108 THE FIRST Zeal of the ZEAL OF THE JEWS. First. We have already described the religious harmony of the ancient world, and the facility with which the most different and even hostile nations embraced, or at least respected, each other's superstitions.* A single people refused to join in the common intercourse of mankind. The Jews, who Thales to those of Cicero, philosophers had been vaguely striving to devise a more rational theology. Though unsuccessful in this, they had diffused around them a general dissatisfaction with the popular worship. To this feeling the first Macedonian rulers of Egypt, unwittingly perhaps, gave an energetic vivacity, by their active patronage of learning, and ingrafted on this a knowledge of the Mosaic religion, by means of the numerous Jews whom they planted and patronized in Alexandria and Cyrene, and by the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. Throughout the East, but more especially in Egypt and Syria, great numbers were thus prepared to abandon heathenism and embrace a spiritual faith. ENGLISH CHURCHMAN. This facility did not always prevent that intolerance which seems inherent in the spirit of religion whenever it is clothed with power. To separate ecclesiastical from civil authority appears to be the only means of preserving at once religion and toleration, but this idea is very modern. Passion blending itself with opinion, often rendered the Pagans intolerant or persecuting, the Persians, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and even the Romans, may be brought in proof of this. Ist. The Persians.-Cambyses, the conqueror of Egypt, condemned the magistrates of Memphis to death, because they had rendered divine honors to their god, Apis; he caused the god to be dragged through the streets, struck him with his dagger, commanded the priests to be beaten with rods, and that all the Egyptians who should be found celebrating the feast of Apis, should be put to the sword, and he burnt all the statues of their gods. Not content with this intolerance, he sent an army to reduce the Ammonians to servitude, and to burn the temple where Jupiter delivered his oracles. (See Herodotus, book iii. c. 25, 27, 28, 29, 37.—Trans. of M. Larcher, vol. iii. p. 22, 24, 25, 33.) Xerxes, during his invasion into Greece, acted on the same principle. He demolished all the temples of Greece and of Ionia, except that of Ephesus. (See Pausanias, book vii, p. 533, and book x. p. 887. Strabo, book xiv. p. 941.) 2d. The Egyptians. They believed themselves polluted whenever they had drank from the same cup, or eaten at the same table with a man of a belief different from their own. "Whoever had designedly killed any sacred animal, was punished "with death, but if any one had killed, even unintentionally, a cat or an ibis, he could not escape the severest punishment; the people dragged him to punish"ment and cruelly treated him, often without waiting till judgment had been pronounced upon him. Even at the time when their king, Ptolemy, was not as yet the "declared friend of the Roman people, and when he paid his court with all possible care to strangers coming from Italy, a Roman having killed a cat, the people "rushed to his house, and neither the entreaties of the nobles, whom the king had sent to them, nor the terror of the Roman name, were sufficiently powerful to rescue the man from punishment, though he had committed the crime involun"tarily." Diod. Sic. i. 83. Juvenal, in his Thirteenth Satire, describes the sanguinary conflict between the inhabitants of Ombos and of Tentyra, from religious animosity. The fury was carried so far, that the conquerors tore and devoured the quivering limbs of the conquered. Ardet adhuc Ombos et Tentyra, summus utrinque 3d. The Greeks,-"Let us not here," says the Abbé Guenée, "refer to the "cities of Peloponnesus and their severity against atheism; the Ephesians prosecuting Heraclitus for impiety; the Greeks armed one against the other by religious zeal, in the Amphictyonic war. Let us say nothing either of the frightful "cruelties inflicted by three successors of Alexander upon the Jews, to force them "to abandon their religion, nor of Antiochus expelling the philosophers from his "states. Let us not seek our proofs of intolerance so far off. Athens, the polite and "learned Athens, will supply us with sufficient examples. Every citizen made a public and solemn vow to conform to the religion of his country, to defend it, and "to cause it to be respected. An express law severely punished all discourses against the gods; and a rigid degree ordered the denunciation of all who should deny their existence. *** The practice was in unison with the severity of the under the Assyrian and Persian monarchies, had languished for many ages the most despised portion of their slaves, emerged from obscurity under the successors of 1 Dum Assyrios penes, Medosque, et Persas Oriens fuit, despectissima pars servientium. Tacit. Hist. v. 