in his expenditure, magnificent in his buildings, especially in No very long time after the perpetration of this crime, Herod died, having suffered the most excruciating pains, in the thirty-seventh year of his being declared king of the Jews by the Romans. The tidings of his decease were received by his oppressed subjects with universal joy and satisfac tion. Herod had a numerous offspring by his different wives, although their number was greatly reduced by his unnatural cruelty in putting many of them to death: but, as few of his descendants are mentioned in the Sacred Volume, we shall notice only those persons of whom it is requisite that some account should be given for the better understanding of the New Testament. The annexed table2 will, perhaps, be found useful in distinguishing the particular persons of this family, whose names occur in the evangelical histories. ANTIPAS or ANTIPATER, an Idumæan, appointed prefect of Judæa and Syria by Julius Cæsar. HEROD, misnamed the Great, by his will divided his dominions among his three sons, Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Herod Philip. 2. TO ARCHELAUS he assigned Judæa, Samaria, and Idumea, with the regal dignity, subject to the approbation of Augustus, who ratified his will as it respected the territorial division, but conferred on Archelaus the title of Ethnarch, or chief of the nation, with a promise of the regal dignity, if he should prove himself worthy of it. Archelaus entered upon his new office amid the loud acclamations of his sublects, who considered him as a king; hence the evangelist, (Matt. ii. 22.) His reign, however, commenced inauspiin conformity with the Jewish idiom, says that he reigned ciously: for, after the death of Herod, and before Archelaus could go to Rome to obtain the confirmation of his father's will, the Jews having become very tumultuous at the temple in consequence of his refusing them some demands, Archelaus ordered his soldiers to attack them; on which occasion upwards of three thousand were slain. On Archelaus going to Rome to solicit the regal dignity (agreeably to the prac tice of the tributary kings of that age, who received their crowns from the Roman emperor), the Jews sent an embassy, consisting of fifty of their principal men, with a petition to Augustus that they might be permitted to live according to their own laws, under a Roman governor. To this circum"When Herod," says the accurate Lardner, "had gained possession stance our Lord evidently alludes in the parable related by of Jerusalem by the assistance of the Romans, and his rival Antigonus was Saint Luke. (xix. 12—27.) A certain nobleman (wyens, a taken prisoner, and in the hands of the Roman general Sosius, and by him carried to Mark Antony, Herod, by a large sum of money, persuaded An- man of birth or rank, the son of Herod), went into a far tony to put him to death. Herod's great fear was, that Antigonus might country (Italy), to receive for himself a kingdom (that of Ju some time revive his pretensions, as being of the Asmonæan family. Aris: dæa) and to return. But his citizens (the Jews) hated him tobulus, brother of his wife Mariamne, was murdered by his directions at and sent a message (or embassy) after him (to Augustus eighteen years of age, because the people at Jerusalem had shown some affection for his person. In the seventh year of his reign from the death Cæsar), saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us." of Antigonus, he put to death Hyrcanus, grandfather of Mariamne, then The Jews, however, failed in their request, and Archelaus, eighty years of age, and who had saved Herod's life when he was prose having received the kingdom (or ethnarchy), on his return cuted by the Sanhedrin; a man who, in his youth and in the vigour of his life, and in all the revolutions of his fortune, had shown a mild and peaceable inflicted a severe vengeance on those who would not that he disposition. His beloved wife, the beautiful and virtuous Mariamne, had a should reign over them. The application of this parable is to public execution, and her mother Alexandra followed soon after. Alexander and Aristobulus, his two sons by Mariamne, were strangled in prison by Jesus Christ, who foretells, that, on his ascension, he would his order upon groundless suspicions, as it seems, when they were at man's go into a distant country, to receive the kingdom from his estate, were married, and had children. I say nothing of the death of his Father; and that he would return, at the destruction of Jerueldest son Antipater. If Josephus's character of him be just, he was a miscreant, and deserved the worst death that could be inflicted; in his last sick- salem, to take vengeance on those who rejected him. The ness, a little before he died, he sent orders throughout Judæa, requiring subsequent reign of Archelaus was turbulent, and dis the presence of all the chief men of the nation at Jericho. His orders were graced by insurrections of the Jews against the Romans, and obeyed, for they were enforced with no less penalty than that of death. When these men were come to Jericho, he had them all shut up in the also by banditti and pretenders to the crown: at length, after circus, and calling for his sister Salome, and her husband Alexas, he told repeated complaints against his tyranny and mal-administra them, My life is now but short; I know the dispositions of the Jewish tion, made to Augustus by the principal Jews and Samari. people, and nothing will please them more than my death. 