Johanan coinCoin of Johanan the High Priest.
Coin of Johanan the High Priest.
Coin of Johanan the High Priest.
In Aristobulus, eldest son and successor of John Hyrcanus, we see the Hasmonean further and further estranged from the generous spirit that called them to the fore. Judas Maccabeus wished to be theSaviourof Judaism and the Jews, Aristobulus wanted only to be theirking. The story of Abimelech in the days of the Judges and Jotham's parable come forcibly to mind (Judges ix). Aristobulus began his reign by inprisoning his mother, to prevent her succession to the throne, according to his father's wish, and likewise all his brothers but one, on suspicion of their treason. Antigonus was his favorite brother, and he shared the royal power with him. The king was certainly unpopular with the people, who accused him of being more Greek than Jew. Slander made him even worse than he was, ascribing to him the death of his beloved brother Antigonus, who was assassinated toward the close of his reign. He continued his father's policy of conquest, and subdued portions of northern Palestine, including Galilee, and, like his father again imposed Judaism upon them. While in both instances the motive for the forced conversion was probably ancestral pride, still it showed religious zeal too—though not of the highest kind.
The widow of Aristobulus, Salome Alexandra, released her husband's brother from prison at his death and bymarrying Alexander Janneus, the eldest, and appointing him to the office of High Priest she allowed the kingly power to devolve upon him. Like his brother, he was not a man of peace, but of war. He further increased Judea's territory by conquest on the western Philistine side bordering on the Mediterranean.
He was not the man to quiet the growing dissensions between Pharisees and Sadducees, but rather to foment them. For the royal Sadducean party was getting more and more estranged in policy and aim from the national and religious aspirations of the people. There was a not always silent protest against the warrior king officiating as High Priest. At the Feast of Tabernacles, the people pelted him with their citrons, which they were carrying together with palms (lulab and esrog), symbols of the harvest, for this is also called the Feast of Ingathering. This could not end without a tragedy, and a large number were slain by his foreign mercenaries. (Royal body guards were usually composed of foreigners.) This conflict grew into a civil war, both sides in turn hiring foreign troops, and resulted in a terrible decimating of Judah's numbers, the Pharisees losing more largely. Such is one of the evils of uniting religious authority with temporal power. The rebellion was finally put down, but only with an iron hand.
This king, who could not be at peace, spent his last days in fighting the Arabians, who were just beginning to be Judea's most dangerous neighbor. But he inherited from his Maccabean ancestors love of arms without inheriting their military genius. This meant much wanton waste of life and some reverses. How vain this purpose of spending blood and substance in extending his territorial sway and making it nominally Jewishby force of arms, while fomenting religious antagonism at home—always destructive of religion itself. He left an even bigger State than his father, John Hyrcanus. Judea now meant the whole seacoast (with the exception of Ascalon) from Mount Carmel to Egypt and reached far east of the Jordan.
The throne went by will to Alexander Janneus' widow, who, it will be remembered, was also the widow of his elder brother, Aristobulus. Upon her eldest son, Hyrcanus, Queen Salome bestowed the high priesthood. Her sympathies, however, were entirely with the Pharisees. The exiles came back and political prisoners were released. The land enjoyed a pleasing contrast under her pious and gentle sway. All the Pharisaic ordinances, abolished by the late king, were reinstituted. Indeed, all religious interests were placed in their hands. It was a prosperous, peaceful reign, and was later looked back upon as a blessed day. In the stormy days that were to follow, it might well seem in retrospect, a golden age.
Alexandra coinCoin of the Time of Alexandra.
Coin of the Time of Alexandra.
Coin of the Time of Alexandra.
We have seen that the priesthood and Temple were no longer the religious centres around which the people rallied. The Jews had outgrown the age of priestism, although the splendid ritual of the sacrificial altar still continued. The religious guides and teachers were the scribes, learned in the Law, who for sometime had beenpresiding in couples. Hence they are called the "Pairs." The first of each pair held the office ofNasi, Prince or President of the Sanhedrin, and the second that ofAb Beth Din, Father of the Court or Vice-President.
Here are their names with some of the most famous sayings attributed to them:
Jose ben Joezer—Let thy house be a meeting place for the wise. Cover thyself with the dust of their feet and quench thy thirst with their words.Jose ben Jochanan—Let thy house be opened wide and let the needy be thy household.Joshua ben Perachia—Procure for thyself an instructor, possess thyself of a worthy associate, and judge every man in the scale of merit.Mattai the Arbelite—Associate not with the wicked and flatter not thyself that thou canst evade punishment.Jehudah ben Tabbai—Constitute not thyself dictator to the Judges.Simon ben Shetach—Be guarded in thy words; perchance from them men may learn to lie.Shemaiah—Love labor and hate pomp and suffer thyself to remain unknown to the head of the State.Abtalion—Ye wise be guarded in your words; or you may be exiled to a place of evil waters (false doctrine) and your disciples may drink and die.HillelandShammai, the last "Pair," will be treated in a separate chapter.
