Syria, was brought up by the Arabian prince Elmachuel, or, as he is
called in the Greek, Simalcue, 1 Mac. xi, 39, 40, &c. Demetrius Nicanor,
king of Syria, having rendered himself odious to his troops, one
Diodotus, otherwise called Tryphon, came to Zabdiel, a king in Arabia,
and desired him to entrust him with young Antiochus, whom he promised to
place on the throne of Syria, which was then possessed by Demetrius
Nicanor. After some hesitation, Zabdiel complied with the request; and
Tryphon carried Antiochus into Syria, and put the crown on his head. The
troops dismissed by Demetrius, came and joined Tryphon, who, having
formed a powerful army, defeated Demetrius, and forced him to retreat to
Seleucia. Tryphon seized his elephants, and rendered himself master of
Antioch, in the year of the world 3859, and before Jesus Christ 145.
Antiochus Theos, to strengthen himself in his new acquisition, sent
letters to Jonathan Maccabæus, high priest and prince of the Jews,
confirming him in the high priesthood, and granting him four toparchies,
or four considerable places, in Judea. He also received Jonathan into
the number of his friends, sent him vessels of gold, permitted him to
use a gold cup, to wear purple, and a golden buckle; and he gave his
brother, Simon Maccabæus, the command of all his troops on the coast of
the Mediterranean, from Tyre to Egypt. Jonathan, engaged by so many
favours, declared resolutely for Antiochus, or rather for Tryphon, who
reigned under the name of this young prince; and on several occasions,
he attacked the generals of Demetrius, who still possessed many places
beyond Jordan and in Galilee, 1 Macc. xi, 63, &c; xii, 24, 34. Tryphon,
seeing young Antiochus in peaceable possession of the kingdom of Syria,
resolved to usurp his crown. He thought it necessary, in the first
place, to secure Jonathan Maccabæus who was one of the most powerful
supporters of Antiochus’s throne. He came, therefore, with troops into
Judea, invited Jonathan to Ptolemais, and there, on frivolous pretences,
made him prisoner. However, Simon, Jonathan’s brother, headed the troops
of Judea, and opposed Tryphon, who intended to take Jerusalem. Tryphon,
being disappointed, put Jonathan to death at Bassa or Bascama, and
returned into Syria, where, without delay, he executed his design of
killing Antiochus. He corrupted the royal physicians, who, having
published that Antiochus was tormented with the stone, murdered him, by
cutting him without any necessity. Thus Tryphon was left master of
Syria, in the year of the world 3861, and before Jesus Christ 143.
7. ANTIOCHUS SIDETES, or _Soter_ the Saviour, or _Eusebes_ the pious,
was the son of Demetrius Soter, and brother to Demetrius Nicanor.
Tryphon, the usurper of the kingdom of Syria, having rendered himself
odious to his troops, they deserted him, and offered their services to
Cleopatra, the wife of Demetrius Nicanor. She lived in the city of
Seleucia, shut up with her children, while her husband Demetrius was a
prisoner in Persia, where he had married Rodeguna, the daughter of
Arsaces king of Persia. Cleopatra, therefore sent to Antiochus Sidetes,
her brother-in-law, and offered him the crown of Syria, if he would
marry her; to which Antiochus consented. This prince was then at Cnidus,
where his father, Demetrius Soter had placed him with one of his
friends. He came into Syria, and wrote to Simon Maccabæus, to engage him
against Tryphon, 1 Macc. xv, 1, 2, 3, &c. He confirmed the privileges
which the kings of Syria had granted to Simon, permitted him to coin
money with his own stamp, declared Jerusalem and the temple exempt from
royal jurisdiction, and promised other favours as soon as he should
obtain peaceable possession of the kingdom which had belonged to his
ancestors. Antiochus Sidetes having married his sister-in-law,
Cleopatra, in the year of the world 3865, the troops of Tryphon resorted
to him in crowds. Tryphon, thus abandoned, retired to Dora, in
Phœnicia, whither Antiochus pursued him with an army of 120,000 foot,
800 horse, and a powerful fleet. Simon Maccabæus sent Antiochus two
thousand chosen men, but the latter refused them and revoked all his
promises. He also sent Athenobius to Jerusalem to oblige Simon to
restore to him Gazara and Joppa, with the citadel of Jerusalem; and to
demand of him five hundred talents more, as reparation for injuries the
king had suffered, and as tribute for his own cities. At the same time
he threatened to make war upon him, if he did not comply. Simon showed
Athenobius all the lustre of his wealth and power, told him he had in
his possession no place which belonged to Antiochus, and said that the
cities of Gazara and Joppa had greatly injured his people, and he would
give the king for the property of them one hundred talents. Athenobius
returned with great indignation to Antiochus, who was extremely offended
at Simon’s answer. In the meantime, Tryphon having escaped privately
from Dora, embarked in a vessel and fled. Antiochus pursued him, and
sent Cendebeus with troops into the maritime parts of Palestine, and
commanded him to rebuild Cedron, and fight the Jews. John Hircanus, son
of Simon Maccabæus, was then at Gaza, and gave notice to his father of
the coming of Cendebeus. Simon furnished his sons, John Hircanus and
Judas with troops, and sent them against Cendebeus, whom they routed in
the plain and pursued to Azotus.