'You have these men in your custody; as soon as the breath is out of my body, and before tans, who were joined by his own brothers, Archelaus was my death can be known, do you let in the soldiers upon them and kill them. deposed and banished to Vienne in Gaul, in the tenth year of All Judæa and every family will then, though unwillingly, mourn at my his reign; and his territories were annexed to the Roman death. Nay, Josephus says, That with tears in his eyes he conjured them by their love to him, and their fidelity to God, not to fail of doing him province of Syria." this honour; and they promised they would not fail;' these orders, indeed, were not executed. But as a modern historian of very good sense observes, 'the history of this his most wicked design takes off all objection against the truth of murdering the innocents, which may be made from the incredi bility of so barbarous and horrid an act. For this thoroughly shows, that there can nothing be imagined so cruel, barbarous, and horrid, which this man was not capable of doing.' It may also be proper to observe, that almost all the executions I have instanced, were sacrifices to his state jealousy, and love of empire." Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xiv. c. 23. 25, 26. 28. lib. xvi. c. 7, 8. 11, 12. lib. xvii. c. 6. Lardner's Credibility, part i. book ii. c. 2. $1. From Schulz's Archæologia Hebraica, p. 54. Reland has given a gene alogical table of the entire Herodian family. (Palæstina, tom. i. p. 174.) 3. HEROD ANTIPAS (or Antipater), another of Herod's sons, received from his father the district of Galilee and This circumstance probably deterred the Holy Family from settling in Judæa on their return from Egypt; and induced them by the divine admonition to return to their former residence at Nazareth in Galilee. (Matt. ii. 22, 23.) Dr. Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii. p. 717. Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xvii. c. 9. § 3. c. 11. Harwood's Introduction, vol. i. p. 294. There is an impressive application of this parable in Mr. Jones's Lectures on the figurative Language of Scripture, lect. v. near the beginning. (Works, vol. iii. pp. 35, 36.) Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xvii. c. 11. (al. xii.) § 2. c. 13. L xiv.) Peraa, with the title of Tetrarch. He is described by Jose- | returned to her brother, and became the mistress, first of phus as a crafty and incestuous prince, with which character Vespasian, and then of Titus, who would have married het, the narratives of the evangelists coincide; for, having de- but that he was unwilling to displease the Romans, who serted his wife, the daughter of Aretas king of Arabia, he were averse to such a step.7 forcibly took away and married Herodias the wife of his brother Herod Philip, a proud and cruel woman, to gratify whom he caused John the Baptist to be beheaded (Matt. xiv. 3 Mark v.. 17. Luke iii. 19.), who had provoked her vengeance by his faithful reproof of their incestuous nuptials; though Josephus ascribes the Baptist's death to Herod's apprehension, lest the latter should by his influence raise an insurrection among the people. It was this Herod that laid snares for our Saviour; who, detecting his insidious intentions, termed him a fox (Luke xiii. 32.), and who was subsequently ridiculed by him and his soldiers. (Luke xxiii. 711.) Some years afterwards, Herod, aspiring to the regal dignity in Judæa, was banished together with his wife, first to Lyons in Gaul, and thence into Spain.2 (2.) DRUSILLA, her sister, and the youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa, was distinguished for her beauty, and was equally celebrated with Bernice for her profligacy. She was first espoused to Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus, king of Comagena, on condition of his embracing the Jewish religion; but as he afterwards refused to be circumcised, she was given in marriage, by her brother, to Azizus king of Emessa, who submitted to that rite. When Felix came into Judæa, as procurator or governor of Judæa, he persuaded her to abandon her husband and marry him. Josephus says that she was induced to transgress the laws of her country, and become the wife of Felix, in order to avoid the envy of her sister Bernice, who was continually doing her ill offices on account of her beauty.9 SECTION II. 4. PHILIP, tetrarch of Trachonitis, Gaulonitis, and Batanæa, is mentioned but once in the New Testament. (Luke iii. 1.) He is represented by Josephus as an amiable prince, beloved by his subjects, whom he governed with mildness and equity:3 on his decease without issue, after a reign of thirty-seven years, his territories were annexed to the POLITICAL STATE OF THE JEWS UNDER The Roman procuraprovince of Syria.4 I. TORS, TO THE SUBVERSION OF THEIR CIVIL AND ECCLESIAS- Powers and functions of the Roman procurators.—II. PË‐ litical and civil state of the Jews under their administration. -III. Account of Pontius Pilate.