CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF 32 YEARS. [From the banishment of Archelaus to the departure of the Jews from Babylon.] CHAP. I. How Cyrenius was sent by Caesar to make a taxation of Syria and Judea; and how Coponius was sent to be procurator of Judea: concerning Judas of Galilee, and concerning the sects that were among the Jews. 1. Now Cyrenius, a Roman senator, and one who had gone through other magistracies, and had passed through them till he had been consul, and one who, on other accounts, was of great dignity, came at this time into Syria, with a few others, being sent by Caesar to be a judge of that nation, and to take an account of their substance; Coponius also, a man of the equestrian order, was sent together with him, to have the supreme power over the Jews. Moreover, Cyrenius came himself into Judea, which was now added to the province of Syria, to take an account of their substance, and to dispose of Archelaus's money; but the Jews, although at the beginning they took the report of a taxation heniously, yet did they leave off any farther opposition to it, by the persuasion of Joazar, who was the son of Boethus, and high-priest; so they being overpersuaded by Joazar's words, gave an account of their estates, without any dispute about it. Yet was there one Judas, * a Gaulonite, *Since St. Luke once, Acts, v. 37. and Josephus four several times, once here, i 6. and B. xx. ch. v. § 2. Of the War, B. iii ch. viii. § 1. and ch. xvii. 8. calls this Judas, who was the pestilent author of that seditious doctrine and temper which brought the Jewish nation to utter destruction, a Galilean, but here, § 1. Josephus calls him a Gaulonite, of the city of Gamala. It is a great question where this Judas was born whether in Galilee, on the west side, or in Gaulonitis, on the east side of the river Jordan; while, in the place jest now cited out, of the Antiquities, B. xx. ch. v. 2. he is not only called a Galilean, but it is added to h's story, as I have signified in the books that go before these, as if he had still called hi a Galilean in those Antiquities before, as well as in that particular place, as Dean Aldrich observes, On the War, B. ii. ch. viii. 1. Nor can one well of a city whose name was Gamala, who taking with him Saddouk, * a Pharisee, became zealous to draw them to a revolt, who both said that this taxation was no better than an introduction to slavery, and exhorted the nation to assert their liberty; as if they could procure them happiness and security for what they possessed, and an assured enjoyment of a still greater good, which was that of the honour and glory they would thereby acquire for magnanimity. They also said, that God would not otherwise be assisting to them than upon their joining with one another in such counsels as might be successful, and for their own advantage; and this especially if they would set about great exploits, and not grow weary in executing the same: so men received what they said with pleasure, and this bold attempt proceeded to a great height. All sorts of misfortunes also sprang from those men, and the nation was infected with this doctrine to an incredible degree; one violent war came upon us after another, and we lost those friends who used to alleviate our pains; there were also very great robberies and murders of our principal men. This was done in pretence indeed for the public welfare, but in reality, from the hopes of gain to themselves; whence arose seditions, and from them murders of men, which sometimes fell on those of their own people, (by the madness of these men towards one another, while their desire was, that none of the adverse party might be left,) and sometimes on their enemies; a famine also coming upon us, reduced us to the last degree of despair, as did also the taking and demolishing of cities; nay, the sedition at last increased so high, that the very temple of God imagine why he should here call him a Gaulonite, when in the 6th section following here, as well as twice Of the War he still calls him a Galilean. As for the city of Gamala, whence this Judas was derived, it determines nothing, since there were two of that name, the one in Gaulonitis, the other in Galilee. See Reland on the city or town of that name. * It seems not very improbable to me, that this Sadduc, the Pharisee, was the very same man of whom the Rabbins speak, as the unhappy but undesigning occasion of the impiety or infidelity of the Sadducees; nor perhaps had the men this name of Sadducees till this very time, though they were a distinct sect long before. See the note on B. xiii. ch. x. § 5. and Dean Prideaux, as there quoted; nor do we that I know of, find the least footsteps of such impiety or infidelity of these Sadducees before this time, the Recognitions assuring us that they began about the days of John the Baptist, B. i. chap. liv. was burnt down by their enemies' fire. Such were the consequences of this, that the customs of our fathers were altered, and such a change was made as added a mighty weight toward bringing all to destruction, which these men occasioned by their thus conspiring together; for Judas and Sadducus,* who excited a fourth Philosophic sect among us, and had a great many followers therein, filled our civil government with tumults at present, and laid the foundations of our future miseries by this system of philosophy, which we were before acquainted withall; concerning which I shall discourse a little, and this the rather, because the infection which spread thence among the younger sort, who were zealous for it, brought the public to destruction. 2. The Jews had for a great while, had three sects of philosophy peculiar to themselves, the sect of the Essens, and the sect of the Sadducees, and the third sort of opinions was that of those called Pharisees; of which sects, although I have already spoken in the second book of the Jewish war, yet will I a little touch upon them now. 3. Now for the Pharisees, they live meanly, and despise delicacies in diet; and they follow the contract of reason; and what that prescribes to them as good for them, they do; and they think they ought earnestly to strive to observe reason's dictates for practice. They also pay a respect to such as are in years; nor are they so bold as to contradict them in any thing which they have introduced; and, when they determine that all things are done by fate, they do not take away the freedom from men of acting as they think fit; since their notion is, that it hath pleased God to make a temperament, whereby what he wills is done, but so that the will of man can act virtuously or viciously. They also believe that souls have an immortal vigour in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to revive and live again on account of which doctrines they are able greatly to persuade the body of the people: and whatsoever they do about divine worship, prayers, and sacrifices, they perform them according to their direction; insomuch that the cities gave great attestations to them on account of their entire * See note, p. 63. virtuous conduct, both in the actions of their lives, and of their discourses also. 4. But the doctrine of the Sadducees is this, that souls die with the bodies; nor do they regard the observation of any thing besides what the law enjoins them; for they think it an instance of virtue to dispute with those teachers of philosophy whom they frequent; but this doctrine is received but by a few, yet by those still of the greatest dignity. But they are able to do almost nothing of themselves; for when they become magistrates, as they are unwillingly and by force sometimes obliged to be, they addict themselves to the notions of the Pharisees, because the multitude would not otherwise bear them. 5. The doctrine of the Essens is this, that all things are best ascribed to God. They teach the immortality of souls, and esteem that rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for; and when they send * what they have dedicated to God unto the temple, they do not offer sacrifices, because they have more pure lustrations of their own; on which account they are excluded from the common court of the temple, but offer their sacrifices themselves; yet is their course of life better than that of other men; and they entirely addict themselves to husbandry. It also deserves our admiration, how much they exceed all other men that addict themselves to virtue, and this in righteousness; and indeed to such a degree, that as it hath never appeared among any other men, neither Greeks nor Barbarians, no, not for a little time, so hath it endured a long while among them. This is demonstrated by that institution of theirs, which will not suffer any thing to hinder them from having all things in common; so that a rich man enjoys no more of his own wealth than he who hath nothing at all. There are about four thousand men that live in this way; and neither marry wives, nor are desirous to keep servants; as thinking the latter tempts men to be unjust, and the former gives the handle to domestic quarrels ; but, as they live by *It seems by what Josephus says here, and Philo himself elsewhere, Op. p. 679, that these Esens did not use to go to the Jewish festivals at Jerusalem, or to offer sacrifices there, which may be one great occasion why they are never mentioned in the ordinary books of the New Testament; though in the Apostolical Constitutions they are mentioned, as those that observed the customs of their forefathers, and that without any such ill character laid upon them as is there laid upon the other sects among that people. themselves, they minister one to another. They also appoint certain stewards to receive the incomes of their revenues, and of the fruits of the ground; such as are good men, and priests, who are to get their corn and their food ready for them. They none of them differ from others of the Essens in their way of living, but do the most resemble those Dacae, who are called Polistae,* [dwellers in cities.] 6. But of the fourth sect of Jewish Philosophy, Judas the Galilean was the author. These men agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions; but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and say, that God is to be their only ruler and lord. They also do not value dying any kinds of death, nor indeed do they heed the deaths of their relations and friends; nor can any such fear make them call any man lord. And, since this immoveable resolution of theirs is well known to a great many, I shall speak no farther about that matter; nor am I afraid that any thing I have said of them should be disbelieved, but rather fear that what I have said is beneath the resolution they show when they undergo pain. And it was in Gestius Florus's time that the nation began to go mad with this distemper, who was our procurator, and who occasioned the Jews to go wild with it by the abuse of his authority, and to make them revolt from the Romans. And these are the sects of Jewish philosophers. How Herod and Philip built several cities in honour of Caesar. Concerning the accusation of priests and procurators; as also what befell Phraates and the Parthians. 1. When Cyrenius had now disposed of Archelaus's money, and when the taxings were come to a conclusion, which were made in the thirty-seventh of Caesar's victory over Antony at Actium, he deprived Joazar of the highpriesthood, which dignity had been conferred on him by the *Who these Пoisas in Josephus, or Krisar in Strabo, among the Pythagoric Dacae were, it is not easy to determine. Scaliger offers no improbable conjecture, that some of the Dacae lived alone, like monks, in tents or caves, but that others of them lived together in built cities, and thence were called by such names as implied the same. |