Antiochus followed Tryphon, till he forced him to kill himself in the
year of the world 3869. After this, Antiochus thought only of reducing
to his obedience those cities which, in the beginning of his father’s
reign, had shaken off their subjection. Simon Maccabæus, prince and high
priest of the Jews, being treacherously murdered by Ptolemy, his
son-in-law, in the castle of Docus, near Jericho, the murderer
immediately sent to Antiochus Sidetes to demand troops, that he might
recover for him the country and cities of the Jews. Antiochus came in
person with an army, and besieged Jerusalem, which was bravely defended
by John Hircanus. The siege was long protracted; and the king divided
his army into seven parts, and guarded all the avenues of the city. It
being the time for celebrating the feast of tabernacles, the Jews
desired of Antiochus a truce for seven days. The king not only granted
this request, but sent them bulls with gilded horns, and vessels of gold
and silver filled with incense, to be offered in the temple. He also
ordered such provisions as they wanted, to be given to the Jewish
soldiers. This courtesy of the king so won the hearts of the Jews, that
they sent ambassadors to treat of peace, and to desire that they might
live according to their own laws. Antiochus required that they should
surrender their arms, demolish the city walls, pay tribute for Joppa and
the other cities they possessed out of Judea, and receive a garrison
into Jerusalem. To these conditions, except the last, the Jews
consented; for they could not be induced to see an army of strangers in
their capital, and chose rather to give hostages and five hundred
talents of silver. The king entered the city, beat down the breast work
above the walls, and returned to Syria, in the year of the world 3870,
and before Jesus Christ 134. Three years after, Antiochus marched
against the Persians, or Parthians, and demanded the liberty of his
brother Demetrius Nicanor, who had been made prisoner long before by
Arsaces, and was detained for the purpose of being employed in exciting
a war against Antiochus. This war, therefore, Antiochus thought proper
to prevent. With an army of eighty thousand, or, as Orosius says, of one
hundred thousand men, he marched toward Persia, and no sooner appeared
on the frontiers of that country, than several eastern princes,
detesting the pride and avarice of the Persians, came and surrendered.
Antiochus defeated his enemies in three engagements, and took Babylon.
He was accompanied in these expeditions by John Hircanus, high priest of
the Jews, who, it is supposed, obtained the surname of Hircanus from
some gallant action which he performed.
As the army of Antiochus was too numerous to continue assembled in any
one place, he was obliged to divide it, to put it into winter quarters.
These troops behaved with so much insolence, that they alienated the
minds of all men. The cities in which they were, privately surrendered
to the Persians; and all resolved to attack, in one day, the garrisons
they contained, that the troops being separated might not assist each
other. Antiochus at Babylon obtained intelligence of this design, and,
with the few soldiers about him, endeavoured to succour his people. He
was attacked in the way by Phraates, king of Persia, whom he fought with
great bravery; but being at length deserted by his own forces, according
to the generality of historians, he was overpowered and killed by the
Persians or Parthians. Appian, however, says that he killed himself, and
Ælian, that he threw himself headlong from a precipice. This event took
place in the year of the world 3874, and before Jesus Christ 130. After
the death of Sidetes, Demetrius Nicanor, or Nicetor, reascended the
throne of Syria.
ANTIPÆDOBAPTISTS, a denomination given to those who object to the
baptism of infants. The word is derived from ἀντὶ, _against_, ϖᾶις,
ϖαιδὸς, _a child_, βαπτίζω, _I baptize_. See BAPTISM.
ANTIPAS, Antipas-Herod, or Herod-Antipas, was the son of Herod the
Great, and Cleopatra of Jerusalem. Herod the Great, in his first will,
declared him his successor in the kingdom; but he afterward named his
son Archelaus king of Judea, and gave to Antipas only the title of
tetrarch of Galilee and Peræa. Archelaus going to Rome, to persuade the
emperor to confirm his father’s will, Antipas also went thither. The
emperor bestowed on Archelaus one moity of what had been assigned him by
Herod, with the quality of ethnarch, and promised to grant him the title
of king when he had shown himself deserving of it by his virtues. To
Antipas, Augustus gave Galilee and Peræa; and to Philip, Herod’s other
son, the Batanæa, Trachonitis, and Auranitis, with some other places.
Antipas, returning to Judea, took great pains in adorning and fortifying
the principal places of his dominions. He married the daughter of
Aretas, king of Arabia, whom he divorced about A. D. 33, that he might
marry his sister-in-law, Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, who
was still living. John the Baptist, exclaiming against this incest, was
seized by order of Antipas, and imprisoned in the castle of Machærus.
Josephus says, that Antipas caused John to be taken, because he drew too
great a concourse after him; and Antipas was afraid he should use his
influence over the people to induce them to revolt. But Josephus has
reported the pretence for the true cause. The evangelists, who were
better informed than Josephus, as being eye witnesses of what passed,
and particularly acquainted with John and his disciples, assure us, that
the true reason of imprisoning John was the aversion of Herod and
Herodias against him, on account of his liberty in censuring their
scandalous marriage, Matt. xiv, 3, 4; Mark vi, 14, 17, 18; Luke iii, 19,
20. When the king was celebrating his birth day, with the principal
persons of his court, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and
pleased him so well that he swore to give her whatever she should ask.
She consulted her mother, who advised her to ask the head of John the
Baptist. Returning, therefore, to the hall, she addressed herself to the
king, and said, “Give me here John Baptist’s head in a charger.” The
king was afflicted at this request; but in consideration of his oath,
and of the persons at table with him, he sent one of his guards, who
beheaded John in prison. The head was brought in, and given to the young
woman, who delivered it to her mother, Matt. xiv, 5, 6, &c. Aretas, king
of Arabia, to revenge the affront which Herod had offered to his
daughter, declared war against him, and vanquished him in a very
obstinate contest. Josephus tells us, that the Jews attributed the
defeat of Herod to the death of John the Baptist. In the year of the
Christian æra 39, Herodias being jealous of the prosperity of her
brother Agrippa, who from a private person had become king of Judea,
persuaded her husband, Herod-Antipas, to visit Rome, and desire the same
dignity of the emperor Caius. She resolved to accompany him; and hoped
that her presents and appearance would contribute to procure the
emperor’s favour. However, Agrippa obtaining intelligence of this
design, wrote to the emperor and accused Antipas. The messenger of
Agrippa arrived at Baiæ, where the emperor was, at the very time when
Herod received his first audience. Caius, on the delivery of Agrippa’s
letters, read them with great earnestness. In these letters, Agrippa
accused Antipas of having been a party in Sejanus’s conspiracy against
Tiberius, and said that he still carried on a correspondence with
Artabanus, king of Partha, against the Romans. As a proof of this, he
affirmed that Antipas had in his arsenals arms for seventy thousand men.
Caius being angry, demanded hastily of Antipas, if it were true that he
had such a quantity of arms? The king not daring to deny it, was
instantly banished to Lyons in Gaul. The emperor offered to forgive
Herodias, in consideration of her brother Agrippa; but she chose rather
to follow her husband, and to share his fortune in banishment. This is
that Antipas, who, being at Jerusalem at the time of our Saviour’s
passion, ridiculed Jesus whom Pilate had sent to him, dressed him in
worn-out royalty, and sent him back to Pilate as a mock king, whose
ambition gave him no umbrage, Luke xxiii, 7, 11. The year of the death
of Antipas is unknown; but it is certain that he, as well as Herodias,
died in exile. Josephus says, that he died in Spain, whither Caius, on
his coming into Gaul the first year of his banishment, might order him
to be sent.
2. ANTIPAS, the faithful martyr or witness mentioned in the book of
Revelation, ii, 13. He is said to have been one of our Saviour’s first
disciples, and to have suffered martyrdom at Pergamus, of which he was
bishop. His Acts relate that he was burnt in a brazen bull. Though
ancient ecclesiastical history furnishes no account of this Antipas, yet
it is certain that, according to all the rules of language, what is said
concerning him by St. John must be understood literally, and not
mystically, as some interpreters have done.
ANTIPATRIS, Acts xxiii, 31, a town in Palestine, anciently called
Caphar-Saba, according to Josephus; but named Antipatris by Herod the
Great, in honour of his father Antipater. It was situated in a pleasant
valley, near the mountains, in the way from Jerusalem to Cæsarea.
Josephus places it at about the distance of seventeen miles from Joppa.
To this place St. Paul was brought in his way to the governor of Judea
at Cæsarea, Acts xxiii, 31.
ANTITYPE, that which answers to a type or figure. A type is a model,
mould, or pattern; that which is formed according to it is an antitype.
See TYPE.
ANTONIA, one of the towers of Jerusalem, called by Herod after M.
Antony. The Romans generally kept a garrison in this tower; and from
thence it was that the tribune ran with his soldiers to rescue St. Paul
out of the hands of the Jews, who had seized him in the temple, and
designed to have murdered him, Acts xxi, 31, 32.
APE, קוֹף, κῆφος and κῆπος, _cephus_, 1 Kings x, 22; 2 Chron. ix, 21.
This animal seems to be the same with the _ceph_ of the Ethiopians, of
which Pliny speaks, l. viii, c. 19: “At the games given by Pompey the
Great,” says he, “were shown _cephs_ brought from Ethiopia, which had
their fore feet like a human hand, their hind legs and feet also
resembled those of a man.” The Scripture says that the fleet of Solomon
brought apes, or rather monkeys, &c, from Ophir. The learned are not
agreed respecting the situation of that country; but Major Wilford says
that the ancient name of the River Landi sindh in India was _Cophes_.
May it not have been so called from the קפים inhabiting its banks?
We now distinguish this tribe of creatures into 1. _Monkeys_, those with
long tails; 2. _Apes_, those with short tails; 3. _Baboons_, those
without tails. The ancient Egyptians are said to have worshipped apes;
it is certain that they are still adored in many places in India.
Maffeus describes a magnificent temple dedicated to the ape, with a
portico for receiving the victims sacrificed, supported by seven hundred
columns.
“With glittering gold and sparkling gems they shine,
But apes and monkeys are the gods within.”
Figures of apes are also made and reverenced as idols, of which we have
several in Moore’s “Hindoo Pantheon;” also in the avatars, given in
Maurice’s “History of India,” &c. In some parts of the country the apes
are held sacred, though not resident in temples; and incautious English
gentlemen, by attempting to shoot these apes, (rather, perhaps,
monkeys,) have been exposed, not only to all manner of insults and
vexations from the inhabitants of the villages, &c, adjacent, but have
even been in danger of their lives.
APHARSACHITES, a people sent by the kings of Assyria to inhabit the
country of Samaria, in the room of those Israelites who had been removed
beyond the Euphrates, Ezra v, 6. They, with the other Samaritans,
opposed the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, Ezra iv, 9.
APIS, a symbolical deity worshipped by the Egyptians. It was an ox,
having certain exterior marks, in which animal the soul of the great
Osiris was supposed to subsist. The ox was probably made the symbol of
Osiris because he presided over agriculture.
APOCALYPSE, Ἀποκάλυψις, signifies _revelation_. It is, however,
particularly applied to the Revelations which St. John had in the isle
of Patmos, whither he had been banished. The testimonies in favour of
the book of the Revelation being a genuine work of St. John the
Evangelist are very full and satisfactory. Andrew, bishop of Cæsarea in
Capadocia, in the fifth century, assures us that Papias acknowledged the
Revelation to be inspired. But the earliest author now extant who
mentions this book is Justin Martyr, who lived about sixty years after
it was written, and he ascribes it to St. John. So does Iræneus, whose
evidence is alone sufficient upon this point; for he was the disciple of
Polycarp, who was the disciple of John himself; and he expressly tells
us that he had the explanation of a certain passage in this book from
those who had conversed with St. John the author. These two fathers are
followed by Clement of Alexandria, Theophilus of Antioch, Tertullian,
Origen, Cyprian, Lactantius, Jerome, Athanasius, and many other
ecclesiastical writers, all of whom concur in considering the Apostle
John as the author of the Revelation. Some few persons, however, doubted
the genuineness of this book in the third and fourth centuries; but
since that time it has been very generally acknowledged to be canonical;
and, indeed, as Mr. Lowman observes, “hardly any one book has received
more early, more authentic, and more satisfactory attestations.” The
omission of this book in some of the early catalogues of the Scriptures,
was probably not owing to any suspicion concerning its authenticity or
genuineness, but because its obscurity and mysteriousness were thought
to render it less fit to be read publicly and generally. It is called
the Revelation of John the Divine; and this appellation was first given
to St. John by Eusebius, not to distinguish him from any other person of
the same name, but as an honourable title, intimating that to him was
more fully revealed the system of divine counsels than to any other
prophet of the Christian dispensation.
St. John was banished to Patmos in the latter part of the reign of
Domitian, and he returned to Ephesus immediately after the death of that
emperor, which happened in the year 96; and as the Apostle states, that
these visions appeared to him while he was in that island, we may
consider this book as written in the year 95 or 96.
In the first chapter, St. John asserts the divine authority of the
predictions which he is about to deliver; addresses himself to the
churches of the Proconsular Asia; and describes the first vision, in
which he is commanded to write the things then revealed to him. The
second and third chapters contain seven epistles to the seven churches
in Asia; namely, of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis,
Philadelphia, and Laodicea, which relate chiefly to their then
respective circumstances and situation. At the fourth chapter the
prophetic visions begin, and reach to the end of the book. They contain
a prediction of all the most remarkable revolutions and events in the
Christian church from the time of the Apostle to the final consummation
of all things. An attempt to explain these prophecies does not fall
within the design of this work; and therefore those who are disposed to
study this sublime and mysterious book are referred to Mede, Daubuz, Sir
Isaac Newton, Lowman, Bishop Newton, Bishop Hurd, and many other
excellent commentators. These learned men agree in their general
principles concerning the interpretation of this book, although they
differ in some particular points; and it is not to be expected that
there should be a perfect coincidence of opinion in the explanation of
those predictions which relate to still future times; for, as the
incomparable Sir Isaac Newton observes, “God gave these and the
prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify men’s curiosity, by
enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled
they might be interpreted by the event, and his own prescience, not that
of the interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world.” “To
explain this book perfectly,” says Bishop Newton, “is not the work of
one man, or of one age; but probably it never will be clearly
understood, till it is all fulfilled.” It is graciously designed, that
the gradual accomplishment of these predictions should afford, in every
succeeding period of time, additional testimony to the divine origin of
our holy religion.
APOCRYPHA, books not admitted into the sacred canon, being either
spurious, or at least not acknowledged to be divine. The word Apocrypha
is of Greek origin, and is either derived from the words ἀπὸ τῆς
κρύπτῆς, because the books in question were removed _from the crypt_,
chest, ark, or other receptacle in which the sacred books were deposited
whose authority was never doubted, or more probably from the verb
ἀποκρύπτω, _to hide_ or _conceal_, because they were concealed from the
generality of readers, their authority not being recognised by the
church, and because they are books which are destitute of proper
testimonials, their original being obscure, their authors unknown, and
their character either heretical or suspected. The advocates of the
church of Rome, indeed, affirm that some of these books are divinely
inspired; but it is easy to account for this: the apocryphal writings
serve to countenance some of the corrupt practices of that church. The
Protestant churches not only account those books to be apocryphal and
merely human compositions which are esteemed such by the church of Rome,
as the Prayer of Manasseh, the third and fourth books of Esdras, the
addition at the end of Job, and the hundred and fifty-first Psalm; but
also the books of Tobit, Judith, the additions to the book of Esther,
Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch the Prophet, with the Epistle of
Jeremiah, the Song of the Three Children, the Story of Susanna, the
Story of Bel and the Dragon, and the first and second books of
Maccabees. The books here enumerated are unanimously rejected by
Protestants for the following reasons:--
1. They possess no authority whatever, either external or internal, to
procure their admission into the sacred canon. None of them are extant
in Hebrew; all of them are in the Greek language, except the fourth book
of Esdras, which is only extant in Latin. They were written for the most
part by Alexandrian Jews, subsequently to the cessation of the prophetic
spirit, though before the promulgation of the Gospel. Not one of the
writers in direct terms advances a claim to inspiration; nor were they
ever received into the sacred canon by the Jewish church, and therefore
they were not sanctioned by our Saviour. No part of the apocrypha is
quoted, or even alluded to, by him or by any of his Apostles; and both
Philo and Josephus, who flourished in the first century of the Christian
æra, are totally silent concerning them.