ample powers by Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, arrived from Babylon; bringing with him some additional vessels belonging to the Temple, and accompanied by about fifteen hundred Jews. He employed himself with great diligence in reforming abuses and transgressions prevalent among the people. Thirteen years. after his arrival, he was joined by Nehemiah, who was appointed governor of Judæa by Artaxerxes, with authority to repair the ruined walls of Jerusalem; an undertaking which, notwithstanding the opposition of factions and of surrounding enemies, was at length effected. At this time Ezra appears to have devoted his attention wholly to religious concerns, and to the collection and revisal of the canonical books of the Scriptures of the Old Testament. The Jewish people now deliberately renewed their covenant with God; and from that period, to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, they faithfully abstained from every species of idolatrous worship.

After the days of Nehemiah no mention is made of any distinct governor of Judæa, while it continued subject to the Persians. The country was regarded as a part of the province of Syria. In the time of Alexander the Great the Jews exhibited a signal proof of fidelity to their engagements, by refusing, on the ground of the allegiance which they owed to Persia, to supply that conqueror, then occupied in the siege of Tyre, with the succours which he required of them. Alexander, having at length rendered himself master of Tyre, marched, inflamed with resentment, at the head of his army towards Jerusalem. At a short distance from that city he was met by a solemn procession, conducted by the High Priest Jaddua, in his pontifical robes. Alexander, on their near approach, hastened forward; and to the extreme astonishment

of his followers, bowed himself down before the High Priest, and adored the name of Jehovah inscribed on his mitre. In reply to Parmenio, who expressed his surprise that the victorious monarch of so many nations should pay reverence to a Jewish priest, Alexander declared, that many years before, when he had been revolving his meditated expedition against Persia, the appearance of this very person had stood before him, and had promised him success in the name of God. Alexander accompanied the High Priest to Jerusalem, offered sacrifices in the Temple, and bestowed many privileges and immunities on the Jews; but gave an evasive answer to the Samaritans, whom his unexpected bounty to the Jews encouraged to apply for similar favours.* Nor were these the only proofs of regard which he showed to the Jews. When he founded the city of Alexandria, in Egypt, he fixed many of that nation there; and bestowed on them the same rights as were enjoyed by the Macedonians. And when the Samaritans rebelled against him, he assigned their country to the Jews, to be held by them under the same exemptions from tribute as Judæa.

Soon after the death of Alexander, an event which took place three hundred and twenty-three years before Christ, Palestine, in the division of the Macedonian empire, fell under the power of Ptolemy king of Egypt; and about an hundred years afterwards passed into the hands of the Grecian kings of Syria, who permitted the Jews to be governed by their own laws, under the High Priest and his council. In consequence of the intermediate situation of their country between Egypt and Syria, they suffered much and

*Josephi Antiq. lib. ii. c. 8. and see Bishop Newton's Dis sertations on the Prophecies, 3d edition, vol. ii. pp. 37-47.

frequently from the contentions which arose between those rival empires. The Greek language gradually spread into familiar use among them. And from their connection with foreigners they progressively imbibed foreign manners and foreign vices. Their High Priests became corrupt, ultimately obtaining the office by purchase from the Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes ; and recommending themselves to him, by lending their aid to draw aside the people from the observance of the Mosaic law to the adoption of Grecian customs. By his hand, however, Providence inflicted on the Jews a memorable chastisement. Irritated by the opposition which he had experienced in some of his plans, he seized upon the city; slaughtered or sold for slaves vast multitudes of the inhabitants; despoiled and shattered the Temple itself; and at length abolished the daily sacrifice; burned all the copies of the law which he could discover; fixed an image of Jupiter in the Temple; and endeavoured to constrain the people throughout the whole land, by the most cruel tortures, to submit to the worship of idols. After some few years, and about one hundred and sixtyseven before the Christian era, God was pleased to raise up a deliverer to his people in Mattathias the Maccabee, a priest of equal piety and fortitude; who levied an army against the tyrant, and pushed on the war with success. After his death, the celebrated Judas Maccabeus, and his other sons, repeatedly overcame the Syrian armies; and ultimately expelled them from Judæa. The Temple was repaired and purified; the observance of the Mosaic law was restored; and the supreme authority, civil as well as ecclesiastical, was united for several generations in the head of the Maccabean family, of whom Aristobulus was the first who assumed the title of King. In a contest for the

crown between two of his descendents, about sixtyfive years before Christ, both parties applied for assistance to the Romans. Pompey availed himself of these dissensions to render Judæa tributary to Rome. He appointed Hyrcanus, one of the competitors, High Priest; but allowed him not to possess any other denomination than that of Prince. Some years afterwards the avarice of Crassus plundered the Temple of all its treasures. During the domestic troubles which engaged the attention of the Romans on the death of Julius Cæsar, Hyrcanus was deprived of his authority by his nephew Antigonus, who assumed the regal title. Herod, an Edomite, the son of one of the officers of Hyrcanus, repairing to Rome, and being there appointed king of Judæa, took Antigonus prisoner; and sent him into Italy, where he was put to death. Being thus established in the quiet possession of the country, Herod gradually augmented his dominions; and expended immense sums in adorning Jerusalem, and in repairing and enlarging the buildings of the Temple. To his family and his subjects he was a cruel and sanguinary tyrant. His reign is memorable for the birth of the Saviour of the world; whom he dreaded as a rival, and endeavoured to destroy by the slaughter of Bethlehem. In the following year, he died in the agonies of a most loathsome distemper. His territories were distributed by the Romans, who ratified the disposition which he had made in his will, among his three sons, thenceforth called tetrarchs or ethnarchs. Archelaus governed the ancient possessions of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, together with Samaria, and the land of Edom. Herod Antipas, by whom John the Baptist was beheaded and Jesus Christ derided before his crucifixion, ruled in Galilee and Peræa. Philip obtained the districts of Tracho

nitis and Ituræa. Archelaus, in the seventh year of the Christian era, (which era, according to the received computation, begins with the fifth year after the birth of Christ,) was deprived of his government by the Romans, in consequence of the complaints of his subjects. His dominions were immediately reduced into the state of a Roman province. On the death of Philip, and the deposition of Antipas, the Roman emperor Caligula gave their dominions, with the title of King, to Herod Agrippa; and Claudius added Judæa and Samaria. This Herod was the person who put to death the Apostle James, and imprisoned Peter*, and was grandson of the first Herod. He was succeeded, with the permission of Claudius, in his title, and part of his territories, by his own son of the same name; the Agrippa before whom Paul+ was produced by Festus the Roman governor.

In the mean time Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, had manifested himself in Judæa, and fulfilled his ministry. Though uniting in himself the accomplishment of every prophecy contained in the Old Testament, respecting the Redeemer of mankind; born of the tribe of Judah, of the lineage of David, of a pure virgin, in the town of Bethlehem: having for his forerunner a prophet, John the Baptist, commissioned to preach repentance in the power and spirit of Elijah; performing all those miracles which the pre* Acts, xii. This Agrippa was son to Aristobulus, the eldest son of the first Herod. Aristobulus had been put to death by his own father: a circumstance which had led Augustus to say that he had rather be Herod's swine than his son. The comparison was employed by the Emperor partly in allusion to the resemblance of the two Greek words signifying a swine and a son; and partly to the abhorrence with which the swine was regarded among the Jews.

† Acts, xxv. xxvi.