I shall have occasion to speak of other bodies and parties by and by; but having explained the nature and the views of these three, it may be better, for the present, if I resume the thread of our history.

B. C. 106. - Hyrcanus left behind him several sons, of whom the eldest, by name Aristobulus, wore the crown one year. He committed some grievous crimes in the course of his short life, and died a prey to remorse. Alexander, his second son, then mounted the throne, and held it twenty-seven years, amid constant wars, either foreign or domestic. Fifty thousand Pharisees are computed to have fallen in the attempt to displace him, for the Pharisees were his great enemies; but he succeeded in putting down all opposition, and largely extended the bounds of the principality. At his death, which occurred (B. C. 79), his widow, Alexandria, secured the government for herself, and making friends with the Pharisees, easily prevailed upon them to support her. But the queen died also in B. c. 70, and civil war between her sons, Hyrcanus II. and Aristobulus, at once broke out. On the side of Aristobulus the Sadducees ranged themselves; the Pharisees to a man espoused the cause of Hyrcanus. Mainly because of the weakness of Hyrcanus's personal character, the party of Aristobulus prevailed, and in B. C. 69 he was accepted as second of that name on the throne of Judah. But a power more formidable than any with which the Jews had yet dealt, was already in the field. The Romans, pushing their conquests over Asia Minor into Egypt, arrived under Pompey, one of their great leaders, at Damascus ; and refused to be conciliated by the gifts which Aristobulus offered to them. They moved slowly, however, and thus gave time

HYRCANUS DEFEATED BY THE ROMANS. 249

for a renewal of the war between the brothers; the progress of which brought prominently forward a family, destined ere long to play a conspicuous part in Jewish politics.

Of the successes in war of Alexander, the father of the two princes who now fought for the crown of Jerusalem, including his conquest of Idumea, and his forcible conversion of its inhabitants to Judaism, notice has been taken in a former chapter. He found on invading the latter country a noble family, which either in reality or in pretence favoured his views, and he appointed the head of it, by name Antipas, to act as his governor of the conquered province. The son of this Antipas, likewise called Antipas or Antipater, espoused the cause of Hyrcanus II. in the civil war; and both he and his son Herod did good service on various occasions. Among other attempts to serve these princes, they prevailed upon an Arab chief, called Aretas, to come to the assistance of Hyrcanus with 50,000 men; and at the head of this force, supported by the party of the Pharisees, they besieged Aristobulus in Jerusalem. But the movement, however kindly meant, proved unfortunate in its issue. Jealous of the interference of a foreign power, the Romans marched against the Arabs, and Hyrcanus being attacked while retreating to avoid a battle, was defeated and forced to flee.

.

He

Pompey seems to have entertained no thought of recognising the claim of Aristobulus II. intended to reduce Judæa to the state of a conquered province, and it was to no purpose that by supplications and presents Aristobulus sought to divert him from that intention. Neither was an attempt, which Aristobulus made in his extremity, to hold Jerusalem by force of arms, more fortunate.

Hyrcanus had a strong party within the walls, and rather than submit to one whom they regarded as a usurper, they secretly opened one of the gates, and admitted Pompey into the city. The temple still remained, however, and thither Aristobulus retreated; but though strong in itself, and stoutly defended, it could not hold out long, and being taken by assault, it was plundered and set on fire. Upwards of 12,000 Jews fell in the assault, many of them within the sanctuary itself.

B. C. 64. During the ascendancy of the party of which Pompey was at the head, Judea ceased even in name to take a place among the kingdoms. It was under the rigid administration of Roman quæstors. But by holding out to Antipater the hope of better things, Cæsar easily enlisted the Idumeans in his service, from whom, as well as from the Jews, he derived considerable aid in his Asiatic war; and the consequence was that, suffering Hyrcanus to secure the office of high priest, he nominated Antipater to be procurator of Judea, and placed the two sons of that chief in the governments, one of Jerusalem, the other of Galilee. Herod, to whom the latter province fell, rendered himself conspicuous by the gallantry and skill with which he rooted out and chased away the bands of robbers which infested it. Antipater and Phasael, being nearer to the seat of government, became objects of unmitigated jealousy to the high priest and his friends. They could not, however, be got rid of; and even Cæsar's murder, though it threw the whole civilised world into a ferment, did not suffice to loosen the chain which this able but unprincipled family of Idumeans had wound round the liberties of the Jewish people. An attempt was indeed made to break the spell; and Antipater himself died by poison. But Herod kept the field; and

REIGN OF HEROD.

251

Hyrcanus did not hesitate to purchase his forbearance by giving to him in marriage his daughter Mariamne. Herod desired no more. By skilfully playing into the hands of the various parties which struggled for ascendancy at Rome, he got himself appointed Tetrarch of Palestine, under Hyrcanus. The step from this place to the throne itself was not wide in itself; and circumstances narrowed it. Hyrcanus lost favour with the Pharisees in proportion as he appeared to depend upon Herod. Another civil war broke out unfavourably for Hyrcanus and his party, and Herod, applying to Rome for assistance, was himself advanced to the Jewish throne. He was consecrated in the temple of Jupiter at Rome, B. C. 34.

B. C. 34. - Herod's reign lasted in all thirty-five years. It began amid violence and strife, was prolonged through a series of horrible crimes, and ended with the life of the tyrant, under the shadow of deep remorse. Jealous of all who approached him, he put to death his own wife, his own sons, and his own sister. He alternately courted and oppressed his people, embellishing Jerusalem at an enormous cost, and filling both it and the other towns of his realm with theatres and statues in honour of Augustus his patron. Herod had no hold either upon the personal regard or the traditionary reverence of the Jews. Anxious to assimilate their practices to those of the Romans, he encouraged the growth among them of a third sect which took the name of Herodians, and which, without denying the divine authority of the Law and the Prophets, professed to regard as innocent customs arising out of heathenism. Herod's great work was, however, the rebuilding of the temple, in which he made use of the most costly materials. He began the work in the year

17 before Christ; and in eight years the sanctuary was finished, many of the courts and outer chambers being moreover in a fit state to be used. But it was still in progress when the Jews spoke of it as having been forty years under the hands of the architect, and was not completed till A.D. 62.

Such was the condition of Judah when those great events befell of which we read a detailed and accurate account in the New Testament. To this I now turn.

CHAP. XLII.

THE NEW TESTAMENT.

INTRODUCTORY.

THE fulness of time was come. Four thousand years of moral training had fitted the world for the reception of Him who was not only to reveal to it the nature and the will of the great Creator, but by the sacrifice of his own life upon the cross to make an atonement for the sins of many generations. That part in God's economy which the children of Israel had been chosen to play, was complete. After keeping alive in a corner of Asia Minor a spark of Divine truth amid ages of religious darkness elsewhere, they had contributed in latter years, by their dispersion through many lands, to diffuse its light over a far wider circle. Their Scriptures, translated into Greek, were accessible to every cholar of every nation. The teaching of Daniel

his friends had established a school of pure m in Assyria. At Alexandria, in a temple