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walked over

have," says a late traveller,
the ground it occupied, and found the site
of the royal city only marked by the parallel
embankments of ancient aqueducts, and by
the consolidated grit and débris which
devote to utter barrenness, in this primeval
country, the spots which towns once occu-
pied, as if man had branded the ground by
the treading of his feet."

In his newly-founded towns, it was the policy of Seleucus to induce as many as possible of the Jews to settle by important privileges and immunities, such as those which Ptolemy had extended to them. The consequence was that the Jews were attracted to these spots in such numbers, and especially to Antioch, that in them they formed nearly as large a proportion of the inhabitants as at Alexandria itself.

population in the country in which it is found.* Its name will occur very often in the remainder of our narrative. Next to Antioch in importance was Seleucus on the Tigris, which may in fact be considered the capital of the eastern portion of the empire. It was situated about fifty miles north by east of Babylon, twenty-three miles below the site of the present city of Bagdad, and just opposite to the ancient city of Ctesiphon. This city (founded in B. C. 293) tended much to the final ruin and desolation of Babylon. Great privileges were granted to the citizens; and on this account many of the inhabitants of Babylon removed thither; and after the transfer of the trade to Seleucia, these removals became still more frequent. It was in this manner that Babylon was gradually depopulated; but the precise period when it In all this, we think it is not difficult became entirely deserted cannot now be to perceive a further development of the ascertained. It may be interesting to note divine plan, which now, as the times adthis, as many of the Eastern Jews were vanced, dictated the dispersion of numerinvolved in whatever transactions took place ous bodies of Jews among the Gentile in this quarter, which, from the time of the nations, while the nation still maintained captivity to this day, has never been in its own land the standards of ceremonial destitute of a large and often influential worship and of doctrine- with the view Jewish population. But now Babylon it- of making the nations acquainted with cerself is not more desolate is even less tain truths is even less tain truths and great principles, which desolate has more to mark it as the site should work in their minds as leaven until of a great city of old times, than the super- the times of quickening arrived. seding Seleucia, which only received existence in the last days of Babylon.

I

* Antioch, the capital of the Greek kings of Syria, and afterwards the residence of the Roman governors of the province which bore the same name. This metropolis was situated where the chain of Lebanon, running northwards, and the chain of Taurus, running eastwards, are brought to an abrupt meeting. Here the Orontes breaks through the mountains; and Antioch was placed at a bend of the river, partly on an island, partly on the level which forms the left bank, and partly on the steep and craggy ascent of Mount Silpius, which rose abruptly on the south. No city, after Jerusalem, is so intimately connected with the history of the apostolic church. Certain points of close association between these two cities, as regards the progress of Christianity, may be noticed in the first place. One of the seven deacons, or almoners appointed at Jerusalem, was Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch (Acts vi. 5). The Christians, who were dispersed from Jerusalem at the death of Stephen, preached the Gospel at Antioch (ibid. xi. 19). It was from Jerusalem It was from Jerusalem that Agabus and the other prophets, who foretold the famine, came to Antioch (ibid. xi. 27, 28); and Barnabas and Saul were consequently sent on a mission of charity from the latter city to the former (ibid. xi. 30, xii. 25). It was from Jerusalem again that the Judaizers came, who dis

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During the time of Ptolemy Soter, the prosperity of the Jews was much strengthened by turbed the church at Antioch (ibid. xv. 1); and it was at Antioch that St. Paul rebuked St. Peter for conduct into which he had been betrayed through the influence of emissaries from Jerusalem (Gal. ii. 11, 12). The chief interest of Antioch, however, is connected with the progress of Christianity among the heathen. Here the first Gentile church was founded (Acts xi. 20, 21); here the disciples of Jesus Christ were first called Christians (xi. 26); here St. Paul exercised (so far as is distinctly recorded) his first systematic ministerial work (xi. 22-26; see xiv. 26-28: also xv. 35 and xviii. 22); hence he started at the beginning of his first missionary journey (xiii 1-3), and hither he returned (xiv 26). So again after the apostolic council (the decrees of which were specially addressed to the Gentile converts at Antioch, xv. 23), he began and ended his second missionary journey at this place (xv. 36, xviii. 22). This too was the starting-point of the third missionary journey (xviii. 23), which was brought to a termination by the imprisonment at Jerusalem and Cæsarea. Though St. Paul was never again, so far as we know, at Antioch, that city did not cease to be an important centre for Christian progress. Bib. Dictionary. A. B.

as a sea.

