chadnezzar. The capture of Jeconiah, that of Zedekiah, and that of 745 persons, are dated in the seventh, eighteenth, and twenty-third years from that date,2 or in the eighth, nineteenth, and twenty-fourth years of Nebuchadnezzar in Palestine. This notation is consistent with that which ascribes the same events to the eighteenth, twenty-ninth, and thirty-fourth years from the capture of Nineveh, from which date the forty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, corresponding with the thirtyseventh year of the Galuth, is dated.

The second calculation referred to is that of the seventy years of desolation, which terminated in the second year of Darius, which were predicted in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and which commenced in the eighth year of that king. The fourth year of this affliction fell, accordingly, on the first year of Zedekiah, as referred to by the prophet Jeremiah.7 These passages, which have hitherto been regarded as unintelligible or contradictory, thus prove to be in exact chronological harmony, at the same time that they indicate the four different eras-of the accession of Nebuchadnezzar to the throne; of his victory over Necho; of the overthrow of the Hebrew monarchy; and of the commencement of the Chaldean oppression, after the revolt of Jehoiakim. The whole series of events is thus bound together according to astronomical time, and in consistency with the course of the septennate.

For such further chronological indications as space will allow us to give, the reader is referred to the tables which follow. These, although only extracts from a complete set of chronological and astronomical tables, will enable the reader of the Bible, for the first time, to ascertain with accuracy the date to which any event recorded in Scripture is referred by the sacred writers.

We must regard the tables thus presented as containing a system of through reckoning as well as denoting the dates of special events.

In the first place, it will be seen that the chronology exactly corresponds to the prophetic reckoning of the Book of Daniel, by placing the Crucifixion at 490 years, or seven weeks, from the Edict of the sixth year of Artaxerxes, which was issued at the close of the sixtysecond week, anno 4349 of the sacred reckoning. To base a system upon such a coincidence, as Origen did, is not the part of a chronologist. But the import of such a coincidence can hardly be mistaken.

Next, it will be found that the through reckoning now determined has nearly all the advantages of the Julian Period, together with some peculiar to itself. It should be observed that the first year of the tables is the year 0, so that each decade, and each century, ends with the number 9. As matter of notation, this method of arrangement affords important advantages over tables that commence with 1 and terminate with 10. sacred year commences with the vernal equinox; not at the solstice.

2 Jer. lii. 28, 29, 30.

The chief cycles referred to in history are of this mode of reckoning, as follows:

Every number exactly divisible by 7 is the first year of a septennate.

Every number exactly divisible by 4 is a bissextile year, with the exception of three years in each four centuries (except anno 2408), as arranged in the Gregorian calendar. A single table of 400 years will thus give the day of the week on which March 25 falls, from the very commencement of the Mundane Era.

In a

Every number exactly divisible by 19 is a year corresponding to our present Golden Number 18. period of twelve Metonic cycles, or 228 years, the course of the moon has gained a day on that of the sun. By reckoning back from Anno Domini 1804, allowing a day to be thus gained in every 228 years, the first of Nisan for any year may be ascertained, with an accuracy quite equal to that of its actual "consecration" by view of the The years of various eras, the Olympiads, the Chinese Cycle of sixty years, and the Prophetic Periods of 360, 1260, and 2300 years, are all easily referable to the through tabulation.

moon.

Lastly, this investigation renders it probable that, as is supposed by the modern Jews, the septennial reckoning has been used by the sacred writers, not only from the Exodus, but from the commencement of the Mundane Era. The seven years of Jacob's servitude terminate in the year 2792. The year 2793 is divisible by 7, and would therefore have been the first year of a week, if that system were then in use. Again, the expression "after two years of days," which occurs in Gen. xli. 1, is that ordinarily used to denote the second year of the septennate. The year in question, anno 2829 of the sacred reckoning, is actually the second year of seven, defined as before. Some twenty other references to the septennial reckoning occur in the Sacred Books, and in the writings of Josephus, all of which accurately correspond with the decennial reckoning. The coinage of the Temple money appears to be referred, in many distinct types, to the same system of measurement of time.

We subjoin a table showing the chief links in the chain of sacred reckoning, corresponding to the seventy weeks of the Book of Daniel.

