Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

which, he condemned Archelaus to be banished to the city of Vienne, in Gaul, or Dauphine, and all his goods to be confiscated. Judea, by this sentence, being reduced to a province of the empire, was ordered to be taxed, and Cyrenius, the then governor of Syria, and a man of consular dignity, was sent thither to see it executed; after which, having sold Archelaus's palaces, and seized up on all his treasure, he returned to Antioch, leaving the Jews in no small ferment upon the account of this new tax.

Coponius, the Roman general of horse, and governor of Judea under Cyrenius, had accompanied him in that expedition; and his presence, as well as the good offices of Joazar, the then high-priest, had, for a while, kept the nation under some restraint, till Judas, the Gaulonite, and one Saducus, a turbulent Pharisee, set it again into a flame. This pretender took upon him to condemn this taxing as slavish, idolatrous, and inconsistent with their duty to God, the only sovereign who could claim any homage or allegiance from the children of Abraham. The war being thus kindled within and without, was followed by a grievous famine, and this by a pestilence, all which ended, at length, in the total ruin of that rebellious and unhappy nation, which was owing to the ambition of this upstart sect or faction. After the death of their leader they distinguished themselves by the name of Zealots, and, under that specious title, committed the most unheard of cruelties, and carried their violence even into the very temple.

All this while the Samaritans had not forgot their old grudge against the Jews, though they had been so long quiet. Cyrenius was scarce gone out of Judea before they began to hatch new mischiefs against them: they waited till the next approaching feast of the passover, which on the eve of, a number of them, having privately slipt into the temple, strewed the galleries, and other places of resort, with dead men's bones; so that the priests, on the next morning, finding that sacred place polluted, were forced to put a stop to the solemnity; which indignity obliged them to be more cautious for the future, to guard the avenues from all such insults.

It was about this time that our Lord visited Jerusalem, and had that conversation with the Jewish rabbies which we recorded in the preceding chapter.

Coponius was, soon after this feast, succeeded by Ambivius, in whose governor-ship Salome died, and bequeathed her three cities mentioned a little higher, together with the fine grove of palm-trees planted by Archelaus, and all her vast treasure, not to either of her nephews, who still held their small toparchies, but to the empress Julia. or, as Josephus affects to call her, Livia. Ambivius, after a short time, was succceded by Annius Rufus; and Augustus died at Nola, in Campania, and was succeeded by Tiberius, after the latter had been somewhat above two years admitted into the copartnership of the empire. From this period must the fifteenth year of Tiberius, mentioned by the evangelist, be taken. Tiberius, upon his coming to the empire, recalled Rufus, and sent Valerius Gratus into Judea, who was the fourth Roman governor or procurator of it, and continued in that government eleven years. About five years after his being entered into it, he deposed the high-priest Ananus, or Annas, in the fifteenth year of his pontificate, and raised Ishmael, the son of Fabus, to that dignity. Being soon after displeased with his choice, he took it from Ishmael on the next year, and gave it to Eleazar, the son of Ananus, whom he had lately deposed. Eleazar, in a year's time, was forced to resign, and was succeeded by Simon, the son of Canith, who, within the compass of another year, was turned out, and Joseph, surnamed Caiaphas, and son-in-law to Annas above-mentioned, was put in his room; so uncertain and venal was that dignity become by this time.

Gratus himself was soon after recalled, and succeeded by Pontius Pilate, a person who exceeded all his predecessors in injustice, extortion, and cruelty; and so

thoroughly wedded to his own interest, that he was capable of the vilest actions to promote that favourite end. He made his whole administration, according to Josephus, one continued scene of venality, rapine, tyranny, and wickedness, delivering innocent men, without trial or condemnation, to torture and to death, and practising every species of detestable cruelty.

We hinted, a little higher, that the other sons of Herod had still kept possession of their toparchics, notwithstanding Archelaus's deposition and banishment; it will be, therefore, very proper here to give some further account of them before we enter into a new and different scene. They had, each of them, settled themselves the best they could in their small territories. Antipas, better known by the name of Herod, who had the country of Galilee, began with rebuilding the city of Sephoris, which had, but a little before, been reduced to ashes, by the son of Varus, by a strong wall and towers, so that it became the bulwark, and one of the best cities of that canton; and as he had been successful enough to ingratiate himself with the new emperor, he built another, a fine city, on the northern banks of the lake of Gennezareth, and called it Tiberias, in honour of him, and from thence that lake came to be called the sea of Tiberias. His brother Philip followed his example, and raised the village of Bethsaida, on the opposite end of the same lake, into a magnificent city, and called it, likowise, Julias, and gave the name of Cæsarea to Paleas, the place where the Jordan had its spring head, after he had greatly enlarged and beautified it. During this time came out that edict of Tiberius, which obliged all Jews and Egyptians to depart from the city of Rome, or, according to another, out of the territories of Italy.