Jose ben Joezer—Let thy house be a meeting place for the wise. Cover thyself with the dust of their feet and quench thy thirst with their words.
Jose ben Jochanan—Let thy house be opened wide and let the needy be thy household.
Joshua ben Perachia—Procure for thyself an instructor, possess thyself of a worthy associate, and judge every man in the scale of merit.
Mattai the Arbelite—Associate not with the wicked and flatter not thyself that thou canst evade punishment.
Jehudah ben Tabbai—Constitute not thyself dictator to the Judges.
Simon ben Shetach—Be guarded in thy words; perchance from them men may learn to lie.
Shemaiah—Love labor and hate pomp and suffer thyself to remain unknown to the head of the State.
Abtalion—Ye wise be guarded in your words; or you may be exiled to a place of evil waters (false doctrine) and your disciples may drink and die.
HillelandShammai, the last "Pair," will be treated in a separate chapter.
Simon ben Shetach flourished in this reign. He was brother-in-law of the king, by whom he had been nevertheless imprisoned. But when the queen came to the throne he was practically placed as the religious head of affairs. Simon ben Shetach and his associate, Judah ben Tabbai, reorganized the Council and hence werecalled "restorers of the Law." From this time on the Pharisaic became the official interpretation of Judaism.
In all large towns Simon ben Shetach established schools for young men for the study of the Pentateuch and the laws interpreted from it. As President of the Council, he was very severe on those who infringed on the law. He has even been called the Judean Brutus, as he did not spare his own son. He reinstituted many customs that had been neglected during the Sadducean regime. Among these was the joyous "Water Celebration" during Tabernacles, a trace of which still survives in the ritual ofShemini Atzereth(the eighth day that follows and concludes the festival of Succoth). The celebrations were accompanied by illuminations and torchlight processions, religious music and dancing. The water drawing at the Spring of Siloah was heralded by blasts of the priests' trumpets. Another national custom revived was the summer "Wood Festival," on Ab 15. It had relation to the use of wood at the altar fires, and was a further opportunity for joyous unbending among the youths and maidens.
The Pharisees on the whole were the more democratic party, and decided that the maintenance of the Temple should be borne by all and not merely by voluntary offerings of the rich few. This new law brought enormous revenues to the Temple which later became its menace, attracting the covetous rather than the worshipful.
Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, chapter i. Taylor. Cambridge Press. Translations and notes.
These sayings, which form one book of the Mishna,will be found in the Sabbath Afternoon Service of the Jewish Prayer Book.
For a vivid description seePoetry of the Talmud, Seckles.
Contrast the Wood Festival of ancient Judea with Arbor Day in modern America. Mark the difference of purpose.
SiloamThe Pool of Siloam.
The Pool of Siloam.
The Pool of Siloam.
Even before the good Queen Salome died storm clouds began to darken the horizon of Judah. Her second son, Aristobulus, inherited all his father's fierceness and tyranny. The throne had been naturally left to the elder brother, Hyrcanus, but the headstrong Aristobulus seized the reins of power on the dangerous theory that he was more fit to rule. Civil war began before the good queen had quite breathed her last. Hyrcanus, the weak, yielded, and all might have been well were it not for the interference of a new enemy who was eventually to bring about the ruin of the Jewish State.
It will be recalled that John Hyrcanus had conquered the Idumeans and made them, seemingly, Jews. We shall now see the kind of Jews they were. One of them, Antipater, was the local governor of this Idumean province. He was a man who lusted for power and had absolutely no scruples as to the means of gaining his ends. He saw that if only he could place the weak Hyrcanus on the throne, he might become a power behind it.
He began by insinuating himself into the favor of the Jewish nobility, and, ostensibly, as a pleader for justice, emphasized the evils of Aristobulus' usurpation. Letting that poison work, he came to the innocent Hyrcanus and played upon his fears with a made-up story of conspiracy against his life. Most reluctantly was Hyrcanus persuadedto flee with him from Jerusalem to an Arabian prince, Aretas. Aretas was induced to lend his aid in the expectation that Hyrcanus, once in power, would restore the cities Alexander Janneus had taken from the Arabians.
So unhappy Judah was plunged in war again to gratify the unworthy ambitions of unworthy men and men not of their own people. Aristobulus was defeated in battle by Aretas and was besieged in the Temple Citadel.
