TORY J M LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, N. J. Sectian .'...L.^. "^ The Star of Bethlehem. THE NATIVITY. THE PRINCE OF GLORY ruvToF P;;, STORY OF THE SAVIOUR^^ A FULL AND CAPTIVATING NARRATIVE OF THE THRILLING SCENES AND EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST FROM BETHLEHEM TO THE CROSS COMPRISING THE BIRTH, INFANCY AND" EARLY LIFE OF JESUS; HIS BAPTISM AND PUBLIC MINISTRY; BEAUTIFUL PARABLES AND DISCOURSES ; JOURNEYS IN GALILEE AND JUDEA ; WONDERFUL MIRACLES; PATHETIC SCENES OF SUFFERING, AND HIS SUBLIME VICTORY OVER DEATH: INCLUDING Fascinating Descriptions of the Mannei^s, Customs and Traditions of the Jews. THE WHOLE FORMING A COMPLETE AND GRAPHIC RECORD OF THE HISTORY AND TEACHINGS OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. By canon FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S., Of Westminster. SUPERBLY EMBELLISHED WITH NEARLY 200 ENGRAVINGS. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: BANKS & CO., No. 103 STATE St. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, by J. R. JONES. In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. PREFACE. N FULFILLING a task so difficult and so important as that of writing the Life of Christ, I feel it to be a duty to state the causes which led me to undertake it, and the principles which have guided me in carrying it to a conclusion. I. It has long been the desire and aim of the publishers of this work to spread as widely as possible the blessings of knowl- edge; and, in special furtherance of this design, they wished to place in the hands of their readers such a sketch of the Life of Ciirist on earth as should enable them to realize it more clearly, and to enter more thoroughly into the details and sequence of the Gospel narratives. They therefore applied originally to an eminent theologian, who accepted the proposal, but whose elevation to the Episcopate prevented him from carrying it out. Under these circumstances application was made to me, and I could not at first but shrink from a labor for which I felt that the amplest leisure of a lifetime would be insufficient, and powers incomparably greater than my own would still be utterly inadequate. But the considerations that were urged upon me came no doubt with additional force from the deep interest with which, from the first, I contemplated the design. I consented to make the effiart, knowing that I could at least promise to do my best, and believing that he who does the best he can, and also seeks the blessing of God upon his labors, cannot finally and wholly fail. And I have reason to be thankful that I originally entered upon the task, and, in spite of all obstacles, have still persevered in it. If the following pages in any measure fulfill the objects with which such a Life ought to be written, they should fill the minds of those who read them with solemn and not ignoble thoughts ; they should " add sunlight to daylight by making the happy happier ; " they should encourage the toiler ; they should console the sorrowful ; they should point the weak to the one true source of moral strength. But whether this book be thus blessed to high ends, or whether it be received with harshness and indif- ference, nothing at least can rob me of the deep and constant happiness which I have felt during almost every hour that has been spent upon it. Though, owing to serious and absorbing duties, months have often passed without my finding an opportunity to write a single line, yet, even in the midst of incessant labor at other things, nothing forbade that the subject on which I was engaged should be often in my thoughts, or that I should find in it a source of peace and happiness ii. PREFACE. different, alike in kind and in degree, from any which other interests could either give or take away. 2. After I had in some small measure prepared myself for the task, I seized, in the year 1870, the earliest possible opportunity to visit Palestine, and especially those parts of it which will be for ever identified with the work of Christ on earth. Amid those scenes wherein He moved — in the " holy fields Over whose acres walked those blessed feet Which, eighteen hundred years ago, were nailed, For our advantage, on the bitter cross" — in the midst of those immemorial customs which recalled at every turn the manner of life He lived — at Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, at Bethlehem, by Jacob's Well, in the Valley of Nazareth, along the bright strand of the Sea of Galilee, and in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon — many things came home to me, for the first time, with a reality and vividness unknown before. I returned more than ever confirmed in the wish to tell the full story of the Gospels in such a manner and with such illustrations as — with the aid of all that was within my reach of that knowledge which has been accumulating for centuries — might serve to enable at least the simple and the unlearned to understand and enter into the human surroundings of the life of the Son of God. 3. But, while I say this to save the book from being judged by a false standard, and with reference to ends which it was never intended to accomplish, it would be mere affectation to deny that I have hoped to furnish much which even learned readers may value. Though the following pages do not pretend to be exhaustive or specially erudite, they yet contain much that men of the highest learning have thought or ascertained. The books which I have consulted include the researches of divines who have had the privilege of devoting to this subject, and often to some small fragment of it, the best years of laborious and uninter- rupted lives. No one, I hope, could have reaped, however feebly, among such harvests, without garnering at least something, which must have its value for the professed theologian as well as for the unlearned. And because I believed — and indeed most earnestly hoped — that this book might be acceptable to many of my brother-clergymen, I have admitted into the notes some quotations and references which will be comparatively valueless to the ordinary reader. But, with this double aim in view, I have tried to avoid " moving as in a strange diagonal," and have ne-ver wholly lost sight of the fact that I had to work with no higher object than that thousands, who have even fewer opportunities than myself, might be the better enabled to read that one book, beside which even the best and profoundest treatises are nothing better than poor and stammering fragments of imperfect commentary. 