-IV. And of the procurators Felix and Festus. I. THE Jewish kingdom, which the Romans had created 5. AGRIPPA, or Herod Agrippa I., was the son of Aristobulus, and grandson of Herod the Great, and sustained various reverses of fortune previously to his attaining the royal dignity. At first he resided at Rome as a private person, and ingratiated himself into the favour of the emperor Tiberius: but being accused of wishing him dead that Caligula might reign, he was thrown into prison by order of Tiberius. On the accession of Caligula to the empire, in favour of Herod the Great, was of short duration; expir Agrippa was created king of Batanæa and Trachonitis, to which Abilene, Judæa, and Samaria were subsequently added by the emperor Claudius. Returning home to his dominions, he governed them much to the satisfaction of his subjects (for whose gratification he put to death the apostle James, and meditated that of St. Peter, who was miraculously delivered, Acts xii. 2-17.); but, being inflated with pride on account of his increasing power and grandeur, he was struck with a noisome and painful disease, of which he died at Cæsarea in the manner related by St. Luke. (Acts xii. 21 -23.)5 6. HEROD AGRIPPA II., or Junior, was the son of the preceding Herod Agrippa, and was educated under the auspices of the emperor Claudius: being only seventeen years of age; at the time of his father's death, he was judged to be unequal to the task of governing the whole of his dominions. These were again placed under the direction of a Roman procurator or governor, and Agrippa was first king of Chalcis, and afterwards of Batanæa, Trachonitis, and Abilene, to which other territories were subsequently added, over which he seems to have ruled, with the title of king. It was before this Agrippa and his sister Bernice that St. Paul delivered his masterly defence (Acts xxvi.), where he is expressly termed a king. He was the last Jewish prince of the Herodian family, and for a long time survived the destruction of Jeru salem. 7. Besides Herodias, who has been mentioned above, the two following princesses of the Herodian family are mentioned in the New Testament; viz. (1.) BERNICE, the eldest daughter of king Herod Agrippa I. and sister to Agrippa II. (Acts xxv. 13. 23. xxvi. 30.) was first married to her uncle Herod king of Chalcis; after whose death, in order to avoid the merited suspicion of incest with her brother Agrippa, she became the wife of Polemon, king of Cilicia. This connection being soon dissolved, she ing on his death, by the division of his territories, and by strong.16 Concerning the meaning of this term learned men are by no means agreed. In its primary and original signification it implies a governor of the fourth part of a country; and this seems to have been the first meaning Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xix. c. 1. § 1. lib. xx. c. 7. §3. Tacitus, Hist. lib. affixed to it. But afterwards it was given to the governors of a province, ii. c. 81. Suetonius in Tito, c. 7. Juvenal, Sat. vi. 155. whether their government was the fourth part of a country or not: for He. Ant. Jud. lib. xx. c. 7. § 1, 2. Acts xxiv. 24. rod divided his kingdom only into three parts. The Tetrarchs, however, Schulzii Archæologia Hebraica, pp. 49-59. Pritii Introd. ad Nov. Test, were regarded as princes, and sometimes were complimented with the title pp. 429-444. Dr. Lardner's Credibility, vol. i. book i. ch. 1. $$ 1-11 of king. (Matt. xiv. 9.) Beausobre's Introd. to the New Test. (Bp. Wat-Works, vol. i. pp. 11-30. 8vo. or vol. i. pp. 9-18. 4to.) Carpzovii Antiqui son's Tracts, vol. iii. p. 123.) The Romans conferred this title on those tates Hebræ Gentis, pp. 15-19. princes whom they did not choose to elevate to the regal dignity; the Tetraich was lower in point of rank than a Roman governor of a province. Schulzii, Archeol. Hebr. pp. 18, 19. Jahn, Archæol. Bibl. § 240. Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xviii. c. 7. Ibid. lib. xvii. c. 8. § 1. lib. xviii. c. 5. §4. De Bell. Jud. lib. i. c. 33. §8. lib. ii. c. 6. §3. Ibid. Ant. Jud. lib. xviii. c. 4. §6. Ibid. lib. xviii. cc. 5-8. Ibid. lib. xix. c. 9. De Bell. Jud. lib. ii. ec. 12, 13. 10 Josephus (Ant. Jud. lib. xx. c. 4. §4. and de Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 16. § 1. mentions instances in which the Roman procurators thus took council with their assessors. 11 Suetonius, in Augusto, c. 24. 13 Tacitus, Annal. lib. ii. cc. 54, 55. lib. i. cc. 40, 41. 14 Ibid. lib. iii. cc. 33, 34. 10 Biscoe on the Acts, vol. i. pp. 330–335. mand the temple, and part in the prætorium or governor's palace. These procurators were Romans, sometimes of the equestrian order, and sometimes freedmen of the emperor: Felix (Acts xxiii. 24-26. xxvi. 3. 22—27.) was a freedman of the emperor Claudius,' with whom he was in high favour. These governors were sent, not by the senate, but by the Cæsars themselves, into those provinces which were situated on the confines of the empire, and were placed at the emperor's own disposal. Their duties consisted in collecting and remitting tribute, in the administration of justice, and the repression of tumults; some of them held independent jurisdictions, while others were subordinate to the proconsul or governor of the nearest province. Thus Judæa was annexed to the province of Syria. III. Of the various procurators that governed Judæa under the Romans, PONTIUS PILATE is the best known, and most frequently mentioned in the sacred writings.