A. M. 4001, finished as to make it fit for Divine service; though, to carry on the out-buildings, &c. or 5394. workmen were continued about it to the time of our Saviour's ministry, and longer. Ant. Chris. 1, &c. or 17. aut Ær. Vulg. 3. While these things were doing in Judea, the temple of Janus was shut at Rome. In times of war the custom was to have its gates laid open, but shut in the time of peace; it was now the fifth time since the building of that city that the gates of this temple had been shut. The first time was in the reign of Numa; the second, after the end of the first Punic war; the third, after Augustus's victory over Anthony and Cleopatra; the fourth, upon his return from the Cantabrian war in Spain; and the fifth now, in the twenty-sixth year of his reign, and in the thirty-third of Herod's, when a general peace (which lasted for twelve years together) prevailed over the world, and was a proper prelude for ushering in the advent || of the Prince of Peace, even Christ our Lord, A. M. 4001, who (according to the exactest computation) was born in the four thousandth year Ant. Chris. [according to Dr Hales in the 5411th year] of the world's creation. &c. or 5410. 1, &c. or 1. aut. Er. Vulg. 3. tinued at work, all the time that our Saviour was upon earth, and for some years after; till upon the COming of Gessius Florus, to be governor of Judea, eigh teen thousand of them were discharged at one time; and these, for want of other employ, began those mutinies and seditions, which at last drew on the destruction of Jerusalem, and the temple with it. Joseph. Antiq. lib. xx. c. 8. According to the vulgar era, Christ was born in the four thousand and fourth year of the world's creation; but this way of computation (though it be commonly used, especially in this western part of the world) is a manifest mistake, which Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian by birth, and afterwards a Roman abbot, was the first author of. In the first ages of Christianity, Christians had no particular epocha to themselves; they generally used that of the building of the city, or the years of the Cæsars in common with the Romans. The first that they made use of was the era of Dioclesian; for his terrible persecution had made such an impression on their minds, that the time when it happened was long had in remembrance. It was in the year 527 of the vulgar Christian era, and not sooner, that the world began to compute time from our Saviour's birth; and there. fore the wonder is less, that after so great a distance of time, this Roman abbot should make a mistake in fixing the first year of it: but the misfortune was, that before the mistake was discovered, our countryman Bede's taking it without examination from him, and using it in all his writings, gave it a sanction; nor has the learned world as yet thought fit to correct it, out of a persuasion, I presume, that there may be some danger in altering things that are settled. It is thought sufficient for the purposes of Chronology that there is a certain Christian era fixed, which every one knows, and reckons by, though there may be some mistake as to the particular time when it should have commenced. In short, this error has been too long followed to be corrected, which must of course alter all dates, and give the world too much trouble; and therefore it is but calling it a vulgar Christian era, and remembering that Christ was born four years before it began; it is but remembering, I say, that the year which we now write 1743, ought to be 1747, and all is well. Prideaux's Preface to the first part of his Connection, and Hearne's System of Universal History, lib. i. c. 3. * This, we may observe, falls in exactly with the time where an old tradition of the Jews places the beginning of the days of the Messiah. According to that tradition, the world was to last six thousand years; two thousand before the law, two thousand under the law, and two thousand under the Messiah. This tradition is of great antiquity, and looked upon as authentic as any of this sort; and though its pretending to foretel when the world shall end (which the Scriptures make a secret that God had reserved for himself), sufficiently shews its vanity, yet since the Jews have thought fit to place it among the most authentic of their traditions, it serves against them, 1st, To prove the time when, according to their own doctrine, the Messiah was to come; and, 2dly, To convict them of their gross and most perverse infidelity, in that, though Christ was born in the four thousandth year of the creation, from which (according to this their tradition) his appearance was to commence, they have now suffered above seventeen hundred and twenty years to pass, and have not yet acknowledged him. Prideaux's Connection, Anno 4. [This is very well argued, if the Jewish tradition respecting the ages of the world were exactly such as it is here said to have been; but there is good reason to believe that it was very different. According to the Rabbinical tradition, founded, as the Jews pretended, on prophecy, the world was to last 7000 years, and the Messiah to make his appearance about the middle of the sixth Millenary, or the year of the world 5500; and, according to Dr Hales's computations, he actually ap peared in the year 5411. See vol. 1st of this Work, book i. chap. v. p. 82. Note †.] 66 THE OBJECTION. to the end of JOSEPHUS indeed may be a good historian, and his account of the Jewish affairs of From Joseph. some help to fill up the chasm from that period, where not only the sacred penmen, but the lib. xiii. c. 19. authors of the Acts of the Maccabees, are likewise known to leave us; but to his credit lib. xv. it would tend not a little, if we could find any profane writer of good authority making mention of the two great things that stagger our faith, viz. Alexander's adventure with the high priest at Jerusalem, and the wonderful production of the Septuagint version. For is it not very strange, that none of the heathen historians, either Greek or Latin, who trace this great conqueror, as it were, through every step he takes, should ever give us the least hint of his having been at Jerusalem? If he was incensed against the Jews while he was at the siege of Tyre (a), for refusing to furnish him with provisions and forces, how can we think that a mock procession of a parcel of priests in pontificalibus, could ever be of efficacy enough to divert the rage of a prince of his impetuous temper? But supposing a Divine interposition in this case, yet how comes this Alexander, who was of a different religion, to conform so far to the Jewish way of worship, as to offer sacrifices to the God of Israel? Phoenicians indeed he might have in his army, (b) but where he could pick up any Chaldean troops, (as Josephus (c) tells us he had several with him) when he had not yet been at Babylon, is somewhat unaccountable; and though he might be very liberal in his favours to the people of Jerusalem, and grant them several immunities, yet it is not a little incongruous (d) that the high priest should petition him for the like privileges to be extended to the captive Jews in Babylonia and Medea, when as yet he had not made the least conquest in either of these countries. Upon the whole, therefore, we may conclude, that, as the Jews (e) at this time were very much addicted to religious romances, Josephus might give his invention some scope in this matter, as thinking it a diminution to the honour of his nation, to have so great a man as this, sovereign conqueror of the world, come into the neighbouring nations without paying a visit to Jerusalem; and, when he was once there, it was necessary that something extraordinary should happen at his reception. The like piece of fiction, we may reasonably presume, is the account which this historian gives us of the Septuagint Version at Alexandria. For, besides the difficulty of conceiving how these seventy-two elders, who were sent from Judea (ƒ), (where neither Greek nor Hebrew were at this time in common use) should so far become masters of both languages as to be able, in the space of seventy-two days, to finish a translation of the Scriptures; it appears from other histories, that Demetrius Phalerius (who is made the chief agent in this whole affair) was at this time in no manner of confidence with Ptolemy Philadelphus; and though it may not be thought beneath his dignity to be the king's librarian, yet he was now in prison, if not in his grave, for being an enemy to the king's succession. It seems improbable, however, that if he was alive and in favour, he should address the king, concerning this interpretation, by way of epistle, (as we find he does in (g) Jo (a) Joseph. Antiq. lib. xi. c. 8. (dy Prideaux's Connection, Anno 277. Connection, Anno 277. (b) Ibid. (e) Moyle's Works, vol. ii. (g) Jewish Antiq. lib. xii. c. 2. (c) Moyle's Works, vol. ii. Ant. Chris. aut Er. A. M. 4001, sephus) when he was every day at court, and had an easy access to him; that the king &c. or 5410. should trouble himself about asking the interpreters such questions as are related in 1, &c. or 1. the history of Aristeas, to which the same Josephus (a) refers us; and, above all, that he should advance such an incredible sum of money †, as one way or other amounts to Vulg. 3. two millions Sterling, (more than his whole library was worth) and all for the version of one single book, which neither he nor any of his court (as long as they continued heathens) could have any other value for than as it was a true and genuine history. But all this Josephus might say, out of a pious design perhaps, to gain among the vulgar the greater veneration and authority to a translation of the Scriptures, which was then more in use than the original itself." ANSWER. IT cannot be expected, indeed, that any human composition should be without faults, and, least of all, can history promise itself that exemption, when it has so many distant and abstruse matters to enquire into, and is forced in many cases to take up with the testimony, and sometimes the conjectures of others. It may be said, however, in favour of Josephus, that the records from whence he compiled his history of the Jews, were either those of their own sacred Hebrew books; those of the prophets during the continuance of their succession; or those of the most authentic writers that flourished in their nation all along afterward : for in the main he was not so much an original historian himself as an abridger of such ancient histories as he found in the highest esteem and veneration: and how fair and impartial he has been, about these times more particularly, in making this compilation, any one may perceive that will but give himself the trouble of comparing his abridgment of the first book of the Maccabees with the book itself. So justly might Suidas give (b) Josephus the title of a lover of truth, and so truly might Josephus say of himself at the conclusion of his Antiquities, as well as of bis Jewish Wars, "As for the style and manner of my writing them, that I submit to the judgment of my readers; but as for the candour and sincerity of my accounts, I do here declare to the world, that I have kept strictly to the truth, and have had nothing else in view through the course of my whole work." (c) That Alexander the Great, after his having taken the city of Tyre, invaded the northern parts of Judea, and went as far as the balsam-trees, near Jericho, not only Eusebius in his Chronicon, but Pliny * in his Natural History likewise, directly informs us; and that he not only subdued that part of Syria which is called Palestine, but went also about at this time to those cities that refused to submit to him, we have the concurring testimony both of Curtius (d) and Arrian (e); and, if their testimony be true, it is very presumable that he did not forget to visit Jerusalem in his indignation for its having refused to send him supplies. The Samaritans indeed acted another part: They obeyed Alexander's summons, and went, in a body of eight thousand men, to his assistance at Tyre. As soon as he had (a) Jewish Antiq. lib. xii. c. 1. According to Aristeas, Ptolemy expended, in redeeming the captive Jews that were in his kingdom, 650 talents; in vessels of silver sent to the temple, 70 talents; in vessels of gold for the same use, 50 talents; in precious stones to adorn these vessels, 250 talents; in gifts for sacrifices, 100 talents; to the interpreters, at their first coming, three talents a-piece, in silver, 12,216 talents in the whole; and, lastly, to each of them, at their parting, two talents of gold, and a golden cup of a talent weight, which, in the sum total, making 1046 talents of silver and 516 talents of gold, will, when reduced to our Sterling money, amount to one million mine hundred and eighteen thousand five hundred and thirty-seven pounds ten shil lings; besides the charges he was at fetching these in- (c) Mr Whiston's Alexander at Jerusalem. Therein he tells us, that as this tree was peculiar to Judea (he might have said to that part near Jericho), Alexander, when he waged war there, caused an experiment to be made of the quantity of balsam that was distilled from one of these trees; and upon trial it was found, that, on a summer's day, so much would drop from one as filled a concha. Natural History, lib. xii. c. 25. (a) Lib. iv. c. 17. (e) Lib. 1. lib. xiii. c. 19. carried the place, they marched with his army to Jerusalem, and these are the men From Joseph. whom Josephus joins with the Phoenicians, though, by an error of the press, or tran- to the end of scription at first, they are called Xandaíous instead of Xulaíous (according to Bishop Lloyd's lib. xv. emendation), Chaldeans instead of Cuthians, or Samaritans, the old inveterate enemies of the Jews, and who therefore were glad of this opportunity of destroying them, and promised themselves (as Josephus (a) expresses it) "all the licence of blood and pillage upon the high priest himself, as well as upon the citizens, that rage or revenge could draw from a victorious prince, under the sense and provocation of the affront he had received." Alexander accordingly comes, breathing out wrath against the Jews, and, with his victorious army, is ready to revenge the insolent message " of their being unwilling to fight for any but his enemy Darius:" But instead of that, in a day or two he goes away with the greatest love and kindness for them; permits them to live by their ancient laws; forgives them the tribute of the Sabbatical year; readily invites them to fight for him as his allies, and the very next year, in his own new built city of Alexandria, gives them all equal privileges with the Macedonians themselves. Now this sudden alteration of his cannot well be imputed to any thing else but a Divine interposition; and therefore, since Plutarch (6) informs us, that it was no unusual thing for this great man to be influenced in his conduct by dreams and visions, on other occasions, it is highly probable that this remarkable change in him did likewise depend upon the remembrance of the vision which he had at Dio, in Macedonia, as himself relates in the history. (c) The like is to be said of the change that was made at this juncture in the conduct of the high priest and all the people. For since, before this, they durst not fight against Darius for their oath's sake, and yet could now, without any scruple, go into that very army which had twice conquered his forces, and was then going to take away all his dominions; they must have had such a Divine warrant for doing this, as the vision and admonition, which the night before was given to the high priest, may be interpreted to imply. This indeed, we own, is all providential and miraculous: But if we look into their histories, whether canonical or apocryphal, we shall find that, from the days of Abraham to the days of Josephus himself, things of this nature were very common among the Jews. The short of the matter is this:-The Jews at this time had certainly a great and eminent deliverance; but then the question is, whence did this deliverance come? (d) If we judge by the entire history of the Jewish nation, we shall expect it to have been