citizens had blocked out his view. The contention was carried to Rome, where Nero's fair mistress, Poppaa, who tempered her vices with Jewish piety, interceded on behalf of the Hebrew deputies and gained her point. Festus died in 62. An interval of disorder ensued in the Holy City. While the newly-appointed governor, Albinus, was on the road to Judæa, the High-priest, Ananus, made short shrift of his religious opponents. In Josephus at this point (" Antiq.," xx., chap. ix., 1) the received text runs as follows: "He assembled the Sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned; but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done; they also sent to the King [Agrippa], desiring him to send to Ananus that he should act so no more, for that what he had already done was not to be justified-nay, some of them went also to meet Albinus, as he was upon his journey from Alexandria, and informed him that it was not lawful for Ananus to assemble a Sanhedrim without his

consent,” etc. Great suspicion hangs about this passage. When, in the third century, Origen goes back to Josephus for a reference to James, we find a singular variation in the terms. Origen observes that Josephus, "although not believing in Jesus as the Christ, in seeking after the cause of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, whereas he ought to have said that the conspiracy against Jesus was the cause of these calamities befalling the people, since they put to death Christ who was a prophet, says nevertheless (being, although against his will, not far from the truth) that these disasters happened to the Jews as a punishment for the death of James the Just, who was a brother of Jesus called Christ; the Jews having put him to death, although he was a man most distinguished for justice.”* But this allusion to the cause of the fall of Jerusalem, while occurring in certain manuscripts of Josephus, is absent from

* "Against Celsus," book i., chap. xlvii.

It is plain that Origen knew nothing of the supposed testimony of Josephus to Jesus as the Christ.

the common text, and was evidently long ago rejected as an interpolation. Since, then, Josephus' mention of James (if he made any mention) has been tampered with, we feel no inducement to rely on the passage above quoted.

Have we, then, any other and more certain sources of information about James? Paul the Apostle knew him, and ranked him with "Cephas and John" as "reputed pillars" of the Christian community in Jerusalem. Paul also recognised in James a supporter of that old-time Judaism against which he himself was so earnest a protestant; and he tells an anecdote of Cephas, who, when at Antioch, showed enough liberality of soul to permit his eating at the same table with Gentiles; but on the arrival upon the scene of some of James's sect Cephas suddenly withdrew from contact with the Gentile converts. In accord with Paul's own notices of James there exists an account in the book of Acts, which represents James and the elders as advising Paul to prove his devotion to the Hebrew Torah by performing a ceremonial rite at the Temple. Whether a man of Paul's temperament would have yielded to such a request we need not here stop to consider. Years afterwards Eusebius, the historian, repeated a second-century tradition concerning James to this effect: "He was a saint from his mother's womb. He drank no wine nor any other fermented drink, nor did he eat of any animal food. His head was never touched by a razor. He neither anointed himself with oil nor bathed. He alone was permitted to enter the sanctuary, for he wore no wool, but a linen garment. He went alone into the Temple, where he knelt continually, beseeching God for the forgiveness of the people, until the skin of his knees grew thick like that of a camel." James would appear to have been a Nazarite and an ascetic.*

While the martyrdom of such men as James made the discreet and tolerant ask anxiously whither the national affairs were tending, a weird and prophetic voice resounded in the streets of the Holy City. Jesus, or Joshua, a half-witted rustic, paced up and down through bazaars and lanes, and in the very courts of the Temple, crying, "A voice from the east! a voice from the west! a voice from the four winds

* Schürer, div. i., vol. ii.; Hausrath's "Time of the Apostles," vol. ii.

against Jerusalem and the holy house! a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people." The melancholy refrain irritated the people. Howled at by the mob and publicly scourged till his back lay raw beneath the rod, Jesus yet continued his wail of "Woe, woe to Jerusalem !"* Meanwhile, the doomed city grew in beauty. The last touch was added to the handsome Temple which Herod the Great had begun to build. Eighteen thousand labourers who were thus thrown out of employment found a patron in King Agrippa II., at whose expense the city was paved with blocks of white marble. By his directions a great pile of Lebanon cedar was imported for the purpose of strengthening the Temple foundations. Destiny, however, reserved the timber for other purposes, it being used before long in the construction of engines of defence in the fatal siege. Jews of the conservative school shook their heads ominously when Agrippa broke with tradition by allowing the inferior Levites to wear the white linen costumes which had hitherto distinguished the priests. †

To Albinus, a governor who freely took bribes and even connived at brigandage, succeeded the last and the worst of the procurators, Gessius Florus (64-66). He insulted, and let others insult, the religious sentiments of the Jews. At Cæsarea a Gentile scornfully took his stand at the entrance to a synagogue, and killed birds over an earthen vessel, in imitation of the Levitical practice in cleansing a leper. A riot ensued; and a number of Jews, who hastened to Florus to remind him of the money they had given him to purchase his protection, were flung into gaol by way of reply. Then he sent armed men to the Temple treasury and plundered it of seventeen talents. Tumult filled the streets. Two men, by way of satire on the procurator's greed, carried baskets round the streets, begging alms for needy Florus. His anger expressed itself in charging troops, in permission to sack houses, and in a ghastly array of crucified citizens. Queen Berenice, at that time performing a vow, rushed barefooted into the presence of Florus and besought him to take pity on the suffering people; but, amid the jeers and threatenings of the soldiers, she was

*

Josephus, "Wars," book vi., 5, 3.

Josephus, "Antiquities," xx., chapter x., 5, 6, 7.

forced to fly to Agrippa's palace for refuge (May, 66). When a multitude of citizens went out along the road to Cæsarea to greet two Roman cohorts, the soldiers made no return to their salutations. Murmurs and taunts arose ; the military retorted by falling upon the people, and Jerusalem weltered in riot and blood. King Agrippa assembled the citizens on the open area of the Xystus, and begged them to show allegiance to Rome, and they yielded until they found that allegiance to Rome meant obedience to the vile Florus. Agrippa's persuasions fell on unheeding ears. Open rebellion ensued. No longer did the smoke of the daily sacrifice in honour of the emperor Nero rise from the Temple precincts. The payment of taxes was refused. A band of Dagger-men broke into, and took possession of, the fortress of Masada, which stood on the desolate rocks to the west of the Dead Sea. The Zealots, led by Eleazar, preached democracy, republic, war. aristocrats pleaded for peace and submission to Rome. Agrippa's palace went down in flames. Leaders of the peace party crept into the very sewers for refuge from the Zealots. The small Roman garrison capitulated, and was cut to pieces. Timid lips whispered of strange signs that warned of coming doom. At the Passover season an altar in the Temple shone with a weird light; and a cow, being led to sacrifice, gave birth to a calf. A massive gate of brass in the sanctuary swung itself open at midnight. In the sunset clouds one evening keen eyes had seen embattled hosts and besieged castles. The ears of priests had caught the sound of unseen beings rustling out of the Holy Place; and voices cried: "Let us go hence !"

The

Cestius Gallus, the governor of Syria, hastened towards Jerusalem. His army set fire to the northern suburb, and then retreated. Jews lay in ambush in a ravine and made a violent onslaught upon the Romans, capturing much war material. Panic and hate spread wide. In Cæsarea a massacre left not a Jew alive. Towns were divided, and Jewish populations fought with Greek. Even to Alexandria the terror extended, and the Hebrew quarter of the great Egyptian port was the scene of a new butchery. A council of war, composed of leading Pharisees, prepared for the defence of the Holy City, and sent commanders to the provinces to raise armies and stay the expected advance of

the Romans towards the capital. Over Galilee was appointed a young man of thirty, quick-witted and resourceful, but unheroic, self-seeking, and time-serving. This was Josephus, son of Matthias, who was afterwards to become famous as a historian.

Josephus, born in 37 or 38 C.E., came of a priestly family. As a lad he studied the Law so closely that, when he was only fourteen, eminent priests and elders resorted to him for the interpretation of obscure questions. He inclined to the school of Hillel rather than to that of Shammai.* Religious impulse drove him to the wilderness near the Dead Sea, where the white-robed Essenes lived their tranquil and ascetic life. He attached himself to the hermit Banus, whose garments were woven from the fibres of bast, and who made his scanty meals from roots and wild herbs. After three years Josephus returned to Jerusalem. The lot of an anchorite demanded too much self-surrender, yet he was sufficiently pious to join the Pharisees, while prudence and worldly wisdom led him to oppose the patriotic enthusiasm of the Zealots. At the age of twentyfour he visited Rome (61), suffering shipwreck on the way. There the urbane and flattering youth drew smiles from Poppaa, the mistress of Nero. She secured the success of his mission by inducing the Emperor to order better treatment for certain imprisoned Rabbis. When the rebellion broke out in Jerusalem his love for his religion and his nation prompted him to take up arms, but it was too feeble to prevent him watching for a decent opportunity to go over to Rome.

In Galilee Josephus found two parties. Hot-spirited young men formed groups round John of Gischala, Jesus of Tiberias, Justus of Tiberius, and others, and ranged the hill country, ever ready to swoop down upon passing troops of Romans. Most of the peasants, devoted to the culture of olives, corn, and cattle, had little heart for a war which destroyed their commerce. Josephus, the Pharisee, and his army of 100,000 unwarlike husbandmen made but a poor resistance to the Gentile legions. Before long John of Gischala and his guerillas detected the lukewarmness of Josephus, and only the loyalty of the simple peasants that

* See "Concise History of Religion," vol. ii., sect. 22.