fucceeds

him.

Hillel

rec

B. XVI. Gamaliel HE was fucceeded by his fon Gamaliel, who is faid to have confirmed his father's Mifbnah, and to have died An. 229. His fon Judah did nothing worth our notice (L), except that he left his dignity to his fon the famed Hillel II. a tifies the perfon of great merit and learning; who is the first that becalendar; gan, as we hinted at the beginning of this chapter †, to compute the years from the creation; but whether he, or, which is more probable, the gemarrifts, of whom we shall fpeak in the fequel, did wilfully curtail that æra, in order to make it appear that Christ did not come into the world at the end of the fourth millenary, and at the time exprefly fignified by the prophets, we will not determine. Another improvement he was the author of, viz. the cycle of 19 years, to conciliate the courfe of the fun with that of the moon, by the help of feven intercalations. We have taken notice of fome fuch thing having been done before, under Simon the Maccabee, above 170 years before our Saviour *. and others Some others have fince put a helping hand to this emendation, after him. particularly Rabbi Samuel, nicknamed Jarkin, or lunatic, who was chief of an academy at Nahardea, about the year 240, and was esteemed a great aftronomer; but as his calculation was found ftill defective, one of his fucceffors, viz. R. Ada, greatly improved it, as Hipparchus had formerly done that of Galippus; upon which all these Jewish emendations were founded. However, Hillel, as prince of the captivity in the west, introduced it by his authority, and thereby made way for the other two; though it is not improbable that they, as a conquered people, were forced, in this, as in other cafes, to submit to the laws of the conquerors, and to adopt the reformation made by Julius Cæfar. Hillel made, however, fome farther ones to the Techuphath Hashana, or revolution of the year; fuch as changing the equinoxes and folftices; by bringing them back 13 days from where he found them; as for inftance, the vernal equinox from the 7th of April to the 25th of March m

BUT that which most endeared him to the Chriftians was Hillel's his converfion and baptifm a little before he died (M), when converfion he fent for the bishop of Tiberias, under pretence of confult- at the point ing him as a phyfician about his diftemper; but in reality to of death own himself a Chriftian, and to be baptized by him. The ceremony was accordingly performed, but in the privatest manner; the fervants, who were ordered to bring in the water being ordered to leave the chamber; and the matter was concealed for fome time, left his friends or domestics should do him any prejudice on that account. Though it is furprising so edifying a conversion should be kept fo fecret, especially as Conftantine the Great being then upon the throne, the Chriftians did not want for power to have sheltered him from any infult from the Jews; though the edict of that prince against fuch outrages did not perhaps come out till fome years after (N), that is, in the patriarchate of Hillel's fon and fucceffor, on account of whofe guardian it seems chiefly to have been made, as we are going to fhew.

HILLEL left his only fon Judah, a minor, under the Succeeded guardianship of Joseph, an intimate friend, mentioned in a late by Judah, note, and one of his apoftles. But the Jews, upon fome jea- a minor. loufy that Jofeph was such another diffembler as Hillel, perfe

(M) This fact is not owned by any of the Jewish writers, who were too jealous of his glory, as well as of that of their nation, to take any notice of it. But we have it upon the authority of Epiphanius, who tells us, that, being gone with Eufebius Vercellenfis to Scythopolis to fee one Jofeph, an intimate of the decealed Hill, and guardian to his fon, as well as one of his apoftles, they had the whole ftory from his own mouth.

(N) It is not eafy to fix the year in which this converfion happened, feeing the Jews pretend that he lived beyond the year 360; by which they confound him with another of the same name, who lived in Julian

the apoftate's time. Bartolocci
places his death about A. C.
320; but that feems too late by
eight or ten years: 1ft, Because
it gives him too long a reign;
and, zdly, This converfion
ought to have preceded Conftan-
tine's edict above-mentioned;
published ann: 315, to suppress
the violent outrages to which
the profelytes from Judaifm
were exposed from the zealots
of their own nation. If Scaliger
had confidered this circumstance}
he would not have supposed him
to have been reforming the
Jewish calendar about the year
344, as he hath done (1). Up-
on the whole then, it is moft
probable that Hillel died about
the year 308 or 310.

(1) Iidem ibid. vide & Gemar. tit. fanbedr, c. ii.

MOD. HIST. VOL. XIII.

M

cuted

B.XVI. Jofeph, cuted him with fuch bitterness and violence (O), that he was his tutor, forced to apply to the Emperor, by whom he was graciously perfecuted. received; and not only protected from all future infults, but

His acCount of

permitted to erect feveral fumptuous churches for the use of the Chriftians, in places where they were ftill wanting, by which he grew exceeding rich, and built fome ftately houses in Scythopolis; and here it was that he gave Eufebius and Epiphanius the account of Hillel's converfion above-mentioned. As for Judah, his pupil, he fucceeded his father in the patriarchal dignity, and enjoyed it ftill in the year 356; when Hillel's Jofeph, who was then in the 70th year of his age, related the converfion. tranfaction to those two bifhops. He feems to have outlived him but a few years, fince Julian, in a letter to the Jews, dated an. 363, mentions another patriarch then in the chair, whom he names Julius; which is only that of his fon and fucceffor Hillel III, græcified, who govern'd the Jewish church till the year 385.

arch.

Gamaliel HE was fucceeded by his fon Gamaliel, IVth of that name, IV. the and laft of the patriarchal race and dignity. St. Jerom laft patri- fpeaks of him as of a learned man who had had several difputes with Hefychius, before A. C. 392; and it was not till an. 415, that we find him stript of part of his authority by an edict of the Emperor Theodofius; but whether that pontif had abused the patriarchal power, or by fome other way That dig- difobliged him, or whether the male line was extinct, that nity abo- dignity was quite abolished about 14 years after; i. e. lifbed. an. 429, after having continued in the fame family thro' thirteen generations; or about the space of 350 years (P).

(O) They had only a bare fufpicion of his being a Chrif tian in his heart; for he had as yet made no public profeffeffion of it; however, that was fufficient to provoke fome of them to break abruptly into his houfe, where they found him reading the gofpel. They firft fnatch'd the book out of his hands, and fell a beating him moft unmercifully, and then dragged him to the fynagogue, where he was cruelly whipped, and at length threw him head-long into the Cydnus, where he was borne off by the ftream, far enough for them

The

to think him drowned. But, Providence having preferved his life, he immediately made open profeffion of Chriftianity, received baptifm, and with it the feveral marks of the emperor's favours above-mentioned. And it is fuppofed that it was on account of the violent exceffes which the Jews committed on these occafions, that the edict lately mentioned was issued out.

(P) We have seen in the late lift of these patriarchs, or, as the Jews fince called them, Princes, that some of their chronologers, particularly D.

The next dignity that fucceeded the patriarchate, was that of the primates, which being inferior in honour and authority, as well as in point of time, will be fpoken of in another place. It is time now that we go back to the remaining part of the 2d century, from which this lift of the patriarchs and fucceffors of Judah Hakkadofb had carried us.

Antoni

WE obferved a little higher from the Jewish writers, that they enjoyed great peace and liberty under the reigns of Adri an's three fucceffors, Antoninus Pius, M. Aurelius, and Commodus. The former of these they not only make a great friend and patron of their nation, but also one of their religion, and a difciple of Judah the faint; tho' outwardly a heathen, and much addicted to fuperftition (Q). However, as the edict Jews re of Adrian against their circumcifing their children was still volt under in force against them, they grew now fo impatient under it, as to appear in arms, and oblige him thereby to recal it, and restore them to the free ufe of their religion. Antoninus foon fuppreffed the revolt, but used fuch moderation towards them, as to grant them the liberty for which they took up arms; which, tho' it extended to all the Jews, did yet exclude the Samaritans from it; and, 2dly, forbad the former to make any profelytes to their religion (R).

Gantz, fhorten the duration of that dignity by three generations and ends it at Judah II. But it is plain from what we have faid above of the Theodofian edict, that it reached down to the time there mentioned.

(Q) Among other fabulous legends of this emperor's affection for that Jewish chief, they tell us that he had caufed a fubterranean way to be made between his own palace and his houfe, by which he used to go and converfe with him (2).

(R) Some add a prohibition likewife of making eunuchs. It is not eafy to fay when this revolt happened; and Capitolinus, who hath fummed it up,

WE

and the defeat of the Jews, in
five or fix lines, hath inclined
fome to fuppose it to have broke
out about the beginning of An-
toninus's reign (3); others think
the Jews could hardly be fo
foon ready for it, confidering
how difperfed and how low
they had been reduced by
Adrian, and that it must have
required fome years to put
themfelves in a proper condi
tion to attack fo powerful a
prince. (4). And fo it would
indeed, had this been fuch a
regular war as fome of those
they waged before. But by
the fhort account and the few
particulars given us of it, it
feems rather to have been a
tumultuous infurrection at which

(2) Fußt. Mart. apol, xi; (3) Baron. & al. fup. citat. lib. viii, c. i. §. v.

M 2

(4) Bafrag

the

WE fhall pass by two famous difputes which happened under the reign of Antoninus; the former between fafon, a converted Jew, and Papifcus, one of the fynagogue; in which the former proves Chrift to have been the Meffiah, and the latter used very bitter imprecations against him. The few fragments we have left of that conference give us no great Juftin's di- caufe of regretting the lofs of the reft. The other was bealogue tween Juftin Martyr, and the learned Tryphon, at Ephesus, withTry- whither the latter had been forced to flee, on account of phon.

the war which that prince then waged against the Jews, and where Justin met and had this conference with him, which is fuppofed upon good grounds to have happened about A. C. 155, or after the Emperor had reftored the liberty of circumcifion to the Jews. For before that time it is not probable Tryphon would fo readily have acknowleged his religion from the very beginning of the conference (S).

The Jews THE reader may fee by what we obferv'd in the last note, ill treated that the Jews were fo far from enjoying any degree of tranby M. Au- quility even under that prince, that they fared still worfe under his fucceffor, M. Aurelius, who had fuch an ill opinion of them, that, going thro' Judea into Egypt, he cried out, he had found there a people as wicked as the Sarmatians and Marcomans . What increased his refentment, was their

relius.

Pap. ftat. Sylvar. 1. iii.

the Jews were ever quick and
ready; and their defeat might
be no other than obliging them
to lay down their arms, upon
promife that they should have
the grant they contended for,
as they actually had.

(S) The Jewish writers men-
tion a learned rabbi, named
Tarphon, who flourished about
this time, and whom Lightfoot
fuppofes to be the perfon (5).
If fo, he doth not appear to
have been a man of extraor-
dinary learning, by his anfwers
to his antagonist. However,
we do not pretend to pass a
judgment on either, which

would be going out of our province. But what is more worth obferving to our readers is what that father objects against the Jews, viz. that their cities were burnt and laid waste, and their country inhabited by strangers; that they were forbid ftill to come to Jerufalem, and could not with any fafety abide in Judea. Notwithstanding all which, and the prefent mifery they laboured under, they made no fcruple to curfe in their fynagogues all that believed in Jefus, and, by their imprecations, to fend them to hell as atheifts and apoftates (6).

(5) Chron. temp. tom. ii. Sect. 5, Vid, & Bartoloc Bib. Rabb. tom. i. p. 863. (6) Dialog. p. 234. 257, & feq."

joining