Luke, speaking of the father (Acts xii. 1-3), calls him Herod the king, and gives an example of the exercise of his authority at Jerusalem : speaking of the son (xxv. 13) he calls him king, but not of Judea; which distinction agrees correctly with the history. VIII. [p. 51.] Acts xiii. 6. " And when they had gone through the isle (Cyprus) unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus: which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man." The word which is here translated deputy, signifies proconsul, and upon this word our observation is founded. The provinces of the Roman Empire were of two kinds; those belonging to the emperor, in which the governor was called proprætor; and those belonging to the senate, in which the governor was called proconsul. And this was a regular distinction. Now it appears from Dio Cassius, that the province of Cyprus, which in the original distribution was assigned to the emperor, had been transferred to the senate, in exchange for some others; and that, after this exchange, the appropriate title of the Roman governor was proconsul. Lib. liv. ad. A. U. 732. Acts xviii. 12. [p. 55.] "And when Gallio was deputy (proconsul) of Achaia.” The propriety of the title "proconsul" is in this passage still more critical. For the province. of Achaia, after passing from the senate to the emperor, had been restored again by the emperor Claudius to the senate (and consequently its government had become proconsular) only six or seven years before the time in which this transaction is said to have taken place. And what confines with strictness the appellation to the time is, that Achaia under the following reign ceased to be a Roman province at all. IX. [p. 152.] It appears as well from the general constitution of a Roman province, as from what Josephus delivers concerning the state of Judea in particular, that the power of life and death resided exclusively in the Roman governor; but that the Jews, nevertheless, had magistrates and a council, invested with a subordinate and municipal authority. This economy is discerned in every part of the Gospel narrative of our Saviour's crucifixion. X. [p. 203.] Acts ix. 31. "Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria." 7 Suet. in Claud., c. xxv. Doi., lib. lxi. This rest synchronizes with the attempt of Caligula to place his statue in the temple of Jerusalem; the threat of which outrage produced amongst the Jews a consternation, that, for a season, diverted their attention from every other object." XI. [p. 218.] Acts xxi. 30, 31, 33-35. "And they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple and forthwith the doors were shut. And as they went about to kill him, tidings came to the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done. And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle. And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people." In this quotation, we have the band of Roman soldiers at Jerusalem, their office (to suppress tumults), the castle, the stairs, both, as it should seem, adjoining to the temple. Let us 9 • Joseph. de Bell., lib. 11, c. 10, sect. 1, 3, 4. f inquire whether we can find these particulars in any other record of that age and place. Joseph. de Bell., lib. v. c. 5, sect. 8. "Antonia was situated at the angle of the western and northern porticoes of the outer temple. It was built upon a rock fifty cubits high, steep on all sides. On that side where it joined to the porticoes of the temple, there were stairs reaching to each portico, by which the guard descended; for there was always lodged here a Roman legion; and, posting themselves in their armour, in several places in the porticoes, they kept a watch on the people on the feast-days to prevent all disorders; for, as the temple was a guard to the city, so was Antonia to the temple." XII. [p. 224.] Acts iv. 1. "And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them." Here we have a public officer, under the title of captain of the temple, and he probably a Jew, as he accompanied the priests and Sadducees in apprehending the Apostles. Joseph. de Bell., lib. ii. c. 17, sect. 2. "And at the temple, Eleazar, the son of Ananias the high priest, a young man of a bold and resolute disposition, then captain, persuaded those who performed the sacred ministrations, not to receive the gift of sacrifice of any stranger." XIII. [p. 225.] Acts xxv. 12. "Then Festus when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Cæsar? unto Cæsar shalt thou go." That it was usual for the Roman presidents to have a council consisting of their friends and other chief Romans in the province, appears expressly in the following passage of Cicero's oration against Verres :— "Illud negare posses, aut nunc negabis, te, consilio tuo dimisso, viris primariis, qui in consilio C. Sacerdotis fuerant, tibique esse volebant, remotis, de re judicatâ judicâsse ?"1 XIV. [p. 235.] Acts xvi. 13. "And (at Philippi) on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river-side, where prayer was wont to be made," or where a роσeux, oratory, or place of prayer, was allowed. The particularity to be remarked, is the situation of the place, where prayer was wont to be made; namely, by a river-side. Philo, describing the conduct of the Jews of Alexandria on a certain public occasion, relates of them, that, "early in the morning flocking out of the gates of the city, they go to the 1 ["Could you deny, or will you now deny the fact, that you judged a cause already decided, after you had dismissed your council, men of the first rank, who had been the advisers of C. Sacerdos, and were willing to be yours?”] |