3. =The Mac-ca-be'an period=, B. C. 166-40. But the darkest hour
precedes the day; the cruelties of the Syr'i-ans caused a new and
splendid epoch to rise upon Is'ra-el.
1.) _The revolt of Mat-ta-thi'as._ In the year B. C. 170 an aged priest,
Mat-ta-thi'as, unfurled the banner of independence from the Syr'i-an
yoke. He did not at first aim for political freedom, but religious
liberty; but after winning a few victories over the Syr'i-an armies he
began to dream of a free Jew'ish state. He died in the beginning of the
war, but was succeeded by his greater son, Ju'das Mac-ca-be'us.
2.) _Ju'das Mac-ca-be'us_ gained a greater success than had been dreamed
at the beginning of the revolt. Within four years the Jews recaptured
Je-ru'sa-lem and reconsecrated the temple. The anniversary of this event
was ever after celebrated in the Feast of Dedication (John 10. 22).
Ju'das ranks in history as one of the noblest of the Jew'ish heroes, and
deserves a place beside Josh'u-a, Gid'e-on, and Sam'u-el as a liberator
and reformer.
3.) _The Mac-ca-be'an dynasty._ Ju'das refused the title of king, but
his family established a line of rulers who by degrees assumed a royal
state, and finally the royal title. In the year B. C. 143 Jew'ish
liberty was formally recognized, and the Mac-ca-be'an princes ruled for
a time over an independent state. Between B. C. 130 and 110 E'dom,
Sa-ma'ri-a, and Gal'i-lee were added to Ju-de'a. The latter province had
been known as "Gal'i-lee of the Gen'tiles" (Isa. 9. 1); but by degrees
the foreigners withdrew, and the province was occupied by Jews who were
as devoted and loyal as those of Je-ru'sa-lem.
4.) _The rise of the sects._ About B. C. 100 the two sects, or schools
of thought, the Phar'i-sees and Sad'du-cees, began to appear, though
their principles had long been working. The Phar'i-sees ("separatists")
sought for absolute separation from the Gen'tile world and a strict
construction of the law of Mo'ses, while the Sad'du-cees "moralists")
were liberal in their theories and in their lives.
4. =The Ro'man period=, B. C. 40 to A. D. 70. It is not easy to name a
date for the beginning of the Ro'man supremacy in Pal'es-tine. It began
in B. C. 63, when Pom'pey the Great (afterward the antagonist of
Ju'li-us Cae'sar) was asked to intervene between two claimants for the
Jew'ish throne, Hyr-ca'nus and Ar-is-to-bu'lus. Pom'pey decided for
Hyr-ca'nus, and aided him by a Ro'man army. In his interest he besieged
and took Je-ru'sa-lem, and then placed Hyr-ca'nus in power, but without
the title of king. From this time the Ro'mans were practically, though
not nominally, in control of affairs.
1.) _Her'od the Great._ We assign as the date of the Ro'man rule B. C.
40, when Her'od (son of An-tip'a-ter, an E'dom-ite, who had been the
general of Hyr-ca'nus) received the title of king from the Ro'man
Senate. From this time Pal'es-tine was regarded as a part of the Ro'man
empire. Her'od was the ablest man of his age and one of the most
unscrupulous. He ruled over all Pal'es-tine, I-du-me'a (ancient E'dom),
and the lands south of Da-mas'cus.
2.) _Her'od's temple._ Her'od was thoroughly hated by the Jews, less for
his character than for his foreign birth. To gain their favor he began
rebuilding the temple upon a magnificent scale. It was not completed
until long after his death, which took place at Jer'i-cho about the time
when Je'sus Christ, the true King of the Jews, was born (Matt. 2. 1, 2).
