registrations were ended. This census took place in the thirty-seventh
year after Cæsar’s[160] victory over Antony at Actium. [Sidenote: 31
B.C.] Joazar the high priest became the victim of popular opposition,
and Quirinius deprived him of his honourable post, and appointed Ananus,
son of Sethi, in his place.
Herod and Philip now took over their respective tetrarchies and entered
on office. Herod built walls for the city of Sepphoris—the chief
ornament of all Galilee—and called it Autocratoris;[161] another city,
Betharamphtha, he enclosed in the same way and called it Julias after
the name of the Emperor’s consort.[162] Philip restored Paneas at the
sources of the Jordan and renamed it Cæsarea;[163] he also promoted the
village of Bethsaida on the Lake of Gennesaret to the rank of a city,
increasing its population[164] and general opulence, and gave it the
name of the Emperor’s daughter Julia.—_Ant._ XVIII. 1. 1 and 2. 1 (1-6,
26-28).
Footnote 155:
The so-called _decursus honorum_.
Footnote 156:
Augustus.
Footnote 157:
On the east of the Sea of Galilee. In _B.J._ (parallel pass.) he is
called “a Galilæan” as in Acts v. 37.
Footnote 158:
Modelled on Thuc. I. 122, “defeat means nothing but downright slavery”
(Jowett; speech of the Corinthians urging Sparta to take up arms
against Athens).
Footnote 159:
So Niese (ἐπιβολὴ); MSS “plot” (ἐπιβουλὴ).
Footnote 160:
_i. e._ Augustus.
Footnote 161:
_i.e._ “Imperial” (city).
Footnote 162:
Julia.
Footnote 163:
Cæsarea Philippi (Matt. xvi. 13; Mark viii. 27).
Footnote 164:
Or, perhaps, “because of its large population.”
(25) Pilate offends Jewish susceptibilities in the matter of (i) the
Emperor’s busts, (ii) the Corban money
Now Pilate, the governor[165] of Judæa, having occasion to transfer
[Sidenote: _c._ A.D. 26] a (Roman) army from Cæsarea into winter
quarters in Jerusalem, conceived the idea of annulling Jewish
legislation by bringing within the city walls the Emperor’s busts which
were attached to the standards; whereas the very making of images is
forbidden us by the Law.[166] For this reason former governors used to
make their entry into the city with standards from which these ornaments
were absent. Pilate was the first to bring the images into Jerusalem and
erect them there. This was done without the knowledge of the citizens
because the army entered by night. As soon as they knew of it, they came
in crowds to Cæsarea, and for many days petitioned for the removal of
the images. Pilate stood firm, because to comply would be[167]
tantamount to high treason against Cæsar, and on the sixth day, the Jews
still persisting in their entreaties, he placed an armed force under
cover and came in person to the judgement-seat; this had been set up in
the race-course, where he had the soldiers concealed[168] in ambush.
When the Jews once more presented their petition, at a given signal he
had a cordon of soldiers round them and threatened to punish them with
instant death if they did not desist from their uproar and depart to
their homes. Thereupon they flung themselves on their faces and bared
their necks and said that they would gladly welcome death rather than
venture to transgress the wise ordinances[169] of their laws. Pilate
marvelled at their obstinacy in the observance of their laws, and
forthwith had the images taken back from Jerusalem to Cæsarea.
On another occasion he expended the consecrated funds[170] on the
construction of (an aqueduct for) conveying water to Jerusalem,
bringing it from a distance of two hundred furlongs.[171] The Jews
were dissatisfied with his action in this matter, and many
thousands[172] of them assembled and raised an outcry against him,
requiring him to abandon his project; some, as is the way of a mob,
even proceeded to rail at and insult the man. Pilate thereupon dressed
a large body of soldiers in Jewish garb, under which they carried
clubs, and stationed them where they could surround the Jews, whom he
then ordered to retire. When these began to revile him, he gave the
soldiers the prearranged signal; and they laid about them with a
severity much greater than Pilate had ordered, punishing
indiscriminately those who had taken part in the riot and those who
had not. (The Jews resisted with no lack of spirit)[173]; and so,
caught, as they were, unarmed by assailants equipped for the purpose,
many of them fell and were left to die on the spot, while others
escaped with wounds. Thus ended the insurrection.—_Ant._ XVIII. 3. 1
f. (55-62).
Footnote 165:
ἡγεμὼν: more exactly “procurator,” as in _B.J._ parallel pass.
(ἐπίτροπος).
Footnote 166:
Ex. xx. 4; Deut. iv. 16, etc.