4. It is perhaps yet more important to add that this Life of Christ is avowedly and unconditionally the work of a believer. Those who expect to find in it new theories about the divine personality of Jesus, or brilliant PREFACE. iii. combinations of mythic cloud tinged by the sunset imagination of some decadent belief, will look in vain. It has not been written with any direct and special reference to the attacks of skeptical criticism. It is not even intended to deal otherwise than indirectly with the serious doubts of those who, almost against their will, think themselves forced to lapse into a state of honest disbelief. I may indeed venture to hope that such readers, if they follow me with no unkindly spirit through these pages, may here and there find considerations of real weight and importance, which will solve imaginary difficulties and supply an answer to real objections. Although this book is not mainly controversial, and would, had it been intended as a contribution to polemical literature, have been written in a very different manner, I do not believe that it will prove wholly valueless to any honest doubter who reads it in a candid and uncon- temptuous spirit. Hundreds of critics, for instance, have impugned the authority of the Gospels on the score of the real or supposed contradictions to be found in them. I am, of course, familiar with such objections, which may be found in all sorts of books, from Strauss's Lebeti Jesu and Renan's Vie de Jesus, down to Sir R. Hanson's Jesus of History, and the English Life of Jesus, by Mr. Thomas Scott. But, while I have .■ever consciously evaded a distinct and for- midable difficulty, I have constantly endeavored to show by the mere silent course of the narrative itself that many of these objections are by no means insuperable, and that many more are unfairly captious or altogether fantastic. 5. If there are questions wider and deeper than the minutiae of criticism, into which I have not fully and directly entered, it is not either from having neglected to weigh the arguments respecting them, or from any unwillingness to state the reasons why, in common with tens of thousands who are abler and wiser than myself, I can still say respecting every fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith, Manet immota fides.' Writing as a believer to be- lievers, as a Christian to Christians, surely, after nearly nineteen centuries of Christianity, any one may be allowed to rest a fact of the Life of Jesus on the testimony of St. John without stopping to write a volume on the authen- ticity of the Fourth Gospel ; or may narrate one of the Gospel miracles with- out deeming it necessary to answer all the arguments which have been urged against the possibility of the supernatural. After the long labors, the powerful reasoning, and the perfect historical candor with which this subject has been treated by a host of apologists, it is surely as needless as it is impossible to lay again, on every possible occasion, the very lowest foundations of our faith. As regards St. John, therefore, I have contented myself with the merest and briefest summary of some of the evidence which to me still seems adequate to prove that he was the author of the Gospel which passes by his name, and minuter indications tending to strengthen that conviction will be found scattered throughout the book. It would indeed be hypocrisy in me to say with Ewald that " eve7y argument, from every quarter to which we can look, I " Faith remains unmoved." ^ ^ -^ ngituie Eft3t fcca w^- nia-Aiieas - -S^ V ^NAPH-pAXJ MO/ i «,, M WBah^iddB^ ,&»„/' i*v«^ kA tJwK. ilmi.iJs., r 4^,'l»^••'^^^^Cy^I>^^>^^\l^\_ itnkeibireh} k.el Keraijbr I W BaTiabo Toll iStluS SakiU ^A Semiuf -//^' y--^-<- m •'SR-^ Sural Kfel r2Hajar_^^ V Suk ' ' -^ ^,rfrfoharf=r--r*Bel!iJrE"^a?*'' Bet hany— ;J^5^ IjiiarSaba' aetfjo^ '(SVKuUt Zerka A NEW MAP OP , PALESTINE \ OK THE HOLY LAND Scatuu Miles I i Uruhr TurkUh ruU, I^xUitirt u compritd tn (A« Two grtat (htrtmtntnt* ofDamafua. Eattofth* Jordan and L^nttum. and Beirut t>r aidon on th4 ffeH: which art again divUvi ifUo PaaHalic*. MODERN JEHUSAl-EM. l.-THJB CHBI8X1AA aCABTIft. 1 Oollatb'i Castle. 5 IaUd ConTeDt. 8 Chnrcb of Holy Sepulchre. 4 Greek CocTent 6 Coptic Oonvent. 6 Rains of St. John's HoBpital. 7 Greek Church. St. John's. 8 Besidence of the Christian Bishop. 9 Church of the Greek Schismatics. 10 Tower of Hippicus David's Tower. U Supposed Site of the Tover ..f Phaaaeli* r.3 The PruuUn ConBulai«> tl.-THE ASMEMAN UdARTEB. The onljj huildinp in Jerusalem tdUflA presents any appearance q/ con^foH, 16 Knnnery of St. George. 17 BarrackB. III.-THE JEWS QUARTEB. T/ie most wrc'ched in the city. \% SynacoEUf^ of th^ SbepartUm THE PRINCE OF GLORY; STORY OF THE SAVIOUR. CHAPTER I. THE NATIVITY. " He was made human that we might be made divine." — Athanasiits. f _ NE mile from Bethlehem is a little plain, in \/hioh, under a grove of olives, stands the bare and neglected chapel known by the name of "the Angel to the Shepherds."' It is built over the traditional site of the fields where, in the beau- tiful language of St. Luke — more exquisite than any idyll to Christian ears — "there were shep- herds keeping watch over their flock by night, when, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord° shone round about them," and to their happy ears were uttered the good tidings of great joy, that unto them was born that day in the city of David a Saviour, which was Christ the Lord. The associations of our Lord's nativity were all of the humblest character, and the very scenery of His birthplace was connected with memories of poverty and toil. On that night, indeed, it seemed as 1 "Angels and Shepherds." Near this spot once stood a tower called Migdal Eder, or "Tower of the Flock" (Gen. xxxv. 21). The present rude chapel is, perhaps, * mere fragment of a church built over the spot by Helena. The prophet Micah (iv. 8; v. 2) had looked to Migdal Eder with Mes- sianic hopes; and St. Jerome., writing with views of prophecy which were more current in the ancient than in the modern Church, ventures to say " that by its very name it fore-signified by a sor: of prophecy the shepherds at the birth of the Lord." 2 By "glory of the Lord" (Luke ii. 9) is probably meant the Shechinah or cloud of brightness which symbolized the Divine presence. 