Table of Passages of the Old Testament cited or referred to in the New.

Table of Passages of the Old Testament cited or referred to in the New.

AN

EPITOME OF THE JEWISH HISTORY

FROM THE

TIME OF NEHEMIAH AND MALACHI TO THE BIRTH OF CHRIST,

FILLING UP THE CHASM BETWEEN

THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS.

the only proper place for the worship of God. This people rejected all traditions, and adhered only to the written word contained in the five books of Moses.

As many have wished to see an epitome of the, Samaritans maintained that Mount Gerizim was Jewish history, from the days of the prophet Malachi to the advent of Christ, in order to connect the history of the Old and New Testaments, I have prepared the following, which, in such a work as this, is as much as should be expected.

On all hands Malachi is allowed to have been the last prophet under the Old Testament; and he flourished about four hundred and nine years before the coming of Christ, according to the commonly received chronology; and Nehemiah, who was contemporary with him, was the last of those civil governors appointed by God himself. His last act of reformation is fixed by Prideaux, B. C. 409; soon after which it is supposed that he died, as at this time he could not be less than seventy years of age. For the administration of affairs in his times and in those of Ezra, whom he succeeded in the government of Judea, the reader is referred to the notes on Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel.

Nehemiah's death was also attended with a change of the Jewish government at Jerusalem. Judea had no longer a governor of its own. It was united to the prefecture of Syria; the rulers of which committed the administration of both civil and ecclesiastical affairs to the high-priest for the time being.

By this means the high-priesthood became an office under the heathen; and towards the latter end of Artaxerxes Mnemon's reign, B. C. 405, who succeeded his father Darius Nothus, B. C. 423, the office was conferred by the governor of Syria and Phoenicia. For Bagoses, the governor, took upon himself to displace Johanan the high-priest, in favour of the said priest's brother Joshua; which nomination, though it did not take place (for Johanan slew his brother Joshua in the inner court of the temple, as he endeavoured by force to usurp the high-priest's office by virtue of the governor's commission, B. C. 366), was attended with this bad consequence-that Bagoses, hearing of the murder, came in great wrath to Jerusalem, and laid a heavy fine upon the nation, which lasted seven years, or during the whole of his government.

We have seen, in the Book of Nehemiah, that, on the return of the Jews from the Chaldean captivity, many of them brought strange wives and a spurious offspring with them, and, refusing to put them away, were banished by Nehemiah, and went and settled in Samaria. Among those exiles there was a son of Jehoiada, the high-priest, named Manasseh, who had married the daughter of Sanballat the Horonite, and Artaxerxes Mnemon died B. C. 359, with grief at put himself under the protection of his father-in-the brutality of his son Ochus, who had so terrified law, who was governor of the place. After the death of Nehemiah, Sanballat obtained a grant from Darius to build a temple on Mount Gerizim, near Samaria, of which he made Manasseh, his son-in-law, highpriest. This temple was begun to be built B. C. 408. From the building of this temple, Samaria became the refuge of all refractory Jews: and though by this means the old superstition of the land was reformed to the worship of the God of Israel, they of Jerusalem would never consider the Samaritan Jews otherwise than apostates. On the other hand, the

his eldest brother Ariaspes, that he poisoned himself, and had his younger brother Harpates assassinated. So that Ochus succeeded to the dignity and empire of his father.

In the third year of Ochus, about 356 before Christ, Alexander the Great was born at Pella in Macedonia. Ochus, having reigned twenty-one years, was poisoned by his favourite Bagoas, in hopes of getting the whole government into his own hands, and to put the crown on the head of Arses, his youngest son, whom he also poisoned soon after, and raised Codo

Epitome of the Jewish History

mannus, a distant relation of the late king, to the throne. This new king took the name of Darius; and when Bagoas had also prepared a poisonous draught for him, he obliged Bagoas to drink it himself; by which means he saved his own life, and punished the traitor.

It was about the year B. C. 336 that Alexander the Great succeeded to the kingdom of Macedon, on the death of his father Philip, who was slain by the noble Macedonian Pausanias, as he celebrated the marriage of his daughter with Alexander, king of Epirus, before he set out upon the Grecian expedition against Persia, being chosen captain-general of the united forces of Greece.

The Samaritans met him with great pomp and parade, as he left Jerusalem, and invited him to their city. But Alexander deferred both the invitation, and petition for certain privileges, till his return from Egypt; and left his favourite Andromachus governor of Syria and Palestine.

