Judea. dignity, much lefs to have raised it to fuch a degree of authority. The rife of THESE are generally looked upon, not without good the patri- grounds, to have been rather of the Aaronic or Levitical race, archs of than of the tribe of Judah, which, in thefe parts of Judea, was either extinguished, or, at least, so far depressed that they were not only in no condition of refuming their former power, but the very leaft attempt to do it would have rendered them obnoxious to the refentments of the jealous Romans; but that the priests and Levites fhould be fuffered to affume the power of teaching the people, and to that end to fet up schools, to appoint mafters over them, and at length to install one at the head of the reft, with the title of Rob Abboth, or head of the fathers, to which the Greek one of Patriarch anfwers, and came to be moft in vogue, is the more probable, because neither their tribe, which had nothing to do with the regal dignity, nor their office, which was then confined to matters of religion, could give any umbrage to the Roman power, especially as their authority over their flocks did chiefly owe its gradual growth to their great reputation for learning and piety, and confifted chiefly in deciding of cafes of confcience, and other controverfies about their religion, and establishing the wifeft and most effectual rules for the re-eftaAcademies blifhment and durable fettlement of it. And as the towns of fet up at Tiberias, Japhne, or Jamnia, and Lydda, appeared to them Tiberias, the most commodious to fet up the firft academies in, not, Lydda, in all probability, without the government's permission, &c. this might give occafion to the Jews to affirm afterwards, that the Sanhedrin had been removed to those cities. These Patriarchs having likewife gained fome great reputation for their extraordinary learning, zeal, and piety, might, in time, not only bring a great concourfe of other Jews from other parts, as from Egypt, and other western provinces of their difperfion, but likewife prove the means of their patriarchal authority being acknowleged there. From them they ventured, in time, to levy a kind of tribute, in order to defray the charges of their dignity, and of the officers under them, Their gra- whose business it was to carry their orders and decifions thro' dual rife the other provinces of their difperfion, and to see them punctuand power. ally executed by all; that fome fhadow of union, at least, might be kept up among the western Jews. They likewife nominated the doctors who were to prefide over their schools and academies; and these were, in process of time, ftiled chiefs and princes, in order to raise the credit of that dignity, or to imply the great regard which their difciples were to pay to them. These chiefs became, at length, rivals of the patriarchs; patriarchs; and fome of them poffeffed both dignities at once; which caused not only great confufion amongst them, but oftentimes very violent and bloody contests. However, Fabulous as the Jewish rabbies have trumped up a much older æra for lift of pa this patriarchal dignity, and have given us a fucceffion of them triarchs down to the fifth century, in which it was abolished, it will mentioned not be amifs to give our readers the substance of what they by the wrote of it in the margin (N); and, at the fame, to fhew Jews. (N) According to them, the firft patriarch was Hillel, fur: named the Babylonian, because he was fent for from thence to Jerufalem, about 100 years before the ruin of their capital, or 30 years before the birth of Chrift, to decide a difpute about the keeping of Eafter, which on that year fell out on the Sabbath day; and it was, on account of his wife decifion, that he was raised to that dignity, which continued in his family till the faid 5th century. He was likewife looked upon as a fecond Mofes, because he lived like him 40 years in obfcurity, 40 more in great reputation for learning and fanctity, and 40 more in poffeffion of this patriarchal dignity. They make him little inferior to that law giver in other of his excellencies, as well as in the great authority he gained over the whole Jewish nation. The wonder will be how Herod the Great, who was fo jealous of his own power, could fuffer a stranger to be raised to such a height of it, barely for having decided a difpute which muft, in all likelihood, have been adjudged by others long before that time. them ny Chriftians pretend to have He was fucceeded by Jochanan, However Hillel was fucceed. ed by his fon Simon, whom ma (14) Luke ii. 25, & feqq. las. de Simon. p. 2, & feq. them the abfurdity and falfhood of that pretended fucceffion to this imaginary dignity. By all which they will plainly thus moved! We know, that thou art to be deftroyed, feeing Zechariah bath foretold it, faying, Open thy gates, O Lebanus, and let the flames confume thy cedars. Upon this, he is further reported to have complimented Vefpafian, or rather, as fome have corrected the story, Titus, with the title of king, affuring him, that it was a royal perfon who was to destroy that edifice on which account they pretend that general gave him leave to remove the fanhedrin to Japhne, as was lately hinted. fee, number and character, particularly the famed Rabbi Chanina, of whom the Bath Col (†) was heard to fay, that the world was preferved for the fake of him; and R. Nicodemus, whom they pretend to have stopped the courfe of the fun, like another Joshua. He was fucceeded by Gamaliel, a man, according to them, of unfufferable pride; and yet, of fo univerfal authority over all the Jews, not only in the weft, but over the whole world, that the very monarchs fuffered his laws to be obeyed in their dominions, not one of them offering to obftruct the execution of them (15). In his days flourifhed Samuel the Lefs, who composed a prayer full of the bittereft curfes against heretics, by which they mean the Christians, and which are still in ufe to this day. Gamaliel was no lefs an enemy