00.3-Introduction � Section 2
Introduction – Section 2 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JERUSALEM IMMEDIATELY BEFORE BESIEGED BY THE ROMANS The account of the destruction of Jerusalem will he better understood if the reader have before him a brief history of its condition immediately before it was attacked by the Romans. About Sixty-three or four years before the birth of Christ a contest arose between two brothers, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus,about the succession of the crown. Both parties applied for assistance to the Romans, who had conquered the adjacent countries. Scaurus, the Roman general, being bribed by Aristobulus, placed him upon the throne. Not long after, Pompey, then chief general of the Roman army, returned from the east to Syria, and both the brothers applied to him for protection, and pleaded their cause before him. Pompey considered this a favorable time for reducing Palestine under the power of the Romans. Without, therefore, deciding the points in dispute between the brothers, he marched his army into Judea, and besieged and took possession of Jerusalem. He appointed Hyrcanus high priest, but would not allow him to take the title of king. He, however, gave him the title of prince, with very limited authority.
Pompey did not take away the holy utensils or treasures of the temple, but he made Judea subject and tributary to the Romans. About nine years after this Crassus plundered the temple of every thing valuable belonging to it. Julius Caesar afterward confirmed Hyrcanus in his office, and granted additional privileges to the Jews; but about four years after his death, Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, assisted by the Parthians, and while Rome was in an unsettled state, deposed his uncle Hyrcanus, seized the government, and assumed the title of king.
Herod, by birth an Idumean, whose father, Antipater, as well as himself, had occupied posts of honor and trust under Hyrcanus, immediately set out for Rome, and prevailed upon the senate to appoint him king of Judea. Armed with this authority, he returned and began hostilities against Antigonus. In about three years he took Jerusalem, and put an end to the government of the Maccabees, or Hasmonians, which had continued about a hundred and thirty years. He sent Antigonus a prisoner to Rome, where he was put to death. Herod married Mariamne, who lived to be the only remaining member of the Maccabee family, and was finally put to death by his order.
He enlarged the kingdom of Judea, though he continued it tributary to the Romans. He also adorned and enriched the temple. But he abridged the civil power of high priesthood, and changed it from being hereditary and for life to an office granted and held at the pleasure of the monarch; and this sacred office was now often given to those who bid the highest for it, without any regard to merit. Herod oppressed and persecuted the Jews, whom he feared and hated, and they in return both feared and hated him. He was an inexorable tyrant even to his own children, three of whom he caused to be murdered. At this time there was a general expectation of the appearance of the Messiah among the Jews, and from the prophecies which had been spread among the surrounding heathens an idea prevailed among them that some extraordinary conqueror or deliverer would soon appear in Judea. In the thirty-sixth year of Herod’s reign, and while Augustus was emperor at Rome, the Savior of the world was born in Bethlehem, according to the word of prophecy. Herod, misled by the opinion prevalent among the Jews, that the Messiah was to be a military prince, and judging from the inquiries of the “wise men,” who came from the east in quest of him, that he was already born, he sent to Bethlehem and slew the children under two years old. Thus he hoped he had destroyed one whom he considered as the rival of himself and family.
He was soon after smitten with a most loathsome and tormenting disease, and died a signal example of divine justice about a year and a quarter after the birth of the Savior, who, by the direction of an angel, had been carried to Egypt before the slaughter of the children took place. Herod made his will not long before, dividing the kingdom among his three sons, Archilaus, Herod Antipas, and Herod Philip. This will was ratified by the emperor Augustus in its most material points.
Archilaus, who had retained the government of Judea, was a cruel tyrant, and after reigning ten years, upon a complaint of the Jews, was banished by Augustus to Vienne, in Gaul, where he died. After Augustus sent Publius Sulpitius Quirinus, who, according to the Greek way of writing that name, is called by St. Luke Cyrenius, to reduce the countries over which Archelaus had reigned to the form of a Roman province, Judea was made subordinate to the president of Syria, with Coponius, a Roman, for its governor, bearing the title of procurator. The power of life and death was now taken out of the hands of the Jews, and taxes from this time paid, not as before, to a prince of their own, but immediately to the Roman emperor. Justice was administered in the name and by the laws of Rome. Still, in what concerned their religion, their own laws, and the power of the high priest and Sanhedrin, or great council, were continued to them. Thus “the scepter” finally and for ever “departed from Judah” at the very time Jacob had foretold—the time when “Shiloh,” the Savior, “came.”
After Coponius, Ambivius Annius, Rufus Valerius, Gratus, and Pontius Pilate were successively procurators of Judea. This was the species of government to which Judea and Samaria were subject during the ministry of our Savior. Herod Antipas was still tetrarch of Galilee, and it was to him that Pilate sent our Savior. Some time after the removal of Pontius Pilate, Judea, and finally nearly all the countries, formerly governed hy Herod the Great, were given to Herod Agrippa, grandson of the former. Herod Agrippa is the same who put to death James, the brother of John, and imprisoned Peter. He died and left a son seventeen years old, called also Agrippa, but the Roman emperor, thinking him too young to govern his father’s extensive dominions, made Cuspus Fadus governor of Judea.
Fadus was soon succeeded by Tiberias, and he was followed by Alexander Cumanus, Felix, and Festus. But Claudius afterward conferred Trachonitus and Abilene, to which a part of Galilee was added, upon young Agrippa. This was the Agrippa before whom Paul afterward spoke at Caesarea. Several of the Roman governors severely oppressed and persecuted the Jews, and at length Florus, obtaining the government, excelled all his predecessors in his tyranny and insults. The Jews in the meantime had become a nation of desperadoes. Jerusalem, the seat of their religion, and the place of their once solemn festivals, was filled with mobs, turbulence, and violence. Their once grave and dignified Sanhedrin, or great national council, now resembled the mob parliament of France in the time of the French revolution, where decency and order gave place to violence and tumult. They had imbrued their hands in the blood of the Savior; murdered Stephen without even so much as a mock trial, and, like infuriate fiends, seized every opportunity to butcher the followers of the Messiah. Thus the governor and the people were equally wicked.
Florus, indeed, became a public robber, and used his office and power for rapine and plunder. He not only oppressed the people with illegal and enormous taxes, but united with the desperadoes of the land, selling to all sorts of criminals their freedom, if they had but money or friends to purchase it. He thought it but a petty offence, indeed, says Josephus, to get money out of single persons, so he spoiled whole cities and ruined entire bodies of men at once, and did almost publicly proclaim all over the country that they had liberty given them to turn robbers, upon condition that they allowed him a share of the spoils. His enormities finally became so public, and so great, that, beginning to fear the Romans would punish him for his crimes, he determined to force the Jews into a rebellion to conceal his villainies. An opportunity soon offered. The Jews at Caesarea had a synagogue built upon land belonging to a Greek. They had frequently endeavored to purchase the land, but the Greek not only refused to sell it, but continued to raise other buildings, such as mechanics’ shops, around the place. These left them so narrow an entrance that it was difficult to approach their place of worship. The Jews then gave to Florus a bribe of eight talents, for which he promised to put a stop to the erection of the buildings. But after getting the money, he left Caesarea, and allowed the work to go on. On the following Sabbath, as the Jews were repairing to their place of worship, a man of Caesarea took at earthen vessel, and setting it near the entrance of the synagogue, sacrificed some birds upon it This was the ceremony performed at the cleansing of leprous persons (see Leviticus, chap. xiv) and intended to reproach the Jews, as though they were polluted with that loathsome disease. It was also an insult to their worship, and polluted their sanctuary. Being exceedingly enraged, the Jews and the populace of Caesarea came to blows, and the former, taking away their copies of the laws retired to a place belonging to them, called Narbata. They also sent a complaint to Florus, who, instead of giving them any redress, seized the messengers and put them in prison. The Jews at Jerusalem felt themselves as deeply injured by the insult offered to their religion as those of Caesarea; but they kept quiet until Florus, determined to force the nation into a rebellion, sent and took seventeen talents from the temple, under pretense that they were wanted by Caesar. This so exasperated the people that they ran together to the temple in a tumultuous manner, calling on Caesar by name to deliver them from the tyranny of Florus. To ridicule him, some of them took baskets and went about the streets begging small sums of money for him, as one who needed charity. Florus, instead of going to Caesarea to quell the disturbance there, immediately marched an army of horse and foot to Jerusalem. Here he committed a variety of flagrant acts, and finally ordered his soldiers to plunder the upper market place, and slay such as they should find. The soldiers slew and plundered, and Florus scourged and crucified, so that there were slain, men, women and children, about three thousand six hundred.
Bernice, the sister of Agrippa, being at this time in Jerusalem, besought Florus to spare the Jews; but she only endangered her own life by her interference. Agrippa came also to Jerusalem about this time, and endeavored to persuade the people to submit to Florus until Caesar should learn the state of affairs, and appoint another governor in his place. But Florus had so exasperated them, that Agrippa found himself unable to succeed He also learned that the Jews had neglected to pay the annual tribute exacted by the Romans, and therefore retired into his own kingdom. The flames of war were now fast kindling, and the leaders of the sedition began in earnest to prepare for it. In the following chapters I shall give some of the predictions concerning the destruction of the devoted city Jerusalem, and abridge the history of Josephus to show their fulfilment.