MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS AND ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY.
The Messianic Hope--Various Conceptions of the Expected
Messiah--The Essene Idea of the Kingdom of Heaven--John
the Baptist, his Work and Imprisonment--Jesus of Nazareth
continues John's Labors--Story of his Birth--His Success--His
Relations to Judaism and the Sects--His Miraculous Healing of
the Sick and Exorcism of Demons--His Secret Appearance as the
Messiah--His Journey to Judæa--Accusations against him, and his
Condemnation--The First Christian Community and its Chiefs--The
Ebionites--Removal of Pilate from Judæa--Vitellius, Governor of
Syria, favors the Judæans.
28-37 C. E.
While Judæa was still trembling in fear of some new act of violence on
the part of the governor, Pontius Pilate, which would again afflict the
country with disturbances and troubles, a strange event occurred. At
first but little heeded, it soon acquired, through the singularity of
its origin and many favorable attendant circumstances, a considerable
degree of notoriety. So great were the strides this movement rapidly
made to influence and power, that radical changes were produced by it
and new paths opened in the history of the world. The time had come
when the fundamental truths of Judaism, till then thoroughly known
and rightly appreciated only by profound thinkers, were to burst
their shackles and go freely forth among all the people of the earth.
Sublime and lofty views of God and of holy living for the individual
as well as for the state, which form the kernel of Judaism, were now
to be disseminated among other nations and to bring them a rich and
beneficent harvest. Israel was now to commence in earnest his sacred
mission; he was to become the teacher of nations. The ancient teaching
about God and religious morality was to be introduced by him unto a
godless and immoral world. Judaism, however, could gain admission into
the hearts of the heathens only by taking another name and assuming new
forms, for with its old designation and distinctive features it was not
generally popular.
It was due to the strange movement which arose under the governorship
of Pilate that the teachings of Judaism won the sympathy of the
heathen world. But this new form of Judaism, altered by foreign
elements, became estranged from and placed itself in harsh antagonism
to the parent source. Judaism, which had given birth to this new
manifestation, could take no pleasure in her offspring, which soon
turned coldly from her and struck out into strange, divergent paths.
This new power, this old doctrine in a new garb, or rather this
Essenism intermingled with foreign elements, is Christianity, whose
advent and earliest course belong to the Judæan history of this epoch.
Christianity owed its origin to an overpowering, mysterious feeling
which reigned among the better classes of the Judæan nation, and
which became daily stronger as their political position became more
and more intolerable. The ever-recurring evils brought on them by the
rapacity of their Roman rulers, the shamelessness of the Herodian
princes, the cowardice and servility of the Judæan aristocracy, the
debasement of the high priests and their families, and the dissensions
of rival parties, had raised the longing for the deliverer announced
in the prophetical writings--the Messiah--to so great a pitch that
any highly-gifted individual, possessed of outward charm or imbued
with moral and religious grace, would readily have found disciples,
and believers in his Messianic mission. The most earnest thinkers of
that time had long regarded the political condition of the Judæans
since their return from the Babylonian exile as a temporary or
preparatory state, which would only continue until the true prophet
arose, and Elijah turned the hearts of the fathers to the children,
and restored the tribes of Jacob. When the people, with solemn rites,
elected the Hasmonæan Simon as their prince, they decreed that he and
his descendants should hold that position only until the True Prophet
appeared to assume the royal dignity, and it was only to a scion of the
House of David, the Anointed that, according to prophecy, this dignity
by right belonged.
When, consequent upon the wars undertaken by the three powerful
leaders, Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus, ostensibly to punish Cæsar's
murderers, in reality to introduce a new form of government, the
great political convulsion took place in the Roman Empire, and three
divisions of the world were laid waste, a Judæan poet in Egypt was
foretelling a far different outcome--the destruction of the whole
heathen world and the dawn of the "Kingdom of God." In that kingdom
a holy king--the Messiah--would hold the scepter. "When Rome shall
vanquish Egypt, and govern her, then shall the greatest in the kingdom,
the immortal King, arise in the world, and a holy King will come to
rule over all the nations of the earth during all time." The Messiah,
so confidently expected, was to bring forth quite a new state of
things--a new heaven and a new earth. At the coming of Elijah, who was
to be the precursor of the Messiah, the resurrection of the dead would
take place, and a future world be revealed.
This ardent longing for the Messiah, and the belief in his advent,
swayed all classes of the Judæan nation, excepting the aristocracy
and those who clung to Rome. These were satisfied with the present,
and anticipated harm rather than benefit from any change. During the
short space of thirty years a great number of enthusiastic mystics
appeared, who, without any intention to deceive, and bent upon removing
the load of care and sorrow that weighed so heavily upon the people,
assumed the character of prophet or Messiah, and found disciples, who
followed their banner faithfully unto death. But though it appears that
every Messiah attracted ready believers, no one was acknowledged as
such by the whole nation. The incessant friction between the various
communities, and the deep study of the holy books, had awakened a
critical spirit difficult to satisfy. The nation was also split into
many parties, each entertaining a different idea of the future savior,
and rendering it, therefore, impossible that any one aspirant should
receive general recognition as the Messiah. The republican zealots,
the disciples of Judas of Galilee, pictured the Messiah as delivering
Israel from his enemies by the breath of his mouth, destroying the
Roman Empire, and restoring the golden era of David's kingdom. The
school of Shammai added to this representation of the Messiah the
attributes of ardent religious zeal and perfect moral purity. The
followers of Hillel, less swayed by fanaticism or political views,
expected a prince of peace, who would bring tranquillity to the
country itself, and introduce harmony into its relations with all its
neighboring states. On one point, however, all agreed: the Messiah
must spring from the branch of David; and thus, in the course of time,
the expression "Ben David"--the son of David--became identical with
the Messiah. According to the prevailing belief, the fulfillment of
the Messianic prophecies required the return of the scattered tribes
of Israel, richly laden with presents, expiatory offerings from the
nations by which they had so long been oppressed. Even the most
educated classes, who had felt the influence of Grecian culture, and
were represented by Philo, the Judæan Plato, fully believed that the
Messianic age was to be ushered in, and pictured it as an epoch of
miracles. A heavenly apparition, only visible to the righteous, would
lead back from Greece and barbarous lands the exiled and repentant
Israelites. The latter would be found prepared for the Messianic time,
following the holy life of the patriarchs, and imbued with a sublime
and pious spirit, which would prevent them from falling into their
old sins, and would surely call down upon them the full grace of God.
