PHARISEES.

Jews, who valued themselves highly upon the exact skill they had in the law of their fathers, and made men believe they were highly favoured by God. These are those that are called the sect of the Pharisees, who were in a capacity of greatly opposing kings. A cunning sect they were, and soon elevated to a pitch of open fighting and doing mischief. Accordingly, when all the people of the Jews gave assurance of their good-will to Cæsar, and to the king's government, these very men did not swear, being above six thousand; and when the king imposed a fine upon them, Pheroras's wife paid their fine for them. In order to requite which kindness of hers, since they were believed to have the foreknowledge of things to come by divine inspiration, they foretold how God had decreed that Herod's government should cease, and his posterity should be deprived of it; but that the kingdom should come to her and Fheroras.'

SADDUCEES.

34. Gamaliel.-A celebrated Jewish doctor, grandson of the famous Hillel,' and instructor of St. Paul. 'His learning was so eminent and his character so revered, that he was nominated one of the seven who alone among Jewish doctors acquired the honourable title of Rabban.' Strictly adhering to Judaism, he heartily despised all Christians, and composed or sanctioned a prayer against them.' 2 'He died about the time

1 This Hillel, the founder of a celebrated Jewish school about B.C. 60, is supposed to have been the father of the aged Simeon mentioned by St. Luke.

2 There is a tradition which says that he was converted to Christianity by the preaching of Peter and John; but this does not seem likely. Indeed, it is to be feared he lived and died a zealous Pharisee. Had it been otherwise we could not well credit what is said in the Targum, that a learned pupil named Onkelos spent seventy pounds of incense at his tomb, out of respect to his memory.' (Footsteps of St. Paul.) Note. It has been thought by some that Gamaliel was one of the doctors whom Jesus, when he was twelve years of age, astonished by asking questions.'

of St. Paul's shipwreck at Malta,' and was succeeded in office as president of the council by his son Simeon, who, a few years later, perished in the ruins of Jerusalem.1

36. Theudas. Among others mentioned as creating disturbances in Palestine after the death of Herod the Great, we read of a certain person named Judas, of whom Josephus has preserved the following account: 'There was also Judas, the son of that Ezekias who had been head of the robbers; which Ezekias was a very strong man, and had with great difficulty been caught by Herod. This Judas, having gotten together a multitude of men of a profligate character about Sepphoris in Galilee, and made an assault upon the palace, and seized upon all the weapons that were laid up in it, and with them armed every one of those that were with him, and carried away what money was left there, he became terrible to all men, by tearing and rending those that came near him ; and all this in order to raise himself, and out of an ambitious desire of the royal dignity; and he hoped to obtain that as the reward, not of his virtuous skill in war, but of his extravagance in doing injuries.' 2

'Unless this Judas be the same with that Theudas mertioned in Acts v. 36, Josephus must have omitted him; for that other Theudas whom he afterwards mentions under Fadus the Roman governor,3 is much too late to correspond to him that is mentioned in the Acts. However, since Josephus does not pretend to reckon up the heads of all those ten thousand disorders in Judea, which he tells us were then abroad, the Theudas of the Acts might be at the head of one of those seditions, though not particularly named by him. He informs us here (Sect. 6, and Of the War, ii. 4, 2) that certain of the seditious came and burnt the royal palace at Amathus or Betharamphta, upon the river Jordan. Perhaps their leader, who is not named by Josephus, might be this Theudas.' (Note, Whiston's Josephus.)

6

Josephus has preserved the account of an impostor of the name of Theudas, who created some disturbances and was slain; but according to the date assigned to this man's appearance (in which, however, it is very possible that Josephus may have been mistaken) it must have been, at the least, seven years after Gamaliel's speech, of which this text is a part, was

1 Vide Conybeare and Howson.

Jos. Ant. xx. 5. 1.-Vide State of Judea.

2 Jos. Ant. xvii. 10. 5.

delivered. It has been replied to the objection that there might be two impostors of this name, and it has been observed, in order to give a general probability to the solution, that the same thing appears to have happened in other instances of the same kind. It is proved from Josephus, that there were not fewer than four persons of the name of Simon within forty years, and not fewer than three of the name of Judas within ten years, who were all leaders of insurrections; and it is likewise recorded by this historian, that, upon the death of Herod the Great (which agrees very well with the time of the commotion referred to by Gamaliel, and with his manner of stating that time, "before these days"), there were innumerable disturbances in Judea.' 1

Archbishop Usher was of opinion, that one of the three Judases above mentioned was Gamaliel's Theudas; 2 and that with a less variation of the name than we actually find in the gospels, where one of the twelve apostles is called by St. Luke, Judas; and by St. Mark, Thaddeus.3 Origen, however he came at his information, appears to have believed that there was an impostor of the name of Theudas before the nativity of Christ.'4 (Paley.)

37. Judas of Galilee.5-After the removal of Archelaus from Judea, which happened when our Lord was about twelve years old, Augustus, the Roman emperor directed Cyrenius, the governor of Syria 'to take an account of his subjects' substance,' and 'to dispose of Archelaus's money.'7 For this purpose Cyrenius visited Judea, and but for the prudent conduct of Joazar, the high priest, he would have met with considerable opposition. The principal leader in the insurrection was Judas of Galilee, who represented the taxation as 'nothing better than an introduction to slavery, and exhorted the nation to assert their liberty.' In this he was assisted by a zealous Pharisee named Sadduc, and the whole nation was soon in

1 Jos. Ant. xvii. 12. 4.

Luke vi. 16; Mark iii. 18.

2 Ann. p. 797.

4 Orig. Cont. Cels. p. 44.

5 Judas, a Gaulonite of a city whose name was Gamala.' (Jos. Ant. xviii. 1. 1.

"Vide State of Judea.

7 Vide Jos. Ant. xvii. 13. 5; xviii. 1. 1.

8 6 'Although at the beginning the Jews took the report of a taxation heinously, yet did they leave off any further opposition to it by the persuasion of Joazar, who was the son of Boethus, and high priest. So, they being over-persuaded by Joazar's words, gave an account of their estates, without any dispute about it. Yet there was one Judas, a Gaulonite,' &c.

fected with their doctrine to such a degree, that 'one violent war came upon them after another, until at last the very temple of God was burnt down by their enemies' fire.'1

CHAPTER VI.

1. Hebrews.-Jews, natives of Judea.

Grecians.2-Jews, who belonged to other countries, and for whose use the Scriptures were translated from the Hebrew into the Greek language.'

5. The seven deacons.'-Stephen, Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch.

The party who complain in this narrative are the Grecians, or Jews who spoke the Greek language, and were the minority at Jerusalem. The apostles advise that seven men should be selected from the disciples to redress the alleged grievance. The choice is left with the whole multitude, and no restriction is imposed except that they should be men full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom." Yet it appears, in the most indirect manner possible, that they were all chosen from among the party who felt aggrieved. All the names, without one exception, are clearly Grecian.

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'Now that such should have been the case is very natural when we remember the description, just before, of the glowing love among the early Christians, which seems to have had no interruption until this unhappy murmuring arose. The circumstance is as beautiful in the moral lesson it affords, as historically probable from the other facts already recorded. Yet how indirectly it is revealed by the historian, who simply mentions the names of the seven who were chosen but forbears a single word of comment.'s

Some of the Christian Fathers supposed, without any apparent foundation, that the sect of the Nicolaitanes alluded to in Rev. ii. 6, 15 was so called from the last-mentioned of these ' deacons.'

Stephen.-A Hellenistic Jew, and chief of the seven primi

This happened sixty-two years later (A.D. 70), when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans under Titus.

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2 Caution. (Grecians-Greeks.) The word Grecian in the authorised version of the New Testament is used for a Hellenist or Grecising Jew, as in the passage alluded to above (also Acts ix. 29), while the word Greek is used for one who was by birth a Gentile, and who might or might not be a proselyte to Judaism, or a convert to Christianity.' (Conybeare and Howson.)

The best of our modern critics are of opinion that the word translated Grecians in Acts xi. 20 would have been more accurately represented by the word Greek.'

3 Birks.

tive 'deacons,' who is represented as a man 'full of faith and of the Holy Ghost.' He performed many miracles and was very zealous in the defence of Christianity, for which reason he was carried before the Jewish Council and accused of having uttered blasphemous words against Moses and against God. Though he skilfully defended himself against the accusations of his enemies, it availed him nothing. The infuriated mob hurriedly dragged him without the walls of the city, and there stoned him to death, and devout men carried him to his burial and made great lamentation over him. His dying words were, 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.'1

Philip.2-When the flame of persecution raged in Jerusalem at the time of Stephen's death, Philip 'went down to the city of Samaria,' and by his preaching and miracles was instrumental in the hand of God in turning many of its deluded inhabitants into the paths of life. He baptized many, 'both men and women' (their revered sorcerer among the number). Shortly afterwards, by the direction of 'the angel of the Lord,' he met the Ethiopian eunuch on his return from Jerusalem, between that city and Gaza, and was instrumental in converting him also to the Christian faith, and in receiving him into the Christian Church by baptism.3 After this, Philip was 'found at Azotus, and passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to Cæsarea.' We next read of him in connection with the history of St. Paul. When the latter, in the course of his third Apostolic journey, called at Cæsarea on his way to Jerusalem, 'he entered into the house of Philip the evangelist,' and abode with him some days. We are also

1 Acts vii. 60.

Note. For a full history of Stephen vide Acts vi. 5-vii. 2. 'He is described by Jerome and some of the early Fathers as a person of great learning and eloquence.' 'Stephen's martyrdom was doubtless an act of treason against the government of the land, and at other times would have been dealt with as such. But Pilate had now been deposed, his successor was not yet appointed, and the Jews felt themselves at guilty liberty to commit this cold-blooded murder. Although it is not probable the repetition of such a violation of law would be allowed, no such interference was made in the case of lesser cruelties.' (Footsteps of St. Paul.)

There is a cave or grotto still pointed out in the valley of Jehoshaphat, where it is said the murderers dragged the mangled body of the martyr when life was extinct.' (Maundrell, Footsteps of St. Paul.) 2 Philip, the 'deacon' and 'evangelist'-not the apostle mentioned

Acts i. 13.

Acts viii. 26, &c.