The

1 Kings vi. 1... Ant. x. 6, § 1. Zech. i. 12 Ezra vii. 9 Dan. ix. 26

3324 3803

4219

4289

4349 4839

4909

6699

62 Kings xxiv. 12.

4 Zech. i. 1, 12; cf. Jer. xxv. 1. 7 Jer. xxviii. 1.

day of week.

Abib 15 fell on 6th

Exodus. Abib 15 fell on Pharmouthi 28, and on Friday, April 9, of our present reckoning.

Rest. Sabbatic year after division of land. An. 4, Solomon. Commencement of Temple, 480 years from an. 25 Joshua. Invasion. An. 8 Jehoiakim (Jer. xxix. 6, 10). Seventy years begin.

An. 2 Darius (Ezra iv. 24). End of

seventy years' affliction.

Ezra made Governor. An. 6 Artaxerxes.

Messiah cut off. An. 17 Tiberius.

Vision sealed. An. 3 Trajan.

Seventy great Weeks.

A.D. 1890.

H

CHAPTER XVI. CRUELTIES OF HEROD.

EROD'S return to his capital was the signal for fresh cruelties. The secret orders entrusted to the guardian of Mariamne had been a second time divulged; she persisted in refusing the monarch's affection, and reproached him bitterly with his cruelty towards her family. His sister Salome, and his mother Cypros, were not behindhand in fanning the flame of mutual irritation. At length, carried away by rage and jealousy, Herod executed not only Mariamne's guardian Soemus, but his queen herself. Mariamne submitted to the axe of the executioner with calmness and intrepiditý, B.C. 29, and showed herself in death worthy of the noble race of which she came.

But the death of the beautiful princess of the Asmonean house was the occasion of a terrible reaction. The tyrant had no sooner completed the murder than he became the victim of the most fearful anguish and remorse. The horrible reality of the deed, and a sense of his own loss, wrung his spirit to madness. Do what he would, go where he might, the image of the murdered queen followed him. His cries re-echoed through his palace. He sought, it was said, by resorting to magical incantations, to recall her spirit from the shades. No diversion he could try-banquets, revels, or the excitements of the chase-availed to restore tranquillity to his mind. It was long before he recovered fully from the mental derangement which now came on. But no sooner did he hear that Alexandra was scheming to secure the succession for the sons of the daughter he had put to death, than the "tiger in him awoke from its deadly sleep. Hastily collecting his strength, as though the inward ease he had hoped for had brought back all his energy, he executed not only his mother-inlaw, but along with her other distinguished persons on whom the slightest suspicion rested."5

At last he was enabled to appear in public again. Ever since the day that Octavius had placed the diadem upon his brow, and bade him reign over his Jewish kingdom, he had sought by every possible compliance to win his favour and secure his regard.

6

An opportunity of again displaying this was now afforded him. The senate of Rome had conferred upon his patron the title of "Augustus." Though never given to man, the title had ever been applied to things most noble, most venerable, most divine. "The rites of the gods were called august, the temples were august.

1"After a trial before a tribunal of judges who were too much -in dread of his power not to pass sentence of death." (Milman, ii. 69; Jahn's Hebrew Commonwealth, p. 329.)

Jos. Ant. xv. 7, § 5. 3 Jos. Ant. xv. 7, §7; Milman, ii. 70. 4 Amongst these were Costobarus, an Idumeau, the husband of hi sister Salome.

5 Ewald, v. 629. 6 Livy, Epist. cxxxiv.; Ovid, Fasti, i. 587.

The word itself was derived from the holy auguries, by which the divine will was revealed; it was connected with the favour and authority of Jove himself." This adjunct was now applied to the Emperor, and temples began to arise in every part of the empire in honour of his divinity. Herod determined not to be behindhand in paying homage to his patron. By the tribute he paid to Rome year by year he acknowledged the tenure on which he held his power. He filled Jerusalem with edifices built in the Greek taste. He inaugurated public exhibitions, and spectacles of all kinds. theatre rose within, an amphitheatre without, the walls of Jerusalem. Quinquennial games were celebrated on a scale of the utmost magnificence. Shows of gladiators' and combats of wild beasts were exhibited within the City of David itself.