As for Ptolemy Keraunus, he ultimately sought refuge at the court of Seleucus, by whom he was most kindly received and entertained; but he justified the ill opinion of him on which his own father had acted by destroying his benefactor. This was in B. C. 280, only seven months after Seleucus had consummated the greatness of his empire by the overthrow of Lysimachus, who had himself previously added the kingdom of Macedonia to his own of Thrace. Seleucus became the possessor of three out of the four kingdoms into which the empire of Alexander had, in the defeat of Antigonus, been divided. After his death, Ptolemy Keraunus managed to seat himself on the Macedonian throne; but the very next year he was taken prisoner and cut in pieces by the Gauls, who had invaded Macedonia.

Thus

the internal administration of the excellent | him that he had no time to lose; he therehigh-priest Simon the just. In 300 he suc- fore resigned the diadem to Philadelphus ceeded Onias I., who had in 321 succeeded (" the brother-loving"), and enrolled himJaddua, the high-priest in the time of Alexan-self among the royal life-guards. He died der the Great. Simon repaired and forti- two years after (B. C. 283) at the age of fied the city and temple of Jerusalem, with eighty-four, forty years after the death of strong and lofty walls; and made a spacious Alexander. cistern, or reservoir of water, "in compass He is reported to have completed the canon of the Old Testament by the addition of the books of Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Nehemiah, Esther, and Malachi. This is not unlikely, as also that the book of Chronicles was completed in its present state; for the genealogy of David in the first book comes down to about the year B. C. 300; and it may also be remarked that in the catalogue of high-priests as given in Nehemiah, Jaddua is mentioned in such a manner as to intimate that he had been for some time dead. The Jews also affirm that Simon was "the last of the great synagogue" which some ingeniously paraphrase into "the last president of the great council, or Sanhedrim, among the high-priests (Hales, ii. 538); whereas it seems clear that no Sanhedrim at or before this time existed. And from the fact that this " great synagogue is not (like the Sanhedrim) described as being composed of seventy members, but of one hundred and twenty, among whom were Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Nehemiah, and Malachi it would appear that it rather denoted the succession of devout and patriotic men who distinguished themselves after the captivity, by their labors toward the collection and revision of the sacred books, and the settlement and improvement of the civil and religious institutions of their country; and of whom Simon, by completing the sacred canon, became the last. Simon died in B. C. 291, and was succeeded by his son Eleazar.

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Seleucus was succeeded in what may be called the throne of Asia by his son Antiochus Soter. This prince, after he had secured the eastern provinces of the empire, endeavored to reduce the western, but his general Patrocles was defeated in Bithynia, | and the loss of his army disabled him from immediately prosecuting the claims upon Meanwhile the Macedonia and Thrace. sceptre of Macedonia was seized by the vigorous hands of Alexander Gonatus, a son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and consequently a grandson of Antigonus, and to him Antiochus at length felt himself constrained to cede that country; and the family of Antigonus reigned there until the time of Perseus, the last king, who was conquered by Not long after this (B. C. 285), the the Romans. Antiochus Soter died in B. C. king of Egypt, having conceived just cause 261 after nominating as his successor his of displeasure against his eldest son Ptolemy second son Antiochus Theos ("the God"). Keraunus, took measures to secure the This prince was his son by his mother-in-law succession to his youngest son Ptolemy Stratonice, whom his too indulgent father Philadelphus. His advanced age warned had divorced to please him †

/* Ecclus. 1. 1-3. The whole chapter, entitled "The praise of Simon the Son of Onias," is devoted to a splendid eulogium on his deeds and character.