Andromachus, coming some time after to Samaria upon business, was burned to death in his house, as it was thought on purpose, by the Samaritans, in revenge of the slight which they apprehended Alexander had shown them. But as soon as Alexander | heard it, he caused those to be put to death who had acted any part in the murder, banished all the other inhabitants from Samaria, planted therein a colony of Macedonians, and gave the residue to the Jews. Upon the ruin of the Persians, Alexander had erected the Grecian or Macedonian monarchy. But

Alexander also succeeded to that command by a new election. In one campaign he overran all Asia Minor; vanquished Darius in two battles; took his mother, wife, and children prisoners; and sub-coming to Babylon, after the conquest of the most dued all Syria as far as Tyre, B. C. 332. part of the then known world, he gave himself up so During the siege of Tyre, he demanded the sub-much to drunkenness and gluttony, that he soon put mission of the neighbouring provinces of Galilee, an end to his life, B. C. 323. Samaria, and Judea. The two former submitted to him; but Judea would not renounce their allegiance to Darius so long as he lived. This brought upon them the wrath of the conqueror; who, having taken Tyre, by carrying a bank from the continent through | the sea to the island on which the city stood, and burned it down to the ground, destroyed and slew all the inhabitants in a barbarous manner, both in the sackage of the town, and afterwards in cold blood; and then marched to Jerusalem, to wreak his vengeance upon the Jews. Upon his approach, and the report of his having crucified two thousand of the Tyrian prisoners, the high-priest Jaddua and all the city were under dreadful apprehensions. They had nothing but God's protection to depend upon. They fasted and prayed: and God in a vision directed the high-priest to go in his pontifical robes, attended by the priests in their proper habits, and all the people in white garments, and meet Alexander out of the city.

As soon as Alexander saw this procession moving towards him, and the high-priest in the front, he was overawed, drew near, bowed down, and saluted him in a religious manner; alleging that he did so in regard to that God whose priest he was; adding, moreover, that the high-priest so habited had appeared to him in a dream at Dio in Macedonia, assuring him of success against the Persians.

Jaddua conducted him into the city; and, having offered sacrifices in the temple, showed him the prophecies of Daniel, concerning the overthrow of the Persian empire by a Grecian king.

Alexander was well satisfied with his reception at Jerusalem; and at his departure granted the Jews a toleration of their religion, and an exemption from tribute every seventh year. And the Jews were so well pleased with the conqueror's behaviour, that upon his signifying that he would receive as many of them as would enlist into his service, great multitudes entered under his banner, and followed him in his other expeditions.

Here it cannot be amiss to observe, that Alexander was of a bold and enterprising spirit; but more full of fire than discretion. His actions, though successful, were furious and extravagantly rash. His few virtues were obscured with more and greater vices. Vain glory was his predominant passion; and the fables of the ancient Greek heroes were the only charts by which he steered his conduct. His dragging Bulis round Gaza, his expedition into India, his drunken procession through Caramania, and taking to himself the name of the son of Jupiter, are so many vouchers of this assertion. And, were all his actions duly considered and estimated, he would be properly characterized the great cut-throat of the age in which he lived; as all they are who delight in bloodshed, and will forfeit ALL to obtain universal monarchy; whereas those only are the true heroes who most benefit the world, by promoting the peace and welfare of mankind. In a righteous cause, or a just defence of a man's country, all actions of valour are worthy of praise; but in all other cases victory and conquest are no more than murder and robbery. Therefore Alexander's heroism is to be avoided, and not to be followed, as the surest way to honour and glory.

Alexander was no sooner dead, than Ptolemy Soter seized upon Egypt; and having in vain endeavoured to gain Syria, Phoenicia, and Judea from Laomedes, whom Alexander had appointed governor instead of Andromachus, who was burnt, invaded them by sca and land, took Laomedon prisoner, and got possession of those provinces also, except Judea; which, upoa the account of their allegiance to the surviving governor, refusing to yield, felt the severity of the conqueror; for, understanding that the Jews would not so much as defend themselves on the sabbach day, he stormed Jerusalem, took it without resistance on that day, and carried above one hundred thousand of them captives into Egypt.

From this time we may date the Jews' subjection to the kings of Egypt. And it was in the fifth year

from the time of Nehemiah and Malachi to the Birth of Christ.

of this Ptolemy's reign that Onius the Jewish highpriest died, and was succeeded by his son Simon the Just, on whom an eulogium may be found in Ecclus. 1. 1, &c. B. C. 292.

Simon the Just was high-priest nine years, and is supposed to have completed the canon of the Old Testament by adding the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Maluchi, and the two books of Chronicles, C with the aid and assistance of the great synagogue. He was succeeded by his brother Eleazar, his son Onias being a minor, B. C. 291.