34 THE PRINCE OF GLORY. though the heavens must burst to disclose their radiant minstrelsies ; and the stars, and the feeding sheep, and the " light and sound in the dark- ness and stillness," and the rapture of faithful hearts, combine to furnish us with a picture painted in the colors of heaven. But in the brief and thrilling verses of the Evangelist we are not told that those angel songs were heard by any except the wakeful shepherds of an obscure village ; — and those shepherds, amid the chill dews of a winter night, were guarding their flocks from the wolf and the robber, in fields where Ruth, their Saviour's ancestress, had gleaned, sick at heart, amid the alien corn, and David, the despised and youngest son of a numerous family, had followed the ewes great with young." " And suddenly," adds the sole Evangelist who has narrated the circumstances of that memorable night in which Jesus was born, amid the indifference of a world unconscious of its Deliverer, " there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of good will." It might have been expected that Christian piety would have marked the spot by splendid memorials, and enshrined the rude grotto of the shepherds in the marbles and mosaics of some stately church. But, in- stead of this, the Chapel of the Herald Angel is a mere rude crypt ; and as the traveler descends down the broken steps, which lead from the olive-grove into its dim recess, he can hardly persuade himself that he is in a consecrated place. Yet a half-unconscious sense of fitness has, perhaps, contributed to this apparent neglect. The poverty of the chapel harmonizes well with the humble toil of those whose radiant vision it is intended to commemorate. " Come now ! let us go into Bethlehem, = and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord made known to us," said the shepherds, when those angel songs had ceased to break the starry silence. Their way would lead them up the terraced hill, and through the moonlit gar- dens of Bethlehem, until they reached the summit of the gray ridge on which the little town is built. On that summit stood the village inn. The khan (or caravansary) of a Syrian village, at that day, was probably identical, in its appearance and accommodation, with those which still exist in modern Palestine. A khan is a low structure, built of rough 1 Ps. Ixxviii. 71. 2 Luke ii. 15. I must remark at the outset that in most of my quotations from the Gospels I do not slavishly follow the English Version, but translate from the original Greek. THE NATIVITY. 35 Stones, and generally only a single story in height. It consists for the most part of a square inclosure, in which the cattle can be tied up in safety for the night, and an arched recess for the accommodation of trav- elers. The leewan, or paved floor of the recess, is raised a foot or two above the level of the court-yard. A large khan — such, for instance, as that of which the ruins may still be seen at Khan Minyeh, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee — might contain a series of such recesses, which are, in fact, low small rooms with no front wall to them. They are, of course, perfectly public ; everything that takes place in them is visible to every person in the khan. They are also totally devoid of even the most or- dinary furniture. The traveler may bring his own carpet if he likes, may sit cross-legged upon it for his meals, and may lie upon it at night.' As a rule, too, he must bring his own food, attend to his own cattle, and draw his own water from the neighboring spring. He would neither ex- pect nor require attendance, and would pay only the merest trifle for the advantage of shelter, safety, and a floor on which to lie. But if he chanced to arrive late, and the leewans were all occupied by earlier guests, he would have no choice but to be content with such accommo- dation as he could find in the court-yard below, and secure for himself and his family such small amount of cleanliness and decency as are compatible with an unoccupied corner on the filthy area, which must be shared with horses, mules, and camels. The litter, the closeness, the unpleasant smell of the crowded animals, the unwelcome intrusion of the pariah dogs, the necessary society of the very lowest hangers-on of the caravansary, are adjuncts to such a position which can only be realized by any traveler in the East who happens to have been placed in simi- lar circumstances. In Palestine it not unfrequently happens that the entire khan, or at any rate the portion of it in which the animals are housed, is one of those innumerable caves which abound in the limestone rocks of its central hills. Such seems to have been the case at the little town of Bethlehem-Ephratah, in the land of Judah. Justin Martyr the Apolo- gist, who, from his birth at Shechem, was familiar with Palestine, and who lived less than a century after the time of our Lord," places the 1 "It is common to find two sides of the one room where the native farmer resides with his cattle, and the remainder elevated about two feet higher for the accommodation of the family " (Thomson, LoTtd and Book, II., ch. xx.xiii.). 2 Justin Martyr was born at Flavia Neapolis, A.D. 103, and died A.D. 166. The date of his First Apology was about A.D. 138. 36 THE PRINCE OF GLORY. scene of the nativity in a cave. This is, indeed, the ancient and con- stant tradition both of the Eastern and the Western Churches, and it is one of the few to which, though unrecorded in the Gospel history, we may attach a reasonable probability. Over this cave has risen the Church and Convent of the Nativity, and it was in a cave close beside it that one of the most learned, eloquent, and holy of the Fathers of the Church — that great St. Jerome, to whom we owe the received Latin translation of the Bible — spent thirty of his declining years in study, and fast, and prayer." From their northern home at Nazareth, in the mountains of Za- bulon, Joseph, the village carpenter, had made his way along the wintry roads with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.^ Fallen as were their fortunes, they were both of the house and lineage of David, and they were traversing a journey of eighty miles to the village which had been the home of their great ancestor while he was still a ruddy shepherd lad, tending his flock upon the lonely hills. The object of that toilsome journey, which could not but be disagreeable to the settled habits of Oriental life, was to enroll their names as members of the house of David in a census which had been ordered by the Em- peror Augustus. In the political condition of the Roman Empire, of which Judea then formed a part, a single whisper of the Emperor was sufificiently powerful to secure the execution of his mandates in the re- motest corners of the civilized world. Great as are the historic difficul- ties in which this census is involved, there seem to be good independent grounds for believing that it may have been originally ordered by Sentius Saturninus,^ that it was bcgim by Publius Sulpicius 1 He settled in Bethlehem .K.V). 3S6, and died A.D. 420. His allusions to the sacredness of the spot are very touching, and the most splendid offers of preferment were insufficient to tempt him away from that holy ground. 2 It appears to be uncertain whether the journey of Mary with her husband was obligatory or voluntary. But, apart from any legal necessity, it may easily be imagined that at such a moment Mary would desire not to be left alone. The cruel suspicion of which she had been the subject, and which had almost led to the breaking off of her betrothal (Matt. i. 19), would make her cling all the more to the protection of her husband. 3 It has been held impossible that there should have been a census in the kingdom of an independ- ent prince ; yet the case of the Clitae seems to be closely parallel. That the enrollment should be conducted m the Jewish fashion at the place of family origin, and not in the Roman fashion at the place of resi- dence, may have been a very natural concession to the necessities of Herod's position. It may be per- fectly true that this plan would give more trouble ; but, in spite of this, it was far less likely to cause offense. Yet although the whole proceeding was probably due to a mere desire on the part of Augustus «o make a breziarium imperii, or Domesday Book, which should include the regna as well as the provinces. It is very doubtful whether it actually did not cause disturbances at this very time (Jos. Antt. xvii. 2, § 2), as «e know that it did ten years later. How deeply the disgrace of a heathen census was felt is shown by THE NATIVITY. 37 Quirinus," when he was for the first time legate of Syria, and that it was completed during his second term of office. In deference to Jewish prejudices, any infringement of which was the certain signal for violent tumults and insurrection, it was not carried out in the ordinary Roman manner, at each person's place of residence, but according to Jewish custom, at the town to which their family originally belonged. The Jews still clung to their genealogies and to the memory of long-extinct tribal relations; and though the journey was a weary and distasteful one, the mind of Joseph may well have been consoled by the remembrance of that heroic descent which would now be authoritatively recognized, and by the glow of those Messianic hopes to which the marvelous circumstances of which he was almost the sole depositary would give a tenfold intensity.^ Traveling in the East is a very slow and leisurely affair, and was the Targum of Jonathan, Hab. iii. 17, where for " The flock shall be cut off from the folds, and there shall be no herd in the stalls," he has, "The Romans shall be rooted out ; they shall collect no more tribute from Jerusalem." 1 Cyrenius was a man of low extraction, at once ambitious and avaricious, but faithful to Augustus. No less than three censuses of Roman citizens are mentioned in the Monumentum Ancyranum ; and Strabo (under Tiberius) speaks of them as common. Zumpt has, with incredible industry and research, all but established in this matter the accuracy of St. Luke, by proving the extreme probabilily that Quirinus was twici governor of Syria— viz., 750 — 753 A.U.C., and again 760 — 765. It was during the former period that he completed the first census which had been commenced by Varus. The argument mainly turns on the fact that in A.U.C. 742, Quirinus was consul and afterwards (not before A.U.C. 747) proconsul of Africa ; yet some time between this year and A.U.C. 753 (in which year he was appointed rector to C. Caesar, the grandson of Augustus) he conquered the Homonadenses in Cilicia. He must therefore have been at this time proprietor of the imperial province of Syria, to which Cilicia belonged. The other provinces near Cilicia (Asia, Bithynia, Pontus, Galatia) were senatorial, i.e., proconsular, and as a man could not be proconsul tvi\ce , Quirinus could not have been governor in any of these. It is not possible here to give the ingenious and elaborate arguments by which Zumpt shows that the Homonadenses must at this time have been under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Syria. Further than this, we know that P. Q. Varus was propraetor of Syria between B.C. 6 and B.C. 4 (A.U.C. 748 — 750), and it is extremely likely that Varus may have been displaced in favor of Quirinus in the latter year, because the close friendship of the former with Archelaus, who resembled him in character, might have done mischief. It may therefore be regarded as all but certain, on independent grounds, that Quirinus was propraetor of Syria between B.C. 4 and B.C. I. And if such was the case, instead of having been guilty of a flagrant historical error by ante- dating, by ten years, the propraetorship of Quirinus in Syria, St. Luke has preserved for us the historical fact of his having been twice propraetor, a fact which we should have been unable to learn from Josephus or Dio Cassius, whose histories are here imperfect. For the full arguments on this point the reader must, however, consult the exhaustive treatise of A. W. Zumpt. The appeals of Tertullian to census-records of Saturninus, and of Justin Martyr to the tables of Quirinus, as proving the genealogy of our Lord, are (so far as we can attach any importance to them) an additional confirmation of these conclusions, which are not overthrown by Mommsen and Strauss. Quirinus, not Quirinius, is probably the true form of the name (Orelli ad Tac. Ann. ii. 30). For further discussion of the question see Wieseler, Synops. 0/ the Four Gospels, E. Tr. , pp. 65 — 106. I may, however, observe in passing that, although no error has been proved, and, on the contrary, there is much reason to believe that the reference is perfectly accurate, yet I hold no theory of inspiration which would prevent me from frankly admitting, in such matters as these, any mis- take or inaccuracy which could be shown really to exist. 2 That Joseph alone knew these facts appears from Matt. i. 19, where the best reading seems to be not "make her an example," but, as Eusebius pointsout, " reveal her condition to the world." There is nothing 38 THE PRINCE OF GLORY. likely to be still more so if, as is probable, the country was at that time agitated by political animosities. Beeroth, which is fifteen miles distant from Bethlehem," or possibly even Jerusalem, which is only six miles off, may have been the resting-place of Mary and Joseph before this last stage of their journey. But the heavy languor, or even the commencing pangs of travail, must necessarily have retarded the progress of the maiden-mother. Others who were traveling on the same errand, would easily have passed them on the road, and when, after toiling up the steep hill-side, the David's well, they arrived at the khan — probably the one which had been known for centuries as the House of Chimham,' and if so, covering perhaps the very ground on which, one thousand years before, had stood the hereditary house of Boaz, of Jesse, and of David — every leeivan was occupied. The enrollment had drawn so many strangers to the little town, "that there was no room for them in the inn." In the rude limestone grotto attached to it as a stable, among the hay and straw spread for the focfd and rest of the cattle, weary with surprising in the fact that the descendant of a royal house should be in a lowly position. Hillel, the great Rabbi, though he, too, was a descendant of David, spent a great part of his life in the deepest poverty as a common workman. The green turban, which marks a descendant of Mahomet, may often be seen in Egypt and Arabia on the head of paupers and beggars. Similar facts exist quite commonly among our- selves; and, ages before this time, we find that the a.rll ill. ^^,.0-- HE brief narrative of the Visit of the Magi, re- corded in the second chapter of St. Matthew, is of the deepest interest in the history of , 1 Christianity. It is, in the first place, the Epiph- any, or Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. It brings the facts of the Gospel history into close connection with Jewish belief, with ancient prophecy, with secular history, and with modern science ; and in doing so it furnishes us with new confirmations of our faith, derived incident- ally, and therefore in the most unsuspicious manner, from indisputable and unexpected quarters. Herod the Great, who, after a life of splendid mis- ery and criminal success, had now sunk into the jealous decrepitude of his savage old age, was residing in his new palace on Zion, when, half maddened as he was already by the crimes of his past career, he was thrown into a fresh paroxysm of alarm and anxiety by the visit of some Eastern Magi, bearing the strange intel- ligence that they had seen in the East the star of a new-born king of the Jews, and had come to worship him. Herod, a mere Idumsean usurper, a more than suspected apostate, the detested tyrant over an unwilling people, the sacreligious plunderer of the tomb of David' — Herod, a de- I On seizing the throne, with the support of the Romans, and specially of Antony, more than thirty years before (A. U.C. 717), Herod (whose mother. Cypres, was an Arabian, and his father, Antipater, an Idumsan) had been distinctly informed by the Sanhedrin that, in obedience to Deut. xvii. 15, they could not accept a stranger for their king. This faithfulness caused a great many of them their lives. The political and personal relations of Herod were evidently well adapted for the furtherance of a new religion. The rulers of the Jews, since the Captivity, had been Persian between B.C. 536 — 332 ; Egypto-Greek and Syro- Greek between B.C. 332 — 142 ; Asmonjean and independent between B.C. 142 — 63 ; and under Roman influences since the conquest of Jerusalem by Pompey, B.C. 63. Under Herod (from B.C. 37 to the birth of Christ) the government might fairly be called cosmopolitan. In him the East and the West were united. By birth an Edomite on the father's S' ', a' 4 ar Is"" maelite on the mother's, he represented a third great 48 THE PRINCE OF GLORY. scendant of the despised Ishmael and the hated Esau, heard the tidings with a terror and indignation which it was hard to dissimulate. The grandson of one who, as was beHeved, had been a mere servitor in a temple at Ascalon, and who in his youth had been carried off by Edo- mite brigands, he well knew how worthless were his pretensions to an historic throne which he held solely by successful adventure. But his craft equaled his cruelty, and finding that all Jerusalem shared his sus- pense, he summoned to his palace the leading priests and theologians of the Jews — perhaps the relics of that Sanhedrin which he had long reduced to a despicable shadow — to inquire of them where the Messiah' was to be born. He received the ready and confident answer that Bethlehem was the town indicated for that honor by the prophecy of Micah.'' Con- cealing, therefore, his desperate intention, he dispatched the wise men to Bethlehem, bidding them to let him know as soon as they had found the child, that he too might come and do him reverence. Before continuing the narrative, let us pause to inquire who these Eastern wanderers were, and what can be discovered respecting their mysterious mission. The name " Magi," b)- which they are called in the Greek of St. Matthew, is perfectly vague. It meant originally a sect of Median and Persian scholars ; it was subsequently applied (as in Acts xiii. 6) to pre- tended astrologers or Oriental soothsayers. Such characters were well known to antiquity, under the name of Chaldeans, and their visits were by no means unfamiliar even to the Western nations. Diogenes Laertius reports to us a story of Aristotle, that a Syrian mage had predicted to Socrates that he would die a violent death ; and Seneca informs us that magi had visited the tomb of Plato, and had there offered incense to him as a divine being. There is nothing but a mass of confused and contradictory traditions to throw any light either on their rank, their division of the Semitic race by his nominal adoption of the Jewish religion. Yet his life was entirely molded by conceptions borrowed from the two great Aryan races of the ancient world ; his conceptions of policy and government wore entirely Roman ; his ideal of life and enjoyment entirely Greek. And, in addition to this, he was surrounded by a body-guard of barbarian mercenaries. At no previous or sub- sequent period could a world-religion have been more easily preached than it was among the heterogene- ous elements which were brought together by his singular tyranny. His astuteness, however, had early taught him that his one best security was to truckle to the all-powerful Romans. 1 Not as in the English version, " where C/ir;>/ should be born " ; for it is " the Anointed." "Christ" in the Gospels, even when without the article in Greek, which is only in four passages, is almost without exception (John xvii. 3) an appellative and not a proper name. 2 Micah v. 2 ; of. John vii. 42. The latter passage shows how familiarly this prophecy was known to the people. The Jewish authorities quote the text loosely, but give the sense. THE ANNUNCIATION. Lukc i. 28. THE VISIT OF THE MAGI. 49 country, their number, or their names. The tradition which makes them kings was probably founded on the prophecy of Isaiah (Ix. 3): '•And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." The fancy that they were Arabians may have arisen from the fact that myrrh and frankincense are Arabian products, joined to the passage in Ps. Ixxii. 10, "The kings of Tharshish and of the isles shall give presents ; the kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts." There was a double tradition as to their number. Augustine and Chrysostom say that there were twelve, but the common belief, arising perhaps from the triple gifts, is that they were three in number. The Venerable Bede even gives us their names, their country, and their per- sonal appearance. Melchior was an old man with white hair and long beard ; Caspar, a ruddy and beardless youth ; Balthasar, swarthy and in the prime of life. We are further informed by tradition that Melchior was a descendant of Shem, Caspar of Ham, and Balthasar of Japheth. Thus they are made representatives of the three periods of life, and the three divisions of the globe ; and valueless as such fictions may be for direct historical purposes, they have been rendered interesting by their influence on the most splendid productions of religious art." The skulls of these three kings, each circled with its crown of jeweled gold, are still exhibited among the relics in the cathedral at Cologne." It is, however, more immediately to our purpose to ascertain the causes of their memorable journey. We are informed by Tacitus, by Suetonius, and by Josephus, that there prevailed throughout the entire East at this time an intense con- viction, derived from ancient prophecies, that ere long a powerful monarch would arise in Judea, and gain dominion over the world. It has, indeed, been conjectured that the Roman historians may simply be echoing an assertion, for which Josephus was in reality their sole authority ; but even if we accept this uncertain supposition, there is still ample proof, both in Jewish and in Pagan writings, that a guilty and weary world was dimly expecting the advent of its Deliverer. " The dew of blessing falls not on us, and our fruits have no taste," exclaimed Rabban Simeon, the son of Gamaliel ; and the expression might sum up much of the litera- ture of an age which was, as Niebuhr says, " effete with the drunken- ness of crime." The splendid vaticination in the fourth Eclogue of Virgil I The art-student will at once recall the glorious pictures of Paul Veronese, Giovanni Bellini, &c. A 2 They were said to have been found by Bishop Reinald in the twelfth century. 50 THE PRINCE OF GLORY. proves the intensity of the feeling, and has long been reckoned among the "unconscious prophecies of heathendom." There is, therefore, nothing extraordinary in the fact that these Eastern Magi should have bent their steps to Jerusalem, especially if there were any circumstances to awaken in the East a more immediate conviction that this widespread expectation was on the point of fulfill- ment. If they were disciples of Zoroaster, they would see in the Infant King the future conqueror of Ahriman, the destined Lord of all the World. The story of their journey has indeed been set down with con- temptuous confidence as a mere poetic myth ; but though its actual his- toric verity must rest on the testimony of the Evangelist alone, there are many facts which enable us to see that in its main outlines it involves nothing either impossible or even improbable. Now St. Matthew tells us that the cause of their expectant attitude was that they had seen the star of the Messiah in the East, and that to discover Him was the motive of their journey. That any strange sidereal phenomenon should be interpreted as the signal of a coming king, was in strict accordance with the belief of their age. Such a notion may well have arisen from the prophecy of Balaam," the Gentile sorcerer — a prophecy which from the power of its rhythm, and the splendor of its imagery, could hardly fail to be disseminated in eastern countries. Nearly a century afterwards, the false Messiah, in the reign of Hadrian, received from the celebrated Rabbi Akiba, the surname of Bar-Cocheba, or " Son of a Star," and caused a star to be stamped upon the coinage which he issued. Six centuries afterwards, Mahomet is said to have pointed to a comet as a portent illustrative of his pre- tensions. Even the Greeks and Romans'" had always considered that the births and deaths of great men were symbolized by the appearance and disappearance of heavenly bodies, and the same belief has continued down to comparatively modern times. The evanescent star which I That the Jews and their Rabbis had borrowed many astrological notions from the Chaldeans, and that they connected these notions with the advent of the Messiah, is certain. Comp. Jos. Antt. ii. 9, § 2, ana i. 7, § 2, where Josephus quotes Berosus as having said that Abram was "skillful in the celestial science." 1 Every one will remember the allusions in Shakespeare — " The Heavens themselves blaze at the death of princes." — Henry IV. and " Comets portending change of time and state, Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky, And with them scourge the bad revolting stars That have consented to our Henry's death." — 1 Henry VI., \. I, THE VISIT OF THE MAGI. 51 appeared in the time of Tycho Brahe, and was noticed by him on November ii, 1572, was believed to indicate the brief but dazzling career of some warrior from the north, and was subsequently regarded as having been prophetic of the fortunes of Gustavus Adolphus. Now it so happens that, although the exact year in which Christ was born is not ascertainable with any certainty from Scripture, yet, within a few years of what must, on any calculation, have been the period of His birth, there un- doubtedly did appear a phenomenon in the heavens so remarkable that it could not possibly have escaped the observation of an astrological people. The immediate applicability of this phenomenon to the Gospel narrative is now generally abandoned ; but, whatever other theory may be held about it, it is unquestionably important and interesting as having fur- nished one of the data which first led to the discovery, that the birth of Christ took place three or four years before our received era.' This appearance, and the circumstances which have been brought into con- nection with it, we will proceed to notice. They form a curious episode in the history of exegesis, and are otherwise remarkable ; but we must fully warn the reader that the evidence by which this astronomical fact has been brought into immediate connection with St. Matthew's narrative is purely conjectural, and must be received, if received at all, with con- siderable caution. On December 17, 1603, there occurred a conjunction of the two largest superior planets, Saturn and Jupiter, in the zodiacal sign of the Fishes, in the watery trigon.' In the following spring they were joined in the fiery trigon by Mars, and in September, 1604, there appeared in the foot of Ophiuchus, and between Mars and Saturn, a new star of the first magnitude, which, after shining for a whole year, gradually waned in March, 1606, and finally disappeared.^ Brunowski, the pupil of Kepler, who first noticed it, describes it as sparkling with an interchange of colors like a diamond, and as not being in any way nebulous, or offer- 1 This is the date adopted by Ideler, Sanclement, Wieseler. Herod the Great died in the first week of Nisan, A.U.C. 750, as we can prove, partly from the fact that shortly before his death there was an eclipse of the moon (Jos. Antt. xvii. 6, § 4). Ideler and Wurra have shown that the only eclipse visible at Jerusalem in the year 750 A.U.C, B.C. 4, must have taken place in the night between the 12th and 13th of March. Our era was invented by Dionysius Exiguus, an abbot at Rome, who died in 556. 2 Astrologers divided the Zodiac into four trigons — that of fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius); that of earth (Taurus, Virgo, Capricornus); that of air (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius); and that of water (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces). 3 The star observed by Tycho lasted from November, 1572, till about April, 1574. Such temporary stars are perhaps due to immense combustions of hydrogen. 5^ THE PRINCE OF GLORY. iiigf any analogy to a comet.' These remarkable phenomena attracted the attention of the great Kepler, who, from his acquaintance with astrology, knew the immense importance which such a conjunction would have had in the eyes of the Magi, and wished to discover whether any such conjunction had taken place about the period of our Lord's birth. Now there is a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the same trigon about every twenty years, but in every 200 years they pass into another trigon, and are not conjoined in the same trigon again (after passing through the entire Zodiac), till after a lapse of 794 years, four months, and 1 2 days. By calculating backwards, Kepler discovered that the same conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, in Pisces, had happened no less than three times in the year A. U.C. 747, and that the planet Mars had joined them in the spring of 748 ; and the general fact that there was such a combination at this period has been verified by a number of independent investigators,'' and does not seem to admit of denial And however we may apply the fact, it is certainly an interesting one. For such a con- junction would at once have been interpreted by the Chaldean observers as indicating the approach of some memorable event; and since it occurred in the constellation of Pisces, which was supposed by astrolo- gers to be immediately connected with the fortunes of Judea,^ it would naturally turn their thoughts in that direction. The form of their inter- pretation would be molded, both by the astrological opinions of the Jews — which distinctly point to this very conjunction as an indication of the Messiah — and by the expectation of a Deliverer which was so widely spread at the period in which they lived. The appearance and disappearance of new stars is a phenomenon by no means so rare as to admit of any possible doubt. The fact that St. Matthew speaks of such a star within two or three years, at the utmost, of a time when we know that there was this remarkable planetary conjunc- tion, and the fact that there was such a star nearly 1,600 years afterwards, 1 There may. therefore, be no exaggeration in the language of Ignatius when he says, "The star sparkled brilliantly above all stars." 2 He supposed that the otherconjunctions would coincide with seven great climacteric years or epochs: Adam, Enoch, the Deluge, Moses, Isaiah (about the commencement of the Greek, Roman, and Babylonian eras), Christ, Charlemagne, and the Reformation. 3 Kepler's first tract on this subject was published at Prague, 1606. Professor Pritchard carefully went tflrough Kepler's calculations, and confirms the fact of the conjunction, though he slightly modifies the dates, and, like most recent inquirers, denies that the phenomenon has any bearing on the Gospel narrative. That such astronomical facts are insufficient to explain the language of St. Matthew, if taken with minute and literal accuracy, is obvious; but that they have no bearing oiiiht circumstances as they were reported to the Evangelist, perhaps half a century later, is more than can be safely affirmed. THE VISIT OF THE MAGI. 53 at the time of a similar conjunction, can only be regarded as a curious coincidence. We should, indeed, have a strong and strange confirmation of one main fact in St. Matthew's narrative, if any reliance could be placed on the assertion that, in the astronomical tables of the Chinese, a record has been preserved that a new star did appear in the heavens at this very epoch." But it would be obviously idle to build on a datum which is so incapable of verification and so enveloped with uncertainty. We are, in fact, driven to the conclusion that the astronomical researches which have proved the reality of this remarkable planetary conjunction are only valuable as showing the possibility that it may have prepared the Magi for the early occurrence of some great event. And this confident expectation may have led to their journey to Palestine, on the subsequent appearance of an evanescent star, an appearance by no means unparalleled in the records of astronomy, but which in this instance" seems to rest on the authority of the Evangelist alone. No one, at any rate, need stumble over the supposition that an apparent sanction is thus extended to the combinations of astrology. Apart from astrology altogether, it is conceded by many wise and candid observers, even by the great Niebuhr, the -last man in the world to be carried away by credulity or superstition, that great catastrophes and unusual phenomena in nature have, as a matter of fact— however we may choose to interpret such a fact — synchronized in a remarkable manner with great events in human history. It would not, therefore, imply any prodigious folly on the part of the Magi to regard the planetary con- junction as something providentially significant. And if astrology be ever so absurd, yet there is nothing absurd in the supposition that the Magi should be led to truth, even through the gateways of delusion, if the spirit of sincerity and truth was in them. The history of science will furnish repeated instances, not only of the enormous discoveries accorded to apparent accident, but even of the immense results achieved 1 This is mentioned by Wieseler, p. 61. We cannot, however, press the Evangelist's use of "a star," rather than "a constellation; " the two words are loosely used, and often almost indiscriminately inter- changed. Further than this it must be steadily borne in mind that the curious fact of the planetary conjunc- tion, even if it were accompanied by an evanescent star, would not exactly coincide with, though it might to some extent account for, the language used by St. Matthew. 2 It is remarkable that the celebrated Abarbanel (d. 1508), in his commentary on Daniel, distinctly says that the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn always indicates great events. He then gives five mystic reasons why Pisces should be the constellation of the Israelites, and says that there had been a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces three years before the birth of Moses. From a similar conjunction in his own days (1463), he expected the speedy birth of the Messiah. What makes this statement more remarkable is, that Abarbanel must have been wholly ignorant of the conjunction in A.U.C. 747. 54 THE PRINCE OF GLORY. in the investigation of innocent and honest error. Saul who, in seeking asses, found a kingdom, is but a type of many another seeker in many another age.^' The Magi came to Bethlehem, and offered to the young child in His rude and humble resting-place^ a reverence which we do not hear that they had paid to the usurping Edomite in his glittering palace. "And when they had opened their treasures they presented urfto Him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh." The imagination of early Christians has seen in each gift a special significance : myrrh for the human nature, gold to the king, frankincense to the divinity ; or, the gold for the race of Shem, the myrrh for the race of Ham, the incense for the race of Japhet ; — innocent fancies, only worthy of mention because of their legendary interest, and their bearing on the conceptions of Christian poetry and Christian art. 1 "Superstition," says Neander, "often paves the way for faith." "How often," says Hamann, "has God condescended not merely to the feelings and thoughts of men, but even to their failings and their prejudices." 2 Matt. ii. II seems to show, what would of course be probable, that the stall or manger formed but a brief resting-place. It is needless to call attention to the obvious fact that St. Matthew does not mention the birth in the inn, or the previous journey from Nazareth. It is not ntcessary to assume that he was ■wholly unaware of these circumstances, though I see no difficulty in the admission that such may have been the case. CHAPTER IV. FLIGHT INTO EGYPT MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS. " Say, who are these, on golden wings. That hover round the new-born King of kings ? ' -Keble, Christian Vear. i