-He is supposed to have been a native of Italy, and was sent to govern Judæa about the year A. D. 26 or 27. Pilate is characterized by Josephus as an unjust and cruel governor, sanguinary, obstínate, and impetuous; who disturbed the tranquillity of Judæa by persisting in carrying into Jerusalem the effigies of Tiberius Cæsar that were upon the Roman ensigns, and by other acts of oppression, which produced tumults among the Jews." Dreading the extreme jealousy and suspicion of Tiberius, he delivered up the Redeemer to be crucified, contrary to the conviction of his better judgment: and in the vain hope of conciliating the Jews whom he had oppressed. After he had held his office for ten years, having caused a number of innocent Samaritans to be put to death, that injured people sent an embassy to Vitellius, proconsul of Syria; by whom he was ordered to Rome, to give an account of his mal-administration to the emperor. But Tiberius being dead before he arrived there, his successor Caligula banished him to Gaul, where he is said to have committed suicide about the year of Christ 41.6 II. The Jews endured their subjection to the Romans with great reluctance, on account of the tribute which they were obliged to pay but in all other respects they enjoyed a large measure of national liberty. It appears from the whole tenor of the New Testament (for the particular passages are too numerous to be cited), that they practised their own religious rites, worshipped in the temple and in their synagogues, followed their own customs, and lived very much according IV. On the death of king Herod Agrippa, Judæa being to their own laws. Thus they had their high-priests, and again reduced to a Roman province, the government of it council or senate; they inflicted lesser punishments; they was confided to ANTONIUS FELIX; who had originally been could apprehend men and bring them before the council; and the slave, then the freedman of Nero, and, through the influif a guard of soldiers was necessary, could be assisted by ence of his brother Pallas, also a freedman of that emperor, them, on requesting them of the governor. Further, they was raised to the dignity of procurator of Judæa. He libecould bind men and keep them in custody; the council could rated that country from banditti and impostors (the very likewise summon witnesses and take examinations; they worthy deeds alluded to by Tertullus, Acts xxiv. 2.); but he could excommunicate persons, and they could inflict scourg- was in other respects a cruel and avaricious governor, inconing in their synagogue (Deut. xxv. 3. Matt. x. 17. Mark tinent, intemperate, and unjust. So oppressive at length did xiii. 9.); they enjoyed the privilege of referring litigated his administration become, that the Jews accused him before questions to arbitrators, whose decisions in reference to them Nero, and it was only through the powerful interposition of the Roman prætor was bound to see put in execution.3 Pallas that Felix escaped condign punishment. His third' Beyond this, however, they were not allowed to go; for, wife, Drusilla, has already been mentioned. It was before when they had any capital offenders, they carried them before these persons that St. Paul, with singular propriety, reasoned the procurator, who usually paid a regard to what they of righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come. (Acts stated, and, if they brought evidence of the fact, pronounced xxiv. 25.) On the resignation of Felix, A. D. 60, the governsentence according to their laws. He was the proper judgement of Judæa was committed to PORTIUS FESTUS, before in all capital causes; for, after the council of the Jews had whom Paul defended himself against the accusations of the taken under their consideration the case of Jesus Christ, Jews (Acts xxv.), and appealed from his tribunal to that of which they pretended was of this kind, they went with it Cæsar. Finding his province overrun with robbers and murimmediately to the governor, who re-examined it and pro- derers, Festus strenuously exerted himself in suppressing nounced sentence. That they had not the power of life and their outrages. He died in Judæa about the year 62.8 death is evident from Pilate's granting to them the privilege of judging, but not of condemning Jesus Christ, and also from their acknowledgment to Pilate-It is not lawful for us to put any man to death (John xviii. 31.); and likewise from the power vested in Pilate of releasing a condemned criminal to them at the passover (John xviii. 39, 40.), which he could not have done if he had not had the power of life and death, as well as from his own declaration that he had power to crucify and power to release Jesus Christ. (John xix. 10.) 1 Suetonius in Claudio, c. 28. See Dr. Lardner's Credibility, part i. book ii. c. 2. where the various passages are adduced and fully considered. Cod. lib. i. tit. 9. 1. 8. de Judæis.