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a festival they had at last a mournfui day of it; and they all of them forgot their prayers and sacritices, and betook themselves to lamentation and weeping; so great an affliction did the impudent obsceneness of a single soldier bring upon them.*

4. Now before this their first mourning was over, another mischief befell them also for some of those that raised the foregoing tumult, when they were travel. ling along the public road, about a hundred furlongs from the city, robbed Stephanus, a servant of Cæsar, as he was journeying, and plundered him of all that he had with him. Which things when Cumanus heard of, he sent soldiers immediately, and ordered them to plunder the neighbouring villages, and to bring the most eminent persons among them in bonds to him. Now as this devastation was making, one of the soldiers seized the laws of Moses that lay in one of those villages, and brought them out before the eyes of all present, and tore them to pieces; and this was done with reproachful language, and much scurrility. Which things when the Jews heard of, they ran together, and that in great num. bers, and came down to Cesarea, where Cumanus then was, and besought him that he would avenge, not themselves, but God himself, whose laws had been af. fronted; for that they could not bear to live any longer, if the laws of their fore. fathers must be affronted after this manner, Accordingly Cumanus, out of fear lest the multitude should go into a sedition, and by the advice of his friends also, took care that the soldier who had offered the affront to the laws should be be headed, and thereby put a stop to the sedition which was ready to be kindled a second time.

CHAP. VI.

How there happened a Quarrel between the Jews n the Samaritans, and how Claudius pul an end to their D.

ences.

1. Now there arose a quarrel between the Samaritans and the Jews on the oc casion following: it was the custom of the Galileans, when they came to the holy city at the festivals, to take their journeys through the country of the Samaritans ;† and at this time there lay, in the road they took, a village that was called Ginea, which was situated in the limits of Samaria and the great plain, where certain persons thereto belonging fought with the Galileans, and killed a great many of them. But when the principal of the Galileans were informed of what had been done, they came to Cumanus, and desired him to avenge the murder of those that were killed; but he was ind iced by the Samaritans, with money, to do nothing in the matter: upon which, the Galileans were much displeased, and persuaded the multitude of the Jews to betake themselves to arms, and to regain their liberty, saying that "slavery was in itself a bitter thing, but that when it was joined with direct injuries, it was perfectly intolerable." And when their principal men endeavoured to pacify them, and promised to endeavour to persuade Cumanus to avenge those that were killed, they would not hearken to them, but took their weapons, and entreated the assistance of Eleazar, the son of Dineus, a robber, who had many years made his abode in the mountains; with which assistance they plundered many villages of the Samaritans. When Cumanus heard of this action of theirs, he took the band of Sebaste, with four regiments of footmen, and

This, and many more tumults and seditions, which arose at the Jewish festivals, in Josephus, illus trate that cautious procedure of the Jewish governors, when they said, Matt. xxvi. 5. "Let us not take Jesus on the feast-day, lest there be an uproar among the people; as Reland well observes on this place. Josephus also takes notice of the same thing, Of the War, B. i. ch. iv. sect. 3.

This constant passage of the Galileans through the country of Samaria, as they went to Judea and Jerusalem, illustrates several passages in the gospel to the same purpose, as Dr. Hudson rightly observes See Luke, xvii. 11; John, iv. 4. See also Josephus in his own life, sect. 52, where that journey is de termined to three days.

armed the Samaritans, and marched out against the Jews, and caught them, and slew many of them, and took a great number of them alive; whereupon those that were the most eminent persons at Jerusalem, and that both in regard of the respect that was paid them and the families they were of, as soon as they saw to what a height things were gone, put on sackcloth and heaped ashes upon their heads; and by all possible means besought the seditious, and persuaded them that they would set before their eyes the utter subversion* of their country, the conflagration of their temple, and the slavery of themselves, their wives, and children which would be the consequences of what they were doing; and would alter their minds, would cast away their weapons, and for the future be quiet, and return to their own homes. These persuasions of theirs prevailed upon them. So the people dispersed themselves, and the robbers went away again to their places of strength; and after this time all Judea was overrun with robberies.