It is worthy of notice that the Greek monarchs at this time not only imitated the Persian kings by marriage with their own sisters,

but carried this vice to still greater excess. Seleucus, to favor the wishes of his son Antiochus Soter, divorced his wife Stratonice, and gave her to that son as his wife, she being his mother-in-law. From this incestuous marriage were all the succeeding kings of Syria descended. - Plutarch.

A. B. ·

!

ever we are to seek the real beginning of the Parthian empire, which was ultimately destined to set bounds to the conquests of the Romans, and to vanquish the vanquishers of the world. The immediate result was that Antiochus was obliged, in the year B. C. 249, to make peace with Philadelphus on such terms as he could obtain. These were, that he should repudiate his beloved queen, who was his half-sister, and marry Berenice, a daughter of Philadelphus, and that the first male issue of the marriage should succeed to the throne.

The accession of Antiochus II. took place | empire Parthia, Bactria, and other provabout the middle of the reign of Ptolemy inces beyond the Tigris-revolted from his Philadelphus in Egypt. This last-named dominion; this was in B. C. 250, from monarch was quite as tolerant and as friendly which the foundation of the Parthian empire to the Jews as his father had been. He may be dated; but it is perhaps better, with was a great encourager of learning and the Parthians themselves, to date it from the patron of learned men. Under his auspices ensuing reign, when they completely estabwas executed that valuable translation of the | lished their independence. It is here howHebrew scriptures into Greek, called the Septuagint, from the seventy or seventytwo translators said to have been employed thereon. Eleazar was still the high-priest, and appears to have interested himself much in this undertaking, and was careful to furnish for the purpose correct copies of the sacred books. The date of B. C. 278 is usually assigned to this translation. Thus the Jewish scriptures were made accessible to the heathen. It is unquestionable that copies of this version, or extracts from it, found their way in process of time into the libraries of the learned and curious of Greece and Rome; and there is no means of calculating the full extent of its operation in opening the minds of the more educated and thoughtful class among the heathen to the perception of some of the great truths which they could learn only from that book, and which it was now becoming important that they should know. It was even a great matter that they should have the means of knowing clearly what the Jews believed, whatever they may themselves have thought of that belief. This version soon came into common use among the Jews themselves everywhere, even in Palestine, the original Hebrew having become a learned language. Indeed, the quotations from the Old Testament made by the evangelists and apostles, and even by Christ himself, are generally, if not always from this version.

In the third year of Antiochus a long and bloody war broke out between him and Ptolemy Philadelphus. The latter king, bending under the weight of years, commanded by his generals, while Antiochus, in the vigor of youth, led his armies in person. Neither monarch appears to have gained any very decided advantages over the other; while we know that much was lost by Antiochus; for while his attention was engaged by wars in the west the eastern provinces of his vast

* We may add in a note that this title (the Benefactor) was conferred on Ptolemy by his Egyptian subjects on his return from his Eastern expedition. He recovered and brought back,

As Philadelphus on his part gave for the dower of his daughter half the revenues of Palestine, Phoenicia and Cole-Syria, the Jews may seem to have come partly under the dominion of Antiochus. But as the king retained the other half in his own hands, and as the revenues of Judæa were always farmed by the high-priest, the circumstance made no change in their condition. Besides, the arrangement was too soon broken up to produce any marked effect. These were the important nuptials between "the king of the north," and the daughter of the king of the south,” which the prophet Daniel had long before predicted (Dan. xi. 6). It was only two years after this (B. C. 247) that Philadelphus died; immediately on which he put away Berenice and restored his beloved Laodicea; but she, fearing his fickleness, poisoned him, and set her son SELEUCUS CALLINICUS ("illustrious conqueror") upon the throne (B. C. 246). On this Berenice sought shelter with her son (the heir by treaty) in the sacred groves of Daphne (near Antioch); but at the instigation of his mother, Callinicus tore her from that sanctuary, and slew her, with her infant son.

