Книга седьмая. От возвращения из плена до Рождества Христова

Chapter 55. Return of the Jews from Captivity All Jews, to whom the memory of Jerusalem was dear and sacred, responded to the call of the royal decree of liberation. The decree itself spread like joyful tidings throughout the entire country wherever the Jews lived. This joy was especially deeply felt by those who, due to everyday circumstances, had to find themselves in a truly difficult, servile condition in the country of captivity. Many of the Jews, during their initial resettlement to Assyria and Babylonia, were sold into slavery, and many of course had very cruel masters. And so those who “sat in darkness and the shadow of death, bound in sorrow and iron” (Ps. 106:10), could now breathe freely, feeling restored to their former human dignity. When the news of liberation spread from one area to another, everyone in whom the patriotic feeling was still alive immediately perked up and turned with sad eyes towards their native land. Since the return of the Jews and their settlement in Palestine was part of Cyrus’s political plans, the Persian government provided the settlers with all their assistance and they were allowed to take with them all the property that was at their disposal. True, the richer Jews, all those who managed to acquire a significant economy in the country of their captivity, chose to stay there, and among them the majority of the higher and richer classes, who easily lost their faith and nationality and were reborn as Babylonians. But even among the upper classes there were still truly patriotic and pious people who either decided to go to Palestine themselves, or at least assisted the settlers with their material assistance. In order to give greater courage to the settlers, Cyrus ordered his treasurer Mithridates to transfer, from the treasury at the Church of Bel, to the settlers all the sacred gold and silver vessels captured by Nebuchadnezzar during the destruction of Jerusalem. As a result of this, all these vessels were immediately handed over to the Jewish priests, which turned out to be: “thirty gold dishes, a thousand silver dishes, twenty-nine knives; thirty gold bowls, four hundred and ten double silver bowls, and a thousand other vessels. All the vessels, gold and silver, were five thousand and four hundred” (1 Ezra 1:7). To help the settlers, they were given pack animals, a significant supply of food, as well as all the necessary items for the journey, so that the settlers appeared as if they were colonists, equipped at the government’s expense. Despite all this government encouragement, there were, however, few settlers - only 42,360 people, with 7,367 servants and maidservants. These were mostly poor people, and their entire property consisted of 736 horses, 435 camels and 6,720 donkeys. A very significant percentage of the settlers were priests, of whom there were 4,000 people, so that they constituted almost a tenth of the entire caravan. But all these priests were representatives of only four priestly orders, so that representatives of the remaining twenty orders remained in Babylon, testifying to what extent the devotion of the priestly order to their religion had weakened and how disastrous the influence of captivity on the priesthood was. Nevertheless, the presence of so many priests gave special dignity to the entire caravan of immigrants with which they were part. They formed the knot around which the religious life of the people could be revived again. In addition to the priests, there were several Levites, as well as a party of 392 church servants, or the so-called nefinim - descendants of those servants who were church slaves under Solomon. The caravan was given special strength by the fact that it was led by very influential, truly patriotic and pious people. The most prominent of the latter was the Jewish prince Zerubbabel, who assumed command of the caravan of immigrants. He was the grandson of the popular king Jehoiakim and therefore a descendant of the great national hero, David, the only man of royal blood to return at this time, although others returned in a later period (1 Ezra 1:8; 5:14). His very name shows that he was apparently born already in Babylonia, 386 probably in the early years of the captivity, although, like Daniel, he also had the Chaldean name Sheshbazzara (1 Ezra 1:8). Thus, at this time he could not yet be a particularly elderly person, and after captivity he lived for another 20 years. Along with him were the high priests Jesus, the same name of the leader who first led the chosen people into the Promised Land, and that Divine Redeemer, who was to in the future bring humanity into the possession of the indestructible kingdom “not of this world,” and nine more elders who took upon themselves the burden of establishing the settlers on the soil of their native land. And so the caravan of settlers set off. The march to Palestine took place with all kinds of joyful rejoicing. The caravan was accompanied by a convoy of a thousand horsemen, in order to provide protection against the predatory Arabs in the desert, who, both now and then, made constant attacks on the caravans. The immigrants set off with music, “with timbrels and trumpets,” so that out of sympathy for them, all their brothers, who, due to various circumstances, chose to stay in Babylon, also had fun. Wealthier people rode, of course, on horses, elderly men, children and women sat on camels, and the rest moved on foot. The caravan had to go through a boring journey through the desert, requiring at least four months. From the banks of the Euphrates to the northern part of Syria, the road lay through a hard, rocky plain, on which there were no mountains, no groves, no springs, so that nothing broke the sad monotony of the picture. At first the road ran along the western side of the Euphrates, north of Babylon; then headed through the desert to the Lebanese Mountains, the outlines of which could be seen by the settlers on the southeastern horizon of the sky if they moved along the road leading to Damascus, or the road that led through Imath and Rivla, where, apparently, the usual route lay at that time. This new exodus to the promised land took place, by a miraculous coincidence, in the same month in which Israel left Egypt several hundred years ago, precisely in the first month of the year, Nisan (2 Ezra 5:6). But here are the limits of our native land. The condition of Palestine at this time, however, was very disappointing. In the south, the Edomites captured Chaeron and all of Judea, right up to the Philistine plain, and northeast of Jerusalem, between Jericho and the region of Samaria, they even built themselves a city, which they called Akravvim, that is, “scorpions” or “scourges.” For these long-time enemies of Jerusalem, who gloatingly mocked its fall and who, at the instigation of the Chaldeans, plundered the property of God, retained a significant part of the promised land, the settlers could not bear this, and from here a bloody struggle inevitably had to begin between two hostile nations, which continued over the next 400 years. Several cities and a small part of the land, by the royal decree of Cyrus, were allocated to the settlers, but the Edomites were so strong that they continued to retain part of the land they had captured until they were finally conquered by John Hyrcanus, around 130 BC. Chr., when they were forced to submit to circumcision and accept the Jewish leaders over them. The center of the country was in the hands of the descendants of mixed nationalities settled in it by the Assyrian kings after the destruction of Samaria. Despite the events of the resettlement from the northern kingdom to the east, many Israelis fled from captivity and, through mixed marriages with new foreign settlers, so instilled Jewish feelings in their children that they subsequently considered themselves the same true Jewish people as the real Jews were. The desire for unification with the southern Jews had already been noticed earlier, even during the existence of the Kingdom of Israel. Parties of pilgrims from the tribes of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun, who were present during the Passover under King Hezekiah (2 Chron. 30:11), donations made for the purpose of rebuilding the church under Josiah, and a party of pilgrims beaten on the way from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria to the ruins of the holy city (Jer. 41:5–8), - these and other facts indicate how alive the feeling of religious reverence for the national shrine was among the northern Israelites. But subsequently, strong rivalry arose between the settlers from Babylonia, who considered themselves the true descendants of the chosen people, and these mixed inhabitants of Palestine, which led to bitter hostility that did not stop until the Nativity of Christ. The stronghold of Bethshan, which later received the name Scythopolis, was in the power of the descendants of those Scythians who remained there after the terrible invasion during the reign of Josiah, and represented, so to speak, the first stratum of pagan peoples who subsequently settled in the northern region of the promised land, which received the name Galilee, although the population of this country subsequently received such a strong imprint of Judaism that the Galileans enjoyed the fame of the most devoted admirers of the Jerusalem shrine. From that time on, the settlers received a new characteristic name. If the original name of the people was "Jews", which was later replaced by another name "Israelites", then from that time on the exclusive name of the chosen people became "Jews", which name in its various forms has been preserved to the present time. This name, so to speak, was born on the day when the people came out of Babylon, and its history from now on is no longer the history of Israel, but the history of Judaism. Of the settlers, of course, each tried to see his old ashes as soon as possible, and therefore they returned to their various cities. But in the 7th holy month of Tisri they all gathered in Jerusalem and there, rebuilding the altar on a pile of ruins, they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. All other sanctuaries and capitals of the people of Israel, with the sole exception of the sanctuary on Mount Gerizim, were in a state of destruction. The sanctuaries of Bethel and Shiloh, the royal beauty of Samaria and Jezreel were gone forever. Jerusalem remained the undisputed capital of the entire country. Even those very tribes that had previously declared rivalry with the Jews recognized, in the present disastrous state of the people, the supremacy that they challenged from him during the times of his prosperity. Having celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles, the settlers immediately began the task of restoring the church. At the sight of the ruins of the national shrine, everyone was seized with jealousy for its restoration, and the settlers immediately began to prepare materials for the restoration of the church, and at the same time, as in the time of Solomon, they were helped by the Tyrians and Sidonians, who hired to deliver them cedar wood from the mountains of Lebanon. The work was observed by the high priest and other members of the priestly order. The business went so successfully that already in the second month of the next year (535), at the very time of the founding of the tabernacle by Moses, the ceremonial foundation of the new church was carried out. The entire ceremony of the foundation was carried out “according to the statute of David” with the singing of the priests and Levites, who praised the Lord with trumpets and cymbals, “and all the people shouted with a loud voice, praising the Lord for the fact that the foundation of the House of the Lord had been laid.” But many at the same time, especially the elders from the priests, Levites and elders, who saw the former church, could not restrain themselves from tears, and “wept loudly, and the people could not recognize the exclamations of joy from the crying and crying of the people” (1 Ezra 3:13). Then the construction of the church itself began. The elders of the people turned to the settlers with an appeal for donations, and found a very zealous echo. The richest of them made significant offerings, so that the heads of families donated a significant amount of 20,000 dariks, which would be about 80,000 rubles in gold, and 2,000 minas of silver, which would also be about 100,000 rubles (1889), and the common people also donated a lot of gold and silver, in their religious zeal bringing all their property to the church, so that the people themselves were About 120,000 rubles were collected and, in addition, 67 robes for priests. Zerubbabel himself, apparently the richest of the settlers, donated 1,000 gold gifts, which would amount to about 40,000 rubles, 50 vessels and 530 clothes for the priests, most of whom were very poor. Despite all these donations, the funds for the sanctuary were still not enough; As a result, work proceeded slowly, especially since even the most external circumstances were not favorable to this. The country was in a very turbulent state, gangs of robbers were prowling everywhere, and it was impossible to properly sow grain and harvest. At the same time, the first traces of that jealous rivalry that subsequently established between the populations of southern and northern Palestine began to be noticed. The Samaritans, who established their sanctuary center on Mount Gerizim, were ardent opponents of the construction of the temple in Jerusalem. Considering Palestine now their possession, they were extremely hostile towards the settlers and, with various slander, even sought a decree to stop the work before the Persian government. In this regard, they, unfortunately, managed so much that they actually aroused various suspicions among the Persian government regarding the settlers, and work on the construction of the church was stopped until the death of Cyrus, which followed seven years later, during one distant war in Asia (1 Ezra 4:24). But even after his death, the Jews were not immediately allowed to begin their work again. Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, was too busy with his campaigns to take care of the insignificant colony in Jerusalem, as a result of which no further progress was made in this regard during his reign. This was followed by the reign of the impostor false Smerdis, who pretended to be the murdered brother of Cambyses 387, but was exposed and put to death, having reigned for only seven or eight months. Only in the second year of the reign of the next king, Darius-Histaspes, were the Jews again allowed to begin their work, and again the cheerful sounds of a hammer and other construction tools were heard on the sacred Mount Moriah. All these delays and obstacles had an extremely difficult impact on the settlers, so that among them the previous enthusiasm began to weaken, and even morality itself began to decline. But to support the falling spirit of the people, prophets appeared, such as Haggai and Zechariah. The eldest of these was Haggai, because he was either one of the captives carried away from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and thus saw the ancient church in all its glory, or, at least, was born in Babylon at the beginning of the captivity itself. During his captivity, he undoubtedly contributed to the great religious excitement that marked the time before his return from captivity, although nothing is known about his preaching from that time. The second prophet, Zechariah, was much younger and belonged to one of the priestly families that returned to Jerusalem. But being a man of priestly origin, he at the same time had hereditary prophetic dignity, inherited from his father or grandfather. According to legend, he was a student of Daniel and Ezekiel, as a result of which the visions of these prophets are reflected in his prophetic visions. In general, the strong influence of Babylonian life is noticeable in the images of his expression. Thus, to determine the time, he uses the years of the reigning sovereigns (Zech. 1:1-7), and in general reveals a close acquaintance with the customs and customs of Babylonia and Persia. And so, these prophets appeared as strong encouragers of the people. In the second year of the reign of Darius-Histaspes, on the first day of the sixth month, in 521, Haggai appeared to Zerubbabel and the high priest Jesus, in order to encourage them and the people to renew their efforts to restore the church. He addressed them with a fiery speech, in which he encouraged them to continue the work begun, promising the highest help. He reproached them for being more concerned about their everyday household affairs than about building the house of the Lord, as a result of which their affairs were very unsuccessful. First of all, it is necessary to build the house of the Lord, which will serve as a source of moral encouragement for them in all other respects. “Turn your hearts to your ways,” he told them. – “You sow much, but reap little; eat, but not to the point of satiety; drink, but don't get drunk; getting dressed, but not warming up; he who earns wages earns for a leaky wallet. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Set your heart on your ways, go up to the mountain, and carry wood, and build a church; and I will be pleased with him, and I will be glorified, says the Lord.” This speech made a strong impression on Zerubbabel and the high priest, and aroused the spirit of the rest of the people, and they all again began work on the construction of the church. Some time later, Zechariah made the same admonitions, and he reported on his visions, which depicted the glory of the new Jerusalem, which even more infused cheerfulness into the souls of the people. We know very little about the church erected in this way. But we can think that the church occupied the same space as Solomon's temple. In terms of volume, the building was even larger than Solomon's Temple 389. The wide expanse of church ground was surrounded by a wall, three rows of square stones fastened with beams. The Holy of Holies, separated by a large curtain, was completely empty at that time. But instead of the ancient ark of the covenant, it had one spur of natural rock, which served as a place for the offering of incense by the high priest on the great day of atonement. This is probably the same rock that currently lies in the mysterious center of the Mosque of Omar. The Ark of the Covenant was either hidden by the prophet Jeremiah on Mount Nebo (2 Mac. 2:5), or taken into heaven before the appearance of the Messiah (Rev. 11:19). The cherubim, the tablets of the covenant, the vessel of manna and Aaron's rod were also not in the church, since all this had been lost during the previous political turmoil. In front of the church there were two courtyards, of which in the inner one stood a huge square altar of burnt offering made of rough stones. Next to it stood a large washbasin for the necessary ablutions of the priests. Adjacent to the courtyard were various premises and rooms assigned for priests and various supplies. A bridge was thrown across the valley between Moriah and Zion and several gates were built, giving free access from various sides. In the former temple, numerous trees, “planted in the courts of the Lord,” 390 provided excellent shade to the masses of pilgrims, but now it was absolutely not allowed to plant them near the courtyards of the second temple, perhaps for fear that these trees would not give rise to the temptation to turn them into a pagan temple. There was one more feature that distinguished this second church from the first. Since the Jewish people were no longer a completely independent people, but were dependent on a foreign state, this dependence was expressed in the construction of a military tower or castle in the northwestern part of the church precincts, and this fortress became the permanent seat of the Persian authorities. This is the same building that was known during the Roman rule as the Antonia Fortress, and during the Ottoman rule as the Barisa. Above the eastern gate of the church space, another sign of foreign dominion was visible, namely in the form of a sculptural image of the Persian capital Susa, as a result of which the gate itself began to be called Susa. For the first time, space was also set aside, by separating part of the outer courtyard, for pagan proselytes who, being worshipers of Jehovah, had not yet taken upon themselves to perform all the rites of Judaism. The entire building was completed in the sixth year of the reign of Darius (515), twenty-one years after its foundation was laid. The solemn consecration of the new church was carried out, which was generally built on the model of the first, although from less valuable materials. In addition to the seven hundred burnt offerings, twelve male goats were offered for sin, “for all Israel, according to the number of the tribes.” According to the Rule of David, the “orders” of priests and Levites were restored, although in order to compile the full number of these orders, it was necessary to divide the four orders that turned out to be each into six parts. The consecration was completed with the solemn celebration of Easter. The entire Passover celebration was carried out according to the strict requirements of the Mosaic Law. The priests and Levites, all without exception, performed a legal purification on themselves, and these purified members of the sacred order had the exclusive right to kill the Passover lambs, both for priests and for laity. In ancient times, this ritual was performed by each head of the family for his own home (Ex. 12:6). During the Passover under Hezekiah, the Levites killed lambs for all who were not purified by the law; but in the time of Josiah, the great restorer of Judaism in its narrow sense and, in fact, its founder, a custom was introduced, which has now become permanent, namely, that lambs should be killed only by priests and Levites who had undergone special purification. From this time on, Jerusalem began to increasingly be recognized as the only religious center of Judaism. To celebrate the Passover, not only all those who came out of Babylon gathered, but also many of the population who remained in the northern and southern kingdoms - all those whose fathers escaped resettlement to Assyria or the Euphrates, and even scattered to other countries. The scattered families, or small communities of pure Jews, even in remote places of their settlement continued to consider themselves one and the same people, despite the fact that they had to live separately among various pagan peoples. Galilee sent out representatives of the ten tribes - those remnants of them that escaped the defeat of the northern kingdom by Assyria. Such a festival, so full of hope and sweet memories of the days of glory long past, was a happy conclusion to the worries and difficulties experienced during the past twenty years. The people's gratitude to God was expressed in enthusiastic psalms, bearing in the Greek translation the names of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah (Ps. 143–147). In them, all nature is called to praise the great name of God, who is “near to all who call on Him in truth,” “upholds all who fall and restores all who are cast down.” This series of thanksgiving psalms ends with an enthusiastic song of praise: “Praise the Lord from heaven, praise Him in the highest. Praise Him, all His angels, praise Him, all His armies. Praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him, all stars of light. Praise Him, heavens of heavens and waters that are above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He spoke and they were made, He commanded and they were created. He placed them forever and ever; He gave a charter that will not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, great fish and all the deeps, fire and hail, snow and fog, the stormy wind that fulfills His word, the mountains and all the hills, the fruitful trees and all the cedars, wild animals and every livestock, the reptile and the winged birds, the kings of the earth and all the nations, the princes and all the judges of the earth, young men and maidens, old men and youths, let them praise the name of the Lord, for His is the only name exaltation, His glory on earth; and in heaven. He exalted the race of His people, the glory of all His saints, the children of Israel, the people close to Him. Alleluia" (Ps. 148). The solemn sounds of trumpets, psalms and harps were again heard within the sacred precincts of the church, and the chosen people were once again set on the straight path to achieve their great destiny. Chapter 56. Priest Ezra Seventy years of complete obscurity pass through history from the completion of the construction of the church until the next important event in Palestine, about which there is historical information. During this time, Zerubbabel retired from the field of his activities and, according to Jewish tradition, even returned to his homeland in Babylon to lay down his bones there. His descendants continued to exist for a long time after him, but without any authority, and no new native prince, either by his own influence or by appointment from the Persian government, took his place at the head of the new settlement. The line of high priests continued from Jesus, and now, for the first time since the death of Eli, the supreme leadership of the people again passed into the hands of the family of Aaron, although still under the general control of the Persian ruler, native or foreign, who lived in the fortress dominating the church. The colonists indulged in their usual activities. Little by little they got along with their neighbors, and some of the heads of families even began to enter into mixed marriages with them. The high priest Eliashib, who lived in large quarters within the church, was doubly connected with two native princes who were representatives of the Persian government in Samaria and Ammon beyond the Jordan (Neh. 13:4). The flow of commerce and industry began to flow through the streets of Jerusalem again. Heavily loaded donkeys carrying bags of bread and baskets of fruit passed through the city even on sacred days of rest. Tyrian sailors also appeared there, selling their fish and other items of Phoenician trade. Goldsmiths, money changers, and vegetable traders set up their establishments in the bazaars. The poorer classes, at least many of them, necessarily gradually fell into a state of dependence on the richer ones, among whom luxury began to appear again, and with it the shameless manner of action that characterized the old aristocracy, so often denounced by the ancient prophets. Jerusalem itself was still very poorly populated and, apparently, did not give hope for the well-being developed in it that the first settlers counted on. In any case, there is no doubt that, due to the internal weakness of the settlers themselves, or from any attacks from the surrounding tribes, about which there is no more or less clear information, the walls of Jerusalem were still not finished; large gaps still remained in them where the gates had once stood, destroyed but not now restored; the surrounding mountains were still littered with ruins; the church, although completed, was still insufficiently equipped with utensils, internal and external accessories. Under such difficult circumstances, the hopes of the settlers were directed towards their wealthy compatriots in distant Babylon and Persia. The center of the resurgent people was in its own ancient capital, but its sources, its civilization, were at the court of the Persian monarchs. And from there came two great figures who left a true chronicle of passionate love for their never-before-seen country, and this chronicle, despite many failures in their activities, gives each step extraordinary interest due to the deep patriotism that animated them. The first and most prominent of these was Ezra, a priest renowned for his knowledge of the law and his zeal for its strict observance. His genealogy, which could be traced back to Aaron (2Ezra 8:1ff.), included a long line of priests. He was a descendant of the high priest Hilkiah, the same one who found the book of the law in the church in the days of King Josiah, and the high priest Seraiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar put to death at Riblah (2 Kings 25:8). As a result, in the eyes of his contemporaries, he was considered a priest par excellence. But, being born in Babylon, he had never seen the church. His sacred rank was therefore only a simple title, since Ezra was far from the place where he could only officiate. But the more seriously he devoted himself to the study of the law and the more zealously he was devoted to its strict implementation. Being a strict priest, he at the same time stood out from among his compatriots in that he was the first representative of that class of scientists who later became so important in the history of Judaism, namely, he was a “scribe.” Scribes or sopherim have existed in some form for a long time. They were originally chroniclers or scribes who counted the people or army. They were important as royal chroniclers or descriptors. Then, when prophetic sermons began to be embodied in written scrolls, and the disasters of the fallen kingdoms and the subsequent captivity prompted the people to collect written monuments of the past, they took a prominent place next to the prophets. Such in former times was Baruch, a friend of Jeremiah. The same, but in an even more important sense, was Ezra. He was educated in the Jewish schools of Chaldean learning, imbued with the atmosphere of the priestly caste, which had its seat in Borzippa or in the church of Bel, where the Chaldean paraphrase and the Babylonian Talmud subsequently arose. For his learning, he enjoyed not only extensive influence among his people, but also the special favor of King Artaxerxes Longiman, whose decree in 457 serves as the beginning of the reckoning of the weeks of Daniel. This respected learned priest followed with great attention the course of events in the promised land. The rumor about the resumption of the church and worship in it spread throughout all the borders of the Persian monarchy, where only the Jews remained, and, encouraged by this success of their brothers, many of them decided to take advantage of Cyrus' decree. As a result, a new party of immigrants gathered, which, including one and a half thousand families, went to the holy land. And so, the leader of this party was Ezra, who decided to personally visit Jerusalem and make sure of both the actual religious and moral state of the settlers, and with the goal of helping to better organize them on the site of the ancient sanctuary. This decision of his found complete favor on the part of Artaxerxes, who provided him with his royal letter, which provided him with assistance and protection from royal officials, both during the trip and in Palestine itself. Both the king and the nobles were deeply interested in the enterprise of such a highly revered man and therefore made him large gifts of gold and silver for the church. Ezra received 20 sacred vessels of gold, worth 1,000 dariks, and two very valuable copper vessels, so that he received more than 60,000 rubles worth of all things for the church. In addition, he received 650 talents directly in cash, which for that time represented a very large capital. The royal decree ordered that he be given at every station the wheat, wine, oil and salt required for the immigrants, and he was then authorized to receive at these stations the money that would be required for sacrifices in Jerusalem (1 Ezra 7:11-22). In addition, a special exemption from all taxes, duties and duties was given to all priests, Levites and other employees of the church. Finally, he was authorized to appoint rulers and judges in Judea who would take care of the execution of the law and supervise its proper teaching everywhere, and disobedience to them was ensured by fear of imprisonment, confiscation of property, exclusion from the community, or even death. In general, he was given unlimited power in the organization of his people. The gathering point for the caravan of immigrants was the city of Agave on the canal of the same name, in Babylonia, and there gathered on the appointed day up to 1,500 people from the best classes - laymen, priests and others. Only people of pure Jewish blood were accepted into this caravan, and therefore three days passed in researching the genealogies of those who wanted to take part in the resettlement. To the surprise of everyone, among those who wanted to join the migrant caravan there were absolutely no Levites or any of the church servants. As a result, a deputation of several influential people was sent with two teachers of the law, members of the new institution of scribes, to the colony of Levites and Nethinites (as the church slaves were called), to Casiphia, to invite them to take part in the resettlement. The result of this was the addition to the caravan of one teacher or scribe and about forty Levites and two hundred and twenty church servants (1 Ezra 8:18–20). After this, the caravan, consisting of laymen, priests, Levites in the strict sense of the word, church singers and watchmen, and Nethinims, was ready to depart. Together with women and children, there were more than five thousand souls in the entire caravan. Now all that remained was to leave the entire enterprise under the care of the Almighty, and for this purpose a fast was appointed. Declaring to the king that they were leaving themselves entirely to the protective hand of Jehovah, Ezra refused the military escort that the king offered him to secure the caravan with its tempting wealth from the predatory Arabs. The gold and silver and sacred vessels were finally entrusted to the care of the chosen priests and Levites, the tents were taken down, and the caravan set off. All sacred things were entrusted to the most pious of the priests, with the condition that upon arrival in Jerusalem they would hand them over by weight to the priests and Levites and in general to the heads of the generations of Israel, in a storehouse at the house of the Lord (1 Ezra 8:29). It took four and a half months to travel from the Euphrates through the desert to northern Syria and then south to Jerusalem. “The hand of our God,” says Ezra, “was over us, and saved us from the hand of the enemy and from those who lay in wait for us along the way” (1 Ezra 8:31). The arrival of such a significant party of immigrants must have greatly pleased the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The treasures, brought from Babylonia on a long caravan of camels, were carefully deposited in the holy city, and the leader, famous for his knowledge of the law and zeal for its execution, at the same time had high power to promote its execution. Ezra must truly have seemed like a new Moses to many. On the fourth day after their arrival, the silver, gold and sacred vessels were duly weighed and handed over to the church priests, two priests and two Levites. All the inhabitants of Jerusalem indulged in extreme joy, a great religious festival was held, with generous sacrifices, and the decrees of the great king in favor of the Jews were sent to the Persian dignitaries, arousing the general hope and delight of the people. Ezra immediately assumed the position of supreme judge over the community, overshadowing even the high priest himself and all other authorities. Having looked around him, the new ruler began to delve into the internal and external life of the community. So several months passed, and during them nothing happened that would disturb the calm concern for the restoration of church institutions. But on the sixteenth day of the ninth month a very important event occurred. During this time the lists of the law brought by Ezra from Babylonia were probably already distributed in the various settlements of Palestine, and these lists contained a strict prohibition of mixed marriages, which, apparently, no one knew about until this time. Then the heads of the people came to Ezra and, finding him in the church court, declared that such lawlessness had penetrated all classes of their society. This news greatly upset Ezra, and he immediately saw what a great evil these marriages represented for the regenerating people. Given their weakness in political, religious and moral terms, the Jewish people through these marriages could have become completely lost among their stronger fellow tribesmen and thus perished. Such considerations gave such significance to the statement made to him that it shocked him extremely. In order to make a greater impression on the people, Ezra, as an expression of his extraordinary sorrow, immediately tore his lower and outer garments in front of the assembled people, tore out the hair on his head and beard, and sat down on the ground in deep sadness (1 Ezra 9:1-4). All those who sympathized with his jealousy gathered around him and all of them, suppressed by grief, sat silently until sunset, when the evening sacrifices had to be made and when the church courtyards again began to fill with crowds of various pilgrims. Then Ezra, rising from his oppressed state, fell to his knees in his torn clothes and, raising his hands, turned with fiery prayer to God, whose law had been so gravely violated (1 Ezra 9:6-11). His prayer was interrupted by uncontrollable tears, deeply shaking the hearts of all the assembled people. More and more people gathered in the courtyards of the church, who surrounded Ezra and joined him in crying and crying. There were grown men, women, and children here. In extreme excitement, the people, led by a certain Shechaniah, the son of Jehiel from the sons of Elam, turned to Ezra with the words: “We have committed a crime before our God by taking foreign wives from the nations of the earth; but there is still hope for Israel in this matter; Let us now make a covenant with our God that, according to the advice of my lord and those who revere the commandments of our God, we will send away all the wives and children born to them, and let it be done according to the law! Get up, because this is your business, and we are with you: take heart and act!” (1Ezra 10:2-3). Hearing this declaration, Ezra immediately rose to his feet and took an oath from all present that they would assist him in his reforming efforts, and then immediately retired to the quarters of the high priest's son, in one of the upper stories of the church, and there remained in complete abstinence even from bread and water for the three days which had to elapse before a solemn assembly could be called to ascertain the general sentiments of the people regarding this important matter. It is not without interest to look at exactly what order of government existed at that time among the Jewish people. The supreme state power over it was in the hands of the Persian satrap, who ruled the entire country west of the Euphrates (1 Ezra 5:1–13). Under his authority were various stewards and regional governors who had their residence in the main Syrian cities (1 Ezra 6:7; 8:36). A Persian garrison was stationed in the main fortress of Samaria to maintain order in the country (Neh. 4:2). But, with the exception of this external administrative control, the Jewish people had internal, self-government. The princely dignity of the anointed house of David ended with the death of Zerubbabel. The high priesthood, perhaps due to the insignificance of the persons who occupied it during the entire period of Persian rule, lost all political and social significance. The ordinary administration was in the hands of elders or rulers (1 Ezra 10:8, 14), who were themselves subordinate to special overseers from various districts. But even with the existence of such a bureaucracy, in important cases it was considered necessary to turn to the people themselves for a solution to the matter, which was convened to accept or reject the decision that had been made. Ezra now decided to convene such a meeting of the people to resolve a matter that deeply interested him. It was on the twentieth day of the ninth month, halfway through the Syrian winter; the cold rain fell in torrents and the people, trembling at the admonitions of their stern leader and suffering from unfavorable weather, determined to appoint a special commission to investigate how far the evil of mixed marriages had penetrated among the people, in order to then take appropriate measures to separate the culprits from their wives and even from their children. By the beginning of the next year, a list had actually been drawn up, in which four people from the priestly family and about fifty others were found guilty of the crime. The list of these culprits was solemnly read, and Ezra concluded by declaring that “all these have taken foreign wives for themselves, and some of these wives bare them children” (1 Ezra 10:44). The guilty themselves were deeply shocked by everything that had happened, and many of them, and at the head of all the sons of the high priest Jesus, “gave their hands in assurance that they would let their wives go, and that they were guilty of sacrificing a ram for their guilt.” The rest of the priests and Levites followed them, as well as the laypeople living in Jerusalem. Thus, the matter of cleansing from illegal connections ended with a fairly satisfactory result in Jerusalem. But this was not so easy to achieve in other smaller cities. Their inhabitants were in close communication with neighboring peoples and could fear that by releasing wives taken from their families they could arouse cruel enmity against them on their part. But they also had to submit to the full rigor of the law. A special council was appointed to carry out the law of a strict priest, and this latter ordered, through special messengers, to announce throughout all the cities of Judea the decision that all those who entered into mixed marriages should come to Jerusalem within three days under pain of deprivation of all property and expulsion from the community. Everyone immediately obeyed such a strict command. When the grape harvest time had passed and the field work was completed, the villagers headed en masse to Jerusalem and gathered in the wide square in front of the church. Ezra, limiting himself to teaching, addressed the audience with a speech, explained to them the crime they had committed and demanded that they openly admit their sin and separate themselves from the foreign peoples of the country, and especially from their foreign wives. The entire assembly answered loudly: “We will do whatever you wish,” declaring, however, that in this rainy time they could not stay long in Jerusalem until the whole matter was completed. Consequently, the proposal to appoint a special council to investigate this matter was readily accepted. Ezra himself chose members on his side for this council, and they completed the task assigned to them within three months. They collected information regarding persons who entered into mixed marriages, and demanded that they appear in Jerusalem and declare divorce from their foreign wives, as well as to make the prescribed sin sacrifice. To decide this matter, the elders of the cities or judges also had to appear in Jerusalem. The members of the appointed council divided among themselves all those of the villages or regional cities that were subject to their examination, and everywhere they divorced foreign wives and children, as had already been done in Jerusalem. Some, however, out of love for the family and out of respect for their parents and relatives, with whom they were on friendly terms, opposed such a definition. It is unknown whether the decree on confiscation of property and exclusion from the community was applied to them. This severity in enforcing the law on alienation from neighboring peoples - the Samaritans, Ammonites and others, entailed, as one might expect, many serious consequences. The mediastinum that Ezra and other strict zealots of the law wanted to erect between the chosen people and other tribes, with the actual implementation of the rules established by Ezra, aroused extreme bitterness in many, especially the Samaritans. Really, they thought, should they now be strangers to the God whom they had chosen, and excluded from the sanctuary in Jerusalem, in which they had hitherto taken part? Every letter of divorce that accompanied the separation of Israelis from foreign wives and children served as a document that supported the most ardent bitterness on the part of their relatives. The sorrow of their daughters or sisters, so heartlessly rejected by the heads of the Jewish people and their subordinate husbands, was naturally shared by their fathers and brothers, and from here arose of its own accord the extreme enmity between these different tribes. Unfortunately for the Jews, the Samaritans were led by two active and enterprising people, namely Sanballat and Tobiah. The Ammonite Tobiah was related to the Jewish families, and the same probably happened to Sanballat. The last of them, apparently, had a serious desire to become closer to the Jewish community and take part in its worship in Jerusalem and in the church. But now they, as people of foreign blood, having been excluded from the Jewish community, took a hostile position towards the Jews, and wanted to achieve their participation in the Jerusalem temple by force or cunning. At first, perhaps, some measures were taken on their part to somehow restore harmony between the two communities and partially cancel the decision on alienation. In Jerusalem and in many cities there was undoubtedly a party that looked more leniently on mixed marriages and therefore did not entirely approve of Ezra’s course of action. Many Jews undoubtedly submitted to the decree of separation from their foreign wives and children only for fear of incurring punishment in the form of confiscation of property and exclusion from the community. Others undoubtedly even preferred to break with their people in order to maintain contact with their family, and such persons, of course, were gladly accepted by the Samaritans. They also treated with bitterness the strict legislators in Jerusalem and their compatriots in general, and became closer to the proselytes excluded from society. The more enlightened of them even had a completely different opinion regarding the permissibility or impermissibility of mixed marriages with women who, at least from the outside, were subject to the law. Did this severity correspond to the letter of the law? Does not the history of former times provide many examples of the Israelites marrying foreign women? Such and similar questions were lively discussed among such dissatisfied people, and the latter found lively sympathy among the more lenient party that existed in Jerusalem itself. Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, the strict reformative activity of Ezra continued, and despite the murmurs of the dissatisfied, a thorough purification of the grain of the chosen people from all foreign impurities took place. When attempts at reconciliation, undoubtedly made by those excluded from the community, failed due to the inflexibility of the zealots of the law in Jerusalem, things came to hostile clashes. These clashes continued for several years, and since Ezra was more of a bookish person and devoted to prayer, taking advantage of this, many dissatisfied people secretly communicated with his opponents. Sanballat and his allies, who were distinguished by their decisive character and passionate hatred of their opponents, took advantage of this, and fanned hostility towards them. It got to the point that they even began to attack Jerusalem itself. It is difficult to say what gave them such courage, since they still knew that Ezra was favored at the Persian court and especially by Artaxerxes. Perhaps they relied on the fickleness of the sympathies and weakness of this Persian king. In any case, Sanballat and his like-minded people gathered an armed army and marched on Jerusalem. The danger to Jerusalem was no small, since the representatives of the authorities in it were people completely incapable of military affairs. Taking advantage of this, the Samaritans made breaches in the walls of Jerusalem, burned the wooden gates and destroyed many houses in the city, so that Jerusalem again became partly a heap of ruins. But they spared the church itself, since it was considered sacred to them too. By means of this hostile attack Sanballat thought to force Ezra, his council and other zealots of the law to again accept him and the Samaritans into an alliance with them. Although the church was not destroyed, it was nevertheless significantly deserted. Most of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, deprived of the protection of the walls, left it and moved to other places where they could find more protection and lead a quieter life. The priests and Levites, no longer receiving maintenance or tithes from the harvest, also left the church and sought their means of living wherever they could find them. It was a sad time for the people, who were just beginning to get back on their feet after the Babylonian captivity. But what were Ezra and his sympathizers doing at this time? Where were they? Nothing is known about this. Many noble families again entered into agreements with their neighbors, again took rejected wives into their homes, or even re-married with them. In order to ensure the strength of these marriage bonds in the future, they apparently even sealed them with a mutual oath. The cause of Ezra, apparently, was destroyed, and the very existence of the people was in danger. Now, more than ever, foreign customs began to invade the environment of the people. Newly born children from foreign mothers learned their language and forgot their native Hebrew, which was considered a sacred language among the people, since the highly revered law was compiled in this language and the prophets preached in it. The dialect of neighboring peoples was a strange mixture, consisting of Aramaic and all sorts of other, even Cushitic, elements, while the Hebrew language, although various foreign elements penetrated into it during the Babylonian captivity, nevertheless retained its original character and, through the addition of foreign borrowings, only became even richer and more flexible. This state of affairs threatened, finally, with complete destruction for the nation, but this danger was averted by the emergence of a new zealot for the law, who became a strong and powerful assistant to the priest Ezra. King Artaxerxes usually spent the summer months in Ecbatana among the Median hills, and the winter lived in Susa, 300 miles to the south, among the Susiana mountains, on their western slope, where the warm climate of the Persian Gulf was moderated by cool mountain winds. There, among the court dignitaries of Artaxerxes, was the Jew Nehemiah, who occupied the important post of cupbearer, which gave him the opportunity to be in close relations with his sovereign. In order to hold such a post, special trust was required on the part of the sovereign, since only a dignitary who unconditionally inspired trust could be allowed to perform duties that presented so many favorable conditions for treason. Josephus tells us that when this high dignitary Nehemiah was one day walking outside the walls of Susa, he saw wanderers heading towards the city, apparently tired from a long journey, and listening to their conversation, he realized that they were speaking in the Hebrew language. Nothing touches hearts in a foreign country more than native speech; Nehemiah immediately approached them and learned that they were travelers from Judah. Questions immediately followed regarding Jerusalem and the settlers, and the information reported by the travelers was extremely sad. The walls of the city began to be built to a large extent, the city gates burned by the Samaritans were also restored, but due to the ideas of the Persian regional governor of Palestine and his secretary, an order was issued from the royal court to stop these works. Taking advantage of this, the neighboring nations, enraged by Zerubbabel’s earlier rejection of the help they offered, and even more by Ezra’s recent measures regarding separation from foreign wives, attacked Jerusalem, destroyed and burned everything that was erected there. And that wasn't all; the country was openly plundered, and many Jews were captured and carried away into slavery during night attacks, and the corpses of those killed were often thrown along the roads. Hearing such sad news, Nehemiah burst into tears, and his grief was expressed in a cry prompted to him by the psalms and the book of Lamentations. Grief delayed him at the city gates, so that he forgot about the passage of time and woke up only when he was reminded that his presence was required in the palace: the king was already preparing to sit down to dinner and Nehemiah had to hurry to serve him as cupbearer. According to custom, he prepared wine and served it to the king, and tried to suppress his inner sorrow. But she clearly appeared on his face and in all his movements, so that she involuntarily drew the attention of the king himself, who said to him: “Why is your face sad; you are not sick, this is not the case; Is it true that there is sadness in your heart?” (Neh. 2:1, 2) Then Nehemiah frankly revealed to the king the reason for his sorrow, saying to him: “May the king live forever!” How can my face not be sad when the city, the house of the tombs of my fathers, is desolate and its gates are burned with fire! Artaxerxes, who always sympathized with the Jews and took a close part in the resettlement of the caravan under the command of Ezra, complacently remarked to him: “What do you want?” Encouraged by this attitude of the king to the matter, Nehemiah asked his permission to give him a vacation to go to Palestine and take care of putting things in order there. The king loved his faithful cupbearer so much that he immediately gave his consent to his request. In order to make this journey especially convenient for him, he was given letters to various regional governors along the way, granting him free passage and the right to demand any help in need. Moreover, he was given the right to use beams from the royal forests to build the city gates, to live in the palace of the regional governor and in the fortress on the church mount. To provide for him on the journey, he was given an escort of horsemen, and thus, provided for on this side, he went to Jerusalem as a high dignitary from the royal court, having with him a significant number of companions and personal servants. The arrival of such a noble person from the Jews was of course a great event for Jerusalem and all the people. Ezra was a judge and commander under the leadership of the Persian ruler, and Nehemiah, who had now arrived, was himself the supreme ruler of Jerusalem and the Jews, and enjoyed unlimited authority. He found the country in a truly sad state. The city was without walls or gates and, therefore, completely defenseless from all attackers. The prophet Zechariah excellently portrayed a time when such external protection would no longer be needed (Zechariah 2:4). But this could only happen in the future, and now Nehemiah saw that the walls were absolutely necessary to preserve the life of the people. Hence, his first thought was to strengthen the city as quickly as possible and make it inaccessible to hostile attacks. But if the arrival of such an important Jewish dignitary delighted the Jews themselves, it also extremely alarmed and embittered the enemies of Jerusalem, who, however, for a time did not dare to take any hostile actions against such a high person who enjoyed the favor and love of the powerful monarch. And so Nehemiah immediately got down to business. The enmity of the opponents of the Jewish people was so fierce that Nehemiah, despite his high position, did not dare to act openly against them and therefore decided to conduct the organization of his people first so that it would not be obvious to anyone, and even under the cover of secrecy and night. In the darkness of the third or fourth night after his arrival, he set out on horseback with several of his retinue to examine the condition of the walls. Descending into the valley of Ginnomov at the western gate, somewhere near the present Jaffa Gate, he went to the Drakonov spring, located unknown where, but identified with the intermittent flow of water from the Pool of Siloam on the southwestern side of the city. To reach this point, he had to pass through a gate on the southwest side of Zion, beyond which lay piles of ashes and ruins of the city. He wanted to personally verify the condition of the walls and gates. At the king's pool the path was so blocked with debris from the ruins that Nehemiah had to dismount from his horse. Continuing on foot, he examined all the destroyed fortifications until he had walked around the entire city, and then again returned to the gate through which he had left for his review. All this was done so secretly that neither the highest city authorities, nor the priests, nor the elders, nor the citizens knew about it. Having thoroughly become acquainted with the actual state of affairs, Nehemiah immediately gathered the main citizens and announced to them his decision to rebuild the walls. He demanded immediate action from them, and the people expressed their lively sympathy. The entire wall was divided into parts, which were distributed among various parties of voluntary workers, as well as among the rich classes of the city, who undertook to restore them. The ruler's jealousy captivated the entire people. He believed that God was his powerful helper and inspired the people with the same confidence. In support of the matter, he also stated that he had a decree from the great king, which approved this entire enterprise. All classes of the people set to work with extraordinary zeal. The High Priest Eliashib and his subordinates were assigned to build the Sheep Gate at the northern end of the eastern wall. The people of Jericho had to build the next section. The construction of separate plots was also left to the classes of goldsmiths, pharmacists and merchants. Only the noble people of Tekoi “stooped not their necks to work for their Lord” (Neh. 3:5). Even the Levites took part in the common cause, as did the priests who lived in the area around Jerusalem. The work ahead of the people was extremely difficult. First, it was necessary to remove the masses of ruins from the destroyed parts of the wall and re-cut the stones, which required extremely great labor. The matter was further complicated by the fact that the number of skilled workers and craftsmen was very limited, and, moreover, there was a lack of adequate funds. In order to make the walls suitable for their purpose, they had to be made extremely thick and strong, and the gates had to be equipped with massive bolts and locks. Although the people were extremely enthusiastic, under the scorching heat of the sun many suffered from various diseases and left work before they even had time to clear away the ruins. The matter was slowed down by another obstacle. While only some of the voluntary workers were wealthy people, others were completely dependent on them for their support, since in a real national affair no salary was paid for the work. As a result, many of those who took up the work found themselves in a difficult situation, since in addition to their own maintenance they had to obtain funds to support their families and pay tribute to the Persian government. The fact that they did not leave work even in this situation is probably explained by the fact that their work was considered obligatory, and they, once taking on it, did not dare refuse. This disaster could certainly be helped by the rich inhabitants of Jerusalem and a special fund could be raised among them to help such needy workers. Unfortunately, the rich people of Jerusalem did not show such noble zeal. Moreover, many of them, even with shameless greed, decided to take advantage of this state of hungry workers in order to enrich themselves at their expense. Contrary to the strict prohibition by the law of all usury (Ex. 22; Lev. 25:36), they gave them money for grain on the security of their plots of land, vineyards, olive gardens and houses, or even on the security of the personal freedom of their sons and daughters, who were thus made slaves. As a result, the workers entered into debts that they were never able to pay. Such callousness on the one hand, and misery on the other, aroused Nehemiah's noble indignation. Having called the moneylenders to him, he severely reproached them and then demanded that they appear before the general meeting of citizens. There he addressed them with harsh accusatory words. He himself, he told them, ransomed Jewish slaves from the pagans to the utmost of his means, and they, to the shame of God's people, bought and sold their brothers. Let them now break all their debt obligations and return the property to those from whom they took it, releasing all debts along with it. If their debtors are ever able to pay them the money they took, albeit without interest, then so be it. But if they are not able to do this, then let the money lent to them serve as a gift for them. Nehemiah himself and the members of his retinue could also demand money and bread, but they did not demand either one or the other. Let all others follow this example. Have they really forgotten about the fear of God and are not ashamed of bringing reproach from the pagans upon the entire Jewish people? Ashamed by such speech, the moneylenders agreed to follow Nehemiah’s advice and a solemn oath was taken from them to this effect, made by the priests. Shaking off his clothes, Nehemiah said: “So may God shake out every man who does not keep this word from his house and from his name, and so let him be shaken out and empty!” And all the people gathered loudly confirmed this decision, saying “Amen.” When this important abuse was eliminated and the work of building the walls of Jerusalem began again, this success aroused enmity on the part of the old enemies of the Jewish people, Sanballat and Tobiah. They were extremely annoyed to hear about the powers given to Nehemiah by the Persian king, but did not dare to openly oppose Artaxerxes' decree. Perhaps they at first thought that the very plan for restoring the walls and the city would be completely beyond the capabilities of such an insignificant community. Mocking the weakness of the Jews in front of the officials and the Persian garrison in Samaria, Sanballat feigned surprise at how the citizens of Jerusalem even decided to undertake such an undertaking. “What are these miserable Jews doing? - he said. - Will they really be allowed to do this? Will they really make sacrifices? Will they ever end? Will they really revive stones from heaps of dust, and, moreover, burnt ones? Echoing him in these mockeries, Tobiah the Ammonite mockingly remarked: “Let them build them; a fox will come and break down their stone wall” (Neh. 4:1–3). These mockery of the enemies, however, only further encouraged Nehemiah's jealousy. He was not the kind of person who could be turned away from an undertaking by ridicule. Having pronounced the curse they deserved on the scoffers, he continued the matter with even greater persistence. Thanks to this energy and the zeal of the people, the ruins were little by little cleared, the breaches in the walls were repaired, and the whole enterprise quickly moved towards its goal. The possibility of success on his part, therefore, could no longer be doubted if the matter was not stopped by open force. Convinced of this, Sanballat and Tobiah actually decided to use military force and, uniting with the Arabs, Ammonites and Philistines from Ashdod, they decided to attack Jerusalem and destroy everything that had now been done. But Nehemiah, having learned of this hostile decision, placed watchmen and armed detachments everywhere, and, constantly praying to God, encouraged the builders to continue the work even more zealously. This was a critical moment in the enterprise. To ensure the job, half of the workers had to be put under arms, precisely to prevent an accidental attack. Even those who continued to do the work did the work with one hand and held the spear with the other. Due to the diversion of significant forces from work, the rest had to do twice as much and as a result the workers were extremely tired. Despite this, Nehemiah did not lose heart, and during these difficult times, neither he himself nor his associates took off their clothes, day or night. Such dedication of the leader awakened new energy among the people, and the walls quickly began to approach their completion. All that remained was to hang the large double-leaf gates. Seeing this, Sanballat and Tobiah decided to make a final effort to achieve their goal. Under the pretext of a conference with Nehemiah, they invited him to go to one of the villages on the coastal plain of Ono 391, 45 versts northwest of Jerusalem. Their goal was to capture him. They made this proposal four times, but Nehemiah constantly answered them that his urgent work in the city did not allow him to leave it. Then Sanballat resorted to another measure. Pretending to be a sincere friend of Nehemiah, he sent a servant to him with an open letter, which said: “There is a rumor among the nations that you and the Jews are planning to fall away; why are you building a wall, and want to be their king, according to the same rumors; and you have appointed prophets, so that they will proclaim about you in Jerusalem and say: King of the Jews. And such speeches will reach the king. So come and let us take counsel together” (Neh. 6:5–7). But Nehemiah penetrated into the inner meaning of this insidious letter and therefore sent him a sharp answer: “There was nothing like what you are talking about; you made it up with your mind.” Despite these setbacks, the enemies did not retreat from their hostile plans. They actively carried out their campaigning in the city itself. They bribed some prophets and even the prophetess Noadiah, in order to stir up discontent among the citizens against Nehemiah. Some of the noblest citizens, in addition, under the influence of Tobias, maintained close relations with him, sent him letters and received an answer from him. As a result, every word Nehemiah uttered was known to his enemies. One treacherous prophet, having locked himself in his house as if in fear for his life, warned the ruler that he knew about the decision that had been made to kill him during the night and insisted that they run to the sanctuary of the church and lock the door behind them. But this plan also failed. “Can a man like me run?” answered Nehemiah. Moreover, the sanctuary was a place that a layman could not enter. Therefore, he refused to follow the insidious advice of the false prophet, since he penetrated into his insidious plan to betray him to his enemies. The walls were finally completed, the gates were erected, and a guard detachment was assembled for them and for the church, and Nehemiah entrusted the guard of the city to his brother Hanani and the commander of the Jerusalem fortress, Hanani. In normal times, the church and its boundaries were guarded only by watchmen, but in this dangerous time, the Levites were also called to reinforce them. An order was then made that the gates of the city should be opened only at full sunrise, and special guards would come out during the day to replace those who guarded at night. Special patrols were elected from the citizens themselves, which went around various parts of the city at night. There remained, however, one more serious difficulty. The circumference of the walls was large, but there were still so few houses inside them that huge spaces remained unoccupied and uninhabited. The wise ruler therefore decided to increase the number of citizens by moving various families from the villages to Jerusalem in order to occupy the empty spaces in the streets with their homes, and to increase the number of citizens capable of defending the capital. In this regard, the national census carried out by Zerubbabel turned out to be very useful. To complete this matter, a national assembly was convened to include in the census all those who migrated to