the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment. But the Sadducees are those that compose the second order, and take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act what is good or what is evil is at men's own choice; and that the one or the other belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades. Moreover, the Pharisees are friendly to one another, and are for the exercise of concord and regard for the public; but the behaviour of the Sadducees one towards another is in some degree wild, and their conversation with those that are of their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them. And this is what I had to say concerning the philosophic sects among the Jews. than would naturally be expected in proportion to the Essens or third sect, nay, than seems to be referred to by himself elsewhere, that one is tempted to suppose Josephus had at first written less of the one and more of the two others than his present copies afford us; as also, that by some unknown accident our present copies are here made up of the larger edition in the first case, and of the smaller in the second. See the note in Havercamp's edition. However, what Josephus says in the name of the Pharisees, that only the souls of good men go out of one body into another, although all souls be immortal, and still the souls of the bad are liable to eternal punishment; as also what he says afterward, Antiq. b. xviii. chap. i. sect. 3, that the soul's vigour is immortal; and that under the earth they receive rewards or punishments according as their lives have been virtuous or vicious in the present world; that to the bad is allotted an eternal prison, but that the good are permitted to live again in this world, are nearly agreeable to the doctrines of Christianity. Only Josephus's rejection of the return of the wicked into other bodies, or into this world, which he grants to the good, looks somewhat like a contradiction to St. Paul's account of the doctrine of the Jews, that they themselves allow that there should be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust, Acts, xxiv. 15. Yet because Josephus's account is that of the Pharisees, and St. Paul's that of the Jews in general, and of himself, the contradiction is not very certain. CHAP. IX. The Death of Salome. The Cities which Herod and Philip built. Pilate occasions Disturbances. Tiberius puts Agrippa into Bonds; but Caius frees him from them, and makes him King. Herod Antipas is banished. § 1. AND now as the ethnarchy of Archelaus was fallen into a Roman province, the other sons of Herod, Philip, and that Herod who was called Antipas, each of them took upon them the administration of their own tetrarchies; for when Salome died she bequeathed to Julia, the wife of Augustus, both her toparchy, and Jamnia, as also her plantation of palm-trees that were in Phasaelis *. But when the Roman empire was translated to Tiberius, the son of Julia, upon the death of Augustus, who had reigned fifty-seven years, six months, and two days, both Herod and Philip continued in their tetrarchies; and the latter of them built the city Cæsarea, at the fountains of Jordan, and in the region of Paneas; as also the city Julias, in the Lower Gaulanitis. Herod also built the city Tiberias in Galilee, and in Perea [beyond Jordan] another that was also called Julias. 2. Now Pilate, who was sent as procurator into *We have here in that Greek MS. which was once Alexander Petavius's, but it is now in the library at Leyden, two most remarkable additions to the common copies, though deemed worth little remark by the editor; which, upon the mention of Tiberius's coming to the empire, inserts first the famous testimony of Josephus concerning Jesus Christ, as it stands verbatim in the Antiquities, b. xviii. chap. iii. sect. 3, with some parts of that excellent discourse or homily of Josephus concerning Hades, annexed to the work. But what is here principally to be noted is this, that in this homily, Josephus, having just mentioned Christ, as God the Word, and the Judge of the world, appointed by the Father, &c. adds, that he had himself elsewhere spoken about him more nicely or particularly. Judea by Tiberius, sent by night those images of Cæsar that are called ensigns into Jerusalem. This excited a very great tumult among the Jews when it was day; for those that were near them were astonished at the sight of them, as indications that their laws were trodden under foot; for those laws do not permit any sort of image to be brought into the city. Nay, besides the indignation which the citizens had themselves at this procedure, a vast number of people came running out of the country. These came zealously to Pilate to Cæsarea, and besought him to carry those ensigns out of Jerusalem, and to preserve them their ancient laws inviolable; but upon Pilate's denial of their request, they fell down prostrate upon the ground, and continued immoveable in that posture for five days and as many nights. 3. On the next day Pilate sat upon his tribunal in the open market-place, and called to him the multitude, as desirous to give them an answer; and then gave a signal to the soldiers that they should all by agreement at once encompass the Jews with their weapons; so the band of soldiers stood round about the Jews in three ranks. The Jews were under the utmost consternation at that unexpected sight: Pilate also said to them, that they should be cut in pieces, unless they would admit of Cæsar's images, and gave intimation to the soldiers to draw their naked swords. Hereupon the Jews, as it were at one signal, fell down in vast numbers together, and exposed their necks bare, and cried out, that they were sooner ready to be slain, than that their laws should be transgressed. Hereupon Pilate was greatly surprised at their prodigious superstition, and gave order that the ensigns should be presently carried out of Jerusalem. 4. After this he raised another disturbance, by expending that sacred treasure which is called Cor ban* upon aqueducts, whereby he brought water from the distance of four hundred furlongs. At this the multitude had indignation; and when Pilate was come to Jerusalem, they came about his tribunal, and made a clamour at it. Now when he was apprized aforehand of this disturbance, he mixed his own soldiers in their armour with the multitude; and ordered them to conceal themselves under the habits of private men, and not, indeed, to use their swords, but with their staves to beat those that made the clamour. He then gave the signal from his tribunal [to do as he had bidden them]. Now the Jews were so sadly beaten, that many of them perished by the stripes they received, and many of them perished as trodden to death by themselves; by which means the multitude was astonished at the calamity of those that were slain, and held their peace. 5. In the mean time Agrippa, the son of that Aristobulus who had been slain by his father Herod, came to Tiberius, to accuse Herod the tetrarch; who not admitting of his accusation he stayed at Rome, and cultivated a friendship with others of the men of note, but principally with Caius the son of Germanicus, who was then but a private person. Now this Agrippa, at a certain time, feasted Caius; and as he was very complaisant to him on several other accounts, he at length stretched out his hands, and openly wished that Tiberius might die, and that he might quickly see him emperor of the world. This was told to Tiberius by one of Agrippa's domestics, who thereupon was very angry, and ordered Agrippa to be bound, and had him very ill treated in the prison for six months, until Tiberius died, after he had reigned twenty-two years six months and three days. * This use of corban, or oblation, as here applied to the sacred money dedicated to God in the treasury of the temple, illustrates our Saviour's words, Mark, vii. 11, 12. 6. But when Caius was made Cæsar, he released Agrippa from his bonds, and made him king of Philip's tetrarchy, who was now dead; but when Agrippa had arrived at that degree of dignity, he inflamed the ambitious desires of Herod the tetrarch, who was chiefly induced to hope for the royal authority by his wife Herodias, who reproached him for his sloth, and told him, that it was only because he would not sail to Cæsar that he was destitute of that great dignity; for since Cæsar had made Agrippa a king from a private person, much more would he advance him from a tetrarch to that dignity. These arguments prevailed with Herod, so that he came to Caius, by whom he was punished for his ambition, by being banished into Spain; for Agrippa followed him in order to accuse him; to whom also Caius gave his tetrarchy by way of addition. So Herod died in Spain, whither his wife had followed him. CHAP. X. Caius commands that his Statue should be set up in the Temple itself; and what Petronius did thereupon. § 1. Now Caius Cæsar did so grossly abuse the fortune he had arrived at, as to take himself to be a god, and to desire to be so called also, and to cut off those of the greatest nobility out of his country. He also extended his impiety as far as the Jews. Accordingly, he sent Petronius with an army to Jerusalem, to place his statues in the temple; and commanded him, that in case the Jews would not admit of them, he would slay those that opposed it, * Tacitus owns that Caius commanded the Jews to place his effigies in their temple, though he may be mistaken when he adds, that the Jews thereupon took arms. |