Then would the streams of former happiness be again replenished from
the eternal spring of Divine grace: the ruined cities would arise, the
desert become a blooming land, and the prayers of the living would have
the power of awakening the dead.
It was the sect of Essenes that pictured the Messiah and the Messianic
time in the most idealistic manner. The great object of their
asceticism was to advance the kingdom of heaven (Malchuth Shamayim) and
the coming era (Olam-ha-Ba). Their adherence would be granted alone
to him who led a pure and spotless life, who renounced the world and
its vanities, and gave proofs that the Holy Spirit (Ruach ha-Kodesh)
dwelt within him. He must also have power over demons, reject Mammon,
and inaugurate a system of community of goods, in which poverty and
self-renunciation would be the ornaments of mankind.
It was from the Essenes that for the first time the cry went forth,
"The Messiah is coming! The kingdom of heaven is near!" He who first
raised his voice in the desert little thought it would re-echo far away
over land and sea, and that it would be answered by the nations of the
earth flocking together round the banner of a Messiah. In announcing
the kingdom of heaven, he only meant to invite the sinners among the
Judæan people to penitence and reformation. The Essene who sent forth
this call to the Israelites was John the Baptist (his name doubtless
meaning the Essene, he who daily bathed and cleansed both body and
soul in spring water). But few accounts have reached us of John the
Baptist. He led the same life as the Essenes, fed upon locusts and wild
honey, and wore the garb of the prophets of old, a cloak of camel-hair
fastened by a leather girdle. John appears to have fully entertained
the belief, that if only the whole Judæan nation would bathe in the
river Jordan, acknowledge their sins, and adopt the strict rules of
the Essenes, the promised Messianic time could be no longer deferred.
He therefore called upon the people to come and receive baptism in the
Jordan, to confess and renounce their sins, and thus prepare for the
advent of the kingdom of heaven.
John dwelt with other Essenes in the desert, in the vicinity of
the Dead Sea, presumably in order to be ever at hand to teach the
repentant sinners the deep moral signification of baptism. Bound up
with that rite was doubtless the adoption of the rule of life of
the Essenes. There were certainly many, imbued with an enthusiastic
spirit, and saddened by the evils and the distress they witnessed,
who eagerly responded to the cry of the Essene Baptist. Who would not
gladly, were it only in his power to do so, further the great work of
the Redemption, and help to advance the kingdom of heaven? Did the
baptized persons return improved by their immersion in the waters of
the Jordan? Was any great moral influence the result of this symbolical
act? History tells us not; but our knowledge of the state of Judæa at
that time can easily supply us with an answer to the question. The
Judæan people did not as a whole, especially among the middle-class
citizens, require this violent shock as a means of improvement; they
were neither vicious nor depraved, and their form of public religious
worship was sufficient to keep them in the right paths. By two sets
of people, however, the call of John to repentance might have been
heeded--it might have had a beneficial influence upon the higher and
lower classes, upon the aristocracy and wealthy, who had been corrupted
by Rome, and upon the miserable peasantry, brutalized by constant
warfare. But the rich only laughed at the high-souled enthusiast, who
taught that baptism in the water of the Jordan would bring about the
miraculous Messianic era, and the sons of the soil were too obtuse and
ignorant to heed the Baptist's earnest cry.
His appeal, on the other hand, had nothing in its tenor and character
to offend the Pharisees, or arouse any opposition among the ranks of
that ruling party. John's disciples, those who were bound closest to
him, and who carried out his mode of living, kept strictly to the words
of the Law, and observed all its prescribed fasts. If the Pharisees,
comprising at that time the schools of Hillel and of Shammai, did not
greatly favor the enthusiasm and extravagance of the Essenes, they
placed themselves in no direct antagonism to the Baptists.
From their side, John would have met with no hindrance to his work, but
the Herodians were suspicious of a man who drew such throngs around
him, whose burning words moved the hearts of his hearers in their
very depths, and could carry away the multitude to the performance
of any enterprise he chose to undertake. Herod Antipas, governor of
the province in which the Baptist dwelt, gave his soldiers orders to
seize and imprison him. How long a time he was kept in confinement,
and whether he was still alive when one of his disciples was being
proclaimed as the Messiah, must, on account of the untrustworthiness of
the sources from which our information is derived, remain doubtful. It
is authentic, however, that he was beheaded by the order of Antipas,
whilst the story of the young daughter of Herodias bringing to her
mother the bloody head of the Baptist upon a platter is a mere legend.
After the imprisonment of the Baptist, his work was carried on by some
of his disciples, among whom no one exerted so powerful an influence
as Jesus of Galilee. Jesus (short for Joshua), born in Nazareth,
a small town in Lower Galilee, to the south of Sepphoris, was the
eldest son of an otherwise unknown carpenter, Joseph, and of his wife
Miriam or Mary, who bore him four more sons, Jacob, Josê, Judah, and
Simon, and several daughters. Whether Joseph or Mary, the father and
mother of Jesus, belonged to the family of David cannot be proved. The
measure of his mental culture can only be surmised from that existing
in his native province. Galilee, at a distance from the capital and
the Temple, was far behind Judæa in mental attainments and knowledge
of the Law. The lively interchange of religious thought, and the
discussions upon the Law, which made its writings and teachings the
common property of all who sought the Temple, were naturally wanting in
Galilee. The country, which, at a later period, after the destruction
of the Temple, contained the great schools of Uscha, Sepphoris, and
Tiberias, was at that time very poor in seats of learning. But, on the
other hand, morality was stricter in Galilee, and the observance of
laws and customs more rigidly enforced. The slightest infringement was
not allowed, and what the Judæans permitted themselves, the Galilæans
would by no means consent to. They were also looked upon as fanatical
dogmatists.
Through their vicinity to the heathen Syrians, the Galilæans had
adopted many superstitions, and, owing to their ignorance of the nature
of disease, the sick were often thought to be possessed by demons,
and various forms of illness were ascribed to the influence of evil
spirits. The language of the Galilæans had also become corrupted by
their Syrian neighbors, and was marred by the introduction of Aramaic
forms and words. The Galilæans could not pronounce Hebrew with purity.
They exchanged, and sometimes omitted, the guttural sounds, and thus
often incurred the ridicule of the Judæans, who thought a great deal of
correct articulation. The first word he spoke revealed the Galilæan,
and, as his language provoked laughter, he was not often allowed to
lead in the recital of the prayers. The birthplace of Jesus, Nazareth,
offered no particular attraction; it was a small mountain-town, not
more fertile than the other parts of Galilee, and bearing no comparison
to the richly-watered Shechem.
