|
When Herod, the first ruler of foreign blood, became King, the
prophecy of Moses received its fulfillment, according to which there
should "not be wanting a prince of Judah, nor a ruler from his
loins, until he come for whom it is reserved." The latter, he also
shows, was to be the expectation of the nations.
This prediction remained unfulfilled so long as it was permitted them
to live under rulers from their own nation, that is, from the time of
Moses to the reign of Augustus. Under the latter, Herod, the
first foreigner, was given the Kingdom of the Jews by the Romans.
As Josephus relates, he was an Idumean on his father's side and an
Arabian on his mother's. But Africanus, who was also no common
writer, says that they who were more accurately informed about him
report that he was a son of Antipater, and that the latter was the son
of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of the so-called servants of the
temple of Apollo.
This Antipater, having been taken a prisoner while a boy by Idumean
robbers, lived with them, because his father, being a poor man, was
unable to pay a ransom for him. Growing up in their practices he was
afterward befriended by Hyrcanus, the high priest of the Jews. A
son of his was that Herod who lived in the, times of our Saviour.
When the Kingdom of the Jews had devolved upon such a man the
expectation of the nations was, according to prophecy, already at the
door. For with him their princes and governors, who had ruled in
regular succession from the time of Moses came to an end.
Before their captivity and their transportation to Babylon they were
ruled by Saul first and then by David, and before the kings leaders
governed them who were called Judges, and who came after Moses and
his successor Jesus.
After their return from Babylon they continued to have without
interruption an aristocratic form of government, with an oligarchy.
For the priests had the direction of affairs until Pompey, the Roman
general, took Jerusalem by force, and defiled the holy places by
entering the very innermost sanctuary of the temple. Aristobulus,
who, by the right of ancient succession, had been up to that time both
king and high priest, he sent with his children in chains to Rome;
and gave to Hyrcanus, brother of Aristobulus, the high priesthood,
while the whole nation of the Jews was made tributary to the Romans
from that time.
But Hyrcanus, who was the last of the regular line of high priests,
was, very soon afterward taken prisoner by the Parthians, and
Herod, the first foreigner, as I have already said, was made King
of the Jewish nation by the Roman senate and by Augustus.
Under him Christ appeared in bodily shape, and the expected
Salvation of the nations and their calling followed in accordance with
prophecy. From this time the princes and rulers of Judah, I mean of
the Jewish nation, came to an end, and as a natural consequence the
order of the high priesthood, which from ancient times had proceeded
regularly in closest succession from generation to generation, was
immediately thrown into confusion,
Of these things Josephus is also a witness, who shows that when
Herod was made King by the Romans he no longer appointed the high
priests from the ancient line, but gave the honor to certain obscure
persons. A course similar to that of Herod in the appointment of the
priests was pursued by his son Archelaus, and after him by the
Romans, who took the government into their own hands.
The same writer shows that Herod was the first that locked up the
sacred garment of the high priest under his own seal and refused to
permit the high priests to keep it for themselves. The same course was
followed by Archelaus after him, and after Archelaus by the Romans.
These things have been recorded by us in order to show that another
prophecy has been fulfilled in the appearance of our Saviour Jesus
Christ. For the Scripture, in the book of Daniel, having
expressly mentioned a certain number of weeks until the coming of
Christ, of which we have treated in other books, most clearly
prophesies, that after the completion of those weeks the unction among
the Jews should totally perish. And this, it has been clearly
shown, was fulfilled at the time of the birth of our Saviour Jesus
Christ. This has been necessarily premised by us as a proof of the
correctness of the time.
|
|