grow up on some of the seven hills on the banks of the Tiber in Italy.
The inhabitants were a stern, earnest, brave, honest set of men; not
great thinkers like the Greeks, but great doers, and caring for nothing
so much as for their city and her honour. They thought their own lives
and happiness as nothing in comparison with Rome; and all the free
citizens had a share in the government, so that their city's concerns
were their own. Their religion seems in early times to have been more
solemn and grave than that of the Greeks. Jupiter was their chief god,
the King of gods and men, who held thunderbolts in his hand, and they
had eleven other principal gods; but by the time they had learnt to
write books, they had begun to think these were the same gods as the
Greeks worshipped under other names; they said Jupiter was the same as
Zeus, and told of him all the foolish stories which the worse sort of
Greeks had invented of Zeus, and as their religion grew worse, they
became more selfish, proud, and cruel. At first, their neighbours in
Italy were always fighting with them, and their wars were for life or
death; but after nearly three hundred years of hard struggling, without
one year's peace, the Romans had conquered them all, and had safety at
home. But they had grown too fond of war to rest quietly, so they built
ships and attacked countries farther off, beginning with the great
Phoenician city of Carthage in Africa, which it is said was settled by
Canaanites who fled away from Joshua, and whose first queen was Dido,
Jezebel's niece. A great Carthaginian general, named Hannibal, who had
been banished from home, came to Antiochus, and offered to help him in
his war upon Greece. This Hannibal did chiefly out of hatred to the
Romans, who were pretending to assist the Greeks, only that they might
become their masters. If Antiochus had taken the advice of Hannibal, he
might have succeeded better, but he was self-willed; the Romans gave him
a terrible defeat, and he was obliged to promise to pay a great sum of
money, and a heavy tribute afterwards; to keep no elephants to be used
in war, and to give up his younger son, Antiochus, as security for his
performance of the conditions. The tribute he had to pay to Rome quite
ruined him; and while he was trying to rob an idol temple at Elymais,
the people rose on him and slew him, in the year 187.
His son, Seleucus, called by. Daniel "a raiser of taxes," was very poor
in consequence of the tribute, and therefore greedy. He tried to raise
money by sending his servant, Heliodorus, to rob the temple at Jerusalem
Onias, the High Priest, and all the people, were in great distress,
and made most earnest entreaties to God to deliver them from such
profanation. Heliodorus came, however, to the temple, and was pressing
on to the treasury, when suddenly a horse, with a terrible rider,
appeared in armour like gold, and cast the spoiler to the ground, while
two young men, of marvellous beauty, scourged him on either side, so
that when the heavenly champions had vanished, he lay as one dead. Onias
prayed for him, and he was restored; the same beings who had struck
him down coming to reveal to him that his life was granted at the
intercession of the High Priest. When he returned to his master, and
was consulted as to who might be a fit man to send to Jerusalem, he
answered, "If thou hast any enemy or traitor, send him thither, and
thou shalt receive him well scourged." So little impression did such a
revelation of glory make on that hard selfish heart! The man who had
been smitten by a visible angel could jest about it, and soon went on to
greater crime. He poisoned his master in the hope of becoming king, as
Seleucus's son was a hostage at Rome, that is, he had been given as
a pledge that the tribute should be paid; but Seleucus's brother,
Antiochus, who was on his way home from captivity at Rome, flattered the
adjoining kings into helping him, drove Heliodorus away, and became king
in 178. He was the little horn of the Grecian goat, "the vile person to
whom they should not give the honour of the kingdom," so much was it
fallen since the time of his father, Antiochus the Great. Vile indeed he
was, nearly mad with violence and excess, going drunk about the streets
of Antioch crowned with roses, and pelting with stones those who
followed him, so that the Greeks laughed at him for calling himself
Antiochus Epiphanes, or the Illustrious, and said he was really
Antiochus the madman. He cared little for the old Greek gods; but the
Roman Jupiter, "a god whom his fathers knew not," was his chief object
of devotion, and in his honour, he instituted games like those of
Greece. Some of the Jews had begun to weary of their perfect Law, and
fancy it narrow and vulgar, and the brothers of the good Onias were
among the worst; Joshua, the next in age, changed his glorious prophetic
name to the Greek Jason, and going to Antioch, offered a great sum of
money to be made High Priest, and for leave to set up at Jerusalem a
place for the practice of the heathenish games of strength, where men
fought naked. Antiochus was but too glad of the offer; so the good High
Priest was carried off to die a prisoner at Antioch, and the apostate
was set up in his room in order to pervert the Jewish youth to idolatry.