On account of his Galilæan origin, Jesus could not have stood high in
that knowledge of the Law which, through the schools of Shammai and
Hillel, had become prevalent in Judæa. His small stock of learning
and his corrupt half-Aramaic language pointed unmistakably to his
birthplace in Galilee. His deficiency in knowledge, however, was fully
compensated for by his intensely sympathetic character. High-minded
earnestness and spotless moral purity were his undeniable attributes;
they stand out in all the authentic accounts of his life that have
reached us, and appear even in those garbled teachings which his
followers placed in his mouth. The gentle disposition and the humility
of Jesus remind one of Hillel, whom he seems, indeed, to have taken as
his particular model, and whose golden rule, "What you wish not to be
done to yourself, do not unto others," he adopted as the starting-point
of his moral code. Like Hillel, Jesus looked upon the promotion of
peace and the forgiveness of injuries as the highest forms of virtue.
His whole being was permeated by that deeper religiousness which
consecrates to God not only the hour of prayer, a day of penitence, and
longer or shorter periods of devotional exercise, but every step in the
journey of life, which turns every aspiration of the soul towards Him,
subjects everything to His will, and, with child-like trust, commits
everything to His keeping. He was filled with tender brotherly love,
which Judaism also teaches towards an enemy, and had reached the ideal
of the passive virtues which the Pharisees inculcated: "Count yourself
among the oppressed and not among the oppressors, receive abuse and
return it not; do all from love to God, and rejoice in suffering."
Jesus doubtless possessed warm sympathies and a winning manner, which
caused his words to produce a deep and lasting effect.
Jesus must, from the idiosyncrasies of his nature, have been powerfully
attracted by the Essenes, who led a contemplative life apart from the
world and its vanities. When John the Baptist--or more correctly the
Essene--invited all to come and receive baptism in the Jordan, to
repent and prepare for the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus hastened to obey
the call, and was baptized by him. Although it cannot be proved that
Jesus was formally admitted into the order of the Essenes, much in his
life and work can only be explained by the supposition that he had
adopted their fundamental principles. Like the Essenes, Jesus highly
esteemed self-inflicted poverty, and despised the mammon of riches. The
following proverbs, ascribed to him, appear to bear his stamp: "Blessed
are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven" (Luke vi. 20). "It is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich
man to enter into the kingdom of God" (Matthew xix. 24). "No man can
serve two masters, ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew vi. 24).
Jesus shared the aversion of the Essenes to marriage: "It is not good
to marry" (Matthew xix. 11). Community of goods, a peculiar doctrine
of the Essenes, was not only approved of, but positively enjoined by
Jesus; like them, he also reprobated every form of oath. "Swear not
at all" (so Jesus taught), "neither by heaven nor by the earth, nor
by your head--but let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay" (James
v. 12). Miraculous cures, said to have been performed by him--such
as the exorcism of demons from those who believed themselves to be
possessed--were often made by the Essenes, so to say, in a professional
capacity.
After John had been taken and imprisoned by Herod Antipas, Jesus
thought simply of continuing his master's work; like him, he preached
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," without perhaps having
then a suspicion of the part he was afterwards to play in that kingdom
of heaven looked forward to in the approaching Messianic time. Jesus
apparently felt that if his appeal was not to be lost in the desert
like that of the Baptist, but, on the contrary, bring forth lasting
results, it must not be addressed to the whole nation, but to a
particular class of the Judæans. The middle classes, the inhabitants of
towns of greater or lesser importance, were not wanting in godliness,
piety and morality, and consequently a call to them to repent and
forsake their sins would have been meaningless. The declaration made to
Jesus by the young man who was seeking the way of eternal life, "From
my youth upwards, I have kept the laws of God; I have not committed
murder, nor adultery, nor have I stolen, nor borne false witness;
I have honored my father and mother, and loved my neighbor like
myself,"--this declaration might have been made by the greater number
of the middle-class Judæans of that time. The disciples of Shammai
and Hillel, the followers of the zealot Judas, the bitter foes of the
Herodians and of Rome, were not morally sick, and were not in need
of the physician's art. They were ever ready for self-sacrifice, and
Jesus wisely refrained from turning to them. Still less was he inclined
to attempt to reform the rich, and he was repelled by the higher
classes of Judæans. From these, the warning of the simple, unlearned
moralist and preacher, his reproof of their pride, their venality
and inconstancy, would only have elicited mockery and derision. With
right judgment, therefore, Jesus determined upon seeking out those who
did not belong to, or had been expelled from the community for their
religious offenses, and who had either not been allowed or had not
desired to return to it. They were publicans and tax-gatherers, shunned
by the patriots, as promoters of Roman interests, who turned their
backs upon the Law, and led a wild, unshackled life, heedless alike
of the past and of the future. There existed in Judæa many who had no
knowledge of the great healing truths of Judaism, who were ignorant
of its laws, and indifferent as to the glorious history of its past
or its possible future. These were known as transgressors of the Law
(Abrianim), or sinners as they were called, the friends of Herod and
of Rome. There were also ignorant, poor handicraftsmen and menials
(Am ha-Arez), who were seldom able to visit the Judæan capital, or
listen to Judæan teachings, which, indeed, they would probably not have
understood. It was not for them that Sinai had flamed, or the prophets
had uttered their cry of warning; for the teachers of the Law, more
intent upon expounding doctrine than upon reforming their hearers,
failed to make the Law and the prophets intelligible to those classes,
and consequently did not draw them within their fold. It was to these
outcasts that Jesus turned, to snatch them out of their torpor, their
ignorance and ungodliness. He felt within himself the call to save "the
lost sheep of the house of Israel." "They that be whole need not a
physician, but they that are sick" (Matthew ix. 12).
Intent upon the lofty mission which he had undertaken--to turn the
ignorant and the godless, the sinner and the publican to repentance,
and by virtue of the Essene mode of living to prepare them for the
approaching Messianic time--Jesus first sought his native town of
Nazareth. But there, where he had been known from his infancy, and
where the carpenter's son was not considered to possess superior
sanctity but only inferior knowledge, he was met with derision and
contempt. When, on the Sabbath, he spoke in the synagogue about
repentance, the listeners said to each other, "Is that not the son of
Joseph the carpenter, and his mother and sisters, are they not all with
us?" and they said to him, "Physician, heal thyself," and listened not
to him. The ignominious treatment he received in his own birthplace
caused him to utter the proverb, "The preacher is least regarded in his
own country." He left Nazareth, never to return.
