CHAPTER XIV.

DEATH OF HEROD.

Sickness of Herod—Bold Exploit—Attempt at Suicide—Barbarous Command—Death of Herod—Judea Reduced to a Province—Devoted Courage of the Jews.

The measure of the tyrant’s iniquities was now nearly full; the earth was not much longer to endure the presence of this monster of cruelty. Herod, as Antiochus Epiphanes had been before him, was struck by the hand of an avenging God with a most strange and horrible disease. The proud king became a loathsome object to all who approached him; he was consumed with inward pain, worn by incurable melancholy, tortured by unappeasable hunger, and scarcely able to breathe.

While his sickness was slowly but surely bringing Herod the Great to the tomb, an event occurred which proved that the old heroic spirit of the Jews was not quenched, and that there were those amongst them who could not patiently endure the hated yoke of the Romans.

Two of the most learned and esteemed of the Jews, Matthias and Judas by name, burned with an ardent desire to emulate their pious ancestors, and purify the city and temple of their God from heathen profanation. Gradually they gathered around them many young and ardent spirits, whom they incited to vindicate, by some gallant deed, the honour of their religion.

Herod, with great disregard for the feelings of the nation whom he governed, had put up the figure of a golden eagle, the emblem of Roman power, over the great gate of the temple. Many a fierce and angry glance had been raised by the Jewish worshippers towards this abhorred image, and the boldest amongst them at length resolved to tear down the insulting emblem. Judas and Matthias stirred up their followers to the daring attempt, reminding them how glorious a thing it was to face danger, and even to die for the laws of their beloved country.

A party of resolute young men, in the face of day, and in the presence of a number of the people, let themselves down by thick cords from the top of the temple, and with axes cut away the golden eagle. But the power of the dying Herod was not with impunity to be defied. A party of soldiers hastened to the temple, and about forty of the young Jews were seized, and brought into the presence of the king.

Herod demanded of them whether they had indeed been so daring as to cut down the eagle from the temple; and they frankly confessed that they had done so.

“At whose command?” asked the tyrant.

“At the command of the laws of our country,” was the young Jews’ intrepid reply.

They were in the hands of one to whom mercy was a stranger. Not only the immediate actors in the daring deed, but the teachers who had incited them to it, were burned alive by the order of Herod.

The king’s sufferings now became so intolerable, that he made a desperate attempt to end them by his own hand. One day, in the extremity of his agony, he tried to stab himself with a knife, but was prevented by a relative, who saw his design, and rushed forward in time to defeat it.

Five days before Herod expired, his son Antipater, who had conspired against him, was slain by the command of his merciless father. As the gloomy tyrant’s end drew near, his savage nature showed itself in yet more revolting colours. He seized upon the most illustrious men of the Jewish nation, and then confined them in a place called the Hippodrome. Herod then sent for his sister Salome and her husband, and crowned all his other acts of wickedness, by giving them the following atrocious order:—

“I know well,” said the dying tyrant, “that the Jews will keep a festival upon my death. However, it is in my power to be mourned for on other accounts. Do you have a care to send soldiers to encompass those men that are now in ward, and slay them immediately upon my death, and then all Judea and every family of them will weep at it, whether they will or no!”

This horrible command was not obeyed. Herod died, and Jerusalem rejoiced.

By his will, subject to the approval of the emperor of Rome, Herod divided his dominions amongst three surviving sons—Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Philip. To Archelaus fell the government of Judea and Samaria, which he held for nine years, under the title of Ethnarch; while Herod Antipas reigned in Galilee; and Philip ruled over Auronitis and other provinces.

The tidings of the death of the tyrant Herod were brought by an angel to Joseph, who forthwith returned from Egypt with Mary his wife, and her child. Hearing, however, that Archelaus had succeeded to his father, Joseph turned aside to Nazareth in Galilee, the Virgin’s former place of residence. There, for many years, the family remained in quiet seclusion, until the time arrived for the Messiah to show Himself openly to the people.

The reign of Archelaus was stormy. Desperate struggles were made by the Jews to regain their liberty, and shake off the yoke of their oppressors. They hoped that the time had at length come when their Messiah should appear amongst them, place Himself at their head, and, with more than the prowess and success of Judas Maccabeus, drive all their enemies before them. Various impostors started up, who were for a while eagerly received by the people, and who drew their misguided followers with them into destruction. The Roman general, Varus, came with an army to crush the insurgents, and by his orders two thousand of them suffered the horrible death of crucifixion.

Archelaus, a cruel, unprincipled man, was detested by the Jews almost as much as his father had been. Unable by their own efforts to get rid of the tyrant, they appealed to the Roman Emperor Augustus, by whom Archelaus was brought to trial, deposed, and banished.

The land over which Archelaus had ruled was now reduced to a Roman province, and governed by Roman procurators, who possessed the power of life and death. This office was held successively by Coponius, Marcus Ambivius, and Valerius Gratus, till, in the year 26 A.D.,[4] the corrupt and unprincipled Pontius Pilate became procurator of Judea.

The new governor was not long in discovering how difficult was the charge he had undertaken. It was by no means easy to reconcile his anxiety to please and obey his Roman master, with his wish to conciliate the excited and turbulent people over whom he ruled.

A very great tumult was excited amongst the Jews by Pilate’s bringing secretly into the city images of Cæsar Augustus. This was contrary to the Jewish law, and roused the strongest indignation. Numbers of the Jews hastened to Pilate, who was then at Cesarea, and besought him earnestly to remove the hateful ensigns from Jerusalem. On the procurator’s refusal to accede to their entreaties, the Jews flung themselves down in the dust, and for five days and nights remained upon the earth in a posture of despair.

Pilate was struck by the firm attachment of these Jews to their customs and laws, and resolved to put it to a yet greater trial. He summoned the people to the market-place, and then suddenly caused them to be surrounded by a band of armed warriors. The Jews were in the utmost consternation at the unexpected sight, and yet more so when Pilate bade the soldiers draw their swords, and sternly gave the people the alternative of receiving the images with submission, or of being instantly cut to pieces.

But the devotion of the Jews rose superior to their fear. They fell down in numbers together, and stretching out their necks for the fatal blow, declared that they were ready to die rather than that their law should be transgressed.

Pilate’s opposition was overcome by the firm resolution of these brave men; and giving way to the popular feeling, he commanded that the obnoxious images should be removed from the city of Jerusalem.

CONTEMPORANEOUS EVENT.

Temple of Janus shut in Rome as a token of universal peace, in the year 5 B.C., when the Lord Jesus Christ was born.