-Roman guards in the fort Antonia, overcame them after a siege of two
-days, and put them to death (17th Ab); they then stormed the palace of
-Herod, which was defended by the combined troops of Rome and Agrippa.
-After eighteen days of incessant fighting the garrison capitulated and
-the Judæan soldiers under Philip were allowed to depart unhurt. The
-Romans, too proud to sue for mercy, retreated to the three towers in
-the wall, Hippicus, Phasael, and Mariamne. The Sicarii under Menahem
-rushed into the fort after the Romans had left it, and killed all who
-had not been able to save themselves by flight (6th Elul--August).
-
-But the patriotic Zealots, the followers of Eleazar, were soon made
-aware of the injury their righteous cause must sustain from their
-fraternizing with the unrestrainable Sicarii. Puffed up by their
-victory over Agrippa's troops, Menahem and his satellites broke out
-into acts of shameful cruelty. Insulting pride now characterized
-Menahem's behavior; words of anger were exchanged between him and
-Eleazar; and as the former entered the Temple in the captured regal
-attire, the words became blows and fighting commenced. The Sicarii
-were besieged, and Menahem, who had fled to the part of the city
-called Ophla, was brought back and executed. A small number of his
-followers, under his relative Eleazar ben Jair, escaped to the fortress
-of Masada, which was occupied by their friends. After this bloody
-episode the Zealots, led by Eleazar, besieged the towers, and the
-Roman troops under the command of Metilius were at last obliged to
-sue for mercy. The Judæans deputed to treat with Metilius agreed that
-the Romans, deprived of their arms and baggage, should be allowed to
-depart unmolested. As soon, however, as the conquered soldiers were
-divested of their swords and shields, Eleazar's band fell upon them and
-destroyed them all. Metilius alone was spared, because in the fear of
-death he had promised to adopt the Judæan faith, and he was allowed to
-live an animated trophy of the victory of the Judæans over the Romans.
-The day on which Jerusalem was delivered from the Romans (17 Elul) was
-henceforth to be considered one of the festive anniversaries. That the
-aim of Eleazar and his party was noble and disinterested was shown by
-the moderation they observed after their victory. The city was in their
-hands, their rivals helpless, and yet in the annals of those times we
-can discover no trace of persecution or cruelty towards them.
-
-Thus far the insurrection had been limited to Jerusalem, for the rest
-of Judæa, although equally excited, remained quiet during the events
-that were taking place in the capital, and awaited the result. Florus
-himself had likewise remained quietly at Cæsarea, taking care, however,
-that the revolution should flow on like a stream of fire, carrying
-devastation all over the country, and even beyond its boundaries.
-When tidings of the battle between the Zealots and the Roman cohorts
-in Jerusalem reached Cæsarea, the Greeks and Syrians attacked the
-Judæans who had returned there. The carnage which ensued must have been
-fearful; more than twenty thousand Judæans were killed, and these,
-doubtless, did not succumb without, in self-defense, causing some
-other deaths. Not a single Judæan remained alive in Cæsarea. Those
-who tried to flee were captured, put into chains by the command of
-Florus, and sent as slaves to various ships. This unexampled cruelty
-exasperated the whole population of Judæa, and their hatred against the
-heathens broke out into wild frenzy. Everywhere, as though by common
-assent, bands of free troops formed themselves, attacking the heathen
-inhabitants of the country, burning, destroying, and slaying. These
-barbarous onslaughts, of course, called again for revenge from the
-heathen population of Judæa and Syria. Many towns were divided into two
-hostile parties, which savagely fought together during the day, and lay
-in ambush to injure each other at night.
-
-A horrible deed, resulting from the war of races, took place in
-the town of Bethshean, the first of a long series of acts of
-self-destruction of which we read in the account of the destruction
-of the Temple. Its heathen inhabitants had made a covenant with their
-Judæan fellow-citizens, promising to befriend them if they would assist
-in repulsing any attack of Judæan bands upon their town. The Judæans
-in Bethshean honestly fulfilled their agreement, fought vigorously
-against their brethren, and drove them away from the vicinity of the
-town. Among the combatants on that occasion, Simon ben Saul, a Judæan
-of gigantic strength and great valor, was principally distinguished.
-No sooner, however, were the heathen inhabitants delivered from their
-assailants than, under cover of the night, they fell upon the unguarded
-Judæans, and put them all, nearly thirteen thousand, to death. In that
-fearful massacre Simon and his family alone survived, the former,
-wielding his drawn sword with the energy of despair, drove terror into
-the hearts of his enemies. Full of anguish and remorse at having fought
-against his brethren, he resolved to fall only by his own hand. After
-killing his aged parents, his wife and children, he thrust his sword
-into his breast and expired at their side.
-
-The violent animosity which inflamed the Judæans and heathens in
-Cæsarea also reached Alexandria. A massacre of the Judæans, partly due
-to the anger of an apostate, took place in the Egyptian capital. The
-Alexandrian Greeks, jealous of their Judæan fellow-citizens, resolved
-to solicit the Emperor Nero to deprive them of the rights which they
-had received from Claudius, putting them on a footing of equality with
-the Greeks. To select the deputies who were to convey their wishes
-to the emperor, a large concourse assembled in the amphitheater of
-the town. A few Judæans being discovered among the crowd, they were
-fiercely attacked and insulted as spies. Three of them were dragged
-through the streets to be committed alive to the flames. Enraged at
-the savage treatment of their brethren, the Judæans armed themselves,
-seized firebrands, and threatened to burn the amphitheater where the
-Greeks were still assembled. The governor Tiberius now attempted to
-interfere in order to stay the impending civil strife, but he only
-increased the angry ferment. The Judæans hated him for being a renegade
-to his faith, and reproached him with his apostasy. Infuriated by
-their taunts, Tiberius Alexander lost all control over himself; he
-ordered his legions to repair to the Judæan quarter, and gave free
-license to the exercise of that brutality which it had cost so much
-effort to restrain. The soldiers, greedy for blood and plunder, poured
-in upon the beautiful Delta quarter of the town, killed all whom they
-found in their way, burned the houses, and filled the streets with
-blood and corpses. Fifty thousand Judæans lost their lives, and the
-man who ordered that frightful butchery was the nephew of the Judæan
-philosopher Philo!
-
-Such was the alarming proportion which the insurrectionary movement by
-Eleazar ben Ananias had assumed. The revolution had tasted blood, and
-was drawn on and on in its hurried course till it carried away even
-the indifferent, and converted almost the whole nation into Zealots.
-From day to day the number of brave and daring warriors increased. The
-expected help now came from Adiabene and Babylon. Members of the royal
-house of Adiabene, brothers and sons of the King Izates, Monobazus and
-Cenedæus, took the management of the rebellion into their own hands,
-and prepared to hold out to the last. Three heroes, who alone seemed
-more than equal to a whole army, now entered Jerusalem. They were
-Niger, from the other side of the Jordan, Silas, the Babylonian, and
-Simon Bar-Giora, the wild patriot, who, from his first entrance to the
-end of the war, brought terror to the hearts of the Romans. Cestius
-Gallus, whose duty it was as Governor of Syria to uphold the honor of
-Roman arms, and to keep the imperial supremacy intact in the country
-placed under his jurisdiction, could no longer witness the rebellion
-spreading around him without an effort to stem its progress. He called
-his legions together, and the neighboring princes voluntarily sent
-their troops to his assistance as auxiliaries. Even Agrippa contributed
-three thousand foot soldiers and two thousand horsemen to the Roman
-army, and offered himself as guide through the mountain paths and
-ravines of that dangerous country. Cestius led more than thirty
-thousand men, experienced soldiers, out of Antioch, against Judæa, and
-doubted not that in one battle he would be able to destroy the Judæan
-rebels. On his way along the sea-coast he left in every town marks of
-blood and fire.
-
-As soon as the Zealots in Jerusalem heard of the approach of the Roman
-troops they seized their arms, in spite of its being the Sabbath day.
-They were not afraid to face the Romans, nor would they allow the
-Sabbath laws to interfere with their warlike ardor. Cestius had made
-a halt at Gabaot, about a mile from Jerusalem, expecting, perhaps, a
-missive of repentant submission. But the Zealots attacked the Roman
-army with such impetuosity that they broke through their ranks, killing
-in the first onslaught more than five hundred soldiers, whilst they
-only lost three and twenty men themselves (26th Tishri--October). If
-the Roman cavalry had not come to the assistance of the foot soldiers,
-the latter would have been utterly destroyed. Loaded with rich booty,
-the victors returned to Jerusalem, singing jubilant hosannas, while
-Cestius during three days remained idle in his camp without venturing
-to advance.
-
-It was only on the fourth day that the Roman army approached the
-capital. The Zealots had abandoned the outer parts of Jerusalem, which
-could afford them no adequate shelter, and had withdrawn behind the
-strong walls of the inner town behind the Temple. The Romans thereupon
-marched in, destroyed the suburb Bezetha, then pressed on towards the
-western point, just opposite Herod's palace, where they pitched their
-camp (30th Tishri). This caused no alarm to the Zealots; they threw
-the traitors who, following the advice of Anan ben Jonathan, wished to
-open the gates to the enemy, over the walls, and prepared vigorously
-for the defense of the places they occupied. During five successive
-days the Romans stormed the walls, but were always obliged to fall back
-before the missiles of the Judæans. It was only on the sixth day that
-they succeeded in undermining a part of the northern wall in front of
-the Temple. But this advantage was not followed up by Cestius. He did
-not deem it advisable to continue the combat against heroic enthusiasts
-and embark on a lengthy campaign at that season, when the autumn
-rains would soon commence, if they had not already set in, and might
-prevent the army from receiving provisions. On that account probably he
-thought it more prudent to retrace his steps. It could hardly have been
-cowardice which inspired the resolve.
-
-As soon as the unexpected departure of the Romans became known to
-the inhabitants of Jerusalem, they followed them, attacking the rear
-and flanks of the army from the mountain crests, the Roman troops
-being obliged to keep to the beaten ways in the valleys and passes. A
-great number of Romans, among whom were many distinguished officers,
-lay slain upon the line of march. When the army reached the camp in
-Gabaot, it found itself surrounded by swarming hosts of Judæans, and
-Cestius, not considering it safe to remain there any longer, hastened
-his retreat, leaving the heaviest part of the baggage behind. In the
-narrow pass of Bethoron the Roman army fared still worse; attacked on
-all sides, it was brought into confusion and disorder, and the men
-could not defend themselves from the arrows of the enemy, which fell
-thick upon them from the vantage-ground of the mountain wall on either
-side. Wildly the Roman troops hurried on towards Bethoron, and they
-would have been almost completely destroyed in their flight had not
-approaching night saved them from further pursuit.
-
-The Judæans remained all night before Bethoron, but Cestius, leaving
-four hundred brave soldiers in the camp, marched noiselessly out
-with the whole of his army, so that at break of day, when the Judæans
-perceived what had taken place, he had already obtained a considerable
-start. The four hundred soldiers left behind succumbed to the Judæans,
-who then vainly followed the Roman army as far as Antipatris. They
-found, however, rich booty, consisting of arms and implements of war.
-These they brought back as trophies to Jerusalem, making good use of
-them later on against their enemies. The money chests of Cestius, which
-contained the supplies for the war, fell also into their hands, and
-helped to replenish the treasury at Jerusalem. In this first campaign
-against the despised Judæans the army of Cestius lost nearly six
-thousand men, both Romans and allies; and the legion which the governor
-had brought from Antioch as a picked corps to fight against Jerusalem
-had lost their eagles, a loss which was regarded by Rome as the
-greatest dishonor that could befall an army, equivalent to a shameful
-defeat.
-
-The Zealots, shouting exultant war songs, returned to Jerusalem (8th
-October), their hearts beating with the joyful hope of liberty and
-independence. The proud and happy time of the Hasmonæans seemed to
-have returned, and its glory even to be surpassed. Had not the great
-Roman army, feared by all the world, been defeated and forced to
-ignominious flight? What a change had been effected in the brief space
-of six months! Then every one trembled before the cowardly Florus and
-his few soldiers, and now the Romans had fled! Had not God helped
-them as mercifully as He had helped their forefathers? The hearts
-of the Zealots knew no fears for the future. "As we have beaten the
-two generals, Metilius and Cestius, so likewise shall we overcome
-their successors." Any one who spoke of submission to Rome or of the
-advantage of opening negotiations with her was looked upon as a
-traitor to his country and an enemy to Judaism. The advocates of peace
-had for the moment lost all influence, and the friends of Rome could
-not venture to utter aloud their real sentiments. Many of them left
-Jerusalem secretly, whilst others pretended to share the Zealots' love
-of freedom and hatred of Rome. The two Herodian brothers, Costobar and
-Saul, sought the presence of the Emperor Nero in Greece, attempting
-to excuse the insurrectionary outburst and to throw the blame of it
-upon Florus. While they were trying to vindicate the fidelity of the
-Judæan nation, the Zealots, intoxicated with their victory, had coins
-struck with the inscription--"For the deliverance of Jerusalem." Even
-the Samaritans now put aside their old feeling of animosity against the
-Judæans, and to gratify their hatred of the Romans made common cause
-with their former enemies.
-
-Stirring activity took possession of the capital, and gave it quite a
-new appearance. Everywhere weapons were being forged and implements of
-war manufactured, in preparation for any fresh assault. The walls of
-Jerusalem were strengthened to a degree that promised to set the enemy
-for a long time at defiance. The young men underwent daily military
-exercise, and their enthusiasm made up for their want of experience.
-In all parts of Judæa the warlike patriots and foes of Rome formed
-provisional committees to prepare for the great struggle which they
-felt must be approaching, and their glowing ardor was shared even by
-the Judæans who lived in foreign lands.
-
-Of the internal political arrangements introduced in Jerusalem
-after the defeat of Cestius, only slight and uncertain indications
-have come down to us. The historian friendly to Rome, who could not
-sufficiently darken the rebellion of the Judæans, was not inclined to
-record any of their acts. There can be no doubt, however, that the
-Great Synhedrion again acquired its former supreme authority over all
-political and military affairs. At the head of the great council was
-Simon ben Gamaliel, of the House of Hillel, one who, even according
-to the account of his enemy, must have been gifted with remarkable
-discernment and energy, and who might, had his advice been followed,
-have brought the impending struggle to a successful issue. Although he
-did not belong to the party of extreme Zealots, he desired the contest
-to be carried on with the most resolute activity, and upheld, with all
-the strength given him by his eminence and position, those who were
-determined that the revolution should be real and its effects lasting.
-Upon coins dating from the first and second years of the newly-won
-independence, appears the following inscription, "Simon, the Prince of
-Israel," which doubtless referred to the Patriarch Simon ben Gamaliel.
-
-After the victory gained over Cestius, the heathens became more and
-more embittered against their Judæan neighbors; and either from fear of
-an onslaught from them, or actuated by revenge for the defeat of the
-Romans, they formed themselves into murderous bands, slaying without
-pity Judæan men, women and children who were living among them. Such
-cruel massacres must have incensed the patriots all the more, as they
-frequently occurred among communities innocent of the remotest idea
-of joining the rebellion, and now, as far as lay in their power, the
-Judæans took their revenge upon their heathen neighbors. The savage
-enmity of races rose higher and higher, and, spreading far beyond the
-narrow boundary of Palestine, animated the Judæans on the one side and
-the Greeks and Romans on the other. As all the nations around Judæa,
-including Syrians, Greeks, Romans and Alexandrians, made common cause
-with the Roman emperor, the ultra-Zealots thought themselves justified
-in visiting upon them the wrath that inflamed them against Rome. To
-cut off every link between them, the followers of the school of Shammai
-proposed erecting a barrier which should effectually prevent any
-communication, by prohibiting the Judæans in future from buying wine,
-oil, bread, or any other articles of food from their heathen neighbors.
-These regulations were known under the name of "The Eighteen Things."
-Religious fervor and political zealotry, in those stormy times,
-always accompanied each other. The Hillelites, more moderate in their
-religious and political views, could not agree to such sharply defined
-exclusiveness, but when the Synod was called together to decide upon
-the laws before mentioned, the Zealots proved all-powerful. Eleazar ben
-Ananias, probably the leader of the Zealots, who was himself a teacher
-of the Law, invited the disciples of both schools to meet in his house.
-Armed soldiers were placed at the door and were directed to allow every
-one to enter but no one to go out, and during the fiery discussions
-that were carried on there, many of the school of Hillel are said to
-have been killed. On account of these acts of violence, the day on
-which the severe decrees of the school of Shammai were brought forward
-and agreed to, the 9th Adar, was regarded as a day of misfortune.
-
-Meanwhile, the warlike activity of the Judæans had not ceased for a
-moment. The urgent necessity of making a selection of generals and
-leaders for the approaching strife was felt by all. The important
-choice belonged, it appears, to the people themselves, who for some
-cause or other had taken umbrage at the ultra-Zealots. Eleazar ben
-Ananias, who had given the first impulse to the great uprising, was
-only made governor of the unimportant province of Idumæa, and was even
-obliged to divide his authority with another.
-
-Eleazar ben Simon, an ultra-Zealot, who had been instrumental in
-gaining the victory over Cestius and who was the treasurer of the
-Temple, was, in spite of belonging to the class of nobles, completely
-overlooked. Moderate men, even those who had been formerly friends of
-Rome, obtained the preference. Joseph ben Gorion, and Anan the son of
-Anan, who for a short time had held the office of high priest, received
-posts of the greatest importance, the supervision of Jerusalem and the
-defense of the fortresses. Besides these, five governors were appointed
-over different provinces. To Joseph ben Matthias was entrusted the
-most important place of all. The people, still dazzled by the magic
-of aristocratic names, could not allow men of unknown origin, however
-brave and devoted they might be, to fill high political positions. The
-ruling power lay in the Great Synhedrion, and consequently in those who
-presided over that assembly, Simon ben Gamaliel and his associates Anan
-and Joseph ben Gorion.
-
-Simon was at the head of the Pharisees, and Anan, the former high
-priest, made no attempt to conceal his leaning towards Sadducæism;
-but their antagonism in religious matters did not prevent them from
-now acting together. The love of country outweighed the spirit of
-partisanship. The apparent unanimity that reigned in the Synhedrion
-was nevertheless deceptive. Great nobles, secret friends to Rome,
-had a place and voice in that assembly, and often brought indecision
-into its councils. Opposite and conflicting views resulted in halting
-measures and diminished vigor. The Synhedrion was likewise often
-swayed by the changing sentiments of the people, which always receive
-attention in the hour of revolution. Thus deprived of united strength
-and active energy, the Synhedrion ruled for barely two years, when it
-succumbed through weakness, and was obliged to give up the reins to the
-ultra-Zealots.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X.
-
-THE WAR IN GALILEE.
-
-    Description of Galilee--Its Population and Importance--The
-    Rising in Galilee--John of Gischala--Flavius Josephus,
-    his Education and Character--His Conduct as Governor of
-    Galilee--Commencement of the War--Overthrow of Gabara--Siege
-    and Capture of Jotapata--Surrender of Josephus to the
-    Romans--Cruelty of Vespasian--Siege and Capture of Gamala and
-    Mount Tabor--Surrender of Gischala--Escape of John of Gischala
-    to Jerusalem.
-
-    66.67 C. E.
-
-
-The territory entrusted for defense to Joseph ben Matthias, by reason
-of its position, its astonishing fertility, its sturdy population,
-and its various resources in time of danger, was looked upon as the
-post of greatest importance next to the capital; it was, in fact,
-the bulwark of Jerusalem. Galilee was divided into Upper and Lower
-Galilee. This, the country of enthusiasts, the birthplace of the
-Zealot Judas and of Jesus of Nazareth, did not receive the news of the
-revolt of Jerusalem and the defeat of Cestius with indifference. It
-assumed, on the contrary, with unreflecting ardor the jubilant spirit
-of the victorious party. And how could the Galilæans have remained
-indifferent? Had they not witnessed the cruel deaths of their own kin
-at the hands of the heathen? Daily they had been in the habit of giving
-shelter to unhappy Judæan exiles, and daily they had had to fear the
-worst from their heathen neighbors. It was in the face of such dangers
-that all the cities of Galilee had armed to be ready for action,
-and were only awaiting a signal from the Synhedrion in Jerusalem.
-Three cities above all others were longing to raise the standard of
-revolt--Gischala in the extreme north, Tiberias in the south, and
-Gamala, opposite Tiberias, on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee.
-The Judæan inhabitants of Gischala were, to a certain extent, forced
-into insurrection, for the neighboring cities had banded together, and,
-after plundering the town, had partly destroyed it by fire. The enraged
-Gischalites placed themselves under the leadership of a man destined to
-carry on the war against Rome to its bitter end, and who, in company
-with Simon bar-Giora, became the terror of her legions.
-
-John ben Levi, of Gischala, commenced his career by collecting
-under his flag all the rebellious Judæans of Upper Galilee, and by
-preparing to lead them against the heathen populace. He was a man of
-small means and of delicate constitution, but he possessed one of
-those enthusiastic natures capable of rising above the depressing
-influences of poverty and ill-health; besides which he had the art of
-making the circumstances of his life subservient to his own aims. At
-the commencement of the Galilæan rising, John's only ambition was to
-strengthen the walls of his birthplace against the attacks of hostile
-neighbors. Later on, he expended the considerable sums of money which
-he earned by selling oil to the Judæans of Syria and Cæsarea Philippi
-(for they would not use the unclean oil prepared by the heathens), in
-paying for the services of patriotic volunteers. He had gathered around
-him about four thousand of these, principally Galilæans, but partly
-refugees from Syria, who were always increasing in number.
-
-In Tiberias, the second focus of insurrection, the revolutionary
-party were confronted by a faction with Roman proclivities. This
-beautiful city by the sea had been in the possession of King Agrippa
-for many years, and having enjoyed a tolerably easy condition under
-his rule, had but little cause for complaint. But the greater part of
-the populace were Zealots, clamorous to free themselves from their
-monarch. The soul of the revolt was Justus, the son of Pistus, who
-wrote the history of the war in which he was engaged, in the Greek
-language. He was gifted with a persuasive tongue; but his great
-influence was confined to the wealthy and refined inhabitants of the
-city. Jesus ben Sapphia, a Zealot like himself, led the lower classes
-of sailors and burden-carriers. Opposed to these insurgents was the
-aristocratic party, which rallied loyally round the king and the Roman
-army. They were represented by Julius Capellus, Herod ben Miar, Herod
-ben Gamala, and Kompse bar Kompse, but they had no following amongst
-the people, and were obliged to become the unwilling spectators of the
-surrender of their city to the revolutionists.
-
-The news of the defeat of Cestius was the signal for Justis and Jesus
-ben Sapphia to commence operations against the heathen cities where
-their co-religionists had been so barbarously massacred. The city of
-Gamala, one of the most important on the southeast coast of the Sea
-of Galilee, whose impregnable position made defense easy and conquest
-difficult, was preparing for revolt.
-
-In the neighborhood of Gamala lived a settlement of Judæan Babylonians,
-who, under Herod I, had migrated to Batanæa, where they had built
-several towns and the fortress of Bathyra. The Babylonians, for the
-colony was called by this name, were devoted adherents to the Herodian
-family, and Philip, a grandson of Zamaris, the first founder of the
-colony, was the leader of the royal troops who fought against the
-Zealots in Jerusalem. When, however, he had suffered defeat in that
-city, his life had been spared, for he had promised to aid the Zealots
-in their struggle against Rome. He lay concealed for a few days in
-Jerusalem, and then effected his escape to a village of his own near
-the fortress of Gamala.
-
-Varus, who temporarily was taking the place of Agrippa in Cæsarea,
-did not look favorably upon Philip, of whose influence with the king
-he was jealous. For Varus hoped in time to supersede Agrippa, and, in
-order to court popularity, resorted to the cruel device of putting many
-Judæans in Cæsarea Philippi to death. But all the while he dreaded the
-Babylonian colony and the wrath of Philip, who most certainly would
-divulge his ambitious designs to Agrippa. Thus he tried to lure Philip
-into his presence, but, happily for himself, that general was seized
-with a severe attack of fever, which he had caught in his flight from
-Jerusalem, and which prevented him from obeying the summons of Varus.
-
-Varus succeeded, however, in tempting seventy of the most distinguished
-Judæans into his power, the greater number of whom were murdered by
-his command. At the news of this assassination, terror seized upon
-all the Babylonian Judæans who were settled in the various cities of
-Galilee. They rushed into Gamala for protection, breathing vengeance,
-not only against Varus, but against all the Syrians who had supported
-him. They were joined by Philip, who with difficulty restrained them
-from some signal act of vengeance. But even after Agrippa had dismissed
-the unscrupulous Varus from his office, the Babylonian Judæans still
-evinced great eagerness to coalesce with the enemies of Rome, and
-were therefore ordered to leave the fortress of Gamala and return to
-Batanæa. But this caused so great a tumult and division in the city
-that some of the inhabitants rose and attacked the Babylonians who were
-about to leave them, whilst others, under the leadership of a certain
-Joseph, revolted from the rule of Agrippa.
-
-It was at this moment, when the volcano of revolutionary passions was
-ever ready to burst forth in fresh eruptions, that Joseph ben Matthias
-was entrusted by the Great Synhedrion with the command of Upper and
-Lower Galilee. In those provinces the powerful city of Sepphoris alone
-remained faithful to the Romans, and in all Galilee there reigned a
-bitter feeling of enmity against Sepphoris. For the people of Tiberias
-were angered that their city should have taken only a secondary place
-in the province, in spite of Agrippa II's having chosen it for his
-capital. It was the business of the governor to promote a spirit of
-concord amongst the inhabitants of Galilee, and at the same time to win
-the Sepphorites to the popular cause. Upon the shoulders of this man
-rested a heavy responsibility. For it would naturally depend greatly
-upon him whether this revolt, which had burst into life with such
-extreme energy, would attain the end desired by the patriots, or would
-have a tragic termination. Unfortunately, Joseph was not the man who
-could successfully pilot so gigantic a scheme, but by his conduct he
-materially contributed to the fall of the Judæan nation.
-
-Joseph, the son of Matthias, better known as Flavius Josephus, was a
-native of Jerusalem (born 38, died about 95), of illustrious priestly
-descent, and related, on the female side, to the Hasmonæan house. He
-and his brother Matthias received a careful education, and were taught
-the tenets of the Law whilst very young, their father's house being
-frequented by learned rabbis. At the age of sixteen Josephus became the
-disciple of the hermit Vanus, following his master into the desert,
-living on the wild fruits of the earth and bathing daily in cold water,
-according to the habit of the Essenes. But, growing weary of this
-life, he returned, after three years, to Jerusalem, where his fine
-intellectual tastes led him to a profound study of Greek literature.
-At the age of twenty-six he had occasion to undertake a journey to
-Rome, in order to plead for two imprisoned Pharisees, in the presence
-of the Empress Poppea, and he succeeded in obtaining their freedom.
-The Empress, who entertained a friendly feeling toward the Judæans,
-loaded him with gifts. Rome itself could not fail to exercise a great
-influence upon the character of Josephus. The glitter of Nero's court,
-the busy life of the capital of the world, the immensity of all the
-imperial institutions, so dazzled him that he thought the Roman empire
-would be an eternal one and that it was specially favored by Divine
-Providence. He did not see concealed beneath the purple and the gold
-the terrible disease of which that great empire was sickening. From
-that moment Josephus became a fervent adherent of the Roman rule.
-
-Filled with enthusiastic admiration for Rome, he must upon his
-return have found the proportions of Judæa humble and dwarfed. How
-sarcastically he must have smiled at the wild gestures of the frenzied
-Zealots who dreamt of expelling the Romans from Judæa! Such an
-expectation appeared to him like the dream of a madman. With all the
-experiences that he had gathered in his travels he tried to shatter
-the revolutionary projects of the Zealots. But it was useless; the
-people determined upon war, seized their weapons, and rose to revolt.
-Josephus, alarmed for his safety, took shelter with some of his
-adherents in the Temple, whence he emerged only upon hearing that
-the more moderate Zealots, under the leadership of Eleazer, were
-placed in control of affairs. Apprehensive that his well-known Roman
-proclivities might make him an object of suspicion, he simulated a
-desire for national liberty, whilst secretly rejoicing at the prospect
-of the advance of the Roman general Cestius, who, it was thought,
-would soon put an end to this mad struggle for freedom. But the result
-disappointed all his hopes. The retreat of Cestius resembled a defeat.
-
-Why Josephus, the devoted adherent of Rome, should have been entrusted
-with the governorship of the important province of Galilee is
-inexplicable. Probably his friend, the former high priest Joshua,
-son of Gamala, whose voice carried great weight in the Synhedrion,
-may have urged his claims, and Josephus' dissimulation may have led
-those about him to look upon him as a Zealot. But, at all events, the
-heroic bearing of the insurgents and the victory that they had gained
-over the army of Cestius, cannot have failed to make upon Josephus, as
-upon other plain and matter-of-fact Judæans, a powerful impression.
-Entire separation from the empire of Rome appeared to him an impossible
-scheme; but he may have hoped that some concessions were to be extorted
-from the imperial court; that perhaps Judæa might be handed over to
-the control of Agrippa, and that he might be allowed to fill the post
-in Jerusalem. To Agrippa himself the revolt was not quite unwelcome,
-for he hoped to reap some benefit from it, and through the agency of
-Josephus he was able to act in a way which he himself could not have
-pursued as a vassal of Rome. Josephus had, in fact, been working for
-Agrippa, and, in so far, there was nothing dishonest or traitorous in
-his conduct.
-
-Two coadjutors, Joaser and Judah, were sent by the Synhedrion to assist
-Josephus. They were both learned in the Law, and were described by
-him, now as pure and clean-handed, and again as open to bribery. But
-they were quite unimportant and soon disappeared from the scene of
-action. At first Josephus seems to have been anxious to promote the
-revolutionary ardor of the Galilæans. He called a kind of Synhedrion
-together, consisting of seventy men of repute, after the fashion of
-the great council in Tiberias. He appointed seven judges in each city,
-and officers of the law in different parts of Galilee. He raised an
-army of a hundred thousand men, armed and drilled them according to the
-Roman system, and inculcated order and discipline amongst his soldiers,
-qualities indispensable to a nation of warriors, but less important to
-a people enthusiastic for liberty. He even created a corps of cavalry
-and supported them from his own means. He surrounded himself with a
-body-guard of five hundred mercenaries, who were disciplined to obey a
-sign from their master. He began to fortify a number of cities in Upper
-and Lower Galilee; and stored them with provisions. Thus he seriously
-contemplated the defense of his province against Rome. Upon his arrival
-in Galilee, either inspired by the Synhedrion or impelled by his own
-ardor, Josephus carried his religious zeal to the extent of ordering
-the destruction of the palace inhabited by his ancestor Herod during
-the time of Augustus, where images of animals were worshiped in direct
-defiance of the Law. In order to carry out this design he invited the
-most distinguished men of Tiberias to meet him at Bethmaon, but during
-their discussion Jesus ben Sapphia set fire to the palace and divided
-the spoil amongst his followers. This displeased Josephus, who hastened
-into the town of Tiberias, and gathering up what remained of the
-plunder, handed it over into the custody of King Agrippa's officers.
-
-Peculiarly repugnant to Josephus was John of Gischala; his untiring
-energy and intellectual superiority were enough to awaken the jealousy
-of the former, although Josephus, as the representative of the
-Synhedrion, assumed the higher position of the two. He took pains to
-place obstacles in the way of the patriot. Thus John was at first not
-permitted to carry off and sell the large quantity of corn stored by
-the Romans in Upper Galilee, the sale of which was to have enabled
-him to complete the fortification of his own city. Joaser and Judah
-finally extorted from Josephus the requisite authorization. It was
-on this occasion that John of Gischala was made painfully aware of
-the duplicity of the governor, which for the future he determined to
-baffle. Certain youths of a village called Dabaritta, near Mount
-Tabor, had waylaid and plundered the wife of one of the king's
-agents who was traveling through the land, and they brought the
-precious metals and rich garments which they had taken from her to
-Josephus, then at Tarichea. Out of too great a regard for the king,
-Josephus undertook to return this booty to him, at the same time
-falsely pretending that he had sent it to Jerusalem for the national
-treasury. The inhabitants of the neighboring villages, roused to angry
-displeasure at the news of Josephus' treachery, assembled at Tarichea
-in crowds. They were led by Jesus ben Sapphia, who came with the holy
-Book of the Law in his hand, charging the people, if not for their
-own sakes, at least for the honor of their sacred writings, to punish
-the traitor. Josephus' house was surrounded at daybreak by a furious
-throng, who would have burnt it down over his head had he not saved
-himself by one of his ingenious falsehoods. He rent his clothes, poured
-ashes upon his head, hung a sword round his neck, and appeared as a
-suppliant in the arena of Tarichea. As soon as he could gain a hearing
-he made the Taricheans believe that he was not keeping the spoil,
-either for the use of Agrippa or for the advantage of Jerusalem, but
-that it was to enable him to fortify the walls of their own city.
-The credulous Taricheans, who readily believed this explanation, now
-declared themselves in favor of Josephus, and turned their weapons upon
-the discontented strangers. The governor meanwhile, under cover of
-the tumult, crept back to his own house, where, however, he was soon
-roused by some hundreds of the infuriated crowd (not Taricheans), who
-were utterly intractable, and were bent upon the destruction of his
-dwelling-place. Nothing daunted, Josephus appeared upon the roof, and
-begged of the ringleaders to enter and give him some reason for their
-conduct. The men allowed themselves to be tempted within the doors,
-whereupon they were instantly seized, cruelly scourged, maimed, and
-then cast out to their followers, who, thinking Josephus must have some
-hidden force of men concealed within, departed in consternation. From
-that moment all hope of a manly defense of Galilee had to be abandoned.
-Josephus was like a demon of discord, to whose lot had fallen the
-task of promoting a spirit of harmony amongst the people. Galilee
-was divided into two parties, the one composed of the more moderate
-inhabitants of that province, who were the adherents of the governor,
-the other numbering the fiery patriots, who could no longer doubt his
-duplicity, and had selected John as their leader. The two leaders hated
-each other cordially, but equaled each other in craft and dissimulation.
-
-When John became aware that the greater number of the Galilæans were
-under the impression that Josephus was a truthful and reliable man,
-and were supporting him with all their might, he sent his brother
-Simon, with a hundred chosen followers, to the Synhedrion at Jerusalem,
-there to lodge a complaint against the governor, begging of the Great
-Council to recall him from his post. The President of the Synhedrion,
-Simon ben Gamaliel, who was a friend of John, and who entirely
-discredited the sincerity of Josephus, as well as Anan, the former high
-priest, supported this charge, and decreed that four envoys be sent
-to Galilee, with orders that Josephus lay down his office, and that
-they be invested with the power of bringing him, alive or dead, to
-Jerusalem. The larger communities of Tiberias, Sepphoris, and Gabara
-were instructed by the Synhedrion to afford no protection to Josephus,
-who was an enemy to his country, but to support John of Gischala in his
-stead.
-
-Once more Josephus was in great peril. But, as usual, he saved himself
-by his own ready wit and crafty policy. On the one hand, he would not
-give up the post which had become dear to him; and, on the other,
-he did not wish to disobey the orders of the Synhedrion. As soon as
-the decrees of the Great Council were made known to him, through
-his father, who was living in Jerusalem, he took his precautionary
-measures. He pretended to be in active preparation for a revolt from
-Rome, and perplexed the envoys by the evasive replies he gave them,
-assuring them, with a resigned air, when they ordered him to depart
-instantly for Jerusalem, that he was more than ready to lay down his
-office. But all the while he was inciting the Galilæans to hatred of
-the envoys, who, in traveling from one town to another, found that they
-were not furthering their mission, but that, on the contrary, they
-were often in danger of being roughly handled by Josephus' friends.
-Weary of this useless journeying, the envoys, on the advice of John of
-Gischala, sent secret messengers throughout Galilee, declaring Josephus
-outlawed. A traitor revealed this resolution to the governor. With an
-energy deserving of a better cause, Josephus sent his troops to guard
-the passes leading from the Galilæan towns to Jerusalem, and had the
-messengers seized and brought into his presence. He then summoned all
-his devoted followers (who came streaming from all the small towns and
-villages of Galilee) to appear armed before him, and told them he was
-the victim of a fiendish plot. This was enough to lash them into a
-frenzy of rage, and they would have torn the envoys to pieces had not
-Josephus, with wonderfully assumed generosity, quieted their wrath.
-He then sent for some of the most simple-minded and credulous men of
-his province whom he easily persuaded into going to Jerusalem, there
-to extol his government, to entreat of the Synhedrion to leave their
-beloved governor at his post, and to recall the hated envoys.
-
-Meanwhile, these latter, finding they could achieve nothing in Upper
-Galilee, withdrew from that part of the province and appeared in
-Tiberias. But Josephus was there before them, ready to frustrate
-all their plans. In their extreme vexation and perplexity, they had
-commanded the people to keep a day of fasting and humiliation, when
-prayer was to be offered up for Divine help, without which no earthly
-weapons were of avail. The people answered to this call by assembling
-in great numbers in the arena of Tiberias, a place capable of holding
-many thousands. Although every one was supposed to be unarmed, Josephus
-and his soldiers managed to conceal weapons under their cloaks. Prayers
-for Divine help were followed by angry discussions; at last, words gave
-place to action, and Josephus' followers, drawing their arms, rushed
-frantically upon his enemies. The populace sided with Josephus, who was
-once more saved from deadly peril. Meanwhile, the Galilæan messengers
-who had been sent to Jerusalem produced so favorable an impression for
-Josephus in that city, that the envoys were recalled, and the governor
-reinstated in his official post. Josephus revenged himself upon his
-enemies by sending the envoys back to Jerusalem in chains, thus
-treating the Synhedrion with contempt.
-
-But whilst he was bringing civil war upon Galilee, contempt upon
-the Synhedrion, disunion amongst the patriots, whilst he was urging
-the important city of Tiberias to rebellion, the Galilæan capital,
-Sepphoris, with its Roman proclivities, had ample time to make
-overtures to the Empire. Josephus must bear the eternal opprobrium
-of having unmanned and broken the one strong bulwark of Judæa, the
-vigorous and warlike Galilee, and this he accomplished through
-indecision, egotism, want of tact, and above all, his extraordinary
-duplicity. He certainly did strengthen some of the fortresses, or
-rather he did not prevent their garrisons from doing so, but when the
-Romans appeared in the land they found neither an army nor a nation
-to oppose them. Every fortress had to depend upon its own resources.
-The Galilæans, without confidence in their leader, and exhausted by
-constant strife, were becoming self-seeking if not cowardly.
-
-It would indeed be difficult for us to believe the numerous instances
-recorded of craft and duplicity on the part of Josephus, had he not
-dwelt upon them himself with unexampled shamelessness. All that had
-been gained during the four months' rebellion in Jerusalem was lost
-during the five fatal months of his governorship of Galilee (from Nov.,
-66, to March, 67), and this was before the enemy had even threatened
-to appear, for the Romans during that time had been inactive in Judæa.
-The Emperor Nero was courting popular favor in Greece, by appearing in
-the arena as singer, player, and charioteer. Whilst engaged in these
-engrossing pursuits, there came upon him like a thunderbolt the news
-of the rising in Judæa and the defeat of the Roman army under Cestius.
-Nero trembled, for the revolution in Judæa might be the precursor of
-grave events. The emperor was then apprised of the death of his general
-Cestius, and none could tell whether he had met with a natural death,
-or had died heartbroken at his defeat.
-
-Nero selected as his successor Flavius Vespasian, who had won his
-laurels fighting against the Britons, and who was known to be one of
-the ablest generals of his time. But so great was the alarm felt at
-the Judæan rebellion and its possible consequences, that Licinius
-Mucianus was chosen as special governor of Syria, and ordered to quell
-all dangerous symptoms of disaffection that might appear among the
-Parthians. Vespasian was not in the emperor's favor at that time, and
-Nero would far rather have given some other general his post; but the
-emperor had no choice, for the ability of Vespasian was unquestionable,
-and Judæa required a strong hand. Vespasian started from Greece in
-the winter season, and commenced his preparations for the campaign
-in Ptolemais. His son Titus, who first won renown in fighting against
-the Judæans, brought two legions from Alexandria, the fifth and
-tenth, those wild Decumani whose cruelty, already experienced by the
-Alexandrian Judæans, was now for the first time to be felt by their
-Palestinean brethren. Vespasian was met in Ptolemais by all who wished
-to express their feelings of friendliness towards the Romans; amongst
-others came Agrippa with his sister Berenice. Agrippa had been accused
-by the Tyrians of being in secret league with the rebellious Judæans,
-and was therefore regarded with some suspicion by Vespasian; but he
-came at the head of his troops as a loyal subject-prince, whilst his
-beautiful sister Berenice, still beautiful in spite of having passed
-her first youth, captivated the general's son Titus, and kept him
-enslaved for many years to come.
-
-Vespasian's army, consisting of Roman troops and mercenaries, amounted
-to more than 50,000 men, besides the countless horde that was in the
-habit of following in the wake of armies. Early in the spring the
-army was equipped, and the campaign began by the despatch of small
-bands to clear the way of Judæan scouts, on the roads leading to the
-fortified places. Vespasian, far more prudent than his predecessor
-Cestius, instead of displaying great energy, carried on the campaign
-from beginning to end with extreme caution, seeking to cut the ground,
-step by step, from under his enemies' feet. Josephus and his troops
-were slowly but surely driven back; in open battle he was often
-shamefully defeated, for his men had no confidence in his generalship,
-and his army literally melted away at the sight of the enemy. With how
-different a spirit were the followers of John of Gischala inspired! As
-soon as the hostile forces approached Jotapata, the inhabitants of that
-city offered desperate resistance, and although they could not break
-through the serried ranks of the Romans, they fought so bravely that
-they put the vanguard to flight.
-
-Vespasian determined upon effecting the subjection of Galilee before
-turning his steps towards the capital, and to accomplish this purpose
-he marched upon the fortresses in the north of that province, Gabara
-and Jotapata. The first, insufficiently fortified, was soon taken and
-burnt. The entire population of the garrison were put to the sword,
-to avenge the defeat of the Romans at Jerusalem. The unfortunate
-inhabitants of the entire district suffered a similar fate, for they
-were either cruelly butchered or sold into slavery. The war now became
-one of revenge and extermination. But Josephus remained far from the
-scene of action in his capital at Tiberias, which at his flight thither
-was filled with terror.
-
-Josephus would gladly have gone over to the enemy, but some remote
-feeling of shame prevented him from taking this unpardonable step
-at the beginning of the war. He proceeded to lay a statement of the
-condition of his unhappy province before the Synhedrion, demanded
-instruction as to his movements, whether he was to resist the enemy (in
-which case he would require reinforcements), or whether he was to enter
-into negotiations with Vespasian. The province of Galilee, although far
-more thickly populated than Judæa, counting more than three millions
-of souls, now already required military aid, so terribly had it been
-weakened by Josephus' inefficient management.
-
-Vespasian marched from Gabara to Jotapata, but his troops had to make
-their way with the greatest difficulty, for the Judæans had endeavored
-to bar the narrow passes and render the road impassable. The rock upon
-which the fortress of Jotapata was built is surrounded by steep and
-lofty hills, from which it is separated by abrupt precipices. There
-existed only one practicable entrance to the fortress, and this was on
-the north side, but it was firmly protected by a high wall bristling
-with towers. Upon this wall were gathered all possible instruments for
-repelling the enemy; great pieces of rock, slings for throwing stones,
-bows and arrows, and weapons of countless sorts. Against this one
-approach all the efforts of the Romans were directed. They confronted
-it with sixty storming machines, from which, in one uninterrupted
-volley, poured spears, stones, and slings containing ignitible matter.
-But the besieged fought with such bitterness, and with such cool
-contempt of death, that even the Romans grew weary. The Galilæans
-not only repulsed the storming parties, and often destroyed their
-machinery, but they also made successful sorties. The siege lasted more
-than forty days, when at last, through the treachery of a Galilæan, the
-fortress fell. Thus the Romans were able to surprise the besieged at
-daybreak, when they fell upon the exhausted sentinels, and then put the
-garrison to the sword. Many, however, of their devoted victims, rather
-than fall into the hands of their terrible adversaries, sought death by
-flinging themselves over the walls, or by falling on their own weapons.
-Forty thousand men lost their lives in this siege, and more than a
-thousand women and children were sold into slavery, whilst the fortress
-was razed to the ground. But Jotapata had shown her unhappy country how
-to fall with honor and glory. A few days previously Japha (Japhia) had
-been taken, its men, both old and young, slaughtered, and its women and
-children sold as slaves.
-
-Josephus had been actually within the walls of the fortress of Jotapata
-throughout the siege. He had arrived from Tiberias at the first news of
-the enemy's approach, and placed himself at the head of the garrison.
-But divining rightly enough that all resistance would eventually prove
-hopeless, he had attempted to abandon his people, and had only been
-prevented from doing this by the besieged. When the Romans entered
-the fortress, Josephus sought concealment in a huge cistern, in which
-hiding-place he found forty of his own soldiers. When their retreat
-was discovered, Josephus was called upon to give himself up to the
-Romans. This exactly coincided with his own wishes, as his person was
-to be protected; but his companions, pointing their swords against his
-breast, swore that sooner than allow him to dishonor the Judæans by
-his cowardice they would instantly take his life. Entirely at their
-mercy, he consented to their proposal that they should all die then and
-there. Each soldier swore that he would fall by the hand of one of his
-companions, and each in turn fell heroically. But Josephus broke his
-word to the dead as he had broken it to the living. He and one comrade
-being the only survivors, he succeeded, partly by persuasion and partly
-by force, in disarming his companion, and in delivering himself into
-the hands of the Romans. Vespasian treated him with extreme courtesy,
-as if he had never looked upon him as an enemy. Although he bore the
-semblance of a prisoner, he was allowed to wear a robe of honor.
-Vespasian loaded him with presents, Titus was his constant companion,
-and he was permitted to select a wife from the captive maidens.
-
-Joppa's turn to fall before the conquerors soon followed upon that
-of Japha and Jotapata, whilst the people of Tiberias, thoroughly
-discouraged by the conduct of Josephus, were not long in opening the
-gates of their city to the Romans.
-
-Thus, one year after the revolt in Jerusalem, the greater part of
-the province of Galilee, which had defended itself with all the fire
-of patriotism, with all the zeal of a free country, and with all the
-enthusiasm of its faith, was ruined, depopulated, and more thoroughly
-than ever made subject to its conquerors.
-
-It was upon this occasion that Agrippa proved that his conduct to
-the Judæans was not solely influenced by his fear of the Romans. For
-Vespasian gave him free control over them in his own province, and he
-chose to sell those unfortunate people into captivity, when he might
-either have chastised them or given them their liberty.
-
-The Galilæan Zealots were in possession of only three fortified
-places--Gamala, Mount Tabor, and Gischala--in the extreme north. Joseph
-of Gamala and Chares were the leaders of the insurgents in Gamala.
-All in vain had one of Agrippa's officers besieged the place for some
-months; the Zealots held out, until at last Vespasian with his force
-approached the fortress. The story of the siege constitutes one of
-the most heroic pages in the whole account of the war. For many days
-the besieged fought from their walls in a manner worthy of the first
-great Zealot Judas. At the end of three weeks the battering-rams of the
-Romans opened a breach in the walls, through which the enemy crept. As
-the besieged retired, their assailants followed them into a labyrinth
-of narrow streets, and found themselves suddenly attacked from the
-house-tops. The Romans tried to save themselves by clambering on some
-low-roofed houses, but these were too weak to bear their weight and
-gave way, burying the men in their ruins. The besieged then seized upon
-huge stones--their whole city, so to speak--and hurled them upon their
-enemies' heads, so that flight was impossible.
-
-This victory, falling upon the Feast of Tabernacles, was a glorious day
-for the men of Gamala; but it was dearly bought, for the corpses of
-the Romans lay upon the bodies of many Judæan warriors, who could ill
-be spared. Chares, one of their leaders, was mortally wounded. At last
-the Romans, after secretly mining one of the fortified towers, made a
-feint of attacking it; the Judæans rushed to the battlements, and were
-preparing for defense, when the walls gave way and fell with a fearful
-crash, burying the besieged, amongst whom was the sole remaining
-leader, Joseph, the son of the midwife. The siege was now practically
-over, for the Romans poured in, and slaughtered every man they met.
-Nearly five thousand died by their own hands; only two maidens were
-left out of the whole population of Gamala.
-
-Meanwhile the fortress of Mount Tabor was taken by the strategy of
-Placidus. It stood isolated on an almost perpendicular height, rising
-sixteen hundred feet from the plain of Jezreel. From its position it
-was invincible. But Placidus tempted the greater part of the garrison
-out of the fortress by feigned flight. When his pursuers were close
-upon him, his cavalry wheeled around and threw themselves upon the
-unfortunate Judæans, of whom some few fled to Jerusalem, whilst the
-weakened fortress opened her gates to the enemy.
-
-The small city of Gischala, garrisoned by very few men, under the
-leadership of John, could not possibly hold out against the Romans.
-Upon the approach of Titus, John begged for a twenty-four hours' truce
-before the capitulation of his fortress, ostensibly to preserve the
-sanctity of the Sabbath. Upon the acquiescence of the Roman general,
-he made his escape from the city, followed by many thousands of his
-people. On the morrow Gischala capitulated, her gates were thrown open,
-and her walls razed to the ground. But, indignant at the conduct of the
-Judæan leader, Titus ordered him to be hotly pursued. John succeeded,
-however, in reaching Jerusalem with a remnant of his army, whilst
-numbers of fugitives of both sexes and of every age were captured and
-massacred by the Roman soldiery. This was the last death-struggle
-of besieged Galilee. But the Romans were so thoroughly exhausted by
-those desperate encounters, and their ranks were so much thinned by
-their long warfare, that Vespasian was obliged to declare a truce to
-hostilities.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI.
-
-DESTRUCTION OF THE JUDÆAN STATE.
-
-    Galilæan Fugitives in Jerusalem--Condition of the
-    Capital--Internal Contests--The Idumæans--Eleazer ben
-    Simon, John of Gischala, and Simon Bar-Giora--Progress of
-    the War--Affairs in Rome--Vespasian created Emperor--Siege
-    of Jerusalem by Titus--Heroic Defense--Famine--Fall of the
-    Fortress Antonia--Burning of the Temple--Destruction of the
-    City--Number of the Slain.
-
-    67.70 C. E.
-
-
-Jerusalem was the rallying point of all the Galilæan fugitives.
-Thither many thousands had been brought by John of Gischala, and
-thither numbers fled from Tiberias; there, where the last stroke of
-the nation's destiny was to fall, patriotism, ambition, revenge, and
-despair were all duly represented. The Galilæan Zealots' burning
-account of their desperate resistance to the Roman arms, and of
-the massacre of the weak and defenseless by the soldiers of Titus,
-had stirred the blood of the people of Jerusalem. The despondent
-drew fresh courage, and the fearless still greater ardor from the
-words of these enthusiasts. The defenders of their country, daily
-growing in numbers, and heroic in deed as well as in word, considered
-themselves invincible. When the Zealots looked upon the fortresses
-of their capital, the last shadow of alarm melted away. The Romans,
-they declared, must have wings to take those walls and those towers,
-whose defenders were iron-hearted men. Had it not cost Rome a
-desperate struggle to conquer Galilee; what then had the strongly
-fortified capital to fear? This overwrought condition of the Judæans
-was stimulated by their ardent belief that the Messianic period, so
-long foretold by the prophets, was actually dawning, when every
-other nation of the earth would be given into the dominion of Israel.
-In spite of the loss of Galilee and of its brave defenders, coins
-were struck, bearing this inscription: "In the first or second year
-of the deliverance or freedom of Israel," and on the reverse side:
-"Simon, Prince of Israel." But the Zealots were indulging in fatal
-self-confidence, almost as dangerous to their cause as the treachery of
-Josephus and the conquest of Galilee.
-
-Never had Jerusalem been so populous, so beautiful, and so strong as at
-the moment when she was doomed to destruction; it was as if she was to
-learn the bitter lesson that outward strength and outward glory alone
-are of but little avail. Within the fortifications, the circumference
-of Jerusalem was nearly one geographical mile in extent, embracing
-the suburbs of Bethany and Bethphage, where the worshipers who came
-up thrice a year to the holy city found shelter. It is difficult to
-compute the exact population of Jerusalem. From one source we learn
-that it contained six hundred thousand souls; but then we must further
-take into account the numbers that had streamed into the city for
-protection.
-
-The Zealots had not succeeded in imparting their enthusiasm to the
-inhabitants of the country towns; many of the wealthiest and shrewdest,
-seeing no possible advantage to themselves in the continuation of the
-war, were ready to capitulate. Thus only the very young and men of no
-worldly position devoted themselves to the cause of the revolutionists.
-Every community, every family, was divided against itself, some
-clamoring for war and others demanding peace; but as the former had
-no rallying point in their own towns, they all sought kindred spirits
-in Jerusalem, and increased the number of Zealots in that city. The
-fortress of Masada alone, commanded by Eleazer ben Jair, was a
-hotbed of insurgents; it was the Jerusalem of the Sicarii, who were
-strengthened by the leadership of Simon Bar-Giora. This man, who was
-to play a leading part in the war, was remarkable for his physical
-strength, and distinguished for his reckless courage, a quality which
-did not desert him until his last breath. At the flight of the Roman
-troops under Cestius he followed amongst the very first upon the heels
-of the fugitives. He then gathered a number of free-lances about
-him, and led a wild life in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea, namely
-in Acrabattine. When the inhabitants of that district complained
-in Jerusalem that he imperiled their safety, the moderate party of
-the Zealots sent a troop against him, obliging him to take refuge
-in Masada. It was from this place that he and the Sicarii undertook
-armed expeditions into Idumæa for the purpose of cattle-lifting and
-forage-hunting. This roused the Idumæans to retaliate by opposing his
-force with a large army numbering twenty thousand men. These rival
-hosts outdid each other in patriotism, fierce courage, and recklessness.
-
-The stream of patriots daily pouring into Jerusalem fanned the
-excitement and warlike energy of the inhabitants, embittered as they
-were by Josephus' duplicity and defection. For, as long as the Judæans
-believed that he was buried under the ruins of Jotapata, his name was
-mentioned with reverence, but as soon as the tidings spread that he
-was in the Roman camp, and treated with consideration by the Roman
-generals, their feelings of pity were changed into violent hatred. The
-ultra-Zealots were filled with suspicion and distrust, and they looked
-upon all who were not in favor of extreme measures as traitors to the
-cause.
-
-Eleazer ben Simon, the leader of the Zealots, and a man of great
-penetration, nursed a special feeling of hatred against the Synhedrion,
-a body that bound him, valiant and aspiring patriot as he was, to a
-life of inaction. And who presided in the Synhedrion? Josephus' friend
-and chosen companion, Joshua ben Gamala, who had not attempted to
-depose the Governor of Galilee, even when his duplicity was clearly
-proved. And who was the treasurer? Antipas, a Herodian, a near relative
-of King Agrippa. Was it not more than likely that the Synhedrion and
-the Herodians would throw open the gates of their city at the approach
-of the Romans? This was the prevailing feeling of the Zealots, and they
-believed themselves strong enough to take the government into their own
-hands, and by desperate exertions to prosecute the war undisturbed.
-
-It was not surprising that from day to day the feeling of enmity
-between the Zealots and the more moderate Synhedrists should grow
-in intensity, for it was a war of life and death in which they were
-engaged. Matters were brought to a crisis by the Zealots falling upon
-and imprisoning those persons whose relationship to the royal house
-and whose doubtful opinions seemed to proclaim them to be secret
-conspirators. But they did not halt at this step. They degraded those
-belonging to the family of the high-priest from their position,
-and replaced them by representatives chosen from the people. They
-determined upon divesting the high-priest of his office (of late
-years the Romans had held the conferring of this dignity in their own
-hands), and raising to this exalted rank an unknown priest of the name
-of Phineas ben Samuel, of the city of Aphta. It was said of Phineas,
-probably to disparage him, that he had originally been a stone-mason
-or an agriculturist. He was brought by the Zealots with due solemnity
-from his homely surroundings, was invested with the priestly garments,
-and was materially aided by his rich friends to maintain the dignity
-of his state, whilst Matthias ben Theophilus, who had been chosen
-high-priest by Agrippa, was deposed. The Synhedrists, whose leaders
-belonged principally to the high-priesthood, and who looked upon the
-instalment of Phineas as an outrage to their sacred calling, were
-beside themselves with indignation at this step. Anan, whose audacity
-of speech and great wealth entitled him to a prominent position in
-the Synhedrion, induced the citizens of Jerusalem to rebel, and to
-attack the Zealots sword in hand, and thus the civil war commenced.
-The moderate party, who were numerically the stronger, drove their
-antagonists step by step out of every district of the city up to the
-Mount of the Temple, where they forced them to take refuge within
-the second wall of the citadel. Meanwhile, a rumor spread that Anan
-had called upon the Roman general for help. This was enough to bring
-John of Gischala with his troops to the gates of the capital. Twenty
-thousand Idumæans, men who rejoiced in an appeal to reckless and savage
-soldiery, under the leadership of John, Simon, Phineas, and Jacob,
-appeared likewise before Jerusalem, ready to wield their swords in
-favor of the Zealots who were besieged in the Temple. Anan prepared
-for the assault by barring the gates and doubling his sentinels. But
-in the ensuing night his troops were seized with a panic. A terrific
-storm of thunder, lightning, and drenching rain raged over Jerusalem.
-The Idumæans, men of bold character and hardy nature, did not flinch
-from their position, but many of the sentinels on the walls sought
-shelter from the violence of the elements and deserted their posts.
-The ever-watchful Zealots within the fortifications were thus able to
-communicate with their Idumæan allies and to effect their entrance. The
-besiegers threw themselves upon some of the unsuspecting watch, whilst
-the Zealots overpowered others. The citizens were roused to arms and
-a terrible battle ensued. The moderate party laid their weapons down
-in despair, as the Idumæans pouring into the city massacred all those
-whom they suspected of being friendly to Anan. The morning sun dawned
-upon a hideous mass of corpses, for more than 8000 dead bodies were
-found in the city.
-
-The Zealots were now the victors, and their reign of terror began.
-They committed to trial, not without some show of justice, and then
-executed, all persons suspected of having been concerned in the
-conspiracy. Anan and Joshua ben Gamala were necessarily amongst the
-victims, and the bitterness which was felt towards them was so great
-that their unburied bodies were thrown to the dogs. The Synhedrion
-naturally ceased to exist, so many of its members having been executed;
-but a new Synhedrion seems to have been called into being by the
-Zealots, no longer of aristocratic and high-priestly elements, but
-rather of a democratic order, also numbering seventy members.
-
-The Idumæans were as heartily disliked by the Zealots as they were by
-the moderate party, and many of them were courteously persuaded to
-withdraw from Jerusalem. Meanwhile the reign of terror continued, and
-amongst others fell Niger, the hero from Peræa, probably because he
-had upheld the Synhedrists. In fact, this one case corroborates the
-general rule that every revolution devours its originators. For Niger
-was one of those who had strained every nerve to support the first
-rising amongst the Judæans, and his death was a blot upon the rule of
-the Zealots. In order to check the anarchy which followed the overthrow
-of the Synhedrion, John of Gischala threw himself boldly into the
-front ranks, and was warmly supported by the Galilæan fugitives. His
-heroic bearing soon secured him the following of the most fiery of the
-Judæans, whose devotion to himself rivaled that of his own Galilæans.
-John was born to be a leader of men; for not only was he dauntless
-as a commander, but he excelled others in penetration and fertility
-of invention. This superiority naturally awakened the jealousy of
-the Zealot leaders in Jerusalem, who were not a little afraid of his
-becoming sole dictator and lawgiver.
-
-Meanwhile the Romans were remaining absolutely quiet. Vespasian was far
-too prudent to attack the lion in his lair, in spite of the repeated
-assurances of his followers that the conquest of Jerusalem would be
-an easy task. He chose to wait until the Judæans, weakened by their
-internal strife, would be entirely at his mercy. His troops, after
-spending an inactive winter (67-68), opened a new campaign in the
-spring against Peræa and many distant parts of Judæa, where thousands
-were slain in obstinate and hard fighting. Vespasian returned to
-Cæsarea at the end of this campaign, and left Jerusalem undisturbed for
-two years. He was led to this course by two different events: the fresh
-outburst of civil war in Jerusalem, the death of Nero, and the fact
-that his successor had been chosen and triumphantly installed by the
-Spanish and Gallic legions.
-
-The lawless Simon Bar-Giora, who had kindled the war in Jerusalem,
-could not rest in Masada, where the Sicarii had received him, for he
-was ambitious and eager for action. Thus he left the fortress, and
-collecting a number of slaves, to whom he held out promises of freedom
-and plunder, appeared before Jerusalem, ready to play an important part
-in the war. But the Zealots were afraid of him, and wished to make
-him powerless. They did not dare meet him in open battle, for he had
-already been their conqueror; so they waited in ambush, and made his
-wife and some of his soldiery prisoners, hoping to crush him by this
-cowardly action. But Bar-Giora was a stern-hearted warrior, and, in
-retaliation, threw himself upon the defenseless Judæans who ventured
-outside the walls to procure the necessaries of life. The Judæans,
-alarmed at this revenge, sent back his wife, while Bar-Giora was more
-determined than ever to make himself master of the capital. Day and
-night he waited and watched for some means of ingress, and at last he
-obtained what he wished through the party of the aristocrats.
-
-In spite of the loss of their most prominent men, this party had not
-really ceased to exist, but was secretly working to destroy the power
-of the Zealots. At their head stood the high-priest Matthias, the son
-of Boëthus, and others belonging to the great priestly families. They
-knew how to enlist upon their side many of the populace who were unable
-to leave the city, and who were afraid of the consequences of the civil
-war. In league with the Idumæans, they suddenly made a well-directed
-attack upon the Zealots, over whom they gained a signal, but only a
-momentary advantage, for, recovering themselves from this defeat, the
-Zealots assembled upon the Mount of the Temple, and prepared to show a
-bold front to their opponents. The latter, much discomfited, appealed
-to Bar-Giora for assistance, and thus a fatal division was brought
-within the very walls of Jerusalem.
-
-With the entry of this commander, civil war began in its most terrible
-form. Bar-Giora commanded his followers to surround the Mount of the
-Temple, where the Zealots lay entrenched. From the galleries and from
-the roofs the besieged were able not only to defend themselves, but
-also to repulse their assailants. In spite of his impatience, Bar-Giora
-was obliged to withdraw and to take up a safer position in the town.
-
-Vespasian, who was informed of all these movements, quietly bided his
-time, convinced that the losing side would sooner or later demand his
-help, and that then victory would be easy. He felt indisposed, through
-various circumstances, to undertake a long and difficult siege, but
-was inclined rather to keep his hands free for the final struggle.
-Nero had ended his shameful life with a shameful death (68), and Galba,
-who succeeded him as emperor, held the reins of power with an aged
-and trembling grasp. Old and childless, he had to think of choosing
-a successor. At this critical time, when every day was pregnant with
-some important event, Vespasian did not think it prudent to devote
-himself to the siege of Jerusalem. He adopted a waiting, watchful
-policy, and sent his son Titus with King Agrippa to Rome to receive
-the new emperor, and, as people said, to be adopted by him as heir
-to his vast empire. But when Titus heard, upon arriving in Corinth,
-that Galba had been murdered (5 Jan., 69), and that two emperors had
-been elected by the legions in his stead--Otho in Rome, and Vitellius
-in Lower Germany, he hurried back to Judæa, not only buoyed up by
-the secret hopes of seeing his father created emperor in the general
-confusion which was pending, but also attracted by a powerful magnet,
-the beautiful Princess Berenice, who, in spite of living according to
-orthodox Judæan custom, did not hesitate to carry on an intrigue with
-the heathen Titus. Otho could retain possession of the purple only for
-one hundred days, at the end of which time he found himself forced
-to fight against Vitellius, whom the German legions had borne upon
-their shields, by way of teaching the Spanish legions that they were
-fittest to choose and instal an emperor. They also wished to make it
-evident that the emperor need not owe his election only to Rome and the
-Prætorian Guard, but should be the choice also of the legions in the
-provinces. Vitellius' army gained the victory, and Otho, after brave
-resistance, fell by his own hand. Meanwhile Vespasian was dreaming of
-the moment when he should drape himself in the stained imperial mantle,
-but he hesitated before putting his scheme into execution. He wished
-to be driven to it. Partly, he feared Licinius Mucianus, governor of
-Syria, who commanded more legions than he did, and with whom he was not
-on very friendly terms. But Vespasian's son Titus, who made no secret
-of his ambition, won over Mucianus to urge his father into allowing
-himself to be proclaimed emperor. It was also absolutely essential to
-obtain the support of Tiberius Alexander, the son of the Alabarch and
-the governor of that most important province--Egypt. This move in the
-great game was due to the hand of a woman. The Princess Berenice was a
-friend of the Egyptian governor, and she was furthering the imperial
-election as an affair of the heart. Titus' love for her was so openly
-avowed that all her court were convinced that he had promised her
-marriage. It was therefore not unnatural that she should employ all the
-means suggested by her imagination, and made possible by her personal
-charms, to attain this end. The most important step was to gain
-Tiberius Alexander's support for Vespasian, and in this she succeeded
-admirably. The governor of Egypt responded to her appeal by making his
-legions swear fealty to him whom they now called emperor. A few days
-later the legions stationed in Judæa, and the Syrian troops under the
-command of Mucianus, also tendered their allegiance to Vespasian. The
-possession of the coveted purple was enough to make Vespasian for the
-time being forgetful of the conquest of Judæa. Accompanied by his son
-Titus, he repaired to Egypt, where they received the news of Vitellius'
-death (Dec., 69), an event which had drawn forth but the contemptuous
-scorn of his people.
-
-And how did Jerusalem spend the two years of peace that Vespasian
-granted her? There were originally four distinct factions in the
-city, without counting the more moderate. These were the Jerusalem
-Zealots under Eleazer ben Simon and Simon ben Ezron, consisting only
-of two thousand four hundred members, the Galilæan Zealots under
-John, numbering six thousand armed men, the Simonists and Sicarii
-outnumbering the rest by their army of ten thousand, and the Idumæans
-under Jacob ben Sosa and Simon ben Kathla, a troop of five thousand
-men. These twenty-four thousand heroic patriots might have put their
-valor to some account in one decisive battle could they but have acted
-in harmony. But not one of their leaders was capable of sacrificing
-his own ambition to the general good. The followers of Eleazer claimed
-precedence on the grounds of their being natives of Jerusalem and of
-having thus given the first impulse to the movement. John insisted upon
-his superiority on account of his quickness of perception and readiness
-in action, and Simon felt revengeful towards the Zealots, who had
-dared quell his disorder. Members of the four different factions were
-perpetually meeting and fighting in the streets, giving the enemy both
-the time and the opportunity to devastate the surrounding country; for
-it was almost certain that no one faction would dare oppose the Romans,
-and equally certain that the four factions would not combine in arms
-against them.
-
-Titus, the new heir to the imperial throne, at last made his appearance
-before Jerusalem (February, 70), fully expecting that he would be
-able to force the city into submission; for it was almost a reproach
-to the Romans that this rebellious capital should have maintained
-her independence for four years. The prestige of the new imperial
-house seemed in some measure to depend upon the fall of Jerusalem; a
-protracted siege would necessarily imply weakness in the military power
-of Vespasian and his son.
-
-Although Titus was eagerly looking forward to the subjection of Judæa,
-he could not complete his preparations for the siege of Jerusalem
-before the spring. He collected an army of not less than eighty
-thousand men, who came, bringing with them the largest number of
-battering machines that had been used in the warfare of that time.
-Three traitors amongst the Judæans were most useful to him in his
-laborious undertakings--King Agrippa, who not only brought a contingent
-of men, but who also tried to influence the inhabitants of Jerusalem in
-favor of the Romans; Tiberius Alexander, who sealed his apostasy from
-Judaism by going into battle against his own nation; and Josephus, the
-constant companion of Titus, who, from being a prisoner, had become a
-guide in the country which he knew so well. Titus was not experienced
-enough in the art of war, and so bade the Judæan apostate stand by
-his side, and gave him the command of his own body-guard (Præfectus
-prætorio). But the hostile factions had drawn together when this new
-danger threatened them. Shortly before the Passover festival numbers
-of devoted men streamed into Jerusalem to defend their holy city. The
-elders and chiefs had sent messengers to the people living in the
-outlying provinces, praying for help, and their request was not made in
-vain. The walls of Jerusalem were fortified more strongly than ever.
-
-At last Titus assembled his huge army from all sides and encamped
-at Scopus-Zophim, north of Jerusalem. He summoned in the first
-instance the inhabitants to surrender; he demanded only submission,
-acknowledgment of the Roman rule, and payment of the taxes. Eager as
-he was to return to Rome, where all the enjoyments belonging to his
-great position were awaiting him, he was ready to deal gently with the
-Judæans. Besides which, his devotion to a Judæan princess, who, in
-spite of her errors, still clung faithfully to the holy city, made him
-anxious to spare that city from destruction. But the Judæans refused
-all negotiation. They had sworn to defend their city with their lives,
-and would not hear of surrender. Then the siege began in earnest. All
-the gardens and groves to the north and west of Jerusalem, the first
-points of the attack, were unsparingly destroyed.
-
-Titus, anxious to reconnoitre the ground, advanced with a few followers
-to the north wall, where he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner.
-The first feat of arms upon the part of the Judæans was crowned with
-success, and seemed a good omen for the future. A few days later they
-surprised and totally discomfited the Tenth Legion, who were pitching
-their tents on the Mount of Olives. But, unfortunately, this skirmish
-proved fruitless, for the Judæans were always obliged to retreat to
-their fortresses, not, however, without having convinced the Romans
-that they would have a desperate foe to encounter. The besiegers
-succeeded in pitching their camps on three sides of the city, and
-in raising their engines against the outer wall. Titus commenced
-operations during the Passover festival (March or April, 70), when
-he believed that the Judæans would not be willing to fight. But as
-soon as the engines were in working order, they rushed like demons
-from their retreat, destroying the battering-rams, scattering the
-workmen, and bringing alarm and confusion upon the enemy. Not only the
-Zealots, but all who could carry arms took part in the defense, the
-women setting splendid examples of heroism to the men. The besieged
-threw masses of stone upon their assailants, poured boiling oil upon
-their heads, seized the ponderous missiles that were hurled into the
-city, and turned them into tools of destruction against the Romans.
-But the latter succeeded in repairing their broken battering-rams, and
-in forcing the Judæans, after fifteen days of conflict, back from the
-outer wall. This wall, the scene of a desperate struggle, was at last
-taken by the Romans, who, while making themselves masters of it, seized
-the suburban town of Bezetha.
-
-The skirmishes were now carried on daily, and with increasing
-bitterness. After seventeen days of unremitting labor, the Romans
-succeeded in raising their banks opposite the Antonine tower. But John
-of Gischala and some heroic followers of Bar-Giora, creeping through a
-subterranean passage, destroyed these works by setting fire to them.
-With the ever-increasing danger grew the heroism of the besieged. All
-Josephus' persuasive words, prompted by Titus, were useless. There were
-but two courses left open to them--victory or death. At the very outset
-of the siege they had learned what they would have to expect from the
-Romans. Titus, surnamed "Delight of all Mankind," crucified, at times,
-five hundred of his prisoners in a day. Again, he would send them back
-into the city after cutting off their hands. He was, however, forced to
-acknowledge to himself that the siege would be one of long duration.
-But the horrors of famine were soon to come to his assistance. All
-egress from and ingress into the besieged city being rigorously
-prevented, the provisions began to fail amongst the thickly-crowded
-populace. Houses and streets were filled with unburied corpses, and
-the pangs of starvation seemed to destroy all feelings of pity in
-the unfortunate survivors. The prospect--a terrible one indeed--of a
-lingering death sent numbers of deserters to the Romans, where they
-met with a pitiful fate. As the number of these unfortunate fugitives
-increased, the Zealots treated those whom they suspected of defection
-with still greater severity. A conspiracy being discovered amongst
-Bar-Giora's followers, that leader relentlessly punished the guilty
-with death. They were all beheaded in full view of the Roman camp,
-amongst them being Matthias Boëthus, of priestly family.
-
-But in spite of the watchfulness of the Zealots, they were unable to
-circumvent the traitors in all their designs. Those who were secretly
-friendly to Rome shot off on their arrow-heads written accounts
-concerning the state of the city, which fell into the enemy's camp.
-The Zealots struggled manfully to prevent the Romans from completing
-their earthworks, but at the end of twenty-one days, the battering-rams
-were again pointing at the Antonine tower. The wall surrounding the
-fortress fell at length under the tremendous blows from without.
-What was the surprise and horror of the Romans, however, when they
-discovered that a second and inner wall had been erected behind the
-one they had succeeded in destroying. They tried in vain to storm it,
-the Judæans repulsing a nocturnal attack. The battle lasted until the
-following morning. It was at about this time that the daily sacrifices
-ceased, on account of the scarcity of the animals. Titus seized this
-opportunity again to summon the besieged to surrender, but the mere
-sight of the interpreter who bore the message aroused the indignation
-of the besieged. John of Gischala replied that the holy city could not
-be destroyed, and that God held her fate in His hands. The Judæans then
-withdrew to their last point of defense, the Temple. The battering-rams
-were raised against the sacred walls. The unfortunate people were
-compelled to destroy the colonnades leading to the Antonine tower, thus
-cutting off all connection with that fortress. They spared no craft to
-tire out the Romans, even setting fire to some of the pillars attached
-to the Temple, and then pretending to take flight. This stratagem
-succeeded in making the Romans climb over the walls, beyond which the
-Judæans lay in ambush to receive them, putting them to the sword or
-casting them into the flames. But the fire could not be extinguished,
-and the beautiful colonnade of the western side was entirely destroyed.
-
-Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the city were suffering cruelly from
-famine, which was sapping their life, obliterating all distinctions
-between rich and poor, and giving free scope to the lowest passions.
-Money had lost its value, for it could not purchase bread. Men fought
-desperately in the streets over the most loathsome and disgusting food,
-a handful of straw, a piece of leather, or offal thrown to the dogs.
-The wealthy Martha, wife of the High Priest Joshua ben Gamala, whose
-wont it had been to step on carpets from her house to the Temple, was
-found searching the town like the very poorest for a morsel of food,
-of even the most revolting description. As if not one line of the old
-prophecy concerning the doom of Judæa was to remain unfulfilled, a
-terrible scene was enacted, which struck even the enemy with horror. A
-woman by the name of Miriam, who had fled from Peræa to the capital,
-actually killed and devoured her own child.
-
-The rapidly increasing number of unburied corpses made the sultry
-summer air pestilential, and the populace fell a prey to sickness,
-famine, and the sword. But the army of the besieged fought on with
-unbroken courage, they rushed to the battle-field, although fainting
-with hunger and surrounded by grim pictures of death, as bravely as had
-been their wont in the early days of the siege. The Romans were amazed
-at the unflinching heroism of the Zealots, at their devotion to the
-Sanctuary and to the cause of their people. In fact, they grew to look
-upon them as invincible, and stimulated by this belief, some few of
-their number were actually known to desert their colors and their faith
-and to accept Judaism, persuaded, in their turn, that the holy city
-could never fall into the hands of the enemy. Proud as the Judæans well
-might be of these voluntary proselytes, at this the supreme moment of
-their history, they volunteered to guard them as best they could from
-the horrors of starvation.
-
-Meanwhile, the Romans had begun to batter the outer walls of the courts
-of the Temple. For six days they had been working in vain, and had
-then tried to fix their scaling ladders and storm the walls. But as
-they were repulsed with great loss of life, Titus relinquished his
-hope of sparing the sacred edifice, and ordered his men to set fire to
-the gates. For a whole night and the next day the fire raged fiercely;
-then Titus commanded that it should be extinguished, and that a road
-should be leveled for the advance of his legions. A council of war
-was hastily summoned to decide upon the fate of the Sanctuary. This
-council consisted of six of the chief generals of the army, three of
-whom advised the destruction of the Temple, which, if spared, would
-inevitably remain as a focus for rebellion. Titus was opposed to this
-decision, partly on account of the Princess Berenice's feelings, and
-three of the council agreeing with their leader, it was decided to take
-the Temple, but not to destroy it.
-
-On the 9th Ab, the Judæans made another desperate sally, but were
-driven back by an overpowering force of the besiegers. But the hour of
-the city's doom was about to strike, and in striking, leave an echo
-that would ring through the centuries to come. The besieged attempted
-one more furious onslaught upon their enemies. They were again
-defeated, and again driven back to their sheltering walls. But this
-time they were closely followed by the Romans, one of whom, seizing a
-burning firebrand, mounted upon a comrade's shoulders, and flung his
-terrible missile through the so-called golden window of the Temple.
-The fire blazed up; it caught the wooden beams of the sanctuary, and
-rose in flames heavenwards. At this sight the bravest of the Judæans
-recoiled terror-stricken. Titus hurried to the spot with his troops,
-and shouted to the soldiers to extinguish the flames. But no one
-heeded him. The maddened soldiery plunged into the courts of the
-Temple, murdering all who came within their reach, and hurling their
-firebrands into the blazing building. Titus, unable to control his
-legions, and urged by curiosity, penetrated into the Holy of Holies.
-
-Meanwhile, the Judæans, desperate in their death agonies, closed wildly
-with their assailants. The shouts of victory, the shrieks of despair,
-the fierce hissing of the flames, making the very earth tremble and the
-air vibrate, rose in one hideous din, which echoed from the tottering
-walls of the Sanctuary to the mountain-heights of Judæa. There were
-congregated clusters of trembling people from all the country round,
-who beheld in the ascending flames the sign that the glory of their
-nation had departed forever. Many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
-unwilling to outlive their beloved Temple, cast themselves headlong
-into the burning mass. But thousands of men, women, and children, in
-spite of the fierce onslaught of the legions and the rapidly increasing
-flames, clung fondly to the inner court. For had they not been promised
-by the persuasive lips of false prophets, that God would save them by
-a miracle at the very moment of destruction? They fell but an easier
-prey to the Romans, who slew some six thousand on the spot. The Temple
-was burnt to the ground, and only a few smouldering ruins were left,
-rising like gigantic ghosts from the ashes. A few of the priests had
-escaped to the tops of the walls, where they remained without food for
-some days, until they were compelled to surrender. Titus ordered their
-instant execution, saying, "Priests must fall with their Temple." The
-conquering legions raised their standards in the midst of the ruins,
-sacrificed to their gods in the Holy Place, and saluted Titus as
-emperor. By a strange coincidence the second Temple had fallen upon
-the anniversary of the destruction of the first Temple (10th Ab, 70).
-Titus, who could no longer feel bound to respect the feelings of the
-Princess Berenice, gave orders that the Acra and the Ophla, different
-parts of the city, should be instantly set on fire.
-
-But the struggle was not yet over. The leaders of the rebellion had
-retreated to the upper city with some of their followers. There they
-conferred with Titus. John and Simon, having sworn that they would
-never lay down their arms, offered to surrender upon the condition
-that they would be permitted to pass armed through the Roman camp. But
-Titus sternly bade them throw themselves upon his mercy; and so the
-fierce strife blazed out anew. On the 20th of Ab, the Romans began to
-raise their embankments, and after eighteen days of labor the siege
-of the upper city commenced. Even then the Zealots would not think
-of surrender. Discovering that the Idumæans were secretly making
-terms with Titus, they threw some of the ringleaders into prison,
-and executed others. But the Judæan warriors were exhausted by their
-super-human resistance and by the long famine, and the Romans were at
-last able to scale the walls and to seize the fortresses, a prelude to
-their spreading through the city, plundering and murdering the last of
-the wretched inhabitants. On the 8th of Elul they set fire to all that
-remained of Jerusalem, the upper city, known by the name of Zion. The
-walls were entirely leveled, Titus leaving only the three fortresses of
-Hippicus, Mariamne, and Phasael to stand as lasting witnesses of his
-victory. Under the ruins of Jerusalem and her Temple lay buried the
-last remnant of Judæa's independence. More than a million of lives had
-been lost during the siege. Counting those who had fallen at Galilee,
-Peræa, and the provinces, it may be assumed that the Judæans who
-inhabited their native land were almost all destroyed.
-
-Once more did Zion sit weeping amongst the ruins, weeping over her sons
-fallen in battle, over her daughters sold into slavery or abandoned to
-the savage soldiery of Rome; but she was more desolate now than in the
-days of her first captivity, for hushed was the voice of the prophet,
-who once foretold the end of her widowhood and her mourning.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII.
-
-THE AFTER-THROES OF THE WAR.
-
-    Sufferings of the Prisoners--The Arena--Cruelty of
-    Titus--Enmity of the Antiochians--Triumph of the Emperor
-    on the occasion of the Conquest of Judæa--End of Simon
-    Bar-Giora and John of Gischala--Coins to Commemorate the
-    Roman Triumph--Fall of the Last Fortresses: Herodium, Masada,
-    and Machærus--Resistance of the Zealots in Alexandria
-    and Cyrene--End of the Temple of Onias--The Last of the
-    Zealots--Death of Berenice and Agrippa--Flavius Josephus and
-    his Writings.
-
-    70-73 C. E.
-
-
-It would, indeed, be difficult to describe the sufferings of those who
-were taken captive in the war, estimated at the number of nine hundred
-thousand. The surviving inhabitants of Jerusalem were driven into the
-site of the Temple, and placed under the guardianship of a certain
-Fronto and a freed slave. All those who were recognized as insurgents
-were crucified, the princes of Adiabene alone being spared and sent
-as hostages to Rome, to secure the loyalty of the king of Adiabene.
-Seventeen thousand prisoners died of hunger, many of them being
-neglected by Fronto, whilst others indignantly refused the food which
-their conquerors offered them. From amongst the youths above seventeen
-years of age, the tallest and handsomest were selected for the Roman
-triumphs, whilst others were sent to labor in the mines for the rest of
-their lives, or were relegated to the Roman provinces, to take their
-part in the fights of the arena. Youths under the age of sixteen and
-most of the female captives were sold into slavery at an incredibly low
-price, for the market was glutted. How many scenes of horror must have
-been witnessed and enacted by those unfortunate ones! They had, it is
-true, one ray of comfort left. Possibly they might be carried to some
-Roman town where a Judæan community existed; their own people would
-assuredly give any sum to purchase their freedom, and would then treat
-them with brotherly sympathy.
-
-Vespasian now declared that all Judæa was his property by conquest, and
-bade the Roman officials divide the country into lots, offering them to
-the highest bidder. And why should he not do so? Had he not fertilized
-the land with blood? Besides which, the sale would realize great
-profits, and Vespasian cared even more for gold than for honor.
-
-And what was the work of the merciful Titus after ordering the
-execution of thousands, and consigning thousands to slavery? In his
-march through Syria he was followed by the most vigorous of his
-captives in chains. When he held his court in Cæsarea, and entertained
-his friends in true Roman style, wild beasts were brought into the
-arena, and Judæan captives fought with them until they were torn to
-death; or they were forced to fight one against another, dying by
-each other's hands. Thus at Cæsarea, two thousand five hundred brave
-Judæan youths perished in this manner to celebrate the birthday of
-Domitian, the brother of the conqueror. And at Cæsarea Philippi, on
-Mount Hermon, the residence of King Agrippa, this terrible spectacle
-was renewed before the eyes of that monarch and of the Princess
-Berenice. Vespasian's birthday was honored in the same way at Berytus,
-the sand of the arena being literally soaked with Judæan blood. In
-fact, the gentleness and humanity of Titus were strangely displayed in
-all cities of Syria by a repetition of these barbarities. The Judæan
-communities in Syria, Asia Minor, Alexandria, and Rome, very nearly
-shared the fate of their brethren in Judæa. For the war had aroused the
-hatred of the entire heathen world against the unfortunate children
-of Israel--a hatred which was fanatical in its intensity, its object
-being the entire destruction of the whole race. Titus' inmost feelings
-must have coincided with those of his people. But strange to say, his
-love for Berenice, so deeply implanted in his heart, made him, upon one
-occasion, extend his mercy to her race. When he approached the city of
-Antioch, the whole populace turned out to meet him and demanded nothing
-less than the expulsion of the Judæan colony. But Titus replied that
-"The Judæans having no country left to them, it would be inhuman to
-expel them from Antioch--they had no retreat." He even refused sternly
-to cancel their existing privileges. The Alexandrian Judæans also were
-left undisturbed in their adopted city.
