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"Religion is a necessary imposture. Even the most obvious ways of throwing dust in people's eyes cannot be neglected when you are dealing with a race as stupid as the human species, a race created for error, which, when it does admit the truth, never does so for the right reasons. It is necessary then to give it the wrong ones." --translation via Reflections on Violence

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Histoire du peuple d'Israël (5 volumes, 1887–1893) is a book by Ernest Renan.

English translation of unidentified volume

CHAPTER I. THE PRINCELY RULE OF SIMON.

WE have seen how Jonathan the Asmonean became a most important party leader in the State, without, however, obtaining the outward marks of sovereignty. He would probably have received them had it not been for the snare into which he fell, and the captivity which before long ended his life . It was his brother Simon who attained, after thirty years of warfare, the end always kept in view by the ambition of the sons of Mattathiah. It had been agreed by the party, that, if Jonathan should be put out of the way, Simon , who was considered to possess great prudence and an especial talent for government, should take his brother's place. The position of Simon was one of the most difficult that can be imagined. Any strong governVOL. V. - 1 2 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL . ment which wished to ruin him could have done so without difficulty. But, as we have already said, the Syrian empire was no more. Tryphon was a mere bandit. With abominable cruelty he got rid of the boy-king, and put himself in his place. He needed money ; his soldiers were dissatisfied . The greatest danger that menaced Israel rose from the hatred of the nations that lived on the borders of Palestine, who thought the hour had come to exterminate a people they detested . Simon assembled the council of elders, and showed great wisdom. When proclaimed sovereign pontiff by the nation, his first act was the military occupation of Joppa, whose annexation to Judea was still so uncertain. Tryphon was roaming about northern Palestine, dragging after him in his train his unfortunate prisoner. Simon intercepted him by a skilful march at Adida. Tryphon demanded a ransom for Jonathan of one hundred talents, and his two sons as hostages. Simon was well aware of the duplicity of Tryphon; nevertheless, he could not bring himself to neglect any chance of saving his brother. He paid the money and delivered the hostages ; still Tryphon kept Jonathan prisoner, and threatened Jerusalem. The Hierosolymites were eagerly pushing forward the blockade of Akra. Provisions were growing scarce in the Syrian fortress ; its garrison sent to demand help from the king of Syria. Tryphon despatched some cavalry, to no effect. Then he turned towards Coele-Syria. As he crossed the THE PRINCELY RULE OF SIMON. 3 land of Gilead he killed and buried Jonathan, then went back to Antioch. Simon sent men to search for the body of his brother and laid it to rest at Modin, beside those of Mattathiah and Judas Maccabeus. He already had in mind the erection of a magnificent monument over these illustrious dead, but the project was not carried out till later. Demetrius II. was still living. Simon turned to him as the legitimate sovereign of Syria, whose vassal he still acknowledged himself to be. Demetrius replied by a letter, which was in fact a charter of independence : King Demetrius to Simon the High- Priest and Friend of Kings, as also to the Elders and Nation of the Jews, Greeting: The golden crown and the scarlet robe * which ye sent us we have received ; and we are ready to make a steadfast peace with you, and to write to our officers to confirm the immunities which we have granted. And whatsoever covenants we have made with you shall stand ; and the strongholds which ye have builded shall be your own. As for any oversight or fault committed unto this day, we forgive it ; and the crown tax also which ye owe us ; and if there were any other tribute paid in Jerusalem, it shall no more be paid. And look who are meet among you to be in our court, and let them be enrolled ; and let there be peace betwixt us.

• "Scarlet robe " in the English version of 1 Maccabees xiii. 37 ;

but in the French la couronne d'or et le rameau de palmier, - " the golden crown and branch of palm that ye have sent us. " A note says presents of gold were made in the form of crowns or palm branches, which were afterwards converted into money. HISTORY OF THE People of ISRAEL. ― This year, one hundred and seventy of the dynasty of the Seleucidæ ( 143-142 B. C. ) , was considered by the Jews as the year of their independence. * It was resolved that all public and private acts should be thus dated : "The year . . under Simon, High-Priest, the Governor and Leader of the Jews."t Simon also coined money, ‡ or rather money was coined during his reign. Beautiful silver shekels and half-shekels, bearing the inscription " Jerusalem the Holy shekel of Israel," are of this period . These are the coinage of a free city, and the time when they were struck seems really to have been the date of the liberty of Jerusalem.§ Later, during the time of the great Jewish revolt, Roman coins were restamped with the name of Simon. He had become the founder of a national dynasty, and his name, when the national spirit had revived, his people wished should be inscribed on coins destined for a religious use. || Roman influence must certainly have had much to do with this important event. The idea of looking

• Compare Justin xxxvi. i . 10 ; iii . 9 .

† 1 Maccabees xiii. 42 ; Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. vi. 6. 1 Maccabees xv. 6, which would have its value even if the letter of Antiochus Sidetes were false. § Merzbacher, in the Journal de Sallet, 1878, pp. 292-319 ; Madden, Jewish Coins (new edition) , pp. 65-67. The ancient look of these coins is against the hypothesis of some learned men, that they were struck in the time of the first revolt. See Schürer, i . 635, &c.; ii . 192 , &c. || Origines du Christianisme , vi . 203, &c. Those who see in this name of Simon that of some personage of importance at the time of the revolt, are like a man who should apply to a collector of coins for those of Robespierre or Gambetta. THE PRINCELY RULE OF SIMON. 5

for protection to that power whose might was always on the increase, in opposition to the Seleucidæ, must naturally have arisen ; and though the ideas the Jews still had of the Romans were of the simplest, Simon no doubt sought support among those whom everything pointed out as hostile to his enemies. † The Romans, on the other hand, were always ready for transactions that bound them to very little, in which they undertook to give only what did not belong to them. Then would follow negotiations, which presently became regular treaties and official documents. Later on, things that really belonged to Simon's administration were dated back to the times of Judas and Jonathan.§ There were undoubtedly at this time Jews in Rome, for we have a curious record of their indiscreet proselytism, and the bad reception that it met. || The seven or eight years of Simon's rule ( 143–

• 1 Maccabees viii.

+ Amicitia Romanorum petita, primi omnium ex orientalibus libertatem acceperunt, facile tunc Romanis de alieno largientibus. — JUSTIN, xxxvi. iii. 9. ‡ 1 Maccabees xiv. 16, 24, 40. What we are told in 1 Maccabees xv. 15-24, is undoubtedly untrue. The singular resemblances between what Josephus (xiv. viii. 5) tells us took place in the time of Hyrcanus II. , and what we are told in the First Book of the Maccabees took place in the days of Simon (see Schürer ii . 199, 200) , are not fitted to inspire much confidence in what we are told of diplomatic relations between Rome and Judea. Neither the Maccabean historians nor Josephus consulted original documents. § See vol. iv. pp. 334 note, 352. Valerius Maximus i. iii . 2: Idem [ prætor Hispalus ] Judæos, qui Sabazi Joris [ Jova- Sabaoth] cultu Romanos inficere mores conati erant, repetere domas suas coegit. Cf. Schürer, i. 200 ; ii. 505-506. 6 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE Of Israel. 135) were prosperous, in spite of a war of which we shall soon speak. The apostates and the lukewarm were carefully got rid of ; the anavim were protected ; the strongholds were repaired and well provisioned ; the Temple was embellished, and its sacred vessels were made richer still . Gezer and Joppa were added to round out the little Jewish State. Gezer especially was an acquisition of importance ; it became an exclusively Jewish city, § and Simon built himself a house there. When any of these once pagan cities was taken the inhabitants were expelled, and every house was purified in which were found any signs of idolatry ; then the conquerors entered, singing hymns and thanksgivings. The banished population was replaced by one that observed the Law. At Gezer the scruple was carried so far that inscriptions were set up by the roadsides to show how far people might walk upon the Sabbath day. || At last the accursed Akra fell . For nearly thirty years pious Jews had seen this hated fortress standing beside their capital, emblem of a foreign domination, and an asylum for those they most detested. The strict blockade first established

• 1 Maccabees xiv. 14.

+ 1 Maccabees xiv. 14 ; ramewoùs toû λaoû = Dyn "lay. 1 Maccabees xiv. 15. § Cf. Strabo, p. 759. on . Clermont-Ganneau, Acad. des inscr. Comptes rendus, 1874, p. 201 ; Schürer, i . 194 , 195 , note ( resuming the text). Τ Εχθρὸς μέγας ἐν Ισραήλ. THE PRINCELY RULE OF SIMON. 7 by Jonathan at last succeeded. Men were dying of hunger within its lofty walls ; they found it impossible any longer to get provisions. The garrison offered to capitulate, and Simon consented . All were driven out ; the place was purified in due form, and then an orthodox population took possession of it, singing psalms to the accompaniment of lyres, harps, and cymbals, and bearing palms in their hands, on the 23d day of the month Iyyar, in the year 142. The day was for some years a national holiday. * No ancient document tells us that Simon caused the citadel of Akra to be thrown down. They say rather the contrary. It became a Jewish fortress after having long belonged to the Syrians. The Syrian foundations remained to become the base of other strong buildings, which ever after crowned the western hill . Simon fortified the opposite mount, and built a house there for himself and his family near the sacred enclosure. When his son John had grown to be a man, he gave him the command of the troops, and established him at Gezer. No pagan, and no Hellenized Jew who had taken part in the ‡

• 1 Maccabees xiii . 49-52 (cf. xiv. 7, 36, 37) ; Megillath Taanith, § 5;

Derenbourg, Pal. p. 67. + 1 Maccabees xiii. 50. If they were going to destroy it, why did they purify it ? All that Josephus says on the subject, Antiquities, xiii. vi. 6, is a foolish story. The passage in 1 Maccabees xiv. 37 (taken from the inscription) is decisive. Cf. xv. 28. Robinson, Palästina, ii. 17, 25, 110-114. 8 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. guilty attempts of Antiochus Epiphanes, was suf fered in the country. * Simon seems to have been very severe in all the measures he took to enforce the observance of the Law.t Except this intolerance, which was indeed inherent in the Jewish State, the government of Simon seems to have been a wise one. In a few years he accumulated great wealth. His house was sumptuous, his tables shone with gold and silver plate ; the number and the perfection of his feasts excited even the admiration of the Greeks. His perquisites as highpriest must have been prodigiously lucrative ; his coffers gathered in all that was most visible of the nation's wealth.§ But in return the nation was well satisfied with its stadtholder, and extremely proud of him. It erected to him upon Mount Zion, it is said, a column with an inscription in Hebrew relating all the events of his life . || Simon was the realization of the nasi dreamed of by Ezekiel. The Jewish theocracy had brought to pass in him its own standard of perfection . The every-day Jew, if we may so call him, a stranger

• 1 Maccabees xiv. 36.

Megillath Taanith, § 15. Cf. Derenbourg, pp. 68, 69. + 1 Maccabees xv. 32, τὴν δόξαν Σιμῶνος. § Compare 1 Maccabees xv. 11-12. || 1 Maccabees xiv. 25, &c. The authenticity of this inscription is not impossible. Oriental epigraphs in those days imitated the expressions in Greek epigraphs (see the Decree of Honour set up in the Piræus, Revue archéologique, Janv. 1888, pp. 5, 7) . 27 ENACAPAMEA is , I think, a wish, like those the Mussulmans place after their names. THE PRINCELY RULE OF SIMON. 9 to utopian agitations or messianic notions, was fully satisfied. Israel was rewarded for fidelity to the Law by the general welfare. Unhappily, however, the nation was strong only because the enemy was weak ; the least revival of the Seleucid kingdom would be its ruin. CHAPTER II. FINAL TRIALS. -THE MACCABEAN EPIC. THE empire of the Seleucidæ, which had seemed to expire during the shameful rule of Tryphon, had in its dying moments an unexpected return to life. A second son of Demetrius I., up to that time hidden in Pamphylia in the town of Side, * announced ( 138) that he was going to rebuild the kingdom of his fathers, and drive out the usurper who had dishonoured it . By his valour and capacity Antiochus VII. (called Sidetes) re-established for ten years the vigorous rule created by Seleucus Nicator. The privileges granted to the Jewish high-priest had been a result of the weakening of the central power at Antioch. The revival of the kingdom of the Seleucidæ naturally suggested the idea of revoking these privileges, and restoring a Syrian garrison at Jerusalem. At the beginning of his career, while he was still weak, Antiochus Sidetes did as all Syrian pretenders had done, -he made friends with Simon, confirmed his titles, recognized the quasi- autonomy

• 1 Maccabees xv. 1. Porphyry, in Müller, Fragm. iii . 712.

FINAL TRIALS. II of his ethnarchy,* and accepted his assistance to besiege Tryphon in Dora. When he found himself firmly established, he quarrelled with Simon. Through Athenobius, one of his councillors, he charged against him as usurpations his capture of the citadel at Jerusalem, as well as his occupation of Joppa and Gezer, these three places belonging to the immediate domain of his kingdom. For having oppressed the subjects of the king by his vexatious measures, Simon was ordered to give up all the cities he had taken, to pay the arrears of tribute due from them, and to repair all damage he had done to property or person. In default of this, he must pay down immediately a thousand talents. Simon defended himself as best he could. Israel (he said) had only taken back its own ; Joppa and Gezer had ravaged Judea, and the Jews had only made reprisals. He would consent to pay at most one hundred talents. Athenobius greatly incensed the king by reporting this answer, and telling what he had seen of the luxury of Simon. Antiochus resolved to make war upon the Jews, and intrusted his army to a General Cendebeus, whom he appointed governor over all the coasts of Phoenicia. Cendebeus established his headquarters at Jabneh, and began to harass Judea. He built near Modin, at the entrance of the defiles

• 1 Maccabees xv. 3, &c. The authenticity of the letter is doubtful. However, it was quite possibly true.

122 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. that led to Jerusalem, a town, or rather a fortified entrenched camp, which he called Cedron. From Gezer, John Hyrcanus, * the eldest son of Simon, watched all his proceedings. His father confided to him, together with Judas his brother, the entire charge of the campaign. John was worthy of his race. He collected a good army, in which there was what had never before been seen among the Jews - a small body of cavalry. It would seem that his own headquarters were at Modin. The enemy was protected by a torrent swollen with the rains of winter. John was the first to cross it with - his men. Cendebeus was defeated ; his army was dispersed, and took refuge in some fortified buildings near Azotus. John burned Cedron, and returned as conqueror to Jerusalem. He had gained a splendid victory, but the difficulty was only postponed. Judea never had been able successfully to resist an attack from the combined Syrian forces. To crown her misfortunes, Simon died at this moment, in a most unhappy way. The Asmonean family, as soon as its members became princes, adopted the detestable customs of royal houses of that day. Never had there been 99 It is not true that he received the name 66 Hyrcanus " from the expedition he made with Antiochus Sidetes against the Parthians. The name " Hyrcanus ' was borne by Jews before the time of this John. The name came from the Jews of Hyrcania, who brought into use the name of ó 'Ypkavós (see vol. iv. p. 239) . The Jews had at that time, as they have now, a custom of composing arbitrary equivalents for names. Thus Hyrcanus = John ; Aristobulus = Judas ; Alexander Jonathan. FINAL TRIALS. 13 more mutual slaughter. Murders among kindred were happening every day. Simon had as son-inlaw a wretch called Ptolemy, the son of Haboub (Abubus), whom he had made governor of Jericho, and who, having become very rich, thanks to his father-in-law's position, conceived the project of killing him and his sons, and putting himself in their place. The old high-priest was accustomed to pay visits of inspection to the cities in his territories. He came to Jericho with his two sons, Mattathias and Judas ( February, 135 B. C. ). Instead of receiving them within the city, Ptolemy met them, and gave them a great feast in a little fortress that he had built, called Dok (" Docus ").* When Simon and his sons had drunk largely, Ptolemy and his soldiers fell upon them and slew them with their followers. Assassins were at the same time sent to Gezer to murder John Hyrcanus. But he was warned in time. The murderers, when they reached Gezer, were put to death. Could Ptolemy, the son of Haboub, have been in understanding with Antiochus Sidetes when he plotted this crime ? It appears quite possible. And yet, if this had been the case, it would seem that Antiochus would have supported his accomplice. On the contrary, he gave him up entirely. Ptolemy, having failed in his attempt to murder John and to seize Jerusalem and the Temple, took refuge in a

• Now a ruin near Aïn-Douk.

† 1 Maccabees xv. 18. 14 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. fortress called " Dagon," above Jericho. * Here he was besieged by John Hyrcanus ; but he escaped, and sought an asylum with Zeno Cortylas, the tyrant of Rabbath-Ammon. The offices of prince and high- priest had been conferred on Simon as a family inheritance. His son John Hyrcanus succeeded him without opposition, and from that time forth the succession in the Asmonean family was securely established . Except the horrible episode of Ptolemy, the son of Haboub, this family in its earlier days showed conduct far superior to anything in the Syrian world at this period . We do not find at first among them the horrible dramas which fill the history of that time ; but before long the Asmoneans, controlled by the spirit of the age, were guiltyof almost as many crimes as the worst dynasties of the surrounding countries. Antiochus Sidetes was firmly resolved to assert his rights over Judea, at least over the cities annexed by Jonathan and Simon. He came and laid siege to Jerusalem, which was vigorously defended . All the conquests of the Asmonean brothers seemed likely to be lost. Happily, Antiochus Sidetes showed great moderation. He limited his exactions to his original demands, payment of tribute for Joppa and the other annexed cities, or their restitution ; † Greek It is now Habet-Kakoun. Sauley, Sept siècles de l'hist. Jud. , p. 135. Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. viii . 1 ; B. J. , i . ii . 3, 4. The romantic circumstances told by Josephus are omitted in 1 Maccabees. ↑ Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . ix. 2. FINAL TRIALS. 15 garrisons to be placed in them ; and the Jews to have liberty to live according to the laws of their fathers. The garrisons were got rid of by payment of a sum of five hundred talents. Three hundred were paid down at once ; the other two hundred were taken from excavations made by John Hyrcanus in the tomb of David. * Hostages were given, amongst whom was John's own son. The walls of Jerusalem were thrown down, and the king retired, after having, it is said, shown his respect for Jewish worship. It is very possible that Roman policy may have had something to do with the unlookedfor lenity by which the nation escaped a strain that might have proved the gravest it had ever encountered. ‡ † What seems very probable is that John Hyrcanus may have reflected on the situation during the siege, and so made terms with Antiochus Sidetes. From this time it is certain that till the death of Antiochus (128 B. C.) § they seemed the best of friends. John Hyrcanus received the king of Syria with great

• Josephus, Antiquities, vii. xv. 3.

† Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . viii. 23; B. J., i . ii. 5. Josephus can no longer be collated by the First Book of Maccabees, which has so often shown us his flagrant adoption of mere legends. Porphyry ( in Eus. Chron. edit. Schone i . 255 ; Müller, Fragm. iii . 712) relates the matter very differently. Hic Judæos vi subdidit obsessæque urbis evertit mænia et gentis optimates occidit. Cf. Diod. Sic. xxxiv. 1 ; Justin, xxxvi. 1 , 10 : Judæos . . . subegit. Compare Josephus, xiii. ix. 2 ; xiv. x. 22. Cf. Schürer, pp. 206, 207. § This date is much disputed. See Sauley, Sept siècles de l'hist. Jud. p. 139. 16 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

magnificence in Jerusalem, and accompanied him with a body of troops on his great expedition against the Parthians. * The king of Syria, it would seem, conceived a great regard for him, and yielded to his religious scruples so far that once he stopped two days on his march because John Hyrcanus was forbidden to proceed by a religious festival.t With John Hyrcanus first appears the Jew on the stage of the great world, making a figure there by reason of his riches ; strict in religious observances, but a likable and kindly man. John was, indeed, a Jewish prince, a very different man from his ancestors, who were simply Jews, or ( if you will) Arabs, without alloy of foreign blood, and not in touch with the outside world. What had become of the saints , -that army of saints whom the book of Daniel, thirty years before, had set forth as destined founders of an everlasting kingdom ? Can they be these rough veterans inured to war, more like Bedouins than ascetics ? Can they be the insignificant princes who display their vices side by side with their strict religious observances in Jerusalem ? This petty tribal rule, a few leagues long and a few leagues wide, —have all those visions, enthusiasms, martyrdoms, come at length to this ? Intolerance seems the only real thing left . Alas, the disillusion ! But saints have nothing to look for except disillusions until the day of their justifi- -

• Josephus, xiii. viii. 4 ; B. J., i. ii. 3.

† Nicolas of Damascus, in Josephus, l. c. (see preceding note). THE MACCABEAN EPIC. 17 cation comes. The spirit of Daniel is not dead ; it will revive in Jesus. There will continue to be in Israel profound dreamers, to assert that the work of God will never be complete until his true saints shall reign therein. At the root of the lofty morality of this people is a longing that is never satisfied . The true Israelite is he who, in his discontent, thirsts always for the future. And the race is not yet ready to fail. - Very early the Maccabean epic took shape. * Those who were actors in that heroic period loved to recount its most moving features. The splendid courage of the martyrs soon gave rise to many legends. Jonathan's life of adventure contained many an incident that recalled those of David in his youth, such as are told in the Second Book of Samuel. What belongs to religion and what belongs to adventure did not go well together. The worldly part took shape later, in Hebrew, in what we call the First Book of Maccabees. The pious part was told first in Greek, by a certain Jason of Cyrene : his original work is now lost, but we have an abridgment of it in what is called the Second Book of Maccabees. † The style is affected , flowery, and farfetched ; but its tone is gentle, earnest, and devout, See the letter, 2 Maccabees i. 9 to ii. 18, -a document supposed to be written in the time of Judas Maccabeus, which well represents the first retrospective conception which we form of the Maccabean epoch. + 2 Maccabees ii . 19-32. The original was known to Philo, to the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and to the author of what is called the Fourth Book of Maccabees. VOL. V. - 2 18 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF israel. like that of the New Testament. There is a lavish intervention of angels. Jason of Cyrene wrote much more to edify than to narrate. He is an enthusiast ; he ardently believes in the resurrection, and he carries out his belief in it to the utmost. After a

fight, he tells us, they took up the dead bodies of the Jews to bury them with their kindred in the sepulchres of their fathers ; when, beneath the tunic of every slain man they found, worn as amulets, little idols made in Jammia ; and it was at once conIcluded that these men had met their death because they had sinned in wearing these things. Judas Maccabeus and his pious companions thereupon praise the Lord, who brings hidden things to light, and pray that this sin may not harm their cause : And noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, forasmuch as they saw before their eyes the things that came to pass for the sins of those who were slain. And when he had made a gathering throughout the company to the sum of two thousand drachms of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem to offer a sin- offering, doing therein very well and honestly, in that he was mindful of the resurrection ; for if he had not hoped that they which were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. And also that he perceived that there was great favour laid up for those that died godly, it was an holy and pious thought. Whereupon he made a reconciliation for the dead that they might be absolved of sin. This sounds like Saint Paul. True, pious belief was marching on with giant strides, while middle-

• 2 Maccabees xii. 38, &c.

THE MACCABEAN EPIC. 19 class commonplace Judaism was satisfied to set an exaggerated value on mere outward observances. Jason of Cyrene, in his style and in his ideas, seems to clasp hands with the Evangelist. The apparition of Jeremiah, * and the part he is made to play, are such as might be found in one of the Synoptics. Jason of Cyrene never speaks of the person of the Messiah ; but he shows us, better than any other, how Israel was from this time forth brooding over those Christian beliefs which were soon to become the ideas of all mankind.

• 2 Maccabees xv. 12-16.

CHAPTER III. THE APOCALYPSE OF ENOCH. ABOUT this time the first books attributed to Enoch appear to have been written. * The apocalyptic

• Christian writers of the first century, the author of the Epistle of

Saint Jude (verse 14), and the author of the Epistle of Saint Barnabas (chapters iv. and xvi . ) quote as sacred literature the books attributed to Enoch. The Book of the Jubilees and the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs also use them largely. Celsus appears to follow them . What Jesus says in his discourses, as reported by the Evangelists, has some very striking coincidences with these writings. Irenæus, Tertul. lian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, the Apostolic Constitutions, and the most ancient lists of canonical books all mention them. Syncellus gives two large fragments from them. Since 1821 critical science possesses, translated from the Ethiopic, a Book of Enoch, - certainly the one had in hand by the author of the Book of Jubilees, the author of the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, and Syncellus, but which does not entirely agree with the quotations in Jude, and the Epistle of Barnabas, and other Fathers of the Church. Thanks to a recent discovery by M. Bouriant, we now possess almost a third of the Greek text. The book, as we have it, evidently does not exhibit all the writings attributed to Enoch, which it gives us altered, retouched (certain interpolations, as xc. 38, are evident) . It is a compilation (Bißλía ' Evox, Orig. ) from pieces that have had each a different origin. We can distinguish seven parts in it : namely, (a) chaps. i . - xxxvi.; (b) chaps. xxxvii. - lxxi.; (c) chaps. lxxii. - lxxxii.; ( d) chaps. lxxxiii.— xciii.; (e) chaps. xciv. - cv.; (ƒ) chaps. cvi . cvii.; (g) chap. viii. by itself. The part (a) is full of wild angelology, and corresponds to what is said by Celsus. We can attribute it , at least the substance of it, to the days of Herod. Part (b) belongs to about the same period , but is by another author. Part (c) consists of a sort of gnostic astronomy, THE APOCALYPSE OF ENOCH. 21 to this purpose. spirit, kindled by the author of the Book of Daniel, was not extinct, and one law of this kind of literature was " apocryphism," -that is to say, the attributing of the new revelation to some venerated name. The name of Enoch was excellently suited This pious patriarch, who, like Elijah, had had the singular privilege to pass to God without tasting death, and who was made a duplicate of Noah,* announcing the deluge as he also did, seemed especially pointed out to give good counsel to men at the solemn crisis at which they had arrived.t The book was most probably composed in Hebrew. ‡ difficult to date. The part (d) is much the most interesting, and consists of symbolical visions very like those of Daniel. Part ( e) is composed of eschatological predictions, very like the last discourses of Jesus. Part (f) consists of hagadas on Noah, and predict the deluge. Part (g) is a little book by itself, and speaks of fire for the damned, &c. At present it is only of part (d) we have to speak. [ In the latest critical edition, that of R. H. Charles ( Oxford, 1893), collated with new Ethiopic MSS. and with Greek and Latin fragments, the above portions, with slight modifications, are ascribed in chronological order to the following approximate dates : (a) chaps. i . -xxxvi. , of the Messianic Kingdom, &c. , B. c. 170 ; (d) chaps. lxxxiii. -xc. , Apocalyptic Visions, B. C. 166-161 ( in this period is included the Book of Daniel) ; (e) chaps. xci. -civ. , the Final Judgment, B. C. 134 to 94 ; (b) chaps. xxxvii.-lxx. , the Similitudes, B. C. 94 to 64 ; (c) chaps. lxxiii. - lxxviii . lxxix. lxxxii. , Celestial Physics ; and (f) interpolations from the Apocalypse of Noah, of uncertain date, but before the Christian era. ]

• Ecclesiasticus xliv. 16 ; Hebrews xi. 5. See an old Jewish tradition in Eusebius, Præp. evang. ix. xvii. 8.

† The Apocalypse of Enoch in the time of the Maccabees probably comprehended chapters lxxxiii.-civ. of the present book. The framework, a discourse to Methusalah, is no doubt the work of the compiler. Halévy, Journ. Asiat. 1867, April-May, pp. 352-395. Observe Methusalah, the Hebrew form, and not Mathusalem. 22 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. The author, who seems to have fed upon the Book of Daniel, constantly imitates that mysterious work. He has the same faults and the same high qualities, -a prevalence of the commonplace and a wearisome prolixity, which do not prevent the reader from being roused by passages of surprising beauty. * The framework, as in Daniel, is a sort of universal history, through which Israel is supposed to pass as an elect servant of God, and a righteous man. Israel is the flock of God's fold . By a decree too deep for us to fathom, God sees fit to let wild beasts (the heathen) devour a certain number of his sheep, held in charge by guardians † whom he has appointed for that purpose. But these guardians do not rightly fulfil their duty ; they let pagans take many more sheep out of the sacred flock than had been allowed. Then the Lord of the sheep gives a great sword to the sheep themselves ; ‡ and the sheep, now the pursuers, drive off the wild beasts, and put to flight the birds of prey. Without doubt these armed sheep are the pious insurgents grouped around the Maccabees. To the sheep lambs are born, whose horns increase, despite the effort of ravens to pluck them out. This surely is the Asmonean dynasty. One of the horns is stronger than the rest, and puts the ravens to flight.

• An Israelite of the old school to whom I showed these passages

was struck with admiration, and seemed quite disposed to admit that they must have been really the work of Enoch. + Angels (?) Chap. xc. 19, 34. THE APOCALYPSE OF ENOCH. 23 This horn is supposed to be John Hyrcanus, who, as we shall see, raised the Jewish State to be aggressive and victorious.

For I know that persecution will reign some day on the earth ; but in the end a great judgment will come upon the world. When iniquity shall be full , it will be extirpated , down to its very roots. It will doubtless throw out shoots again, but its works will be again destroyed ; all oppression, all impiety, will be once more punished in this world. - Yes ! when iniquity, sin, blasphemy, and tyranny shall have increased upon the earth ; when disobedience, iniquity, and impurity shall have prevailed, then will come from heaven a chastisement that has no name. The Lord of Holiness shall appear in his anger, and shall come to judge the world. In those days persecution shall be destroyed to its roots ; and all iniquity under heaven shall be overthrown. And the idols of the heathen shall be overthrown, and all strong towers shall be burned. Men shall come from all parts ; they shall be judged according to their works, and their torments shall be eternal. Then the just shall awake out of their sleep ; wisdom shall arise and shall be given them. Then the roots of iniquity shall be destroyed , sinners and blasphemers shall be exterminated ; those who oppress their brethren, as also the blasphemers, shall perish by the sword. Like the author of the Book of Daniel, the author of the Book of Enoch believes in rewards for the risen just, and punishment for the wicked after death ; in the judgment, after which the world will

• Chap. xci . 5, &c. From the translation of Laurence and

Dillmann. † Chap. xc. 33, &c. "The Word " in verse 38 is a Christian gloss. Sometimes annihilation , xcvii. and xcviii .; he hesitates. 24 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. have accomplished the " weeks " of its evolution ; * in the approaching end of the world, and in the reign of justice upon earth. In the future there will be no more sin, and the deeds of the wicked will be blotted out.t The history of the world is divided, according to our author, into ten weeks. In the seventh there rises up an impious race, which commits nothing but iniquity. The eighth week will be the week of justice ; the sword will be given it to exercise judgment upon persecutors ; sinners will be delivered into the hands of the righteous, who during this week will reign and build an everlasting house for the great King. One could not point out more clearly the times of John Hyrcanus, when orthodox Israel had the sword in hand and used it to exterminate those whom it considered the ungodly, and built up a state of things (the sovereignty of the Asmoneans) which the writer believes to be eternal. In the ninth week righteousness (the Jewish religion) will be revealed to the whole world ; the works of the wicked will disappear from the earth ; the world is condemned to destruction, and all men will walk in paths of righteousness ( that is, they will practise the Jewish religion ). Then in the seventh part of the tenth week will come the eternal judgment, which

• Chaps. xcii. and xciii.

† Chap. xciii. Chaps. xciii. 9, &c.; xci. 12, &c. (transposed). The verses in xciii. 10-14 seem interpolated by the hand of a Gnostic. THE APOCALYPSE OF ENOCH. 25 will first be exercised upon the Watchers, * and the great eternal Heaven will be founded, rising amid the angels. Then the former heaven will pass away and vanish, a new heaven will be disclosed, and all the celestial powers will shine eternally with a light seven times brighter than now. Then will come weeks in incalculable number, which will flow on through all eternity in goodness and righteousness, and there shall be no more question of sin. Enoch, through the medium of Methusalah, will have much more to say to Israel . † The legend is begun ; it will receive many additions. Every severe thing that the prophets of old ever said against the rich and powerful in this world are to be now set forth under the name of Enoch. Before the coming of Jesus, he is the great eschatologist, the preacher of the Last Judgment, he who condemns. the rich and powerful to hell. The antediluvian patriarch utters discourses so like those of Jesus that the line between them cannot be traced, and criticism stands in doubt before this inexplicable problem : Were the apocalyptic discourses of Jesus ‡ reproductions of those of Enoch, or were those of Enoch reproductions of those of Jesus ? Only a Christian, it seems, could have written such a work ; but that the pages we have analyzed are those of a Christian, it is very difficult to admit, if not impossible. We

• It would appear that, in the author's thought, the angels themselves will be judged.

† See below, book x. chap. 16. + Matthew xxiv. 26 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. must therefore suppose that the apocalyptic discourses of Jesus had their existing models, and that these must be sought for in the Book of Enoch. But we believe that the Enoch-like preachings of this kind were not written until more than a century after the Apocalypse of which we have just spoken.

• Part (e). See note at the beginning of this chapter.

CHAPTER IV. JOHN HYRCANUS. AFTER the death of Antiochus Sidetes, the situation. of John Hyrcanus was wholly changed . The king's death made him, as it were, a free man ; and although he had not as yet the royal title, it left him a degree of liberty which no Jewish ethnarch had ever had before him. Judea from this moment had really a sovereign who acted for Jewish interests alone. No Syrian army would ever again recall harshly to Jerusalem her state of vassalage. The vassalage indeed would endure. The Syrian domination would last until that of Rome should begin. Judea was territorially too small to escape the great powers which were contending for the dominion of the world, but the mad experiment of Antiochus Epiphanes was never again to be revived. The Maccabees, in spite of all their defeats, had conquered. The independent existence of Judaism was assured. All Syria, indeed, was entering upon a period of municipal and provincial emancipation . The era of the free cities of Phoenicia and Cole- Syria 28 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. began about this time. * The central power of the Seleucidæ, as it grew weak, left to local powers the means to assert themselves. † In all directions money was coined . Small tyrants and small dynasties ‡ were multiplied. Through fissures in the crumbling Greek power the liberty of Israel made its way. Thus was realized a phenomenon that had hardly seemed possible, - an Israelite autonomy. This did not last long, only for sixty years, the time between Greek domination and that of Rome, and the experiment was not a successful one. The Torah was not made for the governing of a State ; what was to proceed from it was a church, not a nation. The dominant idea of the materialistic Jew, a stranger to dreams of the resurrection, was that his Law was perfect, and would make society perfectly happy if it were properly carried out. Up to this time it was enough to say that hindrances from without had prevented this. Now that the power of Syria was definitely weakened, such obstacles no longer existed . Israel was absolute master of its own laws, and had ample authority to enforce them. The happiness of the people had been real, especially

• Tyre, about 120 B. C.; Sidon, 111 ; Ascalon, 104. See Norris and

Eckhel. Jerusalem had somewhat the priority, -Primi omnium ex orientalibus. See above, p. 4. ↑ Mission de Phénicie, pp. 615, 616. Lysanias, Zenodorus, Ptolemy son of Mennæus, Zeno Cotylas, Zoilus, Dionysius of Tripoli, Theodorus of Amathus, Demetrius of Gamala, and Marione of Tyre. JOHN HYRCANUS. 29 ― under the rule of Simon. * The Law was everywhere enforced ; the end seemed attained . But, indeed, it was not so. We may say that the Jewish ideal had sixty years of complete realization , that is, from the death of Antiochus Sidetes to the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey. Special tribunals ( bethdin) were charged with the duty of enforcing the Law ; executions were ordered by Jewish authority ; the public force had only to carry the statute into effect. The distinction between spiritual and temporal power was less marked even than in the days of the temporal power of the papacy. Nations have often thought that their own code was the best. The Jews alone, for a tolerably long period, obeyed as the law of the State a code believed to be revealed, permitting no distinction between a jurist and a theologian. Those sixty years were years of absolute peace. The experiment, we may say, was complete. If the happiness of mankind could have been assured by the Torah, it must have been so in Judea, from John Hyrcanus to Pompey. Now, this period, on the contrary, founded just what Jesus attacked most vigorously, —a religious bourgeoisie, Pharisaism, and its opposite, Sadduceeism ; that is, a religious materialism, the idea that man is justified by his outward observance, and not by purity of heart. The Asmonean period is one of the saddest in all history. It is not by this that Israel is to be judged . An official church turned into a professor's chair of

• 1 Maccabees xiv. 4, &c.

30 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. - casuistry, a court that does not civilize, a nation suffering from a deep-hidden malady, well ! a people may recover from anything, even from that. The Jewish people was in the position of a nation. that has an admirable sub- soil , over which a crust has formed. It has to wait till some one comes who can break through this crust. That deliverer will not come forth from the official world ; he will not come from Jerusalem, nor from the circle of scribes or doctors. He will come out of Galilee, from the ranks of the people. Official society is without high morality, without art, without science, without ideality, without progress . The Jews had sublime writings, but they no longer understood them ; admirable sketches and hints of social reform had been outlined for them, but these they had turned into a trivial and onerous code. The Law, during the time we speak of, was the law of the State, which it was never meant to be. Origen was right when he said that the Law of Moses, as a civil and political code, is inferior to that of most Greek legislators. * A religious sect cannot become a nation. Imagine some Eastern sect, the Maronites, for instance, - obtaining complete political autonomy, and you will have the counterpart of the

• Erubesco confiteri quia tales leges dederit Deus. Origines du Christianisme, vii. 512, 513. Christian people have never believed that the

Law of Moses could be enforced by the civil law courts. Puritan Scotland is the only country [ except Puritan New England] where the laws of the Pentateuch have been cited to procure a conviction, and have led to punishments. JOHN HYRCANUS. 31 Asmonean dynasty. What restrictions it enforced ! What chains it placed on liberty ! We may justify those chains while they serve to preserve a nation's life ; but when the nationality is once set free, they are nothing but a shackle. ― The Prophets of old would have been the first to protest against the harmful use to which their dreams were put. They had uttered aspirations, not laid down laws. Everything was observed without distinction, even their utopias ; things most devoid of reason, the sabbatical year, for instance, * and the year of Jubilee, which on various occasions caused great embarrassment ; the absolute need of one spot where festivals might be held, - a requirement which twice or thrice a year brought the unspeakable annoyances of crowds upon Jerusalem. Official Judaism became a religion of onerous observances, absorbing but not ennobling the life, — as is the case still in Oriental lands. These practices, when power sanctioned them, became laws of the State. What could be more intolerable ? And at the same time the manners of the people were harsh, ungenial, and selfish . The character of a saint, as in the early days of Islamism, might go along with the life of a brigand. The saints despoiled and murdered one another. A saint might be a homicide, a drunkard, or an evil-liver. Happily, in spite --

• The year 38-37. Sauley, op. cit. p. 200. Josephus, Antiquities,

xvi. viii. Cf. Schürer, i . 29-31. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. i. 2. Josephus himself seems to recognize this observance as folly. ↑ Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. xiii. 4. See Vie de Jésus , p. 219. 32 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. of all this, there were some noble souls who kept in memory the traditions out of which Jesus came to birth. O God, hasten his coming ! In all this world of evil the only man we love is Mattathiah. - The one thing developed during these miserable years was the spirit of conquest. The circumcising by force of a number of populations not Israelite by race, was the most visible result of the Asmonean period . The first three Maccabees had been valiant warriors. John Hyrcanus followed their example. His reign was a great military reign. And his conquests did he make them with Israelites who had suddenly taken up a line of life foreign to them ? Assuredly not. When not roused in defence of his religion, the Israelite laid down his arms. It was with foreign mercenaries that John Hyrcanus achieved his conquests. And with what did he pay these mercenaries ? With the money for sacred uses which the piety of the faithful poured into the treasury of the Temple, and ( it is said) with riches found in the tomb of David. education for a nation . were often circumcised. † This was an evil His mercenaries probably What had become of the purity of Jewish blood ? These were strange recruits to restore its vigour. Judas Maccabeus, Jonathan, and Simon had made numerous expeditions beyond the limits of Judea,

• Πρῶτος Ἰουδαίων ξενοτροφεῖν ἤρξατο. Josephus, Antiquities, xiii.

viii. 4. † Josephus (Antiquities, xiii . xvi. 2, 3) makes them speak in pagan fashion. JOHN HYRCANUS. 33 but not with the intention of retaining captured cities. Only Gezer, Joppa, and a few other neighbouring places had been annexed to Judea ; but even their possession was contested, or exposed to the chances of a wretched war, since the kings of Syria were always claiming them back, or demanding indemnities to be paid for them. Henceforth it is so no longer ; conquests are to be lasting. Judea must grow really larger ; and as its rule of conquest required the population to submit to circumcision, what became of the theory of a Jewish race untainted by alien blood ? In reality, Judaism from that time forth became a conquering religion, assimilating fresh elements taken from the most diverse quarters, some from the influence of a praiseworthy proselytism, others by violence and compulsion. - The whole life of John Hyrcanus was passed thus in fighting the neighbouring populations of Palestine ; and his arms seem to have been almost always successful . * He first took possession of Medaba, on the other side of the Jordan, after a siege of six months. Then he attacked the Samaritans ; took Sichem and Mount Gerizim, and destroyed its temple. Then he turned towards Idumea. This was the most important of his expeditions. The cities of Adora and Merissa were annexed. The Idumeans were circumcised in a body, and were considered thenceforward as Jews.† One of the future soverVOL. V. - 3

• Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . ix. 1 ; x. 2.

† Josephus, B. J. iv. iv. 4. 34 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF israel. But eigns of Judea (Herod) came from thence. aristocracies have long memories when they aim to humiliate religious or political plebeians. The Idumean was to them only a half-Jew. Herod, till he became king, was always called by that insulting appellation. Samaria was the centre of the most persistent hate against the name of Jew. John Hyrcanus attacked it again in the latter part of his reign. The inhabitants of Samaria, being besieged, called to their assistance Antiochus of Cyzicus, king of Syria. This led to the last Syrian expedition into Palestine. But this time the Jews easily succeeded in getting the best of it, even when the king of Egypt (Ptolemy Lathyrus) came forward to help the invasion. Roman influence had possibly something to do with the affair. † The Syrian attempt and the Egyptian attempt were both extremely feeble. In Egypt, the queen-mother Cleopatra favoured the Jews in opposition to her son, and placed at the head of her army two Jewish generals, Helkiah and Ananiah, -sons of that Onias, who, as we have seen, built at Leontopolis a rival temple. Samaria was taken after a year's siege. The hatred of the Jews was deeply gratified by the victory. The city was destroyed, with special precaution that no trace might be left of it. The day

• Ηρώδῃ . . . ἰδιώτῃ τε ὄντι καὶ Ιδουμαίῳ, τουτέστιν ἡμιιουδαίῳ . Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. xv. 2.

† Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . ix . 2. Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . x. 3. JOHN HYRCANUS. 35 of its destruction was inscribed on the list of fortunate days, the 25th of November. * This happy event occurred probably about the year 108 B. C. In a temporal point of view the reign of John Hyrcanus was extremely fortunate. He recovered nearly the same territory as had belonged to the kingdom in the days of Solomon. Notwithstanding more than one difficulty at home, he was always respected by his people. Supernatural powers were attributed to him ; or rather the idea became general that the high-priest, by means of the oracle in his breastplate, had the gift of second sight, especially at the moment when he offered the evening incense. † Like his son, he was most probably a Philhellene, at least in worldly matters. Three of his five sons had Greek names as well as Hebrew ones. John Hyrcanus never took the title of " king." He remained the Sovereign Pontiff, in a sense both theocratic and republican. His coins did not bear his likeness, but only the inscription, " JOHN, HIGH PRIEST, AND THE SENATE OF THE JEWS ; " or else, " JOHN, HIGH PRIEST, CHIEF OF THE SENATE OF THE JEWS."§ Jerusalem was still a city of priests ; the highpriest was chief of the Community, represented by the Senate or Council of Elders . Judea was in fact a theocratic republic at this period. The word

• Megillath Taanith ; Derenbourg, p. 72, &c.

+ Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . x. 3, 7. Madden, Jewish Coins, 74-81. הנדל ראש חבר היהודים or יהוחנן הכהן הגדל וחבר היהודים 8 יהוחנן הכהן 36 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. which we translate " senate, " or Council of Elders, others render as "community." Inscriptions at Carthage † confirm the first meaning. In those ancient societies, besides, this distinction was not made. At this period they had not the smallest notion of universal suffrage. A city was represented only by its elders.

• = senatus populusque.

† Corpus inscrip. semit. No. 165. vol. i . p. 228. CHAPTER V. PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. In this republic of priests and old men temper was keen, and consequently divisions were deep. Party spirit has always run high among the Jews. The vital distinction between Hellenists and nationalists, of such extreme importance fifty years before, had greatly weakened . In point of fact, there were hardly any Hellenists left in Palestine ; all had been exterminated or expelled . The party of the hasidim had gained a complete victory. But there were many shades of opinion among the hasidim themselves. Some admitted or tolerated the new belief in the resurrection and future recompense ; others adhered strictly to the old Jewish doctrine, and denied the resurrection and the angels. Some complicated the Law by a crowd of traditional explanations ; others desired to keep the Torah in its old simplicity. Some might have been called democrats, as the word then meant ; others were aristocrats, proud and disdainful. What really divided the people was in fact class and wealth, far more than creed or dogma. Wealth in those days had hardly more 38 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL . than one source, -the priesthood, and in some rare instances partnership with the Nabathean banditti. The farming of taxes, at one time so lucrative, no longer existed. The wealthy cohen of the sacerdotal family ( of Zadok * ) rapidly developed into an aristocrat, a conservative. He assumed the habits of that class ; looked out to see that nothing disturbed the order of things by which he profited ; would hear nothing about the resurrection, or angels, or the coming of a Messiah, or any new interpretations of the Law. A sort of unbelief often disguised itself under this simplicity of creed. The horror of superstition which has always marked the Jew, and disgust at popular follies which priests see too near, led to this striking phenomenon, the materialistic priest, most scrupulous in outward deportment, while secretly owning the vanity of the worship which he conducts, and in whose emoluments he shares. Such is that undying type, evolved by the Asmonean Judaism with unexampled skill, under the name " Sadducee." In sense the Sadducees represented the former Hellenists of the days of Antiochus. They were enlightened men, tolerable patriots, in no sense fanatics, and not lovers of such men. The highpriest Alcimus had been, it would seem, a personage of this stamp. The outburst of Hellenism under Antiochus Epiphanes had been the work of the higher clergy at

• Josephus, Vita, i.; Antiquities, xx. ix. 1. Acts v. 17.

PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. 39 Jerusalem. Very many of the priests would probably have consented to sacrifice to Olympian Zeus instead of Iahveh. More wily than the Hellenists, the Sadducees would not have any hand laid on the established form of worship. Seldom does an apostate priest receive any reward for his apostasy. It is safest to serve only one God. It was by physical and mental habit that the Sadducees were men of culture, of elegance, of " high life," * little in sympathy with old-fashioned pietists ; and, as Greek fashions made their way in the world, Sadducees would in many respects pass for Philhellenes. But in fact they were Jews of the oldest school, caring much for the present, little for the life beyond, or for the future ; denying the resurrection † and angels. Judaism has this peculiarity, that in its religion it is the orthodox man who dreads all doctrines that tend to consolation or superstition ; and this makes him at times seem to touch close on unbelief. In a word, the Sadducee was not in the line of religious progress ; he denied all dogmas that were in course of growth ; his position was like that of the Old Catholics as opposed to ultramontanism, which is always outbidding in its terms the dogmas of the past. Sadduceeism represents opposition to

• For example, the high-priest, who put on gloves when he had to

offer sacrifices. See Vie de Jésus. † Mark xii. 18 ; Matthew xxii. 23; Luke xx. 27 ; Acts iv. 1, 2, 3; xxiii. 8. Josephus, B. J. , ii. viii. 14 ; Antiquities, xviii. i . 4. Acts xxiii. 8. 40 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. the new doctrines brought in during the days of the Maccabees, especially by the Book of Daniel. They were very nearly free-thinkers, and in all cases were men of little religion, mere worldlings. Their wisdom was all worldly. The doctrines attributed to them by Josephus, concerning liberty and divine Providence, are interpretations or compromises after the Greek fashion. For them all this was only an attempt to reduce the supernatural to its minimum, a process for eliminating God. - Altogether the Sadducee was not unlike the rich Israelite who is a man of the world in our own day, living in Paris, seldom seen at the synagogue, passing most of his time with those who are not Jews. The most difficult thing to be observed by Jews of this sort is their sequestration, the sort of line drawn round the life of a Jew when strictly under rule . In old times that line was even more palpably marked than it is now. The pious Israelite, the hasid, was always to be known by his separatism. The rigorous observance of the Law obliged him to lead a life absolutely apart from unbelievers. The distinction between clean and unclean conditions led, even among the Israelites themselves, to very annoying precautions. The pious man, especially Josephus, B. J. , ii . viii. 14 ; Antiquities xiii. v. 9 ; xviii . i. 3. † ' Apigia, 2 Maccabees xiv. 3 , 38. Josephus, xiii . viii . 3. Tacitus , Hist. v. 5; Separati epulis. Mishna, Iadaïm, iv. 6 and 7 a. Compare with these Jews a certain tribe (Metualis) in Syria, an excellent people, who are absolutely secluded from the world by their excessive observance of legal prescriptions. PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. 41 in Judea, was essentially a separated man,' a nibdal. When the Aramean language had made considerable progress in Judea, the word peris or pheris was used instead, * having the same meaning. The Pharisee is the Jewish devotee, the Jewish formalist ; the name included everybody except the lukewarm (who were few), and men of enlightenment. It was Pharisees who opposed a violent resistance to Hellenism, and checkmated the Syrian dominion ; thus they became the national party, as the Catholic party would have become if in 1870 it had " saved France in the name of the Sacred Heart." The Pharisee is, in short, the hasid of the days of the Maccabees ; only, after their victory, the hasidim comported themselves as a well- established middle class, not rich, † but with a love of order, of regular and decent life, obeying religious precepts with exaggerated scrupulosity, and modelling their daily lives upon the maxims of the Son of Sirach. - - Desirous of observing the whole Law, the Pharisees in fact observed far more than the Law. They taught that the divine regulations ought to be supplemented by the traditions of the fathers, and thus came great additions to the recognized obligations.‡ The germ of the Talmud was in these numberless regulations, which gave rise to endless disputes. The Sadducees, with the easy indifference of men of

• Ezra, ix. 1 ; x. 11 , 16.

† Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. i . 3. vi. 14. Matthew xv. 1, &c.; Mark vii. 1, &c.; Luke xi. 38, &c.; Acts 42 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. the world, finding that there was quite enough in the Law for them to obey, denied that there was anything obligatory outside the Books of Moses. * One feels that if they could they would have made the number of sacred texts smaller still. The dogmas which Judaism had picked up on its march the Pharisees adopted, without sticking at the slight foundation they had in the ancient books. They admitted the resurrection, future rewards and punishments, the incessant ministry of angels, ‡ and the continual intervention of God in the affairs of men. They made the living, the expanding Judaism. The devotee regards the number of absurdities he swallows as a sacrifice acceptable to God. This abdication of reason is especially pleasing to women ; these ardently attached themselves to such rigourists, seeing in them the true representatives of religion. || Before long, a woman's influence will assure to them for a time the government of Israel. As for importance, indeed, there was no comparison between the two parties. Thanks to their pious scrupulosity (a thing much prized in the East), Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. x. 6 ; xvi. 2 ; xviii. i . 4. † Josephus, B. J. , ii . viii. 14 ; Antiquities, xviii. i. 3. Acts xxiii. 8. § We must not be misled by the efforts of Josephus to bring these doctrines into harmony with Greek spiritualism . This observation applies especially to what he says of destiny and liberty. | Josephus, xviii. ii. 4. Μόριόν τι Ἰουδαϊκῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπ' ἐξακριβώσει μέγα φρονοῦν τοῦ πατρίου νόμου, χαίρειν τὸ θεῶν προσποιουμένων, οἷς ὑπῆκτο ǹ yvvaikwvîtis. A female bigot was called . Mishna, Sota, iii . iv ; Talmud of Jerusalem, Péa, viii . 8 ; Sota, iii . 4. PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. 43 and to their patriotism, the Pharisees enjoyed the greatest authority. A remonstrance coming from them, addressed to persons however exalted, was at once adopted by the people. * Hence arose an opposition, narrow and sullen, like that of the doctrinaire republicans in the reign of Louis Philippe. They were at bottom republicans, insolent to those in power, proud of their religious puritanism, like the Jansenist middle-classes of Paris before 1789. Withal they were clement, humane, not sharing the bitter severities of their time, which the Sadducees displayed with the utmost rigour. The rich and the established dignitaries alone belonged to the party of the Sadducees ; the mass of the people held with the Pharisees. Practically, the difference was not great ; for when the Sadducees exercised any function, they were obliged to act exactly as the Pharisees would have done, to be tolerated by the people. § Thus they were really powerless . Possibly, they were right. But all the history of Israel will pass without their help, and as it were outside of them. In the reign of John Hyrcanus these two denominations, Pharisees and Sadducees, were opposed to each other as the names of two rival parties ; and from this time forward the whole secret of Jewish history will lie in their counterpoise. The Asmonean princes were originally Pharisees. They sprang from Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . x. 5 ; xvii. ii . 4 ; xviii. i . 4. ↑ Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. x. 6 ; xx. ix. 1 . Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. x. 6; xviii. i. 4. § Josephus, Antiquities, xviii . i . 4. 44 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. the people, and owed their elevation to their piety and ardent patriotism . But dynasties rising from such a source soon turn their backs on their antecedents. A prince is of necessity a man of the world, a man who follows and who sets the fashions ; he cannot live with rude and ill-taught men ; he belongs perforce to good society. We have seen how the luxury of Simon astonished the Syrians, and how John Hyrcanus, not long after, became the travelling companion of Antiochus Sidetes. More than one evolution of the same kind has taken place among those newly risen to high station from the democracy of our own time. Power is something that belongs to civil and polished life . However it may have been arrived at, the man who has it becomes in a day a man of good breeding ; or at least he feels the need of living amongst people who are well bred. An incident brought a change of attitude in John Hyrcanus, and threw him out of the party of the Pharisees (which made as it were his native atmosphere) into the arms of the Sadducees. His position as a prince put him so little above a state of dependence that people were jealous of him. One is jealous only of one's equals. His luxury and his proud bearing were resented by the old republicans ; the Pharisees liked him no longer. John Hyrcanus had been one of their most devoted adherents and p. 80, Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . viii. 5, 6. Compare Derenbourg, Pal. note. PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. 45 most docile pupils ; but the good fortune of the disciple roused the displeasure of his masters. Many thought he ought to separate the spiritual from the temporal power. They were well disposed to him as a military chief, but they did not find him noble. enough for the high-priesthood . They went so far as to say that he had better resign the pontificate, a dignity too exalted for him, and retain the secular princedom only. Many doctors of the Law, ultra-legitimist, thought also that the Asmoneans could not lawfully be highpriests, since they were not of the house of Zadok ; that their assumption of the office was legally invalid. * At a magnificent repast given by John Hyrcanus to the Pharisees, a rude personage named Eleazar told him this to his face in the most insolent manner, resting his opinion on the point that his mother had been a prisoner of war, - seemingly not the fact, and at all events irrelevant. The Pharisees, like every one else, were indignant at the impertinence of Eleazar ; but when they were asked what punishment ought to be inflicted on such a boor, they could not be persuaded to say he should be put to death. John Hyrcanus keenly resented this. The Sadducees, to embitter the quarrel, insisted that Eleazar had only said what all the Pharisees thought. This incident- and no doubt other frictions of the same kind, arising from the fact that

• Enoch ; assumption of Moses (Lucius) . Ps. Sal. viii. 12. Leptogenesis (Lucius), p. 109, &c. Servi de servis nati. Assumption of Moses.

46 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL . - the old heroes of his uncle's day did not easily forget a time when all who enrolled themselves as volunteers were equals, and could speak their minds forced John Hyrcanus into the party of the Sadducees. Following their advice, he opposed the new discipline which the Pharisees were urgent to impose as the proper sequel of the Law. He even proceeded against some of those who adopted these innovations. This greatly displeased the body of the people, who looked upon the Pharisees as their own leaders and examples. There were seditions which had to be suppressed , * - by the aid , no doubt, of foreign mercenaries. John Hyrcanus died unpopular ; his sons, who imitated him in his adhesion to the Sadducees, shared the same disfavour. The principality founded by the heroism of the people was already turning for support to the aristocracy. Malkouth — kingship, or court — came to signify a world apart, a world profane, where many things elsewhere forbidden were allowed. † - It must be said, further, that Pharisaism was too narrow to permit any grave act of power, and that the descendants of a wholly sacerdotal family were forced by necessity to become lay and worldly sovereigns. It was impossible to pursue any consistent political course with these poor hasidim, who only saw the world through the medium of their own prejudices and hates.

• Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . x. 7.

† Vie de Jésus. " Because he came near to royalty. " PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES. 47 As for the masses, virtue came more and more to mean " separation. " * Many follies were the consequence. Josiah ben-Joezer and Josiah ben-Johanan of Jerusalem † forbade the use of glass, because it was made of pagan sand. The Sadducees were ready to relieve the people of a crowd of painful obligations ; but the people would not be relieved. In religion it is necessary to be severe. The more strict a rule is made, the more adherents it will find ; more strong souls are won by harshness and austerity than by tolerance and breadth.

• [Pharisoth] .

† Talmud of Jerusalem, Schabbath , i . 7 ; Ketouboth, viii. 11 ; Derenbourg, p. 75. CHAPTER VI. THE ESSENES. THE wonderfully stirring time of the Maccabees, with the radical temper then carried into everything, gave rise to some of the strangest exhibitions. About the time when the State was consolidated under the Asmoneans, * a very singular phenomenon appeared in Judaism. Under the name " Essenes " † were organized real monastic institutions, whose character cannot be too closely scrutinised . At the first glance nothing in the Law of Moses seems to tend that way. The Mosaic Law had for its ideal The first mention of the Essenes is placed by Josephus about 150 B. C. In the year 101 mention is made of one of them (Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. v. 9 ; xi . 2. B. J., i. iii. 5. † The name appears derived from a Syriac word which means "pious " (see Payne Smith) . The two forms Εσσηνός aud Εσσαῖος prove that 'Eoo- alone is radical. What concerns the Essenes is known to us through Philo, Quod omnis probus liber, §§ 12 , 13, and the fragment of the Apology for the Jews preserved for us by Eusebius, Præp. Evang. viii . xi. Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . v. 9 ; xv. x. 45 ; xviii. 1 , 5 ; and B. J. , ii . viii. 2–13. Pliny, Hist. Nat. v. 17. Cf. Dion Chrysostom ( Synesii op. edit. Petav. p. 39. ) We must be on our guard against a little exaggeration in such accounts. The Treatise on a Contemplative Life by Philo ought not to be used as a document of any authority in an account of the Essenes. It is an ideal composition of no authority in an exposition of facts. See below, book x. chap. 15. THE ESSENES. 49 - the formation of a society just, strictly religious, but at the same time complete in all its parts, a lay society ( if we may call it so), not in the least sacerdotal or ascetic. If it was difficult for Mosaism to serve as a code of civil and religious law in a durable republic, in a powerful State ; on the other hand it in no way led to the idea of monastic life . Its proper outcome was the synagogue, and then the church, associations of men bound together by a religious tie, but in other respects preserving their individual freedom in the ordinary society of their day. Vows like those ofthe Nazarites or the Rechabites have little to do with those attempts to realize in full the cenobitic life such as we find it among the Essenes. These attempts involve a special discipline ( ascesis) of body and mind, with a mysticism to which we have not as yet been wonted in the Semitic race. ― In short, these were real monasteries * that were now founded in Israel. The Essene was a monk, who had his rules and his superiors, all except his pope. It is hard to figure to ourselves the outward aspect of these old conventual houses. It is likely, however, that a laura at Mount Athos, or one of those hives of men like the Convent of Saint-Sabas near Jerusalem, may give us an approximate notion

• Philo (ed. Mangey) , ii . 458, 632. The first general edition of

Philo is that of Turnèbe ( Paris , 1552) . The classical edition is that of Mangey (London, 1742) . Since then all others have been little more than reproductions. Anchez made great additions drawn from Armenian translations . Maï, Grossman , Tischendorf, and Pitra have made fresh additions (see Schürer, ii . 831 , &c . , and manual editions : Richter and Tauchnitz) . VOL. V. - 4 50 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. of them. As to their spiritual organization, the likeness to Christian monkhood was very great. The superiors (epimeletes) held their subordinates in absolute obedience. There was a novitiate, or time of probation, lasting a year ; then two years more of trial. When at last admitted into the association, each one took oath never to reveal the secrets of the Order, and on his part to keep nothing hidden from his brethren. * All members of the society called each other "brothers." They admitted only grown men into the Order, but took children and brought them up in habits conformable to its rules. The sole penalty was expulsion, pronounced by a tribunal of one hundred members. But expulsion almost always entailed death, as is the case now in religious communities in the East. § The dress was that of other people, but entirely white. [] All goods were in common. Those who entered the Order gave their fortune to the community ; its members never sold or bought among themselves, everything was done by barter or free gift. ** Their common interests were confided to managers of welltried thrift. Their very clothes belonged to the

• Josephus, B. J. , ii . viii . 6 , 7.

† Josephus, B. J. , ii. viii . 3. Philo, ii . 632. Josephus, B. J. , ii. viii . 2. § Josephus, B. J. , ii . viii . 8, 9. Josephus, B. J., ii . viii. 3, 7. Compare Acts iv. 32, &c.

• • Josephus, B. J. , ii . viii . 3 , 4.

†† Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. 1 , 5. Philo, ii . 458, 632. Philo, ii . 458, 633. THE ESSENES. 51 community.* When a brother was sick, he was cared for at the cost of all ; the old men, surrounded by the young, seemed like fathers in the company of their virtuous sons. † Alms were given from the common chest. In every city a brother had the charge of hospitality to the brethren. § The order for each day was strictly laid down. At sunrise, prayer ; || then the brothers were set to various tasks by the superiors ; after that they came together for ablutions ; then came the mid-day meal ; then more hours of labour, and then supper. T Agriculture was the principal employment of the sect ; ** certain handicrafts were also followed ; trade was absolutely forbidden, †† as tending to a love of gain and a desire to take advantage of others. There were no slaves in the Order, ‡‡ and its members took no oaths.§§ The care taken in all matters of cleanliness and decency was pushed to a point which seems to us puerile. Ablutions were made on all occasions. That "no insult might be offered to the light of

• Philo, ii. 458, 633. Josephus, B. J. , ii. viii. 4.

+ Philo, ii . 633. ‡ Josephus, B. J. , ii . viii. 6 . § Josephus, B. J. , ii . viii. 4. || See pp. 59, 60 (below). Josephus, B. J., ii. viii. 5.

• • Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. i . 5.

†† Philo, ii . 457, 633. Philo, ii . 457. Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. i . 5. §§ Josephus, B. J. , ii . viii . 6 ; Antiquities, xv. x. 4. Cf. Philo, ii . 458. Josephus, B. J. , ii . viii. 5, 9, 10, 13. 52 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF Israel . God," the Essenes carried certain precautions to an extreme. When they took their baths, it was always with a cloth girded round their loins ; the women were clad in a long tunic (indusium) . There were even rules made about spitting. † Marriage was absolutely forbidden, ‡ and by strict rule there were no women in the Order. It seems, however, that on this subject there was some difference of opinion, or at least some relaxing of the original severity. One school decided to permit marriage, on condition that its only object should be the propagation of the human race. Marriage did not take place till a woman had been under a three years' probation, and they were satisfied that she was capable of bearing children.§ Also the married pair bound themselves to observe only what was strictly necessary to attain the required end . The Essenes had made it a point to keep up their connection with the Temple at Jerusalem ; but, rejecting bloody sacrifices, and believing that they had holier rites, they sent thither only offerings T which did not include victims . ** The Jews therefore excluded them from the Temple. But the

• Ως μὴ τὰς αὐγὰς ὑβρίζοιεν τοῦ θεοῦ.

† Compare Talmud of Babylon, Hagiga, 5, a. Philo, ii . 633, 634. Josephus, B. J. , ii. viii. 2 ; Antiquities, xviii. i. 5. Pliny, Hist. Nat. , v. 17. § Josephus, B. J. , ii . viii . 13, - an obscure passage. || Ταῖς δὲ ἐγκύμοσιν οὐχ᾽ ὁμιλοῦσιν, ἐκδεικνύμενοι τὸ μὴ δι᾽ ἡδονὴν ἀλλὰ τέκνων χρείαν γαμεῖν. Η Αναθήματα.

• • Philo, ii. 457. Josephus, Antiquities, xviii . i . 5.

THE ESSENES. 53 holiness of their lives protected them from persecution. "They were," it was said, " the best of men.** Evidently, they made no attack on the official worship. They were safe through their inoffensive sanctity. No And where did they offer that worship which they considered holier than that of the Temple ? doubt, in their monasteries. Their meals in common had also a sacred character. It is here especially that their resemblance to Christianity becomes striking.t All food was prepared by the priests according to strict rules of cleanliness ; the brethren might not eat any food but that which was thus prepared. After the bath of purification, they met again in a hall where no profane person might be received. It is probable that before entering this hall they covered the upper part of the body with a white linen. mantle.§ Here they entered as if into a sanctuary, arranging themselves along the tables silently and with an air of meditation. Before each man stood a loaf and a bowl containing the food for the day. || The priest prayed before they ate, and no man might taste anything before the prayer. After the repast Βέλτιστοι δὲ ἄλλως ἄνδρες. † See Vie de Jésus, pp. 312-319. Josephus, Antiquities, xviii . i . 5 ; B. J., ii . viii. 5, 8. Schürer, ii. 177, note 64. Zeller, iii . part ii . p. 290 ( 3d edit. ) . The opinion that the Essenes abstained from wine and flesh is an error, founded only on an assertion of Saint Jerome (Adv. Jovin, ii. 14) , a bad report of the text of Josephus and of Porphyry ( De abstin. , iv. 11-13). Philo, ii . 633, supposes that they had flocks (Apol. § 18) . 54 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. the priest prayed again. At the beginning and at the end of the repast, the brothers returned thanks to God who giveth food to men. When this eucharistic act was over, they laid aside their linen garment and returned to their work until the evening. This rite was what, far more than any other, struck outsiders in the sect of the Essenes. Strangers, if permitted to be present, were filled with a mysterious respect. The hall seemed a real temple ; in it no clamour and no noise were heard. To the brethren it was enough to exchange few words, gravely, in a low tone.* Of all the Jews the Essene was the one who believed most earnestly in the direct action of God in everything ; in other words, he was the most pious of all. He pushed further than any one else his observance of the Law. It appears that, gentle as they were, these men would have punished with death —that is, with sentence of expulsion - the man who had blasphemed the Law or Moses. believed it was impossible that any human soul could have conceived anything so excellent without divine inspiration.§ In their religious service, like other Jews, they read and commented upon the Bible. Their taste for allegorical exposition || was They

• Τοῖς ἔσωθεν ὡς μυστήριον ἡ τῶν ἔνδον σιωπὴ καταφαίνεται (Josephus,

B. J., ii. viii. 5) . † Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. v. 9 ; xviii. i . 5. Josephus, B. J., ii. viii . 6 , 9. § Philo, ii . 458. || Philo, ii. 458. Zeller (Phil. de Gr. , vol. iii . part ii . p. 248 ; cf. 296) . Schürer. THE ESSENES. 55 a sign of reverence : such interpretations came from their inability to admit that the sacred text treated of ordinary things. Finally, they observed the Sabbath with such extreme exactness that on that day they made scruple to move an earthen vessel, or attend to the most obvious necessities of life . * We see in them, as in the early Christians, pietists of the first water. But gentle piety is a great inspirer. The pious sectary is nearer to enlarged ideas -nay, even to rationalism -than the adherent of an official church. The Quaker, or even the soldier in the Salvation Army, is more liberal-minded than the pure Anglican. And thus it twice came to pass. -once by Essenism, and again by Christianitythat the destruction of Judaism was threatened by an excess of Jewish piety. In Catholicism the same thing has often appeared, in a fashion of its own. We cannot say with certainty whether their priests were elected, or whether they kept to the priesthood of Aaron. Besides the Bible, they certainly possessed books of their own, in which the names of angels played a conspicuous part .§ The link between these sectaries and the apocalyptic writers is apparent. They interpreted dreams, like Daniel ;

• Josephus, B. J., ii . viii. 9. Derenbourg, p. 178 note.