However, he was soon overthrown by his apostate brother, Menelaus, whom
he had sent to pay the tribute at Antioch, and who, when there, promised
the king a larger revenue, and to bring all the Jews to embrace the
heathen worship. Jason fled to the Ammonites, and Menelaus and his
brother sold the gold vessels of the Temple to the Phoenicians. The
Jews sent complaints to the king at Tyre, but instead of attending, he
murdered the messengers, so much to the horror of the Tyrians, that they
gave them honourable burial.
Antiochus now began a war with Egypt, (Dan. xi. 25,) and while he was
there, Jason came back from the Ammonites and regained Jerusalem; but
the news brought the king back in the utmost rage, Jason fled to Greece,
and Antiochus, coming to Jerusalem, cruelly treated the people, robbed
the treasury, himself went into the holy place, led by that horrible
traitor, Menelaus; and uttering blasphemy, he sacrificed a hog upon
the altar, and boiling the flesh, sprinkled the Temple with the broth,
carried off the candlestick and all the rest of the gold, and when
he went away to continue his wars, he left a captain and garrison to
oppress the Jews, and an old man to teach them the worship of Jupiter. A
little altar for sacrifice to Jupiter was raised on the true altar, the
Temple was dedicated to Jupiter, as was also that of the Samaritans on
Mount Gerizim, the Sabbath was abolished, so was circumcision, and on
the day of the king's birth, in each month, the Jews were forced to eat
swine's flesh, and partake of idol sacrifices, and, at the feast of the
god of wine, to carry ivy in the mad drunken processions in his honour.
It was the most utter misery that had yet befallen the Jews. Temple,
Priesthood, all gone! "We see not our tokens; there is not one prophet
more;" and yet that was the great time of glorious Jewish martyrdoms.
Numbers of the faithful were burnt to death together in a cave, where
they had met to keep the Sabbath day; two women who had circumcised
their babes, had them hung round their necks, and were then pitched from
the highest part of the wall of Jerusalem; and the aged scribe, Eleazar,
who was ninety years old, when swine's flesh was forced into his mouth,
spat it out again, and was scourged to death, saying with his last
breath that he bore all this suffering because he feared the Lord. A
mother and her seven sons were taken, and as each refused to share in
the idol rite and break the Law, they were put to death, one by one,
with horrible tortures, each before the eyes of his remaining brethren;
but the parting words of all were full of high hope and constancy. "The
Lord looketh on us, and hath comfort in us," said one. "The King of the
world shall raise us up who have died for His laws unto everlasting
life," was spoken by another. "Think not our nation is forsaken of God,
but abide awhile and behold His great power, how He will torment thee
and thy seed," said another, (for they were as yet only faithful Jews,
hope and forgiveness for their persecutors was for the Christian.) The
mother stood firmly by while each son's limbs were cut off, and he was
roasted to death over a fire; and all her words were to exhort them to
be stedfast, and to assure them their Creator could raise them if they
died for Him. When the turn of the last son came, the persecutors,
pitying his youth, entreated him to change his resolution, promising him
riches and prosperity if he would adore the idol, and even calling his
mother to plead with him. Then the noble woman laughed the tyrant to
scorn. "Have pity on me, my son," she began; but it was not by saving
his life, but by losing it, that she bade him show pity on her, so that
she might receive him again with his brethren. He made a still fuller
confession than the rest--he was slain by a still more savage torture;
and then his mother, blessing God, died gloriously like her sons. Others
fled, and lived in the mountains, lurking in caves, and feeding on wild
roots and herbs. Of such St. Paul says, "They were tempted, were slain
with the sword; they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being
destitute, afflicted, tormented: of whom the world was not worthy."
LESSON XVIII.
THE MACCABEES.
"In that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all
people; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in
pieces."--_Zechariah_, xii. 3.
