cred; and again, thofe practices are allowed among them which are by us efteemed moft abominable.* They place the image of that animal in their most holy place, by whofe indication it was that they had cfcaped their wandering condition and their thirst. † They facrifice rams by way of reproach to [Jupiter] Hammon. An ox is alfo facrificed, which the Egyptians worship under the name of Apis,t They abftain from fwine's flesh. as a memorial of that miserable deftruction which the mange to which that creature is liable, brought on them, and with which they had been defiled. That they had endured a long famine, they attest still by their frequent faftings. And that they ftole the fruits of the earth we have an argument from the bread of the Jews, which is unleavened. It is generally fuppofed they reft on the seventh day,** because that day gave them [the firft] reft froin their labors. Befides which, they are idle on every feventh year, as being pleased with a lazy life. Others fay, that they do honor thereby to Saturn; or perhaps the Idæi gave them this part of their religion [as we faid above] were expelled together with Saturn, and who, as we have been informed, were the founders of this nation; or else it was because the star Saturn moves in the highest orb, and of the seven planets exerts the principal part of that energy whereby mankind are governed: And indeed the moft of the heavenly bodies exert their power, and perform their courfes according to the number seven.|||| CHAP V.] These rights, by what manner foever they were first begun, are supported by their antiquity. The rest of their inftitu *This is not true in general, but only fo far, that the Ifraelites were by cir cumcifion and other rites to be kept feparate from the wicked and idolatrous nations about them. + This ftrange ftory contradicts what the fame Tacitus will tell us prefently, that when Pompey went into the holy of holies be found no image there. Thefe are only gueffes of Tacitus, or of his heathen authors, but no more. Such memorials of what must have been very reproachful, are strangers to the rest of mankind, and without any probability. The Jews had but one folemn faft of old in the whole year, the great day of expiation. Unleavened bread was only used at the passover. **It is very ftrange that Tacitus fhould not know or confess that the Jews' feventh day, and feventh year of reft, were in memory of the seventh, or Sabbath day's reft, after the fix days of creation. Every Jew, as well as every Christian, could have informed him of those matters. ++ A ftrange hypothefis of the origin of the Sabbatic year, and without all good foundation. Tacitus probably had never heard of the Jews' year of jubilee, lo he fays nothing of it, As if the Jews in the days of Mofes, or long before, knew that the Greeks and Romans would long afterward call the leventh day of the week Saturn's day ; which Dio obferves was not fo called of old time: And it is a question wheth. er before the Jews fell into idolatry, they ever heard of fuch a star or god as Saturn. Amos v. 25....Acts vii. 43. That the fun, moon, and ftars, rule over the affairs of mankind, was an Heathen, and not a Jewish notion; neither Jews nor Chriftians were permitted to deal in aftrology, though Tacitus feems to have been deep in it, This acknowledgment of the antiquity of Mofes, and of his Jewish fettle ment, was what the Heathen cared not always to own, tions are awkward, impure, and got ground by their pravity: For They have ordained circumcifion of the part ufed in generation, - that they may thereby be diftinguished from other people: The profelytes to their religion have the fame ufage. They are taught nothing fooner than to defpife the gods, to renounce their country, and to have their parents, children, and brethren in the utmoft contempt; but ftill they take care to increafe and and multiply, for it is effeemed utterly unlawful to kill any of their children. They alfo look on the fouls of thofe that die in battle, or are put to death for their crimes, as eternal. Hence comes their love of pofter ity, and contempt of death. They derive their cuftom** of burying, inftead of burning their dead, from the Egyptians: They have alfo the fame care of the dead with them, and the fame perfuafion about the invifible world below: But of the gods above, their opinion is contrary to theirs. The Egyptians worship abundance of animals, and images of various forts. The Jews have no notion of any more than one divine being,tt and that known only by the mind. They efteem fuch to be profane who frame images of gods, out of perishable matter, and in the shape of men. That this being is fupreme, and eternal, immutable, and unperishable, is their doctrine. Accordingly they have no images in their cities, much lefs in their temples; they never grant this flattery to kings, or this kind of honor to emperors. But because their priests, when they play on the pipe and the timbrels, wear ivy piece of What these pretended awkward and impure inftitutions were, Tacitus does not inform us. + Jofephus fhews the contrary, as to the laws of Moses, contr. Apion Book II. fect, 22. An high, and I doubt a falfe commendation of the Jews. An entirely falfe character, and contrary to their many laws against uncleannefs. See Jofephus Antiq. B. III. chap. xi. fect. 12. The profelytes of juftice only, not the profelytes of the gates. 1 How does this agree with that unalterable fidelity and kindnefs which Tacitus told us the Jews had towards one another? Unless he only means that they preferred the divine commands before their nearest relations, which is the highest degree of Jewish and Chriftian piety. **This cuftom is at leaft as old among the Hebrews, as the days of Abraham, and the cave of Machpelah, long before the Ifraelites went into Egypt, Gen. xxiii. 1-20, and xxv. 8-10. ++ These are very valuable confeffions, which Tacitus here makes as to the unfpotted piety of the Jewish nation, in the worship of one infinite, invisible God, and abfolute rejection of all idolatry, and of all worship of images, nay of the image of the emperor Caius himself, or of affording it a place in their temple. All these conceffions were to be learned from Jofephus, and almoft only from him; out of whom therefore I conclude Tacitus took the finest part of his character of the Jews. Found their heads, and a golden* vine has been found in their ter ple, fome have thought that they worshipped our father Bacchus, the conqueror of the Eaft; whereas the ceremonies of the Jews do not all agree with thofe of Bacchus, for he appointed rites that were of a jovial nature, and fit for feftivals, while the practices of the Jews are abfurd and fordid. CHAP VI.] The limits of Judea eafterly are bounded by Arabia: Egypt lies on the fouth; on the weft are Phenicia and the [great] fea. They have a prospect of Syria, on their north quarter, as at fome diftance from them.+ The bodies of the men are healthy, and fuch as will bear great labors. They have not many fhowers of rain: Their foil is very fruitful; the produce of their land is like ours, in great plenty. They have alfo befides ours, two trees peculiar to themselves, the balfam tree, and the palm tree. Their groves of palms are tall and beautiful. The balfam tree is not very large. As foon as any branch is fwelled, the veins quake as for fear, if you bring an iron knite to cut them. They are to be opened with the broken pieces of a stone, or with the hell of a fifh. The juice is useful in phyfic Libanus is their principal mountain, and is very high, and yet, what is very ftrange to be related, it is always fhadowed with trees, and nev. er free from fnow. The fame mountain fupplies the river Jordan with water, and affords it its fountains alfo. Nor is this Jordan carried into the fea, it paffes through one and a second lake, undiminished, but it is ftopped by the third. This third lake is vastly great in circumference, as if it were a fea. It is of an ill tafte, and is pernicious to the adjoining inhabitants, by its ftrong fmell. The wind raifes no waves there, nor will it maintain either fishes, or such birds as ufe the water. The reason is uncertain, but the fact is thus, that bodies caft into it are borne up as by fomewhat folid. Those who can, and those who cannot fwim, are equally borne up by it. At a certain time of the year,** it cafts out bitumen; the manner of gathering it, like other arts, has been taught by experience. The liquor is of its own nature, of a black color; and, if you pour vinegar upon it, it clings together, and fwims on the top. Thole whofe bufinefs it is, take it in their hands, and pull it into the upper parts of the ship, after which it follows, without farther attrac tion, and fills the thip full, till you cut it off: Nor can you cut it off either with a brass or an iron inftrument; but it cannot bear the touch This particular fact, that there was a golden vine in the front of the Jewith temple, was in all probability taken by Tacitus out of Jofephus; but as the Jewish priests were never adorned with ivy, the fignal of Bacchus, how Tacitus came to imagine this, I cannot tell. + See the choregraphy of Judea in Jofephus, of the War, B. III. feft. z. vol. III. whence most probably Tacitus framed this fhort abridgment of it. It comes in both authors naturally before Vefpafian's first campaign. The latter branch of this Tacitus might have from Jofephus, of the war, B III. chap. 3. fect. 2, 3, 4. vol. III. the other is not in the prefent copies. Thefe accounts of Jordan, of its fountains derived from Mount Libanas, and of the two lakes it runs through, and its ftoppage by the third, are exactly agreeable to Jofephus. Of the war, B. III. chap. x. fect. 7, 8. No less than 580 furlongs long, and 150 broad, in Josephus, of the Wat, B. IV. chap. viii. lect. 4. Strabo fays, that a man could not fink into the water of this lake so deep as the navel. **Jofephus never fays that this bitumen was caft out at a certain time of the year only; and Strabo fays the direct contrary, but Pliny agrees with Tacitus. of blood, or of a cloth wet with the menftrual purgations of women, as the ancient authors fay. But thofe that are acquainted with the place affure us, that these waves of bitumen are driven along, and by the hand drawn to the fhore, and that when they are dried by the warm fteams from the earth, and the force of the fun, they are cut in pieces with axes and wedges, as timber and ftones are cut in pieces. CHAP VII.] Not far from this lake are those plains, which are related to have been of old fertile, and to have had many* cities full of people, but to have been burnt by a ftroke of lightning; it is also faid that the footsteps of that deftruction ftill remain, and that the earth itself appears as burnt earth, and has lost its natural fertility; and that as an argument thereof, all the plants that grow of their own, accord, or are planted by the hand, whether they arrive at the degree of an herb, or of a flower, or at complete maturity, become black, and empty, and, as it were, vanish into ashes. As for myfelf, as I am willing to allow that thefe once famous cities were burnt by fire from heaven, fo would I fuppofe that the earth is infected with the vapor of the lake, and the spirit [or air] that