the country after Zerubbabel. The seventh month was appointed for this purpose, the same month in which popular meetings had previously taken place to consecrate the new altar and restore the order of sacrifices. In the present case, however, the authorities decided to use this meeting of the people for other important national affairs. In addition to completing family chronicles, other very important measures had to be taken. In order to attract as many people as possible to the city, it was decided to hold a big holiday, namely the solemn consecration of the newly built city walls. This news actually attracted the entire population to Jerusalem, and even the women left their usual home refuge and brought their children with them. Nehemiah took advantage of such a meeting to awaken the moral spirit among the people. Before the opening of the celebration, he entered into an agreement with Ezra, who continued to conduct religious and moral educational activities among the people, to teach the people from the law during this holiday. This request was fully consistent with the thoughts and intentions of the most zealous priest, and he decided to use it for the good of the people. Before the Water Gate, southeast of the church, an open space was set aside for the solemn meeting, and there at the appointed time Ezra appeared with his fellow servants. A pulpit was erected there, the first of which is reported in the biblical narrative, and early in the morning Ezra took his place on it, on the first day of the seventh new moon, famous from ancient times for the fact that this day was heralded by the sound of trumpets, and was usually considered a day of rest and cessation of work. With the greatest reverence, opening the book of the law, he began to read it to the people, who listened with tenderness to the sacred reading. But during their stay in captivity, the people had already significantly forgotten the ancient Hebrew language in which the book of the Law of Moses was written, and therefore it was necessary to translate what was being read into the popular language, which was Aramaic, which is what the book Levites did, accompanying the reading of the law with translation and proper interpretations. The people wept with emotion, thanking God for all the good deeds of His beloved people, and repented of all the sins and crimes that had brought upon His righteous wrath. This whole celebration was completed by the conclusion of a new covenant with God, which was sealed by the signature and seal of the princes, priests and Levites. Then a meeting of the people took place in order to consecrate the walls that had been erected with such difficulty in their presence. On this occasion, as at the first reading of the law, the people were also present in full force with their wives and children. In order to give the greatest possible solemnity to this festival, Nehemiah ordered that all the Levites from the singing class, who were in various villages and cities, come to Jerusalem and with their songs and music delighted the hearts of the congregation. He divided the entire congregation into two large groups, which, leaving one place in opposite directions, walked around the walls and met again in the church. Each procession was preceded by a choir of Levitical singers, who sang songs of praise and thanksgiving on the occasion of the joyful event, and eight Levites were assigned to each choir, who accompanied the singing by playing harps and other musical instruments. Ezra followed one choir, and Nehemiah followed the other, both leaders of the people. The joyful sounds of trumpets, harps and songs from the lips of numerous Levites spread far throughout the city and its environs, finding an echo in the surrounding mountains and even more in the hearts of the jubilant people. The consecration of the walls was celebrated with joyful and grateful sacrifices. The feast of consecration lasted for eight days and took place two years and four months after the start of the work. After the holiday, Nehemiah began to streamline the civil structure of his people and, as a result, appointed certain leaders and government officials to various regions and cities. He made his zealous collaborator in the transformation of the people, the priest Ezra, the chief overseer of the church. Together with him, he paid special attention to the correct course of worship at the church. The correct order of sacrifices was established under him and, as a result, measures were taken to properly provide for the priests and Levites. A solemn obligation was taken from the landowners to make offerings to some and to give tithes to others, and to ensure the correctness of the income, special Levites were appointed, who were supposed to walk through the fields during the harvest, collect the tithes and present them to Jerusalem. To preserve these collections and distribute them correctly among employees, Nehemiah took care of the establishment of large storehouses, where the collected bread and fruits were stored and from where they were issued to individual clergy. Special persons were appointed to monitor these warehouses. The system of serving in alternations was also re-ordered and established (the division into twenty-four alternations most likely dates back to the time of Nehemiah). Those four priestly families that came out of Babylon with Zerubbabel, over the past century, multiplied, branched out and divided among themselves. In addition, by this time new families had arrived from Babylon, which also had to be taken into account, as a result of which a new distribution of them turned out to be necessary. Chapter 58. The Prophet Malachi and the conclusion of the activities of Ezra and Nehemiah The festival of the dedication of the new walls of Jerusalem was the last event in the first period of Nehemiah's reign. After a twelve-year absence from Persia, extremely tired in spirit and body, he needed at least temporary rest, during which he could return to his royal master in Ecbatana or Susa and give a proper account of his assignment. Everything seemed to be calm and well-ordered in Judea: the walls of Jerusalem were built, the city had increased significantly from the recent addition of a rural population to it, church worship was performed in complete order and completeness of rituals, and the people solemnly swore to maintain this order. Things were even much better. The public readings of the law, which subsequently developed into the establishment of the great synagogue, became an established custom; after one of these readings, the people voluntarily renounced all close relations with their neighbors of pagan origin, including the Ammonites and Moabites, and tried in every possible way to show their loyalty to all the requirements of the Mosaic Law. Satisfied with all this, Nehemiah actually went to Persia. But as soon as he left the place of his twelve-year activity, the entire fragility of these statements was fully revealed. Despite the presence of Ezra in Jerusalem, it was soon discovered that the transformation introduced by civil authority, and not the fruit of internal conviction, did not have deep and vital significance. The tithes allotted for the church, the Levites, and the priests were not given in Nehemiah's absence, and as a result great disaster came upon all those who depended on them for their support. The singers, the guardians of the gates and the ordinary Levites were all equally forced to go to their homes and cultivate their fields in order to earn their livelihood. Public worship was thus interrupted, and the church, abandoned by its ministers, was abandoned also by its people (Neh. 13:10, 11). But the refusal to pay tithes was not the only sign of a changed mood among the people. The Sabbath was also not observed either in the city or in the villages, and during its sacred hours the wine presses were actively working, the roads and fields were busy with workers bringing grain to the storehouses on their heavily loaded donkeys. In Jerusalem itself, the Sabbath was broken by the Saturday market, to which masses of wine, grapes, figs and all other goods were brought. Phoenician fishermen brought their catches for sale, and traders from Tire laid out their countless goods. After all the declarations of jealousy to put an end to mixed marriages, everything returned to almost an even worse state than it had been before. There were many such husbands who left their Jewish wives and took Philistine, Ammonite or Moabite women (Mal. 2:10-14), and the children from these marriages already showed with their broken dialect, half-Philistine, half-Hebrew, how soon they ceased to attach importance to everything Jewish. Even the priests quickly lost their lofty tone. Their lack of reverence, indifference and devotion to the world embarrassed the more pious of the people (Mal. 1:6, 9, 10). Money people again revealed their greed and became oppressors of the poor (Mal. 3:5). Everything that Ezra and Nehemiah had created and established with such great labor apparently collapsed again. This sad state in general was extremely depressing for the pious people of their time, but they did not know where to look for help and support. Ezra, due to his advanced age, apparently weakened in order to have any influence in public life, and completely devoted himself to his favorite area - the study of St. Scriptures. The active Nehemiah was far from the country and busy with his affairs at the court of the Persian king. Then a new figure emerged as a champion of law and piety, namely Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets. After Haggai and Zechariah, several representatives of the sacred prophetic rank appeared and even prophetesses spoke, but all of them were either possessed by a lying spirit and opposed the good undertakings of Ezra and Nehemiah, or were too weak to have any influence on society. In Malachi the prophetic order has now again found a worthy representative. clearly understanding the crying needs of the time, fearless in his reproaches and strict in his demands and denunciations, he was no less striking with his living anticipation of the coming Messiah. Hitherto this promised Savior was expected as a gift descendant of David; Malachi now proclaimed that this promised Messiah is none other than Jehovah himself, in the person of an Angel or messenger of His covenant (Mal. 3:1). The prophet, apparently, stood to Ezra and Nehemiah in the same relation in which Isaiah stood to Hezekiah, or Haggai to Zerubbabel, and turned out to be a powerful ally. In his words we hear for the last time the tone of the great ancient prophets. The brief prophecy of Malachi begins with a tender reference to the love shown by Jehovah in past times in relation to the people of Judah, as was especially revealed in the different treatment towards them and towards Edom through Jacob and Esau, as two twin brothers; but despite this advantage given to him, Judas became unfaithful to his heavenly Father. What terrible ingratitude that was! “I have loved you, says the Lord. And you say: in what ways have You shown your love for us?” (Mal.3:1) Jehovah answers: “Isn’t Esau Jacob’s brother, and yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and gave his mountains over to desolation, and his possessions to the jackals of the desert 392. If Edom says: we are ruined, but we will restore what was destroyed, then the Lord of hosts says: they will build, but I will destroy, and they will be called a wicked region, a people against whom the Lord is angry forever. And your eyes will see it, and you will say, “The Lord is magnified above the borders of Israel” (Mal. 1:2–5). Having pointed out Jehovah's right to special love and obedience on the part of his chosen people, the prophet then proceeds to accuse him of the opposite, starting with the sins of the priesthood. “A son honors his father and a servant his master; if I am the Father, then where is the respect for Me? and if I am the Lord, then where is the reverence for Me? says the Lord of hosts to you, you priests, who profane my name. You say: How do we dishonor Your name? You bring unclean bread to My altar, but you say: How do we dishonor You? - by saying: the Lord's table is not worthy of respect. And when you sacrifice a blind thing, is it not bad? or, when you bring the lame and the sick, is it not bad? 393 Bring this to your prince, will he be pleased with you and will he accept you favorably? says the Lord of hosts. And so, pray to God to have mercy on us, and when this comes from your hands, can He graciously accept you? says the Lord of hosts. It would be better for one of you to lock the doors, so that they do not hold fire on My altar in vain. I have no favor with you, says the Lord of hosts, and the offering from your hands is not pleasing to Me” (Mal. 1:6–10). God does not need such dishonest worship of God; He will receive honor and worship from the whole world from the pagans, whom they now despise. “From the east of the sun to the west, my name will be great among the nations, and in every place they will offer incense to my name, a pure sacrifice; My name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. And you blaspheme him by saying: the Lord's table is not worth respect, and the income from it is insignificant food. Moreover, you say: this is how much labor you neglect, says the Lord of hosts, and you bring stolen, lame and sick things, and you bring a grain gift of the same quality: can I accept this from your hands with grace? says the Lord. Cursed is the deceitful one, who has an uncorrupted male in his flock, and he has made a vow, and sacrifices to the Lord what is corrupted: for I am a great King, and My name is terrible among the nations” (Mal. 1:11-14). Having thus fearlessly denounced the priests, Malachi proceeds to announce the punishment that will befall them if they do not take advantage of this warning and do not conscientiously fulfill their duties. “And so, priests, this commandment is for you: if you do not obey and if you do not take it to heart to give glory to My name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send a curse on you and I will curse your blessings and I am already cursing it, because you do not want to set your heart to it. Behold, I will take away your shoulder and scatter the dung on your faces, the dung of your festival sacrifices, and they will throw you out with it. And you will know that I gave this commandment to keep my covenant with Levi, says the Lord of hosts. My covenant with him was a covenant of life and peace, and I gave it to him for fear, and he feared Me and stood in awe of My name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his tongue; He walked with Me in peace and righteousness and turned many away from sin. For the mouth of the priest shall keep knowledge, and the law shall be sought from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have turned away from this path, you have served as a stumbling block for many in the law, you have destroyed the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of Hosts. For this reason I will also make you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you do not keep My ways and show partiality in the works of the law” (Mal. 2:1-9). From denouncing the priests, the prophet moves on to denouncing the sins of those who married pagan women, divorcing Jewish women for this purpose, despite the recent legislation on this subject and neglecting the ancient prohibition in the Law of Moses. “Do we not all have one Father? Wasn't it the only God who created us? Why do we act treacherously against each other, thereby violating the covenant of our fathers? Judas acts treacherously and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judas humiliated the shrine of the Lord, which he loved, and married the daughter of a foreign god. The one who does this, the Lord will destroy from the tents of Jacob the one who watches the watch and answers, and the one who sacrifices to the Lord of hosts. And this is also what you do: you cause the altar of the Lord to be watered with tears, with sobbing and crying, so that He no longer regards the offering and does not accept the propitiatory sacrifice from your hands. You say: for what? Because the Lord was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you acted treacherously, while she is your friend and your lawful wife. But didn’t one do the same, and there was an excellent spirit in him? What did this one do? 394 He wanted to receive offspring from God. And so, take care of your spirit and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth” (Mal. 2:10–15). Having exposed the most outstanding sins of his time, the prophet then turns to the future. There was a lot of unrest and murmuring among the people. There was a belief that the wicked enjoyed the mercy of God and prospered, while the good had to suffer, and they wondered about the future terrible judgment, the great day of the Lord, about which the prophets had so constantly preached from century to century. Pointing to this, the prophet told them: “You anger the Lord with your words and say: how do we anger Him? By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He is pleased with such people,” or, “Where is the God of justice?” Strictly responding to this unreasonable murmur, the prophet, in the name of Jehovah, announces his coming for the great judgment: “Behold, I am sending My angel, and He will prepare the way before Me, and suddenly the Lord, whom you seek, and the Angel of the covenant, whom you desire, will come to His church; Behold, He comes, says the Lord of hosts” (Mal. 3:1). The Day of the Lord, according to Malachi, differs from what is called the same term by Joel and other previous prophets, since by it he does not mean the coming of Jehovah as a warrior of Israel to destroy the pagans, but the coming of the One who will cleanse the kingdom of God from wickedness and establish the triumph of righteousness. “And who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner of fire and like refiner's lye, and He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and will purify the sons of Levi, and will refine them like gold and like silver, that they may sacrifice to the Lord in righteousness. Then the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years” (Mal. 3:2–4). Priests and Levites will be subjected to the Last Judgment first, but then judgment will befall all those who do evil: “And I will come to you for judgment, and I will be a swift accuser of sorcerers and adulterers, and of those who swear falsely and withhold wages from a hireling, oppress the widow and the orphan, and repel the stranger and do not fear Me, says the Lord of hosts. For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you sons of Jacob were not destroyed. Since the days of your fathers you have departed from My statutes and have not kept them; turn to Me and I will turn to you, says the Lord of hosts. You will say: how should we turn? Is it possible for a person to rob God? And you are robbing Me. You will say: How are we robbing You? tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, because you, the whole people, rob Me. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me in this, says the Lord of hosts: Will I not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out blessings upon you until there is abundance? I will forbid for you the devourers to destroy the fruits of the earth from you, and the vine in your field will not lose its fruit, says the Lord of hosts. And all nations will call you blessed, because you will be a desirable land, says the Lord of hosts. Your words are bold before Me, says the Lord. You will say: Why are we speaking against You? You say: it is in vain to serve God, and what good is it that we kept His statutes and walked in mournful clothing before the face of the Lord of hosts? And now we consider the arrogant happy: those who practice iniquity are better off, and although they tempt God, they remain unharmed” (Mal. 3:5-15). The prophet compares these crazy, wicked speeches with the behavior and mood of pious people among the people, announcing, in addition, the blessings that are given to the faithful and warning the unrepentant about the certainty of their future condemnation: “those who fear God say to one another: the Lord listens and hears this, and before Him a memorial book is written about those who fear the Lord and honor His name. And they will be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, Mine in the day that I make them, and I will have mercy on them, as a man has mercy on his son who serves him. And then again you will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not serve Him. For behold, the day will come, burning like an oven; Then all the arrogant and those who do wickedly will be like stubble, and the coming day will burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. And for you, who revere My name, the sun of righteousness will rise and healing in its rays, and you will go out and leap like fat calves. And you will trample down the wicked, for they will be dust under the soles of your feet in the day that I will do, says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi ends his prophecy with a final exhortation to the godly: “Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel, also the rules and regulations. Behold, I will send Elijah the prophet to you before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that when I come I will not smite the earth with a curse” (Mal. 4:4-6). In the person of Malachi, Old Testament prophecy said its last word. In his sermon one can clearly hear the foreshadowing of the approaching fulfillment of times, and he called the people to repentance in order to meet this moment with dignity. Since his preaching exposes the same sentiments that Nehemiah fought against, their activities should be considered modern. In any case, the prophetic activity of Malachi falls at the end of the fifth century, and it is possible that Ezra, who at that time compiled the canon of the books of the Old Testament, completed it by including in it the “book of the prophet Malachi,” with which the Jewish canon of Holy Scripture ends. Meanwhile, the news of the unrest that had once again occurred in the land of Judah reached Nehemiah and greatly upset him. He again decided to visit the promised land and again asked permission for this from his gracious sovereign. Upon his return from Persia, he found that the information that had reached him was by no means exaggerated. Even the high priest Eliashib, who was either related to Tobiah the Ammonite through marriage, or held the hand of the party that was friendly to him in high Jewish society, maintained friendly relations with the open enemies of strict Judaism. Openly disregarding the decrees of both Ezra and Nehemiah, Eliashib went so far during the governor's absence that he even gave Tobiah one of the houses in the outer church buildings, providing him, among other things, for his use with that large room in which the stores of flour and spices for the altar were kept, vessels for measuring the offerings and tithes of grain, wine and oil for the Levites, guardians of the gates and singers (Neh. 13:5). This abuse aroused Nehemiah's great indignation. Burning with jealousy for the shrine, Nehemiah kicked Tobiah out of the dwelling allotted to him, threw away all his household things and reprimanded the elders for the disorder they had caused. This disorder, however, was only one of the manifestations of widespread moral relaxation, so severely denounced by the prophet Malachi. Nehemiah was especially offended by the failure to pay his tithes. Calling to him the elders of the people, he bitterly reproached them for their negligence in collecting the proper offerings for the church and the priests. “Why have you abandoned the house of God?” he asked them sternly. This matter was extremely important. Divine services at the church ceased due to the lack of Levites to perform sacred duties, and as a result, the courtyards of the church were empty of pilgrims. Such carelessness could not be tolerated. The elders of various cities and villages immediately had to begin to correct the disorder they had caused. Such rigor had good results. Immediately, tithes were collected from all over the land and thus the practice of worship was again ensured. The news that reached Nehemiah about the shameful violation of the peace of the Sabbath day also turned out to be true. The wine presses actually worked during the Sabbath rest hours in exactly the same way as on other days; the harvest took place with the same regularity and the collected grain was carried on loaded donkeys to the storehouses, as at any other time. Even in Jerusalem, the Sabbath was disrupted by noisy trading at the market, and on Friday evening whole convoys of carts with various products entered the city, which were sold on the Sabbath. Phoenician fishermen and traders of dried fish and all sorts of Tyrian goods arrived in droves in Jerusalem to trade on the Sabbath, hoping to make even more profit on this day than on ordinary days. This violation of the Mosaic Law in this regard greatly saddened Nehemiah, and he took measures to put an end to this disorder as well. Having again convened the elders of the people, he sharply reproached them, reminding them that such behavior on the part of their fathers was partly the cause of their national disasters. Henceforth, by his command, the city gates were locked on Friday evening, as soon as their arches became dark, and did not open until sunset on Saturday, when the Jewish Sabbath ended. Special people were also appointed at each gate to ensure that no heavy loads were carried on the day of rest. Having lost the opportunity to trade in the square of the priesthood, they drove him away from him with an angry curse, as a person who, with his family, “defamed the priesthood and the priestly and Levitical covenant” (Neh. 13:29). Biblical history says nothing about the subsequent activities of Nehemiah, but he and Ezra occupy an important place in Jewish legends and traditions. In the eyes of the immediate subsequent generations, Nehemiah seemed the greatest of these two figures, since it is he, and not Ezra, who we meet in the list of heroes of the people, transmitted by the son of Sirach, who says: “Great is the memory of Nehemiah, who raised for us fallen walls, erected gates and bars, and restored our destroyed houses” (Sir. 49:15). In the age of the Maccabees, it was Nehemiah, and not Zerubbabel, who was credited with the glory of rebuilding the church, restoring the altar, making the first sacrifice on it, and opening the sacred fire, which the priests had allegedly hitherto hidden in a dry well. The collection of sacred books and the formation of the canon were also attributed to him (2 Mac. 2:13). But in later times, Ezra occupied the main place in people's memory. Some even considered him to be identical with the prophet known as Malachi. He allegedly reproduced all the books of the Old Testament from memory after the Chaldeans destroyed them. Entire books were written in his name, and he was glorified as the founder of the great synagogue, to which the development of the law was mainly attributed. Nehemiah described his activities in a special book bearing his name (the book of Nehemiah) and ending with the prayer: “Remember me, O my God, for my good.” Ezra's activities are described in detail in the "books of Ezra." Raising up great and pious men to organize the lives of the Jews who returned from captivity to the Promised Land, the Lord did not abandon His providence to those who remained within the Persian kingdom. In times of calamity, His hand raised up worthy defenders for him there from the malice of his enemies. And this is brilliantly proven by the story of the famous Queen Esther. The interval from the return of the captive Jews to the Promised Land in 536 until the end of the church in 516 was quite significant in the history of the world. In 529, Cyrus fell ingloriously during a distant war and was succeeded by his son Cambyses, whose reign was marked from the very beginning by the secret murder of his brother Bardes, and at the end by the murder of one of his sisters, who was also his wife, because she dared to cry over the fate of her brother. Deciding to reconquer Egypt, he spent his reign mainly on the banks of the Nile until, during his return campaign to the east in 522, he killed himself in a fit of despair in Syria, since remorse for the death of his sister and brother, unexpected revolts of the subject peoples and the anxieties he experienced during the Egyptian campaigns and failures upset his spirit 395. During his reign, the Jewish settlers in Jerusalem must have been in constant anxiety, owing to the constant movement of troops along the coast and military turmoil. Darius Hystaspes, who followed him after that brief interval when the false Bardes or false Smerdis, who had seized the throne, was overthrown, spent his reign in almost constant wars, aimed at suppressing the uprising of one province after another over a vast area from Herat to the Greek archipelago. In the very year when the church was completed (516), one Persian military leader had to take Babylon from the Armenian sovereign who had captured it, and the king himself was at that time in Egypt. The reign of Darius, however, is especially remarkable in that during it the great struggle between Asian barbarism and Western civilization was actually decided - a struggle that lasted for entire generations. He, like Cyrus, had the idea of ​​conquering the Greeks, in whose hands at that time lay the fate of the world, and his triumph in this respect would spread Eastern despotism over Europe, and thus the blazing freedom and progress of mankind would be suppressed and destroyed. But this danger was forever eliminated at the Battle of Marathon, in 490, when the Greeks, with their victory on this great historical day, established the triumph of freedom for all subsequent centuries on the western continent. Recent history began from the very moment when the Persian hordes were driven back to their ships by Miltiades. At that time a new day of political and intellectual life dawned over the world, and Asia, renouncing its supremacy over the European race, was finally pushed back beyond the Hellespont. The reign of Darius lasted until 486 BC. and it was a time of peace and prosperity for the Jews, although they were still subject to various troubles due to the intrigues of their enemies at his court. After his death, the throne of western Asia remained for twenty-one years in the hands of Xerxes, who renewed the struggle in which his father had suffered such a significant defeat. But he only exhausted his monarchy, for his extraordinary efforts to crush the West were dashed to dust at Thermopylae and Salamis. Word of these great events probably spread quickly among the settlers in Jerusalem and Judea. During the reign of this particular king, whose name was known to the Greeks in the form of Agasber, an event occurred in the history of the Jewish people that forms the subject of the “Book of Esther.” The proud king whiled away his life in the fortified palace of Susa, amid the mountain coolness of his main province, while his generals and warriors fought and died for him in the east and west. The story of Esther falls in the third year of his reign, seven years after the Battle of Marathon 396, and the war with Greece, which turned out to be so disastrous for Persia, was still ongoing. But the majestic monarchy of Cyrus and Darius still stood proudly, stretching from India to Ethiopia, embracing 127 provinces and surrounding its supreme ruler with almost unimaginable splendor and wealth. The city of Susa lay 225 miles north of the Persian Gulf in the heights of Susiana, a mountainous region east of the Tigris. The Choasp River quickly rolled its waves through the valleys east of the city, and Yavlei or Ulai, as the prophet Daniel calls this river (Dan. 8:2, 16), together with Sapur and other rivers, spread around a whole network of clear waters, making this area so luxurious and fertile that it even became a proverb. The capital was famous for its fortified palace, which served as one of the residences of the famous king, each monarch apparently adding a special house for himself to the vast series of other houses already built by his predecessors. Huge mounds constitute almost the only remnant of all this historical splendor, but in Persepolis, in the mountains, 450 miles to the southeast, the surviving remains of the palace built by Xerxes himself make it possible to imagine the splendor of the Susa palace. A large platform of cut stone served as a terrace for the central building, which was about 350 feet long and 250 feet wide. Some of the columns that supported its porticos still stand today and vary in height from 60 to 76 feet, their entire surface being covered with elaborate ornamentation. The vast hall in which the throne stood ran along the front side of this central building, with other rooms, equally majestic, adjoining it on both sides. At Susa, the palace stood on a similar platform, representing a square, about 1000 feet on each side and proudly rising from 50 to 60 feet above the surrounding area. The walls of the central hall, which was a room up to 200 square feet, were 18 feet thick, and the three large front rooms were each 200 feet long and 65 wide. The roof of the main room was supported by 36 columns, and the roof of each of the front rooms rested on 12. But this was only the ground floor. Above this the building rose another 100 to 120 feet, so that in general it must have been a grandiose tower-like building, 170 to 180 feet above ground level. Far in all directions from this amazing building there were gardens, which were called paradise or paradise. Huge four-legged colossi, with wings and human heads, stood at all the gates and doors, and magnificent marble staircases, on which were stones of gigantic size, constituted a majestic entrance worthy of such a building. Half a century had passed since the return of the Jews from captivity, and around this time Xerxes, out of simple vanity and boundless wealth, ordered a whole series of feasts to be given in his palaces and premises, with the extraordinary splendor of which he wanted to amaze the world. The table of this great king even became a proverb for its magnificent furnishings and luxury. Every day, countless oxen and all kinds of game were consumed at it, because in the palace the table was used not only by the king, his court and harem, but also by the entire detachment of his bodyguards, consisting of 2,000 cavalry, 2,000 mounted spearmen and 10,000 infantry 397 . Having received an invitation to the upcoming great festival, all the satraps and their subordinates, the leaders of the Persian and Median armies, the nobles and the rulers of the regions of the monarchy, gathered gradually over the course of six months, since during this very time the feasts continued successively, each distinguished by all kinds of splendor, with the aim of showing the wealth and flattering the greatness of the king. But that was not all. After the entire flower of the monarchy had been properly treated, a seven-day celebration was announced for the entire population of the capital city of Susa, “in the garden courtyard of the king’s house.” White, paper and yellow woolen fabrics, attached with fine linen and purple cords, hung on silver rings and marble pillars, transformed the vast room reserved for the feast into a grand open-air space. There were long rows of golden and silver couches for guests, and the entire space for this purpose was lined with alabaster, covered with green stones, marble, mother-of-pearl and black stones. Cups for the mass of guests were placed on the tables, of every possible shape and all made of gold, and wine was poured into them from the royal cellars, representing either Aleppo wine, which the king himself only drank, or some other famous varieties 398 . No matter how expensive this wine was, it flowed like water, everyone could drink as much as they wanted. Persian kings always had several wives of various degrees, 399 including generally one or more of their own sisters. At this time, the king’s special favorite was Queen Vashti - “beautiful”, although she was probably not a wife of the first rank. It fell to her share to entertain the women of Susa during a separate feast, since there were too many guests to allow the women to sit, as was the custom among the Persians, with their husbands 400 . The festival lasted for six days and was supposed to end on the seventh day. Wine and prolonged excitement somewhat clouded Xerxes' brain. Forgetting his royal dignity and the dignity of his queens, he ordered the seven eunuchs who served him to bring Vashtinha to him, so that she, taking off her veil, would expose her charms before the assembled multitude of half-intoxicated men. But, perhaps, remembering how in the time of Darius the Macedonian women, brought in the same way to a Persian feast, were subjected to gross insult 401, Vashti, both out of respect for the king and for herself, refused to come. That was enough. The proud king, spoiled by unquestioning admiration for himself, could not tolerate disobedience from anyone even to the slightest whim. Vashti, in addition, had one enemy, the head of the eunuchs, who, dissatisfied with her, tried to fan the insane anger of his sovereign. He set the case of Vashtini’s disobedience to her sovereign husband as a very dangerous example for other wives in the Persian monarchy. “Not before the king alone,” said the eunuch Memukhan: “Queen Vashti is guilty, but before all the princes and before all the peoples who are in all the king’s provinces, because the queen’s deed will reach all the wives, and they will neglect their husbands and say: King Xerxes ordered to bring Queen Vashti before his face, but she did not go. Now the Persian and Indian princesses, who hear about the queen’s act, will say the same to all the king’s princes, and there will be enough neglect and grief. If it pleases the king, let a royal decree come out from him and be included in the Persian and Indian laws, and not be repealed, that Vashti will not enter before the face of King Xerxes, and the king will transfer her royal dignity to another who is better than her. When they hear about the king’s seven decree, which will be spread throughout the entire kingdom, no matter how great it is, then all the wives will honor their husbands, from great to small.” Having heard this proposal, the foggy king could not distinguish truth from deceit in it, and completely agreed with the proposal of his chief eunuch. Immediately, a royal decree was drawn up, dictated by Memukhan, and sent to all regions “in her writings and to every nation in their language, so that every man should be a master in his house and so that this would be announced to everyone in his natural language” (Esther 1:16-22). When the king's anger subsided at the end of the feast, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed about her. But the matter had already gone too far to be corrected, and then the king’s entourage suggested that he look for young beautiful maidens in return: “Let them,” they said, “look for young beautiful maidens for the king, and let the king appoint observers to all the regions of his kingdom, who would gather all the young maidens, beautiful in appearance, to the capital city of Susa, to the house of the wives under the supervision of Hegai, the royal eunuch, the guard of the wives, and let them give them rubbing oil (and anything else they need). And the maiden who pleases the eyes of the king, let her be queen instead of Vashti.” The king liked this proposal and that is exactly what was done. By royal decree, fathers with their most beautiful daughters began to come from all regions of the state so that the king could choose a wife from among them. Each of them, of course, would have considered it a special honor for themselves if the king’s choice had fallen on his daughter, but all their hopes turned out to be in vain, since the choice fell on one girl in Susa itself. In the capital there lived a Jew named Mordecai. He came from the tribe of Benjamin and was a descendant of Kish. Together with King Jehoiachin, under Nebuchadnezzar, he was resettled from Jerusalem and settled in Susa. Being childless, Mordecai raised the young orphan Hadassah as his own daughter, and his virtue was miraculously rewarded by fate, which led to the extraordinary rise of both of them. Mordecai, occupying the modest position of a gatekeeper at the royal palace, once quite by accident saved the life of the king. Standing at his post, he once heard the palace eunuchs Gawatha and Terah having some kind of suspicious conversation among themselves, and, having listened to this conversation, he learned to horror that they had formed a criminal plan to lay hands on the king. He immediately reported them to the king, who subjected these two eunuchs to torture, and when they confessed, he executed them. The king recorded this event for himself. And so, this palace servant Mordecai, having learned about the king’s command regarding the convocation of the most beautiful maidens for the king, decided to try his luck with his pupil. “Hadassa was extremely beautiful in figure and beautiful in face.” When the girls from all over the kingdom were collected and placed under the supervision of the eunuch Hegai for a temporary trial, Mordecai also placed his pupil under his supervision. With her beauty and modesty, she immediately caught his eye and acquired special favor from him, so he hastened to give her “the rubbish and everything assigned for her part, and assign to her seven maidens worthy of being with her, from the royal house; and moved her and her girls to the best section of the women’s house.” Delighted by such special attention from the royal eunuch, Hadassa, however, was afraid that her origin would somehow harm her, and therefore “she did not speak about her people or about her kinship, because Mordecai gave her an order not to tell her.” Every day Mordecai came to inquire about the health of Hadassah and what was happening to her. This test of the girls lasted for twelve months, since the days of rubbing them lasted for that long: “six months with myrrh oil and six months with aromas and other feminine rubs. Then only the maiden could enter the king. And whatever she demanded was given to her to go to the king’s house.” When the turn came to Hadassa, she, too, in luxurious attire and in all kinds of decoration, which, however, paled in front of her natural beauty, was demanded by the king and immediately “took possession of the king’s heart.” After her, all further representations were already unnecessary and Hadassa became the chosen one of Xerxes. He gave her a new name, Esther, that is, “star.” “The king loved Esther more than all the wives, and she gained his favor and favor more than all the maidens, and he placed the royal crown on her head and made her queen in the place of Vashti.” Such elevation of a representative of the Jewish people, however, aroused extreme hatred and anger among some of the courtiers, and especially among a certain Haman, an Amalekite, who, himself being placed “above all the princes of the kingdom,” used his power only to arrogantly oppress all who did not prostrate themselves before him with slavish servility. For some reason, whether because of Haman's nationality, or because to prostrate himself before a mortal man seemed to Mordecai an act tantamount to idolatry, in any case, he alone of all the courtiers did not show such honor to the arrogant nobleman when he entered or left the palace. Such disrespect from the Jew infuriated Haman and he decided to destroy not only himself, but also his entire people. With one blow he wanted to avenge both his personal dissatisfaction and, together, to satisfy the hereditary hatred of his people towards the despised Jews with the blood of this entire tribe. By insidiously slandering the Jews before the king as a very dangerous people - a people who, unlike other subordinate peoples of the monarchy, stubbornly adhere to the observance of their own laws, neglecting even the laws of the monarchy for their sake, and thus constantly served as the center of all sorts of turmoil and uprisings, Haman obtained the consent of the king to issue a decree on their extermination throughout the monarchy, and even expressed a desire from his own sums to give a significant sum of 10,000 talents silver for the implementation of this decree 402. Both fear and greed easily persuaded the despot to accept the proposal of a trusted dignitary. The unfortunate tribe and all its property were handed over to the power of Haman, as if beating and robbing an entire people was a matter for which a simple word was enough. To give him proper authority in this matter, the king took his ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, “to seal the decree against the Jews.” Burning with vengeance against the hated people, Haman immediately set to work. “The king's scribes were called in the first month, on the thirteenth day of it, and it was written, as Haman commanded, to the king's satraps and to the rulers over every region (from the Indian region to Ethiopia, over one hundred and twenty-seven regions), and to the princes of every nation, to every region in its writing and to every people in its language: everything was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the royal ring. And letters were sent through messengers to all the king’s regions to kill, destroy and destroy all the Jews, small and old, children and women, on one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar, and to plunder their property.” This bloodthirsty decree, which fully characterizes the boundless despotism of the Persian monarchs, read as follows: “the great king Xerxes commands from India to Ethiopia over one hundred and twenty-seven regions and the governors subordinate to them. Reigning over many nations and ruling over the entire universe, I wanted, not exalting myself with the pride of power, but always ruling meekly and quietly, to make the life of my subjects constantly serene, and, keeping my kingdom peaceful and easily accessible to its limits, to restore the peace desired for all people. When I asked the advisers how to carry this out, we are distinguished by wisdom and enjoy unfailing favor and have proven firm loyalty and received second honor from the king, Haman explained to us that in all the tribes of the universe one hostile people was mixed up, according to its laws it is contrary to every people, constantly neglecting the royal commands, so that the co-government we impeccably carried out would not be prosperous. And so, having learned that only this people always opposes every person, leads a way of life alien to the laws, and, opposing our actions, commits the greatest atrocities so that our kingdom does not achieve prosperity, we commanded those indicated in the letters of Haman, who was placed in charge of affairs and our second father, to completely destroy everyone with their wives and children with enemy swords, without any regret or mercy, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month of Adar of this year, so that these previously and now hostile people, having been forcibly cast into the underworld one day, do not prevent us from subsequently leading our lives peacefully and serenely to the end” 403. Lists from this decree were sent to each region, as a law binding on all peoples. The messengers quickly rushed with them in all directions. The routes of communication in the Persian monarchy were already established by Cyrus, and a special system of dispatches was introduced, so that messengers could change horses every now and then at stations separated from each other by twenty-five versts 404 . The bloodthirsty decree was announced in Susa, and while the king and Haman sat at a feast and drank, congratulating each other on a successful state measure, Susa fell into confusion. Mordecai, of course, was the first to know about this. Struck by this state of affairs and seeing here the bloodthirsty hand of his hater, Haman, he immediately left his position as the king's gatekeeper and dressed in sackcloth and sprinkled ashes on his head, went out to one of the city squares and with a loud cry spread the news of the terrible decree regarding his people everywhere. Weeping and despair soon settled in every Jewish home. In such extremes, the only hope for the salvation of the people remained with Esther. Meanwhile, Esther, due to the usual confinement of eastern queens, who shunned participation in state affairs, still knew nothing about what had happened; but when her maids informed her of the plight of Mordecai, who was crying in sackcloth in the square, she, thinking that he had received some personal insult from one of the courtiers, sent him clothes as a sign of consolation, and when he did not accept these clothes, she sent one of the eunuchs, Hathach, to ask Mordecai: “What is this and what is it from?” Then Mordecai told him about the true reason for his extraordinary grief and handed him a list from the decree promulgated in Susa to show Esther and let her know about everything, and at the same time, in a kindred way, he punished her so that she should go to the king and beg him for mercy and ask for her people. Esther was extremely amazed by this news, but found herself in an extremely difficult situation. Court etiquette forbade her, without a special invitation, to appear before the king, since such self-will was even punishable by death, for both men and women. But when Mordecai reproached her for this indecisiveness, saying that she, too, fits under the issued decree, and thus both herself and her father’s house would perish, and noted that, perhaps, for this very purpose she had, by God’s providence, achieved royal dignity, then Esther, blazing with love for her people, gave a decisive answer: “Go, gather all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for my sake, and do not eat or drink for three days, neither day nor night, and I and my maidservants will also fast, and then I will go to the king, although this is against the law, and if I perish, I will perish” (Esther 4:13–16). Delighted by this decision of Esther, Mordecai and all the Jewish people in the capital immediately began to fulfill her order, with fasting and prayer they tried to avert trouble both from themselves and from their high patroness. On the third day, Esther, having stopped praying and taking off her clothes of mourning, dressed like a king and, having become magnificent, took two maidservants and went to the king. “She leaned on one, as if indulging in bliss, and the other followed her, supporting her robe. She was beautiful in the color of her beauty and her face was joyful, as if filled with love, but her heart was oppressed with fear.” Entering the courtyard of the royal house, just in front of Xerxes' premises, she stopped there. The king at that time was sitting on his royal throne, directly opposite the entrance to the house, dressed in all the attire of his greatness, all in gold and precious stones. He was terrible and, noticing the unexpected appearance of Esther, whom he had not invited to his place for thirty days, he looked at her with great anger. The queen lost heart, changed her countenance and, out of weakness, leaned on the head of the maid accompanying her. Noticing this confusion of the beautiful Esther, the king softened his spirit and, hastily rising from his throne, went out to her, took her into his arms until she came to her senses. As a sign of his mercy, he extended the golden scepter that was in his hand to Esther, and, approaching her, kissed her and said: “What do you want, Esther, and what is your request? Even half a kingdom will be given to you” (Esther 5:1–3). Despite such an appeal, she did not have the courage to immediately make her request, and she decided to do it later, and now she turned only to the king with a request that the king, if it pleases him, would come with Haman to her for the feast that she had prepared for him. Such an invitation softened the king even more and he immediately gave his consent and sent for Haman. A magnificent feast was indeed arranged in Esther’s palace, and the king, amused and pleased with Esther, raised a cup of wine, as if in the form of a special toast, and turned to Esther with the words: “What is your desire? it will be satisfied; and what is your request? at least until half the kingdom, it will be fulfilled.” But this time Esther did not have the courage to express her real request, and in order to gather her strength, she invited the king and a second time, together with Haman, to come to her feast, to which the king immediately gave his consent. Haman left the feast extremely cheerful, and, flattered by the queen’s attention, thought that Esther had decided not to put any obstacles in his way in carrying out his vengeance on the Jews. But his cheerful disposition was spoiled partly by the fact that, right at the exit from the palace, he met the hated Mordecai, who again did not show him the slightest respect, did not bow to him, did not stand up and did not even move from his place in front of him. This infuriated Haman extremely, but he held his nerve this time and, when he came home, he told how much honor he enjoyed at the palace and how the queen honored him with an invitation to her feast, only him alone together with the king. “And tomorrow I am invited to her with the king,” he added. “But all this is displeased for me,” he added bitterly: “as long as I see Mordecai the Judean sitting at the king’s gate.” Haman's wife, Zaresha, and all his friends immediately noticed to him that it was very easy for him to get rid of Mordecai: all he had to do was erect a gallows and hang Mordecai on it, and then nothing would darken his fun at the feasts of the king and queen. This proposal pleased Haman extremely much, and he immediately ordered the erection of a gallows. Meanwhile, the king, in order to disperse the boredom of a sleepless night, ordered the royal chronicles to be read to himself. For some reason, the story of an attempt on his life by two eunuchs came to mind. In order to more clearly reproduce in his memory the details of this event, he ordered to read about it, and when he listened to the recording, he asked: what was Mordecai awarded for saving his life? It turned out that nothing. The next morning he decided to make up for this omission and reward in a worthy manner the person to whom he owed his life. When his favorite Haman came to him, the king turned to him with the question: “What should that person do whom the king wants to honor?” Haman, fully convinced that the king had in mind none other than him, replied that such a person should be honored with a royal crown and royal robe, put on a horse and forced one of the first princes of the kingdom to lead him around the city, proclaiming the royal favor, saying: “This is done to the person whom the king wants to honor” (Esther 6:6-9). What this meant in a court like the ancient Persian is difficult to imagine. Gold jewelry, state clothes and other accessories of the toilet of Artaxerxes, Xerxes' successor, cost 10,000 talents, a sum that can only be determined in tens of millions of rubles 405. The donation clothing of Xerxes himself was estimated by the Greeks at 12,000 talents, and this, apparently, was not yet an excessive estimate, since even in the present century some Persian shahs wore clothing that was amazingly expensive. One traveler in Persia (1817 - 1820), describing the robe of the Shah he saw, says: “he shone with diamonds that literally blinded his eyes. On his head was a tall three-part pair, completely covered with diamonds, pearls, rubies and emeralds, so distributed that they reflected a magnificent play of colors. Among the rows of diamonds were several black feathers, probably from a heron, whose edges were decorated with pear-shaped pearls of extraordinary size. His very clothes were made of gold, covered for the most part in the same way with precious stones and pearls, and around his neck hung a string of pearls, perhaps the largest in the world. But his sleeves and belt were superior to everything, because they sparkled in the sun like fire. The right sleeve was called the “mountain of light”, the left - the “sea of ​​light” - the diamonds on them were so magnificent 406. The ambitious Haman was counting on such and such royal clothing. But, to his utter amazement and anger, he heard from the king an order that he himself should do all this in relation to Mordecai, and proud Haman, to the amazement of the entire capital, had to lead the horse by the bridle on which the despised Mordecai sat. The dignitary felt in despair from such humiliation. Broken in spirit, he went to Esther's feast, but there a well-deserved fate awaited him. Pleased with the treat, Xerxes again invited Esther to ask him for whatever she wanted, repeating his promise to give her “at least until half the kingdom.” Then Esther finally decided to express her request and said to the king: “If I have found favor in your sight, king, and if it pleases the king, then may my life be given to me, according to my desire, and my people, according to my request.” The king was naturally surprised at such a strange request from his queen, whose life was more valuable than the lives of all the subjects in his state, and he expressed his surprise with an impatient gesture, and Esther continued: “For we are sold, I and my people, to destruction, slaughter and destruction. If we were sold into male and female slaves, I would remain silent, although the enemy would not compensate the king for the damage.” Even more puzzled by this, Xerxes asked: “Who is this, and where is he who dared in his heart to do this?” Then Esther, fixing her beautiful, but now menacing gaze on Haman, who was feasting with her and already trembling in his criminal conscience, said to the king: “The enemy and adversary is this evil Haman!” The ill-fated courtier “trembled before the king and queen.” The king immediately, in extreme anger, got up from the feast and went to the garden at the palace, and Haman remained to beg Queen Esther for his life, and pitifully groveled before her, since he saw that “an evil fate was determined for him from the king.” But when Haman groveled before Esther, and even, having forgotten himself in his grief, fell to the couch on which Esther was, then at that very moment Xerxes himself entered, and not understanding what was the matter, but seeing the excited state of Esther and Haman, he shouted menacingly: “He even wants to rape the queen in my house!” With this, Haman's fate was decided. An order was immediately issued to take Haman into custody, and as a sign of his guilt, his face was covered. Many courtiers rejoiced at such a fall of the proud and formidable courtier, and told the king that near Haman’s house a gallows, fifty cubits high, had been prepared for someone. Then the king gave the order: to hang him on it. “And they hanged Haman on the tree which he had prepared for Mordecai.” And then only the king’s anger subsided. But with the destruction of the main enemy of the Jews, it was necessary to hurry with the abolition of the bloodthirsty decree made under his influence. Esther turned to the king with a request that he take measures to avert disaster from her people, and the king, completely pleased with her and with the fact that he got rid of such an evil and proud courtier, immediately issued a new decree, which was again sent out to the regions not only to cancel the previous decree, but even with the granting of the Jews the right to resist its implementation by force. Since, by virtue of the first decree, preparations for its execution had already begun in various places and real enemies of the Jews were discovered everywhere, now the new decree gave them the opportunity not only to come out with arms in their hands to defend their lives, but also to beat up these obvious enemies of theirs, which they did, beating 75,000 of their haters. Since naturally the main enemies of the Jews could be the sons of Haman, all his ten sons suffered the same fate as their father. The ring, which was once given to Haman as a sign of the king’s special favor and the powers granted to him, was now transferred to Mordecai, who was elevated to a high rank, becoming the second highest official of the king. In this position, he became “beloved among many of his brothers, for he sought the good of his people and spoke for the good of all his tribe” (Esther 10:3). Even when the king, in order to correct his finances, upset perhaps by the excessive festivities, imposed a new tax on the land, the Jews, thanks precisely to the merits of their great representative Mordecai, apparently were spared from this tax and enjoyed peace and prosperity throughout the vast expanse of the Persian monarchy. In memory of such a miraculous salvation, a special holiday of Purim was established (from the word pur, “lot,” because Haman cast lots for the destruction of the Jews). The forefeast of it, the thirteenth of Adar (in February), consisted of strict fasting, and on the fourteenth and fifteenth the people indulged in uncontrollable rejoicing. In the assemblies of the people, the Book of Esther was read with reverence, and at every mention of the name of Haman, everyone present struck their hands and stamped their feet, loudly saying: “Let his memory perish.” This whole wonderful story is described in the “Book of Esther,” which belongs to the non-canonical books of Holy Scripture. Chapter 60. The condition of the Jewish people in Palestine Meanwhile, the Jewish people in the Promised Land continued to gradually settle into their lives and fight the local enemies surrounding them. He had to endure especially much from his implacable enemy Sanballat, who acted as a representative of the Samaritans. Taking revenge for the Jews' refusal to accept them as brothers in faith and allow them to participate in worship in the temple in Jerusalem, the Samaritans became increasingly enraged and finally decided to open a special sanctuary for themselves in order to make it a rival to the temple in Jerusalem. For this, the most favorable case was the fact that among the Jewish people themselves there were many dissatisfied and many who were completely excluded from Jewish society because they did not want to come to terms with the strict decrees of Ezra and Nehemiah. A particularly important person in this regard was Sanballat's son-in-law, Manasseh, who, because of his relationship with his daughter, as a foreigner, was excluded from society. Taking advantage of this circumstance, his cunning father-in-law Sanballat made a plan to deal a cruel blow to the Jewish community by establishing an independent sanctuary in which the exiled Manasseh could become high priest, since he came from the family of Aaron. That was indeed what was decided. In order to erect a church, it was unlikely that any special permission was required from the Persian court, and even if it was required, it was not difficult for Sanballat to obtain such permission from the regional governor or satrap with whom he was on friendly terms. And so, on the top of Mount Gerizim, at the foot of the city of Shechem, in an area that in fact forms the center of all Palestine, Sanballat erected a church, which was probably after the death of King Artaxerxes (about 420). The choice of this place was made by experts of St. Scriptures and members of the Aaronic family expelled from Jewish society, who pointed to it because from this very mountain in the time of Joshua, according to the establishment of Moses, blessings were pronounced for those who keep the laws, while curses were pronounced from the opposite mountain and less fertile Ebal. The Samaritans gave the very name of the mountain a different meaning. They called and still call Mount Gerizim “the mountain of blessing,” as if salvation and blessing descended from it. They also called the city of Shechem “blessing” (Mabrahta). But this choice was not successful in all respects, since Garizim is accessible only from one side, and from other sides it falls steeply into the valleys. Even for those living nearby, it must have been difficult to climb to the top of the mountain to the sanctuary, if only it was erected on the opposite side of the city, where the later descendants of the Samaritans still point it out. descended from Joseph and his son Ephraim. But their very language revealed that they constituted a ragtag population; it was a strange mixture of Aramaic and other such strange-sounding elements that even now it turns out to be impossible to find out its origin. Meanwhile, their plan was quite successful. The Samaritans actually had a church around which they could gather for worship, had their own priests from the house of Aaron, boldly contrasted their Gargarizim, as they called their sacred mountain, with the Jewish holy Mount Moriah, proved from the book of the law that God himself had sanctified this mountain, and gave themselves the proud name of “Israelites.” Sanballat and his followers at the same time tried to attract as many true Jews as possible to themselves. They assigned places of residence and fields to those who came over to them, and generally tried to support them. As a result, all those who, having committed any crime, feared punishment for it, moved to the Samaritans from Jerusalem and from Judea, and at Mount Gerizim they were received with open arms. From such a rabble a new semi-Jewish people was formed, which formed a new religious sect, the so-called Samaritans. The confessors or members of this sect were a cunning, cunning and resourceful race, as if they had inherited in their blood the character that distinguished their leader, Sanballat. Despite their numerical insignificance, this people has survived with amazing constancy to the present day 407. Having united into one integral community, the Samaritans based their religion on the Pentateuch of Moses, and, despite this common basis of religion with the Jewish people, over time they became increasingly fierce enemies of the Jews. They were proud that they represented the true descendants of Israel, humiliated the shrine of Jerusalem and the church there, and explained everything that the Jewish people did and established as a counterfeit of the ancient Israeli religion. They continually moved beyond the boundaries of their region in order to introduce among themselves what was happening in Judea, although at the same time they were so animated by hatred of the Jews that they were not averse to completely destroying the Temple of Jerusalem. As a result, the hatred of the Jews towards their Samaritan neighbors was no less strong. In their eyes, the Samaritans were a stupid and pitiful people (Sir. 50:26). This enmity, perhaps, reflected an echo of the enmity that existed between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel during the time of their political independence. But now this enmity no longer had a political character, but had an internal religious character, which gave it even more bitterness and fanaticism. The formation of the Samaritan sect had an exciting effect on the Jews. Seeing fierce religious enemies before them, they had to be all the more zealous about the purity and immutability of their own worship and their religion. The Samaritans, so to speak, assisted them in the matter of their own self-knowledge and self-purification. In view of this attitude towards the Samaritans, the Jews rallied more and more among themselves, finding the connecting element no longer in political interest, but in religious confession. The very name “Jew” has now lost the meaning of tribal origin and began to mean belonging to Judaism, as a special kind of religion. The essence of this confession was the recognition of one God, who created heaven and earth, the sea and all their fullness, rules over the whole world, and chose the people as His beloved servant. The recognition of the Mosaic Law as a direct revelation of this God through Moses also belonged to this confession. How great previously was the indifference of the people in general to the regulations contained in this law, so great was the