A better result followed the teaching of Jesus in the town of Capernaum
(Kefar Nahum), which was situated on the western coast of the Sea of
Tiberias. The inhabitants of that delightfully situated town differed
as much from the Nazarenes as their mild, fertile land from a rough
and wild mountain gorge. In Capernaum there were doubtless a greater
number of men steeped in effeminacy and vice, and there existed,
probably, a wider gap between the rich and the poor. But just on that
account Jesus had more scope to work there, and an easier access was
found for the earnest, penetrating words which he poured forth from
the depths of his soul. Many belonging to the lowest classes attached
themselves to Jesus and followed him. Among his first disciples in
Capernaum were Simon, called Kephas or Petrus (rock), and his brother
Andrew, the sons of Jonah, both fishermen, the first, in some degree,
a law-breaker, and also the two sons of a certain Zebedee, Jacob
and John. He was also followed by a rich publican, called sometimes
Matthew, sometimes Levi, in whose house Jesus often tarried, bringing
with him companions from the classes then looked down upon with the
greatest contempt. Women likewise of doubtful repute were among his
followers, the most conspicuous of the number being a native of the
town of Magdala, near Tiberias, Mary Magdalene, from whom seven devils
(according to the language of the time) had to be driven out. Jesus
converted these abandoned sinners into remorseful penitents. It was,
doubtless, an unheard-of thing at that time for a teacher of Judaism to
hold intercourse with women at all, more especially with any of that
description.
He, however, by word and example raised the sinner and the publican,
and filled the hearts of those poor, neglected, thoughtless beings
with the love of God, transforming them into dutiful children of their
heavenly Father. He animated them with his own piety and fervor, and
improved their conduct by the hope he gave them of being able to
enter the kingdom of heaven. That was the greatest miracle that Jesus
performed. Above all things, he taught his male and female disciples
the Essene virtues of self-abnegation and humility, of the contempt of
riches, of charity and the love of peace. He said to his followers,
"Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass for your purses, neither
two coats, neither shoes" (Matthew x. 9). He bade them become sinless
as little children, and declared they must be as if born again if
they would become members of the approaching kingdom of heaven. The
law of brotherly love and forbearance he carried to the extent of
self-immolation. "If you receive a blow on one cheek, turn the other
one likewise, and if one takes your cloak, give him likewise your
shirt." He taught the poor that they should not take heed for meat or
drink or raiment, but pointed to the birds in the air and the lilies
in the fields that were fed and clothed yet "they toil not, neither
do they spin." He taught the rich how to distribute alms--"Let not
thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." He admonished the
hypocrite, and bade him pray in the secrecy of his closet, placing
before him a short form of prayer--"Our Father which art in heaven,"
which may possibly have been in use among the Essenes.
Jesus made no attack upon Judaism itself, he had no idea of becoming
the reformer of Jewish doctrine or the propounder of a new law; he
sought merely to redeem the sinner, to call him to a good and holy
life, to teach him that he is a child of God, and to prepare him
for the approaching Messianic time. He insisted upon the unity of
God, and was far from attempting to change in the slightest degree
the Jewish conception of the Deity. To the question once put to him
by an expounder of the Law, "What is the essence of Judaism?" he
replied, "'Hear, O Israel, our God is one' and 'Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself.' These are the chief commandments" (Mark xii.
28). His disciples, who had remained true to Judaism, promulgated the
declaration of their Master--"I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill;
till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass
from the Law till all be fulfilled" (Matthew v. 17). He must have kept
the Sabbath holy, for those of his followers who were attached to
Judaism strictly observed the Sabbath, which they would not have done
had their master disregarded it. It was only the Shammaitic strictness
in the observance of the Sabbath, which forbade even the healing of
the sick on that day, that Jesus protested against, declaring that
it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Jesus made no objection to
the existing custom of sacrifice, he merely demanded--and in this the
Pharisees agreed with him--that reconciliation with one's fellow-man
should precede any act of religious atonement. Even fasting found no
opponent in him, so far as it was practised without ostentation or
hypocrisy. He wore on his garments the fringes ordered by the Law, and
he belonged so thoroughly to Judaism that he shared the narrow views
held by the Judæans at that period, and thoroughly despised the heathen
world. He was animated by that feeling when he said, "Give not that
which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you."
The merit of Jesus consists especially in his efforts to impart greater
inner force to the precepts of Judaism, in the enthusiasm with which
he obeyed them himself, in his ardor to make the Judæans turn to God
with filial love as children to their father, in his fervent upholding
of the brotherhood of men, in his insistence that moral laws be placed
in the foreground, and in his endeavors to have them accepted by those
who had been hitherto regarded as the lowest and most degraded of human
beings.
It was not to be expected, however, that through his teaching alone
Jesus could attract devoted followers, or achieve great results;
something more was required--something strange and wonderful to startle
and inflame. His appearance, his mystical character, his earnest
zeal produced, doubtless, a powerful effect, but to awaken in the
dull and cold a lasting enthusiasm, to gain the confidence of the
masses and to kindle their faith, it was necessary to appeal to their
imagination by strange circumstances and marvelous surroundings. The
Christian chronicles abound in extraordinary events and descriptions
of miraculous cures performed by Jesus. Though these stories may in
part be due to an inclination to exaggerate and idealize, they must
doubtless have had some foundation in fact. Miraculous cures--such,
for example, as the exorcism of those possessed by demons--belonged
so completely to the personality of Jesus that his followers boasted
more of the exercise of that power than of the purity and holiness of
their conduct. If we are to credit the historical accounts of that
period, the people also admired Jesus more for the command he displayed
over demons and Satan than for his moral greatness. It was indeed on
account of the possession of such power that he was first considered a
supernatural being by the uncultured masses.