† Josephus, Antiquities, xviii . i . 5 ; the phrase ' Aπodéktas dé · .. is of doubtful meaning. Compare Philo (De vita contemplativa) , and book x. chap. xv. Josephus, B. J. , ii. viii . 6 , 7 , 12. § Compare Enoch, first part. | Compare Daniel x. 2, 3. Enoch lxxxiii. 2 ; lxxxv. 3. 2 Esdras ix. 24, 26; xii. 51. 56 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

they made predictions . These things were a sort of specialty with them : when people wished to look into the future, they called upon an Essene. The names of three of them —Judas under Aristobulus I., Menahem under Herod, and Simon under Archelaus -have come down to us. They practised sorcery by the names of angels, and medicine by lustrations and superstitious charms, though they did not neglect the virtues in herbs and stones. All this, as we see, reminds us strongly of the Book of Enoch ; and it is not impossible that this singular composition may be one of the books of the Essenes, one of those that they swore, when they entered the sect, to preserve with as much care as they did the names of the angels. + - The ideas of the Essenes on the subject of a future life must have varied according to the times in which they lived . Certainly, in the second century before Christ these ideas were not so clear and precise as Josephus represents them in the first century after Christ. According to him, the Essenes had always professed the purest doctrines of Greek philosophy concerning the immortality of the soul. § Josephus, eager to prove the hellenism of his countrymen, || Josephus, B. J., ii . viii . 12. Compare Antiquities, xiii. xi. 2 (B. J., i. iii . 5) ; xv. x. 5 ; xvii. xiii. 3 (B. J., ii. vii. 3) . † Josephus, B. J. , ii. viii. 6. † Καὶ συντηρήσειν ὁμοίως τά τε τῆς αἱρέσεως αὐτῶν βιβλία καὶ τὰ τῶν ȧyyéλwv óvóμara (Josephus, B. J. , ii. viii. 7) . § Josephus, ii. viii. 11. He does the same thing concerning the Pharisees and Sadducees, whom he transforms into a Greek sect. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. x. 4; Vita, 2. THE ESSENES. 57 - always misrepresents the Jewish doctrine of the resurrection, ridiculous in the eyes of the Greeks, * and falsely identifies it with the Greek doctrine of the immortality of the soul. He keeps out of sight, too, the doctrine of a Messiah, so closely allied with that of the resurrection. We may suppose that the ideas of the Essenes on this matter followed the same course with the Jewish ideas, at first like those in the Book of Daniel, the oldest Book of Enoch, and the Second Book of Maccabees ; and that about the time of Herod and the first century of our era there came to be a settled doctrine, including a strictly localized Paradise, with the joys of eternal spring, and a hell under ground, full of horrors. † The apparent absence of Messianic ideas among the Essenes may perhaps be accounted for by the great dislike felt for these ideas by Philo and Josephus. Both aim to present these ascetics to non-Jewish eyes in the most favourable light ; and they suppress whatever would have seemed to the Greeks unintelligible or ridiculous.

• Acts xvii. 32. Cf. Orig. du Christ., vii. 385.

† Ζοφώδη καὶ χειμέριον ἀφορίζονται μυχὸν, γέμοντα τιμωριῶν ἀδιαλείπτων Compare Enoch. CHAPTER VII. FORETASTE OF CHRISTIANITY . IF the reader has paid attention to the preceding remarks, he will see that most of the peculiarities of the Essenes may be explained as exaggerations of Jewish orthodoxy. The puritanism which sought to substitute offerings, hymns, and, above all, purity of heart for sacrifices is the last word of ancient prophecy.* The thought that all things belong to God, and that to offer him beasts in sacrifice is only offering him what is his own, recurs constantly in the Psalms and in the prophetic writings. The queer pruderies that we have mentioned are either exaggerations of the Pharisees, † or are due to an extreme simplicity of manners which held luxury in horror. Extravagant use of religious ablutions was a fixed idea with the Judaism of that period. § We may call to mind John the Baptist. The separatism of the Pharisee led naturally to the minute scrupu-

• See vol. ii. 422-424, 434 ; vol. iii. 423.

† Cf. Deuteronomy xxiii. 13-15. For instance , the prohibition of anointing the body with oil, - - Josephus, B. J., ii . viii. 3. Rubbing with oil broke the fast, - Derenbourg, pp. 168 , 169. § Mark vii. 3, 4, &c. FORETASTE OF CHRISTIANITY. 59 losity of the Essenes. Many of the childish observances of these people, at which we smile, are to this day precepts among the Jews, or rules of cleanliness among the Mussulmans. * Meals in common, † prepared by priests well skilled in the law of ritual purity (koscher), gave the assurance that they were not in danger of eating anything unclean. The precaution of not being waited on by hired servants (people outside of the sect), or even by novices of inferior standing, ‡ arose from a scruple of the same kind. The Law, if pharisaically observed, would render social life impossible. It was natural, to avoid the risk of breaking it, that one should go into the desert like John the Baptist, or into lauras like the Essenes. The abolition of slavery, with many precepts of brotherly love and fair dealing among brethren, had their germ in the Torah. The prayer said to have been offered by each Essene to the sun§ was simply the schema which pious Jews were to recite before sunrise. || Essenism is thus the superlative degree of Phari-

• Talmud of Jerusalem, Berakoth, iii . 5 , &c . Compare Talmud of

Babylon, Berakoth, 61 b and what follows. + Compare the habouroth of the Pharisees. Derenbourg, p. 168. Josephus, B. J., ii. viii. 10. - § Josephus, B. J. , ii . viii. 5. Josephus here abandons himself to his taste for phrases. "QoTep iкetevovtes åvateîdat, is a reflection. Els αὐτόν : "in turning towards him, " which does not imply a kibla, properly so called. There was the same misunderstanding in the case of the Christians. (Clem. Alex. Strom. vii. vii. 18 ; Solem credunt deum nostrum ; Tertullian, Apol. , 16.) Talmud of Jerusalem , Berakoth, 1, 2 ; Derenbourg, pp. 169 , 170, note 4. Compare Enoch lxxxiii. 11. 60 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF Israel. saism, Judaism carried to its highest point ; as in a later day "the religious life " [as led in monasteries] was the perfection of Christianity. The Essenes were the radicals of Judaism ; and for that very reason they approached the latitudinarians. They were the raskolnik of Judaism, at once high-strung puritan heretics, heretics from their excess of logic and of scruple ; above all, heretics guilty of that great heresy, contempt of the hierarchy, and setting of the private judgment above the general observance patronized by authority. - - Was there not in this seemingly original apparition some foreign influence which might explain certain things that at first sight jar with Judaism ? These reduce themselves, indeed, to very few ; and almost all the features whose ground has been sought in Parsism, Buddhism, and Pythagorism proceed (except, perhaps, magic and angelology, which in all cases are of Persian origin) from the false colouring of Josephus, or from a natural outgrowth of Judaism. Celibacy itself, which is hardly at all a Jewish notion,* sprang out of an exaggerated idea of legal purity, and perhaps out of messianic ideas, as it did among the early Christians. Anything intellectual or moral that has been borrowed always betrays itself by some material fact, or some characteristic phrase. Nothing in Essenism gives any

• Talmud of Jerusalem, Iebamoth, vi. 6 ; Ketuboth, v. 6, 7 ; Gitten ,

iv. 5 ; Eduioth, i . 13 ; iv. 10 ; Talmud of Babylon, lebamoth, 63 a and b; Pirké aboth, i. 5, &c. FORETASTE of chrISTIANITY. 61 such indication. Resemblances are not proofs of intentional imitation . The circle of religious imagination is not very wide ; cross-breeding comes to pass by natural process ; the same result may happen from very different causes. All monastic rules are framed alike . The cycle of pious creations offers little variety. It is not by looking backward into the past, it is by looking forward, that we must search for the relationships of the Essenes. Christianity is an Essenism which has had wide success. The spirit in both was the same ; assuredly, when the disciples of Jesus and the Essenes met, they must have felt themselves to be brethren. Here, again, we must be very modest in our conjectures as to what may have been directly borrowed. At the close of the last century and at the beginning of this, it was the fashion to explain Christianity almost entirely by the doctrine of the Essenes. Jesus, it was said, was an Essene, who developed certain features of the sect, and formed a group apart ; the Gospel was nothing but a new edition of the moral maxims of the Essenes. An extreme difficulty rose at once against this hypothesis not one word in all the Christian writings of the first or second century makes any mention of the name or the peculiarities, so strongly marked, of the recluse sect in question. * John the Baptist himself

• We should have to suppose that the first generation of Christians

had agreed among themselves to suppress all allusion to the Essenes. 62 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. belonged to the great, truly Israelite, family of the Prophets, of religious agitators ; but he is not the spokesman of any religious order. His asceticism was that of Elijah, of the ancient prophets who lived frequently in the wilderness, not that of a man trained by monastic rules. How does it happen that the name " Essenes " is not once found in early Christian literature ? The sister doctrines have certain birthmarks (as I may call them) , which more than any likeness of feature show their common parentage. In our day the attempt to explain the origin of Christianity by Essenism has been almost entirely abandoned. Possibly we have even gone too far in that direction . Assuredly we are right in connecting the founders of the Christian religion with the great prophetic tradition of the people of Israel, and not with local fancies that led to nothing ; but we have not, perhaps, taken enough into account the lateral offshoots of Judaism, whose indirect influence upon the early Christians may have been more considerable than is generally supposed. Between Christianity and Essenism the direct connection is doubtful ; but the resemblances are deep. Nearly two hundred years before Jesus, there was a serious attempt to draw out the moral tendencies of Judaism, and to develop the fruits of that prophetical preaching which pure pharisaism, confined to the observance of the Law, scarcely realized at all. The outcome was a touching asceti-

• Observe the Lord's Supper, community of goods, &c.

FORETASTE OF CHRISTIANITY. 63 cism, worthy our esteem, involving impossibilities, and destined beforehand to perish, because it had not the means of self-transformation possessed by the work of Jesus. Pliny, who had some knowledge of the sect as an object of curiosity, passed judgment on it with the good sense of a man of the world. * It was an impossible society, he said. It was all limited to a little short-lived paradise, against which there was nothing to be said, since respect for human nature was carried there even to a degree of puerility, and probably they lived there happily. The material life of man is full of things shocking and humiliating, which are endured with impatience when one has reached a state of pure thought, and feels the immense superiority of the soul's life. There are then two things to choose from, —either to face the things that shock us in human life, to regulate and correct them ; or else to despise that which in itself is nothing, beholding in life only the spirit, while we forget the body. That is what we do, -we men of the West and the North ; and we are right. But we must not be too hard upon that time-worn East, less spiritual than we, which, not distinguishing between the two halves that compose our nature, sought to ennoble and reconstruct life such as it is in its complexity, not reflecting that cares for the body emaciate the soul, and absorb the best of

• Gens sola et in toto orbe præter ceteras mira, sine ulla femina, omni

venere abdicata, sine pecunia, socia palmarum . . in qua nemo nascitur. – Hist. Nat. v. 17. • 64 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. its activity. The ancient Jew, the Parsee and the Hindoo, who respect themselves, and the perfect Mussulman, are busied all the time with these ungrateful disciplines, which leave the soul quite rude and base. Life in these petty worlds is passed in making a man clean and well-behaved. But these minute observances have had their use in the education of mankind. Once admit that the course of Nature is a noble act of worship, conducted in God's sight, and there is no longer any solitude . That great open eye inspires respect for reality. All, in the language of Tertullian, is borne on "discreetly, as under the eye of God." Where Essenism had failed, Christianity was destined to succeed. The idea that " the meek should inherit the earth," had been already sketched out by the Essene. Jesus was to go further. Out of "the Law and the Prophets " he was to extract love. The uneasy prudery of the Essenes, with their precautions (much like those of the Jansenists) , would little concern him. Jesus was cast out of the Temple, like the Essenes, or rather he cast himself out, because he had a more exalted idea of the worship pleasing to God. But Jesus was not strict as to observances ; he was careless of " making clean the outside ; " he set light by the observance of the Sabbath. The messianic doctrine was the ferment necessary to " leaven the whole lump ; " cast that aside, and there still remains a rule of life far superior to that of the Essenes. But then the — FORETASTE OF CHRISTIANITY. 65 Essenes, nearly two hundred years in advance, proved for the first time what treasures of faith, simple trust, contempt of the world, charity, and love of poverty were hidden in Judaism. They withdrew from legal pharisaism, and seemed to prophesy its speedy end.

It is only in Palestine that Essenism seems to have flourished. Its pious cenobites preferred to live in villages, to avoid contact with the corruption of the cities. Their number was reckoned at about four thousand.† There were some in Jerusalem, where one of the gates took its name from them, ‡ probably because their quarter was near it.§ In the first century of the Christian era they lived chiefly in the neighbourhood of Engaddi, and on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. It is here that Pliny and Dio Chrysostom place them, the first considering them as an original case of melancholy madness ; T the second, as utopian theorists, who had found happiness in their own fashion . ** Philo and Josephus are proud of them, as countrymen who have realized on earth a life of perfection, - the ideal of - -

• Philo, ii. 457, 632. Josephus, B. J. , ii . viii. 4.

― † Philo, ii . 457. Josephus, Antiquities , xviii. i . 5. Josephus probably copied this number from Philo. Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . xi. 2 ; xv. x. 5 ; xvii . xiii . 3. B. J., ii. xx. 4; v. iv. 2. § This gate was in the western part of the wall, between the present Gate of Jaffa and the extreme south (the Armenian quarter). Pliny, v. 15. Synesius (ed. Petav. ) , p. 39. ¶ Quos vita fessos ad mores eorum fortunæ fluctibus agit . vita pœnitentia.

• • Πόλιν ὅλην εὐδαίμονα.

VOL. V. - 5 66 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. an existence without needs, without desires, having attained complete moderation of the passions, and absolute sobriety. * In the days of the great Roman persecutions some of them underwent martyrdom with admirable courage. In the second and third centuries they were still to be found, but hardly recognisable among the confusions and travesties of Christian heretics. ‡ Rabbinical tradition is unfavourable to the Essenes. It affected not to speak of them, regarding them as men clean gone out of their wits.§ Modern philosophy has gone too far in viewing them as an almost mere worldly seet, liberal ascetics, more nearly allied to Pythagoras than to Moses. No ; they were Jews : their science was chimerical, and they ignored love. But their attempt to substitute hymns and a holy life for bloody sacrifices -an attempt renewed with more success by Christianity -was in the line of progress. Their holiness went astray into minutiæ ; they did not kill the Law, the Law killed them. But there is no substitute for the ripeness of time. The moment when Israel was to bear its perfect fruit, which is a pure worship, had not yet come.

• Philo, ii . 457, 633. Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. i. 5; B. J. ii.

viii. 2, 4-6. † Josephus, B. J., ii . viii. 10. Especially Saint Epiphanius. § It is wrong to translate in certain passages of the Talmud ' DR as " Essene." The name of the Essenes would have been on or "xon. One is sometimes tempted to think of the Elxaites, or Elkesaites, whose doctrines and practices greatly resembled those of the Essenes. But Christian heresiology is so confused a subject that one cannot follow any track without getting astray. CHAPTER VIII. JUDAISM IN EGYPT. THE tolerance always shown by the Ptolemies spared the Jews in Egypt the terrible experiences that their brethren in Palestine went through victoriously. The Jews in Egypt were always on the best terms with their government, and often, particularly in the army, filled very important posts. The guard of strongholds on the frontier, particularly Pelusium, was several times intrusted to them. They occupied whole provinces near Heliopolis. In the matter of the temple at Leontopolis, which indicated a sort of schism and might have led to international quarrels, the Ptolemies set an example of the conduct governments should pursue on religious questions. They contented themselves with leaving to everybody perfect liberty. The schism did not take place. It was impossible to supplant Jerusalem. The Jews in P. 144.

• See supra and infra ; Josephus, Against Apion, ii. 5. Sauley,

† Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. viii. 1 , and elsewhere. 3 Maccabees vi. 25. Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. vi. 2 ; viii. 1 ; B. J. , i. ix. 4 ; Against Apion, ii. 5. Castra Judæorum, vicus Judæorum, &c. , Schürer, ii . 545. 68 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Egypt continued to send up their offerings to Jerusalem, and to go thither on pilgrimage. * In fact, the relations between the two chief parties among the Jews, notwithstanding the profound differences existing between them, were always excellent. The suffering during the time of the Maccabees was acutely felt in Egypt. Ever since the time of Jonathan, the Jews at Jerusalem every year invited their brethren in Egypt to come and celebrate with them the Feast of the Purification of the Temple. There were certain formularies for this invitation, † and they only changed the date, which led to one being forged as written by Judas Maccabeus to one Aristobulus, supposed preceptor to the king. This was the first instance of a letter from one community to another, a kind of literature which was subsequently to have so great development. Trade -moral, prompt, and active -closely united the Jews of both these regions. The books that came forth in Judea were immediately translated in Alexandria, and often we owe the book itself to these translations. We have seen a striking example of this in the Book of Jesus, the son of Sirach. It was the same with the apocryphal writings of Daniel, Enoch, Baruch, the (First) Book of Maccabees, and the Psalms of Solomon. It often happened that the translator did not confine himself to giving the sense Philo (ed. Mangey) , ii. 646. Josephus, Against Apion, i . 7. † See the first letter at the beginning of 2 Maccabees, dated 124 , and compare it with another written 143. JUDAISM IN EGYPT. 69 of the original, but he would make additions, always in a pietist direction, of hymns, prayers, &c. Thus in the Hebrew Book of Esther the Jews do not pray, and the name of God is not spoken ; while in the Greek version there are long, very devout, and beautiful prayers. To the Book of Daniel were added. ― two stories of the same cycle, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon, which probably existed as traditions - in Palestine, but of which there was no Hebrew text. Possibly, too, they added, in the chapter of the burning fiery furnace, the Song of the Three Children. * A touching evidence of the fraternal feeling existing between the two portions of Israel is that book of the Maccabees (the one known as the Second) which, as we have seen, is full of the strongest Maccabean sentiment, but seems to have been written in Egypt. The story of this great religious epoch has been in this way transmitted to the world by the Egyptian community. A less elevated feeling inspired the book called the Third Book of the Maccabees. Egypt wished to have its own Antiochus and its own martys ; so it was pretended that Ptolemy IV. (Philopator), after his victory over Antiochus the Great at Raphia in 217, came to Jerusalem, and wished to penetrate into the interior of the Temple. This made a great stir among the Jews, who cried aloud and implored God so effectively that Ptolemy

• Daniel, iii . 27-69. See vol. iv. p. 283, note. The chapter about

Azarias must surely have been part of the Hebrew text. Very little Greek was then written in Palestine. 70 HISTORY OF THE People of Israel. was struck with paralysis on the threshold . The king went back to Egypt in a fury ; he took from the Alexandrine Jews their rights as citizens, and ordered all the Jews in Egypt to assemble at Alexandria in the hippodrome. The number of these wretches crammed into that narrow space was so great that the scribes appointed to take down their names had to stop after forty days, because paper and the instruments they wrote with gave out. * Ptolemy then ordered that his elephants should be intoxicated with wine and the fumes of incense, and made to trample down the mass of Jews. Then the Jews prayed with intense fervour ; the king changed his mind. From that hour he conceived great tenderness towards those poor Jews who had been the most faithful subjects of his ancestors and his own, - burlesque incidents, calculated to make the reader smile at the king's expense, who is all the time half- drunk, and at his officials, who at one moment are on the point of suffering in the Jews' stead. The third day the affair grows still more serious. The king comes to the hippodrome with his army, when the Jews betake themselves to prayer, and an angel appears. The elephants turn on the king's troops and crush them under foot . The king, furious against his officers, orders the Jews to be delivered, and lodged at his cost for seven days. A festival is instituted in memory of the event, and the king writes to all his governors in favour of the Jews.

• 3 Maccabees iv. 20. † 3 Maccabees vii. 36.

JUDAISM IN EGYPT. 71

We can fix the date of this book by its rage against apostates. The Jews ask a further favour of the king, which is to inflict deserved punishment on all those of their nation who have denied God and transgressed the Law, alleging that whoso is faithless to God can never be faithful to the king. Ptolemy finds this reasoning altogether just, and allows the Jews. to exterminate apostates throughout his kingdom , without any control from the authorities, and without further permission. The Jews then declare that Ptolemy is the best of kings, and sing Hallelujah. "After which they forthwith punished all those of their defiled countrymen who had fallen into their hands ; and they killed them in an exemplary manner. That day they put to death more than three hundred ; and after having slain the ungodly, they gave up the rest of the time to joy and thanksgiving." Such is this abominable book, -a silly recast made from the Book of Esther, which the Christian canon has not yet got wholly rid of. ‡ The pious narrative which makes the basis of this story came from one that was half true. Josephus relates that Ptolemy VII. ( Physcon), having found the Jews his political adversaries, wanted to give them over to elephants which he had caused to be intoxicated ; the Jews flung themselves on the king's friends, and at the same moment the king was turned

• The author must have known the Book of Daniel and the Song of

the Three Children (chap. vi . 6). † 3 Maccabees vii. 10, &c. The Latins never had it. 72 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. from his purpose of injuring the Jews by the apparition of a menacing face. A festival commemorated this event in the Alexandrine community.* The two legends are evidently the same story ; and it is quite certain that Josephus had no knowledge of the stupid book just analysed. The tendency Even at Alexandria, as we see, the intolerance and exclusiveness of the Jews was great. Difference in food was the principal cause of this. of the Jews to pose as sufferers from persecution, and the foolish exaggeration in their complaints, arose from ill-feeling on both sides. The author of the Third Book of Maccabees represents the heathen bourgeoisie of Alexandria as passing their nights without sleep, so as to invent refinements of cruelty to be inflicted on the Jews. § People who excite so much hatred must be a little in fault. When a thing happens everywhere and always, there must be some reason for it. Wise Jews are those who complain least. The universal ill-will which beset the Jews led to frequent pamphlets, in which justice was by no means always done. The Jews naturally defended themselves. They asserted that they were attacked only because of the jealousy inspired by their good morals, the purity of their faith , and their very kindness of

• Against Apion, ii. 5.

† 3 Maccabees iii . 4, &c. 3 Maccabees iv. 1 , &c. § 3 Maccabees v. 22. Cf. iii . 6, &c.; iv. 1 , &c. Against Apion, i . 25. JUDAISM IN EGYPT. 73 heart. * About the year 110, at Rhodes or else in Caria, Apollonius Molo distinguished himself by the vivacity of his attacks. He reproached the Jews especially for their disdain of other religions, their exclusiveness, and their impiety towards the gods. ‡ Lysimachus of Alexandria § enlarged the list of fabulous charges which pagan opinion accepted too readily. There came to be at last a sort of history of the Jews as accepted by the pagans, which was circulated with confidence. A work which was much read, the ponderous History of Posidonius,|| massed together these allegations, generally calumnious, which were copied in the lump by Diodorus of Sicily, Trogus, Pompeius, and Tacitus. Jests about circumcision, about pretended secret scenes of immorality, and adoration of an ass's head, circulated in general conversation. Against this flood of errors Philo ¶ and Josephus * were but powerless defenders.

• 3 Maccabees iii.

† Josephus, Against Apion, ii . 2 , 7 , 14, 33, 36, 37, 41. Cf. Eusebius, Præp. evang. ix. 19 ( Polyhistor) . "Abeo , μσávoроπо . Cf. Pliny, xiii . iv. 46 ; Tacitus, Hist. v. 6. § Josephus, Against Apion, i . 34, 35 ; ii . 2, 14. We do not speak of Cheremon and Apion, who belonged to the first century of the Christian era. Josephus, Against Apion, ii . 7. 'Amoλoyia inèp ' Iovdaiwv, fragment in Eusebius, Præp. evang. viii. ii . Cf. Hist. Eccl. ii. xviii. 6.

• • The two books Against Apion. See Origines du Christianisme, v.

244, 245. CHAPTER IX. THE JEWISH SIBYL. TWENTY or twenty-five years after Daniel, there appeared in Alexandria a Jewish poem in whose ideas the influence of the Palestinian taste for Apocalypse was clearly to be felt, while the form was entirely original. Instead of taking as his credentials the name of some celebrated personage in the Old Testament, the author of this poem had recourse to a very different order of fiction. It was the Sibyl herself, the perpetual prophetess of the gentile world, that he caused to speak for him. * We know what authority these oracular virgins had acquired for themselves among the Greeks and Latins. The Sibyls seemed ready-made to suit the purpose of inventors in search of incontestable authorities, under cover of whose names they might present to the Greeks ideas which they held dear.

• The Sibyl - called Jewish, Chaldean , Babylonish , or Egyptianwas named Sabba, or Sabbatha ; she was the daughter of Berosus and

Erymanthe (?) (Pausanias, x. xii . 9 ; Suidas on the word ißvλλa ; Cohort. adgentes chap. 17 ; Moses of Khorene) . She remains an enigma. All these facts appear to proceed from Polyhistor. Perhaps they belong to some prologue now lost. See Alexander, Carm. Sibyll. 2d ed. p. 16, note. THE JEWISH SIBYL. 75 There circulated already short poems, attributed to the Cumaan or Erythræan Sibyls, -poems full of threats, announcing great catastrophes to all nations. These sayings, the effect of which was great on the general imagination, especially when fortuitous coincidences seemed to bear them out, were written in the old epic hexameter, and in a language which pretended to resemble that of Homer. The Jewish imitators adopted the same rhythm, and, the better to deceive the credulous, scattered through their text some of those predictions which were believed to come from prophetesses of great antiquity. * This form of prophecy had an extraordinary success. One of the rules in apocalyptic writing is to attribute the work to some great celebrity of former ages. Palestinian apocalyptic writings owed their success to the real or fictitious names of Daniel, Enoch, Moses, Solomon, Baruch, and Ezra. Alexandrine apocalypse took the Sibylline form. When a Jew, a friend of goodness and of truth, belonging to that tolerant and sympathetic school of Judaism which dispensed with circumcision and the sabbath, wished to address warnings or advice to pagans, he made one of the prophetesses of the pagan world speak for him, by way of giving his admonitions a force that otherwise they could not have had. He adopted the tone of the Erythræan oracles, endeavoured to imitate the traditional style of prophetic poetry among the Greeks, made use of some of the threats which

• For instance, iii. 97-161, 433-488 .

76 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. always impressed the people, and framed the whole in pious exhortations. Let us say again, no one at this time scrupled at frauds of this kind, made with a good end in view. There had come to be a regular workshop of spurious classics, made in the interest of pious ideas, in which the maxims it was desired to inculcate were put into the mouths of Greek authors. * The Sibyl served the same purpose of propaganda. This kind of literature was so well adapted to the wants of the period that Christians kept it up by writings which form a continuous chain up to the sixth century. Some products of this strange literature have come down to us in the collection of fourteen books supposed to have been finally cast in shape and closed in the days of Justinian. The character of these writings is that of Alexandrine literature in general. The form is artificial, imitated entirely from classical antiquity. The verse is fashioned with alarming facility. There is rhetoric, but it is genuine rhetoric, not excluding, now and then, passages of real eloquence. The abrupt, hacked, and slashed way in which strings of verses follow one another takes us by surprise, and gives us at first glance the idea of compilation. But it is the author's artifice to make his fraud seem truth . This disjointed style was that of all collections of Eryth ræan sayings. The oracles were flung together without order ; and we must own that such a style was

• See vol. iv. p. 221-228.

THE JEWISH SIBYL. 77 very favourable to any desire a writer might have to mix up the different collections, and to make additions or interpolations. It was about the year 140 B. C.* that the most ancient and important of these singular poems † was composed, in which the prophetic genius of Israel took its final form. The Erythræan Sibyl was the one chosen by the author to address to the ancient world his reproaches and his threatenings . The plan of the book, as in Daniel and in Enoch, was a sort of universal history, the nation of the Jews being its centre. The sacred history of our author was a sort of pendant in verse to Eupolemus or Artapanus,

• The date of the poem here mentioned is inferred from the following facts: (1 ) It is later than the Book of Daniel (cf. v. 388-400) ,

or the ruin of Carthage and Corinth ( 146 B.C.) . (2) In three places (v. 191-193, 316-318, 608-610) the poem professes to have been written in the reign of Ptolemy VII.; that is to say, Ptolemy Physcon (145-117 B.C. ) . The particulars given in the passage 388-400, as explained by Hilgenfeld , would give the date with even greater precision. Polyhistor knew the poem of the year 140. (Eusebius, Chron. ed. Schöne, i . 23. ) † The Sibylline poem of the year 140 is in substance composed of the Third Book, omitting the first ninety-six verses and the last eleven. In the detail many more modern intercalations may have been made. Several critics attribute to lines 295-488 a Christian origin ; but this opinion is erroneous. The same peculiarities may be observed in all parts of Book III. except the lines 1-96 and 818-828. The proœmium, preserved by Theophilus of Antioch, is often considered the preface of the work. The eschatology of the book, which is much more advanced than that of the poem of 140 , does not allow us to entertain this opinion. ( See below, p. 298, note. ) If the proœmium had been the preface of the Third Book, one does not understand why it should not have been in the collection . This proœmium is certainly a beginning ; but it is not the beginning of the poem of B.C. 140. Lactantius, Inst. div. iv. vi. 5, 13 ; vii . 19. Cf. Schürer, ii. 800, note 71. See pp. 79 et seq. 78 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. composed, according to the taste of the times, * of a singular mixture of the Bible and of Greek fable. † The Titans and the sons of Kronos are associated with mythical stories of Babel. Daniel is in this the inspirer of our poet. The succession of empires is to him the same as to the Seer of Palestine . ‡ To the four empires he is now able to add that of the Romans, § which he represents as terrible, destructive, rapacious, and oppressive. Of all empires it has been the harshest, the most iniquitous, and the most impious. || Its luxury, its abominable manners, the vices it has scattered wherever it came, its haunts of profligacy for boys, have debauched the whole world. The people of God will reign at the last ; they will guide all mortals upon the way to life . The judgment of God will fall upon the gentile world with blood and fire. ** This Jewish Sibyl assuredly has ideas the most moral, pure, and elevated . She apostrophises Greece as a sister who has gone astray.tt She loves her. All her woes come from idolatry, the fatal invention of certain wicked kings of old time. Monotheism was in the beginning ; it is the primitive religion .

• See previous account of pseudo-historians, vol . iv. p. 227, 228.

† Carm. Sib. , iii . 105 and following. Compare books i . and ii . Josephus, Antiquities, i . iv. 3 ; Eusebius, Chron. , Schöne, i. 23. Carm. Sib. , iii . 165, &c. § Carm. Sib. , iii. 175, and what follows. Compare the Apocalypse of Esdras, Orig. du Christ. , v. 368. Η Βίου καθοδηγοί.

• • Carm. Sib. , iii . 286 , 287, 670, &c.

tt Carm. Sib. , iii . 545, &c. THE JEWISH SIBYL. 79

O Greece ! why hast thou put thy trust in men, in mortal princes who cannot escape the doom of death ? Why dost thou offer vain presents to the dead, and sacrifice to idols ? Who has put error into thy mind ? Who has led thee to this attempt to hide thyself from the face of the Great God? Ah! rather revere the name of the Father of all things ; let his name not be unknown to thee ! Proud kings have reigned over the Greeks for fifteen hundred years , and they have introduced evils amongst mortal men, corrupting them by the worship of many idols of gods who have suffered death ; and they have filled your mind with vain things. But when the anger of the Great God shall be heavy upon you, then will ye recognize the face of the Great God. All human beings with great groanings, lifting their hands to the vast heavens, will begin to invoke the Great God, and to pray for his protection, and to see who shall deliver them from his great anger. Well, then learn this, and lay to heart all the evils which will come to pass in the latter day. When Greece, which has made vain oblations, sacrificing oxen and roaring bulls, shall offer whole burnt-offerings on the altars of the Great God, she will escape the evils of war and of pestilence, and will once more shake off her yoke of servitude. Judaism is the sacred lamp which will preserve the light of truth in the world. Submissive to the will and the designs of the Most High, these pious men honour the Temple of the Great God by libations, burnt- offerings, holy hecatombs, and sacrifices of fatted bulls. . . . Living in righteousness , and in the observance of the law of the Most High, they The Jewish author, who is entirely an euhemerist, believes that the gods are deified ancient kings. See Mem. on Sanconiatho ( Acad. des Inscript., vol. xxiii . part ii . ). † Carm. Sib. , iii . 573, and what follows. 80 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. will live perfectly happy in their towns and in their rich country. * Exalted by him who is Immortal, and become prophets of the human race, † they will bring to it great joy. To them alone has the Great God given wisdom, faith, and good thoughts in their hearts. Preserved from vain errors, they no longer revere images of gods, the work of men's hands, fashioned in gold, in bronze, in ivory , in wood, in stone, or clay ; works painted in scarlet, representing the forms of animals, and all that mortals, led astray in their madness, now adore. But they raise to heaven their pure hands which in the morning, rising from their beds, they purify with water ; they honour God, always mighty and immortal, and after him their parents ; besides which, more than all men, they remember the sanctity of the nuptial bed. They do not give themselves up to evil connections with young boys like the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Latins, the Greeks, the Persians, the Galatians, all Asiatics in short, who violate and transgress the pure laws of the Immortal God. - Because of these things the Immortal will send woes upon all mortals, famine, sorrows , and groanings , war, pestilence, and sufferings, which cause men to shed tears. For they have not chosen to honour in holiness the immortal Father of all men ; they have worshipped idols, and bowed down before the work of their own hands. They shall themselves overthrow these false gods, and for shame shall hide themselves in clefts of the rocks , when a new king of Egypt shall reign over this land (he will be the seventh of the Greek dynasty founded by the Macedonians, men of valour ‡) , and when a great king will come from

• Observe the eschatology of our author ; there is no Messiah or

Paradise. † This is a very obscure and imperfect passage. I adopt the rendering of M. Delaunay. Cf. iii . 192, 193, 316–318. synonymous with the present time. enthroned," not " young." This formula with our author is Néos (about 608) means " lately THE JEWISH SIBYL. 81 Asia, a flaming eagle, who will cover all the earth with his foot- soldiers and his horsemen, break everything, fill everything with evils, and overthrow the kingdom of Egypt ; then, having carried away all its wealth, he will depart by way of the vast plains of the sea. * Then before the Great God, the King Immortal, they shall bow the knee upon the fertile earth ; works made by men's hands shall be the prey of fire. Then will God give unto men great felicity ; for the earth, the trees, and immense flocks of sheep shall furnish man with real fruits , wine, and sweet honey, white milk, and grain, the best of all foods for mortals. The author, therefore, like the author of the Book of Daniel and all writers of apocalypse, believes that the final end of the evolution of our race is on the point of being reached. The conversion of the world. to Judaism, and the end of idolatry, will take place in a few years. War, the greatest of all evils for those who do not believe in the immortality of the soul, will disappear from the earth : - And then God will send out of the East a king, who will cause dreadful wars to cease upon the earth. [ Fomenters of war] , some he will slay, and others he will oblige to make treaties of peace. He will not do this by reason of his own purpose, but to obey the wise orders of the Great God. And the people of the Great God shall be loaded with magnificence and riches, with gold , silver, and purple. The fertile soil and the sea shall be filled with wealth... Again † shall the sons of the Great God live peaceably around the Temple, rejoicing in the gifts of the Creator,

• The author regards as imminent a conquest of Egypt by Syria,

which did not take place. † Carm. Sib. , iii. v. 702, &c. VOL. V. - 6 82 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. the just Judge, the Monarch, who alone will defend them and surround them as with a wall of fire. They shall be safe from war, both in their towns and in the open country. The hand of fatal war shall be laid no more upon them. The Immortal shall fight for them ; the arm of the Holy One shall cover them. And then all the isles and all the towns shall say : How dear are men to the Immortal ! On all occasions it is he who fights for them, who comes to their help, as do also the heavens and the moon and the divine sun. And out of their mouths shall come sweet songs : Come and let us all fall prostrate on the earth, and let us pray to the King Immortal, the God Great and Most High. Let us send offerings to his Temple, since he is the only King. Let us all proclaim the law of the Most High God, which of all the laws on earth is the most just. We had wandered far from the ways of the Immortal, and in our foolishness we worshipped wooden images made by hands, images of dead men. The souls of men who have become faithful will then cry: Come, and let us fall upon our faces with the people of God ; let us celebrate in hymns, in our houses, God the Creator. For seven years let us go to and fro upon the earth, gathering together all murderous arms, bucklers , javelins , helmets, arrows, all things that slay men ; let us make of them great bonfires . For seven years no oakwood need be cut in the forests to keep up the flame. Sometimes the author seems to mistrust his own illusions, and tries to alarm that Greece which to him seems so hostile to Israel, and which he despairs of winning:- Ah, hapless Greece ! * lay aside thy thoughts of pride. If thou wouldst care for thyself, pray to the Immortal with

• Carm. Sib. , iii . 732, &c.

THE JEWISH SIBYL. 83 thy whole heart. Send back into this city * the irresolute people who came out from the Holy Land. Do not stir Camarina ; it is better that Camarina should not be stirred. Do not rouse the leopard from his sleep, for fear of drawing down misfortune on thyself. Calm thyself ; do not nourish in thy bosom the cruel and audacious pride which urges thee on to this terrible struggle. Serve the Great God, that thou mayest have part with them at the coming of the dreadful day of judgment. This judgment of God is always conceived to be preceded by terrible woes : §- From Heaven shall fall upon the earth swords of fire ; || immense torches shall fall also , and flame in the midst of men. The earth, the great mother of all, will in those days be shaken by the hand of the Immortal. The fishes of the sea, all the beasts of the earth, the innumerable families of birds, all the souls of men, and all the seas shall tremble before the face of the Immortal. All will be terror. The Immortal will break down the scarped summits and the high cliffs of the mountains, and black Erebus will appear to all eyes. High as the abode of the winds, shall the caves in the high mountains be filled with corpses ; the rocks shall drip blood , and form torrents which shall inundate the plain. Ramparts strongly built shall all fall to the ground ; unhappy men shall be without defence because they have not understood the law and the judgment of the Great God, and because in your madness ye have all thrown yourselves, brandishing your lances, on the Holy Place. God will judge them all by war, by the sword,

• No doubt, Jerusalem.

† An obscure allusion to some event of the time. With the saints . § Compare with the Synoptical Gospels, and the Apocalypse. Carm. Sib., iii . 672, &c. ¶ Compare line 663 and what follows. 84 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL . and by a deluge. From Heaven will fall stones, a terrible hail, and brimstone. Death will be on all beasts. Then men will recognise the Immortal God who accomplishes these things. The moans and clamour of the dying will rise in all the earth ; then all, silent and prone, will lie bathed in their blood, and the earth will drink the blood of men, and wild beasts shall gorge themselves with their flesh . Then comes the era of perfect happiness. Here the Sibyl simply copies the Second Isaiah : — The earth, which produces all things,* will give to mortals excellent fruits, grain , wine, and oil. From Heaven will flow a sweet beverage of exquisite honey ; the trees shall shower down their fruits ; fat herds of oxen, sheep, and goats shall be multiplied without end. The Immortal shall cause fountains to flow forth of milk white as snow. Cities shall be full of wealth ; and the fields shall be fertile. There shall be no more swords drawn , no more tumult on the earth ; no more of those deep shakings which disturb the groaning soil ; no more war, no more drought, no more famine, no more hail, so harmful and destructive to all fruits. Great peace will reign upon the earth ; kings will always observe their treaties. The Immortal in the starry skies will give to men in all the earth a common law, which will teach unhappy mortals what they ought to do. . . . And then shall arise a kingdom † which will last forever, and extend over all mankind. He who has given to pious men a holy law has promised to open to them all the earth , the world, the gates of the blessed, all delights, the immortal spirit, and eternal felicity. All the earth shall bring incense and gifts to the house of the Great God ; and there shall be for generations to come no other house to be venerated but that one which God has pointed out for the respect

• Carm. Sib. , iii . 744, &c. ↑ Carm. Sib. , iii . 744, &c .

THE JEWISH SIBYL. 85 of faithful men. the Great God. * All mortals shall call it The Temple of All the roads through the plains, all the steep rocks, all the high mountains, and the furious waves of the sea shall Profound peace and happiThe Prophets of the Great be easy to cross in those days. ness will reign upon the earth. God will put down the sword, for they shall be just judges and kings to mortals. There shall be riches among men not acquired by injustice. † It will be the judicature and the magistracy of the Most High. Rejoice, O Virgin ! ‡ tremble with happiness. He who has created the heavens and the earth assures thee of eternal felicity. He will dwell with thee ; to thee will belong immortal light. Wolves will eat grass with the lambs upon the mountains ; leopards and kids will graze together ; the wandering bear will lie down with the heifer. The lion that now eats flesh shall eat straw in the manger like the ox, and little children shall lead them in chains. Wild beasts shall walk over the land and shall do no harm. Dragons shall sleep with children and not hurt them ; for the hand of God shall be upon them.§ I will show thee a sure sign, which shall make thee know when the end of all things is coming on the earth . When in the starry skies at night thou shalt see swords after nightfall or before the dawn ; when storms of dust shall pour upon the earth out of the heavens ; when the light of the sun shall be extinguished at mid-day in the firmament, and the rays of the moon shall appear, and turning back shall lighten the earth ; when the rocks shall sweat drops of blood ; when ye shall see foot-soldiers and

• We should certainly read Nŋóv instead of 'Yov, in spite of Lactantius.

+ Omnis dives iniquus aut hæres iniqui (Saint Jerome). The virgin, the daughter of Zion. Cf. Zach. ii. 10. § See Isaiah xi. and Second Isaiah. Carm. Sib. , iii . 795, &c. 86 HISTORY OF THE People of Israel.

- horsemen in the clouds, and in the air mists which seem to represent the hunting of wild beasts, then know that God who inhabits the heavens is about to put an end to war. But before that day must all men sacrifice to the Great King.

• Compare 2 Maccabees, chap. v. , and Josephus, Tacitus, and the

last siege of Jerusalem. Compare Virgil, death of Cæsar, concurrere acies. 11 CHAPTER X. THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH. THE Sibyl of 140 thus takes leave of her reader : This is what I predict to thee, after having in my delirium quitted the long walls of Babylon in Assyria, foretold to men the fire destined for Greece, and the chastisements of God, and prophesied to mortals divine enigmas. Men will say falsely that I am a native of another country, of Erythræa in Greece ; they will say that I am the Sibyl who was the daughter of Circe and Glaucus ; * they will say that I am mad, and that I lie. But when all shall have come to pass, then you will remember me, and no one any longer will say that I am mad : they will call me the great Prophetess of God. Critically speaking, these arguments are undoubtedly very weak ; and if any Greek allowed himself to be taken in by them, he must have been a man of very inferior education . But the true argument for Judaism was the Jewish life. Happy, cheerful, honest, and accepting their position of inferiority, the Jews seemed men of wisdom, a species of philosophers after their kind. They avoided both the immorality

• Tywσroîo should certainly be raúxoto. Virgil, Æneid, vi . 36. Cf.

Lactantius, Inst. div. , i. vi. 88 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. of the Greeks and the meanness of the Egyptians. Their morals were pure ; their aspect, like that of the early Christians, was meek and tranquil. I fancy that among the numerous Egyptian portraits belonging to Ptolemaic or Roman times that have been discovered in our day,t some are portraits of Jews and Syrians. There is something about them tender, amiable, and confiding. As we look at them, we recall the words of Jesus, " The meek shall inherit the earth." Surely, we might add the simple-hearted. What can be more childlike than the idea of the Sibylline author that justice would be much greater upon earth if administered by God himself, -in other words, by priests and prophets ! If he had lived in Jerusalem, he might have seen that power exercised in the name of religion is more severe than that proceeding from any secular source whatever ; and that the Romans, as compared with the Asmoneans, might have been considered liberators . Atheocracy refuses to see that, after all , human affairs are always directed by men more or less enlightened ; whereas under a theocratic organisation the wisest are by no means those who attain power. Judges who emanate from theocratic

• Sodomy, a vice so common in the East, was unknown to them.

No Jewish law alludes to it. Saint Paul considers it a vice belonging to the Greeks ( Romans i . 27) . Carm. Sib. , iii. 185 , 186. † The Graf Collection , found at Rubayat in the Fayoum. One of these portraits painted on wood seems to have Aramean characters on the back; several are eunuchs, as can be recognised by the ribbon at the ear. Carm. Sib. , iii. 781-783. THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH. 89 power will have the same faults as those who emanate from civil power. It is not worth while to make the change. The thing to be desired is that the mass of mankind should be made more moral and more enlightened. The Sibylline oracles of the Alexandrine Jews did not attain their immediate purpose ; they were little read by the Hellenic population . But the seed cast forth can always find a corner of the earth in which to germinate. A hundred years later, the same ideas were presented to Rome in an exquisite form by the pen of the most delicate of poets : * — - The last age chanted by Cumaan poems is now come ; the long series of new centuries is about to begin. Behold the Virgin now returns, now return the days of Saturn ; a new form of humanity descends from heaven. . . . Now is the end of the iron age ; the age of gold arises for the whole earth. . . . All traces of inborn crime shall vanish ; the terrors which threaten us shall disappear. The earth will bring forth at the same time the creeping ivy and the lady's-glove, the Egyptian bean and the acanthus ; the goat shall return to the farm with her udders distended with milk ; the flock shall no longer dread the attacks of lions. . . Death to the serpent ! Death to all poisonous, deceitful herbs ! The Assyrian spikenard shall grow up without culture. . . . The plain shall everywhere grow yellow with the waving grain ; the ruddy grape shall hang from the branches of the wild bramble ; the oak, hard as iron, shall distil sweet honey. . . . The mariner will take leave of the sea ; the pine which serves as mast upon the ship shall give up traffic ; each land shall produce everything. The soil shall no longer submit to the harrow, the vine shall no † Virgil, Eclogue iv. 90 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. longer need the pruning-knife ; the labourer shall loosen the yoke from the neck of his bulls. Wool to take lovely colours need no longer be dyed ; the ram in the meadow will change his fleece for one of purple or saffron ; the lamb as it feeds will reclothe itself in scarlet. " Spin, spin, aye, spin such ages ! " the Fates have long sung to their distaffs, in accordance with the unchangeable divinity of Destiny. . . . See how all things tremble with joy at the thought that that age draws near! -- It seems to us impossible not to recognize the resemblance. Virgil, well conversant with Alexandrine literature, most probably knew our poem, or, if you will, some other publication of the same kind. * He drank in the sibyllic spirit, the deep conviction of what was to be in future times, which made him the prophet of the pagan world, almost a Christian. † His tender soul, religious as ours might be, and his need of hope, made these dreams dear to him. The beautiful state of religious harmony maintained by Virgil, his custom of loving all things yet believing in none, which sometimes makes him strike notes of inexpressible depth, may have come partly from a scroll of bad poetry which he one day received from Alexandria, and read, just as he read everything. We ask ourselves, besides, whether when he wrote of the prodigies that attended the death of Cæsar‡ he may

• This seems more likely than to suppose that Virgil read Isaiah.

The Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures circulated little ; and if it had fallen into Virgil's hands he would have been deterred from reading it by unintelligible passages. † The Legend of Virgil as a Christian. Georgics i. 464, &c. THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH. 91 not likewise have remembered that passage in the Sibylline poem which we have already quoted. * Nothing can be more false than too rigid rules in matters intellectual and moral. These Alexandrine hexameters of the year 140 B. C. are very like our Latin verses produced by schoolboys, full of sounding commonplaces. But they have had more influence in the world than the noblest classic poem. They have made one of the foundation- stones of Christianity. We believe this, because Saint Justin, Clement of Alexandria, Lactantius, and many others have believed that these poor lines were really the work of the Erythræan Sibyl. Lactantius, who might have quoted Isaiah, prefers to quote the Sibyl who has copied him. The Sibyl foresaw that she would be called mad and false,‡ and certainly she was not mistaken. No, it was not the Erythræan ; it was not Taraxandra § who wrote these wretched verses. But the verses tell the truth . There is a judgment-day of God, and an absolute standard of right and wrong. There is reality in things. The witness whom we look for in heaven has an existence outside of ourselves. There is a future for humanity. All the pictures men can draw of it are childish ; and yet all utopias, all socialistic chimeras, are true at bottom. Some day there will come a Virgil who will draw Carm. Sib. iii . 588, &c.; 695, &c.; see chap. ix. † Lactantius, Inst. div. , vii. 24. † Μαινομένην ψεύστειραν. § The name of the Cumaan Sibyl, "she who brings trouble on men. " 92 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL . out of this confused maze a golden dream. The messianism of the future will have its roots in a dunghill which we have passed by with disdain. Religion is an indispensable illusion . The rudest means of flinging dust in the eyes of so foolish a race as that of man must not be neglected . It is a race created for error ; and even when it admits the truth, it never does so for sound reasons. From this it follows that we must give it bad ones. In this sense Her apocry- our Erythræa was a true prophetess. phal verses have found a place deep in the heart of the human race. Men will believe her, because she believed ; they will hope because she hoped. Teste David cum Sibylla. All honour to the false prophetess who succeeded so well ! Sibylline literature, however, was far from being ended. Such oracles reappeared again and again ; and nothing is more difficult than to fix the date of these writings, always bad as poetry, but in sentiment always pure. One would think that the same school, animated by the same spirit, had come down through the ages. As every important event occurs affecting religious history, we find traces of this permanent judge, who looks upon everything from the Israelitish point of view, and justifies the saying that " The Sibyl still lives ! " *

• Orac. Sib. , iii . 808, &c.; Orig. du Christ., vi. 18, note 1.

CHAPTER XI. ARISTOBULUS I. ―- ALEXANDER JANNÆUS. THE lack of any fixed rule of succession was the great misfortune of the Asmonean dynasty, and led to a series of family crimes such as we find in all Oriental dynasties that are not bound to the constant succession of the eldest male heir. The reason lay in the double dignity of high-priest and sovereign prince in the same person. A plan sometimes adopted by intelligent rulers was to leave after their death the temporal government to the widow, and the dignity of high-priest to the eldest son. This arrangement suited the ideas of the Pharisees, whose great aim was to separate the two offices. As the women were devoted to them,* the occasions of conflict were much less under a female regent, who was sure to show herself complaisant towards the priesthood, as we shall presently see in the case of Alexandra. It seems, indeed, that John Hyrcanus had a similar idea before Alexander Jannæus. He would

• See p. 42.

94 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. have liked that after his death power should be exercised by his wife, and that the office of highpriest should pass to Judas, the eldest of his five sons, whose Greek name was Aristobulus. The Pharisees would naturally favour such an arrangement. But it failed completely. Aristobulus insisted on having the same powers as his father ; and with the aid of the army he got them into his hands. He had his mother arrested, and imprisoned all his brothers except Antigonus, the second son of John Hyrcanus, for whom he had a warm affection . The Pharisees, furious at the ill success of their intrigue, represented the matter in its most odious light, and spread abroad the blackest calumnies concerning Aristobulus. The crimes with which the memory of this prince has been loaded seem to have been inventions of this arrogant and evil-minded party, all of whose malignant reports were eagerly caught up by public opinion. * If one were to believe the tales put in circulation by these fanatics, Aristobulus not only imprisoned his mother, but suffered her to die of hunger in chains. † Such a monstrous deed seems hardly probable. On the other hand, Aristobulus seems to have been a good sovereign. Timagenes of Alexandria, a soberminded historian, gives him high praise ; ‡ and Jose-

• Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. x. 5 ; xv. 5 ; xviii. i. 2. Another resemblance to the Jansenists.

† Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . xi. 1 ; B. J. , i . iii . 1. † Επιεικὴς ἐγένετο οὗτος ὁ ἀνὴρ καὶ πολλὰ τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις χρήσιμος. Quoted by Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. xi. 3, after Strabo. ARISTOBULUS 1. 95 phus himself, though he relates these crimes, admits that he had some rare qualities. ' Soon after his accession, Judas Aristobulus assumed the title of king and the royal diadem. This step, no doubt, had been discussed during the lifetime of John Hyrcanus. It had been thought possible by this means to checkmate the opposition of the Pharisees. The title, however, does not appear upon his coins, which bear the same inscription as those of John Hyrcanus : " JUDAS, HIGH-PRIEST, AND THE SENATE OF THE JEWS.' " Aristobulus, as we have said, had the greatest affection for his brother Antigonus, and he associated him with himself at first in the royalty. Then came the usual suspicions that never fail in such awkward situations. Aristobulus killed his beloved brother, and then died of remorse. But all this is doubtful ; what we do know is that Aristobulus, during his reign of one year, rendered the greatest services to the Jewish nation, and made war against Ituræa with signal success. This country answered to Bashan and Hauran, § and was in a sense the continuation of Gilead . || He annexed part of it to Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. xi. 3. † Strabo, xvi. ii . 40, dates the royalty from Alexander Jannæus. Madden, p. 81-83. Cf. Josephus, Antiquities , xx. x. § Or Auranitis, a region called " the granary of Damascus, " lying to the south of it. - TR. There were some Ituræans in the mountains of Lebanon ; but it is not of these that we here speak. Miss. de Phén. , p. 248 , 856 b , 858. The Ituræans of Lebanon appear to have lived above Byblos and Tripoli. It is impossible to suppose that the forced circumcisions of 96 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL . Judea, and according to custom he forced the inhabitants to adopt the Jewish way of life, and to be circumcised. Aristobulus, like many Oriental sovereigns of his time,* ostentatiously called himself a Philhellene . † Like his father ( at least in the latter part of his reign), he stood ill with the Pharisees ; and the unjust way in which history has dealt with him mainly proceeds from their ferocious hatred which he had incurred. On the death of Aristobulus, his widow Salome, called in Greek Alexandra, ‡ gave orders to set at liberty the three brothers of the late king, and caused Jonathan to be proclaimed king and highpriest, the name being abbreviated to Jannæus, and in Greek called Alexander. He was considered the best and most moderate of the three. She likewise became his wife, though she was very much older Aristobulus reached them. At any rate, there is no trace of it. On the other hand, Bashan and Hauran were Jewish ground, at least until the time of Herod. Cf. Luke iii . 1. Ituræos in Libano monte (Eph. Epigr., iv. 538) are Ituræans who had spread beyond their borders ; or else the Jebel- Hauran may have been taken for a prolongation of the Lebanon Range.

• Among the Parthians, among the Nabatheans, and in the district

of Commagene. † Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. xi. 3. Eusebius, The Paschal Chronicle, Syncellus (Eusebius, Chron. edit. Schoene ii . 130 , 134, 135. Compare Saint Jerome, Comm. in Dan. ix. 24, &c. ) , all say that her Hebrew name was Ɛaliva or Ɛaaλivá. ΣΑΑΛΙΝΑ appears to be an error for ΣΑΔΔΙΝΑ, which one might be tempted to say suggests the Syriac name of the princess buried in the sarcophagus from the Tomb of the Kings which is in the Louvre ; but it seems to have been a title of honour, equivalent to " Our Lady," which was given when addressing her. ALEXANDER JANNÆUS. 97 than he. She was a woman of great talent, who subsequently played an important part in Jewish history. Alexander Jannæus was at that time twenty- two years old, and he reigned twenty-six or twenty- seven years ( 104-78 B. C. ) . It was a reasonably good reign, - in the first place because it was long ; and afterwards because Alexander Jannæus, excepting his strong taste for war, was a fairly estimable sovereign. On ascending the throne, the cruelties he committed were the fewest that might be judged necessary in the East for the security of a new reign. He killed one of his brothers, whose ambition he feared ; but he suffered the other to live, because he only desired a life of obscurity. Alexander Jannæus first turned his arms to the sea-board, where some important cities -Acre, Dora, the Tower of Strato, and Gaza- remained outside the limits of the Jewish dominion. His success varied. Acre, by her admirable patriotism, escaped forever from Jewish rule, and deserved to remain free . Egypt took a hand in the quarrel ; it was a 5) ; It is certainly strange that Josephus (Antiquities, xiii. xii. 1 ) does not say so ; but one seems forced to admit it. What is not admissible is that Alexandra was seventy-three at the time of her death (Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . xvi. 6) . She would have been then sixteen years older than her husband (compare Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. xv. she would have been thirty-nine when she married him, and still have had two sons by him. Probably seventy-three is an exaggeration. If we suppose Alexandra to have died at the age of sixty , we can make very probable combinations. It is singular that her children (Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. xv. 5 ; xvi. 2 ) are always described as young at the time of the death of Jannæus. VOL. V. -7 98 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL . nameless imbroglio of perfidies and changes of front. * Dora and the Tower of Strato were under a tyrant named Zoïlus, who defended himself with energy, but had to succumb at last. The conquests of the Jews extended to Gaza, Raphia, and Anthedon. The ruin of Gaza was horrible : the siege lasted a year ; the population was exterminated ( 96 B. C. ) . The whole of the ancient country of the Philistines, except Ascalon, fell into the hands of Israel, after fifteen hundred years of bitter rivalry. Beyond Jordan, Jannæus took Gadara and Amatha. The lands of Gilead and of Moab were subdued. On the other hand, Theodorus, the son of Zeno Cotylas, succeeded in continuing his father's work in those districts. He recovered from a first defeat, and was never subjugated by the Asmoneans. Ever since the beginning of his reign, Alexander Jannæus had leaned upon the party of the Sadducees ; and the dissatisfaction of the Pharisees had grown only the more venomous. Bold, insolent, and secure of the approbation of the common people, these terrible opponents did not shrink from those public insults which power finds it so hard to bear. One year, at the Feast of Tabernacles, probably 95 B. C., there happened a very terrible incident. § While Alexander Jannæus was officiating as high-priest, Josephus, Antiquities, xiii . xii. † Amatha on the Jordan ( Wadi Adjiloun) . Narrative of Simon ben-Schatah. Derenbourg, pp. 96-98. § Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. xiii. 5. Compare Babylonian Talmud, Succa, 48 b. ALEXANDER JANNÆUS. 99 the Jews who were present at the ceremony, each of whom, according to custom, carried the loulab (a sort of bouquet, composed of palms and branches of the lemon-tree and citron, or ethrog) , committed an unheard-of scandal. Alexander Jannæus had just ascended to the altar, when all present, recalling the scene of Eleazar in the time of John Hyrcanus, cried out that he was unworthy of the priestly office, because his mother had been a slave ! With this cry, the palm and citron branches flew at the head of the high-priest . The insult was insupportable. Jannæus, in a fury, ordered a charge of his guard, composed of mercenaries from Pisidia and Cilicia. The massacre was terrible. Josephus says that six thousand followers of the Pharisees were left dead on the pavement of the Temple. Jannæus was embittered to the last degree. He caused a wooden barrier to be erected round the altar and that part of the Temple to which priests alone had access. It was a useless precaution. The root of the evil was in uniting the dignities of king and priest. Royalty has its rights, its privileges, and its requirements . Pious souls could not fail to be wounded by seeing men reeking with blood, monsters of savagery, officiating at the altar of the holy God. The enemies of the clergy have not the right, granted to other men, of being occasionally unfortunate. Jannæus, having made an expedition against Obedas, king of the Nabatheans, a short time after the scandalous scene at the Feast of Tabernacles, 100 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. was completely routed. After this check he returned to Jerusalem, where he found people enraged against him. For the moment discontent became real civil war. According to Josephus, who always has a tendency to exaggerate, the war lasted six years, and cost the lives of fifty thousand Jews. Jannæus with his mercenaries made head against his people ; but in the end he had to yield . He decided to be the first to make proposals of peace. But when a Jew is once enraged he is not easily brought to reason . "Well, then, what do you want of me ? " he asked the insurgents. "That thou shouldest die," was the answer ! * Then came to pass a thing incredible. The Jewish people, about 88 B. C., called to their aid the Seleucid king, Demetrius III . (Eukairos), against the grandson of Simon, -the great-grandson of Mattathiah ! So much for religious passion. Jannæus was a strict Jew; we might almost call him a fanatic. He exterminated whole populations to extend the frontiers of his circuncised kingdom ; and the grandchildren of those whom his ancestors had delivered were calling against him one of the successors of Antiochus, because of as light difference in matters of devotion, a somewhat different fashion of interpreting the same Law. — Demetrius hoped to recover for his Seleucid empire the provinces needed to round it out. He entered Palestine and encamped with his army before Sichem, Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. xiii . 5. ALEXANDER JANNÆUS. 101 where the democrats of Jerusalem came to join him. Jannæus encountered him bravely ; but he was defeated, and forced to take refuge in the mountains of Ephraim. The Asmonean dynasty, however, had deeper roots than the agitators who made the quarrel had supposed. When they saw that the effect of what they had done would be to restore the authority of the Seleucidæ, they thought better of it. The entrance of Demetrius into Jerusalem seemed far from desirable ; they took pity on the sovereign whom their rashness had reduced to extremity, and six thousand soldiers went over to Jannæus. Demetrius deemed it little to his advantage to take part in such ferocious hatreds. He retired with his army, leaving the Jews to settle their disputes among themselves. The civil war was far from ended. About 87 B. C., Jannæus, having succeeded in shutting up the principal leaders of the sedition in a place called Bethome, laid siege to it, and brought back all his prisoners to Jerusalem . It is said that they were crucified, to the number of eight hundred ; and that during their long death-agony their wives and children were slaughtered before their eyes, while during the same time the king was giving a banquet to his mistresses, who gazed upon the horrible scene. This atrocious deed earned for Jannæus the name of Thrakidas. *

• Equivalent to "executioner " [ that is, both headsman and

torturer]. Cf. Opákov, Josephus, Antiquities, xvii. viii. 3. See Munk, Palest. , p. 532, col. 2, note ; Derenbourg, p. 101 , note 1. 102 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. The night after this dreadful execution eight thousand Hierosolymites left Jerusalem, and never returned to it till after the death of Jannæus. * Let us here repeat what we have said several times, - that the history of these things has come down to us through Pharisees, scandal-mongers, exaggerators, and incessant grumblers. Undoubtedly Jannæus was cruel ; but it is not probable that he went so far as to commit the atrocities laid to his charge . The wound he had inflicted on the Jewish conscience healed over. After the siege of Bethome, and the severities which resulted from it, the public peace was not disturbed. The foreign war continued without interruption. Antiochus XII. ( Dionysos) claimed the right to pass through Judea to go and fight the Arabs. Jannæus refused, and constructed a fortified moat at Capharsaba near Joppa. Antiochus crossed it ; but he was vanquished and killed by the Arabs. Hareth also, king of the Nabatheans, having become king of Damascus, desired to pass through Judea. Jannæus again attempted to bar his passage, but was defeated at Adida near Lydda, and forced to pay dear for the victor's retreat. The last campaign of Jannæus (from 84 to 81 B. C. ) was one of his most successful ones. Its theatre was the region beyond Jordan. Dium, Gerasa, Golan (Gaulonitis) , Seleucia, and Gamala were taken and

• Talmud of Babylon, Sota 47 a, Sanhedrim, 107 a. Cf. Derenbourg, p. 94, note ; p. 99, &c.

ALEXANDER JANNÆUS. 103 annexed. The Macedonian town of Pella refused to give up its national worship for that of the Jews, and was levelled with the ground. Jannæus returned to Jerusalem with success so brilliant that this time he was well received . He had atoned, by a holy war and pious exterminations beyond the bounds of his kingdom, for whatever religious crimes he might be charged with nearer home. CHAPTER XII. CULMINATION OF JEWISH POWER. THE results of the reign of Alexander Jannæus were very considerable. * His bands of mercenaries, well maintained, were considered to be composed of the rudest veterans of that time.† The Jewish State, a thing unnatural, born but of yesterday, was tottering to its fall. But its consequences were important. The Asmonean kingdom made the basis of the arrangements soon after effected by the Romans. Many places annexed to Judea by John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannæus remained Jewish, especially Idumea, which soon after gave to Judea a Jewish sovereign. The Herods were simply substituted for the Asmoneans, and continued the policy which they inaugurated. The State created by John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannæus was small, according to our ideas ; but it was the largest of the kingdoms that sprang from the dismemberment of the Seleucid empire. It was about as large as two of our French departThe name of Jannæus was the most celebrated among those of the Asmonean kings. In the Talmud all the Asmoneans are called ' . (Derenbourg, p. 96, note. ) † Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. xvi. 2. CULMINATION OF JEWISH POWER. 105

ments. It was united Palestine that the Jewish conquerors had reconstructed, including Galilee and Samaria, even as far north as Lake Samochonitis [Merom]. All places on the coast from Carmel to Egypt, except Ascalon, were recovered for Judaism . The same may be said of the belt of towns in the region to the east of Jordan and the Dead Sea, Rabbath- Ammon ( Philadelphia) and its dependencies excepted. - All these conquests had an unfortunate result for civilisation . They were so much taken away from Hellenism . Flourishing Greek cities - Pella, Seleucia ( on Lake Samochonitis), Philoteria, Gadara, and Gerasa were destroyed. The effect of the Macedonian conquest was nullified in one third of Syria. Many hitherto flourishing cities, given over to a narrow-minded Judaism founded on extermination, became deserts, owing their later revival to Pompey and Gabinius. † All this was due to the separatist spirit, which would have no relations with the uncircumcised ; but it was also the fault of the princedom, of the secular rule, which aspired to enlarge its dominions and to reign over a more and more widespread field of tribute. Perhaps, too, the priest-prince might have some thought of proving himself more a Jew than those who reproached -

• Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. xv. 4 ; xiv. i. 4. George Syncellus,

i. 558, &c. , ed. Dindorf. The additions made by Syncellus to Josephus appear to proceed from Justus of Tiberias. See Schürer, i . 228, note. † Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. iv. 4 ; v. 3 ; B. J. , i. vii. 7 ; viii. 4 . 106 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. him for not being enough of one. The king of France has never been a persecutor, except when he needed indulgence for some Gallican indiscretion he had committed. - Around the Asmonean prince was formed, indeed, by the necessity of the case, a sort of legitimist atmosphere, very Jewish no doubt, but above all Asmonean, its first principle being that the sons of Mattathiah alone had the mission of delivering Israel from the Syrian yoke ; that God would not protect intruders who might wish to interfere with ' their work ; that priests, especially, understood nothing of it, and if they interfered would only get killed to no good purpose. † This lay opinion of theirs was associated with an earnest Judaism, but Judaism of the old type, which held patriotism to be the one essential thing in life, and knew nothing of the resurrection or of future retribution. These opinions are expressed with singular frankness in a book of the highest importance, which is called " The First Book of Maccabees. " It contains an account of the holy war, from the beginning of the revolt of Mattathiah to the death of Simon (about forty years). The author, it appears, had also composed annals of the reign of John Hyrcanus ; ‡ but as this part of his work did not much interest the Christians, it has not been preserved. The First Book of Maccabees is the work of a lay1 Maccabees v. 62. 1 Maccabees xvi . 23, 24. † See vol. iv. p. 324. CULMINATION OF JEWISH POWER. 107 man, evidently in close relations with men about the court, and writing probably under their inspiration. He was a man of some education, and no stranger to Greek learning, but especially inspired by the ancient Hebrew writings, being himself the last gleam of the old genius of his nation. The preface about Alexander, though a little declamatory, has a real character of greatness. The work most certainly was written in Hebrew ; * but as it interested Christians more than Jews, the Greek translation is the only form in which it has come down to us. The author must have had access to some earlier writings, but he relied chiefly upon oral tradition, receiving from the lips of the last survivors of the great struggle accounts of the epic in which they played a part. This is why occasionally, in the midst of his pietism, he falls into the loose style of narrative, intermingled with verse, of the old Arabian story-tellers . † He loves adventure for its own sake ; he takes delight in relating it. In reading this singular book, persons who have a real feeling for Hebrew rhythm often note in it the parallelism of ancient poetry. This parallelism does not lend

• The title, according to Origen (in Eusebius H. E. vi . 25) , was

Σαρβηθ σαρβαντελ, very obscure words. I have seen the signet of a Syrian bishop which had a similar motto in Syriac after his name. The characteristic motto of the Asmoneans might have been ¡ , "he who expects nothing but from God. " † See vol. iv. p. 340, - the episode of Medaba, and the surprise by Bacchides beyond Jordan. Note in particular 1 Maccabees i . 25, &c . , 36, &c .; ii . 7, &c. , 108 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. itself to the narrative, nor can we say that the whole book was in verse ; but the recital glides insensibly from prose into the parabolic style, especially in descriptions, in adventures, and in the general summning up.* The critical view of the author is about the same as that of Josephus, † -exact enough as to events in Palestine, but astonishingly simple as to what concerns the rest of the world. His ideas about Rome are most childlike. The three hundred and twenty members of the Senate meet, he says, every day! Every year absolute power is confided to one man alone. § It does not seem as if he had any really important documents in his possession . Like Josephus, he supplies the lack of what he has not by what he fabricates himself or borrows of others' fabrication. This is a fault common to all writers of history among the Jews. They had no original collections ; they invented the letters-missive, as they invented the speeches. Occasionally, for that matter, it looks as if the work before us were only an extract unskilfully taken from some larger book. || 44-49 ; iii . 1-9, 45, 51 ; iv. 38 ; vii . 17 ; ix. 23, 41 , 44, &c.; xiii. 49 ; xiv. 6, &c.