respect for this law now. “A reasonable person believes the law, and the law is true for him, like the answer of the Urim,” said the spokesman of this time, Jesus the son of Sirach (Sir. 33:3). Such respect for the Law of Moses had a beneficial effect on the entire life of the Jewish community. Everything in it was done according to the law. Slavery among the Jews ceased completely. When a Jew wanted to sell himself into slavery, he could not even find a buyer. As a result of this, the jubilee year, according to which freedom was returned to those in slavery, became essentially unnecessary. On the contrary, the Sabbath year, with its regulations regarding persons and fields, was strictly enforced. Every seven years the debt of the poor was forgiven and the fields remained uncultivated for a year. Probably already earlier, the Jewish favorites at the Persian court achieved that in this Sabbath year no taxes were levied on the products of the land 408. The people showed special care for the poor, guided by the admonition of the Pentateuch to ensure that there were no needy people in the Promised Land. Giving alms was considered the highest virtue. In each city, special members were elected from the community, who were in charge of the distribution of alms. The complaints about callousness towards the needy and helpless, so often repeated by the prophets and psalmists, no longer occur around this time. The heart of the people turned from stone into something like wax. Legal proceedings were brought to perfection, and they were carried out with such conscientiousness that they could be considered exemplary among all the peoples of the earth. Full equality before the law was so common that it did not require special legal confirmation. But in all large cities, public proceedings were opened twice a week, namely on Mondays and Thursdays, either because weekly markets for the villagers had already been opened on these days, or because they received some special significance due to some other unknown circumstances. Deuteronomy presupposes the establishment of a higher court, whose duty it was to give decisions in doubtful cases, so that this court would have the supreme power, the decision of which could no longer be evaded either to the right or to the left. Such a supreme council existed even under Moses, when he elected seventy elders to share with him the burden of governing the people (Num. 11:16–17, 24). The idea of ​​establishing something like this council now appeared to the Jews. Indeed, at this very time, a council of seventy elders was formed, which from that time became the guardian of the laws and at times acquired very great importance. And what time would have been more convenient for him to happen? It would be difficult to point out a more favorable time for such an institution as that which followed Nehemiah, since it was then that a fiery zeal for the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law and a desire to make the Torah (the Mosaic Law) the main guide for public life manifested itself among the people. From the large assembly under Nehemiah, which was convened only for the purpose of making a commitment, a permanent corporation developed for deliberations on important religious and moral issues. The seventy members of this supreme council appear to have been chosen from various families; the high priest, of course, could not be bypassed in this election, or in any case, whether he was worthy of it or not, by his very rank, he had to stand at the head and be the chairman of this council. As a result, the number of council members was increased by one more, and this number became permanent. The chairman of the council received the title of “father of the court” (ab-befdin), and the council itself subsequently received the name of the Sanhedrin. This council set the main task of its activities to continue and support the direction indicated by Ezra and Nehemiah, namely to introduce the Mosaic Law into the life and customs of the people, and it really made a complete revolution. All the changes that were revealed two centuries later in the life of the Jewish people were his doing; the new institutions which Jewish tradition ascribes to Ezra, or which became known under the name of sopheric determinations, were largely the creation of this council. He laid a solid foundation for creation, a foundation that could last for thousands of years. First of all, correct readings from the Torah were introduced at this time. The Torah, the spiritual treasure of the people, the significance of which rose the higher the longer it was neglected, the divine word, designed to replace the voice of the prophets, should no longer remain neglected and ignorant, but should be taught to everyone and become familiar to everyone. On every Saturday and on all holidays, as the legislative council established, one section from the Pentateuch was to be read in the assembly. In addition, two more times a week, when villagers usually gathered for the market in nearby cities, or for court, several verses also had to be read publicly. At first, of course, people who were knowledgeable and knowledgeable were engaged in reading, but since little by little, being one of these readers began to be considered an honor, then everyone strived for it. Hence, it was necessary to maintain a certain order so that the priests were first allowed to read, then the Levites and, finally, ordinary laymen. But in order for everyone to be able to read a few verses, the Holy Scripture had to be readable. Meanwhile, the text of the Torah until then was written in ancient writing, namely Phoenician or ancient Babylonian writing, which could only be deciphered by people who had received a thorough education. For the Jews in the Persian kingdom, the Torah, more than for the natives, remained a book with seven seals. Hence the need arose to change the ancient writings, the so-called “Hebrew scriptures,” to some other one, which at that time came into use in the countries along the Euphrates and Tigris. This writing, however, came from the styles of the ancient Semitic alphabet, as well as the writing used by the Ionians and other peoples. Both of them, although the hand of scribes for many centuries variously conveyed and changed the original outlines, could not completely erase the ancient traces. But the change, however, was so significant that it was no longer possible to recognize the features of their ancestor in the borrowed alphabets. This new, or transformed, writing, which the Jews at home, and even more so in the Persian provinces, used in everyday life, was introduced for the texts of the Torah and other sacred books, and, unlike the ancient one, this writing was called Assyrian, since it was developed in one of the then Assyrian provinces. The Samaritans, on the contrary, out of the hostile mood that animated them, retained the Hebrew writings for the text of the Pentateuch, although only a few of them, perhaps only the members of the Aaronic priesthood who had passed over to them, were able to read them, and they did this only in order to be able to reproach their opponents for allowing an impermissible innovation and distorting the Torah. Even now their Holy Scripture is contained in this ancient writing, which even for the majority of their priests is a closed book. The consequence of this was that while the Jews, thanks to the public availability of St. The Scriptures for everyone became more and more familiar with it, so that it began to be considered an inextricable part of their existence, the Samaritans remained in ignorance and, as a result, could not take a more or less significant step in religious terms; their very language remained unprocessed, representing a crude mixture of various elements. It is clear that they could not at any time form a special school in which young men could become acquainted with the letter and spirit of Holy Scripture. Among the Jews, on the contrary, thanks to the correct readings from the Torah and the ease of studying the text, a kind of revival took place, which little by little gave a unique character to the whole people. The Torah became his spiritual property, the sanctuary of his inner being. At the same time, another important institution arose, namely, a school for adult youths, which had the goal of introducing them to teaching and laws, and instilling love for them in their hearts. The spiritual leaders of the people persistently recommended to the future generation: “give as many young men as possible for teaching,” and what they so persistently recommended to others, no doubt they themselves did with great zeal. Such a higher school, as is known, was established in Jerusalem itself, although the names of its leaders remained unknown, as well as in general the names of those persons who, through quiet, unknown labor, created a solid foundation for the maintenance and further development of Judaism. Unlimited freedom of study and zeal for the spread of laws greatly increased the number of students in the course of time. Teachers were called “scribes” (soferim) or sages, and students were called “disciples of the wise.” The activities of the sages or “scribes” were of two kinds: on the one hand, they were aimed at expounding the laws of the Torah, and on the other, at applying them to the lives of individuals and the whole society. Since some of the provisions of the law were stated rather unclearly and contained obscure expressions, namely regarding the scope of their obligation, that is, whether they relate to certain classes of the people or exclusively to individuals, to both sexes or exclusively to one of them, it became the duty of the scribes to explain, limit or expand the instructions, commandments and prohibitions, to determine the time of their obligation and generally to fill them. This complementary presentation of Holy Scripture was called interpretation (midrash), which could not be arbitrary, but was determined by well-known, albeit imprecise, rules of explanation. The council and the school worked hand in hand and complemented each other. An invisible but deeply exciting movement emanated from them, and it impressed on their descendants a characteristic feature of their ancestors, which became almost an innate quality, namely the desire to inherit, to expound, to strain their wit in order to discover some new side in every word or deed. This desire, of course, did not always remain with only one bright side, but subsequently produced many ugly monstrosities, but in general it refined the thinking power and ability of judgment in the Jewish people. If there was still a trace of this old kinship between this people and other peoples related to it by common Semitic origin, then this newly acquired ability of them to delve into their Holy Scripture, to read and study it, completely erased this trace. The Supreme Council, from which little by little all other institutions and institutions arose, meanwhile did not limit itself to simply expounding and implementing the laws prescribed in the Torah, but also issued independent laws in order to stimulate, encourage and strengthen the religious and moral life of the people. From ancient times, the saying of this highest court of the Jewish people, which had its origins, addressed modern and subsequent generations with a persistent admonition: “make a fence around the law.” This exhortation provided a special direction for legislation, according to which sometimes even permitted actions were prohibited, when they could lead to the impermissible, or could be confused with it. This careful care to prevent in advance any possible crime or “fence” had its basis and justification in transitional times. The people, for the most part not yet imbued with the teaching, had to be taught through this to respect the laws and fulfill the duties assigned by them. From this basic position, which aims to prevent every crime of the law, a whole series of new laws arose that relate to this particular time. The degrees of kinship for marrying persons were carefully determined and new provisions were made regarding degrees going in all directions. At the same time, special measures were taken to maintain chastity. A man was not supposed to talk to another man's wife face to face in any secluded, little-frequented space. Contrary to the laxity with which the Sabbath regulations were observed in the time of Nehemiah, extraordinary strictness was now introduced in this regard. The various types of prohibited work were precisely defined. All work on cultivating the field, harvesting, transforming fruits into edible food, any transformation of raw material into useful objects or vessels, any handling of fire or light, killing animals and dressing animal skins, writing or erasing writing, sewing and ripping - all these actions, as well as the removal of a certain thing from a closed space to the street and vice versa, in total thirty-nine major works, were declared prohibited by the laws of the scribes. In order to enhance the solemnity of the Sabbath, other actions were prohibited that had even the slightest resemblance to them, such as. It was forbidden to climb trees, ride horses, swim, dance, hold court, buy and sell, and get engaged. All these laws were meant to establish complete Sabbath rest in order to take away the working character from this day, as well as from other holidays. The strictness of Sabbath at this time reached the point that it was even forbidden to transfer working tools and working vessels necessary for work or for any action at all from one place to another. To prevent any possible desecration of the Sabbath and holidays, work had to stop before sunset of the previous day. For this purpose, a special official was appointed, who was supposed to use a special trumpet to signal the onset of peace. At the first sign, field workers had to finish their studies, at the second - artisans, at the third - all those busy with household chores. In addition, the very arrival of the Sabbath was also announced with special signs. Saturday and holidays were supposed to produce a sublime, sacred mood in the soul and consign to oblivion the labors and hardships of working days. For this purpose, at the time in question, it was decided, upon entering and leaving these days of rest, to drink a cup of wine, at the very beginning of them to pronounce a certain form of blessing, so that these days would be holy and sanctified by God, and at the end to bring into consciousness that they, in comparison with working days, have an exalted significance. Thanks to these institutions, which did not remain a dead letter, the Sabbath acquired a very sacred character; for the confessors of Judaism it was not at all a burden, but gave them a joyful and serious mood, which raised them above the everyday life and needs of life and strengthened them to endure the suffering that the future prepared for them. The eve of Easter, when the Passover lamb was usually eaten, at this time again received its former sublime meaning, precisely in the sense of remembering the deliverance from Egypt. In order to enhance its solemnity, a prescription or custom arose to drink four cups of wine during its celebration, and this custom was so widespread that even the poor sought means for this “heart-pleasing pleasure,” or, in case of complete failure, received special funds for this from the community. Family members and closest friends sat peacefully at the table on Easter evening, not to indulge in any luxurious feast, but to reproduce in their memory the miraculous liberation of their ancestors from Egypt, and glorify the God of their fathers in songs of praise, ate bitter herbs, broke unleavened bread in remembrance of this event, tasted a little of the Passover sacrifice and passed around the cup of wine, not in order to get drunk, but to in order to spend the holiday in a more cheerful, joyful mood. Little by little, a custom emerged according to which friends and acquaintances began to gather together to spend the Easter evening together with members of their families and eat the Easter lamb in a general meeting. At the same time, psalms were sung. Over time, Easter has turned into a very pleasant family holiday. In general, during the time of the scribes, introducing sayings of thanks and praise when eating and drinking, the elders made sure that the food was not taken in an animal way, but had a character completely worthy of a person. Each meal was preceded by thanksgiving offered to the Giver of food, and each meal ended with a special prayer. Prayers at this time did not have any permanent form, but in general a certain course of prayer thoughts was indicated. The prayers said in the church were a model for houses of worship outside Jerusalem. The service was performed in the morning in a special room of the church, built of large hewn square stones, and consisted of one or several selected psalms of praise and thanksgiving. At the end of the psalmody, the whole congregation exclaimed: “Let Jehovah, the God of Israel, who alone works wonders, be praised, and let the name of His glory be praised forever, and let His glory fill the whole earth.” This was followed by a prayer of thanksgiving for the light of the sun given to all people, and for the light of teaching given by it to Israel. Then followed the reading of several passages from the Torah, the Decalogue, and the Shema, which instilled in the worshipers the idea of ​​the unity of God and love for Him. At the conclusion of the Shema: “The Lord of Israel, Jehovah our God is one,” the whole assembly again unanimously said: “Glorified be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever.” The transition from reading sections of the Torah to prayer itself was the confession that the word of the Torah is based on truth. The main prayer consisted of six small petitions and had as its content: gratitude for the fact that God chose the fathers of the people to His service, recognition of divine omnipotence in nature through the sending of fruitful rains and among people through the resurrection of the dead from their graves more than once, recognition of the glory of God, a prayer for the fulfillment of the desires of each person praying and for the acceptable acceptance of the sacrifice, a prayer of gratitude for the gift and preservation of life, and, finally, a prayer for peace, for which was followed by a priestly blessing. After lunch and in the evening the community gathered again for prayer. This prayer lasted only a short time, since there was no longer any psalmody or reading of the law. On Saturdays and holidays, the morning worship did not differ in anything significant except that special prayers were introduced, which glorified the greatness of the day and instilled respect for it in those praying. The festive service differed only in that at the end of it a longer section from the Torah was read. Over time, this was supplemented by reading from the “Prophets”, and precisely those sections that were related to the holiday and gave it special expressiveness. The reason for this was the hostile attitude in which the Jews became towards the Samaritans. These latter humiliated the holiness of the temple of Jerusalem and completely rejected the prophetic books, since they are filled with glorifications of this “city of God” and the thought of the special election of this sanctuary. It seemed all the more urgent to the representatives of Judaism to refer to the prophets as witnesses of this, in a certain sense, universally recognized member of the faith, to attach special significance to this testimony and teach it to the confessors of Judaism every Saturday and on all holidays. As a result of this establishment, the word of the prophets, which during their lives found few listeners at all and did not enjoy special respect, was heard in every Jewish prayer house and - although the majority only half understood it, gave the soul a particularly elevated mood. Since the morning service usually ended with a reading from the prophets, it was called the conclusion (haftarah). This establishment gave rise to the need to collect the prophetic books, or rather, to determine which books belong to the prophetic books and which should be excluded from them. For use in public reading, all sacred books were enclosed in one scroll. This acceptance and establishment for liturgical use gave the prophetic books the character of special sacredness (canonicity). As a result of their use in worship, these books also received the name Holy Scripture, which, next to the Torah, became the spiritual canon of the Jewish people. Thus, worship was established at this very time; it was simple and sublime, had nothing superfluous or tiring, and, in its spirit, consisted of those divinely inspired psalms and songs that were created in ancient times by divinely inspired prophets and psalmists. Actually, worship continued in the church in the same form as it was established in ancient times. Although the prophets and psalmists tried to raise the consciousness of the people to a higher level of worship, when a pure heart and a humble spirit are of greater importance than any sacrifice, however, the ancient system of sacrifices still continued to retain its significance. However, sacrifices in large numbers, as was the case in the past, were no longer made. The law limited their number to a very small number. Every day, as a rule, only two lambs were sacrificed for the people and on their behalf, burned on the altar during the morning and evening sacrifices; on the Sabbath two more lambs were offered, and on feast days seven and, in addition to these, one or two more oxen and a ram, as well as a sin offering. Such holidays were on the first day of each month, on the fifteenth day of the spring month, a week-long holiday fifty days later, as well as the first day of each seventh month, which retained its sublime significance, and, finally, the final day after the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles. Only twice a year was the number of victims greater, namely on the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles, on which instead of one ox on the first day thirteen oxen were sacrificed, in symbolic remembrance of the thirteen tribes, and twice seven lambs, and on the following days one less ox. Then, on the great day of atonement, in which the sin-offering was of the first importance, one goat was sacrificed, and the other, as a scapegoat, was sent into the wilderness, and cast into the abyss, probably representing a clear evidence of the rejection of the vile cult of the goat in Egypt. On Passover, sacrifices were made in much greater numbers, with each family killing a special lamb. But the Passover sacrifices were not public sacrifices in the strict sense of the word, but rather the sacrifices of each individual family. To perform the sacrifices, priests from the line of Aaron were needed and therefore they occupied a prominent position. True, the servant Levites took care of killing the sacrificial animals, skinning them, and cleansing them 409 . But sprinkling blood on the outer and inner altar, maintaining an unquenchable fire on it, lighting the lamp and the altar of incense, laying twelve loaves on the golden table from Saturday to Saturday belonged to the exclusive duties of the members of the Aaronic family, which, after the Babylonian captivity, constituted their indisputable advantage. They alone wore white linen garments, which they could wear when making sacrifices, while the Levites did not have the right to impose on themselves this external sign of their office. For this part of the service, a strict order was introduced, which determined how the sacrificial actions were to follow one after another. When the wine was poured on the altar, the Levite singers sang psalms chosen for each day to the accompaniment of harps and the sound of the trumpets of the sons of Aaron on the fifty steps of the forecourt leading up from the courtyard of the women; the conclusion of the service daily consisted of blessings from the priests. The priests gathered on the steps of the open courtyard and with raised hands pronounced the blessing prescribed in the Torah for the people. To this the people answered with reverence: “May the name of the glory of His kingdom be glorified forever and ever.” Chapter 61. Jews under Greek rule As can be seen from the above, the high priestly rulers, thanks to the soft attitude of the Persian government, had the opportunity to freely engage in the external and religious improvement of the people, although, in the absence of firm power, there was no shortage of internal unrest. Thus, one of the high priests, Jonathan, even disgraced himself by killing his brother Jesus, whom he, suspecting an encroachment on the high priestly office, killed in the church itself. But now, according to Daniel’s prophecy, the end of the Persian monarchy had come, and it had to give way to a third monarchy - the Greek. This period was of very great importance for the Jewish people, since the Greeks, as a people, at this time began to exert worldwide influence with their unique religious, moral and mental worldview. This people made a profound revolution in the way of thinking, in the morals and customs of mankind, and mentally raised the peoples known at that time several steps higher than the state in which they found themselves. But the spread of this unique enlightenment through political conquest and world domination did not actually come from the Greeks, but from a people mixed from Greeks and barbarians - the Macedonians. The Greek people would not have been able to achieve world dominion, or, even if they had achieved it, would not have been able to maintain it. No matter how highly gifted some of the Greek tribes were, and no matter how much they created the wonderful and beautiful, however, they had one very significant drawback, due to which they could not create a more or less influential and lasting political force out of themselves. From among the Greek people came many highly gifted personalities and characters, heroes, generals, statesmen, legislators, artists, thinkers and poets, and little Attica, with its main city of Athens, distinguished them even more than all other Greek countries and colonies taken together. Athens was the spiritual center of the entire country and the vast expanse of Greek settlements. Here a subtle, elegant taste and a clear, deeply insightful creative mind were developed. The art of construction, for which the Phoenicians and Assyrians laid the foundation, was brought to the highest perfection in Athens. The art of shipcraft, with which the Tyrians, Sidonians and Carthaginians ruled over the seas, islands and shores, became so perfect among them that sailing on the surface of the sea, despite the variability of the winds, was considered an easy walk. The art of sculpture, in which the Assyrians had already achieved a high degree of grace, was even more ennobled in Athens and brought to the highest prosperity. Greek artists poured life and spirit into marble blocks and expressed in them various feelings that only move the human heart and are reflected in external body movements. With this art they personified meekness, comeliness and beauty, and with the help of it they also knew how to so vividly depict the dignity of their gods and demigods that not only the simple, uneducated people, but also their noble classes knelt before their beautiful statues. Next to the chisel, Greek artists also knew how to use colors and delicate lines not only to imitate natural objects and people with their passions to the point of illusion, but also to give them life. And in their poetic works there is so much poetic perfection, achieved by charming language, euphony, evenness of members and balance of content and form! The two main poems of Homer, originating in Ionian Asia Minor, although they found imitators in other languages ​​and at other times, remain hitherto unsurpassed and became a gold mine for other poetic works and a means of education for the refinement of taste among other Greek tribes. The highest flower of poetic art, dramatic poetry, is their invention, and among them it has reached its highest degree. Their tragic poets knew how to fill the hearts of spectators with horror, and their comedians knew how to fill human hearts with gaiety. Science, the deepest penetration into the laws that support the structure of world existence and various creatures, subtle observation of peoples and their customs, of the soul and its forces, and, as its highest color, world wisdom (philosophy) was developed by the Greek mind and brought to amazing heights. Along with these high virtues, the Greek people also had their great weaknesses. Proud of his talent and his inexhaustible fullness of strength, he was frivolous, vain, arrogant, quarrelsome, given to slander, fickle, grumpy and irritable. Today he extolled some citizen, for the sake of some dubious merit he had accomplished, bestowed the highest honors and erected a statue of him at the state expense, and tomorrow he could serve him a cup of poison. Despite their common origin, common language, morals and various connections, such as worship, public games and other institutions, the Greeks could never come to close unity. The spirit of freedom degenerated among them into self-exaltation and self-will of individuals. Overly valuing their own intelligence, each of them wanted to command, and no one wanted to obey. Only the common danger of being enslaved by the Persians could temporarily unite the Greek tribes, and even then not all of them, for a united struggle for freedom. But as soon as this danger had passed, one tribe again rebelled against another, city against city, and the Greeks continued to indulge in civil strife and self-inflicted beatings. The Greek wars of freedom lasted only for a few decades, and the internecine war lasted for more than a century. In almost every city, on the mainland and on the islands, there were two parties that fought among themselves until all tribal kinship and humanity were forgotten. An overthrown party or a leader offended in his ambition did not at all hesitate to enter into an alliance with the hereditary enemies of Greece, the Persians, to enter into relations with them to the detriment of the fatherland and commit treason. The three main cities, which had alternated hegemony for some time, namely Sparta, Athens and Thebes, hated each other much more than the strangers against whom they had to fight in order to defend their freedom. Conscientiousness was not a distinctive feature of the Greeks at all. Laws were made only in order not to implement them. No matter how superstitious they were, however, they were not afraid to plunder and desecrate the churches dedicated to the gods they revered, and those tribes or parties that declared war on the offenders of the churches did so only for appearances, in order to derive some benefit from it for themselves. This deficiency was also accompanied by a thirst for pleasure and greed for money. One of these passions led to debauchery and the unnatural vice of pederasty, and the other led to obscurity. The love and tenderness of a husband for his wife was a rare occurrence in Greece, since it was wasted on various free friends, and the infidelity of a husband to his wife was not punished either by law or customs. The Greeks had no idea about chastity and austerity of life, as the main condition for the ennoblement of morals. Joseph running away from Potiphar's lovely wife was unthinkable in Greek poetry, even in the sense of a fantastic image. The embodied Greek gaming wisdom in the person of Socrates or Plato, who outlined the plan for an ideal state, found it possible to allow young women and girls, together with men, without any clothing, to perform bodily exercises in the squares, the favorite places of residence of the Greeks, in order to prepare for war. In this ideal state such a mixture of sexes was established that no child should recognize his father, but all men capable of war and brave should be considered as such. This gaming wisdom understood so little the nobility of a chaste marriage that it provided those young men who especially distinguished themselves in war or in anything else, as a bonus and distinction, with several women so that as many gifted children could be born from them. All equality was excluded from the ideal state; all those who were not capable of war or philosophy could not have equal rights with others. This Greek wisdom descended even to murder. Weak newborn children, or those who were born without government permission, had to be killed at birth or thrown away. The Greek mind reached such absurdities! Self-interest led to the fact that the Greeks began to form mercenary detachments, for whom it was indifferent whether they fought for the Persians or against them. In all the battles within the Persian state that took place in the 4th century under the last two Artaxerxes (Mnemone and Oche), Greeks usually opposed Greeks and indulged in mutual beatings with the same military skill. The motivating reason for their heroic wars was greed for money and booty, as well as a passion for adventure, but not any higher idea. The fragmentation of individual Greek tribes darkened in their souls the real concept of what is right or wrong, as well as the ability to distinguish between the beautiful or decent, and the unbeautiful or shameful, although this aesthetic feeling was in their eyes even more important than virtue itself. Their eloquent talkers and sages (sophists), thundering with their euphonious speeches in public assemblies, in courts and in political councils, led the people to even greater error and mental confusion, since these speakers never cared about the truth, but strived only for a beautiful appearance and pathetic self-interest. Their wisdom became stupidity among them and contributed only to the decay of the moral life of the people. People forgive the Greeks their great shortcomings because they were very graceful sinners; but the Divine Ruler of the nations did not forgive them for their grave sins, and they entailed cruel retribution. As soon as a man appeared on the stage of history who recognized their fragmentation, their mutual rivalries and weaknesses and knew how to take advantage of them, who was not carried away by flattering speeches and the glitter of gold, but relied exclusively on military force, then all of Greece had to become his prey and recognize his dominion. This is what the Macedonian king Philip achieved, partly by the power of his weapons, partly by cunning and money. Soon all of Greece lay at his feet. But even at the time when, in one large meeting in Corinth, he laid out before the Greeks a plan to satisfy their national pride and announced a military campaign against the Persian state in order to take revenge on it for its frequent attacks on Greece, as well as to gain military glory and rich booty, even then they could not overcome their petty rivalry. Some cities sent no representatives at all to this meeting, or their representatives had to be bribed only with gold to sway them in favor of the plan. Philip was unable to complete this campaign, since he was killed during the very preparation for it. Then his great son Alexander took his place, who was destined to carry out a whole revolution in relation to the peoples and bring tiny Judea into the boundaries of the world struggle. Thanks to the historical shock to which the entire world of that time was subjected from one end to the other. New disasters and trials befell the Jewish people. According to the comparison of the prophet Daniel, Alexander with his conquests was like a leopard with eagle wings (Dan. 7:6). In two battles he dealt a mortal blow to the decrepit Persian state. Asia Minor, Syria and Phenicia lay at his feet, many kings came to him in their royal attire and showed him honor. Only Tire and Gaza, or rather the Persian garrisons and generals located in them, dared to oppose the Macedonian conqueror and subject themselves to a stubborn siege. Tire was taken only after a seven-month siege, and Gaza after a two-month siege (in August and November 332), and both of these cities suffered severe punishment for this. After the destruction of these cities, the conqueror could freely head to Jerusalem. Its inhabitants trembled and prayed to God for protection, and the high priest Jaddui, in his full vestments and accompanied by priests and Levites, came out to meet Alexander. Alexander was a noble and magnanimous conqueror who cruelly punished only those who opposed his will and plan. Otherwise, he allowed all those peoples who voluntarily submitted to him to freely enjoy their religion, customs and property. He did not impose the Greek religion or Greek customs on any people. What he did not deny to the nations in general, he did not deny to the Jews either, but allowed them to live according to their law. He graciously accepted the solemn deputation and, next to the high priest, entered Jerusalem, entered the church and, at the direction of the priests, offered a sacrifice, listening to the prophecy of Daniel read to him about him. Moved by all this, he granted the Jews freedom from taxes during the Sabbath years and allowed them to live according to their own laws. Judea became part of a vast region that lay between the Taurus and Lebanon mountain ranges in the north, Egypt in the south, and, unlike Upper Syria, which stretched to the Euphrates, it was called Kilisyria (that is, Lowland Syria). The governor of this vast province, which in former times consisted of several independent states, had his residence in Samaria, which was a fortified and populous city. It owed this advantage, or rather, this dangerous significance, to its position in the middle of the country and in a fertile area. The governor appointed by Alexander over Cilicyria was Andromachus. Despite this honor bestowed upon Samaria by the great conqueror, the Samaritans were dissatisfied. It is not known what exactly this discontent depended on. Did the Samaritans feel constrained in their movements by the governor, or were they dissatisfied with Alexander for treating the Jews whom they hated so mercifully? Their discontent went so far that they, or their leaders, regardless of the consequences, rebelled against Andromache, captured him and threw him into the fire (in the spring of 331). Alexander's anger, at the news of such cruel treatment of his representative, was as just as it was strong. All of Egypt lay at his feet, proud priests bowed before him and glorified his greatness, and this insignificant people dared to resist him! After his return from Egypt, in order to subjugate Persia, he quickly went to Samaria to take revenge on the perpetrators of the crime. He ordered them to be given over to the most cruel tortures, appointed another governor, named Memnon, and populated the city with Macedonian settlers. Alexander, apparently, also humbled the arrogance of the Samaritans in other respects. Since he could not be unaware that they were at enmity with the Jews, he treated the latter mercifully in order to let them know about his disfavor towards them. He granted some border regions between Judea and Samaria, which were often the subject of contention between the population of these two regions, to the former, and, probably at the request of the Jews, he also exempted them from taxes in the Sabbath year. This insignificant mercy for the conqueror himself, but very important for the Jews, aroused even more hatred among the Samaritans against their Jewish enemies; Each further breeze added new flammable material. But while Alexander’s power lasted, the Samaritans had to restrain their rage within themselves; he did not tolerate any people, within the world he conquered, without his direct command, allowing themselves any hostile behavior against others. His quick and happy conquests to the borders of India and the Caucasus kept the minds of everyone in bonds, as it were, and undermined any independent movement. Over the entire vast space, from Greece to India and from Ethiopia to the shores of the Caspian Sea, with the exception of only the areas in which the war was still being waged, the deepest peace reigned. Alexander the Great drew up a gigantic plan for the future. He wanted to establish a world monarchy from sunrise to sunset, a monarchy in which the borders of the country and the differences between peoples should completely disappear. The Greeks and barbarians should have completely merged with each other. But even before this merger took place, the various peoples under his scepter and the scepter of his successors should already have enjoyed complete equality. Alexander was the first conqueror who made tolerance of national characteristics the basis of statesmanship; he also wanted to respect differences in religious views and cults, in the hope that the priests would then not oppose his plans and behavior. In Egypt he paid homage to Apis and Ammon, and in Babylonia to the Chaldean gods. He intended to rebuild the church of the Babylonian idol Bel, destroyed by Artaxerxes. To this end, he has already ordered soldiers to remove accumulated debris from the foundation. Everyone did this, with the exception of the Jewish soldiers who voluntarily, or under duress, served in his troops; they refused to take part in building a sanctuary for the idol, which they considered an abomination. It is clear that for this disobedience to his conduct they were severely punished; but they steadfastly endured the punishment, so as not to violate the fundamental law of their religion. When, finally, Alexander himself received news of the doubts of conscience and the steadfastness of the Jewish soldiers, he was generous enough to grant them forgiveness 410. But this was a harbinger of the bloody struggle that arose between Judaism and Hellenism later. But then the young hero died amid plans to create a world monarchy (in June 323), without even leaving behind a legitimate heir to his throne or his intentions. As a result, complete confusion and disorder arose among the peoples in all parts of the world, as well as in the very troops of Alexander, as if some interruption in natural laws had followed, making people unsure even about tomorrow. From here came bloody wars that resembled the struggle of the titans. Alexander left behind so many generals, whose military skills were tested on numerous battlefields, that they would have been able to support the building of the Macedonian monarchy, if only they had agreed among themselves. Unfortunately, although they did not belong to the true Greeks and rather despised the Greeks, they nevertheless completely borrowed from them the spirit of obstinacy and immoderation, the passion to put their own personality above the good of the state, to look at power as a means to pleasure and debauchery, in a word, they completely adopted all their moral depravity. Almost in the presence of the corpse of the great Macedonian hero, matters among them had already reached a bloody struggle. The more prudent among them, however, restored some peace under the condition that the one to whom the dying Alexander had given his signet ring, namely Perdiccas, should be invested with the power of steward until the birth of the natural heir to the throne. Perdiccas appointed governors for various countries. Cilicyria went to an insignificant man named Laomedon, and with it Judea went to him. But the peace did not last long. Perdiccas alienated his comrades with his harsh, commanding manner of action. More and more openly he revealed his intention to become the sole autocrat of the entire great monarchy. But on the way to this goal stood Ptolemy I, the son of Lagus, who was given the governorship in Egypt, and he, being as cunning and prudent as he was a warlike man, cherished the plan to make the province given to him a completely independent kingdom. Perdiccas declared war on him and moved with his army to the Egyptian border. He also hoped that, if military success did not help him, he would establish solid strongholds in Kilisyria, and especially in Palestine, on which he could rely and continue the fight from there. Palestine, with its hills, was very suitable for fortifications. As a result, Perdiccas strengthened Samaria. He apparently also won over the Jews in Jerusalem to his side. But his campaign against Ptolemy had a very sad outcome. Perdiccas lost the battle and his life (in the spring of 321), not due to the military superiority of his enemy, but due to the betrayal of his subordinate commander and the defection of a significant part of the troops. Lies and deceit, mendacity and treason became commonplace in the ranks of Alexander's successors. All the blood relatives of the great hero were treacherously destroyed by his commanders. Ptolemy, in order not to be constantly the subject of the bloodthirsty envy of his comrades, wisely refused the regency that the Macedonian army offered him, but he did not want to limit himself to Egypt and neighboring countries, but wanted to maintain contact with the entire monarchy. The possession of Kilisyria with Phenicia and the seashore seemed especially important to him; they could serve for him, so to speak, as two hands, which he could extend on the one hand to the countries of the Euphrates and Persia, and on the other to Asia Minor, the islands of Greece and Macedonia. Having drawn up this plan, he immediately began to implement it. Since he had no serious opponent in Cilysyria, except the weak Laomedon, who also did not have any troops at his disposal, the latter was without difficulty taken as a prisoner to Egypt, and this entire region was annexed to Egypt (320). Even before Laomedon was captured by Ptolemy, the latter demanded that Jerusalem submit to him. The inhabitants resisted him from opening the gates, and then on Saturday he unexpectedly attacked the city, and since the Jews considered it unlawful to take up arms on that day, he took many captives and took them to Egypt 411 . He also sent many Samaritans into captivity at this time, perhaps because they did not want to submit to him voluntarily. The Jews, like the Samaritans, could have lived quite happily, as far as was possible for people in those generally cruel times, if they had remained longer as subjects of Ptolemy. He was the most meek of the then warlike followers of Alexander, knew how to appreciate the dignity of people and did not harm them more than necessity forced him to do. But Ptolemy had no right to possess Cilysyria. The successive state guardians, who still partially supported the character of a single general administration, did not allow him to consolidate the possession of these lands. In particular, one of his former comrades and friends, Antigonus, an extremely passionate man and at the same time an experienced and heroic warrior, who was plotting to conquer and found a great state himself, decided to humble all his former friends and began to dream of uniting all the lands of the great Macedonian monarchy in his own hands. When he pursued this ambitious plan so openly that his former friends began to worry about their safety and united against him, a new murderous struggle broke out, as a result of which Cilicyria was lost to Ptolemy. For several years (315–312), Antigonus from time to time passed through the regions that belonged to her, cut down cedars and cypresses on the Lebanese mountains to build a fleet for himself, and annexed the garrisons located by Ptolemy in fortifications on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea to his army. He was apparently loved in Judea, because one of the Jewish children born in his time, who later became a famous teacher of the law, was given the name Antigone by his parents. The Macedonian Antigonus was a magnanimous and generous man, and could show various favors to the Jews. To occupy Judea, he summoned his then still young son Demetrius, who, due to his invention of new siege engines, subsequently received the nickname Poliorcetes, i.e. besieger of cities; he was as courageous and as adventurous as his father. Demetrius was a complete type of a true Greek, like Alcibiades, because on the one hand he was distinguished by extraordinary courtesy, intelligence and ingenuity, and on the other hand he was a man of insatiable carnal lust and outrageously dissolute, and during his long stay in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and probably more than once in the city itself, he repeatedly inflicted cruel wounds on Jewish chastity. After many years of preparations, it finally came to a decisive battle between Demetrius and Ptolemy, and this battle turned out to be unhappy for the first. The Battle of Gaza (in the spring of 312) was immortalized in memory, since from that time the commander Seleucus, who fought with Ptolemy as a defector, began counting the years of his power and even introduced a new chronology in general, the so-called Seleucid or Greek, which came into use among the Jews and lasted the longest among them 412. Demetrius, as a result of the defeat inflicted on him at Gaza, had to retreat to the north and left the entire country to the conqueror. But since Antigonus and his son soon united their troops and set out for a new war, the friends of Ptolemy, who again took possession of all of Kilisyria and Phenicia, advised him to abandon them again and return to Egypt. He actually made this retreat, and ordered the fortifications of cities along the seashore and on the mainland, namely Acre, Joppa, Gaza, Samaria, and also Jerusalem, to be razed, so that they would not become strongholds for his enemy. This uncertain state of Judea and the lands belonging to Cilysyria continued for several more years, until Antigonus, who had hitherto remained undefeated, lost his life and his military glory at the Battle of Ipsus in Asia Minor (summer of 301), where he was defeated by the combined forces of four generals: Ptolemy, Lysimachus, Cassander and Seleucus. These four commanders, who had already, following the example of Antigonus, become completely independent of the monarchy and accepted royal titles, divided it among themselves. Ptolemy received Egypt and the surrounding countries, and Seleucus received almost all of Asia, which, however, due to its very vastness, was a very difficult task for the ruler, while the Ptolemaic possessions represented a completely rounded and complete coastal region. As a result, Seleucus constantly set his sights on Kilisyria and Fininia, with the goal of annexing them to his state, as well as generally entering into contact with the sea and Europe. But Ptolemy firmly insisted that these lands remain with him, since he had been their actual owner for a considerable time, and in order not to destroy the alliance of these four kings, which was not unnecessary even after the death of Antigonus, Seleucus gave in for a moment, although he did not completely renounce his claims to them. So Judea entered the boundaries of the Ptolemaic or Lagidian state, and its fate for a long time was closely connected with it. The position of the Jews did not change much as a result of this. What they were previously obliged to pay to the Persian court, namely twenty talents of annual tax, they now paid to the Egyptian-Macedonian court. Their freedom and independence were also limited no more than they had been before. Rather, we can even say that their situation has improved, precisely due to the fact that the number of intermediary positions has decreased. The Persian kings, who had their center in the east, had to have satraps in their western provinces, who in turn supplied subordinate officials over the individual lands that were part of their area of ​​​​government. Ptolemy, on the contrary, since Cilisyria lay very close to his main country, did not need such a large number of intermediate officials for these areas. In Judea, the high priests, who were responsible for collecting taxes, were at the same time considered the political head; he held the position of regional ruler and was considered a spiritual prince. Ptolemy I, nicknamed “the savior” (Sotir), was, as already said, a man of very meek character and cared about the welfare of his subjects. He had neither reason nor pretext to oppress the Jews. The seaside city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander, which the first Egyptian-Macedonian king raised to the level of capital, needed a large population, and it could only be pleasant and profitable if Jews from the neighboring country also settled there. Already under Alexander, several Jews were settled there, and since this insightful hero, by virtue of his usual system, gave the same rights to all settlers as the Macedonians, the first Jewish colony in Alexandria received the same equality and felt good in this new fatherland. This colony, during the military storms caused by Antigonus and Demetrius, attracted even more immigrants from Judea, who received the same rights from Ptolemy. This is how the Egyptian-Jewish community came into being, which was destined to play a very important role in history. Jewish colonies also formed in other places. Ptolemy, convinced of the devotion of the Jews, resettled them to other fortified cities of Egypt, as well as to Cyrene 413. Seleucus, the founder of the Seleucid state, whose center of gravity lay in Persia, also received the upper part of Sira, north of Lebanon, and there he built a new city (about 300) Antioch, which later became the residence of the kings. In order to populate these and other cities he had newly built, he had to equally attract settlers, and also settled in them Jews from Babylonia and Persia, who moved here partly voluntarily, partly semi-forcedly. It also gave the Jewish settlers full rights of Macedonian citizenship. But just as Jewish colonies arose in the Greek-Macedonian lands, so Greek colonies in turn arose in the Judean lands. New ports were founded along the Mediterranean coast, or old ones were expanded and improved, giving them Greek names. The old port of Acre was renamed Ptolemais. Further, to the south near Mount Carmel, on the seashore lay Sikomenot (so named because of the many sycamore trees surrounding it), and not far from it, far from Carmel, the “Crocodile City”, later renamed Gava or Caifa. Even further south, along the seashore, the old, once Canaanite and later Israelite city of Dor was rebuilt and fortified as a port, and in accordance with the Greek pronunciation was renamed Dora. To the west of Lake Tiviriades the Greek city of Philotheria arose, and near Lake Merom the city of Seleucia, named after Seleucus, arose. The Greeks now dedicated a lovely valley on the southern slope of Mount Hermon, near the sources of the Jordan, close to the former city of Dan, once dedicated to Baal, to their dissolute forest god Pan, and on the southern peak of Mount Hermon they built the church of Panion (also now called Banya as a result). West of the Jordan, the city of Bethsean was renamed Scythopolis. On the other side of the Jordan, in the former places of residence of two and a half tribes, the new cities of Hippos were founded, to the south - Gadara, at one hot spring, and even further to the south - Pella and Dion. Greek and Macedonian colonists settled in all these cities. Alexander’s great plan to connect the West with the East was continued by his successors, although they were forced to do so by the very circumstances. Judea was thus surrounded on all sides by a Greek-speaking population. The dominant language among him, of course even among the natives, was Greek, and along with the language, Greek morals and Greek immorality were introduced. But Judea itself remained free from Greek influence for a long time. Neither the land itself nor the people had any particular attraction for foreign settlers. The country itself was not rich enough, and the people seemed especially unpleasant to the Greeks. Cheerful frivolity, on the one hand, and gloomy seriousness on the other, could not have any sympathy for each other. Nevertheless, individual Greek words were involuntarily borrowed from the neighborhood, which little by little found their way into the everyday conversation of the Jews. And against the licentiousness of the Greek sensual life, which degenerated during feasts and celebrations into bacchanalian debauchery, Judea also could not fully provide for itself, and this way of life also had a seductive effect on the Jews with its peculiar charm and unbridled service to the passions and the flesh. Chapter 62. Jews under Egyptian rule Under Egyptian rule, the Jews enjoyed comparative independence, and the main ruler of the country was the high priest, who was entrusted with civil authority, especially in collecting taxes for the Egyptian king. From here arose the ambitious rivalry of the head of one powerful family, which, under the name of the sons of Tobias, for a long time enjoyed influence both at the Alexandrian court and in the temple of Jerusalem. This family laid claim to descent from the house of David, and its representative at that time, Joseph, nephew of the high priest Onias, with his dexterity managed to achieve high favors from Ptolemy IV 414. There is no need to tell in detail the life story of this outstanding high priest. There is only one permanent monument left from his family. His youngest son, Hyrcanus, heir to his estates, deposited them in a bank, which, both in Greece and in Judea, was attached to the church, and then, as an independent person, established his residence in a fortified place beyond the Jordan. It was a castle of white marble, decorated with colossal figures and surrounded by deep moats, and in front of them there was a rock, pitted with a whole labyrinth of caves. This castle was simply called “the rock”. In this fantastic residence he lived as an independent prince among the neighboring Arabs, until he was finally expelled by the Syrian kings. But the castle and the rock still remain today and retain the name of Hyrcanus, the semi-Arab commander in its newest name, Arak-el-emir 415. The lion, the ruins of the colonnade, the entrance gate with colossal sculpted lions on its frieze, the mixture of Greek Ionic capitals with palm leaf architecture, like the architecture of the Ptolemaic church at Philae, the vast stables carved into the adjacent rock, all this testifies to the splendor and wealth of this unauthorized prince, this distant heir of the line of David. Among the high priests of this time, who were not distinguished by any special features at all, one worthy person stands out - the high priest Simon the Righteous, standing above all who acted before him and after him in this position, from the time of Zerubbabel to the time of the Maccabees. According to one legend, he met Alexander the Great. According to another, he was the last member of the great synagogue. He was the man who prevented the sacrilegious attempt of the cruel and capricious Egyptian king Ptolemy Philopator to enter the Temple of Jerusalem. The intention expressed by the latter in this regard, so says the narrative, plunged the whole city into extreme confusion. From the dense crowd of people such a piercing scream was heard that it seemed to be coming from the very walls and foundations of the city. In the midst of this confusion, the prayer of Simon was heard, pleading with the all-seeing God, and then, like a reed broken by the wind, the Egyptian king fell onto the platform and was carried out by his bodyguards (3 Mac. 1:2). All legends agree in depicting Simon as a man ending the best days of Judaism. Before his time, according to Jewish legends, the right hand of the high priest always took out the lot of the dedicated goat, but after his time the left and right wavered and diversified. Before his time, the red thread around the neck of the scapegoat turned white, as a sign of forgiveness of the sins of the people; after him this change became not always certain. The lamp at the entrance to the church burned without interruption during his time, but after that it often went out. Two bunches of brushwood a day were enough to keep the flame on the altar in his time, but after that whole heaps of firewood turned out to be insufficient. In the last year of his life he is said to have predicted his death by an omen, that while on all previous occasions he had been escorted into the Holy of Holies on the day of atonement until entry only by an old man dressed in white from head to toe, in this year his companion was dressed in black and followed him as he went in and out. In such forms, later Jewish tradition expressed the consciousness of his extraordinary dignity and the various changes that followed him. But more reliable evidence produces the same impression. The very title of “righteous” shows that he stood alone in his generally not highly moral age. According to the description that has come down to us from his contemporaries, according to whose feedback he worthily completed the long series of ancient heroes, he seems to be a very respectable person who belonged to a more noble age and who was no longer like that. Tradition has preserved the memory of his brilliant appearance as he emerged from behind the sacred curtain of the Holy of Holies into the midst of the people crowded into the church on the great day of atonement. He was like the morning star piercing from a cloud, or the moon in its fullness. He was like sunlight illuminating the golden towers of a church, or like a rainbow in a stormy cloud. He was like a fresh blossoming rose or lilies adorning a stream, an olive tree laden with fruit, or a fig tree reaching to the sky, at the same time fragrant like fragrant herbs and shining like a golden vessel studded with pearls. His people watch his every move with reverence. He gave even more grandeur to the magnificent vestments of his office by the very way he wore it. When he stood among the priests, he moved between them like a cedar in a palm grove. When he poured out a libation or made a sacrifice, the sound of the silver trumpets, the loud cry of the people, the harmony of the various voices, the prolonged adorations - all this presented a striking picture, and his final blessing was an event long preserved in the memory of those who received him. He left lasting traces of his administration in the city and in the church, as he restored, strengthened and raised the walls, added double chambers, as well as copper plates with which he surrounded the huge laver for ablutions. Thanks to the respect he enjoyed from Antiochus the Great, he received from him beams and stones for this work. At the same time, he was distinguished by his sublime teaching, and from his teaching a very remarkable rule has been preserved: “the world has three foundations - law, worship and good will.” In accordance with such a humane worldview, the story conveyed regarding his individual thoughts also receives meaning. “I never,” he said, “could tolerate accepting the eremitic initiation of the Nazirites. But one day I made an exception. One day a young man from the south came to me for initiation. I looked at him: his eyes were beautiful, his appearance was majestic, his hair fell in large luxurious curls on his face. “Why,” I asked him, “should I cut these magnificent curls for you?” “I was a shepherd of my father’s sheep,” he answered, “in my native village.” One day, while drawing water from a well, I saw with undue pride my reflection in the water. I gave in to evil inclinations and could have died! Then I said to myself: you worthless man, are you really proud of what does not belong to you, who yourself is only a worm and dust? “Oh, God, I’ll cut these locks in honor of the sky.” “Then,” said Simon, I hugged his head and exclaimed: “Oh, if only there were more such Nazarites in Israel!” Meanwhile, the center of life of the Jewish people at this time largely moved towards Egypt itself, and local centers of Jewish life were formed there, which later had such important historical significance for the entire people. Such a center in particular was the settlement in Leontopolis. When, during the subsequent turmoil in Palestine, apparently, the church itself was threatened with destruction, one of the high priestly family, a certain Nechonia or Conia, in Greek Onia, fled to Egypt; he begged from the government for temporary use one abandoned church of Pashta, the “goddess of cats,” not far from Iliopolis 416. There, possessing some military experience, acquired, perhaps, at the time when he stood at the head of a detachment of troops in one of the Egyptian civil wars, he built a fortress and a church, which, although small in size, was intended to rival the temple of Jerusalem, where he and his sons, supporting the traditions of the tribe of Levi, formed a strong detachment of warriors who adopted the name and all the orders of the military camp. The general character of this sanctuary was, apparently, not Jewish, but rather Egyptian. Above it rose a huge tower, perhaps in imitation of the large gates of Egyptian churches, and up to 60 cubits in height. There were no obelisks near the church, but apparently the approach to it consisted of a long row of columns. The altar resembled the altar of the Jewish church. But instead of a lamp, a golden lamp was hung from the roof on a golden chain. The church was surrounded by a brick wall, as was the case in the adjacent Iliopolis sanctuary, and their ruins still now form three angular sand hills, known as the “Jewish mounds.” The attempt to form a new center of Judaism was a very bold one, and it was based on one of the ancient efforts to find in the inspired language of the ancient prophets a local, prosaic, temporal application. In a fiery foreshadowing of the honor which Egypt was subsequently to show to Israel, the prophet Isaiah expressed the hope that in Egypt there would be five cities speaking the language of Canaan and honoring the holy name, and that one of them would be the sacred city of the sun. What was then considered the most astonishing triumph, namely, the conversion of the main sanctuary of Egyptian idolatry to true religion, was interpreted by Onias as proof that in the neighborhood, if not within the very walls of the city of the sun, which the Greeks called Iliopolis, and the Egyptians On, the church of Jehovah was to arise. His very name bore a resemblance to the own name of the founder of the church, Onias. The specified place in the prophet Isaiah was then modified in order to give the city a name that more closely matches the name of Jerusalem. Since the city of the Palestinian church was called a holy city, a city of holiness, the prophetic name of a righteous city, a city of righteousness was attached to this new city (Isa. 19:18, 19). He was, moreover, not far from the sacred college where, according to Egyptian legend, Moses studied. But the worship and system, so carefully worked out on a dubious etymology and a play on ambiguous words, was not destined to last long, and although this new high priesthood was given considerable advantages and means by the Egyptian kings, although the very land around it was long called the land of Onias, and the sanctuary itself existed for three centuries, it, however, perished under the yoke of the Roman government and left no permanent traces even among the Jews of Alexandria. One might think that it was around this very center of ancient Jewish traditions, isolated within the desert from the great world of Alexandria, that the opposition to Greek learning that was noticed in the next century was concentrated. But in any case, this church had only a local and, so to speak, sectarian existence. The stream of religious life of the new Israel in Egypt went beyond this artificial and secluded sanctuary. The main genius of Egyptian Judaism was not the high priestly house of Onias, but the royal house of Ptolemy. The Jewish colonists in Egypt, like the Egyptian natives, at least during the first four reigns of the Ptolemies, enjoyed very mild rule and various favors. The Egyptian priesthood, after the cruel rule of the Persian idolaters, welcomed them as deliverers. Churches were restored or rebuilt according to ancient models. The names of Greek kings and queens were carved in hieroglyphs and their images were painted on the walls of churches in the form of pharaohs. They became Egyptians for the Egyptians, but at the same time they were almost Jews for the Jews, since they sent sacrifices to the temple of Jerusalem