-As the Christians were at first re garded as a sect of the Jews, they likewise enjoyed the same privilege. This circumstance will account for Saint Paul's blaming the Corinthian Christians for carrying their causes before the Roman prætor, instead of leaving them to referees chosen from among their brethren. (1 Cor. vi. 1-7.) The celebrated Roman Jurist, Ulpian, states that the governors of the Roman provinces had the right of the sword; which implied the authority of punishing malefactors; an authority which was personal, and not to be transferred. (Lib. vi. c. 8. de Officio Proconsulis.) And Josephus states (De Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 8. § 1.) that Coponius, who was sent to govern Judæa as a province after the banishment of Archelaus, was invested by Augustus with the power of life and death. (Bp. Gray's Connection of Sacred and Profane Literature, vol. i. p. 273. See also Dr. Lardner's Credibility, c. 2. § 6.) The case of the Jews stoning Stephen (Acts vii. 56, 57.) has been urged by some learned men as a proof that the former had the power of life and death, but the circumstances of that case do not support this assertion. Stephen, it is true, had been examined before the great "council, who had heard witnesses against hi.a, but nowhere do we read that they had collected votes or proceeded to the giving of sentence, or The situation of the Jews under the two last-mentioned procurators was truly deplorable. Distracted by tumults, excited on various occasions, their country was overrun with robbers that plundered all the villages whose inhabitants refused to listen to their persuasions to shake off the Roman yoke. Justice was sold to the highest bidder; and even the sacred office of high-priest was exposed to sale. But, of all the procurators, no one abused his power more than GESSIUS FLORUS, a cruel and sanguinary governor, and so extremely avaricious that he shared with the robbers in their booty, and allowed them to follow their nefarious practices with impunity. Hence considerable numbers of the wretched Jews, with their families, abandoned their native country; while those who remained, being driven to desperation, took up arms against the Romans, and thus commenced that war, which terminated in the destruction of Judæa, and the taking away of their name and nation.10 even to pronounce him guilty: all which ought to have been done, if the proceedings had been regular. Before Stephen could finish his defence, a sudden tumult arose; the people who were present rushed with one accord upon him, and casting him out of the city, stoned him before the affair could be taken before the Roman procurator. Pritii Introd. ad Nov. Test. p. 592. 14. Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xviii. c. 3. §§ 1, 2. Ibid. lib. xviii. c. 4. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. ii. cc. 7, 8. Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xx. c. 8. §§ 9, 10. De Bell. Jud. lib. ii. .. 10 Schulzii Archæologia Hebraica, pp. 59–66. CHAPTER III. COURTS OF JUDICATURE, LEGAL PROCEEDINGS, AND CRIMINAL LAW OF THE JEWS. SECTION I. JEWISH COURTS OF JUDICATURE AND LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.' Seat of Justice.-II. Inferior Tribunals.—III. Appeals.-Constitution of the Sanhedrin or Great Council.-IV. Time of Trials-Form of legal Proceedings among the Jews.-1. Citation of the Parties.-2, 3. Form of Pleading in civil and criminal Cases.-4. Witnesses.-Oaths.--5. The Lot, in what Cases used judicially.-6. Forms of Acquittal.-7. Summary Justice, sometimes clamorously demanded.--V. Execution of Sentences, by whom and in what manner performed. or less honourable place in the synagogue. And the context shows, that judges and judicial causes were the subjects of the apostle's thoughts.3 II. On the settlement of the Israelites in the land of Canaan, Moses commanded them to appoint judges and officers in all their gates, throughout their tribes (Deut. xvi. 18.); whose duty it was to exercise judicial authority in the neighbouring villages; but weighty causes and appeals were carried before the supreme judge or ruler of the commonwealth. (Deut. xvii. 8, 9.) According to Josephus, these inferior judges were seven in number, men zealous in the exercise of virtue and righteousness. To each judge (that is, to each college of judges in every city) two officers were assigned out of the tribe of Levi. These judges existed in the time of that historian; and, although the rabbinical writers are silent concerning them, yet their silence neither does nor can outweigh the evidence of an eye-witness and magistrate, who himself appointed such judges. I. In the early ages of the world, the Gate of the City was the SEAT OF JUSTICE, where conveyances of titles and estates were made, complaints were heard and justice done, and all public business was transacted. Thus Abraham made the acquisition of the sepulchre in the presence of all those who entered in at the gate of the city of Hebron. (Gen. xxiii. 10. 18.) When Hamor and his son Shechem proposed to make an alliance with Jacob and his sons, they spoke of it to the people at the gate of the city. (Gen. xxxiv. 