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claiming to be reincarnation of Christ Himself, deluded the people in great numbers, and was only suppressed with considerable difficulty. This was between the years 44 and 46, and certainly Fadus could not complain of having had a dull time. Hitherto we have seen Rome more than indulgent, and he was succeeded by their own countrymen, Tiberius Alexander, who was the son of the alabarch of Alexandria, the chief man amongst his contemporaries. He was a stern and resolute governor, and, power in his hands, he used it fiercely. Insubordination he put down with a strong hand. Again we see the party of Judas to the fore. For the moment their star is in decline. He destroys them without mercy. He captured his two sons, Simon and James, and remorselessly crucified them. Tradition has frequently confounded them with the apostles of these names. It is more than possible the tradition is founded in fact. Our Lord may well have called then as His apostles when they were young men, and this would make them between forty and fifty at this time. Change of conditions may well have once more found them leaders in the risings against Rome. And the very murder of their Master may have inflamed their zeal.* And Tiberias Alexander goes out of his way to execute them with

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*We must not forget that they were members of one of the fiercest races the world has known, nor is there evidence of their having been particularly mild mannered themselves. Peter was quick with his sword; James and his brother were sons of thunder"; and Simon the Canaanite was distinquished as Zealotes, or the Zealot. Even Christ Himself we do not see always conciliatory. "Ye are of your father, the devil," marked his displeasure when attacked by the Pharisees. So the dates are a little remarkable. In the Bible Handbook we find that under A.D. 44 is given: "Martyrdom of James, the son of Zebedee. Imprisonment of Peter his miraculous deliverance and departure from Jerusalem." Then for the previous year we find that the fugitives from Jerusalem who then found refuge in Antioch were there first known as "Christians." It hardly seems likely that the first disciples were hunted down and proscribed by Agrippa, Fadus, and Alexander for their pacific teaching.

ferocity. Priestly rancour against this house is by no means lessening in intensity. Their brother, another son of Judas, alone escaped him, and later on he was to take a leading part in the final rising against Rome. However, Alexander was too valuable to Rome to be left in Judea, and he was soon recalled to be made governor of Egypt, including rule over his countrymen in Alexandria. Here, again, we shall see him the strong man. A theatre disturbance between them and the Greeks developed into a terrible tumult. In this the Jews had the upper hand. He implored them to be pacified. Such malignity would infallibly necessitate the intervention of Roman troops. They were not to be so cajoled, and he ordered the army to suppress them. Obedience he would have. Resistance followed, and a terrible massacre was the result. So soon we are to see him, first in command of the Roman troops when they take Jerusalem, as also the first to proclaim Vespasian emperor.

In Judea he was succeeded by Cumanus. His term of office was at once enlivened by a wild tumult at the feast of the Passover. There was a great concourse of Jews in the city for its celebration, when one of the Roman soldiers made an obscene and insulting gesture in their derision. After the death of some twenty thousand people it was finally composed by the execution of the soldier, the original cause, by Cumanus. This was followed by a violent quarrel between them and the Samaritans. The Galileans were wont to come up to Jerusalem to the various great festivals. This involved passing through Samaria. On his way there one was killed by the Samaritans. Furiously the Jews demanded justice to be done by Cumanus. He was slower to act than pleased them, when some of the younger and wilder spirits, raging and brooking no delay, took the matter into their own hands, invaded Samaria, burnt its villages, and killed its people, respecting neither sex nor age. Accusations and counteraccusations were brought before Claudius. He decided in favour of the Jews. He regarded the Samaritans