-
-Titus determined to celebrate his triumph over Judæa in the capital
-of the empire. For this purpose seven hundred of the flower of the
-Judæan captives and the two leaders of the Zealots, John of Gischala,
-who had surrendered to the enemy when fainting with hunger, and Simon
-Bar-Giora, were sent to Rome. At the close of the siege of Jerusalem
-the dauntless Simon had leaped, with some of his followers, into one
-of the vaults beneath the city, and provided with workmen's tools,
-had attempted to hew his way out; but coming upon a great rock he was
-prevented from accomplishing his purpose, and his slender stock of
-provisions failing him, he determined to die as became a hero. In a
-white robe, covered with a purple mantle, he suddenly appeared before
-the Roman sentinels who were reposing amongst the ruins of the Temple.
-They gazed at him with terror. He merely addressed them with the
-following words: "Take me to your general." When Rufus appeared at the
-sentinels' call, the leader of the Zealots presented himself before
-his astonished gaze, saying: "I am Simon Bar-Giora." He was instantly
-thrown into chains, and calmly awaited the fate that he knew was in
-store for him.
-
-Vespasian and his two sons, Titus and Domitian, celebrated their
-triumph over Judæa, in the imperial city of Rome. In front of the
-emperor were borne the vessels of the Temple, the seven-branched
-candlestick, the golden table, and a roll of the Law. The Romans were
-further gladdened by the pageant of a long train of Judæan captives
-heavily chained, and by the wonderful representations of all the
-horrors and misery of the war--a kind of theatrical entertainment,
-devised with much ingenuity for the occasion. Simon Bar-Giora (the
-terrible foe of the Roman legions), with a halter round his neck, was
-dragged through the streets of Rome, and finally hurled as a human
-sacrifice to the gods, from the Tarpeian rock. John of Gischala met
-with his fate in a dungeon. Tiberius Alexander, the conqueror of his
-own race, shared in the triumph, and a statue was erected in his
-honor in the Forum. Josephus was but a spectator of the scene. This
-magnificent triumph, the like of which had not been witnessed for many
-years in Rome, was a proof of the exultant joy, which passed like
-a wave over the heathen world, at the fall of Judæa, for the Roman
-legions had but rarely met with so obstinate a foe. To commemorate
-this great victory, coins were struck, upon which Judæa was variously
-represented, as a sorrowing woman under a palm tree, either standing
-with fettered hands, or seated in a despairing attitude upon the
-ground. The coins bore these inscriptions, "the Conquered" or "the
-Captive Judæa" ("Judæa devicta," "Judæa capta"). Later on, a beautiful
-arch was erected to Titus, which is still standing, and upon which the
-carved reliefs of the candlestick and vessels of the Temple are plainly
-visible. The Roman Judæans, not only at that time, but in years to
-come, would take a longer or more circuitous route, to avoid seeing
-this trophy. The rich spoils of the Sanctuary were deposited in the
-Temple of Peace, and the roll of the Law in the imperial palace; but at
-a later time, when Rome was expiating her heavy sins, these relics of
-the glory of Jerusalem were carried to other countries.
-
-Judæa was not yet entirely subjugated, for three strong fortresses were
-still in arms: Herodium, Machærus, and Masada. The governor, Bassus,
-sent by Vespasian to Judæa, was commanded to take them. Herodium
-surrendered immediately, but Machærus offered a stubborn resistance.
-This fortress, built by Alexander Jannæus, was well defended from the
-enemy by its natural position. Steep precipices and yawning ravines
-made it impregnable. But it fell--and in this way: The young commander,
-Eleazer, a valiant hero, was captured by the Romans, whilst fearlessly
-standing without the gates, proudly reliant upon the terror of his
-arms. Bassus ordered him to be scourged within view of the besieged,
-and then made semblance of having him crucified. A wail of despair went
-up from the fortress; the besieged, determined to save their beloved
-comrade, offered to give up their citadel if his life were spared.
-Bassus agreed to this proposal, and the garrison was saved; but of
-the inhabitants of the lower town, the men and youths were inhumanly
-butchered, to the number of 1700, and the women and children sold into
-slavery.
-
-Three thousand Zealots, under Judas ben Jair, who had escaped by one
-of the subterranean passages from Jerusalem, were hiding in a wood
-on the outskirts of the Jordan. There they were, however, discovered
-and surrounded by the Romans, who mercilessly destroyed them. The
-death of Bassus, taking place at this time, caused the difficult task
-of the conquest of Masada to devolve upon his successor Silva. This
-hill-fortress was, if possible, still more inaccessible than that of
-Machærus. The garrison consisted of 1000 Zealots, with their wives
-and children, commanded by Eleazer ben Jair, a descendant of Judas
-the founder of the Zealots. They were amply provided with provisions,
-water and weapons, and were, moreover, men of heroic resolve. But a
-Roman battering-ram destroyed one of the protecting walls, and a second
-wall of wooden beams, built by the besieged, was set on fire by the
-assailants. The situation was a hopeless one. Eleazer realized this,
-and determined upon persuading the garrison to die by their own hands
-rather than to fall into the power of the Romans. The heroes agreed
-to this proposal, even with enthusiasm, and on the first day of the
-great Feast of Passover, after slaying their wives and children, they
-all perished on their own swords. When the Romans entered the citadel,
-prepared for the last desperate struggle with their victims, they stood
-amazed at the ominous silence, and their shouts brought forth only two
-trembling women and five children, who came creeping out from a cavern.
-And it was thus that the last Zealots fell on Judæan ground.
-
-The Judæans who had tried to shake off the Roman yoke had, indeed,
-been severely punished. Not only the inhabitants of Judæa, but also
-the Judæan community in Rome were made answerable for the rebellion.
-The two drachmæ which they had annually given to their Sanctuary were
-now demanded for the Capitoline Jupiter. Vespasian's greed soon caused
-this tax to be swept into his private treasury; and this first tax,
-inaugurated and imposed by the emperor upon the Judæans, was called the
-Judæan fiscal tax (Fiscus Judaicus). On the other hand, those Judæans
-who had been friendly to Rome, and had given Vespasian assistance
-during the war, were richly recompensed. Berenice was received with the
-highest honors at the Imperial court. Titus' passion for this beautiful
-woman was so great that once, in a fit of jealousy, he ordered the
-strangulation of a Roman Consul, Cacina, his own table-companion. To
-flatter his vanity the Council of the Areopagus, the Six Hundred and
-the people of Athens erected a statue to Berenice, dedicated to "the
-great Queen, daughter of the great King, Julius Agrippa." He was on the
-eve of making her his wife, when an indignant outburst from the people
-of Rome forced him to let her depart. Her brother Agrippa shared her
-fall.
-
-More fortunate was Josephus, whom Vespasian and Titus could not
-sufficiently reward for his services. He accompanied the emperors
-on their triumphal processions, looked on the humiliation of his
-nation with revolting coldness, and showed undisguised delight in the
-death of her heroes. Vespasian not only granted him extensive landed
-possessions, but also placed his private palace at his disposal, and
-raised him to the citizenship of Rome. So high did he stand in the
-favor of the imperial house, that he was anxious to adopt their name,
-and is known to posterity as "Flavius Josephus." On the other hand, he
-was hated by the Judæan patriots, who exerted themselves to disturb him
-in the tranquil enjoyment of his possessions.
-
-But the war against the Zealots did not terminate with the fall of the
-last fortress. They transplanted their hatred of Rome whithersoever
-their flying feet carried them--to the provinces of the Euphrates,
-to Arabia, Egypt, and Cyrene. The Zealots who had taken refuge in
-Alexandria persuaded their co-religionists of that city to revolt
-against their rulers. Many of the Alexandrian Judæans, still smarting
-from the severe persecutions which they had suffered some years
-previously from the Romans, were ready for revolt; but this mad scheme
-was opposed by the wealthy members of the community and the Council.
-They turned indignantly upon the Zealots, delivering six hundred into
-the hands of the governor, Lupus, who executed them upon the spot.
-Others fled to Thebes, where they were pursued, seized, and put to
-the torture to make them acknowledge the emperor's authority. But
-unflinchingly they bore the most horrible agonies, men and boys vying
-with each other in steadfast adherence to their Zealot principles, and
-dying at last under torture. Vespasian, fearing that Egypt might become
-a new center of revolt, ordered the Temple of Onias to be closed,
-thus taking from the people their religious focus. The annual gifts,
-dedicated to the service of the Sanctuary, found their way, as a matter
-of course, into the imperial treasury.
-
-Some of the Zealots who had fled to the towns of Cyrenaica, now
-attempted to endanger their peace. Jonathan, one of their number,
-collected a multitude of the lower classes about him, and leading them
-into the Lybian Desert, announced some miraculous interposition. But
-here, again, the chief Judæans denounced their fanatical brethren to
-Catullus, the Roman governor, who seized them, and had many of them
-executed. Jonathan, however, evaded their pursuit for some time, and
-at last, when captured, revenged himself by accusing many of the
-wealthy Judæans of being his accomplices. He was thrown into chains
-and sent to Rome. In the imperial city he ventured to declare that
-Josephus and some of the Roman Judæans were disloyal to the emperor.
-Titus indignantly refused to believe this, and appeared to defend his
-favorite, whose innocence, together with that of his co-religionists,
-he clearly established. Jonathan was then scourged and burnt alive.
-
-Thus ended the Zealot movement which had spread with evil results among
-a large portion of the Judæan people in the Roman Empire. But the
-Zealots who had escaped to North Arabia to the vicinity of Medina were
-the most fortunate; for they succeeded in founding a community of their
-own, which lasted until the seventh century. Upon another occasion,
-they played no unimportant part.
-
-So great was the sensation produced throughout the Roman Empire by this
-long and desperate resistance of the Judæans, that several writers
-felt themselves called upon to give a detailed description of the
-war. The heathen authors were, of course, partial in their treatment
-of the subject; and, with due deference to the feelings of the Roman
-generals, underrated the heroism of the Judæans. But Josephus, who,
-in spite of his Roman proclivities, had some spark of patriotism
-left, could not brook hearing his people stigmatized as cowards; so,
-collecting all the facts of the long struggle that had come under his
-own notice, he wrote an account of the war in seven books, at first in
-the Syro-Chaldaic tongue, and afterwards in Greek (75-79). But this
-version could not turn out to be any more impartial, seeing how deeply
-his own interests had been involved. He laid his work before Titus,
-who gave him permission to offer it to the public, a clear proof that
-the Emperor was satisfied with its tendency. Justus of Tiberias had
-preceded Josephus with a history of the Judæan war, in which he accused
-that historian of hostility to Rome, of having been party to the revolt
-in Galilee, and of having invented his descent from the Hasmonæan house.
-
-When the war of the sword was at an end, the war of the pen was carried
-on by the two writers. But Justus can hardly be commended for exemplary
-conduct; for he had once led a revolt in Galilee, and had then headed
-a sally against the neighboring Greek population; after which he
-presented himself boldly before Agrippa. Berenice having obtained
-his pardon, he was taken into the king's service and most generously
-treated. But for some later offense he was imprisoned, and banished,
-then recalled, pardoned, and made the king's secretary. He was at
-length banished again for some unknown reason. Justus, having received
-a thoroughly Greek education, was able to write the history of the war
-in a more correct and elegant style than it was possible for Josephus
-to do.
-
-Jeremiah, uttering his lamentations amidst the ruins of Jerusalem,
-fitly ends the first period of Jewish history; whilst Flavius Josephus,
-writing the story of his people in the quiet of Cæsar's palace,
-concludes the second period.
-
-
-
-
-THE TALMUDIC EPOCH.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII.
-
-THE SYNHEDRION AT JABNE.
-
-    Foundation of the School at Jabne--Jochanan ben
-    Zakkai--The Last of the Herodians--Judæa and Rome--The
-    Tanaites--Gamaliel II. appointed Patriarch--The Power
-    of Excommunication--Deposition and Restoration of the
-    Patriarch--Steps towards Collecting the Mishna--Eliezer
-    ben Hyrcanus--Joshua ben Chananya--Akiba and his
-    System--Ishmael--Condition of the Synhedrion.
-
-    70.117 C. E.
-
-
-The disastrous result of the war which had been waged against the
-Romans during a period of four years, the destruction of the State,
-the burning of the Temple, the condemnation of the prisoners to labor
-in the lead-works of Egypt, to be sold in the slave-markets, or to
-become victims in the fights with wild beasts in the arena--all
-these calamities came with such crushing force on the remaining Jews
-that they felt utterly at a loss as to what they should do. Judæa
-was depopulated; all who had taken up arms, whether in northern or
-southern, whether in cis- or trans-Jordanic Judæa, were either dead or
-enslaved and banished. The infuriated conquerors had spared neither the
-women nor the children. The third banishment--the Roman Exile (Galut
-Edom), under Vespasian and Titus--had commenced amid greater terror
-and cruelty than the Babylonian Exile under Nebuchadnezzar. Only a
-few were spared--those who openly or secretly sided with the Romans,
-partisans of Rome, who, from the very commencement, had been devoid
-of patriotic feelings; the friends of peace, who thought that Judaism
-had a different task from that of combating the Romans by force of
-arms, thoughtful and careful men, who looked upon a contest with Rome
-as national suicide; and lastly those who, through party strife, had
-been forced to lay down their arms and to make separate terms with the
-Romans. This small remnant in the land of Judæa and the Jews of Syria,
-who had always hoped that Titus would respect the Temple (the center of
-worship and religion), were moved deeply, and thrown into despair at
-the destruction of the sanctuary protected by God. Their despair led
-to various results. Some were driven to lead an ascetic life, to deny
-themselves meat and wine; others were led thereby to join Christianity,
-seeking thus to fill the void in their hearts which was caused by the
-cessation of burnt-offerings. Judaism was threatened by the greatest
-danger; deprived, as it was, of its support and rallying-point, it
-appeared in imminent danger of stagnation or of falling to pieces. The
-communities in Syria, Babylon, and Persia, in Asia Minor, Rome, and
-in Europe generally, had until now turned their eyes to Jerusalem and
-the Temple, whence they drew their instructions and laws. The only
-independent congregation, that of Alexandria, had become helpless
-through the destruction of the Temple of Onias. What was to be the
-future of the Jewish nation, of Judaism? The Synhedrion, which had
-given laws to the entire community, and had regulated its religious
-life, had disappeared with the fall of Jerusalem. Who would step into
-the breach, and render a continued existence a possibility? There now
-appeared a man who seemed made to save the essential doctrines of
-Judaism, to restore some amount of strength to the nation, so that it
-might continue to live, and the threatened decay be averted.
-
-This man was Jochanan, the son of Zakkai. He labored, like the prophets
-during the first exile in Babylon, but by other means, to maintain
-the life of the Jewish nation; he reanimated its frozen limbs, and
-infusing fresh energy into its actions, consolidated its dispersed
-members into one whole. Jochanan, if not a disciple of Hillel, was
-yet an heir to his mind. For forty years he is said to have been a
-tradesman. In other cases, too, we shall see that the great leaders
-in Jewish history did not follow the study of the Law as a means of
-subsistence or of gain. During the existence of the State, Jochanan
-sat in the Synhedrion, or taught within the shadow of the Temple: his
-school at Jerusalem is said to have been an important one. He was the
-first man who successfully combated the Sadducees, and who knew how
-to refute their arguments. During the stormy days of the revolution,
-he, owing to his peaceful character, joined the party of peace, and on
-several occasions he urged the nation and the Zealots to surrender the
-town of Jerusalem, and to submit to the Romans. "Why do you desire to
-destroy the town, and to give up the Temple to the flames?" he would
-say to the leaders of the revolution.
-
-Notwithstanding the respect in which he was held, his well-meant
-admonitions were ignored by the Zealots. The spies whom the Roman
-general placed in the besieged city of Jerusalem, and who reported to
-him what took place, did not fail to announce that Jochanan belonged to
-the friends of Rome, and that he counseled the chiefs to make peace.
-The news from the town was conveyed on small pieces of paper, which
-were shot on arrows into the Roman camp. Induced either by fear of
-the Zealots, or by the desire of obtaining a place of safety for the
-Law, Jochanan formed the idea of taking refuge in the camp of Titus.
-To depart from the town was, however, very difficult, as the Zealots
-kept up a constant watch; Jochanan, therefore, aided by a leader of the
-Zealots, named Ben-Batiach, determined to have himself conveyed out
-of the town as a corpse. Having been placed in a coffin he was carried
-out of the city gates, at the hour of sunset, by his pupils Eleazer and
-Joshua. Titus received the fugitive in a friendly manner, and gave him
-permission to make some request of him. Jochanan modestly requested
-that he might be permitted to establish a school at Jamnia (Jabne),
-where he could give lectures to his pupils. The district in which this
-town lay belonged to the private domains of the imperial house, to
-which it had been bequeathed by the last will of Salome, the sister of
-Herod. Titus had nothing to urge against the harmless wish of Jochanan,
-for he could not foresee that by this unimportant concession he was
-enabling Judaism, feeble as it then appeared, to outlive Rome, which
-was in all its vigor, by thousands of years.
-
-Jochanan settled with his disciples in Jamnia, a city not far from the
-Mediterranean Sea, and situated between the port Joppa, and the former
-city of the Philistines, Ashdod. Jochanan was unable to settle down to
-his occupation for some space of time, during which the bitter strife
-was raging before the walls of Jerusalem, and within its streets and
-its Temple. When the news arrived that the city had fallen, and that
-the Temple was in flames, Jochanan and his disciples mourned and wailed
-as if they had lost a dear relative through death. Jochanan, however,
-unlike his followers, did not despair, for he recognized the truth
-that Judaism was not indissolubly bound up with its Temple and its
-altar. He rather consoled his mourning disciples for the loss of the
-place of expiation with the fitting remark that charity and love of
-mankind would take the place of burnt-offerings, as it is said in the
-Bible--"for I take pleasure in mercy and not in burnt-offerings." This
-liberal view of the value of burnt-offerings made it clear, however,
-that it was absolutely necessary for a fresh center to be established
-in lieu of the Temple. Jochanan therefore formed a sort of Synhedrion
-in Jabne, of which he was at once recognized as the President. The
-newly created Synhedrion was certainly not composed of seventy members,
-and no doubt had a totally different sphere of action from the one in
-Jerusalem, which during the revolution had exercised control over the
-most important political events. The Synhedrion of Jamnia in the first
-place gave to its founder plenary power in all religious matters such
-as the Council had possessed in Jerusalem, and with this were connected
-the judicial functions of a supreme court. It was only by unbounded
-authority that Jochanan could compass the formation and consolidation
-of a Synhedrion, under the unfavorable conditions of the time. Jochanan
-had to oppose the general opinion that the Synhedrion as a body should
-have control only in the hewn-stone hall of the Temple, and that
-outside this spot it lost its judicial character and ceased to be the
-representative of the nation. When, therefore, Jochanan dissociated the
-functions of the Synhedrion from the site of the Temple, and removed
-it to Jabne, he had actually released Judaism from the observance of
-the rite of burnt-offerings, and rendered it independent. Without any
-opposition whatsoever, Jabne by this means took the place of Jerusalem,
-and became the religious national center for the dispersed community.
-The important functions of the Synhedrion, by which it exercised a
-judicial and uniting power over the distant congregations, such as
-the fixing of the time for the new moon and the festivals, proceeded
-from Jabne. It enjoyed some of the religious privileges of the Holy
-City. The Synhedrion now bore the name of the Beth-Din (Court of
-Justice)--the President was called Rosh-beth-din, and was honored by
-the title of Rabban (general teacher). Jochanan gave over to the Court
-of Justice the supervision of arrangements for the calendar, which
-had formerly been one of the offices of the President. By this means
-the watchers who were looking out for the reappearance of the new moon
-needed no longer follow the President about in order to give him the
-information, but had only to attend the sittings of the assembly. This
-change was an important step, as it rendered the Synhedrion independent
-of the person of its President.
-
-Jochanan made altogether nine changes, most of which affected such
-arrangements as had been rendered valueless through the destruction
-of the Temple. He, however, retained various religious customs as a
-remembrance of the Temple. He promoted the continuance and preservation
-of Judaism through the renewal of the study of the Law, and thus
-rendered firmer the weakened foundations of Jewish communal life.
-The school at Jabne he influenced through his disciples, whom he
-imbued with his spirit and his learning. Five of his distinguished
-pupils are known to us by name, but only three of them won lasting
-renown--Eliezer, and Joshua (who had carried Jochanan in a coffin out
-of Jerusalem), and also Eleazer ben Arach. The latter was the most
-eminent and important amongst them, and of him it was said, "If weighed
-in the scale, he would outweigh all his fellow-scholars." Jochanan
-loved to incite them to independent thought by deep-reaching questions.
-Thus he gave them as a theme for thought, "What should man endeavor
-most eagerly to obtain?" The one answered "a genial manner," the other
-"a noble friend," a third "a noble neighbor," the fourth "the gift of
-knowing in advance the result of his actions." Eleazer answered that
-"man's best possession is a noble heart." This remark won the approval
-of his master; it was an answer after his own mind, for in it all else
-was included.
-
-What was the character of the teachings which Jochanan imparted to
-his pupils in the school? Hillel, the most respected of the teachers
-of the Law, the highly-honored ideal in times to come, had given to
-Judaism a special garb and form, or rather had given it the character
-of the Law, which had always been peculiar to it. He was the first to
-develop and confirm a special theory, a sort of Jewish theology or
-nomology (science of religious laws). He was the founder of Talmudic
-Judaism. From the midst of contending parties, which were tearing one
-another to pieces, Hillel had drawn the Law into the quiet precincts
-of the school-house, and had endeavored to bring into harmony those
-precepts which were apparently opposed to the Law. Those which had been
-considered as only customary and traditional were regarded as human
-laws, and were looked upon by the Sadducees as innovations. Hillel had
-shown these to be of Biblical origin. His seven explanatory rules, or
-laws of interpretation, had on the one hand confirmed the laws which
-had been introduced by the Sopheric and Pharisaic teachers, and on the
-other hand had given them new scope to develop.
-
-The written Law (that of the Pentateuch) and the oral Law (the
-Sopheric) from his time ceased to be two widely sundered branches, but
-were brought into close relations with each other, although the new
-rendering certainly did violence to the words of Scripture. But as
-the text was explained, not on a philological basis, but in order to
-elucidate the laws, it was not possible to keep simply to the written
-words; it was necessary to interpret them so as to render them suited
-to the new conditions of life. Under the term Oral Law was included
-everything which had been handed down from the Fathers, and it formed
-to a certain extent a hereditary law. The various restrictions which
-the Sopheric teachers had placed around the Law, the legal decisions
-which had been introduced by the Synhedrion, the customs which had been
-observed from generation to generation, the extensions deduced from
-meager verses of the Pentateuch, all these elements were not written
-down, but were committed to memory. They were put into the form of
-short sentences, called "Halacha." They were not arranged or classified
-according to subjects, but were strung together without connection, or
-handed down separately, sometimes joined to the name of the authority
-from whom they were derived. A marvelous memory was needed to retain
-these Halachas or oral teachings. Jochanan ben Zakkai was the man who
-best knew these laws. He handed them down to his pupils, and pointed
-out to them their connection with the written law; he showed them how
-to draw deductions therefrom, the laws handed down being the material,
-and their mode of treatment the form. These deductions were obtained
-by two methods, the one showing how the ordinances of the Law were
-to be obtained from the words of Scripture (Midrash), and the other
-served to apply the oral Law to new questions as they arose (Talmud).
-Thus a fruitful field for the extension of the Law and for ingenious
-combinations was opened, which was later on freely cultivated. Jochanan
-ben Zakkai, however, thought much more of the material of the Law than
-of its form.
-
-He taught not only those doctrines of Judaism which appertained to
-the Law, but also those portions of the Holy Scriptures which had no
-direct bearing on the Law. He gave lectures on the writings of the
-prophets and historians in the form of discourses, which had for some
-time past been in use both in and out of the synagogue. These lectures
-were either edifying, comforting, or bitter, sharp, and ironical, and
-applied the words of the prophets about Edom and Esau, to hated Rome
-and its tyranny. This kind of exposition of Scripture had a name,
-"Agada" or "Hagadah." Its chief subjects consisted in explaining
-historical events, prophetic utterances, and in bringing to mind the
-past, and treating of the future of Judaism. The Agada investigated
-the meaning of the Law, examined into the general moral truths of
-Judaism, deftly united the present with the past, and shadowed the
-present conditions of life in past experiences. The Halacha forms the
-chief trunk of the Law, the Midrash the suckling roots, which drew
-their nourishment from the words of Scripture. The Talmud formed the
-wide-spreading branches, and the Agada was the blossom which scented
-and colored the simple fabric of the laws.
-
-In his Agadic dissertations Jochanan endeavored to illuminate the
-ordinances of the Law by the light of the understanding, and to combine
-them into general truths, but in a clear and simple manner, utterly
-dissimilar from the exaggerated method of the Alexandrian-Jewish
-teachers, who endeavored to extract the dazzling light of the Grecian
-mode of thought from Holy Writ.
-
-Amongst other things, Jochanan explained very quaintly why the use of
-iron is forbidden in erecting an altar. Iron is the symbol of war and
-dissension; the altar, on the contrary, is the symbol of peace and
-atonement; therefore iron must be kept away from the altar. He deduced
-therefrom the high value of peace, the advantages of peace between
-man and wife, between one city and another, and between one nation
-and another. These were the principles which had induced him to side
-with the Romans against the revolutionaries. In this way he explained
-various laws, and rendered them comprehensible, when they seemed
-obscure or in any way extraordinary. Jochanan was wont to hold converse
-also with Pagans who had knowledge of the Jewish Law, either from the
-Greek translation or from their intercourse with the Jews, refuting
-the objections which they raised, and dispelling or making clear by
-suitable comparisons the peculiarities which occur in the Holy Writings.
-
-Besides Jochanan, who was the most influential and the chief personage
-of his time, there was a group of teachers of the Law. They were all
-at an advanced age at the period of the destruction of the State, and
-were without doubt members of the Jamnian Synhedrion. Most of them, of
-whom nothing important is recorded, are known only by name. Among these
-were Chanina, the deputy of various High Priests (_Segan ha-Cohanim_),
-who has preserved for us traditions from the time of the Temple. He
-belonged to the lovers of peace, and exhorted his contemporaries to
-pray for the well-being of the ruling power (that of the Romans), "for,
-if no fear thereof existed, then one man would swallow another alive."
-Zadok, another teacher, was a disciple of Shammai, and in anticipation
-of the fall of the Temple he fasted for forty years, whereby he ruined
-his health. Nachum, the Mede, who had been previously member of a
-college of the Law in Jerusalem, Dossa ben Archinas, with his brother
-Jonathan, the latter a clear-headed and argumentative youth, and Abba
-Saul must also be mentioned.
-
-Lastly, there belonged to this circle Nachum of Gimso (Emmaus), and
-Nechunya ben Hakana. The first has been recorded by tradition as the
-hero of strange adventures, and even the name of his birthplace Gimso
-has been explained, so as to put into his mouth the words "This also is
-for good" (Gam-su-l'-toba). He is represented in the world of legend as
-a scholar to whom many disagreeable experiences happened, all of which
-proved of good to him. Nachum developed a special mode of teaching,
-which consisted in explaining the oral law from the written text,
-according to certain particles which the lawgiver had purposely used
-as indications when drawing up the Law. These particles, according to
-his idea, not only served as syntactical signs in the sentences, but
-as signs for enlarging and diminishing the circle within which each
-law should work. Nachum's rules formed a new and fruitful addition
-to those laid down by Hillel; they were carefully cultivated and
-developed, and received the name "the rules of extension or exclusion"
-(Ribbuj-u-m'ut). Nechunya ben Hakana was, however, an opponent of
-Nachum's system; he approved only the explanatory rules as propounded
-by Hillel.
-
-Jochanan ben Zakkai, the head not of the State but of the community,
-appears to have acted as a shield from a political point of view.
-His kindly and gentle disposition, in which he resembled Hillel, he
-displayed even to the heathens. It is related of him that he always
-greeted them in a friendly manner. Such friendliness offers a striking
-contrast to the hatred felt by the Zealots towards the heathens, both
-before and after the revolution, which increased after the destruction
-of the Temple. The verse (Proverbs xiv. 34), "The kindness of the
-nations is sin," was taken literally by the people of that time, and
-was specially applied to the heathen world. "The heathens may do
-ever so much good, yet it is accounted to them as sin, for they do
-it only to mock us." Jochanan alone explained this verse in a sense
-expressive of true humanity: "As the burnt-offering atones for Israel,
-so mercy and kindness atone for the heathen nations." This kindliness
-of Jochanan may have contributed to the result that, notwithstanding
-the fresh outbreaks amongst the Jews in Cyrene and Egypt, which the
-Emperors Vespasian and Titus had to put down, they did not persecute
-the Jews in any extraordinary degree. It is expressly stated in ancient
-records that the Roman authorities removed the contempt which formerly
-attached to the Jews, and that the murder of a Jew was punished by
-death. The personality of Jochanan may have served them as a guarantee
-for the peaceful disposition of the mother-country.
-
-Hope alone gave to him and his circle of fellow-pupils and disciples
-fresh courage, the hope or rather the assurance that Israel should
-not be lost. The dreary present did not veil from him the promised
-and brighter future. The present was in truth sufficiently overcast.
-The pasture lands had been taken away from those who had survived the
-national disasters, and given to strangers. Thereby those who had
-formerly been rich had fallen into poverty. The very poorest had to
-pay the Jews' tax (Fiscus Judaicus). The land, which before the war
-had been so flourishing, was strewn with ruins. Every joy had departed
-from Israel; even weddings were performed in a silent manner. Jochanan
-described the comfortless position of the times in an address to the
-people. He once saw a Jewish maiden of a rich house, picking up a
-scanty nourishment of barley-corn from amongst the horses' hoofs.
-At this he exclaimed, "Unhappy nation, you would not serve God, and
-therefore you must serve foreign nations; you would not offer half a
-shekel for the Temple, and therefore you must pay thirty times as much
-to the State of your new enemies; you refused to keep the roads and
-paths in order for the pilgrims, and, therefore, you must now support
-the watch-lodges in the vineyards, which the Romans have seized."
-
-Agrippa and Berenice, the remaining members of the house of Herod,
-who kept up close connections with those in power, appear to have
-contributed greatly to the alleviation of the sorrows of the conquered
-Jews. Princess Berenice, whose beauty seemed to bid defiance to time,
-long held Titus captive by her charms, and it wanted but little for the
-Jewish princess to become a Roman empress. The prejudice of Roman pride
-disturbed the project of a marriage between Titus and Berenice, and
-compelled the Emperor's son to break the bonds which had bound him for
-years. Berenice had to leave the royal palace, and probably returned to
-her brother in Palestine. But as Titus had not yet given up the hope
-of making her his wife, her voice still had weight with him, and it
-probably was often raised in favor of her co-religionists, to whom she
-was attached. The last Jewish king, Agrippa, also stood in favor with
-Vespasian, for the great services which he had rendered to his house.
-It appears that the Emperor had added Galilee to his territories;
-Agrippa had a Jewish governor, whom he sent alternately to the two
-Galilæan capitals, Tiberias and Sepphoris. To this ruler it was no
-doubt due that the district of Galilee recovered itself more rapidly,
-and became sooner repeopled than Judæa, which was governed by a Roman
-ruler.
-
-The period during which Jochanan worked in his new sphere of action
-cannot be stated with certainty. He united in himself the qualities
-of the prophet Jeremiah and the prince Zerubbabel, who had been in
-exile. Like Jeremiah he mourned over the destruction of Jerusalem, and
-like Zerubbabel he unrolled a new future. Both Jochanan ben Zakkai
-and Zerubbabel stood at the threshold of a new epoch, both laid the
-foundation-stone of a new edifice in Judaism, for the completion of
-which the subsequent generations have worked. Jochanan died on his bed
-in the arms of his pupils. He had previously had a conversation with
-them, which gives an insight into his mind. His pupils were surprised
-to find their courageous master frightened and depressed in the hour of
-his death. He remarked that he did not fear death, but the having to
-appear before the Eternal Ruler, whose justice was incorruptible. He
-blessed his pupils before his death with these words--"May the fear of
-God influence your actions as much as the fear of man."
-
-Immediately after the death of their master, his chief disciples held
-council as to the place where they might continue the work of teaching
-the Law. Most of them thought of remaining in Jabne, where there lived
-a circle of men acquainted with the traditions of the past. Eleazar ben
-Arach, the favorite pupil of Jochanan, however, insisted on removing
-the school to Emmaus (Gimso), a healthy and pleasant town, three
-geographical miles distant from Jabne. Believing that he was absolutely
-needful to his fellow-students, and being persuaded by his wife that
-they would soon follow him, he separated from them, and remained in
-Emmaus. Solitary and cut off from the opportunity of exchanging ideas
-with others, he is said to have so utterly forgotten what he once knew,
-that amusing anecdotes are related of his subsequent ignorance. To
-Arach was applied the saying, "Repair to the place of the Law, and do
-not fancy that thy comrades will follow thee, and that they can uphold
-the Law only through thee; do not rely too much on thy penetration."
-Whilst Arach, from whom so much was hoped, was thus forgotten, his
-companions continued the work of their master, and became renowned in
-generations to come. Gamaliel, Joshua, and Eliezer came to the fore as
-important personages.
-
-It was first necessary to give a chief to the community, which, though
-small, was yet respected by the Jews of all countries. Gamaliel was
-chosen; he was the descendant of Hillel, and his ancestors had presided
-over the Synhedrion throughout four generations. It must have been
-necessary to remove political difficulties to enable the son of the man
-who had been concerned in the uprising against the Romans, to attain so
-high a rank. Gamaliel took the title Nasi (Prince--among the Romans,
-Patriarch). He had his seat in Jabne, and was also sufficiently versed
-in traditions to preside in the school. Although the town of Jabne was
-of first importance, the members of the new college established some
-schools outside of the town of Jabne, but in its neighborhood. Eliezer
-taught at Lydda; Joshua at Bekiin, on the plains between Jabne and
-Lydda; other pupils of Jochanan also opened schools; and each attracted
-a circle of disciples, and was called by the title Rabbi (Master).
-The Patriarch was called Rabban (General Master), to distinguish him
-from the other teachers. The Law therefore was not left unheeded after
-the death of the founder of the Jabne Synhedrion; it received, if
-possible, even more attention; but the unity which had hardly been
-established threatened to disappear altogether. The disputes between
-the adherents of the schools of Hillel and Shammai, over which blood
-had been shed before the destruction of the Temple, and which had only
-been quelled by the war of the revolution, broke out afresh, and the
-more severely, as the uniting influence proceeding from the Temple now
-no longer existed. The contentions between the schools, which extended
-to various practical matters, brought about wide divergence in the
-views with regard to the Law and life. One teacher held some things
-to be permissible which another forbade; and in one place things were
-done which were not allowed in another. Thus Judaism seemed to have
-two bodies of laws, or, according to the words of the Talmud--"The one
-Law had become two." Important questions of life, sometimes involving
-serious consequences, such as those concerning marriage, were affected
-by these differences. The younger generation, relieved from the
-necessity for mutual forbearance occasioned by the late war, had no
-very strong desire to make peace, but contested the disputed questions
-with great acrimony. The endeavor to terminate these quarrels, which
-threatened the destruction of all unity, was the life-task of Gamaliel,
-but his policy brought him into open collision with his friends.
-
-Little is known of his private affairs, but this little shows him to
-have possessed a high moral character and a powerful mind. Gamaliel
-owned land, which he lent to be cultivated on condition that he
-received a part of the harvest. He also gave corn for sowing purposes,
-but when he was repaid he only accepted the lowest prices, in order
-to avoid even the appearance of taking interest. He displayed great
-tenderness to his favorite slave Tabi, whom he would willingly have
-set free could he have done so, and had not the Law disapproved of
-manumission. On the death of the slave he mourned for him as for a
-relative. Gamaliel appears to have had some mathematical knowledge. In
-fixing the new moon and the holidays dependent on it, he was guided
-more by astronomical calculations than by the evidence of witnesses
-that they had or had not seen the new moon. Such reckonings, exact even
-to a fraction, were handed down in the house of the Patriarch. Gamaliel
-often made journeys in order to visit the various congregations, to
-be an eye-witness of their condition, and to keep them all in order.
-His journeys took him over Judæa, into Galilee, and as far as Acco
-(Ptolemais). Although he was not of robust health, he did not spare
-himself the greatest exertions, when he could benefit his people. His
-rule as Patriarch occurred in a very troubled time, both within and
-without, and this circumstance caused him to insist on his dignity
-most strictly. His character was thereby misunderstood, and he was
-accused of forming selfish and ambitious plans. Gamaliel directed
-his chief energies to raise the patriarchal dignity that it should
-become the center of the Jewish community, so as to maintain by his
-authority the threatened unity of the Law, and the religious and moral
-condition of the people. In the contests between the disciples of the
-schools of Shammai and Hillel he decreed that votes should be taken
-with regard to each law in question, and that the decision should be
-determined by the majority of votes in the college, in order to protect
-by authority the threatened unity of the Law against all attacks. The
-desire for unity seems to have been more generally felt, the more the
-opposition between the two schools increased, and the more the two
-sets of followers, who clung to the Halachas bequeathed to them by
-their teachers, sought to develop their doctrines. Contemporaries did
-not disguise from themselves the fact that the Law might easily be
-subject to confusion through these differences. A fear was expressed
-that the time would soon come when men would refer in vain to the
-Holy Writings or to the Oral Law for a decision, and when one account
-would contradict the other. The Synhedrion of Jabne, therefore, once
-more subjected contested matters to discussion and decision. It began
-with the fundamental propositions of Hillel and Shammai, in order to
-fix by voting such rules as should hold good in all cases. But it was
-not easy to obtain unity; for three and a half years the contest is
-said to have lasted in the vineyards of Jabne, both parties insisting
-on the exclusive correctness of their own traditions--the Shammaites
-being especially stubborn and immovable, and, like the founder of
-their school, not disposed to yield. Then a voice, heard by chance
-(Bath-Kol), which was usually considered as a communication from heaven
-in difficult cases, is said to have sounded through the school-house in
-Jabne--a voice which said, "The teachings of both schools are the words
-of the living God, but practically the laws of Hillel only are to carry
-weight." Joshua, a man of calm disposition, alone expressed himself
-against any decision arrived at by the Bath-Kol. "We do not require
-a miraculous voice," he said, "for the Law is not given for heavenly
-beings, but for men, who in questionable cases can decide by taking
-a majority, and a miracle cannot in such cases give the decision."
-Eliezer also was not satisfied with the conclusion arrived at, but this
-opposition had only slight results. Hillel's expositions, deductions,
-and explanatory rules at length attained the authority due to them.
-As the followers of Shammai held with the Zealots, the enemies of the
-Romans, and the Hillelites with the peace party, the revolution was
-in some measure ended by this act of the Synhedrion of Jabne. But it
-was not intended to exercise compulsion against the Shammaites, and so
-entirely to reorganize their religious life according to the decision
-arrived at; on the contrary it permitted them to follow their own
-convictions. "Every man according to his choice may follow the school
-of Hillel or of Shammai, but the decisions of the school of Hillel
-shall be the only accepted interpretation of the Law." Rabbi Gamaliel
-watched most carefully over the union of the two parties, which was
-probably his work, and withstood any attempt to oppose the decisions
-of the Synhedrion; he was supported by the venerable Zadok, to whom he
-gave the place of honor at his right hand at all meetings, and who,
-having beheld the Temple in its glory, was considered as an authority.
-
-There seems to have been another regulation in use besides the above,
-but the connection of the two is not very clear. The Patriarch of
-Jabne made a rule that only such persons should be admitted to the
-school-house whose uprightness had been proved; and for this purpose
-he placed a porter at the doors of the school, in order to prevent the
-admission of those who were unworthy. It appears that he desired to
-exclude such as pursued the study of the Law with wrong intentions;
-some, perhaps, had sought admission to the school from vanity or other
-ignoble motives. Two warnings, the one by Jochanan ben Zakkai, and the
-other by Zadok, against those who took part in the study of the Law
-from self-interest, appear to confirm this supposition. The former
-said, "If you have acquired much of the Law, do not be proud of it, for
-you are made for that purpose." The latter said, "Do not use the Law as
-a crown in order to shine with it, nor as a spade in order to dig with
-it." Such low ideas Gamaliel endeavored to keep out of the circle of
-the school.
-
-Both arrangements, the employment of the authority of the Patriarch in
-maintaining the Halachic decisions, and the precautions for admitting
-members and disciples, met with opposition, which at first was only
-timidly expressed. The Patriarch endeavored to keep down contests by
-the use of excommunication, which he employed with great energy, and
-with that entire disregard of consequences which arises from deeply
-rooted conviction. The excommunication (Nidui) had not at that time
-the gloomy severity of later ages, but was of a mild form; forbidding
-the interdicted man to hold any close intercourse with others until
-he had penitently submitted to the required demands. During the
-interdict, which lasted at least thirty days, the sinner wore a black
-mourning-garb and kept several mourning observances; if he died
-during this period without having submitted or repented, the Court of
-Justice had a stone laid on his coffin. Gamaliel had the courage to
-excommunicate several of the most important personages of his time,
-whereby he made many bitter enemies. He acted thus even towards his
-own brother-in-law, Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. Deeply impressed by the
-unfortunate results which disunion must bring to Judaism, threatened as
-it already was by various half-Jewish, half-Christian sects, Gamaliel
-did not hesitate to proceed with severity against trifling offenses,
-in order to avoid the destruction of religious unity. There was once
-a discussion about an oven of peculiar structure, which a decision of
-the majority had pronounced liable to become unclean, like earthenware
-vessels. Eliezer, following a special tradition, did not wish to
-yield to this decision, and acted in opposition to it; at Gamaliel's
-instigation, Eliezer was excommunicated.
-
-Gamaliel thought that he had united the two schools, and had brought
-about peace, when his power was destroyed by a man from whom he had
-not expected any energetic opposition. Joshua, who was of a yielding
-disposition, and apparently the least dangerous of the opponents
-of the severe Patriarch, became his worst enemy. Joshua was just
-as discontented with some of Gamaliel's regulations as Eliezer had
-been, but he did not venture to show his disapproval on account of
-his poor and miserable condition, and when he happened to utter any
-contradictory opinion he quickly withdrew it again. Gamaliel had
-received the report of two untrustworthy witnesses in order to fix the
-commencement of the month of Tishri, on which depended the dates of the
-chief festivals, including the Day of Atonement. Joshua showed that
-the Patriarch had committed an error in this act, and demanded that
-the college should change the date of the holiday. Gamaliel remained
-firm, and sent an order to Joshua that on the day which, according
-to Joshua's calculation, was the Day of Atonement, the latter should
-appear before him in workaday clothes, with his staff, knapsack, and
-money-bag. This dictatorial proceeding seemed so harsh to Joshua, that
-he complained of it to his most important colleagues, and appeared
-determined to oppose it. Those, however, who saw the necessity for
-unity persuaded him to yield. The venerable Dossa ben Harchinas
-convinced him that the arrangements of a religious chief must be
-uncontested even if they are erroneous, and that every man must follow
-them. Joshua allowed himself to be persuaded, and submitted to the
-Patriarch. His appearance filled Gamaliel with astonishment. He greeted
-him heartily, and said to him, "Welcome, my teacher and pupil--my
-teacher in wisdom, my pupil in obedience. Happy is the age in which
-great men obey inferior ones." But this reconciliation was not of long
-duration. The severe proceedings of the Patriarch had raised a hostile
-party against him, which began secretly to act in opposition to him. He
-knew of this opposition party, and referred to it in public addresses.
-It is related of him that his mode of opening the sittings of the
-Synhedrion varied. If none of his opponents were present he would ask
-the assembly to propound questions; if, however, any of his enemies
-were present he would not give this invitation. The opposition party
-seem therefore to have put him in a dilemma at these meetings. Gamaliel
-may have had reason to consider Joshua as the chief of this party, and
-often made him feel the power of his own higher position by offensive
-demeanor and severe treatment. One day the mutual ill-feeling led to
-an outbreak, and caused a change in the Synhedrion. The Patriarch had
-once again offended Joshua by his severe manner, and accused him of
-secret opposition to one of the Halachas. As Joshua at first denied
-the fact, Gamaliel was so angered that he cried out, "Then stand, so
-that witnesses may give evidence against you." This was the form of an
-indictment. The school-house was full of people, amongst whom there
-arose a tumult at this contemptuous treatment of a member who was
-respected and loved by the people. The opposition party took courage,
-and gave utterance to their dissatisfaction. They called out to the
-Patriarch, "Who is there that has not constantly felt thy severity?"
-The school was turned into a tribunal, and the college deposed Gamaliel
-on the spot from the dignity of Patriarch. With his fall ended the
-regulations made by him. The porter was removed from the door of the
-school, to which all could now gain unobstructed admission. The
-members of the Synhedrion immediately sought for another Patriarch, so
-that this important office might not be unoccupied. They had too much
-tact to heap fresh contumely on the late Patriarch by choosing Joshua,
-his chief opponent, and Eliezer, who had a claim to the honor, lay
-under an interdict. Akiba seemed fitted for the post by his intellect
-and character. He had quickly risen from ignorance and poverty, had
-rapidly passed the intervening steps between the degrees of pupil
-and master, and had obtained admiration even from the profoundest
-teachers of the Law. But his greatness was only of yesterday; he had no
-distinguished ancestors to show that he was worthy of the dignity of
-Patriarch. The college therefore chose a very young member, Eleazar ben
-Azariah, who at that time must have been only in his sixteenth year.
-The choice was made on account of his noble descent from a long line of
-ancestors, which reached to Ezra, the regenerator of Judaism, a further
-motive for his election being his immense riches and the consideration
-in which he was held by the Roman authorities. Eleazar was not wanting
-in character and understanding, and was therefore considered worthy to
-succeed Gamaliel.
-
-This deposition and election had great results, and the day on
-which these events took place was considered of such importance by
-after-comers that it was known by the simple designation, "that
-day." It seems that the college of the Synhedrion, perhaps on the
-suggestion of Joshua, again revised those laws which, through the
-influence of Gamaliel, had been decided according to the spirit of
-the school of Hillel. The college, which at that time consisted of
-the extraordinary number of seventy-two members, therefore undertook
-the revision of one-sided laws, and examined those who were in
-possession of traditions. More than twenty persons are recorded to
-have given testimony before the college as to the traditions which
-had been handed down. In many points the majority of the college
-took middle ground between the opposing doctrines of the schools of
-Shammai and Hillel, and they decided "neither like the one nor like
-the other." With regard to other contested questions it appeared that
-Hillel himself, or his school, had renounced their own views, and had
-been inclined to follow the Shammaites. The witnesses with regard
-to the Halachas seem to have been formally examined, and perhaps
-their evidence was even written down. The testimony of witnesses on
-this day bears the name Adoyot (evidence of witnesses), or Bechirta
-(best choice), and the code drawn up is without doubt the earliest
-collection. One recognizes in its contents the ancient and primitive
-form of the traditions. The laws are put together quite promiscuously,
-and without any other connection than the name of the person who handed
-them down.
-
-The day of the assembly of witnesses was also of general importance,
-on account of two questions which were discussed. The first question
-arose thus. A heathen of Ammonite descent came before the meeting,
-asking whether he could be legally accepted as a proselyte. Gamaliel
-had turned him away with the sentence of the written law, "Moabites and
-Ammonites may not be received into the congregation of God, even in the
-tenth generation." The disputants treated the question with warmth, and
-Gamaliel endeavored to have his view carried. Joshua, however, carried
-his view that the sentence of the Law no longer applied to those times,
-as, through the aggressions of their conquerors, all nations had become
-mixed together and confused beyond recognition. The second question
-concerned the holiness of the two writings ascribed to King Solomon,
-Ecclesiastes (Kohelet), and the Song of Songs (Shir Hashirim). The
-school of Shammai had not recognized them as holy. This old contest
-was now taken up by the College of Seventy-two, which had not approved
-of the decisions of Hillel, but it is not clearly known with what
-result. Later on these Halachas were included in the collection (Canon)
-of the Holy Writings, after which the Canon was completed and several
-writings in the Hebrew language were rejected as Apocrypha, such as the
-proverbs of Sirach, the first book of the Maccabees, and several others.
-
-It is a noble characteristic of Gamaliel, which his contemporaries
-readily recognized, that notwithstanding the many insults he received
-on "that day," he did not for one moment feel a desire, from petty
-revenge, to retire from his office of teacher. He took part in the
-discussions as before, little prospect as there was for him to carry
-through his ideas in the midst of an assemblage which was so opposed
-to him. But in the eager controversies of the day he no doubt became
-convinced that his great severity had estranged the others from him,
-and that he had thereby suppressed many a true opinion; he felt his
-courage broken and he determined to yield. He therefore went to
-the most respected members of the Synhedrion, to apologize for his
-offensive demeanor. He visited his chief opponent, Joshua, who was
-following his handicraft of needle-making. Gamaliel, who had grown
-up in riches, could not suppress his surprise at seeing so learned a
-man engaged in such heavy work, and said, "Is it thus thou makest thy
-living?" Joshua took the opportunity frankly to put before him the
-indifference shown to the sad condition of several worthy men--"It is
-bad enough," said Joshua, "that thou hast only just discovered it. Woe
-to the age, whose leader thou art, that thou dost not know of the cares
-of the learned and what difficulty they have to support themselves."
-Joshua had uttered the same reproach when Gamaliel had admired his
-astronomical knowledge; he had modestly repudiated his admiration,
-and pointed out two pupils who possessed distinguished mathematical
-attainments, but who hardly had bread and clothes. Gamaliel at last
-besought his enraged opponent to forgive him, out of consideration for
-the highly honored house of Hillel. Joshua thereupon expressed himself
-as satisfied, and promised to work for Gamaliel's reinstatement in the
-position of Patriarch. The next step was to induce the newly-elected
-Nasi to give up his dignity, upon which he had only just entered. There
-was a certain amount of delicacy in making the suggestion to him.
-Akiba, who was ever ready to be of service, undertook the delicate
-commission, the execution of which, however, was not made at all
-difficult for him. For hardly had Eleazar, the newly-elected Patriarch,
-heard that peace was made between Gamaliel and his chief enemy, than he
-was immediately prepared to return to private life; he even offered to
-pay a visit to Gamaliel, attended by the whole College. The arrangement
-made between the Patriarch and Eleazar was that the former should
-always preside for the first two weeks, and hold the classes, and that
-the latter, as Vice-President, should do the same in the third week.
-
-In this way the strife ended; it had arisen neither from ambition nor
-pride, but only from an erroneous view of the Patriarch's functions.
-These disagreements were soon forgotten, and thenceforward Gamaliel
-lived in peace with the members of the Synhedrion. Perhaps the position
-of affairs under the Emperor Domitian had diverted the public attention
-from internal matters, and caused the necessity for union to be felt,
-in order to avert the dangers which threatened from without.
-
-Gamaliel represented in this circle of scholars that desire for
-unity and authority which might regulate from one center the entire
-religious and national life of the people. His brother-in-law,
-Eliezer, son of Hyrcanus, represented the other party, namely, those
-who maintained their own views and refused to submit to universally
-binding enactments. From his earliest youth Eliezer had devoted himself
-to the acquirement of Halachas, and these he impressed so firmly on
-his memory that, as he himself said, not a grain of them should be
-lost. His teacher, Jochanan, therefore called him "a sealed cistern
-which lets no drop pass." It was in accordance with this method that
-Eliezer taught at Lydda (Diospolis), a place which had formerly been a
-race-course. When he was questioned as to a law, he either replied as
-he had been taught by his teachers, or openly acknowledged "I do not
-know; I have not been told." During his stay once in Cæsarea Philippi
-in Upper Galilee, thirty questions were put to him for decision, to
-which he replied, "To twelve of these I can give the decision which has
-been handed down to me; for the other eighteen I have no tradition."
-Being asked whether he only taught what had been handed down to him,
-he replied, "You compel me now to impart something which has not been
-communicated to me; for know that in my whole life I have never taught
-a single word which has not been handed down to me by my teachers."
-In order to escape troublesome questions which he did not know how
-to answer, he would put cross-questions from which could be seen his
-disinclination to discuss the matter. He was once asked whether an
-illegitimate child could succeed to property, and he asked in return,
-"Whether it would be legally considered as a brother." To the question
-whether one might paint a house white after the destruction of the
-Temple, he put the cross-question whether one would paint a grave, thus
-keeping firm to his rule never to pronounce a decision which had not
-been made certain to him by oral tradition. To the keenest deductions
-he usually opposed the simple reply, "I have not heard it." In order
-to maintain this peculiar view, he seems to have impressed on his
-pupils, "Keep your children from searching (Higayon); let them rather
-be brought up on the knees of the wise."
-
-Eliezer was therefore the conservative element in the Synhedrion; he
-was the organ of tradition, which retained the Halachas precisely as
-it received them; he was the "sealed cistern" which did not permit one
-drop of water to run away, nor one fresh drop to find entrance. His
-contemporaries and successors gave him the honored name of "Sinai," a
-living tablet of the Law, inscribed with unchangeable precepts. Greatly
-as he was respected, however, as a faithful keeper of the traditional
-Law, he nevertheless was somewhat isolated on account of his clinging
-exclusively to traditions. His colleagues had gone too far on the road
-pointed out by Hillel to be satisfied with merely keeping the Law;
-they desired also to extend and develop it. Eliezer necessarily came
-into collision with the tendency of the times. He was most strongly
-opposed to his brother-in-law, Gamaliel, and his method of exclusion
-in striving for unity. On the one side was authority supported by a
-powerful will, which kept down any revolt against the law adopted; and
-on the other side was the secure knowledge which finds its sanction
-in the past. Such opposites could not be easily reconciled, nor was
-Eliezer the man to give up his convictions. He was in fact reproached
-for his unbending character, which refused to submit to others, and
-which made him express his opinions in harsh terms. The respect which
-was felt for him personally made it difficult to inform him of the
-fact that he was excommunicated, but Akiba once more undertook the
-office of conveying the unpleasant news. Dressed in black, he went to
-Eliezer and gently broke to him the sentence, and addressed him in
-these words, "It appears to me that thy comrades shun thee." Eliezer
-understood the hint, and took the blow without murmuring; he submitted
-to the excommunication, and lived apart from his friends. He took only
-a distant interest in the discussions pursued in Jamnia. When he heard
-any important decision, he used to look among the treasures of the
-Halachas in order to confirm or dispute it.
-
-Without exercising any influence over affairs or taking part in the
-development of the Law, Eliezer lived his last years in flourishing
-material circumstances, but in a dreary state of mind. In his misery
-he gave utterance to a sentence which is in marked contrast to the
-sentiments of his comrades. "Warm thyself," he said, "at the fire of
-the wise, but beware of the coals that thou dost not burn thyself, for
-their bite is as that of the jackal, their sting like the scorpion's,
-their tongues like the tongues of snakes, and their words are burning
-coals." These are the bitter words of a pained spirit, but they do not
-deny to his opponents a measure of justification.
-
-A striking contrast to the stubbornness of Eliezer, and the no less
-unbending despotism of Gamaliel, is offered by Joshua ben Chananya. He
-was the yielding, pliable, peaceable element in this newly constituted
-Jewish body. He protected the Law and the people from one-sided and
-exaggerated ideas, and became the promoter of the study of the Law and
-the benefactor of his people. As a young Levite of the choir he had
-seen the glory of the Temple, and had sung the psalms in its halls.
-Together with his teacher he had left Jerusalem, and after the death of
-the latter had founded a school in Bekiin. Here he taught his pupils,
-and carried on the humble handicraft of making needles, by which he
-maintained his family. Through his twofold occupation Joshua was
-brought into communication both with scholars and the common people;
-and he endeavored to unite the two, and was the only man who possessed
-power over the minds and will of the masses. He was personally so ugly
-that an empress's daughter once asked him how it was so much wisdom was
-incorporated in so ugly a form. Whereupon Joshua answered that wine was
-not kept in casks of gold.
-
-Besides an acquaintance with tradition, he seems to have possessed some
-astronomical knowledge, which enabled him to calculate the irregular
-course of the comets. This knowledge was once of great use to him
-when he was on a journey. He had started on a voyage with Gamaliel,
-and had laid in more provisions than were usually necessary for the
-journey. The ship took an erratic course for some time, because its
-captain, deceived by the sight of a certain star, had steered in a
-wrong direction. Gamaliel's provisions having been consumed, he was
-astonished that this was not the case with his companion, but that,
-in fact, he could even spare some for him. Thereupon Joshua informed
-him that he had calculated on the return of a star (a comet), which
-reappeared every seventy years, and which would mislead the ignorant
-sailor, and that therefore he (Joshua) had provided himself with extra
-food for this emergency. This astronomical knowledge of Joshua appears
-the more surprising, as the cycles of the comets were known not even
-to the learned of antiquity. But Joshua was yet more distinguished
-for his modesty and gentleness than for knowledge and wisdom, and
-these qualities he displayed also in teaching. He was opposed to all
-exaggeration and eccentricity, and gave heed to the circumstances of
-daily life when making a legal decision.
-
-Joshua warmly expressed his disapproval of the numerous measures which
-the school of Shammai had introduced before the destruction of the
-Temple, under the name of "the eighteen rules," and which rendered
-impossible all closer relations or friendly communications with the
-heathens. He said, "On that day, the school of Shammai went beyond all
-bounds in their decisions; they behaved as one who pours water into a
-vessel containing oil; the more water one pours in, the more oil runs
-off," which meant that, by introducing a number of superfluous details,
-the really important things were lost. Joshua seems also to have
-opposed the unmeasured deductions of the Hillelite school. He said that
-the regulations respecting the Sabbath, festive offerings, and misuse
-of holy things, have but slight foundation in Holy Writ, but have many
-Halachas in their support.
-
-The balanced and calm character of Joshua rendered him especially
-fitted for the part of intermediary between the Jewish nation and
-Roman intolerance. He was the only teacher who sought and enjoyed
-the confidence of the Roman rulers; without betraying his trust to
-the Romans, he yet persuaded the opposing forces to be mutually more
-yielding. The death of Gamaliel, and the hostile attitude of the Jews
-towards the Romans during the last years of the Emperor Trajan and the
-early years of Hadrian's reign, seem to have torn Joshua away from his
-petty trade, and to have put the public leadership into his hands.
-It is not improbable that he assumed the patriarchal position; at
-least the circumstance that he removed the ban from Eliezer after the
-latter's death, an act which could be performed only by a patriarch,
-or one equal in authority, affords some ground for this supposition.
-Joshua's activity during the last years of his life forms an important
-part of the history of his times.
-
-Amongst the personages of this period, Akiba ben Joseph was
-unquestionably the most talented, original and influential. His
-youthful days and mental development are shrouded in darkness, as
-is often the case with characters who leave their mark in history;
-but legends have cast sufficient light to show the obscurity of his
-descent. According to one legend, he was a proselyte, and a descendant
-of Sisera, who fell through a woman's deceit. Another legend represents
-him as a servant of Kalba-Sabua, one of the three richest men of
-Jerusalem, who, by their provisions, wished to prevent for many years
-the famine occasioned by the siege. The legend adds that the daughter
-of one of these wealthy men of Jerusalem, named Rachel, had bestowed
-her love on Akiba, on the condition that he should follow the study
-of the Law. In those days this meant to acquire culture, and thus, in
-his fortieth year, Akiba entered a school, in order to take his first
-lessons to obtain the knowledge in which he was deficient. During the
-period of his studies the daughter of Kalba-Sabua had remained faithful
-to him, living in the greatest poverty, to which her father in his
-anger had reduced her by casting her adrift. Of these stories so much
-is certain, that Akiba was very ignorant until he was well advanced in
-years, that he and his wife lived under very straitened circumstances,
-and he related later on that during the period of his ignorance, he
-hated those who were versed in the Law.
-
-Meanwhile his slumbering mind did not develop so quickly as the
-legend relates. One source declares that he was one of the pupils of
-Eliezer during many years, without ever showing himself worthy of
-receiving an instructive reply from him. His teacher appears to have
-regarded him with a certain amount of contempt. Perhaps the peculiar
-system, pursued by Rabbi Akiba with regard to the newer Halachas, also
-excited Eliezer's disapproval. Akiba had learned this new system under
-Nachum of Gimso (or Emmaus), under whom he studied, not, indeed, for
-two-and-twenty years, as the legend relates. Akiba raised what was
-incomplete and fragmentary in this school to a complete system, and
-thus he stands at a turning-point in Jewish history.
-
-The peculiar system of Akiba was built on certain principles, and in
-fact he may be considered as the only systematic Tanai. In this system
-the law was not considered as a dead treasure incapable of growth or
-development, or, as it was in the eyes of Eliezer, a wealth of mere
-memories, but it formed an everlasting quarry in which, with proper
-means, new treasures might always be found. New laws were also no
-longer to be formulated by the voice of a majority, but were to be
-justified by and founded on the written documents of the Holy Word. As
-the fundamental doctrine of his system, Akiba maintained that the style
-of the Torah, especially in parts relating to the laws (Halachas), was
-quite different from that of other writings. Human language, besides
-the indispensable words employed, requires certain expressions,
-figures of speech, repetitions, and enlargements--in fact it takes a
-certain form which is almost unnecessary for conveying the writer's
-meaning, but which is used as a matter of taste, in order to round
-off the sentences and to make them more finished and artistic. In the
-language of the Torah, on the other hand, no weight is put on the form;
-nothing is superfluous, no word, no syllable, not even a letter; every
-peculiarity of expression, every additional word, every sign is to be
-regarded as of great importance, as a hint of a deeper meaning that
-lies buried within. Akiba added a number of explanatory and deductive
-rules to those of Hillel and Nachum, and his additions afforded fresh
-means of development for the traditional law. When a deduction had been
-obtained by the correct use of the rules, such conclusion might again
-be employed as the foundation for fresh deductions, and so on, in a
-continuous chain.
-
-Akiba was not to be restrained in this course by any consequences
-whatsoever. He had opened up a new path with his system, and a new
-point of view. The Oral Law, of which it had been said that it hung
-on a hair and had no firm ground in Holy Writ, was thus placed on a
-firmer basis, and the dissensions concerning the Halachas were to a
-considerable degree diminished. Akiba's contemporaries were surprised,
-dazzled, and inspired by his theories, which were new and yet old.
-Tarphon, who had at one time been the superior of Akiba, said to
-him, "He who departs from thee departs from life eternal; for what
-has been forgotten in the handing down, that dost thou give afresh
-in thy explanations." It was acknowledged that the Law would have
-been forgotten or neglected, had not Akiba given it his support. With
-exaggerated enthusiasm, it was said that many enactments of law, which
-were unknown to Moses, were revealed to Akiba.
-
-Just as Akiba had recognized and confirmed the worth of the traditional
-law, he also assisted in reducing it to a methodical system and order.
-He laid the foundation for the possible collection of the rich material
-at hand. It has already been stated that the Halachas were strung
-together without connection or systematic grouping; it was therefore
-necessary, in order to retain the entire mass, to maintain years of
-intimacy with those who were acquainted with the Halachas, to be
-untiringly industrious, and to have a faithful memory. Akiba, however,
-facilitated the study of the Halachas by arranging them in groups, and
-thus assisted the memory. The arranging of the Halachas he carried
-out in two ways. He put them together according to their context, so
-that all Halachas concerning the Sabbath, marriage laws, divorces, and
-property should form independent wholes. Thus the entire matter was
-divided into six similar parts, each part bearing the name Masechta
-(Textus--Division). These divisions he arranged according to numbers,
-so as to give a useful aid to the memory; thus, from four causes
-injuries to property might occur; five classes of men could be excluded
-from the tithes of the priests; fifteen classes of women were prevented
-by consanguinity from intermarrying with their brothers-in-law;
-thirty-six kinds of sins are recorded in the Holy Writings as being
-punished by extermination. The collection of the Halachas, instituted
-by Akiba, was called the Mishna, or more fully Mishna of Rabbi Akiba,
-to distinguish it from the later collection; in Christian circles it
-was known under the name of Akiba's Deuterosis. It was also called
-Midoth (Measures), probably on account of the numbers which form the
-basis of arrangement. This Mishna or Midoth, though arranged, was not
-written down; the contents remained as before traditional, but an
-easier method was employed in classifying them. It is hardly probable
-that Akiba alone completed and arranged all this material. His pupils
-no doubt assisted in this collection which, later on, formed the
-foundation of the code that terminated the whole traditional system.
-
-The older Mishnas (Mishna Rishona) were often separated from the later
-(Mishna Acharona, or Mishna of Rabbi Akiba), and the latter were taken
-as the norm. The name of the new founder of the Oral Law became,
-through his peculiar mode of teaching, one of the most celebrated in
-the Jewish communities far and wide. His mysterious descent and his
-lowly origin only heightened the interest felt in him. The number of
-his hearers is exaggerated by tradition, which fixes it at twelve
-thousand, and even double that number, but a more modest record
-represents them as amounting to three hundred. Accompanied by this
-numerous band of disciples, Akiba again visited his wife Rachel, who
-for some years had lived apart from him in the greatest poverty. The
-scene of their meeting is touchingly described, and her hard-hearted
-father, Kalba-Sabua, proud of such a son-in-law, is said to have
-bequeathed to him his whole property. From this time Akiba lived in
-great riches with his wife, who had previously been so poor that she
-slept on a bed of straw. His gratitude to his sorely tried wife was in
-proportion to the sacrifices which she had made for him.
-
-Akiba had his fixed domicile in Bene-Berak, where his school was
-situated. The position of this spot, which, through him, became so
-celebrated, is supposed to be southeast of Joppa. Others place it
-yet more to the south, near Ashdod; but Akiba was a member of the
-Synhedrion in Jabne, and it was but seldom that any measure was
-determined without him.
-
-In the development of Jewish law, in which Akiba had wrought such
-changes, Ishmael ben Elisha took an important part. He demanded the
-explanation of the written law from the common-sense view, and was thus
-one of the chief opponents of Akiba's system. According to Ishmael,
-the divine precepts of the Torah are expressed in human language, in
-which various figures of speech, linguistic repetitions and oratorical
-modes of expression occur, on which, however, no weight should be
-laid, as they are a mere matter of form. He thus put aside the various
-deductions of Akiba, which were based on an apparently superfluous
-(pleonastic) word, or even letter of the alphabet. Akiba deduced, for
-example, the punishment of death by fire against the adulterous married
-daughter of a priest from one letter of the alphabet, on which Ishmael
-remarked--"On account of one letter of the alphabet thou wouldst
-inflict death by burning!" Ishmael had his own school, which was known
-under the name of Be-Rabbi Ishmael. He there developed the rules
-which were to be employed in explaining and applying the Written Law.
-He amplified Hillel's seven rules of interpretation into thirteen, by
-subdividing one into several, while he rejected another, and on his own
-authority added one which was quite new.
-
-The thirteen deductive rules of Ishmael are recognized as the complete
-form, but the system of Akiba, although partly opposed to it, was not
-thereby excluded from use, for both were equally employed by succeeding
-teachers. There is but little else known of Ishmael. He belongs to a
-circle which, doubtless for political reasons, was relegated by the
-Synhedrion from Jabne to Usha. He subsequently paid for his love for
-his nation and the Law with his life. Akiba, though an opponent of the
-theories held by him, gave a funeral address in praise of him, and was
-impressed with the idea that a similar fate would soon befall himself.
-
-These five men--Gamaliel, the arranger; Eliezer, the strict upholder
-of tradition; Joshua, the conciliator; Akiba, the systematizer; and
-Ishmael, the clear thinker, were the center-point of that period; they
-formed the rays which, starting from one point, diverge in order to be
-finally reunited in another.
-
-The maintaining and cultivation of the inherited Law was a point of
-union for all men of activity and intelligence, and to it they turned
-all their energy, mind and power. The numerous teachers of this second
-generation of Tanaites were called the Armed (Baâle Trêssin), because
-the Synhedrion and schools constituted a battle-field on which the
-combatants contested for the Law (machai nomikai). The group was
-composed partly of members of the Synhedrion who had a voice in every
-decision; partly of ordained members who, through the ceremony of
-"laying on of hands," were elevated to the rank of "wise men," from
-whose midst the college was wont to fill up vacancies; and, lastly,
-there were disciples who sat on the ground as listeners at "the feet
-of the masters."
-
-Amongst the most important members was Tarphon of Lydda; he was rich
-and generous, passionate and hasty--a zealous enemy of the Jewish
-Christians. Further, there were Eliezer of Modin, an authority on
-Agadic explanations; and José, the Galilæan, whose heart was soft
-and full of love for humanity. There was also Isebab, the clerk of
-the Synhedrion; Chuzpit, the public orator or interpreter; Judah
-ben Baba, the Chassidæan (he probably belonged to the order of the
-Essenes); Chananya ben Teradion, who, together with those just named,
-suffered the death of a martyr. Besides these were Eleazar Chasma
-and Jochanan ben Gudgada, both of whom were celebrated on account of
-their deep mathematical knowledge and their poverty, but they were
-put in possession of lucrative posts by the patriarch at the express
-intervention of Joshua; Jochanan ben Nuri, a zealous disciple of
-Gamaliel; Joseph ben Kisma, an admirer of the Romans; and, lastly,
-Ilai and Chalafta, both of whom became better known through their
-sons. From the class of disciples only four distinguished themselves
-in history, Samuel, the younger, and three others--all of whom were
-named Simon. The disciples consisted of those who, for some reason,
-had not been amongst the ordained, and who were thus excluded from
-certain functions, such as membership of the Synhedrion and the
-holding of certain judicial offices. To these was denied the title
-of Rabbi--equivalent to the title of doctor in our times, but not
-corresponding to the title of Reverend. The title of Rabbi was, in
-fact, first used from the time of the destruction of the Temple, and
-was probably introduced by the disciples of Jochanan ben Zakkai, who
-were called master by their adherents.
-
-Samuel the Younger (Hakaton) was a man of rare modesty and abnegation,
-a "true disciple of Hillel"; he was chiefly known for his condemnation
-of the Jewish Christians, and for the prophetic glance, which, when on
-his death-bed, he cast into the gloomy future. He uttered the prophetic
-words: "Simon and Ishmael are doomed to destruction; the nation is
-threatened with anarchy, and heavy persecutions will follow." Those
-around knew not what to make of his utterances, but he foresaw the
-coming troubles under Hadrian. Samuel died childless, and the Patriarch
-himself delivered an address in his memory.
-
-Simon ben Nanos was renowned on account of his intimate acquaintance
-with the law of the individual, and Ishmael recommended all those who
-were learned in the Law to cultivate an acquaintance with ben-Nanos.
-Simon ben Asai was an enemy to marriage, and, together with Simon ben
-Zoma, he became absorbed in the theosophic speculations of the times.
-Amongst the great number of teachers of the Law, of whom many lost
-their lives, only one is named as having deserted his people, and thus
-having attained to undesirable notoriety. This was Elisha ben Abuya,
-better known by his apostate name Acher, who became a persecutor of the
-Law and of those who adhered to it. Outside of Judæa, and particularly
-in Babylon, there existed centers for the growth of spiritual activity.
-Judah ben Bathyra, who taught in Nisibis, a town in Babylon, was
-probably a descendant of the family Bene Bathyra, which, in the time
-of King Herod, had been at the head of the Synhedrion. In Nahardea,
-Nehemia is named as the teacher of the traditional Law in Beth-Deli.
-From this center there seems to have originated, as will be shown later
-on, the chief opposition to Trajan's plans for conquest in the district
-of the Euphrates. In Asia Minor, likewise, the study of the Halachas
-was pursued, though the names of its teachers have not been preserved.
-Cæsarea, the capital of Cappadocia (also called Mazaca), appears to
-have been the chief seat of this branch of study. Rabbi Akiba, during
-his journey in Asia Minor, found in the latter place a man learned in
-traditions, who held a discussion with him concerning the Halachas.
-The Jews of Egypt, who had closed the temple of Onias at the command
-of Vespasian, and had thus lost their seat of learning, appear to have
-pursued their studies of the Halachas in Alexandria. They continued to
-occupy themselves with the translation of such writings as resembled
-the Holy Writ or the Apocryphal Literature. Sirach translated the
-sayings of his grandfather into Greek, and others translated the book
-of Susannah and the Letter of Baruch. Additions were also made to the
-Books of Esther and Daniel. These later additions to Hebrew poetry
-were considered by Christians as part of the Bible. In Judæa, however,
-no attention was paid to these foreign schools, but the Synhedrion of
-Jabne was regarded as the supreme authority.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV.
-
-INNER LIFE.
-
-    Inner Life of the Jews--Sphere of Action of the Synhedrion
-    and the Patriarch--The Order of Members and Moral
-    Condition of the Common People--Relation of Christianity
-    towards Judaism--Sects--Jewish Christians--Pagan
-    Christians--Ebionites--Nazarenes--The Gnostics--Regulations
-    of the Synhedrion against Christianity--Proselytes at
-    Rome--Aquilas and his translation of the Bible--Berenice and
-    Titus--Domitian--Josephus and the Romans.
-
-
-The Synhedrion of Jamnia had become the heart of the Jewish nation,
-whence life and activity streamed forth to the most distant
-communities. Thence proceeded all arrangements and decisions relating
-to religious matters, which were to become popular, and the observance
-of which was to be ensured. The nation regarded the Synhedrion as
-a remnant of the State, and paid to the Nasi (the President), a
-member of the house of Hillel and a descendant of David, an amount of
-reverence such as might be shown to royalty. The Greek title Ethnarch,
-which means Ruler of the People, and which approaches nearest to the
-description of a king, seems to show that with the Patriarchate was
-associated the princely dignity. Therefore the people were proud of the
-house of Hillel, because through its members the ruling power remained
-in the house of David, and thus the prediction of the patriarch Jacob
-was verified, "that the scepter should not depart from the tribe of
-Judah." After the Patriarch came his representative Ab-beth-din,
-and the Chacham (the Wise), whose special office is not known. The
-Patriarch had the right of appointing judges and the officers of
-the congregation, and probably supervised their actions. The Roman
-government had not yet interfered with the communal arrangements of
-the Jews so far as to cause the judicial offices to be performed by
-Romans. The authority of the Patriarch left the power of the teacher,
-however, undiminished in certain of the schools; they could confer on
-their disciples the dignities of judge or teacher of the people, and
-the assent of the Patriarch was not required. The master laid his hand
-on the head of the pupil, and this ordination was called _Semicha_, or
-_Minui_, and meant Nomination, Ordination, or Promotion. The ordained
-bore the title _Zaken_ (Elder), which was almost equivalent to that
-of Senator, for through this ordination they obtained the right of
-membership of the Council when the choice should fall on them.
-
-The chief activity of the Patriarch was felt at the public meetings of
-the Synhedrion. He occupied the highest place, supported by the chief
-members who were seated around in a half-circle. Behind these members,
-whose number at this time was probably seventy, there were several rows
-of the ordained, behind whom stood the pupils, and at the back the
-people seated on the ground witnessed the proceedings.
-
-The Patriarch opened the meeting either by introducing some subject of
-discussion from the Laws, or by inviting the members to speak by the
-formula "Ask." If he himself spoke first, he uttered some sentences
-softly to the Meturgeman, who then developed and explained them in an
-oratorical manner. Any person had the right to put questions: while
-the discussion was being held the assembly would divide into groups
-and debate on the matter. The president had the right to close the
-discussion, and to bring about its conclusion by saying, "The subject
-has been sufficiently discussed." After the conclusion no one was
-permitted to return to theoretical discussions. It appears that the
-ordained members also had the right of voting. In voting on criminal
-cases all votes were taken, the youngest members beginning, so that
-they, by coming first, might not be guided by the most influential men;
-in other matters this method was reversed. Such was the procedure at
-meetings of the Synhedrion when questions were to be answered, disputed
-laws to be settled, new arrangements introduced, or old ones to be set
-aside.
-
-The Patriarch also exercised an important function in fixing the dates
-of the festivals. The Jewish Calendar was not permanently fixed, but
-had to be regulated from time to time. The year was in fact partly
-solar, partly lunar, the festivals being dependent on the course of the
-moon, and on the influence of the sun on the harvests, and the varying
-course of the solar and lunar years had to be equalized. Thus, when
-the solar year exceeded the lunar by a month, which occurred every two
-or three years, a month was inserted, and this leap-year contained
-thirteen lunar months. The length of the months was also uncertain;
-a month, according to tradition, was to commence when the new moon
-became visible, and this period was decided partly by astronomical
-calculations and partly by the evidence of actual witnesses. As soon
-as the witnesses reported to the Synhedrion that the first streak of
-the young moon was visible, that day was fixed as the first day of the
-month, provided it concurred with calculations made. If no witnesses
-presented themselves, the doubtful day was counted in the current
-month. The month thus contained twenty-nine or thirty days. The new
-moon was celebrated in a solemn manner, and was announced in earlier
-times by means of bonfires, which could easily be used in a mountainous
-country throughout the land. Burning torches were seen on the Mount of
-Olives, as also on Mount Sartaba (Alexandrion), and on Mount Tabor,
-and so on, as far as Beth-Beltis, on the Babylonian frontier. On the
-doubtful day between the two months the Babylonian community looked
-out for the signal, and repeated it for the benefit of those who lived
-afar. The congregations in Egypt, in Asia Minor and in Greece, however,
-could not use bonfires, they were uncertain as to the day on which the
-new moon fell, and, therefore, they kept two days instead of one. The
-intercalary month was announced by the Patriarch in a circular letter
-to the community.
-
-The Patriarch Gamaliel introduced the use of set prayers. Although some
-of the prayers were very ancient, and were used in the Temple at the
-time of the burnt-offerings, yet the chief prayers of those days were
-not formulated, but each man was left to pray in whatever words his
-feelings dictated to him. Gamaliel introduced the daily prayers, the
-eighteen _Berachoth_ (blessings), which are used in the synagogues at
-the present day. It is not known by whom the prayers were introduced
-for the Sabbath and the Festivals. Prayers were universally considered
-as a substitute for offerings, and were called "the offerings of the
-heart." The public service was very simple; there were no official
-readers, any one who had attained a certain age and was of good repute
-could pray; the congregation called on him to do so, and he was named
-"the delegate of the community." He stood before the ark in which lay
-the scrolls of the Law, and, therefore, to pray was called "to go
-before the ark."
-
-The Law, with the exception of the sacrificial system, was strictly
-enforced. The tithes were paid to the descendants of Aaron, the corners
-of the fields were left standing for the poor, and every three years
-the poor-tithes were paid. In remembrance of the Temple, for whose
-restoration the most earnest hopes were awakened, many observances
-were retained, which could only be of meaning there. All those who
-fulfilled strictly the requirements of the Law, giving up the tenth
-part of all the fruits which they possessed, formed a sort of order
-(_Chaburah_), the members of which were called fellows (_Chaberim_).
-
-In contradistinction to this order were the peasants--the slaves of
-the soil. A striking picture is given of the neglected mental and
-moral state of these peasants, to which the frequent rebellions during
-the last years of the Jewish state no doubt contributed. They only
-observed such laws as appealed to their rude senses, and knew nothing
-of a higher life. The members of the order would not eat or live with
-them, and even kept aloof from them, that their clothes might not be
-made unclean by contact. It was said by contemporaries that the hatred
-between the two classes was stronger than that felt between Jews and
-heathens.
-
-Thus left to themselves and cut off from the higher classes and from
-all share in communal life, without a leader or adviser, the peasants
-easily fell under the influence of young Christianity. Jesus and his
-disciples had especially turned towards the unprotected class, and had
-there found the greater number of their followers. How flattering it
-must have been to these neglected beings to hear that on their account
-the Messiah had come, that he had been executed so that they might
-have a share in the good things of which they had been deprived, more
-especially of happiness in a better world. The Law deprived them of
-their rights, while Christianity opened the kingdom of heaven to them!
-
-The teachers of the Law, absorbed in the task of upholding the Law and
-Jewish life, overlooked the element from which a mighty foe to the Law
-would arise. Before they realized it they found an enemy on their own
-ground, who was desirous of obtaining the treasure which they had
-watched with such devotion. The development of Christianity as a branch
-of Judaism, drawing sustenance from its roots, constitutes, so long as
-its followers belonged to the Jewish people, a part of Jewish history.
-
-Of the small group of a hundred and twenty persons, who, after the
-death of Jesus, had formed his sole followers, a Christian community
-had been formed, especially through the energy of Paul. He endeavored
-to win over the heathens by the belief in the resurrection of Christ,
-and the Jews by the belief that the actual appearance of the Messiah
-had proved the inefficacy of the Jewish Law. Christianity could no
-longer be contemptuously overlooked, but began to be a new element in
-history. But the doctrine of Paul that the Jewish Law was unnecessary,
-had sown the seed of dissension in primitive Christianity, and the
-followers of Jesus were divided into two great parties, which were
-again divided into smaller sects, with special views and modes of life.
-Sectarianism did not show itself for the first time in Christianity,
-as is supposed, in the second century, but was present at its very
-commencement, and was a necessary result of fundamental differences.
-The two great parties, which were arrayed in sharp opposition, were, on
-the one hand, the _Jewish_ Christians, and, on the other, the _Pagan_
-Christians. The Jewish Christians, belonging to the original community,
-which was composed of Jews, were closely connected with Judaism. They
-observed the Jewish laws in all their details, and pointed to the
-example of Jesus, who himself had lived according to Jewish laws. They
-put these words into the mouth of the founder of the religion, "Sooner
-shall heaven and earth disappear, than that an iota or a grain of the
-Law shall not be fulfilled"; further, "I have not come to destroy the
-Law of Moses, but to fulfil it." They entertained a hostile spirit
-towards the Pagan Christians, and applied to them one of the sayings
-of Jesus, "He who alters any, even the most trivial of the laws, and
-teaches mankind accordingly, shall be the last in the kingdom of
-heaven; but he who obeys them, and teaches them, shall be considered
-great in the kingdom of heaven." Even the devotion of Jewish Christians
-to Jesus was not of a nature to separate them from Judaism. They
-considered him as a holy and morally great man, who was descended in
-the natural way from the race of David. This son of David had advanced
-the kingdom of heaven because he taught men to live modestly and in
-poverty, like the Essenes, from whose midst, in fact, Christianity had
-sprung. From their contempt of riches and preference for poverty they
-bore the name of Ebionites or Ebionim (poor), which was travestied by
-their Christian opponents into a nickname meaning "poor in spirit."
-Fearing to be eclipsed by the other party, the primitive Jewish
-Christian community sent out messengers to the foreign communities, in
-order to impress on them not only the Messianic character of Jesus,
-but also the duty which they owed to the Law. Thus they founded
-Judæo-Christian colonies, of which that at Rome in time became the
-chief.
-
-In opposition to these were the heathen Christians. As the term "Son
-of God," as used in the language of the prophets, contained an idea
-entirely incomprehensible to them, they interpreted it according to
-their own mode of thought, as meaning God's actual Son, a conception
-which was as clear and acceptable to the heathen as it was strange
-and repulsive to the Jews. When once the idea of a Son of God was
-accepted, it became necessary to eliminate from the life of Jesus
-all those traits which appertained to him as a human being, such as
-his natural birth from parents, and thus the statement developed
-that this Son of God was born of a virgin through the Holy Ghost.