Hitherto, Judea, though in a violent ferment, on account of the late tax, and some other tumults which the Romans had appeased by main force, had not, however, broke into such a violent and universal flame as it did after the coming of Pilate. It was this governor, whose fierce, obstinate, and cruel temper hastened ou those seditions and revolts which did not end but with the total extirpation of the Jewish state. His predecessors had, hitherto, wisely forborne to bring the Roman standards into the city, because their bearing the images of men and living creatures made them to be had in abomination by the Jews. But Pilate, who thought it beneath him to shew them the same complaisance, ordered his troops, which were to winter in that metropolis, to enter it in the night with those standards covered, and caused them, on the next morning, to be displayed. This new and shocking sight put the whole city into an uproar; they went to him, in a body, to Cæsarea, where he then was, and begged of him that they might be removed to some other place; but were answered that he could not comply with their request, without glancing an affront on the emperor. As they stood stiff in their petition, and he, in his denial, six whole days, five of which the former had continued prostrate on the ground before his palace, night and day; he, at length, came out to them, as with design to give them audience, and, being mounted on his tribunal, which he had reared in the circus, gave the signal to some of his troops. whom he had conveniently posted, to fall on them, and to murder all that should not irumediately depart, and who instantly came out and surrounded them.. The Jews, however, far from being terrified at so horrid a perfidy, meekly held out their necks to those butchers, telling them and the governor, that the loss of their lives was nothing so terrible to them as the violation of their laws; and Pilate, who expected nothing less than such a passive constancy in that turbulent nation, was so moved at it, that he, at length, granted their request, and ordered the standards to be removed out of their metropolis.

But as he seems to have been wholly bent upon mortifying the Jewish nation, he soon resumed his usual course. A project came next into his head to set up a number of

shields in the royal palace of Jerusalem, in honour of Tiberius, but which the Jews failed not to represent as an indignity offered to them, rather than a compliment to that emperor. He had, it is truq, taken care that there should be no carved images upon them that might give them offence; but the very inscription of them was, they thought, contrary to their law; otherwise, there was nothing more common, both before and after the Jewish captivity, than for the Jewish monarchs to cover even the front of the temple with such ornaments as the reader must have often observed through the course of their history. The magistrates, therefore, of that metropolis, with the sons of Herod at their head, went to represent to him, in the most civil terms, that such a consecration was contrary to their laws, and to beg of him that he would pay a greater regard to them. But their remonstrances not being able to prevail with him, they immediately withdrew, and soon after sent a very pressing, but submissive, letter to Rome, which had the desired effect. Tiberius immediately dispatched another to Pilate, wherein he highly blamed him for what he had done, and ordered him to remove the shields. into some other place, which he accordingly did, and sent them to be hung up at Cæsarea.

His next project to vex the Jews was to find out some specious pretence for drawing money out of the sacred treasury. This, indeed, was the most effectual way to touch them to the quick, next to the rifling of the temple; for he knew, but too well, their invincible attachment to those two places. The plausible pretext he chose for it was the bringing of an aqueduct, about two hundred furlongs off, into Jerusalem, the expence of which he expected should be supplied out of that sacred depository, and commanded, accordingly, of them, that a tax should be levied upon it. However, as be knew that this would not fail to provoke the people into a mutiny, he took care to provide against it, by causing a number of his soldiers to mix themselves with the crowd, with clubs hid under their coats, to be ready, upon a signal, to fall upon the mutineers. He was hardly seated on his tribunal before it was surrounded, accordingly, by a vast concourse of the Jews, who came exclaiming against his project, and were some of the meaner sort, as is usual in such mobs, accompanied their clamours with bitter invectives against him. Pilate had not heard them long before he gave his men the signal, who immediately fell on the Jews with then clubs, wounded, lamed, and even killed many of them indiscriminately, and dispersed the rest.

All these calamities were so far from affecting any reformation among the Jews, that their wickedness continued daily to increase. Zealously devoted to the Mosaic dispensation, and equally tenacious for the traditions of the elders, they omitted the more weighty matters of the law, justice, mercy, and truth; and while they compassed sea and land to obtain a proselyte, caused, through their abominable practices, the name of God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles. Thus did darkness cover the land, and gross darkness the people, immediately before that the sun of righteousness arose with healing in his beams.

CHAPTER IV.