Now Berenice was full sister to the new king of Egypt, PTOLEMY III., surnamed EUERGETES, who immediatey placed himwith other booty to an immense amount, 2,500 idolatrous images, chiefly those which Cambyses had taken away from the Egyptians. When he restored the idols to their temples, the Egyptians

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self at the head of his army to avenge her Joseph, the high-priest's nephew, who genwrongs. He was eminently successful. He erously borrowed the money upon his own entered Syria, slew the queen Laodicea, and credit, paid the tribute, and so ingratiated overran the whole empire, as far as the Tigris himself at the Egyptian court that he obon the east and Babylon on the south.* Ontained the lucrative privilege of farming the he marched, from province to province, levy-king's revenues not only in Judæa and Saing heavy contributions, until commotions in maria, but in Phoenicia and Cole-Syria. Egypt obliged him to abandon his enterprise Seleucus Callinicus, in his emergencies, and return home. On his way he called at had promised to his younger brother AntiJerusalem, where he offered many sacrifices, ochus Hierax, who was governor of Asia and made large presents to the temple. Minor, the independent possession of seveThere is little doubt but that the high-priest ral cities in that province, for his assistance took the opportunity of pointing out to him in the war with P. Euergetes. But when those prophecies of Daniel (xi. 6-8) which he had (B. C. 243) obtained a truce of ten had been accomplished in the late events and years from the Egyptian king, he refused his recent achievements; and this may proba- to fulfil this engagement. This led to a bly have been the cause of his presents and bloody war between the two brothers, in offerings. which Seleucus was so generally unsuccessThe high-priest of the Jews was then ful that it would appear as if the title of Onias II. Eleazar, the high-priest at the Callinicus (illustrious conqueror) had been time the Greek translation of the Scriptures bestowed upon him in derision. He was was made, died in B. C. 276, and was suc- however ultimately successful through the ceeded, not by his own son Onias, but by losses and weakness which other enemies Manasses, a son of Jaddua. He died in brought upon Antiochus Hierax ("the B. C. 250, and Onias III. then became Hawk from his rapacity), who was in high-priest. As usual, Onias farmed the the end obliged to take refuge in Egypt, tribute exacted from Judæa by the Egyp- where he was put to death in B. C. 240. tians. But growing covetous as he advanced Toward the end of this war, Mesopotamia in years, he withheld, under one pretence or appears to have been the scene of action; another, the twenty talents which his prede- for in that quarter occurred the battle in cessors had been accustomed to pay every which eight thousand Babylonian Jews year to the king of Egypt as a tribute for (subjects of Seleucus) and four thousand the whole people. This went on for twenty- Macedonians defeated one hundred and four years, and, the arrears then amount-twenty thousand Gauls whom Antiochus had ing to four hundred and eighty talents, the in his pay (Macc. viii. 20). king deemed it full time to take energetic measures to secure the payment of this portion of the royal revenues. He sent an officer named Athenion to demand the payment of what was already due, and to require a more punctual payment in future, with the threat that unless measures of compliance were taken, he would confiscate all the lands of Judæa, and send a colony of soldiers to occupy them. The infatuated priest was disposed to neglect the warning and brave the danger, which filled all the people with consternation. But the evils which might have been apprehended were averted through the policy and address of

manifested their gratitude by saluting with this title. They were less prone than the Greeks of Asia to deify their kings.

* The inscription found at Adule by Cosmas gives a more extensive range to his operations, affirming that after having subdued the west of

S. Callinicus being now relieved from the western war, turned his attention to the recovery of the eastern provinces which had revolted in the time of his father. Renewed troubles in Syria prevented any result from his first attempt in B. C. 236; and in his second, in 230, he was defeated and taken prisoner by the Parthians, whose king, Arsaces, treated the royal captive with the respect becoming his rank, but never set him at liberty. He died in B. C. 226 by a fall from his horse. On this event Seleucus III. inherited the remains of his father's kingdom. This prince was equally weak in body and mind, and therefore most unaptly

Asia, he ultimately crossed the Euphrates, and brought under his dominion, not only Mesopotamia and Babylonia, but Media, Persia, and the whole country as far as Bactria. As this needs more collateral support than it has received, we adopt a more limited statement in the text.

surnamed Keraunus ('thunder'). When a war broke out in B. C. 223, his imbecile conduct so provoked his generals, that he was poisoned by their contrivance.

made wild work in Jewish minds. Nothing manifests this more clearly than the rise of the SADDUCEES, whose system was nothing more than a very awkward attempt to graft the negations of Greek philosophy upon the Hebrew creed. It confirms this view, that the sect of the Sadducees was never popular with the mass of the nation - but was always confined to those whose condition in life brought them the most into contact with the notions of the Greeks the wealthy, noble, and ruling classes. Priests even highpriests-sometimes adopted the views of this sect.

Of these troubles and dissensions in Syria, Ptolemy Euergetes, in Egypt, took due advantage in strengthening and extending his own empire. In B. C. 222, the year after the murder of Seleucus III., his reign was terminated through his murder by his own son Ptolemy, who succeeded him, and who, on account of this horrid deed, was ironically surnamed PHILOPATOR (" father-loving"). P. Euergetes is popularly considered the last good king of Egypt, which is true in the sense that the succeeding Ptolemies governed far worse than the first three of that name all of whom were just and humane men, and whose reigns were glorious and beneficent. If Euergetes was inferior in some respects to Lagus and Philadelphus, he was more than in the same degree superior to his own successors.

AAN

Egyptian standards. (From Champollion.)

The

It has already been stated that the highpriest Simon the Just was counted as the last of "the great synagogue, " who had applied themselves to the great work of collecting, revising, and completing the canon of the Old Testament. To this followed " a new synagogue," which applied itself diigently to the work of expounding and commenting upon the completed canon. This school lasted until the time of Judah Hakkadosh, who to prevent these comments or "traditions" (which were deemed of equal authority with the text) from being lost, after the dispersion, committed them to writing, in the Mishna which, with its comments, has since constituted the great law-book of the Jews, from which, even more than from the Scriptures, they have deduced their religious and civil obligations. founder and first president of this school, or synagogue, was Antigonus Socho, or At this time the Jews had for about sixty Sochæus. He (or, according to some acyears enjoyed almost uninterrupted tran- counts, his successor Joseph) was fond of quillity under the shadow of the Egyptian teaching that God was to be served wholly throne. During this period, circumstances led from disinterested motives, of pure love and them into much intercourse with the Greeks, reverence, founded on the contemplation of who were their masters and the ruling people his infinite perfections, without regard to the in Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor- and, in fact, prospects of future reward, or to the dread in all the country west of the Tigris. A pre- of future punishment. This was either misdominance of Greeks and of Grecian ideas, understood or wilfully perverted by scme of which has dotted the surface of western- his scholars, and in particular by Sadce and most Asia with frequent monuments of Baithos, who declared their disbelief that Grecian art, was not without much effect there was any future state of reward or upon the Jews in this period. Among other punishment. Perhaps they stopped at this; indications, the increasing prevalence, in but the views ultimately embodied in the and after this period, of Greek proper names creed of the sect which took its name from among the Jews, may be taken. There is the first of these persons, inculcated that the ample evidence that the more opulent soul was mortal like the body, and perished classes cultivated the language and imb bed with it, and consequently that there was not, some of the manners of the Greeks. It is nor could be, any resurrection. They also also apparent that some acquaintance with held that there was no spiritual being, good the Greek philosophers was obtained, and or bad. (Matt. xxii. 23; Acts xxiii. 8.)

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