History of the Jews (Vol. 1-6). Graetz Heinrich
When they arrived in that city they were introduced to the emperor by the young Agrippa. Claudius, still faithful to his old affection for the Herodians, granted the Judæans full right to follow their own laws, and gave Herod permission to choose the high priest of the Sanctuary. Taking instant advantage of this permission, Herod raised Joseph, of the house of Camith, to the high priesthood in the place of Elionai, his brother's choice. To a certain extent Herod II. may be regarded as king of Judæa, but he exerted no influence upon the course of political events. All legal power was vested in the hands of the governor; the Synhedrion lost, under the sway of his successor, the power which it had regained under Agrippa.
Fadus was confronted with a rising of another nature during his governorship. A certain Theudas appeared as prophet or messiah, and was followed by four hundred disciples, for the messianic redemption was quickly growing into a necessity for the nation. To give proof of his power he declared that he would divide the waters of the Jordan, and would lead his followers safe across the bed of the river. But when his band of disciples approached the riverside, carrying with them much of their worldly possessions, they were confronted by a troop of Fadus's cavalry soldiers, who slew some, made others prisoners, and decapitated their leader.
Shortly after these events Fadus was recalled from Jerusalem, and his place was taken by Tiberius Julius Alexander, son of the Alabarch Alexander, nephew of the Judæan philosopher Philo. Tiberius, who had espoused paganism, bore already the dignity of a Roman knight. The Emperor believed doubtless that in naming a Judæan of a distinguished house as governor over the land, he was giving proof of his friendliness to the nation. He did not imagine that their sensitive natures would be violently opposed to the fact of being governed by a renegade. The people seem indeed to have been most uncomfortable under the rule of Tiberius; the zealots lifted up their heads and excited an insurrection. They were led by Jacob and Simon and the sons of the zealot Judah, but no details of this revolt are extant. To judge by the severity of the sentence passed upon the ringleaders by the governor, it must have been of a grave character, for the two brothers suffered crucifixion, the most degrading form of capital punishment amongst the Romans. Tiberius Alexander remained only two years at his post. He was afterwards named governor of Egypt, and exercised considerable influence in the choice of the emperor.
Herod II., king of Chalcis, titular king of Judæa, died at this time (48), and with him the third generation of Herodians sank into the grave.
CHAPTER VIII.
SPREAD OF THE JUDÆAN RACE, AND OF JUDAISM.
Distribution of the Judæans in the Roman Empire and in Parthia—Relations of the various Judæan Colonies to the Synhedrion—Judæan Bandits in Naarda—Heathen Attacks upon Judaism—Counter Attacks upon Heathenism by Judæan Writers—The Judæan Sibyls—The Anti-heathen Literature—The Book of Wisdom—The Allegorists—Philo's Aims and Philosophical System—Proselytes—The Royal House of Adiabene—The Proselyte Queen Helen—The Apostle Paul—His Character—Change in his Attitude towards the Pharisees—His Activity as a Conversionist—His Treatment of the Law of Moses—The Doctrines of Peter—Judaic-Christians and Heathen-Christians.
40–49 C. E.
Round the very cradle of the Judæan race there had rung prophetic strains, telling of endless wanderings and dispersions. No other people had ever heard such alarming predictions, and they were being fulfilled in all their literal horror. There was hardly a corner in the two great predominant kingdoms of that time, the Roman and the Parthian, in which Judæans were not living, and where they had not formed themselves into a religious community. The shores of the great midland sea, and the outlets of all the principal rivers of the old world, of the Nile, the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the Danube, were peopled with Judæans. A cruel destiny seemed to be ever thrusting them away from their central home. Yet this dispersion was the work of Providence and was to prove a blessing. The continuance of the Judæan race was thus assured. Down-trodden and persecuted in one country, they fled to another, where the old faith, which became ever dearer to them, found a new home. Seeds were scattered here and there, destined to carry far and wide the knowledge of God and the teachings of pure morality. Just as the Greek colonies kindled in various nations the love of art and culture, and the Roman settlements gave rise in many lands to communities governed by law, so had the far wider dispersion of the oldest civilized people contributed to overthrow the errors and combat the sensual vices of the heathen world. In spite of being thus scattered, the members of the Judæan people were not completely divided from one another; they had a common center of union in the Temple of Jerusalem and in the Synhedrion which met in the hall of hewn stone, and to these the dispersed communities clung with loving hearts. Towards them their looks were ever fondly directed, and by sending their gifts to the Temple they continued to participate, at least by their contributions, in the sacrificial worship. From the Synhedrion they received their code of laws, which they followed the more willingly as it was not forced upon them. The Synhedrion, from time to time, sent deputations to the different communities, both far and near, to acquaint them with the most important decisions.
The visits paid to the Temple by the Judæans who lived out of Palestine, strengthened the bond of unity, and these visits must have been of frequent occurrence, for they necessitated the creation of many places of worship in Jerusalem where the various foreign Judæans met for prayer. The capital contained synagogues of the Alexandrians, Cyrenians, Libertines, Elymæans, and Asiatics. One can form some idea of the vast numbers of Judæans existing at that period if one considers that Egypt alone, from the Mediterranean to the Ethiopian boundary, contained nearly a million. In the neighboring country of Cyrenaica, there were likewise many Judæans, some having been forcibly transplanted thither from Egypt, whilst others were voluntary emigrants. In many parts of Syria, and especially in its capital, Antioch, the Judæans formed a considerable portion of the population. The kings of Syria who succeeded Antiochus Epiphanes had reinstated them in all their rights, of which the half-insane Epiphanes had robbed them. One of these kings had even given them some of the utensils taken from the Temple, and these were preserved in their synagogue. About ten thousand Judæans lived at Damascus, and one of their nobles was made ethnarch over them by the Nabathæan king, Aretas Philodemus, just as in Alexandria one of their most distinguished members was elected chief of the community. To the great capital of the world, Rome, the point of attraction for the ambitious and the grasping, the discontented and the visionaries, the Judæans returned in such masses after their expulsion by Tiberius, that when the Emperor Claudius determined, from some unknown cause, upon expelling them again, he was only deterred, by fear of their great numbers, from endeavoring to carry out his intention. Meanwhile he forbade their religious meetings. Towards the end of his reign, however, on account of some disturbances occasioned by a certain Christian apostle, Chrestus, they were probably, but only in part, banished from Rome.
Even greater than in Europe, Syria and Africa was the number of Judæans in the Parthian Empire. They were the descendants of former exiles, who owned large tracts of country in Mesopotamia and Babylonia. Two youths from Naarda (Nahardea on the Euphrates) called Asinaï (Chasinaï) and Anilaï (Chanilaï) founded in the vicinity of that town a robber settlement, which spread terror along the bordering countries. Just as Naarda and Nisibis became the central points for the countries of the Euphrates, there arose in every land a central nucleus from which Judæan colonies spread themselves out into neighboring lands, from Asia Minor on the one side, towards the Black Sea on the other, towards Greece and the Islands. Athens, Corinth, Thessalonica, and Philippi contained Judæan communities. There is no doubt that from Rome Judæan colonies went forth westward to the south of France and Spain.
The effect produced by the Judæans upon the heathens was at first repellent. Their peculiar mode of living, their dress and their religious views, caused them to be considered as strange, enigmatical, mysterious beings, who at one moment inspired awe, and at another derision and contempt. So thorough was the opposition between the Judæans and the heathens that it manifested itself in