and patronized the lands and privileges of the church of Leontopolis 417. The museum, with its one-of-a-kind library, the scholars who visited the court (and among them Euclid the geometer, Apelles the painter, Eratosthenes the grammarian), brought Greek learning to the very doors of the Jewish people. It was in this exciting atmosphere that the influences that Alexandria had on the Jewish and then on the Christian Church arose. The first and most famous manifestation of this influence is the translation of the Hebrew books of the Holy Scriptures into Greek, the emergence of what can be called the Greek Bible. The reason for this was that the Hebrew language among the Jewish settlers of Egypt was increasingly forgotten and replaced by Greek, which was adopted by all those living outside Palestine and especially by the Jews in Egypt. As a result, it became absolutely necessary for them to translate the Holy Scripture into Greek, and this translation was completed during the reign of the Egyptian king Ptolemy II Philadelphus. This king decided to enrich his new library with so important a treasure as an intelligible translation of the sacred books of such a significant class of his subjects. For this purpose, the king entered into communication with the high priest Eleazar, asking him to send himself both the original Holy Scripture and translators. Josephus Flavius ​​lists in detail a number of magnificent tables, cisterns and bowls that were sent by Ptolemy as gifts to persuade the Jewish high priest to his cause. The high priest actually sent him seventy-two translators (six from each tribe). They were assigned a special island of the Faros lighthouse for these works. There they went about their business, far from the noise and confusion of the streets of Alexandria, and having the opportunity to perform their religious ablutions every morning in the sea that washed their homes, and on its shores as early as the 2nd century AD. the remains of seventy, or at least thirty-six, cells were shown, where translators were located, each of whom, according to legend, miraculously made exactly the same divinely inspired translation as the others, without any error or contradiction. In general, the translation was made successfully by them, and, after approval by a special meeting of the most learned men, it entered into general use. It is known as the translation of the seventy interpreters (or simply the translation of 70), and is still used in the Greek church. The Greek translation, in its importance, acquired a meaning equal to the original. This translation, and not the Hebrew original, was the means through which the religious truths of Judaism became known to the Greeks and Romans. This same translation was the Bible of the evangelists and apostles in the first century, and of the Christian church in the first century of its history; it is still recognized as the authorized text of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the basis of the only authorized text of the Latin Church. However significantly it differs from the Hebrew text in form, substance, chronology and language, it nevertheless, even despite some inaccuracies in transmission or subsequent correspondence, during the later periods of church history rivaled, if not surpassed, the Hebrew original itself. The reason for this significance of the translation of the seventy was the freedom and divine inspiration that distinguished its execution. No rigorous study of literal accuracy can withstand the fact that the apostles, or apostolic men, turned to this translation in their arguments. This translation still retains its significance for science, introducing something new to the knowledge of the destinies of the ancient world. Seventy translators, by the way, reveal in their work a close acquaintance with Egyptian localities and customs, and this acquaintance sheds significant light on many otherwise incomprehensible aspects of Egyptian life. That conscientious silence with which Greek translators, when encountering Hebrew words they do not understand, such as. when describing the accessories of the church, or the tones of the psalms, they restrained their pens and left incomprehensible expressions in their original darkness unexplained - is an example of a modest love of truth, capable of confessing its ignorance, a modesty that translators so often lack. If numerous translators of the Holy Scriptures look with love at the cell of the bl. Jerome in Bethlehem, or at Warburg Castle, where Luther made a German translation, then with all the more love they can look at the narrow, rocky islet of the Alexandria harbor, where a brighter and more stable beacon in the mental and religious field was lit than even the Pharos known to the whole world, which in the maritime world was the ancestor of all lighthouses that from coast to coast and from sea to sea serve as guides for seafarers for 2000 years. As for the very nature of the translation, it would be possible to indicate in it many examples of the deviations that they made in the sacred text, modifying the chronology in order to bring it into conformity with the more demanding requirements of Egyptian science, softening anthropomorphic expressions about the Deity to satisfy the requirements of Greek philosophy, and generally making modifications that seemed useful and necessary in view of local circumstances. In the latter respect, one example can be cited showing the connection of the translation with the Alexandrian court and Greek culture. There is a legend in the Talmud that the Greek translators, when rendering in the Pentateuch the word arnebeth (hare) not with the word lagos (the usual Greek name for the hare), but with dasipus (hairy-footed), were guided by the desire to avoid the allusion of the word lagos to the name of Lag, the ancestor of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The mere supposition of such a kind concession on so insignificant a point indicates the considerable dependence of the translators on the Greek sovereign. But there is hardly any need to even resort to such a strange assumption: the actual explanation of the matter leads us to the discovery of another, more reasonable and more interesting influence on the text. The replacement of the word lagos by the word dasipus was not unusual at this time, but the reason for its use was more interesting than the power of the Lagids. The conquests of Alexander the Great contributed to the creation of a more lasting monument to his successes than the Ptolemaic dynasty. Based on the species of animals that the Macedonian hero sent home to his great teacher, the greatest scientific work of ancient times, namely Aristotle’s work on the “history of animals,” was founded and published. In this work, the new word dasipus almost completely replaced the old word lagos, and the translators in Alexandria could therefore easily use this new expression. But here we have an even more striking example of Aristotle's influence on this passage. In the same context, the hare in Holy Scripture is described as a ruminant animal. In the ancient world, before the advent of more accurate natural scientific observations, what seemed to be only chewing gum was taken for real chewing gum and was considered as such. But while the Greek translators were doing their work, this strange peculiarity of the hare was revealed by Aristotle's natural history, and at this insignificant point arose the first direct collision, often repeated, between religion and science. The venerable translators who were engaged in their work on the Pharos Island were too conscientious to reject such a clear evidence of the fact; but at the same time they were afraid to clearly expose a contradiction, and therefore, with courage unusual for translators, they inserted the particle not into the sacred text twice, and thus, partially modifying the place, reconciled it with science (Lev. 11: 5, 6). The appearance of the translation of the seventy was important not only in itself, but also in the sense of the occasion for further additions to the Holy Scriptures. The Hebrew Scriptures were almost finished. If from time to time some new Jewish book or new Hebrew psalm appeared, then its acceptance into the sacred canon, already completed by Ezra, was a very doubtful and difficult matter. But productivity now passed on to Greek literature and to that vast world among which the Jewish people now lived. From that time on, with very few exceptions, every new sacred book was no longer an integral part of the Hebrew, but of the Greek Bible. The tabernacles of Shem were closed, but the doors of Japheth were increasingly opened to receive new works of divine inspiration. The first pages of the Greek Bible began with the Greek translation of the Pentateuch, but its last pages did not end until it included the last writings bearing the name of St. John. This was the main external connection between Jewish and Christian Scripture. By this unity of the sacred language, the beginning and the end of sacred literature were inextricably linked. Among the books whose origin dates back to this particular time are the “third book of Ezra” and “the wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach.” The last one is especially remarkable. It apparently already acquired very great importance among the people early on. Its author arrived in Alexandria at the end of the troubled reign of Ptolemy Physcon, the second of those kings who became famous among the pagans for bearing, seriously or ironically, the nickname of “benefactors” (Evergetes). Being among his compatriots in a foreign land, he found no small difference in their education, and at the same time noticed a strong desire on their part to learn the customs and manners of their fathers. In order to satisfy this need, he found that there would be no task more worthy of his labor and knowledge than the translation into Greek of a collection of everything that was most instructive in instruction and most divinely inspired in the history of his people. The Law and the Prophets were already completed. Other books besides them were considered a kind of addition, capable of entering into close connection with more ancient books, and a clear and understandable line had already begun to be established separating them from books of a later time. The son of Sirach devoted himself very diligently to reading them; he was, one might say, the first biblical scholar; but he realized that something else could be added to the canon of sacred books, namely something left over from the old. He, in his own words, “was the last one to labor vigilantly, as one gleaning behind the grape gatherers, and with the blessing of the Lord, he succeeded and filled the winepress as a grape gatherer.” His highest aspiration was to fulfill in the smallest duties of everyday life the principles of his ancient law: “work not only for yourself, but also for all those who seek teaching.” The book he compiled is one of the most voluminous books in the Bible. It contains the first indication of the ancient chronicles of the Jewish people. The psalmists, and sometimes the prophets, also touched upon the history of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Samuel at times. But neither in the psalms, nor in the prophets, nor in the parables, nor in history is there the slightest indication of the mysterious discovery of the book of Genesis, which in Christian times was the battlefield for so many theological, scientific and critical disputes. The center of his thoughts was Jerusalem, and their horizon was Palestine. The priests, with their sacrifice, their duties and their magnificent vestments, are for him the most outstanding personalities of the Jewish people. He has not forgotten the newest institution of scribes. He takes his images of greatness from the cedars of Lebanon and from the firs that clothe the slopes of Hermon, from terebinth with its widely spreading branches, he borrows his images of beauty from palm trees in the tropical heat of Engedi, or from roses and lilies and the fragrant shade of the abundantly watered gardens of Jericho. In some respects, the book of Jesus, son of Sirach, is only a repetition of the ancient works of Solomon. He himself was a sage, who tried in everything to imitate the great sage of the Jewish people. From his youth he strove for wisdom, and prayed in the church to God that He would make him a partaker of His wisdom, and when he found this wisdom, he held fast to it throughout his life. He was happy that God had given him an eloquent tongue, and he made it his life's purpose to praise Him with his lips. Sirach suffered a lot, and from his suffering came to the comforting conclusion that “he who has not had experience knows little; and whoever has traveled has increased knowledge. Many times I was in danger of death, and was saved with the help of experience” (Sir. 34:10-12). As a man completely devoted to the serious goals of life, he was much concerned with the political state of his people and especially with moral corruption. Sirach castigated with caustic words the arrogance, deceit and licentiousness of the rich - these are the main shortcomings of the adherents of Greek culture who idolized Mamon. “Whoever touches resin,” he says, “will be blackened, and whoever enters into communication with the proud will become like him. Do not lift weights beyond your strength, and do not enter into communication with those who are stronger and richer than you. What kind of communication does the pot have with the cauldron? This one will push it and it will break. The rich man offended, and he himself threatens; the poor man is offended, and he himself begs. If you are beneficial to him, he will use you; and if you become poor, he will leave you. If you are sufficient, he will live with you and drain you, but he himself will not get sick. He has a need for you, he will flatter you, he will smile at you and reassure you, he will speak kindly to you and say: do you need anything? He will shame you with his treats until, having robbed you two or three times, he finally laughs at you. After that, when he sees you, he will turn away from you, and will nod his head when he meets you" (Sir. 13:1-8), "Every animal loves what is like itself, and every man loves his neighbor. What kind of communication does a wolf have with a lamb? So it is with the sinner and the pious. What kind of world does foam have with a dog? And what kind of peace does the rich have with the poor? Lions hunt for wild asses in the desert, and the pastures of the rich are for the poor. Humility is disgusting for the proud, just as the poor are disgusting for the rich” (Sir. 13:19-24). Sirach denounced promiscuous sexual intercourse, warned against communicating with singers and dancers, against that graceful sin that the Jews borrowed from the Greeks (Sir. 9:1 et seq.; 19:2 et seq.). With his expressive language he has painted a disgusting image of the daughters of Israel, which represents them in a very unfavorable light. “For a father, a daughter is a secret, constant concern, and caring for her drives away sleep: in her youth, lest she bloom, and in marriage, lest she become disgusted; in virginity, lest she become defiled and become pregnant in her father’s house; in marriage, lest she violate marital fidelity, and in cohabitation with her husband remain barren” (Sir. 42:9 and next). He depicted the lust that prevailed among the Hellenized Jews in the form of a prayer in which he says: “Lord, Father and God of my life! Do not give me lifting eyes, and turn away lust from me. Let not the desire of the womb and voluptuousness take possession of me, and do not give me over to a shameless soul” (Sir. 23:4-5). In particular, he rebelled against the depravity of youth: “do not desire a multitude of worthless children, and do not rejoice over the sons of the wicked. When they multiply, do not rejoice over them unless they have the fear of the Lord. Do not rely on their life, and do not rely on their multitude. Better is one righteous man than a thousand sinners. And it is better to die childless than to have children of the wicked” (Sir. 16:1-4). Sirach considered the main evil and the root of all this moral decline to be disrespect for the teachings of Judaism, and raising respect for it was the purpose of his book. With extraordinary enthusiasm he exclaimed: “Woe to you, wicked people who have abandoned the law of the Most High God! When you are born, you are born into a curse; and when you die, you receive a curse as your inheritance. Be ashamed before the father and mother of fornication, before the ruler and ruler - of lies, before the judge and prince - of crime, before the assembly and people - of iniquity, before a comrade and friend - of untruth, before of neighbors - of theft, but do not be ashamed of the exact fulfillment of the law of the Most High and the covenant" (Sir. 41:11, 12, 21-23, 42:2). The son of Sirach tried to find a means to heal the deep and moral ulcers of his people. This means, in his opinion, is a special means that has been tested for a long time, which consists in fulfilling the law, the commandments of God and a holy life. With his extraordinary devotion to the teachings of Judaism, he portrayed its high dignity with poetic enthusiasm and praised it as wisdom incarnate. Calling the whole Jewish law wisdom, he says this in her name: “I came out of the mouth of the Most High, And like a cloud they covered the earth. I have set the tabernacle on high, And my throne is in the pillar of cloud. I walked alone around the circle of heaven, And she walked in the depths of the abyss. In the waves of the sea, and all over the earth, And I had dominion in every nation and tribe. Between all of them I was looking for peace, And in whose inheritance shall I settle? Then the Creator of all commanded me, And He who made me showed me a resting place and said: And accept the inheritance in Israel. I served before Him in the holy tabernacle, And so she established herself in Zion. He also gave me peace in my beloved city, And my power is in Jerusalem. I have risen like a cedar in Lebanon, And like the cypress tree on the mountains of Hermon. I have risen like the Eugedi palm, And like the rose bushes in Jericho. I'm like a beautiful olive tree in the valley And, like a plane tree, she rose. Like cinnamon and aspalaf, I gave off a fragrant smell, And, like excellent myrrh, it spread a fragrance, I spread out my branches like terebinth, And my branches are branches of glory and grace. I am like a vine, growing grace; And my flowers are the fruit of fame and wealth. Come to me, you who desire me, And be satisfied with my fruits. For the memory of me is sweeter than honey, And having me is more pleasant than a honeycomb. All this is the book of the covenant of the Most High God, The law that Moses commanded As an inheritance to the hosts of Jacob" 418 . The son of Sirach was, as it were, a prophet of his time, teaching his people to keep the commandments and law of God. With examples from the history of the Israeli people, he wanted to show his compatriots what happy consequences follow devotion to law and order, and what sad outcome results from neglecting them. To this end, he cites a long series of historically famous personalities of antiquity and briefly reports on their deeds. As an introduction, Sirach outlines natural history to show the greatness of God. And the same God who searches the depths of the sea also searches the human heart. “He penetrates the abyss and the heart, and sees all their bends; for the Lord knows all knowledge, and looks into the sign of the age, announcing the past and the future, and revealing the traces of the hidden. No thought escapes Him, and not a single word is hidden from Him” (Sir. 42:18–20). With strong and concise features, Sirach depicted the wonders of nature, the heat of the sun, the regular movement of the moon, the beauty of the sky with the stars sparkling on it, clouds flying like birds, the voice of thunder, the pleasant rustle of the wind and the roar of the storm, frost scattered on the ground like salt, and the cold that dresses the water as if in armor, the sea, with islands rising in it and monsters swimming in its depths, and, then, summarizing everything, he says: "We can say a lot And yet we will not comprehend Him, And the end of the words: He is everything. And he gave wisdom to the pious" 419. After this introduction, Sirach reproduces before the souls of his readers historical figures from the past history of the Israelite people, and dwells most of all on those whose virtues or vices could serve as a model or a terrifying example for posterity: “There are those among them who left a name for themselves To proclaim their praise, - And there are those of whom there is no memory left, Which disappeared as if they did not exist, And they became as if they had never been” 420. He begins a number of historical examples with Enoch, as “an image of repentance for all generations”; then follow Noah, who turned out to be a perfect righteous person during the flood; Abraham, “the great father of many nations, who kept the law of the Most High and was in covenant with Him”; Isaac and Jacob, the ancestor of the twelve tribes, and finally Moses, “beloved by God and men, compared in glory with the saints.” Even longer than on Moses, Sirach dwells on Aaron, who was similar in holiness to his brother, but enjoyed even greater advantage due to the fact that he was entrusted by God with the priesthood among the people, and he was given the right to wear majestic clothes, a breastplate with the Urim and Thummim and a diadem. Having told the well-known story of Korah’s rebellion against Aaron, which brought upon him a terrible punishment through destruction by a miraculous flame, Sirach then dwells on the glory of Aaron’s grandson, Phinehas, because “he was zealous for the fear of the Lord, and, when the people fell away, he remained in the good disposition of his soul, and propitiated the Lord towards Israel.” Having then mentioned Joshua and Caleb, and then briefly about the judges, the sage speaks about Samuel and Nathan, and, casually mentioning Saul, dwells longer on David and Solomon, and does not remain silent about the shameful stain in Solomon’s life, about his attachment to women and about the natural consequence of this - the division of the kingdom. At the same time, he expressed his great hope that a great Ruler over Israel would again arise from the house of David: “But the Lord will not forsake His mercy And He will not destroy any of His works, He will not destroy the descendants of His chosen one, And he will not uproot the seed of him who loved Him. And David is rooted from him" 421. He then quickly surveys the unfortunate time of separation and the sinful fall of the people that resulted from it, and then dwells longer on the activities of the prophets Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the pious kings Hezekiah and Josiah. From the time after the Babylonian captivity, he points only to Zerubbabel, the high priest Jesus and Nehemiah, completely bypassing the activities of Ezra. In conclusion, Sirach depicted the high priest Simon the Righteous, from the most recent time to him, praising his deeds and his high priestly dignity. The son of Sirach ended his historical review with a prayer to God filled with great hopes, in which he glorified Him for his previous good deeds to the people, and asked for them for the future: “And now all of you bless God, Who does great things everywhere, who prolonged our days from the womb, And He deals with us according to His mercy: May He give us cheerful hearts, And in our days may there be peace in Israel until the days of the world; May He preserve His mercy towards us, And in due time may he deliver us" 422. But the hopes and prayers of the ardent patriot of his people were not to be realized soon. Instead of peace, times of confusion and oppression soon came for the Jewish people, and, due to the intrigues and corruption of various fans of the Greek cult, the people at one time even stood on the verge of complete destruction. Chapter 63. Persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes While Judea was under the rule of Egypt, the Jewish people enjoyed complete freedom of their religious conscience, and could succeed in the field of enlightenment and religious and moral development, if only they, in some of their classes, did not succumb too much to Greek influence, in its worst aspects. But now, as if in punishment for this last servility towards the Greeks, a new turn took place in the fate of the Jews, leading to very important consequences. It fell under the rule of the Syrian kings, and from that time on a difficult time began for the Jewish people. The Syrian kings, encountering resistance to their plans for the introduction of Greek religion and culture in their state among the Jews devoted to their faith and law, began to oppress them in every possible way; their first oppressor was King Seleucus Philopator, who ordered the plunder of the temple treasury, with the monetary, public and private deposits remaining in it, for the benefit of his state treasury, and his successor, Antiochus Epiphanes, went even further and decided to completely destroy the religion of Jehovah, and to install Greek paganism in its place. This was one of those characters in which eccentricity, bordering on madness, and genius, combined with unlimited power and lawless passion, produce a monstrous result, thanks to which two names were established in history for him: Epiphanes “glorious” and Epiphanes “mad.” On the one hand, even the terrible picture painted by Jewish historians reveals in him some traits of nobility and even kindness. In his magnificent buildings, in his expansion and almost new creation of Antioch as a magnificent capital, in his plans to connect the capital with the Gulf of Scanderona and thus make it a seaport, in his glory throughout the Greek world, in his determination, although so unfortunate in its consequences, to rally the Eastern Monarchy against the offensive movement of the newly emerging Empire of the West - in all this there is a kind of grandeur corresponding to the ancients. prophetic images of the king, “who will act according to his own will, and will exalt himself and exalt himself above every deity, and will speak blasphemous things about the God of gods. And he will prosper until the wrath is fulfilled” (Dan. 11:36). On the other hand, in his entire manner of action one notices some kind of strangeness, pettiness, corresponding to the concept of an unreasonable madman of pagan writers, a worthless person of Jewish psalmists and historians. Instead of the godlike Alexander, or the enlightened Ptolemies, they saw a monstrous creature, without any dignity or self-restraint, imitating in a public masquerade the customs and clothing of the majestic Roman magistrates, performing various pranks on the streets and in the baths of Antioch, frightening young revelers with the unexpected sound of trumpets and horns, tripping up the bath attendants on a slippery marble platform when they They were in a hurry to bring the precious ointments he had prepared for himself. The contradiction of these two sides in his character reached its highest degree in the splendor of the procession which he gave at Daphne, with the purpose of surpassing the most magnificent of the Roman triumphs, but during which he himself appeared riding on a miserable donkey, playing the part of the chief footman, buffoon and magician. The reason for such an ugly duality in the character of this king lay in his very upbringing. The school he went through in his youth did everything to get him out of the rut of a correct life. His father sent him to Rome as a hostage, to secure the peace concluded and the payment of the expenses of the war to the Romans, and he remained there for twelve years. Rome, just after the conquest of the Carthaginians, Macedonians and Syrians, became the capital of the world and was at the transition from the moral strictness of the Cato to the licentiousness of the Claudians. The moral debauchery of the Greeks also penetrated here, where debauchery and an unnatural thirst for pleasure also established themselves. It was during Antiochus’ stay in Rome that the secret cult of Bacchus, introduced by one Greek priest not only in the capital, but throughout Italy, especially spread there - a cult, at whose meetings the most terrible debauchery was committed, leading to heinous crimes, poisonings and forgery of wills. However, Antiochus could have learned this vice from the Greeks and Macedonians. What he first learned in Rome was contempt for people and their ordinary habits, extraordinary arrogance, iron cruelty that knew no compassion, malevolence that played with the victim before killing him. If there were some noble movements in him, they were completely suppressed in this immoral school, so that they completely dominated his character. In Rome, Antiochus met noble and prominent families, and at the same time learned that the gaming dominance, which then passed into the hands of Rome, was essentially in the hands of a few who managed, through intrigue, bribery and flattery of the people, to achieve unlimited power and retain it for themselves, and not only the people, but also the proud Senate were forced to follow their orders. Thanks to his acquaintance with influential Roman families, cunning and shamelessness, he managed to seize the throne of his father into his hands, and he was able to retain this throne for himself, especially since the Romans reacted favorably to this capture of him, hoping to have an obedient instrument in him. But Antiochus managed to outwit this Roman trick. The great Jewish prophet clearly predicted his accession to the throne, saying: “and the despised will rise in his place, and they will not give him royal honors; but he will come without noise, and with flattery he will take possession of the kingdom. And all the drowning hordes will be drowned and crushed by him, even the leader of the covenant himself. For after he enters into an alliance with him, he will act by deceit, and will rise and gain the upper hand with a small nation. He will enter peaceful and fruitful countries and do what his fathers and the fathers of his fathers did not do; he will squander the booty, stolen property and wealth for his own, and in the fortress he will have his own plans, but only for a time” (Dan. 11:21-24). Having seized along with the throne all the wealth belonging to it, he became a spendthrift, whose wastefulness became a proverb; he gave rich gifts not only to friends, but even to people completely strangers to him whom he happened to meet. The people did not know what to think of him, and his best friends considered him a madman. But he indulged in such strange behavior with calculation, since he wanted to deceive the Romans and make himself appear harmless. His imitation of Roman customs was also designed for this. Just as noble Romans, when choosing for any high position, shook the hand of every insignificant citizen in order to gain his vote in their favor, so Antiochus did exactly the same thing. Often he took off his royal robe and went out to the market to collect votes for himself, and he grabbed one by the hand, hugged another, and asked them to cast their votes in favor of appointing him to the post of mayor, judge or tribune of the people. In Antioch, he also introduced gladiatorial games from Rome, and prisoners of war or slaves had to fight each other with weapons for so long until one of them fell or was killed. To acquire such gladiators from Rome, he paid enormous amounts of money. To further flatter the Romans and assure them of his devotion to them, he ordered the construction of a magnificent church in Antioch with slabs and walls overlaid with gold, and dedicated it to the Roman god Jupiter Capitolinus. By flattering imitation of Roman customs and his nonsense, he hoped to divert the attention of the discerning and dissatisfied Romans from himself, and, taking advantage of this, together with Eumenes of Pergamon, secretly made plans to increase his state. In debauchery and wastefulness, Antiochus was not inferior to any of his Greek contemporaries. Suffice it to say that he donated all the income from the Kilisyrian cities of Tarsus and Malla to his mistress Antiochides (2 Mac. 4:30). All the rulers of that time did something similar, but he satisfied his animal passion with two brothers, of whom he made one satrap of Babylonia, and the other overseer of revenues. Antiochus was completely freed from the fear of the gods. “He did not think about the gods of his fathers, nor even respected any deity, for he exalted himself above all” (Dan. 11:37). It was to this monster, who had a heart of stone, who despised people, law, morals and religion, that the Jews were given over to him. If harmony reigned in Judea and taxes were paid regularly, then perhaps she would have escaped his attention. But as a result of the strife that took place there between the adherents of Judaism and Greek culture, his gaze was turned to the Jewish people, and he decided to involve them in his cunning plans. His intervention in the internal affairs of Judea was demanded by the adherents of Hellenism themselves, or, as they came to be called, Hellenists. First of all, they drew his attention to Hyrcanus, who, from his castle near Heshbon, was collecting taxes from the Arabian inhabitants of the country on behalf of the king of Egypt. The Hellenistic Party hated him as their enemy. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Antiochus decided to extend his rule over the entire Trans-Jordanian region. Hyrcanus, fearing a shameful death, committed suicide, and Antiochus annexed his entire possession. Then the Hellenists decided to carry out their long-cherished plan, namely, to deprive their second enemy, the high priest Onias, of the high priestly dignity. According to their agreement, his own brother Jesus, renamed Jason, promised Antiochus a huge sum of money so that he would give him the high priestly position, and the king, who needed money, had no doubt at all about fulfilling this offer. The money was probably taken from the treasures of Hyrcanus kept at the church. The second step of the Hellenists or the newly installed high priest Jesus-Jason was a request to Antiochus that those Jews who were supposed to participate in the Greek games should be considered Antiochenes and Macedonians, that is, equal citizens, and be allowed into all public meetings and games of the Greeks. The Greeks always looked at games seriously and even considered them the purpose of life. The Greeks who settled in Palestine and Phenicia maintained, by moving the Olympic Games every four years to the barbarian lands, a national bond of common origin. Those non-Greeks who were allowed to participate in them considered it an extraordinary honor for themselves, becoming, as it were, a member of the Greek nobility. Jason and the Hellenists had in mind, with the introduction of a gymnasium in Jerusalem, to thereby achieve the highest Greek civil law for the Jews, and through this to weaken the hatred and contempt from which they suffered so much. As soon as Antiochus granted them this right, Jason immediately ordered the exercises that were necessary to participate in the Olympic Games. In Bir, or Acre, northwest of the church, the high priest set up a special area for such exercises, a gymnasium for young men and a school for boys (1 Mac. 1:14; 2 Mac. 4:12). Greek teachers were probably hired to accustom Jewish youths and men to games and gymnastic wrestling. These games consisted of running, jumping, wrestling, deftly throwing heavy discs and fist wrestling. But the incompatibility of such games with the completely different view of life that Judaism represented was soon revealed. Exercises in such games had to be done with a naked body, as required by Greek custom. The Jewish youths who indulged in these games had, therefore, in view of the church, in which there were not even steps to the altar, so as not to somehow expose the nakedness of the body, to suppress any feeling of shame. But at the same time they were confused by another circumstance. When their bodies were exposed, they had the “seal of the covenant”, which immediately distinguished them from members of other nations. Could they, with this seal, take part in the Olympic Games and thus expose themselves to the mockery of the mocking Greeks? But this was still a fixable matter; they made themselves artificial foreskin and underwent the most difficult operation, just so as not to resemble the Jews in appearance 423. Soon young men began to flock in droves to the gymnasium, and young priests left the service in the church to also take part in the exercises of the palaestra and stadium. Pious people looked with horror at this alienation from their own religion and customs, this falling away from paternal laws and the transition to foreign customs, but they were silent. Meanwhile, Jason’s like-minded people themselves soon became dissatisfied with his attachment to foreign things, especially when this attachment led to the denial of the basic principles of Judaism. When the Olympic Games once took place in Tire (in June 172), on which occasion a sacrifice was usually made to the Greek god Hercules, who was considered the founder of these games, Jason sent there festive ambassadors, and precisely those who had already practiced in the games, and, as a result, had the right to full participation in them. Antiochus Epiphanes himself was present at these games in Tire. This circumstance in particular could have prompted Jason to send a holiday embassy in order to make known for the first time, before the eyes of the king himself, about the close relationship between the Jews and the Greeks. According to established custom, he also handed over to the persons he sent the amount of money that was to be used for the holiday sacrifice to Hercules. But despite the fact that the messengers were of course completely in the Greek spirit, they felt extreme remorse in their conscience and were embarrassed to give the sacrificial gift to the idol of Hercules; this seemed to them to be direct participation in idolatry and recognition of the marble image as God. As a result, they accepted the amount entrusted to them with the condition that they would be given the freedom to give this amount another purpose. And indeed, Jason's ambassadors handed over the money they brought as an offering to the fleet, which Antiochus ordered to equip in Tire. With such an attitude towards pagan worship, the depravity of the priests became more and more ugly. An ugly rivalry arose between the lower ambitions who sought high priestly dignity. Jason's rival for the position of high priest was Menelaus, who, having achieved the high priesthood, did not hesitate to plunder the church treasury to retain it. The former high priest Onias, who had accused him of this predation, sought refuge from his violence in the sanctuary of Apollo at Daphne, near Antioch, but was dragged out from there and killed with a sacrilegious treachery, which outraged Jews and pagans alike and aroused almost the only sign of human feeling that the Jewish chroniclers attribute to the Syrian king. Meanwhile, Antiochus Epiphanes found the opportunity to begin executing his long-cherished plan - to attack Egypt itself in order to annex it to his possessions and take advantage of its riches. Reasons for war can always be found, and there was no shortage of them for the cunning Antiochus. His sister, Cleopatra, who was married to Ptolemy V, to whom his father, as a gift, gave the income from Kili-Syria, died and left two minor sons: Philometor and Physcon, of whom the first was appointed king, and the eunuch Euleus and the second guardian Lenaeus ruled in his place. Taking advantage of the early childhood of the Egyptian king and exposing the ambition of his guardians, as if they wanted to completely take Kili-Syria away from him, Antiochus gathered an army and marched on Egypt, although he delayed the attack for quite a long time for fear of the Romans. But since these latter were increasingly entangled in a new war with Perseus, the king of Macedon, and the Roman troops suffered defeat after defeat, he finally dared to cross the Egyptian border (in the fall of 170), although he did not fail to send ambassadors to the all-powerful Roman Senate to justify this step. At Pelusium, Antiochus defeated the Egyptian army and moved further into the country. Both guardians fled with the young king Philometor to Samothrace. Antiochus took possession of all of northern Egypt and moved towards Alexandria to besiege it. Meanwhile, the inhabitants proclaimed Ptolemy's younger brother Physcon king and defended the city with such fortitude that the Syrian king despaired of conquering it. Therefore, he entered into relations with his elder brother, allowed him to return to Egypt, concluded an agreement with him and offered to continue the war only in his favor. But Antiochus was forced to make peace and enter into an agreement with Philometor. Rome, which, in his opinion, was busy with its own war and could not interfere in his affairs, however, watched him step by step, and made it clear to him that it looked unfavorably on his attack on Egypt. Therefore, Antiochus could not particularly rejoice at his apparent victory, especially since he was not able to take Alexandria, the main city and the key to the whole country. In Judea they watched the outcome of this war with extraordinary tension. If Egypt had won, then one could hope that there would be an end to all the unrest and disasters caused by the hated high priest. The Egyptian court favored the national Jewish party and received friends of the fatherland who had fled there from the tyranny of Antiochus and Menelaus, and among them the youngest son of the noble high priest Onias III, also named Onias, enjoyed special favor. Therefore, people in Judea listened with anxious tension to every news about the progress of the war in Egypt. Suddenly the news arrived that Antiochus had fallen, and it deeply agitated the minds. The deposed high priest Jason-Jesus hastened to return from Ammonita, where he had found refuge, to Jerusalem, and brought with him a detachment of almost a thousand people to take possession of the city. Menelaus ordered to lock the gates of Jerusalem and resist the advancing detachment from the walls. As a consequence, a formal internecine war occurred, caused by the ambition of two individuals who sought the high priestly dignity as a means of power. Since the hated Menelaus had very few supporters in Jerusalem, Jason managed to break into Jerusalem with his followers, and he staged a whole bloodbath in the city, beating up real or imaginary adherents of Menelaus. This latter himself sought refuge in the steppes of Acre. Meanwhile, Antiochus returned from Egypt with the rich booty he had captured there, perhaps in order to gather new troops to reinforce his army. When he heard about the events in Jerusalem, he was inflamed with extraordinary anger at the Jewish people and at all of Judaism. His cruel, evil, inhuman nature, the manifestations of which he had, of necessity, to suppress in Egypt out of fear of the Romans, now tried, as it were, to pour out all his boiling anger on the Jews. He suddenly attacked Jerusalem, carried out a bloody massacre among its inhabitants, did not spare either old age, youth, or weak age, did not distinguish between friends and enemies, entered the temple and the Holy of Holies in order to express his contempt for the God who was worshiped in it, ordered to remove from it everything that was valuable there, the golden altar, the lampstand, the table, all the golden vessels and the church treasury, as far as it was still there. Menelaus served as his guide during this desecration of the church 424. Against the God of Israel, whose power was so glorified by his confessors and who, apparently, turned out to be so powerless against the insult inflicted on Him, he uttered the most offensive mockeries with his impudent lips. In order to somehow atone for the shame of the massacre of innocents and the robbery of the church, he even spread a false story, which for a long time brought the Jews into disrepute among the educated peoples of the then world. Antiochus specifically said that in the holy of holies of the church he noticed a stone image of a man with a long beard, and it seemed to be standing on a donkey and holding a book in its hand. He mistook this image for the image of their legislator Moses, who allegedly gave the Jews the most misanthropic law, commanded them to stay away from all nations and not show them any favor. It is not known what actually gave rise to such a tale (perhaps a stone ledge that was located in the Holy of Holies), but in any case, rumors subsequently spread among the Greeks and Romans that Antiochus found in the church a donkey’s head made of gold, to which the Jews worshiped God, as a result of which they were considered idolizers of the donkey. Antiochus probably spread another lie to denigrate the Jews, or at least gave rise to it: he supposedly found a Greek lying in bed in the church, who begged to be released, since the Jews allegedly took care of him in this secret place and fed him in order to sacrifice him on the appointed day. Every year, it seems, the Jews thus killed one Greek, whose entrails they ate, while swearing an oath of hatred against the Greeks and their extermination. Whether this malicious slander against the Jews came directly from Antiochus himself, or whether it was put into his mouth by the inventors of lies, in any case, he subjected Judaism to a long-standing criticism, as if it taught enmity against other nations. This was the result of seeking, at the expense of morality, communication with the Greeks for a century and a half. Sorrow and grief spread throughout Jerusalem, and the house of Jacob was once again covered in shame. “There was great mourning in Israel in all its places; the chiefs and elders groaned, the maidens and youths fainted, and the beauty of women changed. Every bridegroom gave herself over to weeping, and she who sat in the bridal chamber was in sorrow” (1 Mac. 1:25–27). But this was not the end; even sadder days were to come for Judea. Once again Antiochus undertook a military campaign against Egypt, and for the second time the Jewish people were to feel all his anger caused by a new failure. The royal brothers, Philometor and Fiscon, thanks to the mediation of their sister and the Romans, were reconciled with each other. The first was recognized as king by the city of Alexandria. This infuriated Antiochus, since he intended to use the helpless and weak Philometor as a tool and through him rule in Egypt. Since the Romans were still busy with the Macedonian war, he decided to make a second attack on Egypt (168). Without any resistance, Antiochus penetrated deep into Egypt, and once again approached almost Alexandria itself. Meanwhile, the kings of Egypt sent messengers to Rome and tearfully begged for help so that the Senate would not abandon them. As a result, three Roman commissioners were instructed to go to Antiochus and order him to stop, but at the same time they also had a secret order to delay a little until the Macedonian war took a favorable turn for the Romans. This war was decided by the happy battle of Pydna, when the Macedonian army was decisively defeated, and King Perseus had to flee (June 22, 168). Then the Roman commissioners immediately went to the camp of Antiochus and conveyed to him the order of the Senate to clear Egypt within a short time. When the Syrian king asked himself time to think, one of the Romans, the stern Popillius Lena, drew a line around him with a stick and told him that before he left this circle, he must declare whether he preferred friendship with Rome or war. Antiochus knew about the inflexibility of Roman commands, and decided to immediately retreat (by the end of June 168). One hint from the commissioner of Rome was enough to make him understand all his powerlessness and all the futility of his cunningly conceived plans. Bitter, angry and dissatisfied with himself on the occasion of the humiliation he had experienced, Antiochus the “glorious” returned to his capital. The feeling of humiliation tormented him all the more because he had to hypocritically pretend to be content and friendly towards the Romans. He decided to pour out this suppressed rage for the second time on the Jews with unheard-of cruelty. It is possible that they again expressed joy at his failure, and loudly said that their God, who humbles the arrogant, humbled the “glorious” Antiochus. In any case, he again directed all his rage at defenseless Jerusalem. Apparently, with peaceful intentions, one of its princes, Apollonius, who had previously been the governor of Mysia, arrived in the Jewish capital; he entered the city with a riotous army, and suddenly on Saturday, when there was nothing to think about resisting with arms in hand, he sent a Greek or Macedonian mercenary army, accustomed to bloodshed, against the inhabitants, killed captured men and youths, captured women and children, and sent them to slave markets 425. Only the fierce Hellenists, adherents of Menelaus, were spared. He even ordered many houses in the capital to be destroyed and the very walls of Jerusalem to be torn down. This city, according to his intention, was to disappear from a number of important cities. But it is remarkable that at the same time the fierce prince and his wild army spared the church. In any case, they did not destroy it, since Antiochus had the intention of giving it another purpose. But they vented their fury on the outer fittings, burning the wooden gates and destroying the adjoining premises with an ax and hammer. Tradition has preserved the name of one of these furious vandals, the one who put the fire on the gate: his name was Callisthenes. There was nothing more to rob in the church. The jewelry in it had already been robbed by Antiochus. Apollonius, fulfilling the desire of his sovereign, devastated the sacred city; the inhabitants, as far as death spared them, sought salvation by flight. Only Hellenists, Syrian soldiers and foreigners moved through the devastated squares: “Jerusalem was a stranger to its sons.” The church was also left desolate. The faithful priests and Levites abandoned him, and the Hellenists cared very little about him. Their gathering point was another place in Jerusalem, namely Acre. There was a strong Syrian garrison here, and the Hellenists also lived here. To protect them from any attack, this part was surrounded by high and strong walls and towers, so that it surpassed the church in height, and it contained a sufficient supply of weapons and supplies. Meanwhile, the devastation caused upset even Menelaus, the culprit of all these disasters. For whom was he a high priest if there were no church visitors? For whom was he the leader of the people, if this people turned away from him? This was extremely unpleasant and disadvantageous for him. To free himself from this difficult situation, he decided to take a new desperate step, to completely destroy and abolish Judaism, its law, teaching and morals, and force its confessors to accept the Greek cult. Antiochus, in his irritation and in his rage, both against the Jews and their religion, immediately accepted this plan and ordered it to be carried out with all the inexorability of his capricious and insane character. The Jewish people had to Hellenize and through this prove their loyalty to him, or, otherwise, if they resisted him, they would be subject to death. Any opposition to his desires seemed to him like treason and sympathy for the court of the Egyptian kings, which was hostile to him. And not only did he want to humble the Jewish people, but also to openly prove the powerlessness of the God to whom he showed such loyalty. To a man who was indifferent even to the gods of his fathers, and who had no fear of the Divine at all, it sounded almost like a mockery of him when the Jewish people, during the bloody persecution to which they had already decided to subject them, still trusted in the God of their fathers, hoping that He would crush the arrogant wickedness. Antiochus wanted to challenge this God of Israel and defeat Him. As a result of this, Antiochus issued an order, carried by special messengers throughout all the cities of Judea, so that all Jews should immediately stop fulfilling the laws of their God and henceforth should offer sacrifice only to the Greek gods. Everywhere, for this purpose, altars and images of gods were erected. To strike at the very heart of Judaism, Antiochus ordered that unclean animals be sacrificed, and especially pigs, animals which, by law and by ingrained habit, were considered especially unclean (1 Mac. 1:17.). Three signs of religious life, which especially sharply distinguished the Jews from the pagans, namely circumcision, keeping the Sabbath and abstaining from forbidden foods, were prohibited under pain of especially severe punishments (1 Mac. 1:43–47). Special officials were also appointed and given the authority to monitor the implementation of the issued decree. These were hard-hearted “overseers” who mercilessly punished with death any violation of the royal command. The implementation of the royal decree began from the temple of Jerusalem itself. Antiochus sent there one respected Antiochian 426 to dedicate the church to Olympian Zeus, a god recognized by all Greek tribes. This dedication, or rather the desecration of the church, was carried out by the commissioner with such ritual, which was calculated to pierce and tear, so to speak, the heart of the faithful, or rather the heart of the entire people, of which the Hellenists formed only a small part, with the edge of the sword. On the altar in the courtyard a pig was sacrificed, the blood of which was sprinkled on the altar itself and on the rock in the Holy of Holies, which Antiochus took for the image of Moses; its meat was boiled, and along with it, leaves from the Torah or Holy Scripture of the Jews were boiled. Pork cooked in this way was supposed to serve as food for the so-called high priest Menelaus and other Jewish Hellenists. Pork meat, out of ingrained habit, of course aroused disgust in them, but they were forced to overcome it within themselves. The Torah scroll found in the church, however, was not desecrated by the Antiochian, but only burned, since this preacher of moral purity and love for mankind, in the opinion of Antiochus and his chosen advisers, contained the doctrine of misanthropy. This was his first baptism of fire. Then an image of Zeus, this “abomination of desolation,” was erected on the altar, and sacrifices were made to him. Thus, the Temple of Jerusalem, the only place of true holiness on earth in the ancient world, was completely desecrated, and it is good that it had not yet become a meeting place for libertines, who only in its outbuildings indulged in debauchery and debauchery with their vile girlfriends. The God of Israel, apparently, was forced out of it by Zeus of Greece. True, the church had often been desecrated before with ugly idol images. Kings Ahaz and Manasseh opened its doors wide to Assyrian paganism. But they did this partly out of unreason and ignorance, not knowing the law and the difference between their own and foreign religions, since they believed in the supreme power of the Assyrian gods. Menelaus and his companions, on the contrary, had as little faith in Zeus as in the God of Israel. They wanted to completely destroy the Jewish nation, but since a kind of worship and church were closely associated with this nation, they committed this desecration with full consciousness and deliberate purpose. But how did the Jewish people react to this unprecedented insult? How did he react to the strict decree of the heartless king and the measures of his overseers to deprive him of his nationality and take God away from him? In any case, he was subjected to a severe fatal test. He had to break not only with his past, but also with his deepest principles of life. Death at the hands of the executioner threatened all those who openly professed Judaism. They did not even dare to call themselves Jews, and, apparently, could no longer speak their own language (2 Mac. 6:6; 1 Mac. 1:41). But the Jewish people victoriously withstood this terrible test and sealed their covenant with God and devotion to their laws with martyrdom. The Jews, who were scattered in Syrian and Phoenician cities and, living in close proximity to the Greeks, were of necessity forced to enter into various everyday relationships with them, however, they bowed their heads,, for appearances, made sacrifices to Greek idols and hid or rejected their religion. But even among them there were such true believers who, with their lives, recorded evidence in favor of the truth of their teaching. In Antioch itself, before the eyes of a furious king, one ninety-year-old elder, Eleazar the scribe, suffered martyrdom for his courageous steadfastness, “leaving in his death not only the young men, but also very many of the people, a model of valor and a monument to virtue” (2 Mac. 6:27, 28, 31). He was followed by one widow, the mother of seven sons, who all also accepted martyrdom for their devotion to the faith, calling on the righteous wrath of God against the cruel tormentor king. In Judea the bloody persecution increased day by day. The overseers appointed by Antiochus, to carry out his commands, turned their attention to the villages where the inhabitants of Jerusalem fled. Here, too, upon their arrival, they erected altars and demanded on behalf of the king that the population sacrifice pigs to Zeus and eat their meat, and if the Sabbath came, they desecrated it with work. In particular, they insisted that in each month the day that coincided with the birthday of Antiochus should be celebrated with pagan sacrifices. On the feast of Dionysius or the joyful day of opening barrels of wine, which the Jews had long been accustomed to greet with wine drinking and gifts to friends, they were now forced, following the example of the Greeks, to put on wreaths for themselves, make solemn processions and utter wild cries of licentious joy in honor of the Greek god of wine. As soon as such an overseer came to a well-known settlement or regional city and convened the people, demanding from him that he somehow confirm his fall from Judaism, he found only a very few. The majority immediately fled and sought refuge in the caves and gorges of the Judean mountains, or in the desert area near the Dead Sea. This opposition infuriated Antiochus even more, and he issued command after command, threatening the most severe punishments for the disobedient. As a result of this, the guards redoubled their persecuting zeal. Wherever they found Torah scrolls, they furiously tore them up, often burned them and killed those who, to console and strengthen themselves during this bloody persecution, read them. All houses of worship and education in the country were destroyed by them, and if they found weak women after childbirth who, due to the absence of men, circumcised their newborn sons themselves, then the monsters grabbed them along with the newly born children by the necks and hung them on the city wall (1 Mac. 1:60; 2 Mac. 6:10). But all these cruelties not only did not frighten the people, but even made them even firmer in their faith. Death has lost its horror for many. Some preferred to die rather than eat forbidden meat. This steadfastness and this spiritual courage were supported by a circle of strictly religious Hassideites, who constituted a union of pious people formed from Nazirites. Some of the zealous persons from this circle penetrated into cities and villages by secret means, convened the inhabitants, told them with fiery conviction that God had not yet abandoned His people and would provide them with unexpected help in due time, exhorted them to perseverance and strengthened those who wavered. The effect of their preaching was all the more powerful because they were preceded by examples of courage that looked death directly in the eye. But soon the Syrian overseers in Jerusalem learned where the actual source of this inflexible stubbornness of the Jews was; They were probably informed about the preaching of the Hassideans by some desperate Hellenists. Immediately, the head of the garrison, the Phrygian Philip, set off with his detachment to look for the place of refuge of these preachers, in the full hope that with the extinguishing of this main center of opposition, it would be easier to subjugate the people themselves. One Saturday, he ordered his soldiers to cordon off the caves in which thousands of men, women and children were hiding, demanded that they come out and obey the orders of Antiochus, and promised to spare their lives under this condition. To this demand, they all unanimously answered: “No, we will not fulfill the command to desecrate the Sabbath.” As a result, Philip ordered his army to attack. The Hassideans courageously looked straight into the faces of the attackers, did not worry about self-defense, did not move a single stone to block the entrances to the caves, so as not to violate the Sabbath, but called heaven and earth to witness that they were innocently put to death. And so, all these persons hiding in the caves were destroyed by the bloodthirsty gang of Philip, both through the fires they built at the opening of the caves, and as a result of the smoke that penetrated there 427. But such persecution exceeded all possibility of patience, and it served as the beginning of a new movement that led to the overthrow of the hard-hearted persecutor. Chapter 64. The Revolt of the Maccabees When the bloody persecution of the Jewish people reached such a point that it threatened to destroy the entire people or lead them to the inevitable, due to exhaustion and despair, unexpected help was provided to them by a courageous uprising. It was produced by one family, whose members were distinguished by piety and self-sacrifice, along with courage, intelligence and foresight: it was the family of the Asmoneans or Maccabees. The uprising was carried out by one gray-haired old man with his five courageous sons, who forever established Judaism, and strengthened the national life of the people for a century and a half. The elder was called Mattathias, the son of Jochanan, the son of Simeon Asmoneus. He was a priest and had permanent residence in Jerusalem, but as a result of the desecration of the church, he retired to the town of Modin, which lay 20 miles north of Jerusalem. Of his five sons, who together contributed to the rise of the people from their deepest humiliation and found their death in its defense, each bore a special, army-sounding nickname, apparently indicating something: his first son John was called Jaddis, the second was Simon, called Thassi, the third was Judas - Maccabee, the fourth Eleazar - Avaron and the fifth Jonathan, called Apphus. This Asmonean house, which, due to the respect it enjoyed, had many adherents, felt especially hard the inconsolable situation of the fatherland. Seeing the blasphemies taking place in Judea and Jerusalem, the valiant old man said to the sons around him: “Woe is me! Why was I born to see the destruction of my people and the destruction of the holy city, and to remain here when it was delivered into the hands of enemies and the sanctuary into the hands of strangers? Why else should we live? And Mattathias and his sons tore their clothes and put on sackcloth and wept bitterly” (1 Mac. 2:6-14). But they did not limit their participation in the people’s grief to tears and decided to provide help or die for their cause. When one of the Syrian overseers, named Apelles, arrived in Modin to demand from the inhabitants there idolatry and apostasy from the true faith, Mattathias also appeared at the meeting with his sons and his followers. When they demanded from him, as the most respected person, to show an example of obedience to the king’s command, he loudly answered: “If all the nations in the region of the king’s kingdom listen to him, and everyone departs from the worship of their fathers, and agree to his commands, then I, and my sons, and my brothers will act according to the covenant of our fathers. God have mercy on us to leave the law and regulations behind! We will not listen to the words of the king, so that we may depart from our worship to the right or to the left” (1 Mac. 2:15–22). When one Jew approached the erected altar to worship Zeus, Mattathias could not restrain himself any longer: his jealousy flared up in him, he rushed at the apostate and killed him right there at the altar. His sons, equipped with large knives, attacked Apelles and his company, killed them and destroyed the altar. This act decided the whole matter. Here an example was given to abandon shameful inactivity, come out to fight and not succumb to more inglorious oppression. If death threatened them from all sides, then let them at least sell their lives dearly in order to force the enemy to respect the oppressed people by courageously resisting the enemy. After the reprisal carried out against the overseer and his detachment, Mattathias, turning to the people, exclaimed: “Whoever is zealous for the law and stands in the covenant, let him follow me!” (1Mac 2:27). All the inhabitants of Modin and the surrounding area responded to the call of the courageous old man, and he sought a safe refuge for them in the mountains of Ephraim. Here he found the remnant of the Hassideites who had escaped the massacre in the caves and all those who had been forced to flee persecution. As a result, the number of determined defenders of the fatherland and the law increased daily. Mattathias did not hide from them that they would have to endure a fierce struggle, and admonished them to prepare for it and not attach importance to life. Having received a warning from some of the Hassideites, who expressed doubt as to whether it was possible to move stones on the Sabbath for self-defense, the people's assembly around the aged Asmonaeus decided in the future to repulse every attack, even if it was made on them on the day of rest, with armed force, since the Sabbath law should not serve as an obstacle to the protection of the people and to the maintenance of the law so necessary for life. The Hassideans had nothing against this decision, and they, who had hitherto been accustomed to immersing themselves in the Holy Scriptures, men of a calm, peaceful way of life, took up arms. The confidence of powerful leaders creates brave warriors. Now the hopeless situation that the people experienced towards the end of the time of the judges was repeated. The land was under a foreign yoke, as at the beginning of Saul’s reign, the inhabitants took refuge in caves and gorges, some went over to the side of the enemy, and only a small handful of people were ready to defend their disgraced fatherland, although they had no weapons and were not accustomed to war. There was even less hope of victory now than then, since the enemy was incomparably more powerful and, as a result of improved military art, was able to destroy a handful of courageous rebels with one blow. Mattathias was therefore careful not to take any hostile actions against the Syrians with his small detachment. Familiar with every corner of his country, he and his sons and followers penetrated only into the villages, destroyed the erected idolatrous churches and altars, punished the inhabitants who held the enemy, pursued the Hellenists wherever he overtook them, and put the seal of the covenant on the remaining uncircumcised children. From time to time he could repel some weak Syrian detachment if one blocked his path. If the commander of the garrison in Jerusalem sent a large detachment to pursue the rebel Jews, they would hide and could not be found. In a word, Mattathias waged a petty guerrilla war against the enemy, which is only possible in mountainous countries, and then is capable of exhausting even a powerful enemy. Mattathias himself, however, soon died, but he did not leave his followers without a proper leader: he bequeathed to his son Judah the continuation of his work to free his country from the yoke of idolatry. The dying will of his elderly father inspired Judas with heroic jealousy, and he, under the name of Maccabee, that is, “a hammer against enemies,” together with his brothers heroically came out in defense of religion. With his appearance at the forefront of action, the uprising took an even more favorable turn. Judah was a warlike hero, such as the Israelites had not seen since the time of David and Joab, but only of an even more exalted and noble mood. An invisible force flowed from his heroic soul, which filled everyone gathered around him with fearlessness of death and thirst for exploits. At the same time, he was gifted with the insight of a commander: he could undertake a fight at a certain hour, take advantage of the enemy’s weakness and deceive him with imaginary attacks. On the one hand, he “looked like a lion in his anger,” and on the other, like a dove in his meekness and simplicity of heart. He was devoted to God and the law with all his soul, like those great men for whom the past history of Israel was famous. He relied not on his sword, but on divine help, which he called upon in every decisive battle. Judas Maccabee was a true Israeli hero, who resorted to bloodshed only in need, in order to again win the trampled freedom and again restore the fallen spirit of the people. With his heroism he gave his name to an entire era. The Maccabean wars in later times even served as a model for other peoples. At first, Judas continued only the military techniques of his father, acting secretly or at night to punish apostates, attract hesitant ones and cause minor harm to small Syrian detachments. But as the number of his followers constantly increased, due to the addition to him of those who had hitherto, out of love for a quiet life, recognizing the commands outwardly, and, rejecting Judaism, were now inflamed to fight, as well as those whom the cruelty and devastation on the part of Antiochus had completely cured of their insane devotion to Hellenism, Judas dared to come out in open struggle against the Syrian detachment that moved against him at the head with the military leader Apollonius. This latter, to fight the Jewish rebels, also sent garrison detachments from Samaria, reinforcing them with other detachments, since it seemed to him very dangerous to completely deprive Jerusalem, or rather Acre, of its military forces. This was the first open battle that Judah fought, and he endured it happily (166). The general Apollonius was killed, and his soldiers fell wounded on the battlefield or sought safety in flight. No matter how small the number of the defeated Syrian army was, however, this victory gave new confidence to the champions of Judaism. For the first time they looked into the eyes of a cruel enemy, their courage survived, and they saw in this a good sign that God had not abandoned His people, but was surrounding them with invisible help. Judas himself took the sword that fell from the hands of Apollonius and fought with it in all subsequent battles until his last breath (1 Mac. 3:12). The struggle that then continued could at times turn out to be unhappy for the patriots, producing temporary despondency in their souls; but their cause was so just that the champions of Judaism immediately recovered after this and relied entirely on the almighty help of the true God, and their hope was soon justified by the fact that a new brilliant victory fell to their lot. The Syrian commander Siron in the same year came out against Judah with a large army, in order to suppress his detachment with the superiority of his forces. The treacherous Hellenists also went with him to lead him along more convenient paths to the mountains where the rebels were hiding. When the Jewish patriots first saw this huge army on the hill of Bethorov, where Siron’s camp was set up, they cried out in despair: “How can we fight in such small numbers against such a strong multitude?” Meanwhile, Judas managed to calm their fear, and he reminded them of those precious goods that they had to defend, namely their lives, their children and their laws. Having thus inspired his soldiers, Judas ordered his detachment to move with courage against the Syrians, and defeated them completely. 