THE MINISTRY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST,

The public appearance of John the Baptist---His divine mission foretold by the prophets, and asserted by the evangelists---the date of the commencement of his mission-hie dress and diet compared with those of the present inhabitants of the east---his baptism and general preaching---his particular address to the Pharisees, Sadducees, publicans, and soldiers---the obscurity of Christ's private life---his baptism---the testimony of the Father to the divine character of Christ---the temptation---reasons for God's permission, and for Satan's conduct in this affair--how he was shewn all the kingdoms of the carth---John confesses that he is not the Christ---John, having announced Christ to be the Lamb of God, Andrew, and another disciple, Peter, Philip, and Nathaniel, become acquainted with him---at the wedding in Cana, Christ turns the water into wine--he attends his first passover---how many passovers there were during his ministry--he cleanses the temple---the forty-six years which the temple had been building---Christ converses with Nicodemus---John's last testimony to Christ---his imprisonment--reflections

JOHN, the son of Zachariah and Elizabeth, the peculiar círcumstances of whose birth and education have been already described, after remaining nearly thirty years in obscurity, burst forth, on a sudden, upon the attention of the public. The evangelists have not only given us a brief sketch of his history, but have unanimously concurred to assert the divinity of his mission.

The evangelist John tells us that the Baptist had a special commission from God, being called to his office by inspiration, as the prophets were of old, and that he was sent to bear witness of the light, or to point out the Messiah, whom he had called, in the preceding fourth verse, the light of men, because it was one of the principal prophetical characters of the Messiah, that he was to enlighten the world. John i. 6..8. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light, that all men, through him, might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light: though sent from God, he was not the Word of God, who has enlightened the world; but he came to point him out to mankind. Mark refers to this event, the fulfilling of Malachi iii. 1, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, observe, that John's preaching, the design of it, its efficacy upon the minds of the people, and even the place where he first appeared publicly, were all foretold by

the prophet Isaiah. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Luke, however, cites the passage more fully than the rest. Luke iii. 5,6. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Of these metaphors, which are plainly taken from the making of roads, the meaning is, that Messiah's forcrunner, by preaching the doctrine of repentance, shall produce such a change in the minds of the Jews, that many of them, laying aside their prejudices, shall receive and acknowledge Messiah when he appears. After such a preparation of the way, mankind shall behold, not a splendid temporal monarch, accompanied with a magnificent retinue, but the author of that salvation which God has prepared before the face of all people. [Luke ii. 30, 31.]

Luke has marked the commencement of the Baptist's ministry with a great degree of precision, ch. iii. 1, 2. Now, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Itured, and of the region of Trachonitis and Lysanias, the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high-priests, the word of God came unto John. the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. This account is, however, attended with several difficulties. 1. The reign of Tiberius had two commencements, one, when Augustus made him his colleague in the empire, in the year of Rome 764, or 765, and the other, when he began to reigu alone, after Augustus's death, in 767. The earliest of these computations is usually preferred, but it does not appear that any of them would be attended with consequences at all dangerous to the credibility of the evangelical history. 2. Luke says, Philip's dominions were Iturea and Trachonitis, but Josephus says, they were Auranitis and Trachonitis. Reland reconciles the historian. with the evangelist, by supposing that Iturea and Auranitis were different names of the same country. 3. Annas and Caiaphas, we are told, were high-priests when John began his ministry. But, according to the institutions of the Jewish religion, there could be only one high-priest, properly so called, at a time, that minister being ty pical of the one mediator between God and man. The most probable solution, therefore, of this difficulty, is, that Annas was the high-priest, and Caiaphas his sagan, or deputy, to whom, also, the title of high-priest might improperly be given.

[ocr errors]

John the Baptist began his public labours in the wilderness of Judea, and his appearance was every way answerable to the ruggedness of the country. [Mat. iii. 4. And the same John had his raiment of camels' hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. These locusts were a species of large insects, such as frequently destroy the crops in Barbary and Syria, and were, on a particular occasion, the means of executing the wrath of God. Wild honey, the other article of the Baptist's fare, is supposed, by many, to have been a kind of liquor, which, in those countries, distilled from the trees. But because this kind of juice, when used as food, was sometimes attended with bad effects, others are of opinion, that the wild honey on which the Baptist fed was that which bees deposit in the hollow trunks of trees, and of which there was great plenty in Palestine. [1 Sam. xiv. 25..27.] It will, however, be proper to compare the diet and clothing of the Baptist with those of the present inhabitants of the same countries; and here we shall be considerably assisted by the observations of the late Mr. Harmer. He is speaking concerning the use of honey as a luxury in the east, and concerning the prediction that the Messiah should eat butter and honey, that he might learn to choose the good, and refuse the evik

[ocr errors]

The account that is given of the diet of John the Baptist may be thought a

[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinuar »