A Concise History of Religion. VOLUME III. 1. Apion. While, in the first century of the Christian era, many serious-minded Gentiles conformed with the law and doctrine of the Jewish religion, a growing bitterness manifested itself among the populace at large towards the Hebrew race and faith. This bitterness and contempt found mouthpieces in such men as Apion the Grammarian. Born in Libya, he became a notorious citizen of Alexandria, and the darling of the anti-Semitic mob. He lectured and wrote on multitudinous subjects-on Homer, the use of metals in medicine, the dialect of Rome, the Pyramids, the length of the intestine of the ibis, fishes which grunt at the sound of singing, the Jews, etc. Ribald wit, diffuse gossip, careless slander intermingled in his pamphlets and orations. "Every year," he declared to the gaping crowd at Alexandria, “the Jews kidnap a Greek, and fatten him for a year; then they take him into a wood hard by, kill him, and offer up his body with their accustomed rites, taste his vitals, and, at the sacrifice of the Greek, take an oath to hate all Greeks. Then the rest of the unfortunate man's body is thrown into a pit." He gave absurd explanations of Jewish traditions and customs-the Hebrews in the Wilderness marched six days, and then, being prostrate with a skin-disease called "sabbathosis," rested perforce on the Sabbath day; and the Jews used to secrete a golden ass's head in their Temple as an object of worship. Apion lectured in Greece, and also in Rome, where he settled in the days of Claudius (c.E. 41-54). Cool-headed people had but a poor opinion of him, and nicknamed him the "Meddlesome," the "Cymbal," and the "Kettle-drum." It was Apion who, when the grave and reverend Philo pleaded before the emperor Caligula for mercy towards the Alexandrian Hebrews, headed a counterdeputation of anti-Semites. So great a vogue did the noisy grammarian's gibes obtain that, years afterwards, Josephus felt obliged to take him seriously, and devote a brief treatise to the refutation of his sneers.* 2. From the Accession of Nero, C.E. 54, to the Fall of Jerusalem, C.E. 70.-Clouds of misfortune thickened over Judæa during the procuratorship of Felix (52-60). Riot in the towns, the plundering of villages, the wild patriotism of the Zealots, the sudden deaths of prominent citizens at the hands of the secret society of Sicarii, or dagger-men, the uprising of peasants at the call of an Egyptian Jew, frequent crucifixions of rebels-these incidents pointed to a yet darker future. To add to the distress, the priests waged feuds among themselves. High-priests claimed the tithes which custom had long given to the common priests; and they even sent menials to the threshing-floors to seize in advance the dues of corn, so that many of the poorer priests died of want. Felix was ruler of Judæa when young Nero was greeted by the Roman soldiery as the new emperor in 54. At this time Agrippa II. governed Trachonitis and adjacent north-eastern provinces, his sway afterwards including Galilee and Peræa. Rumour ran that with the wanton Berenice, his sister, his relations were those of a husband. Agrippa had another sister, Drusilla. She broke away from her husband soon after marriage in order to wed the procurator, Felix, though he was a Roman and she a Jewess. In 60 Nero recalled Felix from office, replacing him by Porcius Festus. Affairs in Judæa took no happier turn. A quarrel in the town of Cæsarea between the rival factions of Jews and Greeks was decided by the emperor in favour of the Greeks. A new leader of the people gave out that all who gathered round him would secure deliverance and freedom. Festus dispatched troops, who made a speedy end of the luckless Messiah and his followers. An angry dispute broke out in Jerusalem, where King Agrippa and his court had annoyed the strict Rabbis by idly overlooking the Temple rites from his palace windows, whereupon the * Josephus, "Against Apion;" Hausrath's "Time of the Apostles," vol. i.; Schürer's "Jewish People," div. ii., vol. iii. |