8. Herodotus, who visited Asia whilst it obeyed the last of those empires, slightly mentions the Syrians of Palestine, who, according to their own confession, had received from Egypt the rite of circumcision. See Ï. 11. c. 104. law. The proceedings commenced against Protagoras; a price set upon the head "of Diagoras; the danger of Alcibiades; Aristotle obliged to fly; Stilpo banished; Anaxagoras hardly escaping death; Pericles himself, after all his services to his country, and all the glory he had acquired, compelled to appear before the "tribunals and make his defence: ** a priestess executed for having introduced strange gods; Socrates condemned and drinking the hemlock, because he was accused of not recognizing those of his country, &c.; these facts attest too loudly, to be called in question, the religious intolerance of the most humane and en"lightened people in Greece." Lettres de quelques Juifs à Mons. Voltaire, i. p. 221. (Compare Bentley on Freethinking, from which much of this is derived. - M.) 4th. The Romans. The laws of Rome were not less express and severe. The intolerance of foreign religions reaches, with the Romans, as high as the laws of the twelve tables; the prohibitions were afterwards renewed at different times. Intolerance did not discontinue under the emperors; witness the counsel of Mæcenas to Augustus. This counsel is so remarkable, that I think it right to insert it entire. "Honor the gods yourself," says Mæcenas to Augustus, "in every way according to the usage of your ancestors, and compel (àváуkage) others to worship them. Hate and punish those who introduce strange gods (rovç de di ξενίζοντας μ' σει και κόλαζε), not only for the sake of the gods (he who despises "them will respect no one), but because those who introduce new gods engage a multitude of persons in foreign laws and customs. From hence arise unions bound by oaths, and confederacies, and associations, things dangerous to a monarchy." Dion Cass. 1. ii, c. 36. (But, though some may differ from it, see Gibbon's just observation on this passage in Dion Cassius, ch. xvi, note 117; impugned, indeed, by M. Guizot, note in loc.-M.) Even the laws which the philosophers of Athens and of Rome wrote for their imaginary republics are intolerant. Plato does not leave to his citizens freedom of religious worship; and Cicero expressly prohibits them from having other gods than those of the state. Lettres de quelques Juifs á Mons. Voltaire, i. p. 226.-Guizot. According to M. Guizot's just remarks, religious intolerance will always ally itself with the passions of men, however different those passions may be. In the instances quoted above, with the Persians it was the pride of despotism; to conquer the gods of a country was the last mark of subjugation. With the Egyptians, it was the gross Fetichism of the superstitious populace, and the local jealousy of neighboring towns. In Greece, persecution was in general connected with political party; in Rome, with the stern supremacy of the law and the interests of the state. Gibbon has been mistaken in attributing to the tolerant spirit of Paganism that which arose out of the peculiar circumstances of the times. 1st. The decay of the old Polytheism, through the progress of reason and intelligence, and the prevalence of philosophical opinions among the higher orders. 2d. The Roman character, in which the political always predominated over the religious part. The Romans we contented with having bowed the world to a uniformity of subjection to their power, and cared not for establishing the (to them) less important uniformity of religion. - MILMAN. M. Guizot maintains here, that "intolerance seems to be inherent in the religious spirit, when armed with power:" and at some length adduces authorities, to show that persecution was practiced by the Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Some of these are very questionable, as proofs of his assertion; and the "fearful cruelties." attributed to the "successors of Alexander, to make the Jews forsake their religion," are an entire perversion of the facts related by Josephus. The general position might have been better attested; but it will be found, that religious opinions never have been visited by pains and penalties, except to protect the wealth and emolument of the persecutors.-ENG. CHURCHMAN. Both the above editors substantially confirm Gibbon's statements concerning religious toleration, and Guizot shows that "intolerance seems inherent in the "spirit of religion whenever it is clothed with power." Freedom is best preserved by a total separation of ecclesiastical authority from political affairs.