24.) In later times Boaz, having declared his intention of marrying Ruth, at the gate of Bethlehem caused her kinsman to resign his pretensions, and give him the proper conveyance to the estate. (Ruth iv. 1-10.) From the circumstance of the gates of cities being the seat of justice, the judges appear to have been termed the Elders of the Gate (Deut. xxii. 15. xxv. 7.); for, as all the Israelites were husbandmen, who went out in the morning to work, and did not return until night, the city gate was the place of greatest resort. By this ancient practice, the judges were compelled, by a dread of The Priests and Levites, who, from their being devoted public displeasure, to be most strictly impartial, and most to the study of the law, were, consequently, best skilled in carefully to investigate the merits of the causes which were its various precepts, and old men, who were eminent for brought before them. The same practice obtained after the their age and virtue, administered justice to the people in captivity. (Zech. viii. 16.) The Ottoman court, it is well consequence of their age, the name of elders became attached known, derived its appellation of the Porte, from the distri- to them. Many instances of this kind occur in the New Tes bution of justice and the despatch of public business at its tament; they were also called rulers, aportes. (Luke xii. 58. gates. During the Arabian monarchy in Spain, the same where ruler is synonymous with judge.) The law of Moses practice obtained; and the magnificent gate of entrance to the contained the most express prohibitions of bribery (Exod. Moorish palace of Alhamra at Grenada to this day retains the xxii. 8.) and partiality; enjoining them to administer jusappellation of the Gate of Justice or of Judgment. To the tice without respect of persons, and reminding them, that a practice of dispensing justice at the gates of cities, there are judge sits in the seat of God, and, consequently, that no man numerous allusions in the Sacred Volume. For instance, in ought to have any pre-eminence in his sight, neither ought Job v. 4. the children of the wicked are said to be crushed in he to be afraid of any man in declaring the law. (Exod. xxiii. the gate; that is, they lose their cause, and are condemned in 3. 6, 7. Lev. xix. 15. Deut. i. 17. xvi. 18, 19.) The prothe court of judgment. The Psalmist (cxxvii. 5.), speaking phet Amos (viii. 6.) reproaches the corrupt judges of his of those whom God has blessed with many children, says time, with taking not only silver, but even so trifling an artithat they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the cle of dress as a pair of (wooden) sandals, as a bribe, to enemies in the gate; that is, those who are thus blessed shall condemn the innocent poor who could not afford to make courageously plead their cause, and need not fear the want them a present of equal value. Turkish officers and their of justice when they meet their adversaries in the court of wives in Asia, to this day, go richly clothed in costly silks judicature. Compare Prov. xxii. 22. and xxxi. 23. Lament. given them by those who have causes depending before v. 14. Amos v. 12., in all which passages the gate, and elders them." It is probable, at least in the early ages after the setof the land or of the gate, respectively denote the seat of jus-tlement of the Jews in Canaan, that their judges rode on tice and the judges who presided there. And as the gates of white asses, by way of distinction (Judges v. 10.), as the a city constituted its strength, and as the happiness of a peo-Mollahs or men of the law do to this day in Persia, and the ple depended much upon the wisdom and integrity of the judges who sat there, it may be that our Saviour alluded to this circumstance, when he said, The gates of hell shall not prevail against his church (Matt. xvi. 18.); that is, neither the strength nor policy of Satan or his instruments shall ever be able to overcome it. In the time of Jesus Christ the Jews held courts of judicature in their synagogues, where they punished offenders by Scourging. (Matt. x. 17. Acts xxii. 19. xxvi. 11.) After their example, Dr. Macknight thinks it probable, that the first Christians held courts for determining civil causes, in the places where they assembled for public worship, called your synagogue in the epistle of James. (ii. 2. Gr.) It is evident, he adds, that the apostle speaks not of their assembly, but of the place where their assembly was held, from his mentioning the litigants as sitting in a more honourable 1 Besides the authorities incidentally cited in the course of this section, the following works have been consulted for it, throughout; viz. Schulzii Archæologia Hebraica, pp. 66-81.; Calmet, Dissertation sur la Police des Hebreux (Dissertations, tom. i. pp. 187-204.); Alber, Hermeneutica Vet. Test. pp. 234-238.; Pritii Introd. ad Nov. Test. pp. 575-594.: Brunings Antiq. Hebr. pp. 99-107.; Home's Hist. of the Jews, vol. ii. pp. 30-41.; Jahn, Archæol. Biblica, §§ 243-248.; Ackermann, Archæol. Bibl. §§ 237 -243. 2 Murphy's Arabian Anti uities of Spain, plates xiv. xv. pp. 8, 9. heads of families returning from their pilgrimage to Mecca.9 III. From these inferior tribunals, appeals lay to a higher court, in cases of importance. (Deut. xvii. 8—12.) In Jeru salem, it is not improbable that there were superior courts, in which David's sons presided. Psalm cxxii. 