• Read for example his picture of the prosperity under Simon,

xiv. 6, &c . † Almost always, when Josephus differs from the First Book of Maccabees it is Josephus who is wrong. 1 Maccabees viii . 1 , &c. These ideas, so innocently optimistic, prove that the book was written before the time of Pompey. § 1 Maccabees viii. 15, 16 ; xv. 16. See especially chap. ix. 66, where persons not before heard of are brought upon the scene without any explanation . CULMINATION OF JEWISH POWER. 109 What surprises us is the good sense of the author, and the firm grasp of his thought. The success of the war of independence is due to the courage and skill of the Asmonean brothers. The book contains not a single impossibility. There are no chimeras, no angels, no miracles ; it is a narrative carefully arranged, in which everything has its natural explanation if we once admit the general protection extended by God over his people. The priests hold quite the second place ; God himself is not often mentioned. A sort of natural morality is supposed to exist ; heaven and earth are called to witness ; the innocent man has the testimony of his good conscience. * One would be tempted to say that the author was a Sadducee, if that name did not suggest the notion of a sect. He is not a ritualist ; he finds it absurd that the Sabbath should be more prized than life. His liking for military tales denotes a soldier. The motive that makes a man brave death is the feeling that he dies for his people, and for the laws of his fathers, which he naturally thinks to be the best of all . There is glory too : † the author is no stranger to that sentiment, so little Jewish. By dying nobly a man wins an undying name. The hero thinks of history ; of what will be said of him after he is dead. The stain which the least recoil would stamp upon his fame holds him firm when he might be tempted to falter.‡

• 1 Maccabees ii. 37. † 1 Maccabees ix. 10.

+ Ibid. 110 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. The historian, viewed in this light, seems like one who distributes crowns ; and it is this thought which places the pen in the hand of our author. He writes like Herodotus,* " that the great deeds of men may not be forgotten. " The valiant acts of men are well worth being told. Men do great deeds that they may be spoken of ; the bravest go to certain death, like Eleazar, that their valour may be observed of men ; splendid monuments are built to immortalise their memories. There are, indeed, some intrusive fellows who say, " And we, too, let us be famous ! let us do something to be talked about ! " § Such men gain no success . For them history has but one cold answer : " It was not their vocation. What business had they here ? " Most certainly some Greek influence had come that way. Alexander, as he overran the world like another Dionysus, seeking for illustrious adventures, had set on fire the imaginations of men. His legend was already in its dawn ; his historians, all more or less writers of fable, entertained the idea that a man is rewarded for all his toils if only he is talked about at Athens. Glory was born, and had begun to have its market value. " To be esteemed among the Greeks " will for a time be the equivalent of a divine reward. The Asmonean princes, it appears, were not insensible to considerations of this kind. As a result Book i. 4. † Ανδραγαθίαι. 1 Maccabees xiii. 29. § 1 Maccabees v. 56, &c. CULMINATION OF JEWISH POWER. 111 of the conquest of Greek cities on the seaboard, in Galilee, and in Perea, the Greek language was getting established side by side with the Hebrew. The royal coinage of Alexander Jannæus is stamped in both tongues ; his sacerdotal coinage is simply Hebrew, with the same inscription as that on the coins of John Hyrcanus and Aristobulus I. * The little Jewish kingdom thus had all the characteristics of an important secular State. Great buildings, carefully constructed, were multiplied in Jerusalem and its neighbourhood ; and possibly the cost of these constructions may have been, as in the case of Solomon and Herod, one of the causes of discontent that troubled the last years of the reign. of Jannæus. It hardly seems proper to speak of Jewish art, since the Jewish religion seemed to prohibit it. Fancy what would have become of Greece if she had had but one sole temple twice rebuilt in a thousand years ! The architecture of the palace of the Asmoneans at Jerusalem † is unknown to us. The Tower of Baris ( afterwards Antonia ) ‡ was in the most imposing style of the fortifications of the period. The quadrilateral of Hebron and its incomparable wall § seem to me to have been a work of the Asmo-

• Madden, Jewish Coins, 83-90. The coins we have of Alexandra

are also inscribed in Greek. The sacerdotal coins of Hyrcanus II. were no doubt in Hebrew; but it is doubtful if we have any. † Josephus, Antiquities, xx. viii. 14 ; B. J., ii . xvi. 3 ; vi. vi. 2. This palace was situated near the Xystus, towards the present Meidan. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. ii. 4. § See Mission de Phénicie , pp. 799–805. 112 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. nean period or that of Herod. The architectural rules of Greece are too well observed in it to allow us to assign it to a period before the Captivity. Hebron was not a Jewish city till the days of the Asmoneans, and assuredly it was not after the siege of 70 A. D. that this extraordinary work could have been constructed . We may say the same of the enclosure of Ramet-el-Khalil, * which is built in a style similar to that of Hebron, and where we may still trace the circuit of the Fair-ground of the terebinth, near Hebron. Jewish art was best displayed in the construction of tombs. Proceeding from old reminiscences of Egyptian architecture, treated according to Greek taste, and adapted to the habits and customs of the Jews, the Jewish tomb has a character which can everywhere be recognised. The ornamentation is very careful ; the need of avoiding the likeness of any living thing made their outlines heavy and pompous ; but the effect is , notwithstanding, very rich . The monument at Modin, with its pyramids and colonnades decorated with trophies and galleyprows that could be seen on the height from ships off Joppa, † must have had a grand effect. But it was at Jerusalem that sumptuous tombs of this kind became the fashion. The Vale of Kedron and the environs of the city were filled with gigantic mauso-

• See Mission de Phénicie, pp. 800-802.

† 1 Maccabees xiii. 27, &c. See vol. iv. p. 336. [ The most probable site is about fifteen miles from the coast. ] CULMINATION OF JEWISH power. 113 leums, which may still be seen, and some of them are quite beautiful. * They were all tombs of Sadducees, who made provision to be thus nobly buried. Before long, Jesus will announce that in the day of judgment the rich, laid beneath these superb mausoleums, will implore them to hide their shame, and shield them from the punishment about to fall upon them. †

• The tombs are said to be those of the Judges, Zachariah and

Absalom. Strict accuracy in the chronology of these monuments cannot be had in the present state of science. For the tombs of the kings, see Origines du Christianisme, ii . 257. † Vie de Jésus, pp. 218, 219. VOL. V. - 8 CHAPTER XIII. THE REIGN OF THE PHARISEES. - ALEXANDRA. THE latter years of Alexander Jannæus were sad and disheartening. The nation, irritated against him, affronted him in all ways that were not sure to be put down by force. He was only forty- five years old, but he was worn out. By way of distraction he took to drink ; and this vice brought on an intermittent fever, which in three years broke him up. The darkest fears assailed him. He beheld his sons killed or expelled by the powerful party he had exasperated, which was, so to speak, the nation itself. The queen, Salome-Alexandra, was a person of rigid piety, and sided with the Pharisees. She had blamed the harsh measures taken by her husband against this party. Jannæus thought that she might save the hopeless situation : he desired to leave her the royal power after his death ; Hyrcanus, the elder of his sons, was to be pontiff. In this way the difficulty which had rent Israel into factions for fifty years should be settled ; the royalty and the high-priesthood would be kept apart.

• To Ovos. Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. xv. 5; xvi. 5 ; xiv. iii . 2.

REIGN OF THE PHARISEES. —ALEXANDRA. 115 Alexandra was just the woman to play this part well. After the death of Aristobulus I. she had conferred upon Jannæus the royal title. A love of power was with her a frenzy.* She despised men, and believed that in matters of dynasty women make fewer blunders. She cared neither for justice nor for honesty, provided she could gain her ends. Her piety seems to have been an outward orthodoxy, involving neither delicacy of conscience nor purity of heart. The failing health of Jannæus did not prevent his attending to his military duties. At the age of forty-nine he laid siege to Regaba, beyond Jordan, near Gerasa ; but his attacks of fever grew worse and worse. It is said that on his death-bed he advised Salome-Alexandra to throw herself into the arms of the party he had offended, † as the only means of saving the dynasty. It is quite possible he may have said this ; but we must not forget that all these stories have come down to us filtered through Pharisaic hate. Clerical parties always like to make out that their enemies were driven to repentance on their death-beds. They see in these belated conversions a proof that their own position is sound at bottom, that no man deserts them unless he has lost his wits. - Alexandra, in fact, assumed the power after her

• Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. xvi. 3, 6.

† According to one tradition, they ordained a feast of rejoicing on the occasion of his death (Derenbourg, p. 101 ) . 116 HISTORY Of the people of ISRAEL. husband's death, * and then a sudden overturn took place. The Pharisees, well satisfied with dispensing all authority and being keepers of the queen's conscience, began to speak of her husband quite otherwise than they had done during his lifetime. He was after all, they said, a great sovereign ; and he had been not unjust towards them. They brought over the people to this view. They gave Jannæus a magnificent funeral. One would have said that there had never been a more glorious prince in Israel. Alexandra reigned nine years in unbroken peace. Hyrcanus, oldest of the sons of Jannæus, a man of gentle nature and weak intellect, was made highpriest. His brother Aristobulus, much more capable and active, was set aside. The endless embarrassments caused by the confusion of the two powers thus disappeared for several years. The Pharisees were almost satisfied ; they had everything. The Sadducees did not murmur very much, for they were rich. The reign of Alexandra ( 78-69 B. C. ) was the reign of the Pharisees. They had the power in

• The directions of Jannæus respecting his funeral (Josephus,

Antiquities, xiii. xv. 5) resemble the foolish little materialistic stories in the Talmud with their silly details. One feels in this page of Josephus the pride of the Pharisees, who wish to have their enemy under their feet, and to know that he only owed his burial to their generosity. Clerical parties are always vainglorious. It is not enough for them to conquer ; their object is to triumph. † Τὸ μὲν οὖν ὄνομα τῆς βασιλείας εἶχεν αὐτὴν τὴν δὲ δύναμιν οἱ φαρισαῖοι (Josephus, xiii. xvi. 2) . REIGN OF THE PHARISEES. -ALEXANDRA. 117 their hands, and they carried out their ideas with their usual intolerance. They recalled the banished members of their party, and opened the prison-doors without asking anybody's leave. The queen was very popular. They were pleased with her for the severity with which she condemned the misdeeds of her husband, declaring that she meant to adopt quite another line of conduct. She exhorted the people to follow the rules of the Pharisees, and she repealed the ordinances of John Hyrcanus that were contrary to their traditions.* Two doctors whom the Talmud speaks of as celebrated Simeon ben- Shatah and Judas ben-Tobai -seem to have been the principal agents in this reorganisation. † - The Pharisees, of course, abused the power thus given over to them. They did not leave the queen a moment's peace. They especially demanded the execution of those who had supported Jannæus in his contest with the rebel Pharisees, and had urged him to adopt measures of extreme severity. A certain Diogenes, no doubt a leader of the mercenaries, was given up to their vengeance, and others afterward. Terror spread among the officers of the army. A devil, they said, was inflicting vengeance upon the house of Alexander Jannæus ; it was given over to madness, killing the very men who had given it strength at the risk of their lives. Aristobulus

• Megillath Taanith, according to Derenbourg, pp. 102 , 103.

† Derenbourg, p. 184, &c. The tradition according to which Simeon ben- Shatah was made out to be the brother of Queen SalomeAlexandra cannot be taken seriously. 118 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. put himself at the head of the malcontents. His language was violent ; he declared that if he were strong enough he would not permit his mother to pursue such a course of policy. The officers came to the palace one day with Aristobulus, and complained bitterly that they were delivered over to the mercy of men who wanted to slaughter them, likesheep in the shambles. If that was to go on they would rather be disbanded. The enemies they had fought against under Jannæus, especially Hareth, knew their value, and would be glad to take them into their service. The least that they demanded was to be garrisoned in district strongholds, where they might have some peace. Aristobulus enforced these demands with abusive language against his mother and reproaches to the officers : "It is your own fault," he said. " Why did you confide the kingdom to an ambitious woman, as if her husband had no sons ?" - Alexandra, under the pressure of necessity, yielded to the officers' demands. They were sent to fortified forts in the provinces, the three fortresses of Hyrcania, Alexandrium, and Macharus, where were the crown treasures, being reserved for troops known to be specially devoted to the queen. To occupy Aristobulus, the queen gave him command of an army against Ptolemy the son of Mennæus, * who was pressing on to the city of Damascus. This expedition had no important results.

• See my Mémoire sur la dynastie des Lycanias d' Abilène, from the

Mém. de l'Acad. des. Inscrip. et B. L., vol. xxvi . part ii . p. 3. REIGN OF THE PHARISEES. —ALEXANDRA. 119 Though occupied chiefly with questions of religion, Alexandra did not neglect the secular cares of government. She kept up her body of mercenaries, and even increased it. The tyrants in the neighbourhood of Judea, among others Ptolemy the son of Mennæus, were forced to remain at peace, and give hostages. Tigranes, king of Armenia, having about this time invaded Syria, caused great terror. He besieged the town of Acre, and thus touched close upon the very frontier of northern Palestine. Alexandra sent him valuable presents ; and the entrance of Lucullus into Armenia soon forced Tigranes to quit Syria, and to return to his own land. Alexandra meantime was growing old, * and the position of Aristobulus was becoming intolerable. He foresaw the Pharisees absolute masters in the State after his mother's death, and his brother the feeble-minded Hyrcanus on the throne, keeping all power in the hands of the abhorred clique. He resolved on a revolutionary stroke, confiding the secret to no one but his wife. Leaving her in Jerusalem, and accompanied only by one servant, he made the tour of the fortresses, where his father's officers, all friends of his, were quartered, almost as prisoners . He began with Agaba, where he succeeded fully with the officer in command, named Galæstes. It was the same at the other posts ; all joined in the revolt. Alexandra, when told of her son's departure, at once had her suspicions, which

• See p. 97, with notes.

120 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE of Israel. she did her best to put aside. But the thing was soon plain ; Aristobulus was a conspirator. The Pharisees around her, seeing the danger, advised her to seize the wife and children of Aristobulus as hostages, and to confine them in the Tower Baris, which overlooked the Temple. The party of Aristobulus meanwhile increased ; already he was on his march surrounded by a cohort like a king. In a fortnight he had visited twenty-two posts, had collected money, and had levied an army of mercenaries in Lebanon, in Trachonitis, and in other little States to the north of Judea. The elders of the people and Hyrcanus pressed the queen to do something. But the ambitious old woman was near her end. " Do what you will," she said. " You have the means. The nation is with you. Go ! " They could get nothing more from her. Her strength was exhausted ; she expired in the first half of the year 69. She had been successful for nine years, - a long time. But she totally ruined the Asmonean dynasty. Seeing no further than the day's difficulties, she sacrificed the future to the present. By making herself the friend of those who sought the utter ruin of her house, she took away the real props of the dynasty, the military party, those officers who had made the glory of the reign of Jannæus. One gains little by making himself the friend of his enemies. Wise men held her responsible for the troubles which followed her death and brought about - REIGN OF THE PHARISEES.—ALEXANDRA. 121 the end of the dynasty. The Pharisees heaped praises on her, and looked upon her reign as an age of gold. * Indulgent judges will accord her one good point : " She kept peace in her day."†

• Megillath Taanith, 23 a (Derenbourg, p. 111).

† Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. xvi. 6. Josephus in this part of his work follows an excellent authority. CHAPTER XIV. LAST OF THE ASMONEANS. - THE ROMAN CONQUEST. ARISTOBULUS, as soon as he heard of his mother's death, confident of the support of the troops scattered through the provinces, assumed the title of king ; whilst Hyrcanus, who was already high-priest, was proclaimed at Jerusalem. A battle between the two brothers took place near Jericho. The soldiers of Hyrcanus almost all deserted to Aristobulus ; the incompetent high-priest sought refuge in Baris, where he capitulated. Aristobulus became king and pontiff ; * Hyrcanus retained nothing but the right to enjoy his fortune in complete idleness. His miserable reign had lasted three months. It seems as if such a state of things might have been durable ; but the evil manners of Syria had wholly corrupted Israel : the minimum of morality essential to the permanence of a dynasty no longer existed. The feeble Hyrcanus became the plaything of intrigues, to which his narrow mind gave itself without protest. The mischief rose especially from a great Idumean family, which from this time. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. iii . 1 ; xx. x. LAST OF THE ASMONEANS. 123 forth will play a great part in the affairs of the Jews. * Alexander Jannæus had chosen for governor † of Idumea a certain Antipater, ‡ probably originally from the free city of Ascalon, who had submitted to be circumcised at the time of the conquest by John Hyrcanus. His son Antipater probably held the same position after him. About the time we have now reached, a son was born to this Antipater whom we shall see called to fulfil a most extraordinary destiny : he will be king in Jerusalem. Antipater was not a zealous Jew either in religion or through patriotism. His relations were chiefly with the Nabatheans of Petra ; he was intimately allied with Hareth III. , called the Philhellene. ArisThe Idumean origin of the family of Herod is certain (Josephus, B. J. i. vi. 2) . What Nicolas of Damascus says (Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. i . 3) about a purely Jewish origin is flattery intended for Herod. The version of an ignoble origin propagated by Julius Africanus is an invention of the Christians, and seems to have originated in the family of Jesus ( Orig. du Christ. , v. 190). As for the Ascalonite origin, it is quite probable. Herod erected buildings at Ascalon, and had a palace there, which passed after his death to Salome (Josephus, Antiquities, xvii . xi. 5 ; B. J., i . xxi. 11 ; ii. vi. 3) . The names Antipater and Herod are Ascalonite (Corpus inscr. Semit. , part i . No. 115; Corpus inser. lat. vol. x. No. 1746) . The coins of Ascalon seem to have borne some likeness to those of the Jews ( Saulcy Ann. Soc. num. , iii . 253–258). The fable circulated by Julius Africanus took its rise from the Ascalonite origin. Ascalon must have led him to think of the temple at Ascalon ; the temple to the temple-slaves. The testimony of Saint Justin (Dial. 52) is independent of this fable. The objection to it is that Ascalon was never under Jewish rule , not even that of Herod. † Στρατηγός. It is by mistake that Julius Africanus (ii. xxix. ) gives the name Herod to the grandfather of Herod the Great ; his name was Antipater. 124 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. tobulus, being brave and enterprising, was not a man to serve the purposes of one so ambitious. The weak Hyrcanus, on the contrary, was just the king he wanted. Antipater was constantly repeating to him that he was the legitimate sovereign. He made him believe that his life was not safe in Jerusalem, and induced him to take refuge at Petra with Hareth king of the Nabatheans. Antipater then persuaded Hareth to re-establish Hyrcanus in his own dominions on condition that Hyrcanus, when again in power, should restore to the Arabs the cities that his father, Alexander Jannæus, had taken from them. Aristobulus, defeated by Hareth, shut himself up within the court of the Temple. Jerusalem was divided between the two brothers . The siege of the Temple was begun, and civil war blazed upon the holy hill. True Jews, indignant, quitted Jerusalem and took refuge in Egypt, that they might have nothing to do with those guilty of sacrilege . The siege went on. At the Feast of the Passover (65 B. C.) the besieged had no victims for sacrifice ; they asked leave to buy them at any price from the besiegers, who deceived them, or, as some say, sent them up a hog. * A certain Onias, a holy man, showed more wisdom. He passed for a wonderworker, and the partisans of Hyrcanus brought him forth from his hiding-place to curse Aristobu-

• Josephus, Antiquities, xiv . ii. 2 ; B. J., i. vi. 2 ; Talmud of Jerusalem, Berakoth, iv. 1 ; Talmud of Babylon, Berakoth, 7 b ; Sota, 49 b ;

Menahoth, 64 b ; Baba Kama, 82 b. ↑ Derenbourg, pp. 112, 115. THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 125 lus and his followers. "O God, King of the Universe," he said, " since the men who are around me are thy people, and the besieged are thy priests, I pray thee not to hear those against these ; and not to grant what these may ask thee concerning those." The holy man was right ; but he was forthwith stoned. * Now it came to pass that, while the children of Israel were given over to an abominable war around the house of God, a colossal force was overrunning the world, breaking all things to pieces as it passed, but re-establishing peace everywhere, and even a semblance of justice. Rome for more than a century had reigned in the East, morally speaking, by her influence, which made and unmade kings, and gave certain victory to whosoever put his trust in her. Meantime the Roman army itself was rolling over Syria, like some terrible machine, to which neither the armies of Assyria, Persia, nor Alexander could be compared. Mithridates had been borne away like a straw by the torrent he had attempted to stop by a dike. Pompey was in Armenia, absolute master of Asia ; and now, with a vigorous blow of his fist, he was about to put an end to all these wretched divisions, local dynasties, and bands of mercenaries under which Syria was perishing. Rome did not concern herself about religion : she left that question to everybody's choice ; and in that was her great superiority. Rome was roughly reasonable ;

• Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. ii . 1.

126 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

but yet reasonable, after all. She would never have committed the folly of Antiochus Epiphanes. She will keep the Roman religion for the Romans ; but she will give the world that for which it is athirst, peace, order, and to each individual the possibility of living as he thinks best, under the State's mighty protection. All selfish interests were thus satisfied : Rome had dominion, the provinces had peace. Rome, by reason of her desire (often mistaken, sometimes beneficent ) of putting her hand on everything that seemed unquiet, was soon to become the police force in every country to which she was led by her ambition. The police is an excellent institution , provided its force is well made up. That of Rome generally fulfilled this condition . From the far region of Armenia Pompey surveyed the East. He sent Æmilius Scaurus, his lieutenant, into Syria ( 65 B. c. ). All cities and all dynasties at once vied with one another in baseness to obtain his favour. Tyre raised a statue to him, and named him her patron. The two parties who were fighting each other round the Temple at Jerusalem sent him each its ambassador. Both offered him four hundred talents. Scaurus put more confidence in the propositions of Aristobulus, and decided to take his part . Hareth raised the siege as soon as possible, and retreated to Petra pursued by Aristobulus and his forces. Aristobulus

• Cuique genti sua religio est ; nostra nobis .

† Miss. de Phen. , p. 533, &c. THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 127 reigned thus for some time, supported by his army, and making expeditions both by sea and land. These expeditions people called raids and piracies ; and probably they were little else. At the beginning of 63 B.C. Pompey - after a sort of police inspection of Syria, where he executed a number of tyrants, some of them being Jews tarrived at Damascus, where ambassadors from Syria, Egypt, and Judea came to do him homage. The envoy of Aristobulus brought him a golden vine, worth five hundred talents, which was placed in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus at Rome. A kind of trial, presided over by Pompey, was held at Damascus. The Jewish nation was represented by an advocate. In the name of the Jewish people this advocate maintained, it is said, that the Jewish ethnos was indifferent alike to both competitors ; that it had no preference for royalty ; that the national custom was to obey the priests of the God whom they worshipped ; and that the two rivals, both of the priestly race, were endeavouring to change the form of power, and to make the people slaves. § Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. iii. 2. † Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. iii . 2. Eλas d'Iovdaîos , tyrant of the Lysiad. Dionysius of Tripoli is probably the " Bacchius Judæus " on the silver penny of Aulus Plautius. See Schürer, p. 237, note 13 a. (The quotation from Strabo goes Strabo saw it ; the inscription Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. iii . 1. as far as the end of the paragraph. ) was ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΩΝ. It must be supposed that the thing had been made in the time of Alexander Jannæus, kept at Jerusalem among the treasures, and only given by Aristobulus. § Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. iii . 2. Cf. Strabo xvi. ii. 37, 40. 128 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Aristobulus put on a haughty, violent, aggressive air, displeasing to Pompey, who declined to pronounce judgment at once, tried to calm the two rivals, and announced that he would come to Jerusalem as soon as he had settled the affairs of the Nabatheans. The conduct of Aristobulus during the following months was a tissue of inconsistencies, promise-breakings, and follies. He would have preferred to receive the crown from Pompey, who in granting it would have assured its security ; but he did not shrink from the mad idea of making head against the Romans. Pompey grew impatient. His camp was pitched upon the plain of Jericho. One morning he set out for Jerusalem. All the cunning devices of Aristobulus fell back on his own head. About the middle of the march Pompey perceived him coming to meet him, full of protestations, and offering himself to admit the Romans peaceably into Jerusalem. Pompey accepted his offer, and sent Gabinius, one of his lieutenants, to take possession of the city. There was not a word of truth in all that Aristobulus had told him. Gabinius was very ill received. Pompey, in a rage, had Aristobulus imprisoned, and advanced to lay siege to Jerusalem. * It was part of Pompey's character to exaggerate everything, and foolishly to interfere with what only half concerned him. Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. iv. 2-4 ; B. J., i. vii. 3-5. Dion Cassius , xxxvii. 16. Strabo, xvi. ii . 40. Livy, Epit . , 102. Tacitus, Hist., v. 9. Appian, Syr. , 50 ; Mithril. , 106. THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 129 The still unbroken army of Aristobulus was the party most inclined to resistance. The Pharisees, indifferent for the most part, were inclined to receive the Romans without striking a blow. Hyrcanus actively bestirred himself, that the populace might not make common cause with his brother. It was not a war against the Jewish people, but against the party of Aristobulus and his mercenaries. The city itself was thrown open to Pompey ; his legate Piso arranged everything. The Roman general made his quarters in the royal palace of the Asmoneans, close to the outer wall of the Temple. The soldiers of Aristobulus and a few priests shut themselves up in the sacred precincts, and the viaduct which communicated with the city across the valley of Tyropoon was cut off. The attack was made on the side to the north. Hyrcanus did all he could to aid the labours of the Romans. The earthworks must have been enormous. Siege-engines were fetched from Tyre, and very soon they were able to cast immense blocks of stone against the Temple. The species of frenzy with which the Jews. hold on to their ceremonial practices when especial difficulties impede them was now carried to a point of madness. The rule they followed was that on the Sabbath day they could repel an attack, and strike back blow for blow, but not hinder the enemy in any other work it might please him to undertake. This greatly damaged the besieged ; the enemy got his engines ready on the Sabbath, and put them in VOL. V. - 9 130 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. use the next day. In spite of the stones that fell upon the Temple, the service was not interrupted for a single day ; the daily sacrifice in the morning and at the ninth hour never once failed . On the day of final assault the carnage around the sanctuary was horrible ; but those engaged in the service went on, it is said, none the less with the usual ceremonies. On the tenth of October, in the year 63 B. C., after a siege of three months, a wide breach was opened by the fall of the principal tower. The Roman army advanced in irresistible force. Cornelius Faustus, son of Sylla the dictator, was the first to mount with his cohort to the assault. The partisans of Aristobulus defended themselves with energy. Almost all were either slain, or killed themselves in despair. As the city, properly so called , was on the side of the assailants, order was soon restored. The loss of the Romans had been very small . This exploit had not really been very difficult. The wits of Rome, even in Pompey's own party (Cicero for example), when they wished to make fun of the fancy this great but somewhat solemn captain had for making a matter of triumph out of a little thing, called him " Hierosolymarius." To ask a triumph for taking a paltry fortress, a mere temple, -it looked ridiculous ! Pompey, notwithstanding his great merit, had a weakness for emphasis, and "' *

• Cicero, ad Att. , ii. 9. This is the oldest example of the use of

the word " Hierosolyma " for Jerusalem. Perhaps in this rendering of the name there was a certain irony. THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 131 was apt to magnify everything through vanity. Surrounded by his officers, he entered the Temple, and went even into the inmost parts of the sanctuary : he saw the golden table, the candlestick, the sacred vessels, the incense laid up in store, and among the treasures piles of gold, amounting to two thousand talents. He touched nothing, deporting himself with perfect self- restraint. The Jews were touched by this, nay, almost proud of it. The next day the Roman general had everything cleansed, and ordered the daily service to be resumed . Thus fell, towards the close of the year 63 (the year of Cicero's consulship), the royalty born of the heroism of the Asmoneans, which yet had never been anything but an anomaly. The Jews were very little affected by its fall. Talmudic writings do not mention the siege of Pompey ; the Megillath Taanith, "the book of fasts, " which notes some quite insignificant anniversaries, has no memory of this event. The conquered of the year 63 had not the usual consolation of the vanquished, which is to blacken their conquerors. Pompey was not treated as tradition has treated Nebuchadnezzar and Titus. People admired his moderation ; it was thought he had deported himself as might have been expected from his virtue. There was not a trace of mourn-

• Ἱερὰ χρήματα.

† Cn. Pompeius captis Hierosolymis victor ex illo fano nihil attigit. Cicero, Pro Flacco, 67. † Κἀν τούτῳ τῆς περὶ αὐτὸν ἀξίως ἔπραξεν ἀρετῆς. Josephus, Antiqui ties, xiv. iv. 4. 132 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. ing or of anger. Only compare this siege with that which took place one hundred and thirty-three years later ! The fall of the Asmoneans was evidently a relief, a comfort, to Israel. * Israel, in fact, had come by this time to belong wholly to the party of the Pharisees. This party was the people (rò vos) , and it did not like royalty. In short, all that was vanquished by Pompey was the military party, -the patriotic party, if we choose to call it so. If the author of the First Book of Maccabees was living in the year 63, he must have made bitter reflections on reading over what he had written thirty years before in all his republican enthusiasm : - Now, Judas had heard of the fame of the Romans, that they were mighty and valiant men, and such as would lovingly accept all that joined themselves unto them, and make a league with all that came unto them ; and that they were men of great valour. It was told him also of their wars and noble acts that they did among the Gauls,† how they had conquered them and brought them under tribute ; and what they had done in the country of Spain, ... and how with their friends and such as relied on them they kept amity ; and that they had conquered kingdoms both far and nigh, insomuch that all who heard their name were afraid of them. Also whom they would help to a kingdom, these reign ; and whom again they would, they

• Απηλλαγμένοι τῆς δυναστείας (delivered from their dynasty).

Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. v. 4. ᾿Ασμένως δὲ τῆς ἐξ ἑνὸς ἐπικρατείας éλevbepwbévtes (B. J. i . viii. 5). See the Psalms of Solomon, xvii . The verses 6, 7 , 8, 21 , 22 contain the most bitter allusions to the Asmoneans. † Conquest of Cisalpine Gaul in 183. THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 133 displace. Finally, that they were greatly exalted ; yet for all this none of them wore a crown, or was clothed in purple to be magnified thereby. Moreover, how they had made for themselves a senate- house, wherein three hundred and twenty men sat in council daily, consulting alway for the people, to the end they might be well ordered ; and that they committed their government to one man every year, who ruled over all their country, and that all were obedient to that one, and that there was neither envy nor emulation among them. The man who wrote thus could not fail to be deceived. As for the people, why should they have put on mourning ? Not only the people were not fond of royalty, they cared little for national independence. All they wanted was religious liberty. What they were bent on was merely a state of things in which they might freely practise the Law, and indulge in subtleties of casuistry. At heart the Pharisees preferred Rome, which did not concern itself about religion, to a dynasty national indeed, but in general hostile to their ideas. At heart the Pharisee was averse to politics . Politics in one way or another always leads to inequality of classes . The Jew is by nature a democrat ; he has a taste for equality ; he does not like armed force ; the only superiority he admits is sanctity. The doctor who expounds the Law is with him greater than the priest, greater than the prince, greater than the Temple, greater than the fatherland . Thus Pharisaism came out stronger than ever from a crisis which seemed likely to be the nation's 134 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. tomb. The priest, according to the Jewish constitution, was the aristocrat, the rich man. The moderate fortunes of the Pharisees reflected on the luxury of these exalted personages. We have on this subject a contemporary witness of this very period . Strabo, who interested himself so sincerely about the Jews, while questioning them concerning their interior organization, fell in with a liberal Jew opposed to the priesthood and the temporal power. He took some pains to get a clear idea of this man's feelings with respect to the Temple. "They hate it," he says, " as a den of tyrants ; they revere it as a sanctuary." The words (whether actually spoken or not) which Josephus puts into the mouth of the advocate at Damascus, † even if we allow for a little rhetoric, are words of the purest democracy. The revolution made by Pompey was thus considered by the people as being to their benefit. ‡ Nationality was lost, but the republic gained. " Love labour, bate rule, and have no dealings with men in power,"§ was one of the maxims of Shemaiah, the successor of Simeon ben- Shatah, perhaps in memory of the time of Alexandra, after which the party of the Pharisees paid so dearly for the fault it had committed in meddling with politics. Hyrcanus was of course confirmed by Pompey in

• Strabo, xvi. ii, 37, 40. Cf. Orig. du Christ. vol. iv. p. 248.

† See p. 127. † Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. iv. 5. Βασιλεία, ἡ πρότερον τοῖς κατὰ γένος ἀρχιερεῦσιν δεδομένη τιμὴ , δημοτικῶν ἀνδρῶν ἐγένετο. § Pirke Aboth, i . 9. THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 135 the pontificate ; but all secular authority was taken from him. The high-priest was the vassal of Rome, appointed by Roman authority. Those who had been most active in the war were beheaded . Jerusalem became tributary to the Romans. The conquests of John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannæus in Cole- Syria were annulled. All the seaboard was lost. The free cities destroyed or subjugated by the Jews - Hippos, Scythopolis, Pella, Dium, Marissa, Azotus, Jabne, Arethusa, Gaza, Joppa, Dora, and the Tower of Strato - were restored to liberty. Gadara, which the Jews had destroyed a short time before, was rebuilt by Pompey at the request of Demetrius the Gadarene, his freedman. Samaria was not yet rebuilt, but the frightfully oppressive yoke which the Jews had imposed on their schismatic brethren was lifted off. Samaria no longer belonged to Judea. The Jewish dominion was composed of the two territorial groups, Judea and Galilee, separated by a hostile strip, Samaria. All Syria became a Roman province. Scaurus was its first pro-consul. In the centre of this world of hatreds and rivalries he was placed like a podesta, a mediæval viceroy. Roman justice cost dear ; more than ten thousand talents were paid in a short time. But for all that the Roman occupation was a beneficent work, a work of deliverance. The -

• Josephus, Antiquities, xx. x.

† Compare the patriarchs and bishops of the East nominated by the Grand Turk. Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. iv. 5. 136 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. free cities in the region of the Jordan, soon to be called Decapolis, owed their existence to Pompey, and are dated from his era (64-62 B. C. ) . * The passage of Pompey was a rebirth throughout the East, and thus became a most fortunate event for the evolution of Judaism. Christianity could not have expanded under a Jewish national monarchy, the heaviest of all obstacles to liberty. The unfortunate Aristobulus followed his conqueror in chains, with his two sons and his two daughters. One son, Alexander, escaped. Another, Antigonus, was taken to Rome with his two sisters, and appeared in Pompey's triumph ( 61 B. c. ) . † A very great number of Jewish slaves were brought to Rome on this occasion, and formed the nucleus of the Jewish colony in Rome, which had so brilliant a destiny. ‡

• Schürer, 1. 240, 669 ; ii . 50, &c. , 240 (summary of Norris, Belley,

Eckhel, Mionnet, and De Saulcy) . Josephus, xiv. iv. 5; B. J. , i . vii . 1. Plutarch, Pompey, 45. Apian, Mithrid. , 117. Compare the Psalms of Solomon, psalms xvii. v. 14. Philo, Leg. ad Caium, § 23. Psalms of Solomon xvii. 14. See Origines du Christ. , iii . 177–181. CHAPTER XV. ECCLESIASTES. ABOUT this time we may place the composition of one of the most singular books in Hebrew literature, Koheleth, or "Ecclesiastes." * Nowhere else can we see so plainly the singularity, the variety, the unexpectedness of Jewish genius. Since the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, Israel had been in a fever. It was travailing in pain to bring forth Christianity ; it was suffering for mankind. Now, this is a book whose author is the calmest of men ; neither patriotism nor messianism disturbs him ; he bemoans nothing but himself ; his griefs and his consolations are for himself alone. He is a sceptic, an epicurean, -

• The language of the Koheleth is the most debased of all the

Biblical writings. It is later even than that of Daniel. The book ends at the eighth verse of the twelfth chapter, — or, if you prefer, at the tenth verse. The verses 11 , 12 are a sort of quatrain written on the fly-leaf of the volume of the Hagiographs when the Koheleth occupied the last pages of the collection . The verses 13, 14 may have been part of the same ending. We may consider them as one of those brief summaries of all the Bible, in a few words, which required great subtilty to frame; as Matthew vii . 12 ; xxii. 36-40. The innumerable faults which deface the text show that the work was written in the square alphabet, when it had reached its last stage of decrepitude. The Greek translation was made about A. D. 130. See, for further details, my translation of L'Ecclésiaste, avec une étude sur l'âge et le caractère du poème (Paris, Calmann Levy, 1883), p . 53, &c. 138 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. but with shades of opinion which make his book one of the most original and delightful that exist in any language. The fiction on which the Koheleth is based is very transparent. QHLT,* the son of David, has been a powerful king, a builder, a man of pleasure ; given to women, wine, and wisdom ; a skilled parabolist, and curious in all things that concern Nature. These are exactly the features given by history and legend to King Solomon. No doubt the author, who of course knew Proverbs (also attributed to Solomon) , intended to bring upon the scene the successor of David. This celebrated king appeared to him a personage very convenient for his proposed object ; that is, to show that all things are but vanity. Solomon, having seen the height of glory and prosperity, has been better enabled than any one else to discover the absolute hollowness of all the controlling motives of human life, and the complete frivolity of the opinions which serve as the basis of society. "All is vanity," -such, twenty times repeated, is the summing up of this work. The book is composed of a succession of little paragraphs, each containing an observation, or some new way of looking at human life, and the conclusion of all is universal frivolity. This conclusion the author draws from

• קהלת is certainly an equivalent for שלמה = Salomo , by a play on

words, like the athbasch or the albam. The clew has not yet been discovered. ECCLESIASTES. 139 the most varied experience. He delights in it ; he makes it the rhythm and the refrain of his thought. The world offers to his eyes a series of phenomena, ever the same, ever revolving one after another in a sort of circle. There is no advance. The past was like the present ; the present is like what the future will be. The present is bad ; the past was no better ; the future will have no claim to be preferred . * Every attempt to ameliorate human affairs is chimerical, since man is incurably limited in his faculties and his destiny. Abuse continues always ; the evil we thought suppressed reappears immediately, more envenomed than before it was put down. † QHLT assures us that he has made trial of all occupations in life, and declares that he has found them all vain. Pleasure, power, luxury, and women leave only regrets behind. Knowledge only wearies the mind ; man knows nothing, and never will know. Woman is an absurd creation, an evil genius. The inference would be, Remain a celibate. The author has seriously thought of it ; but then ! The celibate is a fool , since he lays up for heirs he does not know, who will never in the least care for him. The author then falls back on friendship ; here at least he seems to have found some sweetness. But how can peace be found in a world where the moral law commands us to do what is good, and everything seems made on purpose to encourage evil ?

• Chap. iv. 15 , 16 ; vii. 10.

† Chap. ix. 13-16 ; vii . 10-14, &c. Chap. iv. 9, &c. 140 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF Israel. Crime is folly, no doubt ; but wisdom and piety have no reward. The scoundrel is as much honoured as the man of virtue. The man of virtue is overwhelmed by misfortunes, as the scoundrel ought to be. Society is ill made : men are not in their proper places ; * kings are selfish and malevolent ; judges are perverse, people in general ungrateful and forgetful. What, then, is true practical wisdom ? To enjoy tranquilly the fortune acquired by one's own labour ; to live happily with the wife one has loved from youth ; to avoid excess of all kinds ; not to be righteous overmuch, or to imagine that by exhausting one's strength in efforts one can triumph over destiny. Nor must a man give himself up to folly, for folly is almost always punished ; neither must he be too rich (great wealth brings only cares ) ; or poor, for the poor are despised. He must accept the world's prejudices as he finds them, without opposing them or trying to reform them. In everything he must practise philosophic moderation, and keep to the golden mean without zeal and without mysticism. Our author is a man of the world, exempt from prejudices, kindly and generous at heart, but discouraged by the baseness of his time and the sad conditions of human life. He would gladly be a hero ; but really, God rewards heroism so seldom that one is tempted to ask whether it is not going contrary to his intentions to take up things on that line.

• Chap. ix. 11-16.

ECCLESIASTES. 141 Such a doctrine in a Greek or amongst ourselves would pass for sheer impiety, and would be intimately associated with denial of a God. But this is not at all the case with our author. His doctrine is that of a logical Jew, unmoved by any of the higher feelings that have come into his world since the Asmonean uprising. The author is far from being one of the fools who say in their hearts, "There is no God." He may be considered a sceptic, a materialist, a fatalist, above all a pessimist ; but what he certainly is not, is an atheist . To deny God would be for him to deny the world ; it would be folly run mad. If he errs, it is because he makes God too great and man too small. God has created the world to show his power ; he is perpetually creating everything that lives ; but the ends he had in view in creating the universe and man are past finding out. Then why not bow before so mighty a being ? If he gives man life, he also takes it from him. He punishes sometimes, and there are some bad actions from which prudence itself warns us to abstain. Punishment, too, in certain cases, is a sort of natural law. The pleasures of youth, for example, are expiated in after life by infirmities : this is not, however, a reason for depriving one's self of them altogether.* God judges man, but on grounds we cannot understand. In most cases it is impossible to discern his action, or to see his hand. In short, God cares but little for man, whom he has placed in con-

• Chap. xi. 9, &c.

142 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. ditions the most treacherous, giving him intuitions of wisdom with a limited destiny, the same for the fool as for the wise, the same for man and brute ; and this, too, in a state of society where things are the opposite of justice and reason.

It is better, then, to do as others do, to go up to the Temple and observe the established worship ; but in this, as in everything else, one must avoid excess. God is importuned by the repetition of our prayers ; men give priests certain rights over them ; to fear God is true worship. Devotees are the most unbearable of fools. The ungodly man is a madman: he braves God, he exposes himself to the most terrible danger ; but the pietist is a simpleton, who wearies God by his prayers, and displeases him when he thinks to honour him.t It is clear that the impenetrable mysteries that surround the government of the world would disappear if the author of Koheleth had had the least idea of a life to come. In this respect his ideas are those of all enlightened Jews, who were strangers to the ideas of resurrection and the judgment (that is, the Sadducees) . ‡ Death ends the conscious life of the individual man. The pale, sad existence of ghosts (rephaim) which occupied the thoughts of credulous nations, the superstitious Canaanites in particular, has no moral significance. In sheol there

• Chap. iv. 17 ; v. 1 , &c.; vi. 7-10 ; vii. 15-24.

† The only passage in the book which has apparently an accent of piety (xii. 1 ) is open to great doubt. + See ix. 1, &c. ECCLESIASTES. 143 is no sensation (" the dead know not anything ") ; the death of man and beast are alike. The life both of man and of the brute springs from the breath of God, who lifts and penetrates matter in mysterious ways. "There is but one breath in all things." At death, that divine breath separates itself from matter ; the body returns to earth whence it came, and the spirit reascends to God from whom it was shed forth. For a short time a memory remains. which prolongs the existence of man among his kind ; then this remembrance passes away, and all is over. Many Jews, to escape what is saddening in so short a destiny, said that man survives in his children ; and in lieu of children they consoled the eunuch by promising him a funeral column which should perpetuate his memory among his people.' Koheleth cares little for these childish consolations. When a man is once dead, his memory disappears, and it is as if he had never been.

Assuredly, we should have greatly astonished the agreeable writer who has left us this delightful philosophic fancy, if we tried to construct out of his writings any symbol of an assured faith. " There is yet one more evil, " he would tell us, " that I have seen under the sun, which perhaps is the greatest of all ; it is the presumption of spirit which seeks to explain the universe in a formula, to shut up the blue of

• An iad or massebet (Isaiah lvi. 3, &c . ). It is the idea of massebet

bahaim, 66 a column among the living." of the Phoenician inscriptions. See Corpus inscr. Semit. , part i. , nos. 58, 59. - 144 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. heaven in a vase, or to hold the infinite in the hollow of his hand. Woe to him who does not contradict himself at least once a day ! " No one was ever farther from pedantry than the author of Ecclesiastes. The clear sight of a truth does not prevent his seeing immediately afterward the opposite truth with equal clearness. The complete relaxing of motive in life does not prevent him from having a keen taste for its pleasures. Gifted with a deep sense of justice, his mind revolts against what seems absurd in human destiny, viewed in a moral light. * But what is to be done ? Life has some pleasant hours . Why not gather them, though knowing well that we shall hereafter pay for the pleasures we have tasted ? "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth ! " but do not deceive thyself ; there is not one of thy pleasures but thou must expiate some day by just so much regret. The happiest life has as its reverse the years of old age, when man sees one by one all the links that bound him to life snap, and all his means of enjoyment at an end. The author, having thus reached the very height of sadness, by one of the most original feats of skill to be found in any literature, enters on a description of old age, full of enigmas and allusions, which seems like a bewildering trick of legerdemain, juggling with death's-heads. Marvellous artist ! he keeps his pledge to the last, just touching with the delicate finger- tip of a practised balancer the words and -

• Chap. xi. 9 , &c.; xii.

ECCLESIASTES. 145 thoughts he handles ; making his fiddle-bow grate on the nerves he has so cruelly jarred ; widening at pleasure the wounds he has inflicted upon himself, delighting to irritate the lips of his open sores. Yet in spite of all we love him, for in truth he has touched on all our sorrows. There are few things that he has not seen. It is surely fortunate for him that there have been Zeno and Epictetus to stand beside him. But no Greek has realized better than this Sadducee the strangeness of our lot. The author of the Book of Job, if he had lived six or seven centuries longer, might be the author of Ecclesiastes. The eloquent and terrible complaint in the ancient Hebrew book, the almost blasphemous outcries of the old patriarch, are in Ecclesiastes turned into the sadly resigned banter of a cultivated man of the world . The author of Job, at heart a far more religious man, is much bolder in his language. Koheleth has not spirit enough left to grow indignant against God. It would be so useless ! Like Job, he bows before an unknown Power, whose acts are regulated by no reasons we can fathom. But he tries to console himself ; and if women were only a little less deceitful, judges a little less corrupt, heirs a little less ungrateful, governments a little more in earnest, he would grow reconciled to life, and would consent to acknowledge that it is pleasant, even with the prospect of a gloomy old age, to live tranquilly with a wife one loves, and enjoy a fortune amassed by one's own intelligence. The VOL. V.--10 146 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. author says too much harm of women not to have greatly loved them.* As we hear him speak of them, we feel that it would not take much to make him begin once more to adore them. He is not so much disgusted with life but that he has good practical advice to give on the manner of behaving at court, on precautions to be observed with priests, ‡ on the vanity of laying up one's fortune in money, § on good investments, and on the best manner of employing capital so as to run no risk of losing all at once. We feel astonished at such serenity in the midst of the great struggles going on at the period in which we place Ecclesiastes. Daniel, the Maccabees, messianic and apocalyptic ideas, do not exist for him. We need not be too much surprised. Faith in the resurrection and judgment, which drew Israel out of the religious entanglement in which it was held, had not spread through the mass of the nation. The great insurgents of the year 70, the wild enthusiasts of the time of Adrian, the author of the Book of Judith and the Book of Tobit, are still faithful to the ancient philosophy. The Talmud leaves the problem in suspense. Many Talmudic doctors believed in the kingdom of God and in the resurrection, like Christians ; but the greater part had not given up the old system. Those martyrs whom Christian fanaticism in the Chap. vii. 22-29. Chap. iv. 17 ; v. 4, &c. + Chap. viii. 2, &c.; ix. 4. § Chap. v. 7-11. Chap. xi. 1 , &c. ECCLESIASTES. 147 Middle Ages heaped at the burning stake did not all believe in the immortality of the soul. A certain saint at Mayence on his way to execution accused himself of all imaginable crimes, so as to prove the justice of Providence and uphold the fundamental principle that God can never abandon at the last his faithful servant. Down to our own day this faint gleam makes the strength of great souls in Israel. The immortality of the soul is for them a pious belief, and nothing more. The Jew is not resigned like the Christian, to whom poverty and humility are virtues with the Jew they are misfortunes to be guarded against. Abuse and violence, which find the Christian calm, exasperate the Jew ; and thus the Israelitish element has in our day become, in all countries which contain it, a great factor in progress and reform. Full half of Saint- Simonism and the industrial and financial mysticism of modern times have come from Judaism. In the French revolutionary movements the Jewish element has played an essential part. It is in this world that we ought to effect as much justice as possible. The Jewish tikva, " confidence," the assurance that the destiny of man cannot be for nought, and that a brilliant future of light awaits the human race, is not the ascetic's hope of a Paradise contrary to the nature of man ; it is philosophic optimism, founded on an invincible faith in the reality of goodness. - Koheleth takes his well-defined stand in this history of the long struggle of the conscience of the 148 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Jew against the iniquity of the world. He represents a pause in the fight. With him there is not a trace of messianism , or resurrection, or religious fanaticism, or patriotism, or any particular liking for his race. After death there is nothing. The day of Jehovah will never come. God is in heaven : he will never reign on earth. Koheleth sees the impotence of attempting to reconcile the justice of God with the course of this world. He takes his stand. If man has fulfilled his elementary duties towards his Creator, he may live in peace and enjoy at his ease the fortune he has honestly gathered, awaiting old age with tranquillity, and describing it in pretty phrases. The sensitive and voluptuous temperament of the author shows that he had more than one inward enjoyment to console him for his pessimist philosophy. Like all pessimists of talent, he loves life ; the idea of suicide, which for a moment crosses the mind of Job * when he sees the abuses in this world, has never entered his thoughts. The chief interest in the book Koheleth is this : It alone, absolutely alone, shows us an intellectual and moral position, which must have been that of a great number of Jews. The sceptic writes little, and there are many chances that his writings will be lost . The destiny of the Jewish people having been exclusively religious, the secular part of its literature had to be sacrificed . The Song of Songs and the Koheleth seem like a love-song and a pamphlet by Voltaire

• Job vii. 15.

ECCLESIASTES. 149 found astray among the folios of a theological library. This is what gives them their value. Yes ; the history of Israel would lack one of its great lights, if we had not these few pages to tell us the state of mind of an Israelite resigned to the ordinary fate of humanity, renouncing enthusiasm and hope, thinking the prophets madmen, if there were any in his time ; an Israelite without any scheme of social justice or dream of the future. Such a thing is very rare. The ten or twelve pages of this little book are the only pages of cold blood in that sombre volume, ever strained to an exalted pitch, which has made the moral nerve of mankind. The author is a man of the world, not a pious man or a doctor. One might say that he knows nothing of the Torah ; if he has read the Prophets, those fierce declaimers in the cause of justice, he has assimilated very little of their spirit, their fiery ardour against evil, their restless jealousy for the honour of God. One thought sums up the history of the Hebrew Prophets for a thousand years : "The day will come when righteousness and welfare will dwell upon the earth." Koheleth does not belong in the least to the family of these enthusiasts. In the great chain from Isaiah to Jesus he has no place. The earth seems to him to be given over to wrongs, and he puts a certain obstinacy into his insistence that the world will never be better than it is. After all, was the position of our sage as isolated as at first sight it appears to be in the history of 150 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. literature ? We must be careful not to believe this. Though represented by fewer writings than the prophetic and messianic schools, the school of the sages founded on the negation of a future life and the exclusive pursuit of a practical philosophy leading to fortune and success, this school, I say, had always been numerous in Israel. The Book of Proverbs, written before the Captivity, is in fact as secular as the Koheleth. Everything is reduced to a worldly prudence drawn from the temporal experience of life ; religion has no place in it, except as a part of the motive of conduct and bearing of a wellregulated man. The Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach does not go at all beyond the bounds of this old philosophy. Like Koheleth, the son of Sirach thinks virtue consists in maintaining a certain golden mean, an even balance, and in wisdom that brings success. But the son of Sirach is a much more pious man than the author of the Koheleth. * He is a fervent follower of Moses. We find it touching, - the pains he takes to excuse God for the strange things that take place under his government. † Though he has no idea of a future life or messianism , he believes in the eternal destiny of Israel . ‡ He respects holy men ; and though his ideas about long prayers, § belief in dreams, || and the observance of the Law being better than sacrifice are nearly Ecclesiasticus xxxviii . 15, &c . + Chap. xv. § Chap. vii. 15, 33, &c. ¶ Chap. xxxv. , init. Chap. xxxviii. 28. Chap. xxxiv. , init. ECCLESIASTES. 151 the same as those of Koheleth, the son of Sirach belongs to quite another school than that of our sceptical author. He is a patriot. Now, this fundamental faith of the Israelite, which is the last of all beliefs to die in him, and survives all his disillusions, is hardly perceptible in Koheleth. Like Herod, he takes no pride in being a Jew. One feels that if he were ever to be brought into contact with the Greeks and Romans, he would do everything in his power to conceal his race, and to cut a good figure at the expense of the Law in the " high life " of his period. We repeat that a nation never advances in one solid mass. In the age of excitement which extended from the days of Judas Maccabeus to BarCochab, there were epicureans, very peaceable, greatly weakened in their zeal for the chief interests of Israel and the human race. Isolated groups preserved their liberty of thought. The fanaticism of the Asmoneans soon fell flat . The Sadducees, who believed neither in angels, spirits, nor the resurrection , those boëthusim whose name was synonymous with Epicureans, all that rich aristocracy of priests in Jerusalem, who lived of the Temple, and whose religious coldness so greatly exasperated Jesus and the first founders of Christianity, † —were the intellectual brethren of our author. It has been conjectured that the mythical Solomon may have been Herod Compare also his ideas as to the peril from women (chaps. ix. , xxv. , xxvi. , xlii. ) , in agriculture ( vii. 16) , with Eccl. vii. 25, &c . , v. 8. † See Vie de Jésus, chap. xiii. 152 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. — himself, Herod, who by toil and intrigue had renewed the traditional glory of the son of David, and at the close of his life had no reward but the curses of his people, domestic troubles, and weariness of spirit. What is certain is that the date of the book is not earlier than the days of Herod or the Asmoneans. The language is here clearly the most important criterion. The old Hebrew style has its own character, - firm, nervous, tight-twisted as a cable, involved, and enigmatical. Hebrew of a later period, on the contrary, is loose, with no ring in it, flaccid, and at all points like the Aramean. Aramaisms abound in it ; writings composed in this dialect can be translated into Aramean word for word, and yet lose nothing. It is not so with the Koheleth. Yes ; undoubtedly the language of the book is modern, but it has only a slight Aramaic tinge : it would be almost impossible to translate it well into Syriac. What its Hebrew resembles is the Mishna, and especially the treatise Eduioth, the Pirké aboth, or the Megillath Taanith. Now, the Mishna represents the Hebrew of the second century after Christ, -a very different Hebrew from the strongly Aramaïzed language which had been in fashion among the Jews in the days of Persian rule. The Koheleth from its language would seem to be the latest of the Biblical books, the one nearest to the Talmud. The author must certainly have lived in a time of great social degeneracy. It is easy to see from his state of mind that morals and manners were ECCLESIASTES. 153 degraded. Family life is broken up. Woman, since the scandalous Seleucid period, and on the eveperchance at the instant- of the horrid domestic crimes of the Herodian age, has become a scourge. What comforted the sage of old, when his philosophy was too much shaken, was his hope of surviving in his children. Posterity consoled him for the frailty of the individual life. Our author sees in this reasoning a bitter mockery. What does a man know about his children ? They may be fools, who will cover him with shame, and demolish all he has been trying to build up. The best commentary on the Koheleth is in the twelfth and following books of the Antiquities " of Josephus, -that tissue of crime and baseness which, especially after about 200 B.C. , makes up the history of Palestine. The hasidim escaped from the reality by their messianic dreams ; our author escapes it by his resigned fatalism , and by his taste for a life of refinement. 66 If we could understand all the allusions of detail contained in the book, we should have the most precise data to settle the time of its composition. But the author never speaks out clearly . The poor wise man who saved the city and was forgotten ; the country in which are slaves who govern ; † the land where the social order is reversed, ‡ must be certainly allusions. We may say the same of the fol lowing passage : §

• Chap. ix. 13, &c.

Chap. x. 5, &c. - † Chap. x. 16, &c. § Chap. iv. 13, &c. 154 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knoweth how to receive counsel. One man passeth in a moment from prison to a throne ; Another is born miserable, even in his own estate. I saw every man making haste to follow the young heir who should succeed the aged king. There is no end of the evils that have been suffered in the past ; but in the days to come there shall be no more rejoicing in him which succeedeth. Surely, this also is vanity, and a striving after wind. Could he be speaking of John Hyrcanus and of Aristobulus I. , of Alexander Jannæus and Aristobulus II. , or of old King Herod and Archelaus ? We shall never know. Whichever it may be, our range of choice lies all within a century. The Temple at Jerusalem still existed when the book was written, and the worship was kept up in it. * The priesthood was organized with a certain amount of temporal power. There were pious zealots (Essenes ?) who exaggerated the rules pre-- scribed, and falsified religion by unreasonable zeal and austerity. Jerusalem was the seat of a royalty and a court, where men of note in the city aspired to shine. Dynasties and free cities swarmed in Syria, and made endless wars upon one another. A little town might have to endure a siege. It seems as if at this time no great power like that of the Persian kings, Alexander, the Ptolemies, the

• Chap. iv. 17, &c. + Chap. v. 5. Chap. viii. 1, &c.

§ Chap. ix. 14, &c. The precise allusions that Hitzig and Grätz think they have found in these passages are the result of arbitrary combinations or mere guess-work. ECCLESIASTES. 155 Seleucidæ, or of the Romans, made itself felt in Palestine. * The moment to which we are guided by such a social condition in Judea and the East is the Asmonean period. The power of the Seleucidae was broken, and had given place to a number of little local dynasties and independent towns. The Asmonean dynasty, though it owed its origin to fanaticism, became worldly enough soon after the rupture of John Hyrcanus with the Pharisees. Alexander Jannæus and John Hyrcanus were kings like other kings, religious from habit and policy, but cruel, greedy, revengeful, and in reality with very little religious feeling. It was the time of the hasidim, and the origin of such sects as the Essenes, who by way of reaction against the world's wickedness were introducing into Israel a spirit of mysticism till then unknown. Men called " fools,"† who gave themselves up to the practice of a hot-headed asceticism and useless fastings ; who perplexed themselves in vain about the future, and what follows after death ; who thought it wrong for a man quietly to enjoy the fortune he had amassed by honest labour, probably the first in date of those madmen of God's kingdom, whose madness was to overcome the world, and whom our author and those like him - were

• The word medina to designate a province ( v. 7) , and the mention

of slaves as governors of provinces and high functionaries (x. 7 , 16) , would seem characteristic of the Persian epoch. But the administrative system of the East has little varied. † Chap. iv. 17 ; v. 3 ; vi . 9. 156 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. must needs view with cool disdain . The author of Koheleth may have been some ancestor of Annas or Caiaphas, those aristocratic priests who with light heart passed sentence on Jesus. He was the ideal of what we call a Sadducee : I mean one of those men of wealth who had no fanaticism, no belief of any sort in the future ; who were attached to the Temple worship, which made their fortune, furious against fanatics, and always delighted when they were put to death . There have been many attempts to prove that the philosophy of this author shows traces of Greek influence. Nothing is less probable. Everything in the book is explained by the logical development of Jewish thought. The author very probably lived later than Epicurus ; but it seems certain he had received no Hellenic education. His style is Semitic in the highest degree. In all his book there is not a Greek word, or any well-marked Hellenism. * On the other hand, he is far from pushing, to the extent that Epicurus does, the complete negation of Providence, and the dogma that the gods are wholly careless of human things. His ideas about physics are reasonable enough ; † but, like those of Thales and Heraclitus, they are the result rather of accurate general observations than of any real scientific research, like that of Archimedes or the School of Alexandria.

• None of the examples brought forward by M. Grätz (Kohelet,

p. 179, &c. ) seem to me decisive. Chap. i. 5, &c. His physiology is very naïve, chap. xi . 5. ECCLESIASTES. 157 His morality of a judicious moderation has no doubt some analogy with that of Greece, especially with that of Cyrene. He constantly runs parallel to Theodore of Cyrene, * without committing himself to his frankly irreligious assertions. Aristippus of Cyrene would in many points recognise a sort of brotherhood in this easy-going Jew, who is blinded by no prejudices, and who places the supreme good of life in tranquil pleasure. Cyrene was, after Alexandria, the city in which Jews were most numerous. But the same causes often produce like effects in the most different human families. The man of the world is much the same in Europe, China, or Japan. Greece, it is true, would never have written so disconsolate a book. Faith in science was the support of Greece. The Koheleth is a work of absolute decrepitude. Never was the world more aged, more utterly worn out. - And to think that this sceptical book, at once so elegant and so gloomy, was written a little before the Gospels and the Talmud ! What a strange people, verily, made to set before us every contrast ! It gave God to the world, and barely believes in him. It has created religion, and is the least religious of nations. It has founded the hope of man in a kingdom of Heaven ; and all its wise men tell us, again and again, that we must occupy ourselves only about earthly things. The most enlightened races take seriously to heart what it has

• Diogenes Laertius, ii . 86 ; vi. 97.

158 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. preached, while it is laughing at them. Its ancient literature has kindled fanaticism in every nation, and it sees the weak points of it better than any one. To-day, just as it was two thousand years ago, it would fain close the sacred canon by this little reflection coming from a reader who loves his ease : " Enough of these inspired books ! Too much reading is a weariness of the flesh."* The philosophy of the author, besides, is not very strictly logical. The conclusion from his premises should be impiety. Theodore of Cyrene, who has so much in common with him, ends in atheism . But in Koheleth there is a pathetic inconsistency. In two or three places where the author seems about to plunge into pure materialism, he draws back suddenly by simple elevation of tone. This fashion of philosophising is the right one. We shall never silence the objections of materialism. There is no example of any thought or any feeling ever produced without a brain, or with a brain in a state of decomposition. On the other hand, man will never succeed in convincing himself that his destiny is like that of the brute. If it were ever so much demonstrated, he would not believe it. This is what Beliefs that Mankind will should reassure us as to free thought. are needful are above all attack. listen to us [men of science] only so far as our

• Chap. xii. 12. [ The English revised version translates the passage differently: " And as for more than these, my son, be warned ;

(margin) of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. " - TR. ] ECCLESIASTES. 159 systems correspond with man's instincts and duties. We may say what we think : woman will none the less sing her joyous song ; the child will not become any the more thoughtful, or youth less intoxicated ; the virtuous man will not cease to be virtuous ; the Carmelite nun will still macerate her flesh, and the mother sacrifice herself to her child ; the bird will sing, and the bee will gather honey. Even in his maddest moment Koheleth never forgets the judg ment of God. Let us do likewise. Amidst the fluidity of all things, let us hold fast to the eternal. Without that, we should be neither free nor tranquil to discourse concerning it. The day after that on which the world should no longer believe in God, atheists would be the wretchedest of all men. Men never philosophise more freely than when they know that their philosophy leads to no result. Ring out, O bells as loudly as you will ; the louder you ring, the more freely I shall say that your jangling means no clear sense. If I feared that I might stop your ringing ah ! then indeed I should grow timid - and discreet. What is most pleasing in the Koheleth is the author's personality. No one was ever more natural or simpler than he. His selfishness is so frankly confessed that it no longer shocks us. He certainly must have been a kindly man. I should have had a thousand times more confidence in him than in all his contemporary hasidim. A sceptic's kindliness is solider than any other, for it rests on a deep feel- 160 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. • ing of supreme truth : Nil expedit. It seems that he did not marry. That is the keenest criticism upon his time. In our day he could certainly have found clever women, much less wicked than he thinks them , to console and love him. Women are seldom angry at the harm spoken of their sex. A certain amount of ill-humour against them is accepted as a proof that people are thinking of them. Women feel contempt and aversion only for the man who can live comfortably apart from them. Tell a woman that you find all things without savour, and you will not altogether displease her. For that reason the Koheleth is a profoundly modern book. The pessimism of our day finds here its most delicate expression. The author appears to us like a resigned Schopenhauer, far superior to him. whom a cruel fate sentenced to live at German tables d'hôte. Koheleth, like ourselves, makes sadness out of joy, and cheer out of sadness. He draws no conclusions ; he keeps the question open between contradictions ; he loves life, while he sees its vanity. Above all, he takes no attitude for effect, and no pleasure in the effect he may produce. He does not regard himself as cursing existence. He is perfectly sincere in saying that all things seem to him frivolous and hollow. One loves to picture him as an exquisite, a man of faultless manners, the ancestor of some rich Jew of Paris, who has strayed away into Judea in the days of Jesus or the Maccabees. In short, Koheleth is essentially and pre-eminently the modern Jew. Between him and Heinrich Heine ECCLESIASTES. 161 there is but one half-open door. When we compare him with Elijah, Jeremiah, Jesus, or John of Gischala, we can hardly understand how one race has produced such different specimens. When we compare him with the modern Israelite, familiar to us for the last fifty years in the great commercial cities of Europe, we find a curious likeness. Wait two thousand years, till the pride of Rome has spent itself, and barbarism is passed away, and then you will see how this son of the Prophets, this brother of zealots , this kinsman of Christ, will show himself a finished worldling ; how little he will concern himself about a paradise which the world has believed in on his word ; how easily he will adapt himself to all fashions of modern civilisation ; how soon he will get rid of dynastic or feudal prejudice ; how he will contrive to enjoy a world he has not made, and gather the fruits of a field he never tilled ; how he will supplant the idler who persecutes him, and make himself necessary to the fool who scorns him. It was for him, you would suppose, that Clovis and his Franks struck such heavy sword-blows, that the race of Capet unrolled its policy of a thousand years, that Philip Augustus conquered at Bouvines, and Condé at Rocroi. Vanity of vanities ! Oh, what an admirable method of winning the joys of life, to proclaim the vanity of them all ! We too have all known him, this man, worldly wise, led astray by no supernatural chimeras ; who would barter all the dreams of another life for the realities one hour might afford in this ; an enemy VOL. V. -11 162 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. of abuses, * yet as little democratic as he can be ; † at once supple and proud before those in power ; an aristocrat by his delicacy of habit, his nervous susceptibility, and his air of one who knows how to elude fatiguing toil ; ‡ a commoner in his small esteem for warlike prowess, § and in the sense of his low standing in the world, from which all his distinction does not save him. He who has turned the world upside down by his faith in the kingdom of God, no longer believes in anything but riches . Wealth is, indeed, his sole reward. He knows how to work ; he knows how to enjoy. No chivalrous madness will make him exchange his luxurious abode for glory to be gained at the cost of danger ; no stoical asceticism will make him drop his prey to grasp its shadow. The stake he plays for is all in this life . He has attained perfect wisdom. In peace, amid works of delicate art and images of pleasures now exhausted, he enjoys the fruit of his labour. Wonderful confirmation of the philosophy of vanity ! Go, then ! upheave the world ; put the Son of God to death upon the cross ; endure every torment ; thrice four times - set your country in flames ; insult all tyrants, overthrow all idols ; and end with a softening of the spinal marrow, in a well-cushioned mansion of the Champs Elysées, grieving that life is so short and pleasure so fleeting. Vanity of vanities ! all is vanity. -

• Compare chap. v. 7, &c.

† Observe his ideas on social classes, chap. x. 5, &c.; 16, &c. Compare chap. x. 1. § See chap. viii. 8. BOOK X. THE JEWISH PEOPLE UNDER THE ROMANS. CHAPTER I. POMPEY. - CESAR. CASSIUS. MARK ANTONY. POMPEY quitted Judea (62 B. C.), having made immense changes in its government, while respecting the religious order. Palestine was from thenceforth to form part of the province of Syria, and to share in its destinies. Pompey left behind him Æmilius Scaurus as governor. Judea, it would seem, gave him no trouble. Oriental adulation had full play around such giants of power ; the towns erected statues to them, and took them for their patrons." The Nabathean kingdom was the only one strong enough to make head against Rome. Scaurus conquered Hareth III., † and this victory figures on the pennies of the Æmilian gens ; ‡ but Pompey claimed the honour of it as his own. § Gabinius, proconsul from 57 to 55 B. C., had more to do in Judea. He was a blind tool of Pompey, and

• Miss. de Phénicie, p. 553, &c.