-The first great difference between the Ebionites and the heathen
-Christians lay in their views concerning the person of Jesus; the one
-honoring him as the son of David, the other worshiping him as the Son
-of God. The second point turned on the stress to be laid on the laws
-of Judaism. The heathen party paid but little attention to the laws
-relating to the community of property and contempt for riches, which
-were the chief ends of Ebionite Christianity. The heathen or Hellenic
-Christians had their chief seat in Asia Minor, namely, in seven cities,
-which, in the symbolical language of that time, were called the seven
-stars and the seven golden lamps. Ephesus was the chief of these
-heathen Christian congregations. Between the Ebionite and Hellenic
-congregations, which possessed in common only the name of the founder,
-there arose strained relations and a mutual dislike, which became
-more bitter with time. Paul and his disciples were fiercely hated by
-the Jewish Christians. They did not cease, even after his death, to
-use expressions of contempt against the circumcised apostle who only
-spread error. Admiring the unity and solidarity which prevailed in the
-Jamnian Synhedrion, in contrast to the dissensions which reigned in the
-Christian community, a Jewish Christian wrote: "Our fellow-tribesmen
-follow to the present day the same law concerning the unity of God and
-the proper mode of life, and cannot form a different opinion of the
-meaning of the Scriptures. It is only according to prescribed rules
-that they endeavor to bring into agreement the sayings of Scripture,
-but they do not permit a man to teach unless he has learnt beforehand
-how to explain the Holy Scriptures. They have but one God, one Law,
-one hope. If we do not follow the same course, our word of truth will,
-through the variety of opinion, be shattered. This I know, not as a
-prophet, but because I see the root of the evil; for some of the
-heathens have put aside with the Law the prophecies in agreement with
-it, and have adopted the unlawful and absurd teachings of an enemy
-(Paul)." These words are placed in the mouth of Peter, the second of
-the apostles. But the Ebionites not only called Paul's predictions and
-instructions, of which he thought so much, unlawful and absurd, but
-gave him a nickname, which was meant to brand him and his followers.
-They called him Simon Magus, a half-Jewish (Samaritan) wizard, who is
-said to have bewitched all the world with his words. He was said also
-to have been baptized, but it was asserted that he had not received
-his position as apostle through the Holy Ghost from Jesus' disciples,
-but had sought it through bribes to the Ebionite community. The honor
-was not only absolutely refused to him, but Simon Peter had threatened
-him with damnation, for his heart was full of deceit, bitterness, and
-injustice. The freedom from the Jewish Law inaugurated by Paul was
-characterized as unbridled license, as the teaching of Balaam, which
-brought in its train the worship of idols and the pursuit of vice.
-The leaders of the heathens did not hesitate to reply in a similar
-strain, and perhaps repaid their opponents with even greater hatred
-when, to religious opposition, there was added the dislike of the
-Romans and Greeks to the Jews, even after they had become followers
-of Jesus. In the larger Christian congregations the two sects often
-fell into distinct groups and became isolated from each other. In the
-circular letters, which the chiefs of the various Christian parties
-were accustomed to send to the communities, they made use of sharp
-or condemnatory observations against the opponents of the opinions
-which they held to be the only true ones. Even the stories of the
-birth of Jesus, his works, sufferings, death and resurrection, which
-were written down, under the title of the Evangels, only in the first
-quarter of the second century, were colored by the views of the two
-parties, who put teachings and sayings into the mouth of the Founder
-of Christianity, not as he had uttered them, but according to their
-own views. These narratives were favorable to the Law of the Jews and
-to the Jews themselves, when they emanated from the Ebionites, and
-inimical towards both in the accounts written by the followers of Paul,
-the heathen Christians. The evangelists were thus polemical writers.
-
-The division between the Ebionites and the heathen Christians was by
-no means confined to religious belief, but had a political background.
-The Jewish Christians hated Rome, the Romans, the Emperor, and their
-officials as much as the Jews did. One of their prophets (said to be
-John, an imitator of the visions of Daniel), who had composed the first
-Christian Revelation or Apocalypse, was inspired with the deepest
-hatred towards the town of seven hills, the great Babylon. All the
-evil in the world, all the depredations and plagues, all the contempt
-and humiliation were announced and invoked in this first Christian
-Revelation against sinful Rome. They did not imagine that she would,
-at a future time, become the capital of Christianity. On the other
-hand, the followers of Paul not only recommended subjection to the
-Roman Empire, but even declared it to have been appointed by God. The
-Christian party, without any regard for those Jews who were imbued with
-a love of liberty, continually recommended that taxes and tithes should
-be handed to the Romans. This submission to the existing power, this
-coqueting with sinful Rome, which the Jewish Christians thought doomed
-to destruction, was another source of disunion amongst various sects of
-Christians.
-
-Between the Jews and the Jewish Christians there existed at first
-tolerable relations. The former called the latter Sectaries (Minim,
-Minæans). Even the Tanaite and Ebionite teachers mixed freely with
-each other. The strict Rabbi Eliezer, who refused to the heathens
-their share and part in life everlasting, had had an interview with
-the Jewish Christian, Jacob of Kephar-Samia, and quietly listened to
-his version, as he had received it from Jesus. Once, Bendama, a nephew
-of Ishmael, having been bitten by a snake, determined to let himself
-be cured by means of an exorcism uttered by Jacob. The transition from
-Judaism to Christianity was not a striking one. It is probable that
-various members of Jewish families belonged to the Jewish-Christian
-belief without giving rise to dissensions or disturbing the domestic
-peace. It is related of Hanania, the nephew of Joshua, that he had
-joined the Christian congregation at Capernaum; but that his uncle, who
-disapproved, removed him from Christian influences, and sent him to
-Babylon.
-
-But the Jewish Christians, also, did not remain content with the
-simple idea of Jesus as the Messiah. They gradually and unconsciously,
-like the heathen Christians, adorned him with God-like attributes,
-and endowed him with miraculous powers. The more the Jewish-Christian
-conception idealized Jesus, the more it became separated from Judaism,
-with which it still thought itself at one. There arose mixed sects from
-among the Ebionites and Hellenites, and one could perceive a gradual
-descent from the law-abiding Ebionites to the law-despising Antitaktes.
-The Nazarenes came next to the Ebionites. They also acknowledged
-the power of the Jewish law in its entirety; but they explained the
-birth of Jesus in a supernatural manner--from the Virgin and the Holy
-Ghost--and ascribed to him God-like attributes. Other Jewish Christians
-went further than the Nazarenes, and gave up the Law, either in part
-or altogether. After such proceedings, a total breach between Jews
-and Jewish Christians was inevitable. At length a time arrived when
-the latter themselves felt that they no longer belonged to the Jewish
-community, and therefore they entirely withdrew from it. The letter of
-separation which the Jewish community sent to the parent body is yet in
-existence. It calls on the Jewish followers of Jesus to separate wholly
-from their fellow-countrymen. In the Agadic method of that period, the
-Epistle to the Hebrews sets forth that the crucified Messiah is at the
-same time the expiatory sacrifice and the atoning priest. It proves
-from the Law that those sacrifices whose blood was sprinkled in the
-Holy of Holies, were considered the holiest, and the bodies were burnt
-outside the Temple. "Therefore"--thus continues the Jewish-Christian
-monitor--"Jesus, also, that he might sanctify the people through his
-own blood, suffered without the gate (of Jerusalem). Let us, therefore,
-go forth unto him without the camp (the Jewish community), bearing his
-reproach, for we have not here an abiding city (Jerusalem as the symbol
-of the Jewish religion), but we seek after the city which is to come."
-When once a decided step had been taken to divide the Nazarenes and the
-cognate sects from the Jewish community, a deadly hate arose against
-the Jews and Judaism. Like the heathen Christians, the Nazarenes
-reviled the Jews and their ways. As the written Law was holy to them
-also, they directed their shafts against the study of Halachas amongst
-the Tanaites, who in those days were the very life of Judaism. In
-Jewish-Christian, as in Jewish circles, men were accustomed to view
-all events from the point of view of Holy Writ, and to draw counsel
-from the explanations and references in the prophecies. The Nazarenes,
-therefore, applied to the Tanaites, whom they called Deuterotes, and
-more especially to the schools of Hillel and Shammai, a threatening
-verse of Isaiah (viii. 14): "It shall be a stone of stumbling and the
-downfall of both the houses of Israel." "By the two houses the prophet
-meant the two scholastic sects of Shammai and Hillel, from whose midst
-the Scribes and Pharisees had arisen, and whose successors were Akiba,
-Jochanan, the son of Zakkai, then Eliezer and Delphon (Tarphon), and
-then again Joseph the Galilean and Joshua. These are the two houses
-which do not recognize the Savior; and this shall, therefore, bring
-them to downfall and destruction." Yet another verse from the same
-prophet, which runs, "They mock the people through the word" (Is. xxix.
-21), the Nazarenes applied to the teachers of the Mishna, "who contemn
-the nation through their bad traditions." They place taunts in the
-mouth of Jesus against the teachers of the Law, which might, perhaps,
-apply to one or another of them, but which as applied to the whole body
-were a calumnious libel. They make him say, "On the seat of Moses (the
-Synhedrion) sit the Scribes and Pharisees; all that they say you must
-follow and do; but their works ye shall not do, for they speak and do
-not act in accordance.... All their works they do so that people may
-notice them. They use wide phylacteries and fringes on their garments.
-They love to have the chief place at meals and in the synagogues, to
-be greeted by other men in the public places, and to be called Rabbi,
-Rabbi.... Woe to you, ye hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees, who devour
-the substance of the widow under the pretense that ye pray long;
-therefore shall ye receive punishment; ... woe to you, that ye tithe
-the herbs of the ground--both dill and cummin, and that ye leave undone
-the weightier matters of the Law, judgment, mercy and faith. The one
-must be done, but the other should not be omitted. You blind souls who
-strain at gnats and swallow camels, ... who cleanse the outside of the
-cups and platters and leave them within full to the brim with extortion
-and corruption."
-
-Thus the leaders of the Jewish Christians were opposed to the Judaism
-of the Torah, and thus, without actually desiring it, they played into
-the hands of the Hellenes. The teaching of Paul thus gained more and
-more ground, and came at last to be considered as true Christianity, as
-the catholic, the universal religion. It was, therefore, natural that
-the various sects of Ebionites and Nazarenes should gradually disappear
-amongst the ever-increasing numbers of the heathen Christians, and
-that they should become few in numbers and miserable in condition--an
-object of contempt both to Jews and Christians. A peculiar phenomenon
-was offered in this contest of opinions, that the further the Jewish
-Christians departed from the Law, the nearer did the Hellenes approach
-to it. In the various epistles and letters which the Christian teachers
-sent to the congregations, or to their various representatives, they
-could not sufficiently denounce those who sought to make way for the
-Law and the Jewish teachings.
-
-Meanwhile, Christianity developed a number of sects with most curious
-titles, and of the most eccentric tendency. Half a century after the
-destruction of the Temple, the two forms of religion in the Old World
-(Judaism and Paganism) underwent a transformation and partial union.
-Judaism being without a state or point of centralization, endeavored
-to consolidate itself, whilst the Pagan world, in the full flush of
-its power, became disintegrated, and a disturbance was caused in men's
-minds which led to the most extraordinary results.
-
-To the two elements borrowed from Judaism and Christianity there were
-added others from the Judæan-Alexandrian system of Philo, from Grecian
-philosophy, and, in fact, from all corners of the earth, whose source
-can hardly be determined. It was a confusion of the most opposite modes
-of thought and teachings, Jewish and heathen, old and new, true and
-false, the lofty and the low, all in close juxtaposition and fusion.
-It seemed as though on the advent of Christianity into the world,
-all the most decided teachings of ancient times had bestowed a part
-of their contents on it, in order to obtain thereby importance and
-duration. The old question--whence did evil arise in this world--and
-how its existence could be reconciled with the idea of a good and just
-providence, occupied in the liveliest manner all minds which had been
-made acquainted with Jewish dogmas by means of the Christian apostles.
-It was only through a new conception of God that it seemed possible
-to solve this question, and this new belief was pieced together from
-the most varied religious systems. The higher knowledge of God, His
-relation to the world and to religious and moral life, was called
-Gnosis; those who thought that they possessed it called themselves
-Gnostics, and understood thereby highly gifted beings, who had
-penetrated the secrets of creation.
-
-The Gnostics, or more correctly, the Theosophists, who hovered between
-Judaism, Christianity and Paganism, and who borrowed their views and
-forms of thought from these three circles, were drawn also from the
-adherents of these three religions. So powerful must have been the
-charm of the Gnostic teaching, that the authorities of the Synagogue
-and the Church enacted numberless rules and ordinances against it,
-and were yet powerless to prevent Gnostic teachings and formulæ
-from gaining ground amongst the Jews and the Christians. Gnosticism
-spread throughout Judæa, Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, and flourished
-especially in Rome--the capital of the world--where all religious views
-and creeds found followers. The language of the Gnostics was of a
-mystic-allegorical character, often borrowed from Jewish and Christian
-confessions of creed, but treated in an entirely different manner. Some
-of the Gnostic sects exemplified the peculiarities of the tendency
-of those times. One sect called themselves Cainites, for no other
-reason than that its disciples, in defiance of the Biblical narrative,
-regarded the fratricide Cain as superior to Abel. The Cainites also
-honored the depraved Sodomites, Esau, in spite of his savagery, and
-the ambitious Korah. The Ophites and Naasites were filled with similar
-love of opposition to the Biblical accounts, but they assigned to it
-a better motive than that of the Cainites. They took their name from
-the Greek word Ophis and the Hebrew Nahash (Naas) serpent, and honored
-this animal very highly, because in the Bible the serpent is considered
-as the origin of evil, and, according to the ideas of those times, was
-looked upon as the symbol of evil, and as the form taken by Satan. The
-Ophites gave thanks to the serpent, by whose means the first human pair
-were led into disobedience against God, and thus to the recognition of
-good and evil and of consciousness in general.
-
-Varied and contradictory as were the tendencies of the Gnostic sects,
-they yet had doctrines in common. The fundamental Gnostic doctrines
-concerned the actual knowledge of God, which its founders developed
-in opposition to the idea of God formulated by Judaism. The Gnostics
-pictured to themselves the Divine Being as divided into two principles
-of a God and a Creator, the one subordinate to the other. God they
-called Silence or Rest, and depicted him as enthroned in the empyrean
-heights, without relation to the world. His fundamental attributes
-were grace, love, mercy. From him proceeded emanations which revealed
-a portion of his essence; these emanations were called æons (worlds).
-Beneath this highest of all beings they set the Creator of the world
-(Demiurge), whom they also called Ruler. To him they assigned the
-work of creation; he directed the world, he had delivered the people
-of Israel, and given them the Law. As to the highest God appertain
-love and mercy, which harmonize with freedom, so to the fundamental
-character of the world's creator appertain justice and severity, which
-he causes to be felt through laws and obligations. According to the
-usual practice of the age, the Gnostics found a passage of Scripture to
-illustrate these relations between the God of justice and the God of
-grace. Isaiah vii. 6 reads: "We will go up to Judah, and instal another
-king, the son of the good God (Tab-El)." They depict the Creator as
-forming the world out of primeval matter by means of wisdom (Achamot).
-"Wisdom," as it is expressed in their allegorical language, "became
-allied with primeval matter which existed from eternity, and a variety
-of forms were brought forth; but wisdom became thereby bedimmed and
-darkened." According to this exposition, the Gnostics assumed that
-there were three original Beings--the highest God, the Creator, and
-Primeval Matter, and from these they developed the various conditions
-and stages in the spiritual and actual world. All that is good and
-noble is accounted an emanation from God; justice and law come from the
-Creator; but what is imperfect, bad, or crippled in this world is the
-result of the primeval matter.
-
-In correspondence with this Gnostic division of the three powers of the
-world, there are also amongst mankind three classes or castes, which
-are in the service of these three principles. There are spiritual men
-(Pneumatics); they are as a rule and law to themselves, and do not
-need guidance or guardianship; to this class belong the prophets, and
-the possessors of the true Gnosis. There are, secondly, material men
-(Psychics), who are in the service of the lawgiving Demiurge; they
-stand under the yoke of the Law, by means of which they keep themselves
-aloof from what is worldly, without, however, rising to the height of
-spiritual men. Lastly, there are earthly men (Choics), who, like the
-lower animals, are bound in the fetters of earth and matter. As types
-of these three classes of men the Gnostics gave the three sons of Adam;
-Seth was the origin of the Pneumatic, Abel the type of the law-abiding
-man, and Cain the picture of the earthly man. Some of the Gnostics also
-classified the three religions according to this scheme--Christianity
-was the offspring of the highest God, Judaism of the Demiurge, and,
-lastly, Paganism was a product of earthly matter.
-
-A by no means insignificant number of Jews allowed themselves to be
-blinded by the uncertain light of the new teachings, in which truth
-and falsehood were so wonderfully commingled, and to be thus drawn
-away from the parent body. The secession of one man, Elisha ben Abuya,
-subsequently had very sad results. The reasons which induced this
-teacher of the Law, who was not behind his fellows in knowledge, to
-fall away, give proof of the important influence exercised by the
-false teachings of theosophy on Jewish circles. Legend has, however,
-embellished the story, in order to explain how one who was versed in
-the Law could take so strange a step as to despise the Law. It is not
-to be doubted that Elisha ben Abuya was well acquainted with Gnostic
-literature, as also with Grecian songs, and with the writings of the
-Minæans. It is also certain that he knew of the fundamental doctrine of
-the Gnostics, which represented God as a dual being, and that, like the
-Gnostics, he despised the Jewish Law. He is also said to have adopted
-practically the evil Gnostic morality, and to have given himself up to
-a dissolute life. Having thus fallen away from Judaism he received, as
-a mark of his apostasy, the name Acher (another), as though by going
-over to other principles he had really become another man. Acher was
-considered in Jewish circles as a striking example of apostasy--as a
-man who employed his knowledge of the Law to persecute it the more
-energetically.
-
-Against such incursions as were committed by Christianity Judaism had
-to defend itself, in order to maintain its existence and continuance.
-Inimical powers thronged its Temple, desecrated the holy things, dimmed
-its clear belief in God, falsified and misapplied its teachings,
-turned away its disciples, and filled them with hate and contempt for
-what they had formerly honored. The time of the Hellenists in the
-Maccabean period, who had first brought dissension into the house of
-Israel, seemed to have returned with renewed horror. Once again sons
-conspired against their own mother. The narrow circle of the Tanaites
-felt the danger most severely; it hoped for nothing good from the
-teachings of the Minæans, and recognized that their writings exercised
-a seductive influence on the masses. Tarphon (Tryphon) spoke of
-this dangerous influence with the deepest conviction. "The Evangels
-(Gilion), and all the writings of the Minæans deserve to be burnt,
-even with the holy name of God, which occurs therein; for Paganism is
-less dangerous than the Jewish-Christian sects, because the former
-does not recognize the truths of Judaism from want of knowledge,
-whilst the others, on the contrary, deny what they fully know." He
-would therefore rather flee for safety to a heathen temple than to the
-meeting-house of the Minæans. Ishmael, whose character was less violent
-than that of Tarphon, displayed the same feeling against that Jewish
-Christianity which had shown itself so false to its origin. He said
-that one need not hesitate to burn the name of God in the Evangels,
-for these writings only stir up anger between the Jewish people and
-its God. Those who professed Christianity were also reproached with
-seeking to damage their fellow-countrymen with the Roman authorities
-by tale-bearing and accusations. Perhaps by this means the Jewish
-Christians sought to recommend themselves to their superiors, and to
-show that they had no connection with the Jews. Their contemporaries
-therefore always considered the name Minæans as meaning tale-bearers.
-
-It is related as a fact that high officers of one of the emperors,
-probably Domitian, came into the school of Gamaliel, in order to
-find out what instruction was given with regard to the heathens. The
-Synhedrion of Jamnia must have occupied itself with the question
-what position the Jewish Christians should occupy in the Jewish
-community, and whether they should in fact be considered as Jews at
-all. There is no resolution of the Synhedrion extant with regard to
-the Minæans, but the regulations which were introduced with regard to
-them give evidence as to its existence. An actual line of separation
-was drawn between Jews and Jewish Christians; the latter were placed
-below the sect of Samaritans, and in some respects below heathens.
-It was forbidden to partake of meat, bread, and wine with the Jewish
-Christians, as had been the case shortly before the destruction of
-the Temple with regard to the heathens, and to the same end--that of
-preventing closer intercourse with them. The Christian writings were
-condemned, and were put on a par with books of magic. Even to enter
-into business relations, or to receive menial services, was strictly
-forbidden, especially the use of magical cures which the Christians
-performed on animals or men in the name of Jesus was prohibited. A
-form of curse (which bore the name of Birchath ha-Minim) was likewise
-employed against the Minæans in the daily prayers, as also against
-the informers. The Patriarch, Gamaliel, confided the composition of
-this prayer to Samuel the Younger. This circumstance confirmed the
-idea that the various ordinances against the Jewish Christians, even
-if not proceeding direct from the Patriarch, yet had his consent.
-The form of curse appears to have been a sort of trial of faith in
-order to recognize those who secretly adhered to Christianity. For,
-in connection with it, it was decreed that whosoever refrained at the
-public prayers from pronouncing the curse, or from praying for the
-restoration of the Jewish State, was to be dismissed from his office
-of precentor. The Synhedrion published all the enactments against the
-Jewish Christian sects by circular letters to the communities. On the
-part of the Christians the Jews were accused of cursing Jesus three
-times a day--namely, at the morning, afternoon, and evening prayers.
-This reproach is quite unfounded, and, like many another made against
-the Jews, is based on a misunderstanding. The curse uttered in the
-prayers was not directed against the founder of the Christian religion,
-nor against the entire body of Christians, but against the Minæan
-informers.
-
-The separation of the Jewish Christian sects from the Jewish community
-did not efface the results of the influence which for a time they had
-exercised. Certain Gnostic, that is to say semi-Christian views, had
-found their way into Jewish circles. Ideas regarding the primeval
-forces, the æons, the predestined differences of caste among men, even
-the teaching as to the two-fold existence of God as a God of kindness
-and a God of justice, had been adopted by many, and had become so
-firmly fixed as to find expression in the prayers. Certain expressions
-were employed in the prayers which bore reference to the Gnostic or
-Christian ideas. Forms of prayer as, "The good praise thee, O God; Thy
-name is named for good"; the repetition of the expression, "Thee, O
-God, we praise"; the use of two names,--all these bore a reference to
-the Theosophic theory, which dwelt on the grace of God at the expense
-of His justice, and thus endangered the fundamental principles of
-Judaism. An impetus was given to this train of thought by researches
-into the chapter concerning the creation of the world, and the throne
-of God as described in the Prophet Ezekiel, (_Maas'se Bereshith_,
-_Maas'se Merkaba_). The exploration of this dubitable ground gave
-full scope to the imagination, and, with the assistance of the Agada,
-allusions were detected and made to apply to any subject, however far
-it might lie outside the true meaning of the text. Researches into such
-themes, the darker the more attractive, became a favorite occupation;
-such profound meditations, in the mystic language of metaphor, were
-called "entering into paradise." Various teachers of the Law are said
-to have been admitted to this higher wisdom, but it was not denied that
-this occupation brought with it many dangers for the Jewish religion.
-These dangers are hinted at in the statement that of those who devoted
-themselves to the study, Ben Soma and Ben Asai brought upon themselves
-respectively the one an attack of madness, the other early death, Acher
-fell away from Judaism, and Akiba alone fortunately escaped the danger,
-as, in spite of his theosophic researches, he yet remained on the
-territory of Judaism.
-
-In point of fact Akiba had formed the purest conception of God, of his
-rule, and of the duty of man; and thus offered a sharp contrast to
-the ideas of the Gnostics. He uttered a saying which is noteworthy on
-account of its comprehensiveness and its brevity. He said: "There is a
-providence in all things; free will is given to man; the world is ruled
-by kindness, and the merit of man consists in the multitude of good
-deeds" (that is to say, not merely in knowledge). Every word in this
-saying bears witness against the errors of that time. As the far-seeing
-Tanaites did not shut their eyes to the dangers arising to Judaism from
-these inquiries into the highest truths, they made preparations to
-avert the same. Akiba especially insisted on placing boundaries to the
-unregulated theories which led to a falling-off from Judaism and to
-the wildest immorality. He was of opinion that the passages concerning
-the theory of creation and the cloud-chariot of Ezekiel should not be
-expounded before the whole people, but should be reserved for a few
-chosen hearers. Those who could be initiated into higher wisdom must
-have the knowledge to understand hints and dark sayings, and, above
-all, must have passed their thirtieth year. Akiba endeavored to put an
-end to the study of literature which was opposed to Judaism, by denying
-to those who took part in it a portion in the future world, as was
-decreed against those who denied the resurrection and the divinity of
-the Jewish Law. The introduction of such forms of prayer as bore the
-impress of the teachings of the Minæans was wholly repressed. These
-measures against the introduction of Gnostic Christian theories bore
-fruit; the pure beliefs of Judaism, with regard to God, His relation to
-the world, and the moral conditions of men, remained in Jewish circles
-untainted, as fruitful ideas for the future. To the Tanaites of this
-period must be given the credit that, like the prophets of old, they
-protected Judaism from the falsehoods and errors which threatened to
-overwhelm it. Following the natural instinct of self-preservation,
-they, on the one hand, shut out the Jewish Christian sects from the
-Jewish community, and, on the other hand, strengthened Judaism, and
-armed it with a strong power, which upheld it in the storms which,
-through centuries, threatened it with destruction.
-
-Thus strengthened and concentrated, Judaism was enabled to exercise
-some external influence. If Christianity, which had sprung from such
-slight elements, was proud of the vast number of Pagans who had joined
-it, and given up their national deities for the sake of an unknown
-God, Judaism had yet more reason to be proud. A great part of the
-conquests which Christianity gained in the Pagan world were due to
-the Jewish religion, whose fundamental truths and moral teachings had
-often facilitated the conversion of the heathens. It was only through
-the truths of Judaism that those apostles who desired to convert
-the heathens laid bare the inconsistent perversions of the Greeks
-and Romans, for they made use of the words of scorn employed by the
-prophets against the worship of idols, and the immorality arising
-therefrom. But Judaism celebrated its independent triumphs over
-Paganism, which appear the more brilliant when it is remembered that it
-lacked all the means and advantages which facilitated the conversions
-from Paganism to Christianity. The Christians sent out zealous
-messengers, and, following the example of Paul, sought to make converts
-by eloquence and so-called miraculous cures. They imposed no heavy
-duties on the newly-made converts, and even permitted them to retain
-their former habits of life, and, in part, their old views, without
-separating themselves from their family circle, their relations, or
-from intercourse with those dear to them.
-
-With Judaism it was different; it possessed no eloquent proselytizing
-apostle; on the contrary it dissuaded those who were willing to come
-over, by reminding them of the heavy ordeal through which they would
-have to pass. Jewish proselytes had to overcome immense difficulties;
-they were not accounted converts unless they submitted to the operation
-of circumcision; they had to separate from their families and from the
-friends of their youth in eating and drinking and in daily intercourse.
-Nevertheless, it is an extraordinary fact that during the half-century
-after the destruction of the Jewish State, there were everywhere
-conversions of heathens to Judaism, both in the East and in Asia
-Minor, but especially in Rome. The question arose as to whether the
-Ammonites could be admitted to the community, or whether the Biblical
-command with regard to the Moabites and Ammonites, which forbade their
-admission into a congregation of God, still held good. Further, a
-contest arose as to whether proselytes from Tadmor (Palmyra) could be
-admitted, the prejudice against them being strong. An entire portion
-of the Law treats of proselytes (_Masechet-Gerim_), and in the daily
-prayers the true converts were included (_Gere-ha-Zedek_). Several
-converted Pagans acquired a knowledge of the Halachas. Akiba had two
-proselytes amongst his disciples.
-
-The greatest number of converts were to be found in Rome, and this in
-spite of the hatred felt for the Jews by the Romans. The clear-headed
-historian, Tacitus, could not explain the fact that the Romans of
-his time could submit to circumcision, could renounce their country,
-disregard their parents, their children and relations, in order to
-go over to Judaism. The severe laws of the Emperor Domitian against
-proselytes suggest an inference as to their frequent occurrence.
-Josephus relates, as an eye-witness, that in his time, amongst the
-heathens, there arose great enthusiasm for Jewish customs, and that
-many of the people observed the Feast of Dedication (Chanuka), the
-Sabbath, and the dietary laws, and that a strong feeling existed in
-favor of the Jewish religion. "If each man thinks of his own country
-and his own family," says Josephus, "he will find that my assertion is
-correct. Even if we do not fully value the excellence of our laws, we
-should respect them, on account of the numbers of people who respect
-them." Different opinions were held as to the admission of proselytes
-by the severe Eliezer and the mild Joshua. Whilst the former held
-circumcision to be absolutely necessary for admission to Judaism,
-the latter considered a baptism, that is, bathing in the presence of
-qualified witnesses, to be sufficient. The milder view seems to have
-prevailed. Many of those Romans who joined Judaism, probably did not
-undergo the operation. The historian, Josephus,--who, in his "Apology
-for Judaism and the Jewish Race," and, perhaps, also by his intimacy
-with the higher grades of Roman society, endeavored to gain over the
-heathens to the Jewish religion, and was, probably, successful in his
-attempts,--did not consider circumcision as imperative.
-
-The pride of Judaism was the proselyte Akylas (Aquila). He came from
-the district of Pontus, and owned rich estates. Well acquainted with
-the Greek language, and with philosophy, Akylas, at a mature age,
-forsook the heathen customs in order to join the heathen Christians,
-who were proud of such a disciple. Soon, however, he gave up
-Christianity, in order to go over to Judaism. This secession was as
-painful an event to the Christians as his former conversion had been
-a joyful one, and they spread evil reports concerning him. As a Jew,
-Akylas associated with Gamaliel, Eliezer and Joshua, and with Akiba,
-whose disciple he became. The proselyte of Pontus became strongly
-attached to Judaism, and observed a yet higher degree of Levitical
-purity than even the Patriarch. After the death of his father, when
-the heritage was divided between him and his brothers, he would not
-take the equivalent for the idols which became his brothers' share, but
-threw the money into the sea.
-
-Akylas became celebrated through his new Greek translation of the Holy
-Scriptures. The license with which the Christians treated the old Greek
-version appears to have awakened him to the necessity of a simple but
-fixed form of translation. As the Christians read the Holy Scriptures
-at their service, and employed the Alexandrian translation of the
-so-called Seventy (Septuaginta), they were anxious to deduce from this
-text numerous references to Christ. They changed various sentences and
-added others, in order to obtain the desired prophecies about Christ
-from the Greek text, which they held sacred. Several passages may be
-found employed by the teachers of the Church in confirmation of the
-teachings of Christ, which cannot be found either in the Hebrew or
-in the original form of the Greek text. The Gnostic sects, for their
-part, did not fail to make the needful additions, so as to give their
-teachings the authority of the Bible. The school of one Artemion is
-expressly named as having defaced the Greek translation. The Jews, on
-the other hand, startled at the alterations made in order to confirm
-the Christian point of view, did not hesitate to introduce changes of
-their own in order to remove all apparent allusions to Christ. The
-Septuagint was, therefore, the meeting-place for violent encounters,
-and the traces of the contest are plainly to be seen in the maimed
-condition of the text.
-
-A good Greek translation of the Bible was likewise a necessity for
-every Greek-speaking Jew. At that time it was a universal custom to
-interpret the portions read from the Bible into the language of the
-country. On these grounds, Akylas, who had a perfect knowledge of
-the Hebrew and Greek languages, began a new translation, in order to
-counteract the unlicensed violence done to the text. For this purpose,
-while translating, he kept strictly to the original Hebrew text, and
-with excessive caution rendered word for word, without regard to the
-fact that thereby the sense became incomprehensible to the Greek
-readers. The literalness of Akylas' translation, which has become
-proverbial, extended to such particles as have a twofold sense in
-Hebrew, and these ambiguities he desired to retain in his rendering. He
-wished to make the meaning contained in the Hebrew perceptible in its
-Greek form. It was known in Greek as the "Kat' akribeian" (the perfect
-fitting). This translation, on account of its exactness, set at rest
-all doubts, and comforted the consciences of the pious. The teachers of
-the Law used it universally for public readings. The Ebionites, to whom
-the older translation was also objectionable, employed that of Akylas
-in their services. An Aramæan translation was made partly from that of
-Akylas on account of its simplicity, and was called Targum Onkelos.
-
-A great sensation was at that time created in Rome by the conversion to
-Judaism of Flavius Clemens and his wife Flavia Domitilla. Flavius was
-a cousin of the Emperor Domitian; he was also a member of the Senate,
-and Consul. His wife was also a near relative of the Emperor. Their
-two sons had been named as Cæsars by Domitian, therefore one of them
-would have become emperor. What a brilliant prospect for the Jews that
-a near relative of the Emperor Titus should reconstruct the Temple
-which the latter had destroyed! Although Clemens probably kept his
-adherence to Judaism secret, yet it was known to the Jews in Rome, and
-to the leaders in Palestine. On receipt of the news, together with the
-information that a decree of extermination had been passed against the
-Jews residing in the provinces of the Roman Empire, the four chiefs,
-the Patriarch Gamaliel and his coadjutor Eliezer, the son of Azariah,
-Joshua and Akiba, set out on the journey to Rome. When not far from
-the capital of the world they heard the thousand-voiced noises of the
-city, and were painfully affected when they thought of the desolate
-silence which reigned on the Mount in Jerusalem. They shed tears at the
-contrast. Akiba alone maintained his cheerful demeanor, and consoled
-his sorrowing friends with the words: "Why do you weep? If God does so
-much for His enemies, what will He not do for His favorites?"
-
-In Rome they were treated with great reverence, both by the Jews
-and the proselytes, and they had an opportunity of answering many
-religious questions. But they had arrived at an unfavorable moment.
-Domitian was at the height of his bloodthirsty tyranny.
-
-The period of favor towards the Jews on the part of the Flavian house
-was at an end. Even Titus, Domitian's predecessor, had already wiped
-away from his mind the recollection of all he owed to them. His love
-for the Jewish Princess Berenice he suppressed. When Titus became sole
-ruler, Berenice journeyed a second time to Rome to remind him of his
-promise of marriage; but she came too soon or too late. Titus at that
-time played the part of a reformed sinner, and wished to show the
-Romans that he had put aside the past. He banished Berenice from Rome,
-who, as was said, left, but with a broken heart. Berenice personified
-the relation of Rome to the Jewish people, who were first in high
-favor, and afterwards cast into banishment and misery. It is not known
-for how long a time the Jewish Princess survived her disgrace. Titus
-showed no more gratitude to her brother, Agrippa II. He left to Agrippa
-his kingdom or principality as it had hitherto existed, but did not
-enlarge it as his father had done. Domitian, the third of the Flavians,
-had no reason for displaying any favor to Agrippa. When the latter,
-the last of the Judæan kings, died (92), the Emperor appropriated his
-territories, and made them into a province of Syria.
-
-Domitian, who, like Titus at his accession, had promised to bring back
-a golden era, became, during the course of his government, just as
-sinful and bloodthirsty as Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero. He was worthy
-of his nation and his times, of which the poet Juvenal said--"It would
-be difficult to avoid satirizing them." The Jews had to suffer bitterly
-under this reign of blood. Domitian insisted on the payment of the
-Jews' poll tax, and levied it in the most humiliating manner, and
-under circumstances of peculiar severity. Severe, however, as he was
-towards the Jews, Domitian was doubly hard towards the proselytes, and
-suffered them to feel the full weight of his tyrannical power. Those
-who were accused of a bias for Judaism were, by the emperor's command,
-dragged before a tribunal, and if their fault was proved against them,
-they were visited with the full punishment of the Roman law against
-irreligion. Proselytes were, therefore, despoiled of their property,
-sent into exile, or condemned to death. Tacitus relates, in his
-inimitable style, that executions not only took place from time to time
-and at long intervals, but that they occurred in continuous succession.
-At this time (95) Flavius Clemens was condemned to death, Domitian
-having heard of his leaning towards Judaism. Neither his relationship
-with Domitian nor his high rank could protect him. The four teachers
-of the Law from Palestine, who had come to Rome on his account, and
-who expected a brighter future from him, were witnesses of his death.
-His wife, Domitilla, who was exiled to the island of Pandataria, is
-said to have declared to the teachers of the Law that Clemens had been
-circumcised before his death.
-
-Josephus, the Jewish historian, with his friendly feelings towards
-Rome, appears to have taken part in the lawsuit against Flavius Clemens
-and the other Jewish proselytes. He stood in high favor with the
-Emperor Domitian and the Empress Domitia; but owing to the position
-which, during the last Jewish war, he assumed towards the Romans,
-he became so hated by his countrymen that constant complaints about
-him were made to the emperor. Once he was even accused of treason to
-Domitian by the teacher of his own son. In his spare time Josephus
-occupied himself with a comprehensive work on Jewish history from its
-commencement to the period before the war, and this he completed in
-twenty books in the thirteenth year of Domitian's reign (93). With
-much trouble and at great expense he had collected and used non-Jewish
-sources, had brought them into unison with the historical accounts of
-Holy Writ, and thus erected a national monument, by which the deeds
-and thoughts of the Jewish nation became known to the cultured world.
-But soon after he erected for himself a monument of shame. Justus
-of Tiberias, his former enemy, had meanwhile written his history of
-the Judæan wars, in which he represented Josephus as an enemy to the
-Romans, a statement which might have led to unpleasant consequences.
-Josephus felt that his honor was attacked and his life threatened. Not
-much was needed for the suspicious tyrant Domitian to cast a man from
-the highest grade of his favor to the abyss of a disgraceful fall.
-In order to justify himself against the accusations of his enemy,
-Justus of Tiberias, Josephus appended to his history a description of
-the events of his own life, describing his conduct during the war.
-To clear himself from the imputations cast on him, he represents his
-own character in a most unfavorable light, as though he had always
-held with the Romans and betrayed his own people. But in his fourth
-work, published in 93 or 94, Josephus, though he could not entirely
-redeem his character, yet clearly evinced his deep love for his
-religion and his race, and thereby earned for himself the thanks of
-his people. In two books against the Greeks and against Apion, he
-opposes, with deep conviction, the accusations made against Judaism
-and the Jewish race, and upholds the religious and moral superiority
-of the Jewish law. These two books are probably intended to win over
-enlightened heathens to Judaism. Josephus points out with joy that
-many of the heathens amongst the Greeks and Romans already honored the
-God of Israel and followed His laws. These books were dedicated to
-his friend Epaphroditos, a learned Greek, who was strongly inclined
-towards Judaism. No doubt Josephus endeavored personally to win over
-proselytes. He must have associated with Flavius Clemens, as he lived
-in the Flavian palace. When Domitian carried into effect the sentences
-pronounced against his cousin Clemens and the followers of Judaism,
-it is probable that a prosecution was commenced against Josephus for
-having led them astray. A philosophical essay concerning the laws of
-Judaism, which he promised to publish in his last books, remained
-unwritten, as his thread of life was cut short probably by Domitian.
-The Jewish patriots, however, were so embittered against Josephus that
-they did not express any sorrow at his death, which was probably that
-of a martyr. Nor was it referred to by the four teachers of the Law,
-who left oral traditions as to the death of Flavius Clemens.
-
-A complete contrast to the character of Domitian was presented by his
-successor Nerva. Just, wise and humane, he was only wanting in the
-freshness and courage of youth, in order to give effect to his wise
-ordinances, and to restore the Roman empire, shattered as it had been
-by Domitian's cruelty and caprice.
-
-The Jews and proselytes immediately felt the effect of the change
-of ruler. During the short period of his reign--which only lasted
-sixteen months, from September 96, till January 98--Nerva, who had
-to put an end to various perversions and abuses in the constitution,
-yet found time to occupy himself with the Jews. He permitted every
-man to acknowledge his faith as a Jew, without thereby incurring the
-punishment of an atheist. The Jews' tax also, if not quite set aside,
-was levied with kindness and forethought, and accusations against those
-who avoided this tax were not listened to. This act of toleration
-on Nerva's part appears to have been of so great importance that a
-coin was struck in order to commemorate it. This coin, which is still
-preserved, represents on the one side the Emperor Nerva, and on the
-other a palm-tree (symbol for Jews), with the inscription, "Fisci
-Judaici calumnia sublata" ("Accusations on account of the Jews' tax
-are at an end"). It is probable that the four Tanaites, who were still
-in Rome at the time of the death of Domitian and the accession of
-Nerva, had furthered this favorable turn of events by opposing the
-complaints against Judaism, and by inducing those in power to form a
-better opinion of it. This reign, which was of but too short duration,
-terminated the period of favor shown towards the Jews, and with Nerva's
-successor there began afresh the old hatred between the Romans and the
-Jews, and soon both nations again stood, sword in hand, arrayed against
-one another.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV.
-
-REVOLT OF THE JEWS AGAINST TRAJAN AND HIS SUCCESSORS.
-
-    Trajan and Asia--Revolt of the Jews--Hadrian--The Jewish
-    Sibylline Books--The Attempted Rebuilding of the Temple--The
-    Ordinances of Usha--Bar-Cochba--Akiba's Part in the
-    War--Bar-Cochba's Victories--Suppression of the Revolt--Siege
-    and Fall of Bethar.
-
-    96-138 C. E.
-
-
-Nerva had chosen the Spaniard Ulpianus Trajan as his successor.
-This emperor, who was nearly sixty years old, set about realizing
-his favorite idea of annexing the territories lying between the
-Euphrates and Tigris and the Indus and Ganges to the Roman Empire, so
-as to win laurels similar to those obtained by Alexander the Great.
-In the Parthian lands he had an easy conquest; for this ancient
-kingdom--partly of Greek and partly of Persian origin--was torn
-asunder by the various pretenders to the throne, and offered but
-little resistance to the conqueror. Only the Jews, who lived in great
-numbers in this district, under the leadership of the Prince of the
-Captivity, possessed a certain amount of independence, and offered
-resistance to the Roman conqueror. The Babylonian Jews beheld in Trajan
-the descendant of those who had destroyed the Temple and condemned
-their brethren to miserable slavery, and armed themselves as if for a
-holy war. The town of Nisibis, which had always possessed a numerous
-Jewish population, displayed such obstinate resistance that it could be
-subdued only after a lengthy siege. The district of Adiabene, on the
-center branch of the Tigris, obeyed a ruler whose ancestors, scarcely
-a century before, had adopted Judaism. Mebarsapes, who was now on the
-throne of Adiabene, was, perhaps, also inclined towards Judaism. He
-fought bravely against Trajan, but was overcome by the Roman forces.
-Trajan, unlike any of his predecessors, witnessed after a very short
-space of time the glorious results of his campaign. Conquests seem to
-have met him half-way. When he withdrew into his winter quarters in
-Antioch (115-116), in order to receive homage, the chief campaign was
-almost at an end. In the spring he again set forth, in order to crush
-any opposition, and to carry into effect the long-cherished plan of
-conquering the Jews. But hardly had Trajan set out when the conquered
-people on the twin rivers revolted again. The Jews had a great share
-in this uprising; they spread anarchy through a great portion of
-the Roman Empire. Not alone the Babylonian Jews, but also the Jews
-of Egypt, Cyrenaica, Lybia, and those in the island of Cyprus were
-seized with the idea of shaking off the Roman yoke. As if possessed
-by an overwhelming power, the Jews of this far-lying district seized
-their weapons, as though to show the enemy that their power was not
-destroyed nor their courage broken, and that they were not willing to
-share the weakness and degradation of the times, and to sink without an
-effort amongst the masses of enslaved nations. Such unanimous action
-presupposes a concerted plan and a powerful leader. From Judæa the
-rebellion spread through the neighboring countries to the Euphrates
-and Egypt (116-117). In half a century after the fall of the Jewish
-State a new race had arisen, who inherited the zealous spirit of their
-fathers, and who bore in their hearts a vivid remembrance of their
-former independence. The hope of the Tanaite teacher, "Soon the Temple
-will be rebuilt," had kept alive a love of freedom in the Jewish
-youths, who had not lost the habit of using weapons in the schools.
-A legend relates that Trajan's wife (Plotina) had given birth to a
-son on the ninth of Ab, and lost it on the feast of Dedication, which
-the Jews kept in memory of the victory of the Hasmonæans, and she
-had interpreted their sorrowing as the hatred of an enemy, and their
-rejoicing as joy for her loss. The Empress therefore wrote to Trajan,
-"Instead of subduing the barbarians, you should rather punish the Jews
-who revolt against you."
-
-In Judæa the leaders of the rebellion appear to have been two
-courageous men from Alexandria, Julianus and Pappus. The former seems
-to have been the Alabarch of Alexandria, or his relative, and a
-descendant of the celebrated Alexander Lysimachus. He and his companion
-enjoyed a princely position amongst the Jews. The meeting place of the
-revolutionary troops in Judæa was the plain of Rimmon, or the great
-plain of Jezreel. There exists but a dim picture of the proceedings,
-and only the issue of the revolt is known with certainty. In Cyrene,
-whose Jewish inhabitants had been encouraged to revolt against the
-Romans immediately after their defeat, the rebellion was at its height.
-They had a leader named Andreias, also called Lucuas, one of whose
-names was, perhaps, of an allegorical nature.
-
-The Egyptian Jews, who in former times had been loyal to the Romans,
-this time made common cause with the rebels, and conducted operations
-as in every other revolution. They first attacked the neighboring
-towns, killed the Romans and Greeks, and avenged the destruction of
-their nationality on their nearest enemies. Encouraged by the result,
-they collected in troops and attacked the Roman army under the Roman
-general Lupus, who commanded the legions against the Jews. In the
-first encounter the wild enthusiasm gave the Jews an advantage over
-the Romans, and Lupus was defeated. The results of this victory were
-scenes of horror and barbarity on both sides, as was naturally the
-case in a racial war between people who carried in their hearts an
-ancient hatred which, when it came to a fiery outburst, could only be
-quenched by blood. The heathens who had taken flight after the defeat
-of the Roman army marched against Alexandria. The Jewish inhabitants
-who could bear arms, and who had joined in the revolt, were taken
-prisoners and killed amidst fearful tortures. The conquering Jewish
-troops felt themselves filled with a desire for revenge. In despair
-they invaded the Egyptian territories, imprisoned the inhabitants, and
-repaid cruelties with fresh cruelties. The Greek and Roman fugitives
-took to their boats, in order to escape pursuit on the bosom of the
-Nile; but armed Jews followed close behind them. The historian Appian,
-at that time an official in Alexandria, sought safety by taking flight
-at night, and would have fallen into the hands of his Jewish pursuers,
-had he not missed his way along the coast. The short description of his
-flight and his unexpected deliverance gives some idea of the terror
-excited by the Jewish populations, who had suffered so long at the
-hands of their enemies. The Jews are said to have eaten the flesh of
-the captive Greeks and Romans, to have smeared themselves with their
-blood, and to have wrapped themselves in the skins torn off them. These
-horrors are quite foreign to Jewish character and customs, but it is
-probably true that the Jews made the Romans and Greeks fight with wild
-animals or in the arena. This was a sad reprisal for the horrible
-drama to which Vespasian and Titus had condemned the captive Jews. In
-Cyrenaica 200,000 Greeks and Romans were slain by the Jews, and Lybia,
-the strip of land to the east of Egypt, was so utterly devastated that,
-some years later, new colonies had to be sent thither.
-
-In the Island of Cyprus, which had for a long time previous been
-inhabited by Jews, who owned synagogues there, a certain Artemion
-headed the uprising against the Romans. The number of rebels was very
-great, and was probably strengthened by the discontented heathen
-inhabitants of the island. The Cyprian Jews are said to have destroyed
-Salamis, the capital of the island, and to have killed 240,000 Greeks.
-
-Trajan, who was then in Babylon, greatly feared the outbreak of a
-revolt, and sent an army, proportionate in numbers to the anticipated
-danger. He entrusted an important force by land and sea to Martius
-Turbo, in order that he might quell the smouldering troubles of war
-which existed in Egypt, Cyrenaica, and on the island of Cyprus.
-
-In the district of the Euphrates, where the Jews, notwithstanding the
-nearness of the Emperor's crushing army, had taken up a threatening
-position, he gave the chief command to his favorite general, Quietus,
-a Moorish prince of cruel disposition, whom he had appointed as his
-successor. It is not known who led the Jews of Babylon. Maximus, a
-Roman general, lost his life in the battle; Quietus had received orders
-to entirely annihilate the Jews of his district, so great was the
-fear and hatred of the Emperor of a nation whose power he seems in no
-way to have rightly estimated. Thus Trajan had to oppose the Jews on
-three sides, and had they united and mutually supported each other,
-the colossal Roman empire would perhaps have received a deadly blow.
-Martius Turbo, who had to oppose the Egyptian and Cyrenean revolts,
-went himself in his ships to the threatened spots, which he reached in
-five days. He avoided meeting the hostile forces in a sudden attack,
-coolly calculating that this would only give the victory to a people
-who were guided more by enthusiasm for an idea than by principles
-of military tactics. He preferred to weaken the rebels by repeated
-onslaughts, which gradually wearied them and thinned their ranks.
-The Jews, however, did not submit without making a brave defense.
-The heathen authorities, who were against the Jews, acknowledge that
-it was only after a contest of long duration that the Romans became
-masters of the situation. It was inevitable that the Romans should
-conquer in the end, as they had greater multitudes and greater skill in
-war, and especially as their cavalry had to encounter only half-armed
-foot-soldiers. Turbo displayed an amount of cruelty to the captives
-which was not strange to the Romans. The legions surrounded the
-prisoners and cut them to pieces, the women were lashed, and those who
-offered resistance were killed. The ancient Alexandrian synagogue,
-a marvel of Egyptian architecture, a basilica, was destroyed. From
-that time, says a Jewish source, the glory of Israel departed. In the
-massacre which Martius Turbo set on foot amongst the African Jews, the
-same source relates that the blood of the slain stained the sea to
-the island of Cyprus. This refers to the sea of blood which the Roman
-general shed amongst the Cyprian Jews.
-
-Turbo, after the end of this African revolt, led his legions against
-Cyprus. Concerning the particulars of this war, authorities are silent.
-The contest, however, must have been a bitter one, for a deadly hatred
-arose in Cyprus against the Jews. This hatred was expressed in a
-barbarous law, according to which no Jew might approach the island of
-Cyprus, even if he suffered shipwreck on that coast.
-
-The war of destruction waged by Lucius Quietus against the Babylonian
-and Mesopotamian Jews is but little known in its individual features.
-Only so much is certain, that he destroyed many thousands, and that he
-laid waste the towns of Nisibis and Edessa, which were inhabited by
-Jews. The houses, streets and roads were strewn with corpses. As a
-reward for the great services rendered by this general in fighting the
-Jews, Trajan named him governor of Palestine, with unlimited power,
-so that he might suppress the revolt in the Jewish fatherland. Trajan
-himself was unsuccessful in his encounters; he had to leave Babylon,
-give up the siege of the town of Atra, and relinquish the idea of
-converting the Parthian land into a Roman province.
-
-Through the failure of his favorite plan, the emperor fell ill, and
-was brought to Antioch, and he died a few months later at Cilicia. His
-desire that his faithful general, Quietus, should succeed, was also not
-fulfilled. His astute wife, Plotina, set aside his last wishes, and
-assured the army that Trajan had, before his death, accepted his near
-relation, Ælius Hadrian, as his son and successor.
-
-Hadrian, at his accession (August, 117), found that various nations
-were on the eve of a rebellion, and that others were taking measures
-to break the fetters of all-powerful Rome. Hardly had the report of
-Trajan's death been spread than the flames of rebellion burst forth
-both in the East and the West, and the wish of the nations to free
-themselves from the Roman yoke, in a violent manner, made itself known.
-
-The Parthian lands, where Trajan had just established the semblance of
-the Roman rule, some of the districts of Asia Minor, whose agricultural
-wealth had been appropriated by the officers of the emperor, Mauritania
-and Sarmatia, and distant Britain--all seized upon this moment of
-weakness to strive for independence.
-
-The Jews of Palestine, whose hatred towards the Romans was yet
-stronger, had already organized a rebellion, for the suppression of
-which Quietus had been sent out by Trajan, after he had completed
-his work in the lands of the Euphrates. He had not yet succeeded in
-mastering the revolt when Hadrian became ruler. Historians are silent
-as to the nature of the war in Judæa. The Jewish sources call this
-second rebellion "the war of Quietus" (Polemos shel Kitos). It appears
-to have taken an unfavorable turn for the Jews, for fresh signs of
-public mourning were added to those observed for the destruction of the
-Temple by the teachers of the Law. It was forbidden that brides should
-wear wreaths on their weddings, or that the Jews should learn Greek. It
-is not clear whether this prohibition was directed against the Greek
-language or the Greek customs; as little is it possible to discover
-the connection between this war and a distaste for what was Greek.
-Perhaps the Greeks of Palestine became false to their allies, and left
-the Jews in the lurch. The Synhedrion of Jamnia appears to have been
-destroyed under Quietus, but the Jewish people were soon delivered
-from the merciless oppressor, whose plans for their annihilation could
-not be carried into effect. The new emperor himself put an end to his
-general's career. Hadrian, who had more ambition than warlike courage,
-and whose innermost aspiration was for the nimbus of royal authority
-rather than for a rough and troublesome military existence, drew back
-at the prospect of so many revolts, and from the chance of a long and
-wearisome war. Already envious of the reputation of his predecessor,
-with whom he had no sympathy, and whom the Senate had been unwearied
-in granting triumphs, Hadrian, for the first time, swerved from the
-hard and fast line of Roman politics, and was inclined to be yielding.
-In the same spirit, he permitted the Parthians to be ruled by their
-own prince, renounced all claims on them, and appears to have made
-concessions to the other provinces, and to have granted the Jews their
-apparently harmless requests. Amongst these they expressed a wish for
-the removal of the heartless Quietus and the restoration of the Temple.
-The all-powerful general was deposed; and though the jealousy of the
-emperor with regard to this great and powerful ruler was a chief reason
-for his removal, it yet was made to appear as if it were done to favor
-the Jews, and to do away with their chief grievance. Before Quietus
-fell into disgrace he was about to pronounce sentence of death on the
-two Jewish leaders, Julianus and Pappus, who had fallen into his hands;
-they were to be executed in Laodicea. He had said to them, "If your
-God is powerful, as you assert, He may rescue you from my hands." To
-which they replied, "Thou art scarcely worthy that God should perform a
-miracle for thy sake, who art not even an independent ruler, but only
-the servant of one higher." At the very moment when the two prisoners
-were being led to a martyr's death, the order came from Rome which
-deposed their executioner from the governorship of Judæa.
-
-Quietus left Palestine, and was soon afterwards executed at the command
-of Hadrian. The day of the release of Julianus and Pappus, 12th Adar
-(Feb.-March, 118), was celebrated as a memorable event, and the college
-appointed it as a half-holiday, under the name of Trajan's day (Yom
-Trajanus). It is not to be doubted that the Jews made the re-erection
-of the Temple on its former site a condition of their laying down
-arms. A Jewish source relates this fact in clear terms, and Christian
-accounts positively aver that the Jews on several occasions endeavored
-to restore the Temple, and this can only refer to the early years of
-Hadrian's reign. The superintendence of the building of the town,
-Hadrian is said to have entrusted to the proselyte Akylas. Great was
-the delight of the Jews at the prospect of again possessing a holy
-fane. Fifty years had elapsed since the destruction of the Temple, just
-the same period as had formed the interval between the destruction of
-the first sanctuary and the return from Babylon. The keenest hopes were
-aroused by Hadrian's assent. A Jewish-Alexandrian poet expresses in
-Greek verse the feelings which filled every breast. The unknown poet
-places his words in the mouth of a heathen prophetess, the Sibyl, the
-sister of Isis. She first recites, in enigmatic references, the names
-of a long line of Roman conquerors from the time of Cæsar--
-
-                        ... and after him there came
-    As king a man who wore a silver helm--the name
-    He bore was of a sea--a worthy man, far-seeing,
-    And 'neath thee--thou good and splendid raven-locked,
-    And 'neath thy race, this happened for all times,
-    That there arose a god-like race, indwellers of heaven,
-    Who e'en on earth surround the town of God,
-    And unto Joppa surround it with high walls,
-    And boldly raise their towers to heaven's heights.
-    No more the death sound of the trumpet's cry--
-    No more they perish at the foe's rash hands;
-    But trophies shall float in the world o'er evil.
-    Torment thy heart no more, nor pierce with sword thy breast,
-    Thou godly one, too rich, thou much-loved flower,
-    Thou light so good and bright, desired and holy goal!
-    Dear Jewish land! fair town, inspired of songs,
-    No more shall unclean foot of Greeks within thy bounds
-    Go forth.
-    But in honor thy faithful ones shall hold thee;
-    And they shall serve thy board with holy words,
-    With varied offerings, and with welcome prayers.
-    Those who remorseless send ill words to heaven
-    Shall cease to raise their voices in thy midst,
-    Shall hide away until the world has changed.
-    For from the heavenly land a happy man comes forth,
-    Within whose hands a scepter given by God;
-    And over all he rules with glory, and to the good
-    Again he giveth riches, bereft of them by others gone before,
-    The towns by fire leveled to the very earth,
-    And burnt the homes of men who once did evil.
-    But the town beloved of God he made
-    Brighter than stars or sun, and than the moon,
-    Adorned them brightly, and reared a holy Temple.
-
-The great expectations formed with regard to the restoration, which
-had appeared like a pleasant dream, paled before the stern reality.
-Scarcely had Hadrian taken a firm footing in his kingdom and calmed
-the unruly nations, when, like other weak princes, he began to
-diminish his promises, and to prevaricate. One report relates that the
-Samaritans--who were jealous that the object of their aversion, the
-Temple of Jerusalem, should again rise from the dust--endeavored to
-represent to the Emperor the danger of such a restoration; as their
-forefathers had formerly demonstrated to the Persian rulers, so they
-endeavored to prove to the Roman emperor that the building of the
-Temple was a mere subterfuge to bring about a total separation from
-Rome. Hadrian, however, would probably have come to this conclusion
-without the interposition of the Samaritans. In any case, while he
-did not venture wholly to retract his word, he began to bargain. It
-is said by some that he gave the Jews to understand that the Temple
-must be erected on a different place from that on which stood the
-ruins of the former building, or that it must be built on a smaller
-scale. The Jews, who well understood this temporizing, and saw therein
-only a retractation of the imperial promise, were not inclined to let
-themselves be played with.
-
-When matters had reached this pass, many people armed themselves and
-assembled again in the valley of Rimmon, on the plain of Jezreel. When
-the royal epistle was read out the masses burst into tears. A rebellion
-and an embittered war seemed imminent. But there were still lovers of
-peace amongst the people, who recognized that a rebellion, under the
-circumstances then existing, would be dangerous. At the head of this
-party was Joshua. He was immediately sent for to tranquillize the
-excited populace by his influence and eloquence. Joshua addressed the
-people in a manner which has always appealed to the masses. He related
-a fable, and drew a moral which applied to existing circumstances: "A
-lion had once regaled himself on his prey, but a bone remained sticking
-in his throat. In terror he promised a great reward to any one who
-would extract the bone. A crane with a long neck presented himself,
-performed the operation and claimed his reward. The lion, however,
-said mockingly, Rejoice that thou hast withdrawn thy head unharmed from
-the lion's jaws. In like manner," said Joshua, "let us be glad that we
-have escaped unscathed from the Roman, and not insist on the fulfilment
-of his promise." Through these and similar exhortations he prevented
-an immediate outbreak. But the nation was filled with the idea of
-rebellion, and adhered to it in a manner worthy of a better fortune.
-
-Joshua was the chief leader of the people in the time of Hadrian, and
-appears to have performed the duties of Patriarch, for Gamaliel had
-probably died at the commencement of Hadrian's reign. The honors paid
-to his dead body show the high esteem in which he was regarded by the
-people. Joshua, Eliezer, and his disciples mourned for him; Akylas
-the proselyte--as was customary at royal funerals--burnt clothes and
-furniture to the amount of seventy minas. When reproached for this
-extravagance he said, "Gamaliel is worth more than a hundred kings,
-from whom the world gains nothing." A striking contrast to this display
-was afforded by the simplicity of the shroud which Gamaliel had
-expressly ordered before his death. It was customary at that time to
-clothe the corpse in costly garments, an expense which fell so heavily
-on those of small means, that many deserted their dead relations in
-order to avoid the outlay. To prevent such expense, Gamaliel ordered
-in his last will that he should be buried in simple white linen. From
-that time greater simplicity was observed, and it became the custom at
-funeral feasts to drink a cup to the memory of Gamaliel. He left sons,
-but the eldest, Simon, appears to have been too young to undertake the
-patriarchate, which, therefore, devolved on Joshua probably (as his
-representative, Ab-bet-din). After Gamaliel's death Joshua was desirous
-of abolishing various ordinances which the former had enforced, but he
-was opposed by Jochanan ben Nuri, who was supported by most of the
-Tanaites.
-
-It is hardly possible to doubt that the Jamnian Synhedrion removed to
-Upper Galilee after the death of Gamaliel, and Usha (El-Uz) in the
-vicinity of Shefaram (Shefa-Amar), between Acco and Safet, became
-the seat of the Synhedrion. Ishmael is mentioned amongst those who
-emigrated to Usha. Here the Synhedrion made various enactments of high
-moral and historical importance, which took the form of laws, under the
-title of Ordinances of Usha (Tekanoth Usha). One of these laws decreed
-that a father must support his young children--the boys until their
-twelfth year, and the girls until they married. Before this time the
-provision for children had been left to the option of parents. Another
-law enacted that if a father during his own lifetime gave up all his
-property to his son, it followed, as a matter of course, that the son
-must support both his father and the wife of his father. A third law
-limited the reckless devoting of the whole of a man's property to
-charitable purposes, which custom prevailed at that time. This law
-prescribed that only a fifth part of the property might be given away.
-Isebab, who afterwards died the death of a martyr, was desirous of
-dividing his whole property amongst the poor, but Akiba opposed him,
-referring him to this law respecting property. One decision of Usha
-seems to have been directed against Gamaliel's severe employment of the
-interdict. It decreed that no member of the College should in future
-be excommunicated unless he actually despised and revolted against
-the whole Law, like King Jeroboam. This circumstance shows that the
-unity of the Law was so established that a difference of opinion no
-longer implied, as formerly, a total break, and Joshua, no doubt, had
-contributed to this result.
-
-The tolerable relations between Hadrian and the Jews did not last much
-more than a decade. He could not forget that he had been compelled
-to make concessions to the despised nation, and the latter could not
-forget that he had broken faith with them, and had deprived them of
-their fairest hopes. This mutual antipathy displayed itself during
-Hadrian's journey through Judæa. The emperor, urged by vanity, and
-a desire to be called the father of his country, and impelled by a
-restlessness and want of occupation, which drove him from one spot
-to another, had visited nearly all the provinces of the great Roman
-empire, for the purpose of seeing everything with his own eyes.
-Hadrian's petty curiosity led him to concern himself with all manner
-of things, to desire to be considered as a philosopher, and better
-informed than his contemporaries in all matters. Whether he judged the
-condition of other provinces correctly may be doubted; he certainly
-was deceived in his hasty judgment of the Jews. During his visit to
-Judæa (130), it is probable that those people, such as the Romans,
-Samaritans, and Christians, who disliked the original inhabitants
-(the Jews), approached him with subservience, in order to greet him
-as a demi-god, or even as a god. A pantomimic conversation, which was
-held between a Christian and a representative of Judaism, Joshua ben
-Chananya, in Hadrian's presence, describes their respective positions.
-The former showed by gestures that the God of Israel had hidden His
-face from the Jews; the latter showed, by a movement of the arm,
-that God still stretched forth His hand to protect Israel, and this
-pantomime Hadrian desired to have explained to him. He seems to have
-had many interviews with Joshua. Several conversations between Hadrian
-and the Tanaite have been handed down, of which one appears to be
-credible. He asked him, "If you are as wise as you assert, tell me
-what I shall behold this night in my dreams." Joshua replied, "Thou
-wilt dream that the Persians (Parthians) will subdue thee, and compel
-thee to guard low animals with a golden scepter." This retort was well
-chosen, for the superstitious emperor feared the Parthians beyond all
-nations, and did his utmost to maintain peace with them.
-
-Hadrian thought that he had nothing to fear from Judæa. He informed
-the Roman Senate of the peaceful disposition of the Jews, and they
-perpetuated their credulity by various coins, in which the emperor is
-represented dressed in a toga, raising a kneeling Jew from his humble
-position. Three boys (probably emblematic of the districts of Judæa,
-Samaria, and Galilee) hand him palm branches. He thus cherished the
-expectation that racial and religious differences would soon disappear,
-and that the inhabitants would merge their identity in that of the
-Romans. In order to induce such a state of things he drew up a plan,
-which could not have been more unfortunately conceived. Jerusalem was
-to be rebuilt, but as a pagan city. Whilst he repaired to Egypt to
-commit other follies, the desecration of the holy city was commenced.
-The Jews naturally did not remain unmoved at this act, which was to
-erase their name as a nation and a religious body from the book of the
-living, and a bitter feeling overcame them. Joshua again appears to
-have endeavored to bring about a reconciliation in order to frustrate
-the thoughtless plan of the emperor, and to allay the discontent of the
-people. Though an aged man, he traveled to Egypt in order to induce the
-emperor to alter his mind.
-
-But his prudent suggestions were ridiculed; the emperor would only
-mock at the Jewish, Samaritan, and Christian religions, with which he
-thought himself thoroughly acquainted. He wrote at this time to his
-brother-in-law, "No president of the synagogue (Rabbi) of the Jews, no
-Samaritan, no Christian priest, honors anything but Serapis. Even that
-patriarch who has come to Egypt [probably Joshua] was compelled by some
-to worship Serapis, and by others to worship Christ." Joshua returned
-to Judæa after his fruitless visit, and appears to have died soon after
-of grief and old age. It was justly said of him that with his death
-wisdom and prudent moderation came to an end. After his decease there
-occurred wide-spread movements and contests in Judæa, which were among
-the most memorable in its history, and there was no one to stem the
-tide.
-
-So long as Hadrian remained in Syria (130-131) the malcontents did not
-commence the revolt for which they had probably been long preparing.
-The weapons prepared by the Jewish smiths for the Romans were made (in
-anticipation of their being used against themselves) weak and useless.
-In the hollow chalk mountains of Judæa the insurgents silently prepared
-underground passages and refuges, which were used as secret armories
-before the war, and afterwards as secret ambushes, from which the enemy
-could be attacked. Akiba seems to have developed a silent but effective
-activity in his preparation for a revolt. After the death of Joshua he
-was recognized as the head of the Jewish community. Hadrian, lulled
-into security, discovered the conspiracy only when it broke out at the
-various points of the Roman empire, so skilfully had the Roman spies
-been deceived. When the revolt was about to commence everything was in
-readiness. There were stores of arms, means of communication, warriors,
-and even a powerful leader, who, through his strange position, infused
-religious enthusiasm and warlike courage. It was considered as a
-favorable sign for their daring undertaking that two of the stations
-of the Roman legions had been destroyed. Cæsarea and Emmaus had been
-swallowed up some years before by an earthquake. Cæsarea was the Roman
-capital of Judæa, the dwelling-place of the governor, and, like Rome,
-it brought down the hatred of the Jews on itself. The peculiar idea was
-entertained, that, as the greatness of Cæsarea had dated from the time
-of the destruction of Jerusalem, so from the fall of Cæsarea Jerusalem
-would again attain to power. Emmaus had been the dwelling-place of
-eight hundred soldiers of Vespasian who had served there; it therefore
-had been used as a second citadel.
-
-The chief hero of the revolt was Bar-Cochba, who inspired the Roman
-empire in its then state of weakness with as much terror as Brennus and
-Hannibal had formerly done.
-
-Not a trace, however slight, can be found of the descent and early life
-of this much reviled and misunderstood personage. Like the hero of
-every revolution, he suddenly appeared as the perfect incarnation of
-the nation's will and the nation's hate, spreading terror around, and
-standing as the center-point of an eventful movement. His real name was
-Bar-Kosiba, doubtless from the town of Kosiba, and was not a nickname
-meaning "son of lies." Bar-Cochba was a symbolical Messianic name which
-Akiba had given him. When Akiba, actively engaged in the deliverance of
-the Jewish people, first saw Bar-Cochba, he was so impressed with the
-appearance of the man that he said, "That is a Messianic king." Akiba
-applied to him the verse of Scripture, "Kosiba has arisen as a star
-(Cochba) in Jacob." Akiba was confirmed, by the imposing personality of
-Bar-Cochba, in his hopes that the Roman power would soon be overthrown,
-and that the splendors of Israel would once more shine forth, and he
-looked forward through this means to the speedy establishment of the
-Messianic kingdom. He cited the verse of the prophet Haggai with regard
-to this (ii. 21), "Yet a little and I will shake heaven and earth."
-
-All did not, however, share Akiba's pious enthusiasm. Jochanan ben
-Torta, a teacher of the Law, replied dubiously to his high-flying
-hopes, "Sooner shall grass grow from thy chin, Akiba, than that the
-Messiah will appear." The respect and attention, however, which Akiba
-displayed towards Bar-Cochba were sufficient to surround him with a
-halo, as of a higher God-given power, which gave him unquestioned
-authority, and increased the means at his disposal.
-
-There is no record in Jewish sources of miracles performed by the
-Messianic king for the gratification of the populace. But an account
-of the enemy relates how Bar-Cochba puffed forth burning tow from his
-mouth to give himself the appearance of spitting fire. The Jewish
-accounts speak of his enormous bodily strength. They relate that he
-cast back with his knees the huge stones thrown by the Romans by means
-of machines on the Jewish army. There is no hint given that he pursued
-any selfish end by his Messianism; he was actuated only by the wish
-to win back freedom for his people, to restore the tarnished glory of
-the Jewish state, and to throw off at once and for ever the foreign
-rule which, during two centuries, had interfered with the interests of
-Judaism. So energetic a mind, combined with great military talent, even
-though it failed to secure a favorable result, should have received
-juster recognition from posterity, and certainly does not deserve the
-prejudice which it met with from interested contemporaries. The Jewish
-warriors from all countries poured forth to aid the Messianic king, and
-the revolt became one of great dimensions. Even the Samaritans joined
-their former opponents, as the chronicles relate. Heathens themselves
-made common cause with the Jews, impelled by a desire to shake off the
-unbearable Roman yoke. It seemed as if the whole Roman empire were
-about to receive a heavy blow, by which the various members of its
-gigantic body were to be rent asunder. From these facts the number of
-the warriors cannot be considered as exaggerated if the Jewish sources
-put them down as 400,000, whilst the Pagan historian Dio Cassius rates
-them even at 580,000. Bar-Cochba felt so confident in his own courage
-and the numerous warriors at his command, that he is said to have
-uttered the blasphemy, "Lord, if thou dost not help us, at least do not
-help our enemies, and we shall not be defeated."
-
-Tinnius Rufus, the Governor of Judæa, was not prepared for the enormous
-military power opposed to him, and he soon had to retreat before the
-troops of the warlike Messiah. Rufus withdrew from one citadel to
-another, and in one year (132-133) fifty fortified places and 985
-cities and villages fell into the hands of the rebels. It appears that
-the whole of Judæa, together with Samaria and Galilee, were evacuated
-by the Romans, and fell into the possession of the Jews. When Hadrian
-received the first news of the revolt in Judæa, he laid no great weight
-upon it; but when one report after another of the defeat of the Roman
-troops reached him, he sent relays and his best generals to the scene
-of action; these, however, had no better fortune than Rufus. It is not
-to be doubted that Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Jewish victors,
-who may have contemplated the restoration of the Temple; but in the
-midst of the war, and continually harassed by the Roman legions, they
-had no time to undertake so extensive a work. Bar-Cochba, in order to
-announce national independence, performed a sovereign act of power by
-causing Jewish coins to be struck. These were called Bar-Cochba coins,
-and also coins of the Revolution.
-
-Notwithstanding the deep hatred entertained by the Jews for their
-enemies, they did not avenge themselves upon such as fell into their
-hands. It was only against the Jewish Christians who lived in Judæa
-that Bar-Cochba displayed his hostility, because they were considered
-as blasphemers and as spies. This hatred against the Jewish Christians
-was increased because they refused to take part in the national war,
-and were the only idle lookers-on at the fearful spectacle. One of the
-oldest Christian sources relates that Bar-Cochba had demanded of the
-Christians to deny Jesus, and to take part in the war with the Romans,
-and that those who refused to do so were punished with heavy penalties.
-
-When the State was restored and all laws again came into force, the
-Jewish authorities felt themselves justified in summoning those
-of their countrymen before the justice-seat who not only denied
-the Law but held it up to ridicule. It is nowhere related that the
-Christians were compelled to recognize and believe in Bar-Cochba as
-a new Christ. Such compulsion seems to have been foreign to the new
-Jewish State. Later Christian chronicles, in their usual manner, have
-greatly exaggerated the floggings to which the Jewish Christians were
-subjected, until they assumed the proportions of actual persecution,
-accompanied by death and martyrdom, for which there is no historical
-basis. The Evangelists, who, before the appearance of Bar-Cochba, had
-spoken of the warlike preparations, and all events of the time, in a
-veiled but perfectly comprehensible manner, alone relate the position
-of the Jewish population towards the Christians. They seem to hint
-that even in the midst of Christianity there was great dissension, and
-that some who were eager for the cause of liberty, reported their more
-indifferent coreligionists with much zeal to the Jewish authorities.
-These Evangelists make Jesus utter a prophecy which foretold a coming
-change, as though he, amidst these stormy days, would appear in the
-flesh at the Last Judgment.
-
-This prophecy of Jesus displays the gloomy tendency of the times of
-Bar-Cochba. The words run:
-
-    For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall
-    deceive many. And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors of
-    wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but
-    the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation,
-    and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in
-    divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these
-    are the beginnings of sorrows. But take heed to yourselves: for
-    they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues
-    ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and
-    kings for my sake, for a testimony against them. And the gospel
-    must first be published among all nations. But when they shall
-    lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what
-    ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate; but whatsoever shall
-    be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye
-    that speak, but the Holy Ghost. Now the brother shall betray
-    the brother to death, and the father the son; and the children
-    shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be
-    put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's
-    sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be
-    saved.
-
-Thus a father of the Church comforted the Christian community in Judæa.
-It appears that the Synhedrion of the time of Bar-Cochba introduced
-some innovations in order to work against the increasing spread of the
-worship of Jesus amongst the Jewish Christians, and to promote a means
-of recognizing those who were for them or against them. It had been the
-habit for centuries past never to pronounce the sacred name of God,
-IHW, but to substitute the word Lord (Adonaï). The Christians, however,
-had accustomed themselves to call Jesus "Lord." To counteract this, the
-Synhedrion enacted that the name of God should be used as in ancient
-times, and that this name should be introduced even into the formula of
-greeting.
-
-The newly founded kingdom of Bar-Cochba had already subsisted during
-two years (132-134). With deep concern Hadrian beheld the continuous
-progress of the Jewish revolution. It had taken a course and an extent
-which opened up a vista of unlooked-for results. Every auxiliary force
-which he had sent to join in the contest suffered defeat, and every
-fresh general left his reputation on a Jewish battle-field. Hadrian was
-obliged to summon his greatest general, who at that time was repressing
-the revolt of a nation who loved freedom equally well, namely, the
-Britons. Julius Severus was recalled to Judæa, as he seemed to be the
-only man who could measure swords with the great hero, Bar-Cochba.
-Severus, on his arrival, found the military position of the Jews so
-secure and inaccessible that he did not venture to give them battle
-immediately. The chief stronghold of the Jews during this war was the
-district around the Mediterranean Sea which had for its central point
-the town of Bethar (Bither). This fortress, the ruins of which are
-still to be seen, is only one Roman mile (four-fifths of a geographical
-mile) distant from the sea.
-
-Besides Bethar, Bar-Cochba had fortified several other towns, which
-were probably placed under special commanders. In the north, at the
-foot of the Galilean highlands, at the entrance to the great plain of
-Jezreel (Esdraelon) there were three cities, which formed a triangle
-of fortresses from the Mediterranean to the Sea of Galilee. To the
-west near Acco there was Cabul, or Chabulon; three miles from this,
-towards the southeast, there was the fortified town of Sichin, near
-to Sepphoris, in a fruitful plain. About three miles further, to the
-east of Galilee, and on the lake of the same name, stood Magdala
-(Tarichæa). All three towns, Cabul, Sichin and Magdala, are described
-as having been densely populated, and they formed the outposts which
-were to prevent the invasion of the Romans on the side of Syria and
-Upper Galilee. The inhabitants of Sepphoris appear to have secretly
-maintained their devotion to the Romans, as they had formerly done
-under Vespasian and Trajan. Full confidence was not placed in them,
-but the more reliable towns of the neighborhood were chosen as
-meeting-places. A second line of fortifications was in the middle
-of the Jewish territory, and was greatly favored by the conformation
-of the ground. One of the chief fortresses which Bar-Cochba probably
-again put in a state of defense was Tur-Simon, doubtless named after
-Simon the Hasmonæan. This fortress was also said to have so numerous a
-population that, every Friday, three hundred large baskets of loaves
-were distributed amongst the army. Here, according to legend, the
-revolt broke out, on account of an offense given by the Romans to the
-inhabitants.
-
-Julius, whose rapid glance no doubt perceived the difficulty of
-obtaining a victory, owing to the strong fortifications, the number of
-warriors and their fanatical courage, avoided a decided battle, which
-would have been desired by Bar-Cochba, who relied on the number and
-devotion of his troops. Like Vespasian, Severus purposely prolonged
-the war by divers attacks. He reckoned more especially on the scarcity
-of food which must inevitably ensue in a land-locked territory, when
-the hands which should hold the plow were engaged with the sword. He
-contented himself with depriving the enemy of food, with attacking the
-separate bodies of Jewish troops, and harassing them with his cavalry.
-These tactics fully succeeded, more especially as all prisoners were
-immediately put to death.
-
-The particulars of this revolutionary war were no doubt as memorable as
-those of the war with the Zealots, but no account has been preserved
-to tell posterity of the death-struggle of the Jewish nation. The
-heroic deeds of the Zealots--Bar-Giora and John of Gischala--have been
-immortalized by their greatest enemy, against his will, but no pen was
-found to commemorate on the tablets of history the warlike deeds of
-the last of the Jewish heroes. It almost seemed that the remembrance
-of their prowess, destined as the new generations were to forget the
-arts of war, was to be totally forgotten Only a few traits have been
-preserved to us of the war, which bear witness, not only to the courage
-of the Jews but also to their all-defying enthusiasm for the cause of
-their race.
-
-If, as the geographical position of Judæa demanded, the first attack
-of the Romans was made on the north, on the Syrian and Phoenician side,
-the three northernmost citadels of Cabul, Sichin and Magdala must have
-been first attacked. The Jewish sources which have handed down the
-details of the war, as given by survivors, relate the manner of the
-destruction of these three cities, and the circumstances which led
-to their downfall. Cabul fell through internal dissensions; Sichin
-through sorcery, by which an unlooked-for attack was probably meant;
-lastly, Magdala, the birthplace of the penitent Mary Magdalene, fell,
-weakened through the vices of its inhabitants. After the fall of the
-three strongholds on the borders, the war was virtually at an end,
-just as in the first revolution, after the subjection of Jotapata and
-Gischala, the land was considered as subdued. The plain of Rimmon
-seems to have been another seat of the war, for the Roman legions had
-to traverse this plain in order to reach the interior of the land. On
-this plain a terrible battle seems to have taken place, which became
-the subject-matter of many a legend. The next campaign of the Romans
-was evidently directed against the cities in the mountains. Legend
-relates how 100,000 Romans marched into the citadel of Tur-Simon with
-drawn swords, and how, during three days and nights, they massacred
-the inhabitants. The fifty fortified places occupied by the Jews fell
-one after another into the hands of the enemy, and the Roman generals
-gave battle to the Jewish army on fifty-two, or, according to some
-authorities, on fifty-four occasions. The circle drawn round Bethar,
-where Bar-Cochba and the flower of his army had retreated, became ever
-narrower. All fugitives had betaken themselves to his side, in order
-to escape the sword of destruction and to find a place of refuge. On
-this spot, where the two greatest generals of the time--Julius Severus
-and Bar-Cochba--were opposed, the decisive conflict was to take place.
-
-Bethar was, no doubt, filled to overflowing by the contingents who
-came in from all sides. The sources could not speak with sufficient
-hyperbole of this final scene of the defense; they relate, amongst
-other things, that several hundreds of schools existed in Bethar, and
-that the numbers of the pupils were so great that they boasted that
-they could overthrow the enemy with their writing-reeds. The siege
-of Bethar probably lasted for a year, and the duration of the whole
-war was about three years and a-half. We are left in uncertainty as
-to the various incidents of the siege, as also regarding the causes
-which led to the fall of the citadel. A Jewish authority relates that
-the river Joredethha-Zalmon faithlessly deprived the besieged of its
-waters, which may mean that the summer heat dried it up. A somewhat
-vague account from Samaritan sources recounts that the food-supplies,
-which had been secretly conveyed into the town, were suddenly cut off;
-this agrees with the Jewish accounts, which relate that Bethar fell
-through the stratagems of the Samaritans. The Jewish sources assert
-that Eleazar of Modin prayed in sackcloth and ashes that Bethar might
-be spared; and perhaps his piety inspired the besieged with endurance
-and courage.
-
-Hadrian, or his general, being wearied with the long contest, was
-about to raise the siege, when a Samaritan promised to aid him, and
-told him that Eleazar was the guardian spirit of the citadel, adding
-that "so long as that hen cackles in ashes Bethar is impregnable."
-Thereupon the Samaritan, passing through a subterranean passage,
-approached Eleazar whilst he was engaged in prayer, and whispered
-in his ear. The spectators, whose suspicions were aroused by this
-secrecy, led him to Bar-Cochba and related the incident. The spy,
-when questioned, declared: "If I tell thee the truth, my master will
-kill me; and if I keep it from thee, thou wilt kill me; but I would
-rather die by thy hand than by my masters." Bar-Cochba, suspecting a
-traitorous understanding between Eleazar and the enemy, summoned him
-to appear, and questioned him as to his meeting with the Samaritan.
-Eleazar, who had been absorbed in his devotions, and had hardly noticed
-the Samaritan, could only reply that he knew nothing of the matter.
-Bar-Cochba, who thought that he was being deceived, struck Eleazar a
-blow with his foot, and, enfeebled as he was by fasting, Eleazar fell
-down dead. Then a voice was heard: "Thou hast lamed the arm of Israel
-and blinded his eyes; therefore shall thine arm and thine eye lose
-their power."
-
-The Samaritan sources describe the conquest of Bethar as similar to
-that of Jerusalem. Hadrian, they assert, who had laid siege to the
-city, had already raised the siege, as the inhabitants had obtained
-supplies, which they showed to the enemy. Then two Samaritan brothers,
-who were held imprisoned by the Jews, contrived to throw over the wall
-a letter wrapped in linen to Julius, saying that if the exits were
-guarded the inhabitants of the town would certainly die of starvation.
-He followed their advice, and entered the city on a Sabbath. So much is
-certain, that the Romans, introduced by a traitor into a subterranean
-way, massacred the people of Bethar. This is described with fearful
-detail. Horses were said to wade to the nozzle in blood--a river of
-blood flowed into the distant sea, carrying bodies along with it. One
-can scarcely credit the numbers said to have been slain, and yet they
-are confirmed both by Jewish and by Greek historians. The authentic
-historian Dio Cassius relates that besides those who died of hunger
-and fire, there fell half a million Jews.
-
-The loss of the Romans was equally great, and Hadrian did not dare
-employ in his message to the Senate the usual formula, "I and the
-army are well." The Senate did not decree the Emperor a triumph, but
-a medal was struck in commemoration of the services rendered by the
-army. This coin bore the inscription, "Exercitus Judaicus. Thanks to
-the army victorious over the Jews." Bethar fell, as tradition relates,
-on the 9th Ab, the date on which the Temple had twice been reduced to
-ashes. The end of the mighty Bar-Cochba is not known. One who brought
-his head to the Roman General boasted that he had killed him. His body,
-however, was found crushed by a snake. On this the conqueror said, "Had
-not God's hand killed him, a human hand could not have injured him."
-Hadrian established three military stations to capture the fugitives,
-in Chamath (Ammaus near Tiberias), in Kephar Lekitaja, and in Bethel.