800 of Siron's soldiers remained on the battlefield, while the rest fled west to the country of the Philistines (1 Mac. 3:13–24). This first decisive victory of Judah over a significant army at Bethhoron (166) instilled in the Jews hope for a happy outcome of their cause, and in the peoples fear of the heroism of Maccabee, his skillful leadership and the firmness of the people. But what did Antiochus, the culprit of all this turmoil, do in the meantime? At first he paid little attention to the Jews, hoping that his orders would be completely sufficient to subjugate them and persuade them to implement the plan he proposed. But when he was informed about the failures of his troops in the fight against them and the heroic name of Judas reached his ears, he realized that he valued the strength of their opposition too low. Under the influence of boiling anger, his first thought was to immediately deal with these restless Jews, send a large army against them under the leadership of experienced military leaders, destroy them completely and distribute their land among foreigners. But he could not carry out this plan soon; he had very few troops, and, moreover, he had to resort to the need to hire troops. For this, he again needed money, and this money flowed into his treasury more and more poorly; his wasteful expenses far exceeded his ever-diminishing income. Due to open struggle, no taxes were received from the Jews at all. Jerusalem was devastated and could supply nothing, and the rural population was equally in open rebellion against it. Added to this were other difficulties. Terrible news reached him from the east and north. Arsaces, his satrap of Parthia, fell away from the Syro-Babylonian state and declared his people independent. Artaxius, the Armenian king, also no longer paid any attention to his supreme sovereign Antiochus, but acted as a completely independent king. Even the inhabitants of Arad and other Phoenician cities refused to obey him, seeing how he increasingly indulged in a strange lifestyle and did stupid things after stupid things. As a result, his income decreased even more. In order to replenish his treasury again, he had to re-conquer the peoples that had fallen away from him, and in order to wage this war, he needed money. So he fell from one difficulty into another. Nevertheless, he still managed to get enough money to recruit a mercenary army for a year (1 Mac. 3:28). Of the troops thus recruited, he thought of half of the story against the fallen lands on the other side of the Euphrates, and half he handed over to his trusted dignitary of royal blood named Lysias, made him his governor over the lands of the Euphrates to the borders of Egypt and entrusted him with the education of his young son. He handed over to him the elephants, which he, contrary to the agreement with Rome and with some secret, equipped for war in order to use them in the fight against the Jewish people. In relation to the latter, he completely changed his plan. He no longer thought about Hellenizing this people, who with such stubbornness began to oppose his good, as it seemed to him, intention to install the highest morality among them and elevate them, through the granting of Greek citizenship, to a more honorable position, and even dared to take up arms against his army. By such an action, the Jewish people turned out to be unworthy of the benefit intended for them, and therefore incorrigible, since they persisted in remaining a special people, separated from all other peoples, and harbored hatred against them, contemptuously rejecting any thought of merging with them. Therefore, there was only one thing left to do with him - exterminate him, exterminate him completely. Lysias received an order from Antiochus to move with the army entrusted to him against Judea, and then, after conquering it, to destroy and destroy every trace of Israel and blot out every trace of Jerusalem, destroying the very memory of it from the land, and settle foreigners in their place, dividing the land itself according to their lot (1 Mac. 3:35, 36). The Jewish Hellenists were also subject to this extermination plan; Antiochus refused them too. What did he care about the small number of those who slavishly obeyed his commands, or even contributed to them? And they also belonged to this incorrigible tribe and did not deserve his mercy. As soon as this bloodthirsty plan became known, all the Jews were seized with fear and despair, and especially those who lived mixed outside Judea among other nations. Will the small, albeit courageous, detachment led by Maccabeus be able to withstand a clash with a large army, moreover, equipped with war elephants? Throughout the whole country and all the cities where the news of this plan reached, complete despair reigned among the Jews, crying and cries were heard everywhere. But this unheard of insane plan to exterminate the entire people, with men, women and children, which had no guilt behind it except that it rejected any interference in its internal and most dear affairs, also had its good side. He attracted masses of new fighters to the defenders of the fatherland. Even those worldly and frivolous people among the Jews, and even the apostates among them, who had previously completely mocked Judaism, now stuck to the Maccabees, because there was no other choice left for them. Only the Hellenists of the most depraved nature, like Menelaus and his party, still clung to Antiochus, since they no longer had any hope of being accepted among the valiant defenders of the faith of the fathers. Meanwhile, the temporary situation seemed rather disconsolate. With every moment a large Syrian army was expected, which was supposed to crush the champions of Judaism with its very superiority. Consequently, it was necessary to inspire the entire people to fight and to courageous patience. This courage and patience could only be gleaned from the traditions of the historical antiquity of the people, and for this purpose the most outstanding legends were recorded in books, such as for example. “The Book of Esther,” which outlined the wonderful providence of God for the Jewish people in one of the most difficult periods of their historical life. In this book, the people could read a comforting story about how the Jewish people were saved from the treachery of a cruel enemy by the beauty and intelligence of a poor Jewish maiden, who, by the special providence of God, became the queen of a powerful king. Such a story could most of all inspire the champions of Judaism with the idea of ​​God’s miraculous participation in the destinies of His chosen people, and the conviction that He would not abandon them even in this difficult hour. And the danger was approaching the Jews ever closer. When Antiochus with part of his troops went to the east (166), his governor Lysias chose as his supreme commander a certain Ptolemy, who was the governor of Kili-Syria and Phenicia, and gave him under the command of two subordinate military leaders, Nicanor, the son of Patroclus, from the king’s confidants, and Gorgias, experienced in military affairs (2 Mac. 8:8–10). This latter was given instructions to move against the Judean rebels, and he and his detachment, amounting to 40,000 people with cavalry, moved along the sea plain to penetrate into the very heart of Judea. The Samaritans and Philistines, as long-time enemies of the Jews, immediately joined him. He was so confident of his victory that he summoned slave traders who were supposed to come to his camp with money marks and chains to buy Jews, believing at the same time to sell them at ninety people per talent. The Syrian commander found it more profitable for himself, instead of beating the Jews, selling them into slavery and using the proceeds to pay off the war debt owed to the Romans by Antiochus. While such negotiations were going on regarding the people, the Jewish soldiers gathered around their heroic leader Judah Maccabee; there were only six thousand of them 428. Before leading them into battle, the leader considered it necessary to infuse heroic courage into their spirit. He called them to a solemn meeting in the mountain town of Mizpah (two hours from Jerusalem). A wonderful repetition in history! Nine centuries earlier, the prophet Samuel, in a similar plight of the people, in this very place convened a similar meeting to elect a leader to fight for the liberation of Israel, doomed by a cruel enemy to destruction. Judah chose Mizpah as a gathering point because, after the destruction of the church at Gedaliah, it served as a center for the rest of the Jews, where a small church was located. Since it was impossible to gather for prayer in Jerusalem, because the Temple of Jerusalem was desecrated and occupied by enemies, and the enemies lived nearby in Acre, Mizpah seemed the most convenient place for prayer. Here many people flocked from neighboring cities to take part in the solemn prayer meeting. Even the Nazirites, who at certain times abstained from wine and needed to break their vows in the church, also came to Mizpah. The meeting was permeated with an extremely serious mood; for the whole day it observed the strictest fast, put on sackcloth, and from the fullness of feeling of which a distressed heart is capable, prayed to God for mercy and help. The Torah scroll, which the Jewish army always had with them, was taken out, and a complaint was heard that Antiochus wanted to tear it out of the hearts of the people in order to liken them to the pagans and idolaters (1 Mac. 3:44–48). At the sight of the original tithes, the priestly vestments, and especially the Nazarenes present, the most bitter complaints were awakened among the people. What was to be done with all this when the church was inaccessible and when it was impossible even to remove the vow from those who took it upon themselves? Meanwhile, Judas meant not only to move the people and bring them to a deep consciousness of their situation, but also to fill them with courage and readiness for the most desperate struggle against a cruel enemy. He divided his army into four detachments and placed his three older brothers over each detachment. In accordance with the prescription of the law, he ordered special commissioners to make an announcement that those who had just recently gotten married or built a new house, or planted a vineyard, or who lacked the proper courage, were allowed to leave the army (1 Mac. 3:55-56). He then marched against the enemy to Emmaus, 429 eight or nine hours from Mizpah, between Bethhoron and Jamnia, where the western mountains meet the plain. Gorgias camped on the plain near this place, since from here it seemed easiest for him to penetrate the mountains of Judea and, thus, attack the very assembly point of the Maccabean army. Judah positioned himself with his detachment south of Emmaus on the nearest heights so as not to be noticed by the enemies. The Syrian commander planned to attack the Jews at night. But Judas Maccabee outwitted this military stratagem. When night fell, he and his army left their camp, moved along the paths known to him to the west and thus stood in the rear of the enemy. Since Gorgias found the positions of the Jews empty, it seemed to him that they, out of fear of him, retreated further into the mountains and moved in pursuit of them. This is precisely what Judas’s military cunning was designed for. He hit the Syrians in the rear, reached their camp, set it on fire and then rushed at the troops themselves. Only with the onset of day Gorgias noticed that the enemy he was looking for in the mountains was behind him from the side of the plain. Therefore, he could only hastily give the order to one detachment of his army to stop and move against the Jews. Meanwhile, Maccabeus had already put his detachment in battle formation and with a fiery speech set him up to fight for the fatherland, law and shrine. His younger brother hurriedly read several inspiring verses from the Torah and announced to the soldiers the password: “God's help.” Since the Jewish army outnumbered this separate detachment of Syrian troops and fought with extraordinary enthusiasm, it was victorious, and the enemy sought refuge in flight, part of it heading north to Gezer, and the other part west to Jamnia, and south to Azoth. Judas exhorted his soldiers not to rush to the prey, since they still had to fight with the rest of the troops of the enemy returning from the mountains. Soon these troops appeared, and the Jewish soldiers were ready to engage them in battle. But it didn't come to that. As soon as these and other Syrians saw smoke rising from the site of their former camp, they immediately fled, heading south into the land of the Philistines. “And in that day there was great salvation for Israel” (1 Mac. 4:25). And indeed, the victory at Emmaus, achieved through cleverly calculated military cunning and persistent courage, had extremely important consequences. She undermined the enemy's strength and instilled in the Jews self-confidence in their ability to fight against a well-armed and numerous army. Neither the cavalry nor the infantry protected by helmets and armor were able to intimidate them then. The weapons that the Jews desperately needed at the beginning of the battle were now left to them in abundance by the fleeing enemy. At the same time, they also got rich booty, so that they “captured a lot of gold and silver, patsint and scarlet clothes and great wealth.” This victory gave them the means to win in the ongoing struggle. Judas and all his people were overwhelmed with extraordinary enthusiasm, and, returning from the battlefield, “they sang and blessed the Lord of heaven, because He is good, and His mercy endures forever” (1 Mac. 4:23–24). But despite the victory, the Jews could not yet let go of the sword; they could be quite sure that Lysias, who was given the insane commission to exterminate the Jews, would not reconcile himself with the defeat inflicted on his commander, but would take strenuous measures to atone for this shame. As a result, they remained under arms and were very happy that their numbers increased and reached ten thousand people (1 Mac. 4:29). If ever there was a holy war, then the war waged by the Maccabees most deserves such a name. When the next year (in the fall of 165) Lysias himself set out on a campaign against the Jews with a strong, selected army consisting of infantry and horsemen, he found its defenders even more courageous and steadfast. He did not dare to enter the country in the same way along the coastal plain, but ordered a detour to be made from the south from the area occupied by the Edomites in order to invade Judea from there. He set up his camp at Bethsur, about five hours south of Jerusalem. Maccabeus marched against him with a force of ten thousand; it came to a proper battle, and the friendly onslaught of the Jews again triumphed over the military art of the Syrian mercenary troops. Lysias was defeated and, convinced of the extraordinary tenacity of the Jews, retreated, consoling himself with the hope of finally triumphing over them over time, when his army increased. As a result, Judea was completely cleared of enemies; only in Acre, in Jerusalem, the still incorrigible Hellenists continued to live, together with Menelaus, and, perhaps, also an insignificant Syrian garrison. Chapter 65. Consecration of the Church and Death of Judas Maccabee Decisive victories at Mizpah and Bethsur completely changed the situation. The threatened danger was averted. Lysias could not quickly move new troops into Judea, since he, like his sovereign, did not have the means to recruit them. Almost three and a half years have passed since the beginning of religious persecution and desecration of the church. After the extraordinary excitement, a certain calm came. Judas Maccabeus and his followers took advantage of this favorable circumstance to move to Jerusalem and cleanse it of the abomination of desolation established there. The sight of the holy city struck with extraordinary grief its faithful sons, who shed their blood for its honor. His criminal sons, apostates from the faith of their fathers, weakened and disfigured the city so much that it could not be recognized again. He looked like a desert in which only his destroyers and haters moved boldly. The sanctuary was especially devastated: the doors to it were burned, the premises were destroyed, altars to idols were erected everywhere, and on the altar the image of the Olympian Zeus and the image of the wicked Antiochus were boldly raised. The champions of Judaism, however, could not indulge in sadness and grief for a long time on the occasion of the devastation and desecration of the people's shrine, but had to act quickly so as not to be caught in the act of cleansing. Their first task was to destroy the image of Zeus and remove the stones, as well as other unclean objects from the courtyards 430. But they also removed the altar; due to the desecration that was often committed on it, it seemed no longer suitable for making sacrifices to the true God on it. At a meeting of the lawyers, it was decided not to throw the stones of the altar along with the rest of the objects into any unclean place, but to put them in one room of the courtyard and store them there until the expected prophet Elijah comes and indicates what to do with them. Then a new altar was erected from rough stones cut from underground limestone layers. New doors were hung in the gates and new church vessels, a golden candlestick, an altar of incense and a gilded table for the showbread were placed. All these sacred vessels were stolen by Antiochus; the booty taken from his defeated army provided the means to make new vessels from it. Within three weeks, all preparations were completed, and early in the morning, on the twenty-fifth day of Haslev (in November 165), the solemn consecration of the church was performed, accompanied by sacrifices and prayers of thanksgiving (1 Mac. 4:52–54). The consecration was performed in the most reverent and sincere mood. Those present were animated by the noblest and purest feelings. The time of distress and the fear of death, which had weighed on them for three and a half years, now fell from them, and they could breathe freely and look joyfully into the future. This sanctification meant not only the victory of the weak over the strong, the faithful over the wicked, but also, especially, the victory of Judaism over refined Hellenic idolatry, the God of Israel over idols. The feast of consecration lasted for eight days, following the example of a similar holiday celebrated under Solomon, or, perhaps, also in order to compensate for the eight-day Feast of Tabernacles, which the people could not celebrate for a long time given the difficult situation at that time. All the people from all the cities of Judea took part in it; In honor of the great event, the inhabitants of Jerusalem lit lamps in front of their houses, as symbols of the Torah, which the psalmists called light, and which for the second time became the property of the people. The Maccabean brothers, in agreement with the rest of the high council, made one important decision for the future. Henceforth, annually, in memory of the consecration of the church, an eight-day holiday was to be celebrated from the twenty-fifth day of the month of Haslev. From year to year, all members of the house of Israel had to celebrate, thus, the glorious victory of a small handful of defenders of the true religion over a powerful enemy and remember the restoration of the shrine. This decision was subsequently carried out sincerely and conscientiously. From that time on, a new holiday of “renewal” of the church was forever established among the Jews, which was also called the Feast of Lights. It is clear that the previous order was again introduced in the church, and the priests and Levites were again restored to their positions. Only those members of the house of Aaron who took part in idolatry were excluded from the sanctuary and the honors and benefits associated with it. This just severity, however, had harmful consequences and only made the situation even more tense. Priests from among the Hellenists and adherents of Menelaus, having been refused acceptance by the representatives of the people, only felt even more hatred towards the national religious party and redoubled their hostility during the cleansing of the church. Judah had to keep his soldiers on guard so as not to be attacked by the Hellenists, and as soon as the time of consecration had passed, he ordered Mount Zion to be surrounded by a wall, protected by high solid towers, and occupied it with a strong garrison to protect it from a surprise attack from neighboring Bira or Acre. Assuming that the people would still have a long struggle before freedom was finally won, he also took care of other ways to defend the fatherland. Thus, he ordered the fortification of the city of Bethsura, south of Jerusalem, from which Lysias last tried to invade with his army. This city was also supposed to be a fortress for protection from the attacks of the Edomites (1 Mac. 4:60, 61). The victories of the Jewish champions of freedom against the well-armed Syrian troops, meanwhile, aroused the fierce hatred of the surrounding nationalities towards the Jewish people and prompted them to fierce hostility against the Jews living among them or seeking refuge with them, since these nationalities were either dissatisfied with their successes, or even feared their domination. The Philistines from the southwest, the Ammonites on the other side of the Jordan, and the Syrians and Macedonians in general in the surrounding area - they were all animated by the same hostility towards the Jews, and most of all, apparently, the Edomites in the south. Driven out of their own land by their enemies the Naboth, they settled in the former Judean regions, partly in the west, where there were the cities of Moresha, Adora and others, and partly in the east, near the Dead Sea. This district was called Acravattinian Idumea. The Edomites even owned Hebron and already dreamed of becoming the owners of the whole earth. Both during the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar and during the plight of the Jewish people during the reign of Antiochus, they showed extraordinary hostility towards the Jews, lay in wait for fugitives, insulted them, and even killed some of them. It was therefore of the utmost importance to deprive them of their ability to cause further harm. Since the path to them was not far, Judah first of all undertook a campaign against the sons of Esau in Akravittina, defeated them and expelled them from the area they occupied. Judas punished especially severely the sons of Bean, who were most malicious against the Jews. Although they locked themselves in the towers from him, he took these towers and burned them with all those who were in them. Then he and his army crossed the Jordan. After several battles, he defeated them, captured several cities and between them their capital Ravba Ammon, which later received the name Philadelphia, as well as the fortified city of Jazer, where their brave leader Timothy wanted to find refuge. Having defeated all his enemies here, Judas returned to Judea in triumph. As soon as the Jewish army returned to Jerusalem, bad news again came about the oppression of the Jewish brothers by their pagan neighbors. As once to Saul, so now the Jews in their distress turned to Maccabee. Those of them who lived in Gilead and Bashan sent him a letter in which they informed him that pagan nations had gathered against them with the goal of destroying them, and at the head of their enemies was again the cruel and brave Timothy. At the same time, they reported about their brethren in the Tov region that the enemies there had beaten a thousand Jewish men, taken women and children into captivity, and plundered all their property. Then messengers arrived with torn clothes and a letter from the Jews of Galilee that they were also threatened with death from the inhabitants of Acre (Ptolemais), Tire and Sidon. They all begged Judas to rush to their aid with his army and as quickly as possible, since otherwise it would be too late. He did not need, like Saul, to send messengers to all the tribes and resort to threats in order to gather an army to help his oppressed brethren. The army was near him; it consisted of warriors already experienced in military affairs and was animated by a joyful readiness to lay down their lives for the salvation of unfortunate compatriots. Maccabee divided his army, entrusted part of it to his brother Simon for the liberation of the Jews of Galilee, and he, with his brother Jonathan, moved across the Jordan (to Perea) to help the oppressed brethren there; he entrusted the rest of the Jewish soldiers to two leaders to guard the borders of Judea in the west against invasion from the Philistine land, where Gorgias’s main apartment was located. He ordered them to exclusively take a defensive position and not to go on the offensive. Simon completed the task assigned to him quickly and happily. First of all, he made an attack on Acre, the Jewish inhabitants of which were subjected to especially cruel oppression at the hands of the Greeks or Macedonians. Here he came across an enemy detachment of troops, which was defeated, scattered and pursued to the walls of this port. This victory put an end to the whole matter. The Macedonians of other cities did not dare to oppose him anymore. Simon therefore went unhindered through all the settlements of Galilee and the region of Arbela, in the vicinity of Lake Galilee, gathered the Jews living there, and determined to evict them from there and then settle them all in Judea. Regarding this plan, he no doubt agreed in advance with Judas Maccabee, who decided not to leave his compatriots any longer among the surrounding enemies, where they were daily exposed to bullying and danger. The evicted Galilean families settled in the Jewish cities (1 Mac. 5:20–23). Judas Maccabee, meanwhile, decided to endure a very painful struggle in the region of Perea. Here, as in previous times, solid fortifications were erected on the heights, which had to be taken by storm. On his way, he again met the stubborn enemy leader Timothy. Meanwhile, Judah took several fortifications, Bosorah, Karnaim, Ephron and others, tore down their walls, left their inhabitants alone, freed the Jews imprisoned in one fortification, as well as the Jews of Tob, and also gathered all the Gilead Jews to resettle them beyond the Jordan and settle there. He led them through the city of Bethsan or Scythopolis, whose pagan inhabitants treated their Jewish fellow citizens more peacefully and friendly and did not cause them any trouble. Judas could therefore leave them in this Judean area. Shortly before the Feast of Tabernacles (2 Mac 12:31), he returned along with the mass of Gilead migrants to Jerusalem. From all the cities of Judea the people gathered to greet the winner and celebrate the holiday with joyful thanksgiving. Psalms of thanksgiving were again heard in the church and the people of Israel could cry out from the fullness of their hearts: "Praise the Lord, for He is good, Out of trouble I cried out to the Lord, and he heard me, And the Lord brought me to a spacious place. The Lord created this day: Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Praise the Lord, for He is good, For His mercy endures forever." 431 Immediately after the end of the holiday, Judas moved with his detachment to make amends for the unexpected harm suffered in one respect. During his absence, it was precisely two subordinate military leaders to whom he entrusted the protection of the land in the west, Joseph, the son of Zechariah, and Azariah, contrary to his command, who attacked the detachment of Gorgias in Jamnia, but were defeated and were driven back to the Judean mountains. Therefore, Judas undertook a military campaign against Gorgias in order to push him back with the fear of his name and the strength of his army. Meanwhile, the Syrian commander stopped in Idumea; Therefore, Maccabeus first directed his weapons against this particular country. He took Hebron, which was in the possession of the Edomites, and destroyed the fortifications and towers that were in it. The Jews brought from Gilead and Toba fought bravely with him. One Tobian, named Dositheus, rushed at Gorgias himself and grappled tightly with him in order to take him prisoner; but one of the Thracian horsemen saved the Syrian commander by cutting off the attacker’s hand with his sword (2 Mac. 12:35). Since Gorgias fled with the rest of the army to Maresha, located several hours southwest of Hebron, Judas followed him, but apparently did not win any decisive victory over him. From here the Jewish army headed against the Philistine seaside city of Azoth, the inhabitants of which, apparently, submitted voluntarily, as a result of which it limited itself to the destruction of idol altars and images of the gods. At this time, Judas apparently subjected the Greek inhabitants of Joppa to due punishment. These latter, under some pretext, lured their Jewish fellow citizens onto their ships, which were kept at the ready, and when they, not suspecting anything bad, flattered by such friendly treatment, together with the Greeks sailed along the coast, along with women and children, then suddenly, numbering two hundred people, they were thrown into the sea by the barbarians and found their grave in its waves. As punishment for such atrocities against his compatriots, Judas marched against Joppa, setting fire to the harbor and burning the ships there. Conquering the city itself, which lay on an inaccessible hill, seemed no easy task; therefore, he retreated from him, uttering, however, the threat that he would soon return again (2 Mac. 12:3–7). Also in the city of Jambia, whose inhabitants were also hostile to the Jews, he burned the harbor with all the goods that were there (2 Mac. 12:8-9). While Judas transformed his compatriots from unarmed fugitives hiding in caves into heroes who despised death, inspired the people with a spirit of self-help and confidence in the future, everywhere humbled and punished the enemies of the Jews, the Syrian army remained calm, as if all this did not concern them at all. A whole year had passed since the defeat of Lysias at Bethsura, and during this year Maccabeus and the people not only offered open resistance to the king, but also attacked his subjects everywhere with weapons in their hands, without encountering any obstacles from his state governor, who did not provide any protection to those under attack. What could be the reason for this inactivity of Lysias, in whose hands were the reins of government? Perhaps he did not have enough funds to recruit new mercenary troops, or perhaps he even considered the Jews invincible. In any case, very unpleasant and difficult news reached Antiochus Epiphanes from different countries of Asia. After bringing the rebellious governor of the Armenians, Artaxius, into submission, he made a campaign in Parthia, without, however, achieving any military successes there and without replenishing his empty treasury at all. Oppressed by a lack of money, he undertook a campaign against the city of Susa, in Elimaida, to rob the treasures he had accumulated in the church of the goddess Anaida. But the residents showed strong opposition to him and forced him to retreat. This was his last feat, and he soon fell into a disgusting illness in the Persian city of Tawa and ended his life in madness (in December 164). His illness, caused by a fall from a chariot, received an extraordinary development and turned into disgusting rot, “showing to everyone the obvious power of God, so that worms crawled out of the body of the wicked in large numbers and parts of the body fell out of the body from illness and suffering while still alive; the stench of the stench from him was unbearable in the whole army. And the one who shortly before had dreamed of touching the stars of heaven, no one could wear because of the unbearable stench” (2 Mac. 9:7-11). In such an unbearable situation, remorse arose in Antiochus for all his previous atrocities and especially for his insane actions against the Jews and their church, and he repented in this regard. Before his death, he even addressed a special decree to the Jews, in which, repenting of all the disasters caused to them, he promised them all kinds of benefits and mercies in the future, if only they would prove faithful to his successor, his son. “So this murderer and blasphemer,” the biblical historian concludes, “having endured the severe suffering that he inflicted on others, he ended his life on a foreign side, in the mountains, with the most pitiful death” (2 Mac. 9:28). Before his death he fully revealed his abnormal mental state, for he appointed one of his confidants, Philip, as regent of the state and guardian of his young son Antiochus V, although he had previously granted unlimited authority to Lysias. With this order, he exposed his entire state to the danger of rivalry between the two commissioners, and indeed his dying testament was fatal for the Syrian-Macedonian monarchy and the house of the Seleucids in general. The death of Antiochus Epiphanes did not bring with it any drastic change in the position of the Jews. Lysias continued to rule autocratically as before, considered himself the authorized guardian of the young king Antiochus V Eupator and did nothing against the Jews. Now he had even more reason not to fragment the forces at his disposal, since he was threatened by two enemies. On the one hand, every day Philip could speak out against him, in order to declare the right granted to him on his deathbed by Antiochus Epiphanes to be the guardian of the young king and the regent of the state and oust him, and on the other hand, in Rome, Prince Demetrius, as Lisia knew, who was a hostage in Rome, sought from the Senate and influential persons permission to return to Antioch and occupy what actually belonged to him throne If only Rome had to say a word against Eupator, he would have died. Therefore, Lysias remained completely inactive, so as not to attract the attention of powerful Rome. Judas Maccabeus took advantage of this inactivity of the Syrian regent to improve the difficult internal situation of his people. The situation of the Jewish people was in fact extremely strange. In Jerusalem there were two fortified places nearby, from which hostile parties daily caused destruction and death to each other. In Acre or Bir, to the north-west of the church, the Hellenists still lived with their high priest Menelaus, and they, although abandoned by the Syrian court, still continued to be in a hostile attitude towards the national party and towards the sanctuary. To make their attacks on the church harmless, Judas surrounded it with a high wall and provided it with towers. Where the Hellenists got their provisions from, since they were cut off from the outside world and sat in their fortified castle, remains mysterious, as does how they could maintain relations with their like-minded people in other places. At the same time, they had to use all sorts of tricks and underground passages. But how long would this continuous war of two hostile camps lying so close to each other last? Judas Maccabee took steps to put an end to this state of affairs. He and his warriors undertook a formal siege against Acre, erecting ramparts and placing throwing engines to hurl huge stones at the walls. In such an extreme situation, some Hellenists tried to break through the chain of besiegers in order to get to the young king Eupator, bring him a complaint about their constraint and ask him for help. They were joined by some of the villages that had secretly communicated with them and were therefore dissatisfied with the uprising of the people. Arriving in Antioch, they laid out their complaint to the young king that because of obedience to the commands of his father and because of devotion to him, they were punished by the rebels, beaten and their property was plundered. Then they further declared to Eupator, or his guardian, that if Acre also fell into the hands of the Maccabean army, the rebels would become invincible (1 Mac. 6:19-27). In view of this, a meeting was held at the Syrian court, and it was decided to suppress the uprising in Judea by military force before it was too late. Among the advisers, the voice of Ptolemy Macron also rose for an attempt to settle the matter peacefully, but he was accused of lying and a treasonous agreement with the Jews, so out of sadness he chose to take poison (2 Mac. 10:12, 13). And so the flame of war flared up again (in the spring of 163). This was an unfavorable time for the Jews, because it was a Sabbath year in which no crops were done, and the law of the Sabbath year was strictly and conscientiously fulfilled by the Jews, who had just sacrificed their lives for their faith and for their teaching. As a result, there was no sowing or harvest this year. The population had to be content with tree fruits and the little that the land produced without sowing from seeds that accidentally fell during the harvest in previous years. The fortifications in their hands could therefore not be supplied with adequate supplies of provisions. Lysias, accompanied by the royal boy Eupator, again moved against Judea with a strong army, consisting of infantry, cavalry, and also war elephants, and still decided to invade it from the south. Maccabeus could only field a few thousand soldiers against him, since he had to leave significant troops to defend the cities, the church and Bethsur. As a result, he had to limit himself to self-defense. Lysias met his first resistance in Bethsurah, whose garrison bravely repelled the attack, and even made forays to destroy the erected siege engines. But this city could not withstand a long siege, because it had a small supply of provisions, and, moreover, one traitor, a certain Rodok, from among the defenders of the city, showed the enemy the secret routes through which subsistence was brought to him. Tormented by hunger, the Bethsur garrison had to surrender the fortification to the besieger, under the condition of free exit. Having cleared the way for themselves from this side, the Syrian army moved towards Jerusalem. Then Maccabee had no choice but to come out to meet him. He encamped near Beth Sakhare, not far from Bethsur, and when it came to battle, the Jews again showed miracles of lionish courage. One of the Asmonean brothers, Eleazar Savaran, crawled under one of the elephants, assuming that the rider on it was the king himself, stabbed him and was crushed by the killed animal. But the Syrian army, which outnumbered the Jews, won. Judas and his detachment retreated to Jerusalem and dug in in the church fortifications. Soon Lysias, the king and the army approached, and began to wage a regular siege against the church, erecting ramparts and throwing stones and arrows from throwing machines. Judas, however, did not remain without opposition and, for his part, also erected throwing machines. As the siege dragged on, the rather insufficient supply of provisions was soon consumed by the army. Tormented by hunger, the warriors little by little began to leave the strongholds of the church through underground passages and scattered throughout the country. Only Maccabeus, his three brothers and the detachment completely devoted to them bravely withstood even the pangs of hunger. Jerusalem, or rather the last refuge, the church, was close to falling due to lack of food and, perhaps, again to the same destruction that it had already suffered during the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Then he was saved by a completely unexpected event. Philip, whom Antiochus Epiphanes, in his dying frenzy, appointed as state regent and guardian of his son, during this time gathered troops in Media and Persia and marched on Antioch to wrest power from the hands of Lysias. As soon as the latter received news in his camp about the campaign directed against him, he involuntarily had to think about moving his troops engaged in the siege of Jerusalem against the enemy as quickly as possible. Therefore, he persuaded the young king to make peace with the Jews. In favor of this, he put forward the reason that a lack of provisions would soon force the besieging troops to retreat. As a result, a peace treaty was concluded (in 163), the main condition of which was that the Jews should be given unlimited freedom of religion and the fortification of the church should remain intact. The king and his guardian swore to fulfill the agreement, and after that the gates were opened for them to enter the outer courtyard of the church. But having entered the city, they, despite this oath, gave orders to their soldiers to destroy the walls and towers in order to deprive the Jews of their last refuge. In other respects they did no harm or offense to the church. Lysias had to rush against his enemy Philip, who, meanwhile, had already captured the capital Antioch. Thus, numerous Asmonean wars ended with favorable results. First of all, freedom of religion was ensured and the Jews were no longer forced to make sacrifices to Zeus, break their laws and forcibly Hellenize. But the struggle also had another important result. The Syrian court withdrew its protective hand from the Hellenists, and they had to abandon the castle of Acre. Menelaus, the author of all unspeakable disasters, was sacrificed by Lysias. He saw him as the main disturber of the peace and ordered his execution in Bor (Aleppo), after he had disgraced the high priesthood for ten years with his crimes and atrocities. Jason, who, although he did not reach the wickedness of Menelaus, and even partially contributed to the restoration of order, had already died earlier in a foreign land. Pursued by Antiochus Epiphanes and his friend, the Nabothian prince Aretas, expelled from his country, he fled to Egypt, but even there he did not find any refuge for himself, and, wandering from city to city, finally found his grave in Sparta (2 Mac. 5:8 et seq.). Since, as a result of the peace concluded between the Syrian court and the Jewish people, peace was established for some time and the previous order could be restored without hindrance, it was necessary to legally install the high priest again, so that, according to the previous custom, he would stand not only at the head of the church and the priesthood, but also at the head of the entire people. But who was more worthy for this sacred office and for governing the people than Judas Maccabee himself? Apparently, Antiochus Eupator, or his guardian Lysias, granted him this dignity, especially since he was already, during the two-year struggle after the cleansing of the church, a kind of high priest and ruler of the people. In the now calm time, the warriors could now lay down their weapons, the farmers could turn to cultivating their fields, the scribes could turn to the law and its interpretation, and the bloody wounds of the people began to close and heal. Unfortunately, this calm period did not last long. Minds, owing to party divisions and civil wars, were still too much excited to cast a veil of oblivion over the past. There were still open and secret Hellenists who hated Judas and his followers. On the other hand, Judas and his associates treated with great severity those who were guilty of deviating from their fatherly customs. Many of them were expelled from the land and punished for religious apostasy; Hellenistic priests were not allowed to serve in the church. These outcasts and persecuted were of course only waiting for a favorable opportunity to take revenge on their enemies, and this opportunity soon presented itself to them. Prince Demetrius, whom Antiochus Epiphanes had dethroned, and who was still held in Rome as a hostage (though no one knew for whom or for what), took advantage of one favorable moment to retire from Rome and overthrow the son of the thief of his throne along with his guardian. Lysias did one stupid thing: he got elephants accustomed to war and built himself warships, although this was forbidden to him by the Roman Senate. In view of such a violation of the Roman command, Rome sent one of its strictest statesmen, the envoy Knei Octavius, to Sirte to not only severely reprimand the regent, but also to burn the ships. This order was carried out by him without any opposition, for which, however, Octavius ​​was killed by one patriot in a bathhouse in Laodicea. The rulers of Rome, extremely dissatisfied with the Antiochian court, turned a blind eye to the fact that Demetrius secretly left Rome, boarded a ship in Tripolis, went to Antioch, won over the people and army to his side, and ordered the destruction of King Eupator along with his guardian Lysias. This unexpected change, which led to the overthrow of some high-ranking personalities who had stood out under both kings, was taken advantage of by dissatisfied Hellenistic Jews to bring a complaint against the Asmonean brothers and their followers. They were again led by a priest named Joachim, or, in Greek, Alcimus, about whom it is unknown whether he belonged to the determined Hellenists or only to the half-Hellenists. In any case, it is known that he was an ambitious man, and, in order to achieve the goal of his ambition, he was ready to sacrifice his convictions. He strove for the high priestly dignity, to which, in his opinion, he had more rights, by virtue of his origin, than Judas Maccabeus, who came only from the priestly family of Joarib. Alcimus was irritated that he was rejected due to his past, and expelled from the church, he was deprived of the right to serve at the altar. He and his like-minded people, having stocked up, as they say, with a significant amount of gold, went to Demetrius, presented to him a gloomy picture of the situation in Judea, and complained about Judas and his followers as the culprits of all disasters, since they were only plotting an uprising and war and causing unrest in the country. All the force of the complaint was directed against Maccabeus, since as long as he was alive, the earth would never enjoy peace. For Demetrius, this complaint was very opportune, since it gave him an opportunity to show his power over this country, half separated from Syria, the example of which could act temptingly on others. However, he did not follow in the footsteps of his uncle and did not issue orders for new religious persecution. But by installing a priest of his own choice, as the political head of the country, he wanted to show himself as the sovereign of the Jewish people. To eliminate any contradiction and opposition, he sent the cunning, unforgiving military leader Bacchides with a military detachment to Jerusalem to elevate Alcimus to the rank of high priest and announce the king’s command that he would subject to merciless punishment for any disobedience to his commands. Alcimus and the Hellenists, who were afraid of the heroic courage of Maccabeus, apparently advised Bacchides to first enter into friendly relations with the people and by peaceful promises and cunning to persuade the national party to submit to their power. Consequently, the Syrian commissioner approached Jerusalem with peace on his lips; but by this he by no means deceived Judas, his brothers and their faithful followers. They were sure that it was about their lives and about the new subjugation of the land, they left the capital and again withdrew to the mountains, in order to again act as saviors of the fatherland from there at a more favorable time. Meanwhile, some of his followers (the Hassideites) succumbed to deception. They trusted Alkim, since he came from the family of Aaron, or, perhaps, because he was related to some of the respected teachers of the law. Many of the respected scribes, perhaps the entire corporation of the restored supreme council, handed themselves over to Bacchides and Alcimus, assured of their devotion and desire for peace, and asked to take care of the pacification of the earth and put an end to the violence that led to savagery. The new high priest, for his part, gave assurance that he had the same intention to grant peace and prosperity to the earth, and swore to it. But as soon as he took possession of the church and the city, he, or Bacchides, ordered the execution in one day of sixty Hassideans who had gone over to him, and among them was probably Alcimus’s uncle, the respected teacher of the law, Josiah. This shameful deed, together with the oath-breaking, spread horror and sorrow throughout the entire land. Again, apparently, the terrible days of Antiochus Epiphanes and Menelaus had come. The eyes of the people turned again to Maccabeus, all their hearts turned to him. Many of those who had previously gone over to Alkim's party again fell away from him and began to gather around the Asmonean brothers in Modin. When Bacchides then in one place, Bethsachar, not far from Jerusalem, ordered the corpses of many of those who abandoned Alcimus to be killed and thrown into a cistern, internecine war flared up again (161). Men and youths who loved their fatherland and freedom again began to gather under the banner of the Asmonean brothers. Alkim, on the contrary, attracted to himself all the ambitious, pleasure-seekers and lawbreakers. And so, again, two hostile parties came out against each other. At first, the Hellenistic party was stronger, since it again found support in the foreign army, which Bacchides left in Judea and was again stationed in Acre (1 Mac. 7:33). With this army he went throughout the country, with the goal of bringing the inhabitants into obedience to Demetrius and forcing them to recognize their rank. But little by little the number of Maccabees’ adherents increased, and he again began hostile actions against the Hellenists, punished the defectors and instilled such terror that Alcimus’ adherents could no longer remain in the villages. As a result, they all gathered in Jerusalem. Like Alcimus's predecessors, he too now thought to find support for his position at the Syrian court rather than in the disposition of the people towards him. He hurried to Antioch, brought a new complaint against the Asmoneans, and again found favorable attention. In the very first year of his reign, Tsar Demetrius, with his abrupt and rash actions, made himself many enemies, so that he encountered hostility from different sides, and even the Romans did not treat him with favor. Therefore, he had to be especially jealous of his royal authority and thought to eliminate any disobedience with the strictest measures. He thought to deal with the rebellious Jews quickly. He sent one of his generals, named Nicanor, who fled with him from Rome, to Judea, at the head of an elephant detachment, to punish the rebels with inexorable severity. This general also thought it best to first try to settle the matter peacefully, since he knew what influence Maccabeus had over the people and how he could inspire the people to a desperate struggle, in which victory would become very difficult. At the same time, Nikanor also wanted to gain time until the troops necessary for him were gathered. Moreover, they say that the Syrian military leader, having become more familiar with the exploits of Judah’s courage and heroism, even began to respect him and wanted to establish reconciliation between him and the king. Therefore, he sent three proxies to Maccabeus: Posidonius, Theodotus and Mattathias, with proposals to settle the matter. These envoys were not unpleasant for Judas and his followers, and as a result an agreement was established between him and Nicanor. The latter, upon personal acquaintance with the Jewish hero, was so fascinated by him that he advised him, after peace was restored, to marry in order to continue his heroic lineage in the future. This good agreement greatly disturbed Alcimus, and he reported to the king that Nicanor was playing a false role, was merciful to the royal enemy Judas, and was even planning to install him as high priest in his place. As a result, the king sent an order to Nicanor to stop all further negotiations, and to bring Judas to him in chains to Antioch. Judas, meanwhile, had already come to the conviction that it was unsafe for him to rely on friendliness, and therefore he wisely retired to the mountains. There Nicanor pursued him with his troops. At Hafarsalam, on the border of Samaria, it came to a battle; Nicanor’s army was defeated and had to retire to Acre. Irritated and, perhaps, fearing that this defeat would be blamed on him at the Antioch court in the sense of a false, false game, Nicanor energetically took up the continuation of the war. Most of all, he wanted to capture Judas Maccabee himself, since he alone contained an entire army. Therefore, he went to the church mount and issued a command from there that a hero should be given to him. When the priests and members of the council came out to meet him in a friendly manner and declared to him that they were completely faithful to the king, which they proved by making daily sacrifices for his prosperity, he received them rudely, laughed at them and threateningly raised his hand against the church, with an oath that he would put it to the fire unless Judas was handed over to him. Nicanor deliberately made the whole people and everyone responsible for this; if only they valued the sanctuary and wanted to prevent its destruction, then they should have assisted him in the captivity of Judah. In order to further compel the Jews to such a surrender of their hero, Nicanor gave the order to seize the most revered man in Jerusalem, the pious Ragesh, or Razis, who, due to the general love of the people for him, was called “the father of the Jews,” and to hold him as a hostage, perhaps even torture him, until the hero of the Jewish people, so terrible for him, was handed over to him. But Razis, when enemies approached him, took his own life. Nikanor with extraordinary ardor rushed after Judas into the mountains, accompanied by a large army; He defeated his camp at Bethhoron. Judah, meanwhile, gathered around himself three thousand of his bravest followers and encamped near Hadas. When it came to battle, the courage of the Jews again triumphed over the large numbers of the Syrians. Nicanor, at the very beginning of the battle, lost his life, and then his entire army gave in to desperate flight, pursued by Jewish soldiers. Residents of all the cities and villages past which the Syrian troops fled pursued them, beat them, and not one of them could reach Gazara, where their flight was heading. The Battle of Hadas, on the thirteenth day of Adar (160), was so decisive that the day of this battle forever became a day of victory and joy, like the days of the consecration of the church, and for a long time after that it was known as “Nikanorov’s day.” The head and hand of Nicanor, separated from his corpse, were hung by the victors as a trophy on the walls of Jerusalem (1 Mac. 7:49 et seq.). Judas and his followers again became complete masters of Jerusalem, since Alcimus had already left it before the battle. Apparently, they again restored the broken order and expelled the adherents of the party hostile to themselves. But since Maccabeus did not close his eyes to the uncertainty of the situation and foresaw that Demetrius would react differently to the defeat of part of his army than his predecessors did in their confusion, he took one step of very dubious merit. He entered into contact with the omnipotent Rome even then. He knew that Demetrius had not yet been recognized by the Roman Senate and in Rome they paid attention to any complaint against him. As a result, he sent two Jews who spoke Greek, Judas Eupolemus, son of John, from the priestly family of Akkos, and Jason, son of Eleazar, either directly to Rome, or to Roman delegates who often traveled through Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor, in order to use their powers to keep princes and peoples at bay. But as soon as his messengers reached the goal of their journey, Judas again had to take up the sword. Demetrius, having received news of Nicanor's defeat, immediately ordered the gathering of a large army and marched it to Judea, with the ruthless Bacchides at its head. This commander moved through Galilee 432, took the city of Messalof, which apparently offered resistance to him, and burned it. Then he moved further across the plain, beat all the Jews he encountered, and in the month of Nisan he stopped just before Jerusalem. Judas had to leave the capital, since it, devoid of walls, no longer offered any protection. But he appealed to men and boys to come out to fight for the fatherland, law and freedom. Few responded to this call and a detachment of only three thousand people gathered around him. Perhaps the very large number of the Syrian army frightened everyone and led them to despair, and many kept aloof from military operations, since Demetrius sought only submission to himself, and did not force him to violate conscience; and perhaps the reason for this was that strictly pious people were dissatisfied with Judas because he resorted to worldly means and sought help from the pagans. The latter is even more likely, since echoes of dissatisfaction with this particular act of the Asmoneans persisted subsequently, and, with a hint of it, even the saying was formed: “Cursed is the man who calls the flesh to his aid; blessed is the man who places all his trust in God.” But whatever the reason for such indifference, in any case Judas now had few champions for his native cause. With three thousand soldiers, he moved south and encamped at Eleas, since the mountains in the north no longer offered any shelter for him. Bacchides pursued the Jewish army with twenty thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry, and pitched his camp at Berea. At the sight of this huge army, most of the Jewish soldiers lost their courage. They insisted not to fight, but to retreat and wait for reinforcements. In vain did Judas lavish his eloquence to inflame them to perseverance. Most left him and only eight hundred soldiers remained near Judah. With the bravest of this small force, he attacked Bacchides with desperate courage from the right flank, defeated him, put him to flight, and pursued him to the border of Azoth. But the rest of the Jewish warriors could not withstand the pressure of the left Syrian wing, they were crushed, and when Judas returned from pursuit, he had to again enter into battle with this wing. He himself and his companions again showed miracles of courage. Many killed and wounded fell on both sides, and the battle continued from morning to evening. But the Jewish warriors melted away more and more and their insignificant remnant was surrounded by enemies. Finally, Judas Maccabee himself fell, sword in hand. Then everyone else fled, and his brothers considered it lucky for themselves, at least, that they could save the hero’s corpse from mockery and take it to a safe place. The Battle of Eleas or Berea (in Nisan or April 160), apparently, forever destroyed all the conquests hitherto made. The Asmonean handful of brave fighters were scattered. Alcimus again occupied the capital and the church and could triumph to his heart's content. But the long-term struggle of the Maccabees could not be in vain. She brought the people out of their stupor and encouraged their spirit. The blood of the martyrs who came out of him healed his wounds. And indeed, all the old wounds were healed by the bloody sacrifices. The shame that covered the name of the Jews was washed away from the outside. The mocking Greeks, having felt the hand of Judas, no longer dared to indulge in mockery at the sight of the Jews, and the Jews no longer needed to go through the childish Olympic games in order to achieve civil equality. On the inside, the people themselves again recognized themselves and the task that lay upon them; he again recognized himself as the people of God, called to be the bearer of the true teaching, his religion and his moral law, and with the strength discovered at the same time he showed that he was able to defend this sacred property of his. The heroic self-sacrifice and examples of amazing patience shown by the valiant martyrs during the Maccabean War became the historical heritage of the people and henceforth served as a model for them in their future life and activities. Chapter 66. Asmonean dynasty Judas Maccabee died the glorious death of a hero, but the work he started, which was continued by his other Maccabee brothers, did not perish with him. Meanwhile, a very important change took place in the very situation of the people. After the death of the tormentor king himself, the Maccabees became independent rulers of the country and were the ancestors of the so-called Asmonean family of princes, named after the ancestor of the Maccabees, Mattathias Asmoneus. The first representative of this family after Judas Maccabee was his second brother, Jonathan, who, having become the head of the people, managed to establish peace and prosperity among them for some time. Both by his leadership and by his military prowess, Jonathan acquired such influence over the people that everyone's eyes were fixed on him as the main savior of the country, and he was offered the high rank of high priest. For modern concepts, the election of a warrior leader to the high priesthood seems incompatible. But the Jewish priesthood was as martial in its character as it was ritualistic in its sacred rites, and according to the Old Testament concept there was nothing incompatible in the fact that the same hand alternately wielded the sword or spear of Phinehas, and the censer or rod of Aaron. Jonathan's entry into the high priesthood was accomplished with due solemnity. It took place on the joyful Feast of Tabernacles, so often chosen for celebrations of this kind. From this time on the unification of the high priestly and civil supremacy was completed. The military exploits of Jonathan himself were by no means interrupted as a result of this. He again strengthened the church mount with square stones, apparently intending, since it was impossible to remove the Syrian fortress, to make it completely separate from the city, and he erected a huge rampart against it and rebuilt the destroyed parts of the wall along the banks of the Kidron Stream. When the Syrian king Demetrius decided to reconquer the Jewish people, Jonathan lured him into the Philistine plain and there with his arrows he defeated the cavalry, which the Syrians especially relied on, secured Joppa and Ascalon for himself and burned the ancient church of the Philistine Dagon in Azoth. This church was turned into ruins and the burned corpses of those who died in it lay there for a long time without burial. Although not possessing the valor of his brother Judah, he nevertheless continued to support the independence of the Jewish people until, finally, he was once captured by the Syrian commander Tryphon, who, during a snowstorm, accidentally captured him, took him away and put him to death in an unknown village beyond the Jordan (1 Mac. 12:48). The Jews bitterly mourned the death of their leader, but did not succumb to helpless despair. There remained one more representative from the noble family of the Maccabees, Simon, who was immediately entrusted with the position of leader over the Jewish people. Simon, the last of the five Maccabean brothers, was no less famous for his valor and wisdom in government. He immediately rose to the occasion of his calling. Immediately after the death of his brother, he addressed his compatriots with a fiery appeal, in which he invited everyone to unite under the banner of faith. Encouraging the despondent people, he told them: “You yourself know how much I, and my brothers, and my father’s house, have done for the sake of these laws and shrines, you know the wars and oppression that we have experienced. That is why all my brothers died for Israel, and I was left alone. And now let it not be that I should spare my life during all the times of oppression, for I am no better than my brothers. But I will avenge my people, and the sanctuary, and our women, and our children; for all the nations are united to destroy us out of hostility” (1 Mac. 13:2-6). This fiery speech inspired the people, and they answered in a loud voice: “You are our leader in