Encouraged by the great effect he produced in Capernaum, where he
found his first circle of disciples, Jesus wandered about in the towns
of Galilee, remaining some time in its second capital, Bethsaida,
in Magdala, and in Chorazin, where he gained many followers. His
presence, however, in Bethsaida and Chorazin could not have produced
any lasting result, as he bewailed--according to the words placed in
his mouth, "Woe unto thee, Chorazin, woe unto thee, Bethsaida"--the
spirit of opposition and indocility of their inhabitants. Like Sodom
and Gomorrah, they were accursed. Still he had many faithful disciples,
both men and women, who followed him everywhere, and obeyed him in all
things. They renounced not only their former immoral and irreligious
life, but also gave up all their possessions, carrying out the doctrine
of the community of goods. The repasts they took in common formed, as
it were, the connecting link which attached the followers of Jesus to
one another, and the alms distributed by the rich publicans relieved
the poor disciples of the fear of hunger, and thus bound them still
more closely to Jesus.
Among his followers Jesus selected as his peculiar confidants
those who, distinguished by their superior intelligence or greater
steadfastness of character, seemed best calculated to forward the
aims he had in view. The number of these trusted disciples was not
known, but tradition mentions twelve, and calls them the twelve
apostles--representatives, as it were, of the twelve tribes of Israel.
His great design, the secret desire of his heart, Jesus disclosed on
one occasion to the most intimate circle of his disciples. He led them
to a retired spot at the foot of Mount Hermon, not far from Cæsarea
Philippi, the capital of the Tetrarch Philip, where the Jordan rushes
forth from mighty rocks, and in that remote solitude he revealed to
them the hidden object of his thoughts. But he contrived his discourse
in such a manner that it appeared to be his disciples who at last
elicited from him the revelation that he considered himself the
expected Messiah. He asked his followers, "Who do men say that I, the
son of man, am?" Some replied that he was thought to be Elijah, the
expected forerunner of the Messiah; others, again, that he was the
prophet whose advent Moses had predicted; upon which Jesus asked them,
"But whom say ye that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art
the Christ." Jesus praised Peter's discernment and admitted that he
was the Messiah, but forbade his disciples from divulging the truth,
or, for the present, from speaking about it at all. Such was the
mysteriously-veiled birth of Christianity. When, a few days later, the
most trusted of his disciples, Simon Peter and the two sons of Zebedee,
James and John, timidly suggested that Elijah must precede the Messiah,
Jesus declared that Elijah had already appeared, though unrecognized,
in the person of the Baptist. Had Jesus from the very commencement of
his career nourished these thoughts in the depths of his soul, or had
they first taken shape when the many followers he had gained seemed to
make their realization possible? Jesus never publicly called himself
the Messiah, but made use of other expressions which were doubtless
current among the Essenes. He spoke of himself as "the son of man,"
alluding probably to Daniel vii. 13, "One like the son of man came
with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days," a verse
which referred probably to the whole people and its Messianic future,
but which at that time was made to point to the Messiah himself. There
was yet one other name which Jesus applied to himself in his Messianic
character--the mysterious words "Son of God," probably taken from the
seventh verse of the second Psalm, "The Lord hath said unto me, Thou
art my son; this day have I begotten thee." Was this expression used by
Jesus figuratively, or did he wish it to be taken in a literal sense?
As far as we know, he never explained himself clearly on that subject,
not even at a later date, when it was on account of the meaning
attached to those words that he was undergoing his trial. His followers
afterwards disagreed among themselves upon that matter, and the various
ways in which they interpreted that ambiguous expression divided them
into different sects, among which a new form of idolatry unfolded
itself.
When Jesus made himself known as the Messiah to his disciples,
enjoining secrecy, he consoled them for the present silence imposed on
them by the assurance that a time would come, when "What I tell you in
darkness, that speak ye in light, and what ye hear in the ear, that
preach ye upon the house-tops." What occurred was doubtless contrary to
what Jesus and his disciples expected, for as soon as it was known (the
disciples having probably not kept the secret) that Jesus of Nazareth
not only came to preach the Kingdom of Heaven, but was proclaimed as
the expected Messiah, the public sentiment rose against him. Proofs and
signs of his being the Messiah were asked, which he was not able to
give, and he thus was forced to evade the questions addressed to him.
Many of his followers seem to have been repelled by his assumption of
the Messianic character, and so left him at once. "From that time many
of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him" (John vi. 66).
In order not to be discredited in the eyes of his disciples, it was
essential that he should perform some miracle that would crown his work
or seal it with his death. It was expected that he would now appear in
Jerusalem before the whole nation in the character of the Messiah, and
it is stated that his own brothers entreated of him to go there, so
that his achievements might at last become visible to his disciples.
"For there is no man that doeth anything in secret and he himself
seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to
the world" (John vii. 4). Jesus thus found himself almost obliged to
enter upon the path of danger. He was, moreover, no longer safe in
Galilee, and appears to have been tracked and pursued from place to
place by the servants of the Tetrarch Herod Antipas. It was at that
time that Jesus said to one of his followers who clung to him in his
distress, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests,
but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head" (Matthew viii. 20).
He wished to prevent any misconception as to his desire to alter the
Law, and his reply to the Pharisee who asked what would be required of
him if he became his disciple was, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep
the commandments, sell what thou hast and give to the poor." When he
had passed Jericho and was approaching Jerusalem, Jesus took up his
abode near the walls of the capital, in the village of Bethany, at the
Mount of Olives, where the lepers who were obliged to avoid the city
had their settlement. It was in the house of one of these that shelter
was given him. The other disciples whom he found at Bethany belonged
also to the lower orders. They were Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and
Martha. Only one resident of wealth and position in Jerusalem, Joseph
of Arimathea, is said to have become a disciple of Jesus.
The entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem and his appearance in the Temple
have been glorified by a halo of legends which contain but little
historical truth. They show us Jesus accompanied in triumph by the
people singing hosannas, the same people who a few days later were to
demand his death. Both reports were inventions: the first was designed
to prove that he was recognized as the Messiah by the people; the
second, to throw the guilt of his execution upon all Israel. Equally
unhistorical is the account of Jesus entering the Temple by force,
throwing down the tables of the money-changers, and chasing away those
who were selling doves. An act that must have given rise to intense
excitement would not have been omitted from other chronicles of that
period. It is not mentioned in any other writings of that time that the
stalls of money-changers and dealers in doves had a place in the Temple.