2. But the principal of the Samaritans went to Ummidius Quadratus, the presi dent of Syria, who at that time was at Tyre, and accused the Jews of setting their villages on fire, and plundering them; and said withal, that" they were not so much displeased at what they had suffered, as they were at the contempt thereby showed the Romans; while, if they had received any injury, they ought to have made them the judges of what had been done, and not presently to make such devastation, as if they had not the Romans for their governors; on which account they came to him, in order to obtain that vengeance they wanted." This was the accusation which the Samaritans brought against the Jews. But the Jews affirm. ed that the Samaritans were the authors of this tumult and fighting; and that, in the first place, Cumanus had been corrupted by their gifts, and passed over the murder of those that were slain in silence. Which allegations when Quadratus heard, he put off the hearing of the cause, and promised that he would give sen. fence when he should come into Judea, and should have a more exact knowledge of the truth of that matter. So these men went away without success. Yet was it not long ere Quadratus came to Samaria; where, upon hearing the cause, he supposed that the Samaritans were the authors of that disturbance. But, when he was informed that certain of the Jews were making innovations, he ordered those to be crucified whom Cumanus had taken captives. From whence he went to a certain village called Lydda, which was not less than a city in largeness, and there heard the Samaritan cause a second time before his tribunal; and there learned from a certain Samaritan, that one of the chief of the Jews, whose name was Dortus, and some other innovators with him, four in number, persuaded the multitude to a revolt from the Romans; whom Quadratus ordered to be put to death; but still he sent away Ananias the high priest, and Ananus, the comman. der [of the temple,] in bonds to Rome, to give an account of what they had done to Claudius Cæsar. He also ordered the principal men, both of the Samaritans and of the Jews, as also Cumanus the procurator, and Celer the tribune, to go to Italy to the emperor, that he might hear their cause, and determine their differ. ences one with another. But he came again to the city of Jerusalem, out of his fear that the multitude of the Jews should attempt some innovations; but he found the city in a peaceable state, and celebrating one of the usual festivals of their country to God. So he believed that they would not attempt any innovations, and left them at the celebration of the festival, and returned to Antioch.

3. Now Cumanus, and the principal of the Samaritans, who were sent to Rome, had a day appointed them by the emperor, whereon they were to have pleaded their cause about the quarrels they hadone with another. But now Cæsar's freedmen and his friends were very zealous on the behalf of Cumanu sand the Samaritans; and they had prevailed over the Jews, unless Agrippa junior, who

Our Saviour had foretold that the Jews' rejection of his gospel would bring upon them, among other iniseries, these three, which they themselves here show they expected would be the consequences of their present tumults and seditions; the utter subversion of their country, the conflagration of their temple, and the slavery of themselves, their wives, and children. See Luke, xxi. 6-24.

was then at Rome, had seen the principal of the Jews hard set, and had earnest. ly entreated Agrippina, the emperor's wife, to persuade her husband to hear the cause, so as was agreeable to his justice, and to condemn those to be punished who were really the authors of this revolt from the Roman government. Where. apon Claudius was so well disposed beforehand, that when he had heard the cause, and found that the Samaritans had been the ringleaders in those mischievous do ings, he gave order, that those who came up to him should be slain, and that Cumanus should be banished. He also gave order, that Celer the tribune should be carried back to Jerusalem, and should be drawn through the city in the sight of all the people, and then should be slain.

CHAP. VII.

Felix is made Procurator of Judea; as also concerning Agrippa junior
and his Sisters.

31. So Claudius sent Felix, the brother of Pallans, to take care of the affairs of Judea; and when he had already completed the twelfth year of his reign, he bestowed upon Agrippa the tetrarchy of Philip and Batanea, and added thereto Trachonitis, with Abila; which last had been the tetrarchy of Lysanias; but he took from him Chalcis, when he had been governor thereof four years. And when Agrippa had received these countries as the gift of Cæsar, he gave his sister Drusilla in marriage to Azizus, king of Emesa, upon his consent to be circumcised; for Epiphanes, the son of king Antiochus, had refused to marry her, be cause, after he had promised her father formerly to come over to the Jewish religion, he would not now perform that promise. He also gave Mariamne in mar. riage to Archelaus, the son of Helcias, to whom she had been betrothed formerly by Agrippa her father; from which marriage was derived a daughter, whose name was Bernice.