the place of your brothers Judah and Jonathan. Fight our war, and whatever you tell us, we will do.” He had already become famous in the fight against the Syrians, so his proclamation as leader alone already struck fear into the Syrian troops. His first task was to find the bones of his brother, with the goal of burying them in his great-grandfather's cave in Modin. On a ridge rising above the Philistine plain, the scene of so many glorious deeds, and visible from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, Simon, fully aware that he was the last of a line of heroes, built a monument, which is a mixture of that Graeco-Egyptian style which can be seen at Petra, in the Kidron Valley and along the Appian Way. It was a square building surrounded by a colonnade of monolithic pillars, the front and back sides of which were of white polished stone. On this peak Simon erected seven pyramids in memory of his father and mother and the four brothers who all lay there, destining the seventh for himself when the time came for him. The facade of the monument was decorated with a bas-relief depicting a combination of sword, spear and shield, in eternal memory of many glorious battles. This monument remained completely intact until the first century and in sufficient preservation even until the fourth century of the Christian era. But then all traces of its existence and even the very name of the area disappeared, and only very recently, through the work of modern researchers, the location of Modin in the village of Modier was discovered, and there, among the ruins of large tomb vaults and broken columns, one can probably see the tomb of the Maccabees, since it, in its position and in the few traces remaining of it, corresponds precisely to the Maccabean monument. But Simon decided to erect a more glorious monument to the memory of his brothers than the Modinsky tomb: despite his advanced years, he accomplished three great feats that worthily crowned the glorious struggle of the Maccabees. The Syrian party in the land of Judea had three more strongholds, which, despite all the efforts of Judah and Jonathan, still remained in the hands of the enemy. One was Gezer 433, the ancient Canaanite fortress in the southwestern plain, which, after long vicissitudes, passed into the hands of the Israelites, and now again, in this last period of their historical life, became the seat of the main garrison of the Syrians along the high road leading through Philistia. Simon decided to take it from the hands of the enemy and, using the recently invented Macedonian military machine, made an irresistible attack on it. The frightened residents surrendered to him. All the idols from the churches were destroyed and a colony of Jews was settled in the city under the command of Simon's son, John. Then the second stronghold of the enemy, located on the road to Hebron, namely in Bethsura, was taken. But Simon's decisive triumph was the expulsion of the Syrians from the citadel, which had so long dominated the sanctuary itself. This was the “greatest enemy of Israel,” but now, finally, it was his turn to give in to the heroic courage of the Jews. The fortress surrendered, and Simon, having driven out the enemies from there, cleared it of desecration. The joy on the occasion of the capture of this most hated stronghold of the enemies was so great that the entry into it was accomplished with extraordinary triumph. Simon “went up into it on the 23rd day of the 2nd month with hymns, palm branches, harps, cymbals and harps, with psalms and songs, for the great enemy of Israel was crushed.” In memory of this event, an annual festival was even established, which was usually celebrated with all kinds of expressions of joy and joy. But these military exploits were not yet Simon's main glory. If Judah was, so to speak, the David of the Asmonean race, then Simon was his Solomon, the restorer of peace and freedom. From the time of his reign a new era began, the first year of independence, when the people ceased to pay the tribute which, since the time of the Persian kings, they had paid to each successive conquering dynasty. Henceforth, in all Jewish contracts, time began to be designated by years and numbers, counted from the time of Simon, “the great high priest and military commander and leader of the Jews.” One important innovation dates back to his time, namely the minting of the national Jewish coin. This privilege was formally given to the Jews by Antiochus VII, and although there were probably cases of minting before permission was actually given for this, still from that very time, from the fourth year of Simon’s reign, coins already bear his name and inscription. All the symbols appearing on them serve as an indication of the peace and prosperity that he established in the country, and these symbols were a bowl, a vine, palm branches, a lily, and fruit bushes of Palestine. The vine and lily in sculptural emblems or in ordinary conversation from this time became the heritage of his people. Later historians describe with almost poetic delight “how the earth rested all the days of Simon”; how, following the wider views of his illustrious brother, and thus carrying out the symbols which he had made on the family monument at Modina, he made Joppa a port for the ships of the Mediterranean; how, after the conquest of three hated fortresses, abandoned agriculture and gardening were revived again; how, taking advantage of the blessed peace, “the elders, sitting in the streets, all took counsel about public benefits, and the young men put on magnificent and military clothing” (1 Mac. 14:9); just as in the days of old, “every one sat under his vineyard and under his fig tree, and no one made them afraid”; how throughout the country, under his wise management, works of piety and charity prospered, the supply of provisions and the fortification of cities, the study of the law and the cleansing of the church proceeded unhindered. At the same time, it is impossible not to notice without deep historical interest how the fate of the Jewish people from that time began to come more and more into contact with that powerful power, which now embarked on extensive conquest in the distant West. Even Judas Maccabee, during his heroic struggle with the eastern enemy, turned his hopeful gaze to the distant West, to powerful Rome, which aroused in him the hope of help against the cruel enemy. Judas himself failed to enter into any actual relations with Rome, but his idea was supported by his brothers, among other things, Jonathan; but in particular this idea found an active supporter in the person of Simon. In order to secure the Roman alliance, Simon sent a golden shield weighing a thousand pounds to Rome. The Romans in turn sent proclamations to many of the kings of the East, to all the cities of the monarchy in which the Jews lived, declaring their recognition of Simon as prince of Judea. While inspiring the Jews to accept Simon as ruler, they arrogantly declared to the kings and cities under their dominion that the Jews were under their protection, as well as the increasingly engrossing policies of Rome. Thanks to such support from Rome, Simon could act as a full-fledged sovereign, and he dressed himself in such magnificent royal attire, in which he awed even the envoys of the kings of Syria. But an inexorable fate seemed to hang over the family of the Maccabees, and they were destined to die from violence. Simon's comparatively brilliant position in his princely dignity aroused the envy of those around him. Ptolemy, son of Abud, son-in-law of Simon, having entered into a secret agreement with Antiochus, king of Syria, formed a conspiracy to seize the government of Judea into his own hands. At one feast in Jericho, he treacherously killed Simon and his eldest son, and at the same time tried to destroy his youngest son, John Hyrcanus in Gazar. But John, who inherited the courage and ability of his family, avoided danger, appeared in Jerusalem, and was unanimously proclaimed high priest and ruler of the country. His first measure was to march against Jericho, in order to avenge the base murder of his father; but Ptolemy had in his power the mother and brothers of Hyrcanus. He locked himself in one fortress and put these captives of his on the wall, subjecting them to scourging and threatening to put them to death. The noble woman exhorted her son, despite the danger threatening her, to avenge his father, but Hyrcanus hesitated. The siege dragged on, and finally, during the Sabbath year, he even completely lifted the siege from the city. Ptolemy fled to Philadelphia, and nothing is known about his further fate. The rapid movement of Hyrcanus upset the alliance between the assassin and Antiochus. However, the Syrian army overran the entire country. Hyrcanus was besieged in Jerusalem, where he was reduced by famine to extreme poverty. This disaster forced him to resort to a cruel measure - the expulsion from the city of all those old and young of both sexes who were unable to contribute to the defense. The besiegers refused to give them passage, and many died in ditches and on military ramparts. But Antiochus turned out to be a moderate and generous enemy; On the Feast of Tabernacles, he gave the city a week-long truce, provided the besieged with animals for sacrifice, oxen with golden horns and gold and silver vessels for church service. In gratitude, the people, comparing him with his wicked ancestor Antiochus Epiphanes, called him Antiochus “the pious.” Finally, he concluded peace, the terms of which, although cruel, were, however, better than Hyrcanus himself could have expected in his disastrous and hopeless situation. But by this treaty the country had to accept vassalage in relation to the kings of Syria and pay tribute for Joppa and other cities, which had been in the hands of the Jews since the time of the predecessors of Antiochus, and Jerusalem was liberated. Hyrcanus allegedly opened the tomb of King David on this occasion and there he found three thousand talents of silver, which served him to correct his disordered finances. Four years later, John Hyrcanus received a call to take part in an expedition to Parthia under the pretext of freeing Demetrius Nicator, the brother of the king, who had previously occupied the Syrian throne and was now in captivity in Parthia. Hyrcanus returned before the defeat, as a result of which Antiochus lost both his throne and his life. Demetrius fled and regained the throne of Antioch. Hyrcanus took advantage of this favorable circumstance to overthrow the yoke of Syria, and the Jewish people maintained their independence until they were forced to recognize Roman rule, first under the Asmonean dynasty, and then under the house of Herod. When the Syrian monarchy was completely absorbed in the struggle of rivals laying claim to the throne, the wise and enterprising John Hyrcanus did not lose an opportunity to expand his possessions and strengthen his power. He took Samega and Medova in the beyond-Jordan region. But his greatest triumph, which placed him especially highly in the opinion of his compatriots, was the capture of Shechem and the complete destruction of the Samaritan church on Mount Gerizim 434 . This church was razed to the ground, and not a trace remained of it. For two centuries this hated building offended the eyes of all pious pilgrims in Jerusalem. Now the Temple of Jerusalem again became the only sanctuary where the God of the Fathers was worshiped, at least within Palestine. The Samaritan church always seemed to be an attack on the faith in the universality of one God that distinguished the Jewish people; now they were again the undisputed possessors of both divine co-presence and the divine protection associated with it. After this there remained only one rival sanctuary, namely the church of Onias in Egypt. Although the Palestinian Jews looked at their Egyptian brethren with arrogant contempt, at the same time not without inner envy, and perhaps only the remoteness of space prevented the development of such enmity as they had towards the Samaritans 435. Meanwhile, Judea, under the wise and courageous leadership of Hyrcanus, continued to enjoy complete peace and prosperity. Having destroyed Shechem, he then turned his arms against Idumea, subdued that country, forced the ancient rivals of his people to undergo circumcision and accept the Jewish religion, and so completely united the two peoples that the name of Idumea from that time no longer appears in history as a separate principality. Hyrcanus maintained a close alliance with the Romans and renewed the offensive and defensive treaty against their common enemy. In the twenty-sixth year of his reign, he decided to bring the region and city of Samaria under his authority. He entrusted the command of his army to his sons Aristobulus and Antigonus. The Samaritans turned with a request for protection to Antiochus Kiziken, the then king of Damascus, who moved to help them, but suffered complete defeat from the Asmonean brothers. Together with a force of six thousand Egyptian allies, Antiochus made a second attempt to rid this province from the rule of the Jews, but with less success. After stubborn resistance for a whole year, Samaria fell; one of the Syrian commanders surrendered Scythopolis and other cities to the Jews. Thus, Hyrcanus became the ruler of all Samaria and the northern region of Galilee. The city of Samaria was razed to the ground, canals were dug (since the hill on which this city stood abounded in springs), and the entire place of the hated city was flooded and turned into a pond. But thus triumphant outside his country, Hyrcanus at the end of his reign was forced to struggle with many troubles and divisions at home. His state was divided into two strong religious and political parties, namely the party of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The question of the origin of these two parties is extremely dark and confusing. The Maccabees owed their success to a large extent to the former, who were ardent patriots who saw in the faith and traditions of their people the only anchor of salvation. But later their patriotism turned into religious fanaticism and vindictiveness, so that they branded everyone who disagreed with them with the name of freethinkers and infidels. In contrast to them, another party was formed - the Sadducees, which was distinguished by a more cosmopolitan spirit, easily reconciled with foreign domination and unbelief. In subsequent history, these parties bitterly feuded with each other and sometimes indulged in such bitter and dangerous discord as Greece and Rome were torn apart during the period of his republican rule. At first Hyrcanus relied entirely on the Pharisees, but at the end of his reign he broke with this party and openly joined the opposite party. The reason for this rupture is a very interesting characteristic of Jewish views. During one feast, at which the head of the ruling sect was present, Hyrcanus asked their opinion of his general conduct and government, in which, he declared, he was guided by great principles of justice and strict adherence to the views of their sect. The Pharisees unanimously testified to their approval of all his actions, but one voice rose, namely the voice of Eleazar, who disrupted this general harmony with the remark: “if you are a just man, leave the high priesthood, since you have no right to it by the illegitimacy of your birth.” Mother of Hyrcanus, according to legend (although, according to the testimony of I. Flavia, and false), was taken prisoner and subjected to the defiling embrace of her pagan master. The indignant Hyrcanus demanded a trial of Eleazar for this disgrace. In the person of the Pharisees, he, however, found protection for himself and the whole matter was limited only to his scourging and imprisonment. Hyrcanus, enraged by this unexpected hostility, listened to the presentation of the Sadducee Jonathan, who accused the opposing party of plotting to undermine state power, and from that time on he completely withdrew from the Pharisaic councils. This able prince reigned for 29 years; he built Baris Castle on a rock within the fortifications surrounding the church mount, on the north-eastern corner of which it stood. Subsequently, this castle under Herod received the name Antonia. Hyrcanus was succeeded by his son Aristobulus: his reign, although short, was marked by many crimes and misfortune. His mother, according to Hyrcanus’s will, laid claim to supremacy in the state; he imprisoned her and starved her to death. The fate of his brother Antigonus (the most beloved of his brothers) will be told later, and he kept his other three brothers in prison. Soon after ascending the throne, he undertook a successful military campaign and subjugated Iturea, a district at the foot of Anti-Lebanon, later called Auranitis. He returned from the campaign suffering from a dangerous illness. His brother Antigonus, soon after completing the conquest of this country, upon entering Jerusalem, hastened in all his weapons, together with his soldiers, to express his pious feelings in the church and offer prayers of thanks for the recovery of his brother. This innocent act was interpreted by the queen and Aristobulus's harem in the sense of treasonous intent. Aristobulus sent to seize his brother and bring him to him unarmed. The traitorous enemies of Antigonus, on the contrary, conveyed the order to him as if he was told to appear in all the splendor of his weapons, in which his brother supposedly wanted to see him. Meanwhile, guards were posted and Antigonus, who appeared fully armed, was killed in the underground gallery that led from the church to the chamber of Baris. Aristobulus, tormented by torment of conscience for his crime, vomited until he bled. The slave who was carrying out the vessel with this blood accidentally stumbled at the place where Antigonus was killed and, thus, the blood of the two brothers mixed on the platform. A cry of horror was heard throughout the palace. The king, having learned from his servants about the terrible event, was overcome by such an agony of torment of conscience and horror that he gave up his ghost. The throne then passed to Alexander Iannaeus; a feeble attempt was made on the part of his younger brother to seize the throne, but the rebel was captured and put to death. Alexander's reign was distinguished more by enterprise than by success, and, perhaps, it was even more fortunate for Judea that the neighboring states were weakened by discord and mutual hostility. Egypt was ruled by Cleopatra, widow of Ptolemy Physcon. Cyprus was ruled by Ptolemy Lafira, her eldest son and bitterest enemy. The Syrian monarchy was ruled by Antiochus Gripus and Antiochus Cyzicenus, one of whom had his court in Antioch, and the other in Damascus. The Jews controlled all of Palestine, with the exception of the port of Ptolemais. Dora and the tower of Stratonov were in the hands of Zoilus, who was partly a subject of Syria. Gaza was equally independent of Jewish rule. Alexander's first goal was to conquer all these cities. He besieged Ptolemais. The inhabitants sent to ask for help from Ptolemy Lathyrus, but when the Cypriot king gathered an army of 30,000 people, the Ptolemaidenians, fearing the loss of their independence, refused to allow them into their city. Ptolemy turned to the domain of Zoilus and Gaza. Alexander entered into communication with Ptolemy regarding the peaceful surrender of these places and at the same time with Cleopatra about increasing his forces in order to expel the Cypriot king from Palestine. Ptolemy, having learned of this double intrigue, marched into Judea, took Asochis, near the Jordan, on Saturday, devastated the country, and with the help of the experienced tactician Philostephan, completely defeated Alexander, inflicting on him a loss of 30,000 people, continued his predation and, in order to spread the horror of his name, allegedly resorted to the most terrible cruelties. Having once attacked a village filled with women and children, he ordered them to be cut into pieces and thrown into boiling cauldrons, so that the horror of this cannibal invasion spread throughout the whole country. Judea would have perished if a large army of Egyptians had not come to its aid, under the command of Hilkiah and Ananias, two Jews from Alexandria 436. Laphir retreated to Kili-Syria, part of Cleopatra's army pursued him, and the other part besieged Ptolemais. Lafir decided to resort to a bold measure and moved towards Egypt, but was repulsed and retreated to Gaza. Ptolemais fell and Alexander arrived to congratulate the queen of Egypt on her victory. Cleopatra was strongly impelled to arrest this prince and thus take possession of Judea. But the Jew Ananias persuaded her not to undertake this matter. After the removal of the Cypriot and Egyptian troops, Alexander again took control into his own hands, but his restless character dragged him into new wars, which were not accompanied by the best success. He made an invasion of the country east of the Jordan, took Gadara, but was defeated at Amatha, in which he captured the treasures of Theodore, prince of Philadelphia. The restless sovereign-high priest then attacked the Gaza region, took Rafia and Anthedon, and although he was forced to lift the siege of Gaza by the movement of Lafira, however, the next year he besieged it again. Gaza put up stubborn resistance. At one time, the besiegers almost lost their entire army, as a result of one desperate foray of the besieged, but finally, when the commander of the garrison, Apollodotus, was killed as a result of treason, Gaza surrendered. Alexander at first seemed inclined to be merciful, but then allowed his troops to pour out all their vengeance on the city. The inhabitants took up arms, but after a significant loss the conqueror managed to completely disarm and destroy this ancient city, of which he left only a heap of ruins. But Alexander's most dangerous enemies were at home. The Pharisee party had the mass of the people at its disposal, and on the Feast of Tabernacles, when he was officiating as king and high priest, a rebellion occurred against him. The mob threw lemons at him, reproached him for his baseness and illegitimacy, and denied him the right to the high priesthood. Alexander ordered his troops to attack the unarmed crowd and among them six thousand people were beaten. To prevent similar insults in the future, Alexander erected a wooden wall of separation between the court of the priests and the court of the people, and, in order to eliminate the rebels, assembled a bodyguard of foreign mercenaries, mainly Pisidians and Cilinians. Then for the second time he invaded the country east of the Jordan, forced it to pay tribute to himself, took Amath, but again suffered complete defeat from Orodes, king of Arabia. The Jews took advantage of the opportunity to revolt and for six years the country suffered from all sorts of horrors of civil war. Alexander at first had more success on his side, but then, when he wanted to pacify the rebels, they unanimously shouted that they would surrender only on one condition: that he put himself to death. Finally, pressed on all sides, the rebels asked for help from Demetrius Eucher, one of the kings of Syria. Alexander, always unhappy in battle, was defeated, losing all his six thousand mercenaries and many of his other troops. He fled to the mountains, but there was a sudden change of mood among the people in his favor and an army of up to sixty thousand people gathered around him. Demetrius retreated and Alexander, having taken possession of the entire country, besieged his enemies in Bethoma, took this city and solemnly moved towards Jerusalem. His vengeance was significant and terrible. During one feast among his concubines, he publicly crucified eight hundred people and beat their wives and children before their eyes. As a result of this bloodthirsty cruelty, he was nicknamed the Thracian. Of those dissatisfied with him, eight thousand people left the city, but, under his iron control, the whole country was in suppressed submission. His foreign policy at this time was equally active. The possession of the Jews at the time of his death included the coastal strip from the tower of Strato to Rhinocorura, Idumea, Samaria and significant provinces east of the Jordan. In the fourth year after his victory over the rebels, Alexander Iannaeus was seized by a fatal illness. The excited and rebellious state, with its newly conquered provinces, could hardly submit to the weak power of women and children. The dying ruler called his wife Alexandra to him and, seeing this as the only means of preserving the state, exhorted her so that after his death she would completely surrender into the hands of the Pharisaic party, powerful due to its numbers and rebellion, and even more so due to the fact that it had the entire people at its disposal. Then, after a restless and adventurous reign of twenty-seven years, Alexander Iannaeus died. His widow Alexandra immediately adopted the policy that he advised her and gave control into the hands of the Pharisees. A rapid change in everything followed; the remains of the unpopular Iannaeus were given the highest honors and the high priesthood was given to his eldest son Hyrcanus II. Throughout Alexandra's reign, the wisdom, or rather the urgent need to admonish her dying husband, made itself felt more and more; the throne stood firmly, the whole country, according to Josephus, enjoyed peace, with the exception of the Pharisees, who began to persecute and oppress their former opponents. Having strengthened their party by the general release of prisoners and the return of exiles, they first of all attacked Diogenes, the favorite of the late ruler. They then demanded a public trial of all those involved in the execution of eight hundred crucified people. Alexandra, unable to resist this, was forced to agree; but her second son Aristobulus, a man of courage, ambition and intrigue, took advantage of one opportunity to become the head of a party which, although oppressed, was still strong. They appealed to both justice and mercy of the ruler and pointed out the impossibility of betraying the faithful followers of her husband to the vengeance of their enemies. Consequently, she took measures to save them without offending the Pharisees; they were allowed to leave Jerusalem, and they were enlisted in the garrisons of the border cities. In order to somehow occupy the restless spirit of her son Aristobulus, she sent him with a significant army, under the pretext of suppressing the predation of Ptolemy, who ruled an insignificant principality in Colchis, but with the secret goal of capturing Damascus. Aristobulus succeeded in achieving both his mother's goal and his own; he captured Damascus and strongly tied the army to himself. After a successful nine-year management, Alexandra fell ill and died, leaving behind her a memory as a woman of masculine enterprise and energy. Before her illness, Aristobulus secretly fled from Jerusalem, became the head of the army, called to his aid all the border garrisons composed of his own party, and, immediately after the death of his mother, quickly moved towards Jerusalem. The Pharisaic party, led by Hyrcanus, seized the wife and children of Aristobulus as hostages and, hastily gathering their forces, met Aristobulus at Jericho. But the troops leaned in favor of the brave and enterprising Aristobulus; a significant part of them fled, the rest lost heart. The younger brother retreated to Jerusalem, and the elder was besieged in the palace of Baris, until finally the meek and inactive Hyrcanus agreed to cede state power and retired, perhaps to the better condition of a private man. This blow was fatal for the Pharisee party. But there still remained an enemy, whose descendants were more dangerous opponents of the Asmonean house than even the Pharisees. This was Antipater, an Edomite of noble birth, the son of Antipas, the ruler of Idumea under the rule of Alexander Iannaeus. Antipater gained great influence over the feeble-minded Hyrcanus as his chief minister. He used everything except the title of sovereign, and he dreamed of achieving it soon. The successes of Aristobulus dealt a strong blow to his ambitious hopes. Finally, after much effort to influence Hyrcanus, by representing to him that his life was in danger, Antipater persuaded him to flee to Aretas, prince of Arabia. This principality gradually grew to considerable strength, and Petra, its capital, had by this time become a great hub for trade coming from the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Aretas marched against Aristobulus at the head of an army of fifty thousand. The undisciplined army of the Jews wavered, Aristobulus was defeated and fled to Jerusalem. There, abandoned equally by the people, he locked himself in the church, where the priests prepared for defense. He was strongly pressed by Aretas, Antipater and Hyrcanus. During this siege two characteristic circumstances occurred. One old man, named Onia, was famous for the fact that during a drought he prayed for rain, and it immediately rained. The party of Hyrcanus wanted to take advantage of his powerful prayers against Aristobulus. The patriotic elder knelt down and said the following prayer: “Oh God, King of the universe! since on one side are Your people, and on the other are Your priests, I pray to You that You will not hear the prayers of either side for their destruction of each other.” The cruel and enraged mob stoned him to death. The second event was as follows. Easter was approaching, and yet there were no animals for sacrifice in the church. The besieged entered into an agreement with the besiegers so that, for a certain payment, they would be given lambs for the great national sacrifice. For this purpose, they lowered baskets down from the walls, but the treacherous besiegers, having taken the money, left the baskets empty, or, as the rabbis later recounted with great horror, loaded them with pigs. Meanwhile, from all these troubles, which were extremely exhausting for the people, a deliverer unexpectedly appeared, precisely in the person of the military leader of that great republic, which at that time was striving for world dominion, and, having now broken the pride and strength of the great Western monarchies, claimed the right to intervene in the affairs of every independent state. Rome, which until that time had limited itself to instilling fear in Asia and the East in general with distant thunders of threats and exhortations, concluding alliances with the strong and acting as the patron of weak states that asked for its help, now, in the person of its consuls and its subordinate representatives, entered directly into the field of actual subjugation of the Eastern world. Scaurus, a subordinate commander of Pompey, captured Damascus, and the rivals who sought to seize the Jewish throne tried to seek his protection from each other: Aristobulus offered four hundred talents, Hyrcanus the same. The rapacious Roman hesitated, but Aristobulus had the public treasures of the church in his hands, and therefore it was best to lean towards his side. Scaurus sent orders to Aretas to lift the siege, and the Arabian prince obeyed this order. The enterprising Aristobulus, hastily gathering troops, unexpectedly attacked him in the rear and inflicted a severe defeat on him. After some time, Pompey himself arrived in Damascus. Kings and princes from all sides sought to show him respect and with magnificent gifts to win over the greatest citizen of the Roman Republic to their side. The gift of the king of Egypt consisted of a golden crown worth 4,000 gold pieces; Aristobulus's gift was a golden vine worth 500 talents. After a short absence in Pontus and Armenia, Pompey returned to Syria, and the envoys of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus appeared before the tribunal as their master: the cunning Antipater on the part of Hyrcanus, and on the side of Aristobulus a certain Nicodemus, who made only a complaint about the extortion of the Roman generals, Scaurus and Gabinius. Pompey appointed an open investigation into this matter for the following spring in Damascus and, according to this, by this time the envoys of Hyrcanus, Aristobulus and the Jewish people appeared before the Roman court. The people began to express accusations against both brothers, namely, that they illegally seized power that belonged solely to the high priest, introduced royal despotism and reduced the free people to the level of slaves. The envoy of Hyrcanus proved the rights of his master, as the eldest by birth, accusing Aristobulus not only of illegally seizing the throne of his brother and reducing him to the status of a private person, but also of committing insane predatory enterprises on land and sea against all neighboring states. The cause of Hyrcanus was supported by more than a thousand of the most distinguished Jews, encouraged by Antipater. On the part of Aristobulus, they pointed out the complete inability of Hyrcanus, especially since his own claims to power were limited by the power that his father Alexander enjoyed. From his side appeared a crowd of daring youths, resplendently dressed in purple, with flowing hair and rich weapons, who behaved as if they were the true nobility of the country. But Pompey had a more important goal in mind than the settlement of affairs in Judea, namely the subjugation of Arabia with the capture of Petra and its trade. He with great courtesy released both parties, especially Aristobulus, who had the opportunity to prevent his intentions. Aristobulus, realizing the advantage of his own position, tried to put the country in a state of defense, but Pompey, on his return from Arabia, began to take a higher tone. He gathered his forces and marched straight to Judea. He found Aristobulus locked up in a strong citadel on a rock called Alexandrion, from where he tried to enter into an agreement with Pompey; twice he left his fortified place for this purpose, but the third time Pompey forced him to sign written orders for the surrender of all his fortresses. The bold and enterprising spirit of Aristobulus could not bear the dishonor of this surrender; too arrogant to yield, too weak to resist, he reveals in his behavior a certain degree of indecision and hesitation, which is more justly attributed to the difficulty of his position than to the lack of masculinity in his character. He fled to Jerusalem and there began to prepare for opposition. Pompey moved to Jerusalem, where the Romans were amazed at the sight of the beautiful palm groves and gardens of balsam bushes, which, having first been exported from Arabia, were taken up in this area with extraordinary luxury, so that their products became an important item of trade. As he approached Jerusalem, Aristobulus, who found the city too divided into parties to resist successfully, offered him a large sum of money with the surrender of the capital itself. Gabinius was sent forward to take possession of the city, but meanwhile the leadership of the city passed into the hands of a bolder party, and he found the gates locked and the walls occupied by armed troops. Indignant at this obvious treason, Pompey imprisoned the prince in chains and personally marched on Jerusalem. The party of Hyrcanus dominated the city and immediately met the Roman commander with arms in hand. Aristobulovo's army took possession of the church and, together with the priests, cut off all the bridges and roads that connected it to the city, and prepared for a stubborn defense. The Church Mount, steep on three sides, was inaccessible except from the north. From this side Pompey approached it, where, however, there was also a steep descent, bordered by high towers. Despite the arrival of war engines from Tyre, the sacred stronghold held out for three months and fell only through superstitious observance of the Sabbath. The Romans soon noticed that they could continue their activities without any opposition from the Jews on this day. Therefore, they regularly stopped their attack on Saturdays, but used this time to transport vehicles to the walls, to fill trenches and to carry out other work, which they carried out without the slightest opposition. At the end of three months, one of the besieging engines destroyed the largest of the towers. Cornelius Faustus, son of Sulla, ascended the ruins and, after stubborn opposition and much bloodshed, the Romans took possession of the church. During this attack, the priests were engaged in the usual sacrifice. Not paying attention to the horror, confusion and bloodshed occurring around them, they calmly continued their priestly services. Many of them were killed, and many of the more zealous defenders of the church themselves threw themselves down the steep slope. The behavior of the Roman commander aroused both horror and delight of the Jews. He entered the temple, surveyed all its parts, and even penetrated and desecrated with his pagan presence the Holy of Holies, which only the high priest was allowed to enter, and even then only once a year. To his utter surprise, he found that this mysterious sanctuary was completely empty - there was neither a statue nor any image of a symbol or deity to which it was dedicated. In other parts of the church he found great wealth, a golden table and lamp, a large supply of precious incense, and 2,000 talents in the treasury. With a generosity no less noble than political, he left all this untouched, ordered the church to be cleared of the corpses of the slain, and appointed Hyrcanus as high priest, although without the royal crown. Then, having appointed the tribute which the country was to pay, having destroyed the city walls, and confined the possession of Hyrcanus to Judea, he retired, taking with him Aristobulus, his two sons and two daughters, as prisoners, to Rome. Alexander, his eldest son, fled during the journey, but another Jewish prince, his second son, served as an ornament to the victor’s brilliant triumph. Pompey's magnanimity in regard to the treasures of the church could not, however, erase the deeper impression of hatred aroused by his sacrilegious invasion of the most holy place. The Jews looked with pleasure at the decline of Pompey's influence, which began from this time, and attributed this decline entirely to his sacrilegious impiety. All over the world they, fortunately for themselves, took the side of Caesar, and this direction, which they followed out of blind passion, led at last to their real interests and brought them important privileges and protection from the imperial house. Aristobulus's son, Alexander, inherited the courage, efficiency and courage of his father; he soon gathered a considerable force and fortified Macherus and Hyrcania, and the strong fortress of Alexandrion. Hyrcanus hastily called on the Romans to help him. Gabinius entered Judea, and, defeating Alexander, since the Jews could no longer resist in the open field, besieged him in Alexandrion. During the siege, in order to win over the population of the provinces, Gabinius ordered the restoration of many of the cities destroyed by the Asmonaeans, namely Samaria, Dora, Scythopolis, Gaza and others. Meanwhile, Alexander's mother, who always sided with the Roman party, through her relations with Gabinius, achieved an agreement in which Alexander received an amnesty for his uprising, subject to the surrender of his fortresses. As soon as he submitted, Aristobulus himself and his youngest son fled from Rome and again raised the banner of rebellion. But although many of the Jews gathered under his banner, and he had sufficient time to again strengthen Alexandria, however, the matter ended badly for him: being severely wounded, he was taken and sent in chains to Rome. The mother again achieved the intercession of Gabinius in favor of the release of her son Antigonus, which was granted by the Senate. Aristobulus remained a prisoner. In the interval between these uprisings, Gabinius reorganized the entire government of the country; he deprived the high priesthood of princely power and founded five independent senates or Sanhedrins, in accordance with the form of the great Sanhedrin of 71 persons, founded shortly after the Babylonian captivity. The places where these Sanhedrins met were Jerusalem, Jericho, Gadara, Amath and Sepphoris. This form of government continued until Julius Caesar granted Hyrcanus the supreme dignity. Gabinius, together with Mark Antony, who had proved his courage during three campaigns as keeper of his horses, now decided to conquer Egypt; but no sooner had he withdrawn his troops from Syria than the restless Alexander again took up arms and forced the few remaining Romans to retreat to a strong position on Mount Gerizima, where he besieged them. Upon the return of Gabinius, Alexander had the courage to march against him at the head of 80,000 troops, in an open field near Mount Tabor. But indestructible Roman discipline prevailed over everything, and the Jewish prince was forced to flee. This circumstance greatly contributed to the confirmation of the Jews in their conviction that they were under the special protection of the Almighty, that the worst enemies of their people were constantly befallen by disaster and shame. Gabinius, soon after his return to Rome, was expelled in disgrace for his rapacity and bribery. Then Crassus suffered the same fate in Parthia, almost following his sacrilegious robbery of the Jewish church. When this rapacious triumvir entered Jerusalem on his way to this fateful expedition, the high priest Eleazar attempted to satisfy his greed by surrendering to him a golden lock of extraordinary value, hidden under a mass of timber, where no one knew its existence but himself. This offering, however, only irritated the appetite of Crassus; he, without any embarrassment, plundered everything that Pompey spared, even the sacred treasury and everything that was in it - a considerable sum, since the Jews, scattered almost throughout the world, considered it one of their religious duties to send an annual offering to the service in the church. This amount was so great even in Italy that Cicero, in his speech in defense of Flaccus, even insisted on the need for a measure similar to that adopted by his client in Asia Minor, namely the prohibition of this custom, as undermining the wealth of the Roman provinces. Hence the definition of the capture of Crassus in the Temple of Jerusalem at 10,000 talents, which would amount to 15,000,000 rubles in gold (1889), perhaps not far from the truth. During the great civil war, Judea, like the whole world, was in anxiety and fear. Caesar, the ruler of Rome, sent Aristobulus an order to carry out sabotage in the province of Palestine. Pompey's supporters succeeded in poisoning the ill-fated prince, and Scipio publicly put to death his valiant son Alexander in Antioch, and Hyrcanus, or rather Antipater under his name, regained supreme power. After the death of Pompey in the famous romantic war, which Caesar, having postponed the conquest of the universe for a while, waged in Egypt in favor of Cleopatra, the resourceful Antipater rendered him very significant services. He facilitated the campaign of Mithridates, king of Pergamon, an ally of Caesar, to his aid, and contributed to the capture of Celusium, won over the Egyptian Jews, who held the opposite party, to his side, and himself distinguished himself greatly in one important battle. His reward was the complete restoration of Hyrcanus to the high priesthood, and he personally was given the rights of Roman citizenship and appointed procurator over all of Judea. The first concern of the new government was to restore the walls of Jerusalem, which had lain in ruins since the siege of it by Pompey; but Antipater, continuing to take advantage of the inability of Hyrcanus and the protection of the Romans, soon appointed his eldest son, Phasael, governor of Jerusalem, and his younger son, Herod, governor of Galilee. Herod, although only 15 years old, according to Josephus, immediately began to reveal his natural determination and cruelty of character. He captured one famous leader of the robbers, Hezekiah, who was the terror of the whole country, and put him to death with almost his entire gang. Influential Jews, jealous of Idumean influence, convinced the weak Hyrcanus that executing these robbers without trial was a violation of the law. Herod was brought to Jerusalem to answer for such a violation. He appeared armed before the frightened Sanhedrin; not a single voice rose against him, until at last Samaeus, a man of extraordinary honesty, stood up and reproached him for not appearing in the humble cloak of the accused, but clad in purple and in arms. To Herod's credit, it must be said that later, when he had beaten all the members of the Sanhedrin, he spared Samey's life. The fearful Hyrcanus postponed the trial and sent a secret suggestion to Herod to flee. Herod found refuge in Damascus with Sextus Caesar, from whom he quickly earned his favor, and, through bribery, even achieved the position of military commander in Kili-Syria. He then marched against Jerusalem, but, at the urging of his father, Antipater, retreated with his army. After the death of Caesar, the great patron of Hyrcanus and the Jews in general, control of Syria passed to Cassius. The Republican Cassius Longinus arrived in Syria with the deliberate goal of collecting legions and money. In his opinion, Judea was the richest gold mine, since he witnessed the large sums Crassus seized from the temple of Jerusalem. Of course, Cassius forgot to take into account the fact that the Idumean rulers themselves learned from the Romans to collect treasures and squander them. Therefore, under these circumstances, it was by no means easy to collect even 700 talents, which Cassius ordered to be delivered to himself in the shortest possible time. Antipater was therefore obliged, in order to maintain good relations with the rulers of the world, to divide the collection of the required amount among his sons, friends and one of Hyrcanus’s closest friends, Malichus. The first, especially Herod, showed amazing zeal in extorting from the inhabitants the part of the money due from them and quickly transferring it to Cassius. Herod was as zealous in seeking the favor of the Republicans as he had been before and since in seeking the favor of their opponents. Malichus, who, although too late came to the conviction of how much evil slavish compliance towards Rome had done to Judea, delayed the collection, partly out of pity for the inhabitants being sucked out, and partly in anticipation of a change in circumstances; but Cassius was in a hurry with this matter, since every new moment could deprive him of all the powers with which he was now endowed in Syria. Therefore, he ordered the inhabitants of four cities in the south of Judah, Gothna, Emmaus, Lydda and Timna, to be seized, sold as slaves, and all their property confiscated. Thus, the sad scenes of the time of the weak Israeli kings began to be repeated. The three sons of Judah were supposed to perform slave service in Antioch and the Phoenician cities: Tire, Sidon and Arad. And he would have let the slow Malichus feel all his anger if Hyrcanus had not stood up for him and given ransom money from his private property, since Malichus was the only person whom Hyrcanus considered true to himself. This last of the Asmonean princes was an extremely meek and kind man, and wherever he could, during the turmoil of that time, he strove to help his fellow believers and improve their lot. During the civil war that broke out after the death of Caesar between his assassins and his followers, a war in which the provinces of Asia Minor and Syria were especially involved, Publius Dolabella collected troops in the Asia Minor cities of Judea, in these cities they were also to be recruited. Then Hyrcanus sent him the ambassador Alexander, the son of Theodore (of course, not without a significant amount of money), with a request to exempt the Jews from military service, since they could not be subject to it without violating their religion, and Dolabella respected this request, and sent out a district order to the cities of Asia Minor where the Jews lived to exempt them from military service. For all his meekness and his nobility, Hyrcanus suffered from extreme weakness in relation to those around him, who, taking advantage of this, appropriated to themselves the pitiful power that he still possessed. But, finally, this short-sighted, unfortunate, ghostly ruler realized that the Edomites, under the cover of ardent service devotion to him, cared exclusively about their own interests. Therefore, he began to be distrustful of them and tried, whenever he needed support, to rely on Malikh. And despite this, Hyrcanus still knew nothing about the satanic plan that the Edomite upstarts were building against him at that very time. It was between Cassius and Herod that a plan was drawn up so that Hyrcanus would be deposed, and Herod would be recognized by the Romans as the king of Judea, and he could also rely on the Roman legions in case of any opposition to this plan. No matter how secret this plan was, however, Malich learned about it; only he did not have any means to openly oppose this plan and had to equally seek help for himself in a secret conspiracy. During one feast given by Hyrcanus to his faithful servants, he ordered poison to be placed in a vessel assigned for Antipater, from which he died. He believed that with the death of this old intriguer, evil would be uprooted, in which, however, he was completely mistaken. Herod far surpassed his father both in determination and audacity, and at the same time in pretense. No matter how much Malichus tried to eliminate any suspicion of the poisoning of their father in front of the sons of Antipater, no matter how many tears of deepest sorrow he shed over the death of this “benefactor” of the Jewish people, however, they, pretending to believe his words, clearly plotted for his life, wanting to avenge the death of their father and remove the obstacle to their ambitious plans. The ardent young Herod thought of eliminating both Malikh and the ghostly prince with one blow. Despite the warning of his older, more prudent brother, he wanted to invade Jerusalem with an armed detachment and take possession of the capital. Cassius had previously entrusted him with significant strength, provided him with recruited infantry and cavalry, even put warships at his disposal and appointed him commander-in-chief over Kili-Syria. He led part of these troops against Jerusalem. On the advice of Malichus, Hyrcanus refused him permission to enter the city, but not with the severity of the ruler, but on the pretext that during the upcoming Easter holiday it would be indecent to bring a pagan army into the holy city, since this would cause desecration of the victim and the ritual of sacrifice could be violated. Herod, meanwhile, was very little embarrassed by such considerations; he entered Jerusalem at night and intended to carry out his plan. Only he, apparently, feared opposition from the people gathered for the great holiday, as well as from the guards with whom Malich surrounded himself. Therefore, this time he did not do anything hostile. All areas of the Roman state, meanwhile, were in extraordinary excitement from a new civil war. Each country and each prince thought which of the warring parties was more profitable for him to stick to. Cassius, the patron of the sons of Antipater, was opposed in Syria by the Caesarian Dolabella, from whom Hyrcanus obtained the release of the Jews of Asia Minor from military service. On him, if not the short-sighted prince, then at least Malich was counting on him under the present circumstances. If Dolabella had won, then Herod, as a supporter of Cassius, would have died. At this particular time, the famous Cleopatra of Egypt sent a request to Dolabella to Syria to send her an army, which, in all likelihood, was supposed to make its campaign through Judea. Will Jews capable of arms join this army? In any case, there was nothing to fear from Hyrcanus himself that he could conceive or carry out such a plan. But Malikh was quite capable of stirring up Judea in favor of the Caesarians. Therefore, not only Herod feared him, but also the hitherto victorious leader of the Republicans, Cassius, who besieged Dolabella in Laodicea. Both of them agreed to destroy this patriot and faithful friend Hyrcanus by force or cunning. During one feast in Tire, where Malichus arrived to free his son, some Roman legionaries, at the behest of Herod, attacked Malichus and killed him. Hyrcanus, who fainted at the news of the death of Malichus, believed, however, to Herod that this death followed the orders of Cassius. The unfortunate prince was so cowardly that although he mourned Malikh in his heart as his faithful friend, he openly branded him with the name of a traitor to the fatherland, who fully deserved such a death. The gigantic struggle in the Roman state for the continuation of the miserable republic or the establishment of the newly born monarchy caused the Jews in general a lot of suffering and sorrow. In the provinces, leaders were constantly changing, appointed by one party or another, and they all carried out monetary exactions and military conscription with merciless cruelty. The Republican Brutus acted in Asia Minor no more softly than the Caesarian Dolabella and Cassius in Judea. The Jews in the cities of Asia Minor had it all the worse because the Greeks took advantage of the state unrest in order to oppress them and even prevent them from religious worship. The decrees issued in favor of the religious freedom of the Jews by Lentullus, Caesar and Dolabella were completely forgotten as soon as the latter left. The Jews in the large city of Ephesus, who were forbidden by the city council to observe the Sabbath, and even imposed a fine for observing their religion, in this extreme situation turned to Brutus, who was then in Asia Minor, and not without difficulty obtained permission from him to live according to their laws. Brutus was also not indifferent to monetary gifts, as long as they were substantial. But this new decree on religious freedom was observed only until Brutus united with Cassius to wage a decisive war against the Caesarians. After the removal of Cassius from Syria for this particular war, the patriots in Judea tried to somehow wrest power from the hands of the Idumean brothers, since their patron could not even assist them. Malichus's brother came out against them openly, and not without the knowledge of Hyrcanus took possession of some fortifications. A certain Felix, who had at his disposal a detachment of foreign warriors, with the help of armed Jews, attacked Phazael in Jerusalem. On the other hand, a relative of the Asmonean house, Ptolemy, Prince of Colchis, who was married to the daughter of the unfortunate Aristobulus, intervened in the matter. This one conceived a plan to proclaim his brother-in-law Antigonus, the last of the remaining sons of Aristobulus, king of Judea. In favor of this plan, he persuaded the Roman governor in Syria, Fabius, and one of the mayors appointed by Cassius, to abolish the provincial unions in Syria and Phenicia. This alliance against the Edomites seemed to promise favorable success for a time, especially since Herod himself had fallen ill by this time. But as soon as Herod recovered, the plan burst like a soap bubble. The Edomites triumphed over their enemies, and Hyrcanus had to crown Herod with a victory palm upon his entry into Jerusalem 437. To free himself from the fear of this powerful man, Hyrcanus wanted to somehow tie him to his home, and betrothed his granddaughter, so famous for her beauty and later so unhappy Mariamne, to him. Here a plan was hatched to unite the sacrificial lamb with the executioner in marriage. Alexandra and her mother zealously promoted this so deplorable marriage, forgetting that the bride's father, Alexander, thanks to the intrigues of the groom's father, lost his life under the ax. In general, happiness favored the Idumeans so much that all the vicissitudes in the then political world, although, apparently, seemed harmful to them, only provided them with more and more strength. The Republican army was completely defeated at Philippi. The leaders Brutus and Cassius fell: the second triumvirate, consisting of Octavion, Caesar's nephew, Antony and Lepidus, became the head of the Roman state. Herod and Phasael trembled at the consequences of this coup, since they had at one time very zealously acted in favor of the opponents of this triumvirate, and especially for Cassius. In addition, the Jewish nobles hurried to Vioinia, to the winner Anthony, to bring him a complaint about the fury of the Edomite brothers. But Herod was soon able to dispel the clouds that had gathered over him. He also came to Antony with a flattering tongue and considerable money, and as a result Antony remembered that he had previously enjoyed the hospitality of his father, Antipater. Anthony could also be persuaded to this decision, so favorable for Herod, by the dexterity and pliability of a man so capable of everything. He refused the complaint to the Jewish nobles and released Herod with signs of honor. Hyrcanus did not dare to raise any complaint against Herod, and he, with the help of a venerable gift in the form of a golden crown, achieved only that the Jews sold into slavery by Cassius were again released and their land possessions were returned to them. The voice of the people themselves, who every now and then declared themselves through embassies, was left without any attention. One embassy, ​​consisting of a hundred people, who came to Anthony in Daphne, near Antioch, the latter barely deigned to listen to and ordered fifteen of them to be imprisoned, and Hyrcanus, who was also present, himself, in response to Antony’s question, declared that the Edomitean brothers were the only people capable of governing. An even more numerous embassy, ​​consisting of thousands of the most respectable persons who could not come to terms with the fact that the Jewish people were given over to the power of the Edomite rulers, sought an audience with Anthony in Tire; but they could not achieve this audience and were admitted only to his governor and Herod and Hyrcanus, and at the same time they were partly beaten by the Romans, and partly put in chains. Anthony then ordered the chained men to be put to death, and appointed both brothers rulers of Judea with the title of tetrarchs (tetrarchs). Meanwhile, once again happiness seemed to want to turn its back on the Edomite brothers, and again raise the fallen house of the Asmoneans. The Parthians, incited by the fleeing Roman republican Labienus, made, under the command of the royal son Pacorus and the general Barzafarnes, a happy raid on Sirte and Asia Minor, while Mark Antony spent time in the arms of the seductive queen Cleopatra. If the Parthians were already hostile against the Idumeans of Herod and Phasael, as allies of Rome, then they were even more incited against them by Lyzanes, the son of Ptolemy, who was related to the house of Aristobulus, who promised large sums of money to the Parthian commanders if only they would remove the hated brothers from the road, overthrow Hyrcanus and give the crown to the last representative of the Asmonean house, Antigone. The Parthians agreed and moved in two detachments to the seashore and then to Jerusalem. At Mount Carmel, the Parthian army was joined by many Jews who expressed a desire to assist them in liberating them from the yoke of the rogues. The detachment of Jewish soldiers increased with every step; but since the march of the Parthian vanguard seemed too slow to them, they moved ahead of him to Jerusalem and, uniting with many Jerusalemites, these patriots besieged the palace of the Asmoneans. Herod, who was in the capital at that time, managed to drive them away with Phasael, but they rushed to the church mount, and the lower class of the Jerusalem population, although unarmed, supported the detachment fighting for Antigonus. Meanwhile, the Feast of Tabernacles approached and from all parts of Judea many people flocked to the capital, all of whom took the side of Antigonus. The supporters of Antigonus had all parts of the city at their disposal, so that the Idumean party was limited to the palace and the citadel of the fortification. Pacorus, the king's cupbearer, had already approached Jerusalem, but had not yet given a decisive word and was peaceful towards the Edomite brothers. He persuaded Hyrcanus and Phasael to go as messengers to Barzafarn to settle disputes with him, but at the same time he did not lose sight of Herod. When the messengers appeared to the Parthian commander in Ekdipiye (Kezib), they were immediately put in chains. Phazael himself took his own life, and Hyrcanus was held as a prisoner, after which his ears were cut off in order to make him incompetent for the high priesthood in the future. They also wanted to capture Herod by cunning, but he, having received a warning from some people loyal to him, escaped captivity by fleeing into the dark night. Together with him, he took away both the female members of his family and his bride Mariamne and retired to the fortress of Masada, where he left the women under the supervision of his brother Joseph in order to hide from there even further. The people saw him off with curses. Antigonus was immediately proclaimed king of Judea. The Parthians took the ghostly prince Hyrcanus to Babylonia. Antigonus, under the Hebrew name Mattathias, fully recognized himself as a king: he ordered the minting of coins with his Hebrew and Greek names: “Mattathias, high priest and community of the Jews,” as well as “king Antigonus,” in a wreath with a flowering stem or cornucopia, as an emblem. The Parthian auxiliaries retreated; the Roman garrison, which still remained in some fortifications, was destroyed by Antigonus. Thus Judea was once again cleared of foreign troops and could for a time indulge in the sweet dream of restoring independence after almost thirty difficult years of internal upheaval and bloody struggle. Chapter 67. Antigonus and Herod the Great The state of affairs was extremely favorable for Antigonus in terms of consolidating his power. The Roman rulers were in bitter hostility and war among themselves. The East, to which Octavian was indifferent, was for Antony, to whom it fell, a more beloved place of luxury and vain splendor than a field of loud military glory. The tender embrace of Cleopatra made the harsh camp of the goddess of war disgusting to him. The Parthians, whose lands were encroached upon by the powerful eagle of Rome, put up brave resistance. If, therefore, Antigonus had been able to maintain the inflamed anger of the people against the Idumean family and the Romans, if he had also possessed the enterprising spirit of his grandfather Alexander, then the Romans themselves, instead of looking at him as an enemy, would have willingly made him a friend or ally, in order with his help to prepare a difficulty for the Parthians. Their attachment to Herod, based solely on self-interest, would by no means be an obstacle; they would again crush him into the dust from which they raised him, if only they could expect the same services from Antigonus. Antony's legate, Ventidius, who had instructions to wage war against the Parthians, approached Jerusalem only for the purpose of bribery, and did not begin the siege. It would have been easy for Antigonus to win him over to his side, as it turned out to be easy to win over his subordinate commander Silo, who was left in Judea. The highlanders of Galilee had already spoken out for Antigonus and stood for him with the tenacity characteristic of such tribes. Sepphoris in Galilee was turned into an armed camp by the followers of Antigonus. The brave garrison of Joppa also sided with Antigonus. In addition, the caves of Arbela were inhabited by tireless partisans who, although of little use in an open fight, could nevertheless be dangerous to the enemy from the rear. But Antigonus did not have any state or military abilities. He was completely unable to profitably and decisively use those military means that were placed at his disposal in such abundance, so that no connection was established between the two centers of military operations, the Galilean north and the Judean south, for mutual assistance. All his activities were wasted on petty goals, his predominant passion was a feeling of revenge against Herod and his brothers, and it, instead of support, only weakened his energy. He did not know how to rise to that truly royal position from which he could feel more contempt than hatred towards the Edomite upstarts. During his reign, which lasted almost four years, he did not undertake anything great or decisive. In the first year of his reign, he had to fight only one enemy - Herod's younger brother, Joseph, who in total had only 800 people at his disposal, moreover, locked in the fortress of Masada. He could never even take this fortress in order to deprive his enemy of his last stronghold. In internal administration, Antigonus also did not know how to win over influential people to his side so that they would completely take the side of his cause. Even the leaders of the Sanhedrin, Shemaiah and Avtalion, although they did not like Herod due to his boundless insolence, were hostile against Antigonus, and through them the people loyal to the Pharisees also stood against him. The reason for the hostility towards the last Asmonean ruler is difficult to explain. Was Antigonus inclined towards Sadducean views, or was there any personal rivalry between the representative of the royal power and the representative of the law? Unknown. The latter, however, is supported by one, in itself insignificant case, which makes it possible to conclude an unfriendly relationship between them. On the day of purification, the people, in close ranks, accompanied the royal high priest at the end of the service, as was customary, from the church to his home. But when he saw the members of the Sanhedrin, Shemaiah and Abtalion, he completely left the high priest in order to form an honorary retinue for these beloved teachers of the law. Antigonus, annoyed at the humiliation he had experienced, expressed his feelings towards these members of the Sanhedrin in one ironic greeting, to which these latter responded to the king in a similar insulting manner. This strain of relations with extremely powerful persons, together with his inexperience in the art of war and in government, brought the greatest misfortune upon his house and people. His rival Herod was of a completely different quality, who possessed everything that Antigonus lacked. He constantly forced happiness to smile at himself again every time it temporarily betrayed him. Herod's situation after his night flight from Jerusalem was so desperate that he, having also been attacked by the Jewish population during his flight, intended to take his own life. His attempt to win over the Naboth prince Malikh, with whom he was related and in alliance, and to whom he gave the treasures of his family for safekeeping, was unsuccessful. The latter sent him an order not to enter his region, since he did not want to irritate the Parthians, who had installed Antigonus as king. As a result, Herod wandered alone through the Idumaean desert, without any means, although at the same time he was inexorably devoted to the broadest plans. He went to Egypt. He did not accept the offer Cleopatra made to him to enter her service as a military leader, since his thoughts were entirely occupied with the dream of the Jewish crown. He boarded a ship and departed for Rome. Meanwhile, delayed by storm and bad weather, he arrived in Rome just at the most favorable moment, when Octavian and Antony again united with each other under the Treaty of Brundisium. It was not difficult for him to convince Anthony how useful his services could be to him in the war against the Parthians, and that Antigonus, enthroned by the Parthians, was and would remain an implacable enemy of the Romans. Anthony was generally bribed by Herod’s dexterity and intelligence. Therefore, he put in a good word for him before Octavian, and the latter could not refuse him anything. Perhaps he managed to convince some of the most influential Jews in Rome to also put in a word for him with the rulers of the capital. And so he achieved that within seven days