is over it thereby corrupted, and that by this means the fruits of the earth, both corn, and grapes, rot away, both the foil and the air being equally unwholefonre. The river Belus does alfo rur into the fea of Judea, and the fands that are collected about its mouth, when you mix nitre with them, are melted into glafs: This fort of thore is but small, but its fand, for the ufe of thofe that carry it off, is inexhaustible. CHAP. VIII.] A great part of Judea is compofed of scattered villages: It also has larger towns: Jerufalem is the capital city of the whole nation. In that city there was a temple of immenfe wealth; in the first parts that are fortified is the city itself, next it the royal palace. The temple is enclosed in its moft inward receffes. A Jew can come no farther than the gates; all but the priests are excluded by their threshold. While the Eaft was under the dominion of the Affyrians, the Medes, and the Perfians, the Jews were of all flaves the moít defpicable.t After the dominion of the Macedonians prevailed, King Antio chus tried to conquer their fuperftition, and to introduce the customs of the Greeks; but he was disappointed of his defign, which was to give this moft profligate nation a change for the better, and that was by his war with the Parthians, for at this time Arfaces had fallen off from the Macedonians.] Then it was that the Jews fet kings over them, because the Macedonians were become weak, the Parthians were not yet very powerful, and the Romans were very remote.. Which kings, when they had been expelled by the mobility of the vulgar, and had recovered their dominion by war, attempted the fame things that kings used to do, I mean they introduce the deftruction of cities, the flaughter of brethren, of wives, and parents, but ftill went on in their fuperftition; for they took upon them withal the honorable dignity of the high priesthood, as a firm fecurity to their power and authority. This is exactly according to Jofephus, and must have been taken from him in the place forecited, and that particularly, because it is peculiar to him, so far as I know, in antiquity. The rest thought the cities were in the fame place where now the lake is, but Jofephus and Tacitus fay they were in its neighborhood only, which is Mr. Reland's opinion alío. + A great flander against the Jews, without any just foundation. Jofephus would have informed him better. Here begin Jofephus's and Tacitus's true accounts of the Jews, prelimina ry to the lat war: See of the War, Proxm, fe&t. 7. CHAP. IX.] The first of the Romans that conquered the Jews was Cneius Pompeius, who entered the temple by right of victory. Thence the report was every where divulged, that therein was no image of a god, but an empty place, and myfteries, moft fecret places that have nothing in them. The walls of Jerufalem were then deftroyed, but the temple continued ftill. Soon afterward arofe a civil war among us; and when therein these provinces were reduced under Marcus Antonius, Pacorus, King of the Parthians, got poffeflion of Judea, but was himfelf flain by Paulus Ventidius, and the Parthians were driven beyond the Euphrates: And for the Jews, Caius Sofius fubdued them. Antonius gave the kingdom to Herod; and when Auguítus conquered Antonius he ftill augmented it. After Herod's death, one Simon, without waiting for the difpofition of Cefar, took upon him the title of King, who was brought to pun. ishment by (or under] Quintilius Varus, when he was prefident of Syria. Afterward the nation was reduced, and the children of Herod governed it in three partitions. Under Tiberius the Jews had reft. After fome time they were enjoined to place Caius Cefar's ftatue in the temple; but rather than permit that, they took up arms;* which fedition was put an end to by the death of Cefar. Claudius, after the kings were either dead, or reduced to smaller dominions, gave the province of Judea to Roman knights, or to freedmen, to be governed by them. Among whom was Antonius Felix, one that exercised all kinds of barbarity and extravagance, as if he had royal authority, but with the difpofition of a flave. He had married Drufilla, the grand daughter of Antonius, fo that Felix was the grand daughter's husband, and Claudius the grandfon of the fame Antonius. ANNAL. Book XII. BUT he that was the brother of Pallas, whofe furname was Felix, did not act with the fame moderation [as did Pallas himself.] He had been a good while ago fet over Judea, and thought he might be guilty of all forts of wickedness with impunity, while he relied on so fure an authority. The Jews had almoft given a specimen of fedition; and even after the death of Caius was known, and they had not obeyed his command, there remained a degree of fear, left fome future prince fhould renew that command [for the fetting up the prince's ftatue in their temple.] And in the mean time Felix, by the use of unfeasonable remedies, blew up the coals of fedition into a flame, and was imitated by his partner in the government, Ventidius Cumanus, the country being thus divid ed between them; that the nation of the Galileans were under Cumanus, and the Samaritans under Felix: Which two nations were of old at variance, but now, out of contempt of their governors, did lefs reftrain their hatred: They then began to plunder one another, to They came to Petronius, the prefident of Syria, in vaft numbers, but without arms, and as humble fupplicants only. See Tacitus prefently, where he afterwards fets this matter alinoft right, according to Jofephus, and by way of correction for that accoun: is in his annals, which were written after this whib in his hiftories. |