Footnote 167:
Or “their request was.”
Footnote 168:
Conj. Niese; MSS “which concealed the soldiers.”
Footnote 169:
Gr. “wisdom.”
Footnote 170:
“the sacred treasure called corban” (or “corbon”), _B.J._
Footnote 171:
Gr. στάδια. _B.J._ has “400 (_v.l._ 300) furlongs.”
Footnote 172:
Gr. “myriads.”
Footnote 173:
With the MS reading οἱ δ᾽; with Niese’s conjecture οὐδ᾽ we should
translate, in the previous sentence, “indiscriminately and
relentlessly,” and omit the bracketed words.
(26) Jesus Christ[174]
Now about this time lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed he should be
called a man. For he was a doer of marvellous acts, a teacher of such
men as receive the truth with pleasure; and he won over to himself many
Jews and many also of the Greek nation. He was the Christ.[175] And
when, on the indictment of the principal men among us, Pilate had
sentenced him to the cross, yet did not those who had loved him at the
first cease (to do so); for he appeared to them alive again on the third
day, as the divine prophets had declared—these and ten thousand other
wonderful things—concerning him. And even now the race[176] of
Christians, so named from him, is not extinct.—_Ant._ XVIII. 3. 3 (63
f.).
Footnote 174:
On the authenticity of this passage see Appendix, Note II.
Footnote 175:
Or “the Messiah.”
Footnote 176:
Or “tribe” (φῦλον).
(27) Tiberius expels all Jews from Rome
A precedent for the similar action of Claudius, which brought
Aquila and Priscilla to Corinth (Acts xviii. 2). Suetonius alludes
to this order of Tiberius: “He repressed foreign religious
ceremonies—Egyptian and Jewish rites—compelling their devotees to
burn their sacred vestments with all their paraphernalia. Under
pretext of their military oath, he distributed the younger Jews
over provinces with an insalubrious climate; others of the same
race, or followers of kindred religions, he removed from the city,
under penalty for disobedience of servitude for life” (Tiberius, §
36).
I revert to the story, which I promised to tell, of what befell the Jews
in Rome at this time.
A Jew, who was a thorough rascal, had been driven from his country by an
accusation of transgressing certain laws and by fear of consequent
punishment. He was then living in Rome, where he professed to expound
the inner meaning[177] of the laws of Moses, and took into partnership
three men with characters exactly resembling his own. Fulvia, a lady of
rank and a proselyte to Judaism, became their disciple, and was induced
by them to send a present of purple (cloth) and gold to the Temple at
Jerusalem. Having obtained possession of these articles, they
appropriated them to their own use to defray their private
expenses;[178] which in fact was the original object of their request.
Fulvia lodged a complaint with her husband Saturninus; he reported the
matter to Tiberius, his friend; and Tiberius ordered the whole Jewish
(colony) to quit Rome. The consuls enlisted four thousand of them and
drafted them to the island of Sardinia, inflicting penalties on a very
large number who refused military service in deference to their
ancestral laws. Thus, through the wickedness of four men, were the Jews
expelled from the city.—_Ant._ XVIII. 3. 4 f. (80-84).
Footnote 177:
Gr. “wisdom.”
Footnote 178:
Text a little uncertain.
(28) Pilate Sent to Rome for Trial
An impostor promises to show the Samaritans the sacred vessels
buried by Moses under Mount Gerizim. Crowds assemble at a village,
Tirathana, at the foot of the mountain, to make the ascent.
[Sidenote: A.D. 36]
Pilate, however, forestalled their ascent by despatching a force of
cavalry and heavy-armed infantry, who attacked the multitude assembled
in readiness in the village, and in the ensuing engagement killed some,
routed others, and took a large number of prisoners. The chief prisoners
and the most influential of the fugitives were put to death by Pilate.
When the tumult was quelled, the Samaritan council approached Vitellius,
the governor of Syria, of consular rank, with accusations against Pilate
for his butchery of the victims. They said that the object of the
expedition to Tirathana was not revolt from Rome, but to seek refuge
from Pilate’s insolence. Vitellius thereupon sent Marcellus, a friend of
his, to take over the administration of Judæa, and ordered Pilate to
depart for Rome, to render his account to the Emperor of the charges
brought against him by the Samaritans. Pilate, accordingly—after ten
years’ residence in Judæa—went in haste to Rome on the instructions of
Vitellius, which he must needs obey. [Sidenote: A.D. 37] But before he
reached Rome, Tiberius was no more.—_Ant._ XVIII. 4. 1 f. (87-89.)