as authors of the trouble, and ordered three of their principal citizens to be executed as punishment. Cumanus also he deposed for not having done prompt justice. Some of his minor agents he also delivered over to the Jews, for them to torment and punish after their own laws. Still, we see Rome favourable to this people. From A.D. 51 to A.D. 60 Felix was next procurator. During his time the affairs of the Jews "grew worse and worse continually." The country was again filled with "robbers" and "impostors," who "deluded the multitude." Eleazar, the arch robber, Felix captured and sent to Rome for judgment, obvious tribute to his importance, but his followers, a multitude not to be enumerated, he crucified. The country purged of these, some of the Judas party, now took up the extreme position that any not with them were against them, and an enemy to his God and his country. For such they knew no mercy, and they regarded it as a worthy act to exterminate them. Here, then, genesis of the dreaded sicarii who knew no moderation whatever and became terrible assassins. One of their victims was Jonathan, the High Priest, who was murdered, as some believed, with the cognizance of the governor himself. Thus to some extent winked at, and further a secret organization, they terrorized the whole body of citizens. In addition, there arose a further number of wild enthusiasts, who professed to be inspired, and who, exhibiting signs and wonders, also led away the people. These also were for Felix to stamp out. Probably the most serious of these risings was that of a false prophet from Egypt, who led as many as thirty thousand followers to the Mount of Olives, and who were only dispersed after a fierce battle had been fought. On all hands we see the old argument of the Judas faction being appealed to, and now being enforced, but with double intensity, viz. that subjection to Rome was but slavery, and that all those who accepted it were worthy of death. And the party itself, immeasurably reinforced and assisted by the state of the country,

divided themselves into different bodies, lay in wait up and down the country, plundered the great men, and set the villages on fire, "until all Judea was filled with the effects of their madness. Thus the flame of revolt was more and more blown up until it came to direct war." Thus Josephus; but other causes were also at work making breach inevitable.

61. We are now on the eve of the break-up of civilization. In Judea the general ruin which is to overwhelm society is accelerated by an ever-increasing defiance of authority, until anarchy reigns supreme. And silhouetted on the background of its relations with the Jews, we see the Roman Empire for what it really was. A despotism above all, it reflected the despot who for the time being was supreme. A wise emperor, careful in his choice of ministers, and every minister in fear of appeal to his final decision, it had much to commend it. But an evil chief magistrate, selling posts to the highest bidder, choosing favourites and creatures for every office, and these in turn, fearing no control, rapacity and cruelty itself—and a world groaned under its tyranny. And one decade of abuse could occasion such misery and wrong as five of the best administration could not undo. Many a fair province it found a garden and left a desert, and when it expired it was amidst the ruins of a lost world. And in Judea in particular, given emperors who were partial, and the dominion of Rome was just tolerable. But a Caligula in the purple-and conditions which made a Caligula possible boded ill for mankind-and catastrophe was matter of time alone. Other people simply went under. The Jew succumbs, but like a maddened cat at bay with its tormentors.

Claudius dead, his second wife secured the empire for her own son, Nero, consolidating his rule by murder of the true heir. For a time under him affairs in Judea continue much as before. Felix remains governor, and is followed by Festus. Two appeals come before Nero, and we see him trying to be just. In one Agrippa the younger was involved. He had built a

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room overlooking the Temple. The priests had rejoined by building a wall shielding it from observation. Festus in turn ordered it to be pulled down, and Nero reversed his ruling. In the other, the never-ceasing disturbances in Caesarea were the cause. Nero decided against the Jews; it was not their city, and he withdrew their privileges. This was almost the first serious rebuff they had met with in their appeals to Caesar; and--much after Punch's celebrated cartoon, 66 Call this arbitration? He's given agin us "--they would not be pacified. But the fact is, the basic reason for their perpetual commotions was their being in subjection to any foreign domination whatever. They saw themselves the first race in the world. As fighters Rome did not excel them, and in intellectual attainments the Greek even was no longer their rival. And really their pretentions seem justified. It is at this time we find their holy books, and books like Ecclesiasticus, being edited and revised and given that matchless beauty which has made them the heritage of the world. But now fuel in abundance is to be added to the fire of their discontent. We see the Roman system at its worst. With no particular antipathy to them, Nero appoints as procurator Albinus, who even leagued himself with the marauders to share the plunder, and who would have appeared the limit of wickedness but for the indescribable rapacity, cruelty, and duplicity of his successor, Florus. He, as Josephus tells us, having abused his power to the utmost with fiendish ingenuity, then excelled himself in infamy. He crucified and flogged their principal men-men with the standing of a Roman citizen-and indulged in every other act of tyranny with the deliberate design of driving the people to revolt. Thus he would cover up his traces and prevent any appeal to Rome, and elude inquiry into his past. The Rome party met such devices by urging the people to patience. But in vain. The game was now in the hands of the irreconcilables. So far from accepting pacification they, on their side, fanned a blazing flame. Nor did they limit their

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