79. A.D. 25 to 36

A.D. 25 to 36

Chapter III

Timeline View:

1. The important changes in Judea consequent upon its becoming a Roman province, did not extend to the tetrarchies of Herod Antipas and Philippians who governed their territories without the direct intervention of the Romans. The former of these personages is repeatedly mentioned in the gospels by the name of Herod. He sedulously cultivated the favor of the emperor Tiberius, who succeeded Augustus in a.d. 14, and gave his name to the city which he built on the western border of the lake of Gennesareth, from which also the lake itself soon acquired the name of Tiberias.

2. The Roman procurators of Judea were often changed; and, with rare exceptions, every succeeding one was worse, in character and conduct, than his predecessor. The first of them of whom there is anything remarkable to record is Pontius Pilate, whose name the gospels have made familiar to every reader. He came into the province in a.d. 25, and continued in it ten years. His conduct from the first excited the dissatisfaction of the people. He was an impetuous, greedy, sanguinary, and obstinate tyrant, who sold justice, plundered the people, and slew the innocent. Although the abhorrence in which idolatrous images were held by the Jews, was perfectly well known to all the Romans, he persisted in bringing into Jerusalem the images which were on the military ensigns; and by this and other acts of insult and oppression, he raised frequent tumults among even those of the Jewish people who were the most inclined to submit to the Roman government.

Roman Standards

3. But the government of Pilate is made chiefly memorable by the public appearance, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ. His birth has already been mentioned. Of his history, while he remained in private life, that is, until he attained the age of thirty years, little further is known than that he remained with his parents at Nazareth in Galilee, to which town they had returned as soon as the death of Herod rendered it safe for them to leave Egypt. His actual appearance as the expected Messiah, was harbingered by John the Baptist, who had lived in the solitudes of the wilderness, clad in hairy raiment, and subsisting on locusts and wild honey, and came thence to the river Jordan, where, by his preaching of repentance and remission of sins, with his baptism of those who came to him, he attracted great attention. But the interest of his countrymen was increased when he announced that be came but as a forerunner of One whose sandal-thong he was not himself worthy to unloose. This accorded with the expectations then prevalent among the Jewish people, that the time for the coming of the long-desired Messiah, the Deliverer, was very near. This expectation was founded on a calculation of the time mentioned by Daniel the prophet,[*] which calculation still remains as one of the strongest evidences that Jesus of Nazareth was the very Christ of whom Moses and the prophets wrote. The Jews were, however, utterly mistaken in their conception of the character and offices of the expected Messiah. They thought he was to appear as a great and glorious king, claiming his place upon the throne of David, and going forth conquering and to conquer, until Israel not only broke the yoke that fretted her neck, but until she became the head of the nations, and the proudest of her enemies licked the dust beneath her feet. This expectation was one of the circumstances which made the nation so impatient of the Roman yoke.

[*] “Seventy weeks,” meaning weeks of years, or seventy multiplied by seven, being 490 years

4. With such expectations, the Jews as a body, and especially the proud and self-confident Pharisees, were little prepared to recognize the Messiah in that lowly man, whom soon after the Baptist pointed out as “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.” There seems to have been a thick mist over the Jewish mind, which rendered the nation incapable of perceiving or understanding that his mission was indescribably more glorious than that which their worldly minds assigned to him; that he came to ransom mankind from their lost condition; to bring into the fold of God other sheep, which had been straying long on mountains and in wildernesses of ignorance and ungodliness; to bring into the world a hope full of immortality; and to furnish mankind with higher and purer motives, feelings, and principles of action than had yet been known on the earth. This the Jews would not and could not understand, as they liked far better to see in the Messiah a great king and warrior, clad with the visible glory of his father David. Although, therefore, they confessed that no man ever spake as he spoke, that no man ever did such marvellous things as he did; although he raised the dead, healed all manner of diseases, gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, and fed seven thousand with the bread of ten people, yet they refused to receive him as “the Christ of God.” Nay, more, the claims which he advanced were, as coming from him, so opposed to rooted opinions, by which the national pride was flattered; his announcement of the termination of the Mosaical system was so abhorrent to the same feeling; his reproofs of the reigning evils were so unsparing, that he was not only rejected but hated by the teachers and leaders of the people. They spared no pains to accomplish his death; and at length, three years after the commencement of his ministry, at the Passover of the year a.d. 33, they brought him to the scourge, the thorny crown, the transfixing nails, and the cross of a Roman execution.

5. In that act of blood the doom of the Jewish nation was sealed. The rent veil of the Temple indicated the end of the Mosaic dispensation, and the completion of the purposes for which the descendants of Abraham had hitherto been preserved as a nation. The light of Israel went out in that darkness which overspread the land when the dying Savior cried “ It is finished!” But the grave could not retain him. On the third day he rose, and after meeting several times with his followers, discoursing with them and partaking of their food, on the fortieth day he ascended, visibly, up into the heavens from which he came. Soon after, at the feast of Pentecost, he sent down upon his chosen followers that enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, which was needful to qualify them for making known his doctrines to all the world.

6. The Roman governor, Pilate, being the person in whom rested the power of life and death, necessarily took part in the death of Christ. To ensure the conviction of Jesus, the Jews charged him with a political crime, that of sedition. Had the power been with them, they would have stoned him. Pilate, however, saw very plainly that there was no real ground of charge against him, and was reluctant to condemn him. But, on the other hand, he was at that time anxious to gratify the Jewish people, and was fearful of the impressions which the jealous and suspicious Tiberius might receive from their accounts of the transaction. He therefore yielded to their clamor; but, in doing so, vainly sought to clear his own hands from the stain of innocent blood, and to cast it upon their heads. They received it gladly, shouting, “His blood be on us, and on our children!”—and awfully were their words fulfilled. Christ himself, not long before his death, predicted that the existing generation should not pass away before their city and Temple should be destroyed, with fearful sufferings of the people.

7. In the year that Christ was crucified, the tetrarch Philip died; and as he had no sons; his territories were annexed to the Roman province of Syria. As to the surviving tetrarch, Herod Antipas, he put John the Baptist in prison, on account of his public reprobation of a very unseemly act of which he had been guilty. He took Herodias, the wife of his living brother, and married her himself, putting away his former legitimate wife, a daughter of the king of ArabiaPetrea. Herod had no wish or intention to put John to death, but was reluctantly induced to do so in compliance with a foolish vow which the dancing of the daughter of Herodias extracted from him. He afterwards happened to be at Jerusalem when Christ was brought before Pilate, and that person, hearing that the accused belonged to Galilee, sent him to the tetrarch of that district. Herod was glad to see him, having heard much of his preaching and miracles; but, finding that Jesus was not disposed to gratify his curiosity, he treated him with insult, and sent him back to Pilate. This civility between the governor and the tetrarch, at the expense of Jesus, paved the way for making up a misunderstanding which had existed between them.

8. Pilate retained his government some years longer, and continued his oppressions and exactions, among which may be reckoned his attempt to drain the treasury of the Temple, under cover of making it chargeable for the expenses of carrying an aqueduct into Jerusalem. At length, a gross outrage upon the Samaritans, in which a number of innocent people were put to the sword, occasioned such complaints to Vitellius, the governor of Syria, that he ordered Pilate home, to give an account of his conduct to the emperor. Tiberius was dead before he arrived, and his successor, Caligula, banished him to Vienne in Gaul, where he is said to have perished miserably by his own hand.

9. After having sent Pilate home, Vitellius himself went to Jerusalem (although he had been there lately) to allay the ferment which had arisen among the Jews. He was accompanied by Herod, and acted with temper and discretion. He removed the high-priest, appointed Marcellus procurator for the interim, and received the oaths of allegiance to the new emperor.

10. Marcellus was soon superseded as procurator Marullas, who was sent out by Caligula.

Royal Escort