Chapter I

FROM THE BIRTH OF CHRIST TO HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY.

=1.= No other people have had stronger motives for cherishing the memories of their past than have had the Jews.

One of the most important sources of Jewish pride was found in their =genealogical records=. The history of the return from captivity and of the renewed settlement in Palestine, as recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, shows how important these records were considered to be. But the most important of all the records were those which traced any lineage up to David, and there is no reason to believe that a true line of descent was ever forgotten.

Not only the genealogy of the male members, but also that of the female members of a family, were preserved, as we may learn from Scripture accounts and certainly from secular history. A supposed defect in the genealogy of the mother of John Hyrcanus, a high-priest, B. C. 108, was the cause of bloodshed in Jerusalem[155] because of the insult offered to the high-priest by the bare announcement of such a defect, although it was shown that the genealogical records certified her descent from a Jewish tribe.

=2. The Virgin Mary’s genealogy= was as important as that of Joseph, her reputed husband, although her husband’s genealogy might have been perfect, as in the instance given in the last paragraph. In the case of Hyrcanus, his father’s origin, according to the Jewish law, was without defect; it was the mother’s pedigree which was assailed.

Especially was it important to the priest’s office that the mother of the candidate for this office should be of unquestioned Jewish descent.

=3. It is for this reason= that while the writer of the first Gospel (Matthew) opens his history of the Messiah with the answer to the important question, Whose son is he? the writer of the third Gospel (Luke) gives the lineage of his mother. So that, whether Christ’s pedigree be traced through the line of Joseph or of Mary, it is undeniable that he was descended from David and from Abraham.[156]

NAZARETH AND BETHLEHEM.

=4. These two places=, which are brought into prominence at this part of the history, were 68 miles apart, Bethlehem being not quite five miles, a little west of south, from Jerusalem, and Nazareth 63 miles north of Jerusalem, if the distances be measured in a straight line.

=5. Nazareth= is a village of about 5,000 inhabitants, situated in a plain surrounded almost entirely by hills. The place is not mentioned in the Old Testament, nor in Josephus, but twenty-nine times in the New Testament. The city itself rises in part upon the sides of a hill on its northwest side, but the little plain at the south end of the city is 1,144 feet above the sea level, and the top of the hill northwest of the city 1,602 feet, or 458 feet higher.[157] The country slopes from Nazareth southward to the northern limit of the plain of Esdraelon, two miles distant, where the level is about 300 feet above the sea. The Mediterranean is twenty-one miles west from Nazareth, and the southernmost shore of the Sea of Galilee is seventeen miles due east of the city. The soil has always been fertile and the climate pleasant. It has one fine spring which supplies the entire city, as it must have done in the time of Christ.

=6. Bethlehem= contains nearly the same population as Nazareth, but its surroundings are the reverse of those at Nazareth, Bethlehem being upon an elevation. A church, erected by Constantine, A. D. 330, still remains, which furnishes us with the style of architecture of the earliest Christian period.

This was the city of David and of his father Jesse, and hence always held dear by his descendants, and to this town Joseph and Mary went from Nazareth to be enrolled in accordance with the decree issued by Cæsar Augustus, as stated in Luke 2:1. The decree was only for the enrolment. The actual collecting of the taxes did not take place for some years afterward, as is recorded in Josephus, when the rebellion took place, which is alluded to in Acts 5:37, against the actual levying of the taxes.[158]

THE BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOUR.

=7. During their stay at Bethlehem= Jesus was born. The crowd was great of the many who came to this small town to be registered by the officers taking the census, and the accommodations for his parents were poor, for the record states “there was no room for them in the inn” and she “laid him in a manger.” It was here that he was visited by

THE WISE MEN.

=8. These men=, usually known as “the Magi,” belonged to a class of astrologers whose office it was to study omens, or signs, as drawn from the planets. They were descendants of a class which was noted for learning and influence in the flourishing ages of Babylon and Nineveh, but neither of these cities was in existence at this time. As many of the Magi had retired eastward to Persia after the fall of Babylon, it is probable that these came from the Persian dominion to Jerusalem, expecting that there they should learn something of the new king.

=9. The coming of the Messiah= had long been the hope of the captive Jews, and as a large number of the people, some of influence and wealth, existed at this time in the Persian dominions, there can be but little doubt that these “wise men” were roused to make the journey they did, and to greet the advent of a king who, to them, after seeing the celestial sign, was more than simply a “King of the Jews.”

=10. These men= had a reputation which was highly regarded in Jerusalem, and to Herod they were not strangers of a common class. Hence to him their inquiry carried great importance. His consultation with the Sanhedrin, which was the most learned body in Jerusalem at that time, soon showed that the Messiah, according to the prophets, was to be born in Bethlehem, Micah. 5:2. To this place, guided by the supernatural sign, they came, found the child, and offered their gifts.

HEROD AND HIS SUCCESSOR.

