Rome the tenth and eleventh of Claudius, mentioned by Tacitus1, Suetonius m, Eusebius", and Orosius °, were in part the fulfilment of this prophecy. §. 4. It is said in the Acts that the emperor Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome P. Of this fact Suetonius is witness, who expressly tells us that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome 9. Dio indeed says that he did not expel them, but forbad all their religious assemblies ". This was in effect an expulsion; if he would not permit them to assemble on their sabbaths, and the other days, which their law enjoined, they could live there no longer as Jews. However, Suetonius, who flourished in the times of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, may be supposed to know the true state of the fact better than one who lived under the emperors Severus, Caracalla, and Alexander, near a hundred years after s. Orosius also Orosius also says that the Jews were expelled by Claudius, and alleges Josephus as an author who relates itt. There is no such relation in the copies of Josephus which are come down to us; but whether there might not be in those of his time, which was the beginning of the 1 Ann. l. 12.43. m Claud. c. 18. 3. "Arctiore annona ob assiduas sterilitates." This expression not a little confirms my notion. Crops had failed for many years past; some years probably in one country, and some years in another of those countries from whence they used to import corn to Rome. n Chron. • L. 7. c. 6. prope fin. The learned Basnage is of my opinion. "Oraculum annos etiam omnes qui regnante Claudio fame pal"lidi complexum fuerit.” Annal. p. 521. Vid. et p. 553. n. 4. r L. 60. p. 669. P Ch. xviii. 2. 4 Claud. c. 25. 12. fifth century, is not, I think, so very improbable a thing" as some have represented it. 5. That the island of Melita, now called Malta, was at the time of St. Paul's voyage in the hands of the Romans, I suppose no one can doubt: that it was taken from the Carthaginians by Atilius Regulus the consul, Orosius is witness: that in Tully's time it was under the prætor of Sicily, is evident from his accusation of Verres : that after this it could not be taken from the Romans before St. Paul made his voyage, cannot, I think, admit of a sus-` picion that before the Romans had it the Phonicians and Carthaginians inhabited it, appears from Scylax and Diodorus Siculus. We may very reasonably suppose that at the time of St. Paul's being there the generality of the people were their descendants: hence it is said in the book of Acts, The barbarous people shewed us no little kindnessa: for all that did not use the Greek language were by the Greeks named barbarous b. That the governor, who resided in this island on behalf of the Romans, was called pτos, or, as we have rendered it, the chief man, is evident from an inscription that was found there by Quintinus Heduus, in which the person named is called πρῶτος Μελιταίων §. 6. Claudius Lysias the Roman officer, præfectus cohortis, or chief captain of the band, says to St. Paul, when he had taken him out of the hands of the Jews, who would have put him to death, Art u Vid. Hudson. Joseph. p. 1060. n. g. et 1065. n. b. c. 8. b Strabo, l. 14. p. 455. × L. 4. a Ch. xxviii. 2. d Johan. Quint. Heduus ad Soph. Epist, an. 1533. Vid. Bochart. Phaleg. p. 2. 1. 1. p. 552, 547. Grot. in loc. Cellarium, vol. 1. p. 655. thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers? The word which we translate here murderers is the Latin word sicarii, so called from a little sword or dagger which they wore concealed under their clothes, and resembled the Roman sica. The Jewish historian Josephus, immediately after he has given us an account of the rise of these sicarii, or murderers, (for with this concealed weapon they daily committed many murders,) adds the story of the Egyptian impostorf, who persuaded a multitude of the common people to go with him from Jerusalem. This multitude probably were the four thousand sicarii mentioned by Lysias. Having led them round through the wilderness, and brought them to the mount of Olives, and in his way having increased his number to thirty thousand men, Felix the Roman governor met and attacked him. The Egyptian, perceiving at the same time that the generality of the Jewish nation were so far from joining with him as he had flattered himself they would, that they made head against and opposed him, immediately fled with a few of his chief adherents, the most of which were either taken or slain ; but as for himself he made his escape. This happening e Acts xxi. 38. De Bell. Jud. 1. 2. c. 13. §. 5. Antiq. 1. 20. c. 7. §. 6. 10. 8 It is very difficult to reconcile the two accounts given of this matter by Josephus. Mr. Ward, the learned professor of Gresham college, seems to have conquered this difficulty. Vid. Additions to Lardner's Cred. vol. 1. 2. I have told the story as briefly as I could in his manner, whereby he reconciles Josephus both to himself and to St. Luke. but a few months before St. Paul came to Jerusalem, the chief captain Lysias seeing the uproar that was made upon his account, it entered his mind that the Egyptian was taken, and that St. Paul might be the man. This occasioned the question he asked him. §. 7. We read in the Acts of the conversion of the eunuch, who was of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopiansh. It is evident, both from Strabo and Diok, that there was a queen of that name in Ethiopia, who fought against the Romans about the twenty-second or twenty-third year of the reign of Augustus Cæsar, reckoning it from the death of his uncle Julius. It is clear also from Pliny, who flourished in the reign of the emperor Vespasian, that there was a queen of Ethiopia named Candace in his time; and he adds, that this had been the name of their queens now for many years. It is beyond all doubt therefore that there was a queen of Ethiopia of this name at the time when Philip is said to have converted the eunuch. Eusebius tells us that this country continued to be governed by women even to his timem. §. 8. Two years before Felix left the government of Judæa, we are told in the history of the Acts that Ananias was high priest ": and this is confirmed by Josephus, who relates, that Ananias, the son of Nebadæus, was made high priest of the Jewish nation in the room of Joseph the son of Camydus, by Herod king of Chalciso. This he places just before the death of Herod, which he tells us happened in the eighth year of the emperor Claudius. He says not one word of any other person's being made high priest till Felix is quitting the government of Judæa. Immediately before the account of his departure, he relates, that king Agrippa (who had succeeded his uncle Herod, and after that, in lieu of Chalcis, had received the tetrarchy of Philip) gave the high-priesthood to Ishmael the son of Phabip, and at the same time is not obscurely hinted the reason why he removed Ananias. For there is added the vile insult committed by the high priests on the inferior priests and people, the high priests by force seizing on the tithes which were due to the inferior priests, so that the priests, who before this subsisted on their tithes, perished for want. We are informed afterwards, not only that Ananias was guilty of this wickedness, but it is strongly insinuated that the other high priests followed his example herein; that he was therefore the author and ringleader of this violence and complicated injustice. It appears highly probable to me, that king Agrippa, not being able by his authority to suppress this evil, (for he had no other authority over Judæa than that of making and removing their high priest,) took the only step he had in his power towards the discouraging it, and that was by displacing Ananias, who first began this villainous practice. The fact lies so very clear in Josephus, that it has been matter of surprise to me that learned men should ever have made the least doubt whether Ana P Antiq. 1. 20. c. 7. §. 8, 9. 9 Ibid. c. 8. §. 2. 4. F |