Quirinus, who, according to the Greek way of writing that name, is by
St. Luke called Cyrenius, president of Syria, to reduce the countries
over which Archelaus had reigned, to the form of a Roman province; and
appointed Coponius, a Roman of the equestrian order, to be governor,
under the title of procurator of Judea, but subordinate to the president
of Syria. The power of life and death was now taken out of the hands of
the Jews, and taxes were from this time paid immediately to the Roman
emperor. Justice was administered in the name and by the laws of Rome;
though in what concerned their religion, their own laws, and the power
of the high priest, and sanhedrim, or great council, were continued to
them; and they were allowed to examine witnesses, and exercise an
inferior jurisdiction in other causes, subject to the control of the
Romans, to whom their tetrarchs or kings were also subject; and it may
be remarked that, at this very period of time, our Saviour, who was now
in the twelfth year of his age, being at Jerusalem with Joseph and Mary
upon occasion of the passover, appeared first in the temple in his
prophetic office, and in the business of his Father, on which he was
sent, sitting among the doctors of the temple, and declaring the truth
of God to them. After Coponius, Ambivius, Annius Rufus, Valerius Gratus,
and Pontius Pilate, were successively procurators; and this was the
species of government to which Judea and Samaria were subject during the
ministry of our Saviour. Herod Antipas was still tetrarch of Galilee,
and it was he to whom our Saviour was sent by Pontius Pilate. Lardner is
of opinion that there was no procurator in Judea after Pontius Pilate,
who was removed A. D. 36, but that it was governed for a few years by
the presidents of Syria, who occasionally sent officers into Judea.
Philip continued tetrarch of Trachonitis thirty-seven years, and died in
the twentieth year of the reign of Tiberius. Caligula gave his tetrarchy
to Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, with the title of king; and
afterward he added the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas, whom he deposed and
banished after he had been tetrarch forty-three years. The Emperor
Claudius gave him Judea, Samaria, the southern parts of Idumea, and
Abilene; and thus at last the dominions of Herod Agrippa became nearly
the same as those of his grandfather, Herod the Great. It was this
Agrippa, called also Herod Agrippa, and by St. Luke Herod only, who put
to death James, the brother of John, and imprisoned Peter. He died in
the seventh year of his reign, and left a son called also Agrippa, then
seventeen years old; and Claudius, thinking him too young to govern his
father’s extensive dominions, made Cuspus Fadus governor of Judea. Fadus
was soon succeeded by Tiberius, and he was followed by Alexander
Cumanus, Felix, and Festus; but Claudius afterward gave Trachonitis and
Abilene to Agrippa, and Nero added a part of Galilee and some other
cities. It was this younger Agrippa, who was also called king, before
whom Paul pleaded at Cæsarea, which was at that time the place of
residence of the governor of Judea. Several of the Roman governors
severely oppressed and persecuted the Jews; and at length, in the reign
of Nero, and in the government of Florus, who had treated them with
greater cruelty than any of his predecessors, they openly revolted from
the Romans. Then began the Jewish war, which was terminated, after an
obstinate defence and unparalleled sufferings on the part of the Jews,
by the total destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, by the
overthrow of their civil and religious polity, and the reduction of the
people to a state of the most abject slavery; for though, in the reign
of Adrian, numbers of them collected together, in different parts of
Judea, it is to be observed, they were then considered and treated as
rebellious slaves; and these commotions were made a pretence for the
general slaughter of those who were taken, and tended to complete the
work of their dispersion into all countries under heaven. Since that
time the Jews have no where subsisted as a nation.
2. JEWS, MODERN. The Jews divide the books of the Old Testament into
three classes: the law, the prophets, and the hagiographa, or holy
writings. They have counted not only the large and small sections, the
verses and the words, but even the letters in some of the books; and
they have likewise reckoned which is the middle letter of the
Pentateuch, which is the middle clause of each book, and how often each
letter of the alphabet occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures. Beside the
Scriptures, the Jews pay great attention to the Targums, or Chaldee
paraphrases of them. It seems probable that these were written either
during the Babylonish captivity, or immediately afterward, when the Jews
had forgotten their own language, and acquired the Chaldee of the
Targums, at present received by the Jews. The most ancient are that of
Onkelos on the law, and that of Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the prophets: the
former is supposed to be of greater antiquity than the latter, and it
approaches, in simplicity and purity of style, to the Chaldee of Daniel
and Ezra. The Targum on the prophets is believed to have been written
before the birth of Christ; and, though inferior in respect of style to
the Targum of Onkelos, is much superior to any other Targum.
The Jews also regard with great veneration, what is called the Talmud.
This work consists of two parts: the Mishna, which signifies a second
law; and the Gemara, which means either a supplement or a commentary.
The Jews suppose that God first dictated the text of the law to Moses,
which he commanded to be put in writing, and which exists in the
Pentateuch, and then gave him an explication of every thing comprehended
in it, which he ordered to be committed to memory. Hence the former is
called the written, and the latter the oral, law. These two laws were
recited by Moses to Aaron four times, to his sons three times, to the
seventy elders twice, and to the rest of the people once: after this,
the repetition was renewed by Aaron, his two sons, and the seventy
elders. The last month of Moses’s life was spent, according to the Jews,
in repeating and explaining the law to the people, and especially to
Joshua, his successor. A prophet might suspend any law, or authorize the
violation of any precept, except those against idolatry. If there was
any difference of opinion respecting the meaning of any law or precept,
it was determined by the majority. When Joshua died, all the
interpretations he had received from Moses, as well as those made in his
time, were transmitted to the elders: they conveyed them to the
prophets, and by one prophet they were delivered to another. This law
was only oral till the days of Rabbi Jehuda, who, perceiving that the
students of the law were gradually decreasing, and that the Jews were
dispersed over the face of the earth, collected all the traditions,
arranged them under distinct heads, and formed them into a methodical
code of traditional law; thus the Mishna was formed. It is written in a
concise style, chiefly in the form of aphorisms, which admit of a
variety of interpretations. On this account, a Gemara or commentary was
written by a president of a school in Palestine, which, together with
the Mishna, forms the Jerusalem Talmud. The Jews in Chaldea, however,
not being satisfied with this Gemara, one of their rabbies compiled
another; which, together with the Mishna, forms the Babylonian Talmud.
One of the principal branches of modern Judaism is the cabala, the study
of which is regarded as the sublimest of all sciences. By the cabala,
the Jews mean those mystical interpretations of the Scripture, and
metaphysical speculations concerning the Deity, angels, &c, which they
regard as having been handed down by a secret tradition from the
earliest ages. In the eleventh century, the famous Rabbi Maimonides drew
up a summary of the doctrines of Judaism, which every Jew is required to
believe, on pain of excommunication in this world, and condemnation in
the next. This summary consists of thirteen articles, which he calls
foundations or roots of the faith. The articles are as follows: 1. That
God is the Creator and active Supporter of all things. 2. That God is
one, and eternally unchangeable. 3. That God is incorporeal, and cannot
have any material properties. 4. That God must eternally exist. 5. That
God alone is to be worshipped. 6. That whatever is taught by the
prophets is true. 7. That Moses is the head and father of all
contemporary doctors, and of all those who lived before or shall live
after him. 8. That the law was given by Moses. 9. That the law shall
always exist, and never be altered. 10. That God knows all the thoughts
and actions of men. 11. That God will reward the observance, and punish
the breach, of the laws. 12. That the Messiah is to come, though he
tarry a long time. 13. That there shall be a resurrection of the dead,
when God shall think fit.
The Jewish religion is, perhaps, more a religion of minute and trifling
rites and ceremonies than even the Catholic religion. The minutest
circumstances in dressing and undressing, washing and wiping the face
and hands, and other necessary actions of common and daily life, are
enjoined by the rabbies to be performed exactly according to the
prescribed regulations. Their prayers also are numerous, and some of
them relate to the most trifling circumstances. Those esteemed the most
solemn and important are called _Shemoneh Esreh_, or the eighteen
prayers, though they actually consist of nineteen, the last having been
added against heretics and apostates. They are enjoined to be said by
all Jews above the age of thirteen, wherever they may be, three times a
day. The members of the synagogue are required to repeat at least a
hundred benedictions every day. A son who survives his father is
enjoined to attend the nocturnal service in the synagogue every evening
for a year, and to repeat the Kodesh, in order that his father may be
delivered from hell. This service may be suspended by any person going
up to the desk and closing the book. This is not unfrequently done in
case of quarrels; and the prayers cannot be renewed till a
reconciliation takes place.
Nothing is to be undertaken on Friday which cannot be finished before
the evening. In the afternoon they wash and clean themselves, trim their
hair, and pare their nails. Every Jew, of whatever rank, must assist in
the preparation for the Sabbath. Two loaves, baked on the Friday, are
set on a table. This is done in memory of the manna, of which a double
portion fell on the sixth day of the week. The table remains spread all
the Sabbath. Before the sun is set the candles are to be lighted; one,
at least, with seven wicks, in allusion to the number of days in a week,
is to be lighted in each house. The Talmudical directions respecting the
wicks and oil form part of the Sabbath evening service; they are most
ridiculously and childishly minute. The lesson appointed for the Sabbath
is divided into seven parts, and read to seven persons at the altar. The
first called up to hear it is a descendant of Aaron, the second of Levi,
the third an Israelite of any tribe; the same order is then repeated:
the seventh may be of any tribe. The portion read from the law is
followed by a portion from the prophets. There are three services;
morning, afternoon, and evening.
Of the festivals of the Jews we can mention only a few, and those merely
in a cursory manner. The principal are those of the new moon, of the
passover, of pentecost, of the new year, the fast of atonement, and the
feast of tabernacles. That the festival of the new moon might be
celebrated as nearly as possible on the day of the moon’s conjunction
with the sun, most of the months contain alternately twenty-nine and
thirty days; and the feast of the new moon is held on the first, or on
the first and second days of the month. The women are not allowed to
work: the men may. Good eating and drinking particularly distinguish
this festival. The feast of the passover commences on the fifteenth day
of the month Nisan, and continues among Jews who live in or near
Jerusalem seven days, and elsewhere eight days. The Sabbath preceding is
called the great Sabbath, and is kept with most scrupulous strictness.
The mode and materials for making the unleavened cakes for the passover
are most minutely described by the rabbies, as well as all the
ceremonies of this feast. It is customary for every Jew to honour it by
an exhibition of the most sumptuous furniture he can afford. The table
for the feast is covered with a clean linen cloth, on which are placed
several dishes: on one is the shank bone of a shoulder of lamb or kid,
and an egg; on another, three cakes, wrapped in two napkins; on a third,
some lettuce, parsley, celery, or other herbs: these are their bitter
herbs. Near the salad is a cruet of vinegar, and some salt and water.
There is also a dish representing the bricks which their forefathers
were required to make in Egypt: this is composed of apples, almonds,
nuts, and figs, formed into a paste, dressed in wine and cinnamon. The
first two days, and the last two, are kept with particular solemnity and
strictness. Contracts of marriage may be made, but no marriage is to be
solemnized during this festival. The feast of pentecost, on the sixth
day of the month Sivan, continues two days, and is kept with the same
strictness as the first two days of the passover. It is a received
opinion of the Jews, that the world was created on the day of their new
year; and they therefore celebrate the festival of the new year by a
discontinuance of all labour, and by repeated services in the synagogue.
The fast of atonement is on the tenth day of Tisri: the first ten days
of the month are called days of penitence during which the Jews believe
that God examines the actions of mankind; but he defers passing sentence
till the tenth. On the eve of the fast, a ceremony, evidently designed
as a substitute for their ancient sacrifices, is performed. This
consists in killing a cock with great formality. The cocks must on no
account be red: white is the preferable colour. Before the fast begins,
they endeavour to settle all their disputes. In the afternoon they make
a hearty meal, to prepare for the fast, which is of the most rigid kind.
The feast of tabernacles commences on the fifteenth of Tisri, and is
kept nine days. Every Jew who has a court or garden is required to erect
a tabernacle on this occasion; respecting the materials and erection of
which the rabbies have given special directions. The eighth and ninth
are high days, particularly the last, which is called the day of the
rejoicing of the land.
Such are the opinions, traditions, rites, and ceremonies of the great
majority of the modern Jews; but, beside these, there is a small sect
denominated Caraites, that is, textualists,--persons attached to the
text of the Scriptures. They reside chiefly in the Crimea, Lithuania,
and Persia; and at Damascus, Constantinople, and Cairo: their whole
number is very inconsiderable. They agree with other Jews in denying the
advent of the Messiah. The principal difference between them consists in
their adherence to the letter of the Scripture, and in the rejection of
all paraphrases and interpretations of the rabbies. They also differ
from the rabbies in various particulars respecting the feasts of the
passover, pentecost, and tabernacles. They observe the Sabbath with far
greater strictness. They extend the degrees of affinity within which
marriage is prohibited; but they are more strict in matters of divorce.
3. JEWS, CALAMITIES OF THE. All history cannot furnish us with a
parallel to the calamities and miseries of the Jews: rapine and murder,
famine and pestilence within, fire and sword, and all the terrors of war
without. Our Saviour wept at the foresight of these calamities; and it
is almost impossible for persons of any humanity to read the account
without being affected. The predictions concerning them were remarkable,
and the calamities that came upon them were the greatest the world ever
saw. See Deut. xxviii, xxix; Matt. xxiv. Now, what heinous sin was it
that could be the cause of such heavy judgments? Can any other be
assigned than that which the Scripture assigns? “They both killed the
Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and persecuted the Apostles,” 1
Thess. ii, 15; and so filled up their sins, and wrath came upon them to
the utmost. It is hardly possible to consider the nature and extent of
their sufferings, and not conclude their own imprecation to be
singularly fulfilled upon them: “His blood be on us, and on our
children,” Matt. xxvii, 25. At Cæsarea twenty thousand of the Jews were
killed by the Syrians in their mutual broils. At Damascus, ten thousand
unarmed Jews were killed; and at Bethshan, the Heathen inhabitants
caused their Jewish neighbours to assist them against their brethren,
and then murdered thirteen thousand of these inhabitants. At Alexandria,
the Jews murdered multitudes of the Heathens, and were murdered, in
their turn, to about sixty thousand. The Romans, under Vespasian,
invaded the country, and took the cities of Galilee, Chorazin,
Bethsaida, Capernaum, &c, where Christ had been especially rejected, and
murdered numbers of the inhabitants. At Jerusalem the scene was most
wretched of all. At the passover, when there might have been two or
three millions of people in the city, the Romans surrounded it with
troops, trenches, and walls, that none might escape. The three different
factions within murdered one another. Titus did all in his power to
persuade them to an advantageous surrender, but they scorned every
proposal. The multitudes of unburied carcasses corrupted the air, and
produced a pestilence. The people fed on one another; and even ladies,
it is said, boiled their suckling infants, and ate them. After a siege
of six months, the city was taken. They murdered almost every Jew they
met with. Titus was bent to save the temple, but could not: six thousand
Jews who had taken shelter in it were all burned or murdered. The
outcries of the Jews, when they saw it, were most dreadful: the whole
city, except three towers, and a small part of the wall, was razed to
the ground, and the foundations of the temple and other places were
ploughed up. Soon after the forts of Herodian and Machæron were taken,
the garrison of Massada murdered themselves rather than surrender. At
Jerusalem alone, it is said, one million one hundred thousand perished
by sword, famine, and pestilence. In other places, we hear of two
hundred and fifty thousand that were cut off, beside vast numbers sent
into Egypt, to labour as slaves. About fifty years after, the Jews
murdered about five hundred thousand of the Roman subjects, for which
they were severely punished by Trajan. About A. D. 130, one Barcocaba
pretended that he was the Messiah, and raised a Jewish army of two
hundred thousand, who murdered all the Heathens and Christians that came
in their way; but he was defeated by Adrian’s forces. In this war, it is
said, about six hundred thousand Jews were slain, or perished by famine
and pestilence. Adrian built a city on Mount Calvary, and erected a
marble statue of a swine over the gate that led to Bethlehem. No Jew was
allowed to enter the city, or to look to it at a distance, under pain of
death. In A. D. 360, the Jews, encouraged by Julian, Constantine’s
nephew, and now emperor, wishing to give Jesus the lie, began to rebuild
their city and temple; but a terrible earthquake, and flames of fire
issuing from the earth, killed the workmen, and scattered their
materials. And after the death of Julian, the edict of Adrian being
revived against them, and Roman guards prohibiting their approach, till
the seventh century they durst not so much as creep over the rubbish to
bewail the destruction of the city, without bribing the guards. In the
third, fourth, and fifth centuries they were many of them furiously
harassed and murdered. In the sixth century, twenty thousand of them
were slain, and as many taken and sold for slaves. They were severely
punished, A. D. 602, for their horrible massacre of the Christians at
Antioch. In Spain, A. D. 700, they were ordered to be enslaved. In the
eighth and ninth centuries they were greatly derided and abused; in some
places they were made to wear leathern girdles, and ride without
stirrups upon asses and mules. In France and Spain they were much
insulted. In the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, their miseries
rather increased; and they were greatly persecuted in Egypt. Beside what
they suffered in the east by the Turkish and sacred war, it is shocking
to think what multitudes of them the eight crusades murdered in Germany,
Hungary, Lesser Asia, and elsewhere. In France multitudes were burned.
In England, A. D. 1020, they were banished; and at the coronation of
Richard I. the mob fell upon them, and murdered a great many of them.
About one thousand five hundred of them were burned in the palace in the
city of York, which they themselves set fire to, after killing their
wives and children. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, their
condition was no better. In Egypt, Canaan, and Syria, the crusaders
still harassed them. Provoked with their mad running after pretended
Messiahs, Califf Nasser scarce left any of them alive in his dominions
of Mesopotamia. In Persia, the Tartars murdered them in multitudes. In
Spain, Ferdinand persecuted them furiously. About 1349, the terrible
massacre of them at Toledo forced many of them to murder themselves, or
change their religion. About 1253, many were murdered in, and others
banished from, France, but in 1275, recalled. The crusades of the
fanatic shepherds, A. D. 1320 and 1330, who wasted the south of France,
massacred them; beside fifteen thousand of them that were murdered on
another occasion. They were finally banished from France, A. D. 1358;
since which, few of them have entered that country. King Edward expelled
them from England, A. D. 1291, to the number of a hundred and sixty
thousand. In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, their
misery continued. In Persia they have been terribly used; from 1663 to
1666, the murder of them was so universal, that but a few escaped to
Turkey. In Portugal and Spain they have been miserably treated. About
1492, six or eight hundred thousand of them were banished from Spain.
Some were drowned in their passage to Africa; some perished by hard
usage; and many of their carcasses lay in the fields till wild beasts
devoured them. In Germany, they have endured many hardships. They have
been banished from Bohemia, Bavaria, Cologne, Nuremberg, Augsburg, and
Vienna; they have been terribly massacred in Moravia, and plundered in
Bonn and Bamberg. Except in Portugal and Spain, their present condition
is generally tolerable.