Josephus proceeds to tell how Vitellius went up to Jerusalem and
pacified the Jews by restoring to them the custody of the high
priest’s vestments, recently in Roman hands. Also how he deposed the
high priest “Joseph, surnamed Caiaphas.” Thus the three responsible
authorities for the trial of our Lord—the Emperor, Pilate and
Caiaphas—quit the scene simultaneously. After the next extract, we
pass from the period of the Gospel history to the period covered by
the Acts.
VI. THE LATER HERODS
(29) Herod the Tetrarch: his Marriage with Herodias and Murder of John
the Baptist[179]
Now about this time a quarrel arose between Aretas king of Petra[180]
and Herod on the following ground. Herod the Tetrarch married the
daughter of Aretas and had now lived with her a long time. On the eve of
a journey to Rome he lodged in the house of Herod, his half-brother on
the father’s side; the mother of this Herod was the daughter of Simon
the high priest. There he fell in love with Herodias his brother’s wife
(she was the daughter of their brother Aristobulus and sister of Agrippa
the Great[181]) and had the effrontery to propose marriage. She met his
advances and a compact was made that she should leave her home and come
to him on his return from Rome; it was part of the compact that he
should divorce the daughter of Aretas. The agreement settled, he set
sail for Rome. On his return, after discharging his commission in that
city, his wife, who had got wind of the compact with Herodias, bade her
husband, who was still unaware that she knew all, send her away to
Machærus—on the frontier between the dominions of Aretas and
Herod—without revealing her intentions. Herod, accordingly, let her go,
not suspecting that the poor woman had any inkling of the plot. She,
however, had long since sent word to Machærus, which at that time[182]
was subject to her father, and so found that the general in command[183]
there had everything in readiness for her (intended) journey. No sooner,
therefore, had she arrived (at Machærus) than she was off again into
Arabia, escorted by one general after another in turn, and so reached
her father post haste and told him of Herod’s intentions.
Aretas seized this occasion for hostilities and also for raising the
question of frontiers in the region of Gamala;[184] the two belligerents
mustered their armies and opened war, sending their generals as their
representatives in the field. A battle took place in which the whole of
Herod’s army was cut to pieces as the result of the defection of a
contingent from Philip’s tetrarchy which enlisted with Herod’s forces
and then deserted. Herod reported the matter to Tiberius, who was
indignant at the aggression of Aretas and wrote instructions to
Vitellius to go to war with him and either to take him alive and bring
him a prisoner to Rome or to kill him and send him his head. Such were
the injunctions of Tiberius to the governor of Syria.
* * * * *
Some of the Jews, however, regarded the destruction of Herod’s army as
the work of God, who thus exacted very just retribution for John,
surnamed the Baptist, Herod’s victim. John was a good man who bade the
Jews first cultivate virtue by justice[185] towards each other and piety
towards God, and so to come to baptism; for immersion,[186] he said,
would only appear acceptable to God if practised, not as an expiation
for specific offences, but for the purification of the body, when the
soul had been already thoroughly cleansed by righteousness. Now when all
men[187] listened to his words with the greatest delight and flocked to
him, Herod feared that the powerful influence which he exercised over
men’s minds—for they seemed ready for any action which he advised—might
lead to some form of revolt. He therefore decided to put him to death
before any revolution arose through him. To forestall events appeared
far better policy than a belated repentance when plunged in the turmoil
of an insurrection. And so, through Herod’s suspicions, John was sent as
a prisoner to Machærus, the fortress already mentioned, and there put to
death. The Jews supposed that the destruction of Herod’s army was the
penalty expressly inflicted upon him by God to avenge John....
The following extract supplies the name of “the daughter of
Herodias” who appears in Mark vi. 22 ff.
Now Herodias their sister married Herod, the son of Herod the Great by
Mariamne the daughter of Simon the high priest. They had a daughter
Salome, after whose birth Herodias, in defiance of our country’s laws,
married Herod, the Tetrarch of Galilee and half-brother of her husband,
during the lifetime of her husband, whom she divorced. Her daughter
Salome married Philip, the Tetrarch of Trachonitis and son of
Herod.—_Ant._ XVIII. 5. 1 f., 4 (109-119, 136 f.).
Footnote 179:
See Appendix, Note III.
Footnote 180:
Or “(Arabia) Petræa.”
Footnote 181:
Herod Agrippa I.
Footnote 182:
Slight emendation (τότε) of the MS reading τῷ τε (“and to him who was
subject...”).