Never was there a time when God left Himself without a witness; and in
these darkest times of the Jewish history, He raised up a defender of
His Name. There was a small town, named Modin, near the sea shore,
whither a Greek officer called Apelles was sent to force the people into
idolatry. He set up an altar to one of his gods, and having ordered all
the inhabitants to assemble, insisted on their doing sacrifice. Among
them came a family of priests, who, from their ancestor, Hasmon, were
known as the Asmoneans. The father, Mattathias, declared with a loud
voice that he would permit no such dishonour to his God, and the first
Jew who approached to offer incense, was by him struck down and slain.
Then with his five brave sons, and others emboldened by his example, he
fell upon Apelles, drove him away, and pulled down the idolatrous altar.
He then fled away to the hills, where so many people joined him, that he
had a force sufficient to defend themselves from their enemies; and he
went round Judea, circumcising the children, and rescuing the copies of
the Law which the Greeks had seized from the synagogues. Some of these
holy books, which had been defiled by paintings of the heathen idols,
were destroyed, by order of Mattathias, after the writing had been
carefully copied. It was at this time that the Jews began to read
Lessons from the Prophets in the synagogue, because Antiochus had only
forbidden reading the Law, without specifying the prophetic books.
Mattathias, who was already an old man, soon fell sick; and gathering
his sons about him, reminded them of the deeds that God had wrought by
the holy men of old, and exhorting them to do boldly in defence of His
Covenant. He appointed as their leader his third son, Judas, who for his
warlike might was called Maccabæus, or the Hammerer; and the second,
Simon, surnamed Thassi, (one who increases,) was to be his chief
adviser.
In the year 166, Judas Maccabæus set up his standard, with the motto,
"Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods?" the first letters of
which words in Hebrew made his surname, Maccabee. He went through the
land, enforcing the Law, and putting the cities in a state of defence.
Antiochus, meantime, was holding a mad and hateful festival at Daphne;
but on hearing of the revolt of the Jews, he went into a great rage, and
sent a huge army to punish them. Maccabæus defeated this force, drove
it back to Antioch, and then marched to Jerusalem, and forced the Greek
garrison to take refuge in a fortress called Akra, on Mount Zion. The
courts of the Temple were overgrown with shrubs which stood like a
forest, the priests' chambers had been pulled down, and the Sanctuary
lay desolate. These brave men rent their clothes and wept at the sight;
and then set at once to repair the holy place, their priest-leader
choosing out the most spotless among them for the work. They pulled down
the Altar that had been defiled, and setting aside its stones, built
a new one, and out of the spoil that was in their hands, renewed the
Candlestick, the shewbread table, and the Altar of incense; and then
they newly dedicated the Temple, after three years of desolation. The
anniversary was ever after kept with gladness, and was called the winter
feast of dedication. Still Judas was not strong enough to take the
castle on Mount Zion; but he built strong walls round the Temple, so
that it too became a fortress, and he then went to Bethshan to defend
the south border of Judea against the Edomites.
These tidings terribly enraged Antiochus, who was gone on an expedition
to Persia, and he designed to form a league with his neighbours for the
utter destruction of the Jews; but "he came to his end, and none could
help him," for an overturn of his chariot so much increased an inward
disease that had already begun, that he fell into most horrible
tortures, and was in such a state of decay that scarcely anyone could
bear to come near him. Horrible fears tormented him, and in his remorse
he repented of all the evil he had done to the Jews, and sent them a
letter assuring them of his favour; but it was now too late, and he died
in great misery in 164. His son, Antiochus Eupator, was only nine years
old, and his affairs were managed by a governor named Lysias, who
continued the persecution, and led an army to the relief of the garrison
in Mount Zion. Judas marched out to meet him, but was repulsed with the
loss of six hundred men, and of his younger brother, Eleazar, who seeing
an elephant of huge size, with a tower of unusual height on its back,
thought the king himself must be there, and running beneath it, stabbed
it so as to be crushed himself in its fall. Lysias then advanced upon
Jerusalem, and laid close siege to it, placing the Jews in extreme
peril. Just then another regent rose up against Lysias, and he made a
hasty peace with Maccabæus, and was admitted into the city; but when he
saw its strength, he broke his promises, and overthrew the wall. On his
return to Antioch, he punished the apostate high-priest, Menelaus, as
the author of all these misfortunes, by smothering him in a tower filled
with ashes. "Woe to the idol shepherd who had left his flock!" Another
half heathen, named Alcimus, was appointed in his place, and when the
Jews would not receive him, brought down their enemies upon them again.
Judas gained a victory, and wrote to entreat the alliance and protection
of the Romans; but ere the answer to his letter arrived, he had, with
only 800 men, fallen on a whole army of the Syrians, and was killed in
the battle, B.C. 161. His brothers, Jonathan and Simon, took up his
body, and buried it at Modin, in the tomb of their fathers; and they
continued to lead the faithful Jews, while Alcimus held Jerusalem, and
there began to alter the Temple, taking down the wall of separation
between the courts of the Jews and that of the Gentiles; but in the
midst of the work he was smitten with palsy, and died.
It was the plan of the Romans to take the part of a weak nation against
a strong one, because it afforded them an excuse for conquering the
mightier of the two, so they gave notice that the quarrels of the Jews
were their own; and after much fighting, Jonathan obtained two years of
peace, and became high-priest. Onias, the son of the good Onias, whom
Jason had set aside, went to Egypt, and ministered in a temple built by
the Jews, who had settled there.
Ever since the Syrian kings had begun to misuse the Jews, they had grown
weak and miserable. Antiochus Eupator was dethroned and murdered by his
cousin Demetrius; but shortly after, a man named Balas came forward,
calling himself the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, and begging Jonathan to
take his part, sending him a golden crown and purple robe, and naming
him commander of the Jewish force. In a battle in the year 153,
Demetrius was slain; and Balas became king. Both Balas and his son
Antiochus treated Jonathan with great favour, and he fortified
Jerusalem, got possession of many other towns, and considerably
strengthened the rightful cause: but a wicked rebel named Trypho, who
designed the murder of his young master, Antiochus, began his conspiracy
by treacherously assassinating Jonathan in the land of Gilead, B.C. 143,
and soon after succeeded in killing the young king.
Simon Thassi was the only survivor of the brave Maccabaean brothers, but
he finished their work, and obtained from Rome, Egypt, and Syria, an
acknowledgment that the Jews were a free people, and that he was their
prince and priest. He took the castle on Mount Zion from the Syrians,
and so fortified the Temple, that it became like another citadel, and he
was honoured by all his neighbours. He built a noble tomb for all his
family at Modin, consisting of seven pyramids, in honour of his father
and mother, and their five sons; all covered in by a portico, supported
on seven pillars, the whole of white marble, and the pediment so high
that it served for a mark for sailors at sea. He died, like his brave
brethren, by a bloody death, being murdered at Jericho, B.C. 135, by his
own son-in-law, who hoped to usurp the government; but his eldest son,
John Hyrcanus, was able to punish the murderer, and to obtain the full
authority, by giving large presents both to the Romans and Syrians. It
is said that he found, laid up in the sepulchre of David, 3000 talents
of silver, which he used for this purpose. Hyrcanus was a very powerful
and mighty prince, and not only reigned over all Judea, but conquered
Edom, with all the curious dwellings in the rocky caves of Petra; he
brought the country under subjection, circumcised the inhabitants, and
brought them under the Mosaic Law. From that time Idumea decayed, and
now has become an utter wilderness, the carved faces of the rocks still
witnessing to the truth of prophecy, as they stand forth, lonely and
deserted in their grandeur, though glowing freshly with the rosy
marblings of the rocks of Seir.
LESSON XIX.
THE ROMAN POWER.
And He shall put a yoke of iron on thy neck until He have destroyed
thee.--_Deut. xxviii._48.
Aristobulus, the son of Hyrcanus, was called King, as well as High
Priest of the Jews; but the mixture of worldly policy with the sacred
office did not suit well, and the Asmonean Kings were not like their
fathers, the Maccabees. Still their courage and steadiness made the Jews
much respected; and the Greeks and Romans around them began to read
their books, and there were some few who perceived that the religion,
there taught, was purer than idolatry, and wiser than the beat
philosophy. The kings were assisted in government by what was called the
Sanhedrim, a council of a hundred and twenty of the Scribes and of the
chief priests, namely, the heads of the courses of priests. This council
met daily in a hall near the great gate of the Temple, and heard cases
brought before them for judgment, after the example of the seventy
elders appointed by Moses. Alexander Janneus, the son of Aristobulus,
reigned from B.C. 104 to B.C. 77, and left his kingdom to his wife,
Alexandra, who trusted much to the Pharisees, and raised them to great
power. Her eldest son, Hyrcanus, was High Priest, and she left the
kingdom to him at her death, B.C. 69; but his brother, Aristobulus,
rebelling, with the help of the Sadducees, defeated him, and drove him
from his throne.
