Chapter II: The Political History of Palestine, B.c. 4-A.d. 70

1. =The Kingdom of Herod the Great= included all the provinces indicated upon the map, and described above. This organization came to an end B.C. 4, when Herod died.

2. =The Tetrarchy=, B.C. 4-A.D. 41. The word means "a government of four," and points to the division of the kingdom after Herod's death, when Archelaus was made tetrarch of Judæa and Samaria; Antipas (called in the New Testament "Herod the tetrarch"), of Galilee and Peræa; and Philip, of the fifth province, east of the Sea of Tiberias. The fourth tetrarch was Lysanias, who ruled over the small district of Abilene, between Mount Hermon and Damascus, a separate dominion from that of Herod. In A.D. 6 Archelaus was deposed, and Judæa and Samaria were annexed directly to the empire, and governed by a series of procurators, of whom Pontius Pilate was the sixth. This was the political arrangement of Palestine during the ministry of Jesus, of which a map is given.

3. =The Kingdom of Herod Agrippa=, A.D. 41-44. Herod Agrippa was a grandson of Herod the Great, and an intimate friend of the emperor Caligula, from whom he received the title of king, and all the dominions of Herod the Great, with Abilene added; so that he reigned over more territory than any Jewish king after Solomon. He was the "Herod the king" who slew the apostle James, imprisoned Peter, and died by the judgment of God at Cæsarea. (Acts 12.)

4. =The Two Provinces=, A.D. 44-70. On the death of Herod Agrippa, his son, Herod Agrippa II., was a youth of 17. The emperor Claudius gave him only the tetrarchies formerly held by Philip and Lysanias, "the fifth province" of Palestine, and Abilene. Over these he reigned until the final extinction of the Jewish state by Titus, A.D. 70, when he retired to a private station at Rome. This was the "King Agrippa" before whom the apostle Paul bore testimony. (Acts 25, 26.) During his reign, Judæa, Samaria, Galilee and Peræa formed the province of Judæa, under Roman procurators, having their headquarters at Cæsarea. When the last rebellion of the Jews had been quelled by the destruction of Jerusalem, the entire country was annexed to the province of Syria, and the history of Judæa ended.

A.D. 44-70.]

THE LIFE OF CHRIST.

AS THE life of Jesus Christ on earth is the most important not only in all Bible history, but in all human history as well, it is desirable that the Bible student, and especially the Bible teacher, should obtain a clear understanding of its leading events, associate them with the places where they occurred, and arrange them in chronological order. Of the 150 principal events, about 100 are fixed as to their chronological order by the common consent of the leading harmonists; about 25 are agreed upon by the majority; while the remaining 25 are altogether uncertain. In the outline here given, the authorities most relied upon are Andrews, Robinson, Geikie, and Strong, yet no one of them is exclusively followed. We divide the earthly life of Jesus into nine periods, to each of which is given a separate map, so that the student may not be confused among the various lines of the Saviour's journeying.

The periods are as follows:

I. Period of Preparation, 30 years, from the Birth to the Baptism of Jesus.

II. Period of Inauguration, 15 months, from the Baptism to the Rejection at Nazareth.

III. Period of Early Galilean Ministry, 4 months, from the Rejection at Nazareth to the Sermon on the Mount.

IV. Period of Later Galilean Ministry, 10 months, from the Sermon on the Mount to the Feeding of the Five Thousand.

V. Period of Retirement, 6 months, from the Feeding of the Five Thousand to the Feast of Tabernacles.

VI. Period of Judæan Ministry, 3 months, from the Feast of Tabernacles to the Feast of Dedication.

VII. Period of Peræan Ministry, 4 months, from the Feast of Dedication to the Anointing at Bethany.

VIII. Period of the Passion, 8 days, from the Anointing at Bethany to the Resurrection.

IX. Period of the Resurrection, 40 days, from the Resurrection to the Ascension.