It is just the most important facts of the life of Jesus--the account
of the attitude he assumed at Jerusalem before the people, the
Synhedrion and the different sects, the announcement of himself as the
Messiah, and the manner in which that announcement was received--that
are represented in such various ways in the chronicles that it is
impossible to separate the historical kernel from its legendary
exaggerations and embellishments. Prejudice certainly existed against
him in the capital. The educated classes could not imagine the
Messiah's saving work to be performed by an unlearned Galilæan; indeed,
the idea that the Messiah, who was expected to come from Bethlehem,
out of the branch of David, should belong to Galilee, overthrew the
long-cherished conviction of centuries. It is probably from this
time that the proverb arose: "Can there any good thing come out of
Nazareth?" (John i. 46). The devout took offense at his going about
eating and drinking with sinners, publicans, and women of a degraded
class. Even the Essenes, John's disciples, were displeased at his
infringement of rules and customs. The Shammaites were scandalized
at his healing the sick on the Sabbath day, and could not recognize
the Messiah in one who desecrated the Sabbath. He also roused the
opposition of the Pharisees by the disapproval he expressed here and
there of their interpretations of the laws, and of the conclusions they
drew from them. From Jesus the zealots could not look for deeds of
heroism, for, instead of inspiring his followers with hatred of Rome,
he advocated peace, and in his contempt for mammon admonished them to
submit willingly to the Roman tax-gatherers. "Render therefore unto
Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things which are
God's" (Matt. xxii. 21). These startling peculiarities, which seemed
to contradict the preconceived idea of the Messianic character, caused
the higher and the learned classes to be coldly indifferent to him,
and it is certain that he met with no friendly reception in Jerusalem.
These various objections, however, to the mode of life and the tenets
of Jesus afforded no ground for any legal accusation against him.
Freedom of speech had, owing to the frequent debates in the schools
of Shammai and Hillel, become so firmly established a right that no
one could be attacked for expressing religious opinions, unless indeed
he controverted any received dogma or rejected the conception of the
Divinity peculiar to Judaism. It was just in this particular that
Jesus laid himself open to accusation. The report had spread that he
had called himself the Son of God--words which, if taken literally,
wounded the religious feelings of the Judæan nation too deeply to allow
him who had uttered them to pass unscathed. But how was it possible to
ascertain the truth, to learn whether Jesus had really called himself
the Son of God, and to know what meaning he attached to these words?
How was it possible to discover what was the secret of his sect?
To bring that to light it was necessary to seek a traitor among his
immediate followers, and that traitor was found in Judas Iscariot,
who, as it is related, incited by avarice, delivered up to the judges
the man whom he had before honored as the Messiah. One Judæan account,
derived from what appears a trustworthy source, seems to place in
the true light the use made of this traitor. In order to be able to
arraign Jesus either as a false prophet or a seducer of the people,
the Law demanded that two witnesses had heard him utter the dangerous
language of which he was accused, and Judas was consequently required
to induce him to speak whilst two hidden witnesses might hear and
report his words. According to the Christian writings, the treachery
of Judas manifested itself in pointing out Jesus through the kiss of
homage that he gave his master as he was standing among his disciples,
surrounded by the people and the soldiers. No sooner had Jesus been
seized by the latter than his disciples left him and sought safety in
flight, Simon Peter alone following him at some distance. At dawn of
day on the 14th of Nissan, the Feast of the Passover, that is to say,
on the eve of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Jesus was led, not before
the great Synhedrion, but before the smaller court of justice, composed
of twenty-three members, over which the High Priest, Joseph Caiaphas,
presided. The trial was to determine whether Jesus had really claimed
to be, as the two witnesses testified, the Son of God; for one cannot
believe that he was arraigned before that tribunal because he had
boasted that it was in his power to destroy the Temple and rebuild it
in three days. Such a declaration, if really uttered by him, could not
have been made a cause of complaint. The accusation doubtless pointed
to the sin of blasphemy, and to the supposed affirmation of Jesus that
he was the Son of God. Upon the question being put to him on that
score, Jesus was silent and gave no answer. When the presiding judge,
however, asked him again if he were the Son of God, he is said to have
replied, "Thou hast said it," and to have added, "hereafter shall ye
see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in
the clouds of Heaven." If these words were really spoken by Jesus, the
judges could infer that he looked upon himself as the Son of God. The
High Priest rent his garments at the impious assertion, and the court
declared him guilty of blasphemy. From the account of the proceedings
given by Christian authorities, there is no proof that, according to
the existing penal laws, the judges had pronounced an unjust verdict.
All appearances were against Jesus. The Synhedrion received the
sanction of the death-warrant, or rather the permission to execute it,
from the governor, Pontius Pilate, who was just then present for the
festival at Jerusalem.
Pilate, before whom Jesus was brought, entering into the political side
of the question, asked him if he declared himself to be not only the
Messiah but the King of the Judæans, and as Jesus answered evasively,
"Thou hast said it," he likewise decreed his execution, which he indeed
alone had the power to enforce. That Pilate on the contrary found Jesus
innocent and wished to save him, while the Judæans had determined upon
putting him to death, is unhistorical and merely legendary. When Jesus
was scoffed at and obliged to wear the crown of thorns in ironical
allusion to the Messianic and royal dignity he had assumed, it was
not the Judæans who inflicted those indignities upon him, but the
Roman soldiers, who sought through him to deride the Judæan nation.
Among the Judæans who had condemned him there was, on the contrary, so
little of personal hatred that he was treated exactly like any other
criminal, and was given the cup of wine and frankincense to render
him insensible to the pains of death. That Jesus was scourged before
his execution proves that he was treated according to the Roman penal
laws; for by the Judæan code no one sentenced to death could suffer
flagellation. It was consequently the Roman lictors who maliciously
scourged with fagots or ropes the self-styled King of the Judæans.
They also caused Jesus (by the order of Pilate) to be nailed to the
cross, and to suffer the shameful death awarded by the law of Rome. For
after the verdict of death was pronounced by the Roman authorities,
the condemned prisoner belonged no more to his own nation, but to the
Roman state. It was not the Synhedrion but Pilate that gave the order
for the execution of one who was regarded as a State criminal and a
cause of disturbance and agitation. The Christian authorities state
that Jesus was nailed on the cross at nine o'clock in the morning, and
that he expired at three o'clock in the afternoon. His last words were
taken from a psalm, and spoken in the Aramaic tongue--"God, my God, why
hast Thou forsaken me?" (Eli, eli, lama shebaktani.) The Roman soldiers
placed in mockery the following inscription upon the cross: "Jesus of
Nazareth, King of the Judæans." The cross had been erected and the body
was probably buried outside the town, on a spot which was the graveyard
of condemned criminals. It was called Golgotha, the place of skulls.
