Page:Selections. Translated by H. St. J. Thackeray (1919).djvu/91



this incident in St. Paul's description of "the man of sin" (2 Thess. ii. 4, "so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God"): "but though the sacrilegious conduct of Caligula may have influenced the writer's language in v. 4, the real roots of the conception lie elsewhere" (Milligan, Thess., p. 164).

The favourable portrait given of the Roman governor, who was placed in a very difficult position, may be compared with similar portraits in St. Luke's writings.

Gaius, indignant at being thus slighted by the Jews and by them alone, sent Petronius to Syria as his lieutenant to take over the governorship of Vitellius, with instructions to advance into Judæa with a large force and to erect his statue in the temple of God. The order was in any case to be executed; if they admitted the statue without demur, well and good; if they showed themselves recalcitrant, he was to overcome their resistance by resort to arms

At Ptolemais Petronius was met by crowds of petitioners who stubbornly refused to submit. Similar scenes were repeated at Tiberias for forty critical days in the agricultural year, during which all sowing operations were neglected. The multitude were supported by Aristobulus, brother of Herod Agrippa, and other leading men. Petronius, moved by this unanimous national protest, decided to lay the case before the Emperor.

Such was the request which Aristobulus and his followers made to Petronius. Petronius, on his side, was influenced partly by the importunity of Aristobulus and the leaders, who, considering the great issues at stake, left no stone unturned to press their suit, partly by the spectacle of the stubborn and solid front presented by the Jewish opposition. He shrank from the thought of putting to death, as the instrument of Gaius's madness, such myriads of men, solely on the ground of their reverence of God, and of spending the rest of his life in remorse. It was far better, he thought, to write to Gaius (and inform him of) their desperate determination.