ROMAN EMPERORS ANDJEWRY.PROCURATORS.C.E.C.E.Augustus.Coponius6Archelaus, tetrarch of Judea,Marcus Ambibulus9deposed*Annius Rufus12Tiberius.Philo, philosopher, born16Valerius Gratus 515Pontius Pilatus26Caligula.Marcellus36Death of Jesus of Nazareth28Claudius.Marullus37-41Josephus, historian born38Agrippa, King41-44
The Procurators fall into two groups, with a Jewish king intervening. The table above is the first group of these administrators of Judea. Their seat of government was Caesarea, a city that had become Jerusalem's rival. The Jews had a certain freedom under this regime. "The oath of allegiance to the Roman emperor was more an oath of confederates than of subjects." The Sanhedrin was still supposed to be the governing body for home affairs with the High Priest as its president. But the arbitrary appointment and removal of High Priests by the procurator, placed these powers at the mercy of his caprice, and ultimately the Jews were robbed of these prerogatives altogether. The procurator then could always interfere with the carrying out of Jewish law. It is important that these facts should be borne in mind in the events of the next chapter. Even in religious offenses where the High Priest with the Sanhedrin could pronounce the death sentence, the confirmation of the procurator was required for the execution. So heavily were the people taxed that the tax-gatherers (calledpublicans) were looked upon with opprobrium. Doubtless many of them dishonestly abused their power.
Still Judea was the only province in which the worshipof the emperor was not compulsory. The reason is obvious. To pagan communities it was a command which they could obey complacently; to the monotheistic Jews recognizing one sole spirit God, it was simply impossible. It was attempted by the Emperor Caligula, but failed. Even the local coinage bore no figure, nor were the standards bearing the likenesses of the emperor tolerated, as such was regarded as an offense by the strict interpreters of the second commandment. One tyrant tried and failed to force these banners on Judea. They violently opposed a census in the year 7 both on religious and on political grounds, as they regarded it as an infringement of their sacred rights and the precursor of slavery. But Joezer, the High Priest, quieted them and induced them to submit.
Still, from such incidents the stern determination of the Jews may be inferred. Judas of Gamala, a Galilean, and a religious enthusiast, went about preaching the duty of rebellion and the sin of submission. Gradually these malcontents formed themselves into a new party of extremists—theZealots, who believed in using the sword against the heathen to hasten the Messianic realization. They already began nursing the smouldering embers of rebellion.
Such was the status under the procurators in general. We will treat in detail the regime of only one—Pontius Pilate. It is characteristic of all, but especially eventful in many ways.
The Jewish historian, Josephus, and the Jewish philosopher, Philo, have much to tell of his doings. From the trustworthy Philo we are told that he was of "an unbendingand recklessly hard character." "He has been charged with corruptibility, violence, robberies, ill-treatment of the people, continued executions without even the form of trial, endless and intolerable cruelties."
On his first entry into Jerusalem he determined to outrage the religious sensibilities of the people he was sent to protect, by bidding his Roman soldiers hoist a flag with the Emperor's likeness. They petitioned for its removal. He refused. For five days they stood outside the palace urging their request. When the soldiers with drawn swords stood ready to slay at his signal, the people bared their necks, preferring death to toleration of this idolatrous emblem. Such was the intensity of the Jews of these last years of their national life, such was the stuff of which they were made. Even tyrants reach limits beyond which they dare not pass. The emblem was sullenly withdrawn.
At another time he appropriated the Temple treasures, sacredly set aside for religious purposes, for the building of an aqueduct to Jerusalem. This time he resorted to violence to quell the opposition, many lives being sacrificed.
With the purpose only of annoying the people, he put up votive shields inscribed with the emperor's name. But they appealed to Tiberius who not only ordered them removed, but rebuked Pilate for raising them.
On another occasion the Samaritans, to whom Gerizim had all the sanctity that Sinai had for Israel, because the Mosaic Blessings were announced from its heights (see Deut, xi, 29, Joshua, viii, 33), gathered there on a rumor that sacred vessels were hidden in its soil. Pilate sent soldiers wantonly to slaughter them. This led to his recall by Tiberius.
The Emperor Tiberius decided that it was kinder to the Jews to appoint procurators for long terms than to make frequent changes. It meant the greed of a smaller number to be satisfied. But, on the whole, his attitude was less friendly than that of his predecessor, Augustus. This may have been due to the fact that many Romans of high birth had, unsolicited, accepted the Jewish faith, and had sent gifts to the Temple at Jerusalem. Among these converts was Fulvia, wife of a Roman senator. This led to the banishment from Rome of many thousands of Jews to a dangerous climate. Here was the beginning of a religious persecution.