5. seems to allude to them: though we do not find that a supreme tribunal was established at Jerusalem earlier than in the reign of Jehoshaphat. (2 Chron. xix. 8-11.) It was composed of Josephus, De Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 20. § 5. Ernesti Institutio Interpretis Novi Testamenti, part iii. c. 10. § 73. p. 356. "We met, one day, a procession, consisting of a family returning from A white-bearded old man, riding on a white ass, led the way with patrithe pilgrimage to Mecca. Drums and pipes announced the joyful event. archal grace; and the men who met him, or accompanied him, were con tinually throwing their arms about his neck, and almost dismounting him with their salutations. He was followed by his three wives, each riding on a high camel; their female acquaintances running on each side, while uttered a remarkably shrill whistle. It was impossible, viewing the old they occasionally stooped down to salute them. The women continually man who led the way, not to remember the expression in Ju iges v. 10" Jowett's Christian Researches, p. 163. priests and heads of families, and had two presidents,-one in the person of the high-priest, and another who sat in the name of the king. The judicial establishment was reorganized after the captivity, and two classes of judges, inferior and superior, were appointed. (Ezra vii. 25.) But the more difficult cases and appeals were brought, either before the ruler of the state, or before the high-priest; until, in the age of the Maccabees, a supreme judicial tribunal was instituted. which is first mentioned under Hyrcanus II.' Jews in our Saviour's time used to denote the place of the damned. Where there were not one hundred and twenty inhabitants in a town or village, according to the Talmudist, there was a tribunal of three judges: and to this tribunal some writers have erroneously imagined that Joseph of Arimathea belonged, rather than to the great Sanhedrin. But both the writers of the New Testament and Josephus are silent con cerning the existence of such a tribunal. Jahn is of opinion This tribunal (which must not be confounded with the that this court was merely a session of three arbitrators, seventy-two counsellors, who were appointed to assist Moses which the Roman laws permitted to the Jews in civil causes: in the civil administration of the government, but who never as the Talmudists themselves state that one judge was chosen fulfilled the office of judges) is by the Talmudists denominated by the accuser, another by the party accused, and a third by SANHEDRIN, and is the great Council so often mentioned in both parties. It appears, however, that only petty affairs were the New Testament. It was most probably instituted in the cognizable by this tribunal. The reference to arbitrators, time of the Maccabees, and was composed of seventy or se- recommended to Christians by St. Paul in 1 Cor. vi. 1—5., venty-two members, under the chief presidency of the high- has been supposed to be derived from this tribunal. priest, under whom were two vice-presidents; the first of It is essential to the ends of justice, that the proceedings whom, called the Father of the Council, sat on the right, as the of the courts should be committed to writing, and preserved second vice-president, who was called Chakam, or the Wise in archives or registries: Josephus informs us that there was Man, did on the left hand of the president. The other asses- such a repository at Jerusalem, which was burnt by the Rosors, or members of this council, comprised three descriptions mans, and which was furnished with scribes or notaries, for of persons, viz. 1. The Apps, or Chief Priests, who were recording the proceedings. From this place, probably, St. partly such priests as had executed the pontificate, and partly Luke derived his account of the proceedings against the the princes or chiefs of the twenty-four courses or classes of protomartyr Stephen, related in Acts vi. and vii. These tribupriests, who enjoyed this honourable title:-2. The penals also had inferior ministers or officers (unger, Matt. v. Tea, or Elders, perhaps the princes of tribes or heads of fa- 25.), who probably corresponded with our apparitors or mes milies;-and, 3. The гpaμμs, Scribes, or men learned in sengers; and others whose office it was to carry the decrees the law. It does not appear that all the elders and scribes into execution, viz. 1. The paxтopes, or exactors, whose busiwere members of this tribunal: most probably those only ness it was to levy the fines imposed by the court; and, were assessors, who were either elected to the office, or no- 2. The Baransa, or tormentors, those whose office it was to minated to it by royal authority. They are reported to have examine by torture: as this charge was devolved on gaolers, sat in a semi-circular form; and to this manner of their sitting in the time of Christ, the word "Buransus came to signify a in judgment Jesus Christ is supposed to refer in Matt. xix. gaoler. 