-Whoever escaped the one garrison was captured by the other. Thus all
-the warriors were destroyed, all towns and villages laid waste, and the
-land was literally converted into a desert. The prisoners, mostly women
-and children, were dragged by thousands to the slave markets of Hebron
-and Gaza, where they were sold. There were, however, some fugitives who
-lived in caves in order to escape the enemy. But even this miserable
-existence was not permitted to them. Heralds announced that to those
-who voluntarily yielded themselves up, mercy would be granted. Many
-listened to the temptation, but were carried off to the plain of
-Rimmon, and the victors were commanded to massacre their prisoners
-before Hadrian tasted food. Many fugitives, however, fled to Arabia,
-whence that country obtained its Jewish population, which afterward
-played so important a part in its history. Hadrian also caused foreign
-Jews to feel the weight of his anger, and imposed on them a tax
-much heavier than that exacted by Vespasian. In memory of this last
-revolt, the Jews, as a sign of mourning, decreed that brides should no
-longer be carried in beautiful sedan-chairs into the houses of their
-bridegrooms.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI.
-
-CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR OF BAR-COCHBA.
-
-    Turnus Rufus persecutes the Jews--The Ten Martyrs--The Book of
-    Tobit--Relations between Judaism and Christianity--The Return
-    of the Schools to Palestine--The Synod at Usha--Meïr--Simon ben
-    Jochai--The Babylonian Synhedrion--Antoninus Pius and Aurelius
-    Verus--The Revolt against Rome--The Patriarchate of Simon.
-
-    135.170 C. E.
-
-
-Hadrian, who during the war had lived in a terror-stricken condition,
-did not content himself with merely crushing all revolt, but he desired
-to root out the possibility of a future uprising. For this purpose
-he caused a number of laws to be brought into operation, every one
-of which was intended to destroy Judaism, the spiritual life of the
-nation, in the hearts of the survivors. Hadrian named Rufus as the
-executor of his edicts--a man incapable of attacking an armed foe,
-but more competent to carry on a war of petty persecution and spying.
-Severus having been sent back to Britain at the end of his campaign,
-Rufus had the plow drawn over the town of Jerusalem and the Temple
-Mount, as a sign that another city should be built there. This occurred
-on the eventful 9th Ab, perhaps a year after the fall of Bethar.
-
-Hadrian had the city rebuilt more towards the north, where formerly
-the suburbs had been. He populated the newly erected city with a
-colony of soldiers who had served their time, Phoenicians and Syrians.
-The city, Ælia Capitolina, was built in the Grecian style, with two
-market-places, a theater, and other public buildings, and was divided
-into seven quarters. Thus Hadrian succeeded in his preconceived
-plan of turning Jerusalem into a heathen city. On the Temple Mount a
-column was erected in honor of Hadrian, and a heathen temple in honor
-of Jupiter Capitolinus. Other statues of Roman, Greek, and Phoenician
-gods adorned, or rather defiled, Jerusalem. In all public edicts
-Jerusalem figured under its new name Ælia, and so completely was its
-identity forgotten, that a hundred years later a governor of Palestine
-asked a bishop, who said he came from Jerusalem, where that town was
-situated. At the south gate leading to Bethlehem a swine's head was
-erected in half relief, as a special annoyance to the Jews, and it was
-forbidden them on pain of death to pass within the outer wall of this
-city. Hadrian erected a shrine to Jupiter on Mount Gerizim, where the
-Samaritans formerly had had their temple, a place they considered as
-holy. On Mount Golgotha, opposite Jerusalem, a temple was erected to
-Venus, and in a cave at Bethlehem a statue of Adonis was worshiped.
-Hadrian followed the old policy of the Syrian Antiochus Epiphanes,
-who desecrated the Jewish holy places from prejudice and revenge, and
-endeavored to graft Paganism on Judaism by force of arms. He thought
-most effectually to break down the stubborn independence of the Jews if
-he could succeed in weaning them from their peculiar religious life.
-A decree was issued in Judæa which inflicted the severest punishments
-on all those who permitted themselves to be circumcised, to keep the
-Sabbath, or to follow the Jewish law. Only in one point did Hadrian
-differ from Epiphanes--he did not compel the worship of the Roman
-gods. All customs and habits which bore ever so slight a tinge of a
-religious character were, however, interdicted, such as the letter
-of separation for divorced wives, marriages on Wednesday, and other
-customs. This extension of the edict may have been a commentary of the
-Roman authorities in Judæa, who were better acquainted with the spirit
-of the Jews, and determined to enforce the imperial command in order to
-attain the desired end. The weary years through which Judaism passed,
-from the fall of Bethar till after the death of Hadrian, were called
-the epoch of Religious Compulsion, Danger and Persecution. The stern
-decrees, and a sterner enforcement of them, were a heavy blow for those
-who remained. The more conscientious were undecided how to behave in
-their critical position, whether they should keep to the hard and fast
-line of custom, or whether, in consideration of their thinned ranks,
-they should save their own lives by yielding to the exigencies of the
-moment.
-
-There was probably no actual Synhedrion at that time to take up the
-question and give them the guidance they desired. The surviving
-teachers of the Law assembled in a garret in Lydda, and deliberated on
-this question of life and death. Amongst the members present at this
-assemblage were Akiba, Tarphon, and Joseph the Galilean. Doubtless
-Ishmael, who resembled R. Joshua in character, was also present on
-that occasion. There was a difference of opinion with regard to this
-important question. The strict elements appear to have considered that
-every Jew, rather than become guilty of the slightest infringement of
-a law, however heavy (important) or light (less important), should be
-ready to die the death of a martyr. Ishmael supported the opposite
-view. He considered that, outwardly and under compulsion, one might
-transgress the Law in order to preserve one's life, for the Torah
-enacted that its followers should live by it and not die through it.
-The assembly at Lydda, as usual, adopted the middle course, that a
-difference should be made between important precepts and those which
-were less weighty. The matter was put to the vote, and the decision was
-reached, that in order to avoid death by torture, all laws might be
-broken, with the exception of those prohibiting idolatry, adultery, and
-murder. This decision, which gives evidence of the desperate condition
-in which the Jews at that time found themselves, appears also to have
-contained a secret clause, that in case of need the Law might be evaded
-or neglected, but that it should be observed as far as it was possible
-to do so. There were many who obeyed, but who dissimulated in presence
-of the Roman spies and overseers. It was touching to note the petty
-tricks and pious frauds by which they endeavored to avoid death and yet
-to satisfy their conscience. The mental tortures which they suffered
-daily and hourly made them skilful in discovering loopholes of escape.
-Even Akiba on one occasion when he saw himself surrounded by Roman
-spies, gave a sign to his disciples to say the Shema softly and almost
-inaudibly, for the Roman authorities ruthlessly fulfilled the letter
-of their edict. A Roman inspector (quæsitor), who surprised a certain
-Artaban, as he was fastening Mezzuzoth to the door-posts, compelled
-him to pay 1000 denars for this act. Another man, Elisha, probably
-a survivor of the Essenes, was condemned to have his skull broken,
-because he was putting on Tephillin. It was dangerous even to wear the
-Jewish garb. Two pupils of Joshua therefore adopted the dress of the
-country, and when questioned on the subject they replied, "that to
-oppose the Imperial behest would be to commit suicide."
-
-Ishmael describes this dreary time, when martyrdom and death dogged
-their every step, in the following words: "Since sinful Rome has
-inflicted severe laws on us, disturbed us in the performance of our
-religious duties, and especially prohibited the act of circumcision, we
-really ought not to marry, in order that we may not have children. But
-then the race of Abraham would die out. Therefore it is better that,
-for a time, the religious laws should be transgressed, rather than
-that a state of things should be brought about which the people would
-not submit to."
-
-There were, however, many whose conscience did not permit them to make
-use of the freedom permitted by the Lyddan Assembly, or to employ the
-subterfuges which were adopted by others. They observed rigorously the
-religious precepts, even at the risk of suffering martyrdom. One of the
-younger witnesses of this sad time describes, almost in a dramatic way,
-the ruthlessness of the Roman authorities, who inflicted some cruel
-punishment for each religious ceremony. "Why shouldst thou be flogged?
-Because I used a lulab. Why shouldst thou be crucified? Because I ate
-unleavened bread at Passover. Why should ye be condemned to death
-by fire or by the sword? Because we read the Torah, and permitted
-our children to be circumcised." Yet more terrible were the deaths
-inflicted on the accused by the Roman tribunals, which can only be
-paralleled by those inflicted by the Inquisition. Red-hot balls were
-placed in the arm-pits, or spiked tubes passed under the nails, or damp
-wool was laid on the heart of one who was being burnt to death, or the
-skin was taken off--horrors which cause an involuntary shudder at their
-mere enumeration.
-
-Notwithstanding the watchfulness of the Roman officials, it would have
-been possible to deceive them, had there not been Jewish renegades who
-betrayed to the Roman overseers the various stratagems and devices
-employed. These spies probably belonged to an unscrupulous class of
-men, who would do anything for gain, or they were Jewish Christians,
-who by this means thought to find favor with the Roman authorities,
-and to show that they were distinct from the Jews. Lastly, there were
-those who considered it a good work to assist in the destruction of the
-Jewish Law. Amongst these was Acher, who was imbued with contempt for
-the Law. It is said that he gave information to the Roman authorities
-to enable them to distinguish between religious ceremonies and those
-which were of no moment. For example, if the Jews were compelled to
-work on the Sabbath, and one had to carry a load, in order to ease his
-conscience, would get an assistant, and thus lessen the desecration of
-the Sabbath, Acher would draw attention to this ruse. Thus the Roman
-spies, who initiated the overseers in the various rites, were keen to
-notice every attempt at a religious observance.
-
-Hadrian or his representatives directed their strictest attention to,
-and inflicted the severest punishments in, two especial cases--the
-assembling of schools and the ordination of disciples. It may have been
-suggested to him that the continuance of the Law depended on these
-two functions. If the instruction of pupils by the teachers could be
-stopped, and the ordination of pupils as independent teachers could be
-prevented, then naturally a stoppage must occur in the life-current of
-Judaism. It must be confessed that the Roman policy was well carried
-out by its supporters, and that they knew how to strike at the most
-vital point of Judaism. Severe sentences of death were inflicted upon
-those teachers who maintained schools, and on those who ordained
-disciples; even the communities were made answerable for them. The town
-and its environs, where an ordination took place, were condemned to
-destruction. It is possible that Acher instigated this persecution; at
-any rate, it is related of him that he handed over the teachers of the
-Law to death, and that he frightened away disciples from the study of
-the Law.
-
-Amongst the friends of peace who even advised subservience to these
-decrees was José ben Kisma, who honored patience as the highest virtue,
-and hoped to effect more by submission than by bold opposition and
-useless self-destruction. He once met Chanina ben Teradion, who
-belonged to the party who were determined to give up their life for the
-Law. He was teaching his pupils from a scroll of the Law, which he held
-in his lap. José said warningly, "Seest thou, my brother, that even
-Heaven is favorable to the Roman empire. The Temple is destroyed; the
-pious are cut down, the best men are exterminated, and yet this empire
-exists! How canst thou dare to teach against the Imperial law? It would
-not surprise me if thou wert condemned to the stake together with the
-holy books." José was in high favor at the court of the Governor of
-Judæa, and when he died several persons of high rank followed his body.
-
-Most of the Tanaites were of a different opinion, and decided rather
-to suffer death than to give up their meetings at the schools; they
-considered it of greater importance to study the Law than to observe
-religious precepts. A special ordinance was passed in the garret at
-Lydda that to teach was far more important than to merely practise the
-Law. As far as compulsory abstention from religious observances was
-concerned, the teachers of the Law had set an example of submission
-for the time being; but in order to preserve the knowledge of the Law
-itself they pressed forward to a martyr's death, as though that must be
-the holiest part of Judaism, to be defended even at the expense of life.
-
-An old account speaks of ten martyrs who bled for the Law. But the
-names of only seven have been preserved; of the others the accounts
-are untrustworthy. The first to be executed was Ishmael, son of the
-high priest Elisha, who formulated the Thirteen Rules; with him was a
-certain Simon (of which name there were several). Elisha was unwilling
-to advise others to undergo martyrdom, but he joyfully underwent it
-himself. Akiba gave addresses, in which he described how Ishmael and
-Simon, both free from sin, had served as examples, and fallen by the
-hands of the executioner; and in conclusion he exhorted his scholars
-with these words, "Prepare for death, for terrible days are awaiting
-us." Akiba's turn soon came, for he held discourses in secret. On the
-third day of Tishri he was thrown into prison. In vain had Pappos ben
-Judah, one of those who advised submission at any price, warned him to
-give up his meetings with his pupils, because the eyes of spies were
-directed to the most secret places. Chance brought him and this very
-Pappos together in prison. Pappos lamented that he was only condemned
-for a worldly matter, and that he could not comfort himself with the
-idea that he was suffering for a great cause. Rufus, the governor and
-executioner, acted towards Akiba, whom he considered as the head and
-leader, with even greater severity than towards the others. He kept him
-for a long time in the prison, which was so securely guarded that no
-one could gain admission. The remaining teachers of the Law, who felt
-utterly deserted and helpless without Akiba, took all possible pains
-to obtain his advice in doubtful cases. Once they gave 300 denars to a
-messenger, who could only with great difficulty obtain access to Akiba.
-
-At last, however, the hour of his execution came. Rufus inflicted the
-cruelest tortures on him, and caused his skin to be torn off with
-irons. The great martyr, whilst under torture, recited the Shema with
-a peaceful smile on his face. Rufus, astonished at his extraordinary
-courage, asked him if he was a sorcerer, that he could so easily
-overcome the pain he was suffering. To which Akiba replied, "I am
-no sorcerer, but I rejoice that I am permitted to love God with my
-life." Akiba breathed forth his soul with the last words of the prayer
-which contains the essence of Judaism--God is ONE. Akiba's death,
-which was as remarkable as his life had been, left a terrible void.
-His contemporaries mourned, for with him was destroyed the arm of the
-Law and the source of wisdom. He left one son and several disciples,
-who honored his name, and considered his mode of teaching as the only
-permissible one.
-
-The fourth martyr who heroically bore his death was Chanina ben
-Teradion. Regardless of the warnings of José ben Kisma, he continued to
-hold his lectures until he was dragged to the tribunal. He was asked
-why he had acted in opposition to the imperial command, and he boldly
-answered, "Because God has so commanded me." He was wrapped up in a
-scroll of the Law and burnt on a stake of fresh rushes. Chanina's wife
-was also sentenced to death, and his daughter condemned to degradation.
-
-The martyrdom of Chuzpit, the speaker (Meturgeman) of the Synhedrion
-of Jamnia, and Isebab, the secretary of the Synhedrion, are merely
-noted without details; doubtless they were discovered teaching the Law.
-Judah ben Baba is said to have been the last of the martyrs. Before his
-death he resolved to invest the seven remaining pupils of Akiba with
-the necessary authority to continue the propagation of the traditional
-Law. He selected for the function the valley between Usha and Shefaram,
-but despite this secrecy he was surprised by the Romans. His disciples
-refused to leave him, and it was only after repeated entreaties that
-they fled. The enemy found the old man alone, and he gave himself up
-to death without opposition. He was pierced by lances. From fear of
-Rufus's bloodthirsty vengeance, the usual address was omitted at the
-funeral of Judah ben Baba. Neither the name nor the mode of death of
-the remaining martyrs is known with certainty. Thus ends the second
-generation of Tanaites; it was rich in great men, rich in great minds,
-and rich in trouble and sorrow. The end of Bar-Cochba's revolt formed
-the turning-point of this epoch, and the fact that a temple to Jupiter
-Capitolinus occupied the site of the ancient Jewish Temple seemed to
-the Jewish Christians to presage the last day and the return of the
-Messiah.
-
-Hadrian and Rufus's cruel measures were directed not against the
-survivors alone, but also against the dead. The heaps of dead bodies
-were not permitted to be interred, but the horrible sight was intended
-as a warning to the survivors, that they should no longer dream of
-deliverance from the Roman yoke. The rulers did not trouble themselves
-as to the pestilential condition of the air, or the depressing effect
-of beholding so many corpses lying in the sunshine; or perhaps they
-rejoiced that pestilence and despair should be added to the horrors
-inflicted on the Jewish nation. To pious and gentle hearts the thought
-was unbearable that the remains of those who had fallen, which were
-especially to be honored by Jewish custom, should be left as a prey to
-wild beasts and birds and to decay in the sunlight. It appears that a
-pious man desired to impress on the survivors who had made peace with
-the Romans, and who lived in seclusion, the necessity of interring
-the corpses in the darkness of the night, even at the cost of their
-own happiness and peace. To this end he composed a book--the Book of
-Tobit--in which great weight is laid on the duty of secretly interring
-the bodies of those whom the tyrants doomed to disgrace; and at the
-same time it was hinted that the danger attending this duty would bring
-a rich reward. In evidence of this the case was cited of the pious
-Tobit, who after suffering many misfortunes as the result of his labor
-of love, was in the end rewarded with rich blessings. The contents of
-the Book of Tobit undeniably indicate that it was composed in the reign
-of Hadrian.
-
-Hadrian's severe persecution also fell upon the Jewish
-Christians--perhaps on all Christians--although they had separated
-from the Jewish community; for the reason that the Roman authorities
-did not consider the differences of dogma between Jews and Christians.
-The Evangelists paint in the darkest colors the horrors of persecution
-with which the Christians were attacked. "Then you will behold the
-terrors of desolation (predicted by the prophet Daniel) where they
-should not be; he who is in Judæa will flee to the mountains; woe to
-the pregnant and to the sucklings. Pray, however, that your flight may
-not take place in winter or on a Sabbath."
-
-Both sects of Christians were anxious to be recognized as a body
-separate from the Jews, both politically and religiously, so as to
-avoid the doom impending over the latter. Two teachers of the Church,
-Quadratus and Aristides, are said to have handed to Hadrian a petition,
-in which they demonstrated that Christianity had no connection with
-Judaism. From this time dates the unity and identity of most of the
-Jewish-Christian and heathen-Christian sects. The Jewish Christians
-gave up the Jewish laws which they had hitherto kept, in a greater or
-less degree, adopting the dogmatic precepts of Christianity as they had
-been developed under heathen-Christian views, and as proof of their
-sincere convictions, they for the first time placed an uncircumcised
-bishop at the head of the community. From the time of Hadrian all
-connection between Jews and Christians ceased, and they no longer
-occupied the position of two hostile bodies belonging to the same
-house, but they became two entirely distinct bodies.
-
-Through the war against Hadrian and the edict of persecution a terrible
-time had arisen for Judæa. The towns were destroyed, the land laid
-waste, the inhabitants were killed either on the battle-field or on
-the scaffold, or led a miserable life as refugees, while some were
-scattered in more hospitable territories.
-
-The disciples of the Law, more especially the seven disciples of Akiba,
-had, with broken hearts, sought refuge in Nisibis and Nahardea, and if
-the persecution had lasted longer, Babylon would even at this time have
-attained that importance for Judaism which it reached a century later.
-Hadrian's death, which occurred three years after the fall of Bethar,
-brought about a favorable turn. The pious beheld in the miserable
-death of this emperor, who, next to Antiochus Epiphanes, became the
-incarnation of the Jews' hatred, and the mention of whose name was
-always accompanied by the curse, "May God reduce his remains to dust,"
-a divine visitation for the evils he had wrought on the Jewish nation.
-Those who had escaped destruction endeavored to obtain from Hadrian's
-successor the revocation of the cruel edicts. Titus Aurelius Antoninus,
-who received the name of Pius, although the adopted son of Hadrian,
-was of a somewhat more humane and beneficent character, and a milder
-treatment seemed likely at his hands. A noble Roman lady of Cæsarea or
-Antioch, who had pity on the sufferings of the Jews, advised them to
-petition the Roman authorities that the persecutions might cease. This
-lady was perhaps the wife of Rufus, and is said to have had inclination
-towards Judaism. Following this advice, a few men, headed by Jehudah
-ben Shamua, repaired to the governor to beg for mercy. In the gloomy
-darkness of their desolation they lamented--"O heavens, are we not
-your brothers, the sons of the same father? Why do you inflict on us
-unendurable sufferings?" Such lamentations appear to have induced the
-governor to petition the Emperor to pursue a milder course of conduct
-towards the Jews.
-
-On the 15th Ab (August) the joyous news is said to have come that
-the heaped-up corpses of the Jewish warriors might be buried. On the
-28th Adar (March, 139 or 140), the yet more joyful tidings came that
-the decrees of Hadrian were revoked, and this day was commemorated
-in the calendar. A Roman source relates that the Emperor Antoninus
-Pius conceded to the Jews the rite of circumcision; but they were not
-permitted to perform it on other nationalities; that is, they were not
-allowed to make proselytes. Thus the persecution on account of religion
-was ended. Antoninus Pius, however, did not repeal the law forbidding
-the Jews to enter Jerusalem.
-
-This unexpected end of the persecution recalled the fugitives to
-their native land. The seven disciples of Akiba--the only heirs to
-the spiritual heritage of former times--who, for the most part, had
-emigrated to Babylon, now returned. These were Meïr, Judah ben Ilai,
-José ben Chalafta, Jochanan of Alexandria, Simon ben Jochai, Eleazar
-ben Jacob (or ben Shamua) and Nehemiah. They repaired directly to
-the plain of Rimmon, made notable during the Revolution, to consider
-the introduction of a leap year, the calendar probably having become
-incorrect. At the first meeting a fierce contest ensued, probably with
-reference to one of the Halachas of Akiba, but the dispute terminated
-in a friendly settlement.
-
-They reassembled in Usha, the native town of Judah, which even previous
-to the revolution of Bar-Cochba, had been, for a short time, the seat
-of the college, and they invited all the remaining teachers of the
-Law in Galilee to meet there. Many came at the invitation, and the
-inhabitants of Usha endeavored to provide the guests with all that
-they required. The business of the Synod was to reinstate and renew
-the traditions which had fallen into disuse during the persecutions.
-After several days passed in Usha, the chief organizers of the meeting
-dismissed their guests with solemn addresses. Judah thanked the
-strangers, who had taken the trouble to come to the meeting from a
-distance of several miles. The other members of the council thanked
-the inhabitants of Usha for the hospitality displayed towards them.
-Thus did the nation, whose destruction had seemed imminent, again
-revive, and the Law was once again the curative measure, bringing with
-it health and strength.
-
-The members of the Tanaite circle pursued the work of their
-predecessors with great self-sacrifice, in order to restore the broken
-chain of tradition, but their numbers were less, and their mental
-activity inferior to that of the former generation. The chief of those
-who took part in affairs were Simon II., son of the Patriarch Gamaliel,
-Nathan of Babylon, Meïr and Simon ben Jochai. The first of these,
-as was related, escaped in a wonderful manner from the massacre at
-Bethar, as also from the persecution with which he was threatened. The
-quæsitor, who had been appointed by Rufus to imprison him, gave him a
-hint of the threatened danger, on which Simon escaped and took refuge
-in Babylon. How long he remained there, and under what circumstances he
-assumed his hereditary dignities, is not known.
-
-Simon seems to have been desirous of raising the dignity of Patriarch
-to special importance and grandeur, probably in imitation of the
-Babylonian Prince of the Captivity. He does not appear to have been at
-the first Synod in Usha, nor to have taken part in the discourses given
-there from time to time, but to have taken up his residence at Jabne, a
-place endeared to him by the memory of his father, in the neighborhood
-of which he probably owned property. The disciples of Akiba, the chief
-supporters of the Law, appear to have preferred Usha--or they desired
-to proclaim their independence of the patriarch. Thus Simon, in order
-not to remain alone, had to repair to the Galilean Synod. The College
-was completed by Nathan and Meïr as speaker. The patriarch had almost
-brought on himself the fate of his father through disregarding the
-equality which reigned amongst the members of the College. Of his
-bearing towards the traditional law only so much is known, that he
-taught the universally acknowledged Halachas, and the doubtful ones he
-had referred to himself. In contested cases he gave the preference to
-former decisions, and laid no weight on theoretical discussions. On the
-authority of the numerous teachers of the Law in past times certain
-practices had obtained amongst their surroundings and had become an
-authority amongst the people, and these practices Simon desired to
-maintain. The decision of a court of justice, in such cases where a
-mistaken judgment was given, was to hold good, for otherwise Simon
-feared that respect for such decisions would cease. His high-mindedness
-Simon showed in the beautiful saying, "The world subsists on three
-conditions, truth, justice and peace."
-
-The most original personage of this period was unquestionably Meïr,
-whose great intellect, thoroughness of purpose and knowledge remind us
-of his teacher Akiba. His real but forgotten name was Miasa or Moise
-(the Greek for Moses). According to an unauthenticated legend he was
-said to be descended from a converted family, from the Emperor Nero in
-fact, who was believed in the East to have escaped his murderers and to
-have become converted to Judaism.
-
-It is certain that Meïr's birthplace was in Asia Minor, probably in the
-Cappadocian Cæsarea. He made his livelihood through writing and copying
-Holy Writ. He was so intimately acquainted with the orthographical
-rules of the Hebrew language, which render the transcription of the
-Holy Books almost a science, that he once wrote from memory the whole
-book of Esther without making a mistake. By this means he earned three
-shekels per week, two-thirds of which he devoted to his family and
-one-third to the support of poor fellow-students. He married Bruria
-(or Valeria), the learned daughter of Chanina ben Teradion, whose
-Halachic knowledge was praised even by Joshua. Meïr was for a time a
-pupil of Ishmael, but his simple mode of teaching did not please him so
-well as the more intelligent method of Akiba, whose system, which was
-ultimately adopted by him, exercised the most decided influence over
-his mode of thought. Akiba soon ordained his favorite pupil, and gave
-him the preference over Simon, but on account of his youth he did not
-meet with much respect as an independent teacher. Meïr was severe on
-such petty conduct, which did not look to the qualifications of a man,
-but to his age. "Look not," he said wittily, "to the vessel, but to
-its contents. Many a new vessel contains old wine, but there are old
-casks which do not contain even new wine." Several sensible sayings
-are recorded of him; he became celebrated as a writer of fables, and
-composed 300 on the fox alone--a favorite subject of Eastern imagery.
-The submission to God of Meïr and his wife on the occasion of the death
-of their two children has become known through a poetical account of
-the event. It is related that his two sons, having died suddenly on the
-Sabbath, during their father's absence at the school, his tender-hearted
-wife did not tell him of the deaths, in order that he might not be
-grieved by sad tidings on the holy day. When the Sabbath was over she
-asked him whether that which was lent must necessarily be returned to
-the lender, and on receiving an affirmative answer she led him to where
-their two children lay dead, and consoled him with what he had said,
-that they had only been confided to their care, and were now reclaimed
-by the owner. Meïr's modesty was as great as his submissiveness to God.
-His favorite saying was, "Occupy thyself less with gain than with the
-Law, and be humble to all men."
-
-His contemporaries and successors could not sufficiently praise
-Meïr's wisdom and character. José depicts him to his townspeople, the
-inhabitants of Sepphoris, as a pious, morally strict and holy man. It
-became proverbial that "He who touches Meïr's staff becomes wise." He
-obtained his deep knowledge of men by mixing with those against whom
-prejudice prevailed. He even sought out the apostate and traitor Acher,
-in order that he might be instructed by him. When Meïr was reproached
-for his intimacy with a traitor to the Law, he said, "When I see a
-juicy pomegranate I enjoy its contents and throw away the skin."
-
-One Sabbath he accompanied Acher, who was on horseback, whilst Meïr was
-on foot, discussing a rendering of the Scriptures. Suddenly Acher said
-to him, "Thou canst go thus far and not farther, for here is the limit
-of thy Sabbath walk. Return." Meïr, seizing the opportunity, said to
-Acher, "Return thou also." But Acher said, "If for all sinners there be
-pardon, for me the gates of mercy are closed, because I have turned the
-gifts given me by God to evil uses." Later, when Acher was ill, Meïr
-again endeavored to win him over, and flattered himself that he had
-induced Acher to repent before his death. A legend relates that Meïr
-spread his mantle over Acher's grave, from which there arose a pillar
-of smoke, and in imitation of a verse of Scripture (Ruth iii. 13) he
-exclaimed, "Rest here in the night; in the dawn of happiness the God of
-mercy will deliver thee; if not, I will be thy redeemer."
-
-Meïr also was intimate with a heathen philosopher, Euonymus of Gadara.
-In Jewish circles it was said, "Be not surprised to find amongst the
-heathens a knowledge of God, for God had inspired Balaam and Euonymus,
-two of the greatest philosophers of heathendom, with His wisdom, so
-that they might teach the people." When Euonymus mourned for the death
-of his parents, Meïr visited him in order to condole with him, for he
-held that a heathen who occupied himself with the Torah was as worthy
-as a high priest of Judaism, for it says in Holy Writ, "These laws man
-shall observe in order to live," by which Meïr explained that Jews were
-not exclusively appointed to enjoy eternal happiness.
-
-Through intercourse with men of learning Meïr appears to have become
-acquainted with the Stoic philosophy, which was at that time the ruling
-power in the Roman world. But all the perfections which, according to
-philosophy, were due to the Stoic theory, he attributed to the Torah,
-which helps man to attain the ideal, if he devotes himself to it from
-pure love and without interested motives. "The Torah," he says, "makes
-him who familiarizes himself with it worthy to all the world; he
-becomes the favorite of all; it inspires him with love to God and man;
-clothes him in modesty and fear of God; makes him pious, honest, and
-true; removes him from sin; brings him near to virtue; endows him with
-kingly dignity; makes him moral, long-suffering, forgetful of injury,
-and raises and carries him above all things." This was his ideal of a
-truly wise man. In treating the Halachic traditions Meïr copied his
-teacher Akiba's system of dialectics. The rules of deduction used by
-his predecessors he employed as formulas which could establish or
-abolish legal enactments. His contemporaries relate of him that they
-could never reach the real meaning of Meïr's decisions, because he
-brought forward a number of proofs for and against an ordinance, and
-he was able through similes and deductions to turn a law, as it was
-laid down, into one of an opposite meaning. Whether these sophistic
-arguments were to be taken seriously, or whether they were only
-intended by the speaker for dialectic purposes in order to show both
-sides of the question, is not now known, as even those who lived in
-former times were doubtful on the subject.
-
-Yet the injurious method of treating the Halachas, which was called
-Talmudic dialectics, became later on still more developed; in fact,
-the closer apprehension of the Halachas was deemed impossible without
-it. Nevertheless, Meïr's exposition of the Law was decidedly serious
-and strict. Amongst other things he asserts that he who gives his
-wife less dowry than is usual, acts wrongly; for he thereby makes
-divorce more easy to obtain. Further, he asserts that any one who in
-the smallest degree should deviate from the law laid down for divorce
-would render the act illegal, and his children from the second marriage
-would be considered as illegitimate. Meïr further controverted the law
-which was universally respected, that what was forbidden or permitted
-should be inferred from such cases as most commonly occurred in life,
-without regard to exceptional circumstances; he considered that certain
-circumstances should conscientiously be reckoned exceptional. For this
-reason when he heard that some Samaritans continued to worship idols,
-which according to Hadrian's edict they had formerly been compelled
-to do, when they brought him libations of wine, he refused to permit
-the use of wine amongst his hearers. This abstinence, had it been
-consistently observed, would have put an end to much industry and
-pleasure and rendered them legally impossible. For other misdeeds, as
-for example usury, he imposed heavy fines. But his regulations were
-not carried out, his contemporaries and succeeding generations did not
-acknowledge Meïr's ordinances and imposts in their entirety. He was,
-however, most severe against himself, and once said--"Even if I hold
-something as permissible to others, I cannot allow it to hold good for
-myself, if I am convinced that my colleagues would be of a different
-opinion." As in the treatment of Halachas, so in ordinary things, Meïr
-followed in the footsteps of Akiba; he completed the collection of
-the Mishnas, but appears to have arranged their component parts more
-according to their contents than their number. These arrangements of
-Meïr and his colleagues made no pretense to being a code, but each
-teacher of the Law having a circle of disciples, treated the material
-before him in the manner which seemed most suitable and convenient to
-himself. Meïr had assembled a not insignificant number of pupils round
-him, who were drawn towards him by his intelligent renderings and
-interesting lectures. He was in the habit of alternating the dry matter
-of the Halachas with the attractive Agadahs, and of illustrating them
-by fables.
-
-Amongst Meïr's disciples was one named Symmachos ben Joseph, who
-adopted and exaggerated his method to such an extent that it was said
-of him that he could argue well, but could not come to any practical
-decision. It was even said of him that his forefathers could not have
-been present at the Revelation on Sinai. After Meïr's death both
-Symmachos and his disciples were excluded from the school, because
-they did not seek for truth, but only to dispute sophistically. It is
-probable that Meïr repaired to the Synhedrion of Usha when important
-questions were under discussion. He did not live on good terms with the
-Patriarch Simon.
-
-Simon ben Jochai of Galilee was as striking but not so many-sided
-a personage as Meïr, and he was falsely reported to be a worker of
-miracles--a mystic and a Cabbalist. Few facts of his life are known,
-but we may infer from what is recorded that he was rather of a
-matter-of-fact than of an imaginative turn of mind. Nothing is known
-of Simon's youth, and later, after his return with others from the
-exile imposed on them under Hadrian's rule, his activity seems to have
-spent itself on the newly organized Synhedrion at Usha. In opposition
-to his father, Jochai, who stood in favor with the Roman authorities,
-the son was a decided enemy of Rome, and was not much liked by them.
-For uttering a truthful censure on the Roman Governor, he was sentenced
-to death, and could save himself only by flight, and upon this fact
-legend has seized in order to surround Simon with wonders and miracles.
-Amongst the various legal decisions, sayings and remarks which have
-been preserved of him there is no trace of a mystical tendency. On the
-contrary his reasoning with regard to biblical laws was always of a
-simple nature. The system of following out the reasoning of the Law,
-and thence drawing deductions, was peculiar to Simon.
-
-This was an improvement on Akiba's system, which consisted in drawing
-from pleonastic words, syllables and letters, the principles of
-legal deductions. The following are instances of Simon's method. The
-Bible forbids the distraint of a widow's goods; Simon restricted the
-reference to cases of poor widows. Simon drew his conclusion in the
-following manner:--The biblical law which enacts that a widow should
-be spared all legal seizure of goods could only apply to poor widows.
-A rich woman had no cause for being so spared. Further, that the
-prohibition against intermarrying with the seven Canaanite races must
-also be extended to all idolatrous nations, as the law was actually
-intended to prevent the people from being drawn into idolatry.
-
-Another opinion of Simon's shows how far removed he was from all
-exaggerated religious theories. He had a curious saying that the
-fulfilment of the Law was only possible to those who lived on manna
-or the tithes. Unlike most teachers of the Law, Simon pursued no
-occupation or business; he was at that time the only man whose
-life's business was the study of the Law. Simon's dwelling-place and
-school-house were in the fertile oil district of Tekoa, in Galilee. He
-had his circle of disciples, and because he survived his colleagues he
-became the only authority of the following period.
-
-Another important name was that of Judah ben Ilai of Usha, whose
-character bore a similarity to that of Joshua. Modest, wise,
-diplomatic, eloquent, he knew how to bridge over the breach which
-existed between the Roman and the Jewish nature. He was therefore
-especially designated "the wise," or "the first speaker." Judah
-was not a man of property, but, like Joshua, he supported himself
-by an occupation of which he was not ashamed. He often used the
-expression--"The work honors the laborer. He who does not teach his son
-a handicraft designs him to be a robber." His mode of teaching had no
-especially pronounced characteristics.
-
-As with Judah we have no distinctive features recorded, so also of
-the life of José ben Chalafta of Sepphoris but little is known. He
-also followed a trade, and one of the lowest kind. He was a worker
-in leather. Unlike his contemporaries, José devoted himself to the
-collection of the annals of Jewish history, and left an account from
-the creation of the world to the war of Bar Cochba, under the name of
-Seder Olam. He endeavored to fix the various dates correctly from the
-historical records of the Bible. He tried to render clear the doubtful
-passages, and to fill up the gaps in traditions. On the other hand,
-from the time of Alexander the Great, we find that this chronicle of
-José gives independent and trustworthy, but very scanty information.
-
-But little that is noteworthy is known of the other disciples of
-Akiba. Besides the Galilean circle of scholars there was yet another
-in the extreme south of Judæa (Darom) who continued Ishmael's mode of
-teaching; only two members of this circle, Josiah and Jonathan, are
-known.
-
-Nathan, a Babylonian, and a son of the Prince of the Captivity, was a
-man of special interest. It is not known where he received instruction
-in the Halachas, nor what occasioned him to remove to Judæa, or to
-give up the more favorable position that he occupied in his native
-country. The foreign teachers of the Law at this period were Judah ben
-Bathyra of Nisibis, who appears to have sheltered the fugitives from
-Judæa; also Chananya, nephew of Joshua, in Nahar-Pakod, who had been
-sent by his uncle to Babylon, so as to remove him from the influence
-of the Jewish Christians; and, lastly, Matiah ben Charash in Rome, who
-first transplanted the knowledge of the Jewish Law from Asia to Europe.
-
-Whilst the teachers of the Law in Galilee endeavored to reanimate the
-body of the nation, to re-establish the Synhedrion, and to secure
-and spread traditions by collecting and classifying them, but little
-was needed to cause a deep schism which threatened to separate the
-Babylonian congregation entirely from the main body.
-
-The wisdom of the Patriarch Simon II. deftly avoided this breach.
-Chananya established a sort of Synhedrion in Nahar-Pakod, probably in
-the neighborhood of Nahardea, of which he was the president, whilst
-a certain Nechunyan, perhaps the Prince of the Captivity, appears to
-have supported him. The Babylonian community, until then under the
-control of Judæa, and now left uncared for through the destruction of
-all religious institutions in the fatherland, welcomed a Synhedrion
-in their midst as of joyful import, and gratefully accepted its
-ordinances and decisions. Chananya immediately introduced a leap
-year, and the celebration of the festivals as had been customary in
-Judæa. But when the Synhedrion had been established in Usha it was no
-longer possible to continue the existence of a body which threatened
-the unity of Judaism, and tended to divide it into an eastern and
-western Judaism. In order to avoid such a division the Patriarch Simon
-sent two ambassadors, Isaac and Nathan, with flattering messages to
-Chananya, with the unusual superscription, "To his holiness Chananya."
-The president of the Babylonian Synhedrion, who had not expected such
-friendliness, received the Jewish ambassadors in the kindest manner,
-and introduced them with flattering speeches to the assembly. Having
-secured the confidence of the nation, they named the ultimate reason
-of their embassage. At the public service they read from the Book of
-Laws, "Such are the feast days of Chananya" (instead of God). Another
-read from the prophets--"From Babylon shall the light go forth, and the
-word of the Lord from Nahar Pakod" (instead of Zion and Jerusalem). The
-audience, whose attention was drawn through these ironical allusions,
-and who felt that an independent Synhedrion in Babylon would be
-contrary to the spirit of the Law, felt their consciences disturbed.
-Chananya vainly endeavored to weaken the impression by implicating the
-ambassadors. They replied that to establish an opposition Synhedrion
-in Babylon was tantamount to building an altar, at which Chananya and
-Nechunya would officiate as unauthorized priests, and was in fact
-equal to disavowing the God of Israel. Chananya, however, doubted the
-continuance of a Synhedrion in Judæa, saying that the teachers of
-the Law there did not enjoy any authority, to which the ambassadors
-replied, "The little ones whom thou hast deserted have meanwhile grown
-up." Chananya, however, did not relinquish his design until Judah ben
-Bathyra, in Nisibis, pointed out to him that in holy things unqualified
-obedience must be paid to the Judæan Synhedrion. Finding no response
-or interest anywhere, he countermanded the festivals as arranged by
-himself, and the Babylonian Synhedrion came to an end.
-
-Dissensions arose at the College of Usha, which threatened to have
-similar results to the contest between Gamaliel and Joshua. The
-Patriarch Simon, in order to increase his dignity, endeavored to
-introduce a special etiquette, in order to remove the equality
-previously existing between all officials. In the absence of the
-Ab-beth-din Nathan and the speaker Meïr, he instituted a new order of
-rank, which would definitely recognize him as the superior head. This
-distinction lay herein, that at all public sittings of the Synhedrion
-the people, who were accustomed to rise at the entrance of the
-president and other important officials, and to remain standing until
-the sign was given them to be seated, should reserve this mark of honor
-in future for the President alone; in honor of his substitute only the
-first rows were to stand until he had taken his seat; and still less
-ceremony was to be observed towards the speaker (the Chacham).
-
-When Nathan and Meïr for the first time attended the meeting and
-noticed the new arrangements they secretly determined to conspire
-against Simon, and to deprive him of his office. For this purpose,
-however, the consent of the nation, with whom the appointment of
-Patriarch rested, became necessary. They determined to puzzle Simon
-by difficult questions (on the Halachas), and he seems to have been
-inferior to them in knowledge of traditional lore, and when they
-had revealed his weakness before the whole assemblage they intended
-proposing the deposition of a Patriarch who was not conversant with all
-branches of the Law. They also determined that Nathan, who belonged to
-the family of the Prince of the Captivity, and who was also of the race
-of David, should become Patriarch, and that Meïr should be second in
-rank as substitute. This plot, however, was betrayed to Simon, and the
-conspirators found him prepared.
-
-The Patriarch, on revealing the scheme against him, succeeded in having
-the two expelled from the Synhedrion. But they made their absence felt
-by writing difficult questions and distributing them amongst the
-assembly, whom they thereby placed in an awkward position. Referring
-to these two José afterwards said, "We are in the house of the Law,
-but the Law is outside." They were readmitted, but Simon arranged that
-their names should not be recorded in the ordinances enacted by him. R.
-Nathan subsequently made peace with the Patriarch, but the breach with
-Meïr endured. Simon at length excommunicated him, but Meïr was not as
-submissive as he who, without a word, had accepted Gamaliel's sentence.
-Referring to a former resolution of the Synhedrion in Usha, that no
-member could be excommunicated, Meïr replied, "I do not care for your
-sentence until you prove to me on whom, on what grounds, and under what
-conditions it can be imposed." In proud recognition of his own worth,
-Meïr is said on his death-bed to have uttered the words: "Tell the
-sons of the Holy Land that their Messiah has died in a foreign land."
-According to his last will, his body was buried on the sea-shore.
-
-Simon's patriarchate was not free from the disturbances and oppressions
-which the Roman officials permitted themselves to perpetrate towards
-the Jewish people. The mutual hatred of Jews and Romans, which had
-followed from the revolt of Bar-Cochba and Hadrian's persecution,
-was so great that the powerful victors could not do otherwise than
-make their power felt by those whom they had conquered. Simon ben
-Gamaliel notes the daily tortures and oppressions: "Our forefathers
-only scented trouble from afar; we, however, have suffered from them
-through many days, years, periods, and cycles; we have more right to
-become impatient than our forefathers. If, as formerly, we desired to
-record our troubles and temporary relief on a scroll, we should not
-find space enough." The hatred of the Romans on the one hand, and the
-endurance of the Jews on the other, appear to have ended in a fresh
-revolution in Judæa, which took place in the last year of the reign
-of the Emperor Antoninus Pius (161), but its rise, scene of action,
-and results are not known. The attempt at a new call to arms appears
-to have been connected with the warlike preparations commenced by the
-Parthians against Rome. Though often deceived, the Judæans still hoped
-for the help of the Parthians, as a means of deliverance from the Roman
-yoke. Simon b. Jochai, who heartily despised the hypocritical policy of
-the Romans, said, "When thou seest a Persian (Parthian) steed tied to
-an Israelite tombstone, then canst thou believe in the advent of the
-Messiah." Meanwhile, the badly-organized revolt was soon suppressed by
-the Governor of Syria before the Parthians could come to the rescue.
-The Parthian war, which lasted several years (161-165), began shortly
-after the death of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, when the Roman Empire
-for the first time was governed by two rulers, the philosophical but
-impractical Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and the dissolute Verus Commodus.
-At the first attack the Parthians, under their king Vologeses, entered
-Syria, defeated the governor, Atidius Cornelianus, who had just
-repressed the Jewish revolt, put his legions to flight, and devastated
-the country. The second emperor, Verus, was sent with fresh troops
-to the East, though he was eminently unfitted to conduct a war. The
-conquest of the Parthians was therefore undertaken by capable generals,
-whilst the emperor gave himself up to dissipation in Antioch, Laodicea,
-and Daphne.
-
-Fresh persecutions appear to have been instituted by the Emperor Verus
-against the Jews of Palestine. First they lost the right of using
-their own courts of justice. It is not certain whether Jewish judicial
-functions were set aside, or whether the Jewish judges were deposed.
-Simon ben Jochai thanked God for the interference of the Romans, as
-he, like his contemporaries, did not feel himself fitted to exercise
-judicial rights. Notwithstanding that the chiefs of the Synhedrion had
-taken no part in the revolution, they yet seem to have been suspected
-and watched by the Roman authorities. A conversation was once reported
-which took place between Judah, José and Simon ben Jochai at Usha,
-where, it appears, a discussion was held with regard to the Roman
-policy. Judah, who, like Joshua, endeavored to calm those who stood
-around, had been praising Rome for her actions. "How useful this nation
-has been; everywhere it has erected towns with market-places; it has
-put bridges over rivers, and built bath-houses for the preservation of
-health." José kept silent, neither giving praise nor blame. Simon ben
-Jochai, on the other hand, could not repress his displeasure. "What
-the Romans do," he said, "they only do for the sake of selfishness
-and gain. They keep houses of bad repute in the cities, misuse the
-bathing-places, and levy toll for the bridges." A proselyte, Judah,
-repeated this, perhaps without desiring to make mischief. Judah,
-however, the eulogist of Rome, was loaded with honors, José was
-banished to Laodicea, and Simon was condemned to death. In consequence
-of these events the Synhedrion at Usha seems to have been dissolved,
-for the most important members were withdrawn, and its proceedings
-watched.
-
-Simon, who had taken refuge, as before stated, in a cave, became the
-hero of various miracles. He is said to have spent years in this cave,
-supporting himself on carob-beans and spring water, in consequence
-of which his skin became full of boils. When he learnt that affairs
-had taken a favorable turn, probably through the death of the Emperor
-Verus (169), he took this as a sign that he might venture out, and by
-bathing in the warm springs of Tiberias his shattered health became
-restored. Out of gratitude he declared the town of Tiberias, which
-had hitherto been avoided by the pious, because buildings had been
-erected over graves, as clean and suitable for a dwelling-place. This
-aroused the anger of the pious who lived in Magdala (Tarichea), who
-considered this decision as a frivolous innovation. After his return
-Simon ben Jochai was asked to repair to Rome, and to intercede with
-the Emperor Marcus Aurelius for the abolition of the laws against the
-Jews. Simon took as his companion on this journey Eleazar, the son of
-José, probably because he was acquainted with the Latin language. When
-they arrived in Rome, assisted by various influential Roman Jews, they
-probably succeeded in obtaining from Marcus Aurelius the concession
-sought. Christian teachers also addressed petitions to the Emperor and
-requested him to show mercy on Christendom. The legend relating to
-Simon attributes the attainment of the emperor's favor to a miracle;
-he had, namely, delivered the daughter of the emperor, Lucilla, from a
-demon (Bartholomaion), and out of gratitude the emperor permitted him
-and his followers to take from the state archives whatever they chose,
-and they took out the inhuman decree against the Jews and destroyed it.
-There appear to have been actual grounds for this story, for Eleazar
-ben Joseph, Simon's friend, boasted that he had seen in the room the
-vessels of the Temple, the frontal of the high priest, and the curtain
-of the Holy of Holies, which Titus had carried off as trophies, and
-which could be seen only by those especially favored.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII.
-
-THE PATRIARCHATE OF JUDAH I.
-
-    The Patriarch Judah I.--His Authority and
-    Reputation--Completion of the Mishna--The Last Generation
-    of Tanaites--Condition of the Jews under Marcus Aurelius,
-    Commodus, Septimius Severus, and Antoninus Caracalla--Character
-    and contents of the Mishna--Death of Judah.
-
-    175.219 C. E.
-
-
-The last generation of the Tanaites had come back to the same point
-from which they first had started, thus completing the whole circle.
-In the same way as the first had found complete expression in a single
-personality, Jochanan ben Zaccai, so also the last culminated in one
-standard-bearer, who formed the central point of his times. The former
-had been followed by several disciples, each possessing his peculiar
-school, tendency, and system; and thus the material of tradition was
-divided into a multiplicity of fractional parts. It was the Patriarch
-Judah, the son of Simon II., who reunited them, and thus brought the
-activity of the Tanaites to a conclusion. He was the chief authority
-of the last generation, compared with whom the other teachers of the
-Law were of no importance; he abandoned the old tendencies and prepared
-the way for a new departure. In spite of the important position which
-he occupies in Jewish history but little is known of Judah's life. It
-was during a time of great affliction, when the calamitous consequences
-of the Bar-Cochba war were still being felt, that his superior talents
-and great parts developed themselves. He so distinguished himself by
-mature questions and striking answers that his father and the college
-advanced him to the foremost rank of the disciples while he was still
-in his first youth. As though he felt that his vocation was to be the
-collecting and arranging of the most dissimilar opinions, Judah did not
-confine himself to any one school, but sought the society of several
-teachers of the Law. This it was that saved him from that one-sidedness
-and narrowness of mind which is given to upholding, with more fidelity
-than love of truth, the words of one teacher against all other
-doctrines. The most important of his teachers were Simon ben Jochai and
-Eleazar ben Shamua, whose school was so crowded with students that six
-of them were obliged to content themselves with one seat.
-
-Judah was elevated to the dignity of Patriarch upon his father's
-decease, and the cessation of the persecutions after Verus's death. He
-was blessed with such extraordinary gifts of fortune that it used to
-be said proverbially, "Judah's cattle-stalls are worth more than the
-treasure-chambers of the King of Persia." Living very simply himself,
-he made but small use of this wealth for his personal gratification,
-but employed it in the maintenance of the disciples who during his
-Patriarchate gathered around him in numbers from at home and abroad,
-and were supported entirely at his cost. At the time of the awful
-famine, which, together with the plague, raged for several years
-during the reign of Marcus Aurelius throughout the whole extent of
-the Roman empire, the Jewish prince threw open his storehouses and
-distributed corn to the needy. At first he decided that those only
-should be succored who were occupied in some way with the study of the
-Law, thus excluding from his charity the rude and uneducated populace.
-It was only when his over-conscientious disciple, Jonathan ben Amram,
-refused to derive any material benefit from his knowledge of the Law,
-exclaiming, "Succor me not because I am learned in the Law, but as you
-would feed a hungry raven," that Judah perceived the mistake of trying
-to set bounds to his charity, and he thenceforth distributed his gifts
-without distinction. On another occasion Judah also yielded to his
-better convictions and overcame his nature, which seems not to have
-been entirely free from a touch of harshness. The daughters of Acher,
-a man who had held the Law in contempt, having fallen into distress,
-came to Judah for help. At first he repulsed them uncharitably,
-remarking that the orphans of such a father deserved no pity. But when
-they reminded him of their father's profound knowledge of the Law, he
-immediately altered his mind.
-
-Distinguished by his wealth and his intimate knowledge of the
-subject-matter of the Halachas, he succeeded without trouble in doing
-that which his predecessors had striven in vain to accomplish, namely,
-to invest the Patriarchate with autocratic power, unfettered by the
-presence of any rival authority, and to transfer the powers of the
-Synhedrion to the person of the Patriarch. The seat of the principal
-school and of the Synhedrion during the time of Judah, and after Usha
-had lost its importance (a short time previously it seems to have
-been the neighboring town of Shefaram), was first at Beth-Shearim,
-northeast of Sepphoris, and later on at Sepphoris itself. Judah chose
-this latter town for his residence, on account of its elevated and
-healthy situation, in the hopes of recovering from a complaint from
-which he had suffered for several years. In Sepphoris there seems
-to have existed a complete council of seventy members, which was
-entrusted with the decision of religious questions according to the
-adopted routine. Judah's reputation was so great, however, that the
-college itself transferred to him the sovereign power which up till
-then had belonged to the whole body or to individual members. It was
-rightly observed of Judah that since the time of Moses, knowledge of
-the Law and possession of authority had not been united in any one
-person as in him. A most important function which was conferred upon
-this Patriarch, or rather which he got conferred on him, was that of
-appointing the disciples as judges and teachers of the Law. He was
-allowed to exercise this power without consulting the College, but
-on the other hand the nominations of the high Council were invalid
-without the Patriarch's confirmation. The nomination of spiritual
-guides of the communities, the appointments to the judicial offices,
-the filling up of vacancies in the Synhedrion, in a word, all Judæa
-and the communities abroad, fell in this manner into dependence on the
-Patriarch. That which his father and grandfather had striven in vain to
-accomplish, came about, so to speak, at his touch. In his time there
-was no longer a deputy (Ab-Beth-Din), nor a public speaker (Chacham).
-Judah, the Prince (ha-Nassi), alone was all in all. Even the Synhedrion
-itself had resigned its authority, and continued to exist henceforward
-only in name; the Patriarch decided everything. By reason of his great
-importance he was called simply Rabbi, as if, when compared with him,
-no teacher of the Law were of any consequence, and he himself were the
-personification of the Law.
-
-He soon further increased his powers by deciding that even the most
-capable were not competent to pronounce on any religious question
-without having first been expressly authorized by him. How great was
-the importance of this act may be seen from the circumstance that
-the foreign communities, as well as those of Judæa, were obliged to
-put themselves in direct communication with the Patriarch in order
-to obtain their officials, judges, and teachers. The community of
-Simonias, which lay to the south of Sepphoris, begged the Patriarch to
-send them a man who should give public lectures, decide questions of
-law, superintend the Synagogue, prepare copies of authentic writings,
-teach their sons, and generally supply all the wants of the community.
-He recommended to them for this purpose his best pupil, Levi bar Sissi.
-It may be seen from this example how great were the requirements
-demanded of the instructors of the people. Another disciple of Judah,
-Rabba bar Chana by name, a native of Cafri in Babylon, was obliged to
-obtain the authorization of the Patriarch before being able to decide
-any questions of religion and law in his native land. In the same
-manner a third of his disciples, Abba Areka, also a native of Babylon,
-who later on became a great authority with the Babylonian communities,
-obtained this influence solely by Judah's nomination. One dignity
-alone, that of the Prince of the Captivity in Babylon, was on an equal
-footing with the Patriarchate, and Judah was all the more jealous
-thereof on account of its being conferred and upheld by the Parthian
-authorities, while his office was at most merely tolerated by the Roman
-rulers.
-
-Invested with this autocratic power, Judah manifested unusual severity
-towards his disciples, and displayed so great an irritability with them
-that he never pardoned the least offense offered, even in jest, to his
-dignity. The course of conduct which he enjoined upon his son from his
-death-bed, namely, to treat his scholars with strict severity, was the
-one which he himself had pursued all through the Patriarchate. Among
-the numerous Babylonians who crowded to the Academy at Sepphoris was
-a distinguished disciple, by name Chiya (an abbreviation of Achiya),
-whom his contemporaries could hardly praise enough for his natural
-gifts, his pious conduct, and his untiring endeavors to spread the
-teachings of religion among the people. Judah himself valued him very
-highly, and said of him: "From a land far off there came to me the
-man of good counsel." But even him the Patriarch could not pardon an
-insignificant jest. Judah had once said to him, "If Huna, the Prince
-of the Captivity, were to come to Judæa, I should certainly not carry
-my self-denial so far as to abdicate my office to him, but I would
-honor him as a descendant in the male line from David." When Huna died
-and his body was taken to Judæa, Chiya observed to the Patriarch,
-"Huna is coming." Judah grew pale at the news, and when he found that
-Chiya was referring to the corpse of Huna, he punished the joke by
-excluding Chiya from his presence for thirty days. Judah showed himself
-equally sensitive in his conduct towards Simon Bar-Kappara, one of his
-disciples, who, with his knowledge of the Law, combined at the same
-time poetical talent and a vein of delicate satire; as far as is known,
-he was the only Hebrew poet of that period. The little that remains of
-the productions of Bar-Kappara's muse indicates ready manipulation of
-the Hebrew tongue in a regenerated form, and in all its pristine purity
-and vigor; he composed fables, of which, however, no trace now remains.
-On the occasion of a merry meeting, the witty Bar-Kappara indulged in
-a jest at the expense of a certain Bar-Eleaza, the rich but proud and
-ignorant son-in-law of the Patriarch. All the guests had put questions
-to Judah, except the simple-minded Bar-Eleaza. Bar-Kappara incited him
-to ask one as well, and in a whisper suggested one to him in the form
-of a riddle. This riddle, to which no answer has been found to the
-present day, contained in all likelihood allusions to certain persons
-closely connected with Judah. It ran somewhat as follows:--
-
-        She looks from heaven on high,
-        And ceaseless is her cry,
-          Whom wingéd beings shun;
-        Youth doth she fright away.
-        And men with old age gray,
-          And loud shriek they who run.
-        But whom her net hath lured
-        Can ne'er of the sin be cured.
-
-In all simplicity, Bar-Eleaza propounded this riddle. Judah must have
-seen, however, by the satirical smile on Bar-Kappara's lips that it
-was intended to banter him, and he therefore exclaimed angrily to
-Bar-Kappara: "I refuse to recognize you as an appointed teacher."
-It was not till later on, when Bar-Kappara failed to obtain his
-appointment as an independent teacher of the Law, that he realized to
-the full the meaning of these words.
-
-One of the most celebrated of the Babylonian disciples, Samuel by name,
-by whose medical treatment Judah had been cured of his long illness,
-was unable to obtain the nomination necessary in order to become a
-teacher of the Law. Judah was once desirous of excusing himself for
-this slight to Samuel, to whom he owed the restoration of his health,
-whereupon the latter answered him pleasantly, that it was so decreed in
-the book of Adam, "that Samuel would be a wise man, but not appointed
-Rabbi, and that thy illness should be cured by me." Chanina bar Chama,
-another disciple, who, later on, was also regarded as an authority,
-once remarked that a word which occurred in the Prophets ought to be
-pronounced otherwise than Judah read it. Offended thereat, Judah asked
-him where he had heard this; to which Chanina answered, "At the house
-of Hamnuna, in Babylon." "Well, then," retorted Judah, "when you go
-again to Hamnuna, tell him that I recognize you as a sage"; which
-was equivalent to telling Chanina that Judah would never authorize
-him to be a teacher. This irritability of the Patriarch, who was in
-all other respects a noble character, was his one weak point. It is
-possible, indeed, that this susceptibility was the result of his
-ill-health. However that may be, it did not fail to arouse a certain
-dissatisfaction and discontent, which never found public expression on
-account of the deep reverence in which the Patriarch was held.
-
-Once at a banquet, when the wine had loosened men's tongues and made
-the guests oblivious of respect, the twin sons of Chiya gave utterance
-to this feeling of discontent. These highly talented youths, by name
-Judah and Chiskiya, whom the Patriarch himself had incited to gaiety
-and loquacity, expressed it as their opinion "that the Messiah could
-not appear until the fall of the two princely houses of Israel--the
-house of the Patriarch in Judæa, and that of the Prince of the
-Captivity in Babylon." The wine had caused them to betray their most
-secret thoughts.
-
-In consideration of the altered circumstances of his time, Judah, by
-virtue of his independence and authority, abolished several rites and
-customs which seemed to the people to be hallowed by age, and carried
-through his design with perseverance, regardless of all consequences.
-Contrary to the principles of his teacher and predecessor, who had
-treated the Samaritans as heathens, Judah decreed that the evidence
-of a Samaritan in matters concerning marriage was admissible and of
-equal weight with the testimony of an Israelite. The views of these
-teachers of the Law of Moses, who agreed on the chief principles of
-their religion, varied in other matters according to the predominance
-of friendly or inimical feelings towards the heathens. For some
-time past difficulties had been constantly occurring between the
-Jews and the Samaritans. Eleazar, the son of Simon ben Jochai, and
-a contemporary of Judah, who had made himself acquainted with the
-Samaritan Torah, reproached them with having altered certain passages
-of the holy text. The peaceable relations between Jew and Cuthæan since
-the war of Hadrian were gradually changed to a state of ill-feeling,
-which was as bitter on the one side as on the other. One day when
-Ishmael b. José was passing through Neapolis (Shechem) in order to
-go and pray at Jerusalem (for which purpose the Jews seem to have
-required the permission of Marcus Aurelius), the Samaritans jeered
-at the tenacity of the Jews, saying that it was certainly better to
-pray upon their holy mount (Gerizim) than upon the heap of ruins at
-Jerusalem. Traveling through the land of Samaria must have now become
-less dangerous than it had formerly been. The teachers of the Law had
-frequently to pass through the strip of land lying between Judæa and
-Sepphoris. Although the seat of the Synhedrion was now in Galilee, and
-Sepphoris was thus to a certain extent the center of the entire Jewish
-community, nevertheless Judæa was, for various reasons, regarded as
-holier than the northern district. The patriarch could not officiate in
-person when the appearance of the new moon was announced, but had to
-send a representative for the purpose (which office Chiya once filled);
-the place where the announcement was made was at this time Ain-tab,
-probably in the province of Judæa. This trifling superiority was still
-left to that district, the scene of so many holy ceremonies and ancient
-memories. The journey to Ain-tab was made through Samaria.
-
-On another point, also, Judah deviated from the ancient customs and
-the Halachic laws: he rendered less oppressive the laws relating to
-the year of release and to the tithes. In spite of the fall of the
-Jewish state, and of the numerous catastrophes which had befallen the
-Jews, these laws still continued in unimpaired force, and were doubly
-oppressive to a people impoverished by the disturbances of war, by
-taxes, and by the extortion of money. The Patriarch therefore turned
-his attention to this matter, and determined, if not entirely to
-abrogate, at least to moderate the harshness of these laws. Furthermore
-he decreed that the territory of certain border cities, which had up
-till then been considered as forming a part of Judæa, should henceforth
-not enjoy the privilege of sanctity which attached to Jewish ground.
-This in so far constituted a relief, as these cities were thereby
-exempted from the payment of tithes, and doubtless also from the laws
-relating to the year of release. For the most part these border cities
-were inhabited by Greeks and Romans, and had not always been subject
-to Jewish rule. These alleviations of the burdens of the people drew
-down reproaches on the Patriarch from certain of his relatives, to
-whom he replied that his predecessors had left this duty to him. He
-had even the intention of entirely abolishing the laws relative to the
-year of release, but was unwilling to take so important a step without
-first consulting such persons as were likely to entertain scruples
-on this point. At that time Pinchas ben Jaïr was regarded as the
-model of austere piety. He was a son-in-law of Simon ben Jochai, and
-possessed so gloomy a disposition as to cause him to entertain doubts
-as to the efficacy of any human institutions. He used to remark that,
-"since the destruction of the Temple the members and the freemen are
-put to shame, those who conform to the Law are confused, violence and
-sycophancy carry the day, and no one cares for those who are deserted;
-we have no hope but in God." In particular, Pinchas adhered strictly
-to the prescriptions of the law relating to the tithes, and for this
-reason never accepted any invitation to a meal. It was with this same
-Pinchas that Judah took counsel relative to the abolition of the year
-of release. It is probable that a year of scarcity necessitated the
-adoption of some such measure. To the Patriarch's question, "How goes
-it with the corn?" Pinchas answered reprovingly, "There will be a very
-good crop of endives," meaning that if necessary it was better to live
-on herbs rather than abrogate the Law. In consequence of Pinchas'
-dislike of this scheme Judah abandoned his project entirely. But the
-Zealot, having noticed some mules in the court of the Patriarch's
-house, to keep which was not in exact accordance with the Law, refused
-to accept Judah's invitation, and left him on the spot, vowing never to
-come near him again.
-
-But the most important of Judah's acts, a work on which reposes
-his claim to an enduring name, and whereby he created a concluding
-epoch, was the completion of the Mishna (about 189). Since the
-completion, two generations before, of the oldest compilation under
-the name of Adoyot, the subject-matter of the Law had accumulated to
-an enormous extent. New cases, some drawn from older ones, others
-deduced from the Scripture, had helped to swell the mass. The various
-schools and systems had left many points of law in doubt, which now
-awaited decision. Judah therefore based his compilation on Akiba's
-partially arranged collection of laws as taught and corrected by Meïr,
-retaining the same order. He examined the arguments for and against
-every opinion, and established the Halachic precepts according to
-certain ordinances and principles. He endeavored to observe a certain
-systematic order in dealing with the various traditional laws relating
-to the prayers, to benedictions, taxes on agricultural produce, the
-Sabbath, festivals and fasts, marriage customs, vows and Nazarites,
-civil and criminal jurisdiction, the system of sacrifices, levitical
-purity, and many other points. His efforts were not, however, crowned
-with complete success, partly on account of the various parts of his
-subject being by their nature incapable of connection, and partly
-by reason of his desire to retain the order and divisions already
-employed. The style of Judah's Mishna is concise, well rounded, and
-intelligent, and is thereby well adapted to impress itself firmly on
-the memory. He in no way intended his Mishna, however, to be regarded
-as the sole standard, having in fact only composed it, like his
-predecessors and contemporaries, for his own use, in order to possess
-a text-book for his lectures. But by reason of his great authority with
-his disciples and contemporaries his compilation gradually obtained
-exclusive authority, and finally superseded all previous collections,
-which for that reason have fallen into oblivion. It retained the
-ancient name of _Mishna_, but at first with the addition of the words
-"di Rabbi Judah." Gradually, however, these words were dropped, and
-it began to be considered as the sole legitimate, recognized and
-authorized Mishna. His disciples disseminated it through distant lands,
-using it as a text-book for their lectures, and as a religious and
-judicial code. This Mishna, however, like the older compilations, was
-not committed to writing, it being at that time regarded as a religious
-offense to put on paper the precepts of tradition; it was thus handed
-down for many centuries by word of mouth. The Agadas only were now and
-then collected and written down, and even this was severely censured
-by various teachers of the Law. It is true that scarce or remarkable
-Halachas were sometimes written upon scrolls by certain teachers, but
-this was done so secretly, that they acquired from this circumstance
-the name of "Secret Scrolls."
-
-In his old age Judah undertook another revision of his compilation, and
-made certain alterations which brought his Mishna into harmony with his
-new views. Various additions were also made after his death by his son.
-The language in which the Mishna is written is Hebrew in a rejuvenated
-form, interspersed with many Aramaic, Greek, and Latin words in general
-use. Judah evinced a predilection for the Hebrew tongue, despising
-Syriac, which was then indigenous to Galilee, on account of its
-characteristic inexactness. Syriac, he asserted, was superfluous in
-Judæa, and that either Hebrew or Greek should be spoken by every one.
-As a matter of fact, the Hebrew language was in nowise foreign to the
-population of Judæa, especially to such of them as lived in the towns.
-Even Judah's female domestic slave and tyrant was so well acquainted
-with Hebrew that many a foreign scholar applied to her for information
-respecting certain words of which he was ignorant. The Hebrew language
-was so easily and fluently spoken that many legal terms and delicate
-distinctions, which were the outcome of the spirit of the times, found
-their way into Jewish circles, and were there provided with proper
-Hebrew equivalents.
-
-Thus tradition was at last codified and sanctioned. During the four
-centuries since the time of the Maccabees, when the doctrine of the
-father, as handed down to the son, had first begun to acquire an
-influence on the development of history, tradition had remained, so
-to speak, in suspense. Accepted by the Pharisees, rejected by the
-Sadducees, confined by Shammai's school within narrow boundaries,
-extended in its application by the school of Hillel, and greatly
-enriched by the followers of the latter, it was through Judah that
-tradition first acquired a settled form, and was able to exercise, by
-means of its contents and its mode of exposition, a spiritual influence
-during a number of centuries. Concurrently with the Bible, the Mishna
-was the principal source of intellectual activity and research; it
-sometimes even succeeded in entirely supplanting the Scripture, and in
-asserting its claim to sole authority. It was the intellectual bond
-which held together the scattered members of the Jewish nation. The
-Mishna--the child of the Patriarchate--by which it had been brought
-into the world and endowed with authority, slew, so to speak, its own
-parent, for the latter dignity lost by degrees its importance and
-influence.
-
-The appearance of the Mishna brought the line of Tanaites to a
-conclusion, and put an end to independent teaching. "Nathan and
-Judah are the last of the Tanaites," says a Sibylline chronicle,
-the apocryphal book of Adam. The Mishna necessitated henceforth
-the employment of a new method of study, which possessed but little
-similarity with the Tanaite mode of teaching.
-
-The period of the compilation of the Mishna was by no means a happy one
-for the Jews. Marcus Aurelius, the best and most moral of the Roman
-emperors, bore them no good will; he seems even to have cherished a
-special aversion to them. When he came to Judæa, in the summer of
-175, after the death of the rebel Avidius Cassius, he found the Jews
-clamorous; they had not come respectfully to pay him homage, but to ask
-exemption from the heavy taxes imposed on them; and he, greatly vexed
-at this want of reverence, is reported to have exclaimed, "At last I
-have discovered a people who are more restless than the Marcomani, the
-Quadi, or the Sarmati!" In Judah's time, the communities in Judæa were
-subjected to a tax, called the "crown money" (aurum coronarium), which
-was so oppressive that the inhabitants of Tiberias took to flight in
-order to escape its burden. There is not in existence a single law of
-Marcus Aurelius in favor of the Jews.
-
-But few Jews can have taken part in the short-lived rebellion of
-Avidius Cassius (175). With the sensual and bloodthirsty blockhead,
-Commodus (180-192), the son of the Emperor philosopher, ends the series
-of good or tolerable emperors, and there opens a succession of tyrants
-who cut one another's throats. In his reign Judæa was doubtless exposed
-to all sorts of extortions and oppression. The barbarous, savage and
-dissolute Pescennius Niger, who after the murder of the two preceding
-rulers set up as emperor in company with Severus and a third candidate
-(193,) and took up his residence in Antioch, displayed especial
-harshness to the Jews. Once when they prayed him to lighten their
-burden of taxes, which had now become intolerable, he answered them in
-the following words: "You ask me to relieve your lands of their taxes;
-would that I were able to tax the very air that you breathe!"
-
-In the war that ensued between him and Severus, the latter was
-victorious, and his opponent's adherents paid heavily for their
-mistake. During his short stay in Palestine (200), after he had
-wasted, but not subdued, the country of the Parthians, Adiabene, and
-Mesopotamia, Severus promulgated several laws, which were certainly
-not favorable to Palestine. Amongst these laws was one forbidding
-heathens, under penalty of severe punishment, to embrace Judaism, or
-even Christianity. He permitted those, however, who were "imbued with
-the Jewish superstitions" to hold unpaid municipal offices and to be
-invested with the dignities of the magistracy; but they were obliged
-to submit to the claims made on them by reason of their occupation of
-these posts, such as providing costly plays and supporting various
-other heavy expenses, as long as no violation of their religion was
-thereby occasioned.
-
-The numerous bands of marauders which had collected together during
-the war between Severus and Niger do not seem to have been entirely
-suppressed in Judæa, but continued to exist in this land after the
-departure of Severus. The Romans, who regarded these marauders as
-highwaymen, dispatched troops to hunt them out of their hiding-places
-in the mountains, but were unable to disperse them entirely. Two
-famous teachers of the Law of this period, Eleazar, the son of Simon
-ben Jochai (who in his time had been hostile to the Romans), and
-Ishmael, the son of José the Prudent, were induced to aid the Romans,
-to keep a watch over the Jewish freebooters, and to deliver them into
-the hands of the Roman authorities, who put them to death. Public
-opinion, however, was loud in its blame of these men for thus allowing
-themselves to become the tools of the Roman tyrants against their own
-countrymen. Joshua b. Karcha (according to certain authorities the
-son of Akiba) reproached Eleazar most bitterly for his behavior. "Oh,
-thou vinegar!" he exclaimed, "the produce of wine (unworthy son of a
-worthy father), how much longer dost thou intend to deliver up God's
-people to the executioner?" When Eleazar attempted to excuse himself
-by saying that he only desired "to clear the vineyard of thorns,"
-Joshua retorted: "Let the lord of the vineyard root out the thorns
-himself." Later on Eleazar repented of his share in the pursuit of
-the Jewish freebooters, and is said to have done penance in the most
-painful manner. Although he was an Halachic authority, to whom at
-times the Patriarch submitted, the feeling which he had excited by
-affording assistance to the Romans was so bitter that he was afraid
-that after his death the last honors would be denied his corpse by
-the teachers of the Law. He therefore enjoined upon his wife not to
-bury him immediately, but to allow his body to remain in a room for
-several days. When after his death Judah the Patriarch sought his widow
-in marriage, she rejected his suit, annoyed probably at the slight
-inflicted on her husband, and answered him: "A vessel intended for holy
-purposes must not be put to profane uses."
-
-Ishmael ben José was also visited with the disapprobation of the people
-on account of his prosecution of the Jewish marauders. His excuse that
-he had received an order from the Roman authorities, of which he was
-unable to relieve himself, was met by the retort: "Did not thy father
-flee? Thou also then wast able to escape."
-
-Judah, the Patriarch, was a witness of all these sad scenes after
-having held his office for more than thirty years. With great
-equanimity he prepared to die, awaiting his dissolution with
-tranquillity. He summoned his sons and learned comrades before him,
-and informed them of his last wishes. He conferred the dignity of
-Patriarch on Gamaliel, his elder son, and appointed Simon the younger
-to the office of Chacham (speaker). To both of them he recommended his
-widow, who was doubtless their stepmother, and commanded them to pay
-her all respect after his death, and to make no alterations in his
-domestic establishment. He strongly impressed on the future Patriarch
-the policy of treating his disciples with severity, but recommended
-a departure from his principle of only allowing two disciples to be
-ordained, and suggested that all who were capable and deserving should
-be admitted to ordination. He particularly enjoined on Gamaliel the
-obligation of conferring the dignity of teacher, first and foremost
-on Chanina bar Chama, to whom he believed himself indebted. His two
-servants, José, of Phaeno, and Simon the Parthian, who served him with
-great affection during his lifetime, were commanded to take charge
-of his corpse after his death. He besought the Synhedrion to bury
-him without any great pomp, to allow no mourning ceremonies to be
-performed for him in the towns, and to re-open the Assembly of Teachers
-after the short interval of thirty days. Many of the inhabitants of
-the neighboring towns had gathered in Sepphoris at the news of the
-Patriarch's approaching death, in order to show him their sympathy.
-As if it were impossible that he could die, the populace threatened
-to put to death whosoever should announce the sad news to them. The
-suspense and agitation were, in fact, so great that some violent
-explosion of the grief of the crowd was apprehended. The intelligence
-of the Patriarch's death was, however, indirectly communicated to the
-people by Bar-Kappara. With his head veiled and his garments torn, he
-spoke the following words: "Angels and mortals contended for the ark
-of the covenant; the angels have conquered, and the ark has vanished."
-Hereupon the people uttered a cry of pain and exclaimed "He is dead,"
-to which Bar-Kappara made answer, "Ye have said it." Their lamentations
-are said to have been heard at Gabbata, three miles from Sepphoris. A
-numerous funeral train accompanied Judah's corpse from Sepphoris to
-Beth-Shearim, and memorial sermons were preached for him in eighteen
-different synagogues. Even the descendants of Aaron paid the last
-honors to his corpse, although this was in direct opposition to the
-Law. "For this day," it was said, "the consecrated character of the
-priests is suspended." Synhedrion and priests readily subordinated
-themselves to him who represented the Law in his own person. After his
-death he was called "the Holy" (ha-Kadosh), though later generations
-seem to have been unable to offer any explanation of the title.
-
-History has little more to relate of Judah's successor, Gamaliel III
-(about 210 to 225) than that he faithfully executed his father's
-commands. Such of his sayings as have been preserved are well worthy
-of consideration, as throwing a strong light on the state of the
-times. "It is good to be occupied in the study of religion, if some
-secular business is carried on at the same time; the labor devoted
-to both prevents sin from gaining ground. The study of the Law, when
-prosecuted without some other occupation, must ultimately be lost and
-is productive of sin. He who attends to the affairs of the community
-should do so for the sake of his duty to God, and without any selfish
-motives of his own; then will the merit of his forefathers second his
-efforts, and his righteousness will endure to all eternity. To you,
-however," he said to his disciples, "I promise as great a reward as
-if your efforts had been directed to practical ends. Act cautiously
-in all your relations with the (Roman) powers that be, for they only
-flatter you to further their own purposes; they are your friends when
-they can derive any benefit from your friendship, but they never
-stand by you in trouble. Do God's will in such a manner that you
-prefer His will to yours; then will he make your will His own." The
-admonition thus given to his disciples, to exercise caution in their
-dealings with the Roman authorities, and not to allow themselves to be
-seduced by their promises, evidently contained an underlying political
-meaning. For after the death of the harsh Severus, the Roman empire
-acquired, and outwardly retained, for nearly a quarter of a century,
-through the influence of three emperors and their Syrian mothers, a
-certain Syrian appearance which was nearly allied with that of Judæa;
-servile Rome adopted Syrian habits, and filled her Pantheon with
-Eastern gods. By this means the gulf existing between Roman and Jew
-was to a certain extent narrowed. Julia Domna (Martha), the wife of
-Severus, was a native of Emesa in Syria, and her son Caracalla, who was
-officially called Antoninus (211-217), was in nowise ashamed of his
-Syrian descent. It was he who extended the full right of citizenship
-to every inhabitant of the Roman Empire, and although this law was
-merely intended to allow the imposition of heavier taxes on the
-population of the provinces, it had the good effect of abolishing the
-marked distinction between Roman and non-Roman. Although Caracalla
-and his pretended son Elegabalus so disgraced the purple and humanity
-itself by their vices, that Roman history of this period has nothing
-to relate but assassinations and unnatural excesses such as allow of
-no other explanation than the derangement of the minds of these two
-emperors, there was still a certain method in their madness. They
-contemplated the gradual effacement of Roman gods and Roman customs by
-the introduction of Syrian fashions. It does not appear that Caracalla
-possessed special tenderness for the Jews. This much is certain,
-however, that the condition of the Jews under this emperor was at
-least tolerable, and that, although they enjoyed no especial favors,
-they at any rate had not to complain of excessive oppression. This
-intermediate and tolerable position of the Jews, equally removed from
-happiness and persecution, is described by Jannaï, one of Judah's
-disciples, in the following words: "We neither enjoy the happiness of
-the wicked, nor endure the misfortunes of the just."
-
-A certain religious law which this same Jannaï was at this time induced
-to repeal, proves that the condition of the Jews of Palestine was not
-too enviable during the period in question. They were obliged to pay
-their taxes, even during the year of Release, in natural produce,
-destined for the use of the standing army. Up till then they had been
-exempted, by virtue of a special favor originally accorded them by
-Julius Cæsar, from delivering these supplies in every seventh year,
-by reason of the fact that no harvest was gathered in this year, it
-being the one during which the land was commanded by the Law to be
-left fallow. In consequence of this dictatorial measure, and probably
-during Caracalla's campaign in Parthia (in 216, which just happened to
-be a year of Release), Jannaï, who was the authority of that period,
-issued a proclamation, in which he declared that henceforward it would
-be permissible to cultivate the land during the year of Release. He
-laid especial stress on the circumstance that it was only permissible
-to transgress the Law relative to the year of Release on account of the
-payment of the tax being required of them, and that its abrogation was
-in nowise intended.
-
-The youthful emperor Elegabalus, formerly priest of the Sun-god
-in Emesa, whom Mæsa, his crafty grandmother, had put forward as
-Caracalla's son, was entirely devoid of any predilection for the Jews,
-although appearances seem to lend color to the opposite view. This
-living epitome of all vices, who disgraced the Roman world for four
-years (218-222), and who seems to have possessed no other vocation in
-history than publicly to degrade his heathen gods and Roman Cæsarism,
-and to convince every one of their worthlessness, seems, in fact, to
-have done and attempted many things in his methodical madness that bear
-a Jewish complexion. He offered himself for circumcision, and refused
-to partake of pork, only in obedience, however, to the commands of his
-Sun-god. He proposed to introduce the Jewish, Samaritan, and Christian
-worshipers publicly into Rome, but to subordinate them to his Sun-god,
-Baal.
-
-During the reigns of these two emperors, Caracalla and Elegabalus,
-the younger contemporaries of Judah had ample time to continue his
-work. The Mishnaic compilation had not, in fact, included many laws,
-partly because they were not possessed of absolute legal force, and
-partly because they were as special cases included in the general
-formulæ. These neglected Halachas were collected by Judah's successors,
-as a supplement to the Mishna. Among these collectors may be named
-Jannaï, whose academy was at Acbara; Chiya, and his twin-sons, Judah
-and Chiskiya, Bar-Kappara, Levi bar Sissi, Ushaya the elder, surnamed
-"the father of the Mishna"; and finally Abba-Areka (Rab); all of
-them half-Tanaites. Judah's compilation had, however, obtained so
-undisputed an authority that its votaries considered every word of
-it to be sacred, and contended that not a line ought to be added to
-it. The new compilation therefore possessed but a secondary value in
-comparison with the principal Mishna, and their mutual relations were
-of such a character that the former were referred to as "the apocryphal
-Mishnas" (Matnita boraïta, or simply Boraïta), in the same way as the
-books not included in the canonical Bible are called "the Apocrypha"
-(apocryphal books). The compilations of Chiya and Ushaya alone acquired
-an authority nearly equal to that of the principal Mishna, on account
-of their contents.
-
-The distinctive feature of the Mishna, which was accepted as the
-recognized code, is the severely legal and even judicial character
-which it impressed on Judaism for all time. Everything comprised in
-Judaism--the commandments and prohibitions, the precepts contained in
-the Pentateuch and those deduced from it--all are considered by the
-Mishna as edicts and decrees of God, which may neither be criticized
-nor questioned; they must be carried out in strict accordance with the
-letter. It is impossible not to perceive that the conflicts which had
-convulsed Judaism, the violent attacks of Hellenism under Antiochus
-Epiphanes, the bitter opposition of the Sadducees, the allegorical
-misinterpretation and the subtleties of the Alexandrian philosophers,
-and, finally, the attitude of hostility to the Law assumed by Pauline
-Christianity and the Gnostics, had all assisted to bring out and
-accentuate the strictly legal character of the Jewish faith. In
-direct opposition to the tendency of the Alexandrian and Gnostic
-schools to give especial prominence to the view that God's love was
-the characteristic feature of Judaism, the Mishna, the first positive
-code of Judaism, cautions its readers against this opinion, and orders
-silence to be imposed on one who desired to express this view in
-prayer: "Thy love extendeth even to the nest of the bird." For this
-reason everything in the Mishna is legally ordered, little being left
-to personal decision; there it is settled how much a pauper may demand
-of public charity, and even how many children a father ought to bring
-into the world in order to fulfil his duty of helping to populate the
-earth, "which God did not create to be desolate." In general the Mishna
-assumes that the whole of the Torah, including such of the precepts
-of the Law as do not appear immediately in the Pentateuch, is composed
-of ancient traditions, received by Moses on Sinai, communicated by
-him to Joshua, who handed them down to the Elders, who in their turn
-transmitted them to the Prophets, who finally handed them down to
-the members of the great assembly. All such laws as do not appear in
-the Pentateuch are designated in the Mishna by the term, "the saying
-of those learned in the Scripture" (_Dibre Soferim_), although its
-component parts are not rigorously divided into these two categories.
-It is true that in the Mishna the remembrance of the dissatisfaction of
-many Tanaites is still apparent, especially in the complaint that the
-numerous decisions which Joshua arrived at by means of interpretation,
-"resemble mountains hanging by a hair," that is to say, are
-far-fetched; but, nevertheless, the Mishna holds up as an inviolable
-standard all the Halachic laws which had been in force up to this time.