↑ Josephus, Antiquities , xiv. v. 1. Eckel, v. 131. Babelon, Monnaies républ. Rom. , i . 120, &c. § Diodorus of Sicily ; Dion Cassius ; Plutarch ; Appian ; Orosius. 164 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. like him had rather a mania for asserting his importance. He divided the country into judicial districts, * which had for their chief towns, besides Jerusalem, Gezer, Amathus, and Jericho ; and for Galilee, Sephoris. This organisation was regarded by the Jews as progress.† He travelled all over Palestine ; took note of the cities overthrown by Asmonean fanaticism, and, continuing the work of Pompey, decided to rebuild them. Samaria, Azotus, Scythopolis, Anthedon, Raphia, Dora, Marissa, Gaza, and many others were restored. Population came back to places which had been deserted for thirty or forty years. ‡ Gabinius was notorious for his exactions, even in a time when the pillage of provinces seemed the order of the day ; § but at any rate he governed like an enlightened man. He was the restorer of Palestine ; thanks to him, the consequences of the evil work of the Asmoneans were repaired. The people had complete religious liberty, but were no longer permitted to commit pious murders. The death penalty, at least for religious matters, was taken from their

• Evvédpia, whence comes Sanhedrim. See Marquardt, Römische

Staatsverwaltung, i. 500, &c. † Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. v. 4 ; B. J. , i . viii. 5. Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. v. 3. § Dion Cassius, xxxix. 55, 56. Cicero, Pro Sestio, c. 43: " Gabinium haurire cotidie ex paratissimis atque opulentissimis Syriæ gazis innumerabile pondus auri, bellum inferre quiescentibus, ut eorum veteres illibatasque divitias in profundissimum libidinum suarum gurgitem profundat." And again, De Provinciis Consularibus, c. 4: "In Syria imperatore illo nihil aliud [ neque gestum] neque actum est nisi pactiones pecuniarum cum tyrannis, decisiones, direptiones, latrocinia, cædes On his trial see Cicero, Ad Quintum fratrem, iii . i . 5–7 ; ." 1-4, &c. POMPEY. -CÆSAR. — CASSIUS. —MARK ANTONY. 165 hands. * Enlightened Jews were the first to recognise what was noble and brilliant in the administration of Gabinius.† Still, the evils inflicted on Palestine by the Asmonean dynasty were far from being ended. Pompey had been very lenient in his treatment of Aristobulus and his family. Money may have had something to do with this. During the journey to Rome ( 63 B. C. ) , Alexander, son of Aristobulus, had succeeded in making his escape. About 57 B. C. he reappeared in Judea, entered Jerusalem, and drove out Hyrcanus. Gabinius sent against him his lieutenant, Mark Antony, in after time so famous. Seconded by Antipater the Ascalonite, Antony defeated Alexander near Jerusalem, and forced him to shut himself up in Alexandrium. Alexander would have been ruined had it not been for his mother, the wife of Aristobulus, who, remembering her husband and her other children now held as hostages in Rome, sought an interview with Gabinius, and, probably by help of those arguments to which he always yielded, suggested to him to be satisfied with the destruction of the three great Asmonean fortresses, — Hyrcania, Machærus, and Alexandrium. ‡ Hyrcanus was brought back to Jerusalem, and put into possession of the pontificate. Not long after, Aristobulus succeeded in escaping

• Gospel of Saint John xviii. 31.

↑ "Epya peyáda κaì λаμmрá, Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. vi. 4. ‡ Alexandrium was probably on the summit of Sartabeh. The site of Macharus is known, but not that of Hyrcania. 166 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. from Rome with his son Antigonus and returning to Judea. Defeated by the Romans, he sought refuge in Macharus, but was there taken. The conduct of Gabinius on this occasion was somewhat surprising. He sent Aristobulus back to Rome in chains ; but he requested permission of the Senate for his children to remain in Judea. He had promised their mother to leave them at liberty.* Unless the proconsul had had some personal interest in this matter, it is inconceivable that he should have been willing thus to retain in the country as if on purpose the seeds of civil war. Antipater took a much more sure way of reconstructing the kingdom of Judea than the Asmonean princes had done. He made himself the humble servant of the Romans, and sought in every way to prove to them how useful they might find the Jews, if they knew how to manage them. During the expedition of Gabinius into Egypt, he furnished abundance of provisions, and succeeded besides in winning over the Jews who were settled round Pelusium for defence of the approaches to Egypt, and in making them allies of the Romans. When Gabinius returned to Judea after settling Ptolemy Auletes on his throne, he found the country in a ferment from the intrigues of Alexander. The Roman forces had been obliged to leave Jerusalem, and were encamped on Mount Gerizim, where Alex-

• Josephus, Antiquities , xiv. vi. 1 ; B. J. , i. viii . 6. Dion Cassius,

xxxix. 56. Plutarch , Antony, 3. POMPEY. -CÆSAR. —CASSIUS. —MARK ANTONY. 167 ander was blockading them. out success, to intervene. Antipater tried, withAlexander was utterly But the routed on the plain of Mount Tabor. The time to have done with him seemed to have come. commission of Gabinius had expired ; he returned to Rome (at the end of 55 B. C. ) to answer the charges laid against him, from which it was with the utmost difficulty that he escaped. His successor was Licinius Crassus ( 54, 53 B. c. ) , who at once made his mark in frightful acts of pillage. The Temple at Jerusalem was despoiled of all its golden ornaments to furnish means for carrying on the war against the Parthians. The disaster of the year 53 is well known. Cassius, who had escaped the arrows of the Parthians, succeeded Crassus. When he reached Judea the whole country was still in flames. Pitholaus, a partisan of the Asmoneans, had roused Galilee to revolt. He had shut himself up in Tarichæum, on the shores of the Lake of Genesareth, with a considerable army. Pitholaus and all his partisans were massacred by the advice of Antipater, whose importance continued to increase. In order to conciliate his countrymen, he had married an Idumæan named Cypros, sprung from a noble family of that race. Cassius made terms with Alexander, who took up his abode at Antioch . The fortune of Rome just then underwent a temporary eclipse. The civil war of 49 had resulted in a momentary weakness. Aristobulus was in Rome. Cæsar, probably in order to 168 HISTORY OF THE People of ISRAEL. carry out some design he had in Syria, had him set at liberty, and gave him two legions ; * but he was poisoned by the partisans of Pompey. His body was preserved in honey, till Antony sent it back to Judea, ' where it was deposited in the tombs of the kings. † Pompey was much concerned at what he conceived to be Cæsar's designs on Syria.. Alexander at Antioch might prove a serious annoyance, so Pompey had him beheaded . Antigonus the younger, son of Aristobulus, was at Ascalon with his mother. This dethroned Asmonean family had the attraction of being strangers, with an historic name. Alexandra, youngest of the princesses, was extremely beautiful. Ptolemy, son of Mennæus, tetrarch of the Antilibanus, sent his son Philippion to Antioch to urge the old queen to confide to his care Antigonus and her daughters, assuring her that he would take them under his protection. Philippion fell desperately in love with Alexandra, and married her. As soon as his father beheld Alexandra he felt a similar passion, and had his son murdered that he might marry his daughter-in-law. The Asmoneans in their downfall. were great people still. The battle of Pharsalus (48 B. c. ) made no important change on the face of things in Judea. Antipater became the devoted friend of Cæsar, as he had been before of Pompey. He fought vigorously for Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. vii. 4; B. J. , i. ix. 1, 2. Dion Cassius, xli. 18. † Josephus, B. J, i. ix. 1 . POMPEY. -CÆSAR. — CASSIUS. —- MARK ANTONY. 169 him, took Pelusium, and persuaded the Jews who lived in the country of Onias to take part with the Romans, by bringing them letters from the highpriest Hyrcanus. Cæsar gave Antipater the title of friend, and, when he came into Syria in 47, settled matters in the fashion of a sovereign. Antipater had the right of citizenship at Rome, with complete exemption from taxes. Antigonus thought the opportunity favorable to bring forward his rights, but Cæsar did not listen to him. Hyrcanus was confirmed for the tenth time in the pontificate, with the title of ethnarch ; and Antipater was named procurator of Judea. The whole weight of power, in fact, rested on him. The friendship of Cæsar was so precious a thing. that the Jews did not fail to turn it to their profit. This friendship, more effective than that of Alexander, they used in the same way to their advantage. It was the ground of a long series of forged writings, which from that time up to the war of A. D. 70 they directed against the anti- Semitic party of that day. Cæsar [they claimed] had loved them, and had commended them to the whole world as his friends. The decrees of the Senate that he was supposed to have had passed in their favour, the letters missive he had written to shield them by his protection, were all gathered into a sort of register, which Josephus has preserved for us. * The argument was conclusive. How could those be treated as enemies to the

• Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. x.

170 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Romans whom Cæsar had considered his most faithful adherents ? The wretched habit that prevailed among Jewish apologists, Josephus in particular, of fabricating documents favourable to themselves, throws great (possibly exaggerated) doubt on all these writings. Mendaci ne verum quidem dicenti creditur. * Beyond Palestine, Cæsar was also very favourable to the Jews. The views of this great man were broad ; he truly conceived liberty of conscience in the sense of absolute neutrality in the State on the same points that we do. He desired the freedom of all provincial worships ; and if he had lived, he doubtless would have prevented the reaction toward strictness which from the days of Tiberius led the central government to insist on too much preponderance for the Roman worship. The Jews in Alexandria had their privileges confirmed. The free exercise of Jewish worship was stipulated in the principal towns of Asia Minor.§ The Jews throughout the world loved and regretted the Dictator. Among the numberless provincials who mourned the Ides of March, it was remarked that Jews for several months came and made funeral lamentations over his tomb. Antipater, from the time of his nomination as procurator, conducted himself in Judea as a real sov-

• Mommsen, Hist. Rom. , v. 501.

† Josephus, Antiquities , xiv. x. 8-24, -to be read with the above reserve . Orig. du Christ. , ii . 347 ; v. 394, 397, 406, note 1. § Suetonius, Cæsar, 84. POMPEY. -CÆSAR. — CASSIUS. —MARK ANTONY. 171 ereign. In accord with Hyrcanus the high-priest, — who was enchanted with a state of things that he thought would give him peace, — he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, made his son Phasael military governor of the city, and his son Herod, then twenty-five years of age, prefect of Galilee. A bandit, probably a fanatic, named Hezekiah, infested the north of that province. Herod succeeded in exterminating his band. Phasael, on the other hand, gained the hearts of the Hierosolymites. The Idumean family was evidently assuming the task of the Asmoneans in the maintenance of order. Moderate men, enemies of fanaticism, were in its favour. Antipater was already treated by the people with the honours due to kings. But thenceforth the hatred of the Pharisees and the extremists was kindled, and burned fiercely. They reproached Hyrcanus with his weak liking for an enemy of Israel, whose avowed purpose was to usurp the place of the national dynasty. The good deed that Herod had done in suppressing Hezekiah and his band was turned into a crime. A man, they said, could not be put to death, however criminal, unless he were sentenced by the Sanhedrim. Hyrcanus was besieged with complaints. The mothers of the victims came daily to the Temple to implore the pontiff and the people that the acts of Herod might be brought before the sacred tribunal. Herod consented to a prosecution, which he well knew would be ludicrous. The Sanhedrim was intimidated ; only one 172 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. member, Shemaiah, * gave his voice against Herod, † and foretold to his colleagues, it is said, that some day they would pay dear for their weakness. ‡ Herod was not offended, and loaded him with honours when he became king. After all, these petty quarrels in the East had very little to do with the great events which engrossed the world. Neither the assassination of Cæsar (March 15, B. c. 44) nor the battle of Philippi greatly influenced what was passing in Judea. Antipater and Herod, who invariably made friends with the conqueror, obtained promotion whichever side might win. But the people suffered horribly. Cassius extorted a war tribute of seven hundred talents, one hundred of which were to be paid by Galilee. Herod succeeded first in collecting the sum for which his province was taxed . The other returns came in badly. It was found necessary to sell as slaves the agents charged with raising the contribution ; four towns, unable to pay, were condemned to slavery, Gophna, Emmaus, Lydda, and Thamma. To appease the discontent of Cassius, Hyrcanus implored Antipater to pay out of his own funds the hundred talents that were lacking. Herod in return for this was appointed prefect of Cole-Syria, Cassius promising to have him acknowledged king of Syria when he should have ended his war against the triumvirs.

• Some say this was the celebrated Shammai, but it must certainly

have been the doctor who is coupled with Abtalion. † There is a similar account in the Talmud. Derenbourg, pp. 146-148. Cf. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. i. 1. POMPEY. -CÆSAR. —CASSIUS. —MARK ANTONY. 173 Meanwhile, Antipater was poisoned, under circumstances that were never cleared up. Herod, already married to Doris, a Jewess, who bore him a son called Antipater, was now betrothed to Mariamne, * daughter of Alexander and Alexandra, the daughter of Hyrcanus the high-priest. This alliance, connecting him with the dethroned royal family, materially assisted his fortunes at this moment. We shall see later that it was the source of all his crimes. gonus about this time excited an insurrection, with the help of Ptolemy the son of Mennæus, and Marion the tyrant of Tyre. Herod defeated him, and crowns were awarded the victor by Hyrcanus and the people of Jerusalem. Herod, however, could not prevent Marion from taking possession of some portions of Galilean territory. † AntiThe battle of Philippi (B. C. 42) once more furnished Herod with an opportunity of changing sides. He liked Octavius and Mark Antony, just as much as he had liked the Pompeys and Cassius. Antony, after the battle of Philippi, was in some sort emperor of the East. His system was to set up kings, or tetrarchs, in the different provinces to see to the payment of taxes, ‡ the only thing, in truth, that was of any consequence to himself. During his expedi-

• The form Mapιáµn is the Greek for Miriam, or Mary.

† Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. xii. 3, 5. ‡ ' Enì pópois apa тeтayμévois. Appian, Civ. v. 75; Dion Cassius, xlix. 32 ; Plutarch, Antony, 36. The title of eπμeλnτns (Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. viii. 1 , 3) means " manager, " " farmer," " steward ; " the country is a farm whose revenues alone are important. 174 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. tion to Bithynia, a Jewish embassy came to bring him a formal accusation against Phasael and Herod. But Antony had already formed his opinion, having received sumptuous presents from Herod. At Ephesus he received an agent from Hyrcanus, asking him to set at liberty those Jews who had been sold by Cassius, and to restore the territory taken by Marion. Antony consented, at the same time calling attention to the contrast between his acts and those of Cassius. * To Daphne, near Antioch, came another Jewish deputation, whom Antony answered ironically, by conferring the title of tetrarch on Phasael and Herod, and giving them by a formal decree charge of the government of Judea. At Tyre he met another Jewish embassy, which ended in a massacre. All that the Jewish party did to check Herod served only to advance his fortunes. He was the man Antony wanted ; he should be king. Antony's " inimitable life " cost the provinces very dear ; and all those who provided for it were well paid. - After a year given in Egypt to his " inimitable life," Antony returned to Italy, where he divided the world with Octavius, and created many kings, Darius in Pontus, Amyntas in Pisidia, and Polemon in Cilicia. These reges, a sort of khedives, were but Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. xii . 2-6. † Plutarch, Antony, 25-28 the inscription of the parasite, "To the inimitable Antony." Appian, Civ. , v. 7. POMPEY.-CÆSAR. — CASSIUS. —MARK ANTONY. 175 little esteemed in Rome. * They were in fact farmers-general for the Roman people. The wealth of the Orient, far greater than that of Greece or of the Western world, dazzled the Romans. The treasures of the temples, which Cicero calls veteres illibatasque divitias Syria, offered inexhaustible temptation. The Temple at Jerusalem in particular was the point into which flowed all the gold sent by the " Dispersion. ” † Having thus become masters of the riches of the world, the Romans gave themselves up to a venality hitherto unexampled and unequalled since . The Romans of that day were giants upon the earth, but giants enslaved by one desire, - eager, greedy, volup tuous. That gold which flowed in by handfuls, those new delights of which they had never dreamed, turned their heads. Italy was originally a poor country ; life there was joyless and austere. Greek life, simple and delightful, was not a life of opulence. Asia, far richer and more sumptuous, changed all these notions. Now they knew luxury. The Roman generals gave themselves up to the wildest excesses. Antony, in particular, became a veritable idiot. He who was peerless in battle seemed to have lost his His daily life for ten years was void of He gave himself wholly up to folly. reason. common-sense.

• The meaning of the word rex in Rome [ where the title was permitted only to an inferior priest, rex sacrificulus] .

↑ Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. vii. 2. See vol. iv. , pp. 78, 79, 215, 216. CHAPTER II. ANTIGONUS-MATTATHIAS. ONE might have supposed the Asmonean dynasty to be buried forever. The extraordinary shiftings of that wondrous dance which the nobility of Rome were leading through the world gave back to it, however, three more years of life, -transitory, no doubt, but still proving what there was invincible in the nation's hopes, so often disappointed. We have seen how the cupidity of the Roman captains lent itself constantly to be the accomplice of revolt ; and how, after each futile attempt made by the surviving members of a national dynasty, it held in reserve, as if on purpose, those who were likely to begin the disturbances afresh. Antigonus, who made no secret of his intentions, was treated with consideration by every one but Herod, who was in some sort his personal enemy. He cordially hated the Romans, and it led him to seek on all sides for allies. who had complaints like his own against the sovereign people. His alliance with Ptolemy the son of Mennæus, and with the native dynasties of Syria, was of some years' standing. About 41 B. c. a far more powerful alliance was offered him, that of the great Parthian empire, the real rival of Rome, as - ANTIGONUS-MATTATHIAS. 177 representing the native populations of Asia. Parthian policy had not the same steady temper as that of Rome, but its momentary flashings-out were terrible . The feudal -almost Germanic-organisation of the army made its cavalry invasions irresistible. This time it was the Romans' own fault that they were taken by surprise, especially the fault of Cassius and Antony. Mark Antony was a giant boy, who could conquer the world, but not forego a pleasure ; Cassius was a republican bigot, ready to sacrifice country and civilisation for the success of his favorite dogma. Mark Antony, in charge of the Eastern world, forgot all in the arms of Cleopatra ; Cassius carried his guilty passion for civil strife so far as to call in foreign aid. In the year 42 he had sent an embassy to the Parthians, offering to join them in operations against the triumvirs. The battle of Philippi broke up these fine plans ; but Labienus, chief of the embassy, remained at the Parthian court, and succeeded at last in enlisting King Orodes. At the close of 41, or the beginning of 40, a Parthian army, led by Pacorus (son of Orodes) and Labienus, entered Syria, defeated the governor Decidius Saxa, who was killed, conquered all Phoenicia, excepting Tyre, and appeared on the confines of Palestine . It seemed as if the star of Rome grew pale. All the hatreds roused by her good fortune gathered as if to their pole-star about this great event.

• Dion Cassius, xlviii. 24-26 ; Appian, Syr. , 51 ; Civ. v. 65 ;

Plutarch, Antony, 30 ; Livy, Epit. , 127. VOL. V. - 12 178 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Antigonus in particular did not fail to profit by it. The Jewish party had adopted him for its chief, in opposition to Herod and Phasael. Antigonus concluded a treaty with Pacorus, by which he engaged to pay him a thousand talents if he re-established him on the throne, with the slaughter of Herod and all his kindred . * A second condition is said to have been that he should give up to the Parthians five hundred women, † whom he hoped to seize in the harems of Herod and Phasael. However that may be, Palestine was invaded with a view to the restoration of Antigonus. Pacorus marched by the inland way, while the satrap Barzapharnes followed the coast, Antigonus advancing with them. The main body of the army halted at Acre. Certain Jewish partisans of Antigonus made up a force near Carmel, and moved upon Jerusalem. The people joined it, and a very sharp conflict took place within the city. The populace seized the Temple ; Herod and Phasael held nothing but the Palace and the walls. The Feast of Pentecost, which brought great crowds up to Jerusalem, complicated matters. The body of Parthian cavalry, supporting the cause of Antigonus, was near at hand. Under pretext of maintaining order, Antigonus made them enter the city, and entered with them. This was, in fact, taking possession of Jerusalem. Herod and Phasael dared not risk a battle. Pha-

• Josephus, B. J. , i. xiii. 1.

† Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. xiii. 3; B. J., i. xiii. 3. ANTIGONUS-MATTATHIAS. 179 sael, who had the high-priest Hyrcanus with him, was taken by ambuscade. Herod escaped, succeeded in reaching Massada, to the east of the Dead Sea, where he left his family and his most faithful soldiers ; then, after a fruitless attempt to enlist the Nabatheans of Petrea, he went down to Egypt, saw Cleopatra, and after divers adventures at last reached Italy. --- During this time the Parthians, having placed Antigonus * upon his throne, pillaged Jerusalem and its environs, no doubt to pay themselves the money Antigonus had promised them. As for the five hundred women, they had gone off with Herod ; there was no further question of them. † Antigonus installed himself like a true Jewish king, and took the name of Mattathias. The Parthians gave Phasael and Hyrcanus into his hands. Phasael tried to kill himself, and Antigonus aided the attempt by causing the wounds he had given himself to be dressed, it is said, with poisoned salves. Wishing, after the manner of the old Asmonean race, to combine the priesthood with the kingship, Antigonus caused Hyrcanus to be mutilated in a way that forbade him to officiate at the altar, and then sent the unhappy old man into Parthia, probably to Ctesiphon. Antigonus-Mattathias exercised all the rights of royalty. He coined money with bi-lingual inscrip-

• Dion Cassius, xlviii. 26 ; George Syncellus, i. 576, &c. , 579 and

581, &c.; also especial information derived from Josephus through Julius Africanus, and by Josephus possibly from Justus of Tiberias. † Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. xiii. 10. 180 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. tions, at once priestly and royal, his coins bearing on one side ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΓΟΝΟΥ, and on the other , מתתיה הכהן הגדול ההנר היהודים : formula ancient the MATTATHIAH THE HIGH-PRIEST [and] THE SENATE OF THE JEWS. The Jewish party was evidently attached to him. † The Temple put at his disposal considerable funds. Thus, after twenty-three years, an off-shoot of the Asmonean family, whose life had been spared by the venality of the Romans, revived for three years a dynasty which might have been supposed to be extinguished forever. The essential defect in the plan of Antigonus was his not taking into account the radical difference between Rome and the Parthians. Parthian policy was always at loose ends. The Parthians had no Senate to maintain the personal identity of the empire, making of the State, as it were, a man who never dies. Brief invasions, however murderous they might be, could never serve as basis to a fixed policy. The Parthian invasions that took place after that of 41-40 were much weaker, and left the unfortunate Antigonus without support. During this time. Rome endured, and by enduring became the ruin of her enemies. Hardly had Herod reached Rome when he told Antony his misfortunes and those of Judea. The Senate was convoked, and the Idumean prince was introduced . His services to Rome and those of his Saulcy, p. 384 ; Madden, pp. 99–102. ↑ Strabo, quoted by Josephus, Antiquities, xv. 1, 2. ANTIGONUS-MATTATHIAS. 181 father were called to mind. Antigonus, guilty of having received from the Parthians a royal title which Rome alone had the power to confer, was declared an enemy of the republic. Antony proposed to make Herod king of the Jews. A decree was put forth to that effect. After the session, Herod, walking between Antony and Octavius and accompanied by the Consuls, went up to the Capitol to return thanks to the gods, and to witness the depositing of the decree that had been given in his favour in the tabularium (40 B. C. ). * Naturally, this royalty was not accepted in Palestine. Herod had to conquer foot by foot the kingdom bestowed on him by the Roman Senate. The Jews positively refused to recognise him, even when it was attempted to force them to it by torture.t Ventidius, who had been sent into Syria to fight the Parthians and support Herod, acted at first very leniently. He pitched his camp before Jerusalem ; but Antigonus, who had the treasures of the Temple at his disposal, gained him over, as well as his lieutenant Silo. Antigonus hoped for the speedy return of the Parthians, and vigorously pushed the siege of Massada, where the Herodian party defended itself with great energy. The new king of the Jews disembarked at Acre, and was soon at the head of a small army. Venti-

• Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. xiv. 4, 5 ; B. J., i. , xiv. 4. Appian,

Civ. , v. 45. ↑ Strabo quoted by Josephus, Antiquities, xv. i. 2. 182 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. dius and Silo gave him feeble support. Silo even proved treacherous, and Herod had reason to think himself fortunate in getting rid of such an ally. * Herod made himself master at first of a number of places in Galilee ; then he took Joppa, relieved Massada, and appeared before Jerusalem with a continually increasing army. It was a long and difficult war, in which the two leaders displayed great ability. The affair of the caves of Arbela was an extremely hazardous stroke. Ventidius, having beaten the Parthians, gave Herod two legions commanded by one Macheras, who allowed himself to be bribed by the gold of Antigonus, and did nothing but create difficulties for him whom it was his business to defend. Herod decided to go back to Antony, who at that moment was besieging Samosata against Antiochus of Commagene. He wished to complain to him of the conduct of his lieutenants, and endeavour to impress him with the importance of his cause ( 38 B. C.). In his absence one of his brothers was killed at Jericho ; the Galileans revolted, and drowned in the Lake of Genesareth the officials whom Herod had left among them. All was going on as ill as possible ; and people were asking themselves if Rome were really that invincible, incorruptible power which they had thought her at first.

• Possibly all this part of the narrative of Josephus, as it came

from Nicolas of Damascus, and consequently from Herod, may bear the impress of Herod's vainglory, he being desirous of having the credit of reconquering his kingdom for himself. See Dion Cassius, xlviii. ii. ANTIGONUS-MATTATHIAS. 183 During the winter of 38-37, Herod pushed on his military operations with vigour. In the spring he laid siege to Jerusalem. The siege was conducted according to the rules followed twenty-six years before by Pompey. While the preparatory works were going on, Herod went to Samaria to celebrate his marriage with Mariamne, to whom he had been betrothed some years. As soon as the ceremonies were over, Herod, now assisted by a large Roman force under the command of the legate Caius Sosius, resumed the siege . * The sieges of Jerusalem in ancient times were always long, and made worse by famine, the city being cut up by numerous enclosures, which served as so many party-walls. The first of these was taken in forty days, the second in a fortnight. The Temple lacked victims for the daily sacrifice ; the Jews begged the Romans to allow the necessary beasts to enter. The assault on the Temple was terrific. The Romans, exasperated by the length of the resistance, slaughtered all they found . Herod afterwards asserted that he had spared no entreaty to arrest the fury of the Romans. † Antigonus came forth from the Tower of Baris and flung himself as a suppliant at the feet of Sosius, who showed little generosity, insulting

• Dion Cassius, xlix. 22. Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. xvi . 1-3 ;

B. J., i. xvii. 9 ; xviii . 1-3. Herod may be said to have dictated his own story to Nicolas of Damascus. Josephus did little more than repeat the narrative of Nicolas. 184 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. him, loading him with chains, and sending him to Antony at Antioch as a captive worth money. In fact, Herod for a large sum obtained an order from Antony that his unhappy rival should be beheaded. It was the first time that the Romans had ever inflicted this punishment upon a king, -a punishment rendered ignominious by the scourging which preceded it. Antony thought this necessary, so as to break the pride of the Jews ; but Herod had an interest in it of his own of the first importance. If Antigonus-Mattathias had been suffered to live, the people would always have set his legitimate royalty against the more worldly title claimed by Herod . Perhaps, too, Antigonus might have pleaded the validity of his title before the Roman Senate, and the Senate might have sustained his right when the star of Antony had paled. * The massacre and pillage lasted some days after the city was taken. Herod only succeeded in putting a stop to its horrors by promising Sosius to pay a large sum out of his private fortune to the legionaries, who had suffered so many privations and fatigues during the siege. He was especially anxious that the Roman soldiers should not profane the Temple, or see those sacred objects which even the Jews were forbidden to look upon. Sosius, before he left, dedicated a golden crown to the God of the Temple. A coin struck at Zacynthus has preserved to us the

• Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. xvi. 4 ; xv. i . 2 ; B. J., i. xviii. 3.

Strabo quoted by Josephus l. c.; Dion Cassius, xlix. 22 ; Plutarch, Antony, 36. ANTIGONUS-MATTATHIAS. 185 memory of his exploits. * The reverse shows us a trophy erected between a Jewish prisoner in chains (Antigonus) and a captive Jewish woman, personifying Judea. On the face of the medal is the head of Antony. This was the model copied, a hundred and eight years later, on the celebrated coinage of Vespasian, which had for its inscription Judæa capta.t This weak attempt to effect an Asmonean restoration had no success. The royalty of Herod was firmly established . From that time forth there was no great Jewish revolt till the year A. D. 70. We cannot think that books of consolation were wanting to the people in this time of trial. Faithful as usual to the great law of literary composition at that day, - apocrypha, -the authors of such books went back to the period of the great Captivity at Babylon ; and under this disguise they expressed the feelings proper to their own time. Jeremiah, the most read of all the Prophets, and Baruch his secretary, who consoled the captives in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, were clearly marked out as those to whom such writings should be ascribed . Under the name of Baruch appeared a book which vividly reflected the sorrows of the period, and was stamped with the resignation suited to men of peace.

• Th. Reinach, Les monnaies Juives, pp. 29, 30.

† Orig. du Christ. , iv. 532. The Book of Baruch, of which we are now speaking, ends with the eighth verse of the third chapter. The remainder is another composition, written in Greek. 186 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Baruch is supposed to be in Babylon with the exiles . He reads them a narrative he has composed, which makes a profound impression on his hearers. They weep, they fast, and subscribe to send money to their brethren at Jerusalem for the purchase of victims for sacrifice . Baruch carries this money to Palestine ; he takes with him at the same time vessels that had been carried away from the Temple by the Chaldeans. In addition, he is charged to pledge his countrymen to pray for King Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar,* and to give them the writing that he has already read at Babylon. This writing † is a long prayer, beginning by a confession of sins, and ending with a humble request for pardon. The author of this false Baruch had undoubtedly read the Book of Daniel. He borrows from it ; he copies it . It is remarkable, however, that his work shows no trace of belief in the resurrection, or of any ideas of a Messiah. Those ideas in his time were far from having been adopted by everybody. The writer keeps strictly within the range of the feelings common to the prophetic epoch and the round of ideas in the Psalms. Perhaps he has tried to put himself in the place of the supposed author, and has been careful to attribute to him only ideas such as he prob-

• We see that the historical knowledge of our author has been

borrowed from Daniel. † From chap. i . 15 to chap. iii . 8. A confession of sins was an essential feature of anything written in those days ( 1 Maccabees , Daniel, &c . ) . § Compare Daniel ix. 7–10 with Baruch i . 15–18 ; Daniel v. with Baruch i. 11, 12. 2, &c. ANTIGONUS-MATTATHIAS. 187 ably held. The book is rather commonplace. It was no doubt composed in Hebrew, and eagerly read by those who weré suffering . The Psalms of Solomon is also a very commonplace composition. It was attributed to Solomon, probably because the real Psalter, that of David, was closed, and they did not feel it right to add anything to the hundred and fifty poems it contained . ‡ The allusions to events of the time are no doubt numerous in this cold recast of the ancient Psalms ; but it is difficult to point them out with precision . The only thing that is quite clear is that the author does not like the Asmoneans, and seems to consider their priesthood illegitimate and dishonourable. § His antipathy to the official priesthood reminds us of the feeling of the Essenes, who never went up to the Temple, and had priests of their own. We might call it the grief felt by a devout man at seeing the ceremonies into which he puts his whole heart carelessly transacted by the priests. The offerings of these evil priests are sullied by the stains upon themselves ; they come up to the altar dripping with blood. It is certain that the times of Hyrcanus II. were just fitted to excite such an aversion. This

• Editions of Fritzsche, Hilgenfeld, &c .

† The resemblances between the Psalms of Solomon xi. and Baruch v. do not prove much. Both authors were copying more ancient writings . + See vol. iv. p. 155. § Psalms of Solomon i. 6, &c.; ii . 2 , &c.; viii. 12, &c.; xvii. 6. Notice also the last passage, τὰ ἅγια τοῦ θεοῦ διήρπαζον, οὐκ ὄντος κληρονόμου λυτρουμένου . 188 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. old high-priest, now cashiered, was among the Parthians, seeking by what baseness he might persuade the enemy of his family to recall him to Jerusalem. His cropped ears were a great difficulty ; for the Law demanded that a high-priest should have no bodily imperfection. But perhaps they might find some doctor who would decide the contrary ! Was there ever a priesthood more utterly abased ? This feeling of rage against the Asmonean priesthood we may find in many another writing of the time, in the Assumption of Moses, in the Lesser Genesis, and in certain portions of the Book of Enoch. The pious men who wrote these books were laymen, who did the work of Israel far better than the base official crowd that ministered in the Temple. The pietists were anti-clericals. They evidently passed their time in speaking evil of their priests. One understands how before such degradation of the priesthood the Pharisees, sick at heart, saw without regret the substitution of a foreign domination for a dynasty that had fallen into discredit ; how the Essenes, in the presence of such scandals, retired into their quiet monastic retreats ; and how the visionaries of the time, such as the authors of the Psalms of Solomon and the Assumption of Moses, regarded the tragic end of the Asmoneans as a just judgment from Heaven. CHAPTER III. DISPERSION OF THE JEWS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD : THE DIASPORA. WHILE Judea was thus passing from one step of degradation to another, a very important event was taking place. Israel was spreading itself over the whole world, bearing with it its quiet ways, its firm moral law, its steadfast spirit . The Jew was designed to serve as leaven in the progress of every country, rather than to form a separate nation on the globe. What constitutes a nation is the union of man with the soil. The Jew and the Mussulman are not wedded to any particular spot of earth. The Jew of the " dispersion " fulfilled his vocation far better than the Jew of Palestine, who was always trying to create a national government, and then working to destroy it. The Temple was salutary only for those who lived at a distance from it, sent to it their prayers and their offerings, and made it their ideal. Those who had their living from the Temple were generally ambitious, vulgar men and ferocious tyrants. The mission of the true Jew is to do the work of God in spite of his priest. He is a better man than his priest. The Jew who expatriated him- 190 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. self became a pure idealist . He formed the substructure of the Christianity that was to be. All the first churches were established in places where there were synagogues. The lands occupied by early Christianity were those that Judaism had already conquered two centuries before the birth of Christ. The Jewish race has always been very prolific. Judea is not a country capable of supporting a dense population . Emigration was the consequence of these two facts. * The lack of trade and manufactures brought redundant population, and emigration served to draw it off. Love of their religion was stronger than love of their native soil ; and so they left Judea, somewhat with the feeling of the Protestant Englishman, satisfied that wherever they went they would find liberty to pray. ― Without speaking of the far East, where since the Assyrian epoch Judaism had left many fragments of itself, Egypt (as we have seen), especially Alexandria, had become almost its second fatherland . The brilliant development it made there a development so far superior to that of Judea - shows us what the Jew can be in foreign lands, where he interprets his own books freely, and is not too much absorbed in the ceremonial part of the Law. The situation of the Jews in Alexandria seems to have been secure ; † though the interested falsehoods of Josephus always inspire suspicion when he tells of pretended rights

• Пoλvavρwπíα, - Philo, In Flaccum, § 7.

† See vol. iv. p. 181 . THE DISPERSION. 191 which succeeding governments know nothing of, and which they are always violating. We will grant him the bronze column engraved with the decree of Cæsar, conferring upon Jews the rights of citizenship in Alexandria ; though Caligula was ignorant of it, and Philo does not appeal to it. Ptolemaic tolerance had founded an order of things which was not disturbed till the second century after Christ. * In general, the successors of Alexander, down to Antiochus Epiphanes, were favourable to the Jews. They made use of whole colonies of them to found their new cities . † Honest, industrious, and apt in small employments, these transported Jews served as the nucleus of an excellent middle class. A people they hardly were, a peasantry never. Country life and barbarous lands were to them as if non-existent. But as orderly men and faithful subjects they had no equals. They quickly took root in any country, and looked on that in which they were born as their fatherland. Sovereigns conferred privileges on them. Viewed with jealousy by the population about them, they meddled very little with questions of dynasty, and were always for the strongest. Fidelity to any legitimate sovereign was one of the things on which they most prided themselves. True, they never took part with revolutionaries ; but naturally, when a

• Josephus, Antiquities, xii . iii . 1 , 2 .

† Philo, In Flaccum, § 7. -- † Πατρίδας νομίζοντες ἐν αἷς ἐγεννήθησαν καὶ ἐτράφησαν, — Philo, In Flaccum, § 7. 192 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. sovereign had fallen, they did not run after him, and they pledged the same fidelity to his successor. As early as the year 140 B. C., the Alexandrian Sibyl describes Israel as covering lands and seas. Syria, Cyprus, Asia Minor, the Isles of Greece, Greece herself, Cyrene, and Crete, are already invaded. † The Crimea was colonized at an early date. At the time of Sylla, the man who knew most about the world at that day says : " They have entered every city ; and it would not be easy to find a spot upon earth which has not received this tribe, and been dominated by it ."§ This was true of Greek countries, while lands too barbarous were never settled by the Jews ; they found too little profit there. Nor did they like to find themselves face to face with the people ; they preferred a sovereign to whom they might offer certain advantages in return for guarantees they required of him , and whom they might serve against his own subjects. Syria was literally half Jewish. || Antioch was one

• Carm. Sib. , iii . 271.

† 1 Maccabees, xv. 16-24, - a passage which has great strength by way of proof, independent of authenticity. Cf. letter of Agrippa to Philo, Leg. ad Caium, §§ 33, 36 ( Mangey, ii . 582, 587) ; Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. x. ; xvi. vi. ; Acts ii . 9-11, xviii. 2 ; and the journeys of Saint Paul. Greek inscriptions of the first century in Corp. inscr. Gr. No. 2114, bb ; Bull. Acad. Saint Petersburg, vol. i. ( 1860) col. 244, &c. The Hebrew inscriptions are more modern. § Εἰς πᾶσαν πόλιν ἤδη παρεληλύθει, καὶ τόπον οὐκ ἐστι ῥᾳδίως εὑρεῖν τῆς οἰκουμένης ὃς οὐ παραδέδεκται τοῦτο τὸ φῦλον, μηδ᾽ ἐπικρατεῖται ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ. Strabo, in Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. vii. 2 ; B. J., vii. iii. 3. Compare Philo, In Flaccum, § 7 (Mangey ii . 521) . Josephus, B. J. , vii. iii. 3. THE DISPERSION. 193 of the places where Jews always held their own. At Damascus, a city more Semitic than Hellenic, the propaganda passed all bounds ; there was indeed a time when every woman in Damascus was a Jewess. † The Nabathean kings, it would appear, put no obstacles in the way of such progress, and the poverty of the Aramean worship assisted it greatly. Cyrenaïca had been penetrated by Judaism ever since the days of Ptolemy Lagus. ‡ The Jews there formed a class apart, almost a quarter of the population, § enjoying equal rights. The Jewish colonists of Cyrene, who came originally from Egypt, made a turbulent population, which had its share in the bloody revolutions of Cyrene, and drew down the greatest misfortunes on the city. || Lucullus chastised them fearfully. This colony produced many wellknown men. Berenice, near Cyrene, had one of the best organized of Jewish town-governments.¶ In general, these Jews of the Greek cities were little liked . They were constantly obliged to seek the renewal of their privileges ; the Romans were always kept busy in protecting them against the towns. Patriots, zealous for their own municipal glories, detested them. The universal opinion was that they

• Josephus, Antiquities, xiii. iii . 1 , 2 ; B. J., vii . iii . 3 ; v. 2.

† Josephus, B. J. , ii . xx. 2. Josephus, Against Apion, ii . 4. § Strabo, in Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. vii. 2. Cf. 1 Maccabees xv. 23. Josephus, Antiquities, xvi. vi. 1-5 ; Corpus inscri. Gr. No. 5361. Strabo, in Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. vii. 2 ; Josephus, B. J. , vii. xi .; Vita, 76. ¶ Inscrip. of the year 13 B. C. , Corp. inscri. Gr. , No. 5361. VOL. V. -- 13 194 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. professed ferocious hatred against all those who were not of their own sect. * A fiery circle of frightful animosities thus closed around Israel. Anti-Semitism is not an invention of our own day : it was never more ardent than in the century which preceded our era ; and certainly, when a fact recurs thus everywhere and in all ages, it must have some deep grounds, which are worth investigating. In Alexandria, Antioch, Asia Minor, Cyrene, and Damascus, war between Jews and Gentiles was a permanent thing. In the non-Jewish cities of PalestineCæsarea, Ascalon, Acre, Tyre, Hippos, Gadara — the hatred inspired by the Asmonean atrocities resulted in bloody riots perpetually renewed. The era of religious hatreds had begun, and it is not to be denied that these hatreds were most often provoked by the Jews. It was the fatal fruit of the introduction of the absolute into religion . Christians carried the evil to its highest point, by turns the persecuted and the persecutors. Rome received Judaism rather later than lands peopled by the Greeks.§ The powerful institutions of Rome did not admit these invading faiths, and repulsed them with energy. The first attempt at

• Josephus, Against Apion, ii . 10 ; Juvenal, Sat. , xiv. 96-106.

Josephus, Antiquities, xii. iii . 1-2 ; B. J., ii . xviii. 7 ; xx. 2 ; vii . iii . 3 ; v. 2 ; Josephus, Antiquities, xx. viii . 7, 9 ; xiv. x ; xvi. ii . 3-5 ; vi .; Philo, Adv. Flacc. B. J. , ii . xiii. 7 ; xiv. 4, 5; xviii. 1 ; xx. 2 ; Against Apion, i. 13 ; Philo, Leg. , § 30. § Orig. du Christ. , ii . 287, &c.; iii . 101 , &c . It was probably the same at Carthage, where before its destruction in the year 140 there do not seem to have been any Jews. THE DISPERSION. 195 Jewish proselytism in Rome seems to have been made by Asmonean embassies. In the year 139 took place a propaganda, severely checked by the prætor Hispalus. The Romans, indeed, were slow of understanding. Out of Iahveh-Sabaoth they made "Jupiter Sabazius," fancying him a Phrygian god. * That was of little consequence. Pompey brought troops of captive Jews to Rome to add lustre to his triumph. Most of these captives were soon set free, for their fidelity to their religious customs made them inconvenient as slaves. These freedmen formed a settlement on the right bank of the Tiber, near the port. This soon became a large Jewish community, legally constituted, having, as the Jews said, the right of citizenship ; § at any rate, they were an important factor in the life of Rome. Cicero, pleading in 59 for Flaccus, spoke of his courage in daring to resist this powerful party ; and the Jews present were near creating a riot, which the orator had to reckon with. || On the death of Cæsar, their protector, the Jewish demonstration was startling ; ¶ and after that the colony of the Porta Portese went on increasing. ** Christianity

• Valerius Maximus, i . iii. 2, -Idem (prætor Hispalus) Judæos qui

Sabazi Jovis cultu Romanos inficere mores conati erant, repetere domos suas coëgit. On the reconstruction of this text see Schürer, ii . 505, note 53. † Philo, Leg. ad Caium, § 23 (Mangey, ii . 568) . Orig. du Christ. , iii . 101 , &c. § Philo, Leg. ad Caium, § 23. || Pro Flacco, 28. ¶ Suetonius, Cæsar, 84.

• • Josephus, Antiquities, xvii. xi . 1 ; xviii. iii. 5 ; B. J. , ii . vi. 1 .

For what happened, and the consequences of the repression, see Orig. du Christianisme. 196 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. afterward gave to this Jewish colony an unparalleled importance. Puteoli, the port of Rome,* was the landing- place for that crowd of Jews and Orientals who thence reached the great city by the Appian Way. The spirit of association, so strong among the Jews, and favoured just then by the condition of the world,† gave to these bodies corporate an astonishing growth. The energy of these little societies ( collegia) was something prodigious. The synagogue was the centre of an activity which we can scarcely form an idea of in our own day, except from the Greek churches in Turkey, -in Smyrna, for example. Its interior organization was at once republican and subject to the elders. Each synagogue had a chief (probably elective ), ‡ treated with deep respect, as the father of all. Since life in the ancient city was very exclusive, and implied reverence for the local gods, no stranger was admitted unless as member of a tolerated society in certain distinct quarters. Apart from their exclusion from the city, these societies enjoyed great internal liberty ; they were little republics within the larger republics. Thus the Egyptians, § the Phoenicians, and the Syrians especially had separate quarters at Athens, and there formed

• Orig. du Christ. , iii . 113, 114 ; iv. 10.

On the Greek pavo and the Roman collegia , see Orig. du Christ. , ii. 346, &c. † ᾿Αρχισυνάγωγος, γερουσιάρχης. The titles of pater and mater synagoga are found only in undated inscriptions. See Codex theodosianus (ed. Hänel) , xvi. viii. 1. § Corpus inscr. Gr. , Nos. 2271, 5853 ; Corpus inscr. Semit. , Athens. THE DISPERSION. 197 communities very like the alberghi and the feudal jurisdictions of the Middle Ages, or the Christian population (rayas) in Turkey. The heart of these groups was always the worship of some national god, whom his followers sought to exhibit to the people of the country under the most favourable aspect. * At Puteoli † traces of alberghi may be found, of all Oriental forms of worship. The worship of any strange god was permitted in the quarter of his nation, but not outside that quarter. Cæsar and Augustus showed themselves, in general, opposed to these societies ; ‡ but they made an exception in favour of the Jews. The synagogues retained the disposal of their own revenues, and a certain jurisdiction over their members. If the documents given by Josephus § were authentic, things would appear in a still better light ; but we cannot put any dependence on material preserved by a patriotism so apt at forgery. If these decrees, these rescripts, are genuine, they had at any rate little effect ; nobody observed them. Augustus renewed the edicts of Cæsar as if they had never existed, and things went on after his decrees exactly as they had done before. The documents preserved by Josephus, though fab-

• Hercules of Tyre. They were proud of him.

† Corpus inscr. Lat. , x. No. 1631. Corpus inscr. Semit. , part ii . , Nos. 157, 158. Nabathean inscriptions ; Geremelienses. Cf. Jour. Asiat. , Oct. 1873, p. 384. Suetonius, Cæsar, 42 ; Augustus, 32. § Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. x ; xvi. vi. , - documents that are supposed to have come chiefly from Cæsar and Augustus, but are all suspicious. See p. 170. 198 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL.

ricated to serve the ends of a pettifogging advocacy, have none the less a basis of real fact : license was given for Jewish worship at Rome in the Jews' own quarter, and for the administration of their own financial affairs † beyond the city limits (pomarium). ‡ Cæsar and Augustus, if they really concerned themselves about the Jews, must have cut the matter short by granting them a disdainful toleration. What is most probable is that Augustus never did them the honour of bestowing a thought upon them. Those around him, Horace in particular, held all Jews in supreme contempt. Cicero, though he found them once or twice in his way, gave them little serious thought. "9 The sums of money which Jewish provincial communities sent up to Jerusalem were the source of their principal difficulties with the Roman authorities. It was understood that each Jew of the " dispersion ' was to forward to Jerusalem all the sums proceeding from vows, gifts, and redemptions payable by the Hierosolymite, especially the half-shekel or didrachma to be directly devoted to the maintenance of public worship. They collected these sums in a chest, and from time to time deputies or envoys (apostoli), chosen from their most distinguished families, carried the chest to Jerusalem. This was a very

• Religio certa licita, Tertullian, Apol. , 21.

† Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. x. 8, 21. Philo, Leg. ad Caium, § 23 ; cf. § 40. See Marquardt, Rom. Staatsverw., iii. 35. § Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. vii . 2. Philo, De Monarchia, ii . § 3. THE DISPERSION. 199 high distinction, the most coveted honour of all. * Saint Paul makes it glitter before the eyes of his catechumens, as an unexampled favour, and uses it as an inducement to increase his collection . Roman authority at first put obstacles in the way of this movement of money, which might be prejudicial to the provinces. Pomponius Flaccus, governor of Asia, confiscated the Jewish chests at Apamea, Laodicea, Admytthium, and Pergamus ; and Cicero pleaded his cause, in spite of the murmursof an audience largely composed of Jews. After the time of Cæsar, no further hindrance prevented the free circulation of this money, and the envoys were regularly appointed. The most distant cities of the Orient, such as Nisibis and Nehardea, had their chests, which were carried to Jerusalem on solemn occasions. § This provincial money flowing into Jerusalem was, says Philo, the basis of the piety of the nation. || An aristocracy of poor men, who had no other occupation than to meditate upon the Law, was formed around the Temple, and considered it their right to be supported by other communities all over the world. Jerusalem thus became to Judaism what Rome in the Middle Ages was to the Catholic religion .

• Philo, De Monarchia, ii . § 3. Compare Saint Paul, p. 408, &c.

† Cicero, Pro Flacco, 28. Philo, Leg. §§ 23, 40 ; Josephus, Antiquities, xvi. vi . 2-7 ; x. 8. § Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. ix. 1 ; Philo, Leg. , § 31 ; Talmud of Jerusalem, Schekalim, iii. 4. || Εν γὰρ τοῖς νομίμοις ἀπαρχαῖς αἱ τῶν εὐσεβούντων ἐλπίδες εἰσί.- Philo, De monarchia, l . c. - 200 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Journeys to it were full of happiness and joy. Joy is the natural fruit of all pilgrimages. Men of one purpose, travelling together for a religious end, are always inclined to gayety. * Thousands of believers, drawn from the ends of the earth for the Feasts, t made up vast crowds at Jerusalem ; ‡ but they took back with them to their own lands twice as much Jewish fervour, and an ardour for proselytism which recoiled before no dangers. The Jews, always disposed to exaggerate their privileges, turned the honest liberty they were permitted to enjoy under the first Roman emperors into favours, which would have been exorbitant had they been real ; their situation was much like what it became under the Christian emperors, or what the present legal position of Arabs is in Algeria. The falsehoods of Josephus are woven into everything. For instance, the jurisdiction of the synagogues over their own people was always limited to legal questions of the ecclesiastical court, if we may use the phrase. In anything that concerned matters of police and public order, the Jew had no exemption. As to their lawsuits among themselves, the members of these little societies were in the habit of having them amicably settled by the synagogue. §

• Remember Notre Dame de Chartres ; Notre Dame de Liesse.

† Philo, De Monarchia, ii . § 1. Cf. Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. ii. 2; xviii. ix. 1. Mischna, Ioma, vi. 1 ; Tannith, i. 3. Josephus, B. J. , vi. ix. 3. § 1 Cor. vi. 1. Cf. Acts ix. 2 ; xviii. 12-16, 17 ; xxii . 19 ; xxvi. 11. 2 Cor. xi. 24. Note also the circumstances of the death of Jesus. THE DISPERSION. 201 Alexandria up to the third century had a sort of separate organization in the Roman empire. The Jews were certainly more free there than elsewhere. * They had an ethnarch or tribal chief (genarch), † and consequently a certain autonomy. Augustus, whom they called their Saviour (Soter), their Benefactor (Euergetes) , even gave, it would seem, a certain independence to their senate or council of elders (yepovoía), ‡ which made the Jewish community at Alexandria a real republic. It was the same at Cyrene. At Sardis the rights of the Jewish quarter seem also to have been very extended. § The Jews of Alexandria thus had good fortune, and a social position superior to that of other Jews. On several occasions Jews occupied the high office of arabarch, or alabarch. The guard of the river and the collection of customs had been confided to them by the Ptolemies ; the Romans continued them in these offices, which made them immensely rich . || A son of Tiberius the arabarch (Tiberius Alexander) played a most important part in Roman history in

• Strabo, in Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. vii. 2.

- Two Jews of Alexandria - Alexander the brother of Philo, and Demetrius (Josephus, xviii. vi. 1 ; viii . 1 ; xix. v. 2 ; vii. 3) — are entitled aλaßápxns, a word that has been used as a sort of synonym for “ethnarch, " as designating the president of the Jews at Alexandria. It is not so. Its true form is ȧpaßápxns. The arabarch was a very important functionary. See the passages collected by M. Schürer, ii. 540, 541 . Philo, In Flaccum, §§ 10, 14. Josephus, B. J. , vii. x. 1 . § Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. x. 17, 21. Josephus, Against Apion, ii. 5. 202 HISTORY OF THE People of Israel. the first century ; * and his brother was the famous Jewish philosopher Philo. Roman tolerance went so far that the Jew was held exempt from military service, even if he were a Roman citizen . The strict observance of the Sabbath would have been enough to make military service impossible for Jews, at least in a Gentile army. Lentulus and Dolabella were quite willing to set them free from an obligation which interfered with their religion. The Roman government recognized their Sabbath to a certain extent. It was admitted that a Jew could not be summoned to a law court on the Sabbath day ; § the monthly distributions of corn or money, made at Rome when the day fell on Saturday, were put off till the next day, and the distributions of oil in kind were commuted for money. The worship of the emperor roused no further opposition, for Augustus showed great moderation in the titles he accepted . trouble did not begin till the time of Caligula. The The difficulties with the cities arose from the circumstance that these insisted on forcing the Jews to take part in their municipal worship, especially when that worship had celebrity and gave lustre to

• See Orig. du Christ. , index.

† Mischna, Schabbath, vi . 2 , 4. Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. x. 6 , 11-14, 16, 18, 19. Cf. Cæsar, Bell. Civ. , iii . 4. § Josephus, Antiquities, xii. iii . 1. Philo, Leg., § 23. Josephus, Antiquities, xii. iii. 1.

• • Philo, Leg. ad Caium (ed. Mangey, p. 567).

THE DISPERSION. 203 the city. The Jews, on the other hand, when they passed a pagan temple, could not refrain from some sign of contempt. * Thus in the year 14 B. c. the Ephesians requested that the rights of citizenship should be taken from the Jews if they would not consent to join in the worship of Diana. The case was pleaded before Marcus Agrippa, then governor of the East, by Nicolas of Damascus, the Cremieux † of those times, in the name of Herod ; and the Jews won the suit. ‡ Certainly, in those cases where citizenship included absolute equality of rights (ioovoμía), the citizens had some little cause to complain that, side by side with the law enjoyed in common, the Jews retained their special legal privilege. Here is the continual misunderstanding about the Jewish question. The Jew almost always insists on having both his common rights and his special privileges. France alone, under the arrangement of 1806, has settled the question by admitting the Jew to the common right only when he has wholly renounced his special privilege. Among all the nations of antiquity, the citizen was bound to be of the religion of his city. This religion, it is true, called for slight obligations so far as concerned belief. The Jews, by the exception

• Gens contumelia numinum insignis, —Pliny, iv. xiii . iv. 46. Contemnere deos,

-Tacitus, Hist. v. 5. [" A French jurist and politician, of Hebrew descent, Minister of Justice in 1848 and 1870-1871 . ". -- Cent. Dict. of Biog. ] Josephus, Antiquities, xii. iii . 2 ; xvi. ii . 3-5. Compare Acts ix. 204 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. they claimed and almost everywhere obtained, broke with this old law of the world. It is true that by the same stroke the question of belief, unknown to the ancient world, started up in a menacing manner, and opened a period of savage inquisition. Alas, poor human nature ! This radical change Rome greatly contributed to bring about. Rome, a universal power, protected Jewish particularism against the intolerance of the cities. She did not see that she was favouring an intolerance worse than the puny fanaticism of the local temples. The problem of liberty of conscience, which the great mind of Cæsar had a glimpse of, rose up imperious. Nicolas of Damascus formulated it very well in his speech. before Marcus Agrippa. The new original work, the great benefit done to the world by Rome, was (according to him) in having established a law that every man might everywhere live by his religion in his own way.* Almost always the Jewish advocate is found to be the defender of the free conscience ; and that is why we almost always agree with him. The bad faith of the Jews when they seek for arguments to defend their cause, and the misrepresentations their apologists are so fond of, make it hard to judge just how far the rights of Roman citizenship were granted them. At Rome the matter was not doubtful . The captives brought thither by Pompey, when they became freedmen, took back that Εξεῖναι κατὰ χώραν ἑκάστοις τὰ οἰκεῖα τιμῶσιν ἄγειν καὶ διαζῆν. Josephus, Antiquities, xvi. ii. 4. THE DISPERSION. 205 title with them to Judea. * Asia Minor was the country in which Roman citizens were most numerous ; † and quite a large number of Jews may have had that dignity. ‡ Saint Paul is an illustrious example. § The Samaritans practised on a narrower scale the principle of the " Dispersion." There were many of them in Egypt, || and there the hereditary hatred between them and the Jews was kept up. At Rome also their synagogue appears to have been long maintained. In the time of the Christian emperors, their importance seems to have almost equalled that of the Jews. ** Philo, Leg., § 23. Acts vi. 9. Cf. the Real- Encycl. de Pauly. Art., "Libertine." † Valerius Maximus, ix. 2 ; De crudel. extern . 3. Cæsar, Bell. Civ. iii. 4. Josephus, xiv. x. 13, 16-19. § See Orig. du Christ. , ii . 164 ; Pliny, Epist. , x. 96 (97) . iii . 526, 527 note. || Josephus, Antiquities , xii . 1 . Letter of Adrian in Vopiscus, Vita Sat. , 8. Photius, Cod. , 230, sub fin. ¶ Josephus, Antiquities, xii. 1 ; xii. iii . 4.

• • Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. vi. 4. Cassidorus, Variarum, iii .

15. Cod. Theod. (edit. Hænel), xiii. v. 18 ; xvi. viii . 16, 28. Novella Just., 129, 144. CHAPTER IV. THE JEWISH PROPAGANDA.

ALMOST every Jew who had been thus " dispersed " was a zealous propagandist." The manifest faults in pagan worship irritated him ; he did not conceal the feeling he had of his own religious superiority ; and he tried to gain over to his faith all whom he thought he might influence. Thus, while looking well after his own affairs, the expatriated Jew became a travelling agent for monotheism and the last judgment. The world was covered with itinerant apostles, whose professional interests in no way interfered with their ardour for proselytism and their desire to effect conversions. This propaganda had directly opposite effects on those to whom it came. With the greater part it produced a lively feeling of repulsion . The falsest prejudices, the most absurd stories, were spread among the public, and formed the current opinion about the Jews.† Sometimes it was said that they

• This is an idea vaguely expressed in Matthew xxiii. 15.

+ Tacitus, Hist., v. 2-5. Plutarch, Sympos. , iv. 5. For the source of these fables see above, pp. 72, 73. Cf. Orig. du Christ. , v. 391 , 392. THE JEWISH PROPAGANDA. 207 worshipped Bacchus, sometimes an ass's head ; that they had sacred rites in which each year they sacrificed a Greek. * The most cultivated minds were fed with these silly tales. That the rude partisans of a foreign superstition † should think of attempting to convert the most civilised races in the world, was really going a little too far ; cultivated people only .sneered and laughed in answer to such a pretension. But the better informed saw things differently. Strabo, who received his information about Judaism from a liberal Jew opposed to the priests, § is very just in what he says of this wondrous religion . A profound change was taking place in the religious sentiments of the ancient world. Greco-Latin paganism was becoming insipid . People were searching in all directions for something that might satisfy their craving to believe and to love, which the old mythology satisfied no longer. It was towards Eastern faiths that souls restless with religious fever turned, especially women. || The strong set of the current in this direction

• Josephus, Against Apion, ii. 8, 10. Democritus, in Fragm. hist.

Gr. iv. 377. † Barbara superstitio, Cicero, Pro Flacco, 28. Horace, Sat., i . iv. 142, 143 ; ix. 68-72. See Orig. du Christ. , index ; art. " Horace, " &c. Schürer, ii. 518, &c. We omit here the developments that have been given in L'Histoire des Origines du Christianisme. § Strabo, xvi . ii . 35, 37. || Orig. du Christ. , ii . 346, &c .; vii. 570, 581 ; index, at the words 66'Isis‚,”" “ Mithra, ” &c. Add Corpus inscri. Attic. , ii . 1, Nos. 168, 617. Fourcart, Des assoc. rel. chez les Grecs, chaps . ix. x. xi. Schürer, ii. 554-557, &c. 208 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. was surprising. The worships of Isis, Serapis, and Mithra had something more tender, more devout than Greek and Latin worships, which were gross and arid. They made cohesion among their proselytes, and at once served as a basis for new societies and clubs. In spite of appearances, they approached nearer than the Aryan religions did to monotheism. Each of these divinities was the greatest god, - the sole god for his adorers. - Among all these Oriental religions the Jewish displayed an immense superiority. The worship which at this period exercised such an extraordinary attraction over the souls of men was not, let us hasten to explain, the correct Pharisaism, which reduced religion to a pitiful system of casuistry, and hindered no scandal, no evil, in society. Side by side with this Judaism -orthodox, if you like, but narrow, and with no possible future there was another Judaism, broader, less rigid, less absorbed into mere observances, less suited to please doctors, but much more communicative, and more accessible. From this sprang Christianity. What the Greek, the Italian, and the Asiatic saw were Jewish customs, - the Sabbath, so inspiring to piety ; precautions about food, which, practised in moderation , inspired a sort of respect for material life, and raised cleanliness to the level of a duty ; those feasts full of joy and heart-happiness ; that discipline of character and repose in the sense of a Divine Unity, the almost indispensable basis for morality; those future rewards THE JEWISH PROPAGANDA. 209

-- promised to the good. Men - women especiallylonged to hope ; and Judaism opened a wide door to hope. People thronged to it. There came to be a vast multitude of friends to Judaism, who led the Jewish life without being Jews by birth, without even making themselves precisely Jews, that is to say, without circumcision. We must not here anticipate the order of time. But we may say that the splendid career of Saint Paul, in the middle of the first century of our era, had been prepared for before that era. Men were coming to the conclusion that to be especially in the " dispersion descended from Abraham is a secondary thing ; that the one thing needful is to worship the Eternal after a pure manner, and to observe the precepts of natural religion , which were called the " Commandments of Noah. " ―― ― "" - Thus was formed around each Jewish colony a little family of adherents, uncircumcised, but attending the synagogue ; observing the laws of diet, especially abstaining from pork ; practising Jewish morality, and receiving the fundamental beliefs of Judaism at that day, -the unity of God and a future. judgment ; sending money to Jerusalem, ‡ and dreaming of going thither.§ They were called " those who

• Judaicam vivere vitam ;

note 5, 236-239. · .. Improfessi. Orig. du Christ. , v. 31 , † See the example of Ananias in the conversion of Izatus. Orig. du Christ. , ii . 256. Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. vii. 2. § Collection of Saint Paul (Acts xi . 29) . VOL. V.-14 210 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. fear God," or simply " the fearers ."* The sibylline poem of the year 80 demands only the worship of the true God, faith in a future judgment, and a bath of purification, not circumcision. † Saint Paul found the proselytes everywhere, leading a Jewish life near the synagogue, and more pious than the Jews themselves. From all this there resulted a wonderful penetration of Jewish customs into the life of the great cities. § The observance of the Sabbath and of fast days was shown by a sort of relaxation of the daily life, and by lighting of little candles on the evening of the day before. Women were especially attracted by these foreign novelties. We find Saint Paul always surrounded by women, upon whom, however, he is very severe. At the time we have reached, the aristocratic classes in Greek and Latin countries still revolted against the fascination of Judaism ; but in the East, following Herod's example, sundry princes made

• Zeẞóμevol, or poßoúμevol тòv beóv, metuentes. Acts xiii. 16, 26, 43;

xvii. 4, 17 [ translated " religious " or "devout " in the English version] . Aur. Soteria, matri pientissimæ, religione judaicæ metuento (Corp. inscr. lat. v. 1 , No. 88). See Orig. du Christ. , v. 236 , 237, note. See also Vie de Jésus, p. 239. † Orig. du Christ. , v. 163 , &c. See especially the episode at Philippi. Saint Paul, chap. vi. The Book of the Acts, written by one who " fears God, " is full of the ardent feelings of piety of a proselyte. § Josephus, Against Apion, ii . 10, 39. Persius, Sat. , v. 179–184. Seneca, Epist., xcv. 47. Saint Augustine, De civ. Dei, vi. 11 (victi victoribus legem dederunt) . Tertullian , Ad. nat. , i. 13. Compare Salonica on Saturday, and what goes on in Paris in the quarter of the Temple on the Great Day of Atonement. See the story of Fulvia, Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. iii. 5. THE JEWISH PROPAGANDA. 211 themselves Jews that they might contract marriages in the Herodian family. It was thus that the little dynasties of Chalcis, Commagene, Emesa, and Cilicia became nominally Jewish. * Much more sincere was the conversion of the royal house of Adiabene, brought about by a Jewish merchant named Hananiah. This conversion was one of the most important events in the history of Judaism in the first century.t

• Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. iv. 5 ; the act of Syllæus, xvi. vii. 6;

xx. vii. 1, 3. + Orig. du Christ. , ii . 256, &c. See the index. CHAPTER V. HEROD : EXTERMINATION OF THE ASMONEANS. ― - LET us go back to Judea, that hell upon earth, where around a worship that had nothing in it superior to the religions of the rest of the world, but which brought in immense sums of money to those engaged in it were displayed the vilest passions, cupidity, cruelty, and debauchery. The spirit of Israel is not there. Christianity will not come out of Jerusalem ; the father of Jesus was probably already born in Galilee. But every destiny must be fulfilled . Before we reach Jesus we must pass through Herod. Herod was now thirty-seven years of age. He was fully in possession of power ; but numerous enemies were round him. years were yet to pass before he could dream of what makes the joy and glory of a sovereign.

Twelve Herod was a splendid Arab, -intelligent, skilful, brave, strong of body, inured to fatigue, † and much given to women. Mehemet Ali in our own day

• The name Ἡρώδης for 'Ηρωίδης was common in the Greek world

about this time (see Schürer, i. 306, 307 note). It answers probably to some Semitic name. ↑ Josephus, B. J., i. xxi. 13 ; Antiquities, xvi . v. 1. HEROD. 213 - gives us perfectly his measure and his limit. Capable of anything, even of baseness when the thing in hand was to reach the object of his ambition, he had a real feeling of greatness ; but he was completely out of tune with the country he was to govern. He dreamed of a worldly future, whereas the future of Israel was to be solely religious. No higher motive seems to have ruled him. Hard, cruel, passionate, and inflexible, as a man must be to succeed among evil surroundings, in everything he considered his own interests alone. He saw the world as it is ; and being of a coarse nature, he loved it. Religion, philosophy, patriotism, virtue, had no meaning to him. He did not like the Jews ; possibly he had a little regard for Idumea, or, more precisely, Ascalon. He was, in short, a fine animal, -a lion whom one admires for his massive throat and his thick mane, without expecting any moral sense from him. After all, he was as good as John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannæus. A stranger to every sentiment of religion, he succeeded for one moment in silencing fanaticism. But his work could only last a day. The religious genius of Israel very soon wiped out all trace of what he had created . Nothing was left of him but imposing ruins and a frightful tale. The popular legend is never wholly false. Herod did not try to kill Jesus, who was not born till four years after his death ; but his work was just the opposite of Christianity. He hindered nothing, he effected nothing, and at his death he passed into 214 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. nothingness. He had done his own will, not the will of God. His will was of the simplest. He wished to rule for the profit he could get out of it . He did not care to govern the Jewish people in preference to any other. Often he must have found that fate had allotted him very unpleasant subjects. As the Jews were within his reach, he wished to be their king. He had one advantage, which was, that though circumcised, he was a foreigner. Judea could no longer have a sovereign of her own. His father Antipater had gone three fourths of the way in this programme, by substituting for the weak Asmoneans the help of the mighty power of those days, that of Rome. Herod finished what was left to do. In the wrestling-matches of the time he was a skilful vaulter, passing swiftly from the beaten party to the victor. It was the height of good fortune for him that Augustus in his day established universal peace throughout the empire (pax Romana) . Resting on the firm rock of the friendship of a god, he was himself a god. He who was admitted to this Olympus became an associate of Jove, - ille deûm vitam accipiet. - The universal ill-will of every party at Jerusalem awaited this " demi-Jew," * who by the nomination of the Senate and the exploit of Sosius had been given them for king. The first acts of Herod on entering into Jerusalem were terrible. He put to

• 'Huuovdaîos, Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. xv. 2.

HEROD. 215 death five and forty leading partisans of Antigonus, and confiscated their estates. His agents went so far as to shake the dead bodies, to make the gold and silver fall out that might have been hidden in their winding-sheets. These seizures were very useful to Herod for retaining the favour of Antony, which was an excellent thing to have, but very dear. In fact, Herod was not a Jew at heart ; we even think he hated Judaism. He was a Hellenist, like Antiochus Epiphanes, but a far wiser one : he never thought, like the king of Syria, of suppressing Judaism. He would have desired a liberal, tolerant Judaism, just as we dream of a Catholicism endowed with the same qualities, which then would be Catholicism no more. He apparently made all possible concessions to his co-religionists. Among the most important was to refrain, like the Asmoneans, from putting his image upon his coins. * On none of the monuments that he built at Jerusalem was the likeness of any living thing. He required all who married his daughters to be circumcised . The Arab Syllæus, who married his sister Salome, was induced by him to embrace Judaism. ‡ He always respected the two famous Pharisees, Sameas and Pollio, and Herod's coins have merely BAZIAENE HPQAOY, with emblems that Judaism did not disapprove. See p. 262, on the eagle. † The eagle on the Temple gate (Josephus, Antiquities, xvii. vi.; B..J. , i. xxiii. 1 ) and the eagle on the coins ( Schürer, i . 327 note) may be explained by the hypothesis that in his latter years Herod was less careful not to offend his subjects' prejudices. Josephus, Antiquities, xvi. vii. 6. 216 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. dispensed with their oath of fidelity. * But he allowed himself privileges which the Pharisees must have found excessive. Out of Palestine, he did not observe the Law; he erected pagan temples ; his feasts, even at Jerusalem, transgressed the most sacred precepts. His Hellenic companions and his mode of life, which was entirely Greek, were flagrant inconsistencies in a king of the Jews. One might say that under his reign the Sanhedrim had no existence, so insignificant had its part become. He literally laughed at the high-priests, who were but playthings in his hands. Hananel was succeeded by a man wholly unknown, Jesus, son of Phabi ; and he by a certain Simon, son of Boëthus, † whose daughter was considered the most beautiful woman in Jerusalem. Herod fell in love with her, resolved to marry her, and made her father high-priest so as to raise her family to his level. The head of this family, Boëthus of Alexandria, was a Hellenist Jew, rich, worldly, and not unlike Herod himself. He and his people passed for misbelievers, for epicureans. At least three members of this family were highpriests during the latter half of Herod's reign and in that of Archelaus. They were the centre of a group, often confounded with the Sadducees, called Boëthusim, a word synonymous with ungodly, misJosephus, Antiquities, xv. i . 1 ; x. 4. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. ix. 3; xvii. iv. 2 ; xvii . xii. 1 ; xviii. i . 1 ; v. 1 ; xix. vi. 2, 4. tIn the Talmud ,אפיקורוסים בייתוסים צדוקיים .are synonymous See Vie de Jésus, p. 226. HEROD. 217 believers, materialists, and sceptics. A large party of reason was thus formed ; but, as we have already said, it did not dare to declare itself. When it wished to act, it had to take shelter behind the Pharisees.