4. JEWS, PRESERVATION OF THE. The preservation of the Jews, says
Basnage, in the midst of the miseries which they have undergone during
one thousand eight hundred years, is the greatest prodigy that can be
imagined. As most religions depend on temporal prosperity, they triumph
under the protection of a conqueror; they languish and sink with sinking
monarchies. Paganism, which once covered the earth, is, in the civilized
world, extinct. The Christian church was considerably diminished by the
persecutions to which it was exposed; nor was it easy to repair the
wastes made in it by those acts of violence. But here we behold a people
hated and persecuted for one thousand eight hundred years, and yet
sustaining itself, and widely extended. Kings have often employed the
severity of edicts and the hand of executioners to ruin it. The
seditious multitudes, by murders and massacres, have committed outrages
against it still more violent and tragical. Princes and people, Pagans,
Mohammedans, Christians, disagreeing in so many things, have united in
the design of exterminating it, and have not been able to succeed. The
bush of Moses, surrounded with flames, ever burns, and is not consumed.
The Jews have been expelled, in different times, from every part of the
world, which hath only served to spread them in all regions. From age to
age they have been exposed to misery and persecution; yet still they
subsist, in spite of the ignominy and the hatred which hath pursued them
in all places, while the greatest monarchies are fallen, and nothing
remains of them beside the name. The judgments which God hath exercised
upon this people are terrible, extending to the men, the religion, and
the very land in which they dwelt. The ceremonies essential to their
religion can no more be observed: the ritual law, which cast a splendour
on the national worship, and struck the Pagans so much that they sent
their presents and their victims to Jerusalem, is absolutely fallen; for
they have no temple, no altar, no sacrifices. Their land itself seems to
lie under a never-ceasing curse. Pagans, Christians, Mohammedans, in a
word, almost all nations have, by turns, seized and held Jerusalem. To
the Jews only hath God refused the possession of this small tract of
ground, so supremely necessary for them, since, as Jews, they ought to
worship on Mount Zion. In all this there is no exaggeration: we are only
pointing out known facts; and far from having the least design to raise
an odium against the nation from its miseries, we conclude that it ought
to be looked upon as one of those prodigies which we admire without
comprehending; since, in spite of evils so durable, and a patience so
long exercised, it is preserved by a particular providence. The Jew
ought to be weary of expecting a Messiah, who so unkindly disappoints
his vain hopes; and the Christian ought to have his attention and his
regard excited toward men whom God preserves, for so great a length of
time under calamities which would have been the total ruin of any other
people. The whole is a standing proof of the truth of the word of God;
as it so signally, and beyond all contradiction, fulfils, even to
particulars wonderfully minute, its ancient and numerous predictions.
The long protracted existence of the Jews as a separate people, is not
only a standing evidence of the truth of the Bible, but is of that kind
which defies hesitation, imitation, or parallel. Were this people
totally extinct, some might affect to say, that they never had existed;
or, that if they had existed, they never practised such rites as were
imputed to them; or, that they were not a numerous people, but merely a
small tribe of ignorant and unsettled Arabs. The care with which the
Jews preserve their sacred books, and the conformity of those preserved
in the east with those of the west, as lately attested, is a
satisfactory argument in favour of the genuineness of both; and farther,
the dispersion of the nation has proved the security of these documents;
as it has not been in the power of any one enemy, however potent, to
destroy the entire series, or to consign the whole to oblivion.
JEZEBEL, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and wife of Ahab,
king of Israel, 1 Kings xvi, 31. This princess introduced into the
kingdom of Samaria the public worship of Baal, Astarte, and other
Phenician deities, which the Lord had expressly forbidden; and with this
impious worship, a general prevalence of those abominations which had
formerly incensed God against the Canaanites, to their utter
extirpation. Jezebel was so zealous, that she fed at her own table four
hundred prophets belonging to the goddess Astarte; and her husband Ahab,
in like manner, kept four hundred of Baal’s prophets, as ministers of
his false gods. The name of Jezebel is used proverbially, Rev. ii, 20.
See JEHU.