A Class-Book of New Testament History

by G. F. Maclear

Quirinus, as we have seen above[233], had in all probability been already governor of Syria, and in this capacity had conducted the preliminary enrolment of names preparatory to a general census. This census he was now entrusted to carry out[234], and with it a levying of imposts and rates in money. This was regarded by the Jews as the last and most degrading mark of their subjection to a foreign power. The whole country was in a ferment, and though the energy of the high-priest Joazar[235] repressed any actual outbreak at Jerusalem, the popular feeling could not be restrained in the provinces. At the head of the disaffected appeared one Judas of Gamala[236] in Gaulanitis.

A man of energy, eloquence, and undaunted courage, he quickly gathered around him a body of adventurers, and aided by a confederate Sadoc, of the Pharisaic faction, unfurled the banner of resistance to foreign dominion, and especially to foreign tribute. For a time the country was at the mercy of the fierce and lawless throng, which flocked to his standard, but the effort was utterly fruitless. Nothing could withstand the terrible Roman legions; Judas himself was slain (Acts v. 37), and his followers were dispersed, but his work lived after him, and the Zealots and Sicarii or Assassins, who drank deeply of his fierce and independent spirit, long kept alive the popular discontent under a foreign sway.

Having completed the confiscation of the property of Archelaus, Quirinus deposed Joazar from the high-priesthood, and substituted in his place Annas, the son of Seth[237], the ablest friend of Rome. He then returned to Syria, and Coponius having planted a small garrison on Zion and a guard at the Temple-gate, took up his abode at Cæsarea on the sea.

So long as Augustus filled the imperial throne the procurators in Judæa held their commands for a very limited number of years, and were rapidly changed. Thus Coponius, whose supremacy began in A.D. 6, was succeeded after four years, in A.D. 10, by Marcus Ambivius[238]. In three years Marcus Ambivius handed over the reins of power to Annius Rufus, who in the following year made way for Valerius Gratus. But in A.D. 14 Augustus died, and Tiberius resolved that such rapid changes should be discontinued[239]. Gratus, therefore, held his command till A.D. 26. He deposed the high-priest Annas, and set up Ishmael, son of Phabi, but a furious uproar ensuing he deposed Ishmael, and elevated Eleazar, a son of Annas, to the pontificate, permitting the latter, under the name of Sagan, or deputy, to discharge the spiritual functions of his office and conduct the ceremonial rites. But this appointment was of no long duration. Deeming Annas to possess too much influence the procurator deposed Eleazar, and set up Simon, son of Kamith, who held the office for less than a year, and then made way for Joseph Caiaphas, the Sagan’s son-in law[240]. These rapid changes shew how entirely the high-priesthood was at this time at the mercy of the Roman governors.

Valerius Gratus was succeeded in A.D. 26[241] by Pontius Pilate[242]. He brought with him his wife, and a Roman household, established himself at Cæsarea, but repaired oftener than any of his predecessors to Jerusalem. Resolved to keep on good terms with the noble families, and to unite with himself as many as possible who were likely to help him to preserve the public peace, he suffered the Jewish priests to manage their own affairs. So Annas remained Sagan, and Caiaphas high-priest.

But one of his first acts roused the furious animosity of his new subjects. He resolved to transport the head-quarters of the army from Cæsarea to Jerusalem. With the soldiers, followed, as a matter of course, the standards, bearing the image of Cæsar; but as they were introduced in the night-time they did not at first attract attention[243]. No sooner, however, was the fact observed, than there were no bounds to the rage of the people. They resorted in crowds to his residence at Cæsarea, and besought him to remove the obnoxious emblems. For five days they beset his palace, and at length he gave the signal to his troops to put them to death, unless they desisted from troubling him. Thereupon the petitioners flung themselves upon the ground, and declared their willingness to meet death in any shape, rather than see their city polluted with heathen symbols. Their undaunted bearing had its effect. The procurator deemed it best to concede the point, and the standards were brought back to Cæsarea.

In spite, however, of this warning, he on another occasion had a clear proof of the refractory spirit of the people. Anxious to signalise his reign in Judæa by erecting a noble aqueduct, which was to bring a supply of water to the city from a distance of twenty-five miles, and wanting funds, he appropriated the Corban[244], or the money laid up in the Temple and dedicated to God. This act roused the Jews to madness. They gathered in thousands and tens of thousands before his palace-gates, obstructed the works, and demanded that the sacred treasures should be restored[245]. Resolved not to be thwarted, Pilate ordered a company of the legionaries, carrying daggers under their garments, to surround and disperse them. The soldiers carried out his orders with greater cruelty than he had intended, charged the rioters, chased them into the Temple-courts, slew great numbers, and wounded many more, so that their blood was mingled with the blood of the victims on the altar.

Such was the man who now presided over the province of Judæa. Under his rule, and that of his predecessors, the Roman yoke cut more and more deeply into the heart of the nation. Finding no hope from their own chiefs, who all sided with the Romans, the people prayed with increased earnestness that the Messiah, the Deliverer, would come. The Galilæans in the North, the Separatists in the South waxed hotter and hotter in their hatred of their heathen rulers[246]. Many claiming the title of Messiah appeared, and gathered numbers of excited followers. But their careers were soon cut short, and they were swept away before the Roman legions.

But before Pilate had been many months in power, all Jerusalem and Judæa was roused by the appearance of a strange Preacher on the banks of the Jordan[247], announcing the advent of a very different Messiah from that expected by the nation, and the speedy establishment of a kingdom not of earth but of heaven.