the Senate formally recognized him as the king of Judea, and declared Antigone an enemy of Rome (in the winter of 40). This was the second mortal blow that Rome dealt to the Jewish people, since it left them at the mercy and disgrace of a foreigner, half-Jewish, Idumean, who sought revenge for his personal insults, and for this he had to pay tribute to Rome 438. Herod, having achieved the goal of his ambition with brilliant success, renounced the honors that Anthony bestowed on him in Rome in order to realize as quickly as possible the title of king of the Jews that he had achieved. He left Rome and landed in Acre, where the friends he knew how to make for himself supported him in the inevitable war of candidates with much-needed money, and among these friends was the richest Antiochian Jew, Saramalla, who had special devotion to the sons of Antipater. With this money, he gathered a mercenary army, subjugated most of Galilee and moved south to liberate the fortress of Masada, where his brother Joseph was brutally constrained by the Antigones. From the Roman troops which Ventidius sent him during his campaign against the Parthians, under Silo, he had little assistance, either because that general was bribed by Antigonus, or because he had received secret orders not to side with any of the Jewish claimants, but to leave them to finish the matter in their own strength. Therefore, they did not assist him during the siege of Jerusalem; As a result, Herod had to retreat from the south and transfer the war to Galilee, where he took Sepphoris and scattered the partisans in the caves of Arbel. One old man between them showed what kind of spirit these latter were animated by. After all the partisans hiding in the caves were exterminated by fire and sword, this old man killed his seven sons with his own hand, attacked Herod with curses because he, a man of vile origin, dared to encroach on the royal dignity over Judas, and although the latter promised him forgiveness, he fell into the abyss at the entrance of the cave. Given the indecision of the Romans, who shied away from energetic intervention in the war, the latter dragged on, since the second subordinate commander Macherus, whom Ventidius, for the sake of appearance, sent to help Herod in Judea, did not do anything decisive. Then Herod saw himself forced to personally go to the camp of Anthony, who was then besieging Samosata. For the sake of the services that Herod rendered him in this matter, and also obeying the gift of persuasiveness in his speech, Antony instructed one of his generals, Sosius, to seriously march with two legions against Antigonus and install on the throne a king who had Roman permission for himself. Reinforced by this auxiliary army, Herod returned to Galilee, but found the state of affairs completely changed. His brother Joseph, to whom he provided his army, with instructions not to do anything until his return, but only to hold the fortress, entered into open battle with Antigonus near Jericho, and in the process lost his life. Herod's army was scattered, the Galileans were in complete rebellion, and the Roman general Machera was rather indifferent to all this. Herod, as a result of this, had to begin the conquest of the country again, and he managed, although the then snowy winter hindered the campaign, to clear the entire country of Antigonians all the way to Jerusalem and avenge the death of his brother. Burning with vengeance, he waged this war with inexorable cruelty; He ordered five cities near Jericho with its inhabitants, numbering up to two thousand, to be burned because they sided with Antigonus. With the approach of spring, he began the siege of Jerusalem, before celebrating in Samaria, with his hands stained with the blood of his compatriots, his wedding with his long-betrothed bride Mariamne, against whose uncle he waged a bloody war. The newlywed could well have had a presentiment that the man, who was now filled only with feelings of vengeance towards the rest of the Asmonaeans, would soon become an executioner for her and her entire family. For all his shamelessness, he, however, after this left his Idumean wife Doris, although he already had a son Antipater from her. As soon as Sosius, with a large army consisting of Roman infantry, cavalry and Syrian auxiliary units, entered Judea, the siege of Jerusalem began in earnest, although the time was still harsh and the supply of vital supplies to the Romans was often cut off by wild gangs that formed during the war and took refuge in the mountains. The besieging army consisted of almost one hundred thousand people and took the same position that Pompey had occupied 27 years earlier, precisely north of Jerusalem, opposite the Church Mount. It erected ramparts, filled ditches, and installed battering machines. With the onset of spring, when the harvest quickly ripened under the influence of heat, the siege continued without interruption. The besieged, although suffering disadvantage, defended themselves with lion's courage and expected a special miracle from heaven, which, in their opinion, was supposed to protect the sacred temple and city from the hands of the pagans and the hated people. They often made sorties, drove away the workers, destroyed the siege work that had begun, erected a new wall and made the work of the besiegers so difficult that after a month they had not yet moved far forward. Both main members of the Sanhedrin, Shemaiah and Avtalion, however, spoke out against opposition and advised that the gates be opened to Herod. According to their religious view, heaven sent Herod as a scourge for the people to punish them for their sins. Antigonus apparently did not have the strength or courage to punish such rebels. Meanwhile, not all respected Pharisees shared this view; a very significant part of them, under the leadership of Bene Baba, from a family very influential in its antiquity and piety, was zealously devoted to Antigonus and rebelled against the proposal to surrender the city to the enemy. This internal division, together with attacks from outside, probably led to the fact that the outer northern city wall succumbed to the blows of the siege engines after forty days and collapsed. The besiegers invaded the lower part of the city and the outer buildings of the church, and the besieged, together with the king, fortified themselves in the upper part of the city and on the Church Mount. The Romans again stormed the second wall for half a month, but during all this time they supplied the church with sacrificial animals. The Jerusalemites fought with extraordinary courage. But their situation was hopeless. One Sabbath day, when the Jewish soldiers did not expect any attack, part of the second wall fell, and the Romans with insane fury invaded the old city and the church, mercilessly beating everyone, without distinction of age or gender, as well as the priests performing their sacred rites. Jerusalem, by some fate, was taken again on the same day on which Pompey took it 27 years before (in Sivan, June 37). Herod barely managed to keep the enraged soldiers from plundering and desecrating the church, and only with rich gifts to the soldiers did he save Jerusalem from destruction, so as not to reign over the ruins. Antigonus was captured. His enemies added to the misery of his overthrow the slander that he allegedly, begging for mercy for his life, lay at the feet of Sosius, but the latter contemptuously called him by the female name of Antigone. He was also reproached for setting fire to the colonnade of the church courtyard, and he promised to give his patrons, the Parthians, five hundred girls as a reward for their services, with which slander was obviously meant to humiliate him in the eyes of the people, as a completely unworthy person. Sozius sent the captive prince to Anthony, who, at the urgent request of Herod, against custom, ordered him to be scourged and his head cut off, which shameful death aroused indignation even among the Romans. Antigonus was the last of the eight prince-high priests from the house of Asmonean, who ruled the people for more than a century and, having crowned Judea at first with greatness and glory, then covered it with shame and misery. Herod, or, as the people called him, the Edomite slave, thus achieved the goal of his wildest desires; his throne, it is true, rested on ruins and corpses, but he was aware of the power to establish himself on such a basis, even if he had to surround it with a wide stream of blood. The fierce hatred of the Jewish people towards him, to whom he was imposed as a sovereign sovereign without the slightest merit, without any right, was nothing for him in comparison with the favor of Rome and the friendly smile of Anthony, which meant legions, and these treasures, invaluable to him, replaced for him what his Jewish subjects denied him. Yes, it seemed to him not difficult to acquire the love of the people, just as it was not difficult to acquire the kingdom itself. He pursued his policy with a clear view, the direction of which was, to a certain extent, indicated to him by the very circumstances that forced him to completely side with the rulers of Rome in order to have strong support in them against popular reluctance - this reluctance was then gradually eliminated with illusory harmless concessions, or suppressed with inexorable severity. He followed this policy from the first moment of his triumph throughout the 34 years of his reign until his last breath, cold-blooded and heartless with terrifying persistence. Even in the very confusion of the capture of the Church Mount, he did not lose his cool and ordered his squire Costobar, like him of Edomite origin, to occupy all the gates and exits from Jerusalem and seize all the fugitives. Antigonus's followers were beaten by entire crowds, and among them were 45 people from the most noble families. At the same time, Herod did not forget his old grievances. Those members of the Sanhedrin who, 12 years earlier, excited by the courageous speech (Samea), decided to condemn him for murder, he ordered everyone to be executed, with the exception of two elders, Shemaia and Avtalion, since they turned out to be opponents of Antigonus. Bene Baba's family also escaped his vengeful sword for a time. Costobar himself took him under his protection, since he, being ambitious, like his master, dreamed of someday overthrowing him and, through the influence of persons who owed their lives to him, to achieve devotion among the people. One lawyer, Baba ben Butu, perhaps belonging to the same family, Herod ordered to be blinded. He ordered the property of all those convicted and executed to be confiscated in favor of his treasury, since he had thoroughly learned from his teachers, the Romans, the benefits of proscriptions and confiscations of property. With treasures accumulating daily, he could constantly maintain the favor of Antony, who, for his wasteful life and to satisfy the greed of Cleopatra, was constantly in need of money. The people endured all this violence and now patiently, since they were tired of uprisings and wars, which, with minor interruptions, destroyed their well-being for 33 years. The people longed for peace and were glad to be under the rule of at least such a king, who outwardly still professed Judaism and, as one could hope, would not encroach on the customs of their fathers. There were also many who, carried away by Herod’s all-conquering dexterity and energy, were sincerely devoted to him, and he did not miss the opportunity to richly reward them for their devotion. In general, however, he had little confidence in the natives; he felt that their dissatisfaction with how he reached the royal throne and how this throne was established for him could not be completely eradicated; therefore, when occupying places of honor, he gave preference to foreign Jews. To the position of high priest, he, bypassing the house of Asmoneans, appointed a certain Ananil, although from the Aaronic family, but not belonging to either the Asmoneans or any other respected priestly family. But in order not to irritate the feelings of the people, who were especially sensitive to religion, namely the church and high priestly dignity, he passed him off as a Babylonian, since in Palestine they willingly provided the Babylonian Jews with the advantages of the highest nobility of the clan, on the assumption that they would never stain themselves with mixed marriages. Whether Ananil was truly of Babylonian origin is doubtful; according to more reliable evidence, this high priest came from Egypt 439. Herod also passed off his own family as an ancient Jewish one who had migrated from Babylonia, and thereby wanted to wash away the shameful stain that he came from the Edomites who were forcibly converted to Judaism. If the natives, who knew his true origin well, did not believe these tales, he still managed to deceive the foreigners and pagans. His close friend, the chronicler Nicholas of Damascus, also told further tales that he heard from the lips of Herod himself 440. But since his origin, if it were true, could be proven on the basis of the genealogical tables kept in the custody of the Sanhedrin, he ordered them to be burned from the archives. Both for the position of high priest, and after the death of Shemaiah and Avtalion for the position of chairmen of the Sanhedrin, he called upon foreigners and, apparently, Babylonians from the clan of Bene-Bafira, who enjoyed the favor of Herod. He later provided this family with a small strip of land in Batanea, where he, under the command of his family head Tsamaris, founded a city called Bafira; As a result, the Bene-Bafira remained loyal to his house until the end of their existence. Two individuals could still threaten Herod's position, an old man and a young man, Hyrcanus, who once wore a crown and a high priestly diadem, and his grandson, Aristobulus, who laid claim to both. While these faces had not yet been made completely harmless, Herod could not calmly enjoy the fruit of his efforts. Hyrcanus, however, was in Parthian captivity, and besides, he was crippled, i.e. made incompetent for the high priestly rank, but the Parthians were generous enough to grant him freedom, and the Babylonian Jews, trying to make the unfortunate king forget his sufferings, accepted him into their midst with extraordinary courtesy and honor, giving him residence in the city of Nagardea (Naarda), which was probably crowded with the Jewish population. Despite this, Hyrcanus languished with deep longing for his homeland. Herod therefore feared that he or the Babylonian Jews would win over the Parthians and induce them to return the throne to the one from whom they had taken it. And how easily such a change could have happened! Anthony's campaign against the Parthian king Phraates was unsuccessful. Could the victors not have invaded Syria a second time and brought Hyrcanus with them, if only to take revenge on the king of the Roman election for the assistance he provided to the Romans against the Parthians? Herod was extremely afraid of this and wanted to prevent the danger. He wanted to remove Hyrcanus from Parthian influence, to have him close to him in order to better observe his movements. With his characteristic pretense, Herod therefore ordered, through his friend Saramalla, the noblest of the Syrian Jews, to persuade the Parthian king to release Hyrcanus with gifts, and invited him to return to Jerusalem to share the throne and power with him, and to accept the gratitude that he owed him for such great benefits. In vain did the Babylonian Jews dissuade the gullible Hyrcanus from plunging a second time into the maelstrom of political world events; he hastened towards his fate. Upon his arrival in Jerusalem, Herod received him in the most friendly manner, called him father, gave him a place of honor at table and in council meetings, and this courtesy so deceived the weak man that he did not notice the suspicious look with which the cunning Edomite treated him. Hyrcanus was thus disarmed and made harmless, in a kind of golden cage. What seemed more dangerous to Herod was his grandson, sixteen-year-old Aristobulus, who, due to his origin, his youth and delightful beauty, bribed everyone in his favor. Herod, however, thought to deprive him of all influence, removing him from the high priestly dignity that rightfully belonged to him, although he was his brother-in-law, and giving this dignity to a stranger; but this remedy did not have its proper effect. His mother-in-law Alexandra, as skilled in intrigue as Herod himself, managed to sway Antony in favor of her son. She ordered portraits of her two children, Mariamne and Aristobulus, the most beautiful among her people, to be presented to Antony, in the full conviction that this hero, weakened by voluptuousness and luxury, could best be influenced by a sensory impression. Dellius, a loyal follower and minion of Antony, thought to derive a special kind of benefit from this; He planned, with the help of the wonderful beauty of these two Asmonean grandsons, to snatch his friend from the seductive embrace of Cleopatra. Anthony, amazed by the portraits, wanted to see the young man, and Herod, in order to keep him away from the powerful triumvir, could not help but appoint him high priest. It is clear that Ananil, contrary to the law and morality, was deprived of his rank. This elevation of her son, however, did not satisfy the ambitious Alexandra, who secretly plotted to give him the crown that her fathers had worn. For this purpose, she entered into an agreement with Cleopatra, who was jealous of Herod, and ordered two coffins in which she lay with her son in order, without arousing suspicion, to leave the city and flee to Egypt. But Herod, who was informed about this trick, overtook the mother and son in the coffins, and thus prevented their escape. As a result, he had to think all the more zealously about how to somehow get rid of the dangerous young man. Nevertheless, Aristobulus tied the hearts of the people to himself; as soon as he appeared in the church, everyone’s eyes turned to his beautiful, tall figure, and in the eyes of everyone one could read the desire to see this last scion of the Asmonean house decorated with a royal crown. Herod could not act by force against this dangerous rival, since the patroness of Aristobulus was the all-powerful Cleopatra at that time. Then he resorted to cunning. He invited him to Jericho, his favorite place to stay, and gave his servants an order to, as if in jest, kill the young man while bathing in the bathhouse, which was exactly carried out. With the eighteen-year-old Aristobulus III, the last descendant of the Asmonean house died, Ananil became high priest for the second time. In vain did Herod dissemble with the deepest mourning on the occasion of the death of his young brother-in-law, in vain did he offer incense over his corpse; relatives, as well as friends of the Asmoneans, accused him of murder, but their lips did not dare to divulge what was stormily swirling in their souls. This crime, however, had very sad consequences for him and turned his life, until his death, into hellish torment. It was not that it aroused reproaches and torments of conscience in this flint heart, but it brought about ever increasing confusion in his own home, which prompted him to sacrifice those dearest to his heart and made him the most unhappy of people. Rarely has a crime in such an obvious connection been avenged in such harsh terms on the culprit himself, as was the case with Herod. But what, with a less hardened heart, would have been a reason for a change of direction, for him was only an encouragement to commit one crime after another, to kill his closest relatives and children, and thus present a terrifying example of the ever-overwhelming power of a sinful life. Alexandra, who had based her ambition on the elevation of her son, now seeing her hopes unfulfilled, did not fail to accuse Herod before Cleopatra as a murderer, and this immensely passionate queen, casting greedy eyes on Herod's possessions, took advantage of this opportunity to make him hated in the eyes of her adorer. As a result, Anthony demanded Herod to come to Laodicea to justify himself in what had happened. Trembling for his life, the vassal king of Rome went there, but managed, with the help of rich gifts and eloquence, to so persuade Anthony in his favor that he not only turned a blind eye to the murder of Aristobulus, but even distinguished him with special honors. Herod returned to his residence in a cheerful mood, having escaped great danger. True, he lost one expensive pearl in his crown. Anthony took from him the region of Jericho, highly famous for its balsams and its palm trees, and gave it to Cleopatra, whom he also endowed with almost the entire coastal strip of the Mediterranean Sea. Herod was to receive from her the value of this land at two hundred talents. But this ransom money could not at all compare with the great loss that threatened him. He had to be pleased. Meanwhile, the demon of discord was waiting for him on the threshold of his palace to fill his soul with despair. Before his departure, he entrusted his wife Mariamne to the husband of his sister Salome, named Joseph, and gave him a secret order so that if he fell out of favor with Antony and lost his head, he would kill his wife and her mother. This satanic thought was suggested to him by his love for his beautiful wife, which he did not want to leave to any successor, as well as hatred in general for women of the Asmonean clan. Joseph, meanwhile, either out of kindness towards Mariamne, in order to show her the extraordinary love of her husband for her, or out of the malice that the members of this family had for each other, informed her of the secret order regarding her death, and thereby drove a thorn deeper into the heart of this unfortunate queen. When, therefore, a false rumor about the death of Herod spread in Jerusalem, Mariamne wanted to surrender with her mother under the protection of the Roman banner. Herod’s sister, Salome, took advantage of this circumstance, inspired by the same hatred for her husband Joseph and her daughter-in-law, since she, out of royal pride, did not want to be friends with her husband’s family, and slandered both of them before her brother, accusing them of even secretly agreeing on an immoral relationship. Herod did not believe at first, but then found confirmation of the slander when Mariamne revealed that she knew about his secret order. His anger knew no bounds, he ordered Joseph to be beheaded, Alexander to be kept in strict confinement, and would have put Mariamne to death if his love for her had not been stronger than his anger. From that time on, in the closest circle of his family, a seed of distrust and hatred was sown, which grew more and more until he put to violent death all the members of his family one after another. Nevertheless, happiness continued to greatly favor Herod and helped him avoid the most sad situations. Scarcely had the sixth year of his reign passed when menacing clouds gathered over his head, which would have overthrown a less powerful man. The surviving sister of the last Asmonean prince, Antigone, decided to act as an avenger for her brother and for her family, gathered an army and, unknown how, captured the fortress of Hyrkanion. As soon as Herod defeated this woman, another, much more serious danger began to threaten him. Cleopatra, who generally hated the Jews, so that during one famine she did not even want to distribute bread to the Jewish poor along with other residents of Alexandria, was especially hostile against Herod and used all her efforts to harm him with the help of her omnipotence over the voluptuous Anthony. Just as Lizania, the son of the Syrian prince Ptolemy, friendly to the Asmonaeans, was previously beheaded by her slander, so the same could have happened to Herod and the Nabothite prince. Therefore, she did not cease to harm Herod with her intrigues, seducing him with her beauty during her journey through Judea, urging him to do something that could irritate Antony’s anger to the extreme. But his shrewd prudence refrained from this temptation. Out of fear of her and the people, who, in their hatred, thought about his overthrow, from time to time he even looked for a place of refuge that would, at least, be able to protect his life for a long time. He made the steep mountain fortress of Masada even more impregnable, which was already accessible only from two sides, from the Dead Sea and the opposite side, along narrow, steep and winding paths leading over the abysses. Over the course of seven stages, he ordered the flinty peaks to be equipped with high, solid walls, thirty-seven towers and dwellings. At Masada he also ordered the construction of a magnificent palace with colonnades, baths and mosaic decorations, and fortified it with towers against possible attacks. At the same time, he ordered large water basins to be made in order to have a constant supply of water, and there was also free space that could be used for sowing grain. If everything began to fail him, then his impregnable fortress on the Dead Sea could at least ensure his life from his enemies, no matter how many there were. Cleopatra, however, conceived another plan, with the goal of destroying him without much effort. She made Herod a guarantor for the income belonging to her in one part of the region of the Nabothite prince Malikh in order to drag him into a war with the latter, and her intention was to destroy these two neighboring princes, equally hated by her, by mutual self-destruction. She partially succeeded in the latter. Since Malikh stopped paying taxes correctly, Herod went to war against him. But as soon as he won two victories over him (at Dium and Kanava, in the Avranite region), Cleopatra sent her commander Anphenion to help the Naboth prince, and the Jewish troops suffered such a terrible defeat that Herod had to retreat beyond the Jordan, and on this side he could not consider himself safe. Added to this was a terrible earthquake, which had a particularly cruel impact on the Sharon Plain (the eastern part of the Ezdrilon Plain): houses were dilapidated and many thousands of people were buried under their ruins. Since this earthquake, the high priests usually prayed in the Holy of Holies on the day of propitiation in particular for the inhabitants of the Plain of Sharon, so that their houses would not become tombs for them. The defeat suffered by the Nabothites and the earthquake made the Jewish army so cowardly and the enemies so self-confident that everything could be feared. But Herod managed to infuse new courage into his army for a new fight; At Philadelphia, the Naboth were defeated and recognized themselves as his tributaries. As soon as there was peace on this side, a new storm arose, which shook the Roman world to its foundations and threatened to have a sad effect on the favorite of the Roman rulers. From the time that Rome and the peoples subject to it found themselves in the power of three statesmen, Octavian Caesar, Mark Antony and Aemilius Lepidus, and they hated each other to the depths of their souls and tried to get rid of each other in order to achieve unlimited autocracy, the political atmosphere was filled with destructive elements that could break out at any moment. Added to this was the unheard-of spectacle that one of these three rulers was in complete power of the adulterous and satanic woman Cleopatra, who used the spell of her love to become the mistress of the games, even if for this purpose all the lands and islands perished in the flames of a destructive military fire. At this extremely troubled time, a Jewish poet foretold, in the form of Sibylline prophecy, in beautiful Greek verse, the destruction of the sinful Roman and Greek world and the coming of the glorious dawn of the Messiah. This Judeo-Greek seer foretold the terrible days in which Belial, the anti-messiah, would seduce and corrupt people: “Even if Rome ruled over Egypt And he reigned there, still the greatest of kingdoms The Immortal King will appear among people And the holy Prince will come, who will conquer all the countries of the earth Will take possession for all time, as soon as centuries flow by, And then the inexorable wrath of the Latin men will reign Three will then ruin Rome with terrible debauchery, And all the people will die in their own homes Woe to you, unfortunate one, woe! if that day overtakes you, And the judgment of the immortal God, the Almighty King! But then Belial will also come, And he will raise the heights of the mountains, raise the abyss of the sea, Will make the brilliant moon and the great fiery sun rise, He will raise the dead and perform many signs Between people. But there will be no completion in it, But only a ghostly deception, and it will deceive many people, Faithful Chosen Jews and Other Men Without the law and those who do not yet know God. But when the threats of the mighty God draw near And the fiery force will spread in streams across the earth, Then He will burn Belial and all those people Who boldly pinned their hopes on him. And then the world will be under the hand of a woman, Who will rule over him, and everything will obey her. When then the widow rules over all the earth, And he will throw gold and silver into the yawning abyss, Then the judgment of the great God will come Over the world for a long time, if he can bear it all. In any case, the time of this calamity has come, and a kind of Belial appeared in the person of the half-Jew Herod; but this disaster did not bring with it the messianic kingdom. With the declaration of war between Octavian and Anthony, a fierce struggle broke out between the Roman West and East, Europe and Asia, and an international war began, the likes of which the world had not seen since the time of Alexander the Great. But it soon ended with the defeat of Antony at the Battle of Actium. Herod, like his enemies, had no doubt that he would die along with the fall of his main patron, since he was Anthony's most loyal ally. Indeed, in his honor, Herod named Antonia the castle of Baris, or Acre, a castle located northwest of the church, which he ordered to be strengthened with walls and high towers, where he placed a strong garrison, so that from it, since it was higher than the church itself, he could observe all movements in the church. During the war against Octavian, he then helped Antony with vital supplies. He was extremely alarmed, but his evil heart did not want the last descendants of the Asmoneans, the eighty-year-old old man Hyrcanus, his wife Mariamne and her mother Alexandra, to survive his fall. He accused Hyrcanus of being in criminal relations with the Naboth prince Malich, and based this accusation on his correspondence with the enemy. With his resourcefulness, he, immediately after Octavian’s victory, took the side of his party and took care to completely destroy a large detachment of Antony’s wild gladiators, who hoped to make their way through Syria and Judea to Egypt to join their master there. But he could not hope that the winner would highly value this transition to his side and through this he forgot his ardent devotion to the vanquished. By his order, the cowardly Sanhedrin, perhaps under the influence of the sons of Bafira devoted to him, pronounced the death sentence over Hyrcanus, for whom there was no other guilt than unprecedented weakness for the murderer of his family. This Asmonean king was not given an honorable burial. As for Mariamne and her mother, Herod, intending to introduce himself to the winner Octavian Caesar, gave the order to the Iturean Soem to immediately execute them in the fortress of Alexandrion as soon as information about his death arrived. But even before setting out on this journey, he was forced by circumstances to make a personal change in the composition of the Sanhedrin, which he otherwise could hardly have had on his side. Thanks to this peculiar change, the hitherto unknown Babylonian Hillel became the head of the Sanhedrin, giving Judaism a direction that, in a thousand branches and connections, is still felt in it to this day. For a time filled with hatred and malice, Hillel, with his good-natured, pacifying character, was like oil for the raging waves of the sea. Hillel traced his ancestry on his mother's side from David himself and belonged to a family that remained in Babylonia even after the liberation of the captives. Although of high birth, he was in very straitened circumstances and enjoyed the support of his wealthy brother Shevna. Apparently, having moved from Babylonia to Jerusalem together with Hyrkap, he became one of the most zealous listeners of the members of the Sanhedrin of Shemaia and Avtalion, whose traditions he usually conveyed with conscientious literalness. At the same time, he had to fight oppressive poverty, and of the half a dinar that he earned, he spent half every day on the maintenance of his house, and the other half he gave to the gatekeeper of the school in order to gain access to the school through him. Once, when he earned too little and could not satisfy the gatekeeper, he climbed onto the flat roof during winter to listen to the reading of the lawyers. Completely immersed in hearing, he did not notice how the falling snow little by little covered him, until he became numb from the cold and almost froze. The next day, Saturday, he was found in this condition under a thick cover of snow and with great difficulty was brought back to life. These stories were meant to glorify Hillel's discipleship. But one can think that he received his education precisely at the school of Shemaia and Avtalion, from whom he received information about the laws that came down through oral tradition. The outstanding feature in Hillel’s character was that dovelike good nature, which does not allow hot-tempered anger to dominate the soul for a moment, that deep love for people that arises from one’s own humility and favorable opinion of others, and finally, that greatness of spirit arising from deep trust in God, which remains unshakably stable even in moments of the most terrible misfortunes. In later times, he was considered the ideal of meekness and modesty, and poetic tales were spread about these traits with special love and dramatic vividness. Two men were betting whether Hillel could be driven to anger, and one of them, who insisted on this, tired Hillel, although he already occupied a high position, with repeated childish questions and the most obnoxious expressions. Hillel constantly answered the annoying interrogator with imperturbable meekness, answered questions and his impudent antics satisfactorily, without uttering a single angry word. Hillel was then approached by pagans who wanted to become proselytes under impossible conditions. One wanted to study all of Judaism in the shortest time that he could stand on one leg; another wanted to accept only written teaching, without accepting oral additions to it; the third would like to enter the Jewish covenant in order to achieve high priestly dignity. Hillel gave a meek answer to all these demands and managed to charm the proselytes so much that they abandoned their conditions. To those who would like to perceive the whole of Judaism only in one single saying, Hillel gave the answer in golden sayings: “what is unpleasant for you, do not do that to others” - this is the main commandment, and everything else is only a conclusion from it. Hillel proved his peaceful character whenever he later encountered opposition to his views; theoretically consistent, in practical terms, he was constantly compliant, and treated even juniors condescendingly. They say about him that he not only provided the necessary help to one bankrupt heir of a rich family, but also gave enough so that he could live in accordance with his condition; he gave him a slave to serve him, and even bought a horse to ride. Trust in God put Hillel above any fear, and he was so able to instill it in the members of his house that when he once, upon entering the city, heard a plaintive cry, he confidently remarked: “I am sure that this plaintive cry does not come from my house.” In the same spirit there were other wise sayings that remained after Hillel. One of them says; “If I don’t take care of myself (my soul), then who will take care of it? If I only take care of myself, how much can I do? If not now, then when? Be a disciple of Aaron, love the world, strive for peace, love people, and in this way you will lead them to the true teaching.” Imbued with the consciousness of the highest purpose of Israel to support and proclaim pure worship of God, he usually thoughtfully expressed this conviction during the solemn celebration of drawing water in the church, saying: “If I (Israel) are here, then everyone is here; If I’m not there, then who will be here?” The teachings of Judaism seemed to him so lofty that he was indignant if he saw that it was used as a means to satisfy ambition. “Whoever strives to exalt his name humiliates it, whoever does not care about learning does not deserve to live, whoever does not learn forgets, whoever does not enjoy the crown of learning perishes.” After Ezra, Hillel is considered the greatest spiritual restorer of the doctrine, which he brought out of decay. His merit was twofold. He enriched the content of the oral teaching, which he borrowed from the school of lawyers of Shemaiah and Avtalion, with ancient traditions that were preserved in Babylonia among captives from ancient times. But even more important was the formal treatment that he gave to the definitions of the oral law. He brought it down to general principles, and thus raised it from the narrow circle of tradition and views simply rooted in custom to the heights of exact knowledge. Tradition, in Hillel's view, bears the basis of its justification and its binding force in itself, and does not even need to refer to authority. By this, he, to some extent, prepared a reconciliation between Pharisaism and Sadduceeism, setting forth general principles with which both parties could not disagree, and through this he wanted to eliminate the disastrous source of passionate hatred. In his opinion, there could be no difference and no more dispute about the binding nature of oral laws. Hillel, on the one hand, recognized the Sadducean principle that every law only receives meaning if it finds justification in Scripture; but on the other hand also argued that this justification lies not only in the dead letter, but also in general assumptions to which the sacred text may indicate. By means of the seven rules of interpretation, the oral law could be deduced from Scripture and thereby given its meaning as clearly prescribed. Thanks to these seven rules, oral legislation appeared in a completely different light; it no longer had the character of apparent arbitrariness, but bore the stamp of universality and usability and could be considered as arising from Holy Scripture. These rules then had to not only justify the already existing content of the oral tradition, but also offer known data for expanding the laws and applying them to unforeseen cases. The Sanhedrin was thus given sufficient scope for its legislative activity, and a wide area was open to the mind for ingenious combinations. Hillel's rules, later subjected to further development and expansion, served as the basis for that method of ingenious explanations and conclusions that constitute the content of the Talmud in the strict sense of the word. These rules of interpretation, which could partly come from Shemaiah and Avtalion, teachers of Hillel, famous for their interpretations of the Holy Scriptures, but which the latter first raised into a system, at first, apparently, did not find any approval. There is evidence that he used them in one discussion in the Sanhedrin, but the latter did not pay attention to them; he either did not understand them or disputed their usefulness. Meanwhile, Hillel had the opportunity to openly come forward with his rules on one issue, the solution of which was interested in the whole people, and this incident led to his elevation to the dignity of chairman of the Sanhedrin. The eve of the holiday, when it was necessary to offer the Passover lamb, happened, by an extremely rare exception, on Saturday, and the Sanhedrin could not give a proper decision regarding whether the Passover sacrifice could be performed on the day of rest. Hillel, whose outstanding mind had already attracted attention, intervened in this reasoning and proved that, according to the rules of the rabbinate, inferences and analogies, Passover supplanted the Sabbath, like any common sacrifice. The discussion was heated, since the entire large crowd gathered for the holiday was interested in this question, so that both approving and disapproving expressions about Hillel were loudly heard. Some shouted: “we must expect the best solution from the Babylonian”; others ironically remarked: “What good can be expected from a Babylonian!” Since the Sanhedrin did not want to enter into detailed argumentation, Hillel finally referred to the tradition he had accepted from the mouths of Shemaiah and Avtalion, which confirmed his conclusion. The name of Hillel from that time became so popular that the current members of the Sanhedrin left their seats (it is unknown whether voluntarily or under compulsion from the people) and Hillel was given the chairmanship (about 30 BC). Hillel, far from any pride in being elevated to such a high rank, expressed his dissatisfaction with this and condemned the members of the Sanhedrin: “What exactly led to the fact that I (a minor Babylonian) should become the chairman of the Sanhedrin? Your laziness and carelessness, inattention to the teachings of Shemaiah and Avtalion.” Herod, apparently, did not put any obstacle to this choice, partly because he, busy with the question of his crown and his head, before meeting Octavian, did not want to irritate the people, and partly because Hillel, as a Babylonian and as a teacher of peace, was not unpleasant to him. As a result of this accident, a man became the head of the Sanhedrin, adorning this rank with brilliant virtues and having a profound influence on the development of Judaism. Among the decrees that took place during Hillel's career, two are of general interest and show that he correctly looked at the relationships of life and treated them with due attention. In the Sabbath year, according to the law, all debts were to be forgiven. But this, for an ancient state based on morality, such a wise rule for equalizing disordered property states at that time, when capital had already become a force, had the disadvantage that the propertied classes stopped helping the poor, not giving them loans. In view of this circumstance, Hillel, without completely abolishing the law on the remission of debts, decreed that the creditor, upon the arrival of the year of remission, should report the debt in writing to the court so that the latter could collect it, thereby saving the creditor from violating the law. This establishment, consistent with the spirit of the times, equally beneficial for the creditor and the debtor, bears the Greek name provolo (transfer), since the debt, according to it, was to be transferred. From here it is clear how much the Greek language penetrated into the Jewish people during the time of Herod, when the Babylonian Hillel had to use the Greek term for the new law. Hillel's second decree concerned the redemption of a sold house in an unwalled city. According to biblical law, the seller was given a year to redeem his property, and only after this year the house completely belonged to the buyer. Many buyers abused this regulation when they went into hiding on the last day of the year to keep their purchase. As a result, Hillel decreed that the seller in such a case had to transfer the amount paid to him to the head of the church treasury, and then could take possession of his house by force. The second rank, as governor, was taken next to Hillel by the Essene Menaim, and precisely at the insistent desire of Herod himself, since he enjoyed high confidence in him. The reason for this attachment of the king to the Essenes was later told as follows: Menahem, allegedly, even in childhood, due to the insight into the future attributed to the Essenes, clearly predicted to Herod that he would one day become king of Jerusalem, would rule brilliantly, but would sin against piety and righteousness. What seemed fabulous to Herod as a boy, he now remembered in adulthood, when he actually already wore the royal crown. He immediately ordered this seer to be summoned to him, spoke graciously to him, and asked about the duration of his reign. But since Menaim remained stubbornly silent, Herod successively asked about the number of years, namely, whether he would reign for ten, twenty, thirty years, and since the seer did not deny this with any sign, Herod saw here a good omen that he would reign for at least thirty years. Meanwhile, Menaim apparently did not feel particularly comfortable in his position; he retired from the Sanhedrin, according to some, in order to enter court service, and he was followed by many lawyers who adhered to Herod, and were richly rewarded for this. According to another, more reliable testimony, he retired into solitude, as required by his Essene view. His successor was Shammai, who represented a counterweight and at the same time a necessary complement to Hillel. Almost nothing is known about Shammai's life; he was obviously a Palestinian and therefore took an intimate part in all the political and religious vicissitudes of his native country. His religious views were strict to the point of painfulness. Thus, he subjected his son, who was still in childhood, to the law of fasting on the day of purification to such an extent that his friends had to force him to spare the child’s health. When his daughter-in-law once gave birth to a boy on the Feast of Tabernacles, the extremely pious grandfather ordered the roof over the room of the woman in labor to be removed to make a tabernacle out of it, so that his newborn grandson could already fulfill the dictates of the law. Nevertheless, Shammai was by no means a man of such a gloomy, unsociable character as he was later portrayed, based on the characteristics of his dry Zealot school, where he was imagined only with a stick in his hand. He rather had a friendly attitude towards everyone, as can be judged by the saying that came down from him: “make your study the main subject, say little and do a lot, and receive every person with a friendly look.” These two representatives of the Sanhedrin, Hillel and Shammai, formed their own schools, which diverged from each other on many religious, moral and legal issues, and later, during wars, exerted a strong influence on the course of historical events in opposite directions. Herod had no idea what irreconcilable elements for his home were being quietly developed within the walls of the school. With an extremely anxious heart, Herod went to Rhodes to worship Octavian Caesar, who, after defeating Anthony at Actium, became the sole ruler of the Roman state. Arrogant in his homeland, Herod appeared before the almighty ruler of Rome humble, without any external adornment, although not without courageous determination. In an audience with Octavian, Herod did not keep silent about his close relationship with Antony; but he could also refer to the fact that after receiving news of the battle of Actium, he fell behind him, and made it clear to Octavian what benefit the winner could derive from his helpfulness and devotion, which he intended to transfer from Antony to the side of the winner. Octavian was neither noble enough to despise cowardly creatures, nor did he consider himself sufficiently wealthy and safe to do without them. Therefore, he mercifully accepted the repentant Herod, ordered him to put on the crown again and released him to his land with great honors (30 BC). Herod, who knew how to adapt to circumstances, became as faithful a supporter of Octavian as he had been to Antony for twelve years. During Octavian’s campaign in Egypt against his enemies, he came out to meet him with rich gifts in Acre, supplied his ruler with water and wine during the campaign through the waterless country, and Anthony could learn during his lifetime that Herod’s loyalty to him was by no means unshakable. Herod was not even a stranger to gloating that his stubborn enemy, Cleopatra, failed to entangle the winner with her seductive charms, and she had no choice but to commit suicide. The Jews of Alexandria shared this joy, since they also had to endure a lot from her hatred. Not long before her death, this inhuman woman wanted nothing more than to have all the Jews of the Egyptian capital, because they sided with Octavian, beaten with her own hand 441 . For their devotion to Octavian, the Egyptian Jews received confirmation of their equality with the rest of the Greek settlers and other rights; he relied so much on their loyalty that he left to the Jewish alavarchs the supervision of customs duties on the Nile and the sea, which they received from the Egyptian kings, from Ptolemy Philometor and the two former Cleopatras. This was all the more proof of trust that it was extremely important to the first emperor who took possession of Egypt, this Roman granary, and especially Alexandria, as a universal harbor, that not a single senator dare travel there without imperial permission. When the then Alavarch died, Octavian allowed his successor to be chosen by the Jews of Alexandria, and granted him, named Nicanor, all the rights of his predecessors. He provided the Jews with even greater advantages. While he strictly limited the rights of the Alexandrian Greeks, due to their corruption, frivolity and tendency to rebellion, and did not provide them with any civil power, and even subordinated them to a judge appointed by him, he at the same time granted the Jews the right to have their own special Jewish council (gerusia), which existed next to the alavarch or ethnarch. The council independently governed the Jewish community, resolved legal disputes and took care of the implementation of imperial decrees and definitions. And in Rome itself, the first emperor, if he did not grant special rights to the numerous Jewish settlers, the so-called Libertines, still treated their religion with tolerance, and his example was the norm in this regard in subsequent times. There they could have their own houses of worship and hold religious meetings, although these meetings were not looked upon particularly favorably in Rome; they could then send their offerings to the church annually to Jerusalem, although the sending of large sums from Rome abroad was prohibited. Roman Jews also had the right to participate in the distribution of grain to the people. If the distribution took place on Saturday, then it was distributed to them the next day. This is how the first emperor established it. Octavian gave the Jewish king a detachment of Cleopatra's bodyguards, four hundred Gauls (or Celts), gave him all the Roman cities taken from Judea, and also returned to him the region of Jericho. Samaria, Gadara and Hippos on the other side of the Jordan were also annexed to Judea. As a result of this, it again received the volume that it had before the internecine war and the intervention of the Romans, but under what changed circumstances! That the first emperor Octavian Augustus allegedly provided funds for daily offerings in the Jerusalem temple is, of course, an exaggerated rumor about his favor towards the Jews. But in any case, it is likely, due to the excessive flattery of Herod, that from that time on, sacrifices were constantly made in the temple of Jerusalem for the welfare of the Roman Caesars. On the other hand, it is known that Augustus, like his wife, donated golden vessels for wine to the church. Chapter 68. The last half of the reign of Herod Herod now stood at the pinnacle of his power; all disasters not only passed safely for him, but also contributed to his even greater exaltation. But he did not have to enjoy this happiness for long, since the punishment for his crime followed on his heels and turned his cup of joy into grief and disaster. In the close circle of his own home, a tragedy took place, sadder than which the poet’s imagination could not have imagined, and which filled his heart with inexpressible sorrow. Mariamne, who had been treated, along with her mother, as a prisoner during his absence, learned from the governor of her prison, Soema, of the secret order that Herod had already given for the second time, to prevent her from surviving his death. Upon his return, she no longer made any secret of her hatred of him, and if he spoke to her about tender love, she began to tell him about the death of her brother and her grandfather, about the death of her relatives. Herod's heart was tormented by love for this beautiful woman, the possession of which equally satisfied his feelings and his ambition, and at the same time by hatred of this enemy of his personality and his power. In such a difficult situation, he was too inclined to listen to the machinations of his malicious sister Salome, who whispered to him that Mariamne had bribed his cupbearer to give him poison. During the ensuing investigation, it turned out that Mariamne knew about his secret order to Soema, and this betrayal of one of his most devoted servants aroused his jealousy even more and unbridled a lot of the wildest passions in his chest. Soem was immediately beheaded. Shocked by these terrible trials, he accused his wife of adultery and attempts to poison him before the council he convened. The judges thought to please him by pronouncing the death sentence as quickly as possible. The postponement of execution that Herod had in mind was opposed by Salome, who managed to persuade her brother that the people could make an uprising in order to free Mariamne if he placed her under the supervision of the jailer. As a result, the most beautiful woman of Judea, the Asmonean princess, the pride of the people, in the flower of her youth, was brought to the place of execution. She ascended to him in a strong spirit, without showing the slightest weakness or feminine fear, being worthy of her ancestors. Mariamne was a striking image of Judea, who was brought to the executioner's ax by insidious intrigues and passions. But the death of Mariamne did not calm the vengeful spirit in Herod’s chest, but on the contrary aroused him to even greater rage. He could not bear this loss of his and as a result fell into madness and illness. He ordered her corpse to be embalmed with honey so that at the sight of it he would indulge in self-deception, constantly called her by name with tears and sighs, ordered his servants to talk about her as if she were still alive, and since the internal excitement in him could only be calmed by bloodshed, he ordered the execution of her judges, who belonged to his most devoted friends. All this emotional excitement finally brought him to his sickbed, and he lay in Samaria in such a dangerous situation that the doctors feared for his life. Alexandra wanted to take advantage of this favorable opportunity to take possession of Jerusalem and overthrow her mortal enemy from the throne. She tried to persuade the mayor and the church overseer to assist her. Blinded by the fear of death and the thirst for revenge, she forgot that a certain Ahiab, Herod’s closest relative, could immediately inform him of her insane attempt. The proximity of danger again aroused the spirit of life in Herod, especially since here he had the opportunity to finally get rid of the last Asmonean woman. Although she constantly knew how to maintain an innocent face, and brought her hypocrisy to such an extent that, before her death, she most cruelly reproached her daughter Mariamne for her ingratitude to Herod, just to clear herself of suspicion of complicity in the crime committed against her daughter, he no longer trusted her. As a result, the death of Alexandra quickly followed, and she was hanged. The last scion of the Asmonean family died with her after she saw her father-in-law Aristobulus II, her husband Alexander, her son-in-law Antigonus, her son Aristobulus III, her father Hyrcanus II and her daughter Mariamne die a shameful death one after another. She did not escape the fate that hung over her house, of the members of which, starting with Judas Maccabee, only two died a natural death on a quiet bed. Not long after that, the rest of the collateral relatives of the Asmonean house of Bene Baba were beheaded, so that later they could rightfully say that whoever referred to his descent from the Asmoneans, thereby betrayed his low origins from the Idumean slave Herod. Herod's most devoted friend, the Edomite Kostobar, hid the sons of Baba for four years in order with their help to carry out the intended plot to return the Edomites to their pagan cult, of which his ancestors were the priests. But Salome, whose husband Costobar became after the execution of her first husband Joseph, loved changeability in marriage and saw in her position at court only favorable circumstances for palace intrigues. She separated from her second husband, presenting him, against custom, with a letter of divorce, and to harm him, she informed her brother that Kostobar was hiding Baba's sons. As a result, Herod ordered the execution of Costobar, along with his accomplices, assistants and friends, Lysimachus, Gadia, Antipater, Dositheus and all those who enjoyed his patronage. The next two thirds of Herod's reign do not show any forward movement and represent a long chain of groveling servility towards Augustus and Rome, a passion for construction and spectacles of deeply terrifying moral depravity, unfortunate conspiracies and court intrigues and new crimes and executions inseparably following them. In order to retain the favor of the almighty Augustus, Herod introduced the festival of the four-year Acciades in Jerusalem, in memory of his victory over his rival at Actium, built a theater and a stadium, organized games consisting of the fight of athletes with wild animals, thereby arousing the discontent of strict patriots, who rightfully saw in this signs of a desire to gradually turn Judaism into a pagan Roman cult, and in the Roman trophies and eagles displayed in the theatre, the invasion of Roman idolatry. There was even a conspiracy of ten people who despised death with the goal of killing Herod during one of the spectacles, and they were joined by one blind man who could not find a better purpose for his life than to devote it to the death of the tyrant and corrupter of morals. The conspiracy was discovered, the conspirators, who boasted of their assassination attempt, were executed with terrible torture, but the people tore the informer into pieces, which they threw to the dogs. Herod inflicted another insult on popular feeling when he not only ordered the city of Samaria, deeply hated in Judea, to be expanded by half a mile and decorated with magnificent buildings, but also expressed the idea of ​​​​making it the capital of the country, which was especially favorable for its position. This meant re-establishing a rival city of Jerusalem and little by little depriving it of respect and holiness. He ordered a church to be built there as well. Herod named the newly built Samaria in honor of Augustus Sebastia 442, just as earlier he named the tower of Baris in honor of Anthony, the Asmonean castle in the northwestern part of the church - Antonia. Judea was filled with cities and monuments that bore the names of his Roman benefactors, or his family. He ordered the Strato Tower on the seashore, despite the terrible costs, to be turned into a magnificent city and port and gave it the name of Caesarea. He named one tower on the wall of this city after Augustus's stepson, Drusus. Herod was not even afraid to erect a Roman church on the soil of the holy land. Caesarea was decorated with two colossi, one of which bore the image of Augustus in the gigantic features of Olympian Jupiter, and the other - the image of the city of Rome, modeled on the Argive Juno. At the brilliant celebration of the opening of Caesarea, the construction of which lasted almost twelve years, everyone could think that he was in a pagan city, and strict patriots rightly called this city, due to its name, origin and significance, Little Rome. Subsequently, it became the residence of Roman governors, a rival of Jerusalem and, finally, its conqueror. Every time Caesarea triumphed, Jerusalem was in sorrow. The port of Caesarea, which little by little expanded into an independent city, was named Sebaste by Herod. The two wings of his palace, which Herod built with extraordinary splendor and richness of decoration in the upper part of the city, in the former Zion, bore the names of Caesar and Agrippa. In honor of the latter, who was the right hand of Augustus, he also named the newly built seaside city of Anthedon Agrippa. To perpetuate the name of his father, Herod gave the town Kafarsabe the name of Antipatrida. He gave the name of his mother to the newly built city near Jericho, Cyprus. In memory of his brother, he named the buildings northeast of Jericho Phazailis, and one tower in the inner fortification of Jerusalem was also named Phazail. He erected a monument to himself three miles southwest of Jerusalem in the fortification of Herodium, where, after his flight, he won a victory over the crowd of people pursuing him. On one hill he also built a magnificent palace with high towers, in which he indulged in all kinds of luxury and pleasures of life. Two hundred white marble steps led up to it from the base. To supply Herodium with water, a water supply system was built at extraordinary expense. Herod undoubtedly decorated Judea, but he decorated it as one would decorate a sacrifice doomed to death with a wreath. In all these buildings, his love of luxury found complete satisfaction, but not his love of fame. Having refused to some extent to acquire the devotion of his people, Herod wanted to arouse the surprise of foreign peoples, and glorify his name among them. He exhausted the tax-paying forces of the Jewish people, resorted to all kinds of extortion, plundered the treasures of the ancient royal tombs, sold those convicted of theft as slaves abroad, and spent all this income in order to decorate the Syrian, Asia Minor and Greek cities. It is difficult to imagine the insane sums that Herod thus deprived his country of. He built a gymnasium in Tripolis and Damascus, walls around Byblos, a theater, public squares, a church in Sidon, aqueducts in Laodicea, baths and colonnades in Ascalon. He ordered the streets of Antioch to be lined with marble pavements and galleries, restored the Church of Apollo, the fleet of the Rhodians and the collapsed colonnades of the Chians, helped the Lydians, Samians, Ionians, even the Spartans and Athenians, took into his own account the city expenses of the city of Nicopolis, erected in memory of the victory over Anthony at Actium. He appointed prizes for the Olympic Games, which had fallen into decline, in order to restore their former luster. For all this, he was praised to the skies even by the usually short-lived, frivolous Syrians and Greeks. Augustus was pleased with him and expressed regarding him that “Herod is worthy to wear the crown of Syria and Egypt.” He received tangible benefit from this crazy passion of his in that Augustus gave him the district of Batanea (Basan), the Avranite hills (Avran), and the wild Trachopitida, riddled with volcanoes, north of Avran, and in addition, apparently, Iturea, east of Hermon and Lebanon, since these areas were infested with bandits of robbers and no one would be able to own them except Herod. The gift was not entirely pleasant; since Herod had to endure a lot of struggle with the inhabitants, who lived like wild animals, and to curb it he sent 3000 Edomites to Trachonitis. Even later, shortly before his death, Herod had to take measures to prevent the predatory raids of the Trachonitids. In order to curb the Trachonitids, Herod invited one Babylonian-Jewish leader Tsamaris to settle in Bashan, who, with a large family of one hundred people and five hundred armed horsemen, having moved beyond the Euphrates, received permission from the Augustan governor in Syria to settle north of Lake Merom, near Ulaf. The brave warriors of Tsamaris successfully fulfilled this purpose and founded castles and the city of Bafira in this area. They also served as a cover for the church offerings, which were transported annually from Babylonia to Jerusalem. Since Herod’s entire policy was aimed only at pleasing foreigners, ingratiating himself with the Romans, and finding love with the Greeks, then in the internal life of his palace he surrounded himself only with foreigners, especially Greeks. His closest friend was Nicholas of Damascus, at one time a famous, philosophically educated orator and historian, who often acted in his place and, if necessary, defended him before Octavian Caesar. His brother Ptolemy was his adviser and governor of the state. The Greek Andromachus and the Roman Gemellus were the educators of his sons from Mariamne, and the latter trusted them more than their father. If Herod could arouse with his activities the admiration and gratitude of the Greeks, Romans and foreign Jews, who benefited from his good position in the eyes of the ruler of Rome, then the people of Judea themselves did not feel anything towards him except disgust, as a daring upstart who sought to abolish the morals and customs of their fathers. If during one severe famine, which led to epidemics, he showed himself to be a generous benefactor, then, in general, with all his behavior, he soon again made them forget about these benefits, and the people saw in him only the thief of the throne, the murderer of the Asmoneans, the strangler of all that is best, the oppressor of freedom. One after another, he disgraced three dignities - royal, high priestly and Sanhedrin. The first he appropriated to himself; the second, which before his time was, with few exceptions, hereditary, he provided, depending on his favor and benefit; He limited the power of the Sanhedrin so much that it was given only a very narrow field of activity. After Ananil, he elevated to the rank of high priest a certain Jesus, from the family of Fabi; but since he was charmed by one beautiful girl, the other by Mariamne, the daughter of the unknown priest Simon, he elevated her father to the high priestly rank, in order to somehow be able to enter into an equal marriage. This high priest Simon, by whom Jesus was supplanted, came from Alexandria, was the son of Boeth, who laid the foundation for the greatness of the house of Boeth, who also gave several other high priests. This Alexandrian, apparently, was the founder of the party of the Boethites, who were devoted to the Sadducean way of thinking, and were better than even the Sadducees themselves at reconciling them with Alexandrian shamelessness and sophistry. These interventions that Herod permitted himself in sacred matters were by no means able to make him beloved among the people. He knew this dislike towards himself, but since he could not suppress it, he wanted at least to make it harmless. As a result, he ordered the people to take an oath of allegiance, and severely punished those who refused him this. From it he freed only the Essenes, who generally avoided the oath as an abuse of the sacred name of God; he had nothing to fear from their peaceful, contemplative lifestyle; He precisely wanted such subjects for himself who would patiently accept any of his tyrannical tricks. Among the Pharisees, he was refused an oath by the adherents of the peaceful Hillel, or even more by the adherents of the strict Shammai. But out of respect for the universally respected Hillel, he also released them from the oath. All others who refused the oath were subject to death. But despite all these precautions, he did not trust the people and therefore kept a whole army of spies who scoured among the crowds and eavesdropped on popular rumors. He himself was in the habit of scurrying around in public assemblies, in disguise, and woe to anyone who allowed himself to express dissatisfaction: he was immediately captured, taken to the fortress of Hyrcanium and secretly put to death. People's love, however, is sweet, so that even the tyrant could not completely do without it, and Herod needed it all the more because