-E. Alexander; and as they multiplied to a surprising degree in the East, and afterwards in the West, they soon excited the curiosity and wonder of other nations. The sullen obstinacy with which they maintained their peculiar rites and unsocial manners, seemed to mark them out as a distinct species of men, who boldly professed, or who faintly disguised, their implacable hatred to the rest of human-kind." Neither the violence of Antiochus, nor the arts of Herod, nor the example of the circumjacent nations, could ever persuade the Jews to associate with the institutions of Moses the elegant mythology of the Greeks. According to the maxims of universal toleration, the Romans protected 2 Diodorus Siculus, 1. xl. Dion Cassius, 1. xxxvii. p. 121. Justin, xxxvi. 2, 3. Tacit. Hist. v. 1-9. 3 Tradidit arcano quæcunque volumine Moses, Non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti, Quæsitum ad fontem solos deducere verpos. The letter of this law is not to be found in the present volume of Moses. But the wise, the humane Maimonides openly teaches that if an idolator fall into the water, a Jew ought not to save him from instant death. See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, 1. vi. c. 28.* 4 A Jewish sect, which indulged themselves in a sort of occasional conformity, derived from Herod, by whose example and authority they had been seduced, the name of Herodians. But their numbers were so inconsiderable, and their duration so short, that Josephus has not thought them worthy of his notice. See Prideaux's Connection, vol. ii. p. 285.† * It is diametrically opposed to its spirit and to its letter; see, among other passages, Deut. x. 18, 19, (God) "loveth the stranger in giving him food and raiment. Love ye, therefore, the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of "Egypt." Comp. Lev, xxiii. 25. Juvenal is a satirist, whose strong expressions can hardly be received as historic evidence; and he wrote after the horrible cruelties of the Romans, which, during and after the war, might give some cause for the complete isolation of the Jew from the rest of the world. The Jew was a bigot, but his religion was not the only source of his bigotry. After how many centuries of mutual wrong and hatred, which had still further estranged the Jew from mankind, did Maimonides write?- MILMAN, Maimonides (Tractat, de Idololat. v. 34, vi. 38, x. 69) undoubtedly states the severe construction against idolators, which interpreters of the Hebrew Scriptures put on such passages, as: "thou shalt utterly destroy them," &c.; and, among other instances, cites that which Gibbon has quoted from Basnage. But he neither "teaches," nor inculcates the observance of them as a duty. To have done so, would have been altogether inconsistent with the general character of his writings and his whole course of action. His More Nevochim (Ductor Dubitantium) is considered to be the most rational book that ever came from the pen of a Rabbi, and excited among the bigots of his nation, such fierce animosity against him, that they inscribed their sentence of excommunication even on his tomb. In his post as chief physician to Saladin, it was his employment to save the lives of the men of many faiths whom that liberal prince had collected in his court at Cairo, and whom the Jews regarded as idolators and heathens. By all these his death was lamented. In the page preceding that which he quoted, Gibbon might have seen the real value, not only of such denunciations and antipathies, but also of more positive injunctions; for Basnage there says, that, according to the opinion of Eleazar, Jews might even so far break the second commandment, as to make graven images and ornaments for heathen temples, pourvu qu'on soit bien payé." Hist. des Juifs, tom. vi, partie 2, p. 617.- ENG. CHURCHMAN. The Herodians were probably more of a political party than a religious sect, though Gibbon is most likely right as to their occasional conformity. See Hist. of the Jews, ii. 108. MILMAN. a superstition which they despised. The polite Augustus condescended to give orders that sacrifices should be offered for his prosperity in the temple of Jerusalem;" while the meanest of the posterity of Abraham, who should have paid the same homage to the Jupiter of the Capitol, would have been an object of abhorrence to himself and to his brethren. But the moderation of the conquerors was insufficient to appease the jealous prejudices of their subjects, who were alarmed and scandalized at the ensigns of paganism, which necessarily introduced themselves into a Roman province. The mad attempt of Caligula to place his own statue in the temple of Jerusalem, was defeated by the unanimous resolution of a people who dreaded death much less than such an idolatrous profanation." Their attachment to the law of Moses was equal to their detestation of foreign religions. The current of zeal and devotion, as it was contracted into a narrow channel, ran with the strength, and sometimes with the fury, of a torrent. This inflexible perserverance, which appeared so odious or so ridiculous to the ancient world, assumes a more awful character, since Providence has deigned to reveal to us the mysterious history of the chosen people. But the devout and even scrupulous attachment to the Mosaic religion, so conspicuous among the Jews who lived under the second temple, becomes still more surprising, if it is compared with the stubborn incredulity of their forefathers. When the law was given in thunder from Mount Sinai; when the tides of the ocean, and the course of the planets were suspended for the convenience of the Israelites; and when temporal rewards 5 Cicero pro Flacco, c. 28.