-
-There repeatedly occurs in the Mishna the assertion of the equivalence
-of all religious commands and duties. The maxims of Rabbi, its
-compiler, might fitly be placed on the first page as an inscription:
-
-    "Which road should man choose? One which is creditable to the
-    traveler, and honorable in the eyes of mankind. Be as exact
-    in thine observance of the minor precepts as of the most
-    important, for thou knowest not what reward is attached to each
-    command. Balance the (temporal) loss sustained in consequence
-    of the performance of a duty with its (spiritual) reward, and
-    the gain of a transgression with its disadvantages. Bear always
-    three things in mind, so that thou commit no offense: There is
-    an Eye that sees all, an Ear that hears all, and a Hand that
-    inscribes all thy deeds in a book."
-
-The Mishna is pervaded with these views from beginning to end. The
-reward of a conscientious observance of the precepts of the Law will
-be the participation in a future world, which awaits every Israelite
-unless he refuse to believe in a resurrection, or in the revelation of
-the Torah by God, or unless he live (or think) as an Epicurean. But
-pious conduct is also rewarded in this world. He who conscientiously
-fulfils one religious duty will be favored by Heaven, his life will be
-lengthened, and he will be allowed to enjoy a share of the Holy Land.
-At the same time the attempt is made to establish a reconciliation
-between the worldly promises held out by the Bible and the reward of
-the world to come, a dogma which first assumed a distinct form in the
-period following the Captivity. The discharge of certain duties secures
-the enjoyment of reward on earth and in the world to come; such are
-the veneration of parents, charity, timely attendance at the school,
-hospitality, the endowment of (indigent) brides, the accompanying of
-corpses to the grave, devout prayer, peace-making, and especially the
-pursuit of religious studies (Talmud Torah). As to future punishment,
-the Mishna is unacquainted therewith, as also with a hell. For crimes
-and transgressions, mention is made of judicial punishment during this
-life only, varying of course with the seriousness of the offense;
-thus there were scourging, and execution by the Synhedrion in four
-degrees (by sword, by the rope, by fire, and by stoning), and finally
-a premature death at the hand of God (Kharat). The most heinous and
-atrocious sins were expiated by death, and lesser ones by repentance
-and the Day of Atonement, while pardon was obtained for sins of
-negligence by sacrifice. Of course, crimes committed against persons
-were not expiated until their victims were indemnified, satisfied, and
-appeased. Every righteous and moral deed, as well as every misdeed,
-possessed its religious importance; but the religious point of view was
-not predominant over, but subordinate to, the secular.
-
-The Mishna regarded as the greatest virtue the study of the doctrines
-of Judaism and the knowledge of the Law or of the Halachas (Talmud
-Torah). Occupation in these subjects possessed peculiar merit or
-justification (Zechut Torah); it protected and advanced a person here
-and hereafter. "He who is acquainted with the Bible and tradition,
-and is careful of his behavior, will not easily fall into sin." The
-learning, appropriation, retention, and theoretical comprehension and
-advancement of the existing principles of religion--that is to say, the
-conservation and furtherance of Judaism in the path of orthodoxy--gave
-the direction to the ideas and tendencies of that period. For this
-reason, he who is learned in the Law holds a very high rank, and
-although he be a bastard, takes precedence of a high priest who is
-ignorant of it. A disciple must honor his teacher even more than his
-father, or in case of conflict in his duty to one or the other, must
-first fulfil his duty to the former; for a wise teacher brings man to
-life in the world to come. It is incumbent on a father to teach his
-son the Torah, or to provide for his instruction in it. The Mishna
-does not decide the question as to whether a father ought to instruct
-his daughters in the Torah, but advances two opposite views on this
-subject: one advocated by Ben-Azai, who is in favor of the practice, or
-at least considers it permissible; the other, defended by the austere
-Eleazar ben Hyrcanus, who condemns it; "to initiate one's daughters
-in the Torah is as good as to initiate them in prostitution." This
-latter theory, which finally prevailed, exercised a most pernicious
-influence in after-times; for while every community was careful to
-provide elementary and advanced schools for its boys, the girls were
-systematically kept in complete ignorance.
-
-But although great weight was laid by the Mishnaic code on the exact
-observance of the letter of the Law, a something higher than this
-observance of the Law was recognized as piety; namely, the possession
-of a certain elevation of mind, of which the boundaries were far more
-widely extended than those of the Law. A conscientious man should
-keep his word in questions relating to property, although he be not
-bound thereto by the terms of the written law. He who pays his debt in
-the year of release, although not under a legal obligation to do so;
-he who pays to the heirs of a proselyte the debt due to the latter,
-without being legally compelled to satisfy their claim; and generally
-he who abides by his word--these are the men in whom the sages delight.
-It is true that there are certain prescribed forms of prayer, but it
-is lawful, nevertheless, to pray in any language; the principal thing
-is to pray with devotion and earnestness. Men ought to thank Heaven
-for bad fortune as well as for good. The Mishna displays altogether a
-tendency to emphasize the spiritual value of religion. The sounding of
-the cornet on the New Year, the Festivals, and the Atonement Day of
-the year of Jubilee, as prescribed by the Law, ought not to remain an
-outward, material deed, but ought rather to create a certain frame of
-mind which raises the soul to God. As illustrations of this view the
-following instances are cited: it was not the fact of Moses lifting up
-his hands which gave the Israelites the victory over Amalek, nor the
-erection of a brazen serpent in the wilderness which cured them of the
-bites of the scorpions, but the turning of their hearts to God. But
-this tendency of the Mishna remains only a tendency, and received no
-wide development; more confidence is placed in an obligatory law than
-in a conscience which creates its own standard.
-
-Besides the juridical feature, and perhaps as a consequence of it,
-the Mishna possesses another peculiarity which is more formal than
-essential; it is characterized by a desire to devise and group
-together all possible sorts of cases, however remote they may be, in
-order to apply the most dissimilar laws to their decision (a species
-of casuistry). This peculiarity, which in after-times exerted an
-influence at once favorable and prejudicial to advancement, and
-which was conducive at the same time both to logical acuteness and
-to sophistry, seems to have first made its appearance in the public
-academies of Jabne and Usha, and in the numerous other schools. It was
-probably the ingenious Meïr and his disciples who most contributed to
-its cultivation. As if it were not sufficient to consider and decide
-such cases as really occurred, according to the already existing laws
-and principles of the Pentateuch and tradition, teachers occupied
-themselves in depicting fantastic and intricate situations, simply to
-show, for example, that it was occasionally possible for several laws
-to apply to a single act. The Mishna admitted all these hypothetical
-cases constructed by the schools, and perhaps added to their number.
-This casuistic peculiarity was especially employed in order to give a
-clear idea of certain cases where cumulative punishments or atonements
-were incurred.
-
-It is noteworthy that the Mishnaic compilation contains no Halachas of
-a character hostile to the Jewish professors of Christianity; it does
-not touch on this subject in any place, not even declaring whether it
-is allowed or prohibited to eat meat cooked by the Minæans. It appears
-that the danger with which Judaism had been threatened by the Jewish
-Christians, since the destruction of the Temple until the Bar-Cochba
-war, had already been averted, and that danger was now no longer
-to be dreaded. On the other hand, and in order to avoid the least
-appearance of participation in idolatry, the Mishna contains numerous
-laws directed against heathenism and intercourse with the heathens. The
-teachers of Christianity immediately experienced the want of some such
-protective laws for the preservation of the Christian communities, and
-Tertullian, one of the Fathers of the Church (a younger contemporary
-of Judah the Patriarch, and the first Christian author who wrote
-in Latin), expressed a desire that the Christians should be kept
-apart from the heathens just as strictly as the Jews were by the
-prescriptions of the Mishna; the reason for this was that heathenism
-had continued to make its way into Palestine since the Bar-Cochba war,
-and had gained possession not only of coast towns, but even of inland
-places. It was necessary, therefore, to regulate the conduct of the
-people accordingly. The Mishna devotes a special treatise (Aboda Zara)
-to this subject; it prohibits the intercourse with heathens for three
-days before their principal public festivals, such as the kalends of
-January, the Saturnalia, the anniversary of the accession or the death
-of the emperor. It also commands the people not to frequent such of
-the shops of the heathens as are decorated with laurel wreaths. The
-Jews are forbidden to sell ornaments or other objects for the use of
-idols to the heathens, or to let to them any houses in Palestine,
-because they would be desecrated by the introduction of images of
-idols. On account of the hatred entertained against them by the heathen
-inhabitants of Palestine, the Jews are further commanded not to allow
-themselves to be attended during any illness by the heathens, or even
-to allow their beards to be shaved by the latter; and in particular
-are ordered not to remain alone with them in any lonely spot, lest
-they should be secretly murdered by them. The Roman heathens having
-introduced the barbarous custom of setting men to fight with wild
-beasts, the Mishna interdicts the sale to them by the Jews of bears,
-lions, and all other animals by which any injury can be caused, and
-further prohibits the Jews from building their basilica, places of
-execution, or stadia, because they serve to promote the shedding of
-innocent blood. In order not to pander to the unnatural vices (sodomy)
-of the heathens, the Jews are commanded not to commit any animals to
-their charge; the Mishna even forbids the Jewish midwives or nurses to
-offer their services to the heathen women, because they would thereby
-help to bring into the world a new child of idolatry. All enjoyment
-derived from objects of reverence to the idolaters is interdicted,
-and the Jews are not even allowed to sit in the shade of an image of
-an idol, and are particularly forbidden to drink of the wine of which
-a portion has been, or may have been, offered by a heathen to his
-gods. Most of the laws relative to the separation of the Jews from the
-heathen world, introduced with great zeal and precipitancy shortly
-before the destruction of the Temple, are retained and extended by the
-Mishna. Notwithstanding all its hatred of the heathens generally, and
-especially those in Palestine (the Mishna paid but little attention
-to foreign countries), the Jewish legislation was unable to entirely
-belie the distinctive trait of Judaism, its universal love of mankind.
-Together with these hostile laws, there was also adopted one which was
-favorable to the heathens, due probably to the initiative of Rabban
-Gamaliel I: their poor were given access to the fields, and possessed,
-equally with the Jews, the right of gleaning. A special treatise,
-called "The Sayings of the Fathers" (Pirke Aboth), is devoted to the
-teachings of a higher morality, and contains the maxims and short
-sentences of the sopheric teachers and sages from the earliest times.
-These laws of morality, however, are concealed, and, as it were,
-overgrown by a mass of law relating to the ritual.
-
-With the completion of the Mishna and the almost equally important
-Boraïtas, the Tanaites had accomplished their task of imparting a
-settled form and lasting shape to the hitherto uncertain and transitory
-matter of tradition; they had called it to life, and presented it to
-the Jewish nation as common property. After completing their task
-with noble assiduity, untiring zeal, and unexampled self-denial, they
-disappeared from the scene, leaving to future generations the result of
-their efforts, from which to receive their education and imbibe a love
-of their religion and nationality.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII.
-
-THE FIRST AMORAIM.
-
-    Judah II.--Friendliness of Alexander Severus towards the
-    Jews--Joshua ben Levi--Hillel instructs Origen in Hebrew--The
-    _Hexapla_--The Palestinean Amoraim--Chanina--Jochanan--Simon
-    ben Lakish--Joshua, the Hero of Fable--Simlai, the
-    Philosophical Agadist--Porphyry comments on the Book of Daniel.
-
-    219.280 C. E.
-
-
-After the extinction of the Tanaites and the death of the younger
-contemporaries of the compiler of the Mishna and of his son Gamaliel
-III, a happier period commenced: happy abroad by reason of the
-favorable political situation brought about by the friendly attitude
-assumed towards the Jews by one of the best of the Roman emperors;
-happy at home through the agency of a series of vigorous-minded men,
-who imbued the ancient customs and manners with a new and healthy
-spirit. The most prominent men and the lights of this epoch were: in
-Judæa, the Patriarch Judah II, son of Gamaliel; Jochanan, the principal
-authority of these times; and Simon b. Lakish, the Teacher, robust of
-hand and brain; and in Babylonia, Abba-Areka and Samuel. These men were
-the pioneers of a new movement, connected, it is true, with the labors
-of the Tanaites, inasmuch as it was grounded upon their work, but yet
-went beyond it in range. A sketch of the leading personalities of this
-period will not perhaps be considered superfluous.
-
-But little is known of the early life and training of Judah the
-Patriarch. His youth was passed in a time when religious strictness
-had acquired so predominant an importance, that the family of the
-Patriarch himself was open to censure in case any of its members acted
-contrary to prescribed law. Judah was walking one Sabbath-day, with
-his brother Hillel, in Biri, wearing a pair of shoes decorated with
-golden buckles, which seems to have been prohibited in that town.
-They were sharply censured by the populace on this account, and, not
-daring to explain that the act was not contrary to the Law, they
-were obliged to take off their shoes and give them to their slaves.
-On another occasion, when the two sons of the Patriarch were one day
-bathing together in Kabul, the people called out to them "that in
-their city it was not lawful for two brothers to bathe together." When
-Judah succeeded his father in the office of Patriarch (about 225)
-he transferred the seat of this dignity from Sepphoris to Tiberias,
-and this city, formerly avoided on account of its uncleanliness, was
-thus invested by him with considerable importance; it outlived all
-the other cities of Judæa, however rich in memories, and was the last
-retreat of the ancient traditions. The announcement of the appearance
-of the new moon, which on account of a certain preference shown to
-the south of Judæa had formerly been made there, was now ordered by
-Judah to be made at Tiberias. The south of Palestine, formerly the
-principal scene of historical events, was henceforward bereft of its
-supremacy, and was obliged to abandon its rôle to the once-despised
-Galilee. Like his grandfather, Judah II was held in great reverence
-by his contemporaries, and was also called simply Rabbi or Rabbenu.
-He likewise was often severely censured, but accepted the blame more
-patiently than his ancestor.
-
-It was probably the second Judah, as the Jewish narratives positively
-assert, that was beloved by a Roman emperor, from whom he received
-numerous marks of favor. Accident, which in the guise of the Prætorian
-guards generally gave the casting vote at the election of the emperor,
-elevated Alexander Severus (222-235), an unknown Syrian youth in his
-seventeenth year, to the position of ruler of the world. In public, he
-gave evidence of a more pronounced friendliness to Judaism than any
-of his predecessors. In his private apartment there was placed, next
-to the representations of Orpheus and Christ, a picture of Abraham.
-This emperor was so deeply impressed with the truth of the golden
-rule of pure philanthropy, "Do not unto others what thou wouldst not
-they should do unto you" (esteemed as the essence of the whole Jewish
-religion before the time of Jesus), that it was always on his lips,
-and was placed by him as a motto on the imperial palace and the public
-buildings, and proclaimed by a herald to the soldiers whenever he
-desired to reprimand them for attacks on the property of foreigners.
-On all occasions he set up the Jews and Christians as patterns to the
-depraved Romans, and was desirous of seeing the highest dignities of
-the state awarded upon the same principles as those which governed the
-admission of Jewish and Christian religious leaders to ordination. He
-was well disposed towards the Christians, but seems to have possessed
-a greater predilection for the Jews and Judaism. The inhabitants of
-Antioch and Alexandria, whose frivolous character caused them to be
-better pleased with immoral emperors than with an austere ruler like
-Alexander Severus, derided him in epigrams, and gave him the nicknames
-of the "Syrian Head of the Synagogue" (Archisynagogus, that is,
-Rabbi) and "High Priest." The emperor's mother, Mammæa, however, had
-a preference for Christianity, and was a protectress of Origen, one
-of the Fathers of the Church. For these reasons, the Patriarch Judah
-possessed during this period an almost royal authority, and was even
-able to exercise anew criminal jurisdiction; not quite openly, it is
-true, but still with the prior knowledge of the emperor. The latter
-seems to have made the acquaintance of the Jewish Patriarch during his
-frequent visits to Antioch on the occasion of his campaign in Persia
-(231-234). Judah probably prevailed upon him to protect, or rather to
-revive, the privileges of the Jews. Among these was the right of again
-entering the city of Jerusalem, and of filling the office of judge,
-both of which rights had been denied to them by Hadrian. Jewish fable
-relates many things concerning the sincere attachment of the Emperor
-Severus (Asverus), son of Antoninus, or simply Antoninus, to Judaism
-and the Jews. But although much of this is doubtless exaggerated
-and embellished, the Talmud contains many narratives concerning the
-relations existing between the Patriarch and the Emperor which are
-certainly historical. Thus it is related of him that he presented a
-golden candlestick to a synagogue (probably that of Tiberias), and
-granted the Patriarch a field in the district of Gaulanitis, most
-likely for the support of the disciples.
-
-It is quite in the spirit of this emperor of Syrian origin,
-prepossessed as he was in favor of foreign religions, that he should
-have requested the Patriarch, as the story runs, to recommend to him a
-learned man to aid him in building an altar on the model of that in the
-Jewish Temple, and in the preparation of incense according to the rules
-of the Jewish code, for which purpose Judah is said to have recommended
-his intimate friend Romanus. The thirteen years during which the Roman
-world submitted to the rule of a good emperor were a happy time for
-the Jewish nation, for the sovereign conferred many marks of favor
-upon this people, lately despised and persecuted. The position of the
-Jews was indeed so favorable that the opinion was commonly expressed
-that Daniel, who had cast a prophetic glance on the succession of the
-empires of the world, had predicted this state of things in the words:
-"When they (the Jews) succumb, some small help will still be extended
-to them," which were considered to refer to Severus Antoninus, who
-manifested a love for the Jews. This favorable situation contributed
-towards the substitution of a more friendly spirit in place of the
-variance with and profound dislike of the Romans which had prevailed
-for centuries.
-
-The Christians complained at this time that the Jews were much more
-favorably disposed towards the heathens than towards themselves,
-although possessing much more in common with themselves than with the
-heathens. The barrier erected by the Jews, in consequence of their
-hatred of the Romans, was partly overthrown, and the rigor of the
-separation of the two nations was relaxed. The family of the Patriarch
-were permitted, on account of their association with the highest
-dignitaries of the state, to dress their hair according to the Roman
-fashion, to learn Greek, and to do various other things which had
-formerly been prohibited. The life of the Jews assumed altogether a
-happier aspect: they began to decorate their rooms with paintings, and
-religious scrupulousness took no exception.
-
-To the influence exercised by these friendly relations with the rulers
-must probably also be ascribed the fact that the Patriarch abolished,
-or intended to abolish, many of the stricter rules which had formerly
-been carried out with the utmost severity. In the stormy days of the
-first rebellion against the Romans, when the wave of racial hatred ran
-high between Jews and Græco-Roman heathens, a Synod, in order to put
-a stop to all intercourse with the heathens, had forbidden the Jews
-to purchase or make use of their oil and various other articles of
-food. In Palestine, this restraint did not fall heavily on the Jewish
-inhabitants, as the land produced all that was necessary to satisfy
-the daily wants of the people, and the oil exported from Galilee
-afforded a sufficient supply to the neighboring countries. But the war
-of Hadrian devastated Judæa and deprived it of all its oil plantations;
-the daily need of oil thus gradually compelled this strict prohibition
-to be disregarded. But the legal permission was still wanting, and,
-although numbers had dispensed with it, there still remained many
-who complied strictly with the law, as yet unabolished. Judah II
-therefore used his best endeavors to obtain a majority favorable to the
-abrogation of this law, and prided himself greatly on accomplishing
-his purpose; it is probable that he had to sustain a severe conflict
-in order to gain his object. When Simlaï, the Patriarch's assessor,
-who was constantly traveling between Galilee and Babylon, brought
-the news that permission had been granted to the Jewish inhabitants
-of countries bordering on the Euphrates (who had always been restive
-under restraints imposed upon them) to make use of the oil of the
-heathens, this innovation appeared so daring to Abba-Areka (the
-principal Babylonian authority), that he refused to believe the report.
-Samuel, however, who desired to see the authority of the Patriarch
-generally recognized even in Babylon, compelled him to make use of this
-permission.
-
-Another alleviation proposed by the Patriarch, according to which the
-onerous marriage with a deceased brother's widow was to be evaded in
-certain cases by a bill of divorce, to be given before death, was not
-agreed to by his College. He was also desirous of permitting the use of
-bread made by the heathens. Finally, he proposed to abolish the fast of
-the month of Ab, instituted in commemoration of so many catastrophes,
-according to some authors in totality, according to others in certain
-cases only. The contemporary teachers of the Law, however, were opposed
-to these alterations; but, on the other hand, they agreed with him
-in abolishing a mark of affliction introduced during the period of
-adversity under Hadrian: henceforward it was allowable for brides to
-ride in state-litters on their wedding-day.
-
-In spite of the reverence felt by the teachers of the Law for the
-Patriarch Judah, they were not blind to his weaknesses, and he was
-obliged to submit to numerous attacks on their part. The Patriarchate
-had acquired in his hands an almost royal power, and was even entitled
-to a body-guard, ready to enforce the commands of the Patriarch. This
-power, although not abused by Judah, was all the more displeasing to
-the teachers of the Law, since he, on his side, conferred no particular
-favors on the learned classes, but rather exerted himself to abolish
-the distinction between the learned and illiterate in all civil
-relations. He further subjected the teachers of the Law to a share of
-the communal burdens. Simeon ben-Lakish, one of those outspoken men who
-carry their love of truth even to the length of disrespect of persons,
-was especially opposed to this leveling policy, and gave vent to
-offensive sallies against the Patriarch. Once, in the lecture-hall, he
-put forward the proposition: That in case the Patriarch should render
-himself guilty of a crime, it would be necessary to sentence him, like
-any ordinary man, to the punishment of scourging. Upon this it was
-observed by Chaggai, that in such a case he would have to be absolutely
-deposed, and debarred from taking office again lest he should employ
-his power in revenging himself upon the authors of his disgrace.
-This discussion was manifestly an attack upon Judah's possession of
-extraordinary power. Angry at these remarks, and carried away by his
-first impulse, he immediately despatched his Gothic slaves to seize
-the fault-finder; but Jochanan, the Principal of the school, succeeded
-eventually in appeasing his wrath. Once the Patriarch complained
-to Ben-Lakish of the rapacity of the Roman authorities, which
-prevailed for a lengthened period in all the provinces of the Roman
-empire during the reign of anarchy which followed after the death of
-Alexander Severus. In most of the provinces there had arisen emperors,
-anti-emperors, and usurpers, who, during the short span of their reign,
-assumed the character of ruler of the world, and conducted themselves
-in the countries subject to their sway with true Roman rapacity. "Pray
-for me," said Judah to Ben-Lakish, "for the rule of the Romans is
-evil." To which the latter replied: "If thou take nothing, nothing will
-be taken from thee." This remark was probably intended as a rebuke for
-the covetousness of which it is impossible to acquit Judah.
-
-The Patriarchs seem to have commenced about this time to draw a
-revenue from the communities. This had become a necessity, as the
-impoverishment of Palestine had followed in the wake of its heavy
-taxation. A great part of the pasture lands had fallen into the
-hands of the heathens dwelling in the country, to whom the Jewish
-proprietors had been obliged to sell. Through this impoverishment the
-means of maintaining the school-houses and the pupils were greatly
-diminished. The income of Judah, unlike that of his grandfather,
-proved insufficient for the purpose, and he was therefore obliged
-to open up new sources of income in order worthily to support the
-dignity of Patriarch. He sent messages abroad to make collections
-amongst the rich Jews. One of the most important teachers of the Law
-in Lydda, named Joshua ben Levi, made a special journey to Rome for
-this purpose. In Rome some wealthy Jews were known to live. These
-willingly contributed to the support of the institution which replaced
-the Synhedrion, and which was the last remnant of an independent state,
-and the representative of which was supposed to be descended from or
-connected with the royal house of David. It is related that the Jewish
-ship-owners and merchants gave up the tenth part of their gains to the
-support of the disciples in the school of Tiberias. This grant was
-called the Patriarch's tax, and the mission-tax (Apostole), also crown
-money (aurum coronarium).
-
-Meanwhile, however greatly Judah's avarice may have been blamed,
-he still stood high in the favor of the populace, by reason of the
-simplicity of his manners and attire, which caused his proud and almost
-royal dignity to be forgotten. He was accustomed to wear linen clothes,
-and to dispense with all etiquette in his reception of ceremonious
-visits, thereby calling down upon himself the reproaches of his
-friends, who expressed their opinion that a ruler ought to appear in
-magnificence, and to maintain an imposing demeanor.
-
-How great a reverence was felt for Judah may be seen from the fact
-that, on his death, no less honors were paid to his body than had been
-shown to his grandfather, Judah I. In direct opposition to the Law,
-a descendant of Aaron was compelled to take charge of his corpse; it
-being alleged that it was permissible in this instance to lay aside the
-holy character of his priesthood.
-
-Hillel II., the brother of the Patriarch, was possessed of great skill
-in the Agadic exposition of the Scriptures, and seems to have been a
-profoundly moral man. Among the many maxims said to have been uttered
-by him, the following is especially worthy of note:
-
-    "Separate not thyself from the rest of the community; put not
-    overmuch trust in thyself (in thy piety) before thy death;
-    judge not thy neighbor until thou hast been placed in his
-    position."
-
-It was probably owing to Hillel's profound knowledge of the Scriptures
-that he was visited by Origen, the philosophical Father of the Church,
-who desired to consult him concerning certain difficult passages in the
-Bible. Origen called him the Patriarch Jullos.
-
-The spirit of investigation awakened by the Fathers of the Church,
-Pantæus and Clemens of Alexandria, in the Christian school of
-Alexandria, which sought to connect the Old and the New Testament,
-revived the necessity of an acquaintance with the Hebrew language, in
-order to explain by the help of the knowledge of the original text, the
-glaring contradictions existing in many places between the views of the
-Old Testament and the now inflexible dogmas of Christianity. It was
-Origen who felt most the need of this knowledge, and he was unremitting
-in his efforts to acquire the Hebrew tongue, and in his recommendations
-to others to study it. He regarded the Jews as his masters in the
-knowledge of Hebrew and the correct exegesis of the Scripture: he
-admitted having learnt from Jews the exact sense of various difficult
-passages in the Bible, during his long but intermittent residence in
-Judæa (from about 229 to 253). Being desirous of writing a Commentary
-on the Psalms, he took the trouble to have them explained to him by
-a Jew, according to the traditions. At that time the study of the
-Halachas had not yet superseded that of Biblical exegesis.
-
-Besides Hillel and Simlaï there were other Jewish teachers well
-acquainted with the original text, who confuted the Christian teachers,
-and laughed at them for the absurdly childish arguments which they
-drew from their corrupt Greek translation, the Septuagint. They were
-especially diverted at the credulity of the Christians, by whom every
-apocryphal book was invested with the garb of antiquity. Such books as
-the histories of Tobias, of Judith, and of Susannah were admitted into
-the collection of the Holy writings, upon which loose foundation was
-erected the fragile fabric of their religion.
-
-In order to protect the creed of the Church from this ridicule, Origen
-undertook the gigantic task of revising the Septuagint version,
-mutilated and crowded as it was with errors of all kinds. His immediate
-object was to afford the Christian teachers an insight into the
-differences existing between the translation and the original text,
-and so better to enable them to conduct their discussions with the
-Jews. To this end, he compared the translations of Akylas, Symmachos,
-Theodotion, and three others which had appeared in the meantime; and
-in order to allow of a convenient survey, he placed them in columns,
-the Hebrew text, with its pronunciation in Greek letters, figuring at
-the head. These parallel texts were known by the name of the Hexapla
-(sixfold). It was labor lost, however, to compare the wretched and
-intentionally corrupt Greek translation with the original Hebrew text.
-The Septuagint continued to exist in its mutilated form, and was even
-worse confounded by reason of Origen's industry, for many passages
-belonging to other translations were often accidentally introduced into
-its text.
-
-The activity of the Palestinean teachers was directed to another
-object; their cares were bestowed neither on the study of the Bible nor
-on the establishing of the doctrines of faith; both these subjects lay
-outside their sphere of activity. Their chief energies were devoted
-to the study of the oral law in its definite form, the Mishna. This
-work had been composed in a brief and laconic style, and, besides,
-it contained many passages which were incomprehensible, the words or
-subject-matter having passed out of everyday use. For these reasons
-the comprehension of the Mishna required peculiar study and erudition.
-The principals of the schools applied themselves, in the first place,
-to the elucidation of the terse and frequently obscure text of the
-Mishna. From this aspect of their labors they received the name of
-Amoraim (Amoraï, Expounder). But far from being satisfied with this
-arid work, or with remaining contentedly in this dependence, they
-gradually emancipated themselves, made new departures, and believing in
-good faith that they were standing on the ground of the Mishna, went
-far beyond its boundaries. As the Tanaites had treated the text of the
-Bible, so also did the Amoraim treat that of the second code; they
-dissected it, and resolved it into its constituent parts, so that under
-their hand it was dissipated, becoming new matter and acquiring a new
-form.
-
-The first generation of the Amoraim, following immediately upon the
-Tanaites and semi-Tanaites, constitutes in many points a parallel with
-the second generation of the Tanaites. Like the latter it consisted
-of a series of talented teachers, who attained a great age, and whose
-labors were continued during half a century. Like the latter, again,
-it possessed different schools and systems, and was divided into
-various opinions concerning the explanation of the Law. But it does
-not afford the spectacle of violent controversies; for it already
-possessed a common and recognized formula, a settled standard, to which
-all authorities subordinated themselves. The oldest of the Amoraim
-was Chanina b. Chama, of Sepphoris (from about 180 to 260). He was
-descended from an ancient and noble family, and followed the profession
-of physician; the science of medicine, inborn in the Levites, being
-generally cultivated by teachers of the Law. The method of teaching
-adopted by him was very simple. He was an Amora in the fullest sense
-of the primitive meaning of the term; he expounded the Mishna or the
-Boraitas with the help of such comments only as had been handed down
-to him by tradition, without allowing himself to make any independent
-deductions. If new cases occurred which were not indicated in the
-Mishna, he did not decide them according to his own lights, but took
-counsel with learned colleagues, or even with disciples, however
-obvious the decision may have been. Chanina occupied the same position
-among the Amoraim as Eleazar b. Hyrcanus among the Tanaites; he was
-entirely receptive, never creative. This point of view, however,
-according to which the Mishna was regarded as dead stock, was not
-acceptable to the younger and more zealous men; Chanina was therefore
-deserted, even by his own disciples, who proceeded to found new
-academies.
-
-Notwithstanding this, Chanina was regarded with great veneration both
-by Jews and Romans, on account of his piety. Once, when he went,
-with Joshua b. Levi, a younger contemporary, to visit the Proconsul
-(Anthypatos), in Cæsarea, the latter rose respectfully at their
-approach, replying to his friends, who expressed astonishment at his
-behavior, that "they appeared to him like angels." He reproved more
-boldly and fearlessly than any other teacher, the deeply-rooted faults
-of his community, and tried to rid it of that erroneous belief which
-willingly accepts the most incredible miracles, in order to be relieved
-of all responsibility. Chanina's unsparing utterances concerning the
-people of Sepphoris present at the same time a faithful picture of the
-customs of the period. On one occasion Sepphoris and the surrounding
-districts had been so devastated by the plague that many of the
-inhabitants of all parts of the town had been carried off by it; the
-only quarter not visited by it was that in which Chanina resided. The
-men of Sepphoris wished to make him responsible for this plague, on the
-ground that he had not performed any miracle to avert it; whereupon he
-replied: "In the time of Moses there was only one Zimri (who debauched
-a heathen woman), and yet twenty-four thousand fell by the plague;
-ye, however, possess many Zimris, and complain notwithstanding."
-Another time, Judæa was visited by a continued drought and lack of
-rain. Chanina had arranged the prescribed fasts and offered up public
-prayers, yet the much desired rains did not set in; whereupon the
-people complained anew, and referred to Joshua b. Levi, the envoy to
-Rome, whose prayers for rain for the south of Judæa had been crowned
-with success. On the next opportunity Chanina sent for Joshua from
-the south, and united with him in prayer, but again without success.
-Seizing upon this occasion, he reprimanded his fellow-countrymen for
-their superstitious belief in the power of a human being to work
-miracles; "Thus do ye see," exclaimed he, "that it is neither Joshua
-who causes rain, nor Chanina who hinders it; the inhabitants of Lydda
-are kind-hearted and humble, therefore heaven sends them rain; ye,
-however, are hard-hearted and callous, and therefore heaven withholds
-rain from you." Chanina retained his modesty and self-denial all
-through his life, and justly recognizing the merits of others, rejoiced
-in his later years over the fame of those who had surpassed him. He
-attained an extreme old age, and saw three Patriarchs--the elder Judah,
-his teacher; Gamaliel, Judah's son, and Judah II.
-
-In opposition to the conservative Chanina stands Jochanan bar Napacha
-(born 199, died 279). Deprived of both father and mother, who died
-in his early youth, he used to say in later life, that he ought to
-be thankful for this misfortune, as he would not have been able to
-fulfil the strict duties of filial love in the manner required by the
-Law. He was so handsome of figure that the Talmudical source, usually
-so sober, involuntarily becomes poetical in trying to describe his
-beauty: "Let him who desires to form an idea of Jochanan's beauty take
-a newly-wrought silver goblet, fill it with ruddy garnets, crown its
-brim with a wreath of red roses, and place it between light and shadow;
-its peculiar reflection of light will then represent the glory of
-Jochanan's dazzling beauty." This beauty, however, partook more of a
-feminine character, for he possessed no beard, the expression of manly
-dignity. His eyebrows were also so long as to overshadow his eyes.
-When he was grown up he attended the school of the elder Judah, but
-admitted that he had understood but little of the profound Halachic
-discussion, by reason of his youth. As he was not rich, possessing only
-a small plot of land, he applied himself to business, in conjunction
-with Ilpha, a fellow-disciple, when a warning was given to him to
-devote his whole energies to the study of the Law, in which it was
-asserted that he would acquire great distinction. For this reason he
-abandoned his trade, and again followed the lectures of celebrated
-teachers of the Law. He sold his little plot of ground in order to
-obtain the wherewithal to study, exhibiting no concern with regard to
-any provision for his old age. It seems, however, that later on he was
-maintained at the expense of the Patriarch, Judah. Jochanan frequented
-the company of the teachers of various schools, in order to acquire
-a diversified knowledge of the subject-matter of the Law. He became
-the principal assistant of the Patriarch, Judah II, and was the most
-productive Amora of his time. Through the influence of a large body
-of disciples, his sayings form a considerable element of the Talmud.
-His method of teaching was to search deeply into the meaning of the
-Mishna, to subject every paragraph to severe analysis, and to compare
-each maxim with the others; he arrived by these means at the inference
-that the Mishna was not possessed throughout of legal force. He also
-laid down certain rules concerning the manner of arriving at a definite
-decision in those cases where two or more Tanaites were of different
-opinions.
-
-Through his influence Tiberias, with its mild air, its fertility and
-its curative waters, became the meeting-place of a numerous body of
-disciples, who flocked to him from far and wide. His academy was even
-attended by mature and finished scholars from Babylon, although the
-newly-founded schools of that country possessed excellent masters. Over
-a hundred Amoraim are known who accepted Jochanan's decisions as of
-full legal force, and who taught them in their schools.
-
-An intimate friend of the Patriarch, he supported him in his endeavors
-to modify certain ancient usages. Jochanan was himself not very
-particular on this head, and by far less strict than the Babylonian
-school, which came into existence during his lifetime. In opposition
-to the existing custom, he permitted the acquirement of Greek: by
-men, because they were thereby enabled to protect themselves against
-traitors, and by women, because the Greek language was an ornament to
-the sex. He entertained great esteem for Greek civilization in general,
-and ranked it on an equality with Judaism. He expressed himself
-beautifully on this subject: "For that Shem and Japhet, the two sons
-of Noah, did cover their father's nakedness with a mantle, Shem (symbol
-of Judaism) hath obtained a shawl with fringes (Talith), Japhet (the
-type of Greek civilization) the philosopher's mantle (Pallium)." It
-was Jochanan who permitted the innovation of decorating rooms with
-paintings. He was never able to reconcile himself to the Roman rule,
-and was unsparing in his denunciation of the insolent arrogance and
-heartless violence of the authorities. He regarded as symbolical of the
-Roman Empire, the fourth beast in Daniel's vision of the four empires
-of the world, which was a perennial mine of discovery for the Biblical
-exegete, and was even more diligently explored by the Christians
-than by the Jews. The small horn which grew out of the fourth
-beast represents, according to his explanation, wicked Rome, which
-annihilated all previous empires; the eyes resembling human eyes,
-which were visible in this horn, indicate Rome's envious glances at the
-wealth of others. If any one is rich, the Romans immediately elevate
-him to the office of president of the council charged with the supply
-of provisions, or make him a member of the municipal senate, in order
-that his fortune may be answerable for everything. Another striking
-maxim of this sort uttered by Jochanan was the following: "If thou art
-proposed as a member of the senate, choose rather as thy dwelling the
-desert of the Jordan." He permitted people, in exceptional instances,
-to emigrate from Judæa, in order to escape from the heavy burden of the
-municipal offices.
-
-Jochanan's character was marked by a profound morality; the slave who
-waited upon him was allowed to partake of all the dishes prepared for
-his master. He had the misfortune to lose his ten sons; the unfortunate
-father carried about with him a small bone of his last son, in order to
-console all such as had to bewail a similar disaster, by the relation
-of his extraordinary misfortune. "Behold all that now remains of the
-last of my ten sons," he was wont to explain to them. A daughter
-alone was left to Jochanan; thus, an orphan from his birth, he died
-almost childless. He is said to have had periods of insanity in his
-extreme old age, occasioned by grief at the death of his friend and
-brother-in-law, Ben-Lakish, of which he believed himself to be the
-cause.
-
-Simeon Ben-Lakish, Jochanan's contemporary friend, brother-in-law
-and opponent, was in many ways his counterpart, and was altogether a
-peculiar personage, in whom were united the most opposite qualities;
-rough physical strength was coupled with tenderness of sentiment and
-acuteness of mind. Resh-Lakish, for such was his abbreviated name,
-seems to have been born at Bostra, the capital of the Saracens, about
-the year 200, and to have died in 275. As Jochanan's constant comrade,
-he had seen the Patriarch Judah I. in his youth, and had been brought
-up in the school of his successors. The sources of the Talmud are
-never tired of dilating on his gigantic strength and enormous size. He
-once engaged himself at the Circus in the capacity of slaughterer of
-wild beasts, his duty being to protect the spectators of these highly
-popular combats from the fury of the animals. Ben-Lakish probably only
-chose this low and dangerous occupation out of necessity. Tradition
-is at some pains to reconcile and to transform into a beautiful
-picture the glaring contrasts existing in Resh-Lakish, his rude
-strength and his study of the Law. But his scrupulous integrity is
-even more renowned than his enormous physical strength. It is related
-that he used to avoid the company of persons of whose honesty he was
-not fully convinced, for which reason unlimited credit was usually
-accorded to all whom Ben-Lakish honored with his society, without
-any further inquiry. His earnest and gloomy countenance was never
-brightened by a smile, for he considered cheerfulness to be frivolous,
-so long as the holy people were subject to the power of the heathens.
-We have already noticed his love of truth and his candor, which he
-carried almost to insult in his animadversions on the abuses of the
-Patriarch. In Biblical exegesis he adopted the method of finding
-ingenious explanations, in which study he surpassed his older comrade
-and brother-in-law. "When he considered Halachic questions," says a
-source of the Talmud, "it was as though he were grinding the mountains
-against one another." Ben-Lakish possessed a certain originality in
-the study of the Agada, and advanced peculiar views, which were only
-estimated at their proper worth in later times. It was often questioned
-in the schools at what period the sufferings of Job had occurred,
-the other circumstances of this remarkable drama were also debated,
-and the most contrary views found expression. Resh-Lakish seems to
-have come to an accurate conclusion in advancing the opinion that Job
-had existed at no period, that he had never lived, and was simply an
-ingenious moral creation (Mashal). This view appeared very strange to
-his contemporaries, who were unable to comprehend such a conception.
-The names of the angels were regarded by Ben-Lakish as not having been
-originally Jewish, but as being a foreign element transplanted into
-Judaism, which had, in fact, been brought by the Jewish nation from
-Persia. He was wont to contradict the assertions of those who extolled
-the past at the expense of the present, who declared hyperbolically
-"that a nail of the ancients was worth more than the whole body of
-their descendants"; or, in another form, "that if the ancients were
-angels, we, on the contrary, are only asses"; he used to say that
-the existing generation possessed greater merit, for the reason that
-although heavily oppressed, they still pursued the study of the Law.
-Although a friend of Jochanan from his youth, and drawn still closer
-to him by the ties of family alliance, Ben-Lakish was nevertheless at
-variance with him during his last years.
-
-The name of Joshua ben-Levi, who formed, with Jochanan and Ben-Lakish,
-the triumvirate of the Palestinian Amoraim, is more renowned in the
-world of legend than in history, where, indeed, but little is related
-of him. The son of Levi ben-Sissi, he conducted a school at Lydda,
-in the south of Judæa. It is true that the inhabitants of Lydda were
-not in over-good repute with the Galileans, who pronounced them proud
-and superficial. But Joshua's reputation in no way suffered from this
-circumstance, and his authority was greatly respected. To his opinions
-on the Halachas was accorded for the most part the force of law,
-even in those cases where the other two members of the triumvirate
-entertained different views. Joshua himself admits, however, that he
-forgot many traditions during the period in which he was occupied with
-the organization of the communities of Southern Judæa. The situation
-of the communities of this district had, in fact, been so unsettled
-ever since the catastrophe in the time of Hadrian, that Jochanan and
-Jonathan were obliged to journey thither in order to restore peace and
-order. Joshua also on one occasion visited Rome, in the capacity of
-collector of revenues for the Patriarch. He had there an opportunity
-of observing a fact which exhibited in strong relief the contrasts
-existing in the capital of the world. He saw a statue enveloped in
-drapery, in order to protect it against heat and cold, while near by
-sat a beggar who had hardly a rag to cover his nakedness. He is said to
-have expected the Messiah to appear in the capital of the world, where
-he supposed that he existed in the guise of a servant, waiting among
-the beggars and cripples at the gate, and expecting every moment to
-be called upon to effect the deliverance of Israel. According to the
-legend, Joshua ben-Levi was regarded as one of those choice spirits
-who were admitted to the most intimate intercourse with the prophet
-Elijah, and over whom death itself was obliged to relinquish its power.
-He wrested the sword from the angel of death, went to Heaven alive,
-measured the expanse of the Heavens, of Paradise, and of Hell, and
-forwarded the results of his investigation to Gamaliel through the
-medium of the destroying angel himself, who was obliged to submit to
-his orders.
-
-An original path in the explanation of the Agada was struck out
-by Simlaï; he it was who first considered this collection worthy
-of profounder study. Born at Lydda, he had quitted this desolate
-region, and had settled down at Nahardea, where the new school of the
-Babylonian Amoraim was first coming to its prime. He entertained the
-most friendly relations with the Patriarch Judah II. He possessed
-but small weight in questions relating to the study of the Law, and
-his Halachic attainments were not esteemed in Palestine. He was the
-first to collect together all the commands contained in the Jewish
-Law, numbering 613, of which 365 are prohibitions, and 248 affirmative
-precepts. David, according to Simlaï, reduced these 613 commands to the
-following eleven virtues: honesty, justice, truthfulness, abhorrence
-of calumny, of malice and of injuring one's neighbor, despising the
-wicked, reverence of the worthy, sanctity of oaths, unselfish lending
-without interest, and forbearance from bribery. Isaiah summed them up
-in six, as follows: to be just in our conduct, honest in our speech,
-to despise self-interest, to keep our hand from bribery, our ear from
-wicked insinuations, and our eye from base desires. The Prophet Micah
-reduced the commands of the Law to three leading principles: the
-exercise of justice, love of charity, and humility; while the second
-Isaiah brought them down to two, which are, to cherish justice and to
-exercise charity. Finally, the Prophet Habakkuk expressed them all in a
-single formula: "The just man lives by his faith." This was the first
-attempt to reduce the whole Law of Israel to principles. A beautiful
-parable, in which Simlaï indicates the part played by every nation in
-the history of the world, affords evidence both of the wide extent of
-his views and of his poetical talent.
-
-Possessed of a profound knowledge of the Scripture, and gifted with an
-elevated mind, Simlaï was especially qualified to enter into discussion
-with the Fathers of the Church, and to shake the arguments which they
-drew from the Old Testament in support of the dogmas of Christianity.
-In these discussions Simlaï gave evidence of a sound exegesis, free
-from misinterpretations. During the time of the first generation of
-Amoraim, Christianity had entered upon a new stage; in opposition to
-the tendency of the primitive Christians (Ebionites and Nazarenes), a
-universal Catholic Church had come into existence, whose fundamental
-doctrines (dogmas), collected from all quarters, some Pauline, others
-anti-Pauline, others heathen, were generally assented to by the
-majority of Christians. The various sects of primitive Christians and
-Gnostics were vanquished, being either embodied in the incorporated
-Catholic Church or rejected as heretical. This creation of a Catholic
-Church and the unification of the Christian religion, accomplished in
-the midst of all this diversity and schism, were largely brought about
-by the Bishops of Rome. These arrogated to themselves, on the strength
-of their seat in the capital of the world, the supremacy over all the
-other bishops and patriarchs, expelled them from the community for
-unorthodox opinions (as in the case of the discussion concerning the
-celebration of the Passover), and gradually obtained recognition as
-chief-bishops and Popes. After the completion of this work the spirit
-of research also made its appearance among the Christians, and the
-traditions of the Church were subjected to a thorough investigation.
-
-New dogmas had made their appearance, which the authorities sought to
-establish and secure. The rigid doctrine of the Unity of God, derived
-by Christianity from the parent religion, had in course of time, and
-in proportion as the new Church glorified the Messiahship of Jesus,
-given rise to a doctrine of duality: Father and Son, or the Creator
-of the World, and the Logos. To these was soon added a third. The
-primitive Jewish view of the inspiration by God of the Prophets and
-other pious persons, which was, in this signification, characterized as
-holy inspiration (Ruach-ha-Kodesh), crystallized in Christianity into
-the dogma of the Holy Ghost considered as a person, and regarded as an
-equality with God and Christ and as having originally co-existed with
-them. Without being aware of the fact, Christianity, which considered
-itself a truly spiritual and refined Judaism, had adopted an entirely
-different idea of God, in fact, a sort of tritheism. The more the
-Christian dogma of the Trinity was at variance with the very essence of
-Judaism, the more trouble was taken to establish that it was supported
-by the Old Testament, in order to give it thus the stamp of antiquity.
-This proof, however, was not to be furnished by straightforward means,
-and thus the Fathers of the Church of the Palestinean and Alexandrian
-schools, being acquainted with Hebrew, were obliged to take refuge
-in all sorts of allegorical interpretations. Wherever the Scriptures
-contained several denominations for God, they professed to see an
-indication of the Trinity in the letter of the text itself. Even the
-simple opening words of the Pentateuch, "In the beginning God created
-heaven and earth," were interpreted by this Christology in proof of
-Christ's co-operation in the creation of the world; for "the beginning"
-was interpreted to mean "wisdom," or the "Word" (Logos), being
-synonymous with Christ, and this sentence was thus found to contain
-the profound secret that "God created the world in Christ"! As long as
-the leading spirits of Christianity remained ignorant of the Hebrew
-sources, they were not in a position to hold any serious conference
-on matters of religion. It was only when the Fathers of the Church
-applied themselves, like Origen, to the acquirement of a clearer Hebrew
-text, that polemical discussions on Christological themes became more
-frequent.
-
-Simlaï, in particular, defended the doctrine of the unity of God
-against the Christian dogma of the Trinity, and adduced the proofs for
-his contention with consummate skill. His opponent in this theoretical
-dispute was perhaps Origen, who was for a long time a resident in
-Palestine. By the help of a sober method of interpretation Simlaï
-established the fact that all the passages of the Holy Scripture
-which appear to afford an argument in support of the Trinity, in
-reality bring out and emphasize so strongly the unity of God, that
-any misconception appears impossible. Jew and Christian who, like
-quarrelsome brothers, had cherished feelings of animosity to each other
-during the time they had lived under one roof, now contented themselves
-with carrying on religious controversies.
-
-The attacks upon Christianity during this period had the effect of
-producing a certain acquaintance with Jewish literature even in the
-heathens, who turned it to account in their efforts to restrain the
-growth of Christianity. In Daniel, the Christian dogmatists had
-discovered a Sibylline book, with vague insinuations and mystic
-numbers, which they contended contained prophecies relating to the
-Christian economy and to the appearance of Christ on the Day of
-Judgment. In opposition to these views the heathen philosopher Porphyry
-wrote a polemical commentary on the book of Daniel, which is certainly
-the only Biblical commentary composed by a heathen. This neo-Platonist,
-who was possessed of moderate but mystic views, bore the oriental name
-of Malchus, and was a native of Batanea, formerly a Jewish province. He
-asserted in his commentary that the book of Daniel is the work of an
-author who lived during the time of the persecution of Judaism and the
-Jews by the Syrian monarch, Antiochus Epiphanes, and that the ambiguous
-expressions in which it abounds are only allusions to that period,
-and in nowise prophecies, still less oracular proofs of the facts of
-Christianity.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIX.
-
-THE JEWS OF THE PARTHIAN EMPIRE.
-
-    Increasing importance of the Jewish Community in
-    Babylonia--The Prince of the Captivity--The Babylonian
-    Amoraim--Abba Areka (Rab) and his royal friend Artaban--Samuel
-    and King Shabur--Important Political Changes under the
-    Neo-Persians--Anarchy in Rome--Zenobia and the Jews.
-
-    219.279 C. E.
-
-
-During the Patriarchate of Judah II. many important events occurred
-in the Jewish community of Babylonia, which contributed to place that
-country in the foreground of Jewish history. After the loss of their
-mother, the children of Israel had found a second in Babylonia, and had
-never yet experienced a stepmother's treatment at her hands. Babylonia,
-the Italy of the East, whose capital had in ancient times, like Rome,
-first been the ruler of the world, and then the point of attack of
-uncivilized tribes in their migrations; whose name still exercises a
-certain magic in the distance, even after its fall; Babylonia, which
-had already been the temporary abode of the Jewish race, now became for
-a long period the permanent scene of Jewish activity. Judæa, on the
-other hand, gradually fell into the background. The peculiar formation
-of the country between the Euphrates and the Tigris facilitated the
-separation of Judaism from its primitive scene of action, and brought
-about the transplantation of Jewish genius into a foreign zone; by
-reason of the abundant opportunities of employment which the land
-afforded, similar to those to which they had been accustomed, it
-became a second fatherland for the homeless nation. The great number
-of the Jews who had inhabited this district time out of mind; their
-independence, which had suffered no restraint at the hands of the
-Parthian and Persian rulers; the luster imparted to their situation by
-the possession of a political chief; their inherent, self-contained
-vitality, unweakened by suffering and petty annoyances, all these
-things contributed to invest their character with a peculiar quality
-and to further the evolution of new parts and tendencies. The sojourn
-in Babylonia imbued the Jewish mind with that particular form of keen
-intelligence which discovers an answer to every question, a solution to
-every riddle, and is discouraged by no difficulties. The Jews of this
-country acquired studious, plodding, energetic habits; the successive
-leaders and principals of the schools showed them the paths of profound
-wisdom and impressed on them the seal of elevated thought.
-
-The word Babylonia, as used in Jewish history, is capable of a broad
-and a narrow interpretation, and possesses, in fact, three different
-meanings. In the broadest sense in which it occurs it includes the
-whole district between the Zagros mountains and the Euphrates, from the
-sources of the twin-river Tigris-Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. In a
-narrower sense it signifies the strip of land enclosed between the two
-rivers, where their beds begin to converge towards each other and at
-last actually unite, and where numerous canals formerly intersected the
-country and connected their streams: the southern part of Mesopotamia,
-the ancient province of Babel, and a portion of the former kingdom of
-Chaldæa. Babylonia, as understood in this narrow sense, was principally
-inhabited by Jews, and for this reason was also known by the name of
-"the land of Israel." Finally, in its most limited sense, Babylonia
-designates a small district on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, of
-which the center-point seems to have been the town of Pumbeditha. This
-district extends from Nahardea in the north to Sora in the south, a
-distance of twenty-two parasangs (sixty-eight miles). The fixing of
-the boundaries of Jewish Babylonia is not a matter of indifference for
-history, as in former times it constituted a matter of conscience.
-Even in Judæa the natives of Babylonia of Jewish origin were admitted
-to possess the most unsullied purity of descent, and to have refrained
-from all intercourse with heathens, slaves, or persons born out of
-wedlock; Judæa was far behind Babylonia in this respect. An old proverb
-says: "In the matter of descent, the Jewish population of the (Roman)
-countries is to that of Judæa, as adulterated dough is to pure meal,
-but Judæa itself is only as dough when compared with Babylonia."
-
-The Jewish province in Babylonia was divided into several smaller
-districts, each of which was known by the name of its capital. Thus
-there existed the districts of Nares, Sora, Pumbeditha, Nahardea,
-Nahar-Pakod, Machuza, and some others, all of them possessed of some
-characteristic, such as a peculiar dialect, or particular customs or
-manners, or even distinct weights and measures. Four of these towns
-were distinguished as prominent centers, each having in turn been
-at the head of the entire province. The first place was occupied by
-Nahardea (also called Naarda, of which name there were both a town
-and a district); this was a fortified city situated on the Euphrates
-and a canal called the Naraga, and was entirely inhabited by Jews; it
-lay on the boundary-line of Jewish Babylonia. During a certain period
-Nahardea was a Babylonian Jerusalem; here were situated, in the time of
-the continuance of the Temple, the treasure-chambers of the Babylonian
-communities for the reception of the gifts to the Temple, which it was
-customary to convey to Jerusalem under a strong escort. A few miles to
-the south of Nahardea lay Firuz-Shabur (afterwards Anbar), a fortified
-and thickly-populated town, and the most important in the country
-after Ctesiphon, the capital.
-
-Near by lay Pumbeditha, situated on one of the numerous canals of the
-Euphrates, and adorned with many palaces. Pumbeditha was none the less
-a thoroughly Jewish town, with a Jewish congregation, and was regarded
-as the capital of Jewish Babylonia. Within its territory lay several
-smaller towns and fortified castles, which nestled in the shadow of
-the capital. The inhabitants of Pumbeditha were considered acute and
-cunning, and were even notorious for their deceit and dishonesty. "If a
-man of Pumbeditha accompany thee," said a proverb, "change thy lodging."
-
-Sixteen geographical miles (twenty-two parasangs) south of Pumbeditha
-was situated the town of Mata-Mechassia. It lay on the shore of a broad
-lake, Sora, which was in reality the Euphrates, widening out over the
-low-lying country; from its position on this lake the town also derived
-the name of Sora. It was inhabited by a mixed population of Jews and
-heathens. The region round Sora was one of the most fruitful parts of
-the whole country; by reason of its low situation it was inundated
-every year by the Euphrates and its tributaries and canals, and the
-overflow produced an Egyptian fertility. Pumbeditha was distinguished
-for its magnificent buildings and the cunning of its population,
-while Mata-Mechassia was noted for the poverty and honesty of its
-inhabitants. A proverb expresses this contrast in the following words:
-"It is better to live on the dunghills in Mechassia than in the palaces
-of Pumbeditha."
-
-With these three towns of the Euphrates, Nahardea, Pumbeditha, and
-Mata-Mechassia, a fourth contested the supremacy: this was Machuza,
-situated on the Tigris, at a distance of hardly twelve miles from
-Ctesiphon, the capital of the Parthians. Machuza, also called
-Machuza-Malka, from the King's Canal (Nahar Malka) which flows in
-proximity to the Tigris, was situated on an eminence, and was fortified
-with two strong walls and a moat. Close by stood a castle, called Akra
-di Coche, which served as a bulwark to the capital, Ctesiphon. In spite
-of the importance which Machuza and its castle must have possessed
-for the Parthian and Persian rulers, it was, nevertheless, entirely
-inhabited by Jews, and an Amora expressed his surprise that the gates
-of its fortress were not provided with the prescribed Mezuzas.
-
-The most noted families of Machuza were descended from proselytes, for
-which reason their features differed from those of the remainder of the
-Jewish population of Babylonia. They are described as having been very
-frivolous, addicted to pleasure and good cheer, and more devoted to
-the affairs of this world than to those of the next; they were called
-on this account "candidates for hell." It is related of the women of
-Machuza that they indulged in pleasure and idleness. Once, when a
-Palestinean teacher of the Law brought from Judæa to Nahardea a Halacha
-allowing women to wear golden head-bands set with precious stones
-on the Sabbath, it was remarked that only four-and-twenty women in
-that town availed themselves of this permission, while in one quarter
-alone of Machuza there were eighteen who appeared with most costly
-head-bands. The proximity of Ctesiphon, and its wealth, had probably
-some influence on the luxurious propensities and the manners of the
-inhabitants of Machuza. This city also, which was the residence of the
-king, and the newly-built town of Ardashir, which lay close by, were
-thickly populated with Jews. The entire district of Babylonia, with
-its numerous canals, resembled an island, and its wonderful fertility
-made of the whole country one extensive garden. There was so great a
-multitude of date plantations that it used to be said proverbially of
-the Babylonians: "A basketful of dates for a denar, and yet they do not
-apply themselves to the study of the Law!"
-
-The occupations followed by the Babylonian Jews were agriculture,
-trades of all descriptions, and, what is of course natural in a country
-dependent on its canals for irrigation, the digging and cleaning of
-these artificial waterways; they also bred cattle, carried on commerce,
-undertook voyages, and cultivated certain of the fine arts.
-
-The greatness of their numbers invested the Babylonian Jews with a
-certain amount of independence, and they seemed in this country almost
-as if in a land of their own. Their situation with regard to the rulers
-of the land was very favorable, as they were only called upon to pay
-a poll-tax (Charag) and a land-tax (Taska); there was at this period
-much vacant ground in the region of the Euphrates, and any one could
-take possession of a plot on becoming answerable for the land-tax in
-respect thereof. The Jews possessed their own political chief, who was
-called the Prince of the Captivity (Exilarch, Resh-Galutha); he was a
-dignitary of the Persian empire, and the fourth in rank from the king.
-His position with regard to the Persian kings was that of a feudatory.
-The Resh-Galuthas were, in fact, vassals of the Persian crown, but
-were simply confirmed, not chosen, by the monarch. Their badges of
-office were a silken cloak and a golden girdle; in later times they
-were surrounded by a princely luxuriousness, rode in a state carriage,
-possessed their own train of attendants, and an outrider to announce
-their approach. When they were received in solemn audience by the
-king, the royal attendants showed them the greatest respect, and they
-treated with the ruler on a footing of equality. According to the usage
-of Eastern princes, they were entertained with music at the moment
-of rising from or going to bed, a custom which was severely censured
-by the strict teachers of the Law, on account of the mourning for
-Jerusalem.
-
-The Princes of the Captivity were descendants of the house of David,
-for which reason the people gladly acknowledged their sway, since
-it honored itself and felt honored in its princes. An old chronicle
-gives the full details of their names and numbers. They traced back
-their descent as far as Zerubbabel, the grandson of the Jewish King
-Jojachin, who is supposed to have returned to Babel, and to have become
-the ancestor of a long line of descendants. It is not until the second
-century that a Resh-Galutha, by name Achiya, is visible through the
-deep obscurity of antiquity. Another, Mar-Huna, in the time of Judah I,
-commanded that his body should be brought to Palestine, in order to be
-buried in holy ground. From that time forward, however, the succession
-of the Princes of the Captivity can be traced in an unbroken chain till
-the eleventh century. They exercised considerable influence upon the
-development of Jewish history in Babylonia. Their relations with the
-people are indicated in a few occasional passages only.
-
-The Resh-Galutha was the supreme judge of the Jewish communities, both
-in civil and in criminal cases; he either administered justice in
-person, or delegated his office to judges of his own nomination. The
-ordinary coercive measure employed in cases of disobedience was the
-bastinado, according to Eastern custom. The princes were also entrusted
-with the police of the cities, the control of weights and measures,
-the inspection of canals, and the guardianship of public safety, to
-all of which various charges they appointed their own officers. It is
-nowhere indicated what revenues the Princes of the Captivity derived
-from the people; it is most probable that the primitive Asiatic custom
-of making presents to the sovereign obtained. It is not until later
-times that mention is made of regular yearly revenues drawn by them
-from certain regions and cities. They enjoyed an honorable public
-distinction which was only conferred upon such rulers as were descended
-from David; this consisted of having the scrolls of the Law brought
-to them when they had to read a portion of the Torah aloud, whereas
-every one else was obliged to go to the scrolls. Wealthy by reason of
-the income accruing from their extensive lands, they also possessed
-many slaves and a numerous suite of attendants; even free men placed
-themselves under their patronage, wearing, as sign of their fealty, the
-arms of their masters on their garments. The Princes of the Captivity
-were most sensitive with regard to these distinctive marks, refusing to
-pardon even the scholars whom they themselves supported, if they laid
-aside or even only covered over these badges. There was too much power
-in the hands of the Prince, and this power was too little restrained
-or regulated by law or tradition, for cases of arbitrariness and abuse
-of authority not to be forthcoming. Numerous complaints were made
-of the arrogance, arbitrary encroachments, or violent deeds of many
-of the Princes of the Captivity or their servants; they deposed the
-principals of the schools, appointing others in their places who were
-often without merit. But what power has ever restrained itself within
-the bounds of justice and equity? In prehistoric times, that is to say,
-before the knowledge of the Law had been carried to Babylonia and there
-domesticated, the ignorance of the Princes of the Captivity in matters
-of religious practice appears to have been so profound, that it was
-possible to transgress the laws relating to food in their house with
-the greatest impunity. But history tells also of meritorious persons
-among their numbers, who in later times combined a knowledge of the
-Jewish law with the possession of Jewish virtues, and whose names
-became a source of glory to the nation. The Princes of the Captivity
-often united with their political power the authority of teachers
-of the Law, equaling in this respect the Palestinean Patriarchs. As
-certain of these latter attempted to acquire political influence,
-in order not to be inferior to the Resh-Galutha--in which attempt,
-however, they were not always successful--many of the Princes of the
-Captivity endeavored in turn to obtain the dignity of teacher. All
-these various circumstances, the great number of the Jewish population
-of Babylonia, their independence, and the concentrated power of the
-Princes, stamp the history of the Jews of this region with a peculiar
-character; new needs arose in this country which were unknown in Judæa;
-new needs produced new regulations and Halachas, and thus the Law
-entered upon a new development in which, as already intimated, Babylon
-played the most important part.
-
-During the patriarchate of Judah I, the young students of Babylon had
-crowded in greater numbers than in former times to the academies of
-Galilee, as if desirous of catching the last rays of the setting sun
-of religion in the mother-country, in order to enlighten therewith the
-land of their birth. Chiya of Cafri and his two wonderful sons, his
-relatives Abba-Areka and Chanina-bar-Chama, Abba and his son Samuel,
-were all celebrated disciples of Judah's school; they were either
-directly or indirectly the instructors of Babylonia. It is true that
-Chiya and his sons, Judah and Chiskia, did not return to their native
-country, but died in Galilee, where they were honored as saints; but
-Chiya exercised the greatest influence on the education of his disciple
-and nephew, Abba-Areka. Before the return to Babylonia of Abba-Areka
-and Samuel from the academy of Judah I in Judæa, an otherwise unknown
-person, Shila by name, occupied the post of principal of the school
-(Resh-Sidra) in Nahardea. But with the appearance of these two men, who
-were endowed with all the qualities requisite in order to become the
-founders of new schools, extensive alterations were introduced; they
-initiated a new departure, and raised Babylonia to the level of Judæa.
-
-Abba (born about 175, died 247), who is known in history by the name
-of Rab, had completed his education, after the death of his father
-Aibu, at the academy of Judah I in Tiberias. Great astonishment was
-expressed at the early development of the wonderful talents of this
-youth. Through Chiya's intercession, Rab obtained a somewhat restricted
-advancement, which the Patriarch Gamaliel III afterwards refused to
-extend. Great things were expected of him in his home, and when the
-news of his return from Palestine was known, Samuel, who had already
-returned, and his friend Karna, went to meet him on the bank of the
-Euphrates canal. The latter overwhelmed him with questions, and even
-Shila, the principal of the school, bowed to his superior knowledge.
-After Shila's death Rab ought to have succeeded him in his office, but
-he refused the post in favor of his younger friend, Samuel, whose home
-was in Nahardea.
-
-The Prince of the Captivity of that period seems to have shown special
-regard for such Babylonians as were learned in the Law, in his
-appointments to the offices within his gift. He nominated as supreme
-judge in Cafri one of his relations, Mar-Ukba, whose wealth, modesty,
-character, and knowledge of the Law well fitted him for this post. He
-also appointed Karna as judge, who, not being rich, was obliged to be
-indemnified for his loss of time by the suitors. To Abba-Areka was
-given the post of inspector of markets (Agora-nomos), carrying with it
-the control of the weights and measures.
-
-The arbitrariness of the rule of the Exilarch is well illustrated by
-the following example. Abba-Areka had been commanded to control the
-prices of the market, and to prevent the necessaries of life from
-becoming too dear. Having refused to obey this order, he was thrown
-into prison and kept there until Karna upbraided the Prince of the
-Captivity with thus punishing a man who was full of the "juice of
-dates" (genius). Abba-Areka had occasion, by reason of his position as
-Agoranomos, to journey to the various districts of Jewish Babylonia,
-and he thus became known throughout the country. Artabanus IV
-(211-226), the last Parthian monarch of the house of Arsaces, who had
-probably made his acquaintance on one of his circuits, esteemed him so
-highly that he once sent him a present of some valuable pearls. Between
-the last Parthian King and the first Babylonian Amora there existed the
-same friendly relations as between the Jewish Patriarch and the Roman
-Emperor of his time. Artabanus was afterwards deposed by Ardashir, and
-with him ended the dynasty of Arsaces. When Rab heard of the fall of
-Artabanus, he exclaimed sorrowfully, "The bond is broken."
-
-Abba discovered with surprise during his journeys the unbounded
-ignorance of the Jewish laws into which those communities remote
-from the capital had fallen. In one place nothing was known of the
-traditional prohibition forbidding meat to be eaten with milk. In order
-to repress these transgressions and to remove this ignorance, Rab
-extended many laws, and forbade even what was otherwise allowed. In
-this way there arose many restrictions which, owing to his authority,
-acquired the force of law. The negligence existing throughout the
-district of Sora gave him the idea of founding an academy in that very
-place, in order that the knowledge of the Law might become more widely
-spread through the passage to and fro of the disciples. His efforts
-were crowned with complete success. If the development of the Law
-has greatly contributed to the preservation of Judaism, this result
-is for the most part due to the labors of Abba-Areka. With but few
-intermissions, Sora was the seat of Jewish science for nearly eight
-centuries.
-
-The academy, which bore, as was customary, the name of "Sidra," was
-opened by Abba about the year 219. Twelve hundred disciples, attracted
-by Abba-Areka's reputation, flocked together from every district of
-Babylonia. More than a hundred celebrated disciples and associates
-afterwards disseminated his maxims and decisions throughout the land.
-The throng of auditors was so great that he was obliged to enlarge his
-lecture-room by enclosing a garden belonging to a recently deceased
-proselyte, which he acquired for this purpose as vacant ground.
-The reverence entertained for him by his disciples was so profound
-that they called him simply "Rab," the Teacher, in the same way as
-the Patriarch Judah was called Rabbi or Rabbenu, and this is the
-appellation by which he is generally known. His school was called
-Be-Rab (Be abbreviated from Beth, _house_), which afterwards became
-the general name for a school. His authority extended beyond the
-boundaries of Babylonia; even Jochanan, the most celebrated of the
-teachers of Judæa, wrote to him, "To our teacher in Babylonia," grew
-angry whenever any one spoke slightingly of Rab, and admitted that the
-latter was the only person to whom he would have willingly subordinated
-himself. Rab was accustomed to maintain such of his numerous disciples
-as were without means, for he was very wealthy, and owned land, which
-he cultivated himself. The excellent arrangements which he adopted
-permitted his auditors to devote themselves to the study of the Law
-without neglecting their livelihood. In two months of the year (Adar
-and Ellul), at the commencement of autumn and spring, they assembled
-at Sora. During these two months, which were called "months of
-assembly" (Yarche Kalla), lectures were delivered every day from the
-early morning on; the auditors hardly allowed themselves time enough
-to swallow their breakfast. The ordinary name for the public lectures
-was Kalla. Besides these two months, Rab devoted the week before
-the principal festivals to public lectures, in which not only the
-disciples, but the whole populace, were interested. The Prince of the
-Captivity used also to arrive in Sora about this time to receive the
-homage of the assembled crowd. The throng was generally so great that
-many were unable to get lodgings in the houses, and were consequently
-obliged to sleep in the open air, on the shore of lake Sora. These
-festival lectures were termed Rigle. The Kalla-months and the
-Rigle-week had also certain influences upon civil life; the judicial
-powers suspended their operation during these periods, and creditors
-were forbidden to summon their debtors before the court. Rab thus
-provided at one and the same time for the instruction of the ignorant
-multitude, and for the further advancement of the deeper study of the
-Law by the education of disciples.
-
-Nothing is known of any peculiar method employed by Rab. His mode of
-teaching consisted of analyzing the Mishna, which he had brought with
-him in its latest state of perfection, of explaining the text and the
-sense of every Halacha, and of comparing them with the Boraitas. Of
-these decisions and deductions, which are known by the name of Memra,
-there exists a great number from Rab's hand, and they, together with
-those which proceeded from Samuel and Jochanan, the contemporary
-principals of the schools, form a considerable part of the Talmud.
-For the most part he was more inclined than his fellow Amoraim to
-render the Law severer, and to forbid such legal acts as verged on
-the illegal, at least in the opinion of the multitude of Babylonian
-Jews, who were incapable of nice discrimination. Most of Rab's decrees
-received the force of law, with the exception of those, however,
-which affected municipal law, for his authority was more respected in
-questions of ritual than of civil law.
-
-With the most determined energy he undertook the amelioration of the
-morals of the Babylonians, which, like their religion, had fallen to a
-very low ebb among the lower classes. The ancient simplicity of married
-life which had formerly obtained was now superseded in Babylonia by a
-hollow and brutal immorality. If a young man and woman met, and were
-desirous of uniting in marriage, they summoned the first witnesses at
-hand, and the marriage was concluded. Fathers gave their daughters in
-marriage almost before they arrived at majority, and the bridegroom
-either did not see his bride until after the decisive step had been
-taken, when, doubtless, he often repented of his act, or else he lived
-in the house of his intended father-in-law in a too intimate relation
-with his betrothed. The law, instead of condemning this immorality,
-had afforded it the protection of its authority. Rab combated these
-prevailing customs with the full force of a moral ardor. He forbade the
-solemnization of marriage which had not been preceded by a courtship,
-and enjoined on fathers not to marry their daughters without the
-consent of the latter, and therefore still less before their majority.
-He further admonished all who were desirous of marrying to make the
-acquaintance of the maiden of their choice before their betrothal, lest
-when disappointed, their conjugal love should turn to hate, and finally
-he forbade the young men to live in the house of their betrothed
-before marriage. He baffled all the legal artifices which could be
-employed by a husband to make a divorce retrospective by withdrawing
-the support of the law from such cases. All these moral measures
-became laws of general application. Rab also increased the reputation
-of the courts of justice; every one was obliged to appear on being
-summoned before the court, and the bailiffs were invested with official
-authority; the punishment of excommunication was introduced for cases
-of refractoriness. This punishment was very severe in Babylonia,
-and consequently produced great effects. The transgressions of the
-offender were publicly announced, and he was avoided until he had made
-expiation. In Babylonia, where the Jewish population formed a little
-world of its own, this punishment was sufficient to procure obedience
-and respect for the laws. Rab's energies were thus employed in two
-directions; he refined the morals, and aroused intellectual activity in
-a country which, as the sources express it, had formerly been "a vacant
-and unprotected fallow field." Rab surrounded it with a two-fold hedge,
-severity of manners and activity of mind. He was in this respect for
-Babylonia what Hillel had been for Judæa.
-
-Rab's virtues, his patience, conciliatory disposition, and modesty,
-also put one in mind of Hillel. He had a bad wife who opposed him in
-everything, but he bore her vexations with patience. In his youth Rab
-had acted badly towards Chanina, the head of the school in Sepphoris,
-and was therefore unceasing in his efforts to obtain his pardon. His
-forgiving disposition caused him to lose sight of his exalted station.
-Once, when he thought he had given offense to a man of the lower
-classes, he repaired to the latter's house on the eve of the Day of
-Atonement, in order to become reconciled with him. Whenever he was
-followed to his school by a crowd of people on the days of his lectures
-he used to repeat a verse of Job, in order to prevent his pride from
-rising too high: "Though the excellency of man mount up to the heavens,
-yet he shall perish forever." Before repairing to the court he was
-wont to exclaim: "I am prepared to meet my death; here the affairs of
-my house concern me not, and I return empty-handed to my home; may
-I be as innocent on my return as I was when I set out." He had the
-satisfaction of leaving a son, Chiya, who was exceedingly learned in
-the Law, and of marrying his daughter to a relative of the Prince of
-the Captivity. His descendants by this daughter were worthy and learned
-princes. His second son, Aibu, was not intellectually distinguished.
-To him his father recommended certain rules of life, among others a
-preference for agriculture: "Rather a small plot of land than a great
-magazine for goods."
-
-For eight and twenty years, until his old age, Rab devoted himself to
-the Sidra at Sora (219-247). When he died all his disciples accompanied
-his body to its last resting-place, and went into mourning for him. At
-the suggestion of one of them Babylonia mourned for him a whole year,
-and the practice of wearing wreaths of flowers and myrtles at weddings
-was suspended. All the Jews of Babylonia, except one, Bar-Kasha of
-Pumbeditha, mourned for the loss of their great Amora.
-
-Much more original and versatile than Rab was his friend, his Halachic
-opponent, and his fellow-worker in the task of elevating the Jewish
-population of Babylonia, Samuel or Mar-Samuel, also called Arioch and
-Yarchinai (born about 180, died 257). In a certain sense this highly
-talented man was an epoch-maker in the history of the doctrine of
-Judaism. Nothing more is known of his youth than that he once ran away
-from his father. As a young man he followed the usual course, and went
-to Judæa in order to complete his education at the academy of the
-Patriarch Judah I. It has already been narrated how he there cured a
-disease of the eyes from which the ailing Patriarch suffered, and how
-he was nevertheless refused his nomination as a teacher by the latter;
-how he returned to his home before Rab, and was elevated after Shila's
-death to the dignity of Resh-Sidra.
-
-Mar-Samuel was of an even character, avoiding enthusiasm and
-demonstrativeness. While his contemporaries confidently expected the
-renewal of miracles as of old before the appearance of the Messiah,
-he propounded the view that everything would still follow its natural
-course, but that the subjection of Israel to foreign rulers would come
-to an end. His intellectual energies were employed in three branches of
-knowledge: the explanation of the Law, astronomy, and medicine.
-
-As an Amora he was inferior to Rab in the knowledge of the laws of
-the ritual, but far surpassed him in his acquaintance with the Jewish
-civil law. Samuel developed and enriched the Jewish law in all its
-branches, and all his decisions have obtained Halachic force. None of
-his decrees, however, were possessed of such important results as the
-one by which he declared the law of the land to be just as binding on
-the Jews as their own law (dina d'malchuta dina). The object of this
-precept was not to bring about a compulsory toleration of the foreign
-legislation, but to obtain its complete recognition as a binding
-law, to transgress which would also be punishable from the religious
-point of view. This was an innovation which, after all, could only be
-approved by reason of the relations existing between the Babylonian
-Jews and the Persian states. Samuel's principle of the sanctity of
-the law of the land was a manifest contradiction of older Halachas,
-which treated foreign laws as arbitrary, and did not consider their
-transgression to be punishable. But the Amoraim had already succeeded
-in reconciling so many conflicting laws that these old and repellent
-decisions, and this new and submissive principle, were able to exist
-side by side. In the sequel Samuel's recognition of the laws of the
-country was a means of preservation to the dispersed nation. On the one
-hand it reconciled the Jews to living in that country into which they
-had been cast by remorseless fate. Their religious consciousness did
-not feel at variance with the laws set up for their observance, which
-were seldom humane. On the other hand, the enemies of the Jews, who
-in all centuries took as their pretext the apparently hostile spirit
-of Judaism, and advised the persecution and complete extermination
-of the Jewish nation, could be referred to a Jewish law, which, with
-three words, invalidated their contention. The Prophet Jeremiah had
-given to the families which were exiled to Babylon, the following
-urgent exhortation as to their conduct in a foreign land: "Seek the
-peace of the city whither ye have been carried away captives." Samuel
-had transformed this exhortation into a religious precept: "The law of
-the state is binding law." To Jeremiah and Mar-Samuel Judaism owes the
-possibility of existence in a foreign country.
-
-Samuel possessed altogether a particular affection for Persian customs,
-and was consequently in exceedingly good repute at the Persian court,
-and lived on confidential terms with Shabur I. His contemporaries
-called him therefore, although it is not known whether as a mark of
-honor or of censure, "The king Shabur," and also "Arioch," the Arian
-(partizan of the neo-Persians). His attachment to the Persian dynasty
-was so great that it supplanted the affection for his fellow-countrymen
-in his heart. When Shabur extended his conquests to Asia Minor, 12,000
-Jews lost their lives on the occasion of the assault of Mazaca-Cæsarea,
-the Cappadocian capital. Samuel refused to go into mourning for the
-victims, giving as his reason that they had fought against Shabur. He
-thus formed a peculiar type; living in the midst of the full tide of
-Judaism, immersed in its doctrines and traditions, he raised himself
-beyond the narrow sphere of his nationality, and was ever ready to
-extend his sympathies to other peoples and to take note of their
-intellectual efforts. Rab, entirely taken up with the affairs of his
-own nation, refused to allow the customs of the Persians to exert
-any influence on those of the Jews, and even forbade these latter to
-adopt any practice, however innocent, from the Magi: "He who learns
-a single thing of the Magi merits death." Samuel, on the other hand,
-learnt many things of the Persian sages. With his friend Ablaat, he
-used to study astronomy, that noble science which brings mortal man
-into closer proximity with the Deity. The low-lying plain between the
-Euphrates and the Tigris, whose wide-extended horizon is unbounded by
-any hill, was the cradle of astronomy, which, however, soon degenerated
-in this region into the pseudo-science of astrology. By reason of the
-ideas instilled into him by his Jewish education, Samuel attached no
-importance to the art of casting nativities, and only occupied himself
-with astronomy under its most elevated aspect. He used to boast that
-he was "as well acquainted with the ways of the heavens as with the
-streets of Nahardea." He was unable, however, to calculate the erratic
-movements of the comets. It is impossible to determine the extent of
-his astronomical acquirements, or to discover whether he was in advance
-of his times or simply on a par with his contemporaries. Mar-Samuel
-turned his knowledge of astronomy to practical account; he drew up a
-settled calendar of the festivals, for the purpose of delivering the
-Babylonian communities from continual uncertainty with regard to the
-exact days on which the festivals would fall, and in order to relieve
-them of their dependence on Palestine for the determination of the
-time of the appearance of the new moon. Probably out of regard for the
-Patriarch, and in order not to destroy the unity of Judaism, Samuel
-refrained from communicating his calendar to the general public, and
-allowed the computation of the festivals to retain its former character
-of a secret art (Sod ha-Ibbur). He was blamed by certain persons,
-however, for having in any way interfered with the calculation of the
-calendar. The extent of Samuel's knowledge of medicine is even less
-known; he boasted of being able to cure all diseases but three. An
-eye-salve of his invention was in great request.
-
-Between Samuel and the founder of the Sora academy there subsisted a
-fraternal harmony, although the Sidra of Nahardea was eclipsed by Rab.
-In his modesty he willingly subordinated himself to Rab. The celebrated
-Shila family was possessed of the precedence in the ceremony of paying
-homage to the Prince of the Captivity; by them it was relinquished to
-Samuel, and he, in his turn, surrendered it to his comrade in Sora,
-contenting himself with the third place. After Rab's death Samuel was
-recognized as the sole religious chief of Babylon, and continued in
-this capacity for ten years. At first Jochanan, of Judæa, hesitated
-whether to acknowledge him as an authority. In the letter which the
-principal of the schools of Tiberias sent to Babylonia, he addressed
-Rab by the title of "our teacher in Babylonia," while Mar-Samuel
-he called simply "our comrade." The teachers of Judæa did not, in
-fact, give him credit for the requisite knowledge of the Halachas,
-basing their conclusion upon the fact that he occupied himself with
-other branches of science. It was in vain that Samuel sent to Judæa
-a festival calendar calculated for sixty years; Jochanan remarked
-slightingly, when the fact came to his knowledge: "At any rate he is
-well acquainted with arithmetic." It was not until Samuel forwarded
-several scrolls, filled with investigations of certain little-known
-diseases of animals, that he began to be respected.
-
-It was during this period (the third century) that there occurred
-simultaneously in the Roman and Parthian empires certain political
-catastrophes which were attended with the most important results.
-Through their influence history acquired an altered aspect, and
-considerable changes were effected in the state of things existing
-in these two countries and their dependencies. It was impossible
-for Jewish history to remain unaffected by these events. During the
-reign of the noble Alexander Severus occurred the overthrow of the
-Parthian dynasty, which, beginning with Arsaces, had subsisted during
-four centuries. A new and more vigorous race seized the scepter, and
-this change of dynasty gave rise to many revolutions both at home and
-abroad. The author of these changes was Ardashir, or Arbachshter, as
-he was called in his own language, a descendant of the race of ancient
-Persians (Arians). Such of the Persians as still remained true to their
-nationality, nourished a hatred against the impure dynasty of Arsaces,
-on account of the semi-Grecian origin of its members, their leaning to
-Greek views in matters of religion, their contempt for the national
-faith, and finally, their impotence to check the ever-increasing
-conquests of the Romans. It was with them that Ardashir united himself
-and conspired to overthrow Artabanus, the monarch who entertained so
-great a reverence for Rab. A decisive battle was fought, in which
-Artabanus succumbed, and the neo-Persian dynasty of the Sassanides
-was founded by the conqueror. The race which thus obtained the upper
-hand is known in history by the name of the neo-Persians; the Jewish
-authorities called them Chebrim (Chebre), and a deteriorated residue of
-the stock still subsists in India under the name of the Guebres. This
-revolution was attended by results as important in matters of religion
-as in politics. In place of the indifference with which the ancient
-rulers had regarded the primitive worship of fire, Ardashir manifested
-an ardent enthusiasm for it. He proudly called himself "the worshiper
-of Ormuz, divine Ardashir, the King of the Kings of Iran, the offspring
-of a heavenly race." He ordered such of the parts of the ancient
-Persian law (the Zend-Avesta) as were still extant to be collected,
-and commanded them to be regarded as the religious code. Zoroaster's
-doctrine of the twin principles of light and darkness (Ahura-Mazda and
-Ahriman) was everywhere enforced; the Magi, the sacerdotal caste of
-this cult, recovered their credit, their influence, and their power,
-while the partisans of the Greeks were persecuted with fire and sword.
-The fanaticism which was thus aroused in the Magians also caused them
-to direct their hostile attacks against the Christians, who resided
-in great numbers in the districts of Nisibis and Edessa in upper
-Mesopotamia (conquered by the Romans), and who possessed their own
-schools.
-
-The Jews were not entirely exempt from the attacks of this fanaticism,
-and only escaped severe persecution through their solidarity, their
-centralization, and their powers of defense. In the first intoxication
-of victory the neo-Persians deprived the Jewish courts of the criminal
-jurisdiction which they had been permitted to exercise until then;
-the Jews were admitted to no offices, and were not even allowed to
-retain the supervision of the canals and rivers, but they do not seem
-to have complained very bitterly of these measures. They were even
-compelled to submit to restraints upon their freedom of conscience.
