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The Jewish nation no doubt became worse after it ceased to have
prophets, just at the very time when, on the rebuilding of the temple
after the captivity in Babylon, it hoped to become better. For so,
indeed, did that car nal people understand what was foretold by Haggai
the prophet, saying, "The glory of this latter house shall be
greater than that of the former." Now, that this is said of the new
testament, he showed a little above,where he says, evidently
promising Christ, "And I will move all nations, and the desired
One shall come to all nations." In this passage the Septuagint
translators giving another sense more suitable to the body than the
Head, that is, to the Church than to Christ, have said by
prophetic authority, "The things shall come that are chosen of the
Lord from all nations," that is, men, of whom Jesus saith in the
Gospel, "Many are called, but few are chosen." For by such
chosen ones of the nations there is built, through the new testament,
with living stones, a house of God far more glorious than that temple
was which was constructed by king Solomon, and rebuilt after the
captivity. For this reason, then, that nation had no prophets from
that time, but was afflicted with many plagues by kings of alien race,
and by the Romans themselves, lest they should fancy that this
prophecy of Haggai was fulfilled by that rebuilding of the temple.
For not long after, on the arrival of Alexander, it was subdued,
when, although there was no pillaging, because they dared not resist
him, and thus, being very easily subdued, received him peaceably,
yet the glory of that house was not so great as it was when under the
free power of their own kings.
Alexander, indeed, offered up sacrifices in the temple of God, not
as a convert to His worship in true piety, but thinking, with impious
folly, that He was to be worshipped along with false gods. Then
Ptolemy son of Lagus, whom I have already mentioned, after
Alexander's death carried them captive into Egypt. His successor,
Ptolemy Philadelphus, most benevolently dismissed them; and by him
it was brought about, as I have narrated a little before, that we
should have the Septuagint version of the Scriptures. Then they were
crushed by the wars which are explained in the books of the Maccabees.
Afterward they were taken captive by Ptolemy king of Alexandria, who
was called Epiphanes.
Then Antiochus king of Syria compelled them by many and most grievous
evils to worship idols, and filled the temple itself with the
sacrilegious superstitions of the Gentiles. Yet their most vigorous
leader Judas, who is also called Maccabaeus, after beating the
generals of Antiochus, cleansed it from all that defilement of
idolatry.
But not long after, one Alcimus, although an alien from the
sacerdotal tribe, was, through ambition, made pontiff, which was an
impious thing. After almost fifty years, during which they never had
peace, although they prospered in some affairs, Aristobulus first
assumed the diadem among them, and was made both king and pontiff.
Before that, indeed, from the time of their return from the
Babylonish captivity and the rebuilding of the temple, they had not
kings, but generals or principes. Although a king himself may be
called a prince, from his principality in governing, and a leader,
because he leads the army, but it does not follow that all who are
princes and leaders may also be called kings, as that Aristobulus
was. He was succeeded by Alexander, also both king and pontiff, who
is reported to have reigned over them cruelly. After him his wife
Alexandra was queen of the Jews, and from her time downwards more
grievous evils pursued them; for this Alexandra's sons, Aristobulus
and Hyrcanus, when contending with each other for the kingdom, called
in the Roman forces against the nation of Israel. For Hyrcanus
asked assistance from them against his brother. At that time Rome had
already subdued Africa and Greece, and ruled extensively in other
parts of the world also, and yet, as if unable to bear her own
weight, had, in a manner, broken herself by her own size. For
indeed she had come to grave domestic seditions, and from that to
social wars, and by and by to civil wars, and had enfeebled and worn
herself out so much, that the changed state of the republic, in which
she should be governed by kings, was now imminent. Pompey then, a
most illustrious prince of the Roman people, having entered Judea
with an army, took the city, threw open the temple, not with the
devotion of a suppliant, but with the authority of a conqueror, and
went, not reverently, but profanely, into the holy of holies, where
it was lawful for none but the pontiff to enter. Having established
Hyrcanus in the pontificate, and set Antipater over the subjugated
nation as guardian or procurator, as they were then called, he led
Aristobulus with him bound. From that time the Jews also began to be
Roman tributaries. Afterward Cassius plundered the very temple.
Then after a few years it was their desert to have Herod, a king of
foreign birth, in whose reign Christ was born. For the time had now
come signified by the prophetic Spirit through the mouth of the
patriarch Jacob, when he says, "There shall not be lacking a prince
out of Judah, nor a teacher from his loins, until He shall come for
whom it is reserved; and He is the expectation of the nations."
There lacked not therefore a Jewish prince of the Jews until that
Herod, who was the first king of a foreign race received by them.
THerefore it was now the time when He should come for whom that was
reserved which is promised in the New Testament, that He should be
the expectation of the nations. But it was not possible that the
nations should expect He would come, as we see they did, to do
judgment in the splendor of power, unless they should first believe in
Him when He came to suffer judgment in the humility of patience.
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