he wanted to appear in the eyes of the Romans as a completely popular sovereign, especially in the eyes of Augustus, whom he met in Syria and who then gave him the Trans-Jordanian regions. In order to gain the love of the people, he canceled a third of the taxes under the pretext that the country had previously suffered from a prolonged drought. This consideration, together with his passion for construction, inspired him with the idea of ​​once again brilliantly rebuilding the church, which was already 500 years old from its foundation and which was small and built in an old-fashioned style. Representatives of the people, to whom he informed about his desire to rebuild the church, received this news with horror. They feared that Herod was only planning to destroy the old church, or to delay the construction as long as possible and thus deprive the people of the sanctuary. Meanwhile, he reassured them with the assurance that he would leave the old church untouched until building materials were collected and a sufficient number of workers were hired. And indeed, soon thousands of carts appeared, on which stones and marble were transported to the construction site. 10,000 experienced workers were assembled to begin work immediately. Construction began in the 18th year of his reign, and the interior of the church was completed in a year and a half. The outer body of the walls, chambers, colonnades took eight years to build, and long after that, almost until the destruction of the church, work was still going on on its external extensions. Until later times, evidence was preserved that during the construction of the inner church it never rained during the day, but always only at night, without causing any delay in the work. Herod's church was a magnificent work, the sublime beauty of which those who still saw it could not be sufficiently amazed. It differed from the old Zerubbabel Church in its increased volume and extraordinary splendor. The entire space of the church mount, which was surrounded by a high and solid wall, occupied, together with the tower of Anthony located right there, six stages (more than a mile), and rose in a terrace-like manner. Due to this position, the church could be seen from afar, and it made a majestic impression on every viewer. Along the entire outer wall inside there were spacious chambers and colonnades, decorated with cedars and plastered with multi-colored stones, double on three sides, and triple on the south side, on which the intermediate space was larger; these latter were called the royal chambers. The first free courtyard, surrounded by colonnades and called istavaanite (stoa) in Hebrew-Greek, served as a gathering place for the people, where the most important issues were discussed. The pagans, as unclean, could only be here; Therefore, Herod ordered Greek and Roman inscriptions to be made on the columns, in which the pagans were forbidden to penetrate further. They were not allowed into the further premises of the sanctuary on the grounds that, not subject to the Levitical laws of purification, they were considered unclean. The inscription on the columns read in seven lines, in large, conspicuous letters: “none of the foreign nations dares to enter the bars around the sanctuary and walls; whoever violates this decree will himself be guilty of being subjected to death” 443. The second courtyard, previously surrounded by a lattice wooden wall, received a strong, although low, wall under Herod. The premises in the church were changed little and consisted, as in the old church built by Zerubbabel, of three uncovered courtyards and a covered sanctuary. In the interior, the church itself had the same dimensions as the ancient one, and the sacred place for the lamps, the table of showbread and the golden altar was 40 cubits in length and 20 in width, and the holy of holies at the western end of the church was 20 cubits square. But on the outside the church received much larger dimensions, was 100 cubits high and the same in length from east to west, including the vestibule in the east, but only 70 cubits wide from north to south. To this vestibule, a closed extension of 15 cubits was made on both sides, as a result of which the width from the east seemed to be almost a space of 100 cubits. The walls of the church were made of luminous white marble, and since they were erected at the very top of the Church Mount and stood higher than the front buildings, they presented a magnificent view to the viewer from afar from all sides. Having up to 30 cubits in thickness, these walls were cut through with wide passages and cells. The vast space in front of the sanctuary was divided into sections for women, laymen, priests and sacrifices. Inside and outside the courtyard or pre-church, there were open and closed rooms for various purposes and for treasuries. Along the southern and northern walls inside there were covered colonnades with stone seats, where serving priests could find shelter in case of rainy weather or unbearable heat. The room for the female sex, who now took more part in visiting the church than before, was completely separate, and outside, in the women's courtyard, special balconies were erected in three places to contemplate the celebrations taking place. Especially a lot of luxury in the church was given to the doors, ropes and upper parts of the gates in the church. A gate led to the women's quarters from east to west, the doors of which were cast from Corinthian bronze, donated by one rich and pious Alexandrian, namely the then Alavarch Nikanor. Therefore, they were called Nikanor Gates. From them fifteen steps led to the premises for the laity through a gate, which, due to its high position, was called the High Gate. The entrance to the church was not locked with doors. But from it a courtyard led to the sanctuary itself, which, as it was taller and wider than the other buildings, was equipped on the outside and inside with double folding gates, which were lined with a thick layer of gold. This gate was called the Great Gate, or simply the Church Gate. Due to the height and weight of the doors of these gates, they were difficult to open and close; at the same time, several Levites had to make great efforts, and the strong moving hinges in the hollowed out stone made such a noise when they were opened that it was heard in all the church premises and was heard even outside them. The sanctuary was separated from the holy of holies not by a door, but by a double curtain, which, being woven from fine linen, sky blue, red and crimson Babylonian purple threads, presented a magnificent sight. The gates leading from the north and south from the free space to the church (three or four on each side) were decorated with fine carvings. The high roof of the church was decorated with gilded pins, which were intended to prevent crows and other birds from making nests on them. These spikes gave the building a special shine under the sun's rays and, in addition, without the knowledge of the builders themselves, served as excellent lightning rods that prevented the discharge of electrical clouds above the church. The celebration of the consecration of the church erected at the command of Herod far exceeded even that which was performed by Solomon over his church. Hecatombs after hecatombs were sacrificed, and the people indulged in boundless fun and feasting. The church was consecrated on the very day on which Herod, twenty years earlier, with bloody hands, took possession of Jerusalem, thus reproducing a very unpleasant memory. The same hand that erected the church also lit the torch for its destruction. Herod placed him under the protection of Rome. The golden eagle, a symbol of Roman power, located above the main entrance, strongly irritated all pious people. The extent to which the Jewish sanctuary could survive depended entirely on the favor of the Roman ruler. From the tower of Anthony, intended to observe the temple, Herod ordered another underground passage to be made, which led to the eastern gate, so that here too he could observe what was happening in the sanctuary and suddenly suppress any hostile movement against him. His soul was completely filled with distrust of the people he enslaved. The construction of the church was the only thing Herod did for which the people were grateful to him, although they did not love him. In other respects his rule was pleasing only to the foreign Jews. The Greeks of Asia Minor, however, did not cease to torment the Jews in their markets with their malicious intolerance, despite the order given to them by the Roman authorities not to violate their religious rites. They even sought to abolish the equal rights of the Jews. In particular, the city of Ephesus revealed a hostile spirit towards the Jews, which forced them to appear in court on Saturdays and holidays, perform military service, take on burdensome and expensive positions, and took away the donations collected for the Jerusalem Temple in order to use them for city needs and even for holiday games. It is remarkable that the Jews of Asia Minor did not turn to Herod with complaints about religious oppression; they apparently had no confidence in him, since they exclusively favored the Greeks. Nevertheless, he still helped them. He was on as good terms with Marcus Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus and in some respects a participant in his power, as with the emperor. Herod for Augustus was supposedly the most dear person after Agrippa, as well as Agrippa after Augustus. During Agrippa's circuitous journey, Herod invited him to also visit Jerusalem, showed him the most exquisite attentiveness, and accompanied him on his way back to Asia Minor. The local Jews took advantage of this circumstance to bring to him, in the presence of Herod, their complaints about the evil Greeks. Herod could not act as their defender and forced his friend-orator, Nicholas of Damascus, to even speak in their favor. The Ionians of Asia Minor did not at all deny that they were unfriendly towards the Jews, but did not recognize their right to live in this country at all, since they were supposedly completely powerless foreigners, although they had lived there for centuries. Consequently, Agrippa declared at one public meeting that he, at least for the sake of Herod, was ready to confirm the freedom of religion of the Jews and forbid the Greeks to violate it. Agrippa also issued a strict order to the authorities of Ephesus not to encroach on the donations collected by the Jews for the church, that such an encroachment should be subject to trial as desecration of the church, and gave the praetor an order not to demand the Jews to be judged on Saturdays. The Asia Minors, however, apparently paid little attention to this and continued to treat the Jews with hostility. The latter therefore sent an embassy to Augustus himself to complain to him about their situation. As a result of this, the emperor himself issued a decree so that the Jews, who had always proved to be faithful supporters of the Caesar's house, and who, as a result, were allowed freedom of religion by the Senate and the Roman people, would leave these rights inviolable. On Saturday and even on the eve of it, in the afternoon, they could not be required to appear in court, and could freely collect donations for the church and send them to Jerusalem. Whoever encroaches on these donations and steals their sacred books and utensils from the sanctuary must be judged as a blasphemer. Augustus ordered that his decree be published in every visible place. He also gave instructions to the proconsul of Asia, Norbanus Flaccus, to ensure that the rights of the Jews were inviolable, and this latter issued orders in this regard to the authorities of Ephesus and Sardis. But especially the Ephesians were so persistent in their unfriendliness towards their Jewish fellow citizens that they continued not to pay any attention to all this, and the Jews a few years later were forced to personally complain about this to the proconsul Julius Antonius (son of the triumvir Antony). He also issued a strict command in this regard, but it is not known whether it had any success. In the province of Cyrenaica, in Africa, where the Jews settled under the first Ptolemies, they also had to complain at that time of unfriendliness on the part of the Greeks. In this area they, constituting a significant part of the population, had their own civil government. During the time of Sulla they revolted, it is unknown under what circumstances and for what purpose. The Roman commander Lucullus was sent there to restore calm again. In the main city of Veronica they were under the control of their domestic head, called the archon. When the Romans took possession of this area, they left behind the Jews their political equality and all their rights. These rights immediately began to be challenged by the Greeks, and the authorities did not want to give permission to send the collected donations for the temple to Jerusalem. Despite the fact that the district order of Augustus was sent there so that the Jews could live freely according to their religious laws, the local Greeks encroached on the money collected for the church. But when the Jewish envoys went to Agrippa and complained to him about this, he forbade such an encroachment and commanded that the money thus captured from the Jews be returned to them again. Perhaps the consequence of this religious freedom of the Jews, recognized by Augustus and Agrippa, was that the governor of Cyrenaica, Marcus Tittius, treated the Jews with such extraordinary favor. The Jewish archons of Veronica, precisely on the occasion of his good disposition towards their community and towards individuals, decided to present him with a crown of olives, and his name was pronounced with praise at all meetings on Saturday and in the new moon. They even displayed one statue made of Parian marble, equipped with a brief inscription of this decision, in a prominent place in the amphitheater. Returning to Jerusalem from his meeting with Agrippa, Herod convened a public meeting and did not fail to declare at it what kind of favors he had obtained from Agrippa for the Jews of Asia Minor. At the same time, he forgave a fourth of the taxes to those who had not yet paid them last year. This time the people reconciled with him and greeted him solemnly. But when he still thought of enjoying this love of the people, the spirit of revenge spoiled this short joy for him. In the last third of Herod’s reign, a terrible misfortune befell the already sixty-year-old sinner, which plunged him into that state of dull despair when a person ceases to be human and turns into a wild beast. The corpses of those innocently killed by him, in the form of ghosts, rose up before his eyes, haunted him in reality and in his dreams, and made his life a constant hellish torment. In vain he looked for a loving heart, a faithful soul that could guide and comfort him. His own flesh and blood, his sister Salome and brother Pheroras, whom he placed so highly, even his own children, in his eyes were his enemies and encroached on his peace and life. This painful existence made him even more merciless and bloodthirsty towards everyone who came into dangerous contact with him. The main source of his unhappiness was the death of Mariamne. She left him with two sons (and two daughters), Alexander and Aristobulus, who, upon reaching adulthood, deeply took to heart the death of their innocent mother and had no sympathy for their father. Since they were of Asmonean origin on their mother’s side, Herod intended them to be his successors and sent them to Rome for education, so that they could acquire the favor of Augustus in advance and get used to the character of Roman life and government. Then he married them, the eldest, Alexander, to Glaphyra, the daughter of the Cappadocian king Archelaus (who was proud to be descended from the Persian royal house, but was the daughter of a harlot), the younger to the daughter of Salome, Bernice. By this he intended to strengthen the unity between the members of his family. But the hatred of the vengeful Salome and her brother Pheroras for the Asmonean Mariamne, which did not dry up even after her death, did not allow this agreement to be established: they transferred this hatred to her two sons, although one of them was Salome’s son-in-law. They managed to convince Herod to take his son from his first marriage to Doris, whom he rejected along with his mother when he married the Asmonean Mariamne, back to himself and treat him as a prince. The son of Doris, named Antipater, had in his blood all the cunning, heartlessness and hypocrisy of the Edomite family, and he directed his anger at his father and brothers. These three persons, Salome, Pheroras and Antipater, although mortal enemies among themselves, united in hatred of the sons of Mariamne. The more the father preferred them and the more the eyes of the people turned to the Asmonaeans on their mother’s side, the more they were an object of fear and hatred for them. Antipater brought the accusation against Alexander and Aristobulus that they allegedly wanted to avenge the death of their mother on the culprit. The reason for this suspicion was the thoughtless expressions that escaped them at a moment of bad mood. The suspicious soul of Herod greedily seized on this slander; he began to hate his sons, and, in order to punish them, he granted Antipater an equal right to inheritance, which further embittered the sons of the Asmonean woman and led them to extremely careless expressions regarding their father. These expressions were naturally brought to his attention, and in such an exaggerated form that a formal conspiracy against the life of the Tsar-Father was made from them. Antipater made sure that evidence of the conspiracy of these two brothers against their father could also be presented. In vain did the Cappadocian king and Augustus himself try to justify the accused brothers. Antipater managed, and always with the appearance of heartfelt love for his brothers, to form new intrigues against them. Their servants and friends, whom Herod ordered to be tortured, expressed everything that was wanted of them. Based on these testimonies of the tortured, Alexander and Aristobulus were condemned to death in Berita by a council that was composed of 150 supporters of Herod. Herod was in a hurry to execute them, ordered them to be taken to Samaria - where their predatory father had celebrated his wedding with their mother 30 years before, and there they were beheaded, and their corpses were buried in Alexandrion 444. With their death, the intrigues against Herod did not stop, but on the contrary, it only gave them new food. Herod appointed Antipater as his successor; but it seemed to the latter that the succession to the throne was not yet sufficiently secured for him while his father was still alive, and that he had lived too long for this. As a result, he entered into an agreement with Pheroras for the purpose of conspiring against the life of his father and benefactor. Pheroras separated from his brother because he disapproved of his marriage with a slave, but Salome separated from them and warned Herod against their intrigues and deceit, which she was well aware of. Herod's thoughts, however, became so clouded that he no longer saw what a web of conspiracy was being woven against him in those closest to him. Four women, who were constantly in relations with Antipater and Pheroras, formed a plan against Herod's life: Antipater's mother, Doris, who lived again in the palace, Pheroras' wife and her mother and sister. They all gathered in secret meetings and persuaded the eunuch Herod Bagoi, as well as the handsome young man Kara, with whom the king was in an unnatural relationship, in favor of their conspiracy. These four women were in relations even with the strictest Pharisees, who cruelly hated him due to his alienation from Judaism and his disgrace. It is not known whether these Pharisee opponents of Herod themselves entered into intercourse with women, or, on the contrary, the women themselves sought their help. When they and their followers were asked to swear an oath of allegiance to the king, they resisted, and when they had to pay a large fine for this refusal, the required amount was contributed by Pherora’s wife. There turned out to be more than 6,000 people, probably supporters of the Shammai school, who had an irreconcilable hatred of the Edomite king. In order to overthrow him, some fanatics from among them secretly informed the wife of Pheroras that the death of Herod's house was predetermined by God, and that dominion should pass to her descendants. They assured the eunuch that he was called to become the father and ruler of the Jewish people, that he would not only have royal power, but that children would miraculously come from him. Their promises, despite the fact that they seemed like fabrications of a curled mind or a simple mockery, found faith in themselves and encouraged everyone with the hope of accelerating the death of Herod as much as possible. Meanwhile, the king had no information about the conspiracies taking place around him. But now, his sister exposed this whole web of intrigues to him. It is clear that he could not spare the conspirators who were thus covered. The Pharisees, who were especially entangled in this conspiracy, as well as the eunuch, his shameful associate Car, as well as all the relatives who sympathized with the machinations of the Pharisees, had to pay for this with their lives. He would have willingly dealt the death blow to Pheroras' wife as well; but he had an incomprehensible weakness for his brother and could not force him to be separated from her. Only in relation to the main culprit, his son Antipater, did he continue to remain blind, forbade him to have communication with Pheroras and with “women,” and exiled him to his region, which he requested from Augustus, under the name of the tetrarchy of Perea. In order to find a safe refuge for himself and avoid the hatred of the people, Antipater ensured that his father sent him to Rome in order to petition Augustus to confirm his inheritance. From Rome, he built new intrigues against his surviving brothers. But finally his satanic game was revealed. Pheroras, Herod's last brother, died unexpectedly, and since his death was attributed to his wife, whom he married against Herod's will, an investigation was ordered against her. The investigation, as might be expected, revealed another secret. His wife admitted that Pheroras and Antipater attempted to poison the king. The poison was already ready, but moved by the visits made by Herod to his brother during his illness, Pheroras ordered its destruction; The last thing his wife said in support of her testimony, Witnesses and other circumstances made Antipater's plan to poison his father clear as day. This discovery was a cruel blow for Herod. This means that the son whom he raised from insignificance, whom he designated as king, for whose sake he even ordered the execution of the sons of Mariamne, still unforgotten by him, was his mortal enemy. The excitement of his spirit was boundless, and at the same time he had to pretend and hypocritically declare love for Antipater in order to induce him to return to Jerusalem. But as soon as Antipater arrived in Jerusalem, his father showered him with reproaches, brought him before a tribunal, presided over by the Roman governor Quintilius Varus, and accused him of fratricide and attempted parricide. Since Antipater tried to prove his innocence, Herod’s friend, Nicholas of Damascus, acted as an inexorable accuser against him. Then the death sentence was pronounced over Antipater, and Herod asked Augustus to approve it. One of Herod’s wives, the second Mariamne, was also involved in this accusation, whose son, Herod, was intended to be the heir to the throne if Antipater had died before his father. This second Mariamne was consequently disowned, her son cut out of the will, and her father, the high priest Simon Ben Boef, deprived of his dignity; Matela, the son of Theophilus, was appointed heir to the throne. So the illegal thief of the throne of David, feeling the fragility of his position, thought to find safety in the horrors of bloodthirsty cruelty. By the end of his reign, a terrible era of murders, executions and torture had truly begun. Fearing everyone and everyone, Herod, this ruthless monster, as I. Flavius ​​calls him, furiously attacked everyone who came into contact with him. Murders by hanging, murders by burning, murders by tearing to pieces and drowning, secret murders, confessions forced into unbearable torture, acts of shameless and bestial lust - this is what the chronicles of the final years of the reign of the usurper, whom history ironically called “The Great,” are filled with. Suppressed by all these horrors, the people trembled, and in them the desire and at the same time the expectation of the appearance of the true son of David, who would overthrow this bloodthirsty thief of the throne, grew stronger than ever. And this inflamed Herod’s gloomy suspicion and rage even more, and in the last years of his reign, already consumed by his disgusting illness, which soon brought him to the grave, he was completely overwhelmed by indomitable brutality and bloodthirsty fury. But at this very time, the eastern sages struck him with their news, coming from afar to Jerusalem to worship - not to him, Herod, but to the newborn King of the Jews, the true Son of David, whose star rose in the east. Chapter 69. Brief overview of the condition of the Jews at the end of Old Testament history The Babylonian captivity, which, according to the explanation of the prophets and according to the consciousness of the people themselves, was a direct punishment from God for all those iniquities and the idolatry that the chosen people shamelessly indulged in, served as a very important lesson for him, forcing him to think deeply about his fate. After a period of glorious power, the people of Israel suddenly found themselves again, as they had once been in Egypt, a pitiful party of slaves taken into captivity, where the very memory of them could perish. This terrible test again involuntarily awakened in him the consciousness that his strength, as a chosen people, lay precisely in God who had chosen him and in the strict observance of the covenant that He had made with him. And so, a religious and moral revival begins among the Israeli people; faith strengthens in him, a fiery patriotism is ignited, making him cry at the mere memory of Zion with its once majestic, but now destroyed church, and the anticipation of that Deliverer flares up, who must finally crown all the great promises given to the fathers. This expectation was zealously supported by the prophets, who, while comforting the people with the hope of deliverance from captivity, constantly pointed to the higher deliverance that awaited them and all of humanity in the approaching future. During the captivity, the prophet Ezekiel predicted about a single Shepherd of a single numerous flock (Ezek.34:23, 29; 37:22), and St. Daniel even accurately calculated with his weeks the very time of His coming (Dan.9:24-27). Then the last prophets described in detail the signs of the Messiah who was about to appear, and the prophecy of Malachi already announced the coming of the immediate forerunner of the long-promised Savior, and his prophecy constitutes a direct transition from the Old Testament to the New. The people themselves, having learned through bitter experience the fragility of the earthly power of their kings, began to wait with increasing tension for such a king who would act by the power of God and establish truth and peace on earth. This expectation reached its highest point during the horrors of the reign of Herod, when the “fulfillment of times” came. Such a mood of the people should naturally lead to the awakening of a new zeal in fulfilling the law of Moses. Since with the destruction of the church and the cessation of sacred ceremonies in it, which served as a clear implementation of the law of God for the people, the people were deprived of the main guidance for their religious and moral life, a new means became necessary for maintaining in them the knowledge of the law of God. This means was reading and studying the law, and hence the natural strengthening of the meaning of the written law. The people were eager to listen to him and already during his captivity they gathered at special private meetings, where people who studied the law read and explained to him various provisions of the law. Since over time the people forgot their original Hebrew language, in which the books of St. Scripture, then the study and explanation of the law, of necessity, had to become the exclusive property of individual, the most developed and enlightened people, who became the leaders and leaders of the religious life of the people, receiving the honorary name of “scribes.” Ezra the priest was just such a scribe, and upon his return from captivity he introduced the correct order of reading and expounding St. Scriptures to the people. Since St. There were already a lot of books at that time, and among them there were several books in circulation that, while having religious and moral significance and satisfying the pious feelings of the people, however, did not have a divinely inspired character, then Ezra, in order to give the people the opportunity to correctly judge which sacred books in the proper sense of the word, compiled a detailed list, which received the name canon, i.e. rules (of faith and life). The books included in this list were called “canonical”, while the rest were called non-canonical. From the books of the last period, the canon included: the books of the prophet Ezekiel and Daniel, as well as the last three prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi; the third and fourth books of Kings, containing the history of both Jewish kingdoms; two books of Chronicles or additions to this story; the first book of Ezra, which describes the return of the Jews from captivity and the creation of the second church, and the books of Nehemiah and Esther - with the history of the activities of these individuals. The significance of the written law especially intensified with the cessation of the oral law, in the person of the prophets. The latter had as their task to bring spirit into the understanding of the letter of the law and thereby raise religious and moral consciousness to the highest level. With the cessation of prophecy, the letter acquired such significance that special zealots appeared who believed the entire religion in the most careful and literal fulfillment of the decrees of the law. Such were the Pharisees, who constituted a special class among the people, as a class of special (perushim - “separated”) zealots of the law. These were devout lawyers who accepted the entire law, preached faith in the afterlife, supported faith and piety among the people, and together with ardent patriotism, which gave them enormous influence over the people. But their distinctive feature was that they were not limited to the Law of Moses alone, but considered it necessary to observe all those traditions that over time formed around this law as additions and explanations to it. Since these legends almost exclusively related to the external ritual side of the law, it was this that primarily became the subject of the main attention of the Pharisees. This included regulations on the strictest, even petty, observance of the Sabbath rest, on the distinction between clean and unclean food, on ablutions, clothing, and so on. In order to more conveniently fulfill all these numerous traditions, the Pharisees constituted a special class or community that shunned communication with the rest of the people, whom they treated with arrogant contempt, as “people of the earth” and “ignoramuses” (Amgaaretz). The best side of Pharisaism was their zeal for the spread of the religion of Jehovah, and in this regard they did a lot, preparing the ground through their proselytes for the spread of Christianity among pagan peoples. But their ritual pettiness, cold soullessness, sanctimonious arrogance and outrageous hypocrisy, which covered the most immoral acts with a mask of piety, were those shortcomings that brought upon them the lightning denunciation of Christ: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.” At the opposite extreme was another sect - the Sadducees, who received their name from their leader Zadok. Recognizing only the Pentateuch of Moses as sacred books, they did not attach any importance to ritual and were generally free-thinking in the field of religion, denying the immortality of the soul and the existence of spirits, the resurrection of the body and the afterlife, with the rewards and punishments expected there. The highest and richest classes belonged to this party or sect, which, not enjoying the love of the people, therefore sought support in foreign rulers and were friends with the Herod family. She seized the office of the high priest into her own hands and gave from her midst a whole series of high priests who only disgraced this high sacred rank with their personality. At the same time, among the Jewish people, deprived of religious and moral leadership, other sects and trends appeared in which pious people sought refuge and reassurance from the turmoil and gloomy disorders of everyday life. Such was the sect of the Essenes, who avoided the noisy and hectic life of cities, formed communities of hermits and, abstaining from marriage and all pleasures in general, led a strict life, devoting it entirely to prayer and reflection on the law. They rejected slavery, war and trade, and in all their lives the rule for them, according to Philo, was “love of God, love of virtue and love of man.” The sect of the Ferapevts was even stricter and more closed, i.e. “healers” (of the ailments of the peoples), who indulged in terrible asceticism: exhausting themselves with continuous reading of the law and prayer, they allowed themselves to eat only a little bread in the evening. On Saturdays they gathered for common prayer, and on Pentecost they also had a common meal. This sect was especially widespread among the Jews in Egypt. All these sects and parties were only the expression of private views on religion and law. The majority of the people continued to adhere to those religious institutions that were associated with the church. Church worship naturally had to stop and be upset with the destruction of the church, so that during the Babylonian captivity the people prayed in private meetings or even limited themselves to solitary prayer at home (as can be seen from the example of the prophet Daniel, who prayed from the window of his house towards Jerusalem). But with the construction of the second temple, worship with all sacred rites was completely resumed in it, especially since the temple itself was built on the model of the former Temple of Solomon, although in volume it was one third larger than it and with some new extensions (a courtyard for women and pagans), but of course from much less valuable materials. The entire Hierarchy was restored to its previous composition, headed by high priests, who had all the more significance because for some time they were also the civil rulers of the people. New holidays were added to the number of sacred times, established in memory of new events in the life of the people. These are the holidays: Purim and Renewal. The first was established in memory of the miraculous deliverance of the people from extermination during the reign of Artaxerxes through the insidious slander of Haman. His forefeast on the 13th of Adar (in February) consisted of strict fasting, and on the 14th and 15th the people indulged in uncontrollable rejoicing. In the gatherings of the people, the book of “Esther” was read with reverence, and at every mention of the name of Haman, everyone present struck their hands and stamped their feet, loudly saying: “Let his memory perish!” The Feast of Renewal was established in memory of the renovation of the church by Judas Maccabee after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes. It lasted eight days, was celebrated with extraordinary solemnity and was marked by magnificent processions and brilliant illumination, as a result of which it was also called the “festival of lights.” In the church, during all eight days of the holiday, a great hallelujah was sung, consisting of psalms of praise 114–118. An important feature in the religious life of the people after the Babylonian captivity was that the people did not limit their worship exclusively to the temple, but had local meetings or synagogues, where prayers were performed along with the reading and explanation of the law, and where the people gathered on Saturdays. In civil terms, after the Babylonian captivity, the form of government of God in which it existed during the time of the judges, when the people were under the control of individual godly men who acted as if according to a special calling of God (such as Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Maccabees), seemed to resume again. But in accordance with the growing spirit of religiosity, civil power was concentrated for some time in the hands of the highest representatives of religion - the high priests. Subsequently, the power of princes and then kings developed from it; but the royal power was finally stolen from the house of David by an insidious Edomite, who, however, was soon to cede it to the true son of David. To manage the affairs of internal and religious-moral life, since the time of Ezra, a special supreme council, chaired by the high priest, was established, as mentioned above. This council subsequently received the name Sanhedrin (from the Greek συνέδριον - assembly) and the number of its members, in accordance with the number of members of the ancient council of elders under Moses, was determined to be 70 people. He was very important in the subsequent history of the Jewish people. He had the responsibility to take care of protecting the purity of faith, interpretation and explanation of the law, the welfare of the church and decorum during worship, and at the same time he had the right to judge and punish apostates and heretics. Numerous abuses of the members of this supreme council subsequently deprived it of the significance it had, and the Sanhedrin sullied its name with a terrible crime when, under the guise of a heretic and apostate, it condemned to death the Messiah Himself, the Son of God. The last period of the biblical history of the Old Testament covers about five and a half centuries, counting from the year 536, when Cyrus issued a decree on the release of the Jews from captivity. Chronologically, it falls into four separate periods: a) the continuation of Persian rule until 331 BC; b) Greek rule in Asia 331–167; c) independence of Judea under the rule of the Asmoneans 167–63. and d) Roman rule together with the private rule of the house of Herod 63–1. The chronology of this period is made easier by the fact that here the history of the Jewish people comes into contact with well-known events of world history. Chapter 70. The Jewish and pagan world before the coming of Christ the Savior The Babylonian captivity, in addition to its significance as a punishment for the Jewish people for their unfaithfulness to the covenant with Jehovah, had another, more important and deeper meaning for all humanity. Before him, the chosen people lived more or less alienated from the rest of the world, and the light of true religion only occasionally or in isolated cases penetrated beyond the boundaries of the promised land itself. Now, with the approach of the “fulfillment of times,” this light was to shine brightly for all those living in darkness and the shadow of death, i.e. for all pagan peoples, hitherto mired in the darkness of idolatry. And this great cause was provided with miraculous assistance by those formidable Assyro-Babylonian conquerors who, without realizing it, served as a powerful instrument of God’s supreme providence. Moving the flower of the chosen people to their country, which was the center of pagan religion and pagan enlightenment, they at the same time resettled missionaries and preachers of the true religion, which was supposed to destroy the darkness of error. This influence partly affected the conquering kings themselves, as can be seen from the example of Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, but then it spread more and more widely and acted more and more deeply. From that time on, the Jewish people became a kind of worldwide people: only a small part of them returned from the captivity of Babylon to the promised land, while the vast majority either remained in Mesopotamia or gradually dispersed in all directions, everywhere carrying with them the light of true religion and the knowledge of the law of God. These Jews who lived outside Palestine are known as the Jews of the Dispersion, and they had a profound influence on the subsequent fate of the pagan world. The Jews of the Diaspora were at first actually divided into three large sections - the Babylonian, Syrian and Egyptian Jews; then the conquests of Alexander the Great and the Romans significantly expanded the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Jewish dispersion. The subsequent upheavals in the fate of the world brought the peoples into an extraordinary movement, and the stream of conquest or industry quickly captured scattered parts of the Jewish people and carried them to the most remote countries. From Mesopotamia the Jews scattered throughout all neighboring countries. The successor of Alexander the Great in Asia, Seleucus Nakator, the founder of the new kingdom of Syria, resettled many of them from Babylonia to the main cities of his kingdom, hoping that their industrial and enterprising spirit would contribute to the prosperity of his state. And after some time in Damascus they were already numbered in the thousands and had several synagogues, and there were even more of them in Antioch, which later became the center of Greek culture in the east. The persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes did not destroy them, but only served as the reason for the penetration of their influence into the most remote parts of the state, where the Jews fled, hiding from persecution. At this time, they penetrated further east, into Media and especially into the kingdom of Adiaven (present-day Kurdistan, northeast of the Tigris River), where their influence was so strong that even Queen Helen and Crown Prince Izat became proselytes of Judaism. On this side of the Euphrates the Jewish population was scattered in many places, especially in Palmyra and even the cities of happy Arabia. Then many Jews lived in Armenia and in various countries and cities of Asia Minor. Antiochus the Great (223–187) resettled several thousand Jewish families from Mesopotamia to Phrygia and Lydia and gave them special benefits. From Asia Minor, the Jews, driven by their own industrial spirit, settled throughout all the islands of the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea, penetrated into the main cities of Greece and Macedonia, and we meet them in Philippi, Thessalonica, Beria, Athens and Corinth, where they had either synagogues or simply houses of worship. The same spirit of commercial enterprise moved them even further west, to Rome itself, as the capital of the new world monarchy, and even to Spain, where they could count on enrichment in a country famous for its mines of gold and silver. Many Jews were resettled to Rome by Pompey as prisoners, and upon their release they became Roman citizens and lived in a special quarter assigned to them beyond the Tiber. Under Emperor Augustus, there were already up to eight thousand of them in Rome, and then they multiplied to the point that subsequent emperors were forced to resort to such drastic measures as expelling them from Rome (the well-known decrees of Tiberius and Claudius, which ordered the Jews to leave Rome). Then Jewish settlements were scattered along the entire coast of northern Africa, and especially in the large city of Cyrene, from where Jewish pilgrims often met in Jerusalem (Simon the Cyrene - Matt. 27:32). Finally, their settlements were found, according to Philo, from the Libyan mountains to Ethiopia itself, where they probably moved from Arabia, which was in constant trade relations with these countries and especially with Egypt. The treasurer of the queen of Candace, who went to Jerusalem for the holiday, was from Ethiopia, and the fact that he was a proselyte indicates the strong influence of the Jews there. But undoubtedly the most important point of the Jewish dispersion was Alexandria in Egypt. Founded by the great Macedonian conqueror in 332 BC, for several centuries it was one of the most famous and glorious cities in the world. While the ancient Egyptian population with its religion and customs continued to live in the Nile Valley itself, the cities of the Delta and especially Alexandria were filled with Greeks and Jews. Besides its wealth, its luxurious streets and buildings, Alexandria was famous for its extraordinary revitalization of mental life. Ptolemy I founded a famous museum there, which contained the Alexandrian library with many precious books, and it also had rooms for scientists, artists and poets who came from all over the world to visit the main church of world literature and art. And alongside this mental life, industrial activity was in full swing, so that Alexandria’s trade relations extended to Arabia and India, throughout all the countries of Asia Minor and the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The position of the Jews in this center of world life (where the first batch of them were resettled by the founder of Alexandria himself) was extremely favorable. Using the patronage of the government, they freely indulged in all kinds of industry, lived as an independent community and were even governed by their own head or alavarch, who subsequently shared his power with a special council of elders. Even religiously, they were in a very advantageous position, since they had their own church in Leontopolis, in the Iliopolis district, built, as said above, by the high priest Onias according to the plan of the Tabernacle of Moses, and services were performed in it in the same order as in the Temple of Jerusalem. In a word, the Jews, after the Babylonian captivity, were scattered throughout the then known world, so that the Roman geographer Strabo, not without reason, says that “one can hardly find a place on earth where this tribe would not exist and which it would not take possession of.” And to this the Alexandrian Jew-writer Philo adds: “The Jews, not like other peoples, locked within the borders of their country: they live almost all over the world and settled on all continents and islands.” Moreover, what was especially remarkable was that, despite being scattered throughout the world, all these Jews of settlement were by no means lost among foreign and foreign peoples, but seemed to constitute one people, bound together by inextricable ties. True, they forgot their language, spoke and wrote mainly in Greek (as a result of which they were called Hellenists); but the common faith in the living God, who never ceased to care for his chosen people, not only instilled in the Jews a sense of their superiority over the surrounding pagans with their dead and insignificant gods, but also protected them from confusion with them. Their attachment to the Mosaic Law also helped to maintain in them the consciousness of their nationality as different from all other surrounding nations. This law determined every step of their life, established unique morals and customs, giving religious significance to every manifestation of life and activity, and thereby erected a mediastinum that did not allow Jews to mix with pagans. In addition, they had a common St. Scripture, on which the entire people were brought up, imbued with a spirit that had nothing in common with the pagan world. The teaching taught by St. books, supplemented in the synagogue. Wherever the Jews lived, they certainly gathered on Saturdays in synagogues, which were for them schools of the law of God, for common prayer, mutual edification and explanation of the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures and these meetings fostered a communal spirit of togetherness and mutuality. Besides St. The Scriptures, at that time already completed, they had a special edifying literature - non-canonical, which continued to develop at this time. Among it were such important works as the book of the Wisdom of Solomon, compiled by an unknown author based on the orally transmitted sayings of the wisest king; a related book of the Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach, containing wise rules for various occasions of life; the book of Judith, containing the story of the heroism of this Jewish woman, to whom the city of Bethulia owed salvation from a cruel enemy, and the book of Maccabees, containing the story of the heroic struggle of the Maccabees for the faith. All this literature is imbued with deep religious patriotism, which supported in the Jews the consciousness of their unity by faith and blood. But one of the most powerful means of maintaining unity between the Jewish world was its constant communication with Jerusalem, as the common center of all Judaism. Every year, from everywhere, through special representatives, various communities sent to Jerusalem a legalized tax of half a sacred shekel and generous offerings; everyone who needed to get decisions on any important matters from the high priest or the Sanhedrin arrived there, as well as everyone who wanted to receive higher education in schools; finally, the annual holidays attracted thousands of pilgrims to Jerusalem, who flocked positively from all over the game. And vice versa, scribes dispersed from Jerusalem to all countries of the world, who, having received education in the schools of the “wise,” sought a field of activity among fellow tribesmen of various countries. From Jerusalem, calendars were sent annually to all Jewish communities, in which sacred times were determined, and special messengers reporting the most outstanding events relating to the Jewish world. And the result of such lively mutual communication was that the Jews scattered throughout the entire earth vividly recognized themselves as one people, and it was enough for the news to reach Jerusalem that some Jewish community somewhere on the Danube or in the Libyan desert was suffering from hunger or need, and the entire Jewish world began to move and hurried to help its suffering brothers. This national exclusivity and mutual cohesion of the Jews early began to arouse suspicion and enmity among the pagan peoples, and this hostile feeling was not slow to develop even more when the Jews became strong rivals in trade affairs and seized the industry of one country or another. Their main occupation was trade. Petty trade and small money transactions were almost exclusively in their hands. In some places they even took over the wholesale trade. In Alexandria, almost the entire grain trade passed through their hands, and they were almost the exclusive intermediaries through which Rome carried out relations with the distant east. And in general, wherever it was possible to earn money, a Jew certainly appeared there, and we meet them in Rome as scientists, poets, actors and singers. Many of them managed to accumulate enormous wealth, and their influence was felt even in the palaces themselves. All this naturally aroused the native population against them, who often fell into monetary bondage to them, and by the time of the Nativity of Christ, the pagan world, even in its best writers, already treated them with extreme hostility and contempt. Monstrous tales were spread about them. Their ancestors were considered to be lepers expelled from Egypt. In the desert, when there was a shortage of water, one donkey allegedly showed them a source, and therefore they worshiped the donkey as God. Even such a serious writer as the historian Tacitus thought that Moses gave them laws that were contrary to all human morals. The prohibition of pork was an inexhaustible topic of wit among Roman humorists. Wherever a Jew appeared, he was certainly pursued by pagan ridicule; on the theater stage he was a constant subject of flat witticisms, which, however, always caused laughter, and on the street he often had to endure rather rough troubles from the crowd, sometimes turning into dangerous massacres that required government intervention, as happened more than once especially in Alexandria and Antioch. Despite, however, this attitude of the pagan world towards the Jews, their influence on this world was not denied by the pagans themselves, and it intensified every year. This was facilitated by the very state of the pagan world. He was already heading towards decline and decay. The great monarchies of the east - Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian - all successively dominated and disappeared. Alexander the Great tried to recreate them on the basis of Greek culture, but the monarchy he created did not survive its founder and after his death fell into several separate parts, which easily became the prey of Rome. And so Rome became the ruler of the whole world. Roman eagles swept victoriously from the banks of the Euphrates in the east to the pillars of Hercules in the west, and from the shores of northern Africa in the south to the British Isles in the north. The entire area of ​​the globe, on which ancient history took place and which included new countries with new semi-savage peoples awaiting a cultural revival, became their property. The magnificent military roads of the Romans connected the most distant countries; Roman administration and the widespread Greek language brought the peoples of the entire civilized world closer together, and an amazing cycle began in the field of religion, literature, art and industry, which had never been seen in the history of mankind. Rome, as the capital of the world, attracted to itself everything that was best in the world of that time, and from it a unique Roman civilization spread back in all directions, spread by legions, rulers, writers, merchants and industrialists of all kinds. This extraordinary mutual communication of peoples had a profound influence on the religious and moral state of the pagan world. In Rome, all kinds of pagan cults came into conflict with each other, and their endless diversity necessarily led to the conviction that the pagan gods were only the product of the peoples themselves and were by no means able to satisfy the inherent human need for the unconditional truth of religion. This had the greatest impact on the Romans themselves, whose faith in their gods had already been undermined by the spread of Greek philosophical works, which directly mocked the Olympians as an invention of a child’s mind. But since a person cannot be without religion, a painful search for the true God began, and in search of him all the religions and cults known at that time were sorted out, and the more mysterious the cult, like the Egyptian one, the more adherents it had. At the same time, many began to involuntarily pay attention to the mysterious Jehovah, whose religion struck the pagans who believed in their gods all the more powerfully because it rejected all symbols to depict this God. The Jews took advantage of this and acquired proselytes and adherents, among whom were members of noble Roman families and even members of the imperial house (for example, Empress Poppaea Sabina). The proselytes were divided into two classes: newcomers to the gates and newcomers to the truth, who differed in the degree of acceptance of Judaism. For the former, a common faith in Jehovah with the adoption of the “Noahic Laws” was sufficient, but for the latter, complete submission to all the provisions of the Law of Moses was required. Most pagans were limited to the first stage, but there were many who fully accepted Judaism. This movement was facilitated by the even more moral decline of the pagan world, as an inevitable consequence of the fall of the religious. Along with the pagan cults of the East, Rome was invaded by that immoral decay that was inseparable from them. From here began a terrible social decay that led the best people to despair (Rom. 1:26 et seq.). Not seeing any joy in the present and having lost all faith in the future, people suffocated from spiritual emptiness and sought an outcome either in insane orgies of pleasure, or in suicide, which became the most common occurrence. Even the famous philosopher Seneca, depressed by the sad reality, pointed to suicide as the best way to get rid of an unbearable situation. But the very source of self-preservation opposed the adoption of such a terrible method, and therefore naturally the majority sought another outcome and found it in the inherent hope of the human heart for a better future. The best pagans began to hope that salvation had to come from somewhere, if not from people, then from above. And this hope precisely coincided with the expectation of the Deliverer of the world, which flared up more and more in the Jewish world and spread more and more widely through the Jews among the pagan peoples. According to the testimony of the Roman historians Suetonius and Tacitus, at that time there was a widespread rumor between the Romans and other pagan peoples that a powerful king would soon appear in the east who would conquer the world. Roman poets sang of the expected appearance of a miraculous deliverer. Virgil, in his famous fourth eclogue, praised the child who was to restore the golden age. This baby will descend from heaven, and peace will be established on earth; he will pour out his gifts generously; the flocks will no longer fear the lions, the yoke will fall from the neck of the plowing ox, and the farmer will no longer work by the sweat of his brow. This glorious dream of the Roman poet was undoubtedly an echo of the famous prophecy of Isaiah that “a child will be born, whose name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,” and then “the wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the ox will be together, and a little child will lead them” (Isa. 9:6; 11:6). Everything, therefore, showed that the “fulfillment of times” was approaching. Actually, among the Jews, the expectation of the coming of the Savior or Messiah reached its highest tension. The ancient predictions of the prophets became the subject of the most careful study and interpretation, and the most beloved book was the book of the prophet Daniel with its most precise definitions of the coming of the time of the Messiah. Non-canonical books confirmed and explained these predictions, supplementing them with their own considerations and declaring that soon the children of Israel would again be gathered to Jerusalem from distant countries to worship their Lord God (2 Mac. 2:18) and that the descendants of David would possess the throne forever (1 Mac. 2:57). These predictions received even greater development in the so-called “Sibylline Books,” which are a collection of prophetic sayings in verse, similar to pagan oracles, and written, in all likelihood, by some Jew from Alexandria a century and a half before Christ. They say that a king will soon appear who will put an end to all wars on earth. The Gentiles who gather against Jerusalem will perish. Under the protection of a king sent from heaven, peace and prosperity will be granted to Israel, and then the pagan peoples themselves will also be led to the worship of the true God and His temple. Finally, God will establish an eternal kingdom of peace on earth, into which all nations will be gathered. This expectation was so alive that the very rulers of the Israeli people during the time of the Maccabees accepted power only conditionally, “until the faithful Prophet arises” (1 Mac. 14:41). Everyone among the people involuntarily felt that the fulfillment of times and the salvation of Israel had come. When any outstanding preacher or prophet appeared, everyone involuntarily asked if he was Christ (John 1:19, 20, Matt. 11:3). Even the semi-pagan Samaritans expected that the Messiah would soon come, who would resolve all controversial issues between them and the Jews regarding religion (John 4:25). At the same time, many had a vague idea of ​​​​in what form the Messiah would appear, and expected to see in Him simply a global conqueror who would conquer the whole world to the Jews and establish an eternal Jewish monarchy. But more and more spiritually enlightened people expected in Him the true Messiah, who would redeem man from slavery to sin, establish peace in the indignant soul, call to himself all those who labor and are burdened, reveal the eternal truth of salvation and establish the eternal kingdom of God on earth. And such and such a Messiah finally came, and on the night of His coming the heavens over Bethlehem of Judea resounded with the solemn song of angels, heralding the advent of a new era in the history of mankind. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Zerubbabel, that is, Zerua-Babel - born in Babylon. It is known that Cambyses secretly killed his brother Smerdis and, taking advantage of this, one impostor, the sorcerer Gaumata, seized the throne on behalf of the murdered prince. Agg. 2:3. Ewald thinks he saw the first church. The only remark about the volume of the second church, besides random indications in the “book of Ezra,” is found only in Josephus, Antt.. XV, 11, § 1. I. Flavius, c. Apion. I, 22. The desolation of Edom, which is indicated here, occurred shortly before the appearance of the prophet. Judea, as well as Idumea, was conquered by Babylon. It was against the law to bring such animals, Lev. 22:20–22 An allusion to Abraham when he took Hagar for himself. Cambyses was a complete polytheist. Egyptian monuments show that the story told by Herodotus that he mocked the Egyptian gods, destroyed their images and slaughtered the sacred bull Apis, is completely incorrect. The inscriptions of the priests themselves say about him that he was their friend, an admirer of their gods and a benefactor of their churches. The very bull that he supposedly killed is discovered as a mummy in a huge granite sarcophagus, on the outside of which Cambyses is depicted bowing before this sacred animal, which, as can be seen from the inscription, was honored with due funeral rites, and Cambyses personally took part in these ceremonies. See op. Geiki, acc. place. The Battle of Marathon took place in 490. The reign of Xerxes extended from 486 to 465, or, according to others, from 485 to 465. Herod, vin, 40, 4. According to Ebers, Xerxes fed 15,000 people daily, so that each day the maintenance of the palace cost him more than half a million rubles (1889). Xerxes, wherever he was, drank only water from the Choaspe River, in Susa, ate only bread from Egyptian or Asan wheat, and drank only Aleppo wine. Herod, III, 2, 68, 69. Darius had six. Esther. 3:8–9. This amounted to up to 24 million rubles with our money, representing a huge amount for that time (1889). Esther. 3:13. This decree exists only in the Greek translation of seventy interpreters. The Persian caravanserai or inns for travelers, something like our postal stations, owed their origin to Cyrus, who tried to reduce the vast expanse of his world monarchy by laying and maintaining good roads. He also installed a proper mail system. At each station, the postman carrying the mail handed it over to another, who, having received it, mounted a new horse and, like a whirlwind, rushed on to hand it over to a third postman at the next station. These messengers were called Angoras, and were considered the fastest riders in the world. From 25 to 35 million rubles (1889). Porter, Travels (1817–1820), p. 124. Even now in Nablus, or in ancient Shechem, there is a small Samaritan community, counting up to 135 souls. It has a synagogue in which an ancient scroll of the Pentateuch is preserved, and a high priest who traces his lineage back to Aaron. This can be deduced from I. Josephus, Аntt. XI, 8, §§ 5-6, which says that the Jews asked and extorted from Alexander the Great the abolition of taxes for the Sabbath year, from which it can be concluded that they also enjoyed this privilege from the Persian kings. See eg. 2 Par. 35:11ff. See I. Flavius, S. Apion. I, 22. Antiq., XII. 1, § 1; C. Apion, I, 22. The Seleucid era is usually considered from the autumn of 312. However, the Babylonians and Syrians began this era only in the next year 311. Antiq. xiï, 1, 1; 14, 7, 2. Josephus, Antt XII, 4, 2. Tristram, Land of Israel., 529. The very name Leontopolis (city of lions), in connection with the church of Onias, probably arose in the following way. Each church of Pashta (called Bubastis by the Greeks) was (as every visitor to Thebes knows) a menagerie of living, embalmed or stone cats. This was precisely what served for the Greeks, as well as for the Arabs, who gave the cat and the lion the same name, as a reason to call this church of Pashta “the city of lions,” and therefore we do not need to look for this area in any other part of Egypt. It is possible, however, that this city could also be named after the sacred lions, which were kept in separate houses, and sacred songs were sung to them during meals. Stanley, Lectures, III, 222 et seq. The only exception to this is Ptolemy Philopator, whose attempt to enter the church and his use of Indian punishment for the disobedient, by trampling under the feet of angry elephants, form the subject of the narrative of the “third book of Maccabees.” But even these cases ended happily for the Jews. From entering the church, as noted above, he was kept by Simon the Righteous; he was forced to recognize the rights of the Alexandrian Jews by the very reluctance of the elephants to fulfill his desire, and this event was remembered by a holiday, like the holiday of Purim. 1 Mac 1:15; Antiq. XII, 5, I. 1Mac. 1:20–24: 2Mac. 5:11–16. 1Mac. 1:29–30; 2Mac. 8:24–26. In the synodal translation: “Athenian,” but most of the heirs think that there was a typo here, and instead of “Athenian” you should read “Antiochian.” 1Mac. 2:32–38; 2Mac. 6:11. 2Mac. 8:16. In 1Mac. 4:5, the number of soldiers of Judah is determined to be three thousand, the same with Josephus. This contradiction probably arose as a result of a copyist's mistake. Emmaus, later called Nicopolis, lay 22 Roman miles from Jerusalem and 10 miles from Lydda. However, its location is controversial. This was on the third day of Haslev or November 165. 1Mac. 4:42, 43; 2Mac. 10:2. In 1Mac. 9:2. In the Synodal translation, instead of Galilee, Galgal is read, as in Greek, but, according to researchers, this is a simple typo. The city of Messaloth, mentioned further, lay at the entrance from Galilee to the plain of Esdrilon. Some lists read Gaza, but this is apparently a typo instead of Ghazar or Gezer, as Jos says. B. J. I, 2, § 2; Antt. XIII, 6, 7 §. Gezer was discovered in 1873 at Tel el-Ezer, ten miles southeast of Ramla. The existence of this enmity can be judged from the following passage in the Mishnah: “The priests who officiated in the church of Onias cannot officiate in Jerusalem; they must be looked upon as priests who have shortcomings; one can have fellowship with them and eat offerings, but they cannot make sacrifices themselves.” From this place it is clear that worship in the church of Onias was not considered idolatry, but it was still looked at as a sacrifice in an illegal place. A person who made a vow to make a sacrifice, if he offered it in the church of Onias, did not fulfill his vow. Antt. XIV, 11, § 7; 12, § 1. Antt. XIV, 13, § 5; xv, 2, § 3. Nicholas of Damascus in I. Flavius, Antt. XIV, 1, 3. From the Greek word σεβαστός, corresponding to the Latin Augustus. One column with an inscription, undoubtedly belonging to the Herodian Church, was discovered in 1871 by Clermont Ganneau. He found it in Jerusalem, in a half-abandoned building, twenty-five yards north of the Omar Mosque. The found fragment of hard limestone, according to the evidence of its finder, is 90 centimeters in length, 60 in height and 39–40 in width. The letters in the initials are almost one centimeter in size. Antiq XVI, 10 1–9; XI, 17, 1–7. You might be interested in: