Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/452

 JEWS

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JEWS

der him the Jews attained to a high degree of happi- ness and prosperity. He repaired the fortresses of J\idea. took and destroyed the citadel of Aera (142 B. c), and renewed the treaties with Rome and Lacedie- mon. In 141 b. c, he was proclaimed by a national assembly " prince and high-priest for ever, till there should arise a faithful prophet". He exercised the right of coinage and may be considered as the founder of the Asmonean, or last Jewish, dynasty. The rule of John Hyrcanus I, Simon's successor, lasted 30 years. His career was marked by a series of con- quests, notably by the reduction of Samaria and the forcible conversion of Idumea. He sided with the aristocratic Sadducees against the more rigid defend- ers of the Theocracy, the Pharisees, the successors of the Assideaus. The oldest parts of the "Sibylline Oracles " and of the " Book of Enoch " are probably remainders of the literature of his day. He was suc- ceeded by his eldest son, Aristobulus I (Heb. name, Judas), who was the first Machabean ruler to assume the title of king. He reigned but one year, conquered and proselj^ized a part of Galilee. His brother Alex- ander Jannseus (Heb. name, Jonathan) occupied the throne twenty-six years (104-78 b. c). During the civil war which broke out between him and his sub- jects he was long unsuccessful; but he finally got the better of his opponents, and wreaked frightful ven- geance upon them. Hs also succeeded at a later date in conquering and Judaizing the whole country east of the Jordan.

On acceding to the kingdom, his widow Alexandra (Heb. name, Salome) practically surrendered the rule to the Pharisees. But this did not secure the peace of the realm, for Alexandra's death alone prevented her being involved in a new civil war. The strife which soon arose after her death (69 B. c), between her two sons Plyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, who were fa- voured by the Pharisees and the Sadducees respec- tively, was skilfully kept up by Antipater, the ambitious Governor of Idumea and father of Herod the Great. It gradually led both lirothers to submit to the arbi- tration of Pompey, then commanding the Roman forces in the East. The wary imperator finally de- cided in favour of Hyrcanus, marched on Jerusalem, and stormed the Temple, whereupon a carnage ensued. This brought to an end the short era of independence which the Machabees had secured for their country (63 B. c). It was during the Machabean Age that occurred the building of a Jewish temple at Leonto- polis in the Delta, and the transformation of the Jewish Gerusia into the Jerusalem Sauhedrin. .4mong the literary products of the same period are to be reckoned the deuterocauonical Books of the Macha- bees, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus ; and the apocryphal " Psalms of Solomon", " Book of Jubilees", and " As- sumption of Moses " ; to which many scholars add the Book of Daniel and several sacred hymns embodied in our Psalter.

(4) Early Roman Supremacy {G3 B. C.-A. D. 70). — The fall of Jerusalem in 63 B. c. marks the beginning of Judea's vassalage to Rome. Pompey, its conqueror, dismantled the Holy City, recognized Hyrcanus II as high-priest and ethnarch, but withdrew from his juris- diction all territory outside of Judea proper, and strictly forbade liim all further conquests. Then he proceeded homewards carrying with liim numerous captives, who greatly increased, if indeed they did not begin, the Jewish community in Rome. Soon Judea became a prey to several discords, in the midst of which the weak Hyrcanus lost more and more of his authority, and his virtual master, the Idumean Anti- pater, grew proportionately in favour with the suzer- ains of the land. Upon tlic final defeat of Pompey at Pharsalus (48 B. c.) by Julius Ca;sar, Antipater promptly sided with the victor, and rendered him sig- nal services in Egypt. His reward was the full recog- nition of Hyrcanus as high-priest and ethnarch; and

for himself the rights of Roman citizenship and the office of procurator over the whole of Palestine. He ne.xt proceeded to rebuild the walls of the Holy City, and to appoint two of his sons, Phasael and Herod, Governors of Jerusalem and Galilee respectively. From this time forth Herod's fortune grew rapidly, until in the Roman capital, whither he had fled from the wrath of the Nationalist party, he reached the goal of his ambition. The Idumean Herod ascended the Throne of David, and his long reign (37-4 B. c.) forms in several respects a glorious epoch in the history of the Jews (see Hebod the Great). Upon the whole, however, it was disastrous for the Jews of Palestine. 'Its first part (37-25 B. c.) was chiefly spent in getting rid of the surviving Asmoneans. By their death he, indeed, made the tTirone more secure for himself, but also alienated the mass of liis subjects who were deeply attached to the Machabean family. To this griev- ance he gradually added others no less hateful to the national party. The people hated him as a bloody tyrant bent on destroying the worship of God, and hated still more the Romans who maintained him on the throne, and whose suzerainty was to be thrown off at the first opportunity. It was a short time be- fore the death of Herod that Jesus, the true King of the Jews, was born, and the Holy Innocents were massacred.

Herod's death was the signal for an insurrection which spread gradually and was finally put down by Varus, the Governor of Syria. Next followed the practical ratification of the last will of Herod by Au- gustus. The principal heir was Archelaus, who was appointed ethnarch of Idumea, Judea, and Samaria, with the promise of the royal title on condition that he should rule to the emperor's satisfaction. For his misrule, Augustus deposed liim (a. d. 6), and put in his stead a Roman procurator. Henceforward, Judea continued as a part of the province of Syria, except for a brief interval (a. d. 41-44), during which Herod Agrippa I held sway over all the dominions of Herod the Great. The Roman procurators of Judea resided in CiEsarea, and went to Jerusalem only on special oc- casions. 'They were subalterns of the SjTiau govern- ors, commanded the military, maintained peace and took care of the revenue. "They generally abstained from meddling with the religious affairs, especially for fear of arousing the violence of the Zealots of the time, who regarded as unlawful the payment of tril:)ute to Casar. The local government was largely left in the hands of the Sadducean priestly aristocracy, and the Sanhedrin was the supreme court of justice, deprived, however (about a. d. 30), of the power of carrying a sentence of death. It was under Pontius Pilate (a. d. 26-36), one of the procurators appointed by Tiberius, that Jesus was crucified.

Up to the reign of Caligula (37-41), the Jews en- joyed, without any serious interruption, the universal toleration which Roman pohcy permitted to the reli- gion of the subject states. But when that emperor ordered that Divine honours should be paid to him, they generally refused to submit. Petronius, the Ro- man Governor of Syria, received peremptory orders to use violence, if necessary, to set up Caligula's statue in the Temple at Jerusalem. At Alexandria a fearful massacre took place, and it looked as if all the Jews of Palestine were doomed to perish. Petronius, how- ever, delayed the execution of the decree, and in fact, escaped punishment only through the murder of Cali- gula in A. D. 41. The Jews were saved, and with the accession of Claudius who owed the imperial dignity cliiefly to the efforts of Herod Agrippa, a brighter day dawned for them. Through gratitude, Claudius con- ferred upon Agrippa the whole kingdom of Herod the Great, and upon the Jews at home and abroad valu- able privileges. Agrippa's careful government niatle itself felt throughout the entire community, and the Sanhedrin, now under the presidency of (iamaliel I,