An interesting incident is told at this juncture that recalls the Bible story of Balaam. (Numbers xxii-xxiv.) In the party of Hyrcanus there was a man, Onias, who, so said credulous rumor, had brought rain in times of drought through his fervent prayer. He was now brought into the camp and asked to invoke God's curse on Aristobulus and his allies. But such prayer he considered blasphemous, therefore he voiced his petition to heaven in these words: "O God, King of the whole world, since those that stand now with me are Thy people and those that are besieged are also Thy priests, I beseech Thee that Thou wilt neither hearken to the prayer of those against these, nor bring about what these pray against those." Alas, the temper of warfare had not patience or appreciation with this sublime attitude. The man was stoned. But in a sense his prayer was answered.
For the Aesop fable of the two bears quarrelling over a find, thus affording opportunity for a third to step in and seize it, was here to be exemplified. Rome was everon the watch to bring all outlying provinces into her net. Pompey, her victorious general, whose head Julius Caesar was later to demand, was just now making his triumphant march through Asia. The warring brothers, Hyrcanus and Aristobolus, appealed to his lieutenant. To leave the decision with Rome was a dangerous precedent, for the power that could grant a throne by its decision might also take it away. So, while the decision was rendered in favor of Aristobulus, it was as vassal rather than as independent king that he held his throne for some two years. The real gainer was Rome. It had now the right to revoke its decision; and it did. The people, disgusted with their unworthy leaders who cared nothing for the nation, but only for its honors—appealed to Rome to abolish the monarchy that had been gradually introduced and restore the old regime of the High Priesthood.
But the headstrong Aristobulus dared resist even Rome and entrenched himself against invasion. This was fatal both for him and Judea. The temple mount was besieged. It was taken with frightful massacre by lustful Romans. This was in 63. Pompey sacrilegiously entered the Holy of Holies, in which to his surprise he found no idol; a spiritual God was an unfamiliar concept to the pagan mind. He curtailed the Jewish state and made it tributary. Aristobulus must grace Pompey's triumph at Rome.
So much for the vain conquests of John Hyrcanus and Alexander Janneus. They evaporated with a word from Pompey. Thus ended the Judean independence for which the early Maccabees had fought so nobly. It had endured but seventy-nine years. Over this tributary State Hyrcanus II. was made High Priest. The kingshipcreated by the first Aristobulus was short-lived indeed. The scheming Antipater had won, but graver issues were to be the outcome.
Rome, from the city on the Tiber, had spread over all Italy. Then gradually it mastered the lands on both sides of the Mediterranean. Greece and Carthage were absorbed in the same year, 146B.C.E.Soon its tide of conquest reached Asia, and nearly all the lands in the East conquered by Alexander—excepting Persia—were under its sway. When Greco Syria—which had included Judea until the Maccabean independence—fell before its arms, it was to be expected that the never-satisfied Rome would not rest until the land of our fathers had been added to its possessions. We have seen how an unhappy series of events played into its hands and hastened this end. In a sense Rome was becoming the "mistress of the world." Nor was her sway as transitory as that of earlier world powers—Assyria, Babylonia, Persia or Macedonia. It was to endure for many centuries and it has left a lasting impress upon the world's civilization.
Already the Jewish captives that Pompey took to Rome, later freed and called Libertini, formed together with earlier emigrants the beginnings of an important Jewish community. Here later still we find this Jewish colony on the Tiber quietly influencing Roman affairs.
Judea, with the rest of Palestine, was now placed under the general supervision of Rome's Syrian governor. Internally its life was not interfered with, but all temporal—that is political—power was taken from the HighPriest. His authority was confined to the Temple. Both Aristobulus, who had escaped from Rome, and his son, Alexander, made foolhardy attempts for the throne, which only resulted in further curtailing of Judah's power. Yet another desperate attempt was made for the throne. Alas, it only resulted in thirty thousand of the defeated malcontents being sold into slavery. This chafing against Rome's rule only brought its mailed hand more fiercely against ill-fated Israel.
But Rome now entered upon its own period of civil war at home and men lustful of power drenched this country in blood. In 60B. C. E.Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus divided the Roman possessions between them and formed the First Triumvirate (Crassus given Syria, plundered the Temple treasures). On the death of Crassus, Caesar, ambitious for supreme power—the fatal weakness of this really great man—crossed the river Rubicon that was the boundary of his province of Gaul, made war on Pompey, who was soon slain, and held for a brief time sole sway. In 44 Caesar was killed by Brutus and Cassius. These in turn were overthrown by Cæsar's avenger, Marc Antony, and a new Triumvirate was formed, consisting of Antony, Octavian (Augustus) and Lepidus. These were as disloyal to each other as the first group. Antony, seduced from his duty by the witchery of that fatally beautiful woman, Cleopatra of Egypt, was finally defeated and overthrown in the battle of Actium, 30. Octavian Augustus now held the reins alone and theRoman Empirewas launched. Augustus, the first emperor, reigned from 60B.C.E.to 14A.C.E.
JuliusJulius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
These few outlines of Roman history will have to be kept in mind to follow events in Judea, for much was to happen to storm-tossed Israel between the first Triumvirate and the empire of Augustus. Every change in government at Rome affected the land of Israel and its people.
Indeed, in all their subsequent history no great event occurred in the world without affecting the Jews in some way, and many of these world events were in turn influenced by them.
When Pompey was killed in 48, that arch-conspirator, Antipater, who had sided with him while in power, now with Hyrcanus, his puppet, professed friendship for Caesar and helped him with Jewish troops for his Egyptian campaign. Caesar extended favors to both. Hyrcanus, as High Priest, was once more given political authority, and Antipater was made Procurator of Judea. We have witnessed the thin entering of the wedge; behold the Idumean now head of Jewish affairs. Caesar now granted permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and concessions and privileges were also conferred on the Jews of Alexandria and Asia Minor, for Rome's sway reached far. Caesar's good will made the rulership of Antipater tolerable for a while and when the news of Caesar's death reached the Jews they mourned him as a lost friend.
The political power granted to Hyrcanus as High Priest carried with it the title of Ethnarch, which means governor of a province. But all power was really exercised by Antipater who, as Procurator of Judea, made his son Phasael governor of Jerusalem, and his son Herod governor of Galilee. How this intruding stranger had tightened his grip on the land of our fathers!
Herod was to play an important role in Judah's fortunes. Already as governor of Galilee, a youth of twenty-five, he showed his masterfulness in the summary execution of a marauder. Summoned to the Sanhedrin to answer for this action, he dared defy it. Why? Because Cassius, now master of Syria (including Judea) at Caesar's death, was put under obligation by the crafty Antipater and his equally cunning son Herod. Together they succeeded in squeezing money from Judæa for the maintenance of an army against Antony. Thus the Jews were embroiled in Rome's conflicts to further the ambitions of these Idumeans. As a result Herod was now made governor of Celo-Syria (Palestine) and could snap his fingers at the Sanhedrin. Judea, in fact, was a prey to anarchy brought about by conspiracies and usurpations.
In 42 Brutus and Cassius were defeated at Philippi by Antony and Octavian, and it seemed that an end had come to the fortunes of Herod. Antipater had been slain, caught in a final act of heartless duplicity against Hyrcanus. But Herod had the adroit cunning of his father and knew how to desert a sinking ship and change his allegiance to the man of rising fortunes. With plausible words Herod made his peace with Antony. Nor did the complaints against him and his brother by the Jewish nobility avail. On the contrary Antony made them bothtetrarchs—subordinate governors—of Judea at the expense of the weak and aging Hyrcanus.
Antigonus, a son of Aristobulus, taking advantageof a Parthian uprising, made one more effort to seize the Jewish throne. He succeeded. Herod was put to flight and Hyrcanus deposed altogether. This last scion of the Hasmonean house held a brief royal sway from 40 to 37. He lacked the greatness of the earlier Maccabeans to hold the nation; and, antagonized the Sanhedrin instead of attaching it to him. Herod, after varied shifts, sailed to Rome, making an appeal at headquarters. Deceiving all by his plausibility, he obtained an appointment as "King of Judea" from Antony's senate. But for that throne he must now fight "the man in possession." There followed a series of engagements in which Jewish blood flowed freely. With the aid of Rome, Herod was of course successful, ultimately taking Jerusalem itself. Antigonus was put to death. Thus ended the Hasmonean rule in Judea so gloriously begun a little over a century before.
Single out great events in history influenced by and influencing the Jews.
Antigonus coinCoin of Antigonus, 40 B. C. E.
Coin of Antigonus, 40 B. C. E.
Coin of Antigonus, 40 B. C. E.
What had been the result of the attempt of Alexander Janneus to force Judaism upon Idumea? It had begun by giving the Idumean Antipater, from the intimate relations created, the opportunity to make Hyrcanus his puppet, and ended by placing the Jewish crown upon the head of Herod, who was absolutely un-Jewish in ancestry and sympathies, and really a pagan at heart. Herod, in fact, delivered Judea to Rome that he might be made its vassal king.
He had married Mariamne, the beautiful grand daughter of the weak Hyrcanus—a stroke of policy, to be allied in marriage to Judah's royal family.
Undoubtedly he was a man of power of a sort, born to command; but there was no soft spot in his nature. He had all the instincts of a tyrant, and neither scruple nor pity deterred him from carrying out his passionate will and his insatiable ambition. He inherited all his father's cunning, allied with fine judgment and untiring energy. Though of undoubted bravery, he knew how to fawn before those in power.