* Its gradual increase. 6 Philo de Legatione. Augustus left a foundation for a perpetual sacrifice. Yet he approved of the neglect which his grandson Caius expressed towards the temple of Jerusalem. See Sueton. in August. c. 93, and Casaubon's notes on that passage. 7 See, in particular, Josephi Antiquitat. xvii. 6; xviii. 3; and de Bell. Judaic. i. 33, and ii. 9, edit. Havercamp.t Jussi a Caio Cæsare, effigiem ejus in templo locare, arma potius sumpsere. Tacit. Hist. v. 9. Philo and Josephus give a very circumstantial, but a very thetorical, account of this transaction, which exceedingly perplexed the governor of Syria. At the first mention of this idolatrous proposal, King Agrippa fainted away; and did not recover his senses until the third day. (Hist. of Jews, ii. 181, &c.) *The edicts of Julius Cæsar, and of some of the cities in Asia Minor (Krebs. Decret. pro Judicis), in favor of the nation in general, or of the Asiatic Jews, speak a different language. -MILMAN. + This was during the government of Pontius Pilate. (Hist. of Jews, 11. 156.) Probably in part to avoid this collision, the Roman governor, in general, resided at Caesarea. - MILMAN. 112 UNBELIEF OF THE FIRST JEWS. and punishments were the immediate consequences of their piety or disobedience, they perpetually relapsed into rebellion against the visible majesty of their Divine King, placed the idols of the nations in the sanctuary of Jehovah, and imitated every fantastic ceremony that was practised in the tents of the Arabs, or in the cities of Phoenicia.' As the protection of Heaven was deservedly withdrawn. from the ungrateful race, their faith acquired a proportionable degree of vigor and purity. The contemporaries of Moses and Joshua had beheld with careless indifference the most amazing miracles. Under the pressure of every calamity, the belief of those miracles has preserved the Jews of a later period from the universal contagion of idolatry; and in contradiction to every known principle of the human mind, that singular people seems to have yielded a stronger and more ready assent to the traditions of their remote ancestors, than to the evidence of their own senses.10 The Jewish religion was admirably fitted for better suited defence, but it was never designed for conquest; to defence than and it seems probable that the number of proselytes was never much superior to that of apostates. The divine promises were originally made, and the distinguishing rite of circumcision was enjoined to a single family. When the posterity of Abraham had multiplied like the sands of the sea, the Deity, from whose Their religion to conquest. 9 For the enumeration of the Syrian and Arabian deities, it may be observed that Milton has comprised in one hundred and thirty very beautiful lines the two large and learned syntagmas which Selden had composed on that abstruse subject. 10 How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they "believe me, for all the signs which I have shown among them?" (Numbers xiv. 11.) It would be easy, but it would be unbecoming, to justify the complaint of the Deity from the whole tenor of the Mosaic history.* Among a rude and barbarous people, religious impressions are easily made, and are as soon effaced. The ignorance which multiplies imaginary wonders, would weaken or destroy the effect of real miracle. At the period of the Jewish history, referred to in the passage from Numbers, their fears predominated over their faith, the fears of an unwarlike people, just rescued from debasing slavery, and commanded to attack a fierce, a well-armed, a gigantic, and a far more numerous race, the inhabitants of Canaan. As to the frequent apostasy of the Jews, their religion was beyond their state of civilization. Nor is it uncommon for a people to cling with passionate attachment to that of which, at first, they could not appreciate the value. Patriotism and national pride will contend, even to death, for political rights which have been forced upon a reluctant people. The Christian may at least retort, with justice, that the great sign of his religion, the resurrection of Jesus, was most ardently believed, and most resolutely asserted by the eye-witnesses of the fact. - MILMAN. Gibbon quotes Moses to show that the Jews did not believe in Jehovah, even when receiving his laws and commandments. Milman asserts that the early Christians did believe in the resurrection of Jesus at the time of its occurrence. But what possible connection has their belief in this dogma with the skepticism of the Jews in regard to Jehovah? - E. |