joining to Velogefes King of the Parthians, against the Romans; and afterwards, with Caffius, his general, who had caufed himself to be proclaimed Emperor at the inftigation of Fauftina, Aurelius's Emprefs 2. For, tho' he forgave Caffius's friends, as will be seen in the sequel, yet he renewed Adrian's severe edicts against the Jews, and caused them to be put in execution against them (T). THE last thing worth taking notice of under this century, New fects is the rife of fome new fects among the Jews, befides thofe fart up which we have taken notice of as predominant in our Sa- among the viour's time, and mention'd by Hegefyppus as ftill rife in Jews. his, particularly the Pharifees, Sadducees, Effenians, and Gaulonites; which last preserved still their feditious spirit against all foreign government. The new ones, according to him, were the Emerobaptifts, famed chiefly for their often washing in a day; and the Mafbotheans, who denied the Divine Providence, and attributed all events to chance (V): and • VULCATII CASSIUS, P. 40. & feq, (T) This must be only underftood of the nearer provinces; for as for those more remote, especially towards the east, the edict was not fo severely executed; for there they displayed a more inveterate hatred against the Chriftians; particularly at Smyrna, where they had a great hand in the martyrdom of bishop Polycarp, and folicited the heathen judge not to deliver his dead body to the Chriftians, left they fhould worship him; upon which account it was ordered to be burnt to afhes. The learned are divided about the time of this martyrdom; fome placing it in an. 147, under Antoninus (7); and others with more probability, under Aurelius, about an. 166, on the 22d of February, which was an high fabbath with them (8); but it is plain b See before, vol. x. p. 241, the Jews were every-where (V) So that they seem rather (7) Perfon vid. & Dodwel Differt. ad Op. poftb. Pearfon, c. 15. (8) Norris (9) Vid. Eufeb. Hift. Ecclef. l. v. c. 16. Differt, in Epech. Syro Maced. p. 30. Nicepbor, &c. 1 Hellenilts. But fome others, which the reader may fee in the last note. That of the the most confiderable of all was that of the Hellenists, which began foon after the verfion of the Septuagint, of which an account hath been given in a former part, and who had been fo long difpersed among the Greeks, as to have adopted their language, and forgot the Hebrew. We obferved there how thefe rejoiced at the firft publication of the facred books in that language, and from that time made ufe of no other; and on that account were defpifed by the rest of their brethren, who made ufe of the original (W). This open rupture is variously canvaffed by the learned, fome of whom pretend, that neither the Septuagint, nor any other verfion, was read in the fynagogues; others join the Hellenists and Jews in one and the fame fynagogue; a third fort extol that, not only above all other verfions, but even above the ori ginal; and as fuch, justly preferved by the Hellenists, for its exactnefs and perfpicuity. However that be, it were madness to deny that the Greek Jews were not allowed the ule of it in their fynagogues (X), as it was then the tongue most universally understood, and, perhaps, the only one which those Hellenifts knew. BUT *Ancient Hift. vol. x. p. 239, & feq. Vid. SALMAS. & Auct. ab eo citat. (d) OROS. Obfer. in N. Teft. p. 238. e MORIN. Exercit. Bibl. p. 238. ap. BASNAG. ub. sup. (W) Thefe upbraided them down. BUT that which caused it to be afterwards fo much cried Septuadown by the Jews, was the ufe which Juftin, and other gint, wh primitive Chriftians, made of it against them, in which they cried ran into the oppofite extreme, and condemned it as dangerous and pernicious, and this produced a fourfold effect. ift, It rendered the Hellenists, who ftood up for it, odious to the rest, who were from that time look'd upon as fectaries and fchifmatics. 2dly, It gave rife to the new verfions New ones. of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus, formerly mentioned f; made. a farther account of which may be feen in the margin (Y). 3dly, The Gemarrifts, not being able to abolish the ufe of the Greek verfion, confined it to the Pentateuch; because it had fewer of those prophecies which were urged by the Christians against them. And, 4thly, It put the Hellenists upon invent f See Ancient Hift. vol. x. p. 243, & feq. & (N). the objections which that heathen raised against the Jewish religion out of those books. But that is faid without either proof or probability; and Simon the fon of Gamaliel, who lived in Titus's time, makes no fcruple to declare that the law might be wrote and read in Greek; and another rabbi affirms, that he who reads it in any language he understands, is doing his duty. (Y) The chief defign of them was to deprive the Christians of thofe advantages which the Septuagint afforded them, and became in great vogue among all the difperfed ferus. Aquila's was the first, and was ufed by the greatest part of the Hellenifts; tho' the Thalmudifts failed not to find fome great faults in it, in order to bring the people back to the original Hebrew; and fome Chrif tians condemn'd it as done with an ill defign; tho they, and even St. Jerom, did afterwards make use of it, as more exact Theodotion, a heathen con- Symmachus made a third, which fignification. But, as these three (11) Ifai. vii. 14. + See Ancient Hift. vol. x. p, 243, & feq. Jews ing several miracles to raise the credit of their own (Z), whilst the Jews, to render it the more odious, trumped up a double faft, kept up in memory of it; of which, however, the Talmud makes no mention. This fect, therefore, as it is called by the latter, took its rife foon after the time of Juftin Martyr, and not before. And thus much for the first and fecond century. WE read nothing worth notice concerning them till the faithful to revolt of Pefcennius Niger, who, being proclaimed Emperor in Severus; Syria, in the beginningof Severus's reign †, and having tried in vain to bring them over to his intereft, proved a bitter enemy to them during his fhort-liv'd reign. Their firmness to the Emperor did not however meet with a suitable return from him; for we are told that he made war against them and the Samaritans, at his return from the Parthian war ''; and that the fenate, confounding what the father had done in Syria, and the fon in Judea, order'd him a triumph over + See Ancient Hift. vol. xv. p. 299, & feq. Chron. fub an. 198. (Z) Thus we are told by Philo, who was one of them, (in Vit. Mof.) that the 70 elders, who were employed in this verfion had been confined all the time, each in a feparate apartment, and, that when the work was finished, and brought to the king feated on his throne, and examined before him, there was found fuch exact conformity between each other,as well as with the original, even to a letter, or point, that both he and the affembly were convinced that the Holy Ghoft must have inspired them; and fome ancient fathers have been fo fully perfuaded of it, particuIarly St. Aufin, Hillary, and others, that where it differs, as it doth often, from the Hebrew, & EUSEB. they have rather chofen to think both divinely inspired, and both in the right; tho' there be no vifible way of reconciling them (12). On the other hand, the Hebraizing Jews affirm (13), that the day on which that verfion was made, proved more fatal to their nation than that on which Jeroboam fet up the golden calves of Dan and Bethel; and that the fky was covered with darkness three whole days, in memory of which they appointed a faft-day on the 8th of the month Thebet, answering to our December, to fhew their abhorrence against those who had prefumed to tranflate the facred oracles into a strange and impure language, Juft. Mart. exbort. ad Auguft. de (12) De bis, vid. Clem. Alexand. Bromat. l. i. Gent. & Dial. cont. Tryph. Irén. Epiphan. Chryfoft. Homil. iv. Dattr. Chrift. 1. ii. 6. 15. & alib. Hil. in Pal. cxxxi. not. 24. & al. (13) Vid. Sepker. Taanith in Men. Thebet & Scalig. Not. in Chron. Eufeb. fub an. 133. See also vol. x. p. 240, & feq. jub not. the h raised to the latter (A). He likewife kept up the laws against their making profelytes and going to Jerufalem, tho' he allowed them the liberty of circumcifing their children during the first years of his reign; but, at length, he grew more and famild towards them, when he was apprifed of their fidelity vour'd by to him; or, which perhaps was a more prevailing motive, him; as he was beyond measure covetous, when he come to know that they had many rich and confiderable perfons among them who would be glad to buy his favour and protection upon his own terms. Accordingly we find them not only protected by him, but feveral of them raised to fome high pofts; tho' he did not fail making them pay dear for the preference he shewed to them above the Chriftians, whom he grievously perfecuted, by the heavy impofts he laid on them. There was one claufe however very much in their favour, in that Emperor's decree, viz. the liberty of refufing fuch places and offices as were rather burthenfome than honourable, tho' they enjoyed by it all the privileges of Roman citizens; and this so puffed them up with pride and infolence, especially against the perfecuted Christians, that Tertullian, who was then writing his Apologetic, loudly complains of it (B). first 1 h SPARTIAN in Sever. ULPIAN. in Sever. i Vid. TERTUL. Apologet. cap. 21. (A) We are indeed told by Abulpbarage, that on the very year of Severus's reign, the Jews waged a grievous war against the Samaritans, in which great numbers of both were flain (14). But, as no other author hath mentioned it, it is more likely that he only miftook fome fkirmishes, which Claudius, a captain of Jewish banditti had had with thofe Samaritans; for he was grown fo bold as to furprise the emperor, and to falute him at the head of his own free booters, as if he had been one of the tribunes of his army; and then fled away with them fo far that he could not be found. And this (B) He mentions, among (14) Abulpbarag. Dynaft. p. 79. high pofis |