The first dozen years of his reign were marked by storm and conflict with enemies both without and within. The feelings of the Jews can be imagined in having this alien thrust upon them by all-powerful Rome and whose first act was to slay their patriots and confiscate their property. Rebellion was put down with a merciless hand.Step by step he carried out his relentless purpose and put to death all the survivors of the royal line, the flower of the Jewish nobility, and likewise every member (except Shemaiah and Abtalion) of the Sanhedrin that had some years before censured one of his misdeeds.
Very unwillingly he appointed his wife's brother as High Priest. It was a fatal distinction for the young man, for the people too openly expressed their regard for this scion of the Hasmonean line. What was the consequence? One day when refreshing himself in the bath, he was held under the water till life was extinct. It was called an accident! Alexandra, his mother, a hard woman, appealed to Rome through Cleopatra to punish this murder. Herod was summoned to answer for his conduct before Antony, but his plausible manner aided by bribery won his acquittal. The tyrant marked his return by the execution of another brother-in-law, to whom he had entrusted Mariamne in his absence, and whom he jealously imagined disloyal.
That Antony at this time gave part of Palestine proper to Cleopatra, including even a bit of Judea, and that Herod must bear it without protest, showed on what slender tenure he held his throne. So completely was he under Rome's control that Antony, to satisfy the whim of Cleopatra who disliked Herod, commanded him to undertake a campaign against the Arabians, while she secretly assisted them.
When Antony fell at Actium in 31 in that contest between continents, Herod managed adroitly at the right moment to go over to the side of the victorious Octavian Augustus. Before departing for Rome to curry favor with the Emperor, he took a precaution, which only his cruelty deemed necessary. He put to death hisown kinsman, the aged Hyrcanus, to whose weakness he in a measure owed his throne.
He returned in the good graces of Augustus, and received back all the lands taken from him by Antony for Cleopatra. But before his departure, he had repeated the order given prior to his previous visit, that Mariamne should be put to death in case his cause should take a fatal turn in Rome. Learning of this revolting plan in his absence, she upbraided him on his return. This gave his envious relatives opportunity to slander her and defame her honor. The jealous Herod believed the calumny against his innocent wife—and think of it—ordered her to be put to death, though, in his savage, sensual way, he loved her. Remorse came too late, which wild excesses could not drown. Soon her mother followed her to the block on the better founded charge of conspiracy. More deeds of needless bloodshed were perpetrated by his wanton command until every remnant of the Hasmonean house was destroyed.
Herod was a renowned builder. He wanted to have a splendid capital with which he might dazzle Roman grandees and foreign plenipotentiaries. Notice the bent of his mind—his conception of a monarch—not a father of his people living up to such a maxim, for example, asich dïen(I serve) but the possessor of glory and with the power to play with the life and death of his subjects. He must needs have grandeur without, though there was misery enough within. He erected temples, amphitheatres and hippodromes. He built for himself a palace that was a fortress too, with parks and gardens around it. New cities were laid out, not for the honorof Israel but for the honor of Augustus Caesar and named after him. Samaria was rebuilt and renamed Sebaste. He rebuilt a city on the coast and called it Caesarea, with a fine haven. One he named Antipatris after his father, another after his brother, Phasaelis; Agrippaeum, after Agrippa, and Herodium, a stronghold, after himself. Existing fortresses were restored and strengthened. Nor did he neglect to mark the outlying provinces with examples of his building passion.
AugustusEmperor Augustus.
Emperor Augustus.
Emperor Augustus.
The old Temple, built in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, now looked shabby among these fine edifices, and he determined to rebuild it. This was one of his great achievements. There was no religious motive whatever in the project, for he had built outside of Jerusalem many heathen shrines. The purpose was wholly worldly. If there is to be a Temple, let it be gorgeous to gratify my vanity! It took many years to build and was not finished till long after Herod's death. The whole circumference of the Temple, including the fortress of Antonia connected with it, covered almost a mile. It must have been magnificent, for a proverb arose, "He who has not seen Herod's Temple has never seen anything beautiful." Yet, with all his grandeur, he was but a subject king under the sway of the Roman emperor. He could not make treaties or war without the consent of the emperor, to whom he had to supply on demand troops and money.
The introduction of heathen games in theatres and race-courses, in which the lives of gladiators and runners were lightly sacrificed to gratify the brutal instincts of the spectators, deeply grieved the Jews, imbued with the sanctity of human life. It was in such violent antagonism to the ethics of Judaism. But what could they do? They were in the power of this pagan tyrant.
He gathered in his capital, too, Greek litterateurs and artists. To these scholars were given state positions of trust. But this was no more an indication of love of culture than Temple building was love of religion. Ostentation was at the root of both.
Yet the Pharisaic party (the great mass of the people) was too strong for him to carry his paganizing influence as far as he wished. He ungraciously yielded, out of prudence, now and then to the religious sensibilities of the people. The building of the sanctuary proper he entrusted to priests, nor were images placed on the Jerusalem buildings. But the Roman eagle was later erected over the Temple gate. For an attempt to remove it, forty-two young men, zealous for the law, were burnt alive. The Jewish Sanhedrin was shorn of all power.
He appointed unfit men as High Priests and removed them when they did not do his bidding. That such appointments should be left in his unsympathetic hands. Finally, the people were heavily taxed to support heathen splendor of which they did not approve. So his reign, so hateful to them, was maintained only by despotism and force. An attempt was even made to assassinate him. The populace had to be watched by spies. Yet in the year 25 he brought all his energies to the fore to save the people from the consequences of famine. Let us remember this in his favor; also that he used his power to secure protection for Jews in the Diaspora.
By paying lavish court to the emperor and his son-in-law, Agrippa, his territory was gradually doubled. A splendid kingdom viewed superficially, but it brought no happiness to this unscrupulous man. Peace in the home,domestic joy, these are the things that prowess and power cannot buy. The story of how this barbarian had put to death his favorite wife, Mariamne, has already been told. Her two sons were now grown to man's estate. But Herod's sister, the wicked Salome, who had plotted against their mother, now tried to fill the king's mind with suspicions against her sons. In this purpose she was aided by Antipater, son of Herod by another of his wives. Learning that their mother had been put to death by their father's mandate, they openly expressed their anger, which so increased the king's suspicions, that he accused his sons before the emperor. The mildness of Augustus could only postpone the eventual tragedy—the execution of the young men by order of their own father. Antipater—the real conspirator against Herod, though his favorite son,—was at last detected, and of course executed also. Surely the latter days of this king were bitter.
These domestic troubles were aggravated by bodily disease and the knowledge that he was hated by his people. Determined to be mourned at all costs, he imprisoned some of the most distinguished men of the nation with orders that they were to be killed at the moment of his death. Thus would he obtain a mourning at his funeral! Was not this the climax of savagery! This fiendish purpose was, however, never carried out; so he died unwept and unmourned.
He is called "Great" to distinguish him from some puny Herods that followed in the fast dying Jewish State. We can call him "Great" only in a bad sense—an awful example of the abuse of power in the hands of an unscrupulous and blood-thirsty man.
Zirndorf,Some Jewish Women. (Jewish Pub. Soc.) Grace Aguilar,Women of Israel.
In Talmudic literature "Edom" is often a disguised term for Rome, because in the Bible story Esau is the rival of Jacob. When we remember that Antipater and Herod were Idumeans (Edom) and that they practically delivered Judea to Rome for the price of a crown, the rabbinic usage is peculiarly appropriate.
In Stephen Phillip's dramatic poem of this name, the character is idealized.
Did Herod succeed or did he fail?
Let us now take a glance at the religious life of Judah in this reign. The picture is brighter. Hillel was made president of the Sanhedrin in the year 30. A new direction was given to the development of rabbinic Judaism under his guidance. He was the greatest Jewish teacher since Ezra. Like Ezra he came from Babylon, which had remained a Jewish centre since the exile, 600B. C. E., and was to continue to be a Jewish centre for many centuries later. Pleasing stories are told of the sacrifices made by this poor boy to gratify his thirst for knowledge. Once he was almost frozen to death while lying on the skylight to hear the discussion, since he was not allowed to hear it from within. Ultimately he was placed at the head of the Sanhedrin where at first he was a beggar at its doors. Great as he was as an expounder of the Law, he is perhaps best known by the sweetness of his character. None could put him out of temper, it is said. This story is given as illustration. A man who ventured a wager that he would rouse Hillel's wrath called thrice at the most inopportune time asking the absurdest questions, and each time more rudely than before. The attempt failed. On hearing the explanation of this strange behavior, Hillel, unruffled to the last, said, "Better that you should lose your wager than I my temper." He united in himself gentleness and firmness.
Many interesting instances are given of his evenness of disposition that disarmed the violent and won many a convert to the fold, where the brusqueness of his colleague—Shammai—often drove them away. "Be patient like Hillel, not passionate like Shammai," ran the saying. Thus Hillel became the peacemaker in those troublous Herodian days. In this connection he taught, "Be of the disciples of Aaron—loving and pursuing peace, loving mankind and bringing them nigh to the Law." His consideration for others went so far that, a man of standing, becoming suddenly poor, he provided him with a horse and servant that he might still enjoy some of the comforts of his earlier life.
He is the author of the famous Golden Rule in its earlier form, uttered in reply to a heathen who would have him teach the whole Law while he stood on one foot: "That which is hateful to thee do not unto thy neighbor; this is the principle, all the rest is commentary." Another heathen must needs be made a priest if converted: Hillel gently showed him the prohibition of the Law. But the instances show that proselytism was encouraged.
In the following maxims many phases of his character are revealed:
"He who craves to raise his name, lowers it.""A name inflated is a name destroyed.""My humility is my pride, my pride my humility.""He who will not learn or teach deserves death.""He who does not progress, retrogrades.""Say not, 'when I have leisure I will study,' for you may never have leisure.""Study God's word; then both this world and the next will be thine.""Trust not thyself till the day of thy death.""In a place where there is no man, strive to show thyself a man.""Judge not thy neighbor till thou art in his place.""If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, when?"
"He who craves to raise his name, lowers it."
"A name inflated is a name destroyed."
"My humility is my pride, my pride my humility."
"He who will not learn or teach deserves death."
"He who does not progress, retrogrades."
"Say not, 'when I have leisure I will study,' for you may never have leisure."
"Study God's word; then both this world and the next will be thine."
"Trust not thyself till the day of thy death."
"In a place where there is no man, strive to show thyself a man."
"Judge not thy neighbor till thou art in his place."
"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, when?"
Do you realize how much is contained in that last maxim? Unravel it and you will see revealed his philosophy of life.
So gentle, he was yet daring. When an old law was abused, he ventured to modify it. The Law, for example, for release of debts every seventh year, made particularly for the benefit of the poor (Deut. xv), hampered the growth of trade in more complex times and changed a generous purpose into an occasional embarrassment. There is a gulf of difference between a loan to buy bread and a loan for business enterprise. In the latter case Hillel allowed the stipulation to be stated in the contract, calledprosbul, that the law of release was to be suspended.
To Hillel is due the important service of devising a logical system of seven rules of deduction by which new laws to meet new needs could be developed out of the fewer and more general principles in the Bible code. It must be confessed that these deductions were occasionally far-fetched. None the less the custom prevailed among the rabbis to make laws for all exigencies in that way for many centuries to come. The practice arosefrom the reverence paid the five books of Moses that induced them to seek authority for every regulation they found needful, in their pages. We might say it was a virtue carried to the extreme of a fault. Hillel's method earned him the title "Regenerator of the Law."
"Where goest thou, Master," said Hillel's disciples one day when he hastened from the house of learning. "I go to meet a guest," Hillel replied. "Who is this guest of whom thou so often speakest?" The sweetness of the master's face deepened into earnestness. "My guest is my soul. Too often in intercourse with the world must its claims be pushed aside."
But the day came, as indeed it must, when the soul was summoned to a greater tribunal than his own. The day of Hillel's death was a day of mourning in Israel. "O, pious, gentle, worthy follower of Ezra," cried the sorrowing people. Contrast his death with Herod's.
Such was the love and esteem in which he was held by the scholars of his own and later ages, that the presidency of the Sanhedrin was kept in his family for four centuries (like a royal succession), and in this way his memory reverenced for many generations.
In Hillel and Shammai, the "Pairs" referred to in chapter viii reached their culmination. A teaching of Shammai ran, "Say little but do much." These two men were the founders of two distinct schools of interpretation of Jewish Law. They were as distinct in their character as in their exposition of Scripture. Hillel was broad, tolerant and original; Shammai—narrow,strict, and conservative. (Hillel's opinions were usually accepted by later generations.) Shammai was a pessimist saying "It were better not to have been born." Hillel was an optimist, and said, "Being born, make the most of life."
To the Shammai school we owe the many stringent prohibitions with regard to the Sabbath and to ecclesiastical purity. They objected even to teaching the young, visiting the sick, or comforting mourners on the Sabbath day. We are glad to state that Jewish practice has taken the opposite view. The rabbis of the Shammai school were not only severe in their religious decisions, but also in the interpretation of patriotism and in their views of life generally. Their gloomy philosophy is shown in Second Esdras: see chap. v., on the Apocrypha. We might compare them with the first Puritan settlers in America.
This school, also unlike Hillel's, opposed the admission of proselytes from the heathen. Yet in those stormy times, these severe views against the heathen found the larger following. From these doubtless came the band of Zealots whose fanatic hatred of Rome and its institutions became almost a religion, and whose deeds, to be told later, form a lurid chapter in Judah's closing days.
According to ancient Jewish law a city home sold could be redeemed within a year. "But suppose the owner lock it up and depart." "Break the lock and lodge the money with the court," said Hillel. He touched a modern need in showing here that craft must not defeat the benevolent purpose of the Law.
See Geiger'sHistory of Judaism, vol. i, chap. viii.
Golden rule. See Tobit iv, 15.
Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, Taylor, pp. 34 to 37.
Is it possible as Hillel said, to evolve the whole law from the Golden Rule?
The selfish Herod had split up his kingdom among his three sons—Archelaus, Antipas and Philip. Before Rome had yet confirmed the succession, and while a procurator was placed in temporary charge, already the sons were intriguing against each other. Rome carried out Herod's wishes, only that his sons were made tetrarchs instead of kings. How steadily Rome moved toward its purposed end!
Archelaus was made tetrarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. The realm of Antipas was Galilee and Perea, the Jordan dividing the two districts. To Philip was given the remaining provinces of Batanæa and Trachonitis in northern Palestine. Look at the map in front of this book.
A word on each of these principalities in the inverse order of importance. Philip held a mild sway for thirty-seven years. There is nothing to record in these outlying provinces, partly because they were far removed from the Jewish centre of gravity.
The realm of Antipas, often mentioned in the New Testament, was a little nearer. His recognition of Judaism was only formal. He inherited all his father's vices and like his father, too, he was a great builder. He built Sepphoris in Galilee, and Tiberias on the Lake of Gennesaret. In his reign and realm flourished John the Baptist of Perea, and also Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee. As this term,Baptist, was applied to the Essenes, becauseof their frequent ablutions (see p. 82), John may have been a leader of that party.
We know that John preached in the wilderness in the neighborhood of the Jordan, the centre of the Essenes. His bold words, in which he denounced the king, led to his imprisonment, on political grounds, as an agitator. His influence on the people was feared by Rome, for it was hard then to separate religion and politics. It is sometimes hard now. It is said he was finally put to death at the wish of a dancer, Salome, but really to please her mother, Herodias, a wanton woman, to marry whom Antipas had divorced his wife, the daughter of an Arabian king. This not only involved him in a disastrous war, but Herodias caused him eventually the loss of his government and his freedom. For, aiming at a kingship at her instigation, he was banished, and his tetrarchy given to Agrippa, of whom we shall hear later on.
To come now to Judea proper; together with Samaria and Idumea, it was entrusted to the unfit Archelaus; like his father he, too, had to secure his throne through bloodshed. Plots and counterplots with the appearance of pretenders for the thrones of Judea and Galilee, characterized this unhappy time. The Jews were disgusted with the rule of Rome and its creatures, and some began open rebellion. The Syrian governor finally quelled the revolt, but thousands were slain. Had the Jewish malcontents been organized under trustworthy leadership, something might have been achieved. As it was, it ended in their more complete subjection.
There is little else to tell of the reign of Archelaus. Serious charges were brought against this tyrant; soserious that the emperor recalled him to Rome and deposed him. He had reigned ten years, 4B.C.E.to 6A. C. E., thus crossing the dividing line of what is called the Christian Era, from the tradition that it marked the birth of Jesus of Nazareth; he was actually born four years earlier than this date.
Herod had brought Judea so completely under Roman control, that bit by bit all the old vested rights, privileges and local powers had been taken from its Sanhedrin, its High Priest and its royal family. Herod had practically sold Judea to Rome for the privilege of subserving as its king. Its fate was now wholly in Rome's hands.
Leaving the outlying provinces under the rule of tetrarchs, Rome now decided to govern Judea absolutely as a part of the province of Syria. It sent out governors or, as they were called,Procurators, to administer its affairs under the more immediate direction of Syria. The Jews were now to be ruled by strangers who had no understanding of their religion and no sympathy with their traditions or social needs; by men possessed in fact, for the most part, of an ill-concealed antagonism to the rites and obligations that entered into the lives of conscientious Jews.
At its best Judea had been a Theocracy, i.e., a kingdom in which religion, represented by the priesthood and the Sanhedrin, directed the affairs of the nation. Roman rule, therefore, would be revolutionary, even had the procurators been good men and had sought to administer the province in kindness and equity. As a matter of fact, they were nearly all tyrants, lustful for gain at anyprice and absolutely indifferent to the welfare of the people under their charge; even as we shall see, in many instances wantonly wounding Judea's sensibilities to gratify their cruel pleasure. No wonder the Jews were eventually goaded into a war of desperation.
As to the Jews in other lands under Roman sway, we find Augustus Caesar well disposed to them. He placed the harbors of the Nile under Judean Alabarchs (same as Arabarch). His kindness to the Alexandrian Jews was in marked contrast with his severity toward the Alexandrian Greeks. In the city of Rome he allowed the Jewish settlers—Libertini—to observe their religion undisturbed, and to build synagogues.
So in the deepening shadows there was a glimmer of light too.
For the relation of Baptism to the Essenes, read articles on those topics in vols. ii and v, respectively, of theJewish Encyclopedia.
Literally, governor of a fourth part of a province.