=11. The effort of Herod= to destroy Jesus in an indiscriminate slaughter of the children of Bethlehem of a certain age, failed of its intention. Joseph, having been warned in a dream, took the young child and his mother and fled into Egypt before the destruction took place.

=12. Egypt at this time= was entirely under Roman control. Many Jews inhabited Alexandria and were in affluent circumstances; two of them had been chief officers of the armies of Cleopatra. The two refugees, with the child, in that land were safely beyond the power of Herod, and there they remained until the death of Herod, which took place about a year after their departure from Bethlehem.

=13. Archelaus=, who succeeded Herod, was his son, but he inherited none of the enterprise and mental ability, but only the atrocious cruelty of his father; and the complaints of the Jews occasioned his deposition and the confiscation of his property. Joseph and Mary, fearing the consequences of coming within the power of Archelaus, after the death of Herod returned to Nazareth in Galilee.

THE EARLY CHILDHOOD OF JESUS.

=14. One incident only= is recorded of Jesus from this time until he arrived at manhood. This incident was his visit to the Temple at Jerusalem, when only twelve years of age. His parents, with their friends, had visited the city to attend the great feast of the Passover. The celebration of that feast being over, they had started upon their return in company with crowds of those who were passing along the only highway leading northward from the city. Jesus had stopped at the Temple and was conversing with the learned doctors, or teachers, of the Law.

=15. The peculiar significancy of this visit= at this time is stated in Mal. 3:1, and it was the first time that he had ever referred to the great object of his divine mission. This divine mission he announced to his mother when she, having sought for and found him in the Temple, gently reproved him for remaining behind.

From this time to that when he entered upon his public ministry our Saviour remained at Nazareth, and as the Scriptural record informs us, he was subject to his parents and “increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man,” Luke 2:51, 52.

THE INTERIM.

=16. Events now transpired= in the history of the Jews which are important to a full understanding of the future ministry of our Saviour.

It is evident, in accordance with the ancient prophecy by Jacob in his dying hour,[159] that the “sceptre had departed from Judah,” for “Shiloh” had come. This Shiloh had been interpreted in all their chief commentaries to mean the Messiah.[160] These commentaries were the Targums of which we have written, page 189, note. The expression in Mal. 3:1, that “he shall suddenly come to his temple,” appears to have been fulfilled when Jesus visited the Temple as spoken of already, that is, when at the age of twelve he suddenly appeared asking and answering questions of the astonished doctors of the Law in whose midst he sat, Luke 2:47.

THE CHRISTIAN ERA.

=17. Before we proceed= it is necessary that we should know that not even at the present time are we fully assured as to the exact date of the birth of Christ. It is generally supposed that Dionysius Exiguus, the monk who introduced in A. D. 527 the custom of dating events from the birth of Christ, mistook the time of that event by exactly four years. That is, the birth took place four years before the time asserted in that chronology known as Anno Domini. But recent discoveries seem to prove that the true statement is that the error is one of five years, as Prof. Sattler of Munich asserts in an essay published by him in 1883. This statement he bases upon the discovery of four copper coins which were struck under Herod Antipas, seeming to prove that Christ was born 749 years after the foundation of Rome, and not, as usually accepted, 754.

But, with this explanation, we shall continue to use the common date, while we keep in memory that our era is at least four years in error, so that the actual birth of Christ took place four or five years before A. D. 1.

THE HERODS.

=18. The name Herod= will be found applied to no less than five different rulers in New Testament times. Their dates of office enable us frequently to determine the dates of events referred to in the Scriptures.

The following facts are all that are necessary to distinguish the Herods. Herod the Great had five wives, but the descendants of only four are referred to in the New Testament, as follows:

Herod the Great, Matt. 2:1. He was made king by Julius Cæsar, B. C. 37, and died B. C. 4, that is, before the common era, but really in the first year of Christ.

He had two sons by Malthace, a Samaritan, namely, Herod Antipas and Archelaus. The latter succeeded him after some delay, but, although called king by the people, was only tetrarch, with the promise conditionally made that he should be king. He was deposed through complaint of his atrocious cruelty, and banished to Vienna, now called Lyons, where he died.[161]

The names of the other members of this family of Herods may be seen in the following table.

HEROD married:

MARIAMNE, granddaughter of Hyrcanus.
│
└─ ARISTOBULUS――Married his niece, Berenice, daughter of Salome,
│ Herod’s sister. Slain by his father, B. C. 6.
│
├─ HEROD――king of Chalcis; died A. D. 48.
│
├─ HEROD AGRIPPA I.――Succeeded to tetrarchy of Herod
│ │ Philip II. A. D. 37; and to Herod
│ │ Antipas A. D. 40; Judæa and Samaria
│ │ added A. D. 41; married Cypros,
│ │ granddaughter of Phasael, brother
│ │ of Herod the Great; died A. D. 44.
│ │
│ ├─ AGRIPPA II.――king of Chalcis A. D. 48‒53;
│ │ succeeded to tetrarchy of
│ │ Philip II., A. D. 53‒100; died
│ │ A. D. 100――the last prince of the
│ │ line.
│ │
│ ├─ BERNICE or BERENICE――Married Herod king of
│ │ Chalcis, her uncle. After his
│ │ death she returned to her brother
│ │ for a time. A woman of great lack
│ │ of virtue.
│ │
│ └─ DRUSILLA――Married to Felix, after separation
│ │ from Azizus king of Emesa.
│ │
│ └─ AGRIPPA――being her son by Felix. Died
│ A. D. 79.
│
└─ HERODIAS:――1. Married Philip I.
2. Married Herod Antipas.