Such was the end of the man who had devoted himself to the improvement
of the most neglected, miserable, and abandoned members of his people,
and who, perhaps, fell a victim to a misunderstanding. How great was
the woe caused by that one execution! How many deaths and sufferings
of every description has it not caused among the children of Israel!
Millions of broken hearts and tragic fates have not yet atoned for his
death. He is the only mortal of whom one can say without exaggeration
that his death was more effective than his life. Golgotha, the place
of skulls, became to the civilized world a new Sinai. Strange, that
events fraught with so vast an import should have created so little
stir at the time of their occurrence at Jerusalem, that the Judæan
historians, Justus of Tiberias and Josephus, who relate, to the very
smallest minutiae, everything which took place under Pilate, do not
mention the life and death of Jesus.
When the disciples of Jesus had somewhat recovered from the panic
which came upon them at the time he was seized and executed, they
re-assembled to mourn together over the death of their beloved Master.
The followers of Jesus then in Jerusalem did not amount to more than
one hundred and twenty, and if all who believed in him in Galilee
had been numbered, they would not have exceeded five hundred. Still,
the effect that Jesus produced upon the unenlightened masses must
have been very powerful; for their faith in him, far from fading away
like a dream, became more and more intense, their adoration of Jesus
rising to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. The only stumbling-block
to their belief lay in the fact that the Messiah who came to deliver
Israel and bring to light the glory of the kingdom of heaven, endured a
shameful death. How could the Messiah be subject to pain? A suffering
Messiah staggered them considerably, and this stumbling-block had to
be overcome before a perfect and joyful belief could be reposed in
him. It was at that moment probably that some writer relieved his own
perplexities and quelled their doubts by referring to a prophecy in
Isaiah, that "He will be taken from the land of the living, and will
be wounded for the sins of his people." The humble, wavering disciples
of Jesus were helped over their greatest difficulty by the Pharisees,
who were in the habit of explaining the new or the marvelous by
interpretations of Scripture. By this means they afforded indirectly
a solution and support to Christianity, and thus belief was given
to the most senseless and absurd doctrines, and the incredible was
made to appear certain and necessary. Without some support, however
feeble, from Holy Writ, nothing new would have been received or could
have kept its ground. By its help everything that happened was shown
to have been inevitable. Even that Jesus should have been executed
as a malefactor appeared pregnant with meaning, as it fulfilled the
literal prophecy concerning the Messiah. Was it not written that he
should be judged among the evil-doers? His disciples declared they had
heard Jesus say that he would be persecuted even unto death. Thus his
sufferings and death were evident proofs that he was the Messiah. His
followers examined his life, and found in every trivial circumstance
a deeper Messianic significance; even the fact that he was not born
in Bethlehem, but in Nazareth, appeared to be the fulfillment of a
prophecy. Thus he might therefore be called a Nazarene (Nazarite?), and
thus were his followers persuaded that Jesus, the Nazarene, was Christ
(the Messiah). When the faithful were satisfied on that point, it was
not difficult to answer the other question which naturally offered
itself--When would the promised kingdom of heaven appear, since he who
was to have brought it had died on the cross? Hope replied that the
Messiah would return in all his glory, with the angels of heaven, and
then every one would be rewarded according to his deeds. They believed
that some then alive would not taste death until they had seen the
Son of Man enter his kingdom. His disciples were hourly expecting
the return of Jesus, and only differed from the Judæans in so far as
they thought that the Messiah had already appeared in human form and
character.
This kingdom was to last a thousand years: the Sabbath year of jubilee,
after the six thousand years of the world, would be founded by Jesus
when he returned to the earth, bringing the blessing of peace and
perfect happiness to the faithful. This belief required the further
conviction that Jesus had not fallen a prey to death, but that he would
rise again. It may have been the biblical story of Jonah's entombment
for three days in the bowels of a fish which gave rise to the legend
that Jesus after the same interval came forth from his sepulcher, which
was found to be empty. Many of his disciples declared they had seen
him after his death, now in one place, now in another; that they had
spoken to him, had marked his wounds, and had even partaken of fish and
honey with him. Nothing seemed to stagger their faith in the Messianic
character of Jesus; but greatly as they venerated and glorified him,
they had not yet raised him above humanity; in spite of the enthusiasm
with which he inspired them, they could not look upon him as God. They
regarded him only as a highly gifted man who, having obeyed the Law
more completely than any other human being, had been found worthy to be
the Messiah of the Lord.
They deviated in no degree from the precepts of Judaism, observing the
Sabbath, the rite of circumcision, and the dietary laws, whilst they
also reverenced Jerusalem and the Temple as holy places. They were,
however, distinguished from the other Judæans in some peculiarities
besides the belief they cherished that the Messiah had already
appeared. The poverty which they willingly embraced in accordance
with the teaching of Jesus was a remarkable trait in them. From this
self-imposed poverty they were called Ebionites (poor), a name they
either gave themselves or received from those who had not joined them.
They lived together, and each new disciple was required to sell his
goods and chattels and to pour the produce into the common purse.
To this class belonged the early Christians, or Judæan Christians, who
were called Nazarenes, and not, according to their origin, Essenes.