A

The stricter Jews regarded all these innovations with horror. A century and a half before, things infinitely less had sufficed to kindle the great Maccabean war. On the present occasion, ten mens formed a conspiracy to assassinate the king as he entered the theatre. The plot was discovered, and the ten patriots were put to death with the most cruel tortures." Sympathising with their sufferings, the people seized the informer, and tearing him to pieces, flung his flesh to the dogs. The king was now resolved to retaliate in his turn, and seizing the ringleaders, he put them to death, together with their families.

But these domestic calamities did not in any degree affect the splendour, either external or internal, of his administration. While cultivating the friendship of Octavius and his great minister Agrippa, and always rendering the very services they might require, he gave his attention to many measures calculated to advance the strength of his own kingdom. He had already built two castles in the southern part of Jerusalem, erected a palace on the impregnable hill of Sion, restored and enlarged the Baris, and called it Antonia, in memory of his former patron. He now converted other places into strong fortresses. South-westeru Galilee needed a defence against Phoenicia, and his kingdom required a naval harbour and a maritime city. Thirty miles south of Mount Carmel a convenient point offered itself for the latter purpose, at a spot called Strato's Tower. This he converted into a magnificent city, called Cæsarea,1o with a harbour equal in size to

10

7 Merivale's Romans, iii. 416.

8 Compare the banding together of more than forty men to take the life of St. Paul (Acts xxiii. 12, 13).

9 Jos. Ant. xv. 8, §§3, 4.

10 Built on the Greek model, with a forum and an amphitheatre. Upwards of twelve years (B.c. 21-12) were spent in its erection. For its importance afterwards, compare Acts viii. 40; is. S x. 1, 24; xi. 11; xii. 19; xviii, 22; xxi, 8, 16; xxiii. 23, 33; xx. 1, 4, 6, 13. Tacitus called it "Judæ caput" (Hist. ii. 79). Its fall name was Katoópera Zeßñory (Jos. Ant. xvi. 5, § 1). It became the official residence of the Herodian kings, as also of Festus, Felix, and other Roman procurators.

the Piræus at Athens. West of Mount Tabor he built Gabatha; east of the Jordan he fortified the ancient Heshbon; while Samaria, which had been destroyed by John Hyrcanus, rose once more from its ruins, not only considerably increased, but also adorned with a new and magnificent temple, and called Sebaste or Augusta, in honour of the Roman Emperor.1

While thus rebuilding the ruined cities of his kingdom, Herod repeatedly endeavoured, by acts of munificence and liberality, to conciliate the goodwill of his subjects. Thus, when in B.C. 24, the crops in Palestine failed for the second time, he not only opened his own private stores, but sent to Petronius, the Roman governor of Egypt, a personal friend, and obtained permission to export corn from that country, with which he not only supplied the wants of his own people, but was even able to send seed into Syria. In this way, and by remitting more than once a great part of the heavy taxation, he earned for himself general gratitude, both from his heathen and Jewish subjects.3

CHAPTER XVII.

HEROD REBUILDS THE TEMPLE.

"THUS, terrible to his adversaries, and bounteous in time of necessity to his own people," the Idumean monarch, instead of being the head of a Hebrew religious republic, became more and more on a level with the other vassal kings of Rome. It was a saying that Augustus assigned to him the next place in his favour after Agrippa, while Agrippa esteemed him higher than any of his friends, except Augustus. Neither the Emperor nor his minister ever visited the East without finding Herod the first to pay them his homage. Thus he sailed to Mytilene to see Agrippa, and entertained Augustus himself in Syria.

These attentions were not lost upon his great patrons. When Herod sent his two sons by Mariamne to Rome to receive their education, they were admitted into the palace and treated with the utmost attention. Moreover, his dominions were considerably enlarged. Besides the large additions he had already received, he now received the district east of the Sea of Galilee and called Trachonitis, with Batanæa and Auranitis. A tetrarchy was also conferred on his brother Pherôras, and he himself was appointed procurator of Syria, with such plenary powers that his colleague could take no single step without his concurrence. In memory of these concessions, the Idumean king erected at Panium, near the southern base of Mount Hermon and

the sources of the Jordan, a magnificent temple, and dedicated it to his benefactor.10