2. But for the marriage of Drusilla with Azizus, it was in no long time after. ward dissolved upon the following occasion: while Felix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla, and fell in love with her; for she did indeed exceed all other women in beauty; and he sent to her a person whose name was Simon,* one of his friends, a Jew he was, and by birth a Cypriot, and one who pretended to be a magician, and endeavoured to persuade her to forsake her present husband, and marry him; and promised, that if she would not refuse him, he would make her a happy woman. Accordingly she acted ill, and because she was desirous to avoid her sister Bernice's envy, for she was very ill treated by her on

* This Simon, a friend of Felix, a Jew, born in Cyprus, though he pretended to be a magician, and seems to have been wicked enough, could hardly be that famous Simon the magician, in the Acts of the Apostles, viii. 9, &c. as soine are ready to suppose. This Simon mentioned in the Acts was not prǝperly a Jew, but a Samaritan, of the town of Gittæ, in the country of Samaria, as the Apostolical Con stitutions, vi. 7, the Recognitions of Clement, ii. 6, and Justin Martyr, himself born in the country of Samaria, Apology, i. 34, informs us. He was also the author, not of any ancient Jewish, but of the first Gentile heresies, as the forementioned authors assure us. So I suppose him a different person from the ather. I mean this only upon the hypothesis, that Josephus was not misinformed as to his being a Cy. priot Jew; for otherwise the time, the name, the profession, and the wickedness of them both would strongly incline one to believe them the very same. As to that Drusilla, the sister of Agrippa junior, as Josephus informs us here, and a Jewess, St. Luke informs us, Acts xxiv. 24, whom this Simon mentioned by Josephus persuaded to leave her former husband, Azizus, king of Emesa, a proselyte of justice, and to marry Felix, the heathen procurator of Judea; Tacitus, Hist. v. 9, supposes her to be a heathen, and the grand-daughter of Antonius and Cleopatra, contrary both to St. Luke and Josephus. Now Ta citus lived somewhat too remote, both as to time and plase, to be compared with either of those Jewish writers, in a matter concerning the Jews in Judea in their own days, and concerning a sister of Agrippa Junior, with which Agrippa Josephus was himself so well acquainted. It is probable that Tacitus may say true when he informs us that this Felix (who had in all three wives or queens, as Suetonius in Clau dius, sect. 28, assures us,) did once marry such a grandchild of Antonius and Cleopatra, and finding the name of one of them to have been Drusilla, he mistook her for that other wife, whose name he did not know.

account of her beauty, was prevailed upon to transgress the laws of her fore faners, and to marry Felix; and when he had a son by her, he named him Agrippa. But after what manner that young man, with his wife, perished at the conflagration of the mountain Vesuvius, in the days of Titus Cæsar, shall be related hereafter.+

3. But as for Bernice, she lived a widow a long while after the death of Herod [king of Chalcis,] who was both her husband and her uncle; but, when the report went that she had criminal conversation with her brother [Agrippa junior,] she persuaded Polemo, who was king of Cilicia, to be circumcised, and to marry her, as supposing, that by this means she should prove those calumnies upon her to be false; and Polemo, was prevailed upon, and that chiefly on account of her riches. Yet did not this matrimony endure long; but Bernice left Polemo, and, as was said, with impure intentions. So he forsook at once this matrimony and the Jewish religion: and at the same time Mariamne put away Archelaus, and was married to Demetrius, the principal man among the Alexandrian Jews, both for his family and his wealth; and indeed he was then their alabarch. So she named her son, whom she had by him, Agrippinus. But of all these particulars we shall hereafter treat more exactly‡.

CHAP. VIII.

After what Manner, upon the Death of Claudius, Nero succeeded in the Govern ment; as also what barbarous Things he did. Concerning the Robbers, Murderers, and Impostors, that arose while Felix and Festus were Pro

curators of Judea.

1. Now Claudius Cæsar died when he had reigned thirteen years eight months and twenty days; and a report went about that he was poisoned by his wife Agrippina. Her father was Germanicus, the brother of Cæsar. Her husband was Domitius Ænobarbus, one of the most illustrious persons that was in the city of Rome; after whose death, and her own long continuance in widowhood, Claudius took her to wife. She brought along with her a son, Domitius, of the same name with his father. He had before this slain his wife Messalina out of jealousy, by whom he had his children Britannicus and Octavia; their eldest sister was Antonia, whom he had by Pelina his first wife. He also married Octavia to Nero; for that was the name that Cæsar gave him afterward, upon his adopting him for his son.

2. But now Agrippina was afraid, lest, when Britannicus should come to man's estate, he should succeed his father in the government, and desired to seize upon the principality beforehand for her own son [Nero ;] upon which the report went, that she thence compassed the death of Claudius. Accordingly she sent Burthus, the general of the army, immediately, and with him the tribunes, and such also of the freedmen as were of the greatest authority, to bring Nero away into the camp, and to salute him emperor. And when Nero had thus obtained the government, he got Britannicus to be so poisoned that the multitude should not perceive it; although he publicly put his own mother to death not long afterward, making her this requital, not only for being born of her, but for bringing it so

This eruption of Vesuvius was one of the greatest we have in history. See Blanchini's curious and important observations on this Vesuvius, and its seven several great eruptions, with their remains vitrified, and still existing, in so many different strata under ground, till the diggers came to the antediluvian waters, with their proportionable interstices, implying the deluge to have been above 2,500 years before the Christian æra, accordingly to our exactest chronology.

