ON THE HISTORY OF JOSEPHUS. ON HEROD,

MARIAMNE, AND HEROD THE TETRARCH.

JOSEPHUS says at the end of his Antiquities of the Jews, that no person was so well qualified as himself, to deliver these accounts to the Greeks with accuracy. Those of his own nation freely acknowledged, that he far exceeded them in the learning belonging to Jews, to which he had taken much pains in adding that of the Greeks. Though his usual habit had been to speak his own tongue, he thoroughly understood the Greek language, but could not pronounce it with sufficient exactness. The Jews held an opinion, that there is no merit either in the acquisition of foreign languages, or in smoothness and elegance of composition. They looked on that kind of accomplishment as common, and easily acquired by slaves as well as by free men. At the end of this work, the author declares his intention, God willing, to give the public an abridgment of the Jewish war, and to carry the narrative down to the day on which he is writing, which is in the thirteenth year of Domitian, A. D. 93. It is not known whether he carried this project into execution. His motive probably was, to correct several mistakes in the first two books of the War, written in his youth, when he was comparatively an incompetent antiquary. Many passages occur in authors, avowedly quoted

from him, which are not now extant. They might possibly be contained in that compendium. Yet many of his references to works of his own, which have not come down to us, and many of his errors, belong to still earlier times. Neither he, nor any one else, ever quotes this abridgment. The probability therefore rather inclines against the publication. He wrote his own life as an Appendix to the Antiquities, more than seven years after they were finished; and this might perhaps supersede the other work. At the same time, he announces another intended treatise, in not less than three books, concerning God and his essence, and concerning the Jewish laws, why, according to them, some things were permitted to the Jews, and others prohibited. This last he had promised, should God afford him time for it, at the conclusion of his preface to the Antiquities. We have not much reason to believe that he ever published any of them. The death of his friends at court, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, the accession of Nerva and Trajan, with whom he had no personal acquaintance, his removal from Rome to Judea, with the subsequent course of events, might easily interrupt his progress as an author.

The great value of Josephus consists in the testimony borne by an opponent to many facts of Gospel history. It is stated in Scripture, that John the Baptist was beheaded by order of the younger Herod. Josephus confirms this: and mentions Herodias by name, as his brother's wife, whom Herod had married after divorcing his own. She was the daughter of Aretas, king of the Petrean Arabians. Her husband was not dead when Herod took her. Aretas made war against

him on account of this dishonourable conduct. Herod's whole army was destroyed in a battle. His adultery might sufficiently account for the divine displeasure; but Josephus attributes it to his cruelty towards John. He also relates that Herod lost his kingdom, and was banished to Lyons with Herodias. He states in the eighteenth book, that many of the Jews considered this destruction as a judgment from God for the murder of a good man, who had taught them virtue in their actions, and piety in their sentiments. He then enters into a discussion on the efficacy of baptism to purification, externally in reference to the body, internally on the supposition that the soul is previously purified by righteousness, as preached by John. Herod is represented as fearing that his persuasive power might raise sedition; for the people seemed entirely at John's disposal. By way of prevention, Herod sent him a prisoner to the castle of Machærus, where he was put to death. Josephus goes on to speak of our Saviour: "There was about this time one Jesus, a wise man, if he may be called a man; for he did marvellous works. He taught those who were willing to receive his doctrine, drawing over to him many, both Jews and Gentiles. He was the Christ."

Josephus is principally to be received as a witness against himself. The head and front of John's offending was the declaration, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.

Josephus also relates, that Jerusalem was taken in the reign of Vespasian, forty years after the Jews had dared to put Jesus to death. James, bishop of Jerusalem, the brother of our Lord, was thrown down from the temple at the same time,

and slain by stoning. But the most striking admission on the part of the Jewish historian is, that when Pilate, instigated by the principal men among the Jews, had decreed that he who was the Christ should be crucified, those who had loved him from the beginning did not forsake him. He appeared to them alive the third day after his death, as the inspired prophets had foretold. The famous name of Christians taken from him, and the sect, are still in being.

Tacitus, in his History, lib. v. cap. 2-9., retails so many crude and contradictory stories relating to the original of Jerusalem, that one cannot but wonder his good sense did not revolt from such absurdities. For instance, he took the African Ethiopians under Cepheus, who are known to have been blacks, for the parents of the Jews, known to have been whites. Whenever he comes nearest to the truth, he gives a disguised version of Josephus. As thus: "David first cast the Jebusites out of Jerusalem, and called it by his own name. Under our forefather Abraham it was called Solyma. Some say that after that time, Homer mentions it by that name of Solyma. Now the whole time from the warfare under Joshua our general, against the Canaanites, and from that war in which he overcame them and distributed the land among the Hebrews, this whole time was five hundred and fifteen years."-Joseph. Antiq. lib. vii. cap. 3. sect. 3.

Alii, Judæorum initia, Solymos, carminibus Homeri celebratam gentem, conditam urbem Hierosolyma nomine suo fecisse. Plurimi auctores consentiunt, orta per Ægyptum tabe, quæ corpora foedaret, Regem Bocchorim, adito Hammonis oraculo, remedium petentem, purgare Regnum et

id genus hominum, ut invisum Deis, alias in terras avehere jussum.”—Tacitus, History of the Jews, lib. v. cap. 2, 3. This latter doctrine is very dif ferent from that of Josephus, who truly observes on this occasion, that the gods are not angry at the imperfections of bodies, but at wicked practices. Tacitus represents Moses to have credit given to him, as Duci cœlesti. He therefore admits at least a profession on the part of Moses, that he received his laws from God. He relates, that Moses discovered a plentiful vein of water for the Jews. This he probably took from Josephus, who represents the relief as a miracle, Antiq. lib. iii. cap. 1. sect. 7. But if Tacitus suppresses one miracle, he substitutes another: for he states, that six hundred thousand men, to which number the Jews amounted, travelled above two hundred miles in six days, over the deserts of Arabia, and conquered Judea on the seventh.

The Israelites were to be kept separate from the idolatrous nations by circumcision and other ceremonies. This Tacitus represents as esteeming whatever is sacred among the Romans to be profane, and establishing what in other nations is unlawful and impure. The veneration said to have been paid in the Temple to the image of an ass, is refuted by Tacitus himself in the very next section: "Igitur nulla simulacra urbibus suis, nedum templis, sinunt." Again, on occasion of Pompey's entry into the temple, after the conquest of Jerusalem :- "Inde vulgatum, nulla intus De-. um effigie vacuam sedem et inania arcana." That the ox, worshipped in Egypt for the god Apis, was slain as a victim by the Jews, is a mere random guess, in the spirit of heathenism. He says, they