after some extraordinary and providential manner. The Jewish records tell us that it was really so, and give us the particular account of it. The heathen records say nothing at all, either against it or about it; and therefore we must be left at liberty to think, that the authority of the Jewish historian who relates it (if nothing absurd or incongruous appears in his relation), does certainly preponderate such a negative argument, as the bare omission of one transaction by some later heathen historians can amount to. Upon the supposition, then, that Alexander, by this supernatural direction, entered Jerusalem in a peaceable manner, his offering sacrifice to the God of Israel, whom, according to the principles of his own religion, he might take for the national God of the Jews, was exactly agreeable, as appears by the several accounts of his life, to his usual method upon the like occasions; and his promising to grant the same immunities, he had given to them in Judea, to the Jews in Media and Babylonia (though he had not as yet conquered these countries), was the natural result of his having seen the prophecy (b) In Alexandro. (a) Jewish Antiq. lib. xi. c. 8. (c) Mr Whiston's Alexander at Jerusalem. VOL. II. (d) Ibid. 4 Q A. M. 4001, of Daniel, which, both he and the high priest, fully persuaded themselves that he was &c. or 5410. the person appointed by Providence to fulfil. Ant. Chris. 1, &c. or 1. aut. Er. Vulg. 3. Now, whoever considers the natural effects of conquests, what changes and revolutions they make, not only in the constitution but in the language likewise of any kingdom, and how fatally prone the very conquered are to learn the speech, as well as imitate the manners, of those that have brought them under subjection, will have no occasion to wonder that, after the reduction of Judea by a Grecian prince, and a prince who had distinguished that nation above all others with his royal favours, the Grecian language should soon grow into request, especially among the people of the better fashion, and such as made learning their profession. (a) The Macedonians had not long made themselves masters of Babylon, before Berosus (who is said by Tatian to have lived in the time of Alexander) became such a proficient in the Greek tongue, that in it he wrote the history of the affairs of the Chaldeans, and the actions of their kings, whereof we have some fragments in the writings of Josephus and Eusebius; and (b) not long after him Manetho, a priest of Heliopolis in Egypt, in the same language wrote his commentaries of the Egyptian affairs, which he dedicated to this very Ptolemy Philadelphus, for whose use the Septuagint translation was made. The Greek language, in short, spread itself abroad wherever Alexander's arms prevailed, and soon became the universal language of the polite and learned; and therefore we can hardly suppose, but that, in a populous nation, there should be found a competent number of persons duly qualified to translate a short book (for the Pentateuch was all that they translated, and this every one knows is far from being a long one) into a language that was then in the highest vogue, from another in which some of their doctors are said to have been so critically, so minutely skilled, as to be able to tell how often each letter occurred in the whole. Demetrius Phalereus was not only a learned philosopher, but a person likewise of great wisdom, justice, and probity, as appeared by his government of Athens † under Cassander, one of Alexander's captains: but being expelled from thence by the prevailing power of Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, and after the death of Cassander forced to withdraw into Egypt, he was there received with great favour and honour by Ptolemy Soter, and became one of his chief counsellors. He dissuaded the king from making any of his sons copartner with him in the kingdom, and (c) told him the inconvenience of it; but we do not perceive from Laertius, or any other historian, that he any ways opposed the succession of Philadelphus. The king indeed did not follow his advice in this particular; but still we find him in great favour and request at court, both with the father and son: and therefore, if, after the sons accession, he fell into some disgrace, (whatever the occasion of it might be) it is but supposing, either that this misfortune befel him some years after the king's accession, or that he, after a short disgrace, was restored to favour again; and then we may allow him space enough (without any disparagement to his character) to have at one and the same time both the direction of the Septuagint version, and the superintendency of the royal library. For whatever some may think of the servile employment of looking after books, it is very well known (d) that at Rome, one of the prime cardinals always holds the office of librarian to the pope; and as to the king's library in France, it is not long since the archbishop of Rheims, (a) Prideaux's Connection, Anno 260. Aristeas, Aristobulus, and Philo say, that the In acknowledgment of his just government, the Athenians erected for him as many statues in their city as there were days in the year, which was the greatest honour that ever was done to any citizen in that place. Diog. Laertius in vita Demetrii Phalerii, and Diodor. Sicul. lib. xviii. (c) Diog. Laertius in Philereo. (d) Prideaux's Connection, Anno 284. |