-On certain festivals, when the Magi worshiped light in their temple
-as the visible representation of God (Ahura-Mazda), the Jews were not
-suffered to maintain any fire on their hearths, nor to retain any
-light in their rooms. The Persians forced their way into the houses
-of the Jews, extinguished every fire and collected the glowing embers
-in their consecrated braziers, bringing them as an offering to their
-temple of fire. They also dug the corpses out of the graves, because,
-according to their notion, dead bodies lying in the bosom of the earth
-desecrated this "Spenta Armaita" (holy soil). For these various reasons
-the majority of the teachers of the Law were not greatly prepossessed
-in favor of the neo-Persians. When Jochanan heard that they had
-triumphantly invaded Jewish Babylonia, he was greatly concerned for
-the fate of his Babylonian brethren, but his anxiety was allayed by
-the assurance that the Persians were very poor and would therefore
-easily allow themselves to be bought off with bribes. By reason of
-their semi-savage state he referred to them as "the abandoned people
-into whose hands the Babylonian communities had been delivered." Levi
-bar Sissi, who was continually traveling to and fro between Judæa and
-Babylon, was anxiously questioned by the Patriarch Judah II as to the
-character of the conquering race. With obvious prepossession in favor
-of the vanquished Parthians, he described them and the victorious
-neo-Persians in the following words: "The former are as the armies of
-King David, but the latter resemble the devils of hell." Little by
-little, however, the fanaticism of the neo-Persians moderated, and
-there sprang up between them and the Jews so sincere a friendship
-that on their account the latter relaxed the severity of the Law, and
-even assisted now and again at their banquets. The teachers of the
-Law permitted the Jews to deliver up fuel which the Magi demanded of
-them on the occasion of the Festival of Light, and ceased to consider
-this act as a furtherance of idolatry, though it would certainly have
-been regarded as such by the old Halacha in similar cases. Even Rab,
-the essence of strictness, acquiesced in the demand of the Magi, and
-allowed the lamps to be brought from the open street into the houses on
-the Sabbath on the occasion of the Festival of the Hasmonæans, in order
-not to give offense to the prejudices of the ruling sacerdotal class.
-This mutual toleration, doubtless, first made its appearance under the
-rule of Shabur I (242-271), the liberal-minded monarch whose friendship
-with Samuel has already been mentioned. This magnanimous king assured
-Samuel that during the many wars which he had waged against the Romans
-in countries thickly populated with the Jews, he had never spilt Jewish
-blood, except on the occasion of the capture of Cappadocia, when
-12,000 Jews had been put to death as a punishment for their stubborn
-resistance.
-
-The radical changes which occurred about this time in the Roman empire
-were also attended with important effects and reactions on Jewish
-history. The death of Alexander Severus was the signal for anarchy,
-the many-headed hydra, to rage in all its terror in Rome and the Roman
-provinces. During the short space of half a century (235-284) the
-throne was occupied by nearly twenty emperors and as many usurpers,
-who willingly laid down their lives to obtain the gratification of
-their desire to wear the purple, if only for a day, and to decree
-executions by the hundred. From nearly every nation which Rome had
-subjugated there arose an emperor who enslaved the Italian Babylon.
-The time of retribution had come; the birds of prey were contending
-for the putrefying body of the State. It was during the time of Samuel
-(248) that the thousandth anniversary of Rome was celebrated by the
-assassin-emperor Philip, an Arab by birth and a robber from his
-childhood; but Rome was powerful wherever its legions were stationed,
-except in Rome itself, the city whose senate was obliged to accept
-with smiling face the humiliations which it experienced at the hands
-of the soldier emperors, and to sanction them in servile humility by
-Senatus-Consulta. The Roman empire was invaded on the one hand by
-the Parthians, on the other by the Goths, as if in fulfilment of the
-sibylline threats of punishment.
-
-Valerianus had undertaken a campaign with the intention of recovering
-the districts which had been conquered by Shabur. Rome now experienced
-the further disgrace of seeing her emperor fall into his enemy's power,
-and suffer all the humiliations of slavery at the hands of the haughty
-victor. In the eastern provinces, in the neighborhood of the mighty
-Persian empire, disorder and dissolution had reached a still higher
-degree. A rich and adventurous native of Palmyra, Odenathus by name,
-had collected a band of wild and rapacious Saracens around him, and
-he and his troops made frequent incursions from his native city into
-Syria and Palestine on the one side, and the region of the Euphrates on
-the other, plundering and laying waste the country through which they
-passed. Odenathus had already assumed the title of Senator. Why should
-he not become the emperor of the Romans, like his fellow-countryman
-Philip? Odenathus was known in Jewish circles as the robber captain,
-"Papa bar Nazar," and to him was applied the passage in Daniel's
-vision: "The little horn coming up among the greater horns, and having
-eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things." The
-predatory incursions of this adventurer were accompanied by results
-which were highly detrimental to the Jews of Palestine and Babylonia.
-He demolished the ancient city of Nahardea (259), which had formed
-the central point of the Jewish communities ever since the time of
-the Babylonian exile. It was many years before this town was able to
-recover itself from this destructive blow. The Amoraim of Nahardea,
-Samuel's disciples, were obliged to take to flight; they emigrated
-to the region of the Tigris. They were--Nachman, a son-in-law of the
-Prince of the Captivity, Sheshet, Rabba b. Abbuha, and Joseph b. Chama.
-
-On the occasion of the destruction of Nahardea by Odenathus, Samuel's
-daughters, doubtless together with many others, were taken prisoners
-by the enemy and brought to Sepphoris. The freebooters speculated
-on heavy ransoms, which appeared to them more lucrative than the
-sale of the captives in the slave market, for it was well known that
-the Jews spared no expense in order to procure the release of their
-fellow-countrymen. Samuel's daughters had derived so much benefit
-from their father's profound knowledge of the Halacha that they
-succeeded in escaping the application of a strict law, which placed all
-maidens who had been taken prisoners on the same footing with those
-who had been dishonored, thus incapacitating them from contracting a
-spotless marriage. Before it was known whose daughters they were they
-had already recovered their freedom, and their assertion that their
-innocence had received no taint at the hands of the rough warriors
-was readily believed. When Chanina heard in Sepphoris that they were
-Samuel's daughters he strongly enjoined a relation of theirs, Simon b.
-Abba, to marry one of them.
-
-Odenathus, the destroyer of Nahardea, gradually became a petty Asiatic
-prince of Palmyra or Tadmor, the oasis which King Solomon had converted
-into a city. The Roman empire was so feeble and tottering that it
-was this hitherto disregarded warrior who was obliged to oppose a
-bulwark to the conquests of the Persians on Roman territory. The great
-services which he thus rendered to the empire compelled his recognition
-(264) as co-emperor by Gallienus, a monarch characterized by his
-weakness and love of satire. Odenathus did not long enjoy this high
-dignity, for in 267 he fell by the hand of an assassin, instigated,
-as the story went, by Zenobia, his wife. After his death the regency
-devolved upon Zenobia, her two sons being still minors. Through her
-influence Palmyra, the city of the desert, was transformed into the
-home of imperial pomp, culture, and refined taste. A Christian report
-represents the empress Zenobia as a Jewess, but the Jewish authorities
-make no mention of this fact. No colors seem to be vivid enough for the
-Roman accounts of Zenobia in order to paint the picture of her strange
-personality. The palace of this second Semiramis, the ruins of which
-still bear witness to refined and artistic taste, was the meeting-place
-of original-minded geniuses, with whom the queen delighted to hold
-philosophical intercourse.
-
-At her court resided Longinus, the refined and philosophical lover
-of the fine arts, who in his æsthetic work on the Sublime was unable
-sufficiently to express his admiration of the poetical contents of
-the Biblical account of the Creation, "Let there be light." Paul
-of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch, when accused of heresy, also found
-shelter at her court. Zenobia, his patroness, also seems to have had
-some leaning towards the fundamental truth of Judaism. The Jews were,
-nevertheless, not particularly well disposed towards the court of
-Palmyra. Jochanan, although not blind to the beauties of Greek, gave
-utterance to the most unfavorable opinions concerning the Palmyrene
-state: "Happy will he be who sees the fall of Tadmor." Subsequent
-generations were at a loss to explain this aversion.
-
-There can be no doubt that many Jews took up arms against Zenobia,
-whose rule must also have extended over Judæa. It is related that a
-certain Zeïra bar Chanina having been brought up before Zenobia to
-receive sentence for an offense which seems to have been of a political
-nature, two of Jochanan's disciples, Ami and Samuel, presented
-themselves before the empress, in order to intercede on his behalf and
-obtain his liberation. They were most ungraciously received, however,
-by Zenobia. "Do you think," said she, "that because God has worked
-so many miracles for your nation you can hazard everything, simply
-putting your trust in Him?" Another occurrence, which is related by
-the same authority, seems also to have taken place during Zenobia's
-reign. A certain Ulla bar Kosher, of whom no further mention is made in
-history, was prosecuted for a political offense, and fled to Joshua ben
-Levi in Lydda. So much importance must, however, have attached to his
-capture that a troop of soldiers surrounded Lydda, and threatened to
-destroy the city if the fugitive were not delivered up to them. In this
-sad dilemma in which the life of a single individual must either be
-sacrificed or the safety of an entire community endangered, Joshua ben
-Levi prevailed upon Ulla to give himself up. He justified this course
-of conduct by referring to a Mishnaic law which permits the surrender
-to the political power of a culprit specially designated, in the case
-of many lives depending on such compliance. But the Jewish conscience,
-symbolized by the prophet Elijah, refused to take any part in bringing
-about the death of a man. Elijah, the ideal of pure zeal for Judaism,
-appeared to Joshua ben Levi and inspired him with remorse for having
-allowed himself to deliver up the culprit; he ought not to have relied
-solely on the simple preceptive law, but should also have been mindful
-of the "Mishna of the Pious," which widened and elevated their views
-concerning the precepts of duty.
-
-Zenobia's reign, after enduring brilliantly for several years
-(267-273), was brought to a termination by Aurelian, who gained a
-hard-earned victory over the haughty empress, and brought her in golden
-fetters to Rome to figure in his triumph. Jochanan lived to see the
-fulfilment of his wish regarding Tadmor, and died a few years after its
-fall (279).
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XX.
-
-THE PATRIARCHATE OF GAMALIEL IV. AND JUDAH III.
-
-    The Amoraim in Palestine--Ami and Assi--The Brothers Chiya and
-    Simon bar Abba in Tiberias--Abbahu in Cæsarea--The Emperor
-    Diocletian--Complete Separation from the Samaritans--Character
-    and Political Position of Abbahu--Huna in Babylonia--Chama's
-    Generosity--Huna's Contemporaries and Successors--Judah ben
-    Ezekiel--Chasda of Cafri--Mar Sheshet--Nachman bar Jacob--Zeïra.
-
-    279.320 C. E.
-
-
-The period during which Christianity emerged from the position of
-a persecuted community and acquired that of an established church,
-marks a crisis in the development of the history of the world, and
-forms an epoch of transition also in the history of the Jews. The
-influence exerted by the mother-country began gradually to decline. It
-was Babylonia that now occupied the universal interest, while Judæa
-became a holy antiquity; it still possessed the power of arousing
-glorious memories, but was no longer the scene of memorable deeds. The
-teachers of this generation, indeed, were not few, including in their
-numbers the disciples of Chanina, Jochanan, and Resh-Lakish; and the
-youth of Babylonia, smitten with a holy longing, still preferred the
-schools of Palestine to those of their native land. But only very few
-of the principals of the schools were possessed of any eminence, and
-the most important of them, Ami, Assi, Chiya b. Abba, and Zeïra, were
-all Babylonians by birth. Abbahu, the only one who was a native of
-Judæa, was a person of much originality, but of no authority in the
-Halacha. The superiority of Babylon was so readily acknowledged that
-Ami and Assi, the leaders of Judæa, of their own accord subordinated
-themselves to Rab's successor. The Babylonian novices excelled their
-masters in the knowledge of the Law; Sora and Pumbeditha took the
-lead of Sepphoris and Tiberias. Even the Patriarchs of this period,
-Gamaliel IV and Judah III, possessed but an insignificant knowledge of
-the Law, and were both obliged to receive instruction from Amoraim.
-Under Judah the duty of examining witnesses concerning the appearance
-of the new moon degenerated into a mere pretense and a formality. When
-Ami expressed a desire that this duty should be seriously fulfilled,
-the Patriarch informed him that he had often understood from Jochanan,
-that as soon as, according to astronomical calculation, the thirtieth
-day was ascertained to be the beginning of the new month, it was
-permissible to press a witness into declaring that he had perceived the
-new moon, although this was not the case. The accurate calculation of
-the Festivals gradually made this burdensome custom of the examination
-of witnesses so superfluous that Judah's successor was able to entirely
-abrogate this duty of the Patriarchate. Of more importance appeared to
-Judah the ordering of the affairs of the communities and the schools,
-and to this point he devoted his entire attention. He commissioned
-the three principal Amoraim, Ami, Assi, and Chiya, to undertake a
-journey through the cities of Judæa, in order to inspect the various
-institutions of a religious or educational character, and to restore
-them in those places where they were falling into decay. In one town,
-where the envoys found neither teachers of the people nor of the young,
-they summoned the elders to bring before them the guardians of the
-city. On the armed guard of the town being brought into their presence,
-the envoys of the Nasi exclaimed: "These are in nowise the guardians
-of the city, but its destroyers; the true guards are the teachers of
-the young and of the people; 'If God protect not the house, in vain
-watcheth the warder.'"
-
-The Patriarchate of Judah III falls in the reign of Diocletian and
-his co-emperor, who, by the strength of their rule and their sincere
-devotion, delayed for a time the decline of the Roman empire.
-Diocletian was not unfavorably disposed towards the Jews. He was,
-perhaps, all the more tolerant to them in proportion as he hated
-and persecuted the Christians; these latter he considered as the
-sole cause of the dissolution of the Empire, on account of their
-persistent struggle against the Roman state religion, and their zeal
-for conversion. The rigorous edicts which this monarch considered it
-necessary to decree during the last years of his reign (303-305),
-and which aimed at compelling the Christians to adopt the worship of
-idols, at closing their churches, and at prohibiting their meetings for
-divine service, did not include the Jews within their terms, although,
-curiously enough, the Samaritans do not seem to have escaped their
-action. Nevertheless, the enemies of the Jews appear to have exerted
-themselves in order to prejudice Diocletian against them. The emperor
-was secretly informed that the Patriarch and his companions made merry
-over his obscure parentage and his surname Aper (Boar), concerning
-which the emperor was especially sensitive. The story relates that
-the emperor, highly exasperated, commanded the Patriarch and the
-most distinguished members of the community to appear before him on
-a Saturday night, at Paneas, about twenty miles from Tiberias. As
-this command was not communicated to them until late on Friday, they
-found themselves in the desperate dilemma of undertaking a journey on
-the Sabbath, or disregarding the imperial summons. On their arrival
-at Paneas, Diocletian ordered them to bathe themselves for several
-days previous to appearing before him in audience. This insult was
-intended as an allusion to the uncleanliness with which the Jews were
-reproached. When at last they were brought before the emperor, the
-Patriarch and his companions assured Diocletian of their loyalty and
-faithfulness, and they are said to have convinced him that they had
-been iniquitously calumniated, whereupon he graciously dismissed them
-(about 297 or 298).
-
-By reason of the constraint of sacrificing to the gods, under which
-Diocletian laid both Samaritans and Christians, the former were
-completely and forever excluded from the Jewish community. A peculiar
-fate controlled the relations of these two kindred and neighboring
-races, and prevented them from living on good terms for any length
-of time. At any moment which appeared favorable to mutual advances,
-trifling circumstances were sure to arise which widened the breach
-between them. After the destruction of the Temple the two peoples lived
-in tolerably good relations with one another; the Samaritans were
-admitted to be in many respects strict Jews. The war of Hadrian united
-Jew and Samaritan even more closely, and this friendly relation took so
-deep a root, that Meïr's decision to regard the Samaritans as heathens
-never gained general acceptance. Daily intercourse and business
-connections had bound them closely to each other. Even Jochanan did not
-hesitate to partake of meat prepared by the Samaritans. His successors
-were, however, more severe, and contrived to bring about a separation
-from the Samaritans. The occasion of this rupture is said to have been
-as follows: Abbahu having once ordered some wine from Samaria, an
-observation was made to him by an old man that the Law was no longer
-strictly observed in that country. Abbahu communicated this intimation
-to his friends, Ami and Assi, who investigated the matter there and
-then, and determined to declare the Samaritans as heathens, irrevocably
-and in every respect. This was perhaps the last resolution arrived at
-by the Synhedrion. No mention is made of the Nasi in connection with
-this decree, thus affording a further proof of the insignificance
-of the authority enjoyed by him, and of the depth to which the
-Patriarchate had fallen. This disunion had the effect of weakening both
-Jews and Samaritans. Christianity, shrewder and more active than its
-parent, Judaism, and more refined and supple than Samaritanism, its
-sister, gained the empire of the world soon after this rupture, and
-Jew and Samaritan alike felt its superior power. Golgotha, raised upon
-the height of the Capitol, pressed with a two-fold burden on Zion and
-Gerizim.
-
-Notwithstanding the slight respect in which the Patriarchate of Judah
-III (280-300) was held, a phenomenon makes its appearance for the first
-time, which betrays indeed the poverty that existed in Palestine, but
-on the other hand shows the adherence of the Jews to the Patriarchal
-house of David, the last remnant of their ancient glory. It had always
-been the custom to announce to such communities as were situated at a
-distance, the resolutions arrived at by the Synhedrion, and especially
-the period of the festivals, by means of special messengers (Shaliach
-Zion, Apostoli). As a rule, men of merit and members of the Synhedrion
-were chosen to fill this honorable post, for they represented the
-highest authorities, and were also required to explain and apply the
-various resolutions. The more the numbers of the Jews in the Holy
-Land were lessened by revolts and wars, and the greater the part of
-the country that fell into the hands of the heathen, the more also
-that extortionate taxes spread poverty far and wide, the greater
-difficulty the Patriarchs found in defraying the expenses of their
-office from their own private means. They were obliged to turn to the
-wealthy communities of other countries to request contributions for
-their support. Originally, perhaps, these aids constituted a voluntary
-contribution (aurum coronarium), forwarded by the communities as a
-proof of allegiance on the occasion of the accession of a Patriarch as
-prince of the Jews. About this time, however, Judah III found himself
-obliged to send messengers to raise a regular tax (canon, pensio). Such
-an envoy was Chiya bar Abba, whom the Patriarch Judah authorized and
-sent abroad armed with peculiar powers: "We send you an excellent man,
-who possesses equal authority with ourselves until he return unto us."
-This same Chiya was, in fact, an excellent man, as poor in means as he
-was rich in character. It was only on account of grievous necessity
-that he allowed this post to be conferred on him by the Patriarch, and
-its acceptance constituted in so far a sacrifice that he was obliged to
-quit the Holy Land, which he had chosen as his residence in preference
-to his native country. During a long period he was supported by a rich
-and charitable family of Tiberias, named Silvani (Beth-Silvani), who
-furnished him, as a descendant of Aaron, with the tithes of the produce
-of their property. On a certain occasion, however, Chiya forbade them
-to commit a deed which another teacher of the Law declared to be
-lawful; and they, in return, made him feel his dependency on their
-tithes. Upon this he determined never again to accept tithes from any
-one, and, in order to avoid temptation, he resolved to quit Judæa.
-
-It is in this Amora that a singular fault may first be remarked,
-which later on became more general, and produced the most disastrous
-consequences. Chiya b. Abba, namely, was so absorbed in the study of
-the oral Law, that in his devotion to it he neglected the reading of
-the written Law, the Bible. Being once asked why the word "good" does
-not occur in the first Decalogue, he made reply that he hardly knew if
-this word really did not occur in that place. Chiya bar Abba was of a
-gloomy disposition, and in the Halacha he followed the severe tendency
-which refused even to allow Jewish maidens to acquire the culture
-of the Greeks, although Jochanan himself had permitted it, and even
-encouraged it to a certain extent.
-
-It may be noticed, as a sign of the times, that the heads of the
-schools at Tiberias were not natives of the country, but Babylonians
-who had emigrated thither from their own land. Ami and Assi occupied
-the post formerly filled by Jochanan, their master. They delivered
-their lectures in the peristyles, which certainly dated at least from
-the period of the Herods. But these buildings, which had been crowded
-with listeners in Jochanan's time, now testified to the declining
-importance of the Holy Land. Babylonia was the goal of such of the
-youth of Judæa as were desirous of studying. Ami and Assi only bore the
-modest title of "the Judges, or the respected descendants of Aaron in
-the Holy Land," and of their own accord subordinated themselves to the
-Babylonian authorities.
-
-Of greater importance and originality was Abbahu of Cæsarea on the
-Sea, who was a striking contrast to Chiya and Simon, Abba's sons. He
-was wealthy, kept Gothic slaves, and had ivory seats in his house;
-his trade was the manufacture of women's veils. He understood Greek
-perfectly, which was the case with but few of his contemporaries; he
-frequented the society of educated heathens, and had his daughter
-taught Greek. He considered the knowledge of this language as an
-ornament to an educated girl, and supported his opinion by citing
-Jochanan's permission. The austere Simon bar Abba, who was hostile to
-all worldly education, reproved this conduct in the following terms;
-"He attributes this permission to Jochanan, because his daughter is
-learning Greek." In answer to this attack upon his veracity, Abbahu
-protested that he had really received this tradition from Jochanan's
-lips. By reason of his familiarity with contemporary civilization,
-which many people regarded as sinful, a verse of Ecclesiastes was
-applied to him: "It is good that thou takest up this (the study of the
-Halacha) and neglectest not that (the learning of the Greeks), for the
-pious are able to fulfil all duties." The Greek language was in fact so
-current among the Jews of Cæsarea, that they even recited the passage
-of Scripture relative to the unity of God (the Shema) in this tongue.
-
-Abbahu was held in great esteem by the Roman Proconsul, and probably
-also by the Emperor Diocletian, on account of his profound learning,
-which was heightened by the charm of a dignified figure and a generous
-character. By means of this influence with the authorities he was
-enabled to avert many severe measures. A case of this description
-affords at the same time an insight into the general state of things at
-this period. Ami, Assi, and Chiya bar Abba, having once pronounced a
-severe punishment on a woman named Thamar, who was doubtless guilty of
-some breach of chastity, were denounced by her to the then Procurator,
-on a charge of encroaching on the jurisdiction of the Romans. The
-Jewish judges, fearful for the consequences of this denunciation,
-besought Abbahu to exert his influence on their behalf. He, however,
-answered that his efforts had failed to produce any effect, by reason
-of the existing desire of revenge, perhaps also on account of the
-beauty of the culprit. His reply was couched in characteristic terms,
-being so conceived that, at first, the words do not convey their
-actual meaning. The import of this document was in brief as follows:
-"I have settled everything as regards the three slanderers--Eutokos,
-Eumathes, and Talasseus--but I have labored in vain on behalf of the
-obstinate and refractory Thamar." The language of this letter, which
-is a model of the style of that period, is for the most part pure
-Hebrew embellished by a play upon words; the Greek proper names are
-translated into the approximate Hebrew terms. This style, when handled
-with skill, invests the Hebrew tongue with an inimitable charm; but it
-easily degenerates into empty pomp and trifling, which was already in
-Abbahu's age to some extent the case.
-
-By reason of his extensive acquirements Abbahu was well fitted to
-engage in polemics against Christianity. During the time of Diocletian,
-Christianity had strained every nerve to obtain the empire of the
-world. The Roman legions were in part composed of soldiers who had
-adopted this religion, and Christianity therefore redoubled its efforts
-to obtain proselytes. Setting itself up in opposition to Judaism and
-heathenism, it brought down upon itself severe punishment at the hands
-of Diocletian and his co-emperor Galerius, on account of its arrogance.
-The Jews were possessed of intellectual weapons, and these they
-employed as long as they were permitted their free use. Like Simlaï,
-Abbahu attacked the Christian dogmas in the most uncompromising manner,
-and grounded his opposition, according to the manner of the time, upon
-a verse in the Bible (Numbers xxiii. 19): "If a man say of himself, 'I
-am God,' he lieth; 'I am the son of man,' he will repent it; 'I go to
-heaven,' he will not confirm it." The doctrine of the Ascension was
-especially a disputed point between the teachers of the Church and
-the synagogue, and its defender in Cæsarea was Jacob the Minæan, a
-physician by profession. In order to authenticate the Ascension, the
-Christians brought forward the Agadic tradition, according to which
-Enoch ascended into heaven without dying: in the words of the Bible,
-"and he (Enoch) was not, for God took him." They used this ambiguous
-phrase in support of their opinion. Abbahu, however, proved by parallel
-verses that, according to the true exegesis, the expression contained
-in this verse amounted to nothing more than a figure of speech for "to
-die." In the succeeding generation Abbahu might, perhaps, have paid
-with his life for his bold truthfulness and his exact interpretation.
-
-Abbahu was one of those modest, gentle, yielding characters who are
-the less conscious of their own merit in proportion as it is great.
-When it was proposed to ordain him as Rabbi, he withdrew in favor of
-Abba of Acco, desiring first to see the distinction conferred upon the
-latter, who by this promotion would have been able to free himself
-from the burden of debt with which he was oppressed. Another event
-brings out yet more strongly evidence of his unassuming disposition.
-He was once delivering discourses, concurrently with Chiya b. Abba, in
-a strange town, the subject being treated by the latter according to
-the Halachic method, while he adopted the more edifying style of the
-Agada. As was only natural, the popular discourses of Abbahu, being
-intelligible to all, were better attended than Chiya's lectures, which
-were more difficult of comprehension. The latter having manifested some
-irritation at the neglect which fell to the lot of his discourses,
-Abbahu attempted to console him in the following words: "Thy teaching
-resembles the most precious stones, of which there are but few good
-judges; mine, on the contrary, is like tinsel, which delights every
-one." In order to appease him still further, Abbahu showed his offended
-companion all possible attention and marks of honor throughout the day;
-nevertheless, Chiya was unable to forget the slight which he considered
-had been inflicted on him. This anecdote cannot be regarded as
-altogether unimportant, proving as it does the decay of serious studies
-in Judæa at this time. The Halacha, the study of which wrinkled the
-brow and exercised the mind, no longer found listeners, and was obliged
-to quit the field before the light-winged Agada. Abbahu was even
-unwilling to lay any stress upon his modesty. He once exclaimed: "With
-all my boasted humility, I am still far behind Abba of Acco, for he is
-not even angry with his expositor (Meturgeman) when the latter dares
-to make his own additions to the analyses which are whispered to him."
-A flaw had thus made itself apparent in that method of teaching, which
-had formerly invested the discourses with so much solemnity and merit.
-Instead of being merely the organ of the lecturer, the Meturgeman
-permitted himself to introduce his own views into the expositions. A
-complaint was made that the interpreters only accepted their office
-out of conceit, in order to display their fine voice or their flowery
-language. This condition of things was aptly described in the following
-verse: "It is better to hear the severity of the wise than the song of
-fools." From this habit of the interpreters, the lectures degenerated
-into an empty word jingle.
-
-Abbahu's generous and thoroughly noble views may also be gathered
-from another characteristic sketch, which at the same time affords
-a faithful picture of the customs of the period. It was usual on
-the occasion of a drought, an event of not uncommon occurrence in
-Judæa, for the most meritorious member of the community to offer up
-the prescribed prayers for rain. The person who on one occasion was
-recommended to Abbahu as the most worthy, happened to be a man of
-the worst fame, known to the wits as the "five sins" (Pentekaka).
-Being summoned before Abbahu, and questioned by the latter respecting
-his occupation, he admitted his infamous calling. "I am," said he,
-"a go-between; I clean out the play-house, carry the clothes to the
-bathers, divert the bathers with jokes, and play upon the flute." "And
-hast thou never done a good deed in all thy life?" demanded Abbahu.
-"One day," said Pentekaka, "when I was cleaning the theater, I saw a
-woman leaning against a column and weeping. In answer to my inquiry as
-to the cause of her grief, she told me that her husband was a prisoner,
-and that there was nothing left for her to do in order to procure his
-release but to sacrifice her honor. As soon as I heard this," continued
-Pentekaka, "I sold my bed, my coverlet, everything that I had in the
-world, gave the proceeds to the woman, and said to her: 'Go, free thy
-husband without paying the price of sin.'" At these words Abbahu could
-not contain himself, and exclaimed to Pentekaka, that medley of sublime
-virtue and vulgar dishonor: "Thou alone art worthy to pray for us in
-our trouble."
-
-The theater at this period participated in the general immoral tone
-of the times, and was by no means a nursery of culture or refinement;
-buffoons diverted the crowd, and Judaism was often laid under
-contribution to furnish a subject for their coarse jokes. Abbahu, who
-was acquainted with events which occurred outside the Jewish world,
-complained of the frivolous manner in which Jewish institutions were
-held up to ridicule, and cites, among others, the following examples.
-A camel was brought into the theater in mourning trappings; thereupon
-ensues the following dialogue: "Why is the camel in mourning?" "Because
-the Jews, who strictly observe the Sabbatical year, cannot even get
-herbs to eat, and are obliged to live upon thistles. The camel mourns
-because its food is thus snatched away." Enter Momus (the buffoon) with
-his head shaved. "Why does Momus mourn?" "Because oil is dear." "And
-why is oil so dear?" "Because of the Jews. They consume everything on
-the Sabbath that they have earned during the week; not even wood enough
-remains for them to cook their food; they must, therefore, burn their
-bed, and being without a bed, must sleep upon the ground and wallow
-in the dust; in order to avoid uncleanliness, they use a great deal
-of oil, and that is the reason that oil is so dear." Thus had the
-degenerate Greeks prostituted the art of Aristophanes!
-
-Abbahu also possessed a certain reputation in the study of the Law, but
-did not rank as an authority; his province was the Agadic exegesis.
-By reason, however, of his influence in the political world, his
-colleagues flattered him to excess--fearing to correct him even when he
-committed errors in teaching. It appears that Cæsarea, where Ushaya the
-elder had formerly established a temporary school, was now elevated by
-Abbahu to a par with Tiberias as an academical city, where the greatest
-Amoraïm of Palestine assembled. The synagogue in Cæsarea, whence had
-proceeded under Nero the first movement of revolt against the Romans,
-resulting eventually in the loss of independence to the Jewish state,
-was perhaps Abbahu's academy, and it appears to have still borne the
-fatal name of "the Revolution synagogue" (Kenishta di-meradta). In the
-same way as Simon bar Abba was accustomed to misfortune, Abbahu was
-attended by good luck, which did not forsake him even in his old age.
-He had two promising sons, Abimaï and Chanina. The latter was sent
-by him to Tiberias for the purpose of perfecting his education; but
-instead of applying himself to study, Chanina spent his time in burying
-the dead, whereupon his father reprimanded him in a letter which is
-remarkable for its laconic brevity: "Has Cæsarea, then, no graves, that
-I should be obliged to send thee for this purpose to Tiberias? Study
-must precede practical work." Abbahu was the last important personage
-of Judæa during Talmudical times. For fifteen successive centuries
-it had given birth to intellectual giants, judges, generals, kings,
-prophets, poets, soferim, patriots, teachers of the Law. It now ceased
-to produce, and brought forth no new celebrities into the world. When
-Abbahu died, says the legend, the statues of Cæsarea wept for him.
-
-In Babylonia, on the contrary, the lively ardor and activity begun by
-Rab and Samuel, the founders of the study of the Law in their native
-land, continued to increase after their death. During the half-century
-over which their labors had extended, the study of the Law had taken
-so deep a root that the plant throve better in foreign than in its
-native soil. A lively emulation to acquire a knowledge of the Law,
-and to regulate their life by this standard, possessed all classes
-of society. It was accounted the highest honor to be recognized as a
-master of the Law (Zorba-me-Rabbanan), and the greatest disgrace to be
-reckoned among the ignorant. The immorality which had formerly obtained
-in Jewish Babylon vanished together with the gross ignorance, and
-domestic and public life fashioned itself according to the ideal which
-had been inculcated with such enthusiasm by the two great teachers, Rab
-and Samuel. Babylonia assumed, in many respects, the rôle of the Holy
-Land, even as regards the contributions to the priests, which seem,
-however, to have been applied to the uses of the teachers of the Law:
-learning was of more account than the priesthood. Babylonia had become
-a regular Jewish state, whose constitution was the Mishna, and whose
-public props were the Prince of the Captivity and the school assembly.
-This impetus to a higher life also communicated itself to the princes
-of the captivity, and they likewise applied themselves to the study
-of the Law. Nehemia and Ukban, Rab's grandchildren, and Nathan, their
-father, were appointed Resh-Galutas in this generation; by reason of
-their intimate knowledge of the Halacha they received the title of
-honor of Rabbana. This happy movement, which permeated all classes
-of Jewish society in Babylonia, was a sign that Judaism was not yet
-dead, but still possessed sufficient vigor to put forth new shoots.
-It was furthered to the utmost of their power by the successors of
-Rab and Samuel, of whom the most prominent were: Huna, who was the
-chief teacher of the Sora academy, and at the same time was regarded
-as religious head both in Babylon and abroad; Judah ben Ezekiel, who
-founded a new school in Pumbeditha, and introduced a new method of
-studying the Halacha; Nachman b. Jacob, who transferred his academy
-to Shekan-Zib on the Tigris, after the destruction of Nahardea (259);
-and finally Chasda, Sheshet, and Rabba bar Abbahu. Almost all of these
-Amoraïm possessed their own peculiar tendency, and thus variety and
-diversity were introduced into the narrow circle of scholars in the
-Babylonian schools.
-
-Huna was born about 212, at Dio Kart, and died in 297. He was Rab's
-successor in Sora, and the authority of this period, to whom, as
-already narrated, the Amoraïm of Judæa voluntarily subordinated
-themselves. The story of his life presents at once a perfect picture
-of the manners of this period, and shows how indefatigable zeal for
-the Law went hand in hand with secular occupations, with agriculture
-and other industries. Although related to the Prince of the Captivity,
-Huna was not originally wealthy. He cultivated his small field with his
-own hands, and was not ashamed of his labor. He used to remark to his
-visitors, who came to him to judge their differences, "Bring me a man
-to till my ground and I will be your judge." Often he returned home
-from the field with his spade upon his shoulder. He was once perceived
-in this condition by Chama b. Anilaï, the richest, and at the same
-time the most charitable and generous man in Babylonia. This liberal
-man almost realized the ideal in his exercise of the Jewish virtue of
-being a father to the poor. Bread was baked day and night in his house
-for the relief of the poor, doors were placed on all sides, so that all
-who were needy might enter, and he who came hungry into the house left
-it satisfied. When Chama went out he held his hand continually in his
-purse, so as not to be obliged to keep those who felt ashamed to ask
-for charity in a painful situation while he was searching for his money.
-
-At the time of the famine he caused wheat and barley to be left
-about at night for such persons as were prevented by their sense of
-honor from mixing with beggars. If an extraordinary tax was to be
-levied, Chama was certain to take a large share of the burden upon
-his own shoulders. This beneficent person possessed so much modesty,
-notwithstanding his extraordinary wealth, that whenever he met Huna
-returning from his labor, with his spade upon his shoulder, he begged
-to be allowed to carry it for him, out of reverence for the principal
-of the school. Huna, however, never permitted him to do this: "Thou art
-not accustomed to do such a thing in thine own town, therefore will I
-not allow it here."
-
-Later on Huna grew rich, and had his fields cultivated by laborers,
-who received a portion of the crops; his cattle grazed on the steppes
-of South Babylonia. He employed his wealth in the most noble manner.
-On stormy days, when the winds which blow from the Syrian desert
-devastated the country and covered the city with ruins, he used to
-go about in a litter, in order to inspect the houses in Sora, and
-pull down any walls which might be in a falling condition. If the
-proprietors were not in a position to build their houses up again, Huna
-would have it done at his own expense. During the hours of meals, all
-the doors in his house were left open, and it was announced in a loud
-voice that all who were needy might enter and be satisfied. Other tales
-are related of his eager and assiduous charity. The indigent scholars
-who attended his school, which was situated in the neighborhood of
-Sora were maintained at his expense during the months of study,
-although their numbers were anything but small. Eight hundred attended
-his lectures, and there were thirteen expositors placed in different
-parts of the building, whose duty it was to make the discourse audible
-and intelligible to the whole assembly. The profound reverence with
-which his noble character, his erudition, and his modesty inspired his
-friends, was nevertheless incapable of blinding them to his faults,
-however small they were. The teachers of the Law were extremely severe
-with regard to one another's conduct, and were unrelenting towards any
-of their number who did not come up to the ideal of the Law.
-
-It was during the time of Huna that public life in Babylonia, which
-was in most intimate connection with the schools, became organized
-in a manner that was unchanged for almost eight centuries. Gradually
-and involuntarily there was formed a hierarchy of the principal and
-subordinate dignitaries. The school, which met, as already mentioned,
-during certain months of the year, was called the Metibta (session),
-and the principal member of this assembly was known as the Resh-Metibta
-(Director). Next in rank to the President came the Reshe-Kalla
-(Professors), whose duty consisted in elucidating during the first
-three weeks of the Kalla month, the theme which the Principal would
-take as the text of his discourses. The judicial offices were separated
-from the professorships; as justice was still meted out, according to
-ancient custom, before the gates of the city, the judges were called,
-by reason of this circumstance, the _Dayane-di-Baba_ (Judges of the
-Gate). In matters of theory they were subordinate to the Principal;
-they were appointed by the Prince of the Captivity, on whom they were
-dependent in matters of practice.
-
-For forty years Huna presided over the Metibta, and by reason of his
-undisputed authority, Babylonia became completely independent of Judæa.
-He boldly acted upon the principle which his master Rab had been unable
-to carry through, and placed Babylonia on a footing of equality with
-Judæa as regarded the Law. "We consider being in Babylon just the same
-as being in the Holy Land," was a principle first established by Huna.
-He thus broke the last tie that united the land of the captivity to the
-mother-country, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he
-merely gave expression to the actual state of things, for, as a matter
-of fact, Babylonia far surpassed Judæa. Only as a mark of respect, or
-in case it was desired to obtain a solemn sanction of an opinion, was
-it usual in Babylonia to obtain a decision from the Holy Land. During
-the period over which Huna's labors extended, the Sora Metibta bore
-sway in Babylonia.
-
-Huna died suddenly (297) when over eighty years of age, leaving his
-fame and his virtues to his son Rabba. The highest honors were paid to
-his remains by his friends and pupils. The funeral discourse opened
-with the following words: "Huna deserved that the Holy Spirit should
-descend upon him." His corpse was carried to Judæa, probably in
-execution of his dying wish; there it was met by the most distinguished
-men, such as Assi and Ami, who procured its interment in the vault of
-Chiya, another Babylonian. It gradually became a pious custom to be
-buried in Judæa's holy earth, to which was attributed an expiatory
-power. The resurrection was confidently expected to take place in that
-country, which, it was also believed, would be the scene of the coming
-of the Messiah. Those who had died in unhallowed countries would roll
-about in the light, loose earth, until they reached the Holy Land,
-where they would again be revivified. In place of living inhabitants,
-who were continually decreasing, Judæa was becoming every day more
-thickly populated with corpses. The Holy Land, which had formerly been
-one immense temple, inspiring great deeds and noble thoughts, was now a
-holy grave, which could render nothing holy but death. Of the numerous
-sanctuaries which had formerly existed, the dust alone now remained
-as an object of veneration. The entire central region of Judæa, the
-mountains of the King, was so exclusively inhabited by heathens, that
-it was proposed to declare it exempt from the tribute to the priests.
-
-The antithesis and complement to Huna was his younger comrade, Judah
-ben Ezekiel (born 220, died 299). Although he had been a disciple of
-Rab, Judah seems to have inclined more to Samuel, whose characteristics
-he inherited. He possessed a strongly marked personality, and was
-highly talented, but at the same time had so many angles and edges
-that he was continually coming into collision with persons and
-circumstances. He was the descendant of an ancient Jewish stock, which
-was, perhaps, able to trace back its origin to families mentioned
-in the Bible, and for this reason he was unusually susceptible on
-the point of nobility of blood and purity of descent. A friend of
-simplicity in most matters, he vehemently attacked all who gave the
-preference to artificial refinement. Although he held the Holy Land
-in great reverence, he nevertheless blamed those who left Babylonia
-in order to be educated in the schools of Judæa, and was unrelenting
-towards such of his friends and pupils as emigrated thither. Judah
-founded for the first time an academy in Pumbeditha, which city,
-since the destruction of Nahardea, had become the center for northern
-Babylonia, as Sora was for the south. The Pumbeditha school, which,
-under Judah, was second only to the Soranian, attained in later times
-to the position of the leading academy. For nearly eight centuries it
-asserted its pre-eminence with but few intermissions, and was almost
-the last remnant of Jewish antiquity which beheld unmoved the birth of
-a new epoch.
-
-True to the character of the inhabitants of his native city, Judah
-ben Ezekiel allowed the intellect to predominate so greatly over the
-heart, that he only consecrated one day in each month to prayer, the
-rest of the time being devoted to the study of the Law. He had already
-been distinguished by Samuel as the "acute," and later on became the
-creator of that acute system of dialectics which in former times had
-gained a transitory acceptance in Judæa, and now became current in
-and indigenous to Babylonia. This system differed materially from
-that employed by the Tanaites, for it went direct to the heart of
-the matter, while the other clung to the formulæ of the rules of
-interpretation. Judah's discourses were confined solely and simply
-to the treatment of matters of jurisprudence, as occult comparisons
-and distinctions, deductions and applications, here find their proper
-place, and theory and practice go hand in hand. The remaining portions
-of the Mishna were neglected at Judah's school; he seems, in fact,
-to have experienced a sort of aversion to studying such parts of
-it as contained Halachas treating of the laws of Levitical purity
-which had fallen into disuse. Under Judah's influence, the extensive
-subject-matter of the Law shrank to the contracted dimensions of a
-sphere in which nothing was included but what was applicable to reality
-and everyday life. He introduced the precise custom of communicating
-not only the matter of the traditions, but even the names of the
-persons who had handed them down. Nevertheless, it is remarkable
-that his own brother, Rami (R. Ami), questioned the accuracy of the
-traditions handed down by him, and even gave him the lie direct.
-"Accept not the decrees," he would often exclaim, "which my brother
-Judah puts forward under the name of Rab or Samuel; but thus and
-thus were they handed down." In another respect also, Rami was the
-opponent of his brother; he quitted Babylonia and emigrated to Judæa,
-although Judah severely censured such a course, which, he considered,
-constituted no slight crime against religion. He even regarded the
-return of the Babylonian exiles under Ezra and Zerubbabel as a
-violation of the Law, and considered that it had better never have come
-about; for the prophet Jeremiah had impressed on the captives that they
-should also die in Babylon. The only excuse which he found for the
-pious Ezra and his emigration was the assertion that the latter had led
-to Judæa such families as were of doubtful origin, in order to prevent
-their intermarrying with those whom he left behind.
-
-As has already been mentioned, another of Judah's peculiarities was
-an extreme severity with regard to the purity of the race. He was
-so particular on this point that he delayed marrying his son Isaac
-long after the latter had reached maturity, because he was not
-certain whether the family from which he desired to procure him a
-wife was spotless beyond all dispute. Upon this point his friend Ulla
-pertinently remarked: "How do we know for certain that we ourselves are
-not descended from the heathens who violated the maidens of Zion at
-the siege of Jerusalem?" Judah's punctiliousness with regard to purity
-of descent caused him many a vexation. There once came to Pumbeditha
-a distinguished citizen of Nahardea, who claimed to be descended
-from the Hasmonæans, perhaps from the unfortunate king, Hyrcanus II,
-who had resided in Babylonia for several years. This Nahardean, who
-was connected with the most esteemed families of his native town,
-was exceedingly vexed that Judah ben Ezekiel should be conceded the
-priority on every occasion, and once exclaimed scornfully: "Who is
-this Judah bar Sheveskeel?" When this tale came to Judah's ears, he
-excommunicated the Nahardean for his irreverence, and when he heard
-that the latter actually called all persons slaves, he was so carried
-away by his passion that he publicly stigmatized him as a descendant
-of slaves. In consequence of this insult, the Nahardean complained
-to Nachman, the son-in-law of the Prince of the Captivity. Nachman,
-who was as overbearing as Judah was passionate, sent the latter a
-summons to appear before him to justify his conduct. The Principal of
-Pumbeditha was not a little astonished at thus being called upon to
-give an account of his conduct to Nachman, who was not only younger,
-but of less consequence than himself. Huna, however, with whom he took
-counsel, prevailed upon him to comply with this summons out of regard
-for the Prince of the Captivity.
-
-Owing to his profound learning, his acuteness of intellect, and his
-estimable character, Judah enjoyed undisputed authority both in
-Babylonia and abroad. When Huna died Judah was chosen by the Sora
-Metibta as their Principal (297); under him and his successor there was
-but a single academy which was recognized by every one. His authority
-was recognized even in Judæa. He once excommunicated a certain
-distinguished member of the Metibta whose reputation was attacked. When
-the latter visited him on the occasion of his last illness, he openly
-stated that he was proud of having spared not even such a man out of
-regard for his position. As Judah died without having raised the ban,
-it was necessary to appeal to the Patriarch, in accordance with the
-custom which obtained in such cases. Judah had only held the office of
-general Resh-Metibta for two years when he died at a ripe old age.
-
-The college elected in Judah's place the octogenarian, Chasda of Cafri
-(born 217, died 309). He was one of Rab's disciples, and entertained
-so great a reverence for his teacher that he committed to memory all
-the decisions which the latter had ever given, and promised a reward
-to any one who would communicate to him any unknown trait of "our
-great master," as he called him. Chasda is known as the most fortunate
-of the Amoraïm. Originally poor, he was afterwards blessed with such
-extraordinary gifts of fortune that his wealth became proverbial.
-Sixty marriages were celebrated in his house, and it is said that
-no member of his family died during his lifetime. Although he had
-attended Huna's discourses, his method of instruction rather resembled
-that employed by Judah; he was extremely fond of acute explanations.
-Chasda's superiority over Huna, which he caused the latter to feel on
-one occasion, contributed to the creation of an estrangement between
-the two, which, it is said, lasted for forty years. In consequence
-of this difference Chasda appears to have withdrawn from Sora to the
-neighboring town of Cafri, but there he felt isolated and slighted.
-Once when the college of Sora appealed to him for his opinion of some
-dubious case, he took offense and exclaimed: "What! do you even pick up
-damp wood? Probably you expect to find a treasure beneath it." While
-Huna still held the post of Principal, Chasda erected a school in
-Sora at his own expense (293), but he still retained the position of
-disciple with regard to the former, and gave no decisions in practice.
-It was not until Judah's death that he was appointed Principal of the
-college; he held this office for ten years, and died in 309 at the age
-of ninety-two.
-
-His Halachic opponent was Mar-Sheshet, who like himself had been a
-disciple of Rab and a pupil of Huna. Sheshet's memory was so retentive
-that he knew by heart not only the whole Mishna, but also all the
-Boraïtas. Whenever Chasda and Sheshet met, the former was dismayed at
-his opponent's imposing array of Boraïtas, while the latter trembled
-at Chasda's subtle expositions. He was, in fact, a sworn enemy of
-that hair-splitting style of teaching which Judah had introduced into
-the Pumbedithan school, and which had quickly degenerated into mere
-subtilty. Whenever a person started any specious objection, Sheshet
-would ironically inquire: "Comest thou not from Pumbeditha, where they
-can pass an elephant through the eye of a needle?" Sheshet's relations
-with the Resh-Galuta of this period afford a striking proof of the
-neglect into which religious practices had fallen in the house of the
-Prince of the Captivity, and of the uncouth barbarity which still
-continued to rule there. Whenever the Resh-Galuta invited Sheshet to
-partake of his hospitality he was met by a repeated refusal. Upon
-being urged to explain the cause of this incivility, Sheshet answered
-that the slaves of the Resh-Galuta had not yet abandoned the custom
-of cutting the meat that was to be served in the banquet from living
-animals. Although the Prince of the Captivity may have been ignorant of
-this barbarous habit of his servants, it is nevertheless apparent that
-he paid no great attention to the religious conduct of his household.
-It was not unusual for the slaves of the Prince of the Captivity to
-indulge in practical jokes at the expense of the teachers of the Law
-who visited their master, often shutting them up in the dungeons.
-Nothing further is known of Sheshet, except that after the destruction
-of Nahardea he founded a school at Silhi on the Tigris.
-
-The youngest member of this circle of the Amoraim was Nachman ben
-Jacob, one of Samuel's disciples (born about 235, died 324). He was
-the representative of that haughty self-reliance of the Babylonian
-Jews, which was founded upon their prosperity, their independence,
-and the certainty of a livelihood. He was a son-in-law of the Prince
-of the Captivity, whose daughter, Yalta, he had married after the
-death of her first husband, and he possessed to the full the pride,
-ostentation, and arrogance characteristic of the princely house. Like
-any oriental prince, he was attended by eunuchs, ready at a moment's
-notice to make their master's exalted position felt by any one who
-should dare depreciate his reputation. He had been appointed chief
-judge by his father-in-law, and was so proud of this dignity, that
-when his colleagues attempted to place themselves on an equality with
-him, he forcibly reminded them that he alone was competent to act
-as judge. He even did not hesitate to decide many cases without the
-assistance of his colleagues, although it was considered an arrogant
-act to sit in judgment alone. His character was devoid of gentleness
-and humanity. Once when the slaves of the Resh-Galuta had forcibly
-dispossessed an old woman of some building materials, in order to erect
-a tabernacle therewith, he was appealed to by the latter to award her
-redress for this violation of the Law: "The Prince of the Captivity and
-his doctors," said she, "are sitting in a stolen tabernacle." Nachman,
-however, scarcely listened to her; whereupon she pointedly exclaimed,
-"I am the daughter of a man (Abraham) who possessed 318 slaves, and
-cannot even find a hearing for my complaint!" To this remark Nachman
-returned a harsh answer, and finally decreed that at most she was
-only entitled to compensation for the stolen materials. He was even
-less considerate in his treatment of his slaves, whose sense of human
-dignity he outraged in a manner revolting to morality. His female
-slaves were not permitted to contract any lasting union, but were given
-in turn to different men, according as such changes were considered to
-afford a better chance of profit. In this he was entirely unlike his
-master, Samuel, who united his male and female slaves in lawful wedlock
-for life.
-
-Even the teachers of the Law were treated by Nachman with imperiousness
-and disdain. His wife, Yalta, the daughter of the Prince of the
-Captivity, had, contrary to custom, committed her child by her first
-husband to the custody of a nurse, so as to be able to marry Nachman.
-She even exceeded her husband in pride, and possessed all the whims
-and insolence of a petty oriental princess. She exacted homage of
-the learned men with whom her husband associated; and when, on one
-occasion, Ulla withheld his respects, she insulted him of set purpose.
-He was in the habit of making frequent journeys between Palestine and
-Babylonia, and was probably also poor. It was with reference to these
-two points that Yalta observed of him, "Travelers are full of twaddle,
-and rags of vermin."
-
-Jewish jurisprudence is indebted to Nachman for an important decision,
-the account of the origin of which affords some indication as to the
-state of morality at this period. According to the principles of the
-old Jewish code, when a person was summoned before the court to answer
-for a debt, and insufficient evidence was forthcoming against him,
-he was only allowed to purge the charge by an oath, if he partially
-admitted the claim; if he repudiated it altogether, no oath could be
-administered. This law was based upon the assumption that every one
-was actuated by motives of patriarchal probity, which rendered them
-incapable of the audacity of openly repudiating a just claim. But this
-simple honesty could no longer be assumed to exist; on the contrary,
-it had been supplanted by a certain wily cunning, which succeeded, by
-reason of the wide-spread knowledge of the Law, in availing itself of
-the letter in order to evade the spirit. It was for this reason that
-Nachman, profiting by experience, introduced the oath of purgation
-(Shebuot hesset) in those cases where the claim was totally denied, and
-this decision eventually obtained the force of law. As has already
-been mentioned, Nachman emigrated from Nahardea after its destruction,
-and established himself in Shakan-Zib, the inhabitants of which were
-notorious for their love of mockery. It is not related whether he again
-transferred his residence to Nahardea, after that city was restored.
-
-A connecting link between Judæa and Babylonia, of which two countries
-the former was slowly declining while the latter was gradually coming
-to the fore, was formed by Zeïra, who was the highest authority
-in Judæa during the following generation. The history of this man
-brings into prominent relief the opposition existing between the
-mother-country and the Babylonian colony. He had been a pupil of Huna
-and Judah, but was dissatisfied with the method of teaching employed
-in Babylonia, and yearned for the simple method of the Amoraïm, which
-obtained in the schools of Galilee. He hesitated to quit Babylonia,
-however, in deference to Judah's dislike of emigration. When, at last,
-he stole away, so to speak, from his native country, his longing to
-behold the Holy Land was so irresistible, that he ventured to cross the
-Jordan by a rope, so as not to lose time in searching for a bridge. A
-Christian who was witness of the traveler's haste, remarked reprovingly
-to Zeïra: "You Jews have not yet abandoned your old fault of
-precipitancy, which showed itself among you at Mount Sinai"; whereupon
-the latter rejoined: "Ought I to delay a single moment to enter the
-Holy Land, the sight of which was not even vouchsafed to Moses and
-Aaron, our teachers?"
-
-Arrived at Tiberias, Zeïra endeavored to forget the minute analysis
-which constituted the Babylonian method of teaching. The legend adds
-that he fasted for forty days, in order to give weight to his prayers,
-in which he entreated that the hateful Babylonian system might vanish
-entirely from his memory. Judæa and its peculiar method, on the other
-hand, seemed to him to be surrounded with a halo of glory, and "the
-atmosphere of the Holy Land appeared to him pregnant with wisdom." The
-characteristic tendency of Babylonia, however, had gained so strong
-a hold on his mind that he was unable to free himself from it, even
-in Judæa. However greatly he strove to acquire the simplicity of the
-Judæan method, he never succeeded in entirely eradicating the influence
-of the Babylonian rational analysis, and it was on account of this very
-superiority which he himself failed to recognize, that he was held
-in high esteem by the Amoraïm of Judæa. The dignity of teacher was
-conferred upon him within a very short time. His modesty was so great,
-however, that, like King Saul, he hid himself, and only consented to
-be ordained when it was represented to him that remission of sins
-was attached thereto. In the encomium which it had become customary
-to recite on the occasion of an ordination, allusion was made to
-Zeïra's small, insignificant figure, in the following terms: "Without
-brilliancy, without glitter, but not without charm." He became one of
-the authorities of Judæa, together with Ami, Assi, and Abbahu, all of
-whom he outlived. At his grave a poet recited an elegy, which shows
-better taste than most of the verses produced on similar occasions; it
-ran somewhat as follows:--
-
-        "To him whom fruitful Sinear hath borne,
-          The Holy Land a crown of wisdom lent;
-        And sad Tiberias droops her head, to mourn
-          For him who was her chiefest ornament."
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXI.
-
-THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY AND ITS RELATIONS TO JUDAISM.
-
-    Hillel II.--His Calendar--Heads of Judæan Schools: Jonah, José,
-    and Jeremiah--The Expansion of Christianity--Constantine--The
-    Decadence of the Jewish Schools in Babylonia--The Pumbeditha
-    School--Development of Talmudical Dialectics--The Persian Queen
-    Ifra and her son Shabur II.--The Emperor Julian--Favor shown
-    towards the Jews--Proposed Rebuilding of the Temple--Roman
-    Tolerance.
-
-    320.375 C. E.
-
-
-The period during which Christendom asserted its triumphant sway marked
-a decisive crisis in the history of nations, and closed also an epoch
-in Jewish history. The harvest which had slowly and invisibly been
-maturing during the preceding centuries was now ripe. Christianity,
-although hated and persecuted, had still remained defiant, and at
-last disarmed its enemies by drawing them within the circle of its
-influence. The Roman Empire, which seems to have felt an instinctive
-dread of its approaching dissolution through the religion of Christ,
-submitted to baptism, thus prolonging its assigned length of existence
-by the space of a century and a half. Heathenism, which was nourished
-by and in turn bred irrational ideas, deceit, and immorality, was
-obliged to surrender its life of shams, and make room for another form
-of religion.
-
-The new religion which thus pressed triumphantly to the fore,
-possessed innumerable advantages over heathenism, in that it laid
-down in theory as a fundamental principle, a worthier conception of
-God and a purer morality, although it was very far from conforming
-in practice to these tenets. At the same time as Rome and Italy lost
-their importance and retained only a shadow of their former greatness,
-Judæa and Tiberias, which had taken the place of Jerusalem, sank into
-insignificance. Like Italy, the seat of heathen civilization, Judæa was
-impoverished and stunted by Christianity. By means of the political
-power to which this religion now attained--the possession of the
-imperial dignity placing the axe of the lictors and the sword of the
-legions under its command--Judæa was soon deprived of its intellectual
-life, and the school of Tiberias lost the power of attraction which it
-had so long exercised, and sank into decadence.
-
-While Babylonia was raised during the next fifty years to the pinnacle
-of its fame by the exertions of three original Amoraïm, Rabba, Abayi,
-and Raba, the Judæan Amoraïm of this period were of no importance.
-The few men of these times whose names have survived are Chaggai,
-who became an authority by reason of his age, Jonah II and José, the
-disciples and successors of Ami and Assi. The sole recognized authority
-of Judæa was Jeremiah; but he was an emigrant from Babylonia, where
-he had been so little appreciated that he had been turned out of
-the schools. The office of Patriarch also sank at this period into
-complete insignificance, its holder, Hillel II, having in imitation
-of his great-grandfather Hillel, self-denyingly resigned a portion of
-his power. It is remarkable that at the same time as the Patriarchate
-lost all consequence in Judæa, it acquired a showy splendor abroad, as
-if the corpse were being adorned before being lowered into the grave.
-During the last century of the existence of the office, the Patriarchs
-received the pompous titles of "Highness" (_illustres_), "Worshipful"
-(_spectabiles_), "Famous" (_clarissimi_), which titles they enjoyed
-in conjunction with the highest dignitaries of the State, with whom,
-to all appearances, they were thus placed on an equality. "Let him who
-dares to publicly insult the illustrious Patriarchs be visited with
-severe punishment," commands an imperial edict, which, although dating
-from a later period, rests nevertheless on the earlier legislation
-affecting the Patriarchs.
-
-The Emperor Constantine, who had aggrandized the Church, and laid the
-dominion of the earth at her feet, had at the same time given her the
-doubtful blessing, "By the sword thou shalt live." He had originally
-placed Judaism, as a religion, on an equal footing with the other
-forms of worship existing in the Roman Empire. For, before adopting
-the Christian faith, and determining above all things to put a stop
-to religious persecutions throughout his dominions, Constantine had
-published a sort of edict of toleration, wherein he had commanded that
-every man should enjoy the right of professing any religion without
-thereby becoming an outlaw. The Jews were likewise included in this act
-of toleration, and their patriarchs, elders, and the principals of the
-schools and synagogues enjoyed the same privileges as the Christian
-ecclesiastics and the heathen priests. These decisions continued in
-force, and in later times were sanctioned by new laws, although another
-spirit began to sway the newly-founded Byzantine court. The rule was
-established that the members of the synagogue who dedicated themselves
-to the Law, the Patriarchs, Priests, and other religious officials,
-should be relieved from all municipal and other onerous offices. Taking
-as models the constitution of the Roman priesthood, and the Christian
-system of bishops, the Patriarch of Judæa was regarded as the chief
-of all the Jews in the Roman Empire. Constantine's impartial justice,
-however, lasted but a short time. The more Christianity asserted its
-influence over him, the more did he affect the intolerance of that
-religion, which, forgetful of its origin, entertained as passionate a
-hatred of Judaism and its adherents as of heathenism. Sylvester, Bishop
-of Rome, Paul, afterwards Bishop of Constantinople, the new capital,
-and Eusebius of Cæsarea, the first historian of the Church, did not
-fail to incite the inhabitants of the empire against the Jews. Judaism
-was stigmatized as a noxious, profligate, godless sect (_feralis_,
-_nefaria secta_) which ought to be exterminated from the face of
-the earth wherever possible. An imperial edict was published to the
-effect that the Jews were no longer to make converts, those entering,
-as well as those receiving newcomers into the faith being threatened
-with punishment (315). Finally the proselytism of the Christians
-was afforded the aid of the State, and the Jews were forbidden to
-pronounce upon such of the members of their community as apostatized
-the punishment which Christianity was, however, permitted to inflict in
-a terribly aggravated degree upon its own adherents who left its fold.
-"All who dare attack the apostates with stones or in any other manner,
-shall be delivered to the flames, together with their accomplices." It
-was impossible, in fact, that Jews without fixed opinions should not
-be tempted by Constantine's decided leaning towards Christianity, and
-the prospect of profit, to change their religion. The Church expressly
-aimed, by all sorts of promises, at seducing the weaker members of the
-Jewish community from their faith, laying especial emphasis on the
-disadvantages which would accrue from adherence to Judaism, and on the
-benefits which the apostate would derive from the State. "Why do you
-suffer death for your God? See to what punishments and pillagings He
-has condemned you! Come to us; we will make you dukes, and governors
-and captains." "The sinful Roman Empire, the son of thy mother,
-attempts to make the faithful waver," such were the texts from which
-the public orators of the synagogue had henceforth to preach. The
-privileges of the Jews were abolished by Constantine--as, for instance,
-in the city of Cologne--and it was decreed by him that, with the
-exception of two or three men, all of them were liable to be called
-upon to fill the burdensome municipal offices.
-
-Then the world witnessed the hitherto undreamt-of spectacle of the
-first general convocation of Nice, consisting of several hundred
-bishops and priests, with the emperor at their head (325). Christianity
-thought to celebrate its triumph, but only succeeded in betraying its
-weakness and internal disunion. For on the occasion of this, its first
-official appearance, in all the splendor of its plenitude of spiritual
-and temporal power, there remained no trace of its original character.
-The Essenean doctrine of humility, brotherly love, and community of
-possessions; the Pauline zeal for morality and sound opinions; the
-ardor of the Alexandrian school for scientific erudition;--all had
-vanished. Dogmatical disputes, whether Christ the Son was equal to
-the Father, whether he resembled or differed from him, disputes all
-the more bitterly carried on because of the impossibility of settling
-the question either way,--these were the points which henceforward
-constituted the foreground of the history of the Church which was
-destined to represent the history of the world. At the Council of Nice
-the last thread was snapped which connected Christianity with its
-parent stock. The festival of Easter had up till now been celebrated
-for the most part at the same time as the Jewish Passover, and indeed
-upon the days calculated and fixed by the Synhedrion in Judæa for
-its celebration; but in future its observance was to be rendered
-altogether independent of the Jewish calendar, "For it is unbecoming
-beyond measure that on this the holiest of festivals we should follow
-the customs of the Jews. Henceforward let us have nothing in common
-with this odious people; our Savior has shown us another path. It
-would indeed be absurd if the Jews were able to boast that we are
-not in a position to celebrate the Passover without the aid of their
-rules (calculations)." These remarks are attributed to the Emperor
-Constantine, and even though they may not have been uttered by him,
-they were nevertheless the guiding principle of the Church which was
-now to decide the fate of the Jews.
-
-The first utterance of Christianity on the very day of its victory
-betrayed its hostile attitude towards the Jews, and gave rise to
-those malignant decrees of Constantine and his successors, which
-laid the foundation of the bloody persecutions of subsequent
-centuries. Constantine re-enacted--undoubtedly at the instigation of
-the clergy--the law of Hadrian, which forbade the Jews to live in
-Jerusalem. Only on the anniversary of the destruction of the city were
-they allowed, on making certain payments to the officials, to mourn on
-the ruins of the Temple. The clergy further succeeded in obtaining a
-law from Constantine prohibiting the Jews from making converts among
-the slaves. Christianity claimed the monopoly of expansion, and forbade
-Judaism to increase its influence either by making proselytes or by
-converting its slaves. Constantine seems, however, to have protected
-the Jews against the arrogance of such of their brethren as had gone
-over to Christianity; these converts, for the most part possessed of
-no fixed opinions, attempted to revenge themselves on their former
-fellow-countrymen and co-religionists. One of these apostates, Joseph
-by name, seems at this period to have vigorously persecuted the
-Palestinean Jews. He had been one of the assessors of the Patriarch in
-the Synhedrion of Tiberias, and had been entrusted with the honorable
-office of delegate and envoy to the communities of Cilicia. There he
-had frequently associated in secret with a bishop, and had obtained the
-writings of the New Testament to read. The Cilician Jews raised doubts
-as to his orthodoxy, and as, in addition to this, he was not greatly
-beloved, on account of his high-handed treatment of the teachers and
-religious dignitaries, some of whom he even degraded, certain of
-the Cilicians entered his residence by surprise, and discovered him
-reading the gospel. How is it possible to blame the Jews of Cilicia
-for venting upon his person their indignation at his deceit? They are
-said to have thrown him into the river Cydnus, and he is supposed to
-have escaped death only by a miracle. Nothing now remained for Joseph
-but to publicly announce his adoption of Christianity. If he is to
-be believed, many Jews, including the most learned and worthy among
-them, nourished at this period a secret predilection for Christianity.
-Joseph even relates a thoroughly incredible tale of the aged Patriarch
-(probably Judah III), according to which the latter was a secret
-adherent of the religion of Jesus, and feeling a desire to be baptized,
-he invited a bishop from the neighborhood of Tiberias, under pretext of
-obtaining his medical advice.
-
-The Christian clergy of Palestine, and probably the bishop Eusebius,
-who stood in high favor with the emperor, took care that Joseph should
-be well rewarded for his apostasy. Constantine conferred upon him
-the dignity of Comes, which carried with it a sort of immunity from
-punishment in case of misdemeanor or violation of the law. He was
-also granted permission by the emperor to build the first churches
-of Galilee--at Tiberias, Sepphoris (Dio-cæsarea), Nazareth, and
-Capernaum--where but few Christians had hitherto resided.
-
-The Patriarch's son and successor, Hillel II, who is said to have
-been still a minor at the death of his father, was defamed by Joseph
-with a twofold purpose; he desired, in the first place, to brand with
-infamy, simply by the force of calumny, a fellow-countryman of exalted
-position who had sufficient reason to hate him; and secondly, he wished
-to attest the miraculous power of the sign of the cross. He is said to
-have been appointed guardian and tutor to the young Patriarch, of whom
-he related that, being led astray by his youthful companions, he had
-abandoned himself to a life of indulgence, and had even seduced honest
-and virtuous women by the use of magical arts. This same Patriarch,
-Hillel II, who flourished from about 320 to 365, was, however, one of
-the most estimable successors of the elder Hillel; he was certainly no
-votary of Christianity, and was favored by an emperor who likewise had
-reason to dislike the arrogant Church.
-
-It was in reality under Constantius (327-330), the fratricide and
-arch-persecutor of heretics, that the Christian rule was introduced
-into the Roman empire, and that the misfortunes of the Jews commenced.
-If the champions of the Church had not been blinded by vindictiveness
-and dogmatism, they would necessarily have perceived that by accepting
-the support of the political power they were acknowledging the
-authority of a master and turning the spear against their own breasts.
-The emperor Constantius could boldly exclaim, "Let my will be religion
-and the law of the Church!" It was not the fathers of the Church who
-decided questions of religion in the last instance, but the eunuchs
-and the serving-women of the court. How could the Jews expect humane
-treatment when the members of the Church, from the emperor down to the
-most humble of his subjects, were prompted by a spirit of fanaticism
-to persecute one another on account of verbal disputes? At the very
-beginning of Constantius' reign, the Jewish teachers of the Law were
-banished; in consequence of this decree several of them emigrated to
-Babylonia. Among those who were exiled there were two who are known
-by name: Dimé and Isaac bar Joseph. These persecutions seem to have
-been aggravated in the course of time; the teachers of the Law were
-threatened with death, whereby the stream of emigration from Judæa was
-naturally increased. Abin and Samuel bar Judah were among the later
-emigrants (337-338). The consequences of these events were the decline
-of the Academy of Tiberias and the general decay of active teaching.
-Up till then there had still existed a sort of Synhedrion, employing
-the usual method of voting at its meetings; Haggai, Jonah, and José are
-named as members of it.
-
-The sentiment of hostility, nourished by Constantius against the
-Jews, also manifested itself in several laws concerning them. The
-causes of this persecution remain involved in complete obscurity,
-and it is impossible to ascertain whether the apostate Joseph, that
-second Acher, was in any way connected therewith. Marriages between
-Jews and Christian women, which appear to have been of not infrequent
-occurrence, were punished with death under the emperor Constantius
-(339). Of even greater consequence was the law concerning slaves which
-was promulgated by him. Whereas his father had only forbidden the
-admission of slaves into the Jewish community, and had simply punished
-the transgression of this prohibition by declaring forfeited all
-slaves so admitted, Constantius decreed (339) that the circumcision
-of a Christian slave entailed the pain of death and the entire loss
-of fortune. He even forbade the reception of heathen slaves into the
-covenant of Judaism. The grounds for this law were twofold: it was
-desired that Judaism should receive no increase through its adoption by
-slaves, and also that Christians should not serve Jewish masters, "the
-assassins of God." This preposterous view has been held by the Church
-ever since, and prevails even at the present day, although in another
-form. These restraints and rigors were by no means legal, for the Jews
-were still reputed citizens of the Roman empire, and in consequence
-of this equality with the other inhabitants, ought not to have been
-subject to any exceptional laws. But what were right and law to this
-emperor, who, as unscrupulous as he was weak, was swayed by the eunuchs
-and the ecclesiastics of the court? His conceits and caprices were law.
-Constantius, or the ecclesiastics of his court, were the founders of
-the Christian State.
-
-The sufferings of the Jews became unbearable when Constantius sent
-his cousin and co-emperor Gallus to the East to operate against
-the ever-increasing power of the Persians (351). Gallus, who was
-addicted to debauchery, abandoned the conduct of the war to his
-legate Ursicinus. The latter, during three long years, worked more
-dire distress in Judæa than any imperial master. As the Roman legions
-were quartered in the cities of Judæa, Ursicinus made it the duty of
-the Jewish inhabitants to furnish the provisions necessary for their
-maintenance, and prosecuted his demands so inexorably that the Jewish
-communities were thereby driven to violate the laws of their religion.
-The Roman military officials demanded, for example, that the troops
-should be supplied with new bread, even on the Sabbath and the feast
-of unleavened bread. The communities of Judæa were so disheartened
-that the teachers of the Law vied with one another in granting
-indulgences and mitigating the severity of the Law. The two authorities
-of Tiberias, Jonah and José, taught that it was lawful to bake for
-Ursicinus' army on the Sabbath; and the teachers of Neve, a Gaulanite
-town, permitted leavened bread to be baked for the legions during
-Passover. In their distress the religious representatives quieted
-their consciences with the excuse, which they deluded themselves into
-believing, that the enemy did not expressly demand the transgression
-of the Law, but simply required the regular supply of the army. But
-Ursicinus' intention appears really to have been to institute a
-religious persecution, for at Senbaris, a small town situated about
-four miles from Tiberias, he burnt a scroll of the Law which had been
-consecrated to the public use, and this act could not relate in any
-way to the service of the army. Besides this, an intolerable weight
-of taxes burdened the Jews of Palestine, who were for the most part
-greatly impoverished. Among these burdens were the supply of natural
-produce (corn and cattle), the payment of a poll-tax, of the tribute,
-and, in addition thereto, of a tax levied on every trade, and of all
-sorts of fines. The complaints which were uttered against these onerous
-taxes found an echo in the pulpit. "In the same way as when a garment
-hanging on a hedge of thorns has been disengaged from one side, it is
-immediately torn by the other, so does it happen to us under the rule
-of Esau (Rome). No sooner have the supplies of produce been carried off
-than it is the turn of the poll-tax, and before this has been paid, the
-tribute is demanded. Wicked Esau behaves with artful cunning towards
-Israel. Thou hast stolen or killed. Thou hast not stolen? Who stole
-with thee? Thou hast not killed? Who was thy accomplice? Pay down thy
-fines, provide supplies, pay the poll-tax and other imposts."
-
-These multitudinous oppressions with which the Jews were visited
-by the first Christian emperors, inspired them with the courage of
-despair and roused them to a fresh revolt. Although but little is
-known of this rebellion and its consequences, the accounts appearing
-to be but lightly sketched, it is possible nevertheless to collect
-some isolated particulars. The seat of the revolt was at Sepphoris,
-where, under cover of the night, the Jews surprised the Roman troops
-stationed there, slaughtered them, and gained possession of their
-weapons. According to one account the Jews were led by a chief of the
-name of Patricius or Patrick (Netira), whom they raised to the position
-of prince. Masters of the mountain town of Sepphoris, they ventured
-upon extensive incursions into the surrounding country, with a view to
-revenging themselves on their enemies for the outrages to which they
-had so long been subjected. Similar revolts must also have occurred
-at this time in the two most important towns of Judæa, Tiberias and
-Lydda, as well as at various other places. Thus the revolt acquired not
-inconsiderable dimensions, and for this reason Constantius was obliged
-to reinforce his colleague Gallus with fresh legions. With the aid of
-these troops the latter completely suppressed the rebellion, but showed
-so little mercy to the vanquished that not even the children were
-spared. Many thousands of Jews fell as the victims of an insurrection
-in which prudence had been overcome by despair. Sepphoris was razed to
-the ground, and Tiberias, Lydda, and the other cities which had joined
-the rebellion were partially destroyed (352).
-
-As had always been the case after similar rebellions, those who had
-taken part in the revolt were hunted down, so that none of them might
-escape punishment; the inhabitants of Sepphoris, being the originators
-of the rising, were most rigorously sought out by Ursicinus. In order
-to escape this persecution they made themselves unrecognizable by
-masking their faces, and by this means escaped detection for a while.
-At last, however, traitors came forward and informed the authorities
-of the deceit practised by the Sepphorians, and the latter were
-accordingly seized and executed on the spot. Many of the refugees had
-meanwhile hidden themselves in the subterranean passages of Tiberias,
-where they were safe from the Romans. Huna relates: "When we took
-refuge in the subterranean passages, we had torches with us; if they
-showed but a feeble light, we knew that it was day, while when they
-burned more brightly we perceived that night was at hand." According to
-this, the refugees must have passed some time in these caverns.
-
-Meanwhile Constantius appears to have re-enacted Hadrian's edict
-against the Jews, for the discharge of religious duties was prohibited,
-and even the computation of the calendar and trade in articles of
-religious use were forbidden. When it was desired to inform Raba,
-who was at this period the principal of the schools in Machuza, of
-the intended intercalation of a month, and of the restraint laid on
-the exercise of religion, it was necessary to adopt a mysterious and
-enigmatical style, and to make use of obscure allusions. The news was
-communicated in the following terms: "Men came from Reket (Tiberias),
-and the eagle (the Romans) caught them; for they held in their hand
-that which is fabricated at Luz (a blue-purple color for fringes). But
-by God's mercy and their own merits, they have nevertheless escaped
-in safety. The successors of Nachshon (Patriarch) desired to appoint
-a supporter of the months (intercalated month), but the Arameans
-(Romans) would not allow it; notwithstanding this, they assembled
-and intercalated the month of the death of Aaron (Ab)." This secret
-epistle to Babylonia betrays the distress which existed in Judæa at
-this period. The dispersed and weakened Synhedrion must have been
-prevented from inserting the usual supplementary month in the spring
-(Adar), and must have been compelled to transpose it to some unusual
-season which had not been sanctioned by the Law. On one occasion, about
-this period, the Jews were forbidden to observe the Day of Atonement,
-and were accordingly compelled to postpone it till the Sabbath. This
-condition of distress in which Judæa was plunged was not at all altered
-when the barbarous Gallus was put to death at Constantius' command,
-and Ursicinus fell into disfavor (354). The adherents of Judaism were
-regarded at the imperial court of Constantinople as simple atheists,
-by reason of their refusal to recognize Jesus. This view gave rise
-to the law (357) that all Christians who joined the "blasphemous"
-communities of the Jews should incur the punishment of the forfeiture
-of their possessions. The creatures of Constantius, Eusebius the
-chamberlain among others, had specially aimed at the confiscation of
-property, and they burdened the Jews with illegal taxes, heavy beyond
-measure, hoping to exterminate them by impoverishment and exhaustion.
-New tables of taxes had already been drawn up, with a view to still
-further increasing their severity, on the pretext that as the Jews were
-atheists they deserved no protection. They were delivered from this
-oppression in an unexpected manner by the Emperor Julian, who differed
-as greatly from his brother Gallus, as from his cousin and co-emperor,
-Constantius.
-
-The miserable condition of Judæa was the occasion of an act of
-self-renunciation on the part of the Patriarch Hillel, which has not
-yet been thoroughly appreciated. The custom had prevailed up till now
-of keeping secret the computation of the new moon and the leap year,
-and of making known the times of the festivals to the communities in
-the neighboring lands by announcing them by messengers. During the
-persecutions under Constantius this method had proved itself to be
-impracticable and useless. Whenever the Synhedrion was prevented from
-fixing the date of the leap year, the Jewish communities in distant
-countries were left in utter doubt concerning the most important
-religious decisions. In order to put a stop to all difficulty and
-uncertainty, Hillel II introduced a final and fixed calendar; that is
-to say he placed at every one's disposal the means of establishing
-the rules which had guided the Synhedrion up till then in the
-calculation of the calendar and the fixing of the festivals. With
-his own hand the Patriarch destroyed the last bond which united the
-communities dispersed throughout the Roman and Persian empires with
-the Patriarchate. He was more concerned for the certainty of the
-continuance of Judaism than for the dignity of his own house, and
-therefore abandoned those functions for which his ancestors, Gamaliel
-II and Simon his son, had been so jealous and solicitous. The members
-of the Synhedrion favored this innovation; they only desired that the
-second day of the festivals, which had always been celebrated by the
-communities not situated in Palestine, should not now be disregarded.
-José addressed to the Alexandrian communities an epistle containing the
-following words: "Although we have made you acquainted with the order
-of the festivals, nevertheless change not the custom of your ancestors"
-(_i. e._ to observe the second day of the festivals). The same
-recommendation was also made to the Babylonians: "Adhere closely to the
-customs of your fathers." This advice was conscientiously followed, and
-the second day is observed by all the non-Palestinean communities even
-at the present time.
-
-The method of calculating the calendar introduced by Hillel is so
-simple and certain that up to the present day it has not required
-either emendation or amplification, and for this reason is acknowledged
-to be perfect by all who are competent to express an opinion on the
-subject, whether Jews or non-Jews. The system is based upon a cycle
-of nineteen years, in which seven leap years occur. Ten months in
-every year are invariable, and consist alternately of twenty-nine and
-thirty days; the two autumn months only which follow Tishri (the most
-important of all the months) are left variable, as being dependent
-on certain circumstances in astronomy and Jewish law. This and other
-computations rest, however, on rules so simple, and are so plain and
-easy, that the veriest tyro is thereby enabled to draw up a calendar
-for a hundred, or even a thousand years. It has not been ascertained
-how much of this system was invented by Hillel, and how much he owed to
-tradition, for it is indisputable that certain astronomical rules were
-regarded as traditional in the patriarchal house; in any case, Hillel
-appears to have made use of Samuel's calendar. This calendar and the
-year of its introduction are now known. It was published in the 670th
-year of the Seleucidean era, the 359th of the common reckoning.
-
-The oppression which thus fell upon the inhabitants of Palestine,
-and which gave rise to Hillel's calendar, augmented the importance
-and influence of Babylonia, and although Christianity could boast of
-having broken up the academies and destroyed, so to speak, the Temple
-of the Law in Judæa, the destruction was nevertheless merely local. In
-Babylonia the study of the Law acquired so vigorous an impetus that
-the achievements of ancient times were almost eclipsed; the study of
-the Law was now celebrating the period of its maturity. Two methods
-of instruction in the traditions especially had developed, namely,
-that of receiving the authentic terms of the traditions and handing
-them down in exactly the same words, and that of making a fruitful
-application of the same, and of further amplifying them. Each of these
-methods was represented by one of the academies of Babylonia; Sora was
-receptive, Pumbeditha creative. Altogether Sora can be regarded only
-as a continuation of the academies of Judæa, as a sort of Babylonian
-Tiberias; and although the spirit which reigned there underwent a
-change under the influence of the Babylonian method, still the Soranian
-school never furthered the cause of study to any appreciable extent.
-It was Pumbeditha that raised learning to its highest level. The acute
-scholars of Pumbeditha, produced by Judah ben Ezekiel's Academy, held
-sway at this period over Babylonia and the dependent countries. The
-leaders and representatives of this movement formed a triumvirate,
-consisting of Rabba, and his comrades and disciples, Abayi and Raba. It
-was these three that gave the finishing touch to the work of completing
-the Talmud, or rather who raised the study of the Halacha to the rank
-of an intellectual system of dialectics.
-
-Rabba bar Nachmani (born about 270, died 330) possessed, like the
-family to which he belonged, certain original qualities. He was of a
-family from Mamal or Mamala, a city of Galilee, the inhabitants of
-which were for the most part descendants of Aaron, and members of the
-family of Eli; they asserted that they participated in the curse with
-which this house had been visited, and which prevented any of its
-members from ever attaining extreme old age. Whoever went to Mamala was
-astonished at seeing so many persons with black hair; a grey-haired man
-was a rarity.
-
-Rabba had three brothers, whose names were Kailil, Ushaya, and
-Chananya; all of them lived in the greatest poverty, which misfortune
-they also ascribed to the curse resting on the house of Eli. Ushaya,
-the younger, and Chananya, who had returned to Judæa, obtained
-a precarious living as shoemakers. By reason of the scarcity of
-customers, they were sometimes obliged to sell their work to
-prostitutes. Nevertheless, their minds remained so pure and chaste
-that they were never reproached with a single immodest glance; they
-were consequently held in high esteem, and were known as the "saints
-of the land of Israel." These two brothers applied themselves to
-the Agada, the favorite study in Judæa, while Rabba, their sober
-brother, who as a child had shown signs of great acuteness of mind,
-evinced a predilection for the Halacha, in which province his labor
-was epoch-making. He had determined to remain in Babylonia, and his
-brothers, unable to quiet their apprehensions concerning his lot, used
-all their endeavors to persuade him to come to Judæa. "It is not all
-one," ran their message to him, "whether one dies in or out of Judæa;
-for the Patriarch Jacob attached great weight to being buried in the
-Holy Land. Although thou art learned, still it is better to have a
-master than to educate thyself. And if thou thinkest that there is no
-teacher of importance to be found in the academies of Judæa, we inform
-thee that thou wouldst indeed find such a one here." In consequence
-of this pressing invitation, and contrary to the principles of Judah,
-his teacher, Rabba emigrated to Judæa. Some time after, however, he
-returned to Babylonia, probably because he was dissatisfied with the
-Judæan method of teaching. Rabba's worldly affairs are described
-as most miserable, and are frequently contrasted with Chasda's
-uninterrupted happiness.
-
-After the death of his teacher Judah in 299, the Pumbedithan College,
-which was composed of lovers of dialectics, esteemed Rabba to be the
-only person worthy of occupying the vacancy thus created in the school.
-He was therefore offered the honor of becoming Judah's successor, but
-his exceeding modesty induced him to decline the post. The vacancy
-was eventually filled by Huna ben Chiya, whose wealth was so immense
-that he furnished his audience in the lecture-room with gilded seats.
-Although the greater number of the disciples frequented Sora, the
-Pumbedithan Academy nevertheless counted 400 students. Both Rabba
-and his friend Joseph associated themselves with the local academy,
-and subordinated themselves to the principal, in order to prevent the
-school from being deprived of the reputation which it had at last
-succeeded in gaining. When it came to be known in what manner Huna ben
-Chiya had acquired his wealth, which had been amassed by the farming
-of tolls, he was given to understand that the dignity of teacher must
-not be stained by association with that hateful trade, and that he must
-give up either one or the other. Having abandoned the calling of farmer
-of tolls, he was recognized by the college, which followed Rabba's
-example, as a worthy principal of the academy. Joseph was the only
-person who refused to acquiesce in the appointment. The not altogether
-spotless reputation of its principal, however, threatened to become
-a cause of ruin to the Pumbedithan Academy; care was therefore taken
-after the death of Huna to make a better choice, in order to enlist
-the sympathy of the people and to attract a numerous audience. Two men
-appeared worthy to fill this post, Rabba bar Nachmani and Joseph ben
-Chiya, the one distinguished for Talmudical dialectics, and the other
-for Halachic erudition. The choice between the two was so difficult
-that it was determined to take counsel of Judæa, and the following
-question was accordingly asked: "Who possesses the superiority, Sinai
-(man of learning), or the remover of mountains (man of acuteness)?" In
-Tiberias, where the acute method of teaching, although not hated, was
-nevertheless held in low esteem, the decision was given in favor of the
-former. But Joseph entertained scruples against accepting this dignity.
-His nativity had once been cast by a Chaldean, who had informed him
-that he would obtain a position of great authority, but would not be
-able to retain it longer than two years and six months, after which he
-would die. In spite of the legal prohibition forbidding credence to be
-given to the wisdom of the Chaldeans, the most noted teachers of the
-Law were unable to free themselves from its influence; daily example
-was stronger than the Law. Joseph having refused the post thus offered
-to him, it was conferred upon Rabba (309), and in him the Pumbedithan
-Academy found its ideal.
-
-Rabba restored anew to the academy its extinguished fame, and
-attracted to his discourses a crowd of students, amounting at times
-to as many as 1200. He did not confine his lectures to the practical
-part of jurisprudence alone, as Judah had done, but treated of all
-the subjects contained in the Mishna; he sought to reconcile the
-various contradictions existing in the Mishna, the Boraitas, and the
-additions made by the Amoraic authorities (Memra), and generally to
-introduce clearness into the study of the Halacha. He even turned
-his attention to the remote subject of the laws of Levitical purity,
-which he succeeded in making comprehensible; but in this branch of
-study, which had vanished out of every-day life, he stood quite
-alone, a fact that he frequently lamented. He was distinguished by a
-desire to enter deeply into the motives not only of the Pentateuch,
-but also of the Sopheric and Mishnaic laws, and to draw conclusions
-from them. The formulæ which he employed as an introduction to these
-investigations ran as follows: "Wherefore has the Law commanded this?"
-or "Why are such-and-such things prohibited by the teachers of the
-Law?" His luminous conception and treatment of his subject invested
-it with life, while the variety which he succeeded in imparting to
-a dry theme by means of the occasional introduction of an Agadic
-sentence made it both interesting and captivating. At times he would
-entertain the students with interesting anecdotes before beginning
-his discourse, and as soon as he thought that he had put them in a
-cheerful temper, he would begin to treat of more serious and weighty
-subjects. His guiding principle was that the soul must be prepared
-for the reception of serious thoughts, and that this receptivity was
-best awakened by cheerfulness. Rabba often put catch questions to his
-pupils, or expressed paradoxical opinions, in order to test their
-judgment or sharpen their intellect. Rabba holds the same important
-position among the Amoraim, as Akiba among the Tanaites. He collected
-scattered and fragmentary subjects under general heads. For this reason
-the reverence in which he was held by the teachers of the Law equaled
-that which was entertained for the founder of Babylonian Jewish life.
-But in proportion as he was beloved by this circle, he was obnoxious
-to the populace of Pumbeditha. His fellow-countrymen could not forgive
-this severe censor for the sharp, reproachful words with which, in
-his honesty and stern morality, he strove to combat their deceits
-and artifices. Once, on the occasion of a drought, when Rabba had
-proclaimed a public fast, and had ordered prayers to be offered up,
-without succeeding in obtaining rain, he exclaimed reproachfully to the
-populace: "It is not because we leaders of the people are worse than in
-the time of my master Judah, that Heaven refuses to gratify our wishes;
-nor is it because we are less diligent in the study of the Law. But
-what can be done by the representatives of the people when the entire
-race is degenerate?"
-
-On account of their needy circumstances Rabba and another Amora,
-Ada, appear to have become the colleagues (Chacham) of Mar-Ukban, a
-grandchild of Rab, and at that time Prince of the Captivity, at whose
-expense they were probably supported. While the principals of the
-Soranian Academy were wealthy, often supporting the entire expenses of
-the schools, and maintaining a large number of disciples from their
-own purse, those of Pumbeditha generally possessed but small means.
-This circumstance necessitated the establishment of an academical fund
-at Pumbeditha, to which the communities and the Prince of the Captivity
-probably contributed.
-
-In Rabba's time the Babylonian Jews were the victims of a transitory
-persecution, which, although insignificant when compared with those
-which had occurred in the Roman empire, was nevertheless calculated
-to arouse the sufferers from their feeling of profound safety. It was
-during the long reign (310-380) of Shabur II, the new king of the
-Sassanian dynasty, who had been acknowledged as ruler while yet unborn,
-that the friendly relation in which the Jews had stood to the Persian
-court became disturbed, and it is possible that they would have been as
-cruelly persecuted as the Christians, had it not been that Ifra-Ormuzd,
-the king's mother, was prepossessed in favor of Judaism and the Jews.
-The account briefly narrates that a body of troops marched into
-Pumbeditha, whereupon Rabba and Joseph took to flight. A serious charge
-had been brought against Rabba, the king or his councillors having been
-secretly informed that, by means of Rabba's discourses during the Kalla
-months, his 1200 students had been induced to evade the payment of the
-poll-tax. A royal bailiff was sent out with orders to seize the person
-of the principal of the Pumbedithan Academy. Being warned in advance,
-Rabba fled, and in order to escape detection he wandered about in the
-surrounding country. His death was caused by fright at the rustling
-of the wind in the trees, which the fugitive mistook for the tramp of
-advancing soldiery. Abayi and Raba, his most distinguished disciples,
-together with the rest of the members of the academy, went in search
-of his corpse, which they eventually found covered over and hidden by
-birds. They mourned during seven days for this highly esteemed Amora
-(330). The charge, which was the occasion of Rabba's death, does not
-seem to have been further prosecuted. The queen-mother, Ifra, even sent
-a purse of denars to his successor, leaving it to him to make the best
-and most pious use of it, whereupon he employed it in ransoming Jewish
-prisoners.
-
-Rabba's successor and friend, Joseph ben Chiya (born about 270, died
-about 333), was sickly and sensitive, and possessed a passionate
-disposition. He was aware of his failings and complained that they
-prevented him from enjoying life. He seems to have been very wealthy,
-and to have possessed fields, palm-trees and vineyards, from which
-latter--as he cultivated them more carefully than was generally the
-case--he obtained better wine than was commonly produced. Upon being
-afflicted with blindness, he grieved less for the loss of his sight
-than on account of his being thereby relieved from performing various
-religious duties.
-
-Joseph was exceptional among the principals of the Pumbedithan Academy,
-inasmuch as he attached more weight to the acquisition of a knowledge
-of the Mishna and the Boraïtas by committing them to memory, than to
-the drawing of ingenious conclusions. For this reason he was known by
-the title of "Sinai" and "Possessor of Storehouses." Besides studying
-the Halacha, he turned his attention to the Targum or Chaldaic
-translation of the Holy Scriptures. The Torah, and probably also
-isolated portions of the Prophets, which were used for public reading
-(Haftara), had long ago been translated into the Aramaic dialects--both
-the Syriac and the Chaldaic. There existed various Chaldaic
-translations of the Torah for the use of those who were ignorant of
-Hebrew: one of these, based probably on the favorite Greek version of
-Akylas, bore the name of _Targum Onkelos_; the Syrian translation,
-employed by such of the Jews of Syria and Mesopotamia as spoke Syriac,
-was called _Peshito_ (the simple). The greater portion of the Prophets,
-however, had not been translated, and it was Joseph who first took in
-hand a Chaldaic translation thereof. Some persons believed that this
-was a work of piety, as Joseph was prevented by his blindness from
-reading, and was unwilling to recite the Hebrew text by heart, on
-account of the prohibition against oral quotation of the written Law.
-He therefore set about translating the Prophets on his own account, in
-order to be able to quote any desired passage in Chaldaic. Joseph's
-translation was incorporated in the Targum, and was accepted as a
-decisive authority on questions relating to the explanation of doubtful
-words.
-
-He was exceedingly severe in maintaining discipline in his capacity
-of principal of the Academy; he flogged one of the students--Nathan
-bar Assa--for journeying on foot from the Academy to Pumbeditha on
-the second day of one of the festivals. The few years during which
-he retained his office were in many ways embittered. He was stricken
-by a severe illness, through which he lost his memory, and it was
-consequently often necessary for his pupils to remind him that he
-himself had formerly taught them the very facts which he was then
-disputing. Although they endeavored to spare his feelings when drawing
-his attention to his absurd mistakes, nevertheless, in his irritation,
-he regarded these corrections as a slight, and complainingly exclaimed:
-"Be indulgent with an old man whom misfortune has caused to forget all
-he learnt; and forget not that the fragments of the first tables of the
-Law were preserved by the side of the unbroken tables."
-
-Joseph's hard lot may be considered as typical of the decay of the
-method of teaching which depended on the power of memory. It heaps up
-the treasures of learning and tradition, guarding every atom of its
-hoard as painfully as a miser, and warns off all influences exerted
-by the employment of the intellect, as if they might obscure its
-mirror-like purity; but in an unlucky moment the store that has been
-laboriously collected suddenly vanishes; memory is extinguished, and
-there remain no means of recovering the lost treasures.
-
-The Soranian school, the home of culture, also began to decline,
-through neglecting to further the development of the Law. After
-Chasda's death, the post of principal was held for twelve years
-(309-320) by Huna's son, Rabba or Rab Abba; but the studious youths
-were more strongly attracted by the rising star of the Pumbedithan
-Academy. For this reason Rabba's modesty is the only circumstance in
-connection with which any remembrance of him is retained. After the
-death of Rabba bar Huna, the Soranian Academy was deserted, and it was
-not frequented until half a century later, when it began to regain its
-lost renown.
-
-After Joseph's death, the college was embarrassed as to whom it
-should appoint as his successor. There were four who seemed worthy to
-occupy this post, being all equally esteemed; they were Abayi, Raba,
-Zeïra II, and Rabba bar Matana. The college accordingly determined to
-vote for the one who should give the most striking answer, to which
-no objection could be offered, to a question that was raised. Abayi
-was victorious in this intellectual tournament, and was chosen as
-principal. Abayi, whose surname was Nachmani (born about 280, died
-338), was an orphan; his father Kailil had died before, his mother
-immediately after, his birth. A governess took the place of his mother,
-while Rabba, the sagacious Amora of Pumbeditha, filled that of his
-father. In after-life, Abayi spoke with gratitude and emotion of his
-foster-mother, and gave her name to several healing medicaments. To
-his uncle Rabba, Abayi owed his knowledge of the Law and his skill in
-Talmudical dialectics. Like Raba, his contemporary Amora, he aroused
-great expectations during his early youth, and it used to be said of
-them, "The bud shows what the melon will be." Abayi appears to have
-possessed but a moderate fortune. Like the majority of the Babylonian
-teachers of the Law, however, he had a small field of his own, which
-he cultivated by the agency of a freeman. His character was mild and
-yielding, and he retained these qualities in his intercourse with
-the various classes of society. His maxim was: that man should be
-sagacious in the fear of God, gentle and conciliatory in his speech,
-and at peace with his brethren, with his relations, in fact, with all
-the world, even with the heathen abroad, so that he might be beloved
-and esteemed, and possess influence over his fellow-men. At this time
-opinions, words, and deeds, were still one and the same. Abayi's
-integrity was even acknowledged by such of the Samaritans as dwelt in
-Babylonia. Having once lost an ass which was found by some Samaritans,
-it was brought back by them to its owner, though he was not able to
-mention any special mark by which it could be recognized. "If thou wert
-not Nachmani," said they to him, "we should not have restored the ass
-even if it had borne some particular mark." Under Abayi's direction of
-the Pumbedithan Academy (333-338) the number of students diminished
-to about two hundred, and therefore in remembrance of the crowd of
-scholars who had flocked thither during the time of his predecessors,
-Rab and Huna, he called himself an "orphan of orphans." It was not
-that less interest and pleasure than formerly were now felt in study,
-but that Abayi possessed a rival in Raba, who had founded a school
-of his own in Machuza on the Tigris, whither he had attracted many
-students. Both of these teachers brought the Pumbedithan method to its
-greatest perfection. Rivaling one another in talent and ingenuity, they
-discovered answers to questions which Rabba and Joseph had been unable
-to solve.
-
-The traditions which had been handed down no longer afforded material
-for discussion, every point which they presented having already been
-thoroughly elucidated; new themes were therefore propounded and solved
-by the help of recognized formulæ. These subtle Talmudical dialectics
-received the names of their most proficient adepts, and were known as
-the "Havayot (reflections) d'Abayi ve Raba."
-
-Before his death, Abayi heard of the cruel persecutions to which his
-coreligionists in Judæa were subjected under Constantius. The fugitives
-who conveyed this sad news to Babylonia, also brought with them new
-Halachas, from the circle of which Jochanan was the head, and thus
-inspired the learned students of Babylonia with new vigor.
-
-Abayi died in the prime of life (338). After his death, the office of
-principal was conferred upon Raba bar Joseph bar Chama of Machuza (born
-299, died 352), without any discussion, as if this was expected as a
-matter of course. Raba was wealthy, talented and acute, but possessed
-his weak points, which caused him to be considered inferior to his
-fellow Amoraim, although he surpassed them in acuteness of intellect.
-He was well acquainted with his own character, and described himself
-in the following words: "I have always cherished three wishes, of
-which, while two have been fulfilled, the gratification of the third
-has not been vouchsafed to me. I desired Huna's learning and Chasda's
-wealth, and obtained both; but Rabba bar Huna's unassuming modesty
-was not allotted to me." Although he was superior to the majority of
-his fellow-countrymen, his character was tainted, nevertheless, with
-certain peculiarities of the Machuzans; he was luxurious, proud and
-overbearing, and although his fellow-countrymen did not enjoy the
-best of reputations in Babylonia, he flattered them to excess. He was
-exceedingly desirous of winning and retaining their favor. "When I
-became judge," he relates, "I was afraid that I should no longer retain
-the attachment of the Machuzans, but as they recognize my impartiality
-in giving judgment, all must either hate or all love me." Abayi seems
-to have reproved this tendency of Raba to sacrifice moral dignity for
-the acquisition of popular favor. "When a teacher of the Law," said
-he, "is too greatly beloved by his fellow-citizens, it is not because
-of his great merit, but on account of his indulgence, which causes him
-to refrain from calling attention to their vices, and from earnestly
-reprimanding them."
-
-It has already been mentioned that the inhabitants of Machuza were
-descended for the most part from proselytes, for which reason the
-aristocratic Babylonian Jews forbore to contract marriages with them.
-As the Machuzans thus seemed to be at a loss how to obtain wives,
-Zeïra II declared in a public discourse that it was allowable for them
-to marry persons who had been born out of wedlock. This permission,
-however, implying as it did a sort of degradation of the Machuzans,
-was so offensive to their pride, that they almost stoned him to death
-with the fruits with which the booths were decorated (the incident
-occurring during the celebration of the feast of Tabernacles), just as
-King Alexander Jannæus had once been attacked in the outer court of
-the temple. Raba could hardly find words severe enough with which to
-blame Zeïra's candor: "Who would give utterance to so inconsiderate a
-decision in a community containing so many descendants of proselytes!"
-In order to enlist the favor of the populace still more strongly on
-his side, he demonstrated, in opposition to Zeïra's theory, that
-proselytes might marry even the daughters of priests, and he succeeded
-by this flattery in charming the Machuzans so greatly that they
-overwhelmed him with presents of silken stuffs. In after-times Raba
-attempted to restrict the equality which he had accorded somewhat too
-freely to the proselytes, probably on account of its having caused
-displeasure in various circles; at the same time he remarked that
-proselytes might ally themselves with bastard families. This decision
-having caused dissatisfaction, Raba appeased his fellow-countrymen with
-the following words: "I only meant well towards you, and leave you free
-to act either way."
-
-Another of Raba's failings was that, although exceedingly wealthy, he
-was not entirely free from covetousness, which he allowed to become
-apparent on several occasions. A proselyte of Machuza, Issor by name,
-had deposited with Raba a sum of 12,000 sus (denars), in order to
-bequeath it to his son, who was being brought up as a student of the
-Law. Issor having fallen ill, Raba resolved to keep possession of this
-money as property to which there was no heir, a proselyte being unable
-to leave his fortune to a son born before his adoption of Judaism, as
-the Talmudical law does not recognize such offspring as a son. At all
-events, the principal of the schools--familiar as he was with all the
-intricacies of the Law--was determined to nullify Issor's disposal
-of his fortune in favor of his son. Meanwhile, another person who
-was equally well acquainted with the Law, suggested to the anxious
-father that, although he was prevented from making over the money in
-question to his son by will, he was, nevertheless, at liberty to do so
-by declaring before witnesses that the money belonged to the latter.
-Raba was greatly incensed at the man who offered this counsel, and
-complained as bitterly of this secret advice as if he had thereby been
-deprived of a lawfully acquired fortune. Raba's conduct also violated
-an accepted Halacha which treats of a similar case. According to this
-law, although a man is not obliged to hand over to such of the sons as
-may have become proselytes, the property committed to his keeping by
-a heathen, of which the latter had not otherwise disposed, an offense
-is, nevertheless, committed against the higher laws of morality by
-withholding it from them.
-
-Another example of Raba's selfish conduct is afforded by the fact
-that he exacted a higher rent from the tenants of his fields than
-was customary in Babylonia. At times his behavior towards persons of
-slender means was marked by a harshness which was in glaring opposition
-to the doctrines of charity and pity, inculcated equally by the
-Halachas and the Scriptures.
-
-The conduct of his brother Saurim was even more heartless; he posed
-as a moral censor, and whenever any of the poorer members of the
-community appeared to him not to be religious enough he made slaves
-of them, and compelled them to carry him about in his gilded litter.
-Even to this conduct Raba offered no objection, but sanctioned his
-brother's arbitrary proceedings by referring to a long-forgotten law,
-which countenanced the treatment of the Jews as slaves, in case they no
-longer lived in accordance with the Law.
-
-During this period the simple manners and the honesty which had
-obtained among the Jews of Babylonia in former times, fell to a low ebb
-with many of them, and made room for luxury, vanity, and thirst for
-power. Many a teacher of the Law was clad in gorgeous garments and was
-carried about in a gilded litter. They no longer felt themselves one
-with the people from whom they had risen, but constituted a particular
-caste, a patrician class, who mutually protected and maintained one
-another's interests, looking down with pride and contempt on the
-lower orders of the populace. Raba himself admitted that whenever he
-was called upon to decide a point of law in which a person of the same
-class of society as himself was concerned, he was unable to sleep
-until he succeeded in interpreting the law in his favor. If a member
-of the school brought his produce to market, he was invested with the
-privilege of being allowed to sell before any one else, in order that
-he might obtain higher prices. The cause of a member was always heard
-first in the court. The teachers of the Law of such communities as paid
-their taxes in a lump sum, were exempt from all imposts. Raba allowed
-the associates, in places where they were not known, to declare their
-rank, in order that they might enjoy the advantages attaching thereto.
-What a contrast to former times, when the Tanaites hesitated, at the
-risk of their lives even, to derive any benefit from their knowledge of
-the Law! Raba went to extreme lengths in according privileges to the
-doctors of the Law. He permitted the associates to pass themselves off
-as worshipers of fire in order to escape payment of the _charag_.
-
-The course of conduct thus pursued by the learned classes gradually
-awoke a dislike of them among the people. The lower classes spoke of
-them contemptuously as "those scholars." The mockery expressed by
-this epithet must have been so bitter that on their side the teachers
-of the Law branded as heretics (Epicureans) all who made use of the
-expression. Scholarship thus no longer obtained recognition. "What do
-we profit by the scholars?" the people asked themselves; "all their
-knowledge is employed for their own benefit." At the head of this
-opposition to the Rabbis stood the family of the physician, Benjamin
-of Machuza, which seems to have been possessed of great importance, as
-Raba paid great attention to its members. "What advantage do we really
-derive from the teachers of the Law?" said they jeeringly; "they can
-neither allow us to eat ravens, nor forbid us to eat pigeons?"--meaning
-that in spite of all their dialectics they were unable to proceed
-beyond the circle of established customs. Although Raba declared this
-utterance of Benjamin Assia to be heretical, it does not appear that
-he excommunicated him, but rather that he treated him with great
-consideration; it is probable that the latter belonged to the retinue
-of the Prince of the Captivity.
-
-Meanwhile the zeal for the study of the Law had greatly increased.
-Disciples crowded in even greater numbers than formerly to Raba's
-academy in Machuza, neglecting in their ardor their business pursuits.
-Raba was obliged to warn them against this excess: "I pray you do not
-come to my school in the spring and autumn months, lest you should
-neglect the time of the harvest and of the preparation of wine and
-oil, and so be troubled throughout the year by the cares of life."
-Raba's discourses were even more popular than Abayi's by reason of the
-clearness of his explanations, the exactitude of his distinctions,
-and the boldness of his treatment of the subject-matter of tradition.
-Raba showed a decided preference for analyzing the Mishna to the bare
-study of its dry subject-matter. The former method offered a wide field
-for the employment of dialectical powers, while the Mishna, taken in
-its simplest sense, became a mere matter of memory. On this account
-Raba placed the Amoraïm above the Tanaites; the former explained,
-or explained better, such points as were doubtful to the latter. He
-was accustomed to say that a grain of pepper (acuteness) was better
-than a basketful of melons. In contrast to Zeïra I, who was adverse
-to that method of teaching which encouraged ingenious reasoning, and
-valued highly the simplicity of the Mishna, Raba declared that "whoso
-breaketh stones injureth himself thereby (Eccles. x. 9); thus are they
-characterized who know merely the Mishna; but he who splitteth wood
-warmeth himself; such are they who are acquainted with the Talmud."
-The true Talmud, the attractive collection of nice questions, answers,
-comparisons and distinctions, the lofty flight of thought, which,
-starting from a point, passes with the quickness of lightning over
-the intermediate steps of a chain of reasoning, the dialectic form
-of the Talmud is the product of this period. The triumvirate, Rabba,
-Abayi, and Raba, were Talmudists in the real meaning of the word, _i.
-e._, dialecticians. In this sense the Talmud was the creation of the
-Pumbedithan and Machuzan schools. In Judæa there was scarcely a notion
-of it. By reason of his extensive acquirements, his profound intellect,
-and perhaps also on account of his wealth, Raba remained the sole
-authority during his continuance at the head of the academy. Questions
-were referred to him even from Judæa, when the frequent persecutions
-under Constantius and Gallus involved the Holy Land in the deepest
-misery.
-
-This period was by no means the happiest for the Jewish subjects of
-the Persian crown; they were not spared during the obstinate struggle
-between Rome and Persia. A Persian army was stationed at Machuza, and
-had to be maintained by the inhabitants of the town. As the population
-was entirely Jewish, this duty was attended with many inconveniences.
-Shabur II was no friend of the Jews. In ancient times numerous Jewish
-families had been transported to Armenia, and now lived there in their
-own cities; of these, Shabur led an immense multitude (estimated at
-71,000) into captivity, and colonized them in Susiana and Ispahan.
-This latter city, which had formerly been the capital of the Persian
-empire, received the name of Jehudia, from the many Jews who settled
-there after the captivity. Shabur appears to have oppressed the Jews
-of Babylonia in no less degree, for Raba was obliged to expend
-considerable sums of money in preventing persecution. His friends
-extolled his good luck in being, to a certain extent, exempted from
-the misfortunes to which the Jewish people had been predestined,
-seeing that up till then he had been subjected to no extortions. To
-these congratulations Raba replied as follows: "You know not how much
-I am obliged to do in secret for Shabur's court!" On one occasion it
-was with great difficulty that he managed to escape a personal danger
-which threatened him in his capacity of principal of the schools. He
-had ordered a Jew to be flogged for having held carnal intercourse
-with a Persian woman, and the chastisement had caused the death of the
-culprit. The case happening to come to Shabur's knowledge, he commanded
-a heavy punishment to be inflicted on Raba for having exercised the
-criminal jurisdiction. The latter appears to have escaped the penalty
-by flight, but his house was pillaged. All further consequences of this
-occurrence were averted by Ifra, the queen-mother, who is reported to
-have said to her son: "Do not meddle in any way with the Jews, for God
-grants them whatever they pray for." In striking contrast with her
-son, Ifra-Ormuzd entertained a special liking for the Jews, and in
-particular for the teachers of the Law, to whom at times she vouchsafed
-a glance into the most secret recesses of her heart. In the same way
-as she had formerly sent a purse of gold to Joseph, she now forwarded
-400 golden denars to Raba. Rami, a contemporary, was of opinion that
-this present ought to be refused, as it was not lawful to receive alms
-of the heathens. Notwithstanding this, Raba accepted the money, but
-distributed it amongst the heathen poor. The queen-mother Ifra also
-sent an animal for sacrifice to the principal of the school in Machuza,
-which she requested might be offered up according to the Jewish rites,
-in order to prove her adoration of the only God. Raba did not live to
-see either the introduction of the calendar by Hillel, or the short
-period during which prosperity smiled upon the Jews. He died after
-holding his office for fourteen years.
-
-After Raba's death the importance of Machuza began to decline, and
-Pumbeditha, which had unwillingly surrendered the palm to Raba, now
-occupied its former position. It is remarkable that from this time
-forward mediocrity began to reign, as if intellectual activity needed
-recreation after so many exertions. Not one of Raba's successors was
-sufficiently able to compensate for his loss. The principals of the
-Babylonian schools, Nachman ben Isaac, Papa, and Chama of Nahardea,
-were possessed of no conspicuous importance; the Pumbedithan spirit of
-severe analysis and ingenious dialectics was indeed cultivated, but in
-nowise advanced.
-
-Nachman ben Isaac (born about 280, died 356) was chosen as the leader
-of the Pumbedithan Metibta, but merely on account of his advanced age,
-his extraordinary piety, and perhaps also of his independence. His
-tenure of office only extended over four years, and was not rendered
-memorable by any noteworthy feature. During this period a new academy
-was founded at Nares, in proximity to Sora, situated on the canal of
-the same name.
-
-The founder of this new academy, of which he became the principal, was
-Papa bar Chanan (born about 300, died 375). He had early been left an
-orphan, was wealthy, and by trade a brewer of beer from dates. His
-friend, Huna ben Joshua, equally wealthy, and his partner in business,
-became a teacher at this academy. But the two together were not able to
-fill the void which Raba's death had occasioned. It is true that the
-members of the Machuzan academy gathered around them; but opportunities
-soon arose of effecting comparisons, the results of which were
-anything but favorable to the new chiefs.
-
-The following anecdote will serve to indicate the character of the
-principal of the Nares academy. Certain of the younger teachers of the
-Law had come to Nares in order to be present at Papa's lectures. This
-latter, however, left his subject in so confused a condition, that
-they secretly began to make signs one to the other. Papa, seeing this,
-was exceedingly mortified, and said to them: "Let those present depart
-from here in peace." Another member, one Simaï bar Ashi (father of the
-Ashi who became famous later on), used to importune Papa with questions
-which quite exceeded his modest capabilities. Papa, in despair lest he
-should be put to shame before his pupils, would throw himself down in
-prayer, and beseech the merciful God to preserve him from the terrible
-feeling of confusion. Simaï, having been an unobserved witness of
-this fervent prayer, made up his mind that henceforward he would keep
-silence, and no longer involuntarily mortify Papa.
-
-In the Halacha, Papa was the representative of a school which was so
-devoid of self-dependence, that its partisans did not even hold an
-opinion of their own concerning the views of others. Whenever two or
-more conflicting opinions left the meaning of a precept of the Law in
-doubt, Papa would say: "Let us adopt both views, or act according to
-all these opinions." Papa remained at his post during nineteen years
-(355-375), and the stupor into which all minds were thrown during this
-period was only dissipated by his successor. Pumbeditha possessed a
-principal of equal insignificance in Chama of Nahardea, whose character
-a single anecdote will suffice to indicate. King Shabur asked him
-whether the practice of burying the dead was founded on the Torah, or
-whether it was simply an ancient custom. The question arose from the
-usage of the Persians, who neither buried nor burned the corpses of
-their dead. Chama, however, could bring forward no passage of Scripture
-in support of burial. Acha ben Jacob, a member of the household of the
-Prince of the Captivity, and therefore privileged to say many things,
-expressed the following opinion of this principal: "The world is
-delivered into the hands of fools; why did he not instance the verse,
-'And thou shalt bury him on the same day'?"
-
-In the course of the twenty-one years (356-377) during which Chama held
-office, a change occurred in the Roman Empire which was not without
-weighty consequences for the communities of Judæa and Babylonia. A
-nephew of the Emperor Constantius, Julian, effected a revolution which,
-however, was only temporary. Emperor Julian was one of those masterful
-characters who impress their names indelibly on the memory of man.
-It was only an early death and the hatred of the ruling Church which
-prevented him from obtaining the title of "Great." Although a member
-of Constantine's family, the fratricidal sword of the Constantines
-hung over his head, and he was compelled by fear of death to give
-hypocritical adhesion to the Christian religion, which he hated. Almost
-by a miracle he was created co-emperor by his uncle Constantius,
-who hated him from the bottom of his heart, and had already held a
-council about his death. A military revolt in his favor, and the
-unexpected death of his enemy Constantius, put Julian in possession of
-exclusive power. Known in the history of the Church as the Apostate
-(Apostata, Parabata), Julian made it the duty of his life to realize
-the ideal, which association with his teachers, Libanius and Maximus,
-had suggested to him, and which had been further ennobled by his rich
-mind. His favorite thoughts were to protect the oppressed of all
-nations and religions, to promote the well-being of all his subjects,
-more especially by alleviating the burden of taxes, to revive the
-philosophical sciences, which had been condemned by the Christian
-emperors, to restore the ancient religion, freed, however, from its
-most conspicuous blemishes, which had rendered it so contemptible
-and ridiculous; finally, to confine Christianity, which had gained
-so much power during so short a period, within its proper limits.
-Mindful, however, of the persecution to which he himself had been
-subjected, he refrained from retaliating on the Christians, in spite
-of their mania for persecution. Still, he was desirous of restraining
-their encroachments, and therefore deprived them of their influence
-in civil and scientific matters, and attempted to lower them in the
-appreciation of the learned classes by the employment of the weapons
-of the intellect and delicate satire. He called Jesus a Galilæan whom
-credulity had exalted to a god, and spoke of the Christians by the
-nickname of Galilæans. For this reason he was all the more friendly
-toward the Jews, and was the only emperor after Alexander Severus who
-evinced serious interest in Judaism. He was led by more reasons than
-one to prefer Judaism. Brought up in the Christian religion, he had
-become acquainted with Judaism through the Holy Bible, and the more
-Judaism was hated and persecuted by Christianity, the greater was the
-reverence with which he regarded it. The emperor even admitted that
-he had been greatly shocked by the cruel oppression to which the Jews
-were exposed during the reign of Constantius, when their religion was
-branded as blasphemous by victorious Christianity. Julian was greatly
-impressed by the God of Judaism, as described in Holy Writ, and
-acknowledged him as the "Great God." He refused to believe, however,
-that beside Him there existed no other gods. He especially admired the
-benevolence of the Jews, and was astonished that they cared for their
-poor with such zeal that no beggars existed among them. He was also
-desirous of deeply mortifying the Christians by the preference which
-he exhibited for the Jews, for the former were at great pains to prove
-the superiority of their religion by the abasement of the latter. He
-entertained a particular predilection for the sacrificial cult, and
-for this reason he was especially pleased with the Jewish system of
-sacrifices, with the solemn pomp of the Temple and the priests. The
-emperor reproached the Christians with having rejected the God and
-the worship of Judaism, but he particularly blamed them for having
-discarded the sacrificial service. It was true that the Jews did
-not then offer sacrifices, but this was only because they no longer
-possessed a Temple. Finally, the idea may have occurred to Julian to
-dispose the Babylonian Jews in his favor for the Persian war which now
-occupied his whole attention. He desired, if not to obtain their active
-support, at least to prevent them from offering fanatical resistance.
-
-Julian's reign, which lasted not quite two years (November, 361 to
-June, 363) was a period of extreme happiness for the Jews of the Roman
-Empire. The emperor favored them, relieving them from oppression, and
-from the disgrace which the taunt of blasphemy entailed. He called
-the Patriarch Hillel his venerable friend, and honored him with an
-autograph letter, wherein he assured him of his good-will, and promised
-to try and put an end to the wrongs of the Jews. He also addressed
-an epistle to all the Jewish communities of the empire, and made
-preparations for rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem, which had become
-a Christian city since the time of Constantine. The imperial missive,
-which stands out in glaring contrast with the course of treatment
-adopted by the first two Christian emperors, is remarkable enough to
-merit being preserved. The letter (written at Antioch in the autumn of
-362 or the winter of 363) ran as follows:
-
-    "TO THE JEWISH CONGREGATIONS.--More oppressive for you in the
-    past than the yoke of dependence was the circumstance that new
-    taxes were imposed upon you without previous notice, and you
-    were thus compelled to furnish an immense quantity of gold to
-    the imperial treasury. I learnt much by personal observation,
-    but still more by the tax-rolls which were being preserved to
-    your detriment, and which I happened to light upon. I myself
-    abolished a tax which it was intended to impose upon you, and
-    thus put a stop to the injustice of attempting to cast such a
-    slur on you; with my own hands did I commit to the flames the
-    tax-rolls against you which I came across in my archives, in
-    order that for the future no one might spread such a charge of
-    blasphemy against you. My brother Constantius, the Glorious,
-    was not so much to blame for this as those barbarians in
-    thought and godless in spirit who invented such a system of
-    taxation. With my own arm have I hurled them to deepest ruin,
-    so that not even the memory of their fall shall remain with us.
-    Being on the point of according you yet greater favor, I have
-    exhorted my brother, the venerable Patriarch Julos (Hillel),
-    to put a stop to the collection of the so-called Apostole from
-    you, and henceforward let no one further oppress your nation
-    with the collection of such imposts, so that everywhere in
-    my empire you may be free from care; and thus, in the full
-    enjoyment of peace, may you address your fervent prayers for
-    my empire to the Almighty Creator of the Universe, who has
-    supported me with His strong right hand. It seems to be the
-    fact, that those whose lives are passed in anxiety are indolent
-    of spirit, and do not dare raise their hands in supplication
-    for the prosperity of their country. But those who are exempt
-    from all care, and are glad with their whole hearts, are
-    able to direct their sincere prayers for the welfare of the
-    empire to the Most High, who can best further my rule as I
-    propose to reign. Thus should you do in order that, on the
-    happy termination of the Persian war, I may be able to visit
-    Jerusalem, the Holy City, which shall be rebuilt at my expense,
-    as you have desired to see it restored for so many years: then
-    will I unite with you in giving praise to the Almighty."
-
-It is not related what impression was produced by this gracious letter,
-which, more winning even than Cyrus' missive to the Babylonian exiles,
-came as a drop of refreshing dew after long drought. A single account,
-which is borrowed from Jewish tradition, relates that the Jews applied
-to Julian the following verse (Daniel xi. 34): "Now when they shall
-fall, they shall be holpen with a little help." Daniel is thus supposed
-to have prophesied that after the Jewish nation had suffered at the
-hands of Gallus, Julian would extend help to them by his support and
-his promise to rebuild the Temple.
-
-Meanwhile Julian did not forget to act upon his promise. Although
-abundantly occupied with the preparations for the Persian war, he had
-nevertheless at heart the restoration of the Temple of Jerusalem from
-its ruins. For this purpose he appointed a special chief overseer in
-the person of his best friend, the learned and virtuous Alypius of
-Antioch, and exhorted him to spare no expense during the rebuilding.
-The governors of Syria and Palestine received orders to aid Alypius
-with everything that was necessary. The building materials were already
-prepared, and workmen were assembled in great numbers for the purpose
-of clearing away the ruins which had lain heaped upon the site of the
-Temple ever since its destruction, nearly three hundred years before.
-The Jews do not seem to have interested themselves in the rebuilding
-of the Temple, for the Jewish authorities maintain a complete silence
-concerning this fact, and the stories of the ardor of the Jews for the
-rebuilding which are related by the later Christian reports are purely
-fictitious. The distant communities are said to have forwarded sums of
-money toward the restoration of the Temple, and it is even asserted
-that women sold their jewelry and brought stones in their laps. But
-all this was quite unnecessary, for Julian had amply provided both
-building materials and workmen. The Christians also spread the report
-that Julian only pretended to be kindly disposed towards the Jews in
-order to entice them into heathenism. Especially spiteful is the story
-that the Jews destroyed several churches in Judæa and the neighboring
-countries, and threatened to inflict as much evil on the Christians as
-they themselves had suffered at the hands of the Christian emperors.
-The report that about this period the Christians of Edessa massacred
-the entire Jewish population of that city is more credible. It may be
-assumed as a certainty that the hope of re-establishing their state,
-which had occasioned two or three revolutions, and had cost so many
-victims, was extinguished in the hearts of the Jews. The restoration
-of their former magnificence was now only expected at the appearance
-of the Messiah. Without the latter a Temple would have seemed utterly
-absurd, according to the views which were entertained at this period,
-and still less would it have been possible for a Roman emperor to be
-regarded as the Messiah. The opinion was generally accepted that "God
-had bound the Jewish nation by oath not to climb over the wall (_i.
-e._, re-establish the State by force), nor to rebel against the ruling
-nations, but to bear their yoke patiently until the coming of the
-Messiah, and not to attempt to bring about that period by violence."
-
-Meanwhile the Christians looked with envious eyes upon the commencement
-of the work (spring, 363). The indifference of the Jews seems, however,
-to have contributed more than anything else to the suspension of the
-rebuilding, on account of the various obstacles which were encountered.
-On the occasion of the pulling down of the ruins, and the excavation
-of the foundations, a fire broke out by which several workmen lost
-their lives. This subterranean conflagration doubtless occurred in the
-passages which had formerly existed beneath the Temple, and had its
-origin in the gases which had long been compressed there, and which, on
-being suddenly released from pressure, ignited on coming into contact
-with the air above. These sudden explosions occurred repeatedly, and
-disheartened the workmen, so that they gradually gave up work. If
-the Jews had interested themselves more warmly in the rebuilding,
-it is hardly probable that they would have allowed themselves to be
-discouraged by such an obstacle, which was anything but invincible;
-ardent enthusiasm shuns no sacrifice. But deprived of the warm
-participation of the Jews, Alypius also became less enthusiastic,
-and waited for further commands from the emperor. Julian, however,
-is said to have accused the Christians of having caused the fires to
-break out in the underground passages, and to have threatened to build
-a prison for Christians out of the ruins of the Temple on his return
-from the war. But this story, which, like most of those relating to
-this event, is drawn from Christian sources, is utterly untrustworthy.
-The Christian authorities of the following generation relate the most
-wonderful tales of the miracles which are said to have happened during
-this impious rebuilding, the purpose of all of which was to warn the
-obdurate Jews and to glorify Christ.
-
-The issue of the Persian war--unhappy as it was for Julian--was also
-calculated to deprive the Jews of their short-lived exultation, and to
-prepare a new triumph for the Christians. Julian had concentrated the
-whole of the Roman forces, and had availed himself of every possible
-expedient in order not to be inferior in strength to his opponent,
-Shabur II. Shabur on his side had set himself the task of freeing Asia
-from the Roman rule. Julian, however, was dreaming the golden dream
-which had lured many a Roman general, from Crassus and Cæsar downwards,
-to the region of the Euphrates. His ambition was to plant the Roman
-eagle on the further side of the Tigris.
-
-Once again Europe and Asia stood face to face. The scene of the war
-was laid, for the most part, in the province of Jewish Babylonia. It
-is impossible to determine which side was espoused by the Jews. The
-town of Firuz-Shabur, which contained many Jewish inhabitants, was
-obstinately besieged for three days, compelled to capitulate, and
-finally burnt. The inhabitants escaped in small boats by the canals of
-the Euphrates. The conduct of the Jewish inhabitants of Firuz-Shabur
-towards Julian therefore remains uncertain. But the town of Bitra
-(more correctly Birtha), which was inhabited entirely by Jews, and
-was surrounded by a low wall, displayed a spirit of hostility; it was
-completely abandoned by its population, and the soldiers, giving vent
-to their martial passion, burnt it to the ground. The town of Machuza
-(Maoga-Malka), which was to a certain extent a suburb of Ctesiphon, was
-held by a Persian garrison; it was most hotly besieged, and offered
-so determined a resistance that the entire military force of the
-Romans hardly sufficed to effect its fall. Machuza, the seat of Raba's
-academy, whose proud Jewish inhabitants rivaled those of the capital
-in magnificence, fell ten years after Raba's death (363) under the
-blows of the Roman catapults, and became a heap of ruins. After the
-war it was again rebuilt. In spite of the progress which Julian made
-into the enemy's country, he did not succeed in reaching Ctesiphon. He
-lost not only the fruits of his victories, but even his life, through
-his rashness. He was struck down by an arrow, said to have been shot
-by a Christian belonging to his own army. Calmly, and as becomes a
-philosopher, Julian breathed his last. It is related that a few minutes
-before his death he exclaimed: "Thou hast conquered, O Galilæan!"
-
-The death of Julian in the neighborhood of the Tigris (June, 363)
-deprived the Jews of the last ray of hope for a peaceful and unmolested
-existence. His favor was, however, so far attended with good effect,
-that the edicts promulgated against the Jews by Constantine and
-Constantius were not immediately renewed; Julian's ordinances remained
-in force in so far as they did not affect the privileges of the
-Jews. Jovianus, Julian's successor (June, 363 to February, 364),
-was compelled to conclude an ignominious peace with the victorious
-Shabur; he lived too short a time to be able to effect any changes.
-He permitted his subjects to freely declare their adherence to any
-religion they chose, without thereby incurring any disadvantage. Once
-again the Roman empire was divided between two rulers, Valentinian I
-(364-375), and Valens (364-378). The latter, who was Emperor of the
-East, was an Arian, and had suffered too severely from the powerful
-Catholic party to be intolerant himself. He protected the Jews and
-bestowed honors and distinctions upon them. His brother, Valentinian I,
-the Emperor of the West, likewise chose the policy of tolerance in the
-struggle between Catholics and Arians, and permitted the profession of
-either religion without political disadvantages being thereby incurred
-(371). This toleration was also extended the Jews.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XXII.
-
-THE LAST AMORAÏM.
-
-    Decline of the Roman Empire--Ashi and the Redaction of
-    the Talmud--Jezdijird II--The Jews under the Emperors
-    Theodosius I and his successors--The extinction of the
-    Patriarchate--Chrysostom and Ambrosius--Fanaticism of the
-    Clergy--Jerome and his Jewish Teachers--Mar-Zutra--Fifth and
-    Sixth Generations of Amoraïm--The Jews under Firuz--Jewish
-    Colonies in India--Completion of the Babylonian Talmud--Its
-    Spirit and Contents.
-
-    375.500 C. E.
-
-
-The period during which the Roman empire was approaching a state
-of complete dissolution marks an epoch of decay and regeneration,
-destruction and rejuvenescence, ruin and reconstruction, in the history
-of the world. The storm, which burst in the north, under the wall of
-China, brought down a black thunder-cloud in its train, and shattered
-the giant tree of the Roman empire, which, sapless and leafless, had
-only continued to exist thus far by the force of gravity; nothing now
-remained but a wreck of splinters, the toy of every capricious wind.
-The uncouth Huns, the scourge of God, drove before them horde upon
-horde, tribe upon tribe, whose names the memory refuses to retain
-or the tongue to utter. The period of the migration of the nations
-confirms almost literally the words of the prophet: "The earth staggers
-like a drunken man, and her sins lie heavy upon her; she falls and
-cannot rise, and the Lord Zebaoth punishes the bands of heaven in
-heaven, and the kings of earth upon earth." Small wonder indeed that in
-the Goths, the first wave of the migration of tribes which inundated
-and devastated the Roman empire, the Jews did not fail to discover Gog
-from the land of Magog, of whom a prophet had said: "Thou shalt ascend
-and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land,
-thou and all thy bands, and many people with thee" (Ezekiel xxxviii. 9).
-
-In this remarkable alternation of disappearance of nations and their
-formation, the conviction forced itself upon Jewish thinkers that
-the Jewish people was eternal: "A nation arises, another vanishes,
-but Israel alone remains forever." The barbaric tribes, the avengers
-of the long-enslaved nations, settled on the ruined sites of the
-Roman empire, wild plants only to be cultivated by the master-hand of
-history, uncouth savages, to be civilized by earnest teaching. In this
-iron time, when no man could be certain of the next day, the leaders
-of Judaism in Palestine and Babylonia felt deeply the necessity of
-placing the treasure which had been confided to their hands in safety,
-so that it might not be imperiled by the accidents of the day. An epoch
-of collection commenced, during which the harvest which had been sown,
-cultivated, and reaped by their forefathers was brought under shelter.
-The subject-matter of tradition, which had been so greatly augmented,
-enriched and purified by a long series of generations and the diversity
-of schools, was henceforward to be set in order. This tendency of
-compilation and arrangement was represented by Ashi.
-
-Rabbana Ashi (born 352, died 427) was the son of Simaï, and the
-descendant of an ancient family. He so early gave evidence of
-complete maturity of mind, that while still a youth he restored the
-long-desolate Soranian academy to its former place of honor. He was
-certainly not more than twenty when he became principal of that school.
-Coming of a wealthy family, Ashi possessed many forests, the wood of
-which he had no compunction in selling to feed the holy fire for the
-worship of the Magi. It is remarkable that nothing is known of the
-history of his youth and education; there is even no indication of
-the reason which induced him to infuse new life into the half-decayed
-Soranian academy; probably Sora was his native town. He pulled down and
-rebuilt the school which had been erected several centuries previously
-by Rab, and which was already beginning to exhibit signs of decay; and
-in order that no delay should occur in the rebuilding, he brought his
-bed on the site, and remained there night and day until the gutters of
-the house had been put up. The Sora school was built on an elevation
-so that it might overlook the whole city. Ashi's splendid qualities
-so impressed his contemporaries that he was regarded as the supreme
-authority, a position to which no person had been able to attain since
-Raba's death. Ashi united thorough knowledge of the entire body of
-the Law, characteristic of Sora, with Pumbedithan dialectics, and
-thus satisfied all claims. His contemporaries conferred upon him the
-distinguishing title of Rabbana (our teacher). During the fifty-two
-years over which his public labors extended, seven principals succeeded
-each other in Pumbeditha. Nahardea, which had made no figure since its
-destruction by Ben-Nazar (Odenath), also began to come into some repute
-again on account of the academy opened there by Amemar (390-420). But
-none of these teachers really disputed the supremacy with Ashi, and
-Sora again occupied the honorable position into which it had been
-placed by Rab. The oldest Amoraim, Amemar and Mar-Zutra, voluntarily
-subordinated themselves to Ashi's authority, and resigned to him the
-task of restoring unity. The most distinguished among them, even the
-two successive Princes of the Captivity of this period (Mar-Kahana and
-Mar-Zutra I), submitted to his orders. It was in Sora that the Princes
-of the Captivity now received the homage of the delegates of all the
-Babylonian communities; this ceremony had formerly taken place, first
-at Nahardea, and then, during the prime of its academy, at Pumbeditha.
-This homage was paid every year on a Sabbath, at the commencement of
-the month of Marcheshvan (in the autumn), and this Sabbath was known
-as the "Rigle" of the Prince of the Captivity. The extraordinary
-assemblies of the people, which met at the command of the Prince of the
-Captivity, were henceforward also held in Sora, and for this reason
-the Patriarchs were obliged to repair to that town, even though they
-had fixed their residence in some other place. Ashi had thus made Sora
-the center of Jewish life in Babylonia, and had connected it with
-everything of public or general interest. The splendor with which its
-numerous assemblies invested it, was so great that Ashi expressed
-surprise that the heathen Persians could be witnesses of it all, and
-not feel themselves moved to embrace Judaism.
-
-In consequence of this concentration of power in his own person,
-Ashi was enabled to undertake a work, the consequences of which were
-incalculable, both as regards the fate and the development of the
-Jewish people. He began the gigantic task of collecting and arranging
-the explanations, deductions, and amplifications of the Mishna, which
-were included under the name "Talmud." The immediate motive which
-suggested this undertaking was undoubtedly the consideration that
-the immense accumulation of matter, the result of the labor of three
-generations, ought not to be allowed to vanish from memory through
-lack of interest. This would certainly be the case if some means were
-not provided of impressing it easily upon the mind. Ashi even then
-complained of the diminution of the power of memory in his time as
-compared with times gone by, without, however, taking into account that
-by reason of the accumulation of matter the memory was infinitely more
-charged than formerly. His successful treatment of this exuberant
-material was rendered the easier by the fact that he was permitted to
-work at it for more than half a century. Every year on the occasion of
-the assembly of all the members, disciples, and pupils during the Kalla
-months, certain tractates of the Mishna, together with the Talmudical
-explanations and corollaries, were thoroughly gone into, and thus in
-about thirty years more than fifty of them were completely arranged.
-In the latter half of his period of office Ashi went through the whole
-of the matter which had thus been put in order for the second time.
-What remained after this double process of winnowing and testing was
-accepted as of binding force.
-
-This arrangement of the bulky matter of the Talmud was not committed
-to writing. The conservation in writing of oral tradition, the
-incarnation, as it were, of what is spiritual, was still regarded
-as a crime against religion, more especially at this period, when
-Christendom had taken possession of the Holy Scriptures as its own
-spiritual property, and considered itself as the chosen part of Israel.
-According to the views of the times, Judaism was now possessed of no
-distinguishing feature, except the Oral Law. This thought frequently
-found expression in a poetical form--"Moses requested permission to
-commit to writing the Mishna or Oral Law, but God saw in advance that
-the nations would one day possess a Greek translation of the Torah,
-and would affirm: 'We are Israel; we are the children of God,' while
-the Jewish people would also declare, 'We are God's children,' and He
-therefore gave a token for this purpose: 'He who possesses my secret
-(mysterion) is my son.' This secret is the Mishna and the oral exegesis
-of the Law. Therefore did the prophet Hosea say: 'Were I to write the
-fulness of the Law, Israel would be accounted as a stranger.'"
-
-It is not at all astonishing that this multitude of ordered details
-could be retained by the memory, for before the time of Ashi they had
-been retained though not yet reduced to order. By his compilation of
-the Talmud, Ashi completed the work which had been begun by Judah two
-centuries previously. But his task was infinitely more difficult. The
-Mishna embraced only the plain Halacha in artistically constructed
-paragraphs of the Law. The Talmud, however, gave also the living
-part of the development of the Law and its spiritual tenor, and this
-with dialectic exactitude. The first impulse to the compilation of
-the Talmud marks one of the most important epochs in Jewish history.
-From this time forward the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Babli) became
-an active, potent, and influential element. Ashi, however, did not
-entirely complete this gigantic task; for, although he directed his
-ardor wholly to the work of compilation, the creative power was not
-so completely conquered either in him or his contemporaries, that
-they were content to entirely restrict their energies to the work of
-compilation. On the contrary, Ashi solved many of the questions which
-had been left doubtful, or had been unsatisfactorily answered by the
-preceding Amoraïm, and his decisions are as forcible and ingenious
-as they are simple; in fact, one often wonders how they could have
-been overlooked by his predecessors. About this time the Jerusalem or
-Palestinean Talmud was compiled and concluded. The name of the compiler
-is not known. The latest authorities whose names have been preserved
-are Samuel bar Bun and Jochanan bar Moryah, contemporaries of Ashi.
-
-The period of Ashi's activity falls within the reign of Jezdijird
-(400-420), a king of the Sassanian dynasty, who was favorably disposed
-towards the Jews. The Magians gave to this noble prince the surname of
-"Al Hatim" (the sinner), because he refused to surrender his own will
-and allow himself to be ruled by them. He was exceedingly well affected
-towards the Jews, and at the same time favorably disposed towards the
-Christians. On the days of homage there were present at his court the
-three representatives of the Babylonian Jews: Ashi, of Sora; Mar-Zutra,
-of Pumbeditha; and Amemar, of Nahardea. Huna bar Nathan, who, if he
-was no Prince of the Captivity, must nevertheless have been possessed
-of considerable influence, held frequent intercourse with Jezdijird's
-court. This mark of attention on the part of a Persian king, who
-proclaimed himself the child of the Sun, a worshiper of Ormuz, and the
-King of the Kings of Iran, may be regarded as a proof of high favor.
-
-Ashi was devoid of all exaggerated enthusiasm, and seems to have
-attempted to suppress the hope of the coming of the Messiah, which kept
-the minds of the Jews in greater suspense than ever at this time of
-the migration of nations and of universal revolution, when sin-laden
-Rome was suffering the punishment of God. An ancient sibylline saying,
-attributed to the prophet Elijah, was current, according to which the
-Messiah would appear in the eighty-fifth jubilee (between 440 and 470
-of the common era). Such messianic expectations were always certain
-of creating enthusiasts, who aimed at converting their silent belief
-into fact, and without exactly intending to deceive, attempted to
-carry away such of the crowd as were of like opinions, and to excite
-them to such a pitch that they would willingly sacrifice their lives.
-In point of fact such an enthusiast did appear during Ashi's time in
-Crete, and he gained as adherents all the Jewish congregations of
-this important island, through which he had traveled in a year. He
-promised them that one day he would lead them dry-footed, as Moses
-had formerly done, through the sea into the promised land; he is said
-to have adopted the name of the great lawgiver. For the rest, this
-Cretan Moses was able to convince his followers so thoroughly of his
-divine mission, that they neglected their business, abandoned all their
-property, and only waited for the day of the passage through the sea.
-On the appointed day, Moses the Messiah marched in front, and behind
-him came the entire Jewish population of Crete, including the women
-and the children. From a promontory projecting out into the sea, he
-commanded them to throw themselves fearlessly into the ocean, as the
-waters would divide themselves before them. Several of these fanatics
-met their death in the waves; others were rescued by sailors. The false
-Moses is said, however, never to have been found again. It was against
-such false hopes as these, whose consequences were so sad, that Ashi
-warned the Jews. At the same time he suggested another interpretation
-of the prophecy which had been set in circulation: "It is certain,"
-said he, "that the Messiah cannot appear _before_ this time, before
-the eighty-fifth jubilee, but after the lapse of this period the
-hope, although not the certainty, of his coming may be entertained."
-Ashi died, greatly respected by his contemporaries and the Jews of
-after-times, at a ripe old age (427), two years before the capture of
-Carthage by Genseric. This Prince of the Vandals, who wrested from
-Rome her accumulations of spoil, also carried to Africa the vessels of
-the Temple, which Titus had added in triumph to the plunder of so many
-nations. Like the sons of Judæa, the Temple vessels wandered much.
-
-By reason of the Patriarchate, Judæa was still regarded as their head
-by the Jewish communities of the Roman Empire. During this period it
-presents an even more gloomy picture of complete decay than formerly.
-The oppression of hostile Christianity bore all too heavily upon the
-country, and stifled the impulse to study. Tanchuma bar Abba, the
-chief supporter of the later Agada, is the last Halachic authority of
-Judæa. There also, as in Babylonia, the last Amoraïm collected the
-traditions and planned and arranged the Jerusalem, or, more correctly,
-the Judæan or Western Talmud (Talmud shel Erez-Israel, Gemara di Bene
-Ma'araba). But so defective is the history of Judæa that not even
-the names of the compilers or the originators of the movement are
-known. Doubtless the example of Babylonia suggested the making of this
-collection. Only so much is certain, that Tiberias, the seat of the
-Patriarchate and of the School, was the birthplace of the Jerusalem
-Talmud.
-
-It was during this period that the Patriarchate, the last remnant of
-former times, met with complete destruction. Three patriarchs are
-mentioned by name: they are Gamaliel V, successor of Hillel II, his son
-Judah IV and Gamaliel, the last (370-425). But only indistinct traces
-of their activity can be recognized. It is true that they still bore
-the pompous rather than influential title of Highness, together with
-its attendant privileges, and that they still drew voluntary subsidies
-from the communities of the Roman empire, which their envoys were wont
-to collect from the congregations. But their authority was considerably
-diminished. The sole influence of the Patriarchs now consisted in the
-one fact, that they excluded from the Jewish community its apostate
-members, who had gone over to Christianity either voluntarily or
-through deceit or persuasion. But even this power proud Christianity
-refused to recognize. By means of the secular arm, the Bishops
-compelled the Patriarchs and the heads of the communities, who bore the
-name of Primates, to readmit into the community such of the members as
-had been excommunicated. But Theodosius the Great (379-395), although
-continually incited by the Catholic clergy, Ambrosius, among others, to
-persecute the Arians and other heretics, consistently protected the
-Jews against their fanatical attacks. He promulgated a law confirming
-to the Patriarchs and Primates the right of excommunicating the members
-of their community, and forbidding the secular authorities to meddle
-with the domestic affairs of the Jews. He proved to Gamaliel V his
-justice towards the Jews by condemning to death the consular agent
-Hesychius, whom the Patriarch had accused before him of surreptitiously
-gaining possession of important documents. For the rest, nothing more
-is known of the circumstance to which these documents referred.
-
-Theodosius frequently had to restrain the religious zeal of the
-Christians, which regarded as heroism such deeds as the disturbance of
-the religious devotions of the Jews, the pillaging or destruction of
-the synagogues, or their appropriation and conversion into churches.
-The principal fanatics against the Jews at this period were John
-Chrysostom of Antioch, and Ambrosius of Milan, who attacked them with
-the greatest fierceness.
-
-The former, who had been called from the solitude of the cloister to
-the ministry, thundered against the Jews from the pulpit with his
-bombastic and cynical eloquence; even made them the subject of six
-successive sermons. The behavior of the Jews of Antioch, however,
-was indeed too provoking: without any active endeavor on their part,
-Christians became interested in their customs, their divine service,
-and their court of law. On Sabbaths and festivals many Christians,
-especially of the female sex, ladies of rank and women of lower
-position, met together regularly in the synagogues. They listened
-with devotion to the blowing of the cornet on the Jewish New Year,
-attended the solemn service on the Day of Atonement, and participated
-in the joys of the Feast of Tabernacles. They were all the more
-attracted by the fact that all this had to go on behind the backs of
-the Christian priests, and that the neighbors had to be entreated not
-to betray them. Christians preferred to bring their lawsuits before
-Jewish judges, the form of the Jewish oath appearing more imposing and
-forcible to them. It was against such voluntary honoring of Jewish
-institutions by the Christians that Chrysostom directed the violence of
-his Capuchin sermons, bestowing all manner of harsh names upon them,
-and proclaiming the synagogues as infamous theaters, dens of robbers,
-and even still worse places.
-
-Ambrosius, of Milan, was a violent official, ignorant of all theology,
-whom a reputation for violence in the church had raised to the rank
-of bishop; he was even more virulent against the Jews. Once when the
-Christians of Rome had burnt down a synagogue, and the usurper Maximus
-commanded the Roman Senate to rebuild it at the expense of the State,
-Ambrosius called him a Jew. The Bishop of Callinicus, in Northern
-Mesopotamia, having caused a synagogue situated in that district to
-be burnt to the ground by monks, Theodosius ordered him to build it
-up again at his own expense, and punished all who had participated in
-the act (388). Hereupon Ambrosius' anger was most violently inflamed,
-and in the epistle which he addressed to the emperor he employed such
-sharp, provoking terms, that the latter was thereby led to revoke his
-order. Ambrosius accused the Jews of despising the Roman laws, and
-mockingly taunted them with the fact that they were not permitted to
-set up any emperor or governor in their midst, nor to enter the army or
-the Senate, nor even to eat at the table of the nobles; they were only
-there for the purpose of bearing heavy taxes. To this pious misconduct
-Theodosius endeavored to put a stop by means of laws. Starting from
-the premise that Judaism was not prohibited from existing in the Roman
-empire by any law, he was desirous of extending to it the protection
-of the law against violent attacks. He therefore enjoined the Comes
-of the East to severely punish the Christian religious rioters and
-desecrators of synagogues (393). But of what avail could the imperial
-edicts and commands be against the tendency of the times to be
-malignant, to accuse of heresy, and to persecute? The Jews could not
-complain, for they were not treated any worse than the adherents of the
-various Christian sects whose opponents had gained the upper hand. The
-savageness which the invasion of the barbarians had introduced into the
-historical parts of the world tainted the province of religion with
-its contagion; Vandalism reigned everywhere, in the Church as well as
-in the State. Meanwhile the exceptional position of the Jews in the
-Roman empire had been either re-established or confirmed by Theodosius
-I. Constantius' law relative to the possession of slaves was revived
-afresh; any Jewish slave-owner who admitted his slaves into the pale of
-Judaism was to be severely punished. The privilege of exemption from
-the onerous municipal offices on the grounds of religious scruples,
-which the Jews had succeeded in obtaining under his predecessors, was
-abolished by Theodosius.
-
-This emperor bequeathed his dominions to his two sons, and thus
-lastingly divided the Roman world into two parts, and into two
-different camps, thereby intensifying the strained and unsympathetic
-relations of the different parties to each other. Henceforward the
-Jews of the Roman empire belonged to different masters, part of them
-being subjects of the eastern, others of the western empire. Arcadius,
-the eastern or Byzantine emperor (395-408), was a monarch merely in
-name; his all-powerful chamberlains, Rufinus and Eutropius, were
-extremely favorable to the Jews. Rufinus loved money, and the Jews
-had already discovered the magic power of gold to soften obdurate
-hearts. Numerous laws were therefore promulgated in their favor. One
-of these laws decided (396) that the Jews should remain possessed of
-independence in the matter of choosing their own market inspectors
-(Agoranomos), and that whosoever should dare encroach on this right
-should be liable to severe punishment by imprisonment. Another law of
-the same year protected the "illustrious patriarchs" from insult. In
-Illyria synagogues were attacked, probably by the clergy, who would
-have liked to see the Jewish houses of prayer as completely destroyed
-as the heathen temples; thereupon Arcadius (or Eutropius) commanded the
-governors to resist this movement with all possible energy (397). In
-the same year he also re-enacted and confirmed the law of Constantius,
-whereby the patriarchs, as also all the religious officials of the
-synagogue, were exempted from the burden of the magistracy, as were
-the Christian clergy. Another right was also preserved to the Jews by
-Arcadius' administration (February, 398); they were allowed to retain
-the privilege of submitting their lawsuits to the patriarch and other
-Jewish arbitrators, if both parties consented to this course, and the
-Roman authorities were obliged to execute these judgments, without
-prejudice to the fact, however, that in so far as their religion
-was not concerned, they were subject to the Roman law. We must not
-be surprised by a capricious change under the arbitrary rule of the
-Byzantine court: a law was published in 399, subjecting all Jews, even
-the religious superiors, to the Curial burdens. This had, perhaps, some
-connection with Eutropius' fall in the same year.
-
-Not much is known of the course of conduct pursued towards the Jews by
-the Emperor of the West, the feeble Honorius, or his master, Stilicho.
-The abolition of exemption from the Curies pronounced against the
-communities of Apuleia and Calabria does not prove that a systematic
-hostility already existed against the Jews. Another law (of April,
-399) forbade, in the name of the Western Emperor Honorius, and under
-severe penalty, the collection of the patriarch's tax throughout
-the whole extent of the prefecture. Such sums as had already been
-received were confiscated to the imperial treasury. The motive of
-this prohibition may, however, have been that the Western Emperor
-regarded with envious eye the withdrawal of such considerable sums
-into the prefecture of his brother. But as if the legislation of this
-period desired to ridicule its own capriciousness, this prohibition
-was revoked five years later, and the Jews were henceforward permitted
-to collect the Patriarch's tax as before, and to forward it without
-concealment (404). While on the one hand Honorius forbade the Jews
-and the Samaritans to take any share in the military service, on the
-other hand, he protected the Jews from molestation on the part of
-the authorities, and decided by an edict that the Jews should not be
-summoned before the court on the Sabbath or the festivals (409).
-
-The Middle Ages really begin for Judaism with Theodosius II
-(408-450), a good-natured but monk-ridden emperor, whose weakness
-afforded impunity to the fanatical zeal of many a bishop, and offered
-encouragement to cruelty. Edicts of this emperor prohibited the Jews
-from building new synagogues, from exercising the office of judge
-between Jewish and Christian suitors, and from possessing Christian
-slaves; they also contained other prohibitions of less interest. It
-was under this emperor that the Patriarchate finally fell, although
-Gamaliel (Batraah), the last of the patriarchs, enjoyed great
-distinction at the imperial court, such as none of his predecessors
-had ever possessed. Beside the title which had long been borne by
-the Patriarchs, the high dignity of Prefect (_Præfectura_), together
-with a diploma of honor (_codicillus honorarius_), had been bestowed
-upon him, and although these were but hollow honors, they were of
-great importance at a time when appearances constituted everything.
-It is not known what was the particular merit for which Gamaliel
-gained this distinction, but it was probably on account of his medical
-acquirements. He was a physician, and was credited with the discovery
-of a much-approved remedy for diseases of the spleen. In this elevated
-position Gamaliel considered himself privileged to be lax in his
-observance of the emperor's exceptional laws against the Jews. He
-therefore built new synagogues, exercised jurisdiction in disputes
-between Jews and Christians, and disregarded other similar imperial
-commands. In consequence of this, Theodosius deprived him of all his
-higher dignities, took from him his diploma of honor, and suffered him
-to retain only such distinctions as he had enjoyed as Patriarch (415).
-But Theodosius in nowise abolished the Patriarchate during Gamaliel's
-lifetime; it was not until after the latter's death that this occurred,
-his male heirs having died, it appears, at an early age (425). Thus,
-with Gamaliel (Batraah) the last remnants of the noble stock of the
-house of Hillel disappeared. For three and a half centuries this house
-had stood at the head of the spiritual affairs of Judaism; many of its
-members had been promoters of the Law, of liberty, and of national
-feeling, and the history of their lives had become an important part
-of the history of the Jewish nation. Fifteen Patriarchs had succeeded
-each other during this lapse of time; two Hillels, three Simons, four
-Judahs, and six Gamaliels.
-
-During the reign of Theodosius in the East, and Honorius in the West,
-Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, notorious for his love of quarreling, his
-violence, and his impetuousness, was suffered to illtreat the Jews and
-to drive them out of that town. He assembled the Christian mob, incited
-them against the Jews by his excessive fanaticism, forced his way into
-the synagogues, of which he took possession for the Christians, and
-expelled the Jewish inhabitants half naked from the town which they
-had come to regard as their home. Disdaining no means, Cyril handed
-over their property to be pillaged by the mob, ever greedy of plunder
-(415). Thus the Christians inflicted on the Jews of Alexandria the same
-fate as 370 years before had fallen to their lot at the hands of the
-heathens. The Prefect Orestes, who took this barbarous treatment of
-the Jews greatly to heart, was powerless to protect them; all he was
-able to do was to lodge a charge against the bishop, but the latter
-gained his cause at the court of Constantinople. How great was the
-fanaticism of this bishop may be seen from what occurred in Alexandria
-soon after the expulsion of the Jews. Not far from this city was a
-mountain called Nitra, where dwelt an order of monks whose thirst for
-the crown of martyrdom had almost made wild animals of them. Incited
-by Cyril, these monks fell upon Orestes, and almost stoned him to
-death as a punishment for not sanctioning the expulsion of the Jews.
-It was this same fanatical band that tore to pieces the body of the
-celebrated philosopher Hypatia, who had charmed the world by her
-profound science, her eloquence, and her purity. Only one member of
-this unlucky community of Jews, Adamantius by name, a teacher of the
-science of medicine, was induced by this disaster to allow himself to
-be baptized; he repaired to Constantinople, and was there granted the
-right to settle in Alexandria. All the rest willingly bore banishment
-and affliction for the sake of their convictions.
-
-Not so resolute were the Jews of the little town of Magona (Mahon)
-in the Spanish island of Minorca, in the Mediterranean. Severus, the
-bishop of that place, burnt their synagogues, and harassed them with
-attacks in the streets, until at last he succeeded in compelling many
-of them to embrace Christianity. The Jews had settled early--probably
-in the time of the Roman Republic--in Spain and in the surrounding
-islands, and lived there in friendly relation with the original
-inhabitants. Even after the Iberians had become Christians, the
-husbandmen still caused the produce of their fields to be blessed by
-the Jews. It was in Spain that the Christian clergy first aroused the
-fanaticism of the Christian population against the Jews. The same
-bishop Osius (Hosius) of Cordova, who had sat in the Council of Nice,
-and had convoked a council at Illiberis (Elvira, near Granada), also
-succeeded in passing a resolution which prohibited the Christians,
-under pain of excommunication, from trading with the Jews, contracting
-marriages with them, or causing them to bless the produce of their
-fields. Nothing now remained for the Jews of Christian countries but
-to take up the weapons of mockery; they accordingly made merry over
-their enemies behind their backs, which has everywhere and at all times
-been the manner in which the weaker party has attempted to lighten its
-burdens. At times also they made use of coarse jokes to express their
-feelings with regard to Christianity. Such jokes were most usually
-made on the occasion of the feast of Purim, when the cheerfulness of
-the festival led to intoxication, and intoxication to irresponsible
-expressions and demonstrations. On this day the Jews in their
-merriment were accustomed to hang Haman, their arch-enemy, in effigy
-on a gallows, and this gallows, which used afterwards to be burned,
-took, accidentally or intentionally, the form of a cross. Naturally
-the Christians complained of profanation of their religion, and the
-Emperor Theodosius II directed the ruler of the province to put a stop
-to such misconduct by the threat of severe punishment, without being
-able, however, to repress it. On one occasion this carnival pleasantry
-is said to have led to horrible consequences. The Jews of Imnestar,
-a small Syrian town between Antioch and Chalcis, having erected one
-of these Haman's gallows, were accused by the Christians of having
-suspended a Christian lad crosswise upon it, and of having flogged him
-to death. Thereupon the emperor ordered the culprits to be punished
-(415).
-
-The Christians of Antioch were not inferior to their brethren of
-Alexandria in fanaticism. They once begged the emperor not to remove
-the bones and relics of their martyr Ignatius, as they afforded their
-city as great a protection as strong walls. They also, on their side,
-avenged the deed of the Jews of Imnestar, by forcibly dispossessing
-their Jewish fellow-citizens of their synagogues. It is a remarkable
-phenomenon that the prefects and rulers of the provinces for the most
-part expressed themselves in favor of the Jews against the clergy. The
-Syrian prefect notified the emperor of this robbery of the synagogues,
-and must have painted this act of injustice in very vivid colors, for
-he thereby moved Theodosius II, steeped as he was in monkish bigotry,
-to issue an injunction to the inhabitants of Antioch, ordering them
-to restore the synagogues to their owners. But this decision was
-denounced by Simon Stylites, who led a life of extreme asceticism in
-a sort of stable not far from Antioch. From the height of his column
-he had renounced the world and its ways, but his hatred of the Jews
-was sufficient, nevertheless, to cause him to interpose in temporal
-matters. Hardly had he heard of Theodosius' command relative to the
-restoration of the stolen synagogues, than he addressed an insulting
-letter to the emperor, informing him that he acknowledged God alone,
-and no one else, as master and emperor, and demanded the withdrawal
-of the edict. Theodosius hardly stood in need of such intimidation;
-he revoked his command, and even removed the Syrian prefect, who had
-raised his voice in favor of the Jews (423).
-
-The bigotry of Theodosius II operated also on Honorius, Emperor of the
-West, and by their absurd laws both of them placed the Jews in that
-exceptional position in which the newly-formed German states found
-them. The Jews were no longer allowed to hold any public offices, or
-to fill any military posts such as they had formerly been permitted to
-occupy. All that now remained open to them were the doubtful honors of
-the municipal offices; but not content with having deprived them of
-their position of equality, Theodosius restricted the free employment
-of their property for religious purposes, as if the fortunes of the
-Jews belonged to the emperor. After the extinction of the patriarchal
-house the Jewish communities had not discontinued their practice of
-forwarding the taxes of the Patriarch; they were handed over to the
-primates, who most probably employed them in supporting the schools.
-Suddenly there appeared an imperial decree directing the primates to
-deliver up to the imperial treasury such sums as had already been
-received for the Patriarch's taxes, and commanding that for the future
-they should be collected by imperial officials after exact computation
-of their amount, and even that the moneys received from the Western
-empire should be handed over to the treasury (May 30, 429). New Rome
-had inherited all the knavery and covetousness of Ancient Rome. In
-the same manner as the heathen emperor Vespasian had appropriated the
-Temple dues, so now did this Christian emperor seize upon the taxes
-of the Patriarch, thus adding to the injury of the robbery an insult
-to the conscience, for that which had been voluntarily offered out of
-piety was now imposed as a compulsory tax for the benefit of foreign
-interests.
-
-In spite of the affliction which fell to the lot of Judaism in the
-Eastern empire, and more especially in Judæa, whereby the study of
-the Talmud was retarded, the spirit of investigation had not become
-quite extinct in Judæa. The reigning distress offered no scope for the
-profundities of the Halacha, but furthered the study of the cheerful
-Agada, which, diving deep into the joyful and gloomy situations of
-past ages, poured the balm of consolation on fretted and desperate
-spirits, and lulled them with the magic of hope. The more clear-sighted
-were fully conscious of this decay of serious studies, and expressed
-their discontent. Notwithstanding the prevailing injustice of the
-times, a lively interest in the Hebrew language and in the knowledge
-of the Bible was still felt in Palestine. It is indisputable that this
-interest in the language was greatly heightened by the controversies
-which were sustained with Christians, and to such a pitch was it
-excited at this period, that by its help Christianity arrived at an
-understanding of the primitive text of the Bible. Tiberias was the
-home and the model of this branch of knowledge; Lydda is the only
-other town which is mentioned beside it. Hieronymus (Jerome, 331-420),
-called by the Church the Holy, the founder of a nunnery in Bethlehem,
-being actuated, like Origen, by a thirst for knowledge, was at pains
-to become acquainted with the Bible in its original form, and for
-this reason went in quest of Jewish teachers, such as Bar-Chanina and
-others in these cities. Under their guidance, Hieronymus' acquirements
-were by no means small, for he succeeded in expressing himself freely
-in Hebrew. From this circumstance it may fairly be concluded that the
-knowledge of the holy tongue and of the Bible was more assiduously
-cultivated in Judæa than has generally been assumed. Bar-Chanina
-was obliged, however, to avoid publicity, and to go in secret to
-Hieronymus' cell, there to instruct him, for by reason of the hostile
-use to which the Christians turned their knowledge of the Hebrew
-language, it had latterly been forbidden to the Jews to teach them.
-Hieronymus not only learnt the pronunciation of Hebrew and the literal
-meaning of the Bible, but was afforded a more profound insight into the
-interconnection of the text by the aid of tradition. He succeeded so
-well in catching the form of the Agadic exposition, that at times he
-was able to carry it over with taste and ingenuity into the sphere of
-Christianity.
-
-The Jews were several centuries ahead of their Christian contemporaries
-as regards judging and distinguishing between authentic canonical
-writings and spurious apocryphal collections. The Council of Nice,
-which had thought to unite parties by means of authoritative decisions,
-had decided the dispute as to the holy character of doubtful writings,
-and had incorporated several apocryphal books in the canon. The Jews
-with whom Hieronymus held conferences on matters exegetical, offered
-such sound remarks on the worthlessness of several portions of the
-Apocrypha that even at this day, when knowledge has made such immense
-strides, they must be acknowledged as correct. Among others, a Jewish
-teacher of the Law ridiculed the additions to Habakkuk, according
-to which an angel transported the prophet by the hair from Judæa to
-Chaldæa. He demanded where in the Old Testament could be found a
-counterpart to this story of one of the holy prophets, possessed of a
-body subject to the power of gravity, traversing so immense a distance
-in a moment. In spite of the unpropitious state of the times, the Jews
-of Palestine were not afflicted with that want of judgment which in
-naïve faith accepts without discrimination as holy anything that is put
-forward as such; they had not extinguished the light of discernment in
-the temple of their faith. This power of judgment was a result of the
-study of the Halacha, which afforded a counterpoise to the incapacity
-of discrimination which is a consequence of credulity. Thus even in
-its old age Judæa fostered the Hebrew tongue, which it had given to
-its sons as an indissoluble bond of union in foreign countries. The
-use of the holy language in prayer, lecture, and study constituted the
-intellectual unity of the Jewish nation.
-
-Christianity had caught up a few rays of the setting sun of Judæa, and
-treasured them up in the Church as a light from heaven. The knowledge
-of Hebrew, which Hieronymus had acquired from Jewish teachers, and
-by means of which he had been enabled to produce a Latin translation
-(Vulgata) of the Bible, deviating from the distorted Septuagint and
-approaching more nearly to the Hebrew text, sufficed for more than
-a thousand years, and was extended and amended with the renaissance
-of learning at the commencement of modern times. But with every step
-forward that Christianity took, it increased the gap which divided it
-from Judaism, and the eloquence of many centuries was required before
-recognition was again obtained for the fact that Christianity had
-had its origin in Judaism. To such an extent had blood-relationship
-been obliterated by religious zeal, that even Hieronymus, who had sat
-at the feet of Jewish masters, and had found "the Hebrew truth" in
-the Old Testament, was unable to free himself from the deep-rooted
-hatred of the Jews. His enemies having reproached him with heresy on
-account of his Jewish studies, he convinced them of his orthodoxy by
-his hatred of the Jews. "If it is requisite to despise the individuals
-and the nation, so do I abhor the Jews with an inexpressible hate."
-In this he was not alone, for his opinions were shared by a younger
-contemporary, Augustine, the Father of the Church. This profession of
-faith concerning the hatred of the Jews was not the private opinion
-of an individual author, but an oracle for the whole of Christendom,
-which readily accepted the writings of the Fathers of the Church, who
-were revered as saints. In later times this profession of faith armed
-kings and populace, crusaders and herdsmen, against the Jews, invented
-instruments for their torture, and constructed funeral pyres for
-burning them.
-
-It is remarkable that in spite of their repression on the part of the
-state, the Jews living in Cæsarea, the residence of the Governor,
-joined in the fashionable folly of the stadium. There existed among
-them charioteers, horse-racers, jockeys, and parties supporting
-the green or the blue, as at Rome, Ravenna, Constantinople, and
-Antioch. But as in those times every act in life bore the stamp of
-the confessional, religious disputes also became mixed up with the
-struggles of the partisans of the various colors. The victory or the
-defeat of a Jewish, Samaritan, or Christian charioteer was at the
-same time the occasion of an attack by his co-religionists upon their
-opponents.
-
-In Babylonia, where up till now the Jews had enjoyed quiet and
-independence but seldom disturbed, troubles and persecutions also
-began to increase. It was for this reason that a dearth of prominent
-personages began to make itself felt. Creative power declined, and made
-way for the tendency to reproduce and establish what had already been
-produced. The Jewish history of this country moved within a narrow
-circle; the principals of the schools succeeded one another, taught,
-and died, and it was only by the appearance of persecutions that a sad
-variety was imparted to its course. Of Ashi's six successors at the
-Academy of Sora (427-456), not one accomplished anything worthy of
-remark.
-
-Some small importance was possessed, however, by Ashi's son, Mar, who
-also bore the name Tabyome. He happened to be at Machuza at the time
-when he heard the news of the occurrence of a vacancy at the head of
-the Soranian Metibta. He hurried off to Sora, and arrived there just
-in the nick of time, for the members of the academy were assembled for
-the election. Delegates were sent to confer with him on the choice of
-Acha of Diphta, and were detained by him, as were also others who were
-sent after them, until they were ten in number; whereupon he delivered
-a lecture, and was hailed as Resh-Metibta by all the members present
-(455). Acha was exceedingly hurt by this slight, and applied to his
-own case the following saying, "He who is unlucky, can never attain to
-luck."
-
-In the same year a persecution of the Jews broke out with unprecedented
-rigor in the Babylonian countries. It was the commencement of a long
-series of bloody attacks which the Jews had to suffer at the hands of
-the last of the neo-Persian kings, and which rendered their position
-as sad as that of their co-religionists of the Roman Empire. Jezdijird
-III (440-457), unlike his predecessor of the same name, instituted a
-religious persecution of the Jews; they were forbidden to celebrate the
-Sabbath (456). The reason of this sudden change in the conduct of the
-Persian ruler towards the Jews, who had always been sincerely attached
-to him, is probably to be found in the fanaticism of the Magi, whose
-influence over many of the Persian monarchs was not less than that of
-the spiritual advisers of the eastern emperors over their masters.
-The Magi of this period appear to have learnt their proselytism and
-their love of religious persecution from the Christians. Besides this,
-Christianity had by its proselytism provoked the Magi to resistance.
-The Manicheans who had compounded Jewish, Christian, and Persian
-religious ideas into a medley of their own, made accusations of heresy
-as common in Persia as in the Roman Empire. Jezdijird persecuted both
-Manicheans and Christians. Sooner or later the light-worship of the
-Persians was bound to take offense at Judaism, and to place the Jews
-upon the list of its enemies. The chronicles are silent concerning the
-conduct of the Jews with regard to the prohibition of the celebration
-of the Sabbath; conscientious Jews, however, cannot have failed to
-obtain opportunities of evading it, and for this reason the names of no
-martyrs have survived this persecution. The constraint was continued
-about a year, as Jezdijird was killed a short time after; a civil war
-was carried on by his sons Chodar-Warda and Firuz for the possession of
-the crown.
-
-Mar bar Ashi was the sole authority of this period; and although all
-his decisions, with the exception of three, received the force of law,
-he does not seem to have acquired any special repute in the Soranian
-Academy. He continued his father's work of completing the Talmudical
-collection, and included the latter's decisions therein. He and his
-contemporaries must have felt themselves all the more impelled to
-complete the work of compilation, as the persecution they had gone
-through made them feel that the future was precarious. Nothing more is
-known of Mar bar Ashi's character than a trait of conscientiousness,
-which stands out in strong contrast with Raba's partiality towards
-members of his own class. He relates as follows: "When an associate
-appears before me in court, I refuse to exercise the functions of my
-office, for I regard him as a near relation, and might involuntarily
-show partiality in his favor."
-
-After Mar's death the Jews of the Persian Empire were the victims of a
-fresh persecution under Firuz (Pheroces, 457-484), which was far more
-terrible than that which had occurred under his father, Jezdijird.
-This persecution is said to have been occasioned by the desire for
-vengeance entertained by this monarch, who was swayed by the Magi
-against the whole Jewish community, because certain of them were said
-to have killed and flayed two Magi in Ispahan. As a punishment for this
-deed Firuz put to death half the Jewish population of Ispahan, and had
-the Jewish children forcibly brought up in the Temple of Horvan as
-worshipers of fire. The persecution extended also to the communities
-of Babylonia, and continued for several years, until the death of the
-tyrant. Mar-Zutra's son, Huna-Mari, Prince of the Captivity, and two
-teachers of the Law, Amemar bar Mar-Janka and Meshershaya bar Pacod,
-were thrown into prison, and afterwards executed (469-70). They were
-the first martyrs on Babylonian soil, and it is a significant fact that
-a Prince of the Captivity bled for Judaism.
-
-A few years later the persecution was carried to a still wider extent;
-the schools were closed, assemblies for the purpose of teaching
-prohibited, the jurisdiction of the Jews abolished, and their children
-compelled to embrace the religion of the Magi (474).
-
-The city of Sora seems to have been destroyed at this period. Firuz,
-whose system of persecution puts one in mind of Hadrian, invented a
-new means of torture, which had not occurred to that emperor, which
-was to remove the young from under the influence of Judaism, and to
-bring them up by force in the Persian religion. For this reason he was
-branded by the Jews of after times, like Hadrian, with the name of "the
-wicked" (_Piruz Reshia_). The immediate result of this persecution was
-the emigration of Jewish colonists, who settled in the south as far as
-Arabia, and in the east as far as India.