This is now wanting.

This also is now wanting.

This duration of the reign of Claudius agrees with Dio, as Dr. Hudson here remarks; as he also remarks, that Nero's name, which was at first L. Domitius Ænobarbus, after Claudius had adopted him was Nero Claudius Casar Drusus Germanicus.

about by her contrivances, that he obtained the Roman empire. He also slew Octavia his own wife, and many other illustrious persons, under this pretence, that they plotted against him.

3. But I omit any farther discourse about these affairs; for there have been a great many who have composed the history of Nero; some of which have departed from the truth of facts out of favour, as having received benefits from him; while others out of hatred to him, and the great ill will which they bare him, have so impudently raved against him with their lies, that they justly deserve to be condemned. Nor do I wonder at such as have told lies of Nero, since they have not in their writings preserved the truth of history as to those facts that were earlier than his time, even when the actors could have no way incurred their hatred, since those writers lived a long time after them. But as to these that have no regard to truth, they may write as they please; for in that they take de light: but as to ourselves, who have made truth our direct aim, we shall briefly touch upon what only belongs remotely to this undertaking, but shall relate what hath happened to us Jews with great accuracy, and shall not grudge our pains in giving an account both of the calamities we have suffered, and of the crimes we have been guilty of. I will now therefore return to the relation of our own affairs. 4. For in the first year of the reign of Nero, upon the death of Azizus, king of Emesa, Söemus* his brother succeeded in his kingdom, and Aristobulus, the son of Herod, king of Chalcis, was intrusted by Nero with the government of the Lesser Armenia. Cæsar also bestowed on Agrippa a certain part of Galilee, Tiberiast and Taricheæ, and ordered them to submit to his jurisdiction. He gave him also Julias, a city of Perea, with fourteen villages that lay about it.

5. Now, as for the affairs of the Jews, they grew worse and worse continually, for the country was again filled with robberies, and impostors who deluded the multitude. Yet did Felix catch, and put to death, many of those impostors every day, together with the robbers. He also caught Eleazar, the son of Dineas, who had gotten together a company of robbers: and this he did by treachery, for he gave him assurance, that he should suffer no harm, and thereby persuaded him to come to him; but when he came he bound him, and sent him to Rome. Felix also bore an ill will to Jonathan the high priest, because he frequently gave him admonitions about governing the Jewish affairs better than he did, lest he should himself have complaints made of him by the multitude, since he it was who had desired Cæsar to send him as procurator of Judea. So Felix contrived a method whereby he might get rid of him, now he was become so continually troublesome to him; for such continual admonitions are grievous to those who are disposed to act unjustly. Wherefore Felix persuaded one of Jonathan's most faithful friends, a citizen of Jerusalem, whose name was Doras, to bring the robbers upon Jonathan. in order to kill him; and this he did by promising to give him a great deal of money for so doing. Doras complied with the proposal, and contrived matters so that the robbers might murder him after the following manner: certain of those robbers went up to the city, as if they were going to worship God, while they had daggers under their garments, and by thus mingling themselves among the multitude, they slew Jonathan,‡ and as this murder was never avenged, the This Söemus is elsewhere mentioned [by Josephus in his own Life, sect. 11, as also] by Dio Cassius and Tacitus, as Dr. Hudson informs us.

This agrees with Josephus's frequent accounts elsewhere in his own Life, that Tiberias, and Tarı chea, and Gamala were under this Agrippa junior, till Justus, the son of Pistus, seized upon them for the Jews upon the breaking out of the war.

This treacherous and barbarous murder of the good high priest Jonathan, by the contrivance of this wicked procurator Felix, was the immediate occasion of the ensuing murders by the Sicarii or ruffians, and one great cause of the following horrid cruelties and miseries of the Jewish nation, as Josephus here supposes, whose excellent reflection on the gross wickedness of that nation, as the direct cause of their terrible destruction, is well worthy the attention of every Jewish and of every Christian reader. And, since we are soon coming to the catalogue of the Jewish high priests, it may not be amiss, with Reland to insert this Jonathan among them, and to transcribe his particular catalogue of the last twenty-eigh high priests, taken out of Josephus, and begin with Ananelus, who was made by Herod the Great, See As tiq. B. xv ch. ii. sect. 4, and the note there.

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