Ptolemy Soter was succeeded by his son Ptolemy Philadelphus, B. C. 285, who completed the college or museum of learned men, and the famous library at Alexandria in Egypt, which was begun by his father, and contained seven hundred thousand volumes, and placed in that library an authentic translation of the book of the law. This translation was finished under the inspection of Eleazar the high-priest, and is called the Septuagint, on account of the joint labour of seventy-two translators employed in it. B. C. 254. Ptolemy Philadelphus died in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, and in the sixty-third of his age, B. C. 247. He was a learned prince, and a great patron of learning; so that men of learning flocked to his court from all parts, and partook of his favour and bounty. Amongst these were the poets Theocritus, Callimachus, Lycophron, and Aratus, and Manetho, the Egyptian historian.

B. C. 247, Ptolemy Euergetes succeeded his father Ptolemy in Egypt. He found Onias, the son of Simon the Just, in the pontificate at Jerusalem, who was very old, weak, inconsiderate, and covetous. And Euergetes, perceiving that the high-priest had for many years kept back the annual tribute, sent one Athenion, an officer at court, to Jerusalem, to demand it, being a very large sum, with threats of sending an army to dispossess them of the country

upon refusal.

This demand and threatening threw the whole nation into great confusion; and one Joseph, the high-priest's nephew by his sister's side, rebuked his uncle sharply for his injustice and ill-management of the public interest, proposed Onias's journey to Alexandria as the best expedient, and, upon his uncle's refusal, offered to go in person to pacify the king's wrath, which was accepted by the high-priest, and approved by the people, B. C. 226.

Joseph all this time had entertained Athenion in a most elegant manner at his own house, and at his departure loaded him with such valuable gifts, that when he arrived at Alexandria, he found the king prepared much in his favour to receive him, and made himself more acceptable by informing him concerning the revenues of Calesyria and Phoenicia, whose value he had inquired more perfectly from their farmers, with whom he had travelled to court part of the way; and was thereupon admitted the king's receiver general of Cœlesyria, Phoenicia, Judea, and Samaria. He immediately satisfied the king for his uncle's arrears with five hundred talents he borrowed at Alexandria on the credit of his new

office, which he enjoyed twenty-two years, though he met with great opposition at his first collecting, till he had brought some of the ringleaders to exemplary punishment.

B. C. 221. All things were again composed at Jerusalem; and Philopater having succeeded his father Ptolemy Euergetes in Egypt, and defeated the army of Antiochus the Great, he in the fifth year of his reign took the tour of Jerusalem while he visited his conquests. But this was very unfortunate for the Jews. For Philopater being led by a vain curiosity to enter into the sanctuary and the holy of holies on the great day of expiation, B. C. 217, where no one but the high-priest was allowed to enter, he was opposed by the deprecations and lamentations of the people; and when he would still advance beyond the inner court, he was seized with such a terror and consternation, that he was obliged to be carried back in a manner half dead. He recovered; but when he left the city, he vowed revenge. And accordingly, he was no sooner returned to Alexandria than he deprived the Jews of all their rights and privileges; ordered them to be stigmatized with a burn representing an ivy-leaf, under pain of death, in honour of his god Bacchus; and excluded all persons from his presence that would not sacrifice to the god he worshipped. Then he commanded as many Jews as he could seize in Egypt to be brought and shut up in the Hippodrome, or place for horse-races, at Alexandria, to be destroyed by elephants. But God turned the wild beasts upon those that came to see the dreadful massacre, by which numbers of the spectators were slain; and so terrified the king and. his subjects with other tokens of his displeasure and power, that Philopater immediately not only released the Jews from the Hippodrome, but restored the whole nation to their privileges, reversed every decree against them, and put those Jews to death who for fear of persecution had apostatized from their religion.

Ptolemy Philopater was succeeded, B. C. 204, by his son Ptolemy Epiphanes, then only five years old. This minority gave Antiochus the Great an opportunity to regain Colesyria and Palestine: in which expedition the Jews had shown so much favour to Antiochus, that he granted them many favours, a liberty to live according to their own laws and religion, a prohibition to strangers to enter within the sept of the temple, &c. But as soon as Ptolemy was marriageable, he made peace with him, and gave him his daughter, with Calesyria and Palestine for her portion. On this occasion Joseph, who had been Ptolemy's receiver-general in those provinces, and displaced by Antiochus, was restored.

Ptolemy in a short time had a son; and it being customary on such occasions for all the great officers of state to congratulate the king and queen, and to carry them presents, Joseph, whose age would not permit him to take so long a journey, sent his son Hyrcanus, B. C. 187, who, upon an unlimited credit given him by his father, when he was arrived at Alexandria borrowed a thousand talents, or two hundred