28., and St. Paul in 1 Cor. vi. 2. The Sanhedrin held its daily sittings early in the morning (according to the Talmudists) in the Temple; but they are contradicted by Josephus, who speaks of a council-house in the immediate vicinity of the Temple, where this council was in all probability convened; though in extraordinary emergencies it was assembled in the high-priest's house, as was the case in the mock trial of Jesus Christ. The authority of this tribunal was very extensive. It decided all causes, which were brought before it, by appeal from inferior courts; and also took cognizance of the general affairs of the nation. Before Judæa was subject to the Roman power, the Sanhedrin had the right of judging in capital cases, but not afterwards; the stoning of Stephen being (as we have already observed) a tumultuary act, and not in consequence of sentence pronounced by this council.3 Besides the Sanhedrin, the Talmudical writers assert that there were other smaller councils, each consisting of twentythree persons, who heard and determined petty causes: two of these were at Jerusalem, and one in every city containing one hundred and twenty inhabitants. Josephus is silent concerning these tribunals, but they certainly appear to have existed in the time of Jesus Christ; who, "by images taken from these two courts, in a very striking manner represents the different degrees of future punishments, to which the impenitently wicked will be doomed according to the respective heinousness of their crimes. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the JUDGMENT; and whosever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the cOUNCIL; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of HELL FIRE. (Matt. v. 22.) That is, whosoever shall indulge causeless and unprovoked resentment against his Christian brother, shall be punished with a severity similar to that which is inflicted by the court of judgment. He, who shall suffer his passions to transport him to greater extravagances, so as to make his brother the object of derision and contempt, shall be exposed to a still severer punishment, corresponding to that which the council imposes. But he who shall load his fellow-Christian with odious appellations and abusive language, shall incur the severest degree of all punishments,-equal to that of being burnt alive in the valley of Hinnom :"4-which, having formerly been the scene of those horrid sacrifices of children to Moloch by causing them to pass through the fire, the 1 Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xiv. c. 9. § 3. a De Bell. Jud. lib. v. c. 4. § 2. lib. vi. c. 6. § 3. Dr. Lightfoot has given a list of sixteen presidents who directed the sanhedrin from the captivity till its dissolution. (Prospect of the Temple, ch xxii. § 1. Works, vol. ix. pp. 342-346. 8vo. edit.) ⚫llarwood's Introduction to the New Test. vol. ii. pp. 188, 189 IV. It appears from Jer. xxi. 12., that causes were heard, and judgment was executed in the morning. According to the Talmud,' capital causes were prohibited from being heard in the night, as also were the institution of an examination, the pronouncing of sentence, and the carrying of it into execution, on one and the same day; and it was enjoined that at least the execution of a sentence should be deferred until the following day. How flagrantly this injunction was disregarded in the case of Jesus Christ, it is scarcely necessary to mention. According to the Talmud, also, no judgments could be executed on festival days; but this by no means agrees with the end and design of capital punishment expressed in Deut. xvii. 13. viz. That all the people might hear and fear. It is evident from Matt. xxvi. 5. that the chief priests and other leading men among the Jews were at first afraid to apprehend Jesus, lest there should be a tumult among the people: it is not improbable that they feared the Galilæans more than the populace of Jerusalem, because they were the countrymen of our Lord. Afterwards, however, when the traitor Judas presented himself to them, their fears vanished away. In the early ages of the Jewish history, judicial procedure must have been summary, as it still is in Asia.s Of advocates, such as ours, there is no appearance in any part of the Old Testament. Every one pleaded his own cause; of this practice we have a memorable instance in 1 Kings iii. 16— 28. As causes were heard at the city gate, where the people assembled to hear news or to pass away their time, Michaelis thinks that men of experience and wisdom might be asked for their opinions in difficult cases, and might sometimes assist with their advice those who seemed embarrassed in their own cause, even when it was a good one. Probably this is alluded to in Job xxix. 7-17. and Isa. i. 17.9 From the Romans, the use of advocates, or patrons who pleaded the cause of another, might have passed to the Jews. In this view the word Пapos, or advocate, is applied to Christ, our intercessor, who pleads the cause of sinners with his Father. (1 John ii. 1.) The form of proceeding appears to have been as follows: 1. Those who were summoned before courts of judicature, were said to be a po, because they were cited by posting up their names in some public place, and to these Josephus, De Bell. Jud. lib. vi. c. 3. § 3. And also among the Marootzee, a nation inhabiting the interior of South Africa. Campbell's Travels in the interior of South Africa, vol. ii. p. 236. (London, 1822. 8vo.) From this, and other coincidences with Jew. ish observances, Mr. C. thinks it probable that the Marootzee are of Jewish or Arabian origin. Michaelis's Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, vol. iv. pp. 320. 323 |