3.) _The tetrarchies._ By Her'od's will his dominions were divided into
four tetrarchies ("quarter-rulings," a title for a fourth part of a
kingdom). Three of these were in Pal'es-tine: Ar-che-la'us receiving
Ju-de'a, I-du-me'a, and Sa-ma'ri-a; An'ti-pas (the Her'od of Luke 3. 1;
9. 7; 23. 7-11) receiving Gal'i-lee and Pe-re'a; and Phil'ip (Luke 3. 1)
having the district of Ba'shan. About A. D. 6 Ar-che-la'us was deposed,
and a Ro'man, Co-po'ni-us, was appointed the first procurator of
Ju-de'a, which was made a part of the prefecture of Syr'i-a. The rest of
Jew'ish annals belongs properly to the New Testament history.
II. Through these periods we notice the gradual =Preparation for the
Gospel=, which was steadily advancing.
1. =There was a political preparation.= Six centuries before Christ the
world around the Med-i-ter-ra'ne-an was divided into states, whose
normal condition was war. At no time was peace prevalent over all the
world at once. If Christ had come at that time it would have been
impossible to establish the gospel except through war and conquest. But
kingdoms were absorbed into empires, empires rose and fell by turns,
each with a larger conception of the nation than its predecessor. From
the crude combination of undigested states in the As-syr'i-an empire to
the orderly, assimilated, systematic condition of the Ro'man world was a
great advance. Christ appeared at the only point in the world's history
when the great nations of the world were under one government, with a
system of roads such that a traveler could pass from Mes-o-po-ta'mi-a to
Spain and could sail the Med-i-ter-ra'ne-an Sea in perfect safety.
2. =There was a preparation of language.= The conquests of Al-ex-an'der,
though accomplished in ten years, left a deeper impress upon the world
than any other two centuries of history. They gave to the whole of that
world one language, the noblest tongue ever spoken by human lips, "a
language fit for the gods," as men said. Through Al-ex-an'der, Greek
cities were founded everywhere in the East, Greek kingdoms were
established, the Greek literature and Greek civilization covered all the
lands. That was the language in which Paul preached the gospel, and in
which the New Testament was written--the only language of the ancient
world in which the thoughts of the gospel could be readily expressed.
While each land had its own tongue, the Greek tongue was common in all
lands.
3. While these preparations were going on there was another in progress
at the same time, the =preparation of a race=. We might point to the
history of the Is'ra-el-ites from the migration of A'bra-ham as a
training; but we refer now to their special preparation for their
mission after the restoration, B. C. 536. There was a divine purpose in
the division of Ju'da-ism into two streams: one a little fountain in
Pal'es-tine, the other a river dispersed over all the lands. Each branch
had its part in the divine plan. One was to concentrate its energies
upon the divine religion, to study the sacred books, to maintain a
chosen people, whose bigotry, narrowness, and intolerance kept them from
destruction; the other branch was out in the world, where every Jew'ish
synagogue in a heathen city kept alive the knowledge of God and
disseminated that knowledge, drawing around it the thoughtful, spiritual
minds who were looking for something better than heathenism.
Pal'es-tine gave the gospel, but the Jews of the dispersion carried it
to the Gen'tiles, and in many places synagogues in the foreign world
became the nucleus of a Christian church, where for the first time Jew
and Gen'tile met as equals.
4. Finally, there was the =preparation of a religion=. The gospel of
Christ was not a new religion; it was the new development of an old
religion. As we study the Old Testament we see that each epoch stands
upon a higher religious plane. There is an enlargement of spiritual
being between A'bra-ham and Mo'ses, between Mo'ses and Da'vid, between
Da'vid and I-sa'iah, between I-sa'iah and John the Bap'tist. Phar'i-see
and Sad'du-cee each held a share of the truth which embraced the best
thoughts of both sects. The work of many scribes prepared the way for
the coming of the Lord, and just when revelation was brought up to the
highest level, when a race was trained to apprehend and proclaim it,
when a language had been created and diffused to express it, when the
world was united in one great brotherhood of states, ready to receive
it--then, in the fullness of times, the Christ was manifested, who is
over all, God blessed forever.