CHAPTER V.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
Murder of Joshua—A Temple raised on Mount Gerizim—Battle of Issus—Siege of Tyre—The White Robe Procession—Murder of Darius.
We now lose the sure guidance of the sacred writings, and must pursue our way by the dimmer light of uninspired history. “The two books of the Maccabees,” writes Dr. Gray, “were certainly composed after the succession of prophets had ceased among the Jews.” Of the first book he observes, “It was probably written by a contemporary author, who had witnessed in part the scenes which he so minutely and graphically describes;” and of the second book, which contains the account of Heliodoros and the martyrdom of the seven brethren, this writer remarks, “The fathers in general cite the book as a useful history, but not as of authority in points of doctrine.”
After the time of Nehemiah, Judea ceased to form a distinct government, and was joined to the satrapy of Syria. Its internal government was, however, in the hands of its own high priests, and the civil power thus annexed to this office made it an object of great ambition, and unhappily gave rise to disgraceful contests.
On the death of Eliashib, 413 b.c., his son Joiada or Judas succeeded to the dignity of high priest. After he also had been removed by death, a wicked dispute arose between two of his sons, Johanan and Joshua, as to which should fill the sacred office. Johanan, like another Cain, slew Joshua in the [inner court of the temple], and the holy place was polluted with blood shed by a brother’s hand.
Bagoses, the satrap of Syria, hearing of this horrible crime, came to Jerusalem to take account of it. On his going into the temple to examine the spot where Joshua had been killed, the priests would have hindered his entrance, as no Gentile was permitted to cross the sacred threshold.
“What! am I not more pure than the dead carcass of him whom ye have slain in the temple?” exclaimed the indignant satrap; and after rebuking the Jews for suffering the house of their God to be thus defiled, he imposed upon them, as a punishment, a heavy tax upon the lambs that were offered in sacrifice.
The nation at this time had fallen into a grievous state of coldness and formality in religion. The priesthood were worldly and corrupted, and looked upon the services of the temple as a weariness, unwilling to perform even the smallest without some earthly reward. But there were yet faithful ones left in the land—those who feared the Lord, and spake often to each other, and feared the name of the Holy One of Israel. “They shall be Mine,” said the Lord by the prophet Micah, “in that day when I make up My jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.”