It is singular that Herod often found the Pharisees very tractable. These rigourists made less active war on the " half-Jew" than they had done on their national sovereigns John Hyrcanus and Alexander Jannæus. During his long reign they hardly troubled themselves about him, so occupied were they with the Law, and so little care had they for temporal power. The two best-known Pharisees, Pollio and Sameas ( Shemaiah and Abtalion) , had during the siege advised opening the gates to him. It may be remembered that at one time Sameas had resisted Herod with great firmness. But before long the two doctors saw the finger of God in his victory, and counselled submission. † The party of the Pharisees held in a manner that there were two worlds, separated by a partition, the Jewish legal world, and the court world ‡ for which the Law did not exist, especially when reasons of state could be appealed to against it. Herod, as soon as politics were in ques-

• This is evidently a couple, one of those usual in the Pirké aboth.

Can it mean Hillel and Shammai (Aboth 12) , or Shemaiah and Abtalion (Aboth 10) ? The former hypothesis seems at first likely. Hillel may have become Pollio by an alphabetical fancy . See previously on Menelaus ; but chronology seems to point to the other hypothesis. † Josephus, Antiquities, xv. i . 1 ; cf. xiv. ix. 4. .מלכית $ 218 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. tion, was no longer a Jew; his manners were purely and simply those of a Greek or Roman. * The remaining members of the Asmonean family caused Herod much more embarrassment. Descendants of legitimate dynasties become a scourge after their downfall. These embarrassments were all the greater because they invaded his own family circle. He had married Mariamne, who was granddaughter both of Aristobulus II. through her father Alexander, and of Hyrcanus II. through her mother Alexandra. This last of the Asmoneans is the only character that relieves the eye of the historian amid so many horrors. She was a princess of rare beauty, irreproachable in her way of life, imposing in her aspect, proud and virtuous, courageous and spirited , respecting her name and birth, but creating many enemies, especially in her husband's family, by her firm and decided character. † Herod adored her, but was not happy with her ; for she did little to win his good graces. Alexandra her mother (daughter of Hyrcanus II. ) was a bad woman, malevolent, intriguing, and cowardly. She never relaxed a most violent opposition to her son-in-law. All the feminine world was on the worst terms with Cypros, Herod's mother, and his sister Salome. Scenes among them were frequent, and tragedies were easy to foresee. Hyrcanus II. , a prisoner among the Parthians, was anxious to return to Jerusalem. Herod wished it

• Like them he put slaves to the torture, &c.

Josephus, Antiquities, xv. vii. 6. EXTERMINATION OF THE ASMONEANS. 219 also, that he might be more sure of him. Hyrcanus accordingly came back, and at first was on the best understanding with the new king. But as, because of his mutilation, he could not be restored to the priesthood, Herod sent to Babylon for an unknown and insignificant priest named Hananel, on whom he conferred the pontifical dignity. Alexandra felt herself outraged. She looked upon the dignity as belonging by right to her young son Aristobulus, brother of Mariamne, a young man of seventeen, and remarkably handsome. What gave Alexandra influence was that she was in close relations with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, then all- powerful with Antony. Mariamne also moved in the matter. Herod was obliged to yield. He deposed Hananel, and replaced him by Aristobulus. The young highpriest made an extraordinary impression at the Feast of Tabernacles in the year 35 B. C. A few months later he paid dear for his precocious honours. During a feast at Jericho, Herod took him to bathe in one of the great fish-tanks about the palace, where already some young men of the household were swimming, to whom Herod had given the word, intending that all should pass for a mere frolic. The young men, as a joke, amused themselves by holding the head of the young high- priest under water. It was dark in the pool ; they held him thus till he was drowned, * and Hananel was at once put back in his place. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. ii. 3. 220 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. We can imagine the rage of Alexandra. She again invoked the help of Cleopatra, begging her to lay the case before Antony. Herod consented to meet him, and went for that purpose to Latakia. Again his treasure-chest saved him. In vain Cleopatra urged his ruin ; she had to listen to her lover's hint that it is not well to look too curiously into the acts of princes. * Antony sent him home whitewashed (blanc comme neige) . But the hatred of the two women, excited still more by intrigues of which we spare the details, rose to its height. The worst card in Herod's game was Cleopatra's animosity ; she had no love for him, and what was more she coveted Judea. In 34 B. c. Antony gave her all the Palestinian coast and Jericho. † Herod consented to hire for two hundred talents a year lands which had lately formed part of his personal domain, and then was forced to appear satisfied, and to receive Cleopatra with a smiling face at Jerusalem. Cleopatra tried to make him fall in love with her, no doubt to ruin him if he did so . ‡ Herod was very prudent : for one moment he thought of making away with this woman, who was in his hands ; but he contented himself with overwhelming her with presents, and conducting her with the greatest honours back to the Egyptian frontier. ― Josephus, Antiquities, xv. ii. 8. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. iv. 1 , 2 ; B. J., i. xviii. 5. Plutarch, Antony, 36. Dion Cassius, xlix. 32. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. iv. 2. All this could only have been made known by Herod himself, and therefore is somewhat doubtful. HEROD. 221 The civil war between Antony and Octavius (32 B. C.) furnished Herod a fine opportunity to show his political skill. He wished at first to join Antony with an army ; but Cleopatra ordered him to go and fight the Nabathean king, who was not punctually paying her his tribute . This was most fortunate for Herod. The battle of Actium ( Sept. 2, 31 B. c. ) took place without him. By the defeat of Antony he lost a powerful protector ; but by the same stroke he also got rid of Cleopatra, his worst enemy. Without waiting for the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, which did not take place till a year after, Herod took his course with prompt decision, and resolved to go and meet Octavius. For his greater security, however, he before his departure put to death the aged Hyrcanus, now over eighty years old, who might still rally round him the legitimist partisans of the Asmoneans. Every absence from Jerusalem put Herod into fits of alarm, from which he would rally by putting to death all who at the moment seemed to him most dangerous. * In the spring of the year 30 he saw Octavius at Rhodes. When he appeared before him, he stripped off his royal ornaments and approached him as a suppliant. He had been the firm friend of Antony ; he would be equally true to Octavius : his friendship

• It was this feeling, keenly observed by the populace, which

probably created the Christian legend ( Matthew ii . ) of Herod killing all [ the babes of Bethlehem] as soon as he heard any mention of a king of the Jews other than himself. 222 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. would merely change the name. This was quite sincere ; Herod had made up his mind to be always on the side of the most powerful Roman. Octavius had no difficulty in believing him, and confirmed him in all his titles. During the summer of the year 30 he received Octavius at Acre, and afterward greatly assisted the Roman army in its summer march along the sea-coast of Palestine. - In August of the year 30, after the death of Antony and Cleopatra, Herod saw Octavius again. This time he gained all he wanted. Octavius gave him back Jericho, and all that Antony had taken from his domains, also adding to them several towns, - Gadara, Hippos, Samaria, Gaza, Anthedon, Joppa, and the Tower of Strato. Herod accompanied the conqueror as far as Antioch. The year that to all appearances should have led to his fall had been fortunate for him. He had exchanged a fantastic patron - who could not but come to a bad end, ruled as he was by the most dangerous woman in the world for a far more safe protector, destined like himself to rule for many years. - The next year ( 29 B. C. ) was full of horrors. Notwithstanding all that had passed , Herod loved more passionately than ever the proud and charming Mariamne. She, it appears, without entirely repulsing this beautiful and terrible lion, loved him far less . But the wicked Salome said to him every day in secret, " You must kill her." When absent, he always charged a confidential follower to watch her, HEROD. 223 and to slay her if he never came back. * It appears he was especially afraid that Antony, in case of his death, might wish to take possession of his widow. Herod should have been reassured by the proud and noble character of Mariamne ; but so far as politics were concerned, it is certain that the conduct of Alexandra and Mariamne might well give rise to suspicions. These two women seem themselves to have rushed upon their fate. By a sort of privy council, Herod caused the woman he adored to be condemned to death. Alexandra under these circumstances played a hideous part. Seeing that the same fate threatened herself, she tried to turn aside the blow by pretending that she did not share the feelings of her daughter in any way. At the moment when they were leading Mariamne to execution, she rushed out furious, flung herself on her unhappy child, struck her in the face, and pulled out her hair, calling her an ungrateful, bad woman, who was receiving only what she deserved. A cry of horror rose in the crowd. Mariamne said not a word ; she did not even change colour. She died without even looking at her mother. Herod on this occasion had obeyed his mad instinct of brutality. After the execution, his passionate love revived. He fancied, in his delirium, that he saw before him the woman whom he adored,

• The two accounts in Josephus vi. 5,

, Antiquities, xv. ii. 5, and xv. are certainly versions of the same story received from different sources, which Josephus, in a way common also among the writers of the Gospels, has put side by side. 224 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. and whom he had murdered. He spoke to her, called her, gave orders to send for her. To distract his thoughts, he plunged into nameless excesses ; he hunted frantically and rode furiously. At Samaria he almost died of his passion. * A rumour of his death got abroad at Jerusalem . Alexandra hoped to profit by it to seize the power. She tried to gain over the commanders of the two fortresses in Jerusalem. Herod at last had her put to death, 28 B. C. He recovered his health, but was ever after subject to a strange irritation, physical and moral. At the smallest pretext he would send his servants and his best friends to the scaffold. All Oriental despots follow, like a machine once started, the same fatal downward road. His ambition, however, remained. While any remnant of the Asmoneans survived, Herod could not rest in peace. A family, akin (it would appear) to the Asmoneans, had signalized itself under Antigonus-Mattathiah by its legitimist zeal. They were called "the sons of Baba." In the moment of danger a rich Idumean named Costobarus had saved them ; and Herod for twelve years, spite of his suspicions, had not been able to discover their retreat. Costobarus, who had a hand in several intrigues at once, had married Salome, the sister of Herod ; one day Salome, having become tired of her husband,

• Josephus, Antiquities, xv. vii . 3, &c. Cf. Talmud of Babylon ;

Bababathra, 3, b. This is probably another double version in Josephus, occurring in Antiquities, xv. iii . 7 and again in xv. vii. 8. HEROD. 225 betrayed all his secrets to Herod, who at once put to death Costobarus and the " sons of Baba. " * There then remained but one descendant of the Asmonean family who could give him umbrage, or (as the Jewish historian expresses it) could set himself against violations of the Law. † According to the Jews, this moment in Herod's life marked his great progress in wickedness ; that is, up to this time, he had kept up some appearance of Judaism, but after it his life became an insult to the religion and the laws of his country. That is a Jewish way of putting it . At all times Herod's life had been an insult to the moral law. What was new was, that when he had no longer any reason to fear the loss of his throne he gathered in the fruits of crime, which are in the political order - quite another thing than the moral order -strong power, prosperity, and art. The twenty following years of his life were of a character which had not been seen since the days of Solomon. Making less account than ever of Jewish prejudices, Herod undertook, though in defiance of the Law, what is the crowning glory of established power, — great works of art and public utility ; works wholly secular, which could hardly have been executed without setting the Law aside . We might pardon this disregard, if on the other hand those works had not been built upon the

• Josephus, Antiquities, xv. vii . 8, 9, 10.

Josephus, Antiquities, xv. vii. 10. VOL. V. - 15 Josephus, Antiquities, xv. vii. 8, 10 ; viii. 1 . 226 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF israel. sand. But the people's vocation was not in that line ; it was summoned to another task. Like Octavius, Herod had passed out from the period of necessary cruelties ; he now passed on to the period of brilliant works, which plead for his pardon. Troppmann, after killing his allotted number, counted on doing something grand and good . This he could not do ; but the great criminals of history are commonly more fortunate. To justify himself for the slaughter of the Mamelukes, Mehemet Ali said but one thing : " If I had not killed them, they would have killed me. " It was true. To exist, you must destroy your enemy, or he will destroy you. The odious murders of Aristobulus and Mariamne were the conditions of what was to come. To wish for Herod without his crimes is to wish for Christianity without its dreams, the Revolution "without its excesses." Certainly, if Herod had not put an end to Alexandra, Alexandra would have put an end to him. But now, thanks to the extermination of the last Asmoneans and the friendship of Augustus, Herod is truly king. He will go on to construct great works of a sort that weigh sorely upon subjects, but make what we are pleased to call great sovereigns. CHAPTER VI. WORLDLY SPLENDOUR. — THE NEW SOLOMON. - LOOKING on Herod from this point of view, we certainly cannot refuse him the title " Great," which has been often given him. In splendour his reign equalled that of Solomon ; something large and liberal inspired him ; a real feeling for civilization impelled him forward. He was in no sense a Jew. He loved fashion, and what was then in fashion, - the Greek life, with all its elegances and refinements. His edifices remind us of the most beautiful works of antiquity. It is inconceivable that so small a State could have furnished funds for such prodigious erections,* when we know that in addition, in taking this course, Herod came into direct conflict with the most narrow-minded opposition. An inflexible majority of old reactionaries refused, as in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, to give up their ancient customs and embrace Hellenism. Herod thus comes before us as a sort of enlightened khedive, who sets up the opera at Cairo, patronizes what is unintelligible to his subjects and forbidden by the official

• The tomb of David, already pillaged by John Hyrcanus, must

have been a very insufficient resource. Josephus, Antiquities, xvi. vii. 1 ; cf. vii. xv. 3. 228 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. religion, silences the murmurs of the orthodox because he is backed by Europe, and holds in his hands almost all the wealth of the country. Gratitude to Augustus * was the first motive for these innovations, so foreign to Jewish taste. Almost all the provinces, about the year 27, instituted quinquennial games in honour of Augustus. † Herod was not behind in this general movement. To celebrate these games required a theatre, an amphitheatre, and a hippodrome. Herod improvised all these. Within a few months Jerusalem had all the edifices she had so energetically protested against a hundred and fifty years before. The theatre, situated probably in the southern part of the city, § was richly decorated ; pompous inscriptions bore witness to the glory of the master of the world. There were no statues ; but among the decorations there were trophies bearing some resemblance to the human form, which excited unfriendly comments among the Jews. Herod had much difficulty in appeasing them. He was obliged to go himself to the theatre, take down these dumOctavius took the title of Augustus, or eßaorós, January 16, in the year 27 B. C. Mommsen, Res gestæ divi Aug., 2d ed. p. 149. + Suetonius, Augustus, 59, 60. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. viii . 1 , 2. For the hippodrome, Josephus, Antiquities, xvii. x. 2 ; B. J., ii . iii . 1 . § A theatre has been discovered by Mr. Schick about half a mile south of Bir-Eyyoub ( Palest. Explor. Fund, 1887, pp. 161-166) . Josephus (1. c. ) says that the theatre was in Jerusalem ; but that may doubtless be understood to mean very near it. If the theatre and amphitheatre had been within the city, mention would have been made of them as well as of the hippodrome in accounts of the siege . The amphitheatre was probably on the plateau to the north of Jerusalem. THE NEW SOLOMON. 229 mies in presence of the most obstinate, and show them that they were nothing but logs of wood, dressed up for the occasion. The simple souls burst out laughing. Everything came hard in dealing with such narrow minds, void of knowledge, and obstinately shut in by their very limited culture. Yet these poor fools had good in them, and in some respects were ahead of the average moral sentiment in the world. The five-year games were splendid. Herod had sent notice of them to all the adjacent countries. People arrived in crowds, without distinction of race or religion . Nothing could equal the splendour of the costumes, or the brilliant effect of the athletic matches and the musicians. There were also combats with wild animals, in which wretches under sentence were exposed to the teeth of ferocious beasts. Wild animals were rare and costly ; but what elsewhere excited the enthusiasm of the crowd was beheld with indignation at Jerusalem . The Pharisees protested, and thought it horrible that people could find pleasure in the peril run by those poor creatures. All their old manners and customs seemed to them overthrown. * But there was no longer any power to resist ; the faintest murmur was punished with death. The art of building in the time of Augustus was in one of its most splendid periods ; and Palestine, even the sub-soil of Jerusalem, offered the finest Josephus, Antiquities, xv. viii. 1. Cf. Talmud of Jerusalem, or Mishna, Aboda Zara, i . 7. 230 HISTORY OF the peopLE OF ISRAEL

materials. Herod evidently had at his disposal excellent architects, and a population of workmen who must certainly have been foreigners. He himself no doubt looked over the plans, and gave personal attention to the work. There was what might be called the Herodian style, in general aspect like the Doric, especially at Jerusalem. In Palestine it was largely monolithic, and was distinguished by the use of superb materials furnished by the sub-soil, or else by columns of granite, porphyry, syenite, and marbles brought from Egypt. A certain jealousy of fate clung about these monuments. Few of them have lasted to our day, but what we see of them by the mind's eye excites our highest admiration. The worship of Augustus had become the principal religion of the provinces.† Temples to Rome and to Augustus were multiplied in all directions. Herod erected four or five for his share, at Cæsarea, Sebaste, Panium, and Batanæa.§ These temples, especially the one at Cæsarea, were accounted among the finest of the age. He dared not build one in Jerusalem. Besides the theatre, the amphitheatre, and the hippodrome, already mentioned, he built himself in that city a palace which appeared a marvel. Jerusalem could not be complete in art, because of the interdiction of

• The columns of the porches of the temple were however Corinthian. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. xi. 5.

† Cf. Orig. du Christ. , iii . 28, 29. Kalorápela. Cf. Suetonius, Augustus, 59. § Josephus, Antiquities, xv. ix. 5 ; B. J., i. xxi. 3, 4. Inscription of Sia in the Hauran, Vogüé, Syrie Centrale Arch. , pl. ii. iii . Le Bas and Wadd. , Inscr. , iii. No. 2364. THE NEW SOLOMON. 231 sculpture and painting ; but Herod made up for this by the delicacy of his marble work and his exquisite colouring. His parks were delightful, full of trees and brooks, basins of water, and towers for wild pigeons. The massive fortifications that surrounded the city served at the same time for the defence of Akra. Herod called the towers Phasael, Mariamne, and Hippicus. This last, which stands to our own day, at the entrance of Jerusalem, is one of the most impressive architectural works in all the world. ‡ He also did much for the old tower, Baris, which overlooked the Temple on the north ; but in memory of his first protector he called it Antonia. Jericho probably owed its theatre, amphitheatre, and hippodrome to Herod, who frequently resided there.§ It was no doubt more or less in honour of Augustus that buildings were erected by Herod beyond the limits of Palestine, whose number is really astonishing. The life of the cities of Phoenicia at this period, so brilliant and so youthful, was in part the work of the Herods. || Freed from the black spectre of Judaism, which threatened to eat them up, these cities seemed to revive. Hindered in Judea, besides, from giving full play to their taste for the arts, the princes of the Herodian dynasty gladly betook themselves to neighbouring cities. Herod

• Josephus, B. J. , v. iv. 4. Compare Ecclesiastes ii . 4, 6.

† This Hippicus seems to have been a favourite of Herod. It is the Tower called in the Middle Ages the Tower of David. § Josephus, Antiquities, xvii. vi. 3, 5 ; viii . 2 ; B. J. , i . xxxiii. 6, 8. Cf. Josephus, Antiquities, xix. vii. 5; xx. ix. 4. 232 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. overwhelmed them with benefits ; and his gifts extended even to the cities of Greece. Ascalon, Acre, Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Berytus, Tripoli, Damascus, Antioch, Rhodes, Chios, Nicopolis (Actium), Athens, and Sparta received proofs of his generosity in many a monumental structure. * At Rhodes the temple of the Pythian Apollo, at Antioch the great colonnade in its principal street, were his work. † He was the man who furnished money to the Greek world. If he ascertained that any city needed money to repair some glorious work of Grecian fame, ‡ he at once sent it the necessary funds. Having heard that the Olympian games had become poor and mean, he gave them a permanent fund for prizes. and sacrifices, so that a fine inscription conferred on him the title of perpetual President of the Games ( ȧywvolérns ) .§ There is something odd in this bestowal of the money of pious Jews on things so profane. The State by its machinery of taxation often makes the ignorant taxpayer partner in a multitude of enterprises quite indifferent, even repugnant, to him. More substantial, from the standpoint of a sensible Jew, was the glory he acquired by his creation of

• Corp. inscr. Attic. , iii . i . Nos. 550, 551 , 556.

Josephus, Antiquities, xvi. ii . 2 ; v. 3; B. J. , i . xxi. 11. Example of Chio, Josephus, Antiquities, xvi. ii . 2. § Josephus, Antiquities , xvi. v. 3 ; B. J., i. xxi. 12. || Herod, not being high-priest, could not have meddled with what belonged to the Temple ; but the gifts he forced his subjects to make him must have been very great. THE NEW SOLOMON. 233 new cities. Samaria, a city more Hellenic than Samaritan, ever since the time of Alexander had been to a frightful extent the victim of Asmonean fanaticism. Pompey and Gabinius had already rebuilt it. Herod ( 27 B. c. ) made it a splendid city, which he called Sebaste, for the Greek name of Augustus (σεβαστός σeBaστós) .. * He greatly enlarged its bounds, and settled six thousand colonists in it, -old soldiers, and people living in the neighbourhood. A superb colonnade towered over the city, whose remains may be seen to this day.t His great work, the creation of Cæsarea, was nobler still . The port of Joppa was very poor. Palestine, then as now, needed a fine port which should make her independent of Acre in her communications with the West. The position of the little Sidonian town called " Tower of Strato " seemed to Herod excellent for the purpose. He began by a Kaisarion, or Cæsarium ( Kaioápiov) , a temple to Rome and to Augustus, the finest he had ever built its columns, fancifully removed from their proper place, still excite our admiration on the piazzetta of Venice.§ The temple, situated on a hill above the port, had an admirable effect, especially Now called Sebastieh. † Josephus (see index). Strabo, xvi. 760. Cedrenus, i . 323. Schürer, i. 298, 299, 320 ; ii . 18, 108, &c. Erpárov is the Greek form of the Sidonian name . § The two columns of the piazzetta (a third is buried in the slime under the place of disembarkation for the gondolas) were carried off bythe Venetians from the ruins of Cæsarea. 234 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. when seen out at sea. Two colossal statues were there enthroned, - that of Augustus as the Olympian Jupiter, and that of Rome as Juno. The dedication took place, with games and extraordinary pomp, ten years before the Christian era. The mole of the harbour was a masterpiece of construction in perfection of work, the difficulties it encountered, the choice of materials, and the admirable accommodation it offered to seamen. Almost all provinces had towns called Cæsarea.* Herod gave the same name to the grandest of his creations. His political views were less just. He chose that the population of the city should be composed half of Jews and half of pagans, -living side by side, in full liberty, each under its own laws. The unsocial quality (aµcía) of the Jews may here be seen through sad experience. The Jew of Palestine then, like the Mussulman now, could exist only by ruling over his neighbours. Social life in Cæsarea was impossible. Riots took place constantly, and the massacres were frightful. By the close of the first century the Gentile element had completely the upper hand. Jerusalem was no more than a subprefecture dependent on Cæsarea. § After Augustus, Agrippa held the second place in the grateful remembrance of Herod. Of the two Suetonius, Augustus, 60. † Josephus, Antiquities, xv. viii . 5 ; ix. 6 ; xvi. v. 1 ; B. J. , i. xxi 5-8. Pliny, Nat. Hist. , v. xiii . 69. Orig. du Christ. , iii . 541 ; iv. 253-255. § Ibid. , vi . 263, note 1 ; vii. 199, 205 note, 412, note 2. THE NEW SOLOMON. 235 great Halls in the royal palace at Jerusalem , one was called " the Hall of Cæsar," the other the "Hall of Agrippa." Anthedon received the name of Agrippium or Agrippias. Recollections of his father, his mother, and his brother may be found in the name of Antipatris, which superseded that of Capharsaba ; of Cypros, the citadel of Jericho ; and of Phasaëlis in the Ghor. He gave his own name and much of his regard to Herodium, a large and superb place well fortified, which he caused to be built on a lone hill, about a league southeast of Bethlehem.* The traces of it, which may still be seen, give us the idea of a magnificent place of abode ; the hunting in its neighbourhood must have been particularly fine. Alexandrium, Hyrcania, Machærus, and Massada, having been put in good repair, constituted a line of fortresses such as few royalties have ever possessed. The construction of Macharus -undertaken in some sort in defiance of nature, its chambers of marvellous beauty, and its inexhaustible cisterns, in the midst of the dreariest region, built as it were as a challenge to the Arabian desert -struck all who saw it with admiration.‡ Djebel Fureidis (the little park in Paradise), the Frankenberg of the crusaders. † The superb rectangular construction at Hebron is in the style of Herodian architecture ; but if it had been Herod's, Josephus would have known it, and would have said so, for he is extremely well informed as to the constructions of Herod, and knows very little about those of Alexander Jannæus . Josephus, B. J. , vii. vi. 2. See also Vie de Jésus, pp. 114-116. It is situated five miles from the coast, in about the latitude of Hebron. 236 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Many excellent works which evince vigour, a consistent policy, and an armed force kept in excellent order, recommended Herod to all alike who were able to appreciate the art of government. He put an end to brigandage in the country to the east of the lake of Gennesareth, which till then had been given over to the pillage of nomadic tribes, by establishing there colonies of Idumeans and Babylonish Jews. * He planted military colonies at Gaba, in Galilee, and at Heshbon.t Commerce and industry flourished, and more than once the king did acts prompted by liberal feeling. When the expedition of Ælius Gallus set out to cross Arabia, in the character of a sort of armed scientific expedition, five hundred Jews joined it, and had their share in the enormous difficulties of the undertaking.§ Hellenism was triumphant all along the line. Alexander and Aristobulus, sons of Herod and Mariamne, had been receiving their education at Rome ever since the year 23 B. C. They lived in the house of Asinius Pollio, and were received in that of Augustus. This lasted five or six years. Possibly they knew Virgil and Horace. Greek rhetoricians also abounded in Jerusalem. The literary circle of Herod was entirely Hellenic. The peripatetic philosophy was then openly taught, and no effort was

• Josephus, Antiquities, xvi. ix. 2 ; xvii . ii . 1-3 ; Vita, 11 .

† Josephus, Antiquities , xv. viii. 5; B. J., iii . iii. 1 . Josephus, Antiquities, xv. ix. 1, 2 ; x. 4 ; xvi. ii. 5. § Strabo, xvi . iv. 23. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. ix. 3. Mommsen, Res gesta divi Aug., 2d ed. pp. 105-109. THE NEW SOLOMON. 237 made to bring Greek science into agreement with the teachings of the Torah. In this kind of Academy, which left behind it no long trace, Nicolas of Damascus was a star of the first magnitude. * He was a vain man but very learned, descended from a great family in Damascus, and deeply versed in the peripatetic philosophy.† He attached himself to Herod, and was one of his chief counsellors during the last ten or twelve years of his life. Herod had received no Hellenic education in his youth, but in his old age he showed a taste for curious things, and Nicolas taught him Greek philosophy, rhetoric, and history. It seems that during the journey Herod made to Italy ( 18 B.C. ) he never ceased on shipboard to talk philosophy with him. He was ten years younger than Herod. We shall see him undertake for his master most important negotiations, and continue the same service under Archelaus. The greatest service, undoubtedly, that he rendered to Herod was to write his vast Universal History || in one hundred and forty-two books, in which the events of his own time are treated

• Nicolas was not a Jew. See Suidas, v. ' Avτíñaтpos. In Josephus,

Antiquities, xvi. ii . 4, Nicolas takes the part of the Jews as their advocate. † On the philosophical writings of Nicolas of Damascus, see Schürer, i . pp. 45 , 46. Ch. Müller, Fragm. hist. gr. , iii . 350, &c. Athenæus , vi. 249. See Suidas on the word ' AvTímaтpos ; Josephus, numerous quotations ; and Constantine Porphyrius, extracts. Sophronius in Fragm. hist. gr. , vol. iv. cod. clllix. [sic]. § Fragm. hist. gr. , iii. 350, &c. || Ιστορία καθολική. 238 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE of ISRAEL. very fully. If the life of Herod is well known to us, we owe it to Nicolas of Damascus. Josephus only quotes from him, modifying his appreciation of Herod, but leaving intact his extravagant adulation. If Herod wrote his own Memoirs, * it was probably with the pen of Nicolas of Damascus. Ptolemy, the brother of Nicolas, occupied an important post in the court of the king, where were also one or two other learned men of the name of Ptolemy. † Andromachus and Gemellus were two eminent Greeks who took part in the education of Herod's sons, and fell into disgrace at the time of their domestic troubles. A certain Lacedemonian, Eurycleus, played a sad part in these affairs. A rhetorician named Irenæus seems also to have been mixed up in them. The king owned sometimes that he had more liking for the Greeks than for the Jews. ‡ The memory of the forced conversion of his grandfather, and his sensitiveness to the ridicule with which his circumcision covered him in the eyes of Greeks and Romans, made him feel Judaism like a cloak of lead, which he wore with impatience and with secret revolt.§ Herod's relations with Rome continued to be ex-

• Josephus, Antiquities, xv. vi . 3.

† See Schürer, i . 325, 326. Ptolemy, author of a Life of Herod (probably Ptolemy of Ascalon) , appears to have been an author in the first century of our era. Schürer, i . 40-42. Josephus, Antiquities, xix. vii . 3. § The next generation of Herods was far more devout. See Orig. du Christ. , index. THE NEW SOLOMON. 239 cellent. He never ceased to possess the good graces of Augustus to the end. The position of a king who was the emperor's " friend " (rex amicus atque socius) was not always a pleasant one.

These poor kings when away from their kingdoms, especially in Rome, had many affronts to swallow. There, stripped of crown and purple, they took the rank of simple clients. They could be seen clad in the toga, waiting on the Cæsar, and vying in the performance of the lowest offices. † Men of good standing in Rome had no esteem whatever for these " kings." In their own dominions, on the contrary, they were everything. They had power of life and death over their subjects ; and Rome, satisfied with her supremacy, rarely meddled in their home affairs. Their power was not in itself hereditary. To make it so they were obliged to redouble their grovelling and their gifts . The kings who were " allies " of the empire (reges socii) had not the right of gold coinage, and were seldom allowed that of silver. Herod never put forth any but copper coin. One is surprised at this mark of inferiority, for in other respects his position constantly gained in dignity. In the year 20 B. C. Augustus visited Syria, whither Herod went to pay

• It is doubtful if Herod ever took the title of piλopáμaios, or

piλókauoap. The inscription at Athens, Corp. inscr. Att. , iii . 1 , No. 550, if it relates to Herod the Great would be an isolated fact. See Schürer, i. 322, 368, 369 , 607. † Suetonius, Augustus, 60. † Herod reigned δόσει Καίσαρος καὶ δόγματι Ρωμαίων. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. vi. 7. 240 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. him court. In 18 or 17 he went to Rome to see his two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, who were there to be educated. Augustus permitted him to take them back with him to Judea. † He made two more journeys to see Augustus in the years 12 and 10. ‡ He was also always paying assiduous court to Agrippa. While Agrippa was living at Mitylene (23-21 ) Herod made him a visit .§ In the year 15 Agrippa came to Judea, offered a hecatomb in the Temple at Jerusalem, and gave a feast to the people of the city. The populace were enchanted with his piety, and attended him to the seaside, scattering flowers in his way. In the year 14 Herod paid a fresh visit to Agrippa, and crossed all Asia Minor with him, having Nicolas of Damascus in his company. The Jews of Ionia came to complain to Agrippa that they were hindered in the exercise of their religion, particularly in the matter of sending money to Jerusalem. Herod caused Nicolas to plead their cause before Agrippa, and they gained their suit. These eager attentions on Herod's part were largely rewarded. He became more and more powerful. His realm was considerably enlarged through the favour of Augustus and Agrippa. The tyrant Josephus, Antiquities, xv. x. 3. † Josephus, Antiquities, xvi. i. 2. Josephus, Antiquities, xvi. iv. 1–5 ; ix. 1 . § Josephus, Antiquities, xv. x. 2. Josephus, Antiquities, xvi. ii . 1. Philo, Leg. , § 37. ¶ Josephus, Antiquities , xvi. ii. 2–5. Fragm. hist. gr. , iii. 350. THE NEW SOLOMON. 241 Zenodorus * — who had got himself a pretty wide domain to the north of Lake Hulch ( Merom) , at Paneas, Batanæa ( Bashan), in Trachonitis, and Hermon - shamelessly encouraged brigandage, which indeed has always been the curse of that region. The country round Damascus was infested by it. Augustus gave Herod the control of those provinces,t his rule thus extending as far north as the mountains of Hauran (Auranitis). There is still to be seen near Canatha a beautiful building (perhaps an Augusteum) probably constructed by him, and the base of a statue erected to him by an Arab of that country. The region was at that time a mere wilderness, § untouched by civilization. Herod began the work which made it extremely rich in the first centuries of our era. Order was at a single stroke restored in Damascus, and Herod at the same time obtained for his brother Pheroras || the tetrarchy of Peræa (Gilead). He thus chiefly aided to secure in southern Syria the "peace of the Empire " (pax Romana), and to uphold order against nomadic plunderers.

• See my Mémoire sur les Lysanias d'Abylène, already quoted ,

p. 5, &c. liv. 9. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. x. i. 3; B. J. , i. xx. 4. Dion Cassius , ‡ Vogüé, Syrie Centrale Arch. , pl. ii. and iii .; Le Bas and Waddington, Inscri. , vol. iii. No. 2364. See my Mémoire sur quelques noms Arabes quifigurent dans les Inscriptions Grecques de l'Auranitide, Extr. du Bull. archeol. , Français, September, 1856. § Le Bas and Waddington, Inscr. iii . No. 2329. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. x. 3; B. J., i. xxiv. 5. VOL. V. - 16 242 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Though the title " King of the Jews " was territorial, and implied no jurisdiction over the Jews of the "dispersion," Herod exercised over them a sort of protectorate, serving as their defender, or furnishing them advocates to plead before the Romans. * His family in the first century of our era will be found to play this part in a fashion still more pronounced. The reign of Herod was, as we see, a splendid one from a worldly point of view. Material progress was immense. † If Israel could have been tempted by worldly glory, it would have hailed its master in this king (after all, one of the circumcised), who gave it such prosperity. But Israel was devoted to a religious ideal , and balked like a restive horse under his rider. Those great works, it must be owned, were nothing national ; the nation had no hand in making them ; they stretched above its head without appealing to its pride. To the true Jew the works of Herod seemed to have no object at all, or else to be works of a mere self-seeker, who thinks to make himself immortal. When governments cost dear, the people look to the tax they pay, and not to what the tax effects . Behind all these splendid structures the Jew persisted in seeing nothing but the burden on his people. "Woe," cries the Book of Enoch, "to him who buildeth his house with the sweat of his brethren ; all the stones in these unholy constructions are so many sins."

• Josephus, Antiquities, xii. iii . 2 ; xvi. 2, 3–5 ; vi . 1-8.

† Josephus, Antiquities, xv. xi. 1. THE NEW SOLOMON. 243 The complaints of these surly pietists were severely repressed. A pitiless police silenced their murmurs ; numerous spies reported to the king all that passed. * Two or three conspiracies, provoked by the scandals of the scenic games, by the paganism of public monuments, or by the newly introduced formality of a political oath, were stamped out in blood . The courage of the victims was wonderful : a party of bravos was enrolled, who put their daggers at the service of the Law. Men thirsted eagerly for death, as in the days of the Maccabees ; ‡ but a good police has things all its own way. The towers, especially Hyrcania, were crammed with prisoners, who after a short detention were put to death. § The soldiers, all mercenaries, Thracians, Germans, and Galatians, struck right and left in all directions . Strong in the authority of Rome, ** Herod crushed his little world with his monstrous weight. He had found the secret of that dull pressure which quiets the hot turbulence of a southern population . Rage was in their hearts ; but the silence was unbroken. || -

• Josephus, Antiquities , xv. viii . 3 ; x. 4.

↑ Josephus, Antiquities, xv. viii. 3-4 ; x. 4 ; xvii. ii. 4. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. viii. 3, 4. § Josephus, Antiquities, xv. x. 4. The Thracians were a people of Gaul. As far back as the fifth century B. C. they played the part of military police in Greek cities. Aristophanes, Lys. , ii . 5, 6. See Thrakidas, the surname of Jannæus, on this subject, p. 101 , note. ¶ Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. viii. 3 ; B. J. , i . xxxiii. 9.

• • Οἱ πάντων ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν κρατοῦντες Ρωμαῖοι , discourse supposed

to have been made by Herod. Josephus, Antiquities, xv. xi. 4. — 244 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Curse not the king ; no, not in thy thought ; and curse not the rich in thy bed-chamber : for a bird of the air [spies of the period] shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. *

• Ecclesiastes x. 20.

CHAPTER VII. REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE. THE extreme liberty which Herod allowed himself in treating Jewish matters led him to an idea whose boldness amazes us. The Temple, rebuilt by Zerubbabel, had stood five hundred years ; its style no doubt looked mean. The neighbouring palaces by their splendour put it to shame. On the other hand, gold was abundant in the treasury of the Temple and in that of the king. Spurred onward by his taste for fine buildings, Herod conceived the extraor dinary project of reconstructing the sacred edifice on a much larger scale. * When he communicated this idea to the Jews, their fear and their astonishment were extreme. They said that all the king's riches would not suf fice for such a work ; and if the old Temple were demolished, and it was then found impossible to finish the erection of the new, what a situation ! † Herod reassured the timorous by telling them that the work should not be begun until they had in hand

• Josephus, Antiquities, xv. xi.; B. J., i . xxi. 1 ; v. v. Philo, De

Monarch. , ii. § 2. Mishna, treatise Middoth. † Cf. Talmud of Babylon, Baba bathra , 3b; Bammidbar rabba, chap. xiv. 246 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. the money necessary to finish it. The opposition yielded, or was silenced. In truth, the idealism of Israel made it indifferent to a question of mere stones. With little taste for art, the Jew set no value on the style of the building. Provided the daily sacrifice was not interrupted (and the most minute precautions were taken to prevent this) , all else was of secondary consequence. The high-priest Simon, son of Boëthus, seems to have taken no part in the matter ; he was, indeed, an absolute tool in the king's hand. The work was begun in the year 19 B.C. The essential parts were completed in eight years. The porches attached needed much longer time ; the whole was not finished till A.D. 63, on the very eve of the great revolt.* The new Temple therefore only existed in its complete state six or seven years. When Jesus walked there with his disciples, many things around the central structure existed only in a provisional state. It was a most imposing work, -one really colossal. Not only did Herod make no use of any part of the old building, but he destroyed its foundation, and doubled the size of the terrace on which it stood , ` making it extend as far as the remains of the ancient palace of Solomon, which formed the southeast angle. Embankments carried the rectangular space (the present harem) to an immense height Josephus, Antiquities, xx. ix. 7. † La Vogüé, Temple de Jérusalem, pl. xv. and xvi. REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE. 247 above the surrounding valleys : it made one giddy to gaze down into them. * The great walk with four rows of columns, called " Solomon's Porch," which looked down upon the valley of Kedron, was a real marvel. The gates at the foot of the slope, communicating with the interior by subterranean stairways, did not make any break in the colonnades. All the arrangements in the Temple of Zerubbabel were reproduced, on a grander scale. The Altar of Sacrifice, restored by Judas Maccabæus, † was again rebuilt on the same model. The command not to build the altar with hewn stones, proceeding from the Book of the Covenant, now considered contemporary with the whole Mosaic code, was possibly got rid of by some architectural device. The materials were superb ; they were for the most part quarried from the sub-soil of Jerusalem.§ The beautiful stone called maleki allows blocks to be cut of very large dimensions. The western wall, which the Jews now come and kiss, preserves some specimens : the blocks average twenty to twenty-six feet in length. The porches were planned like a basilica, with nave and aisles ; the ceilings were of wood, carved and painted . The columns || of the porches were in diamJosephus, Antiquities, xv. xi. 5. The English excavations at the southeast angle have confirmed the assertion of Josephus. † See vol. iv. pp. 354, 365. Pseudo-Hecatæus, in Josephus, Against Apion, i . 22. We wonder if Judas Maccabæus and Zerubbabel observed this Mosaic injunction. § Vogüé, Temple de Jérusalem. Perrot and Chispiez, Hist. de l'Art, iv. 176-218. A column found by Clermont- Ganneau, Archæol. Researches in Palestine. Cf. Journal de Débats, Oct. 24, 1874. 248 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. eter nearly six feet, in height about forty feet. A subterranean passage * enabled the king to pass from the tower of Antonia to the eastern gate of the Temple. Here was a platform shaped like a tower, where he might be safe from any insults offered by the crowd. The several parts of the building reserved to the high-priest, the priests, Jewish laymen, women, and proselytes, were strictly separated from one another. by haughty inscriptions. † see them ; and assuredly this vast space divided into compartments, where each class was penned into its own fold, must have seemed to him just the opposite of his own church, which was open to all. Gentiles were excluded Jesus could not fail to The most minute precautions were taken that nothing in the work of reconstruction should wound the prejudices of the purists. Priests presided over the mason-work and carpentry. Herod did not once enter those parts from which laymen were excluded . The " holy place " (vaós) was constructed

• Observe the subterranean staircase, with its monolithic column

and its Jewish ornaments on the ceiling. The stone of the pedestal bearing a Greek inscription has been preserved. Clermont- Ganneau, Acad. des Inscrip. Comptes rendus, 1872, pp. 170-192. Cf. Mishna, Ednioth, viii. 6. The later story of a golden eagle consecrated and put up over the great gate of the Temple (Josephus, Antiquities, xvii . vi. 2 ; B. J. , i . xxxiii. 2) is in contradiction to Josephus, Antiquities, xv. xi. It is possibly the invention of some sectary, intended to foment a revolution ; or else we must say that in his later life Herod was less careful not to wound the feelings of the Jews. § Josephus, Antiquities , xv. xi. 2. REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE. 249 by the priests alone, in eighteen months. Legends grew up to explain the haste with which Heaven desired to see the sacred work completed.* The dedication took place with much solemnity ; the king for himself alone caused three hundred oxen to be sacrificed. The pious Jews showed themselves well satisfied, and did not stint the expression of their admiration. † For once, Herod enjoyed a moment of Jewish popularity, which must have been quite a novelty to him. Glory, in the Greek sense, was the ruling motive of his life. This prodigious Temple was the great work of his reign. He plumed himself upon it in his later days. The Temple of the world made the feeble boast of an old man ; and this gives it the air of something petty and mean. Let us add that this Temple had but a brief existence. It was, as it were, the supreme effort which precedes the end. Jesus beheld it, and saw nothing in it to praise but the poor widow who cast her two mites into the treasury. The Christian church did not grow out from this : it grew out of the synagogue and the hall of justice (basilica), not the Temple. In point of architecture, the Temple, which was like a closed box, or rather a box within. a box, after the Egyptian fashion, with its rectangular court like the great Syrian temples ‡ or the Arab Kaabas, was not unlike a mosque. Herod's -― Josephus, Antiquities, xv. xi. 7. Derenbourg, p. 152. † Talmud of Babylon , Soucca, 51b. Baba bathra, 4 a. Bœtocece, &c. 250 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Temple, however, had a great historic destiny, since the Christians of the early Church at Jerusalem were much attached to it. James, " the Lord's brother," passed whole days there, it is said, in prayer. Devotion began there. * The pious people among whom, Christianity found its first recruits were devoted to the Temple : they thronged thither as the religious in our own day go to church to pass their hours of prayer. And those prayers were heard. It was the sighs and tears of those who frequented this spot that produced the greatest religious revolution in history, a revolution which has not yet spoken its last word. -

• We see this especially in Saint Luke's Gospel.

CHAPTER VIII. THE END OF HEROD. By the reconstruction of the Temple, Herod put the finishing stroke to a likeness that must have been often alluded to in the harangues of his admirers. * He was veritably a " new Solomon," who had procured for his dominions unexampled prosperity, had heaped up riches , tasted infinite delights, constructed marvellous palaces, given peace to his subjects, and built the Temple of God. To many this seemed high praise ; but to others there mingled in this praise thoughts of a sadder kind. All these splendours could not prevail against old age, sickness, and death. The king employed every artifice to disguise his age; he even dyed his hair ; † but nothing would do. The creator of so many marvels was nearing his end, without knowing what would come to pass after him, without knowing whose would be his treasures and his palaces. His life had been a series. of anxieties and cares ; and, in fact, what had it all amounted to ? Of what avail to labour thus and end in nothingness ? Vanity of vanities ! ‡

• Grätz, Geschichte, iii. 245, &c.

† Josephus, Antiquities, xvi. viii. 1. Ecclesiastes ii. 20, &c. It is this passage which leads some to 252 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. The first Solomon had been ruined by women ; and so it was, too, with the second. Herod had been married ten times ; we know of at least fifteen of his children. Jewish custom had always allowed to kings a plurality of wives. * The Asmoneans, it is true, seem never to have availed themselves of this privilege ; but Herod used it largely. His great mistake was his marriage with the Asmonean Mariamne, who introduced into his family those dynastic pretensions against which he had fought successfully at the beginning of his career. We have seen this unnatural situation result in the murder of Mariamne, followed by frightful remorse. Twelve years later, the same thing occurred again. Alexander and Aristobulus, the sons of Mariamne, returned from Rome, where they had been educated amidst the most brilliant society. They were much liked in Jerusalem ; they were thought to show dignity and a truly royal air ; men remembered their mother, and their ancestors who had been legitimate sovereigns of the country. A party formed around them ; and princes are almost always ruined by their party. The suspicious Herod could not but see all this. His sister Salome, full of gloomy hate against all who remained of the Asmonean race, with her brother Pheroras, poisoned everything. The young think that Ecclesiastes was written in the reign of Herod ; but we think the book was somewhat older.

• Josephus, Antiquities, xvii. 1 , 2. Mishna, Sanhedrim, ii. 4.

THE END OF HEROD. 253 princes were calumniated ; possibly they were not beyond reproach. Their popularity carried them too far ; it was reported that they thought of avenging their mother's death, and no doubt such a thought had been in their minds. It was said that when they saw any of their father's wives wearing clothes that had belonged to Mariamne, they grew angry, and threatened that those fine robes would be torn from them, and that they would walk in sackcloth. Crime begets crime. It is certain that the work of Herod was now in greater danger than it had ever been before. Should the Asmonean family be once restored, the fanaticism he had repressed would reappear. It would be as if his reign had never been. Herod at first dissembled. He married Aristobulus to Berenice, daughter of Salome ; and Alexander to Glaphyra, daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia. The young princes became still more imprudent. To lower their pride, Herod gave a high post at court to Antipater, son of Doris his first wife, who had been kept till then in seclusion. He made no secret of his intention to leave him the throne, and presented him to Augustus and Agrippa as his destined successor. In the year 12 B. C. the old king took a decisive step. He went to Italy with Alexander and Aristobulus that he might accuse them before Augustus. He found the emperor at Aquileia. Augustus showed much tact. At a sign from him the two sons of 254 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Mariamne fell at the feet of their father, who opened his arms to them. Antipater affected to share in the general emotion, while Herod gave three hundred talents towards the expenses attending the inauguration of the theatre of Marcellus, and all went back to Judea. The court intrigues began again, more venomous than ever. Women, eunuchs, and servants all took part in them. That splendid marble palace became a hell upon earth. Torture went on day after day, inflicted at hap-hazard right and left, upon the least suspicion. Herod at some moments seemed mad. He groaned and howled terribly in his sleep. The poor wretches put to the torture almost all died. False letters were forged. During this cross-fire of intrigue and tale-bearing, Simon the son of Boëthus was deprived of his high-priesthood, and replaced by Matthias son of Theophilus, who belonged, at least by marriage, to the family of Boëthus. If Herod did not at once inflict upon his sons their mother's fate, it was because two great difficulties arrested him. Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, came to Jerusalem to take the part of his daughter and son-in-law, and calmed things somewhat. Besides this, about the same time Herod incurred the displeasure of Augustus by an expedition against the Arabs, in which we have no means of discovering what the king's fault was. Nicolas of Damascus, under these circumstances, did great service to his master. The cloud which had for a moment risen THE END OF HEROD. 255 away. in the relations between king and emperor passed This reconciliation was the death-sentence of the two princes. Augustus allowed Herod to hold at Berytus ( Beyrout), the Roman city of that region, a sort of superior council, composed of the royal family, with high functionaries of the province, in which the conduct of the young men should be inquired into. This singular tribunal, composed of one hundred and fifty members, conceded to Herod the right to do what he pleased with the accused. Only the Romans, in particular Sextius Saturninus and his three sons, found these powers excessive . Nicolas of Damascus also tried to move the king to clemency. But the resolution of the ambitious old man had been taken. The two sons of Mariamne were strangled at Sebaste (7 B. C.). For a time, the spectre of an Asmonean resurrection was laid to rest. Herod was like all men who create : he looked on his creations as his own property, and claimed to dispose of them after his death. Antipater was not quite in the line, and was only declared heir-presumptive. But nothing could now be done with the old king, who had grown obstinate as to his general plan, but was forever shifting asas to its details . Antipater began to think that his father was living too long, or else people said he said so. Secret debauches complicated things ; for these ambitious men, over and above their ambition, led bad lives. The torture of slaves increased in a frightful manner. 256 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. When Pheroras died there was talk of poison. Everybody was under suspicion. The complete absence of moral feeling which characterised this court brought things to such a pass that it was coming to be impossible to live ; everybody tried to exterminate everybody else. Augustus and high Roman officials alone infused some little reason into this world of rascality. For one moment Herod even thought of putting to death his sister Salome, who had inaugurated at court this horrible system of denunciations and murders. Antipater was loaded with chains, and his execution was determined on. While this was going on Herod fell sick, and saw that he must die. Then he was attacked, as it were, with a galloping fever of contradictory furies and resolutions. Every day he altered his will, as one set of suspicions succeeded another. In general, he rather inclined towards the children he had had by a Samaritan woman, Malthace.* At one moment it was Antipas, his youngest son, to whom he left everything ; then he changed his mind. The dying monarch was more malevolent than ever. To approach him was dangerous ; what irritated him most of all was to think that his subjects would be glad of his death. The terror inspired by his body-guard, composed of Germans, Thracians, and Galatians, was such that his orders were still executed . Fanaticism, however, .מתלאבא מתלאהקא or מתלעקא or מתלהקא or מתלהקא or מתלחבא or מתלהכא * THE END OF HEROD. 257 felt that the great weight that was upon it was about to be lifted . On hearing that his end was near, two well-known doctors of the Law who had many young disciples -Judas son of Seraphius, and Matthias son of Margaloth - induced their pupils to purify the city from the pagan refuse which Herod had brought in. Especially they stirred the popular mind against a golden eagle which had been placed, no doubt for some Roman festival, as a sort of trophy over the principal door of the Temple. The two doctors ordered their disciples to pull down this eagle, even at the peril of their lives. In broad daylight the young fanatics rushed to the Temple gate, and hacked the eagle in pieces. The two doctors were arrested, with about forty of the enthusiasts. This was the death they wished for. Taken before the king, they seemed to demand that which they had earned. Herod assembled the chief men of the nation at the theatre, and was himself borne thither in a litter. He was threatening, and all trembled. The assembly decreed the execution of the guilty. The leaders were burned alive ; and the high-priest Matthias, son of Theophilus, who had tampered with the uprising, was replaced by his brother-in- law Joazar, son of Boëthus. The king's malady made frightful progress. He was taken to the waters of Callirhoë, near Machærus, and made to take baths of hot oil ; but death was on him. He was then taken back to his palace at Jericho, where he gave great sums to his soldiers. VOL. V.-17 258 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. In his delirium, * he spoke of nothing but atrocious ways in which he might make the Jews mourn the day of his death ; he raved of massacres, and tried to kill himself. At one time the palace resounded with his howls. Antipater in his prison heard these cries, and believing his father to be dead, tried to persuade his jailers to set him free. The head jailer remained incorruptible, and informed the old king of the propositions made to him by Antipater. The rage of the dying man knew no bounds. Rising upon his elbow, he ordered his son to be slain, and buried without pomp at Hyrcania. Augustus, who was much disgusted by this sad story, said on hearing it, " It were better to be such a man's pig than his son." t Herod lived five days after the murder of Antipater, and during this time contrived to change his will once more. Archelaus received Judea and the royal diadem ; Antipas had the tetrarchy of Peraa and Galilee ; and Philip had the former country of Zenodorus- Panæus, Gaulonitis, Trachonitis, and Batanæa, with the title of tetrarch. ‡ Salome and all members of the Herodian family, with Augustus and Julia, received immense legacies.

• We can hardly believe what Josephus tells us (Antiquities, xvii.

vi. 5 ; ix. 2 ; B. J. , i . xxxiii. 6, 8) . Possibly there were hostages confined in the hippodrome at Jericho, who were set free after the tyrant's death. The same story may be read in the Talmud, where it is attributed to Jannæus. Derenbourg, pp. 163, 164. † Macrobius, Saturn. , ii. iv. This word tetrarch, or tetradarch, is ancient Greek. It means chief of a tetrade, or a portion of a country divided into several parts. THE END OF Herod. 259 The funeral ceremonies were superb, and were presided over by Archelaus. The body was borne from Jericho to Herodium on a golden litter studded with precious stones ; the pall was scarlet, the body wrapped in purple ; the head was bound with a diadem and surmounted by a golden crown ; the sceptre was in the dead man's hand. All the family was grouped around. The army followed, divided into its different corps, - first the king's body-guard, then the Thracian regiment, then the Germans, then the Galatians. Next came the main body of the army as if setting out on an expedition, while five hundred servants bore perfumes. Herod was interred at his favourite residence. " Herod's tomb," shown near Jerusalem,* was only a cenotaph. The day of Herod's death has its place in the calendar of the Feasts of Israel as a day of rejoicing.t Christianity, now near its birth, painted Herod in its legends in the blackest colours . The family of Jesus in particular seems to have been the source of many calumnies. He thought to nip Christianity in the bud ; wishing to destroy the infant Jesus, he slaughtered the innocents of Bethlehem. The list of Herod's real crimes is long enough, without enlarging it by any that are apocryphal. Jesus was not born when Herod died at Jericho. But in one sense it is very true that

• Josephus, B. J. , v. iii . 2 ; xii . 2.

Megilloth Taanith. Derenbourg, p. 101 , note 2 . See p. 123, note. § See the question of date summed up by Schürer, pp. 343–345. 260 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Herod did indeed seek to kill Jesus. If his idea of a secular Jewish kingdom had been carried out, there would have been no Christianity. Israel never afterward knew the grasp of a hand like his, and freedom gained by the weakening of authority. Herod Antipas, Herod Agrippa, and the Roman procurators will prove weak obstacles to the development of that internal life whose germ Israel is already bearing in her bosom. CHAPTER IX. JUDEA A ROMAN PROVINCE. ARCHELAUS, named by Herod as successor to his royalty, was about to set out for Rome to ask Augustus to confirm his title, when a terrible uprising took place in Jerusalem. The people, still under the impression made on them when Judas son of Sariphæus, and Matthias son of Margaloth, were put to death, desired that Herod's counsellors should be punished, and that the high-priest Joazar, son of Boëthus, should be deposed. A detachment of soldiers, sent to put a stop to the cries of men vociferating insults against the memory of Herod in the Temple court, was received by a shower of stones, and put to flight. Archelaus had to employ all his strength and shed torrents of blood before order could be restored. When the revolt was at length put down, Archelaus left his power in the hands of Philip, and set out for Rome, followed shortly after by Antipas. Other members of the Herodian family went there also, requesting that Palestine should be directly united to the Roman empire : all of them preferred Antipas to Archelaus. * The case was carried before

• Josephus, Antiquities , xvii. ix.; B. J. , ii . i . Nicolas of Damascus

in Müller, Fragm. , iii. 353 , &c.; Strabo, xvi. ii . 46. 262 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. the judgment seat of Augustus. A certain Antipater pleaded for Antipas, Nicolas of Damascus for Archelaus. Augustus inclined to Archelaus ; but he would not at once pronounce a decided judgment. While this was going on, Palestine was again convulsed by furious disorders. Quintilius Varus, legate of Syria, put them down ; then they began afresh. The court of the Temple was once more a field of battle. A crowd of Jews swarmed up on the roofs of the porches and flung down stones upon the soldiers. The latter set fire to the wood- work. Part of Herod's soldiers took sides with the insurgents ; but the corps from Sebaste, the strongest of all, opposed an obstinate resistance to the Jews. * The Roman force was besieged in Herod's palace. In Galilee, in the neighbourhood of Sephoris, Judas, son of that Hezekiah whom Herod had executed in so summary a fashion, † got possession of a depot of arms, and assembled a highly fanatical little army. It is said he hoped to make himself king of Galilee . In Peræa, a former slave of Herod, named Simon, proclaimed himself king. Besides this, a shepherd named Ethrog, and his four brothers, had a strong party in the country of Judea. There was complete anarchy, with no plan and no general direction. Varus easily suppressed these movements of disorder. Sephoris was burned, and its inhabitants were sold as Josephus, B. J. , ii. iii . 4 ; iv. 2, 3. † Perhaps Judas, son of Hezekiah, may have been Judas the Gaulonite, or Judas of Galilee. JUDEA A ROMAN PROVINCE. 263 slaves. Two thousand poor wretches were crucified, and order reigned once more.'* Augustus was still considering what part he had better take, when a new embassy reached him from Jerusalem by permission of Varus. There were fifty deputies ; but in Rome more than eightthousand Jews joined them. Their programme was a novel one. It consisted in ridding their land of all princes of Herod's family, who were hateful to the nation , and constituting the Jewish people a republic, living according to the Jewish laws, † but under the protection of the Romans. All the Jewish population of Rome joined them ; they evidently expressed the feeling of the nation, and it was in seeming conformity with the nature of things. The Jews could not form an independent State ; but under the protectorate of a great empire they might perhaps have realized in the first century what they realized later in the days of the Caliphate of Bagdad, —the position of a free and autonomous community. This was in fact the opinion of the Herodian princes ; but they dared not advocate it for fear of seeming to abandon Archelaus, whom yet they hated. Philip, who had come to Rome in the interval by advice of Varus, supported Archelaus ; and Antipas was satisfied to do no more than ask that his father's last will might be carried literally into effect. - Josephus, Antiquities, xvii. x. This is what was called polemos schel Varos. Orig. du Christ. , v. 504, 514 , 521. † Αὐτονομίαν. Josephus, Antiquities, xvii. xi. 1 ; B. J., ii. vi. 1. Curious agreement with Saint Luke, xix. 12, &c. 264 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE of israel. The conference was held in the temple of Apollo of the Palatine. The republicans, supported by the Jews of Rome, asked for the dissolution of the Herodian kingdom. Herod, they said, had been the worst of tyrants ; his suspicions and his spies had made life a torture to his subjects. To ruin his country for the adornment of strange cities had been his chief purpose. The extortions which accompanied the collection of taxes had reduced every one to misery. The orator went on to declare that he would be silent on the subject of manners and morals, that he might not carry wretchedness into some of the best families of Jerusalem. Had Archelaus done anything to make the nation forget such horrors ? No ! he had begun by killing three thousand of his subjects in the Temple. opposition of these very deputies he made a crime against the State. What they asked was, that, delivered from such princedom and annexed to Syria, they might depend entirely on Roman administration ; then it would be seen if their nature was as revolutionary as it was said to be, and whether they would not rather prove the most gentle, the most peaceable of men, when they were governed with moderation. The Nicolas of Damascus next spoke for Archelaus. He warmly defended Herod from the crimes imputed to him, and declared it cowardly thus to accuse the dead. Archelaus had done nothing but resist revolt. The Jews themselves, — yes, they, the worst of revo- JUDEA A ROMAN PROVINCE. 265

lutionists, seditious, rebellious, incapable of understanding what law means, - they were the cause of all the evil that had happened. To content them they wanted everything, and even then they would not be content. Augustus had a profound contempt for Orientals, - the Græci as he called them (men speaking Greek) . The system of allied kings appeared to him good enough for such people ; he continued it, and gave his decision that the last testament of Herod should be carried into effect. He gave Archelaus no higher title than ethnarch ; the cities of Gaza, Gadara, and Hippos were reunited to the province of Syria. Salome had Jabne, Azotus, Phasaëlis, the palace at Ascalon, and an enormous sum of money. This horrible woman, the first cause of all her brother's crimes, lived twelve or fourteen years longer, and bequeathed her immense fortune to the Empress Livia. ― Augustus had promised Archelaus to make him king when he should have deserved it. That day never came. Archelaus continued in the ways of his father, harsh, pompous, and cruel, far less intelligent and less able. He erected some fine and serviceable buildings in the direction of Jericho. His marriage with Glaphyra, the widow of his brother Alexander, had a bad effect. At the end of some ten years, dissatisfaction with him was universal. Jews and Samaritans for once agreed in asking Augustus

• Ενεκάλει δὲ νεωτεροποιίας αὐτοῖς.

266 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. to depose him. Augustus sent for him to Rome, deprived him of his authority, and assigned to him Vienna in Gaul as a place of exile (A. D. 6). Augustus then decided to follow the advice given him by the Jewish deputies nine or ten years before. The domain of Archelaus (Judea, Idumea, and Samaria) was reannexed to the province of Syria, with an especial governor or procurator of the Equestrian Order. But the deputies had greatly deceived themselves as to the degree of autonomy they were likely to enjoy under such an organization. The Herods had been bad Jews, but they had some Jewish feeling. The Romans had nothing of it whatever. The religious sense was wholly wanting in them. Violent dissensions immediately broke out. Idolatry seemed to the Jews the very foundation of Roman rule. The illusions of the programme of the autonomist deputies in the year 4 B. c. became purely utopian. The hatred of the Jews for Rome increased day by day ; the zealot, armed with a dagger to defend the Law, was about to appear on the stage. In sixty years the situation was to reach a frightful pass. The mode of government in Judea -which, indeed, from the year 44, was that of all Palestine — was not that of an absolute Roman province, nor that of a provincial department receiving its orders direct from an imperial legate. The procurator of Judea was certainly subject to the legate at Antioch ; but yet he was not a mere sub-prefect. Governors could be of the consular, the prætorian, or the eques- JUDEA A ROMAN PROVINCE. 267 trian order. * The governor of Judea, resident not at Jerusalem but at Cæsarea, was a governor of the lower class, such as was given to provinces of the least importance. Much good faith was shown at first in carrying out the arrangement. The Jews conscientiously offered sacrifice and prayers for the emperor. † Rome, on her part, made great concessions on some important points. The Jews were exempt from military service, while the men of Cæsarea and Sebaste were subject to serve, and made excellent soldiers . The copper coinage of Judea did not bear the emperor's effigy.§ The eagles and the likeness of the emperor carried on the standards were not to enter Jerusalem. After a while, however, Roman coldness grew tiresome, especially under Pilate. Tribute-money and the census were intolerable to the Jews. Strangers to political ideas (as in a theocracy men always are), they grudged the taxes which a peaceable man owes to the force that gives him peace. The procurators, officials of secondary rank, almost always of mean ability, were outraged by this extreme susceptibility, which they could not in the least understand. They passed

• Strabo, xvii. iii. 25.

+ Philo, Leg. , §§ 7, 23, 32, 40, 45. Josephus, B. J. , ii . x. 4 ; xvii. 2-4; Against Apion, ii . 6. Cf. Aboth, iii . 2. Josephus, Antiquities, xiv. x. 6, 10–19 ; B. J. , ii . iii. 4 ; iv. 2, 3. Mommsen in Hermes, xix. ( 1884) pp. 1-79 ; 210-234. Schürer, i. 382-386. § Schürer, i. 404, 405. No gold or silver money was coined in Judea. Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. iii . 1 ; v. 3 ; B. J. , ii . ix. 2, 3. ¶ Concerning the taxing by Quirinius, see Schürer, p. 126, &c. 268 'HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. their lives in a state of perpetual irritation, bad for the functionary who feels it, and bad for the people who provoke it. The succession of events in Jewish history down to the year 180 of our era, has been given in the volumes of the Histoire des origines du Christianisme. For a century and a half, indeed, Christian history and Jewish history are absolutely inseparable. The story of the birth of Christianity is only a chapter in the history of Israel ; and the series of facts that occurred during that extraordinary period cannot be detached from it. CHAPTER X. THE SCRIBES HILLEL AND SHAMMAI. THE time of Herod is the epoch of the greatest debasement of Hebrew literature. The reason of this may be found in the system of oral instruction which hindered writing, at least in a sustained style . The ancient genius of Israel had disappeared ; there were no more prophets. * There could be only feeble imitations of classic authors, and the working up of legends concerning the patriarchs and prophets. To write new books was held to be frivolous. † Study of the Law was reckoned the only study worthy of a Jew, and their eternal commenting on the Torah did not find its way into books. Everything resolved itself into oral teaching, such as we moderns find distasteful. The teacher who writes nothing, who keeps school, who disputes everlastingly with rival doctors, that was all the literature of the time. The school had become a private establishment, distinct from the synagogue. Every teacher had his own ; the master was seated, the scholar squatted at

• Cf. vol. iv. 61-63, 127, 146, 149, 150, 171 , &c.; 184, &c.; v. 28-

30, &c.; this vol. 33-34. + Ecclesiastes xii. ‡ = beth-hammidrash. 270 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. his feet. Under the galleries of the Temple (so like a Mahometan mosque) were these beth-hammidrash, where disputations went on day and night. The Talmud was not yet written, but it was getting made. The sentences and solutions of celebrated doctors were learned by rote ; perhaps notes of them. were already taken in writing, but they were certainly not properly put in shape, either in order of subject or in the order of the Torah, under any author's name. ― mere commenIf these glosses of the doctors were now and then written down, it was done rapidly and carelessly, in running hand. At all periods Semitic races have made a distinction between solemn texts in condensed style, destined to be read, and formless notes intended for personal use, taries. The commentary, or in other words the mishna, contains things which are not in the mikra ; it is tradition, truths not originally written, but supposed to have been preserved by oral transmission . || The false criticism of the time put tradition on the same footing as the sacred text. This was supposed to be conservatism ; it was really a corruption of the -

• Acts xxii. 3 (cf. Luke ii. 46) ; Pirké aboth, i . 4 (José-ben-Joezar) .

† Matthew xxi. 23 ; xxvi. 55. Mark xiv. 79. Luke ii . 46 ; xx. 1 ; xxi. 37. John xviii . 20. According to one tradition, the practice of standing was more ancient ( Talmud of Babylon Megilla , 21 a) . .) ( migra מִקְרָא whence)) ; qara קָרָא + § (mishna) . If the mishna or sunna contains phrases in compact style, analogous to that of the solemn texts , they are mnemonic sentences, which are mikra after their fashion. Hapádoσis, ap. (Qabbala). THE SCRIBES HILLEL AND SHAMMAI. 271 ancient writings. " A stanch cistern which loses not one drop," which lets nothing of the ancient doctrine escape, seemed perfection . To change nothing was the ideal they pursued. They did not perceive that they were drifting further and further from the old spirit, and that they less and less comprehended their ancient scriptures. This is exactly what the scholiasts did in the Middle Ages . Under the name of halaka † a real Jewish scholasticism was built up, which by degrees substituted itself for the Bible, and composed that fatal book we call the Talmud. No distinction of the religious and civil order existed in any manner among the Jews. The commentator on the Law was magistrate, judge, advocate, notary, an officer of State, casuist, and legist all in one, and was treated with the utmost deference.§ He was called rabbi. || All this tended to make him somewhat vain. As happens in all professions where [since all is traditional] a man leaves nothing behind him of his own, the Jewish doctor clung to his reputation, and liked to enjoy it . An error to which Jews have been always subject, that of believing in infant prodigies, showed itself at this period. **

• Pirké aboth, ii . 8.