Hyrcanua was indolent, and was rather glad to be relieved from the
trouble of reigning; but his friend, Antipas, an Edomite by birth, and
of the Jewish religion, persuaded him that his life would not be safe in
Judea, and stirred him up to ask help, first from the Arabs, and when
they were beaten, from the Romans, to whom however, Aristobulus had
already sent a present of a golden vine, in hopes of winning their
support.
The great awfulness of the Roman power was in the sureness of its
conquests. It did not fly onward without touching the earth, like the
great eastern conquerors; but let it set one claw on a nation, and the
doom of that nation was fixed. First the help of the Romans was asked
and readily given; then in return a tribute was demanded and paid; then
the Romans would meddle with the government, till their interference
became intolerable, and there was a rising against it, which they called
rebellion; then they sent an army, and ruined the nation for ever. The
king, queen, generals, and all the riches, were carried to Rome, where
the conqueror came in to enjoy what was called a triumph. He was seated
in a chariot drawn by white horses, a laurel wreath round his head, and
all his captives and spoils displayed behind him; the senate or council
coming out to meet him, and the people shouting for joy as they led him
to the Temple of Jupiter to give thanks. The captives were afterwards
slain; and, as a farther festival, the people were entertained with
shows of gladiators, namely, slaves trained to fight, even to death,
with each other or with wild beasts. Then the conquered land became a
Roman province. After the magistrates had served a year at Rome, they
were allowed to choose which province they would govern; and there they
did as they pleased, and laid heavy burthens on the poor inhabitants,
for all men, not of Roman birth, they called barbarian, and used like
slaves; nor was there any hope of breaking this heavy bondage, for each
city was a station of Roman soldiers, who were the bravest and best
disciplined in the world. The army was divided into legions, each about
6,000 men strong, with a silver eagle for the standard; these were again
subdivided into cohorts, and again into hundreds, each commanded by a
centurion, whose helmet had some mark by which his men might know him.
No soldier could miss his place, either in battle, on a march, or in the
perfect square camps which they set up wherever they halted; they obeyed
the least word, and feared nothing; and nothing could hold out against
their steady skill, perseverance, and progress. Wherever they went they
built fortresses, and made wonderful straight solid roads, some of which
remain to this day; and their ships and messengers going for ever from
one province to another, made their empire all like one country; where
the stern Roman was the lord, and the native was crushed down under his
feet,
They had just at this time put down the kingdom of Syria, and conquered
nearly all Asia Minor. Their great general, Pompey, was holding a court
at Damascus, whither, among ten other suppliant princes, Hyrcanus and
Aristobulus came to lay their cause before him, thus asking a heathen
who should be the Priest of the Most High. Pompey took the part of the
elder, as the rightful heir, and led an army against Jerusalem. The
siege lasted three months, and so strong was the place, that it would
have held out much longer, but that the Jews would not defend themselves
on the Sabbath, at least no more than enough to protect their own lives.
They would not disturb any of the operations of the siege, nor keep the
engines from the walls on that day; and thus, B.C. 63, the Gentiles
again entered Jerusalem on the very day observed as a fast in memory of
Nebuchadnezzar's conquest.
Pompey spared the city from plunder, and touched none of the treasure
in the Temple; but he would not be withheld from going into every part,
even into the Holy of Holies; and though no immediate judgment followed,
it was remarked that from that time his prosperity left him. He set up
Hyrcanus as High Priest, but not as King--made him pay a tribute, put
him under the control of Antipas, and forbade him to extend his domains.
Aristobulus and his sons were carried off to appear in Pompey's triumph,
but their lives were spared. Thus Judea, by her own fault, fell under
the dominion of the fourth power with the teeth of iron.