MARIAMNE, daughter of Simon, high-priest.
│
└─ PHILIP I.――Married Herodias; lived in private.

MALTHACE, a Samaritan.
│
├─ HEROD ANTIPAS――Tetrarch of Galilee, married daughter of
│ Aretas, then married Herodias. Deposed and
│ banished A. D. 40.
│
└─ ARCHELAUS――Deposed as we have said.

CLEOPATRA, of Jerusalem.
│
└─ HEROD PHILIP II.――Tetrarch of Ituræa and Trachonitis, died
A. D. 33‒34. He married Salome, daughter
of Herodias by Philip I.

=19. The Herods= mentioned in the New Testament simply by the name “Herod” are three.

(1) Herod the Great.

(2) Herod Antipas, referred to in Matt. 14:1‒12; Mark 6:14‒29; Luke 3:1, 19, 20; 8:3; 9:7‒9; 23:7‒12, 15; Acts 4:27; called “the king” in Matt. 14:9; Mark 6:22, 25‒27; and “king Herod” in Mark 6:14. He was son of Herod the Great, as was the Herod for whom Herodias left her husband. Therefore John the Baptist reproved him for taking for a wife Herodias, and she, because of her hatred of the Baptist for this reproof, moved her daughter Salome to ask, as her reward for pleasing Herod (Antipas) by her dancing, that he would present her with the head of John in a platter.

(3) Herod Agrippa I., Acts 12:1‒23. The sickness referred to in this passage occurred A. D. 44. He was grandson of Herod the Great.

Others of this family of Herods are mentioned in Scripture, but not by the name of Herod, as in the case of

(4) Philip I., of Matt. 14:3; Mark 6:17; Luke 3:19. In the table he is marked Philip I., but only to distinguish him from his brother of the same name, Herod Philip. But Philip I. lived in private station and is only mentioned as the husband of Herodias, as recorded in the passage just given.

(5) Philip II., of Luke 3:1, is called “tetrarch of Ituræa and of the region of Trachonitis.” It was after this Philip that Cæsarea Philippi, at the foot of Mt. Hermon, received its name, to distinguish it from the other Cæsarea, on the coast south of Mt. Carmel, the latter being called Cæsarea Palestina. He was also called Herod, but in Scripture only Philip. He married Salome the daughter of Herodias, his niece, the young woman referred to in Matt. 14:6. He was a son of Herod the Great, as was Philip I.

(6) Agrippa, of Acts 25 and 26, is also called king Agrippa in the New Testament, a title given him by Claudius, the Roman emperor, A. D. 52.

=20. Of the females= of the Herodian family, four are mentioned in the New Testament, Herodias, Salome, Bernice, and Drusilla. Salome is not named, but simply called “the daughter of Herodias.” Herodias is mentioned in Matt. 14:3‒11 and in Mark and Luke, where the same incident is recorded. Bernice (or Berenice) was niece of Herodias and married her uncle, Herod king of Chalcis, who died A. D. 48. She then lived with her brother Agrippa II. Drusilla was sister of Bernice and was married to Azizus, king of Emessa in Syria, now Homs; but at the persuasion of Felix she left her husband and married Felix, who was procurator of Judæa, according to Josephus. He was succeeded by Porcius Festus about 61 or 62 A. D., having been accused of great cruelty after his departure to Rome. The scene described in Acts 23 and 24 occurred just before his visit to Rome, and that in Acts 25 and 26 soon after. Felix had driven out the banditti and impostors from the country, and to this Tertullus alludes in his address as given in Acts 24:2.

IDUMÆA.

=21. Before the Captivity= of the Jews to Babylon the name Idumæa designated the land east of the great valley Arabah which runs south of the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. Petra was its capital. But during the Captivity the Idumæans gradually extended their settlements to that part of Judæa south of Jerusalem, including Hebron. After the return from Babylon, the Idumæans became the enemies of the Jews until the time of the Maccabees, when they were conquered and required either to leave the country or change their religion for that of the Jews. They chose the latter alternative under John Hyrcanus, about B. C. 130, and were governed by Jewish prefects.

When, therefore, Antipater the father of Herod the Great, and Herod himself, are said to be “Idumæans,” the allusion is to this district south of Judæa, which was at that time called Idumæa. This is the Greek term for Edom. The name is used, Isa. 34:5, 6, in the former sense, namely, of the country east of the Arabah, before the Captivity; but in Ezek. 36:5 in the sense used after the Captivity, and in the latter sense also in Mark 3:8.