.הלכה + † 1910, γραμματεῖς, νομικοί , νομοδιδάσκαλοι. § Pirké aboth, iv. 12. or (Paßßwvi) . See Schürer, ii . 257. ¶ Matthew xxiii . 6, 7. Mark xii. 38, 39. Luke xii. 43 ; xx. 46.

• • Luke ii . 42, &c. Compare the innumerable anecdotes about children told by celebrated Jewish doctors.

272 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. The disinterestedness of these old masters was absolute. The Law was taught gratis ; * the doctor prudently sought his means of existence from some handicraft. We, who regard abstract discussions as idle and casuistry as a mental disease, feel as Jesus did on this subject. All this scholastic blight was bad ; the Talmud has been a most exasperating book, which Judaism ought to forget. But, as I have often said, when a nation has made the Bible, we should pardon it for having made the Talmud. The absence of Greek culture was the principal cause of this bad mental discipline. Greece for four or five centuries had set the intellectual fashions ; had invented a method of training the human faculties superior to all that had before existed , — the framework, capable of indefinite enlargement, of all succeeding civilization . All nations, the Romans at their head, had recognized this superiority, and had put themselves to school to Greece. Judea alone refused . Close walled up in her own Hebrew, she knew nothing of the beautiful form , the sound logic, and all the other appliances of the human mind, for which Greece had given the rule and set the model. This made an irreparable gap. Herod did well to prefer Greek culture to any to be found in the Orient. Nicolas of Damascus, notwithstanding his feeble talent, was better than the first rabbins of his day, since he knew Aristotle and Greek philosophy ;

• Pirké aboth, i . 13 ; ii . 2 , 5 ; iv. 5, 6, 10. Cf. Matthew x. 8. The

tradition of Hillel. THE SCRibes hilLEL AND SHAMMAI. 273 he knew there is nothing supernatural. He wrote poorly, but he wrote neatly and with method, like a university scholar, without that slipshod negligence which makes Semitic writings of his day seem like endless chatter. A singular book, the Pirké aboth, which forms part of the compilation of the Mishna, has preserved for us the names of the most celebrated doctors of the Asmonean and Herodian times, with their most characteristic sayings. These show a fondness for study, love of a retired life, antipathy to the official circle or to dealings with the world. One thinks of them as bookworms living in the dark, occupied exclusively with their schools, shunning the open daylight, taking no hand in polities, having no share in either the Sanhedrim or the great councils. They were jurists, not magistrates ; they shunned and distrusted women. † Shemaiah and Abtalion are probably the " Sameas and Pollio " of Josephus. Shemaiah said, " Love labour, hate power, and have no dealings with the great." Abtalion said, " O ye sages ! be circumspect in your teaching ; take care from what fountain you drink ; and through your labours may the name of God be hallowed." Hillel and Shammai succeeded Shemaiah and Abtalion. All that has been preserved to us from the lips of Hillel makes us love him. " Be thou a

• Sayings of José-ben-Joeser, of Josiah-ben-Perachiah, of Hillel , of

Shammai, and of the Gamaliels. † Sayings of José-ben-Jochanan. VOL. V. --18 274 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. true disciple of Aaron, who loved peace, who sought for peace ; love men, and draw them towards the Law." * His maxims in general lean towards charity ; and tradition, which loves contrasts, and always arranges facts to suit a general idea, has framed the tale accordingly. † The doctors who inclined to the broader interpreting of the precepts were called "sons of Hillel ; " those who leaned to severe interpretation were " sons of Shammai. " We are sons of Hillel, if it be true that it was he who pronounced the following maxim supposed to be addressed to a pagan who asked for a summary of the Law: "What thou wouldest not for thyself, do it not to thy neighbour. Therein lies the whole Law ; the rest is but commentary. Go, now, and instruct thyself. " § He Hillel came, it appears, from Babylon, and wisely opposed the monopolies of the priesthood at Jerusalem. He gave over to laymen many things which custom at Jerusalem reserved to the priests. also attributed to the schools an importance they had not had before, and invented, it is said, rules for argument, which we may be sure were inferior to

• Pirké aboth, Nos. 12, 13, 14.

For the story of Hillel see Ewald, Jahrb. , x. ( 1859, 1860) 69, &c. , and Delitzsch, Jesus und Hillel (1866) . See Schürer ii . 297, 298, note, on the oppositions of the two in the Mishna. § Talmud of Babylon, Schabbath, 31 , a. Compare Matthew xxii. 36, &c. || Derenbourg, pp. 178, 187, &c. See especially the Talmud of Jerusalem, Pesahim, vi. 1. ¶ Derenbourg, pp. 178, 187, &c. THE SCRIBES HILLEL AND SHAMMAI. 275 those of Aristotle. * But if this new method could contribute to lighten the burden of the Law, which Jesus was to fling aside with a very different and more vigorous hand, we may bless the name of Hillel ! Many maxims of the Law were interpreted by him in such a way as to lessen their inconveniences. The prosbol, an act by which the shock given to credit by the Sabbatical year was lightened, was the invention of Hillel. † The Hillel has sometimes been compared to Jesus. The two seem to have had in common a spirit of gentleness and love for the people. But the gospel could never have been born of the halaka. gospel, with its infinite charm, is the masterpiece of the hagada. " The hagada it is that pleases " (Agada delectal). The halaka will be always a thing cold and pale. From these insipid discussions, the fruit of puerile scruples or vestry rivalries, it was impossible there should have sprung the awakening of moral sentiment in all mankind. Shammai is the narrow rigourist in person, a man who has no end in life but the literal fulfilment of the Law. He was in everything, it is said, the opposite of Hillel. Hillel admitted any one to his school ; Shammai chose a rigorous system of selec-

• See his rules in Schürer, ii. 275, 276.

Ismael, they acquired such importance that a each siddour, or book of prayer. Later augmented by R. place was given them in ↑ Mishna Gittin, v. 5. Cf. Schürer, p. 299. Compare another jurldical subtlety of Hillel to get round Leviticus xxv. 29, 30. Derenbourg, p. 189, note 1. Milton's " surplice-brabbles and tippet- scuffles." -TR. 276 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. tion. * Hillel was favourable to proselytes, and urged the propaganda ; Shammai had nothing but disdain for proselytes, and insisted on continual distrust of them. On the day of Kippour (atonement) he made his new-born grandchild fast, at the risk of his dying of hunger. When his daughter-in-law gave birth to a male child on the day of the Feast of Tabernacles, he took away the ceiling of her chamber, so as to turn the room into a tent, that the child might observe from the very hour of his birth all the rules of the Feast.§ The Sabbath kept him busy all the week. From Wednesday, he forbade the sending of a letter, because it might chance to reach its destination on a Saturday. We know but one good saying of his, " Receive every one with courtesy." T Could we be sure that Shammai had really practised this precept, we would forgive him for all the trouble he gave himself to find out on what conditions it is lawful to eat an egg laid on the Sabbath day. Religious scrupulosity is the rust on true religion ; no good ever came of it. The idea of an account being opened between God and man, of a register in double entry being kept of sins, expiations, and penalties that might be redeemed in money, is the most false

• Aboth of Rabbi Nathan, c. 11 , end.

+ Talmud of Babylon, Schabbath, 31, a. Tosifta, Ioma, chap. iv. § Mishna, Succa, ii . 8 or 9. Talmud of Babylon, Betza, 16, a. Talmud of Jerusalem, Schab bath, i. 8-12, &c. Derenbourg, pp. 190, 191. ¶ Pirké aboth, i. 13. THE SCRIBES HILLEL AND SHAMMAI. 277 that can be imagined . The Law opened the door to it by its sacrifices for sin ; the casuistry of the rabbins added to it in the most exasperating way ; it has been the sore spot of Judaism which has survived all the crises of the first century, and has come down to our own day. Gamaliel was a doctor of nearly the same date, who enjoyed the highest authority. He was the master of Saint Paul, * and showed himself friendly to Christianity at its birth,† so much so that Christian tradition has it that he became a Christian . This is certainly an error. Gamaliel preserved the very highest reputation in the synagogue.§ But he was less intolerant to the new sect than other members of the Sanhedrim, and note was made of it in his favour. We see how barren all this dominance of schoolcasuistry proved. It was in consequence of the worst thing that could have happened to the Torah, - namely, being applied to practice . This took place from shortly after the Asmonean revolt, till the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 70. Was the Law worth the expenditure of so much fanaticism ? Assuredly not. Admirable on its moral side , it was defective as a civil code, and mischievous in its

• Acts xxii. 3.

† Acts v. 34-39. Pseudo- Clement, Recogn. , i . 65, &c. Lucian (priest in Jerusalem) in Baronius, ad ann. , 415. Gennadius, Vita, 46, 47. Eustratius, chap. 23. Photius, Bibl . cod. 171. Thilo, Cod. apocr. p. 501 . § Mishna, Sota, ix. 15. 278 HISTORY OF THE People of ISRAEL. ritual . This is why the " dispersion " was better than Judea. Jerusalem, where Judaism originated, was the foe of Judaism. Happily, there were still dreamers living more in the hopes inspired by the Prophets than in the materialities of the Torah. The suppression of the temporal existence of Israel, by delivering it from its false ideal, ― — a religious law adapted to the government of a secular State, will lead Israel back to its true vocation ; namely, the religious and moral betterment of the human race. CHAPTER XI. JEWISH SCHOOL AT ALEXANDRIA. OF WISDOM. THE BOOK THAT great work was to be done by Palestine, or rather by Galilee. Egypt, meanwhile, continued to labor at it with perseverance. Without perceiving the complete change that had taken place since the battle of Actium in the state of this country, the Jewish colony at Alexandria, prosperous and rich, was searching after truth with all the calmness inspired by a well-assured position . How far away they were from the Palestinian fever ! For them, no question of politics existed . The Jewish race - had found what it best loved, facilities for attention to business, for its wonderful moral activity, and for its studious tastes. The two forms taken by the religious movement in Israel since the days of the Maccabees, - the doctrine of the Messiah and the Resurrection, — were still completely unknown to the Egyptian Jews. Here, as much as in Palestine, perhaps even more, was the need felt of rewards beyond the grave. But knowledge of Greek philosophy furnished more subtle arguments than any offered 280 HISTORY OF THE PEople of ISRAEL. by Semitic psychology. It was held that body and soul were separable ; to make man live after his death, there was no need. for the resurrection of the body. Neither did any belief in the day of judgment, or the end of the world, or the Messiah, exist in Egypt. The vision was of Elysian Fields, where the righteous would enjoy endless felicity under the eye of God. Egypt made far less claim than Palestine to add to the number of sacred books. There was only one very characteristic work of this nature. A pious and enlightened Jew, no doubt at Alexandria, fed on the writings of ancient sages, undertook to enrich the sacred library with a writing of this kind, which he attributed to Solomon, and entitled " Wisdom of Solomon." * He wrote it in Greek, probably the only language he knew, † and took no precaution to make people believe it had been originally in Hebrew. The language is correct, almost classical. In short, it is a very good book, which having always formed part of the Christian canon has been much read, and may be counted among those books which have made the education of mankind. Solomon is supposed to address himself to kings, his fellow-sovereigns, and to all those invested with authority, to teach them respect for the religion and excellence of the Jewish people. The Bible is never

• The book was indeed believed to be by Solomon. The first doubts

concerning it are in the canon of Muratori and in Origen. † The theory of M. Margoliouth is completely erroneous. JEWISH SCHOOL AT ALEXANDRIA. 281 directly quoted ; but allusions are constantly made to it . The author evidently thinks that he will be read by Gentiles, and uses much reserve. His philosophy is a rather elevated rationalism, a deism not unlike that which Cicero, about the same time, drew from Greek philosophy. Divine reason — that is, Wisdom - enters into all things, * makes all, moves all, renews all, and pervades all. This Wisdom, source of all good, is a divine emanation. † The wisdom of sages is only a fragment broken off from it. Having stood by God when he created the world, Wisdom knows all its secrets ; ‡ always concerned in human things, she is the permanent prophet, the continual inspirer, who from age to age raises up prophets and wise men § animated by the same spirit. We shall find the same thought in the Book of Jubilees. This thought is at the foundation of all Judeo-Christian Gnostic systems, especially the pseudo-Clementine writings. * It had a certain greatness. The idea of a single prophet guiding humanity from age to age, from the very beginning of time, is very like that which a comparative history of religions has reached in our time. Gnosticism, adopting this idea, created for Jesus a

• Wisdom of Solomon, vii . 22-24 ; viii. 1 , 5.

† Ατμίς, ἀπόρροια, απαύγασμα ( vii. 25, 26) . Wisdom, ix. 5.

§ Κατὰ γενεὰς εἰς ψυχὰς ὁσίας μεταβαίνουσα φίλους θεοῦ καὶ προφήτας κατασκευάζει (vii. 27) . Compare Ecclesiastes xii. 11. See page 337.

• • See Origines du Christ. , vii . 82, &c.

282 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. peculiar place, which has had sanction since in its adoption by the human race. Wisdom, as understood by our author, is evidently more than the inoffensive metaphor before employed in the Proverbs, * and by the author of Ecclesiasticus. † Wisdom is an " hypostasis " ( or divine Person) , a companion and attendant upon God, ‡ sharing his life (his spouse) , § aiding in his difficult works, governing the world with him. Thus an intermediary was created to span the abyss made by monotheism between God and the world. The "Son" and the " Spirit " will after a certain date become for Christianity hypostases of far greater significance. Once only the author of Wisdom uses the term " Logos " (Word or Reason), of which Philo makes much greater use, and which will become in some branches of Christianity the foundation of theology. The " Sophia " (Wisdom) is for our author what the " Logos " will be to Philo and to Christian theology. Monotheism, despoiled in the absence of mythology of divine personalities distinct from each other, had only these personified metaphors to enrich its barrenness. This was one of the

• Proverbs vii. 9.

† See vol. iv. p. 246. † Τὴν τῶν σῶν θρόνων πάρεδρον Σοφίαν (ix. 4). § Συμβίωσιν θεοῦ ἔχουσα, μύστις τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπιστήμης, αἱρέτις τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ, viii. 3 , 4. Ἡ πάντων τεχνίτις (vii. 21). || Hebrew expressions : God has created the world nona, " with Wisdom," "in Wisdom, " or " by Wisdom. " ¶ 'O Tavrodúvapós σov λóyos ( xviii . 15, 16) . The personification in this passage is not very marked. JEWISH SCHOOL AT ALEXANDRIA. 283 most ancient resources of Semitic theology. * Islamism alone of all Semitic religions has carried its puritanism so far as openly to blame this, and to create a schism on this basis. A deep and true thought runs through all this : it is the impersonality of reason. Wisdom is a thing which man receives from without ; it is not his creation ; it is the same for all men. † It emanates from God, who bestows it on whom he will. ‡ A man has it or has it not ; his own part in attaining it is nothing. In short, we do not make truth ; we see it. This wise man, however, has too much good sense not to confess, on the other hand, that, though truth is a free gift, our own effort has much to do with the obtaining of it. § Though the cultivated Jews of Alexandria might all have had some notions of Greek philosophy, we have not until now found in their writings anything to show that that philosophy had made any entrance into the Hebrew mind. This entrance is now clear, evident, and triumphant. Besides the word " Logos," the author of Wisdom uses the words pronoia ( Providence), the names of the cardinal virtues in the

• עשתרת מלך בעל - יחוהמלך לא& .c See my Mémoire sur Sanchoniaton in the Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscr. et B.-L. xxiii . Part II.

Wisdom is often in the exegesis of our author the exact equivalent of the " Angel of Iahveh " in a more ancient exegesis (x. 17, &c . ) , an intermediary between God and the world. See Philo, p. 302, &c. † Wisdom i. This is the active intellect of the Arabian philosophers , opposed to the receptivity of every subject. § Wisdom vi. 13, &c. Wisdom xiv. 3; xvii. 2. Notice also e dµóppov vλns (xi. 17) . 284 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Stoic method, and all the words by which Stoicism shows the soul of the world pervading the universe. † The psychology of the author is Platonic. The soul is pre-existent ; it descends into the body as into a tent. The body goes back to earth : the soul is required of it, like a thing that has been lent. § In such a theory, the word " resurrection " has no meaning. If the Jews of Palestine had held this theory, they would not have been obliged to resort to so desperate a shift to insure the perpetuity of man. What most interests the author of "Wisdom" is what has interested the Israelite in every age : "Why ought a man to practise virtue ?" We have seen how often Israel has turned and twisted this great problem ; and this turning and twisting has been the nation's glory, a proof of its long-sustained superiority over other races. The continuing of human personality after death is the most necessary a priori truth, while a posteriori the end of individuality at death seems quite evident. Tossed like a ball between these two certainties, and gifted with the intensest moral feeling that any people ever had, Israel down to the time of the Maccabees knew no peace upon this subject. The works of the ancient Prophets are a perpetual outcry against the injustice of Iahveh, who commands virtue and promises to it

• Wisdom viii. 7. Cf. Zeller, Phil . der Griechen, iii . 2, 271.

† Διήκει, χωρεί, διοικεῖ (vii. 22, &c.; viii. 1). Wisdom viii . 19, 20 ; ix. 15. § Wisdom xv. 8. Cf. Ecclesiastes xii. 7. JEWISH SCHOOL AT ALEXANDRIA. 285 every reward, but then gives no reward. We have seen how Daniel found the problem solved by the res urrection. The author of Wisdom finds it in the separation of substance in soul and body. On this point he has no shadow of doubt. To our Sage, the world is made up of two classes of men, -materialists and idealists . The reasoning of the former class is set forth in a very specious manner : - Our life is short and sad,* and for death there is no remedy ; neither was ever any man known who has delivered another from the grave. For we are born at a venture ; and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been. The breath in our nostrils is but a vapour, and thought is a spark struck out by the beating of our heart ; which being extinguished, our body is turned to dust, and our spirit vanisheth as the thin air. Even our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall have our works in remembrance ; our life passeth away as a cloud, and disappeareth as a mist that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and overcome with the heat thereof. Our life is a very shadow that fleeth ; and after our end there is no returning ; for it is fast sealed, so that no man cometh again. Come, therefore : Let us enjoy the good things that are present ; and let us make haste to use that which is given us in our youth. Let us satisfy ourselves with wine and perfumes ; let us gather quickly the flower of the springtime, and crown ourselves with roses before they be withered. Our luxury shall wanton in every field , † and none of us shall go without his part in the feast. Let us leave everywhere tokens of our joy ; for this is our portion and our lot. Let us oppress the poor righteous man, and not spare the widow, or reverence the gray hairs of the

• Wisdom ii. 1, &c.

† This rather free verse has been suppressed in the Greek text. 286 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. aged. Let might be for us the law of right ; for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth. Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous, because he displeaseth us ; he is clean contrary to our doings ; he upbraideth us with our offending the Law, and discourseth upon our least offences. He professeth to have the knowledge of God, and calleth himself the child of the Lord. He is a continual reproach to us and to our thoughts. He is a burden unto us even to behold ; for his life is not like other men's, his ways are of another fashion. We are esteemed of him as counterfeit coin ; he holdeth aloof from our ways as from filthiness. Happy," saith he, " is the end of the just," and he maketh his boast that God is his father. Let us see if his words be true, and let us watch how it shall be with him in the end. For if the just man be the son of God, God will doubtless help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies. Let us prove him with outrage and torture, that we may know his meekness and make trial of his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death ; for if what he saith be true, there shall be one to care for him. 66 These blind men, he continues, see not a capital truth it is that man is naturally immortal. Death came into the world through the jealousy of the devil ; but God saves from death. The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,* and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seem to die, and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be utter destruction ; but they are in peace. For though in the sight of men they have been in torment, yet is their hope full of immortality ; and having suffered a little time, they shall be greatly rewarded ; for God hath proved them, and found them worthy for himself. As gold in the furnace hath he

• Wisdom iii. 1 , &c.

JEWISH SCHOOL AT ALEXANDRIA. 287 purified them, and received them as a burnt offering. And in the day of recompense they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble. They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and above them the Lord shall reign forever. The wicked, on the other hand, shall be punished . * The author, though he has himself no doubt of penalties beyond the grave, speaks of them only incidentally, and with discretion. He goes as little as possible beyond the circle of the old ideas. The wicked here below are held in dishonour ; their children and their families turn out ill ; their wives are little respected. They sometimes have many children, but virtue is a better thing ; their numerous children, ill brought up, are certain not to prosper. Long life is not always happiness, or early death a punishment. In short, the author falls prone into the common sophism of piety, the attempt to justify the ways of God. What he gives out as happiness for the good he describes as a misfortune for the wicked ; what is favour for the one is punishment for the other. But his belief in immortality permits him an assurance forbidden to the ancient Jew. The righteous man may die early, but he is at rest. An honourable old age is not measured by length of years. True old age is wisdom, and a life without reproach. Here is a man of every virtue who dies in the flower of his age ; but this is only that, having come early to perfection, he has in a short

• Wisdom iii. 15, &c.

288 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. time fulfilled a long career. His soul has been precious to God, who has made haste to take him away from among the wicked. * The heathen see this, and do not understand it. But in the day of judgment how the parts will be reversed ! They will say among themselves, ‡ This is he whom formerly we held in derision , and made an object of reproach. We fools accounted his life madness, and his end to be without honour. How is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among his saints ! Therefore have we erred from the way of truth , and the light of the sun hath not shined upon us ; . . . the way of the Lord we have not known it. What hath pride profited us ? Or what good have riches with our vaunting brought us ? All those things are passed away like a shadow, or like a rumour that hasteth by ; or as a ship that passeth over the troubled waves of the sea, . . . the pathway of whose keel leaves no trace upon the waves. Or as when a bird hath flown through the air there is left no token of her way ; ... or as when an arrow is shot at a mark, and parteth the air which immediately cometh together again, so that a man cannot know where it went through, even so we in like manner were born and are now dead, and have no sign of virtue to show, but were consumed in our own wickedness. Yes ! the hope of the ungodly is like the dust that is carried away with the wind ; like a thin foam that is driven by the storm ; like the smoke that is blown hither and thither by a tempest ; like the remembrance of a guest that. tarrieth but a day at the inn . But the righteous live for evermore ; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them with the Most High.

• An allusion to Enoch † Wisdom iv. 16, &c. .

+ Wisdom v. 3, &c. JEWISH SCHOOL AT ALEXANDRIA. 289 There is in this both talent and charm ; there is a real feeling of the ancient gnomic poetry in the philosophic reflections of Solomon, which form the second part of the book. * His love of Wisdom, his marriage to her, all the wealth she brings him as her marriage portion, are in the style of the old legend, and continue well the story of the Queen of Sheba. Few passages in the Bible have been more employed by Christian piety in preaching and in church services than this. The Jew, however, appears plainly in the writer's style of philosophising on the history of the people of Israel, and in the declamation against polytheism, which form the third part of this work. His judgments on paganism and philosophy, to which he owes so much, are extravagantly bitter. They served to form those of Saint Paul § and of the most ancient Church Fathers. To have seen the work of creation and not to have acknowledged the Creator, -to argue that the vices of ancient society came from insensibility, —is easy to say. But is deism in truth so very pure ? The Semitic hatred of images and gods made by the hand of man || -the incapacity to distinguish fine shades the craving to believe that pagan worships. conceal all sorts of horrors, bloody sacrifices, and dark mysteries T -make these ten or fifteen pages a picture thoroughly deceitful. It is not enough to † Wisdom x.-xix. § Romans ii.

• Wisdom vi.-ix.

Wisdom xiii. 1-9. || Wisdom xii . 23, &c.; xiv. 12, &c. ¶ Wisdom xiv. 21, &c. VOL. V. - 19 - 290 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. assert that the religions of antiquity are all to be explained by love of gain, servility to kings, and silly delusions. Taste for art in religion also counts for something ; races that have it not are ill qualified to judge those to whom art is dear. CHAPTER XII. JEWISH DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY. THE author of the Book of Wisdom was, however, a very important personage in religious history. He marked a turn in the road, a sudden change of direction. He was the first writer, according to Jewish tradition, who distinctly enunciated the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. By the side of the doctrine of the resurrection - which was perfectly logical , but alarming by its boldness to those brought up under Greek culture * -there was a milder view that suited weaker minds. † A Jew of this class was much like a Greek trained in the philosophic schools. How to unite these two doctrines in the bosom of Christianity was the greatest difficulty in the way of the new faith now near its birth . ‡ But children can digest stones, and assimilate the most promiscuous diet. The immortality of the soul was the fundamental doctrine ; the resurrection and the last judgment became accessory to it and much less significant, being relegated to the end of time. The foundation was laid for hell, at any

• See vol. iv. pp. 282–287.

† Josephus, for example. Orig. du Christ. , ii . 97, 98 ; vii. 505, 506. 292 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. rate ; and it has only been by help of hell that human nature has been dragged up to a certain degree of morality. Alas ! poor thing ! A total absence of messianic or apocalyptic dogma characterizes the Book of Wisdom, like all the other Alexandrine works. The Palestinian hagada had made but little way in Egypt. Wisdom knows nothing of it, though the Biblical tales are here deformed by additions or inferences that are frequently absurd . * In a way quite opposed to that of the seers of Palestine, the Egyptian sage thinks that God is less severe to Israel than to other nations, because he is Israel's father. † His physics and physiology are much superior to those of more ancient Hebrew writers. This Egyptian Judaism was in all respects superior to that of Palestine. It had reached a sort of deism very like that of Cicero and the Eclectics, in which the supernatural was reduced to its minimum, and the Torah was only the natural law practised with purity of heart. The Alexandrian Sibyl continued to prophesy ; but, giving up politics, she thenceforth devoted herself to morals, to the reform of mankind and the conversion of pagans . A lofty deism inspires her. Her exhortations are tender, rather long-winded, and sometimes touching :

• Wisdom x. 19; xvi. 17, 21 , 22 ; xviii. 24 ; xix. 12.

† Wisdom xii . 19 , &c . † Πάντα μέτρῳ καὶ ἀριθμῷ καὶ σταθμῷ διετάξας (chap. xi. 20, 22). Beating of the heart, ii. 3 ; rain, ii. 4. JEWISH DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY. 293 Mortal men, who are made of flesh, * creatures of naught, why vaunt yourselves and give no thought to the end of life ? You do not tremble, you do not fear God who sees. you, the Most High who knows and sees all, who is present everywhere, who has created and sustains all things that are, who has put into them his Spirit, and has made this Spirit the guide of all. God is One ; he reigns alone ; he is very great ; he was not begotten ; he is master of all things. Invisible himself, he alone sees all . No mortal flesh can behold him. For what flesh could with his eyes look upon the true God, the Eternal, who lives in heaven ? Men, a race begotten and doomed to death, made of bones, veins , and flesh , cannot even look face to face upon the splendours of the sun ! Venerate him who is the sole Lord of this world, who alone, from age to age, is not begotten, who commands the universe, and bestows intelligence upon mortals , in the common light ! You will receive the just punishment of your wickedness, you, who have refused to glorify the true and eternal God , or to sacrifice holy hecatombs to him, but have offered victims to devils who are now in Hades.† - You walk in pride and folly ; abandoning the right road, you lose your way among thorns and rocks. Mortals, why will you stray ? Stop, fools who are wandering round and round in darkness ! forsake the gloom and receive the light. Behold how it manifests itself to all in its truth. Come! Pursue no longer restlessly the clouds and darkness. See how the soft light of the sun shines brilliantly

• The age of this fragment preserved by Theophilus of Antioch

(end ofthe second century) gives rise to many doubts. It is certainly from a Jewish pen, and bears relation to the Jewish poem of A. D. 82 (compare the close of the two poems Carm, sibyll . , proem , lines 81-87 to iv. 160, &c. ) . The eschatology is too advanced for us to refer it to the first collection of Sibylline verse. At any rate, however, the poem served as preface to a collection (Theophilus and Lactatius) ; but this collection may have been made about the time of Philo. † An allusion to fables told at length in the Book of Enoch. 294 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. on high. Lay up wisdom in your hearts, and learn to know it. God is One. It is he who sends rain and wind and earthquakes, lightning, famine, pestilence, sad cares, and snow and ice. But why tell everything ? He rules in heaven ; he governs the earth ; HE IS. ... If all that is born must perish, God cannot have proceeded from the union of a woman and a man. No ! God is alone ; he is One, superior to all . He has made heaven, the sun, the stars, the moon, and the teeming earth ; he has made the swelling billows of the sea, the high mountains, the inexhaustible springs . He has given life to countless hosts inhabiting the waters. He feeds the reptiles that creep upon the earth, the variegated birds with their sweet songs, who part the air with their wings with a sharp sound. He has put into the tangled thickets of the mountains the ferocious race of beasts of prey. Chief over all creatures he has made man of divine origin, and has put under him the immense diversity of living things, even those as yet unknown. For how can mortal man know all the creatures ? He alone knows them, he who made them in the beginning, the creator, imperishable, eternal, dwelling in the highest heaven, shedding on the good a superabundance of his mercies, whilst he distributes to the wicked, in his anger, war, famine, and sufferings which cause the shedding of tears. ... - Why, O men ! will you destroy yourselves in your pride ? Rather blush that you make gods of cats and evil beasts ! Is it not blind madness that hinders you from seeing that your gods lick pots, and steal from dishes ? Instead of inhabiting the splendours of the golden sky, they are eaten by worms, and swathed in cobwebs. Madmen ! you fall down before serpents , dogs , and cats ! You worship birds and creeping beasts and images in stone, figures fashioned with your own hands, and even piles of stone on the border

• An allusion to the catacombs filled with the mummies of cats.

JEWISH DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY. 295 - - of the highways. You worship these things and many other vanities , which it is shameful even to name. These gods find their victims in mortals who have gone astray ; from their mouths flows a venom which poisons unto death. It is before Him to whom belongs life and the splendour of eternal light, who pours down on men joy sweeter than sweetest honey, it is before Him that you should bow your heads, that to you may be opened the road on which walk pious men through all the ages. But you have abandoned it, you have drained the cup filled with celestial justice, a heavy cup and deep, running over with hot wine unmixed with water ; you are all obstinate in your blindness. And you will not shake off the sleep of drunkenness, nor return to wiser thoughts, nor recognize God your King, who watches over all things. This is why a storm of burning fire will fall upon you ; you shall be ceaselessly, for all eternity, consumed by flames. Then you will remember with shame your lying, powerless idols. But those who honour the true and eternal God will inherit life. Through all eternity they will dwell in the blossoming orchards of Paradise, and will feed upon the sweet food of the starry heavens. The ancient Sibyl knew only earthly rewards and the last judgment, according to the old Hebraic theory. Now she has an eschatology as advanced as that of Enoch. Messianism, to be sure, hardly shows itself in her utterances. But Paradise has come to complete maturity. The place of happiness for the righteous will be a pardès, a delicious park, strewn with flowers. It is apparently the Sibyl, again, who first employs this charming expression. ‡

• See p. 81.

† Compare 1 Corinthians xii. 4 ; Revelations ii. 7 ; Luke xxiii. 43. See p. 81 , note. 296 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. The pure worship of the Divinity is, as may be seen, the principal subject of interest to the Alexandrine Jew. Every occasion seems good to him to declare his contempt for idols and polytheism. The translator of the apocryphal Baruch, for example, * thought it well to make the work twice its proper length, in order to render it a more useful manual for the Jews of the Dispersion. † The spurious letter of Jeremiah at the end of the pseudo-Baruch is a spirited protest against the hatefulness and absurdity of pagan worship.

• The pseudo Hebrew Baruch (see p. 189) only goes as far as verse

8 of chapter iii. inclusive. † In Baruch v. the use of the Psalms of Solomon (xi. ) may be clearly perceived. This was written in Greek. CHAPTER XIII. PHILO. - IN the midst of this development (almost all of it anonymous or pseudonymous), of those images which seem to belong to an intangible world, of brief writings struck off as by immediate inspiration, in which the idea alone is put in the foreground and the author wholly disappears, stands forth the personality of a copious writer closely associated with the life of his time, whose works have been for the most part preserved for us, a man whom we are in touch with (so to speak) as one of ourselves. I mean Philo. He belonged to one of the principal Jewish families of Alexandria. His brother, Alexander Lysimachus, filled the functions of Arabian prefect, and was prodigiously rich, almost playing the part of a rex in his relations with the Romans and the Herods, rendering them services in money, administering their property, and making them enormous loans. * One of his sons married the celebrated Berenice. Another was Tiberius Alexander, who played so important a part in Roman politics in the first century of our era.t Josephus, Antiquities, xviii. vi. 6 ; viii. 1 ; xix. v. 1. † See Orig. du Christ. , index. [ He was an apostate from Judaism, governor of Egypt under Nero, and present with Titus at the siege of Jerusalem. ] 298 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. It was doubtless during Philo himself was rich, and about the year 40 A. D. he was at the head of a deputation to Caligula on matters concerning the affairs of the synagogue at Alexandria. * He was then old, which leads us to suppose that he may have been born fifteen or twenty years before Christ. He was thus older than Jesus, and yet his survivor. the youth of Jesus that Philo wrote those innumerable books in which Judaism is exhibited in so original a fashion. What a pity that in his later writings he had not bestowed a few reflections on what was passing in Galilee ! In truth, Christianity in embryo was so small a thing that Philo probably saw nothing of it, and never heard anything relating to it. The Greek learning of Philo was very considerable. He evidently knew all that was known in Alexandria in his day. He had read a quantity of writings now lost . No other Jew had such a perfect knowledge of Greek culture. His style is classical Greek, not the imitative style of the Septuagint, full of Hebraisms, in use among the Jews. His knowledge of Hebrew, on the other hand, was very small. He hardly knew the language. He worked from the Greek translation of the Pentateuch and the Prophets. His Hebraic etymologies are very bad ;

• This has been related in Les Apôtres.

† Philo wrote also, after his embassy, De ratione anim. , p. 172 (ed. Aucher). Gesenius, Gesch. der Hebr. Spr. , § 23, p. 80, &c. § See, for example, De præm. et pænis, 16. PHILO. 299 but, after all, that of the Palestinian doctors was no better. His Interpretationes vocum hebraicarum have been the kernel of the collection, which, enlarged or corrected by Origen, Eusebius, and Saint Jerome, furnished forth the wretched Hebraic science of the Middle Ages, up to the time of the Renaissance. * The disposition of Philo was as good as his education was accomplished . He was a clever man, and a fine character, honest and liberal, loving his countrymen and all the human race. The subtilties of his allegorical explanations were forced on him by the exigencies of his apologetic. He certainly was without philology, or any critical training ; but nobody at that time in the Jewish world had more than he, and no one (since Jesus had not as yet spoken) had more kindness, or more warmth of soul and heart. These are such excellent things that we forget they are balanced by a detestable exegesis and perpetual sophisms. What especially distinguishes Philo from his coreligionists, even from Josephus, is that he loves and admires from the bottom of his heart the Greek culture he so thoroughly possessed . There is nothing in him of the jealousy conspicuous in the false Aristobulus, or the sombre hatred which fills the heart of Tatian. Saint Justin alone † attains to this high sympathy. Philo especially loves the philosophers, and sees in them the flower of Greek genius. He

• Schürer, ii . 865, 866.

↑ Orig. du Christ. , vi. 386, &c. 300 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. has real worship for Plato ; he calls him " most holy." The group of ancient sages appears to him like a " sacred brotherhood. " † He does not adhere absolutely to any sect ; he is eclectic, like Cicero, — by turns Platonist, Stoic, or Pythagorean, or supposing himself to be so. He is in reality a Hellenist, seeing the light in the great sun of truth which Greece had created, where all reason has its birthplace and the centre of its revolution. How came Philo, with all this, to remain a Jew? It would be difficult to say, were it not notorious that in questions of material religion the heart has its own sophisms, by which it reconciles things that have no relation to one another. Plato loves to relieve his philosophical discussions by the most graceful myths of Grecian genius ; Proclus and Malebranche think that they share the religion of their fathers, the one while he composes philosophical hymns to Venus ; the other when he says Mass. Inconsistency in such matters is an act of piety. Rather than give up beliefs that are dear to him, there is no false identification, no one- sided compliance, which a man will not admit . Moses Maimonides in the twelfth century practises the same method, agreeing by turns with the Torah and

• Τὸν ἱερώτατον Πλάτωνα (not λιγυρώτατον) . Quod omnis probus liber,

ii. 447 (Mangey) . The well-known proverb IIλárwv piλwvišein Þíλwv πλaTwvice ( Saint Jerome, Suidas, Photius) illustrates this quality. De prov. , ii . 48, 79 (ed. Aucher) . Quod omnis probus liber, ii. 444 (Mangey). PHILO. 301 with Aristotle ― , the Torah understood after the fashion of the Talmudists, and Aristotle after the materialistic manner of Ibn-Roschd. The history of the human mind is full of such pious contradictions. What Philo did nineteen hundred years ago is done in our day by perfectly honest men, governed by a firm resolve not to give up beliefs that have to them a sort of ancestral character. They will attempt the most perilous feats of mental jugglery to reconcile reason and faith. After having obstinately denied the results of science, when they find themselves unable longer to withstand the evidence, they turn suddenly round and tell you flippantly, " We knew that before you did." To pick Greek philosophy out of the Bible, to prove that all the grand discoveries of Greece had been made by Hebrew genius a thousand years before, was the desperate attempt made by Philo. We might compare it to that of the scholiasts of the thirteenth century, who wrapped up Christian dogmas in Aristotelian logic. Moses appears not only as the best of legislators, but as the first of philosophers. Philo, at once Jew and Greek, wishes to win over the Jews to Hellenism and the Greeks to Judaism. His sincerity as Hellenist and his self- esteem as Jew are thus reconciled. He has no reason to disparage one part of his belief to exalt the other. How does he succeed in this impossible task ? Naturally, by subtilties, allowing himself everywhere the free use of an " almost." The sys- 302 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF israel. tem of hidden meanings and of allegory, which is almost always a sort of revenge taken by a free conscience oppressed by a revealed text, is pushed by Philo to the height of pure wilfulness. The real meaning of the sacred author is to him a thing indifferent ; the text is a mere theme for variations. Persuaded that the sacred volume contains the highest truth, Philo behind the literal sense (the simple fact) always sees the spiritual sense ( the pure thought). * The altar and the tabernacle signify the invisible and intelligible objects of contemplation. Eden is the wisdom of God ; its four rivers are the four [cardinal] virtues having their source in his wisdom. The rain of heaven which fertilizes the earth is intelligence, which like a fountain irrigates the senses, &c. Minds had gone so far astray that the plain meaning of words seemed mean, unfitting, and unworthy of God. Men fancied they were doing God service when they substituted for the common things in the text transcendent truths, or what they considered such, -moral or psychological meanings, excellent no doubt, but such as the original author had never had in mind. If that had been all there was in Philo, his place would be in a history of unreason, not in a history of exegesis. But in truth this is not all. Philo's heart was better than his head. The love of good brims over in him ; his Judaism is tolerant and friendly to all men. His philosophic language is

• Allég. de la Loi (Mangey) , i . 43, &c.

PHILO. 303 fluent and sonorous. mirable words, both Jewish and Greek, expressing very noble thoughts, which have held their place in the religious tradition of mankind. He was the first to say adPhilo, in short, gives us the first example of an attempt, often made since, to reduce Judaism to a sort of natural religion or deism, by diluting the element of revelation and exhibiting the minute directions of the Torah as simple precepts of natural reason, or judicious rules of health. By such a way of presenting things revelation is not exactly denied, but it is concealed. The Christian apologists, like Minucius Felix,* practised the same method ; the apologists of our day make extravagant use of it. The pill is made smaller, that it may be swallowed more easily. No scientific mind allows itself to be misled by such sophisms ; but mongrel theories have often something seductive in them for men of letters.

• Orig. du Christ. , vii. 107 , &c.

CHAPTER XIV. THE LOGOS. PLATO's theory of ideas is perhaps that part of Greek philosophy to which Philo owes his fundamental conceptions. Reason (Logos) is the archetype of the true, the beautiful, and the good in itself ; beneath it lies inert matter, to which supreme intelligence gives form. Nothing can be created out of nothing ; nothing can be destroyed ; but the forms of things, forever changing, God conceives as eternal ideas which he contemplates in himself. The world- system is consequently eternal. God is not precisely a creator. He never rests ; his nature is to be always producing. The creation did not begin within the limits of time.t God is the source of every act in every individual being, as well as in the universe ; to him alone the principle of action belongs. All that exists is full of him. He is the universal space, ‡ for he contains all ; He is all.§ Such a doctrine to-day would be called pantheism ; and assuredly Philo did not take it from the Bible.

• De mundi opificio, i . 4 ( Mangey) .

† Legum allegor. , i. ii . 261 (Mangey) . De cherubim, De confus. ling. , i. 425; De somniis, i. † Ὁτῶν ὅλων τόπος. § Εἷς καὶ τὸ πᾶν αὐτός ἐστιν (Legum allegor. , i .). THE LOGOS. 305 The Alexandrian expositor is much nearer the old Hebraic theology in what he says about the Logos as an intermediary between God and the world : " the Angel of Jehovah " here offers him a point on which Jewish philosophy had drawn before. * To fill as far as possible the gulf that Semitic monotheism hollows. out between God and the world, they had recourse to the conception of an intermediary, partly divine and partly human, who should bring the finite and the infinite into relations with each other. Philo, combining with the Bible the Platonic theory of ideas and the world- soul and the Stoic formula of Divinity conceived as Reason acting in the world, gave to this doctrine a body which hitherto it had never had. The Wisdom of God, the Logos, became to Philo the eldest son of God,† the archangel ( eldest of the angels ) , the indwelling Word, the immanent reason of God. When the Word is uttered § it becomes active and effective, the world, as constituted by a word of God, " Let there be." Once at least this emanation from the Supreme Being is called " second God. " || The immediate effects of the divine speech are thus words (Móyo ) ¶ or forces, **

• See p. 286. The sacramental use of the word Logos has only indirect connection with Platonism, particularly with the Timæus.

† Ὁ πρωτόγονος υἱός. † ῾Ο ἄγγελος πρεσβύτατος, ἀρχάγγελος. Ὁ λόγος ἐνδιάθετος. § Aóyos πрopoрikós. De confus. ling., Legum allegor. , i .; De profugis. || Orig. du Christ. , vi. 67. ' O πрwocós, De Abrah. , ii . 17 &c. ( Mangey). ¶ Tous ȧyyeλovs Kaì Xóyovs aÚTOû. Legum allegor. , i . 122 ( Mangey) . Cf. De somniis, i . 631 ; i. 640 (Mangey) . For Philo, λóyo is synonymous with idéal.

• • Δυνάμεις.

VOL. V.-20 306 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL . -asort of angels or dæmons, of whom the first is the "Man of God," or God in human form, who places the Divinity in relations with humanity. Such ideas did not belong exclusively to Philo. The memera † of the Aramean Targums owed its origin to a like tendency. The Word of God, as distinguished from God, became a cosmic agency. These personifications of abstract beings ‡ were the fashion of the day. The most different races came to it for lack of mythology, or rather because the course of ages had weakened the mythologic faculty. This is the theory which from the time of John's Apocalypse § pervaded the mystical language of the Christian Church, and which, somewhere about the year 120, produced the prologue of the Gospel attributed to John. || The Logos was the permanent revelation, the master who (like the lamp of Edessa enclosed in a wall) never dies, through whom Socrates in part knew Christ, ¶ and who will produce in humanity successions of Christs and of prophets without end. We see now on how many sides Philo steers " Aveрwπоs beοû. De somniis , i . 656 (Mangey) ; De gigantibus, i. 253 (Mangey) . word. = ) מאמרא * Compare the Koλmía ( p) of Sanchoniatho; in Persian, the Honover. § Orig. du Christ. , vi. 68, &c. Ibid. In general, see the index at the words " Logos " and " Verbe. " ¶ See especially what relates to the Logos in Saint Justin. Orig. du Christ. , vi. 387, &c. See also p. 302. THE LOGOS. 307 close to Christian theology. The effect of this remarkable thinker on Jesus himself seems to have been null. Jesus did not read Greek, and writings like those of Philo never reached him. But it was different with the second and third generations of Christians. Judeo-Alexandrine theology triumphed under a Christian form. Gnosticism was its sickly exaggeration ; the exaggerations were driven out, but the Church catholic- the " common " Church * — preserved here as everywhere a deep trace of the particular opinions it had thrust aside. Another Christian dogma, that of " grace, " is to be found in Philo, with features that make it akin. to the doctrine of Saint Paul. Good comes solely from God ; evil comes from matter, or from the lower powers that shared with the Word in the creation of the world. All good is therefore to be referred to God. To look upon one's self as the author of a good action is an act of pride ; it is a robbery from God. The beneficent influence of God which renders man capable of good is Grace ( xápis) . ‡ Could Saint Paul have read these passages ? We are far from insisting that he did so. Let us only say that there was a common ground whereon Judeo- Hellenic theology, the Christianity of Saint Paul, and Gnosticism had their first developments. This was the sense of the word kaloλikós at that period, ―- "" common, " outside of sects, the opposite to " particular. " The meaning "universal " (spread everywhere) was given to it later. † Legum allegor. , i . 53 init. Ibid. i . 60 ; i . 131 (Mangey). ‡ De mundi opificio, De profugis, De nominum mutatione. De sacrif. Abelis et Cainí. 308 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. With Philo, as with Saint Paul, descent from Abraham counts for little. His Judaism is entirely cosmopolitan. The Jewish nation has deserved its prerogative because the most perfect, the most righteous, the most reasonable, the most humane, the most religious of peoples. Its worship is most in accord with the wishes of the Eternal.* It owes the choice the Eternal has made of it to its own virtues and those of its ancestors. God in truth has established no difference among men ; † by uniting with Judaism and observing the Law, men become children of Abraham. - Original sin itself is very logically treated by Philo. The space between God and the world is filled with souls ; those nearest to the earth are most subject to sense, which leads them to take bodies, - an enormous mistake, for the body is evil, and all the evil instincts of mankind come from that source. The fact of existence therefore involves a primitive fault, an act of guilty desire. The effort of virtue is to dissolve this fatal bond, and to let the soul escape in its freedom and purity.§ The doctrine of the migra tion of souls may have come from this. Philo has not followed out this thought with his usual logic. || Philo has no messianic doctrine, properly speakDe specialibus legibus, ii . 272-274 ( Mangey) . † De execr. , § 8. † Παντὶ γεννητῷ καὶ ἂν σπουδαῖον ᾖ, παρ' ὅσον ἦλθεν εἰς γένεσιν, συμφυές rò áμaprávov éσtív. —Vita Moses, ii . 157 (Mangey) . § Quis rerum divin . heres , i . 182 ( Mangey) ; De Abrah. , ii . 37 (Mangey) ; Legum allegor., i. 65 (Mangey) . Zeller, iii . 2, 397. THE LOGOS. 309 ing ; * and belief in the resurrection is equally foreign to him. He does not need it. Greek philosophy offers him simpler ways of rewarding the good and punishing the wicked . Meanwhile Jewish ideas of universal happiness on earth beset him, and inspire him with very contradictory dreams. All the Israelites whom the chances of slavery have dragged to the ends of the earth shall be delivered ; their masters, filled with admiration for them, will not endure the thought of having been owners of men so greatly their superiors in virtue. Thus free, and impelled at the same moment by the same instinct, they will throng to Palestine from the most distant lands and the islands of the sea. The pillar of fire will place itself at their head ; but only to the righteous will it be visible. When they reach the end of their journey they will reign. The cities that have been destroyed will then be all rebuilt ; the deserts will be repeopled ; the barren land will be covered with fruits.t This age of happiness will come to pass. when all men shall have been converted to Judaism . Wild beasts will place themselves in man's service . The man who is not for peace shall be destroyed . As in all utopias, where there is universal suppression of war, peace is preserved by an armed force of irresistible strength, which will have the same disadvantages with the evil it is to put down. The saints,

• At least he does not use the words Μεσσίας οι Χριστός.

↑ De execr. , 8, 9. This treatise ought to be united to the De præm. et pœnis. 310 HISTORY OF THE People of ISRAEL. organized into a sort of League of Peace, and having at their head a formidable king, drawn by perversions of the Greek text out of the prophecies of Balaam, * will be the peaceful armed police of nations. God will fight for them ; they will have no need to shed blood at once noble, formidable, and kind, they will reign by respect, by fear, and by love. Wealth, comfort, health, and bodily strength will be the features of this beneficent reign of Israel. † The old Hebrew genius is never mystical ; but Philo is so in the highest degree. He admits a sort of superior religious enlightenment to which men attain by grace divine, and in which the Eternal Being is seen face to face. Ecstasy is the union of the soul with God. The ecstasy of Abraham took place at the going down of the sun, § for the divine spirit wakes when our individual consciousness is asleep, and vice versa. Such a state is like insanity, but it is in reality divine ; for God then substitutes himself for man, and acts through his organs. || The abuses of this ascetic discipline do not yet show themselves in Philo ; these marvellous states are produced by enthusiasm, by love, and by selfrenunciation. Philo, it may be seen, enters into very contradictory speculations. His prodigious intellectual activity is checked by no singleness of view. His

• Numbers xxiv. 7. † De præm. et pœnis, § 15-20.

Quis rerum divin. heres, i. 482, 508 &c. , 511 ; De Abrah. , ii . 37 ; Legum allegor. , i. 65. § Genesis xv. 12. || Quis rerum divin. heres, § 53. THE LOGOS. 311 works would make ten large volumes, and yet much has been lost. * The Pentateuch is the perpetual subject of his commentaries ; he seems to have taken it in hand three times, each time from a different point of view, sometimes addressing himself to Gentiles, sometimes to his co-religionists. His Life of Moses is curious, as being a biography of the Hebrew law-giver written with a view to please pagan readers. His apologetic † and historical writings have considerable eloquence. Being written for pagans, their chief object is to show Gentile readers how many Jewish precepts they may practise with advantage.§ Very touching is the thought in the two parallel treatises, " that every vile being is a slave," and " that every good man is free. "|| The number of Jews who had become slaves in consequence of the wars of that period was enormous. Philo consoles them by transcendental idealism , a consolation which only those find vain who have never suffered from injustice.

• See p. 49.

† The Apology for the Jews, by Philo, is only known to us through Eusebius, Treatise on a contemplative life, 366, chap. xv. - The work of Philo on the condition of the Jews under Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius, and on the part he took in these events, formed five books, of which the third (In Flacc. ) and the fourth (Legat. ad Caium) are the only ones that have been preserved . See Les Apôtres, pp. 194-197. § It was the subject of the 'YπоETIKά ; see Bernays, Gesammelte Abhandl. , i . 262-282. The first of these two treatises is lost. Philo also intended to write a treatise on " The sovereignty of the Sage" (Quod omnis probus liber, § 3). 312 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. The literary fortune of Philo was very singular. The Jewish school in Alexandria disappeared in the first century of our era, and we do not see what disciples Philo had in his native land. Nor did he exercise any influence on the Jews in Palestine, who spoke Hebrew ; his name is not once mentioned in the Talmud or in the Jewish tradition. Jesus doubtBut the second and third' studied him deeply. His less knew nothing of him. generations of Christians influence, or at least the influence of ideas similar to his, may be seen in the authentic epistles of Saint Paul, in the epistle of an undecided character called the Epistle to the Ephesians, and above all in the writings which a certain school attributed to the Apostle John. From that time on Philo was much in favour with the Christian school ; they copied him as if he were a Father of the Church ; they even asserted that he had been a Christian. * The model of the homily after the fashion of the Fathers, which takes for text a passage of Scripture and proceeds from it to its moral applications, goes back to Philo. Christian theology, which inherited and continued the Greek theology, was indebted to him for many things, especially his ill-regulated taste for allegory. Gnosticism had in part its origin in Philo, or at least it developed ideas akin to his. We might even say that Philo, by his theory of forces or powers

• Eusebius, H. E., iii . xvii. 1 ; Saint Jerome, De viris illustr. , ii.

Photius, cod., 105. THE LOGOS. 313 (Svváμes), and by his insane love of personification, was the father of Valentinus. The neo- Platonists of Alexandria knew him. Numenius of Apamæa especially considered him one of his masters. * He even exaggerated his admiration, since he went so far ( it is said) as to assert that Philo taught him the true spirit of Platonism better than Plato himself. - The truth is that Philo was in Judaism an absolutely unique phenomenon. Josephus is quite another thing. Much less of a philosopher than Philo, he has none of that dallying with speculation so dear to the Alexandrian ; his Hellenic ground-idea takes the simplest, the most classical form ( if I may call it so ) , — God and immortality. It is the same with the wariness of the patriot leader : the moral character of Philo seems to us superior ; but then the times. of Josephus were so terrible ! Josephus hebraises more than Philo ; his Greek is that of a man who, writing artificially in an acquired language, uses at one and the same time words taken from every source : he admits that he pronounced it badly. Neither of them was on the line likely to lead to the future. They were literary men ; and literary men do not accomplish much. It was from poor little conventicles of messianists and enthusiasts in Palestine ignorant men, with no philosophy, who knew not a word of Greek -that Jesus was to go forth .

• Orig. du Christ. , vii. 434, 435.

+ Josephus, Antiquities, xx. xi. 2. CHAPTER XV. THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE. WHAT Philo has most at heart is the idea of a perfect philosophic life , in which the soul, given up incessantly to meditation on the Infinite, is absorbed in the object of its meditations and rises above all material cares. The Essenes of Palestine realized this ideal in many of its features, and Philo has a great admiration for them. * Were there ascetics of the same kind in Egypt ? It is doubtful. But Philo dreamed of them, and this was what led him to compose his treatise On the Contemplative Life, whose turn of thought is so singular that we ask ourselves, Had it not some foundation in reality ? †

• Quod omnis probus liber, §§ 12 , 13. Frag. of the Apol. in Eusebius, Præp. evang. , viii . xi.

† We consider it to be certain that the treatise Tepi roù Beoû θεωρητικοῦ ἢ ἱκέτων ἀρετῶν is by Philo. The style and the thoughts are absolutely those of the Alexandrian thinker. Notice his hatred against the pagan clubs ( §§ 5-7) , which would have no longer any sense in the third century. The ascetics whom he is talking of in the Contemplative Life are ascetics who are entirely Jewish ; they have not a single trait that is distinctively Christian . We might suppose them Buddhists ; but that is out of the question. An imitation of Philo, so very excellent, made in the third century would be a thing unique in antiquity. Forgers never troubled themselves to imitate the style of the authors whose names they borrowed for their apocryphal writings. THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE. 315 "After having spoken of the Essenes," he says, "who love and practise the active life better than any others, I am about to speak of those who have embraced the life of contemplation." The doctrine of these philosophers appears at once in their name. They were called Therapeuto ("healers "), either because they professed to have a superior knowledge of medicine, curing not only the maladies of the body, but those of the soul ; * or else because they had learned by the study of Nature and by holy laws to serve the Eternal God. They are the best and the happiest of beings. Filled with celestial love, they experience those transports which can be only appeased by the sight of the object of their desires. In the ardour which impels them towards this immortal and most blessed life, and imagining they have done with a mortal existence, they throw open their own inheritance, giving all they possess to their children, their kindred, or their friends. "It must needs be that those who have acquired the treasures of the intellectual life should abandon the wealth that blinds men's eyes, to those whose thoughts are still wrapped in darkness." They are all men of good birth and polished manners.† Freed from all worldly cares, they leave their brothers, wives, and children, and flee far from their country and former habitations. They estab-

• Philo appears to take the name of the Essenes from 'D , and

not from אסיא. See p. 48, note ; p. 65, note. † De vita contempl. , § 9 . 316 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. lish themselves outside the cities, in gardens or solitary spots, not from hatred of mankind, but to avoid the dangers of human society. They have no slaves, looking upon slavery as contrary to natural right. "Nature has begotten us all free ; the avarice and injustice of a few have established inequality, the source of all evils, and have bowed the weak under the yoke of the strong." "Wise men of this kind exist in many parts of the inhabited earth ; for it is right that both Greece and barbarous lands should alike possess such examples of virtue. They may be found in the greatest number in Egypt, in each of the provinces that are called ' nomes ,' and above all in the neighbourhood of Alexandria. From all parts the most distinguished among them meet in a sort of motherhouse of the sect, situated in a very suitable spot, on the shores of Lake Marcia, * on a low hill , a place as well chosen for its safety as for its pure air. Safety is secured by a girdle of farms and villages ; and the purity of the air arises from the constant breezes which come not only from the lake, where it discharges into the sea, but from the sea itself, which is near. The sea breezes are keen, those from the lake's mouth are heavy ; and the mixture of the two results in a very wholesome quality of air." The establishments of Therapeutæ, judging from what Philo says of them, were not monasteries after the fashion of the West, or rows of contiguous huts ; they were lauras, like the convents at Mount Athos, or a kind of béguinages. The huts of extreme simplicity, furnished with mere mats, were far enough apart to prevent the hermits from interfering with

• Lake Mariout,

-the Mareotis of the ancients. THE CONTEMPLATIVe life. 317 "" * one another, yet near enough in case of need to call for help. In each was a kind of oratory called a shrine ((σeuveîov σεμνεῖον)) or " mystery." There the solitary inmate fulfilled the most sacred duties of his religion, read the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, and other sacred writings. Women were admitted into the order, strictly preserving their virginity ; and, like the men, were solely occupied in meditation on the Law. "The thought of God is always present to them, even in their sleep. They see in their dreams only the beauty of the Virtues of God and his Powers. Many speak in their sleep, and receive in their dreams their highest instruction in sacred things."t They prayed twice a day, at sunrise and sunset. The day was consecrated to meditation on the sacred scriptures, and in looking for allegories in the philosophy of the Fathers. The Therapeutæ, in a word, were persuaded that the literal sense always conceals a mysterious meaning. They possessed books written by the ancient founders of the sect, wherein the key to the allegorical method was given. They thus composed to the praise of God songs and hymns, real psalms in different cadences, which they sang in grave and varied rhythm. The whole day was occupied by study ; all demands of the body were

• De vita contempl. , § 3. Instead of μovaoτýpiov read μvoτýpiov (compare the following line).

A very characteristic trait of Philo. Cf. the Treatise, weρì TOÛ θεοπέμπτους εἶναι τοὺς ὀνειρούς. 318 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. reserved for night. Some of them reached the point of eating only every third day, or even at a longer interval. Such was their life six days in the week. During those six days they did not come out of their cabins, nor even look abroad. The seventh day they met in a common place of worship, divided into two parts by a wall three or four cubits high. The female members thus personally joined in these assemblies, since the wall did not prevent the mingling of voices, while it did away the objections to free intercourse. The brethren sat down, according to their age, in sober attitudes. Then the oldest, or the one most thoroughly versed in doctrine, advanced and spoke gravely and simply. He was listened to in silence, only mild signs of approbation being permitted. Philo says much about the discreet way in which each man defended his own opinion , and argued against that of others. The contrast between them and the vainglorious controversialists at Jerusalem is pointedly indicated. One feels that the good-breeding of Philo and his polished, man-of-the-world manners had been often chafed by the loud speech and sharp tone of those ill- bred scholiasts. After the religious service the solitaries gave their bodies some refreshment. They ate bread seasoned with salt ; those who were delicate added a little hyssop. Their great festival was Pentecost, of which the common repast was always an essential part. THE CONTEMPLATIVE life. 319 They met clad in white garments, * bearing in their faces signs of a subdued joy. At first they stood in ranks, and prayed with their hands and eyes raised to heaven. Then they sat down in order, according to the time they had belonged to the sect. The women shared in the repasts, apart from the men, - the former on the right, the latter on the left . As there were no slaves in the sect, young men, distinguished by their elegance, their nobleness, or their promise of great virtue, were chosen to serve at the feast. They came into the hall dressed in long tunics, without a girdle, to mark the absence of any idea of servility. "These young men seem like happy sons pressing round their fathers and mothers ; they see in the guests their common parents, to whom they are attached by a closer tie than that of blood. For those who judge things rightly, indeed, nothing creates a stronger bond than the common practice of what is beautiful and good." The assembly seems at first view more like an academic meeting than a repast. In the midst of profound silence one of the brethren begins a theologico-philosophical discourse. The subject is some question drawn from Scripture, or a doubt raised by one of the brethren. The discussion is serious, quite free from self-display, no one seeking to shine or triumph by his superiority . "Each one teaches leisurely, without fear of repetitions or prolixity, Like the Essenes, see p. 48. In general, the food of the Therapeuta was very like that of the Essenes. 320 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. only aiming to let his thought penetrate into others' minds ; for in explanations given too rapidly and without pause, it often happens that those who are listening cannot follow the teacher, so that their mind lags behind and the understanding of things escapes them." Their commentaries on the sacred writings consist in allegorical interpretations. The Law seems to them like a living creature : the commandments are its body ; the soul is represented by the unseen spirit hidden beneath the text. Intellectual skill consists in divining, at the slightest hint and the smallest indication, the invisible behind the visible. When the assembly thought the president † had spoken long enough, unanimous applause testified to the pleasure all had experienced. Then the president rose and sang a hymn, which he had composed himself or taken from some ancient poet. The sect, indeed, besides the Book of Psalms, had collections of hymns in various measure, written for processions, stations, and the several stages of their worship. These hymns were no doubt in Greek, and reproduced the whole series of liturgical prosody. After the president, each sang in turn, and all took up in chorus the last words of each hymn and the refrain. When all had sung their hymn, the young men

• One might say that here Philo ( § 10) is speaking of his own

manner of teaching, and offering an apology for his prolixity. † Ο πρόεδρος. THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE. 321 - who served brought in the table for the sacred feast. No meat, no bloody food, was there, nothing but bread and salt, and hyssop for the dainty. There was no wine. They drank only pure water, slightly warmed for the old, who had to take precautions. The bread was leavened, that there might be no possible confusion between it and the unleavened loaves, called the “ shew-bread," placed on the table in the vestibule of the Temple. These latter were destined for the priests, and laymen must abstain from them, thus recognizing the privileges of the priesthood. Philo, indeed, is far from supposing that the asceticism of his Therapeutæ supplants the worship at Jerusalem, or makes them equal with the priests. Among the Essenes the tendency to do without priests, and to substitute the rites of the sect for the official worship, especially the bloody sacrifices, is plainly to be seen. * Philo does not wish his solitaries to commit the same fault . The superiority of the worship at Jerusalem is distinctly recognized. After the repast, took place the sacred vigil . † All rose and grouped themselves in the middle of the hall so as to form two bands, one of men and one of women. They chose as leader of each of these bands. the person in it most respected and best trained in music. A sacred dance ensued, accompanied by hymns sung in parts, with antiphones and responses, the different cadences of these alternate songs being marked by gestures.

• See p. 53.

VOL. V.--21 † Παννυχίς. 322 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. "They dance thus in the midst of holy transports, sometimes moving, sometimes stopping, sometimes turning round and round, following the rules of strophe and antistrophe. When each of the two bands separately is weary of this pleasure and drunken with the wine of divine love, as happens in the mysteries of Bacchus, they join each other, the two bands making but one, like that formed of old on the shore of the Red Sea, under the conduct of Moses and Miriam. The songs continue in alternate stanzas. The deep voices of the men mingling with the higher voices of the women produce an harmonious concord, with an effect that is truly musical. The thoughts are beautiful, the words also ; the dances are very grave. The object of thoughts, words, and dances is piety. "They steep themselves till morning in this delightful intoxication, which, far from making their heads heavy, or weighing upon their eyelids, renders them brisk and alert. When they perceive the first rays of the sun, they raise their hands to heaven and ask God for a happy day, knowledge of the truth, and clearness of understanding. After this prayer each goes to his own abode to resume the culture of philosophy." Are we to take all this as serious ? Is Philo, in these singular pages, describing an ideal mode of life or a reality ? These Therapeutæ of Lake Mareotis, mentioned only by himself, have they really existed , or is it an ideal Salentum,* the picture of a Paradise intended to edify and to charm ? It is very difficult to give any exact answer. The substance of the Therapeutic romance is borrowed from the Essenes, but with important changes. Perhaps some ascetics

• Salente, the seat of Fénelon's utopian monarchy (at all points an

antithesis to that of Louis XIV. ) in Télémaque, books vi. and x. - - TR. THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE. 323 whom Philo may have seen near Lake Mareotis * may have turned his ideas in that direction. What he had read of Pythagorean institutes and the life of the Stoics floated also, possibly, in his imagination. The whole thing is a free and deliberate creation ; it is the ideal of a perfect life and perfect happiness as Philo conceives it. The Therapeutic life is the life of Philo himself, -a life in which man makes mind triumph over the senses, concerns himself only with his soul, and by simplifying everything that relates to the body becomes a citizen at once of heaven and of the world. † Such a life in the language of Philo is all comprised in " philosophy," and philosophy, for a Jew, consisted above all things in meditation on the ancient books and their allegorical explanation. The entire work of Philo is the work of a perfect Therapeute. Philo did not live on the shores of Lake Mareotis ; he did not live in a little house with a shrine ; but his life was well consecrated to a search after truth. Without renouncing official Judaism, he created for himself a method of personal discipline, and was happy in the rules he had laid down for himself. Perhaps some of his friends shared his tastes. Invention and religious initiative were at this period marked by a boldness that amazes us. Men dared anything. Jesus, as a founder of religion, was not a solitary apparition in

• Compare the catochites, or recluses in the Serapeum . Orig. du

Christ. , ii. 79, 325 ; vi. 188, note 2. De vita contempl. , § 11. 324 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. his own time. And who can boast of having measured the height to which the religious fancy may dare to soar ? Poesy and Truth : these words sum up the treatise on the Contemplative Life, —a book peculiarly subjective ; a strange mixture of truth and passing fancies, without consistency, betraying the agency of imagination ; a philosophic romance ; or, if you will, a picture drawn by a man who saw the world through his dreams. This was clearly the case with Philo. His Therapeutæ are each a Philo, -noble, well-bred, * full of antipathy for vulgar pedants, perfect in manners. Nowhere do we meet the popular breath, the common crowd. To him all this has never seriously existed. This philosophic convent, where in a cell of a few square yards men could discourse on abstract themes from sunrise to sunset, would have been next door to a graveyard. † Well-educated people, shut up there for a few weeks, would have died of atrophy and nervous prostration. We think, therefore, that the treatise on the Contemplative Life was written by Philo as an appendix to the treatise That all good men are free, ‡ in which a great deal is said of the Essenes in Palestine . This brilliant manifestation of Judaism, so closely akin to his own convictions, stirs in him a sort of jealousy,

• Ανθρωποι ἄστειοι καὶ εὐγενεῖς, § 9.

† French, " une annexe de la Morgue. ' 99 ‡ One remarkable trait is the importance given to the subject of slavery in De vita contempl. (especially in §§ 2 and 9). It is also very prominent in Quod omnis probus liber. THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE. 325 and inspires in him the wish to show that Egypt is not in this respect inferior to Palestine. With some few grains of fact, he has dressed up a picture which history would err in adopting as a trustworthy document. In explaining Essenism, we must make no account of the Contemplative Life ; the very word "Therapeuta " should be banished from the history of Judaism, if taken to mean a distinct institution existing anywhere but in the aspirations of Philo. What stands out on these singular pages is the portrait of Philo himself, in all its most delicate shades, -a refined man of the world, with an excellent heart, in love with the good and the true ; a soul the peer of Spinoza, one of the most speculative and most disinterested of men that ever lived . Like the cicada of which he speaks, * Philo lived on air and song. He was truly one of our own brothers ; we love the little philosophic convent of Mariout as we love a broken plaything of our childhood . The thing itself was small, but the effort that conceived it was grand, — especially when we remember that its religious creator was only a rich layman, and not a priest . Religious activity outside of the priesthood, in this consists the whole history of Israel. - - The points of likeness between Philo's Therapeutæ and Christian monks are striking. Those who have concluded that they were identical are wrong, but their principle was the same : the monks of the

• De Vita contempl. , § 4.

† Way of life, costume, humility (§ 4, end) , &c. 326 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. Chartreuse have almost realized the dream of Philo on the shores of Lake Mareotis. If any one has read his book with attention, he must have seen that nothing has been developed by Christianity that had not its roots in the Judaism of the first and second centuries before the birth of Christ. THE HAGADA. CHAPTER XVI. - PIOUS FRAUDS. · -CREDULITY. THE imagination of the people was in travail, and bringing forth continually, adding to the Biblical story decorations without end. The grand figures of Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses * stood out somewhat boldly against the background of sacred history. To us such bare outlines are imposing ; but in those days it seemed as if they lacked something. It was matter of regret that the ancient story was so sober in colouring : they would give it point and make it edifying. Before the Christian era there were books about Adam, Lamech, and Noah, † but we have not enough material to reconstruct these characters. Abraham became more and more the ideal of a model Pharisee. Some very pretty legends were told about him. His body, like that of Moses, had been the object of a battle between good and bad angels. But, dating from the Jewish epoch, it

• See Fabricius, Cod. pseud. Vet. Test. ,

-a collection in which the lives of legendary personages are classed in chronological order, or what is supposed to be such. † Canonical list Montfaucon- Pitra ; Schürer, ii . 671. Origen, In Luc. hom. , 35, init. 328 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. does not appear that any revelations were put to his account. We think that the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs is altogether of Christian origin. † The Prayer of Joseph, on the other hand, seems to have been entirely the work of a somewhat eminent Jew. ‡ Moses was honoured (to say nothing of the Torah) with an apocalypse of the first class . § We shall' have more to say about it, and in its burning words we can sometimes almost hear the tones of Jesus. No story was more popular than that which related the death of Moses. Satan and Michael contended for his body, each wishing to seize it for himself.|| Michael, of course, carries it off with a high hand. The dispute between Moses and the magicians of Pharaoh gave abundant material to the legendmakers. The two adversaries of Moses were called Jannes and Jambres (or Mambres), two Semitic words. These names had some success afterward

• See, however, the Stichometria of Nicephorus, No. 6 .

† Orig. du Christ. , vi. 268, &c. For Eldad and Medad, see the same, pp. 396, 397. Origen, In Joh. , ii . xxv. Eusebius, Præp. evang. , vi. xi . 64. § A considerable part of the Assumption ofMoses has been discovered in a Latin translation by M. Ceriani , in a manuscript of Bobbio, at Milan. See Fritzsche, Schürer, &c . This legend was, in the lost part of the text, discovered by M. Ceriani. Concerning this legend in Judaism, see Schürer, ii . 635, 636. ¶ Perhaps , ¡y , the two fundamental words of all dialogue, DIST (says) Solomon ; Marcoul RÉPOND (replies). The two speakers were no doubt Moses and the magician. THE HAGADA. 329 among pagans * and Christians. † But it was after Christianity was well established that writings were attributed to them, which some have very simply accepted as canonical. The Stichometria of Nicephorus and the ancient lists of canonical books also mention a Testament of Moses, || which is lost. The old framework of " Enoch " continued to please ; they were all the time enriching it with new ornaments. Enoch, like the Sibyl of Palestine, was a permanent oracle, always ready to respond. Besides the old apocalypse of the days of John Hyrcanus, a multitude of little books were written, in which the venerable patriarch was supposed to instruct men in hidden things, the mysteries of the angels and the spirits, a whole system of inferior astrology, which indeed was mere tautology, but which was thought sublime. These little books, all put together, formed the compilation now called the "Book of Enoch, " of which about one third has come down to us in Greek, and the whole in Ethiopian. The original was undoubtedly written in Hebrew. The story of the angels as told by Enoch was that

• Pliny, Hist. Nat. , xxx. i . 1. Apulius, Apol. , c. 90. Numenius

in Eusebius, Præp. evang. , ix. 8. † 2 Timothy iii . 8 ; Gospel of Nicodemus ; Acta Pilati, 5. Origen, Against Celsus, iv. 51, &c. Origen, Gelasius. § Eighth century. || Schürer, ii. 670 , 671. ¶ See p. 20. There were also books of Lamech. List Montf.- Pitra, No. 3. "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him " (Gen. v. 24). 330 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. derived, after a fashion, from the sixth chapter of Genesis. Evil beings were born, the result of the intercourse of demons with the daughters of men: being very intelligent, however, these fallen angels made some excellent inventions, and some very bad ones. They perverted the world, and made the deluge necessary. Enoch and Noah, * in the midst of a corrupt world, are witnesses for the truth ; they predict the deluge, but men, blinded by their sins, will not hear them. What characterizes the books attributed to Enoch is a certain taste for science. Enoch thinks he can teach men the secrets of creation. One of his favourite ideas is that science is a reward. The just -the electat each step of progress they make receive sevenfold knowledge concerning all parts of the creation. The author seems to suppose that for this revelation was needed ; while in fact the Greeks, who employed no ministry of angels to help them in their scientific researches, succeeded far better with their own unaided faculties. If the author had only chosen to consult these scientists in Alexandria, who had no supernatural information whatever, they could have taught him a much more

• There were confusions and double parts played by these two

personages. Compare Matthew xxiv. 37, &c.; Luke xvii. 26, &c.; 1 Peter iii. 20 ; 2 Peter ii . 5. Cf. Book of Enoch lxxxiii. 6 ; cvi. and cvii . The passages relating to Noah in the Book of Enoch (liv. 7; lv. 60 ; lx.; lxv. 1 ; lix. 25 ; cvi. cvii . and cviii .) appear to be an insertion later than the similitudes . Cf. lviii. 1. † Enoch xciii. 10, 14 (Lawrence xcii. 12, 23). Such passages might indicate a Gnostic origin. THE HAGADA. 331 advanced astronomy, almost in fact the true system of the world. But in those days good sense was held in contempt, and admiration was only for chimeras. The silly astronomy revealed by Uriel, or I know not what other archangel, gave Enoch in the Jewish world the title of inventor of astronomy."

The hostility between the good and bad- who to Enoch are the same as black and white -led him to an eschatology that was absolutely ferocious. Hell, as described in its most horrible details, is indeed an invention of our author. Dante had in him a true forerunner. Enoch delights to relate these hideous torments ; he even invents them. Fire, indeed, has its part in all of them : this fire-pit is localized in a definite spot ; its geography is detailed with repulsive realism.t The angelology of the Book of Enoch is perfectly ridiculous. Besides the " Watchers," and the four classic Angels, Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel, or Phanuel, — he knows a whole race of celestial beings, whose names he fabricates in the most audacious fashion. § All this is pure nonsense. Probably, however, these names of the angels were those that the Essenes were so proud of knowing,

• Alexander Polyhistor, in Eusebius, Præp. evang. , ix. xvii. 8.

Compare Schürer, ii. 681. † Some have attempted to attribute all this to the days of the Gnostics and Manichæans, to the time of the Ascension of Isaiah, for example; but that is impossible. ty, in Greek ' Eyphyopot, i . 5, &c. § Chap. vii. , &c. All these absurdities are repeated in the Greek text, recently discovered . 332 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. and kept with such jealous care. * This trait, and also a taste for occult sciences, is one of the peculiarities which give rise to the idea that " Enoch," at least in certain parts, was an Essenian book. The Jewish hagada thus exhibits, as we see, a quality completely puerile. The fresh and delicate imagination which gives such charm to legends of the West is lacking in those of the Orient. † A very singular work is that species of legendary (hagadic) Bible which has come down to us under the title of the "Book of Jubilees " or " Lesser Genesis.' The original was certainly composed in Hebrew. § The author makes abundant use of the Book of Enoch. || He wrote about the time of Jesus or the Apostles, certainly before the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. "" The form chosen by the author is that of a revelation supposed to have been made to Moses on Mount Sinai by the angel who stands before the face of God. He follows step by step the Biblical narrative from the beginning of Genesis to the twelfth chapter of

• The Book of Jubilees, nearly related to the Book of Enoch, gives

us an angelology quite as absurd. Compare the names of the angels. † Compare the Lives of the Saints in the Greek Church with those in the West. What a difference ! This work, frequently quoted by Greek Fathers and Byzantine chroniclers, has been recovered in Ethiopian. A fragment of a Latin translation has been discovered by M. Ceriani in the manuscript of Bobbio (now at Milan), which contains the " Assumption of Moses. " See Rönsch, Das Buch der Jubilæen, Leipsic, 1874. § Saint Jerome read it in Hebrew. Epistle 78, ad Fabiolam. || Schürer, ii. 681. It would be interesting to examine what parts of the Book of Enoch have been used in the Book of Jubilees. THE HAGADA. 333 ― Exodus, with the utmost freedom, however, omitting, altering, and adding after his good pleasure. He claims, indeed, that what he adds to the text should be held as sacred as the text itself. The text was of course revealed ; but the additions have been revealed also ! God, foreknowing the interest that would some day attach to these things, has been pleased to tell us the names of the wives of the patriarchs, the number of Adam's children, and so on ! 66 Vanity of Vanities ! " Such, O ancient Jehovist compiler, was the comment that should be written on the margin of your masterpiece. - The spirit of the book is that of the Targums, pious, apologetic, and credulous in the extreme. The author believes in the survival of souls, without believing in the resurrection. * He is not much of a messianist, and is strongly attached to the Law. The Patriarchs observed the Law! They were saints ! The Law was written in heaven on tables before it was announced on earth ; the angels obeyed it ! All of it is not in the Torah ; there were books revealed to the patriarchs, which they hid in secret places, and bequeathed to pious men of future generations. † This is capital, and surely answers all objections that common-sense might offer to the forest of fables then sprouting up on all sides. Reasonable men would prefer to hold only to the old Hebrew Bible, which alone (they thought) had been revealed. The

• Schürer, iii . 24. † Schürer, ii. 679.

334 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. authors of these apocryphas maintain, like the author of "Wisdom,"* and as Gnostics of the JudeoChristian school will do later, † that revelation is continuous ; that the patriarchs had their share in it ; that there are books of the Patriarchs hidden away in caves and in secret places ; that all there is to be done is to find them. This idea, it will be seen, singularly enlarges the circle of revelation ; it makes prophecy something that advances and expands. It was admitted that the nebiim properly so called, the three great and the twelve minor Prophets, had not exhausted prophecy, and that there had been prophets before them ; hence it was very easy to conclude that there might be others after them. A very important thing about all these apocryphal books is their family likeness. The Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, and the Assumption of Moses, -to which we may add the Psalms of Solomon and the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, —all quote and indeed copy one another.§ We may add that these works have had the same literary fate, and have shared the same grounds of reputation or discredit ; that they usually go together ; that they are found in the same manuscripts, or in the same series of manuscripts. || These books belong evidently to

• See p. 287. + Pseudo-Clementine writings.

Thence comes the word " Apocrypha, " which properly signifies "hidden." Chald. л = ἀπόκρυφα. From this one passes easily to the meaning " mysterious." Cf. Daniel ii. 22. § See Schürer, ii. 667, 669 ; and Lucius, Essenismus, 124, 125, note. Even Latin translations of the " Assumption " and the " Lesser Genesis " have been found in the same manuscript of Bobbio, and the PIOUS FRAUDS. 335 one and the same party, -a- party characterised by enlarged views with respect to Pharisaism and its future affinities with Christianity. All, indeed, were at one time in the Christian canon, and have been preserved for us by Christians. * This group evidently made a circle, having a literature of its own. Jesus must have been in close relations with it. If the word " Essenism " may be taken in a wide sense, this religious party might be called "the Essenian circle . " Its gorgeous angelology and the taste for secret books which we see in it, as well as in the Book of Enoch, are characteristics of the Essenes ; but the especial traits of Essenism are wanting. It would be an exaggeration to think that in Jewish society contemporary with Jesus there were parties strictly labelled, including everybody. There were sharply opposed tendencies, groups, coteries, but nothing more. Parties or schools there were none, in any rigorous or well- defined sense. Besides the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots, there were what we might call apocalyptists, apocryphists, -the school that produced the Books of Enoch, the Assumption of Moses, the Psalms of Solomon, the Lesser Genesis, the Apocalypse of Elijah, and all the translation has been made by the same translator (an Irishman). It is probable that the two works, attributed to Moses, were together in Greek manuscripts. I imagine that the Latin version was a theme done by some Irishman, like Scotus Erigena. The Latinity is something peculiar.

• See Credner, Gesch. des Canons, 116–146.

336 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. prophets with assumed names (pseudepigrapha), all animated by the same spirit, which in many respects resembles that of Jesus. These writers of apocalypse, or apocrypha, were at the same time the messianists, the party of pious frauds, of falsehoods, which they at once invented and believed. By dint of talking of the Messiah they created him. We are drawing near the borders of Christianity ; we are already on the soil from which Jesus sprang. Therefore it was that Christians preserved this literature ; orthodox Jews and Pharisees allowed the Hebrew originals to perish ; we have them only in translations. Christians put them into their canon ; † they allowed them to stay there, and for two centuries produced a series of works of the same kind. ‡ Those who composed them were Judeo- Christians so completely that it is very difficult to discern between Jewish pseudepigrapha and the Christian. Hellenist Christians, like Origen, held such writings in aversion, suffered them to perish, or even destroyed them purposely. In the orthodox Church, these compositions, once so revered, became bad books, to be hunted out as

-

• The written language in Palestine at that day was Hebrew,

the Hebrew of Ecclesiastes, Pirké aboth, and the Mishna. The spoken language was the Aramean of the Targums. The greater part of the writings as soon as they appeared were translated into Aramean and Greek. That the vulgar tongue was Aramean is proved by the glosses ofthe time (proper names of men and of places, quoted words, &c. ) . † Credner, Schürer especially, Stichometria, and Montfaucon-Pitra, Gelasius. Orig. du Christ. , index, word Apocryphes. § Origen, commentary on Matthew xxiii. 37, xxvii . 9. PIOUS FRAUDS. 337 dangerous. Thus it happens that writings of this class are so often lost in Greek that we have them only in Latin, Syriac, or (especially) in Ethiopic, the Abyssinian Church having still a strong JudeoChristian stamp. Christianity succeeded only by shedding its first skin. It was for this that it had been received ; and it was held in spite of it. Celsus was already laughing at the millions of angels in the Book of Enoch, † and Origen does not perceive that the Christianity he believes in was born of a union formed with absurdities for which he feels nothing but disdain. The Lives of the Prophets, as we have seen already, were the objects of embellishments in bad taste, in which there was no hesitation to push the supernatural into the grotesque. The aerial journey of Habakkuk, the breakfast of Daniel, and the wooden saw with which Isaiah was sawn asunder ‡ are very poor inventions, which yet had great sucAbout Jeremiah especially, the most revered of all the Prophets, the enveloping maze of fable was considerably enlarged. He had been the link between the old forms and the new. He had the secret of the hiding-places, the mysterious recess.

• Note the antipathy of the Fathers who had any wit for the

Apocalypse ; also the fact that the Book of Enoch was in Tironian characters (stenographic writing) , so called from Tiro, Cicero's freedman and scribe. † Origen, Against Celsus, v. 52, 55. The first edition, without visions, is in Ethiopian. The visions added afterward are of Christian origin. See Schürer, ii . 683, &c. Cf. Hebrews xi. 37. VOL. V. -22 338 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL . “ treats, which the new school thought so much of, where the objects of ancient worship were hidden away. * We shall never understand the singular moral condition which produced so many fables, unless we remember the ill-training of every mind that has not, directly or indirectly, come under Greek discipline. The words of the Bible itself, so reverenced as to the letter, were treated as to the sense with unexampled levity. Biblical exegesis had reached its last stage of feebleness. It would be an exaggeration to say that Hebrew was no longer known. But the ancient languages are full of difficulties : to understand their old enigmas we need sagacity, a spirit of criticism , and a comparative study of languages which modern times alone have been able to afford. Hebrew, in the days of Jesus, was known much as the Parsees knew their Zend in the days of Anquétil, or the Brahmins know the language of the Vedas. Many features in the ancient books were no longer comprehended ; and what was worse, every passage not understood was regarded as mysterious and referring to the Messiah. Thus was formed a collection of passages called " messianic," which men would reason upon till they lost their wits, and which the first Christians Jesus himself, we are told - misused in the same strange manner. Many of such reason-

• Second letter at the head of 2 Maccabees ii. 1, &c. Cf. Baruch

(fable of the sacred vessels) and the Epistle of Jeremiah ; also Euthalius on Ephesians v. 14 ; and Saint Jerome on Matthew xxvii. 9. PIOUS FRAUDS. 339 - ings, those of Saint Paul in particular, were founded on false readings ; all took it for granted that the original author had had no common-sense, and had written in defiance of all the laws of the human mind. In truth, they took very little heed of what he meant, that was a mere trifle. The sacred book was a mass of riddles, from which you took what you would, independent of the author's meaning, hunting out every possible combination. Hence the unexampled singularity of the New Testament exegesis throughout, seeming to be a challenge to common-sense, whether it plays upon the Hebrew, or takes for its basis the Greek version or the Aramean Targums. Hence also those " seventy faces of the Law," that variety of senses, allegory, accommodation, metaphor, and the like. Exegesis was running into fable ; the sacred text had become a field for the play of wit, where every one cut and trimmed to his own fancy. The words of the Bible, used like a juggler's balls, were made to support the most opposite theories ; the most simple rules of reasoning in this game of cup-and-ball were totally neglected. * In truth, by legends and revelations that sprang up on all sides, the Bible became almost twice as large as before ; and naturally the newest portion was the most popular, because it served most directly the needs of the hour. The ancient Prophets came

• See, for instance, Galatians iii . 16 ; iv. 22-25 ; Romans x. 6-8 ;

Matthew xxii . 31 , 32 ; Epistle of Barnabas c. 6. 340 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. almost all to have, besides their own authentic work, a series of spurious additions. * These writings were quoted by writers of the first generation of Christians with a certain preference. Hence so many quotations in the New Testament which refer to apocryphal books. † There was, for instance, an Apocalypse of Elijah, from which Saint Paul borrowed one of his most often quoted sayings.§ One cannot imagine any celebrated man, any tragic situation (of martyr, penitent, or the like) , which had not its revelation . || In general, revelation or (what comes to the same thing) edification was the object of the apocryphal story. Legend was seldom invented merely from a taste for amusement. Let us here repeat for the twentieth time that those writings, which we can see at a glance are false, were reputed to be perfectly authentic. It was admitted that such or such a writing by Elijah, for instance, had been preserved, though not included in the Bible. These works were read with avidity. Jesus and his earliest disciples were among those readers, and drew from them something of their ardent faith . The first doubts thrown on them appear

• See especially the Stichometria of Nicephorus.

† See p. 20, note. Stich. of Nicephorus, No. 8. Cf. Revue des études Juives (1880) i. 108, &c. § 1 Corinthians ii. 9 ( cf. Hebrews xi. 37) . Origen and Euthalius. Saint Jerome denies. The passage in Ephesians v. 14, in spite of what Epiphanius says, is from another apocrypha. This is what is called Merávoia (Pœnitentia), a word which meant very nearly "revelation . " Pænitentia Adæ, Pœnitentia Joannis et Mambræ, μeTávola in Pistis Sophia. CREDULITY. 341 among the Christians of the third century, who, like Origen, had received an Hellenic education . * There never was an age so childlike in its credulity ; and it was just the very century of the great blossoming- out of faith. The reasoning faculty seemed extinct in the human mind ; the credulity of childhood was the ordinary condition. Men affirmed without reason, as people do in dreams ; they believed without reason . They spoke what was false, and believed their own lie : fingunt simul creduntque. Religions are founded only in such an environment as this. The smallest dose of reason in the surrounding air might have proved enough to kill them in their infancy. America, with its lack of high culture, is the only nation in our day that has been able to furnish the soil for a new religion . There an imposture can go far, without meeting anything to check it. The first century of our era was in Judea a like period. The monstrous collusion which served as a basis for belief in the resurrection of Jesus was possible only at a time that led men to believe in Enoch and in Moses having really come to life again. No age was ever so easily deceived. Faith then was free, for it was only imagination ; it is our logical races that have made of it a dogma, a chain. Nothing limited the hagada ; every possible combination of the words of the sacred text had instant assent. The intellectual heaviness of

• For example, his 35th homily upon Luke, and passages on the

Apocalypse of Elijah. † Of course, I am here speaking only of Judea. 342 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. our Western races, especially the English, who hold as a first principle that all countries and all ages are alike, cannot understand this. The strange intellectual processes of the age of the hagada require for their right understanding the most delicate criticism ; and it is precisely the races that are most honest that are most wanting in this faculty. They never will be able to admit the existence of such enormous imposture in those phases of human development into which moral feeling of the noblest quality enters, in other matters, as a fundamental element. There was a kind of hagada very superior. I mean the parable, of which there appears to have been no example before Jesus. This charming method of instruction, long known among the Buddhists, had probably been quite unknown among the Jews. The parables concerning the kingdom of God, when Jesus uttered them , were something entirely new. The great fault of the old style, indistinctness of outline, has here become a merit ; and certainly, to have drawn forth a masterpiece from the confused mass of the Jewish hagada is a really grand achievement. The " Book of Jubilees " had not prepared us for this. If we could only limit the miracles of Jesus to his literary miracles, we might say that this was indeed a miracle of the highest kind.

The Parables of Enoch (see Book ix. chap. iii . ) are of quite another order. CHAPTER XVII. PROGRESS OF MESSIANIC IDEAS : ANTICIPATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. WHAT induced Judaism to undertake the immense labour of renovating the Bible, which we have just related, was the progress in messianic beliefs, which went on daily with surprising activity. This activity was hardly visible : the official glory, the fashion (if we may so express it ), was all in disputes concerning the Law. The messianists were obscure dreamers ; the doctors despised them, or indeed knew nothing of them. But the future was their own. The task on which they laboured was the true work of the People of Israel . Among the little books attributed to Enoch - which, gathered together, make up the work now called the Book of Enoch -there are two which may possibly have been written in the days of Herod, or in the childhood of Jesus. They are singularly like some of the discourses ascribed to Jesus, concerning the last days and against the official classes. These portions, especially those called

• These are the portions of the book that we have designated by

the letters b and c (see pp. 20, 21 note) , chaps. xxxvii. -lxxiv. and xciv.-cv. 344 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. "" the " Similitudes or Parables, use terms extraordinarily like those we find in the Gospels. " The Son of Man," an expression taken from the Book of Daniel, * here means the Messiah. † This is a family trait, which if it were certain would be of the highest importance. What leads us to think that in fact, years before the time of Jesus, the phrase " Son of Man " was used to indicate the Messiah, is that the expressions " Ancient of Days " and " Watchers," also taken by the pseudo- Enoch from the Book of Daniel, are not found in the Gospels ; whence it follows that the scenery of Daniel is more fully copied in Enoch than in the Gospel. It seems therefore probable that the expression was so used before the birth of Jesus, and that he so employed it, having read that part of the Book of Enoch in which it appears for the first time. For the pseudo-Enoch, as for all the messianists, the office of the Son of Man is first of all that of Judge, who will put an end to the deplorable mixture of good and evil upon the earth. The need of a judge was the first want felt by every conscience in this unhappy time. It was thought needful that he should have at his command hell and eternal fires.§ Yet the rather feeble image of this judge in the See Vie de Jésus , pp. 135, 136. The places are too numerous for quotation. (lxi. 9) is a singularity, without importance. " Son of woman 99 It may be thought that part b of the Book of Enoch was written by a Christian ; but that seems to us less probable. § Enoch, xcix. 9, &c . PROGRESS OF MESSIANIC GIANIC IDEAS. 345 pages of Enoch falls far short of the awful figure of the Son of Man drawn for us in the Gospels, as a type from age to age for Christian art. The Messiah of Enoch is first of all the destroyer of heathen kingdoms, those kingdoms which cover the earth and pollute it. He will found the kingdom of the Elect, which will of course be the kingdom of righteousness, as our author describes it, much like the ideal of the Essenes. * It will at least be a very democratic kingdom, without luxury, and without men who hold any authority whatever over their fellows. The advent of this new reign will be the extermination of the powerful, and of those who live for pleasure. The judgment day of God will bring terror to the rich : - - Woe to those who build their house on sin ! † for the foundations of that house shall be overthrown, and destroyed by the sword. Woe to those who possess gold and silver ! for they shall perish. . . . Therefore have good hope O ye righteous ! for sinners shall perish before your eyes ; you will become their masters, and you shall rule over them as you will. . . Fear not those who torment you, for you shall be saved ; a bright light shall surround you , and a word of peace out of the heavens shall descend upon you. Woe to you sinners ! for your riches made you pass for saints ; but your conscience will convince you that you are

• We should remember that if messianism has no place in the

account Josephus gives us of the Essenes, it was probably because it was his deliberate purpose to keep out of sight everything that bore on messianic belief, a belief that he considered both dangerous and absurd in the eyes of the Romans. † Enoch, xciv. 7, &c . 346 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL . only sinners, and this inward accusation shall be your condemnation. Woe to you who nourish yourselves with the fine flour of wheat, who drink the best water, and who in the pride of your power crush down the poor ! · Woe unto you, ye mighty, who trample justice under foot ! for the day of your ruin is at hand. Then, whilst you suffer the chastisements you have merited for your crimes, the righteous will enjoy days fortunate and many. You say in your hearts, " We are rich, we live in plenty, we have gained all we can desire. Now we will do whatsoever we please, for we have piles of money ; our garners are full, and the families of our farmers are as numerous as the waters from an abundant spring." Your false riches will flow away from you like water, and your treasures shall disappear. They shall be taken from you, because you have acquired them unjustly. Sin comes not from on high, it is men who have found out how to commit evil , but woe to those who do it ! Woman has not been created barren ; it is her own fault that she dies childless. But I swear by the Great and Holy One, * that all bad actions will be brought to light, and no one will be able to hide himself from the light of day. Do not think, do not say, " My crime is hid, my sin is known to no one ; for in heaven an exact account is kept before the Most High of all that is done upon the earth , and of all the thoughts of men : your persecutions from day to day are there made known. "9 Woe to you who triumph in the persecution of the righteous ! for you shall have no burial. Woe to you who take no heed of the words of the righteous ! for to you there is no hope of life. Woe to you who write lies and unjust words ! for your lying words and your iniquities are also written down, and none shall be forgotten.

• An imitation of Daniel.

PROGRESS OF MESSIANIC IDEAS. 347 There is no peace for the wicked ! Death- death alone for the sinner ! . . . In those days all people shall be afraid ; generations in terror shall arise. In those days women who are with child will bring into the world and then abandon the fruit of their womb. Children will fall under their mother's eyes ; and the mother, even while they suck her milk, will cast them off ; they will be without pity for those they love. . . . Men in vain will adore stones, golden images, images of wood and silver, unclean spirits, demons, and all the idols in the temples : they will obtain no help from them. Their hearts will become dull by reason of impiety , and their eyes will be blinded by superstition ; in dreams and in visions they will be impious and superstitious , liars and idolaters : they shall all perish ! But in those days blessed will be those who have received the words of wisdom, and who have sought and followed the ways of the Most High, who have walked in the paths of righteousness. · Woe to you who build palaces with the sweat of other men ! every one of the stones that compose them, every particle of the cement that binds them, is a sin. Woe to you who despise the heritage of your fathers, and who render impious worship to idols ! No ! there shall be no peace for you ! . . . The horror of the last days will surpass all imagination : -

- In that day fathers shall be slain with their children , and brothers with their brethren ; blood shall flow like the waters of a river. For man shall not stay his hand when he is ready to strike his own son, and his children's children ; he will believe that he is acting in mercy, he will not spare them. The brother will not fear to slay the brother more honoured than himself. The massacre will continue without pause from the rising to the going down of the sun.

• Enoch, chap. c. ( Laurence, xcviii.)

348 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. The horse will tread in blood up to his breast, and his chariot will roll in blood to the axle of its wheels. The great problem of the future life beyond the tomb is still måtter of doubt to many, but Enoch has seen its solution written in the sky : Fear not, ye souls of the righteous, but await in peace and security the day of your death ; for it will be a day of justice. Weep not because your souls will descend with sorrow and bitterness into the abodes of death, and because in the body you have not received the rewards due to your good works. . . . When you die, sinners will say of you, " The righteous die even as we do ! What fruits have they gathered from their works ? Behold, they depart out of life even as we do, in trouble and anxiety. In what then are they better treated than ourselves ? Behold, they are dead. Never again will they behold the light ! " But I say to you, O sinners ! Have you not had enough, eating and drinking and despoiling your brethren ? It has cost you nothing to acquire riches ; your days have been days of joy and of felicity. But have you not seen the end of the righteous, how full it is of peace and calm ? "They are dead," will you say, " and they are as though they never had been, and their souls have descended into the abodes of death " ? I swear to you, O ye righteous, by the greatness of God and by his splendour, by his kingdom and his majesty, — I swear to you that I understand this mystery ; that it has been given to me to read the tables writ in heaven, to behold the Book of the Righteous, and to discover what is there inscribed concerning you. I have seen that happiness, joy, and glory are prepared for you, and that they await those who shall die in righteousness and holiness. You will then receive the reward of your troubles, and your portion of happiness will far exceed the portion of evils that you have received on earth. PROGRESS OF MESSIANIC IDEAS. 349 Yes, the spirits of those who die in righteousness will live and rest forever ; they will be exalted , and their memory will be eternal before the face of the Almighty. - in It is hardly necessary to point out how nearly this vehement declamation * corresponds with passages the Gospels, conceived in a spirit of hot denunciation, especially the grand apocalypse which all the Synoptics put into the mouth of Jesus a few days before his death. Jesus must surely have read the Book of Enoch ; several of the discourses ascribed to him show singular intersections with the tirades of Enoch. It seems as if the first writers of the synoptical version made use of the Book of Enoch to compose certain discourses of Jesus ; and in this way we may explain the strange fact, that a few words put into the mouth of Jesus by the Synoptics are given as those of Enoch in the epistle ascribed to Saint Barnabas. To the literary group formed by Enoch, the Assumption of Moses, and the Lesser Genesis we must also add the Synoptical Gospels and the Apocalypse ( called that of Saint John ) . ‡ The authors and the readers of these books belonged to the same family intellectually and morally ; they were the founders of Christianity. The Jewish nation, exhausted in a military point of view, and

• The prolixity of the Book of Enoch may arise from several texts

having been copied out together, which has the effect of a "harmony " of the Gospels. † 'Os 'Evàx déyet . See Vie de Jésus (ed. 14) , pp. xlii. -xlviii . Compare Ibid. , xiv. xv. xliv. lv. note ; 40 note, p. 361 , note 1. L'Antéchrist, 70; and L'Église chr. , 498. Observe particularly Enoch, i . 6 ; ii.; civ. 2, &c. 350 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. yet sure of its right, since it could not make an appeal to arms, appealed to God. Hence those furious objurgations, that mad rage, those cries of wrath . The opposition to the official classes, especially the priesthood, is shown still more vehemently in the Apocalypse which some unknown writer in the days of Archelaus has attributed to Moses. Feeling himself about to die, Moses takes Joshua apart, appoints him his successor, and gives him certain prophecies, requiring of him absolute secrecy. As in all the Apocalypses, a universal history is unrolled in these assumed revelations. The author appears wholly to reject the worship of the second Temple as illegal, and radically vitiated by foreign domination. * Priests will be seen going up to the altar who are unclean, -priests who are not priests, but slaves and the sons of slaves. † There will be kings who are priests, who will bring crime into the Holy of Holies (notoriously the Asmoneans) ; then a wicked king will arise who will not be a priest, who will reign thirty-four years by the sword ( Herod) . His sons will occupy the throne after him, but not so long as he. Cohorts will come under the conduct of a mighty king of the West ; part of the Temple will be burned ; many will be crucified

• Chap. iv. 8. Compare Enoch lxxxix. 73 ; xc. 28, &c.; and Josephus, Antiquities, xvii. ix . 1 , νομιμώτερόν τε ἅμα καὶ καθαρὸν ἀρχιερᾶσθαι

ἄνδρα αἱρεῖσθαι . Chap. v. 4. Compare the episode of Jannæus, p. 113, &c. Chap. vi. 1. PROGRESS OF MESSIANIC IDEAS. 351 around their city. This is unquestionably "the war of Varus," and the author wrote shortly after that war, since Moses assigns to this very moment the end of time, which is the principal object of his revelation . The reign of righteousness will be preceded by an orgy of the wicked, who devour the substance of the poor, and say that they do it for religion's sake ; who render justice according to the wealth of the complainants, and the gifts they receive from them ; greedy, debauched, and insolent, they say to the poor, "Touch me not ! for thou wilt soil me." † The writer is evidently speaking of the office-holders of his own time, that time which Jesus saw, and judged almost as severely as this nameless seer. — Such a society will be terribly punished . A new Antiochus Epiphanes will endeavour to suppress Judaism ; will force the Jews to " make themselves uncircumcised," to carry idols, to deny God. But a new Maccabæus § will come to the rescue of the truth ; an army of saints will rather die than renounce their faith . Then will appear the kingdom of God ; the Devil will be overthrown , and

• Chap. vi. 9.

† Chap. vii. In the construction of the great Herodian buildings the Jew was often compelled to assist in dragging pagan statues. § Chap. ix. and what follows. The name of TAXO given to this personage is an enigma. The text has probably been altered . The seven sons indicate a confusion similar to that which serves as a basis for the Second Book of Maccabees. The saints who hide themselves in caves are taken from 2 Maccabees vi. 11 ; the Second Book of Maccabees was very popular among the sects of the hasidim. 352 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE of Israel. sorrow will disappear with him. The angel Michael * will avenge Israel ; the mountains will be shaken, the high hills will be made low, and every valley will be exalted. The sun will be darkened, the horns of the moon will be broken, and its colour will be that of blood ; the stars will wander from their courses ; the sea and the rivers will be dried up : for the Eternal God cometh to execute his judgments on the people and their idols. It will be the triumph of Israel over that accursed eagle which is the ruin of the world. Israel will mount upon his head and on his wings, will tread him under foot, will pluck out his feathers. † Ah, the glorious day ! The feelings most prominent in the Assumption of Moses are also very like those of Jesus. The two characteristic traits of Jesus -his belief in the near end of the world, and his hatred of the priesthoodare found also in the Assumption of Moses. All this was written while Jesus was a youth ; no doubt he had read this singular book, which we possess only in fragments. At any rate, a member of his family or one of his immediate disciples, Jude, " the Lord's brother," made use of our midrash. Placed beside the final declamations in the Gospels, the Assumption of Moses, like the Book of Enoch, seems a written. brother to the apocalypse of Jesus. The "pestilential men," against whom the author vomits forth his

• Chap. x. 2.

† Et ascendes supra cervices, et alas aquila (x. 8) , - an allusion to the eagle which brought about the insurrection of Margaloth. See p. 268. PROGRESS OF MESSIANIC IDEAS. 353 anger, * must surely be the wicked high-priests in the days of Herod and Archelaus. † The expression " kingdom of God, " or " kingdom of Heaven " (words absolutely synonymous), ‡ hardly appears before the time of Jesus ; but the idea was at the bottom of all messianic theories. Herod was, if one may dare to say so, the sharp contrast (repoussoir) that puts it in relief. When the kings of the earth are so bad, there appears but one remedy for the condition of this world : it is that God should reign. Men imagine that things will not go right till then, without remembering that God's agents would be men no way superior to officials in secular States. But when we are in pain or trouble, we console ourselves with very little things ; we dream of the impossible that we may escape the distresses of the present time. It is the glory of Judeo- Christianity to have given voice to the poor, to have expressed in harsh but eloquent terms the socialist protest against wicked men of wealth and the injustice of the worldly. The religions that, like Judaism, take things in earnest always come to the point of advocating social movements ; for the poor good man, feeling himself beloved by God, looks on himself as an aristocrat, and cannot believe that the world is

• Chap. viii. homines pestilentiosi.

† The high- priest was changed at least four or five times under Archelaus. The custom of substituting for the word " God " the word " Heaven " was general at this period. VOL. V.--23 354 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF Israel. organized in the interest of sinners. He thus becomes a demagogue through a very logical train of ideas. To have these feelings, a man did not need to be a Zealot or an Essene ; but he was a disciple of Jesus in advance. The religious family which clustered around Jesus had shown its characteristic features almost fifty years before. -- The mythology of the Messiah, if I may so express myself, with all its terrors, was completely sketched out beforehand. Elijah, Jeremiah, and Moses were its precursors, or its assistant judges. John the Baptist will find the ground prepared, and Jesus will occupy it. Birth without maternity —proles sine matre creata is an impossibility ; and it is not at all the case with Christianity. The remote source of Christianity lay in the ancient Prophets of Israel. The proximate cause was that movement of prophecy looking toward the final consummation, which, from the appearing of the Book of Daniel, worked so powerfully in the Jewish mind. The still nearer cause was the messianic school of Judea, whose manifestoes are the Book of Enoch and the Assumption of Moses. The immediate cause was John the Baptist. CHAPTER XVIII. CONCLUSION. WE here close our narrative. The succession of events in the history of the Jews down to the time of Marcus Aurelius has been told in the seven volumes of our Histoire des Origines de Christianisme. The history of Judaism is so inseparable from that of Christianity during the first two centuries of our era, that it is impossible to relate the one without relating the other. Christianity is the offshoot, or (to speak somewhat anthropomorphically) the end or final cause of Judaism. Having given birth to Christianity, Judaism still continues to exist, but as a withered trunk beside one fertile branch. Henceforth the life is gone from it. Its history, though still deeply interesting, has only a secondary importance in a large historical view. There is in this assertion nothing that need sadden the heart of an Israelite, however strong in his own conviction. It is through Christianity that Judaism has really conquered the world. Christianity is the masterpiece of Judaism, its glory and the fulness of its evolution. Through Christianity the two oppos- 356 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. ing elements in Judaism complete their world-old conflict. The Prophets, conquered since the return from Captivity by the Torah, now finally triumph ; the Pharisees are defeated by the messianists, the halaka by the hagada and by apocalyptic visions. Jesus, the last of the Prophets, sets the seal upon the work of Israel. Dreams of the future, the kingdom of God, and endless hope, will spring up under the steps of this divine enchanter, and will become for ages the spiritual nourishment of mankind. This movement - the birth of Christianity, humble in its origin, then of colossal importance is grouped - around the name of Jesus. I have endeavored as far as possible to pierce the triple curtain which shrouds from us the figure that was real at first, but was afterward made wholly fabulous. Jesus lived . * He was a Jew.† A veil of myth has shrouded all the rest. If, following the example of the Evangel-

• The proof in the Epistles of Saint Paul is undeniable, especially

in the Epistle to the Galatians. The Gospels, though they contain much truth, are not books of history. The testimonies of Jews and pagans are modern and doubtful. But Paul attached himself to the Church of Jesus two or three years after Jesus' death, when the period of apparitions was not yet ended. Now, Paul certainly believed that Jesus had existed. We might compile a little Life of Jesus out of the Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians , and Galatians, adding the Epistle to the Hebrews, which, though not Saint Paul's, is very ancient. Some passages of Paul's, especially what relates to the Lord's Supper, agree perfectly with the Evangelists. Nothing but the folly of men of the world could have raised any doubts on this point. The first Festival in the Christian year is the Circumcision. It would be strange , indeed, if a Divine being coming down to earth should have begun by making himself a Jew, if he was not one ! CONCLUSION. 357 ists, we have adopted a method of narrative which has its share of truth, we have written constantly upon the margin, " I believe not all I copy " (equidem plura transcribo quam credo). We can never silence him who maintains that under the transforming energy of popular imagination the ugliest caterpillar may become the most splendid butterfly. But it is much more probable that the Gospel legend is not altogether false. After long reflection , I persist in believing that Jesus in his general features was such as the Synoptical Gospels represent him ; that his discourses were very nearly what has been preserved for us in the Gospel called Saint Matthew's ; that his Passion was in its main incidents such as all the texts have told us. The Lord's Prayer and the account of the Eucharist make us see him almost as by an instantaneous photograph. Even the illusions which led to a belief in his resurrection are easily perceived, and the hallucinations which caused the conversion of Saint Paul are facts conceivable. it were granted us to see this prodigious process of unfolding take place before our eyes, we should be deceived as to many points ; in many we should recognize the truth of the fables we were brought up upon, and of the imaginations which the received texts had suggested to us. If A fundamental view, in which I grow more and more confirmed, is that not only Jesus lived, but that he was great and noble. His greatness and his nobility may have been as much concealed, in a cen- 358 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL . tre as small, as you please ; but they were real, a thousand times more real than the dim grandeurs and pale beauties of the earth. A mighty personality, in a little circle of its own, is a postulate of prime necessity in the Gospel narrative. To be loved as he was loved he must have been divinely lovable. The resurrection, above all, is a convincing argument as to this. On vague hints, the third day after his death the women of his company, especially Mary of Magdala, imagined that Jesus had come back to life, and had gone into Galilee. This was a supreme miracle wrought by love. * Love was stronger than death ; it restored life to the beloved object. A shade pale like a myth, an ordinary being, could not have worked that miracle. To give so feeble a support to all the weight of the great love that lay at the origin of Christianity, a support too weak to bear it, would have been contrary to the proper balance of history. Jesus was most lovable, but his charm was known only to about a dozen persons. These were so devoted to him that their love has proved contagious, and has impressed itself upon the world. The world now worships him whom these persons so dearly loved . We therefore consider that there is much historic truth in the Gospels. But even were there little or no truth, the great fact remains. That fact is the foundation of Christianity. The details may be doubtful ; the march of the idea is plain.

• See Les Apôtres, p. 8, &c.

Messian- CONCLUSION. 359 ism, in travail since the days of Daniel, has reached maturity in Jesus. The dreams of Enoch, of the Assumption of Moses, and the Jubilees, are realized in him. Jesus was all in all for those who loved him. For all who believe in the Messiah, he is the Messiah. For those who think most of the Son of Man, he is the Son of Man. For those who prefer the Logos, the Son of God, the Spirit, he is the Logos, the Son of God, the Spirit. He is the kingdom of God, the resurrection, the life, the judgment. He is all for all men as if, in our own day, some socialist leader should be powerful enough to persuade those who believe in organized labour that he is organized labour ; partisans of solidarity, that in him is solidarity ; partisans of independent morality, collectivism, and anarchy, that he is each and all of these. All the secret burnings of the Jewish conscience kindled to a white heat produced this passionate outbreak, the most extraordinary in human history, from which a new life dates. It was the attendant crisis of a second birth, a deep implanting of new faculties, the infusion (if I may be allowed the image) of a vital fluid both salutary and essential to the fulness of our life . The act which transmits life, or imparts to it a foreign germ, always involves a sort of fever. Life, at the birth-hour, is ever wrapped in a veil of mystery. - All this took place during a century apparently torn in pieces and given over to every sort of vanity. Judea and the Greco- Roman world were like two 360 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. world-systems rolling on side by side under opposing influences. Up to 1848, socialism was digging its mining-galleries under a soil whose surface showed no signs of disturbance, and lay warm under the sunshine, not suspecting the work that was going on in its interior. The history of the human race is not synchronic in its different parts. Let us tremble. At this very moment, perchance, the religion of the future is in the making ; and we have no part in it ! Oh for the wise old kimri who saw beneath the soil ! It is there that all is prepared ; it is there that we must look. - The immediate future is all dark. It is not even certain that that future will be one of light. Credulity has deep roots. Socialism may bring back by the complicity of Catholicism a new Middle Age, with barbarians, churches, eclipses of liberty and individuality, in a word, of civilization. But the remoter future is certain. That future, we may be sure, will no longer believe in the supernatural ; for the supernatural is not true, and all that is not true is condemned to perish. Nothing endures but truth. Poor truth ! she seems now very lonely, served as she is by an imperceptible minority ! Be calm : she will triumph. All that serves her is laid up, like capital, - a little capital, but invested ; and nothing of that little treasure is ever lost. All that is false, on the other hand, will pass away. Falsehood founds nothing, while the little edifice of truth is of steel, and grows ever higher and higher. CONCLUSION. 361 Therefore neither Judaism nor Christianity will be eternal. If mankind return to superstitions, it will not be to these. Judaism and Christianity will both disappear. The work of the Jew will have its end ; the work of the Greek -in other words, science and civilization , rational, experimental, without charlatanism, without revelation, a civilization founded upon reason and liberty will last forever ; and if this globe should ever fail in its duty, there will be others found to push to the end the programme of all life, — light, reason, and truth. ― "" - The trace of Israel, however, will be eternal. Israel first gave form to the cry of the people, to the plaint of the poor, to the obstinate demand of those who "hunger and thirst after righteousness.' Israel has so dearly loved justice, that, not finding the world just, she condemned it to extinction. Like the anarchists of our day, to those who say, " In the world constituted as it is there must of necessity be injustice," Israel replied, " Well, then, if it is ill-constituted, let us break it to pieces ! " Israel thus fills fills up a gap in Greek civilization, where the slave is so deplorably forsaken of God. Greece had no Book of Enoch, no furious diatribe against the world as it is, and as it is compelled to be. Judaism and Christianity are to antiquity what socialism is to modern times. Socialism will not definitely win the day : liberty, with its consequences, will remain the law of the world . But each man's liberty will be purchased by large 362 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL . concessions made at the expense of all. Social questions will no longer be suppressed ; they will more and more gain upon questions political and national. Israel will never be conquered unless some military power again takes possession of the world, and again founds serfage, forced labour, and the feudal system. That is hardly possible. After centuries of struggle kept up by rival nationalities, mankind will organize itself peacefully ; the sum of evil will be greatly diminished ; and every being, with very rare exceptions, will be happy in existing. With drawbacks that cannot be avoided, the Jewish programme will be accomplished : without Heaven to award compensations, justice will really exist upon the earth. FINITO LIBRO, SIT LAUS ET GLORIA CHRISTO ! (FINISHED OCTOBER 24, 1891.) INDEX. NOTE. -The Roman numerals, i . , ii . , iii . , iv . , and v. used in the following pages, refer to the volumes as follows : Vol . I. , Till the Time of King David. Vol . II. , From the Reign of David up to the Capture of Samaria. Vol. III. , From the Time of Hezekiah till the Return from Babylon. Vol. IV. , From the Rule of the Persians to that of the Greeks. Vol. V., Jewish Autonomy and the Roman Rule. AARAQ EL-EMIR, iv. 240. Aaron, i. 151 . Abarim, ruins of, i . 174. Abdon, i. 280. Abiah, i. 318. Abiathar, i. 339 ; death of, ii. 78. Abiezrites, the, i . 260. Abijam, reign of, ii . 165. Abimelech, murders his half-brothers, and assumes the throne, i. 270 ; death of, i. 272. Abiram, rebellion of, iv. 96. Abishag, ii . 69 ; loved by Adonijah, ii. 70. 2 Abishai, ii. 13. Abner, i. 352 ; death of, i. 354. Abraham, i. 63, 78 ; imaginary an- cestor of nomad Semites, i. 22 ; a Moslem, i . 92 ; the pivot of Iah- veism, ii. 296. Absalom, personal appearance of, ii. 55 ; plots against David, ii. 56 ; in open rebellion, ii . 58 ; defeat of, ii. 63 ; death, ii. 63. Abtalion, v. 273. Achæmenidæ, the, iii . 379 ; the dy- nasty of, iii. 387 ; mildness of the rule of, iv. 164. Achæmenidian empire, the, iii . 388. Achbor, iii. 171. Achish, i. 342. Acre, iv. 187. Actium, battle of, v. 221 . Adonijah, love for Abishag, ii. 70 ; proclaims himself king, ii. 70 ; death of, ii. 78. Adoniram, ii. 80. Adonisedek, i. 203. Adoram, ii . 7. Adrammelock, iii. 92. Adullam, cave of, i. 337. Emilius Scaurus, v. 126 ; governor of Judea, v. 163 ; conquered Hareth III. , v. 163. Eschma- Daeva, iv. 146. Eschylus, iv. 227. Esculapius, iv. 228. Agrippa, v. 234. Ahab, ii. 210 ; reign of, ii. 243 ; death of, ii . 250 ; a remarkable sovereign, ii. 251. Aharon, i. 142. Ahaz, death of, ii . 434. Ahaziah, ii . 251 ; death of, ii . 254, 262 ; reign of, ii. 259. Ahiah, priest of Shiloh, i. 327. Ahiah, ii. 80. Ahijah, ii. 138. Ahijah, the Shilonite, iii. 201 . Ahikam, iii. 171 ; intimate friend and protector of Jeremiah, iii. 192. Ahimilik, i. 323, 338. Ahio, ii. 39. Ahishar, ii. 80. Ahithopel, ii. 57 ; suicide of, ii . 64. Ahriman, iv. 146. 364 INDEX. Ahuramazda, iii. 381 ; iv. 136. Ai, the burning of, i. 216. Aija, iv. 76. Akra, iv. 271 ; fall of, v. 6. Alcimus, iv. 330 ; weak government of, iv. 331 . Alexander, campaigns of, iv. 175. Alexander, son of Aristobulus, escapes from captivity, v. 165 ; drives out Hyrcanus, v. 165 ; defeated by Mark Antony, v. 165 ; beheaded, v. 168. Alexander Jannæus, proclaimed king, v. 96 ; reasonably good reign of, v. 97 ; strong taste for war, v. 97 ; insulted by the Jews, v. 99 ; defeated by Demetrius III. , v. 101 ; cruelty attributed to, v. 101 ; last campaign of, v. 102 ; results of reign of, v. 104 ; sad decline of, v. 114 ; death of, v. 115. Alexander Lysimachus, v. 297. Alexander Polyhistor, iv. 213. Alexandra, see Salome- Alexandra. Alexandria, colony of, iii. 330. Alexandria, founding of, iv. 178; Jewish colony in, iv. 183 ; important movements inaugurated at, iv. 224 ; superior position held by Jews at, v. 201; Jewish school at, v. 279. Alexandrian Sibyl, v. 192. Alexandrine Jews, the, literature of, iv. 208. Alexandrium, destruction of, v. 165. Alliance, the Book of the, ii . 304 ; fusion with the Book of the North, iii. 41 . Amalekites, the, i. 93 ; battle with the Israelites, i. 154 ; location of, i . 191 . Amasa, ii. 57 ; death of, ii. 67. Amaziah, reign of, ii. 347 ; defeated by Joash, ii. 348. Ammonites, the, wars with David, ii. 26. Amnon, ii. 54. Amon, prosperous reign of, iii . 116, 119. Amorites, the, i. 190. Amos, ii. 359 ; the first irreconcilable journalism written by, ii . 359 ; style of, ii. 359 ; the theology of, ii. 362 ; mostly concerned with the kingdom of the North, ii. 364 ; politics of, ii. 367 ; severe criticism of the worship, ii. 367. Amshaspands, the, iv. 144. Ananiah, iv. 76 ; v. 34. Anathoth, iv. 76. Anatoth, the prophet of, iii . 375. Anavim, the, iii . 31 ; reaction against, iii. 103 ; alone and without counterpoise in Israel, iii. 321. Anavite Prophetism, recrudescence of, iii. 120. " Ancient of Days," the, iv. 311. Andromachus, iv. 178 ; v. 238. Anepigraphical monuments, i. 250. Angelology, iv. 136. Angra-manizu, iii . 381. Antigonus, iv. 182. Antigonus of Soco, iv. 245. Antigonus- Mattathias, v. 94 ; friendship of Aristobulus for, v. 95 ; conquered by Herod, v. 173 ; succeeds in taking Jerusalem, v. 179 ; placed upon the throne, v. 179 ; exercised all the rights of royalty, v. 179; essential defect in the plan of, v. 180 ; downfall and death , v. 184. Antioch, iv. 181 ; increasing importance of, iv. 185. Antiochus of Cyzicus, v. 34. Antiochus Epiphanes, character of, iv. 262 ; mistakes of, iv. 263 ; persecution of, iv. 266 ; seeks the extinction of Judaism, iv. 270 ; death of, iv. 324. Antiochus III., the Great, iv. 229 ; lack of permanence in the work of, iv. 232 ; death of, iv. 235. Antiochus V. , iv. 330. Antiochus VI. , 350. Antiochus VII. ( Sidetes) , makes friends with Simon, v. 10 ; quarrels with Simon, v. 11 ; John Hyrcanus makes terms with, v. 15. Antiochus XII. ( Dionysos) , v. 102 ; death of, v. 102. Antipas, son of Herod, v. 256. Antipater, the Ascalonite, plots against Aristobulus, v. 123 ; reconstruction of Judea, v. 166 ; finds INDEX. 365 favour with Cæsar, v. 167 ; named procurator of Judea, v. 169 ; restores Jerusalem, v. 171 ; poisoned, v. 173. Antipater, son of Herod, v. 173 ; death of, v. 258. Antony, Mark, victory over Alexander, v. 165 ; peerless in battle , but becomes a veritable idiot, v. 175 ; defeated by Octavius, v. 221. Apion, iv. 216. Apis of Memphis, i . 125. Apocalypse of Enoch, the, v. 20. Apollonia, iv. 187. Apollonius, iv. 295. Apollonius Molo, v. 73. Apollonius of Perga, iv. 180. Arad, i. 173. Aramean names, iii . 313 ; language, predominance of, iv. 159. Arameans, opposed to David, ii. 28. Aratus, the poem of, iv. 226. Araunah, ii . 48. Arboth Moab, the plain of, iii . 170. Archelaus, King of Cappadocia, v. 254; named by Herod as his suc- cessor, v. 261. Archimedes, iv. 180. Aristarchus, iv. 214. Aristarchus of Samos, iv. 180. Aristeas, the false, iv. 201. Aristippus of Cyrene, iv. 119. Aristobulus, iv. 217 ; book of, iv . 218. Aristobulus, son of Alexandra, v. 219 ; made high-priest, v. 219 ; death of, v. 219. Aristobulus I., v. 94 ; seems to have been a good sovereign, v. 94 ; assumes the title of king, v. 95 ; friendship for Antigonus, v. 95 ; unjustly treated by history, v. 96 ; death of, v. 96. Aristobulus II. , son of Jannæus, v. 116 ; opposes Alexandra, v. 118 ; becomes king, v. 122 ; downfall of, v. 136 ; escape from Rome, v. 165 ; capture of, v. 166 ; death of, v. 168. Aristophanes, iv. 214. Ark, the, i . 123 ; presence of Iahveh on, i . 226 ; had no fixed restingplace, i. 241 ; did not play the exclusive part attributed to it, i . 242 ; a thing unique in its essence, i. 242 ; captured by the Philistines , i. 304; transferred to Zion, ii. 41 ; deposited in the Temple, ii. 129. Arpad, iii. 4. Arsacidæ, the, dynasty of, iv. 186. Artapanus, iv. 211 . Artaxerxes Longimanus, iv. 58. Aryanism, strict monogamy the law of primitive, i. 7 ; primitive religion of, i. 7. Aryans, first appearance in history, i. 5 ; language differed from that of the Semites, i. 7 ; centre of the race, i. 8. Arzuf, iv. 187. Asa, ii . 165 ; reign of, ii . 197 ; adopts different line of religious conduct from his ancestors, ii. 198 ; wages constant war against foreign creeds, ii. 191 ; wars against Baasha, ii. 201 ; death of, ii . 204. Asahel, i. 352. Asaph, chair of, iv. 75. Ascalon, King of, iii. 81. Asera, worship of, i. 243. Asher, i. 211. Ashtoreth, worship of, ii . 135. Asia Minor, an annex to Greece, iv. 176. Asinius Pollio, v. 236. Asmonean family, the, iv. 343 . Asmonean period, the, v. 29 ; the saddest in all history, v. 29. Asmoneans, the, extermination of, v. 212. Asshur, ii . 395 ; humbled by Jahveh, iii. 4; annihilated forever, iii. 378. Asshur-edil- ilani, iii. 212. Assurbanipal, iii . 211 , 212. Assyria, abundance of literature, i. 58 ; appearance in the affairs of Palestine, iii. 381 ; relation of Hebrews with, ii . 385 ; Tyre rises against the dominion of, ii . 437. Assyrian hieroglyphicism, i. 57. Athaliah, ii . 259 ; death of, ii. 271 . Athenobius, v. 11 . Augustus (see also Octavius) , worship of, v. 230. 366 INDEX. Axius, iv. 187. Azariah, ii. 80, 383 ; reign of, 384 ; military power of, ii. 384. Azarias, iv. 323. Azekah, iii . 289 ; iv. 76. BAAL, i. 169 ; assumed double form, i. 193 ; worship of, i. 193, 243 ; building erected in honour of, ii. 214 ; significance of name of, ii. 214. Baal- Berith, worship of, i. 243. Baal- Perazim, battle, ii. 17. Baal- Phegor, worship of, i. 243. Baalbec, constructed by Solomon, ii . 93. Baalis, King of the Ammonites, iii. 303. Baasha, wars against Asa, ii. 201 ; alliance with Damascus, ii. 202. Baba, the sons of, v. 224. Babel, i. 62 ; a proud city, an insult against God, i . 65. Babylon, a brilliant beacon-light, i. 56 ; revival under Nebuchadnezzar, iii. 312 ; immense commerce and industry of, iii . 312 ; position of the Hebrews in, iii . 314 ; captive of, iii. 373. Babylonia, population of, i. 55. Babylonian Captivity, the, iii. 309. Babylonian influence, ancient, i. 54. Babylonian science, spontaneous gen- eration the fundamental dogma of, i. 58. Bacchides, iv. 332 ; government of, iv. 336. Bagoses, iv. 163. Baku, iv. 137. Bala, an adventurer, iv. 346. Balaam, i . 183 ; ii. 188 ; version of, iii. 352. Balak, i. 182. Barbarian morality, i. 6. Baruch, iii. 194 ; disciple of Jeremiah, iii. 238 ; book written by, v. 185. Barzapharnes, the satrap, v. 178. Barzillai, ii . 62. Bath-sheba, ii. 5 ; favourite wife of David, ii. 54 ; plans to make Solomon king, ii. 54 ; influence over David, ii. 76. Bedouins, the, i. 135. Beer, song of, i . 143. Beer-sheba, iv. 76. Beer-Sheba, the well of, i. 96. Beir, ii. 187. Bel, the temple of, destroyed by Xerxes, iii. 379. Bel, Tower of, restored by Nebuchad- nezzar, iii. 312. Beliar, iv. 147. Belshazzar, iv. 299. Benaiah, ii. 7. Benhadad II., ii. 202 ; invasion of, ii. 245. Benhadad III. , ii . 345. Beni-Aron, the, i . 151. Beni- Elohim, i. 33. Beni-Israel, the, in the nomad state, i. 1, 88, 92 ; religion of, i . 99 ; in Egypt, i. 113 ; immigration probably took place at two separate times, i. 117 ; circumcision common among, i . 125; become fugitives, i. 134 ; as fixed tribes, i . 179 ; beyond the Dead Sea and the Jordan, i. 179. Beni-Jacob, the, i. 88. Beni-Jambri, the, iv. 339. Beni-Jemini, i . 293. Beni-Joseph, the, i. 117. Beni- Korah, the, iii. 344. Beni-Phasiron, iv. 344. Beni- Qédem , iii. 22. Beni-Quedem, i. 259. Beni-Rékab, the, i. 92. Benjamin, i. 200 ; a division of the Beni-Israel, i. 205 ; bad reputation for morality, i. 205 ; important as fighting men, i. 206 ; peculiar existence of, i. 289 ; disliked by all other tribes, i. 290. Berenice, v. 297. Berosus, iv. 216. Beth-Basi, iv. 344. Bethel, a favourite sanctuary, i . 91 ; conquest accomplished by the Josephites by surprise, i . 210 ; loses part of its religious importance, ii. 48 ; golden calf set up at, ii. 157. Bethel, the God of, the chief sanctuary in Palestine, i. 100. Beth-haccerem, iv . 3. Beth-horon, iv. 295. INDEX. 367 Beth-pelet, iv. 76. Beth- Sean, i . 212. Beth-Semes, i. 283 . Bethsura, fortification, iv. 321. Beth-zechariah, battle of, iv. 325. Beth-zur, iv. 3. Bible, the, compared with Egyptian learning, i . 122; essentially an Israelitish book, ii. 175 ; in the ninth century double as to the letter, but single in spirit , ii. 339 ; began to exist in the complete sense of the word, iv. 110 ; became the universal book, iv. 113. Bigot, the, coming into the world, iv. 119. Bikath Aven, ii. 361. Blood, the, regarded as the constitutive element of the person, i. 104. Boaz, immortalised, i. 297. Boëthus of Alexandria, v. 216. Book of Wisdom, the, v. 279 ; doctrines of, v. 281 ; total absence of messianic or apocalyptic dogma in, v. 292. Borsippa, tower of, i. 61. Buddhism, v. 60. CABUL, the land of, ii. 136. Cadytis, iii. 217. Cæsar, friendly toward the Jews, v. 170; assassination of, v. 172. Cæsarea, created by Herod, v. 233. Caius Sosius, v. 183. Caleb, i . 155 ; the daring of, i. 216. Caligula, v. 191. Calno, iii. 4. Cambyses, iv. 14. Camos, gave Moab to the Moabites, i. 219. Canaan, journeying towards, i . 171 . Canaanites, the, i. 1 ; relations with the Terachites, i . 81 ; language of, i. 191 ; had no central organisation, i. 195 ; conflicts with the Israelites, i . 195 ; had no cavalry, i. 196 ; cruel disposition of, i . 196 ; compared with the Israelites, i . 213 ; Saul's bitterness against, i. 329 ; David acted unjustly toward, ii. 8 ; disappear out of history, ii. 84. Canatha, i. 187. Captivity, the First, iii. 243. Carchemish, battle of, iii. 233. Carmel, Mount, the scene of a most fruitful religious movement, ii. 161 . Cassius, succeeds Crassus in Judea v. 167 ; makes terms with Alexander, v. 167. Catholic Church, the, iii. 355. Cedron, burned by John, v. 12. Cendebeus, v. 11 ; defeated by John, v. 12. Chemos-gad, ii. 209. Chemosh, worship of, ii. 134. Cheremon, iv. 212. Cheroub-Addan, iii. 312. Cherubim, the, i . 126. China, its religion, iii. 144. Christian Apology, its basis, iv. 206. Christian Theology, worst enemy of science, 50. Christianity, i. 51 ; the birth of, ii. 425 ; foretaste of, v. 58 ; doubtful connection of Essenism with, v. 62 ; anticipations of, v. 343 ; offshoot of Judaism, v. 355. Christians, the, iv. 112. Chronicles, the Books of, iii . 114 ; narrow-mindedness of the author of, iv. 151 . Circumcision, i. 104 ; common among the Beni-Israel, i. 125 ; a religious rule at Jerusalem, iii . 28 ; becomes a terrible burthen, iv. 55 ; becomes a butt for ridicule, iv. 260. Civil wars of the tribes, i . 289. Clement, of Alexandria, iv. 213. Cleopatra, favours the Jews, v. 34 ; hatred for Herod, v. 220. Clergy, the, of Egyptian origin, i. 127. Cohanim, the, i. 128. Cohen, the patriarchal, i . 128. Conon, iv. 214. Cornelius Faustus, v. 130. Costobarus, v. 224 ; death of, v. 225. Council of Elders, the, at Jerusalem, v. 35. Covenant, Book of the, ii . 304 ; the father of all the Hebrew codes which followed it, ii. 316. Crates of Mallos, iv. 214. 368 INDEX. Credulity, v. 327. Cuneiform writing, i. 57. Cypros, mother of Herod, v. 218. Cyrus, iii . 379 ; death of, iv. 14. DAGON, worship of, i . 304. Dalilah, i. 283. Damascus, becomes the capital of part of Aramea, ii. 90 ; constant wars with Israel, ii. 245. Dan, i. 208 ; golden calf set up at, ii. 157. Daniel, iii. 194 ; enters deeply into the purposes of God, iv. 297 ; prodigious wisdom of, iv. 298 ; historic theory of, iv . 381 ; visions of, iv. 304 ; incongruity of, iv. 307. Daniel, the Book of, iv. 177, 297 ; presents an inexplicable psychological phenomenon, iv. 299 ; the first attempt at a philosophy of history, iv. 300 ; compared with Isaiah, iv. 306 ; rapid spread of, iv. 308 ; compared to the old Biblical books, iv. 310 ; the egg containing Christianity, iv. 311 . Danites, the, accomplished brigands, i. 281 ; plans for emigration, i . 284 ; give up their nomad life and build Dan, i. 288. Daphnæ, colony of, iii. 306. Darius, iii . 379 ; iv. 14. Darius Codomanus, iv. 300. Darius Nothus, reign of, iv. 82. Dathan, rebellion of, iv. 96. David, kills Goliath, i . 328 ; early prominence of, i . 332 ; friendship with Jonathan, i . 333 ; Saul becomes jealous of, i. 334 ; marries Mikal, i. 335 ; forced to lead a wandering life, i. 336 ; oracle of Iahveh falls into the hands of, i. 339 ; resistance against Saul, i. 340 ; proclaimed King of Judah, i. 351 ; increasing power of, i. 353 ; King of Jerusalem, i . 357 ; gave a capital to Israel, i . 360 ; the unconscious agent of great humanitarian designs, i . 361 ; the founder of Jerusalem, i . 361 ; government of, ii. 1 ; extent of the powers of, ii. 1 ; his reign at once flexible and strong, ii. 2 ; harem of, ii. 4 ; had slight relations with Egypt and Assyria, ii. 8; military organisation under, ii . 11 ; victory over the Philistines, ii. 17 ; the wars of, ii. 24 ; extent of territory exaggerated by history, ii . 31 ; probably not the author of the Psalms, ii. 33 ; religion under, ii. 35 ; his reign a step forward in the progress of Iahveism, ii. 35 ; religious tolerance, ii. 37 ; the elect of Iahveh, ii . 43 ; first organiser of the priesthood of Iahveh, ii. 46 ; fond of music, ii . 50 ; the king, but the master of the priests, ii . 51 ; old age of, ii . 53 ; growing weakness of, ii. 53 ; hypocrite spirit of, ii . 72 ; death of, ii. 73 ; summary of the reign of, ii. 74 ; end of the house of, iv. 30. Day of Nicanor, iv. 334. "Day of the Lord," the, iv. 311. Debir, capture of, i . 204. Deborah, prophetess of Israel, i . 254. Decalogue, the, i. 122 ; ii . 316 ; ex- planation of, ii . 334 ; indicated the return of Israel to a pure worship, ii. 337. Decidius Saxa, defeated and killed, v. 177. Deism, deep-rooted, iii. 20. Delaiah, iii . 239. Deluge, the, i. 59. Demetrius, iv. 182. Demetrius, son of Philopator, iv. 331 . Demetrius II. , iv . 348 ; Simon offers to make him sovereign of Syria, v. 3. Demetrius III. ( Eukairos ) , called to aid the Jews, v. 100 ; defeats Jannæus, v. 101 . Demetrius Phalereus, iv. 204. Deodotus, iv. 350. Deuteronomical Code, the, iii. 179; the theory of sacrifices in, iii. 182 ; predominating thoughts of the author of, iii. 182 ; the first to establish a system of guarantees for the weak, iii. 186 ; has undergone little change, iii. 198. INDEX. 369 Diaspora, the, v. 189. Dibon, iv. 76. Dio Chrysostom, v. 65. Diogenes, iv. 228 ; v. 117. Dium, v. 102. Doctor, the, iv. 57 ; increasing impor- tance of, iv. 92. Doeg, the Edomite, i. 339. Dolabella, v. 202. Dor, a great metropolis, i . 210. Dositheus, iv. 209. EBED-MELECH, iii . 302. Ecclesiastes, composition of, v. 137 ; the language of, v. 137 ; fiction on which it is based, v. 138 ; chief interest in, v. 148. Edessa, iv. 187 . Edom, school of sages at, i. 79. Edomites, the, defeated by David, ii. 25; shake off the yoke of Judah, ii. 259 ; again subject to Judah, ii. 383. Eglon, rendered Israel tributary, i. 253. Egypt, exercises suzerainty of the country, i. 10 ; influence upon Israel, i. 121 ; altered Israelitish religion for the worse, i. 123 ; put obstacles in the way of the religious progress of Israel, i . 128 ; possessed last of the stately Jakobelite life, i . 129 ; carried belief in local divinities to the uttermost limits, i. 163 ; influence felt throughout the whole of Phoenicia, i. 234 ; Solomon makes an alliance with, ii. 91 ; makes great progress under Psammeticus I. and Nechoh II. , iii. 214 ; reduced to impotence, iii . 245. Egyptian civilisation , invariably ab- sorbed the invader, i. 131. Egyptian learning, the Bible com- pared with, i. 122. Egyptian worship, very idolatrous, i. 123. Ehoud, beat the Moabites, i . 253. El, see also Elohim, a generic name, i. 148 ; compared with Iahveh, i. 149. Elah, reign of, ii . 206. Elasah, iii . 271. VOL. V. -24 Elath, conquered and fortified by Azariah, ii. 383. Eleazar, the high-priest, iv. 88, 187 ; v. 45. Eleazar Avaran, iv. 292. Eli, i. 303. Eliab, ii. 80. Eliakim, ii. 413 ; iii. 10. Eliashib, succeeds Joiakim, iv. 39. Eliezer, the prophet, ii. 258. Elihoreph, ii. 80. Elihu, iii. 69. Elijah, ii. 229 ; the story of, ii . 235 ; significance of the name of, ii . 235 ; an ideal personification of the puritan prophet of Iahveh, ii. 235 ; the life of, ii. 236 ; the basis of Jewish, Christian, and Mussulman mythologies, ii. 237. Elijah, the Apocalypse of, v. 335. Elisha, ii. 229 ; work of, ii . 255. Elishama, the sofer, iii. 239. Elnathan, iii. 229. Elohim, the, belief in, i. 25 ; worship of, i. 130 ; relation to Iahveh, i. 235 ; appeared in triple form, ii . 178 ; principles of, ii. 220. Elohist account, the, see the Jerusa- lem account. Elohist, origin of the name of, ii . 321 . Elulous, King of Sidon, iii. 81. Emmaus, victory at, iv. 316. Endor, witch of, i . 348. Enoch, a permanent oracle, v. 329 ; theories of, v. 330 ; v. 344 ; problem of future life, v. 348. Enoch, Apocalypse of, v. 20 ; theories of, v. 22. Enoch, Book of, v. 329 ; ridiculous angelology of, v. 331 . Enoch, Parables of, v. 342, 344. En-rimmon, iv. 76. Ephod, the, i. 126. Ephods, description of, i. 224. Ephraim, the tribe of, i. 119. Ephraim, the wars of, i. 241. Ephraim, Mount, conquest of, i . 207 ; the scene of a most fruitful relig- ious movement, ii . 161 . Epicurus, iv. 172. Eratosthenes, iv. 180. 370 INDEX. Erech, i. 61. Erythræan Sibyl, the, v. 77. Esau, ii. 178. Esdras, iii. 389. Esherhaddon, iii. 211. Esmoun, worship of, ii . 135. Essenes, the, iv. 112 ; v . 48 ; defined, v. 49 ; principles of, v. 50 ; pietists of the first water, v. 55. Essenes ofPalestine, the, described by Philo, v. 315. Essenism, iv. 224 ; the superlative degree of Pharisaism , v. 59 ; doubtful connection with Christianity, v. 62 ; flourished only in Palestine, v. 65. Esther, the Book of, iv. 141. Esther, the story of, iv. 140. Etham, the basins of, iii. 13. Ethan, chair of, iv. 75. Ethbaal, ii. 212. Ethrog, v. 262. Euhemerus, iv. 172, 214. Euphrates, the, i. 76. Eupolemus, iv. 211 . Euripides, iv. 227. Eurycleus, v. 238. Eusebius, iv. 213. Euthydemus, a fanatical layman, iv. 116. Evil- Merodach, reign of, iii . 368. Exodus of Israel, i . 131 . Ezekiel, the centre of a pious group, iii. 263 ; the holy merkaba of, iii . 264 ; his ideas almost identical with those of Jeremiah, iii. 265 ; the Providence of, iii. 265 ; the Iahveh of, iii. 265 ; prophetic visions of, iii. 267 ; policy of, iii. 269 ; fury against Egypt, iii . 288 ; lyrical spirit of, iii. 291 ; the great consolation of the exiles in Babylon, iii. 323 ; great confidence in Iahveh, iii . 325 ; series of visions, iii . 334 ; trifled with the impossible, iii . 335 ; picture of Israel, iii. 335 ; wished for a sacerdotal theocracy, iii . 339. Ezekiel, the Book of, an historical enigma, iii. 386. Ezekiel, the school of, iii . 365 ; brief code of, iv. 95. Ezra, legendary story of, iv. 84 ; share in the re-editing of the Pentateuch, iv. 93 ; reads the Torah to the people, iv. 104 ; represents less a man than a spirit, iv. 113 ; the incarnation of pharisaism, iv. 113. Ezra, colony of, iv. 3. Ezra, school of, iv. 112. FAMILY, the, foundation of, i . 5 ; regarded as a sacred principle, i . 112 . Fasting, the institution of, iii. 161. Feast of Purim, the, iv. 141 . Feast of Tabernacles, the, iv. 104. Festivals, description of, i. 246. Frauds, pious, v. 327. Future life, necessity of rewards in, iv. 277. GABINIUS, charges made in Judea by, v. 164 ; leniency toward children of Aristobulus, v. 166 ; downfall of, v. 167. Gabriel, iv. 145. Gad, the seer, ii . 52 ; iii. 201 . Gadara, destroyed, v. 105. Galæstes, v. 119. Galilee, returns to the worship of Iahveh, iv. 188. Gamala, v. 102. Gamaliel, v. 277. Geba, iv. 76. Gedaliah, character of, iii . 301 ; aided by Jeremiah in his attempt at resto- ration, iii . 302 ; death of, iii. 303. Gehaharashim, iv. 76. Gemariah, iii. 239. Gemellus, v. 238. Gengiskan, iii. 412. Gerar, i. 96. Gerasa, iv. 187 ; v. 102 ; destroyed, v. 105. Gerizim, Mount, iv. 54 ; destroyed by John Hyrcanus, v. 33. Germany, most successful nation in proclaiming supreme nature of the Divinity, i. 220. Gersom, i. 128. Geshem, iv. 63. Gezar, i. 212. INDEX. 371 Gezer, rebuilt by Solomon, ii . 94 ; becomes an exclusively Jewish city, v. 6. Ghor, defends itself against Israel, i. 210. Gibeah, a particularly mysterious place, i . 245. Gibeon, iv. 3. Gibeon, the Sun of, i. 217. Gibeonites, the, i. 202. Gideon, i . 262 ; important campaign of, i. 266 ; victory of, a capital event in the history of Syrian Semitism , i . 266 ; accepts the title of hereditary King of Israel, i . 267 ; life and death of, i . 268. Gileadite legends, i . 273. Gilgal, camp of, i. 209 ; a place of unholy worship, ii . 400. Gittaim, iv. 76. Gnosticism, iv. 197 , v. 301 ; had its origin in part in Philo, v. 312. God, and Iahveh, iii. 21 ; the scourges of, iii. 232. Golan, v. 102. Golden calf, the, i . 129. Goliath, killed by David, i . 328. Gorgias, iv. 314. Gortyna, the code of, iii. 356. Goshen, the land of, a transition between Egypt and the desert, i . 118. Great Synagogue, iv. 242. Greco- Latin paganism, becoming insipid, v. 207. Greece, surpassing development of, iv. 172 ; showed power of creation, iv. 173 ; invented beauty and reason, iv. 173 ; weak as to her religion, iv. 173 ; the beacon light of truth, iv. 174 ; great confidence in posterity, iv. 174 ; by inventing history, invented the judgment of mankind, 175 ; literary and scientific work of, iv. 179 ; first taught the world liberty and the dignity of man, iv. 232. Greek Alexandrine version, the, iv. 203 ; becomes the basis of Christian Apology, iv. 206 ; soon forgotten, iv. 207. Greek Bible, the, iv. 202. Greek conquest, the, traces left behind by, iv. 177. Greek life, essential parts of, iv. 260. Greek worship, established throughout Judea, iv. 273. Greeks, the, brotherhoods of, iv. 191 . HABAKKUK, iii. 142 ; prophecies of, iii. 242 ; compared to Jeremiah, iii . 242. Hadad, ii . 89 ; braved Israel, ii. 90. Hadarezer, ii. 28. Hadid, iv. 76. Hagada, the, v. 327. Haggai, the prophet, iv. 16 ; prophe- cies of, iv. 17. Hagiographic writings, iv. 127. Ham, ii. 178. Hamat, iii. 4. Hamath, iv. 187. Hamutal, Queen, iii . 147. Hanan, iii. 224. Hananel, v. 216. Hanani, iv. 70. Hananiah, the prophet, iii. 258 ; contest with Jeremiah, iii . 258 ; death of, iii. 261. Hareth III., v. 123 ; seeks to re- establish Hyrcanus, v. 124 ; defeats Aristobulus, v. 125 ; conquered by Scaurus, v. 163. Harran, i. 62. Hathor calves, the, i . 125. Hattush, iv. 86. Hazael, wars against Israel, ii . 260 ; almost renders Israel subject to him , ii. 345. Hazar-shual, iv. 76. Hazor, the centre of a powerful Canaanite state, i. 254. Hebraic literature, ii . 144 ; condition in Solomon's time, ii. 144 . Hebrew art, under Hezekiah, iii. 14. Hebrew code, the, errors in, iii. 191. Hebrew group, the, see Terachite group. Hebrew language, the, i. 86 ; introduction of Philistine words into, ii. 22. Hebrew morality, in the days of the Judges, i. 299. 372 INDEX. Hebrews, the, always preserved the patriarchal type of life, i. 82 ; relations with Assyria, ii . 385. Hebron, an important centre, i . 96 ; in close community with Zoan, i. 114 ; capture of, i . 204 ; becomes the capital of Israel, i. 355. Hebron, Wall of, ii. 108. Hecatæus of Abdera, iv. 212, 215. Heliodorus, iv. 235. Helkiah, v. 34. Hellenism, rapid development of, iv. 171 ; struggle in Palestine for, iv. 259 ; complete victory of, iv. 259. Henock, iii. 194. Hermes, iv. 228. Hermippus, iv. 216. Hermogenes, iv. 214. Hero of Alexandria, iv. 180. Heroclitus, iv. 228. Herod, son of Antipater, v. 171 ; appointed prefect of Cole- Syria, v. 172 ; victory over Antigonus, v. 173 ; forced to leave Jerusalem, v. 179 ; appointed King of the Jews by Rome, v. 181 ; lays siege to Jerusalem, v. 183 ; characteristics of, v. 212 ; did not try to kill Jesus, v. 213 ; not a Jew at heart, v. 215 ; Cleopatra's hatred for, v. 220 ; makes terms with Octavius, v. 222 ; puts Mariamne and Alexandra to death, v. 223 ; entitled to be called great, v. 227 ; introduces innovations at Jerusalem, v . 228 ; creation of Cæsarea by, v. 233 ; his reign a splendid one, v. 242 ; rebuilds the Temple, v. 245 ; a new Solomon, v. 251 ; kills his sons, Aristobulus and Alexander, v. 255 ; kills his son Antipater, v. 258 ; death of, v. 258 ; funeral ceremonies of, v. 259 ; debased condition of literature during time of, v. 269. Herodotus, iii. 217. Heshbon, captured by the Israelites, i . 180. Hesiod, the cosmogonies of, ii . 325 ; iv. 217. Hexateuch, the, iii. 352. Hezekiah, iii . 1 ; the reforms of, iii. 2 ; policy and administration of, iii. 8 ; organisation of royalty under, iii . 12 ; carries on public works at Jerusalem, iii. 12 ; work of the prophets under, iii. 23 ; the reign of, an epoch of great literary activity, iii. 57 ; work accomplished under, iii . 73 ; broke bonds of vas- saldom with Nineveh, iii . 79 ; pays tribute to Sennacherib, iii . 88 ; last years of, iii. 94 ; prominent position held by Isaiah under, iii . 96 ; on in- timate terms with Merodoch- Baladan, iii . 99 ; profound results of his reign, iii . 100 ; death, iii . 103. Hezekiah, the Age of, iii. 77. Hezekiah, the bandit, v. 171 . Hezekiah, the men of, iii. 57 ; the literary work of, iii. 62. Hieroduli, iii. 160. Hierosolymite worship, perfect pic- ture of, iv. 243. Hierosolymites, the, iii. 263 ; the misdeeds of, iii. 266 ; worse than the heathen, iii. 267. High- Priest, commencement of office of, iii . 345 ; triumph over the nasi, iv. 30 ; takes the first place among his people, iv. 33 ; power of, iv. 40; his power not political, iv. 42 ; lived in the Temple, iv. 43. Hilkiah, iii . 127 ; discovery of the new Thora, iii. 172. Hillel, the scribe, v. 269 ; opposed the monopolies of the priesthood at Jerusalem, v. 274. Hind, i. 255. Hinnom, the Valley of, iii. 108. Hipparchus, iv. 180. Hiram, King of Tyre, ii . 92. Hittim, the, i. 10. Hittites, the, i . 117, 190. Hivites, the, i. 190. Holy ones, the, iv. 144. Homer, iv. 217. Hophni, i. 303. Hophra, King of Egypt, iii . 282. Horeb, Mount, theophany of, ii. 174. Horeb, the revelation of, iii. 170. Hosea, the prophet, ii. 397 ; almost wholly concerned with Assyria and INDEX. 373 Egypt, ii. 397 ; a thoroughly pure Iahveist, ii. 401 . Hoshea, reign of, ii. 434 ; pays tribute to Shalmaneser, ii . 436. Huldah, the prophetess, iii . 146. Humanity, primitive, very malevolent, i. 3. Hushai, ii. 60. Hyksos, see also Semite Pastors ; laid down principles of alphabetic writing, i. 115 ; exerted great influence upon the Hebrews, i . 116. Hyrcania, destruction of, v. 165. Hyrcanus, iv. 239 ; adventurous life of, iv. 239 ; suicide of, iv. 240 ; the Jew materialist, iv. 240. Hyrcanus II., a prisoner among the Parthians, v. 218 ; death of, v. 221 . Hyrcanus, son of Jannæus, v. 116 ; brief reign of, v. 122. Hystaspes, iv. 228. IAHVEH, the name of, i . 69 ; plays no important part until Israel has become a nation attached to one soil, i. 72 ; not a generic name, i . 148 ; compared with El, i. 149 ; a national, a jealous god, i. 159 ; beginning to play the part of the tutelary god of Israel, i . 162 ; adoption consummated at the Sinaitic epoch, i. 168 ; Sichem the centre of worship of, i. 209 ; the protecting deity of Israel, i. 218 ; in the desert, the god of the nomads, i . 219 ; a political slaughterer, i . 220 ; the confiscation of the power of Elohim to the profit of Israel, i . 221 ; essentially a Jova Flammeus, i . 222 ; always at Sinai, i. 223 ; an object of idolatrous worship, i. 224 ; a god of fate, i . 226 ; presence on the ark, i. 226 ; the counsellor ofthe nation, i. 226; the oracle of, i . 228 ; relation to Elohim, i . 235 ; real form never human, i . 238 ; acted like a universal agent, i. 239 ; in general, invisible, i. 240 ; a jealous god, i . 260 ; worship of, synonymous to patriotism, i . 262 ; the real king of the people in the theocratic system, i. 318; priesthood of, ii . 46 ; the god of the poor, iii. 32 ; the universal God, iii. 406. Iahveism, beginning of, i . 148 ; the reign of David a step forward in the progress of, ii . 35 ; almost exclusively a religion for men, ii . 77 ; puritan, ii. 121 ; moral, ii . 197 ; wins two decisive victories, ii . 271 ; becomes a religious leaven of great power, ii. 275 ; a complete religion from the eighth century, ii. 403 ; as conceived by the prophets of the eighth century, ii. 406 ; definite constitution of, iii. 17 ; transplanted to Mesopotamia and Chaldea, iii. 308. Iahveist, the, one of the most extraordinary writers who ever existed , ii. 299 ; a religious creator of first rank, ii . 300 ; profound, sensitive, chaste, mysterious, ii . 300 ; the greatest of the prophets, ii. 302. Iakim, iv. 330. Iddo, iii. 201 . Ideas, theory of, Plato's, v. 304. Idumea, ii. 376. Ierijah, iii. 293. Immortality, Jewish doctrine of, v. 291. Ipsus, battle of, iv. 184. Ira, ii. 47. Iranian religion, the, iii. 381. Irenæus, v. 238. Isaiah, early years of, ii. 404 ; complete expansion of prophetism in, ii. 416 ; the Surate of the vine, ii. 417 ; apostrophises women, iii . 82 ; prophecies fulfilled , iii . 92 ; prominent position under Hezekiah, iii 96 ; became colossal after his death, iii. 393. Isaiah, the Second, iii . 404. See also Prophet, the great anonymous. Isfahani, ii . 145 . Ish-Bosheth, succeeds Saul, i . 350 ; decreasing power of, i . 353 ; assas- sinated, i. 355. Ishmael, iii. 302 ; becomes a merciless brigand, iii. 303. Isis, worship of, v. 208. 374 INDEX. Islam, first victories of, i . 216. Islamism, i . 51 ; intensified the error of Judaism, i . 108. Ismaelim, tribes of, i. 265. Israel, see also Beni- Israel ; influence of Egypt upon, i . 121 ; genius of, i. 129 ; great change in social and political order, i . 130 ; no longer a tribe, but a nation, i. 130 ; exodus in the desert of Pharan, i . 141 ; of, i . 131 ; loss of privileges, i . 132 ; voyage through the desert a pas- sage, not a sojourn, i. 146 ; had but one proper name for God, i. 147 ; growth of idolatry while in Egypt, i . 152 ; battle with the Amalekites, i . 154 ; Iahveh beginning to play the part ofthe tutelary god of, i. 162 ; Sinai the basis of all the theology of, i. 163 ; uncertain route chosen, i. 171 ; relations with Moab, i . 174 ; did not employ writing, i . 178 ; master of the country from Jabbok to the Amon, i . 181 ; success over the Midianites, i. 185 ; powerful internal organisation, i. 185 ; conquest of region beyond the Jordan, i. 188 ; sys- tematic cruelty of, i . 197 ; passage of the Jordan, i. 200 ; conquest of Mount Ephraim and the North, i. 207 ; Shiloh the first central point of the whole family of, i . 209 ; compared with Canaan, i. 213 ; position as conquerors, i. 214 ; had its time of warlike enthusiasm, i. 215 ; conquest of Palestine, i . 218 ; Iahveh the protecting deity of, i. 218 ; history of, an effort to shake off Iahveh and to return to Elohim, i. 221 ; possessed a very fine unwritten literature, i. 251 ; battles with the Canaanites, i. 256 ; Gideon accepts the title of hereditary king of, i . 267 ; idea of unity gathering shape, i. 302 ; defeated by the Philistines near Afeq, i. 304 ; con- tinued successes of the Philistines against, i. 308 ; Samuel establishes the first records of, i. 309 ; institution of royalty, i . 314 ; Saul first organises an army of, i . 331 ; monarchy definitely established, i . 355 ; Hebron becomes the capital of, i. 355 ; unification accomplished, i. 357 ; David gave a capital to, i. 360 ; part played bythe Philistines in the organisation of, ii. 15 ; conquest not a characteristic of, ii. 32 ; profane development of, ii. 89 ; the two kingdoms, ii . 155 ; political decadence of, ii. 155 ; literature in the kingdom of, ii. 166 ; oral traditions of, ii. 167 ; opening of true history of, ii. 168 ; possessed a rich mine of poetry, ii . 182 ; had a collection of epics, ii. 192 ; had no sentiment of dynastic fidelity, ii . 206 ; Omri gives a capital to, ii . 209 ; preponderant position of the prophets in, ii. 220 ; the distinctive originality of, iii. 224 ; constant wars with Damascus, ii. 245 ; completion of the masterpiece of, ii . 338 ; material decline of, ii. 340 ; rendered almost subject by Hazael, ii. 345 ; prosperity under Jeroboam II.; agony in the kingdom of, ii. 425 ; the general work of the kingdom of, ii . 445 ; newly consecrated to Iahveh, iii. 173 ; the first captivity, iii . 243 ; approaching idealism, iii . 277 ; the second transportation, iii . 282 ; the Babylonian captivity, iii. 309 ; became a group of the righteous, iii. 321 ; consolations of the people, iii. 323 ; not well received after the return from Babylon, iv. 3 ; destitution ofthe people after the return, iv. 4 ; the return from captivity as conceived by the psalmist, iv. 7 ; the deep sleep of, iv. 161 ; reaches the last outcome of its centuriesold struggle, iv. 283 ; the national uprising, iv. 289 ; fall of the Asmodeans a comfort to, v. 132 ; rapidly spreading over the whole world, v. 189. Israelitish art, excluded the representation of the living figure, ii. 128. Issachar, i. 210. Ittai, ii. 62. INDEX. 375 JAAZANIAH, devoutness of, iii . 250. Jaazer, captured by the Israelites, i. 181 . Jabesh, i. 316 ; siege raised by Saul, i. 317. Jabin, i. 254. Jabne, iv. 323. Jacob, claim to the valley of Sichem, i. 209. Jaddua, the high- priest, iv. 178. Jadna, iv. 165. Jair, the great coloniser, i. 274. Jakobelite life, i . 129. Jannes, v. 328. Jambres, v. 328. Jarmuth, iv. 76. Jasobeam, ii . 14. Jason made high-priest, iv. 267. Jason of Cyrene, v. 18 ; an enthusiast, v. 18. Javan, iii . 406. Jazar, rock of, iv. 322. Jebusites, the, i. 190, 358. Jeconiah, proclaimed king, iii . 246. Jedidah, iii . 119. Jehoahaz, opposed by the anavim, iii. 218 ; deposed by Nechoh, iii . 219 ; death of, iii . 220. Jehoiachin, iii . 221 , 247 ; hated by Jeremiah, iii . 247 ; surrenders to Nebuchadnezzar, iii. 252. Jehoiada, ii . 269, 344. Jehoiakim, iii . 219 ; long subjection to Nechoh, iii . 220 ; opposed by the anavim, iii. 244 ; last years of, iii. 244 ; death of, iii. 246. Jehoram, ii. 247 ; reign of, ii. 254, 258 ; death of, ii. 262. Jehorist version, the, ii . 284. Jehoshaphat, ii. 7 ; wages constant wars against foreign creeds, ii. 199 ; reign of, ii . 204 ; brings wars to an end, ii. 205 ; death of, ii. 257. Jehu, ii . 201 ; conspiracy led by, ii. 261 ; murders committed to acquire power, ii . 268 ; unable to arrest the national decadence, ii. 341. Jehu, son of Hanani, iii. 201 . Jehucal, iii . 285. Jekabzeel, iv. 76. Jephthah, i. 219 ; the most celebrated of the legendary heroes of Gilead, i. 274 ; story of, i. 275. Jerahmeel, iii. 241. Jerahmelites, the, i . 214. Jeremiah, the first saint, iii. 124 ; a most important man in history, iii. 124 ; a great reactionist, iii . 126 ; style of, iii. 126 ; the genius of, iii . 126 ; enters upon his prophetic career, iii. 128 ; a man of very extreme views, iii . 128 ; opposed by other prophets, iii. 130 ; an exclusive Iahveist, iii. 131 ; the Iahveh of, iii. 131 ; predictions of, iii . 133 ; connection with the civil power, iii . 137 ; forbidden by Iahveh to marry, iii. 139 ; plot against the life of, iii. 140 ; inspires Josiah to his reforms, iii . 164 ; life threatened by the people, iii. 227 ; announced the fall of Jerusalem, iii. 228 ; imitators of, iii. 229 ; admiration for Nebuchadnezzar, iii . 233 ; the prophecies of, iii. 238 ; new prophecies of, iii. 241 ; compared to Habakkuk, iii. 242 ; antipatriotic hopes disappointed, iii. 243 ; hatred for Jehoiachin, iii. 247 ; the most radical destroyer that any royal house ever found opposed to it, iii . 249 ; contest with Hananiah, iii . 258 ; prophetic visions of, iii . 262 ; placed under ar- rest, iii. 294 ; saved from exile, iii. 301 ; aids Gedaliah in his attempt at restoration, iii . 302 ; evil genius of, iii. 305 ; last years of, iii . 322 : conception of religion, iii. 333. Jeremiah, the Book of, iii . 222 ; tone of, iii. 222. Jeremiah, the school of, iii . 329. Jericho, i. 188 ; capture of, i. 200, 216 ; iv. 3. Jeroboam, ii. 137 ; death of, ii . 165. Jeroboam II., reign of, ii . 350 ; prosperity of Israel under, ii . 350 ; re- unites Moab to Israel, ii . 351 . Jerubaal, i. 261 ; assumes the name of Gideon, i. 292. See also Gideon. Jerusalem, account, the, ii. 318 ; date of, 320. Jerusalem, David the founder of, i 376 INDEX. 361 ; becomes the capital for both Benjamin and Judah, ii. 9 ; buildings at, ii. 102 ; palace for Pharaoh's daughter, ii. 105 ; the hall of pillars, ii. 106 ; the Temple, ii . 111 ; fated to be a great liturgical centre, ii. 132 ; first introduction of moral Iahveism in, ii. 197 ; gained by the destruction of the kingdom of the North, ii. 451 ; becomes a focus of creation, iii. 1 ; public works under Hezekiah at, iii. 12 ; centralisation of Judaism at, iii. 154 ; received from the prophets its distinctive stigma, iii. 210 ; undergoes ' indignity of an Egyptian occupation, iii. 219 ; Jeremiah announces fall of, iii. 228 ; siege of, iii. 284 ; arrival of the Caravans after the return from Babylon, iv. 1 ; desolated condition of, iv. 1 ; re-establishment of divine worship at, iv. 8 ; system of sacrifices restored at, iv. 10 ; gives the first example of the materialising of a spiritual power, iv. 40 ; Nehemiah rebuilds the walls of, iv. 56 ; the inauguration of the walls of, iv. 70 ; intellectual condition of the inhabitants of, iv. 166 ; people divided into two parties, iv. 260 ; captured by Judas Maccabeus, iv. 317 ; besieged by the Syrians, iv. 327 ; becomes tributary to the Romans, v. 135 ; besieged by Herod, v. 183 ; innovations made by Herod, v. 228. Jerusalem, the new, iii . 398. Jerusalemite cosmogony, the essential differences from that of the North, ii. 323 ; the author's ideas upon primitive humanity more sim- ple than those of the Israelitish writer, ii. 326 ; fondness of the author for genealogies, ii. 328. Jeshua, iv. 76. Jesus, son of Phabi, v. 216. Jesus, son of Sirach, iv. 227 ; gives the most perfect picture of Hierosolymite worship, iv. 243 ; book of Wisdom of, iv. 246 ; ignorant of science and philosophy, iv. 249 ; code of maxims for the middle classes, iv. 251 ; puts little confidence in women, iv. 252 ; regards slavery as lawful, iv. 255 ; a modern Jew, iv. 256 ; popularity of, iv. 258. Jether, i. 265. Jew, the word, iv. 22. Jewish art, best display of, v. 112. Jewish literature, decadence of, iv. 149. Jewish people, under the Romans, v. 163 ; dispersion throughout the world, v. 189. Jewish power, culmination of, v. 104. Jewish propaganda, the, v. 206 ; effects on the people produced by, v. 206. Jewish prophets, the, iii. 385. Jewish Sibyl, the, v. 74 ; characteristics of, v. 78 ; arguments of, v. 79-87. Jewish Thora, the, iii. 359. Jewish worship, restoration of, iv. 314 ; superiority over other Oriental religions, v. 208. Jews, the, i . 237 ; under Greek dominion, iv. 171 ; characteristics of, iv. 237. Jezebel, ii. 217 ; death of, ii . 263. Jezrael, the plain of, defends itself against Israel, i. 210. Joab, i. 352 ; ii. 13 ; death of, ii. 79. Joas, i. 262. Joash, ii. 269 ; crowned king, ii. 270 ; reign of, ii. 343 ; victories over Benhadad, ii. 346 ; defeats Amaziah, ii. 348 ; death of, ii. 350. Joazar, son of Boëthus, made highpriest, v. 257. Job, the Book of, i . 218 ; excellence of, iii. 68 ; the most beautiful Hebrew book, iii . 390. Joel, i . 318 ; ii. 372. Johanan, iii . 303 ; iv. 163. John the Baptist, v. 354. John Gaddis, iv. 292. John Hyrcanus, v. 12 ; defeats Cen- debeus, v. 12 ; makes terms with Antiochus Sidetes, v. 15 ; comes into power, v. 27 ; great military reign of, v. 32 ; conquests of, v. 33 ; INDEX 377 his reign a fortunate one, v. 35 ; died unpopular, v. 46. "John the Divine, " the Apocalypse of, iv. 309. Joïada, iv. 63, 80. Joiakim, succeeds Joshua, son ofJosedeck, iv. 39. Joktheel, ii. 345. Jona, ii. 351. Jonadab, ii. 240, 265. Jonah, the Book of, quite unique in the Bible, iii. 420. Jonathan, i. 325 ; friendship with David, i. 333. Jonathan Happous, iv. 293 ; chosen successor to Judas Maccabeus, iv. 338 ; government of, iv. 345 ; sover- eign of Judea, iv. 347 ; a natural sovereign, iv. 350 ; death of, iv. 353 ; the founder of a dynasty, iv. 354 ; great loss to the people by the death of, iv. 354. Jordan, the, conquest of region beyond, i. 188 ; passage of, i. 200. Joseph, origin of the name, i. 119 ; buried in the valley of Sichem, i. 209 ; tomb of, iv. 132. Joseph, son of Tobias, iv. 239. Joseph, son of Zechariah, iv. 323. Josephel, the clan of the, see BeniJoseph. Josephites, the, superiority of, i. 95, 119 ; Sichem the centre of worship for, i . 209 ; accomplish the conquest of Bethel by surprise, i. 210. Josephus, conquests of Alexander, iv. 177 ; compared with Philo, v. 313. Joshua, i. 155 ; devices of, i. 216 ; the continuation of Moses, i . 217. Joshua, son of Josedeck, iv. 9 ; glory of rebuilding the Temple assigned to, iv. 37. Joshua, Book of, the least historical of the Bible, i . 212. Josiah, reign of, iii. 119 ; the reforms of, iii. 142 ; repairs the Temple, iii. 158 ; inspired by Jeremiah to his reforms, iii. 164 ; the zeal, of, iii. 165 ; religious innovations of, iii. 180 ; death of, iii. 182 ; literary work about the time of, iii . 196 ; death of, iii. 215 ; character of, iii. 215 ; reaction following death of, iii. 222. Josiah ben- Joezer, v. 47. Josiah ben-Johanan, v. 47. Jotham, reign of, ii . 393. Jubilee, the year of, ii. 316 ; iii. 349. Jubilees, Book of, v. 332. Judah, i. 200 ; one of the principal divisions of Beni-Israel, i . 205 ; the wars of, i. 241 ; became a separate unity, i. 350 ; proclaimed King of, i. 351 ; the soul of Absalom's revolt, ii. 56 ; religious superiority of, ii . 404; the one kingdom of, iii. 1 ; new prominence of, iii. 1 ; last con- vulsions of, iii. 299. Judaism, i. 51 ; the birth of, ii . 425 the destruction of Samaria an extraordinary stroke of luck for, ii. 446 ; the supreme effort of, iii. 66 ; centralisation at Jerusalem, iii. 154 ; succeeded in obtaining prodigies of devotion, iii. 208 ; totally destroyed in Palestine, iii. 307 ; the critical hour in the history of, iii. 428 ; needed the freer air it found in the dispersion, iv. 8 ; became a powerful vice, iv. 55 ; developed in levitical and sacerdotal direction, iv. 112 ; the worship of one God, the practice of morality, iv. 220 ; disliked by men of learning, iv. 223 ; in Egypt, v. 67 ; gives birth to Christianity, v. 355. Judas, son of Hezekiah, v. 262. Judas, son of Seraphius, v. 257. Judas ben-Tobai, v. 117. Judas Maccabeus, iv. 292 ; characteristics of, iv. 293 ; victories of, iv. 314 ; military skill of, iv. 314 ; destroys the Greek symbols in the Temple, iv. 317 ; princely rule of, iv. 321 ; a true soldier, a secular chief, iv. 324 ; death of, iv. 335. Judea, under Persian rule, iv. 1 ; passing from one step of degradation to another, v. 189 ; a Roman province, v. 261. Judeo-Alexandrine theology, v. 307. 378 INDEX. Judeo-Christians, i. 237. Judeo-Hellenic theology, v. 307. Judges, the, i. 241 ; creation of, i . 248 ; powers of, i. 248 ; ancient lists of, i. 280 ; increasing power of, i. 302. Judges, Book of, inherited flowery style of poetry, i. 296. Judith, iii. 70. KAABA, the, a remnant of paganism, i. 234 ; iv. 55. Kadès-Barné, i. 96. Kades-Barnea, i. 173. Karkemis, iii. 4. Keilah, iv. 3. Kenaani, the, i. 9. Kenites, the, i. 214, 257. Ketubim, iv. 127. Kings, the Books of the, iii. 61 . Kir- Haraseth, ii . 256. Kirioth, ii . 362. Kirjath-Jearim, i . 286 . Kitâb al-ikd, the, ii . 189. Kitron, i. 211. Koheleth, see Ecclesiastes ; essentially the modern Jew, v. 160. Koran, the, ii . 356. Kreti-Pleti, the, ii. 20 ; importance of, ii. 21 . LABIENUS, V. 177. Lachish, iii . 289 ; iv. 76. Lagidæ, the, dynasty of, iv. 184. Laish, i . 211. Language, not the result of one single creation, i. 1 . Laomedon, iv. 182. Latin Bible, the, iv. 202. Legends, the Book of, ii. 278. Lemuel, King, iii. 64. Lentulus, v. 202. Leontopolis, v. 34. Lesser Genesis, the, v. 188, 332. Levi, i. 127. Levites, the, i . 128 ; in a state of mendicity, iii. 317 ; retained their attachment to religious things, iii. 319 ; relation to the new Temple, iv. 23. Levitical code, the, the cause of many evils, iv. 50. Levitical Pandects, iii. 199. Levitical Thora, iii . 341. Leviticus, moral spirit of, iii . 352. Lex talionis, i. 15. Licinius Crassus, frightful acts of pillage in Jerusalem, v. 167. Life, the breath of God pervading the universe, i. 35. Linus, iv. 227. Literature, in the kingdom of Israel , ii. 166 ; idyls of the Patriarchs, ii 166 ; accounts of the heroes, ii. 181 ; in the time of Josiah, iii . 205. Lod, iv. 76. Logos, the, v. 304 ; theory of, v. 304 ; the permanent revelation, v. 306. Lot, ii. 178. Lotu, the, i. 10. Lucullus, v. 119. Lud, iii. 406 . Luz, regarded as the gate of Heaven, i. 99. Lydia, iii. 369. Lysias, iv. 296 ; victory over Judas Maccabeus, iv. 325. Lysimachus, iv. 212. Lysimachus of Alexandria, v. 73. MAACHAB, ii. 199. Maaseiah, iii. 224. Maccabean epic, the, v. 10 ; took shape early, v. 17 . Maccabees, the Book of, iv. 336 ; the work of a layman, v. 106 ; charac- teristics of, v. 107. Maccabees, Second Book of, v. 17 . Macedonians, the, iv. 171 . Machæras, v. 182. Machærus, destruction of, v. 165. Magi, the, iii. 381 . Magog, iii . 328 ; invasions of, iii. 355. Mahomet, iv. 54. Makarites, the, i . 182. Makirites, the, i. 208. Malachi, the prophecy of, iv. 125 . Maleak-Baal, i. 237. Maleak-Iahveh, i. 236 ; in most cases not to be distinguished from Iahveh, i. 237. Man, essentially fleeting, i. 111 . Manasseh, reign of, iii. 104 ; deserts INDEX. 379 the worship of Iahveh, iii. 107 ; offends the orthodox, iii. 108 ; his reign a prosperous one, iii . 114 ; death of, iii. 118. Manasseh, the high-priest, iv. 187 . Manasseh, son of Joïada, iv . 80. Manasseh, the tribe of, i. 119 ; the wars of, i . 241 ; assume great importance, i. 260. Manetho, iv. 212. Manna, derivation of the word, i. 144. Manon, the code of, ii. 314. Maon, i. 340. Marcus Agrippa, v. 203. Maresa, iv. 324. Mariamne, wife of Herod, v. 218 ; condemned to death, v. 223. Mass, the, iv. 195. Massada, siege of, v. 18 Materialist Iahveism, development of, i. 218. Mattaniah, iii . 255. Mattathiah, iv. 290 ; religious wrath of, iv. 291. Matthias, son of Margaloth, v. 257. Matthias, son of Theophilus, made high- priest, v. 254. Meconah, iv. 76. Median magi, iv. 137. Megiddo, i. 256 ; battle of, iii . 215. Melgarth, i. 278. Memphis, ii . 441 . Menahem, ii . 382. Menander, iv. 227. Menelaus, iv. 268 ; death of, iv. 330. Menephtah, i. 133. Mephibosheth, ii . 3. Meremoth, iv. 88. Merodoch- Baladan, iii . 94 ; on intimate terms with Hezekiah, iii. 99. Merribaal, i. 356. Mesa, ii. 252. Mesa, inscription of, i . 311 ; ii. 216. Meshullams, the, iv. 69. Messianic ideas, progress of. v. 343. Messianism, iii . 19 ; attains a new stage of definition, iii. 332. Messianists, the, v. 343. Métualis, the, iii. 313. Mezezabel, iv. 76. Micah, i . 285 ; ii. 408 ; complete expansion of prophetism in, ii. 416. Micaiah, iii. 239. Michael, iv. 145. Michmash, iv. 76. Midianites, the, serious conflict with the Israelites, i. 184. Mikah, i. 227. Mikal, saved the life of David, i. 335. Milik, i. 244. Military organisation , ii. 11 . Millo palace, the, ii. 4. Minor Prophets, the, volume of, iv. 102. Miriam, i . 254. Mispé-Gilead, the religious capital of Trans-Jordan, i. 273. Mithra, worship of, v. 208. Mizpah, i. 245. Mizpeh, the meeting-place of the tribes, i. 301. Mnaseas, iv. 214. Mnevis of Heliopolis , i . 125. Moab, relations with Israel, i. 174 ; resorts to intrigue, i . 182 ; reduced to a state of vassalage by Omri, ii . 209 ; reunited to Israel by Jero- boam II. , ii. 351 . Moabites, the Camos gave Moab to, i. 219 ; defeated by Ehoud, i . 253. Moladah, iv. 76. Moloch, i . 237. Monotheism, i. 38 ; fundamental idea of, i . 38 ; reigned undisputed in Jerusalem, iv. 43. Monuments, real, i. 19. Moral Iahveism, ii . 197 ; first introduction into Jerusalem of, ii . 197 . Morality, barbarian , i. 6. Mordecai, the story of, iv. 140. Mosaism, ii . 220. Moses, origin of name, i. 136 ; a Levi, i. 136 ; relations established with tribes to the east of Egypt, i. 143 ; Joshua the continuation of, i . 217 ; all fundamental laws attributed to, ii. 224 ; the legend of, ii. 297. Moses, Assumption of, v. 188, 334. Moses Maimonides, writings of, iv. 111. 380 INDEX. Music, in Solomon's time, ii . 133. Mussulmans, the, ii . 186. NAAMAN, ii. 215. Nabal, i. 341. Nabathæans, the, iv. 342. Nabis, the, i. 244. Nabonadius, iii . 368. Nabopolassar, iii . 212 ; proclaims himself King of Chaldea, iii . 213. Nadab, ii. 165. Nahalol, i. 211. Nahas, ii. 26. Nahum, gifted with singular fore- sight, iii. 117 ; announced the downfall of Nineveh, iii. 211. Naphtali, i . 211 . forms of, iv. 79 ; objected to mixed marriages, iv. 79 ; death of, iv. 82 ; a conscientious fanatic, iv. 82. Nehushtan, the, iii. 25. Nehusta, power of, iii . 247. Neriglissar, reign of, iii . 368. Nethinim, the, iii . 422 ; iv. 23. New Year, the, celebration of, iv. 58. Nicanor, iv. 314 ; defeated by Judas Maccabeus, iv. 333 ; death of, iv . 334. Nicephorus, the Stichometria of, v. 329. Nicolas, of Damascus, v. 203 ; at- taches himself to Herod, v. 237. Nile, the valley of the, iv. 176. Nimrod, myth of, i. 64. Nasi, the triumph of the high-priest Nineveh, ii . 390 ; constantly harried , over, iv. 30. Nathan, the prophet, ii . 52 ; iii . 201 . Nation, a, the essence of, i. 219 ; always egotistical, i. 220 ; is only formed by the violent extinction of divergent elements, ii. 22. Nature, inexorable, i. 23. Neballat, iv. 76. Nebo, iii. 396. Nebuchadnezzar, iii. 224 ; defeats the Egyptian army, iii. 233 ; admiration of Jeremiah for, iii. 233 ; becomes King of Babylon, iii. 243 ; deposes Jehoiachin, iii . 252 ; pursued a superficial policy at Jerusalem, iii. 254 ; attacks Judea, iii. 284 ; among the greatest sovereign builders, iii , 312 ; death of, iii . 368. Nebuzaradan, burns the temple, iii. 297 ; difficulties confronting, iii. 300. Nechoh II., great progress of Egypt under, iii. 214 ; victories of, iii . 218 ; receives homage from and deposes Jehoahaz, iii . 219 ; dominion over Syria, iii. 220. Nehemiah, iii . 389 ; rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem, iv. 56 ; placed over Jerusalem by Persia, iv. 58 ; memoirs of, iv. 61 ; plots against the life of, iv. 68 ; the administration of, iv. 73 ; singular regulations of, iv. 74 ; takes a census, iv. 75 ; reiii. 116 ; Nahum announces the downfall of, iii . 211 ; fall of, iii. 212. Ninevite kingdom, the, sudden growth of, ii. 394. Nissabim, the, ii. 80. Noah, i. 63 ; precepts of, iv. 227. No-Ammon, iii . 117. Nob, centre of Levite worship, i . 247 ; the theatre of many heroic struggles, ii. 18 ; loses part of its reli- gious importance, ii . 48 ; increased population of, iv. 76. Nomad Semites, the, i. 11 ; formed groups, i. 14 ; form of government, i. 15 ; slavery, i . 17 ; food , i . 18 ; intellectual culture, i . 19 ; writing unknown, i. 19 ; poetry, i . 19 ; monuments, i. 19 ; religious calling, i. 22 ; Abraham the imaginary ancestor of, i. 22 ; belief in the Elohim, i. 25 ; proper names, i. 25 ; belief in one deity, i. 28 ; belief in local deity, i . 30 ; little given to idolatry, i. 34 ; belief in immortality and spiritualism of the soul, i. 34 ; small place held by worship in lives of, i. 36 ; absence of my thology, i . 39 ; a religious race, i . 42 ; simplicity of worship, i. 43 ; form of sacrifice, i. 44 ; had few festivals, i. 46 ; prophecy little developed, i . 49 ; no human sacrifices, i. 53 ; did not take up the division INDEX. 381 of the day into twenty-four hours, i. 74 ; spirit gradually fading away, i. 130. North, the Book of the, fusion with the Book of the Alliance, iii. 41 . OBADIAHOU, ii. 377. Obedas, King of the Nabatheans, v. 99. Obed- Edom, ii . 16. Octavius, v. 173 ; defeats Antony, v. 221 ; Herod makes terms with, v. 222 ; takes title of " Augustus, " v. 228. Odomara, iv. 344. Oholah, iii . 268. Oholivah, iii . 268. Olivet, Mount, ii. 47 . Omri, ii . 206 ; proclaimed king. ii . 208 ; becomes sole king, ii . 208 ; a real creator, ii . 208 ; reduces Moab to a state of vassalage, ii. 209 ; wars against Benhadad, ii . 209 ; gave Israel a capital, ii . 209 ; death of, ii. 211 ; tolerance of, ii . 211 . Onias I., the high-priest, iv. 186. Onias II., the high-priest, iv. 187. Onias III. , iv. 267 ; death of, iv . 269. Ono, iv. 76. Ophra, i. 261. Orodes, King, iv. 177. Orpheus, iv. 227. Othoniel, said to have delivered the people of Iahveh, i. 253. PACORUS, V. 177. Padi, King, iii. 81 . Palestine, conquest of, by the Israelites, i . 218 ; appearance of Assyria in the affairs of, ii. 381 ; its geographical position ill suited to the pacific part after which its prophets aspired, iii. 213. Paneas, iv. 229. Panium, iv. 187. Pa-Rameses- Aanakhtu, i. 132. Parsism, v. 60. Pashur, iii. 138. Passover, the, ii. 331 ; rites of, iv. 49. Pa- toum, i . 132. Patriarch, the, authority of, i. 14. Pekah, ii. 391 ; death of, ii . 433. Pekahiah, ii. 391. Pella, v. 103. Pentateuch, the, laws of the, ii. 316 ; iii. 71 ; the Greek translation of, iv. 198 ; fable concerning the translation of, iv. 204. Perizzites, the, i . 190. Persia, what the Jews borrowed from, iv. 136 ; important religious revolu tions, iv. 137 ; angel-worship of, iv. 142. Persian worship, symbols of, iv. 136. Phaneul, ii. 156. Pharan, desert of, Israel in the, i. 141 . Pharethothes, King, iv. 211 . Pharisees, the, v. 37 ; defined, v. 41 ; enjoyed greater authority than the Sadducees, v. 43 ; the reign of, v. 114. Pharsalus, battle of, v. 168. Phasael, son of Antipater, v. 171 ; death of, v. 179. Pheroras, v. 252 ; death of, v. 256. Philemon, iv. 227. Philip, iv. 329 ; v. 261 . Philippi, battle of, v. 172. Philippion, marries Alexandra, v. 168 ; slain by his father, v. 168. Philistines, the, establishment of, i. 134 ; the location of, i. 248 ; victories over the Israelites, i. 308 ; defeat Saul, i . 348 ; part played in the organisation of Israel by, ii. 15 ; subdued by David, ii. 17 ; language of, ii. 22. Philo, iv. 195 ; v. 191 ; characteristics of, v. 297 ; v. 304 ; steers close to Christian theology, v. 307 ; has no messianic doctrine, v. 308 ; enters into contradictory speculations, v. 310 ; much in favour with the Christian school, v. 312 ; compared to Josephus, v. 313 ; idea of a per- fect philosophic life, v. 314 ; treatise " On the Contemplative Life, " v. 314. Philocrates, iv. 221. Philoteria, destroyed , v. 105. Phineas, i. 303. 382 INDEX. Phocylides, iv. 227. Phoenicia, influence of Egypt felt throughout the whole of, i. 234. Phoenician Hebrew, i. 85. Phoenician language, the, supplanted by the Greek, iv. 234. Phoenician writing, invention of, i. 114. Physcon, iv. 209. Pietists, the, in disgrace, iii . 221 . Pisistratus, iv. 119. Pitholaus, arouses Galilee to revolt, v. 167. Plato, iv. 217 ; theory of ideas, v. 304. Platonic dogma, the, iv. 286. Pollio, v. 217. Polygamy, the weakness of Oriental dynasties, ii. 54. Pompey, conflict with Aristobulus, v. 129 ; works reforms in Judea, v. 163. Pomponius Flaccus, v. 199. Popilius Lænas, iv. 269. Prayer of Joseph, the, v. 328. Primogeniture, privileges of, i . 16. Prophecy, the last gleams of, iv. 123. Prophet, the great anonymous, iii. 274 ; the great idealist of Israel, iii. 276 ; superiority of, iii . 391 ; prophecies of, iii . 393 ; shows but moderate anxiety about the Thora, iii. 399 ; one of the heroes of human history, iii . 402 ; the first evangelist of universalism , iii . 408 ; the first humanitarian thinker, iii. 410. Prophetism, the extraordinary development of, 225 ; the essence of, ii. 227 ; triumph of, ii. 261 ; complete expansion in Isaiah and Micah, ii. 416. Prophets, the, terrible abolitionists, i. 221 ; manner of life, i . 305 ; a new type of, i. 306 ; occupy secondary position under David, ii . 52 ; in the time of Asa, ii . 200 ; preponderant position in Israel of, ii. 220 ; number of, ii . 230 ; principal sources of strength of, ii . 230 ; inspiration among, ii. 231 ; methods of, ii. 232 ; had no legislative power, ii. 307 ; style of the compositions of, ii. 355 ; in the eighth century, open-air journalists, ii. 356 ; enduring nature of the work of, ii . 454 ; their work under Hezekiah, iii . 23 ; all- powererful during last years of Hezekiah, iii . 96 ; held their peace under Manasseh, iii . 109 ; group themselves around the Temple, iii . 158 ; held superior to the priests, iv. 16 ; translation of, iv . 203. Prophets, the Lives of the, v. 337. Proselytism, commencement of, iv. 220. Proseuchæ, the, iv. 190. Psalm, the, the most beautiful and fruitful creation of the genius of Israel, iii. 76. Psalms, the, Latin version of, iii . 209. Psalter, the, iv. 153. Psammeticus I., great progress of Egypt under, iii . 214. Psioukhanou II. , ii . 91. Ptolemies, the, rule of, iv. 182. Ptolemy, brother of Nicolas, v. 238. Ptolemy Euergetes, iv. 185. Ptolemy Macron, iv. 328. Ptolemy Philadelphus, iv. 184 . Ptolemy Philometor, iv . 208. Ptolemy, son of Haboub, v. 13. Ptolemy, son of Lagus, iv. 182 ; captures Jerusalem , iv. 182. Ptolemy, son of Mennæus, v. 168. Puritan Iahveism, dates back to David and Solomon, ii. 129. Put, iii. 406. Puteoli, traces of Oriental forms of worship found at, v. 197. Pyramids, the, i. 61 . Pythagoras, iv. 216. Pythagorism, v. 60. QHLT, V. 138. Qoran, the, iv. 110. Quenizzis, the tribe of, i . 214. Quintilius Varus, v. 262. RABBATH-AMMON, iv. 187. Rachel, i. 294. Rama, iv. 76. Rameses II., i . 132. INDEX. 383 Raphael, iv. 145. Raphia, battle of, iv. 229. Reason, the archetype of the true, the beautiful, and the good, v. 304. Rechabites, the, ii. 266 ; iii . 250. Red Sea, the, passage of the, i. 139. Refaïm, the, i. 109. Regaba, siege laid to, v. 115. Rehoboam, ii. 131 ; characteristics of, ii. 149 ; rebellion against, ii. 151 ; proclaimed King of Israel, ii . 151 ; efforts to preserve Solomon's work, ii . 162 ; harem of, ii. 164. Religion, early contributed to morality, i. 12 ; personal character of, i. 246. Rephidim, battle of, i . 154. Resurrection, belief in, iv . 282. Reuben, i . 293. Rezin, harasses the kingdom of Judah, ii. 393. Rezon, wars against Israel, ii. 90. Riblah, iii. 284. Rome, first appearance in the East of, iv. 229 ; great strength exhibited by, iv. 233 ; increasing power of, v. 125 ; policy of, v. 125 . Royalty, first attempts at, i . 259 ; in- stitution of, i. 314. Ruth, immortalised , i. 297. Ruth, Book of, a rare pearl of litera- ture, i. 297. SABBATH, the, an institution of a very advanced stage of civilisation , i . 74; strict observance of, iv. 49 ; becomes a weekly religious festival, iv. 54 ; becomes a terrible burthen, iv. 55 ; no longer a day of more bodily repose, iv. 196. Sabbatical year, the, ii. 315. Sacerdotal nobility, iv. 237. Sacerdotal Thora, iii. 341. Sacred history, probably does not date back to David and Solomon, ii. 145 ; the conception of, ii . 275 ; elements in the formation of, ii . 279 ; uncertain conditions surrounding the composition of, ii. 282 ; the Version of the North, ii . 284. Sadducees, the, iv. 148 ; v. 37; not in | the line of religious progress, v. 39 ; the Pharisees enjoyed greater authority than, v. 43. Salome, sister of Herod, plots against Mariamne, v. 222 ; marries Costobarus, v. 225 ; betrays her husband, v. 225. Salome-Alexandra, wife of Aristobulus, v. 96 ; played an important part in Jewish history, v. 97 ; char- acteristics of, v. 115 ; successful reign of, v. 116 ; conspiracy of Aristobulus against, v. 118 ; death of, v. 120 ; results of her reign, v. 120,121 . Samaria, capital of Israel, ii. 210 ; capture of, ii. 435 ; destruction of, an extraordinary stroke of luck for Judaism, ii. 446 ; never fully recovered from the blow dealt by Shalmaneser, ii . 448 ; centre of the authentic relics of Israel, iv. 130 ; had no Temple of great renown, iv. 131 ; centre of the most persistent hate against the name of Jew, v. 34 ; destruction of, v. 34. Samaritanism , became a separate religion, iv. 13 ; a mere plagiarism from Judaism, iv. 135. Samaritans, the, i . 237 ; iv. 130 ; irreparable schism dividing the Jews from, iv. 133 ; enmity towards Jerusalem, iv. 186. Sameas, v. 217. Samgar, i . 253. Samson, myth of, i . 281 . Samuel, progress of the religious and political organisation of, i. 301 ; the most celebrated prophet of the new type, i. 307 ; established the first records of Israel, i . 309 ; perpetually disturbs the reign of Saul, i. 323. Sanballat, iv. 63 ; plots against Je- rusalem, iv. 65. Sanhedrim, the, iv. 342. Saracens, the, i. 263. Sargon, iii. 8 ; power of, iii . 8 ; death of, iii. 81 . Sarim, the, iii. 293. Sassanidæ, the, iv. 186. Satan, iv. 143. 384 INDEX. Saul, possessed the royal qualities of the time, i . 316 ; reign of, i . 322 ; perpetually disturbed by Samuel, i. 323 ; most prominent as a soldier, i. 324 ; bitterness against the Ca- naanites, i. 329 ; not a man of intellect, i . 329 ; the organiser of the Israelite army, i . 331 ; becomes jealous of David, i . 334 ; defeated by the Philistines, i . 348 ; death of, i. 348. Science, birth of, iv. 172. Scipio, iv. 234. Scopas, iv. 230. Scythians, the, iii. 385. Sebaoth, signification of, i. 73. Sela-Rimmon, i. 291. Seleucia, v. 102. Seleucidæ, the, iii. 380 ; rule in Palestine of, iv. 229 ; victory over Egypt, iv. 229. Seleucus IV. , iv. 235. Seleucus Nicator, iv. 185. Seleucus Philopator, iv. 267. Semite pastors, i. 64. Semites, arrival in Syria, i. 1 ; first appearance in history, i. 5 ; lan- guage differed from that of the Aryans, i . 7 ; pastors, i . 12. Semitico- Egyptian worship, iii. 330. Semitic writing, see Phænician writ- ing. Senate, the, at Jerusalem, v. 35. Sennacherib, invasion of, iii. 79 ; conquests of, iii . 85 ; ravages Judea iii. 86 ; Hezekiah pays tribute to. iii. 88 ; death of, iii. 92. Sepher qinoth, the, iii. 363. Seraiah, iii. 241. Serapis, worship of, v. 208. Seron, iv. 295. Seti II. , i . 134. Seven Wise Men of Greece, iv. 119. Sextius Saturninus, v. 255 . Shallum, ii . 381 ; death of, ii. 382 ; iii. 171. Shalmaneser II. , ii . 341 , 436. Shammah, ii. 14. Shammai, the scribe, v. 269. Shaphan, iii. 159, 171. Sharezer, iii. 92. Shear-Jasub, ii. 427. Sheba, ii. 66. Sheba, Queen of, ii. 110. Shebna, privy adviser to Hezekiah, iii. 9. Shecaniahs, the, iv. 69. Shechaniah, iv. 91 . Shelemiah, iii . 241. Shemaiah, ii . 151 ; iii. 201 , 272 ; strives to destroy Nehemiah by a plot, iv. 68 ; v. 172, 273 ; a narrow rigourist, v. 275. Shemites, the, i. 207. Sheol , the idea of, iv. 126. Sheshbazzar, iii . 424. Sheshouk, King, ii. 162. Shiloh, the first central point of the whole family of Israel, i. 209, 302 ; the priesthood of, i . 304 ; a kind of Jerusalem, ii. 159. Shimei, ii. 67 ; death of, ii . 79. Shobach, ii. 28. Sibylline Books, the, iv. 224. Sichem, valley of, i. 209 ; the centre of the worship of Iahveh, i. 209. Sichem, destroyed by John Hyrcanus, v. 33. Sidqiahou, iii. 255. Sienna, school of, iv. 202. Sihon, founder of the Amorite king- dom of Heshbon, i. 180. Silo, treachery toward Herod, v. 182. Silo, loses part of its religious importance, ii. 48. Siloam , Pool of, iv. 60. Simeon, i. 293. Simeon I., the Just, iv . 187 ; the last member of the Great Synagogue, iv. 242. Simeon ben-Shatah, v. 117. Simeon, never separated itself from Judah, i. 207. Simon, princely rule of, v. 1 ; difficult position of, v. 1 ; showed great wisdom, v. 2 ; conflicts with Tryphon, v. 2 ; offers to make Demetrius sovereign of Syria, v. 3 ; the founder of a national dynasty, v. 4; prosperous rule of, v. 5 ; accumulates wealth, v. 8 ; the reali- INDEX. 385 " sation of the nasi dreamed of by Ezekiel, v. 8 ; death of, v. 12. Simon, son of Boëthus, v. 216. Simon Thassi, iv. 292. Sin, desert of, i. 142 ; original, v. 308. Sinai, i . 157 ; description of, i. 157 ; the mountain of Egypt, i . 158 ; the god of, i . 160 ; a mountain of terror, i. 161 ; the basis of all the theology of the Israelites, i . 163 ; became the Olympus of Israel, i . 166 ; revelation of, iii. 170. Sion, the city of David, i . 359. Sisera, i. 254 ; death of, i. 257. Slavery, a necessity of tribal life, i. 17 ; the first thing that required legislation, ii. 307 ; the code as to, iii. 187. Socialism, first appearance of, iii . 185. Society, early formation of, i. 3. Socrates, iv. 217. Solomon, anointed King of Israel, ii . 71 ; begins his reign by removing his rivals, ii . 78 ; heavy taxation under, ii. 81 ; asks for wisdom from Iahveh, ii. 85 ; peaceful reign of, ii. 89 ; enemies of, ii . 90 ; extended horizon of, ii . 90 ; relations with Egypt, ii. 91 ; relations with Tyre, ii. 92 ; his dominion really confined to Palestine, ii. 93 ; built " cities of stone," ii. 95 ; built a fleet, ii . 96 ; formed a body of cavalry, ii. 98 ; discontent caused by acts of, ii. 99 ; relaxation of morality under, ii. 100 ; harem of, ii. 100 ; influence of women over, ii. 101 ; building of theTemple, ii. 111 ; worship under, ii. 124 ; simplicity of religious service established by, ii. 130 ; toleration the outcome of the whole reign of, ii. 134 ; death of, 139 ; his work did not last beyond his own life, ii. 140 ; his reign an error in the general course of the history of Israel, ii. 141 ; the pivot of the Jewish agada, ii. 141 ; myths concerning, ii. 141 ; probable that he did no writing, ii. 143 ; the complete personification of the Jewish disposition of his time, ii . 147. VOL. V. - 25 Solomon, Psalms of, v. 187. Solomon, Songs of, ii. 140. "Solomon's delights," ii. 109. Solon, iv. 119. Song of Songs, the, iii. 74. "Son of Man, " the expression, iv. 303. Sophocles, iv. 227. Sophonius, iii. 146. Spring of Judgment, i. 173. Stichometria, of Nicephorus, the, v. 329. "Stone of Help, " the, i . 309. Sullamith, ii . 140. Sun, the worship of, i . 283. Surate of the vine, the, in . 417. Susannah, iii. 112. Sydyk, worship of, i . 121. Synagogues, iii. 324, iv . 190 ; the most original and fruitful creation of the Jewish people, iv. 192 ; a vast secret society, iv. 193. Syria, an entirely Semitic country, i . 9 ; Semitic invasion, of, i. 11 ; linguistic geography of, i . 85. Syriac language, the, iv. 189. TABERNACLE, the, iii. 345. Tabor, Mount, ii . 159. Talmai, King of Geser, i . 355. Talmud, the, took life from the Torah, iv. 53 ; the destined outcome of the idea started by Ezra, iv. 92. Tanach, i. 256. Tanis, ii . 441 . Targums, the, v. 333. Tarhaqa, iii . 91. Tarshish, iii. 406. Teacher, the, iv. 57. Tekoa, iv. 3. Tel- Abib, iii. 263. Tell-Harsha, iii. 312. Tell-Melah, iii . 312. Temple, the, ii . 111 ; description of, ii. 112 ; a plaything for the sover- eign, not a creation of the nation, ii. 120 ; the ark deposited in, ii. 129 ; thefirst act in the successive destruction of superstitious excrescences of ancient Israel, ii. 133 ; enlarged 386 INDEX . by Jehoshaphat, ii. 204 ; in reality a conservative element, ii. 342 ; re-established in its splendour by Hezekiah, iii . 15 ; prophets group themselves around, iii. 158 ; repaired by Josiah, iii. 158 ; internal worship of, iii. 182 ; burned by Nebuzaradan, iii. 297 ; rebuilding begun under Zerubbabel and Joshua, iv. 10 ; dedication of the new, iv. 23 ; splen- | did worship which grows up around, iv. 24 ; rebuilt by Phoenician workmen, iv. 44 ; rebuilding of by Herod, v. 245. Temple of Dagon, destroyed by Jonathan, iv. 348. Terach, i. 77. Terachite group, the, i. 76 ; relations with the Canaanites, i. 81 . Teraphim, the, i. 101. Testament of the twelve Patriarchs, v. 328. Thebez, i. 272. Theocracy, code of, iii. 339. Theocratic Democracy, triumph of, iii. 94. Theodore of Cyrene, v. 157. Theodotus, iv. 214. Theophilus, iv. 214. Theophrastus, iv. 223. Tirshatha, the, iii . 427. Titus, iii. 224. Tobiah, iv. 62 ; plots against Jerusalem, iv. 65 ; plans to be appointed governor of Jerusalem, iv. 77. Tobias, the Book of, iii . 70. Tobit, the Book of, iv. 156. Toi, ii. 29. Topheth, iii. 108. Torah, the, iv. 18 ; levitical additions to, iv. 45 ; remained incomplete during the sixth century B. C., iv. 51 ; inferiority of the legal part of, iv. 52 ; fanaticism engendered by, iv. 53 ; final consolidation of, iv. 93 ; principal object of, iv. 99 ; regularly circulated after the days of Nehemiah, iv. 99 ; not a code of laws, but a religious book, iv. 100 ; completion of, iv. 109 ; under Ezra's name won a complete victory, iv. 113 ; absorbed all intellectual power in Israel, iv. 162 ; became a sort of amusement, iv. 162 ; permitted no free activity, iv. 165 ; becomes intolerable, iv. 261. Transportation, the Second , iii . 282. Tryphon, iv. 353 ; conflicts with Simon, v. 2. Tubal, iii. 406. Therapeutæ, the, iv. 112 ; v. 315 ; Tyre, the centre of civilisation in the establishment of, v. 316. Thora, the, ii. 313 ; iii. 359. Thora, the new, iii. 168 ; embodiments of, iii. 168 ; the need felt for, iii. 170 ; discovery of, by Hilkiah, iii . 172 ; extent of, iii . 173 ; description of, iii. 175 ; the worst enemy of universal religion, iii. 175 ; the pre- cision of, iii. 175 ; the Iahveh of, iii. 178 ; instinct with the spirit of Jeremiah, iii. 191. ( See Torah. ) Thummim, the, i . 126. Thymbria, iii . 369. Tiberius Alexander, v. 201 , 297. Tibni, proclaimed king, ii . 208 ; death of, ii. 208. Tiglath-Pilezer, ii. 429. Tigranes, King of Armenia, v. 119. Timotheus, iv. 323. Tiphsah, ii. 382. southern Syria, i. 359 ; exercises great influence over Israel, ii. 210 ; rises against the dominion of Assyria, ii . 437 ; a personal enemy of Iahveh, iii . 280. UMBRIA, School of, iv. 202. Ur, i . 60; a primitive cradle of holiness, i. 65. Ur- Casdim, the religion of, i . 77 ; the old mythology of, iii . 316. Uriah, ii. 8. Uriel, iv. 145. Urijah, ii. 432 ; death of, iii . 229. Urim, the, i. 126. Urim-thummim, i . 126. Usury, absolutely forbidden among the Israelites, iii. 186. Uzzah, ii . 39. INDEX. 387 VALENTINUS, v. 313. Ventidius, v. 181 . WARS of Iahveh, i. 154 , 216. Watchers, the, 144. Western Bible, iv. 202. Wisdom," the, of Jesus, son of Sirach, iv. 257. Worship, under Solomon, ii. 124. Writing, art of, beginning to spread, i. 302 ; a common usage in Judea, iii. 58. XERXES, iii. 379. ZABUD, ii. 80. Zabulon, i. 211 . Zachariah, ii . 381. Zadok, ii. 59 ; first cohen of the Temple, ii. 132. Zalmunna, i . 263. Zanoah, iv. 3, 76. Zebah, i. 263. Zeboim, iv. 76. Zeboul, i. 271 . Zechariah, ii. 391 ; compared to Ezekiel, iv. 18 ; compared to Haggai, iv. 18 ; the visions of, iv. 19 ; has boundless hope in the future of the restored Jerusalem, iv. 20. Zedekiah, iii. 197 , 255 ; reign of, iii. 256 ; opposed by the prophets, iii. 256 ; unfortunate position of, iii . 282. Zelophehad, iii . 352. Zelophahad, iv. 96. Zeno, iv. 172. Zenodorus, the tyrant, v. 241. Zephaniah, iii. 120, 285. Zerah, ii . 203 . Zerubbabel, iii . 350 ; recognised by the Persian authorities, iii. 425 ; return from Babylon of the host under, iv. 9 ; rule over Israel, iv. 30 ; passes into oblivion, iv. 33. Zeruiah, ii. 7. Zeus, substituted for Iahveh, iv. 271 . Ziba, ii. 61. Ziklag, i. 342 ; iv. 76. Zimri, ii . 206 ; proclaimed king, ii. 208 ; death of, ii. 208. Zip, i. 340. Zoan, the centre of a powerful Se- mitic state, i. 114 ; in close community with Hebron, i. 114 ; left a deep impression upon the Israel- ites, i, 118. Zoilus, v. 98. Zopyrion, iv. 214. Zorah, iv. 76. Zoroaster, iv. 137.

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TRANSFERRED TO U OF W LIBRARY 1

HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL

HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL PERIOD OF JEWISH INDEPENDENCE AND JUDEA UNDER ROMAN RULE BY ERNEST RENAN AUTHOR OF THE " Life of JESUS, " " THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE, " ETC. Vol.5. With Full Ender to the Five Volumes BOSTON ROBERTS BROTHERS 1895 90.242 Copyright, 1895, BY ROBERTS BROTHERS. RECEIVED FEB 19 1803 ས WIS: PIST; SUCH TY, University Press : JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S. A. F61 • R39 CONTENTS. BOOK IX. JEWISH AUTONOMY. CHAPTER I. PAGE THE PRINCELY RULE OF SIMON · 1 CHAPTER II. FINAL TRIALS. --THE MACCABEAN EPIC • . 10 CHAPTER III. THE APOCALYPSE OF ENOCH · 20 CHAPTER IV. JOHN HYRCANUS 27 CHAPTER V. PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES 37 CHAPTER VI. THE ESSENES . 48 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. FORETASTE OF CHRISTIANITY • JUDAISM IN EGYPT . CHAPTER VIII. PAGE 58 67 CHAPTER IX. THE JEWISH SIBYL . 74 CHAPTER X. THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH · . 87 CHAPTER XI. ARISTOBULUS I. — ALEXANDER JANNÆUS . 93 CHAPTER XII. CULMINATION OF JEWISH POWER . 104 CHAPTER XIII. THE REIGN OF THE PHARISEES. - ·ALEXANDRA . CHAPTER XIV. 114 LAST OF THE ASMONEANS. THE ROMAN CONQUEST . . 122 ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER XV. 137 CONTENTS. vii Ka BOOK X. THE JEWISH PEOPLE UNDER THE ROMANS. CHAPTER I. PAGE POMPEY. - CÆSAR. -CASSIUS. - MARK ANTONY . 163 CHAPTER II. ANTIGONUS- MATTATHIAS 176 CHAPTER III. DISPERSION OF THE JEWS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD : THE DIASPORA 189 CHAPTER IV. THE JEWISH PROPAGANDA • 206 CHAPTER V. HEROD EXTERMINATION OF THE ASMONEANS 212 CHAPTER VI. WORLDLY Splendour. THE NEW SOLOMON 227 CHAPTER VII. REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE . • 245 CHAPTER VIII. THE END OF HEROD 251 CHAPTER IX. JUDEA A ROMAN PROVINCE · 261 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. PAGE THE SCRIBES HILLEL AND SHAMMAI 269 CHAPTER XI. JEWISH SCHOOL AT ALEXANDRIA. THE BOOK OF WISDOM 279 CHAPTER XII. JEWISH DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY 291 CHAPTER XIII. PHILO . 297 CHAPTER XIV. THE LOGOS 304 CHAPTER XV. THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE • 314 CHAPTER XVI. THE HAGADA. -- PIOUS FRAUDS. ― CREDULITY 327 CHAPTER XVII. PROGRESS OF MESSIANIC IDEAS : ANTICIPATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY · CONCLUSION INDEX.. CHAPTER XVIII. 343 355 363 HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL. BOOK IX . JEWISH AUTONOMY.