The incident, however, shows that the worthier Romans were becoming more and more distrustful of pagan cults and were looking for something better. We shall see later how zealous Jews from Judea, and more particularly from Alexandria, began making converts to Judaism all through Asia Minor. The influence of these converts on future events was farther reaching than their sponsors ever dreamed.
Read "A Procurator of Judea" inMother of Pearl, by Anatole France. Trans., N. Y., John Lane, 1908.
(a) Does official Judaism discourage conversion?
(b) Why did the Jews oppose a census on religions grounds? See II. Sam. xxiv, and article Census inJewish Encyclopedia, vol. iii.
So far the rule of Pontius Pilate as it concerned Judea. But his rule has become of wide import because of his relation to Jesus of Nazareth, who was put to death during his administration, though born in the province of Galilee governed by Herod Antipas. To explain how a great religion sprang up around this Galilean Jew, which came afterwards to regard him as its father, can be explained only by a complete grasp of the political and religious aspirations of the time.
The ominous mood in which the Jews realized their gradual deprivation of country and independence indicated the stirring of deep forces in their nature. Judea was to them a Holy Land, for "from Zion had gone forth the Law." Love of country had become part of their religion. Every political function had its religious aspect. The Sanhedrin was at once a civil and a religious body, and this dual characteristic pervaded all the civil institutions. So the longing for the restoration of the royal line of Judah, i.e., the coming of the Messiah, expressed the religious as well as the political hopes of the nation. Not that the word Messiah had any peculiarly religious significance. It is the Hebrew wordM'sheach, meaning "Anointed (king)," and was applied inthe Bible to Saul, David, and even to Cyrus, the Persian, Isaiah xlv—1. In post-exilic times the coming of the Messiah implied the re-establishment of the throne in the Davidic line.
Many of the pious felt further that with a king once more on an independent throne, the glorious pictures of the coming day foretold by the Prophets and not attained in the first monarchy, would be realized in the second. Such as "The Lord's house will be established on the top of the mountains; all nations will flock to it, saying, Come let us go up to the house of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, we will walk in His paths." (Isaiah and Micah.) Again, "The earth will be full of knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea." The conviction expressed by Jeremiah (chap. xxxi, 33-34) would then be fulfilled, that all would "know the Lord from the least of them to the greatest." One of the latest of the Prophets—Zechariah—had foretold a day when "ten men would take hold of the garments of him who was a Jew and would say, We will go with you, for we believe that God is with you." So we might quote nearly every prophet from Amos to Malachi, the last prophet, who said that the day of Judgment would be heralded by the undying Elijah. A Jewish poet in Alexandria voiced the same hope; heathendom would disappear and the kingdom of God would be established.
Alas, the outlook for either the spiritual or the temporal realization seemed farther removed than ever. Every now and then, more particularly under the disturbing rule of the procurators, a deluded enthusiast would appear upon the scene and claim that he was a Messiah. Theudas was one who made this claim in the year 45. So desperate were the times that these agitators always found followers. They were always ruthlessly put to death byRome for the claim of Messiahship, i.e., "King of the Jews," was treason against Rome. Was not Judea a Roman province now?
In chapter vii the Essenes have been mentioned. This sect, that lived as a brotherhood in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, shared all goods in common, condemned wealth and passed simple lives away from the great world. They, too, looked for the coming of the Messiah. But it was the religious climax of the prophets just quoted that would follow the Messiah's advent—the ushering in triumph of an independent nationality, that most appealed to them. This lofty view was also shared by the more saintly among the Israelites in general; nor was it ever entirely absent even from the popular view.
We have already heard of John the Baptist (Essene), who so stirred the people by preaching that "the kingdom of God" was at hand; this was the Messianic hope. He evidently inspired one youth, who was in close sympathy with the Essene brotherhood, Joshua (Greek Jesus) from Nazareth, in Galilee. Galilee, like the other provinces in northern Palestine, was away from the learning and culture of Jerusalem. It was the home of simple folk who spoke a corrupt dialect, and who credulously accepted popular superstitions; such as, every disease comes from an indwelling spirit or demon.
Of the life of the man Jesus who came from these surroundingslittle is really known, but from a few bare facts very much has been deduced and still more imagined. Apart from the fact that he was the son of a carpenter, Joseph, we only hear of him about two years before his death, and that occurred at the early age of thirty-two.We find him preaching and expounding the Law and sympathizing with the unfortunate classes.
Though by no means a profound scholar in the Law, he exhibited fine moral perception and lived up to the pure ideals of the strict, peace-loving Essene brotherhood. In his teachings or rather preachings, he followed the models of the great prophets, laying stress upon the spirit of religion and minimizing the value of ceremonial. For there were formalists in those days as there were in the days before the Exile. Indeed, every age reveals the experience that the multitude is often more impressed by the ceremony than the idea it is intended to convey—and gives more attention to the outward, tangible form than to its inward, spiritual purpose, the exaltation of life. Nor is that tendency confined to the ignorant either. Religion so easily sinks into a mechanical routine unless we keep vigilant watch. This lesson is preached by the moralists of every age. It was preached by Jesus of Nazareth with rare power. He had soon a large following, perhaps, too, for the reason that he was now regarded as John the Baptist's successor.
But it was not so much his ethical teaching, lofty though it was, that brought him into prominence and caused the crowds to gather about him, though a modern school of Christian apologetics lays stress upon that now. It was partly because he was regarded as a "healer," a power claimed by the Essenes; but chiefly because he was regarded as the long-looked forMessiahwho would deliver Israel from the thraldom of Rome and gratify their wildest expectations. Whether he first of his own accord laid claim to this mysterious title, orwhether he was persuaded into it by his admirers, we cannot gather from the few records that tell the events of his life. For even the earliest of these records, the so-called Gospel of Mark, was not written till nearly fifty years after his death, at a time when startling opinions had already been formed about him; and they do not agree even as to his parentage and birthplace. In fact, once regarded as the Messiah, his biography wasrecastto fit the Messianic prophecies in the Scriptures! This made the Jesus of the Gospels largely a mythical character.
Jesus could quite honestly have believed himself to be a Messiah in some religious sense, though he was rather evasive when bluntly questioned. For many sincere enthusiasts both before and since his time have believed themselves specially chosen messengers of God to bring redemption to their people. It will be seen at the end of this volume that Mohammed, who flourished several centuries later, believed himself to be sent by God to bring salvation to the Arabians. In a sense he was; to call him an impostor, an earlier practise of the Church, is uncharitable and untrue. In Israel's history, since the days of the procurators not a century has passed but some one has come forward claiming to be the Messiah. Some were honest, though mistaken; some were mere adventurers.
Jesus probably accepted the Essene idea of the Messiah, that is, he was less concerned with ushering in an earthly than a heavenly kingdom.
This distinction was not clearly realized by the simple masses of the people, groaning under a hated yoke; certainly it was not realized by the Romans, who saw in every Messianic claim treason against Rome, a plot to win independence for Judea again. On the other hand,Jesus applying to himself on one occasion the term "son of God"—that may mean so little or so much—awakened the alarm and antagonism of the priesthood and lost for him many supporters. So Jesus, who was probably innocent of any blasphemous assumptions against Judaism and guiltless of any conspiracy against Rome to seize the throne and be made "King of the Jews," was nevertheless condemned to death like the Messiahs before him and was executed by the Roman method of capital punishment, crucifixion. But unlike the Messiahs before him—all mediocre men—his name has been treasured ever since as one of the great religious teachers of the world.
For although he died without bringing the redemption which would have proven his Messiahship, his followers did not lose faith in him. His turning kindly to the poor and despised folk, even to the sinful and degraded with his message of comfort, had won all hearts. As they believed he had performed miracles in his life-time, so now they tried to persuade themselves that a greater miracle had been fulfilled in his death—that he had not really died, but had been translated to heaven like Elijah or Enoch and that he would return some day and complete his unfinished work. In those unlettered days belief in the supernatural was very common. Among certain folk it is not so uncommon to-day.
So these believers that Jesus was the Messiah became a new sect calledChristians. What does "Christian" mean? Christ (Christos) is the Greek for Messiah. So the name Christians meant Messians, and the name Jesus Christ means Jesus the Messiah. Though Jesus himselfdid not speak Greek, but Aramaic, the Christian Scriptures were written in Greek.
The Jewish Christians continued to live much as the Essenes before them, like them assuming voluntary poverty and faithful as of old to the Jewish Law. But in later years when many pagans joined this sect, they introduced into it many idolatrous notions, borrowed from the cults of Greece, Rome and Egypt. The man Jesus was exalted into a divinity and worshipped as such. The shedding of his blood at his execution was regarded as a sacrifice intended by God to atone for the sins of mankind, based on the ancient idea that the priest shed the blood of an animal in atoning for the sins of the people; but the Hebrew prophets and some of the psalmists had all condemned animal sacrifice as a means of atonement. This belief was a stage of religion beyond which the Jews were advancing. It died out altogether before the century was over—just when it was being revived in this way by Christians.
The next step which separated the Jews from the Christians was the depreciation and ultimately the abrogation of the Jewish Law. This was brought about by a later teacher, Paul, at first opposed to Christians, but later their most eloquent advocate. This abandonment of the Law, ultimately conceded by the early Messians, who had so far still clung to it, severed their relationship with the parent faith. Thus Paul made Christianity a new religion for the heathen world.
The process by which this Jewish sect became a new religion, most of whose adherents came from the heathen world, was slow and gradual. We shall refer to the different steps in the development of this Faith as theyoccur, and we shall see how this sect, born in Judaism, became its antagonist and persecutor in later days.
In recasting his life from the meagre data at hand his biographers ascribed to him all of the miracles told of Elijah and Elisha—feeding the multitude with a few loaves, curing the sick, reviving the dead and being transported to heaven.
He taught nothing heretical or startlingly new; he preferred to emphasize the old. The phrases of "the Lord's Prayer" are biblical; the Beatitudes (a group of Blessings in the New Testament) are rabbinic; his communistic views, those of the Essene school.
The chief source of his teachings was theDidache, i.e., a summary of the Faith used by the Synagogue for proselytes. It contained theShemafollowed by "Thou shalt love the Lord God, etc.;" love thy neighbor as thyself—Hillel's Golden Rule; the Ten Commandments; a disquisition on "the two ways"—right and wrong.
He followed the rabbis in teaching largely byMashal—parable. Even the form "Ye have heard, etc., but I will go further yet, etc.," is rabbinic.
The reasons why the death of Jesus should not be attributed to the Jews, may be summarized as follows. (SeeJewish Encyclopedia, vol. iv.)
Crucifixion was not a Jewish, but a Roman method of capital punishment. Prior to the open rebellion against Rome, 30-66C. E., many Jews were crucified as rebels, and on very meagre evidence. A Messiah in its eyes was a rebel; the inscription placed on the cross was "King of the Jews."
"The mode and manner of Jesus' death undoubtedlypoint to Roman custom and law as the directive power," though Jews may have administered a soothing cup to lessen the suffering.
None of the well established measures of precaution were taken that always preceded a Jewish execution. It is very doubtful whether Jewish law would tolerate a three-fold execution at one time.
A Jewish execution on Friday is almost impossible. If Jesus died on Nissan 14, the execution on the eve of a festival would be irregular. If on Nissan 15 (Passover), the execution could not be held. There is no corroboration of the custom to liberate a condemned person on account of a holiday.
ReadAs Others Saw Him, Joseph Jacobs; Macmillan.Jesus of Nazareth, Schlesinger. Albany.Cradle of the Christ, Frothingham.The Religious Teaching of Jesus, C. G. Montefiore, Macmillan, 1910.
ReadAs Others Saw Him, Joseph Jacobs; Macmillan.
Jesus of Nazareth, Schlesinger. Albany.
Cradle of the Christ, Frothingham.
The Religious Teaching of Jesus, C. G. Montefiore, Macmillan, 1910.
Matthew, Mark and Luke are called Synoptic Gospels as distinct from the Gospel of John, a later and more doctrinal work.
Why cannot Jesus be accepted by the Synagogue to-day?
Before resuming the story of Judea under the procurators, let us take another survey of Jews and Judaism in lands outside of Palestine. The voluntary dispersion still went on. The Jews were now scattered over all the Roman Empire, which included Asiatic and European lands from Syria to Spain. We also find our ancestors, at the beginning of the Christian era, in Arabia and in Parthia, an Asiatic kingdom south of the Caspian Sea. But, however widely scattered, religion was the bond of union and Jerusalem the spiritual centre. From distant lands many would from time to time make pilgrimages to the Temple.
The attitude of the heathen world was on the whole not unfriendly to the Jews. They were disliked for their rejection of the heathen gods, for their aloofness, their stern morality, their sobriety, and their material success; while their exclusiveness—partly but not wholly justifiable—led to the erroneous supposition that they were hostile to mankind. But the Jews of the Diaspora were less exclusive and more tolerant than those of Judea. This was particularly true of Alexandria, capital of Egypt, now part of the Roman Empire. There had existed here—apart from occasional outbursts of racial antagonism among the populace, a cordial interchange of ideas in which the Jews met the Greeks more than half way. (chaps. ii and vi.)
The Jews admired the culture of the educated Greeks and felt drawn toward the lofty philosophy of Plato, thenearest Greek approach to the monotheism and morality of the Hebrews. The broadening effect of this infusion of Greek thought, gave to Judaism in Alexandria a distinct character, and it came to be known as Hellenistic Judaism, and its espousers, Hellenistic Jews. We have used the term Hellenist in an earlier chapter, in a bad sense as descriptive of Jews who yielded to those Greek influences that were pagan, to the detriment of Judaism. Here we apply the term in a good sense to those who were open to Greek influences that were intellectual, to the advantage of Judaism. We have already marked the effect of Greek thought in some of the Apocryphal writings, particularly in the "Wisdom of Solomon." Appreciating the metaphysics of the Greek philosophers, the Jewish Hellenists were anxious to bring home to the Greeks and to others the spiritual and moral truths of Judaism.
But how to present the revelation of the Law and of the Prophets in a manner that would most appeal to the Greeks? In their fervor to make proselytes to the Law of Moses, they resorted to a strange expedient. There existed among the Greeks women-seers called Sibyls, who were supposed to foretell in mysterious oracles the destinies of nations. So some Jewish writers cast the Bible teachings of God and morality in the literary form of Sibylline oracles. Like the Bible prophets, these Jewish Sibylline writers, warned those who followed false views and bad lives, and promised salvation to those who accepted the law of the God of Israel. They popularized the teachings of the Mosaic law and so generalized it as to present it as a religion formankind. These writings exerted a salutary influence on many followers of Greek thought.
The Hellenists went so far as to try to prove from Jewish Scriptures many of the loftier ideas of Greek philosophy. In this way Judaism was represented as anticipating the highest knowledge of the time. In their enthusiasm, this reconciliation of Judaism and Greek philosophy was occasionally carried further than conditions quite warranted. The attempt was also made to explain every biblical law allegorically, as though it was intended to convey ideas other than those that appeared on the surface. Thus they read Greek philosophy into the Bible. The habit of reading the science of the day into the old Bible books still prevails. This poetic explaining away of many injunctions of Scripture led in some instances to their actual neglect. This was the dangerous extreme.
The assumption that Jews discourage proselytes has been refuted in chaps. xii and xiv. It is certainly not true of the Alexandrian Jews who were most zealous in their missionary efforts. They not only felt that it was the mission of the Jew to carry his message to the world; they did it. The translation of their Scriptures into Greek, the presentation of the message of their faith in the form of Sibylline oracles, and the allegorizing away of many of their ceremonials were all employed for the bringing of Judaism to the Gentile. So successful were their efforts, that just when the Jewish state was dying, many heathens were seeking this Faith of their own accord, attracted by its ethics and repelled by heathen uncleanliness. Philo says that the adoption of Judaism by many heathens immediately resulted in a marked moral improvement in their lives. The numberof female proselytes in Damascus, Asia Minor, Egypt and Rome steadily grew. Pagan writers remark it. Josephus writes:—"There is not any city of the Greeks or of the barbarians ... to which our custom of resting on the seventh day has not been introduced and where our fasts and dietary laws are not observed." He adds further how enthusiastically these converts fulfilled all Jewish rites. A zealous Jewish missionary converted Helen, the queen of Adiabene, a province on the Tigris, and all her family. She made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, sent valuable gifts to the Temple, and helped the people in the time of famine.
So, although Judaism was a religion that imposed on its followers severe restraints and, although the Jews were a very small people, whom some heathens despised, still, many knocked at its doors to be admitted into the fold, even for fifty years after its Temple was destroyed and its nationality overthrown—tragedies which we shall presently have to tell. Yes, many of the very people that overthrew it—the Romans—accepted the Jewish faith. The Emperor Domitian made severe laws against proselytes to Judaism, in order to discourage the practice. Indeed, a cousin of the emperor, who was also a senator and consul, together with his wife, accepted Judaism.
But ultimately the stream of converts was diverted to the new creed, born of Judaism, Christianity—more particularly as in its second stage it sent its missionaries to the heathen world proclaiming that acceptance of Jesus as savior and divinity would bring them salvation without conforming to the burdensome Jewish Law. Furthermore it became a doctrine of the new religion that the death of Jesus abrogated the Law. Thus, salvationmade easy, brought thousands to the fold. The Jewish missionaries had really simplified the task for the Christian missionaries who followed later. They prepared the soil.
This is looking a little further ahead to events yet to be related. By that time the followers of the two religions had become people of two different races: Judaism followed almost exclusively by Jews who were Semites; Christianity by Aryans, Greeks, Romans and other Europeans. This racial distinction became the final barrier which completely separated them.
Not all Semites are Jews, for example the Arabians; nor are all Aryans Christians p. e. the Persians. Religious and racial lines are no longer identical.
Why did most heathen converts to Judaism ultimately become Christian?
We are now ready to consider one to whom frequent reference has been made—the greatest of the Alexandrian Jewish missionary philosophers, styled the "noblest Judean of his age"—Philo-Judeus. He was born in Alexandria of good family, about 15C. E., just when Herod was ruling and Hillel was teaching in Jerusalem. His brother, Alexander, was given the influential post of farmer of taxes. Both received the best education the times afforded in literature, music, mathematics and natural science. Philo early showed a taste for literature in general, and philosophy in particular. His circumstances enabled him to devote himself to a literary life, for which he was peculiarly gifted. He showed his warm interest in the cause of his people in his journey to Rome as one of the ambassadors to plead before the mad Emperor Caligula (to be told in the next chapter). Of this whole incident he himself gives a graphic account in his chronicles of the Jewish events of his time.
A many-sided genius, he was the best exponent of that Hellenistic school that sought to harmonize the revealed religion of the Torah with the conclusions of Greek philosophy. He was thoroughly versed in both. His works, as those of all this school, were written in Greek. While the form may be that of Plato, the spirit is that of the prophets. In his commentary on Scripture,following the allegorical method already referred to, he treats all the incidents in Genesis, for example, as symbolic of human development and moral truths underlying the historic facts on the surface. He did not, however, go to the extreme of neglecting Jewish observance on the strength of metaphoric interpretation. Indeed, he even rebuked those who did. He writes "just as we must be careful of the body as the house of the soul, so must we give heed to the letter of the written laws. For only when these are faithfully observed, will the inner meaning of which they are the symbols become more clearly realized."
But he warningly adds "If a man practice ablutions and purifications, but defiles his mind while he cleanses his body ... let him none the more be called religious."
In his interpretation of the Mosaic Law in the Pentateuch, he has the education of the heathen chiefly in mind. He reveals the harmony of its precepts with the laws of nature. He groups all duties under the Ten Commandments. He points out with enthusiasm the humanity of the Law, and completely refutes slanders against Judaism by citing examples of its purity, breadth and philanthropy, such as the Sabbatic year and the jubilee to eliminate poverty, the freeing of slaves, the boon of the Sabbath for the servant, the social equality in the festival rules, the restraints of the dietary laws, the tenderness and consideration for all human needs in the code of Deuteronomy. His contrasts are the severest condemnation of Greek and Roman morals.
In his philosophy he again applies the allegorical method to the Pentateuch. In this field ofMidrash(homiletic exposition) he may have influenced the later rabbis of the Talmud, even though rejected by them. He attempts to show that the lofty ideas found in the Platonic, Stoic and Neo-pythagorean philosophies were already taught in the Jewish Scripture. From Moses, the greatest teacher of mankind, the Greek philosophers derived their wisdom. From Mosaic Law comes the highest and truest religious revelation. Thus he endeavored to win Jews to an appreciation of Greek literature, and Greeks to an appreciation of Jewish Scripture.
Philo is the first Jew to present a complete system of philosophy, yet he weaves it out of the Bible. Just a word about it. It is hard to treat the philosophy of any one writer separately, for it is usually linked with a whole chain of theories of earlier schools. A deep believer in the spiritual God of his fathers, it was one of the aims of his life to attain fuller knowledge of Him. While in his treatment of the divine idea he shows the influence of the Greek philosopher Plato, yet as Jew he brings to the philosophic abstraction the religious warmth of a believer in the living God.
God alone is perfect, unchangeable, devoid of all qualities and indefinable. Absolutely perfect, He cannot come in contact with matter, which is defiling. How does Philo bridge the gap from the spiritual God to the material world? God acts on the world indirectly through intermediary causes or powers, which He first created.
These intervening powers he at times calls angels and at times ideas. He uses a Greek wordlogosmeaningReason. Whence comes thislogoswhich we are to think of partly as a spirit and again as a thought? It is a product; or as he expresses it in a Greek idiom, achildof divine intelligence. By means of thislogos, the perfect spiritual divinity creates the world.
This sounds unfamiliar, but the eighth chapter of Proverbs and some of the books of the Apocrypha speak of Wisdom as though it were a kind of being and that with it God laid the world's foundation. Of course, this is only figurative. But later the fathers of the Church put a new and startling construction upon Philo's Logos and read into it a literalness he never intended. They changed thelogosinto an actual human being. Unlike Philo they did not call it a child of divine intelligence in the Greek idiomatic sense, but a "son of God" in an actual and physical sense. It was then but a step for the Church to declare that Jesus, its Messiah, was theLogos! He was therefore a species of divinity too. It was not till Christianity's second stage that Jesus of Nazareth was in this way raised from a real man into an imaginary divinity. Thus the link with Judaism was broken in the rejection of its fundamental principle of monotheism—the belief in one indivisible God.
Philo is, of course, only unconsciously the cause of this doctrinal change, for he did not come in contact with the new sect of Christians and never mentions it, and this idea developed after his day. In fact, the divinity of Jesus had already been adopted, and Philo's writings were later construed to fit it.
A word on his ethics. Evil is a necessary consequence of our free will. Without it there could not be thecontrast of good. Evil is associated with the body which he depicts as the opponent of the soul. The soul emanates from God like thelogos, but attracted by sensuous matter it descends into mortal bodies. This earthly body then is the cause of evil. But Philo was too wise to infer from that the duty of asceticism. He did not teach that man must suppress his desires and passions and earthly longings, but that he should suppress them. For this, man needs the help of God. The wise and virtuous are uplifted out of themselves to a closer knowledge of God, and God's spirit dwells in them. This is highest happiness. While we cannot quite accept his theories, his conclusions ring true with all the inspiring elements of lofty religion.
The Greeklogosalso means Word. Just as Proverbs personifies wisdom, so the Targum (Aramaic translation of the Bible) identifies the "word of God" with the divine presence. Here again the Christian mystic goes a step further and changes a metaphor into a fact. "The Word of God became flesh; Jesus is that Word!" (Gospel of St John.)
In his popular but exhaustive work onPhilo-Judaeus, (J. P. S. A. 1910) Norman Bentwich writes:
"It is idle to try and formulate a single definite notion of Philo's Logos. For it is the expression of God in His multiple and manifold activity, the instrument of creation, the seat of ideas, the world of thought, which God first established as the model of the visible universe, the guiding providence, the sower of virtue, the fount of wisdom, described sometimes in religious ecstacy, sometimes in philosophical metaphysics sometimes in the spirit of the mystical poet."
"It is idle to try and formulate a single definite notion of Philo's Logos. For it is the expression of God in His multiple and manifold activity, the instrument of creation, the seat of ideas, the world of thought, which God first established as the model of the visible universe, the guiding providence, the sower of virtue, the fount of wisdom, described sometimes in religious ecstacy, sometimes in philosophical metaphysics sometimes in the spirit of the mystical poet."
Philo represents an important type, then new—a Jew loyal to his faith when living in a non-Jewish atmosphere. Not all so nobly withstood these surrounding allurements. His own brother drifted from the fold. Philo wrote for indifferent Jews as well as for pagan Greeks.
According to Montefiore, the Greek, according to Bentwich, the Hebrew note in Philo, is the more pronounced.
Philo brings out the following contrast. The Greeks were bidden not to refuse fire and water to those who needed it, but Judaism bids its followers to give to the poor and weak all that life requires.
For examples of Philo's teaching read "Florilegium Philonis," by Montefiore,Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. vii; in the same volume, "Philo Concerning the Contemplative Life," Conybeare; and in Vol. v, "Latest Researches on Philo," Cohn.
Why did rabbinic Judaism neglect Philo?
In taking up again the thread of Judea's story, let its relation to the Roman State be clearly understood. It was under the immediate supervision of the procurator. He in turn was subject to the higher power of the governor of Syria. Both were answerable to the supreme authority—the emperor at Rome. Though the Syrian governors came little in contract with Judea, at times their intervention was important. We may instance Vitellius, who deserves passing mention in Jewish history. In contrast with the behavior of Pilate the procurator, was his consideration shown for Jewish sensibilities by this Syrian governor. "He was the noblest Roman of them all." He exhibited an uncommon forbearance by remitting some burdensome taxes; he sympathetically inquired into the needs of the people and removed from the High Priesthood the unworthy Caiaphas in whose time Jesus of Nazareth was executed. He also ordered Pilate to Rome to answer for his misgovernment.
As to the emperors: Some of these gave no thought to the Jews apart from appointing their procurators. With others the Jews came in clashing contact. Such was the case with Caligula who donned the purple in 37. This demented man believed himself to be a divinity, so that obeisance to his image was not merely an act of allegiance, but of worship. The consequences of this sacrilegious command to worship him was the first felt by the Jews of Alexandria;for the Ptolemaic and the Seleucid empires were both Roman now. An actual persecution here took place in which the Jews were besieged in their own quarter, the Delta. Their refusal to obey the emperor's childish demand gave excuse to their tormentors to attack them under the guise of patriotism. Patriotism may be the mantle for so many sins. Synagogues were defiled and many persons were slain. Philo, now advanced in years, led a deputation to Rome, to intercede for his brethren. He made an eloquent plea, assuring the emperor of Jewish loyalty. "They sacrifice for you daily an offering in the Temple." "Forme," sneered Caligula, "nottome." The deputation suffered many indignities and returned dispirited.
AgrippaCoin of AgrippaI. 37-44C. E.
Coin of AgrippaI. 37-44C. E.
Coin of AgrippaI. 37-44C. E.
To Judea likewise came the same blasphemous demand with the threat of similar punishment. At last the mad monarch ordered his image to be set up in the Temple and entrusted the task to the Syrian governor, Petronius, a man of the stamp of Vitellius. He did his best to delay the wanton edict at the risk of the emperor's displeasure. At last yielding to the agonized entreaty of the people he imperilled his life by asking the emperor to revoke the order. Agrippa, a Jewish favorite of Caligula, succeeded in persuading the emperor to renounce the abortive project. Soon, however, he repented and determined on its execution. But relief came toAlexandria and Judea at one stroke—the emperor was murdered in 41.
The next emperor, Claudius, restored to the Alexandrian Jews all the privileges that had been taken from them during the rule of his predecessor, and their rights were more firmly established than before. Religious freedom was now granted to the Jews throughout the whole Roman empire. But best of all, he stopped the regime of the procurators by appointing as king of Judea, one of their own brethren—Agrippa.
Agrippa was the grandson of Herod the Great and Mariamne, thus having both Idumean and Hasmonean blood in his veins. As a child he was sent for his education to Rome. The influences of Rome were not healthy. They made the lad luxurious and extravagant. Loaded with debts he returned to Judea and was assisted by his uncle and brother-in-law, Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee. After varied fortunes he came again to Rome, befriended by Philo's brother Alexander. Tiberius, emperor at that time, received him favorably and gave him charge of his grandson. But still his extravagant habits continued, and an incautious word sent him to prison, where he remained till the emperor died in 37.
The next emperor, Caligula, who was mad enough to think himself a divinity, was also sane enough to make Agrippa his friend and even to be dissuaded by him from putting his statue in the Temple. Agrippa's fortunes began now to rise. On the death of tetrarch Philip and on the deposition of tetrarch Antipas, their Palestinian provinces were bestowed on him (see p. 117). He was honored with the titles of King and Praetor, and his iron chain was exchanged for one of gold. So, like Joseph, hewas transferred from a prison to a throne. At Caligula's death he assisted Claudius in obtaining the imperial crown. In grateful recognition, Judea, Samaria and Idumea were added to Agrippa's dominions. And thus it happened that Judea had a king again.
His kingdom, uniting the various tetrarchies of Herod's three sons, was now even vaster in area than that of his grandfather, Herod. But he was a very different type of man. In spite of his Roman associations, he possessed strong Jewish sentiment and decided to become the father instead of the tyrant of his people.
The wild habits of his youth he laid aside and he hung up in the Temple the golden chain that replaced his prison fetters, as a mark of thankfulness and humility. His rule was a golden age for Judea—all too brief. Though partly of alien blood, the Pharisees said on one occasion, "Thou art our brother, Agrippa." He was amiable, benevolent, grateful and showed a forgiving disposition. His magnanimity changed opponents into friends.
He entered with hearty enthusiasm into all the ceremonial of Judaism. The Mishna, explained in chap. xxxi, speaks of him in high praise, and tells how he carried the first fruit offering to the Temple with his own hand. He looked after the interests of Jews and Judaism at home and abroad. Through his representation, some statues that had been wantonly put in a Phoenician synagogue were removed. Still, outside of Judea he permitted the amphitheatre with gladiatorial combats, and bestowed gifts upon many Grecian cities and upon some heathen towns of Palestine.
The Sanhedrin was invested by him with new power and dignity, and under the wise presidency of Rabbi Gamaliel,hazaken(the elder), a descendant of Hillel many liberal laws were made. Gamaliel showed the same consideration to heathen as to Jewish poor. He was so esteemed that the saying arose, "When Rabbi Gamaliel died, the glory of the Torah passed away." One of his teachings ran: "Procure thyself an instructor; avoid the possibility of doubt; and do not tithe by conjecture."
Agrippa would fain have furthered the hopes of Israel in making them more independent of Rome, but he was watched by envious eyes. A conference of local vassal kings, called by him, was broken up by the suspicious Syrian governor. He wished to strengthen Judea's fortifications, but again the Syrian governor induced the emperor to stop the work. In fact, many jealous Romans feared that a longer continuance of his kingdom might develop into a menace against Rome. So the assassin's knife was called into play! Suddenly at a moment of triumphal glory, he was stricken down at the early age of forty-five. The kindly disposed emperor would have given the kingdom to his son, but he was dissuaded by his counselors. The old regime of the hated procurators was restored once more.
It is true this son, called Agrippa II. was given a small dominion, but with little independent power. He was also entrusted with the superintendence of the Temple which he did not always exercise wisely. Hewas well-disposed to the Jews, and even used his influence at court to intercede in their favor; but he felt akin with them far less than had his father. He imported wood for the Temple use and employed the discharged workmen of the finished Herodian Temple to pave the city with marble. At first, he did all he could in his impotent way to prevent hostilities between Rome and Judea, but his training had been Roman and his spirit was pagan. He moved on the line of least resistance—that meant his ultimate drifting toward victorious Rome. His was a weak nature entirely under the control of his sister Berenice. She became later a favorite of the Roman emperor Titus, who played so large a part in Judea's last days.
Agrippa II. continued to hold his petty kingdom for some time after Judea had fallen, and lived to read Josephus' history about it. He was the Agrippa before whom Paul appeared, and to whom he indolently said, "With little wouldst thou win me over to be a Christian."
Paul also appeared before a later procurator, Felix.
If Agrippa had lived and reigned as long as Herod—?