Seven administrators were appointed, as was usual among the Judæans,
to manage the expenditure of the community, and to provide for their
common repasts. They abstained from meat, and followed the way of the
Essenes, whom they also resembled in their practice of celibacy, in
their disuse of oil and superfluous garments, a single one of white
linen being all each possessed. It is related of James, the brother of
Jesus, who, on account of his near relationship to the founder, was
chosen leader of the early Christian community, and was revered as
an example, that he drank no wine or intoxicating beverages, that he
never ate meat, allowed no scissors to touch his hair, wore no woolen
material, and had only one linen garment. He lived strictly according
to the Law, and was indignant when the Christians allowed themselves to
transgress it. Next to him at the head of the community of Ebionites
stood Simon Kephas or Petrus, the son of Jonas, and John the son of
Zebedee, who became the pillars of Christianity. Simon Peter was the
most energetic of all the disciples of Jesus, and was zealous in his
endeavors to enroll new followers under the banner of Christianity. In
spite of the energy he thus displayed, he is described as being of a
vacillating character. The Christian chronicles state that when Jesus
was seized and imprisoned he denied him three times, and was called by
his master "him of little faith." He averred, with the other disciples,
that they had received from Jesus the mission of preaching to the lost
children of the house of Israel the doctrine of the brotherhood of
man and the community of goods; like Jesus and John the Baptist, they
were also to announce the approaching kingdom of heaven. Christianity,
only just born, went instantly forth upon her career of conquest and
proselytism. The disciples asserted that Jesus had imparted to them the
power of healing the sick, of awakening the dead, and of casting out
evil spirits. With them the practice of exorcism became common, and
thus the belief in the power of Satan and demons, brought from Galilee,
first took form and root. In Judaism itself the belief in demons was
of a harmless nature, without any religious significance. Christianity
first raised it to be an article of faith, to which hecatombs of human
beings were sacrificed. The early Christians used, or rather misused,
the name of Jesus for purposes of incantation. All those who believed
in Jesus boasted that it was given to them to drive away evil spirits,
to charm snakes, to cure the sick by the laying on of their hands, and
to partake of deadly poisons without injury to themselves. Exorcism
became by degrees a constant practice among Christians; the reception
of a new member was preceded by exorcism, as though the novice had till
then been possessed by the devil. It was, therefore, not surprising
that the Christians should have been looked upon by Judæans and
heathens as conjurors and magicians. In the first century, however,
Christians attracted but little attention in Judæan circles, escaping
observation on account of the humble class to which they belonged. They
formed a sect of their own, and were classed with the Essenes, to whom,
in many points, they bore so great a resemblance. They might probably
have dwindled away altogether had it not been for one who appeared
later in their midst, who gave publicity to the sect, and raised it to
such a pinnacle of fame that it became a ruling power in the world.
An evil star seems to have shone over the Judæan people during the
hundred years which had elapsed since the civil wars under the last
Hasmonæans, which had subjected Judæa to Rome. Every new event appeared
to bring with it some new misfortune. The comforting proverb of
Ecclesiastes, that there is nothing new under the sun, in this instance
proved false. The Messianic vision which had indistinctly floated in
the minds of the people, but which had now taken a tangible form, was
certainly something new; and this novel apparition, with its mask of
death, was to inflict new and painful wounds upon the nation.
Christianity, which came from Nazareth, was really an offshoot of the
sect of the Essenes, and inherited the aversion of that sect for the
Pharisaic laws by which the life of the people was regulated. This
aversion rose to hatred in the followers, stimulated by grief at the
death of their founder. Pontius Pilate had greatly contributed to
increasing of the enmity of the Christians against their own flesh
and blood. He it was who added mockery and scorn to the punishment of
death; he had bound their Messiah to the cross like the most abject
slave, and in derision of his assumed royalty had placed the crown of
thorns on his head. The picture of Jesus nailed to the cross, crowned
with thorns, the blood streaming from his wounds, was ever present to
his followers, filling their hearts with bitter thoughts of revenge.
Instead of turning their wrath against cruel Rome, they made the
representatives of the Judæan people, and by degrees the whole nation,
responsible for inhuman deeds. They either intentionally deceived
themselves, or in time really forgot that Pilate was the murderer of
their master, and placed the crime upon the heads of all the children
of Israel.
At about this period the anger of Pilate was kindled against a
Samaritan self-styled Messiah or prophet, who called his believers
together in a village, promising to show them on Mount Gerizim the
holy vessels used in the time of Moses. The Governor, who looked
with suspicion upon every gathering of the people, and regarded
every exciting incident as fraught with possible rebellion against
the Roman Empire, led his troops against the Samaritans, and ordered
the ringleaders, who had been caught in their flight, to be cruelly
executed. Judæans and Samaritans jointly denounced his barbarity to
Vitellius, the Governor of Syria, and Pilate was summoned to Rome to
justify himself. The degree of favor shown to the Judæans by Tiberius
after the fall of Sejanus, explains the otherwise surprising leniency
evinced towards the Judæan nation at that time. The Judæans had found
an advocate at court in Antonia, the sister-in-law of Tiberius. The
latter, who was the friend of a patriotic prince of the house of Herod,
had revealed to Tiberius the plot framed against him by Sejanus, and
in grateful recognition Tiberius repealed the act of outlawry against
the Judæans. Vitellius, the Governor of Syria, was graciously inclined
towards the Judæans, and not only inquired into their complaints,
but befriended them in every way, showing a degree of indulgence and
forbearance most unusual in a Roman, in those subjects on which they
were peculiarly sensitive. When, on the occasion of the Feast of
Passover, Vitellius repaired to Jerusalem in order to make himself
acquainted with all that was going on there, he sought to lighten as
much as possible the Roman yoke. He remitted the tax on the fruits
of the market, and as the capital was mainly dependent upon that
market for its requirements, a heavy burden was thus removed from the
inhabitants of Jerusalem. He further withdrew the pontifical robes from
behind the lock and bolts of the fort of Antonia, and gave them over to
the care of the College of Priests, who kept them for some time. The
right of appointing the High Priest was considered too important to
the interests of Rome to be relinquished, and Vitellius himself made
use of it to install Jonathan, the son of Anan, in the place of Joseph
Caiaphas. Caiaphas had acted in concert with Pilate during all the time
he had governed, and from his good understanding with the latter had
doubtless become distasteful to the Judæan nation. The favor granted
to the Judæans by Vitellius was in accordance with the wishes of the
Emperor, who commanded him to aid the nation with all the available
Roman forces in an unjust cause--that of Herod Antipas against King
Aretas. Antipas, who was married to the daughter of Aretas, king of the
Nabathæans, had nevertheless fallen in love with Herodias, the wife of
his half-brother Herod, who, disinherited by his father Herod I., led
a private life, probably in Cæsarea. During a journey to Rome, Antipas
became acquainted with Herodias, who, doubtless repining at her obscure
position, abandoned her husband, and after the birth of a daughter
contracted an illegal marriage with his brother. Antipas' first wife,
justly exasperated at his shameless infidelity, had fled to her father
Aretas, and urged him to make war upon her faithless husband. Antipas
suffered a great defeat, which was no sooner made known to the Emperor
than he gave Vitellius orders instantly to undertake his defense
against the king of the Nabathæans. As Vitellius was about to conduct
two legions from Ptolemais through Judæa, the people took offense at
the pictures of the Emperor which the soldiers bore on their standards,
and which were to have been carried to Jerusalem, but out of regard
to the scruples of the Judæans, Vitellius, instead of leading his
army through Judæa, conveyed it along the farther side of the Jordan.
Vitellius himself was received with the greatest favor in Jerusalem,
and offered sacrifices in the Temple. Of all the Roman governors he was
the one who had shown most kindness to the Judæans.