to them; and yet both have been challenged, the former as the celebrated master of our great apoftle, the other as his difciple in his unconverted ftate; for take the mem from The Jewish writers add, that he likewise erected an academy there, which fubfifted till the death of Akiba; and was likewife the feat of the patriarch; and confifted of 300 fchools or claffes of scholars. Another he erected at Lydda, not far from Faphne, and where the Chriftians have buried their famed St. George. He lived 120 years; and being afked, what he had done to prolong his life? he gave this wife answer; I never made water nearer a house of prayer than four cubits: I never disguised my name: I have, and there remains taken care to celebrate all feftivals and my mother hath even fold my head ornaments to buy wine enough to make me merry on fuch days; and left me at her death three hundred hogfheads of it, to fanctify the Sabbath. The doctors that flourished in his time were no lefs confiderable, both for their NW, Saul ; and the word Kalon, or leffer, in the Hebrew, fignifiespaulus,or little, in theLatin; and as for the mem it being the firft letter of the word Min, a heretic, it was thus taken from the name of Samuel to fhew that Saul did turn Christian (16). The apocryphal author of the recog (t) De bac vid. Anc. Hift. vol. x. p. 582 (C). (15) Vid. Gantz Tzemach David. (16) Akting. in Scilo, lib. vi, c. 28. Vid, Bafnag. Hift, des Juifs, lib. iii. c. 1. §. 13, & feqq. nitions fee, that it did not begin to appear in Judea till about the time of the emperor Nerva, lately mentioned; nor to be raised nitions pretends, that the Gamaliel mentioned in the Acts was actually a Chriftian, but fecretly, and fuffered to remain among the Jews by the confent and advice of the church (17). Baronius hath not only followed that fabulous author, but pretends that Gamaliel was buried afterwards in the fame tomb with the proto-martyr Stephen, both whofe relicts were pregnant with miracles. It is furprifing if Gamaliel was originally a patriarch, and prince of the fanhedrin, St. Luke fhould give him no better title than that of a pharifee, and doctor of the law, and in great repute among the people; and that, inftead of prefiding in the council, he fhould only reprefent him as a member of it, and giving his opinion among the rest of his brethren (1-8). There is moreover a manifest anachronism in making him fucceed Johanan, who out-lived the ruin of the temple. He could not therefore be the perfon mentioned in the Acts. Simon II. his fon and fucceffor, was the first martyr who died during the fiege of Jerufalem. The people fo regretted his death, that an order was given, instead of ten bumpers of wine, which were ufually drank at the funeral of a faint, to drink thirteen at his, on account of his martyrdom. These bumpers were in time multiplied, they tell us, to fuch fhameful height, that the fanhedrin was forced to make fome new to regulations to prevent that abuse. These are the patriarchs, which the Rabbies tell us preceded the deftruction of the temple; and we need no farther confutation of this pretended dignity, than the filence of the facred historians, who not only make not the least mention of it; but affure us all along, that they were the high priests who prefided in the fanhedrin and before whom all cafes, relating to the Jewish religion, were brought and decided. It was the high priest who examined and condemned our Saviour; that condemned St. Stephen; that forbad the apostles to preach in Chrift's name; and who fat as judge on the great apostle at the head of that fupreme court. The fame may be urged from Jofephus, who muft needs have known and mentioned this pretended dignity, if any fuch there had been; and yet is fo far from taking the leaft notice of it, that, like the evangelifts, he places the pontifs alone at the head of all the Jewish affairs; and names the high priest Ananus, as having the care and direction of the war against the Romans; which is an evident proof that there were then no fuch patriarchs in being t. To all this let us add, that, if there had been any fuch remarkable fucceffion, the talmudifts would have preserved it to future ages; whereas neither they, nor any of the an (17) Recog. Clement. I. i. c. 65. (18) See Als v. 34, & feqq. (†) Ans. lib. xx. c. 8, & bell. Judaic. in fin. lib. i.& alib. Its most likely beginning to that degree of authority which the Jews give it, till that of his fucceffor Trajan, or, perhaps more properly, till the reign of Adrian. ALLOWING, therefore, the lift and fucceffion given in the laft note to be right in the main, though false with respect to the great power and dignity attributed to five or fix of them, Gamaliel will be probably the first who took the title of Rofb Abboth, or Patriarch, in Nerva's time, and began to get fome credit over the western Jews; but if we are to date that dignity from the firft cotemporary author who makes mention of it, we shall be forced to bring it down to the reign of Adrian, who is the first that takes notice of it (0), and tient authors of the Jewish Their fucceffion, according to 5 Gamaliel II. the fon of Si- 6 Simeon III. the fon of Ga maliel II. 7 Judab, the fon of Simeon III. 9 Judah II. fon of Gama liel III. 10 Hillel II. fon of Judah II. 11 Judah III. fon of Hillel II. 12 Hillel III. fon of Judah III. 13 Gamaliel IV. fon of Hillel III. According to Gantz Tzemach David, who hath reduced 3 Rabb. Gamaliel Ribona, 5 Rabban Gamaliel, his fon. 10 R. Judah, Naffi or prince. (0) We are told, that that emperor was informed in Egypt, that a certain patriarch, who came thither fometimes, was much importuned by fome to worship Serapis, and by others Jefus Chrift (20): from which one (See Antient H. vol. iii. p. 242, & feq. (19) De bis vid. Worf. Obferv. p. 214. Bartoloc& Wolf. Bibbict. Rabbin. Otbon. Hift. Defter Mishnia. Bafnag, ub. fup. 1. iii. c. 1. §. ib. & feq. Çalmet, fub, wec, patriarch. &c. * (20) Vid. Flav. Vopife. p. 245. may |