-
-This emigration of the Jews to India is expressly marked as occurring
-about the time of Firuz's persecution. An otherwise unknown person,
-Joseph Rabban by name, who is recognizable as a Babylonian by reason
-of this title, arrived in the year 4250 of the Jewish era (490), with
-many Jewish families, on the rich and busy coast of Malabar; he
-must accordingly have started on his journey before this date, and
-therefore have emigrated under Firuz. Airvi (Eravi), the Brahmin king
-of Cranganor, welcomed the Jewish strangers, offered them a home in his
-dominions, and suffered them to live according to their peculiar laws,
-and to be ruled by their own princes (Mardeliar). The first of these
-chiefs was their leader Joseph Rabban, upon whom the Indian monarch
-conferred special rights and princely honors, to be inherited by his
-descendants. He was allowed, like the Indian princes, to ride upon an
-elephant, to be preceded by a herald, accompanied by a musical escort
-of drums and cymbals, and to sit upon a carpet. Joseph Rabban is said
-to have been followed by a line of seventy-two successors, who ruled
-over the Indo-Jewish colonists, until quarrels broke out among them.
-Cranganor was destroyed, many of the Jews lost their lives, and the
-remainder settled in Mattachery, a league from Cochin, which acquired
-from this fact the name of Jews'-town. The privileges accorded by
-Airvi to the Jewish immigrants were engraved in ancient Indian (Tamil)
-characters, accompanied by an obscure Hebrew translation, on a copper
-table, which is said to be extant at the present day.
-
-As soon as the terrors of persecution had ceased with Firuz's death,
-the ancient organization was again restored in Jewish Babylonia; the
-academies were re-opened, principals appointed, and Sora and Pumbeditha
-received their last Amoraïc leaders--the former in the person of
-Rabina, the latter in José. These two principals and their assessors
-had but one end in view, the completion and termination of the work
-of compiling the Talmud begun by Ashi. The continual increase of
-affliction, the diminished interest which probably on that account
-was extended to study, the uncertainty of the future, all these
-causes forcibly suggested the completion of the Talmud. Rabina, who
-held office from 488 to 499, and José, who discharged the duties of
-principal from 471 to about 520, are expressly mentioned in the old
-chronicles as "the close of the period of the Amoraïm" (_Sof Horaah_).
-There is no doubt, however, that the members of the two academies,
-whose names have been preserved, also had a part in this work, and
-that they therefore are to be regarded as the last of the Amoraïm.
-The most important among them was Achaï bar Huna of Be-Chatim, near
-Nahardea (died 506), whose decisions and discussions are distinguished
-by characteristic peculiarities, and bear witness to a clear and sober
-mind, and to great keenness. Achaï was known and esteemed for these
-qualities beyond Babylonia. An epistle received by the Babylonian
-academy from Judæa, which, as far as is historically known, was
-probably the last addressed by the deserted mother-country to its
-daughter colony, speaks of him in terms of greatest reverence: "Neglect
-not Achaï, for he is the light of the eyes of the exiles." Even
-Huna-Mar, the Prince of the Captivity, must have possessed Talmudical
-acquirements, for the chronicle, which is by no means favorable to the
-princes of the Captivity, numbers him among this series of teachers
-of the Law, and concedes to him the title of Rabbi. His history, with
-which certain important events are connected, belongs to the following
-period.
-
-In conjunction with these men, Rabina and José accomplished the
-completion of the Talmud, that is to say, they sanctioned as a complete
-whole the collection of all previous transactions and decisions
-which they had caused to be compiled, and to which no additions or
-amplifications were henceforward to be made. The definite completion of
-the Babylonian Talmud (called also the Gemara) occurred in the year of
-Rabina's death, just at the close of the fifth century (13th Kislev or
-2nd December, 499), when the Jews of the Arabian peninsula were sowing
-the first seeds of a new religion and laying the foundations of a new
-empire, and when the Gothic and Frankish kingdoms were rising in Europe
-from the ruins of ancient Rome. The Talmud forms a turning-point in
-Jewish history, and from this time forward constitutes an essential
-factor therein.
-
-The Talmud must not be regarded as an ordinary work, composed of
-twelve volumes; it possesses absolutely no similarity to any other
-literary production, but forms, without any figure of speech, a world
-of its own, which must be judged by its peculiar laws. It is extremely
-difficult to give any sketch of its character because of the absence of
-all common standards and analogies. The most talented could, therefore,
-hardly hope to succeed in this task, even though he had penetrated
-deeply into its nature, and become intimately acquainted with its
-peculiarities. It might, perhaps, be compared with the literature
-of the Fathers of the Church, which sprang up about the same time;
-but on closer examination even this comparison fails to satisfy the
-student. It is, however, of less consequence what the Talmud is in
-itself, than what was its influence on history, that is to say, on the
-successive generations whose education it chiefly controlled. Many
-judgments have been passed on the Talmud at various times and on the
-most opposite grounds. It has been condemned, and its funeral pyre has
-been ignited, because only its unfavorable side has been considered,
-and no regard has been paid to its merits, which, however, can be
-rendered apparent only by a complete survey of the whole of Jewish
-history. It cannot be denied, however, that the Babylonian Talmud
-is marred by certain blemishes, such as necessarily appear in every
-intellectual production which pursues a single course with inflexible
-consistency and exclusive one-sidedness. These faults may be classed
-under four heads. The Talmud contains much that is immaterial and
-frivolous, of which it treats with great gravity and seriousness; it
-further reflects the various superstitious practices and views of its
-Persian birthplace, which presume the efficacy of demoniacal medicines,
-of magic, incantations, miraculous cures, and interpretations of
-dreams, and are thus in opposition to the spirit of Judaism. It also
-contains isolated instances of uncharitable judgments and decrees
-against the members of other nations and religions, and finally it
-favors an incorrect exposition of the Scriptures, accepting, as it
-does, tasteless misinterpretations. The whole Talmud has been made
-responsible for these defects, and has been condemned as a collection
-of trifles, a well of immorality and falsehood. No consideration has
-been paid to the fact that it is not the work of any one author, who
-must answer for every word of it, or if it be, that that author is the
-entire Jewish nation. More than six centuries lie petrified in the
-Talmud as the fullest evidence of life, clothed each in its peculiar
-dress and possessing its own form of thought and expression: a sort
-of literary Herculaneum and Pompeii, unmarred by that artificial
-imitation which transfers a gigantic picture on a reduced scale to a
-narrow canvas. Small wonder, then, that if in this world the sublime
-and the common, the great and the small, the grave and the ridiculous,
-the altar and the ashes, the Jewish and the heathenish, be discovered
-side by side. The expressions of ill-will, which are seized upon with
-such avidity by the enemies of the Jews, were often nothing but the
-utterance of momentary ill-humor, which escaped from the teacher, and
-were caught up and embodied in the Talmud by over-zealous disciples,
-unwilling to lose a single word let fall by the revered sages. They are
-amply counterbalanced, however, by the doctrines of benevolence and
-love of all men without distinction of race or religion, which are also
-preserved in the Talmud. As a counterpoise to the wild superstitions,
-there are severe warnings against superstitious heathen practices, to
-which a separate section is devoted.
-
-The Babylonian Talmud is especially distinguished from the Jerusalem
-or Palestine Talmud by the flights of thought, the penetration of
-mind, the flashes of genius, which rise and vanish again. An infinite
-fulness of thought and of thought-exciting material is laid up in the
-mine of the Talmud, not, however, in the shape of a finished theme
-which one can grasp at a glance, but in all its original freshness of
-conception. The Talmud introduces us into the laboratory of thought,
-and in it may be traced the progress of ideas, from their earliest
-agitation to the giddy height of incomprehensibility to which at times
-they attain. It was for this reason that the Babylonian rather than
-the Jerusalem Talmud became the fundamental possession of the Jewish
-race, its life's breath, its very soul. It was a family history for
-succeeding generations, in which they felt themselves at home, in
-which they lived and moved, the thinker in the world of thought, the
-dreamer in glorious ideal pictures. For more than a thousand years the
-external world, nature and mankind, powers and events, were for the
-Jewish nation insignificant, non-essential, a mere phantom; the only
-true reality was the Talmud. A new truth in their eyes only received
-the stamp of veracity and freedom from doubt when it appeared to be
-foreseen and sanctioned by the Talmud. Even the knowledge of the Bible,
-the more ancient history of their race, the words of fire and balm of
-their prophets, the soul outpourings of their Psalmists, were only
-known to them through and in the light of the Talmud. But as Judaism,
-ever since its foundation, has based itself on the experiences of
-actual life, so that the Talmud was obliged to concern itself with
-concrete phenomena, with the things of _this_ world; so it follows
-that there could not arise that dream-life, that disdain of the world,
-that hatred of realities, which in the Middle Ages gave birth to and
-sanctified the hermit life of the monks and nuns. It is true that the
-intellectual tendency prevailing in the Babylonian Talmud, aided by
-climatic influences and other accidental circumstances, degenerated
-not infrequently into subtilty and scholasticism; for no historical
-phenomenon exists without an unfavorable side. But even this abuse
-contributed to bring about clear conceptions, and rendered possible the
-movement toward science. The Babylonian Amoraïm created that dialectic,
-close-reasoning, Jewish spirit, which in the darkest days preserved the
-dispersed nation from stagnation and stupidity. It was the ether which
-protected them from corruption, the ever-moving force which overcame
-indolence and the blunting of the mental powers, the eternal spring
-which kept the mind ever bright and active. In a word, the Talmud was
-the educator of the Jewish nation; and this education can by no means
-have been a bad one, since, in spite of the disturbing influence of
-isolation, degradation and systematic demoralization, it fostered in
-the Jewish people a degree of morality which even their enemies cannot
-deny them. The Talmud preserved and promoted the religious and moral
-life of Judaism; it held out a banner to the communities scattered in
-all corners of the earth, and protected them from schism and sectarian
-divisions; it acquainted subsequent generations with the history of
-their nation; finally, it produced a deep intellectual life which
-preserved the enslaved and proscribed from stagnation, and which lit
-for them the torch of science. How the Talmud made its way into the
-consciousness of the Jewish people, how it became known and accessible
-to distant communities, and how it became a stumbling-block to the
-enemies of Judaism, will be told in subsequent pages.
-
-
-
-
-INDEX.
-
-
-  Abayi, principal of Pumbeditha, 583-5.
-
-  Abba-Areka. See Rab.
-
-  Abbahu, 531-43.
-    character, 540 f.
-    learning, 537-9.
-    favors study of Agada, 540, 543.
-    polemics against Christianity, 540 f.
-
-  Ab-bet-din, 404.
-
-  Abtalion, 71.
-
-  Acher (Elisha ben Abuya), apostasy, 358, 377.
-    malice against the Jews, 425 f.
-    relation to Meïr, 437.
-
-  Adam, book of, 462.
-
-  Adiabene, princes of, converted to Judaism, 216 ff.
-    help the Judæans in the revolution, 264.
-    resist Trajan, 393 f.
-
-  Administration of justice, reform of, 50.
-
-  Adoyot == evidence of witnesses, 343.
-    == older compilation of the Mishna, 460.
-
-  Adultery, suspected, ritual of, abolished, 238.
-
-  Aelia Capitolina == Jerusalem, 421.
-
-  Agada (Hagadah), favorite study in Judæa, 576, 623.
-    subject-matter, 328 f.
-
-  Agape, 223.
-
-  Agora-nomos, 512 f., 616.
-
-  Agrippa I, 174-96.
-    career in Rome, and character, 175 f.
-    favorite of Caligula, 176 f., 189.
-    of Claudius, 190.
-    fortifies Jerusalem, 195.
-    liberality to the Greeks, 193 f.
-    made king, 177, 190.
-    patriotism, 189, 191, 195.
-    popularity, 191.
-    prosperity of his reign, 191 f.
-    reading the Torah in the Temple, 192.
-    death, 196.
-
-  Agrippa II, 235 f.
-    aids the Roman army, 264.
-    alleviates the condition of Galilee after the war, 333.
-    appointed king of Chalcis, 235.
-    career and character, 235 f.
-    conduct during the war, 288.
-    depravity of his house, 236.
-    fall, 317.
-    flees from Jerusalem, 258.
-    hostile to his people, 236.
-    how treated by Titus, 388.
-    meets Vespasian, 285.
-    recommends peace with Rome, 257 f.
-    sends troops to Jerusalem to preserve peace, 259.
-    treachery against his people, 302.
-
-  Akiba ben Joseph, 342 ff.
-    classifies the Halachas, 353 f.
-    combats Gnosticism, 381 f.
-    disciple of Nachum Gimso, 351 f.
-    legends about his early life, 351.
-    martyr, 428.
-    method and system, 352 f., 441.
-    new founder of the Oral Law, 354.
-    part played in the revolt of Bar Cochba, 408 ff.
-    seven disciples, 429, 433.
-
-  Akylas (Aquila), 385 ff.
-    at the funeral of Gamaliel, 404.
-    Greek translation of the Bible, 386 f.
-
-  Albinus, procurator of Judæa, 248.
-
-  Alexander Jannæus, 38-47.
-    accession to the throne, 39.
-    campaign in the trans-Jordanic land, 44.
-    coins, 46.
-    crucifies 800 Pharisees, 45.
-    cruelties in Gaza, 41.
-    death, 47.
-    desecrates the ceremony of libation, 43.
-    employs mercenaries, 39.
-    forces Judaism upon the conquered, 46.
-    massacres 6000 people in the precincts of the Temple, 43.
-
-  Alexander Jannæus, relation to the Pharisees, 39, 42, 44, 47.
-    revolts against him, 44.
-    wanting in generalship, 39.
-
-  Alexander II, 70-75.
-    conflict with Hyrcanus II and Pompey, 70-73.
-    decapitated, 75.
-
-  Alexander, son of Herod, executed, 112 f.
-
-  Alexander, Alabarch of Alexandria, 175 f., 190.
-
-  Alexander Polyhistor, favorable representation of the Jews, 179.
-
-  Alexander Severus, conditions after his death, 526 f.
-    kindly disposed towards Judaism and Christianity, 481 f.
-    relation to Judah II, 482.
-
-  Alexandra, mother of Mariamne, 81, 91 f., 94.
-    executed, 105.
-
-  Alexandria, in Egypt, Jews in, 178 ff.
-    adopt foreign views and practices, 13 f.
-    deprived of citizenship, 182.
-    hostility against them, 178-87.
-    massacre of Jews, 263.
-    outrages by Christians against them, 618 f.
-    play leading role, 12.
-    restored to their rights by Claudius, 191.
-    Talmudic schools, 359.
-    teachers, 329.
-
-  Allegorical method of interpretation, 208 ff.
-    leads to apostasy from Judaism, 209.
-
-  Altar, why the use of iron is forbidden in erecting, 329.
-
-  Ambivius, Marcus, procurator of Judæa, 135.
-
-  Ambrosius, fanaticism against the Jews, 613 f.
-
-  Amemar, principal of Nahardea, 606.
-
-  Ami, 531, 534, 537.
-
-  Ammonites, discussion about their admission into the Jewish
-        community, 343, 383 f.
-
-  Amoraim, the first, 479 ff.
-    the last, 630 f.
-    method, 490.
-    in Palestine, 531 ff.
-
-  Anan, high priest, 172.
-    attempts to revive Sadducæism, 248.
-    executed by the Zealots, 296.
-
-  Anan, his family, 237.
-
-  Ananel, chosen high priest by Herod, 90.
-
-  Andreias (Lucas), leader of the revolt against Trajan in Cyrene, 395.
-
-  Anti-Judæan movement, 178-89.
-
-  Antigonus, son of Aristobulus II, 80-89.
-    character compared with that of Herod, 84-6.
-    contest with Herod, 84-8.
-    decapitated by Mark Antony, 89.
-    plot against the Idumæans, 80.
-    proclaimed king, 83.
-
-  Antigonus, son of Hyrcanus, murdered, 36 f.
-    rumors about his death, 38.
-
-  Antipas I, son of Herod, appointed successor of his father, 114.
-    dies in exile, 177.
-    marries Herodias, wife of his brother Herod, 173.
-
-  Antipater, father of Herod, 59-80.
-    descent, 59.
-    instigates Hyrcanus II to break the agreement, 59 f.
-    made governor of Judæa, 67.
-    poisoned, 80.
-
-  Antipater, son of Herod, 112-16.
-    adopted as royal prince, 112.
-    character, 173.
-    conspires against his father, 114.
-    executed, 116.
-
-  Antoninus Pius, Jewish revolt against him, 447.
-    revokes the decrees of Hadrian against the Jews, 432.
-
-  Antony, Mark, assists Herod, 87 f.
-    defeat of, at Actium, 96.
-    gives the district of Jericho to Cleopatra, 93.
-    and Judæan ambassadors against the Idumæans, 81.
-
-  Apion, hatred of the Jews, 180, 390.
-    heads an anti-Judæan embassy to Rome, 186.
-
-  Apocalypse (of John), 369.
-
-  Apocrypha, and apocryphal additions, 344.
-    considered by Christians as part of the Bible, 359, 488, 624.
-
-  Apollos of Alexandria (Jewish Christian), 231.
-
-  Arabia, Jewish fugitives in, 419.
-
-  Arcadius, favorable to Jews, 615 f.
-
-  Arch of Titus, 314.
-
-  Archelaus, son and successor of Herod, 120-8.
-    bloody inauguration of his reign, 121 f.
-    character of his reign, 121 f.
-
-  Aretas, king of the Nabathæans, interferes between Hyrcanus II and
-        Aristobulus II, 59-61.
-
-  Aristobulus I, 35-8.
-    adheres to the Sadducees, 36.
-    assumes the title of king, 35.
-    campaign against the Ithuræans and Trachonites, 37.
-    coins, 35.
-    death, 38.
-    forces Judaism upon the conquered heathen, 37.
-    imprisons his mother and three of his brothers, 36.
-    preference for Hellenism, unpopular, 36.
-
-  Aristobulus II, 56-75.
-    contest with Hyrcanus II, 57-75.
-    death, 75.
-    fight with Pompey, 64 f.
-    led a captive to Rome, 67-73.
-
-  Aristobulus III, appointed high priest by Herod, 91.
-    assassinated, 92.
-
-  Aristobulus, son of Herod and Mariamne, executed, 112 f.
-
-  Aristobulus, brother of Herod II, 197.
-
-  Aristocracy, Judæan, corruption of, 147.
-    cowardice and servility, 142, 298.
-    opposed to war with Rome, 256, 274.
-
-  Armenia, Jews in, 591.
-
-  Arsaces, dynasty of Parthia, 513, 523.
-
-  Artemion, leader of the Jewish revolt against Trajan in Cyprus, 397.
-
-  Ascension (of Christ), doctrine of, 539 f.
-
-  Ashi, 605-11.
-    principal of Sora, 605 ff.
-    redactor of the Talmud, 607-9.
-    view on the coming of the Messiah, 610 f.
-
-  Asia Minor, Talmudic schools in, 358 f.
-
-  Assi, 531, 534, 537.
-
-  Assidæans. See Essenes.
-
-  Astronomy, 521.
-
-  Augustine, hatred of the Jews, 625.
-
-  Augustus (Octavianus), 101-3.
-    death, 135.
-    extends the territory of Judæa, 103.
-
-  Augustus (Octavianus), favors shown to the Jews of Egypt, 102.
-    to those of Rome, 103.
-    gracious to Herod, 101, 103.
-
-
-  Baâle Trêsin, 356.
-
-  Babylonia, becomes second home of the Jews, 503.
-    different meanings of the word in Jewish history, 504.
-    division of the Jewish province in it, 505 ff.
-
-  Babylonia, Jews in, 503.
-    become heads of schools in Judæa, 537.
-    decline of learning, 626.
-    effect of the sojourn of the Jews in it on their mind and
-          character, 504.
-    martyrs, 629.
-    occupations, 508.
-    persecutions, 508 f., 591 f., 627-30.
-    political condition, 508 ff.
-    progress, 544.
-    purity of descent, 505.
-    resist Trajan, 393 f., 397.
-    study the Law in Judæa, 511 f., 518, 531.
-    surpass the Jews in Judæa, 503.
-
-  Babylonian colony of Jews in Galilee, devoted to the Herodian
-        family, 274.
-    part played in the war with Rome, 275.
-
-  Babylonian prince of captivity. See Princes of Captivity.
-
-  Babylonian schools. See Schools.
-
-  Babylonian Synhedrion, 143 f.
-
-  Bar-Cochba, 409 ff. See Revolt against Hadrian.
-
-  Barnabas (apostle), 227.
-
-  Barnabas, Jose of Cyprus, 219.
-
-  Bassus, procurator of Judæa, 315.
-
-  Bath-Kol, 337.
-
-  Be-Rab, 514.
-
-  Bechirta, 343.
-
-  Bekiim, seat of a school, 348.
-
-  Bene-Bathyra, chosen president of the Synhedrion by Herod, 90.
-    in Nisibis, 358.
-
-  Bene-Berak, seat of Akiba, 355.
-
-  Berachoth, eighteen, introduced by Gamaliel II, 363.
-
-  Berenice, daughter of Salome and wife of Aristobulus, 112.
-
-  Berenice, sister of Agrippa II, 235 ff.
-    alleviates the sorrows of the conquered Jews, 332 f.
-
-  Berenice, fall, 388.
-    honored at Athens with a statue, 317.
-    intercession with Florus, 254.
-    relation to Vespasian and Titus, 299 f., 317.
-
-  Beth-Din, after the fall of Judæa, 325.
-
-  Bethar, 416 ff.
-
-  Bethshean, conflict between Jews and heathens in, 262 f.
-
-  Beth-Shearim, seat of the Synhedrion, 452.
-
-  Bible, interpretation of by Christians, 488 f., 499, 501.
-    knowledge of, among Jews and Christians, 623 ff.
-    cultivated in Judæa, 623 ff.
-    neglect of, 536 f.
-
-  Birchath ha Minim, 379 f.
-
-  Bishops of Rome, 500.
-
-  Boëthus and Boëthuseans, 108, 237.
-
-  Boraita, 470 f.
-
-  Bruria, wife of Meïr, 436.
-
-  Burial in Judæa, merits attributed to, 548, 576.
-
-
-  Cæsar and Judæa, 75-77.
-    benevolence to the Jews, 76.
-
-  Cæsarea, affray between Jews and Syrian-Greeks, 246, 252, 262.
-    founded by Herod, 106 f.
-    Jews deprived of their civil rights, 247.
-    Jews join in the races of the stadium, 626.
-
-  Cæsarea Philippi, 138.
-
-  Caiaphas, Joseph, high priest, 163, 172.
-
-  Cainites (Gnostic sect), 375.
-
-  Calendar, 362.
-    of Hillel II, 573 f.
-    of Mar-Samuel, 521 f., 574.
-
-  Caligula demands divine honors, 183, 187.
-    orders his statue to be put in the Temple of Jerusalem, 188 f.
-    reason of his hatred of the Jews, 187.
-    relation to Agrippa I, 176 f.
-    to Judæa, 174 f.
-    treatment of a Jewish embassy from Alexandria, 187.
-
-  Camith, family of high priests, 237.
-
-  Canon of Holy Writings completed, 344.
-
-  Cantheras, family of high priests, 237.
-
-  Caracalla, tolerable condition of the Jews under rule of, 468 f.
-
-  Catholic Church, when created, 500.
-
-  Census on Passover in Jerusalem, called the census of crushing, 251.
-    of Quirinus, 129 ff.
-    census taken by Rome for taxation, 129, 133.
-
-  Chama, principal of Pumbeditha, 594 f.
-
-  Chama ben Anilaï, model of Jewish charity, 545 f.
-
-  Chanina, deputy of the high priest (Segan ha-Cohanim), 330.
-
-  Chanina ben Chama, 490-2.
-
-  Chanina ben Teradion, 427.
-    died a martyr under Hadrian, 429.
-
-  Chares, leader in the war of revolution at Gamala, 289.
-
-  Chasda of Cafri, principal of the school of Babylonia, 552 f.
-
-  Chebrim (Guebres), 523.
-
-  Chiya, 454 f.
-
-  Chiya bar Abba, 536 f.
-
-  Chrestus (Christian Apostle), 202, 231.
-
-  Christianity and Christians, 141 ff.
-    ascendancy of, 531, 535.
-    beginning, 141 ff.
-    compared with Judaism, 383.
-    composite nature of its teachings, 373 f.
-    controversies with Jews, 499 ff., 539 f.
-    creation of the Catholic Church, 500.
-    dogmas, 500 f.
-    fanaticism against Jews, 613, 618 ff.
-    essence: Essenism intermingled with foreign elements, 142,
-          170 f., 366.
-    hatred of Judaism, 562, 625 f.
-    methods of proselytizing, 562.
-    peculiarities, 168 f.
-    persecuted by Diocletian, 533 f., 539.
-    proselytism, 169, 364, 533.
-    sectarianism, 365, 373.
-    separation from Judaism, 431, 563 ff.
-    split into a Judaic Christian and heathen-Christian sect, 232,
-          365 ff.
-    triumph over the Roman empire and paganism, 559 ff.
-    union with the Roman empire and its results, 566.
-
-  Christianity, why it gained converts, 383.
-
-  Christianity and Christians, Jewish, attitude towards the Law, 365.
-    called Ebionites, 168 f., 220.
-    Nazarenes, 168.
-    condemned by Samuel Hakaton, 358.
-    discussed in the Synhedrion of Jabne, 379 f.
-    divisions, 370.
-    incursions in Judaism, 378.
-    measures taken against, 382, 412 f.
-    not referred to in the Mishna, 476.
-    persecuted by Hadrian, 430 f.
-    points of difference from pagan Christianity, 365 ff.
-    relation to Jews and Judaism, 390, 412.
-    union with pagan Christians, 431.
-
-  Christian emperors, their attitude to Jews and Judaism, 561 ff.,
-        566 ff., 602 f., 612 ff.
-
-  Christian school of Alexandria, 488.
-
-  Christians in Antioch, honor Jewish institutions, 613 f.
-
-  Chrysostom, fanaticism against the Jews, 613 f.
-
-  Churches, first, which were built in Galilee, 565.
-
-  Chuzpit, public interpreter (Meturgeman) and martyr under Hadrian,
-        357, 429.
-
-  Cicero, hostility against the Jews, 68-70, 179.
-
-  Circumcision, prohibited, 422, 424.
-
-  Citizenship, Roman, full right of, extended by Caracalla, 468.
-
-  Civil war in Judæa, 295.
-    See also War of Revolution.
-
-  Claudius banishes the Jews from Rome, 202.
-    favorably disposed towards the Jews of the Roman empire, 191.
-    friendship to Agrippa I, 190.
-    relation to Judæa, 197.
-
-  Clemens, Flavius, convert to Judaism, 387.
-    executed, 389.
-
-  Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, antagonism to Herod, 92, 94.
-    death, 102.
-    hostile to the Judæans, 102.
-
-  Cleopatra, mother of Ptolemy VIII, relation to Judæa, 10, 40 f.
-
-  Clergy, Christian, fanaticism against the Jews, 612 ff.
-
-  Coins struck, in honor of Agrippa I, 190, 194.
-    by Alexander Jannæus, 46.
-    by Alexander II, 70.
-    by Antigonus, 83.
-    by Aristobulus, 35.
-    by Bar-Cochba, 411.
-    in honor of Hadrian, commemorating his victory over Bar-Cochba, 419.
-    by Hadrian, 407.
-    by Hyrcanus, 12.
-    Roman, commemorating the overthrow of Judæa, 314.
-    commemorating Nerva's act of toleration to the Jews, 392.
-    by Salome Alexandra, 48.
-    of the war of revolution, 292.
-    by the Zealots, 268, 269.
-
-  Commands, the six hundred and thirteen of the Jewish Law, 499.
-
-  Consecration, feast of, celebrated in the Jewish community of
-        Egypt, 6.
-
-  Constantine, discriminations against the Jews, 562 ff.
-    edict of toleration, 561.
-    forbids the Jews to make converts, 562.
-    re-enacts the decrees of Hadrian against the Jews, 564.
-
-  Constantius, oppresses the Jews, 566 f.
-    forbids the Jews to make converts and to marry Christian women, 567.
-
-  Coponius, first procurator of Judæa, 129, 135.
-
-  Council, the Great, when called Synhedrion, 71.
-    See Synhedrion.
-
-  Council of Nice, 563.
-    incorporates apocryphal books in the Canon, 624.
-
-  Crassus plunders the Temple, 74.
-
-  Ctesiphon, 506 f.
-
-  Cumanus, procurator of Judæa, 241 ff.
-
-  Cypros, wife of Agrippa I, 175.
-
-  Cyprus, revolt against Trajan, 397.
-
-  Cyrene, uprising of the Jews in, 331.
-    revolt against Trajan, 395.
-
-  Cyril of Alexandria, fanaticism against the Jews, 618 f.
-
-  Cyzicenus, Antiochus, King of Syria, hostility to Judæa, 9.
-    defeated by Hyrcanus I, 10, 40.
-
-  Daniel, book of, how considered by Christians and Porphyry, 502.
-    applications made of his prophecies and visions, 494 f., 527, 598.
-
-  Dead, burial denied to, by Hadrian, 430.
-
-  Dedication, feast of (Chanuka), observed by the heathen, 384.
-
-  Dio Cassius, account of the war of Bar-Cochba, 418 f.
-
-  Diocletian, attitude towards the Patriarch, 533 f.
-    not unfavorably disposed towards the Jews, 533.
-    persecutes Christians and Samaritans, 533 f., 539.
-
-  Diogenes, Sadducæan and favorite of Alexander Jannæus, 42, 45, 55.
-
-  Divorce, ordinance of Meïr concerning, 439;
-    restricted, 50.
-
-  Documents in Judæa, dated according to the reign of the Roman
-        emperors, 134.
-
-  Domitian, 345.
-    decrees against the Jews, 387-9.
-    persecution of proselytes to Judaism, 384, 389.
-
-  Drusilla, sister of Agrippa II, apostate, and wife of the procurator
-        Felix, 235 f., 245.
-
-
-  Earthquake in Judæa, 61.
-
-  Easter, Christian, and Jewish Passover, separated by the Church, 563.
-
-  Ebionites, 168 f., 220, 366.
-    See also Christianity, Jewish.
-
-  Ecclesiastes (Kohelet), book of, discussion concerning its holiness,
-        343 f.
-
-  Egypt, Jews in, revolt against Trajan, 395-8.
-    See also Alexandria.
-
-  Eighteen things, the, of Shammai, concerning the relation of Jews
-        to the heathen, 270.
-
-  Eleazar ben Ananias, gives the first impulse to the uprising
-        against Rome;
-    leader of the Zealots, 256, 270.
-
-  Eleazar ben Arach, disciple of Jochanan ben Zakkai, 326, 334.
-
-  Eleazar ben Azariah, 345.
-    elected patriarch of Jabne, 342.
-
-  Eleazar ben Dinai, leader of a band of Zealots, 238.
-
-  Eleazar ben Jair, leader of the Sicarii, 239, 315.
-
-  Eleazar of Modin, killed by Bar-Cochba, 417 f.
-
-  Eleazar ben Poira, reprimands Hyrcanus I, 32.
-
-  Eleazar, son of Simon ben Jochai, 457.
-    delivers the freebooters to the Romans, 464 f.
-
-  Eleazar, head of the Zealots, his part in the war of revolution,
-        258 f.
-
-  Eleazar ben Simon, ultra-Zealot, 270.
-
-  Elegabalus, emperor, favorable attitude towards Judaism, 469 f.
-
-  Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, character, 346 f.
-    disciple of Jochanan ben Zaccai, 334, 346.
-    excommunicated by Gamaliel, 339 f.
-    upholder of tradition, 356.
-
-  Eliezer of Modin, authority on Agadic explanations, 357.
-
-  Embassies, Judæan, to Rome, 126 f., 197 f., 449.
-    from Alexandria, 184 ff.
-
-  Emigration of Jews to India, 629 f.
-
-  Essenes, 23-31.
-    ablutions and celibacy, 25 f.
-    ceremonies of initiation, 31.
-    communism, 25, 145, 150.
-    dress, 26.
-    derivation of the name, 26.
-    disapprove of oath, 27 f., 108.
-      of war, 25.
-    final aim, 28 f.
-    idea of the Messiah, 145.
-    mysticism, 28.
-    occupy themselves with cures, exorcisms, etc., 29.
-    origin, from the Assidæans, 24.
-    number, 30.
-    prophetic power ascribed to them, 100.
-    relation to Christianity, 219 f.
-    to the Pharisees, the Temple and national life, 30.
-    settlement, 25.
-    strict observance of the Sabbath and the Levitical laws of
-          cleanliness, 24 f.
-
-  Eusebius, fanaticism against the Jews, 527, 562.
-
-  Excommunication (Nidui), 339.
-    laws about, 552.
-    in Babylon, 517.
-
-  Exile, Roman (Galut Edom), compared with that of Babylonia, 321.
-
-  Exorcism, practice of, in Christianity, 170.
-
-
-  Fadus, procurator of Judæa after Agrippa I's death, 197 f.
-
-  Fathers of the Church, hatred of the Jews, 525 ff., 562, 613, 620,
-        623 ff.
-
-  Felix, governor of Galilee, 242 f.
-    of Judæa, 245 f.
-
-  Festivals, calculations of the dates of, 325, 340, 362 f., 532, 573.
-    second day celebrated by the Jews outside of Judæa, 363, 573.
-
-  Festus, procurator of Judæa, 247 ff.
-
-  Firuz (Pheroces), persecutes the Babylonian Jews, 628-30.
-
-  Fiscus Judaicus (Jewish taxes for Rome), 316.
-
-  Flaccus, governor of Egypt, persecutes the Jews, 181-3.
-
-  Florus, Gessius, procurator of Judæa, 249 ff.
-    avarice, 250, 253.
-    cruelty, 254.
-    indulgent to the Sicarii, 250.
-    treachery, 255.
-
-  Fulvia, Roman convert to Judaism, 136.
-
-  Funeral, expenses and outfit of, 404.
-
-  Future life, in the Mishna, 473.
-
-
-  Gabinius, Aulus, in Judæa, 70 f.
-
-  Galba, emperor, 299.
-
-  Galilee adopts many heathen superstitions, 148.
-    corruptness of its language, 148 f.
-    description of, 272.
-    mental condition at the time of Jesus, 148 f.
-    stricter morality and observance of laws and customs than in
-          Judæa, 148.
-
-  Galilee in the war of revolution, 272 ff.
-    Gischala, focus of the revolution in Galilee, 272.
-    taken by the Romans, 290.
-    Mount Tabor, 290.
-
-  Galilean fugitives in Jerusalem, 291.
-
-  Galilee recovers after the fall of Judæa, 333.
-
-  Gallus, Cestius, Governor of Syria, 250 f., 257.
-    battle with the Zealots, 265 f.
-
-  Gamala, 273, 289 f.
-
-  Gamala, besieged, 289 f.
-    focus of the revolution in Galilee, 273.
-
-  Gamaliel I, president of the Synhedrion, 192 f.
-
-  Gamaliel II, president of Jabne, 334 ff.
-    arranger, 356.
-    character, 336, 344.
-    contest with Joshua, 340 ff.
-    death and funeral, 404.
-    deposed, 341.
-    employs excommunication, 339.
-    in Rome, 387, 392.
-    reinstated in the dignity of patriarch, 345.
-    severity, 338 ff.
-    two regulations, 338 f.
-    work for the union of the schools, 335 ff.
-
-  Gamaliel III, sayings, 467 f.
-
-  Gamaliel IV, 532 ff.
-
-  Gamaliel V, 612.
-
-  Gamaliel the last, 612, 617.
-
-  Genseric, prince of the Vandals, and the vessels of the Temple, 611.
-
-  Mt. Gerizim, temple of Jupiter erected on, 422.
-
-  Gischala, 272, 290. See also Galilee.
-
-  Gnosticism and Gnostics, 374-81.
-    combated by Akiba, 381.
-    doctrines, 375 ff.
-    influence on Jewish circles, 377, 380 f.
-    sects, 374 f.
-
-  Gratus, Valerius, procurator of Judæa, 135 ff.
-
-  Greek culture and language, attitude of the Rabbis to, 400, 537 f.
-
-  Greek Jews become preachers and missionaries of Christianity, 220 f.
-
-  Greek translations of the Bible, 385 ff., 488 f.
-
-  Greeks of Alexandria, hostility of, to Jews and Judaism, 178 ff.
-
-
-  Habakkuk, book of, apocryphal additions to, 624.
-
-  Hadrian, 399-432.
-    and the Christians, 430 f.
-    cruel measures against the dead, 430.
-    death, 432.
-    decrees against the Jews, 421.
-
-  Hadrian disappoints the Jews concerning the restoration of the
-        Temple, 403 f.
-    inaugurates a religious persecution against the Jews, 426.
-    journey through Judæa, 406.
-    makes Jerusalem a pagan city, 407.
-    policy against the Jews after the war of Bar-Cochba, 422.
-    yielding to the Jews, 400 f.
-
-  Halacha, 328 ff.
-    compilers of, 470.
-    relation to Agada and Midrash, 329.
-    systematic grouping of, by Akiba, 353 f.
-
-  Havayot d'Abayi ve Raba, 585.
-
-  Heathen, difference of attitude towards them between Hillelites
-        and Shammaites, 270.
-    laws concerning them, 476-8.
-    relaxing of the laws against them, 525 f.
-
-  Hebrew language, knowledge of, cultivated in Judæa, 623 ff.
-    spoken by the population of Judæa, 461 f.
-
-  Hebrews, epistle to, 371.
-
-  Helen of Adiabene, proselyte and benefactress in Jerusalem, 218 f.
-
-  Helkias and Ananias, sons of Onias, and generals of Cleopatra, 10,
-        40 f.
-
-  Hereditary sin, doctrine of, 229.
-
-  Herod, 77-120.
-    betrothed to Mariamne, 81.
-    building of the Temple, 109-11.
-    children, 119.
-    cities and buildings erected by him, 105-7.
-    cringing policy towards Rome, 89, 127.
-    cruelty, 87, 89, 115.
-    death, 116 f.
-    discord in his family, 119 f., 177.
-    disease, 111, 115 f.
-    distrust of his people, 108, 111.
-    escapes from Judæa to Rome, 83.
-    executes Hyrcanus, 96.
-    exhausts the people by taxation, 107.
-    governor of Coelesyria, 79.
-    governor of Galilee, 77.
-    introduces games into Jerusalem, 105.
-    judgment of Augustus on him, 116.
-    last bloody orders with regard to the nobles of Judæa, 116.
-    love of pomp and display, 105, 109.
-    proclaimed king of Judæa by the Senate of Rome, 86.
-    relation to his children, 112-4, 116.
-    relation of the Pharisees to him, 114 f.
-    struggle for the crown of Judæa, 87 f.
-    suicidal attempt, 116.
-    before the Synhedrion, 78.
-    will concerning Judæa, 119 f.
-
-  Herod II, 173.
-    death, 199.
-    prince of Chalcis in Lebanon, 190, 196 f.
-    titular king of Judæa, 197, 199.
-
-  Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Peræa, 137.
-    beheads John the Baptist, 147.
-
-  Herodias, wife of Antipas, 175.
-    dies in exile, 177.
-
-  Hieronymus (Jerome), studies Hebrew with Rabbis, 623 f.
-
-  High priests, frequent change of, 137, 249.
-    right of appointment reserved by Rome, 172.
-
-  High-priesthood, corruption and degradation, 236 f., 246, 249.
-    dignity of, inherent in certain families, 237.
-    strife for it, 237.
-
-  Hillel, 96-130.
-    appointed president of the Synhedrion by Herod, 96.
-    character, 96 f.
-    death, 30.
-    descent from David, 96.
-    disciple of Shemaya and Abtalion, 96, 98.
-    his expositions attain authority, 338.
-    founder of Talmudic Judaism, 327.
-    gives the Oral Law a rational basis, by introducing the seven
-          rules, 98.
-    maxims, 97.
-    modifies the laws concerning the year of release, 100.
-    part played in the Paschal controversy, 99.
-    presidency hereditary in his family, 130.
-
-  Hillel, school of, 131.
-
-  Hillel II, 560.
-    act of self-renunciation, 572 f.
-    and Joseph, the apostate, 565 f.
-    calendar, 573 f.
-
-  Hillelites, belong to the peace party, 256.
-
-  History, cultivated under the Hasmonæans, 15 f.
-
-  Honorius, emperor of the West, laws of, against the Jews, 616 f.
-
-  Huna, principal of the school of Sora, 545-8.
-    charity, 546 f.
-    death, 548.
-
-  Huna ben Chiya, principal of the school of Pumbeditha, 576 f.
-
-  Huna-Mari, Prince of the Captivity and martyr, 629.
-
-  Hypatia, 619.
-
-  Hyrcanus I, John, 1-34.
-    ambitious, 13.
-    assures the independence of Judæa, 11.
-    campaign against the Parthians, 5.
-    coins, 12.
-    compared to Solomon, 1, 11, 34.
-    condition of the people under his reign, 13-17.
-    destroys the Samaritan temple on Mt. Gerizim, 8.
-    embassy sent by him to Rome, 4 f., 9.
-    employs mercenaries, 7.
-    expels the Hellenists and destroys Samaria, 11.
-    extends the boundaries of Judæa, 11 f.
-    forces Judaism on the Idumæans, 8.
-    reprimanded by Eleazar ben Poira, 32.
-    relation to the religious parties, 31 ff.
-    wars, 7-11.
-
-  Hyrcanus II, 57 ff.
-    contest with Aristobulus II, 57-66.
-    arrangement between them, 58.
-    broken by Hyrcanus, 59.
-    characters of both contrasted, 57 f.
-    interference of Rome, 61 ff.
-    part played by Antipater, 59 ff.
-    rise of a republican party in Judæa, 63.
-    his ears mutilated by the Parthians, 82.
-    executed by Herod, 96.
-
-  Hyrcanus, son of Alexander Jannæus, high priest, 48.
-
-
-  Idumæans forced to accept Judaism, 8 f.
-    part played by them in the war of revolution, 295, 298, 301.
-
-  Images, Roman, introduced by Pilate into Jerusalem, 139.
-    of the emperor put up in the synagogues of Alexandria, 183.
-
-  Independence, Judæan, when lost, 66.
-
-  Indo-Jewish colonists, 629 f.
-
-  Informers, 425 f., 464 f., 570.
-
-  Iron, its use in the erecting of an altar, why forbidden, 329.
-
-  Isebab, martyr under Hadrian, 429.
-
-  Ishmael ben Elisha, 355 f.
-    clear thinker, 356.
-    death (martyrdom), 356, 427.
-    mildness, 423 f.
-    system, 355 f.
-    view, his, on Jewish Christianity, 378.
-
-  Isidorus, leader of an uprising against the Jews in Alexandria, 181.
-
-  Izates, prince of Adiabene, convert to Judaism, 216 f.
-
-
-  Jabne (Jamnia), seat of the school and Synhedrion after the fall
-        of Jerusalem, 324 ff.
-    See Schools and Synhedrion.
-
-  James, brother of Jesus, 169, 222.
-
-  Jerusalem after the war of Bar-Cochba, 421 f.
-    Jews forbidden to enter it, 422, 564.
-    ploughed, 421.
-    See also War of Revolution.
-
-  Jesus of Nazareth, 148-68.
-    addresses himself to the neglected and the outcast, 152, 165.
-    adopts Essene principles, 150 f., 154.
-    aim and purpose, 151, 155.
-    attitude towards Judaism and the heathen world, 155 f.
-    before the court of justice, 163 f.
-    before Pilate, 164.
-    character, 149.
-    claims to be the Messiah and son of God, 158 f.
-    condition of Galilee at his time, 148.
-    death and its effects, 165.
-    descent, 148.
-    disciple of John the Baptist, 148.
-    disciples, his, to which class they belonged, 153 f., 160.
-    education and mental culture, 148 f.
-
-  Jesus in Jerusalem, and why he went there, 160-3.
-    merits, his, wherein they consist, 156.
-    miraculous deeds, 156 f.
-    reason of opposition to him, 161 f.
-    religiousness, 149 f.
-    resurrection, belief in his, 168.
-    Rome's part in his death, 164 f., 171.
-    teachings, 150, 154 ff.
-    victim to a misunderstanding, 165.
-    when public sentiment rose against him, 159.
-    work, 152 f., 157.
-
-  Jesus ben Sapphia, leader in the revolution at Tiberias, 274.
-
-  Jews in Alexandria. See Alexandria.
-
-  Jews in Armenia, 591.
-
-  Jews and Christians, connection between them severed, 431.
-
-  Jews and heathen, hatred between them, 262 ff., 313 f.
-
-  Jews prohibited from entering Jerusalem, 422, 564.
-
-  Jews, inner life of, after the fall of Judæa, 322, 360-5.
-
-  Jews, moral and religious condition of the middle class of, 146, 151.
-
-  Jews in Rome, 67-9.
-    after the war of revolution, 316.
-    religious persecution of, 137 f.
-
-  Jews and Samaritans, hatred between them, 135, 243 ff.
-
-  Jews, significance of their dispersion in the Roman empire and in
-        Parthia, 200 f.
-
-  Jews' tax (fiscus Judaicus), 332. See Taxes.
-
-  Jezdijird, king of Persia, friendly attitude towards the Jews, 609 f.
-
-  Jezdijird III, persecutes the Jews of Babylonia, 627 f.
-
-  Job, book of, view of Simon ben Lakish on, 497.
-
-  Jochanan bar Napacha, 492-5.
-
-  Jochanan ben Zakkai, 322-33.
-    abolishes the ritual of suspected adultery, 238.
-    abolishes the sin-offering for the shedding of innocent blood, 239.
-    becomes vice-president of the Synhedrion, 240.
-    burnt-offerings, his view on their value, 324.
-    character, 331.
-    combats the Sadducees, 323.
-    compared with Jeremiah and Zerubbabel, 333.
-    death, 333.
-    disciples, 326.
-    establishes the school of Jabne, 324 f.
-    heir of Hillel's mind, 323.
-    holds converse with pagans, 329.
-    joins the peace party, 323.
-    nine changes made by him, 326.
-    school, his, at Jerusalem, 323.
-    teachings, 326 ff.
-    why he sided with Rome, 329.
-    work, his, after the fall of Judæa, 322 ff.
-
-  John the Baptist, an Essene, 145 ff., 150.
-    beheaded by Herod Antipas, 147.
-    not hindered in his work by the Pharisees, 147.
-
-  John of Gischala, leader in the revolution, character, 273, 296 f.
-    death, 314.
-    conduct as general, 290, 304.
-
-  John, son of Zebedee, 169, 222.
-
-  Jonathan, leader of the Sadducees, 31, 33.
-
-  Jonathan, son of Uziel, 131.
-
-  José, principal of the school of Pumbeditha, completes the
-        compilation of the Talmud, 630.
-
-  José ben Chalafta, 442.
-
-  José, the Galilean, 357.
-
-  José ben Kisma, 426 f.
-
-  Joseph the Apostate, 564 ff.
-
-  Joseph ben Chiya, principal of the school of Pumbeditha, 577 f.,
-        581-3.
-
-  Joseph of Gamala, leader in the revolution, 289.
-
-  Joseph ben Gorion, general in the war of revolution, 271.
-
-  Joseph ben Matthias. See Josephus.
-
-  Josephus, Flavius (Joseph ben Matthias), 276 ff.
-    accused with the Synhedrion, 281.
-    adherent of Agrippa II, 278, 280.
-    associates with the Essenes, 276.
-    character, 280, 282 f., 288, 302.
-    death, 391.
-    devoted to Rome, 277.
-    education, 276 f.
-    governor of Galilee during the revolution, 271 ff., 277.
-    history of the war, written by him, 319.
-    John of Gischala, compared to, 285 f.
-
-  Josephus, Flavius, promoter of the revolution, 278.
-    religious zeal, 279.
-    sows discord in Galilee, 281, 283.
-    surrenders to Vespasian, 288.
-    weakens Galilee, 283, 286.
-    uprising against him in Galilee, 280.
-    writings, his, 389 f.
-
-  Joshua, disciple of Jochanan ben Zakkai, 326, 337.
-
-  Joshua ben Chananya, 404 f.
-    character, 348 ff.
-    conciliator, 356.
-    conversations with Hadrian, 406 f.
-    dissuades from rebellion, 403, 407.
-    establishes the school of Bekiim, 348 ff.
-    intermediary between the Jewish nation and Roman intolerance, 350.
-    supposed to have been patriarch, 350.
-
-  Joshua ben Gamala, high priest, establishes schools, 249.
-    executed by the Zealots, 296.
-
-  Joshua ben Levi, 486, 492, 497 f., 530.
-
-  Joshua, son of Perachia, 20.
-
-  Joshua Phabi, high priest, deposed by Herod, 107.
-
-  Jotapata, fortress in Galilee, 286 f.
-
-  Jovianus, emperor, grants toleration, 602.
-
-  Judæa, annexed to Syria, 73, 128.
-    condition after Agrippa I's death, 197 ff.
-    condition after the war of revolution, 332, 360.
-    confusion of, after Herod's death, 119, 123-5.
-    divided by Herod among his three sons, 119.
-    divided into five legislative provinces, 71.
-    divided by Vespasian into lots, 312.
-    recovers its full extent under Agrippa I, 190.
-    sufferings of, under Constantius, 568 f.
-    uprisings against Rome, 73, 88, 123 ff., 198, 242, 246, 255.
-    when it lost its independence, 66.
-
-  Judah I, patriarch (Rabbi), 450-67.
-    assumes autocratic authority, 452 f.
-    attitude towards the Samaritans, 457.
-    changes introduced by him, 457-9.
-    charity, 451.
-    completes and compiles the Mishna, 460.
-    death, 465-7.
-    education, his, 450 f.
-    severity and irritability, 454-6.
-
-  Judah II, 479-87.
-    and Alexander Severus, 482.
-    character, 485-7.
-    death, 487.
-    moderation of laws introduced by him, 483 f.
-
-  Judah III, 533 ff.
-
-  Judah IV, 612.
-
-  Judah ben Baba, martyr under Hadrian, 429.
-
-  Judah ben Ezekiel, principal of the schools of Pumbeditha and Sora,
-        549, 552.
-    method, 550.
-    opinion, his, on the returning of the Jews from Babylonia to
-          Judæa, 551.
-
-  Judah ben Ilai of Usha, 442.
-
-  Judah ben Tabbai, president of the Great Council, 49.
-    resigns the presidency, 54.
-    "Restorer of the Law," 49.
-
-  Judah ben Zippori, 115.
-
-  Judaism, and Greek philosophy, efforts to reconcile them, 208 f.
-    converts to, 383 f.
-    leaning of Romans towards it, 136.
-    movement against it, 178-89.
-    and paganism, 186, 203 ff., 373.
-
-  Judas "the Galilean," 125, 133, 239, 258.
-
-  Judas Iscariot, 163.
-
-  Julian, emperor, 595-603.
-    attitude toward Christianity and Judaism, 596 f.
-    attempts to restore the Temple of Jerusalem, 599-601.
-    epistle to the Jewish communities, 597 f.
-    ideal, his, of government, 595 f.
-
-  Julianus, leader of the revolt against Trajan in Judæa, 395.
-
-  Justus, son of Pistus, historian of the Judæan war, 319 f.
-    leader of the revolution in Tiberias, 274.
-    opponent of Josephus, 390.
-
-
-  Kalba-Sabua, father-in-law of Akiba, 351, 355.
-
-  Kalla == Talmudic lectures, 515.
-
-  Kingdom of God, 143.
-    of heaven, 145, 167, 226.
-
-
-  Lampo, leader of an uprising against the Jews in Alexandria, 181.
-
-  Law, oral (tradition), 327 ff.
-    acquires a settled form through Judah I, 462.
-    becomes a distinguishing feature of Judaism, 608.
-    meaning of the term, 327.
-    observance, its, enforced after the fall of Judæa, 363 f., 479 f.
-    study of (Talmud Torah), highly esteemed, 473 f.
-    set above its practice, 427.
-    and the priesthood, 544.
-    forbidden by Hadrian, 426 f.
-
-  Laws, dietary, observed by the heathen, 384.
-
-  Laws concerning the heathen (Aboda Zara), 476-8.
-
-  Laws against the Romans relaxed under Alexander Severus, 483.
-
-  Laying on of hands, 356.
-
-  Libation of water, ceremony of, on the Feast of Tabernacles, 43, 51.
-
-  Libertini, 68.
-
-  Literature, Judæan, character of, under Hyrcanus I, 15.
-    Judæan-Grecian, 204 ff.
-
-  Longinus, Cassius, in Judæa, 80, 197.
-
-  Longinus, philosopher, 529.
-
-  Lydda, assembly of, after the war of Bar-Cochba, 423.
-    seat of a school, 346, 497, 530.
-
-
-  Maas'se Bereshith, M. Merkaba, 381.
-
-  Maccabees, first book of, written in Hebrew, 16.
-
-  Machuza, city in Babylonia, 506 f.
-    seat of a school, 584.
-    decline, 593.
-
-  Magi of the Neo-Persians, attitude toward the Jews, 627 f.
-
-  Malich poisons Antipater, father of Herod, 80.
-
-  Malo, Apollonius, calumniator of the Jews, 178 ff.
-
-  Manicheans, 627.
-
-  Mar bar-Ashi, principal of the school of Sora, completes the
-        compilation of the Talmud, 628.
-
-  Mar-Sheshet, 553 f.
-
-  Mar-Zutra, 606.
-
-  Marcus Aurelius, 447.
-    attitude toward the Christians, 449.
-    averse to the Jews, 463.
-    permits the Jews to enter Jerusalem, 458.
-
-  Mariamne, granddaughter of Hyrcanus and wife of Herod, 93.
-    executed, 104 f.
-
-  Mariamne, daughter of Simon and wife of Herod, 107.
-
-  Mariamne II, sister of Agrippa II, 235.
-
-  Marriage, lax customs of, among the Babylonian Jews, 516 f.
-
-  Marriages between Jews and Christians forbidden by Constantius, 567.
-
-  Marsus, governor of Syria, 195 f.
-
-  Martyrdom and martyrs, Jewish, under Hadrian, 425-8.
-    in Babylonia, 629.
-
-  Masada, fortress, in the war of revolution, 292 f., 315 f.
-
-  Masechta, meaning of, 354.
-
-  Mata, city in Babylonia, 506.
-
-  Matthias ben Margalot, 115.
-
-  Meïr (Miasa or Moise), 434 ff.
-    method, 438, 476.
-    ordinances, 439.
-    relation to Acher, 437.
-    to the philosopher Euonymus, 437 f.
-    wisdom, 437.
-
-  Memra, term for decisions and deductions, 515.
-
-  Menachem, the Essene, deputy of Hillel, 100.
-
-  Menachem ben Jair, leader of the Sicarii, 239, 243, 258.
-    executed, 261.
-
-  Mercenaries employed in Judæa by Hyrcanus I, 7.
-    by Alexander Jannæus, 39.
-
-  Messiah, ideas of, entertained by the various parties, 144.
-    Joshua ben Levi's idea of, 498.
-    scene of his coming expected to be Judæa, 548.
-    suffering, idea of, 166 f.
-
-  Messianic hopes, 610 f.
-    part they played in the war of revolution, 291 f.
-    what promoted them, 142 ff.
-
-  Messiahs, false, 198, 240 f., 247, 409 ff., 610 f.
-
-  Metibta == Talmudic school, 547.
-
-  Meturgeman (interpreter), 541.
-
-  Middle Ages, when they began for Judaism, 617.
-
-  Midrash, 328 f.
-
-  Migration of nations, 604 f.
-
-  Minim, Minæans == Jewish Christians, 369, 377 ff.
-
-  Mishna, 460 ff.
-    character, 471 ff.
-    tendency, 474 f.
-    ethical and spiritual importance of, 462.
-    judicial feature (legalism), 471-6.
-    style, 489.
-    teaching with regard to future life, 473.
-
-  Mishna of Rabbi Akiba, 354.
-    di Rabbi Judah, 460 ff.
-
-  Mishna Rishona and Acharona, 354.
-
-  Monobaz, prince of Adiabene, converted to Judaism, 216 f.
-
-  Monuments erected in Judæa in honor of Roman emperors, 106, 138.
-
-  Moses, false Messiah in Crete, 611.
-
-
-  Naasites. See Ophites.
-
-  Nachman ben Jacob, 554-7.
-
-  Nachum Gimso, teacher of Akiba, 330 f.
-
-  Nahardea (Naarda), becomes the Jerusalem of Babylonia, 505.
-    seat of a school, 358, 443, 498, 522.
-    demolished by Odenathus, 527.
-
-  Nahar-Pakod, seat of the Babylonian Synhedrion, 443.
-
-  Nares, school of, 593 f.
-
-  Nasi. See Patriarch.
-
-  Nathan of Babylon, 434, 442 f.
-
-  Nazarenes. See Christianity.
-
-  Nechunya ben Hakana, 330 f.
-
-  Neo-Persians, their attitude toward Jews and Christians, 523-6,
-        627 ff.
-
-  Nero, death, 297.
-    in Greece, 284.
-    and the house of Herod, 245.
-
-  Nerva, emperor, friendliness toward the Jews, 391 f.
-
-  New Hebrew (Mishnic) dialect, 461.
-    how distinguished from old Hebrew, 15.
-
-  New moon, fixing the time of, 325, 336, 362 f., 532, 572.
-    manner of announcing it, 362 f.
-
-  Nicator, Demetrius, king of Syria, 5 f.
-
-  Nicolaus of Damascus, friend and historian of Herod, 90, 114.
-    favorable representation of the Jews, 179.
-
-  Niger, hero in the war of revolution, 264, 296.
-
-  Nisibis, 358.
-
-
-  Oath of allegiance to Herod refused by the Shammaites, 108.
-
-  Oath of purgation (Shebuoth hesset), 556.
-
-  Octavianus. See Augustus.
-
-  Odenathus and the Jews, 527 ff.
-
-  Onkelos Targum, 387, 581.
-
-  Ophites (Naasites), Gnostic sect, 375.
-
-  Ordinances of Meïr, 439.
-    of Usha, 405.
-
-  Ordination, 361.
-    prohibited by Hadrian, 426.
-
-  Origen, 501.
-    and Hillel II, 487.
-    work in the interpretation of the Bible (Hexapla), 488 f.
-
-  Osius (Hosius), bishop of Cordova, fanaticism against the Jews, 620.
-
-  Otho, emperor, 299.
-
-
-  Palmyra (Tadmor), 528.
-
-  Papa bar Nachman, principal of the school of Nares, 593 f.
-
-  Papus, leader of the revolt against Trajan in Judæa, 395.
-
-  Parthians, relation of, to Judæa, 82, 447.
-
-  Parthia, conquered by Trajan, 393.
-
-  Parthian empire, Jews in, 503 f.
-
-  Parties, religious, when appeared, 17.
-    See Pharisees and Sadducees.
-
-  Parties of war and peace, 256 ff., 321.
-    See also War of Revolution, Sicarii, Zealots.
-
-  Passover of the "Crushing," 251.
-
-  Patriarch (Nasi), title assumed by Gamaliel, 334.
-
-  Patriarchate, attitude of the Roman government to it, 360 f.,
-        597 f., 613, 616 f.
-    authority and functions, 360-3.
-    decay of, 535, 560.
-    extinction of, 612.
-    influence of, impaired by Christianity, 612 f.
-    tax of, 486 f.
-    titles and privileges of, 560 f., 612, 617 f.
-
-  Patriarchs, enumeration and names of, 618.
-
-  Paul (Saul of Tarsus), 219 ff.
-
-  Paul (Saul of Tarsus), abrogates the Law, 226 f., 229.
-    character, 223.
-    conception of Christianity as the very opposite to Judaism, 230.
-    conversion to Christianity, and its psychological process, 224-6.
-    Christianity, his, different from that of Peter, 230.
-    at Damascus, 226 f.
-    doctrines, 225 ff.
-    energy, 365.
-    fanaticism against the Nazarenes, 221 f., 224.
-    hated by the Jewish Christians, 367 f.
-    hereditary sin, his doctrine of, 229.
-    new direction and stability to Christianity, given by him, 223.
-    missionary travels, 227 f.
-    quarrel between him and the Judaic-Christian apostles, 231.
-    resurrection of Christ, his belief in, 225.
-    teachings, his, gain the victory, 373.
-    what favored his success among the heathen, 228.
-
-  Paul, bishop of Constantinople, intolerance of, 562.
-
-  Paul of Samosata, 529.
-
-  Persecutions, religious, of the Jews, 136 f., 568 ff., 616 f., 622.
-
-  Perso-Roman war, 601 f.
-
-  Pescennius, Niger, emperor, harshness of, against the Jews, 463 f.
-
-  Peshito (Syriac translation of the Bible), 582.
-
-  Peter, Simon (Kephas), 169, 222, 231.
-
-  Petronius, governor of Syria, 188.
-
-  Phabi, family of high priests, 237.
-
-  Pharisees (Parushim), 17 ff.
-    adherents to the Law, 19.
-    and Alexander Jannæus, 39, 42, 44.
-    attitude toward Herod, 114 f.
-    cardinal principle: preservation of Judaism, 18.
-    Divine providence, emphasis laid upon, 18.
-    guardians of Judaism and strict morality, 20.
-    mildness in the administration of justice, 20.
-    name, derivation of, 18.
-    relation to the Essenes, 30.
-    and to other parties, 17-20.
-    reward and punishment after death, their doctrine of, 19.
-
-  Pharisees, tradition, importance ascribed to, 19.
-
-  Phasael, brother of Herod, 80.
-    commits suicide, 82.
-
-  Pheroras, brother of Herod, 112.
-
-  Philip, tetrarch of Batanæa and Trachonitis, 137 f.
-
-  Philo, the Alexandrian, 191 ff.
-    compared with Hillel and Jesus, 214.
-    defends Judaism, 212 f.
-    ambassador to Rome, 184 ff.
-    faithful to Judaism, 210 f.
-    life, his, 185.
-    philosophical system, 211 ff.
-    principal aim, 188.
-    visits Jerusalem, 194.
-
-  Phineas ben Samuel, made high priest by the Zealots, 294 f.
-
-  Pilate, Pontius, procurator of Judæa, 138 ff.
-    cruelty, 171.
-    introduces Roman emblems and insignia into Jerusalem, 139.
-    possesses himself of the treasury of the Temple, 140.
-
-  Pinchas ben Jaïr, 459 f.
-
-  Pirke Aboth, 478.
-
-  Poetry, why not produced under the Maccabees, 15.
-
-  Pompey in Judæa, 63-7.
-    enters the Holy of Holies, 66.
-
-  Poppea Sabina, favors Judaism, 248.
-
-  Porphyry on the book of Daniel, 502.
-
-  Posidonius, Stoic, slanders Judaism, 178.
-
-  Possession by evil spirits, belief in, 29.
-
-  Prayers, formulated, introduced by Gamaliel II, 363.
-
-  Prayers for rain, 541.
-
-  Priestly vestments, kept in charge of the Roman procurators, 129.
-
-  Princes of Captivity in Babylonia (Resh Galutha), arbitrariness, 513.
-    arrogance, 555.
-    neglect of religion, 554.
-    position, dignity and authority, 508-11.
-
-  Procurator in Judæa, authority and duties, 128 f.
-
-  Procurators of Judæa, Albinus, 248.
-    Ambivius, 135.
-    Bassus, 315.
-    Coponius, 135.
-    Cumanus, 241.
-    Fadus, 197.
-  Felix, 242.
-    Festus, 247.
-    Flaccus, 181.
-    Florus, 249.
-    Gratus, 135.
-    Pilate, 138.
-    Rufus, Annius, 135.
-    Rufus, Tinnius, 411.
-    Rufus, Turnus, 421.
-    Silva, 316.
-
-  Prosbol, 100. See also Hillel.
-
-  Proselytes to Judaism, 215 ff.
-    discussion about their admission, 384 f.
-    Jews forbidden to make, 433, 562.
-    persecuted by Domitian, 389.
-
-  Ptolemaïs, besieged by Alexander Jannæus, 40.
-
-  Ptolemy VIII, Lathurus, enmity against Judæa, 10 ff., 40.
-
-  Pumbeditha, capital of Jewish Babylonia, 506.
-    center of North Babylonia, 549.
-    rise of its school, 575 ff.
-
-  Purim, celebration of, 620 f.
-
-
-  Quietus, Lucius, general under Trajan in the revolt of Mesopotamia,
-        397-9.
-    in Judæa, 399 f.
-
-  Quirinus, governor of Syria, takes a census in Judæa, 129 ff.
-
-
-  Rab (Abba-Areka), 470, 484.
-    Agoranomos in Babylonia, 512 f.
-    and Artabanus IV, king of Parthia, 513.
-    career, 511 ff.
-    compared to Hillel, 517.
-    descendants, 518.
-    establishes the school of Sora, 513 ff.
-    humility, 517 f.
-    method of teaching, 515.
-    reforms introduced by him, 516 f.
-    strictness, 513, 515 f., 526.
-
-  Raba, principal of the school of Machuza, 584-93.
-    character, 586-8.
-    method, 590.
-
-  Rabba bar Nachmani and his brothers, 575-81.
-
-  Rabban, title, 325, 335.
-
-  Rabbana, title, 544, 606.
-
-  Rabbi, title, 335, 357.
-    of Judah I, 453.
-    of Judah II, 480.
-
-  Rabina, principal of the school of Sora and last Amora, completes
-        the compilation of the Talmud, 630 f.
-
-  Reket, name for Tiberias, 571.
-
-  Release, year of, laws of, modified, 100, 458 f., 469.
-
-  Religious persecutions. See Persecutions.
-
-  Restoration of the Law. See Simon ben Shetach.
-
-  Resurrection, a matter of contention between the various schools, 225.
-    expected to take place in Judæa, 548.
-
-  Resurrection of Christ, 225.
-
-  Revolts, Jewish, under Antoninus Pius, 447.
-    under Constantius, 569 f.
-    under Hadrian, 399-446.
-    under Trajan, 393-9.
-
-  Rigle == festival season of lectures, 515.
-    == time of paying homage to the Prince of Captivity, 607.
-
-  Rimmon, Plain of, headquarters during the revolts against Trajan
-        and Hadrian, 395, 403, 416.
-
-  Rome adopts Syrian habits, 468.
-
-  Roman eagle over the entrance to the Temple, 111, 115.
-
-  Roman empire, decline of, 527, 560, 604 f.
-    division of, by Theodosius, 615.
-
-  Rufus, Annius, procurator of Judæa, 135.
-
-  Rufus, Tinnius, procurator of Judæa, 411.
-
-  Rufus, Turnus, general of Hadrian and oppressor of the Jews, 421.
-
-  Rules, seven, of Hillel, 356.
-    thirteen of Ishmael, 356.
-
-
-  Sabbath, observed by the heathen, 384.
-
-  Sabinus, plunders the treasury of the Temple, 123.
-
-  Sacrifices, daily, cease, 305.
-
-  Sadducees (Zadukim), 17 ff.
-    attitude toward the daily sacrifices and the laws of cleanliness,
-          23, 52.
-    consider the Pentateuch only as binding, the tradition as of
-          subordinate value, 22.
-    deprived of their seats in the Synhedrion, 50.
-
-  Sadducees, difference between them and the Pharisees in points of
-        ritual, 22 f.
-    form the aristocracy, 21.
-    laxity toward false witnesses, 22.
-    officers of state and army taken from among them, 21.
-    place the national interests above the Law, 21.
-    persecuted under Salome Alexandra, 55.
-    repudiate the idea of judgment after death, 21.
-    relation to the Pharisees, 17 f.
-    rigor in the administration of justice, 22.
-
-  Salome Alexandra, wife of Alexander Jannæus, and regent, 47-56.
-    champion of the Pharisees, 39.
-    coins, 48.
-    death, 56.
-    entrusts the management of affairs to the Pharisees, 48.
-    last independent ruler of Judæa, 56.
-    protects the Sadducees, 55.
-    prosperity of the country under her reign, 48.
-    restoration of the Law, 49-53.
-
-  Salome, sister of Herod, 93, 119, 128.
-    bequeaths her possessions to the Empress Livia, 128.
-    hatred of Mariamne, 104, 112.
-
-  Samaritan Messiah, 171.
-    Torah, 457.
-
-  Samaritans, relation to the Jews: of friendliness, 534.
-    of hatred, 402 f., 457 f.
-    completely excluded from the Jewish community, 534 f.
-    join the Jews in the war of revolution, 268.
-    in the revolt against Hadrian, 410.
-    treachery against the Jews, 417 f.
-
-  Samaritans persecuted by Diocletian, 533 f.
-    worship idols, 439.
-
-  Samuel the younger (Hakatan), 357 f.
-
-  Samuel, Mar (Arioch), 518 ff.
-    attitude toward the heathen, 520.
-    character, 519.
-    decree concerning the law of the land, 519 f.
-    learning and versatility, 521 f.
-    and Shabur I, 520.
-
-  Sassanides, dynasty of, 523.
-
-  Satan and demons, belief in, among the early Christians, 170.
-
-  Scaurus, legate of Pompey, arbitrates between Hyrcanus II and
-        Aristobulus II, 61.
-
-  Schools of the Talmud, 324 ff.
-
-  Schools of Babylonia, 544 ff.
-    decline, 593 ff.
-    deterioration of manners of the teachers, 588 f.
-    estrangement between the teachers and the people, 588 ff.
-    hierarchy and dignitaries, 547.
-    independence of the schools of Judæa, 548.
-    opposition to the schools of Judæa, 557.
-    superiority over the schools of Judæa, 531 f., 537, 544, 560.
-    teachers, 454.
-    two methods of instruction, 574.
-
-  Schools in Judæa, 324 ff.
-    in Jabne, 324 ff.
-    in other places, 335.
-    decline of the Judæan schools, 543, 548 f., 560.
-    oppressed by hostile Christianity, 611.
-
-  Schools, Babylonian and Judæan, their different methods, 557 f.
-
-  Schools outside of Judæa and Babylonia, in Asia Minor and
-        Alexandria, 358 f.
-
-  Schools of Shammai and Hillel, 101, 335 f.
-
-  Schools, prohibited by Hadrian, 426.
-
-  Second day of feasts, celebrated by the Jews outside of Judæa,
-        363, 573.
-
-  Secret scrolls, 461.
-
-  Seder Olam, 442.
-
-  Sepphoris, capital of Galilee, 137.
-    destroyed under Constantius, 570.
-    seat of the principal school and the Synhedrion under Judah I, 452.
-    sympathizes with Rome, 276, 283, 414.
-
-  Septuagint, 625. See also Greek translations of the Bible.
-
-  Seth, family of high priests, 237.
-
-  Severus, emperor, laws against Jews and Christians, 464.
-
-  Severus, bishop of Magona (Mahon), fanaticism against the Jews, 619 f.
-
-  Severus, Julius, general of the Roman army against Bar-Cochba, 414 ff.
-
-  Shabur I, 520, 526.
-
-  Shabur II, 580 ff.
-    and Chama of Nahardea, 594 f.
-    oppresses the Jews in Babylonia, 591 f.
-
-  Shaliach Zion, 535.
-
-  Shammai, 100 f.
-    hatred of the heathen, 132.
-    school of, 131 ff.
-    forms the nucleus of the Zealot faction, 133, 256.
-    erects a barrier between Jews and heathen, 270.
-    harsh and repellant to proselytes to Judaism, 132.
-    has the majority in the Synhedrion, 132 f.
-    rigor, 131 ff.
-
-  Shammaites and Hillelites, 270.
-
-  Shechem (Neapolis), 7, 457.
-
-  Shemaya, 71.
-    president of the Synhedrion, 79.
-
-  Shila, principal of the school of Nahardea, 512.
-
-  Sibylline books and sayings, 95, 204 f., 402, 462, 610.
-
-  Sicarii, revolutionary party, 239, 242.
-    cruelty, 249, 261.
-    nefarious practices, 239.
-    put a Roman garrison to death, 258.
-
-  Sidetes, Antiochus, of Syria, besieges Jerusalem, 3 f.
-    expedition against the Parthians, 5.
-
-  Sidra == school, 514.
-
-  Silas, the Babylonian, hero in the war of revolution, 264.
-
-  Silva, procurator of Judæa, 316.
-
-  Simlaï, 498 ff.
-    controversies with the Fathers of the Church, 501 f.
-
-  Simon Bar-Giora, patriot and leader in the war of revolution, 264.
-    character, 293.
-    death, 314.
-    heroism, 313.
-    in Jerusalem, 297 f.
-
-  Simon ben Gamaliel, president of the Synhedrion, 240.
-    sides with the war party, 269.
-
-  Simon II, patriarch, 443 f.
-    ambition, 444 f.
-    patriarchate, 445.
-
-  Simon ben Jochai, 434, 447 ff.
-    ambassador to Rome, 449.
-    rational system, 440 f.
-
-  Simon Bar-Kappara, wit, 455 f., 466.
-
-  Simon ben-Lakish (Resh Lakish), 49-57.
-    and Judah II, 488 f.
-    view on the book of Job, 497.
-
-  Simon Magus, a nickname of Paul, 368.
-
-  Simon ben Shetach, brother-in-law of Alexander Jannæus, 39.
-    crucifies 80 women for witchcraft, 54.
-    mediator between the Pharisees and Sadducees, 42.
-    president of the Synhedrion, 54.
-    promoter of instruction, 50.
-    "Restorer of the Law," 49.
-    his son condemned through false witnesses, 54 f.
-
-  Simon, martyr under Hadrian, 427.
-
-  Simon Stylites, fanaticism against the Jews, 621.
-
-  Sin offering for shedding of innocent blood abrogated, 239.
-
-  Sirach, 359.
-
-  Song of Songs (Shir-Hashirim), discussion about its holiness, 343 f.
-
-  Sopheric teachers, 327.
-
-  Sora, seat of the school of Rab, 512 ff.
-    becomes the chief school of Babylonia, 548.
-    decline of the school, 583.
-    regains its reputation under Ashi, 605-7.
-
-  Sora and Pumbeditha, schools of, compared, 574 f.
-
-  Stephen, 221.
-
-  Strabo, favorable representation of Jews and Judaism, 179 f.
-
-  Swine, breeding of, why it was forbidden by the Synhedrion, 60.
-
-  Swine's head put up in the gate of Jerusalem, 422.
-
-  Sylvester, bishop of Rome, hatred of the Jews, 562.
-
-  Symmachus, disciple of Meïr, 440.
-
-  Synagogues in Jerusalem, 201.
-
-  Synhedrion (Great Council):
-    Synhedrion of Babylonia, 443 f.
-    Synhedrion of Jabne, 321 ff.
-      authority and sphere of action, 325, 337, 360.
-      destroyed by Quietus, 400.
-      dignitaries, 360 f.
-    Synhedrion of Jabne, position of the patriarch in it, 361 ff.
-      procedure of its meetings, 361 f.
-    Synhedrion of Jerusalem, acquires great importance under
-          Gamaliel I, 192.
-      letters and mandates, 192 f.
-      limitation of its authority by the procurator, 71, 129.
-      overthrow of, by the Zealots, 296.
-      presidency of, passes over from the high priest to the
-            Pharisees, 48 f.
-      regains its former supreme authority during the war of
-            revolution, 269.
-      removal from the Hewn-stone Hall to the Commercial Hall of
-            Bethany, 239.
-      reorganization, 50.
-      weakness exhibited by, during the war of revolution, 271.
-    Synhedrion of Usha, 405.
-      dissolved by persecutions, 448.
-
-  Syria, anarchy in, 6.
-
-  Syrian habits adopted by Rome, 468.
-
-
-  Tabernacles, feast of, ceremony of libation of water, 43, 51.
-
-  Tacitus, 384.
-
-  Talmud, Babylonian, 328 f.
-    characterization of, 632-5.
-    its influence upon Jewish life and history, 634 f.
-    its nature and relation to the Mishna, 591.
-    redaction, 605-9, 630-2.
-    redaction not committed to writing, 608.
-
-  Talmud, Jerusalem, redaction of, 609, 612.
-
-  Talmud, Babylonian and Jerusalem, compared, 634.
-
-  Talmudic epoch, 321 ff.
-
-  Talmudic Judaism, 327 f.
-
-  Talmudic schools, 335.
-
-  Tanaites, 356 ff.
-    end of the second generation, 429.
-    last generation, 450.
-    the last, 462.
-
-  Tanchuma bar Abba, last Halachic authority of Judæa, 611 f.
-
-  Targumim, 387, 581 f.
-
-  Tarphon (Tryphon) of Lydda, 357.
-    on Jewish Christianity, 378.
-
-  Taxes, for the patriarch and the maintenance of the schools,
-        486 f., 535 f.
-    prohibited by Honorius, 617.
-
-  Taxes for Rome, 134, 388, 391, 463, 469, 572, 598.
-    collectors of, ostracized, 134.
-    method of their collection, 129 f.
-    withheld, 257 f.
-    under Hadrian, 420.
-
-  Taxes for the Temple, 52 f., 201.
-    from Babylonia, 505.
-    those of Asia Minor seized upon, 68.
-
-  Taxes paid by the Jews in Babylonia, 508.
-
-  Temple of Jerusalem, becomes the common center of the Jews, 201.
-    the hotbed of the revolution, 259.
-    destruction of by the Romans, 307 f.
-    that of Herod, 109-111.
-    restoration of, attempted by Hadrian, 401 f.
-    and Julian, 599-601.
-    when the visible signs of divine mercy ceased to appear in it, 237.
-    vessels of, 449, 611.
-
-  Temple of Onias in Egypt, closed by Vespasian, 318.
-
-  Temple, Samaritan, on Mt. Gerizim, destroyed by Hyrcanus I, 8.
-
-  Tertullian, 476.
-
-  Theater, Greek, Judaism ridiculed in, 542 f.
-
-  Theodosius I, protects the Jews against Christian fanaticism, 612 f.
-
-  Theodosius II, hostility against the Jews, 617 ff.
-    seizes upon the taxes for the patriarch, 622.
-
-  Theudas, false Messiah, 198, 240.
-
-  Tiberias, focus of the revolution, 272.
-    foundation of, 137.
-    seat of the patriarch, 480.
-    seat of a school, 493 f.
-
-  Tiberius, emperor, expels the Jews from Rome, 202.
-    lightens the burdens of taxation in Judæa, 135.
-    mildness towards the Jews, 172.
-    persecutes the Jews in Rome, 136 f.
-
-  Tiberius, Alexander, nephew of Philo, apostate, governor of Egypt, 300.
-    governor of Jerusalem, 198 f.
-    orders a massacre of the Jews in Alexandria, 263 f.
-    treachery against Judæa during the war of revolution, 302.
-
-  Tigranes, king of Armenia, threatens Judæa, 55 f.
-
-  Tithes, paid after the fall of Judæa, 363.
-
-  Titus, 285, 388.
-    cruelty, 304, 308, 312.
-    at Gischala, 290.
-    humanity to the Jews of Antioch, 313.
-
-  Titus, arch of, 314.
-
-  Tobit, book of, its object, 430.
-
-  Tradition. See Law, Oral.
-
-  Trajan, 393.
-
-  Trajan day (Yom Trajanus), 401.
-
-  Treasury of the Temple, plundered by Pilate, 140.
-
-  Trinity, dogma of, 500 ff.
-
-  Triumvirate, Roman, and Herod, 81.
-    of teachers at Pumbeditha, 575 ff.
-
-  Tur-Simon, fortress in the war of bar-Cochba, 415 f.
-
-  Turbo, Martius, general under Trajan, suppresses the revolt in
-        Egypt, 397 f.
-
-
-  Usha (El-Uz), assembly of, 433.
-    seat of the Synhedrion, 405, 444 f.
-
-
-  Valens, emperor, protects and honors the Jews, 603.
-
-  Valentinian I, grants toleration, 603.
-
-  Valerianus, emperor, 527.
-
-  Varus, quenches a revolt in Judæa, 123, 125 f.
-
-  Varus, representative of Agrippa II in Cæsarea, cruelty and
-        treachery, 274 f.
-
-  Verus Commodus, emperor, persecutes the Jews, 447 f.
-
-  Vespasian, 284 f.
-    avarice, 316, 318.
-    attitude towards the Jews of Rome after the revolution, 316 f.
-    campaign in Galilee, 286 ff.
-    character of his warfare, 285, 297 ff.
-    proclaimed emperor, 300.
-
-  Vessels of the Temple, fate of, 449, 611.
-
-  Visible signs of divine mercy, when, ceased to appear in the
-        Temple, 237.
-
-  Vitellius, emperor, 299.
-
-  Vitellius, governor of Syria, kindness of, to the Jews, 172 f.
-
-  Vulgata, 625.
-
-
-  War of the Revolution, the Judæan, with Rome, 233 ff.
-    character and chief cause of, 234.
-    cruelties, 315.
-    differences in the attitude of the parties, 292.
-    encounter between Cestius Gallus and the Zealots, 265 f.
-    first campaign, 264 ff.
-    heroism of the Jews, 306.
-    internal strife between the various parties of Judæa, 295, 298, 301.
-    Judæa divided into lots, 312.
-    leaders, 270 f.
-    prisoners of war, fate of, 311 f., 321.
-    starting point of the revolution, 259.
-    tactics pursued by the Romans, to weaken Judæa by internal
-          strife, 297.
-    traitors, 302, 304 f.
-    triumph of Vespasian and Titus in Rome, 314 f.
-    Zealots, ultra, obtain the reins of the government, 271.
-    the war in Galilee, 272 ff.
-    the war at Jerusalem, 291 ff.
-    beginning of the siege by Titus, 301, 303.
-    destruction of the city, 309.
-    famine, 304, 306.
-    number of killed, 309.
-    pestilence, 306.
-    population of the city during the war, 292.
-    resistance after the fall of the Temple, 309.
-    struggle around the Temple, 305 ff.
-    stubborn defense, 304 f.
-    See also Galilee, Josephus, Judæa, Zealots.
-
-  Wisdom, book of, 205-8.
-
-  Wisdom, of the Chaldeans, influences the Rabbis, 577 f.
-
-  "Wise men," 356.
-
-  Witnesses in law courts, how questioned, 50, 53.
-
-  Wood-carrying, feast of, 52 f., 260.
-
-  Women, education of, 474.
-
-  Worship, public, after the destruction of the Temple, 363.
-
-
-  Zabina, Alexander, usurps the throne of Syria, 6.
-
-  Zadok, disciple of Shammai, and leader of the Zealots, 133.
-
-  Zadok, teacher at Jabne, 330, 338 f.
-
-  Zaken, title, 361.
-
-  Zealots (Kannaim), called also Galileans, 133.
-    attitude towards the Synhedrion, 293 ff.
-    comprised at first the followers of Shammai, 133.
-    conflict with the Sicarii, 261.
-    in Cyrenaica, 318.
-    establish a community in North Arabia, 319.
-    in Egypt, 317 f.
-    fate after the war, 315-19.
-    licentiousness, 238 f.
-    last ones, how they fell, 316.
-
-  Zealots, part played by them in the war, 258 ff.
-    principles and purpose, 133.
-    religious and republican party, 133.
-    self-confidence, 291 f.
-    struggle about the high priesthood, 294 f.
-    watchword, 133.
-
-  Zeïra, 557 f.
-
-  Zend-Avesta, 524.
-
-  Zenobia, 529 f.
-
-  Zerubbabel, supposed ancestor of the Princes of Captivity in
-        Babylonia, 509.
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber's Notes:
-
-
-Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
-preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
-
-Simple typographical errors were corrected.
-
-Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
-
-Inconsistent use of small-caps and Proper caps in names unchanged.
-
-Inconsistent use of periods after Regnal numbers not changed.
-
-The Index was not checked for correct page references.
-
-Text uses both forms of these words and phrases:
-
-    "Ruach ha-Kodesh" and "Ruach-ha-Kodesh";
-    "Galilæan" and "Galilean";
-    "A. C." and "C. E." (to indicate "A. D.");
-    "repellent" and "repellant";
-    "coreligionists" and "co-religionists";
-    "instal" and "install";
-    "Agora-nomos" and "Agoranomos";
-    "subtlety" and "subtilty";
-    "Amoraïm" and "Amoraim".
-
-Text mostly used "Tanaites", so infrequent occurrences of "Tanaïtes"
-have been changed.
-
-Page 505 says that "twenty-two parasangs" are "sixty-eight miles,"
-but page 506 says they are "sixteen geographical miles". According to
-current understanding of "parasang," the former is more nearly correct.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of History of the Jews, Vol. II (of 6), by 
-Heinrich Graetz
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