But the higher he rose in the esteem of his Roman patrons, the lower he sank in that of his Jewish subjects. They could not rid themselves of the suspicion that he had a fixed design of heathenising the national character. They saw him observing the feasts of Purim and the Passover, and yet at Sebaste and Cæsarea going up to the temples of Zeus and Artemis. "The people knew all his ways. They told each other in the gateway, that the prince whom many Jews called their Messiah, had raised a shrine to Apollo in the isle of Rhodes, and in the city of Antioch had revived the Olympic games; and they learned to curse him in their hearts, as a man who put strangers on a level with the holy race." "1

At length he resolved to take a step which should ingratiate himself with all classes. He determined to rival Solomon, and rebuild the Temple. Since the restoration of the second Temple by Zorobabel, that structure had fallen in many places into ruin, and had suffered much during the recent wars. He announced his intention, about the year B.C. 20, on the occasion of the Feast of the Passover. But his proposition roused the greatest mistrust, and he found himself obliged to proceed with the utmost caution,12 and to use every means to allay suspicion. Two years were spent in bringing together the materials, and vast preparations were made before a single stone of the old building was touched. At last, in the year B.C. 18, the foundations of the Temple of Zorobabel were removed, and on those laid centuries before by Solomon, the new pile arose, built of hard white stones of enormous size. Eighteen months were spent in building the Porch, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies.13 Eight years more elapsed before the courts and cloisters and other extensive and splendid buildings round the sacred structure were completed.11

As the Temple of Zorobabel had been a copy of that of Solomon, so was the Temple of Herod a copy of that of Zorobabel, except that it was larger in size, of nobler material, and higher art, wrought by the hands of the masons of Athens and Antioch.

On the highest level of the rocky platform of Moriah rose the Naos, or Temple proper, erected solely by priestly hands,15 divided, as in the days of Solomon, into a Holy Place and a Holy of Holies by a veil or curtain of the finest work. "No figures, no sculpture, as in Persian and Egyptian temples, adorned the front.

10 The place was afterwards called Cæsarea Philippi (Matt. xvi. 13; Mark viii. 27) by Herod Philip, who enlarged and embellished it. 11 Hepworth Dixon's Holy Land, i. 20, 3.

12 Jos. Ant. xv. 11, § 2.

13 Jos. Ant. xv. 11, § 6.

"The

14 The whole structure was not finally completed till A.D. 65. The building had been going on for forty-six years when our Lord was present at Jerusalem at the Passover, A.D. 29 (John ii. 20). expression that it had been in building forty-six years, may mean forty-six years plus or minus by a few months; and if so, the statement would be correct, even if the period be dated, not from the actual commencement of the fabric, but from the preparations for it." (Lewin's Fasti Sacri, p. 95.)

15 Jos. Ant. xv. 11, §5.

Golden vines and clusters of grapes, the typical plant and fruit of Israel, ran along the wall; and the greater and lesser lights of heaven were wrought into the texture of the veil. The whole façade was covered with plates of gold, which, when the sun shone upon them in the early day, sent back his rays with an added glory, so great that gazers standing on Olivet had to shade their eyes when turning towards the Temple mount."1 Twelve steps below from this platform was a second level, occupied by the Court of the Priests, with the great laver, and the altar of burnt-offering. Three flights of stairs led down to a third platform, on which was the Court of the Israelites, or, as it was sometimes called, the Sanctuary, with the houses of the priests, the Lishcath-ha-Gezitu, or Hall of the Sanhedrin, and the various offices.

Not being of the priestly order, the Idumean monarch could not enter any of these enclosures; neither the Temple, nor the Court of the Priests, nor the Court of the Israelites. A third flight of fourteen steps, therefore, led down to another court, the Court of the Gentiles, which was hardly regarded as a portion of the Temple, was open to men of all nations, and was held as a kind of exchange or market-place. Here the Jew from Northern or Eastern Palestine could exchange his drachma or stater for the sacred shekel; here those who could not offer a lamb or kid, could purchase a "pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons;" here the seller of sheep and oxen for the sacrifices had his stalls and pens.2