Footnote 183:
Or “governor.”
Footnote 184:
Possibly a lacuna in the text.
Footnote 185:
Or “righteousness.”
Footnote 186:
Gr. βάπτισις; in the previous clause βαπτισμός.
Footnote 187:
Text uncertain; MSS “the rest.”
(30) How Herod Agrippa became King and Herod the Tetrarch lost his
Tetrarchy
The story of Herod Agrippa’s rise to power is dramatic. Brought up
at Rome with Drusus, the son of Tiberius, he squandered his money in
extravagant living. Returning a penniless prodigal to Palestine and
on the verge of suicide, he was patronized by Herod the Tetrarch and
his wife Herodias. Becoming involved in fresh difficulties, he
borrowed money for his passage and returned to Rome. There he paid
court to the future Emperor Gaius (Caligula), was arrested by
Tiberius for treason, and spent the last six months of Tiberius’s
reign in prison.
Tiberius survived his appointment of Gaius as his successor only a few
days, [Sidenote: A.D. 37] and then died after a reign of twenty-two
years, five months and three days. Gaius was the fourth of the Emperors.
The Romans, on learning of the death of Tiberius, rejoiced at the good
news, but could not bring themselves to believe it; not because they did
not desire it, for they would have given large sums of money for
confirmation of the report, but from fear that, if the news proved false
and they exhibited their joy prematurely, they would be slanderously
accused and lose their lives. For no other Roman ever treated the
patrician class so cruelly as did Tiberius. Quick to take offence and
relentless in action against any who, even without reason, had incurred
his hatred, he was savage with all whom he sentenced, and imposed the
death penalty for the slightest offences. And so, while the rumour of
his death found ready listeners, they were restrained from indulging
their satisfaction to the full by dread of the ills which they foresaw
if their hopes proved false.
Now Marsyas, Agrippa’s freedman, on hearing of Tiberius’s death, ran in
haste to tell Agrippa the good news. He found him just going out to the
bath, and beckoning to him, said in the Hebrew tongue, “The lion is
dead.” At once grasping his meaning and overcome with joy at the
tidings, he replied, “All my blessings be upon you for all your services
and for this welcome news! Only may your words prove true!” The
centurion, who kept guard over Agrippa, when he saw in what haste
Marsyas came and how delighted Agrippa was with his message, suspected
some startling intelligence[188] and asked them what was the subject of
their conversation. For a while they prevaricated, but, as he insisted,
Agrippa, who was now on friendly terms with him, told him outright. The
centurion joined with them in welcoming the news, because it was to
Agrippa’s advantage, and invited him to dinner. But as they were
feasting and drinking merrily, there came one who said that Tiberius was
alive and would return in a few days to the city. At this announcement
the centurion was sorely perplexed, because he had been guilty of a
capital offence both in sharing his table with a prisoner and in
rejoicing at the news of the Emperor’s death. He pushed Agrippa from his
seat and said: “Do you think to cheat me with this lying story of the
Emperor’s death and that you are not going to answer for it with your
own head?” With these words he ordered that Agrippa, whose chains he had
loosed, should be bound again, and kept him under stricter guard than
before. In this wretched condition Agrippa passed that night.
But on the morrow the rumour increased, and it was confidently affirmed
throughout the city that Tiberius was dead; men now had the courage to
speak of it openly, some even offered sacrifices. Letters also came from
Gaius, one to the Senate announcing Tiberius’s death and his own
accession, and another to Piso, the city warden, to the same effect, and
accompanied by orders for the removal of Agrippa from the camp to the
house in which he was lodging before his imprisonment. Henceforth
Agrippa lived in security; he was still under watch and ward, but
enjoyed considerable freedom.[189]
But when Gaius reached Rome with the corpse of Tiberius, after giving it
a costly funeral in accordance with the laws of his country, he was
anxious to set Agrippa at liberty that very day. Antonia,[190] however,
restrained him, not out of any ill-will to the prisoner, but with an eye
to propriety on the part of Gaius; she feared he would produce the
impression of welcoming the decease of Tiberius if he were instantly to
release one of his prisoners. Not many days elapsed, however, before
Gaius sent to his house to fetch him, had his hair cut and his raiment
changed, and then set the diadem on his head and appointed him king over
Philip’s[191] tetrarchy; he also conferred upon him the tetrarchy of
Lysanias. In exchange for his iron chain he gave him a golden one of the
same weight....