The erection of the Sanctuary had been left to the priests. On the Court of the Gentiles, the meetingplace of all nations and languages, Herod lavished all the riches of his taste. Cloisters sustained on double rows of Corinthian columns, exquisitely wrought, "ran round the wall on the inner side, the capitals being ornamented with the acanthus and water-leaf, as in the famous Tower of the Wind. West, north, and east, these columns were in three rows; on the south they were in four. The floor made a shaded walk, like the colonnade in Venice, and the roof an open walk like the gallery of Genoa. The pavement was inlaid with marble of many colours." The most beautiful gateways led into this court, of great height, and ornamented with the utmost skill. One of these, on the eastern side, looking towards the Mount of Olives, was known as "Solomon's Porch;" close by it was another, the pride of the Temple area, as one writer says, "more like the gopura of an Indian temple than anything we are acquainted with in architecture." This, in all probability, was the one called the "Beautiful Gate" in the New Testament.1

The Sanctuary was completed in the year B.C. 16, the anniversary of Herod's inauguration, and was celebrated with a magnificent feast and the most lavish sacrifices. Immediately afterwards, Herod undertook a journey to

1 Hepworth Dixon's Holy Land, ii. 45.

2 See Farrar's Life of Christ, i. 186.

3 Hepworth Dixon's Holy Land, ii. 48; Raphael's History of the Jews, ii. 335, 337.

Acts iii. 2.

Rome to fetch home his two sons, Alexander and Aristobulus. He was received with every mark of attention by Augustus," and returned to his capital about the spring of B.C. 15. Agrippa was now on a visit to Asia, to inspect these provinces of the empire for his master. Herod thereupon invited him to visit Judæa. Agrippa consented, and escorted by Herod, passed through his new cities of Sebaste and Cæsarea, visited his forts at Alexandrium, Herodium, and Hyrcania, and having been received in state by the people at Jerusalem, offered a sacrifice of a hundred oxen in the Temple," and feasted the subjects of his entertainer at a splendid entertainment.

CHAPTER XVIII.

HEROD AND THE SONS OF MARIAMNE.

ON the approach of winter Agrippa sailed to Ephesus, and thence, B.C. 14, set out to settle the affairs of the kingdom of the Bosphorus. Herod followed him to the Euxine, and overtook him near Sinope, bringing powerful reinforcements to the aid of his patron. On the submission of the Bosphorus he returned through the states of Asia Minor, still accompanied by Herod, who prevailed upon him to confirm the Jews of Asia in their various privileges, and especially in their exemp tion from service in the legions."

Returning from Asia Minor, Herod landed at his new port of Cæsarea, and proceeding to Jerusalem, recounted the privileges he had secured for the nation, and remitted a fourth of the year's tribute.10 It might have been hoped that the close of his reign would make some atonement for the atrocities of earlier years; but a scene of bloodshed was now to be enacted far more awful than any which had darkened his reign, as if to show that the "spirit of the injured Mariamne hovered over Herod's devoted house, and, involving the innocent as well as the guilty in the common ruin, designated the dwelling of her murderous husband as the perpetual scene of misery and bloodshed." "1

On the return of the young princes, Alexander and Aristobulus, whom Herod had brought back from Rome, they were received by the populace with the utmost enthusiasm, in spite of their education in a foreign land. Their grace and beauty, their engaging manners, above all their descent from the ancient Asmonean line, made them objects of hope and joy on the part of the nation. But the keenest hatred of Pherôras and Salome was now aroused, and they began to whisper into Herod's ear that the young men were bent on avenging their

5 Jos. Ant. xvi. 1, §2; B. J. i. 23, § 1.

* Jos. Ant. xii. 2, 1, ̓Αγρίππας δὲ τῷ Θεῷ μὲν ἑκατόμβην κατέθυσεν, εἱστία δὲ τὸν δῆμον, οὐδενὸς τῶν μεγίστων πλήθει λιπόμενος. (See Meri vale's Romans, iv. 225.)

7 Jos. Ant. xvi. 2, § 2. 8 Jahn's Hebrew Commonwealth, p. 338. 9"A privilege conceded to a few only of the most fortunate communities, and to no other entire nation except the Jews. So early did this people manifest their aversion to the use of arms, which has been disregarded even in our own times only by the most despotic of rulers." (Merivale, iv. 226.)

10 Jos. Ant. xvi. 2, § 4.

11 Milman, ii. 78.

mother's death. The king had given them in marriage, Alexander to Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia; Aristobulus to Mariamne, a daughter of Salome. Proud of the popularity his sons had acquired, Herod for some time refused to attach any credence to these vile insinuations. At length he❘ adopted an expedient which led to the most disastrous results. By an earlier wife, named Doris, he had a son, Antipater. After his alliance with the Asmonean princess he had put Doris away. Now he recalled her and her son, and made the young man a sort of spy over his two step-brothers. Cunning, ambitious, and unscrupulous, Antipater threw himself heart and soul into all the plots of Pherôras and Salome, and continued to make the two princes objects of more and more suspicion to their father. Herod introduced Antipater to Agrippa, and sent him in his suite to Rome. Even there the Idumean, a match for his own father in craft and subtlety, managed to carry on his designs, and in every letter let fall something to the discredit of the sons of Mariamne, concealing his real intentions under a veil of anxiety for Herod's security.

In this way he at length succeeded in inflaming the jealousy of the king to such a pitch, that Herod resolved to arraign both his sons before the tribunal of the emperor. Accordingly he set out for Rome, and Augustus having heard the case, and perceiving that it only rested on hearsay and suspicion, advised a reconciliation, and succeeded in persuading the father to lay aside his apprehensions of any designs upon his life; and the three, together with Antipater, returned to Judæa by way of Cilicia. On reaching Jerusalem Herod convened an assembly of the people, introduced to them his three sons, and formally announced his intention that they should succeed him in the order of

their age.

But no sooner had the king thus placed Antipater over the heads of the two sons of Mariamne, than the quarrels in the royal household broke out afresh with redoubled violence.2 Alexander and Aristobulus, unable to restrain their aversion to Antipater, indulged in the most intemperate language, which that artful designer did not fail to exaggerate and misrepresent to Herod. Filled with suspicion, Herod at last directed that some of the confidential slaves of the young princes should be examined by torture. From the effect of these agonies they made revelations implicating Alexander, and that unfortunate prince was straightway flung into chains.

In the solitude of his confinement the young man had recourse to a strange expedient. He sent four papers to his father, wherein he accused himself of all kinds

of treasonable projects, but declared that Pherôras, Salome, and others of the court, were his accomplices. Not knowing what to believe, or whom to trust, Herod attacked all persons and all grades. Some he apprehended, others he executed, others he tortured to force them to confess.

The arrival at Jerusalem of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, and father-in-law of Alexander, caused a temporary lull. This monarch succeeded in reinstating the young prince in his father's favour; but the reconciliation was only on the surface. His brother Pherôras, Salome, and, worst of all, Antipater, again filled Herod's mind with apprehensions and suspicions, and he determined once more to seek the advice of Augustus. Accordingly he set out for Rome in B.C. 8, and preferred his complaints against his sons before the emperor. Augustus advised that he should hold a court of arbitration, and recommended Berytus, in Phoenicia, as the place of meeting. There one hundred and fifty princes therefore assembled together, with Saturninus and Volumnius, the prefects of Syria. Before this tribunal Herod laid his complaints, pleaded his cause, and publicly accused his sons. After hearing the charge Saturninus advised that mercy should be extended towards the young men; Volumnius and the majority urged their condemnation, and eventually they were strangled at Samaria, at the very same place where their father had celebrated his marriage with their mother.

But the execution of these unfortunate princes did but little towards removing the elements of discord in Herod's household. Repeated dissensions had arisen between him and his brother Pheroras, who was at length ordered to retire to his own tetrarchy of Peræa. There he sickened and died, and his widow was accused of having poisoned him. The investigation that ensued revealed a new and still more formidable conspiracy, which Antipater and Pherôras had formed against Herod's life. Antipater was absent at Rome, but he was allowed to return to Cæsarea, and on reaching Jerusalem was instantly seized, and brought to trial before the Roman governor of Syria, Quintilius Varus. The charge was proved, and he was condemned to death, but his execution was respited till the will of the emperor could be ascertained."

Herod was now upwards of seventy years of age, and already felt the approach of his last mortal malady. Removing for change of air to Jericho, he resolved to make the final alterations in his will. Passing over Archelaus and Philip, whom Antipater had accused of treachery, he nominated Antipas, a son by Malthace, & Samaritan, his successor in the kingdom; and left magnificent bequests to Cæsar, to Cæsar's wife Julia, to her sons, and to the members of his own family.