Herod the Tetrarch is instigated by his wife Herodias to emulate
Agrippa and go in quest of similar fortune to Rome. The result was
disastrous. He was found guilty of conspiracy and sent into exile,
Herodias sharing his fate. It will suffice to quote the end of the
story.
... Herod admitted that he had the arms in his armoury; he could not do
otherwise as the facts were there to confute him. Gaius, accordingly,
accepting this as proof of the accusation of conspiracy, deprived him of
his tetrarchy, which he added to Agrippa’s kingdom; he also presented
the latter with Herod’s wealth. He further punished Herod by banishing
him for life, appointing Lugdunum,[192] a city of Gaul, as his place of
abode.—_Ant._ XVIII. 6. 10-7. 2 (224-252).
Footnote 188:
Or, possibly, “suspected the use of a strange language,” viz. Hebrew.
Footnote 189:
Cf. Acts. xxiv. 23, where the same word ἄνεσις (R.V. “indulgence”)
occurs; Moulton-Milligan (_Vocab. of Gr. Test._) suggest “a kind of
_libera custodia_.”
Footnote 190:
The grandmother of Gaius and wife of Drusus, the brother of Tiberius.
Footnote 191:
Philip had recently died.
Footnote 192:
Lyons.
(31) Petronius and the Statue of Gaius
The crisis produced by the mad order of the Emperor Gaius (Caligula)
to have his statue erected in the Temple at Jerusalem nearly
precipitated a Jewish war. Some have seen an allusion to this
incident in St. Paul’s description of “the man of sin” (2 Thess. ii.
4, “so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth
as God”): “but though the sacrilegious conduct of Caligula ... may
have influenced the writer’s language in _v._ 4, the real roots of
the conception lie elsewhere” (Milligan, _Thess._, p. 164).
The favourable portrait given of the Roman governor, who was placed
in a very difficult position, may be compared with similar portraits
in St. Luke’s writings.
[Sidenote: _c._ A.D. 40-41]
Gaius, indignant at being thus slighted by the Jews and by them alone,
sent Petronius to Syria as his lieutenant to take over the governorship
of Vitellius, with instructions to advance into Judæa with a large force
and to erect his statue in the temple of God. The order was in any case
to be executed; if they admitted the statue without demur, well and
good; if they showed themselves recalcitrant, he was to overcome their
resistance by resort to arms....
At Ptolemais Petronius was met by crowds of petitioners who
stubbornly refused to submit. Similar scenes were repeated at
Tiberias for forty critical days in the agricultural year, during
which all sowing operations were neglected. The multitude were
supported by Aristobulus, brother of Herod Agrippa, and other
leading men. Petronius, moved by this unanimous national protest,
decided to lay the case before the Emperor.
Such was the request which Aristobulus and his followers made to
Petronius. Petronius, on his side, was influenced partly by the
importunity of Aristobulus and the leaders, who, considering the great
issues at stake, left no stone unturned to press their suit, partly by
the spectacle of the stubborn and solid front presented by the Jewish
opposition. He shrank from the thought of putting to death, as the
instrument of Gaius’s madness, such myriads of men, solely on the ground
of their reverence of God, and of spending the rest of his life in
remorse.[193] It was far better, he thought, to write to Gaius (and
inform him of) their desperate determination.[194] The Emperor might be
enraged with him for not having executed his orders at once; again, he
might conceivably convince him. If Gaius still adhered to his original
mad resolution, he (Petronius) would then make war on the Jews without
further delay. But if, after all, his anger was partly directed against
himself, to die for so vast a multitude of one’s fellow-creatures was
honourable in the eyes of those who aspired to heroism.[195] He decided
accordingly to give way to the appeal....
Petronius informs the petitioners of his intention to write to
Gaius.
After this speech Petronius dismissed the assembled Jews, bidding those
in authority to see that agricultural operations were resumed and to
conciliate the people with hopes of a successful issue. But now, while
he was doing his best to cheer the multitude, God made known to
Petronius His presence[196] and assistance in furthering the whole
scheme. For no sooner had he ended his address to the Jews than God
forthwith sent a great rain. This was contrary to general expectation,
as the morning of that day had been fine and the sky showed no sign of a
shower; moreover, the whole year had been subject to such drought as to
make men despair of any rainfall even when they saw the heavens
overcast. So, when now at length there came a great downpour, contrary
to experience and to all expectation, the Jews had hopes of Petronius’s
success in his petition on their behalf, while Petronius was astounded
when he saw God’s evident care for the Jews, and how He had given so
signal a manifestation of Himself as to leave even those who had
intended to defy Him openly no possibility of contradiction....