HOW CYRENIUS WAS SENT BY CAESAR TO MAKE A TAXATION OF SYRIA AND JUDEA; AND HOW COPONIUS WAS SENT TO BE PROCURATOR OF JUDEA; CONCERNING JUDAS OF GALILEE AND CONCERNING THE SECTS THAT WERE AMONG THE JEWS. FJAJ 18.3
1. NOW Cyrenius, a Roman senator, and one who had gone through other
magistracies, and had passed through them till he had been consul, and
one who, on other accounts, was of great dignity, came at this time into
Syria, with a few others, being sent by Caesar to he a judge of that nation,
and to take an account of their substance
Coponius also, a man of the
equestrian order, was sent together with him, to have the supreme power
over the Jews
Moreover, Cyrenius came himself into Judea, which was now
added to the province of Syria, to take an account of their substance,
and to dispose of Archelaus's money; but the Jews, although at the beginning
they took the report of a taxation heinously, yet did they leave off any
further opposition to it, by the persuasion of Joazar, who was the son
of Beethus, and high priest; so they, being over-pesuaded by Joazar's words,
gave an account of their estates, without any dispute about it
Yet was
there one Judas, a Gaulonite, (1)(1) Since St. Luke once, Acts 5:37,
and Josephus four several times, once here, sect. 6; and B. XX. ch. 5.
sect. 2; Of the War, B. II. ch. 8. sect. 1; and ch. 17. sect. 8, calls
this Judas, who was the pestilent author of that seditious doctrine and
temper which brought the Jewish nation to utter destruction, a Galilean;
but here (sect. 1) Josephus calls him a Gaulonite, of the city of Gamala;
it is a great question where this Judas was born, whether in Galilee on
the west side, or in Gaulonitis on the east side, of the river Jordan;
while, in the place just now cited out of the Antiquities, B. XX. ch. 5.
sect. 2, he is not only called a Galilean, but it is added to his story,
"as I have signified in the books that go before these," as if
he had still called him a Galilean in those Antiquities before, as well
as in that particular place, as Dean Aldrich observes, Of the War, B. II.
ch. 8. sect. 1. Nor can one well imagine why he should here call him a
Gaulonite, when in the 6th sect. following here, as well as twice Of the
War, he still calls him a Galilean. As for the city of Gamala, whence this
Judas was derived, it determines nothing, since there were two of that
name, the one in Gaulonitis, the other in Galilee. See Reland on the city
or town of that name.
of a city whose name was Gamala, who, taking with him Sadduc, (2)(2) It seems not very improbable to
me that this Sadduc, the Pharisee, was the very same man of whom the Rabbins
speak, as the unhappy, but undesigning, occasion of the impiety or infidelity
of the Sadducees; nor perhaps had the men this name of Sadducees till this
very time, though they were a distinct sect long before. See the note on
B. XIII. ch. 10. sect 5; and Dean Prideaux, as there quoted. Nor do we,
that I know of, find the least footsteps of such impiety or infidelity
of these Sadducees before this time, the Recognitions assuring us that
they began about the days of John the Baptist; B. 1. ch. 54. See note above.
a Pharisee, became zealous to draw them to a revolt, who both said that
this taxation was no better than an introduction to slavery, and exhorted
the nation to assert their liberty; as if they could procure them happiness
and security for what they possessed, and an assured enjoyment of a still
greater good, which was that of the honor and glory they would thereby
acquire for magnanimity
They also said that God would not otherwise be
assisting to them, than upon their joining with one another in such councils
as might be successful, and for their own advantage; and this especially,
if they would set about great exploits, and not grow weary in executing
the same; so men received what they said with pleasure, and this bold attempt
proceeded to a great height
All sorts of misfortunes also sprang from
these men, and the nation was infected with this doctrine to an incredible
degree; one violent war came upon us after another, and we lost our friends
which used to alleviate our pains; there were also very great robberies
and murder of our principal men
This was done in pretense indeed for the
public welfare, but in reality for the hopes of gain to themselves; whence
arose seditions, and from them murders of men, which sometimes fell on
those of their own people, (by the madness of these men towards one another,
while their desire was that none of the adverse party might be left,) and
sometimes on their enemies; a famine also coming upon us, reduced us to
the last degree of despair, as did also the taking and demolishing of cities;
nay, the sedition at last increased so high, that the very temple of God
was burnt down by their enemies' fire
Such were the consequences of this,
that the customs of our fathers were altered, and such a change was made,
as added a mighty weight toward bringing all to destruction, which these
men occasioned by their thus conspiring together; for Judas and Sadduc,
who excited a fourth philosophic sect among us, and had a great many followers
therein, filled our civil government with tumults at present, and laid
the foundations of our future miseries, by this system of philosophy, which
we were before unacquainted withal, concerning which I will discourse a
little, and this the rather because the infection which spread thence among
the younger sort, who were zealous for it, brought the public to destruction. FJAJ 18.4
2. The Jews had for a great while had three sects of philosophy peculiar to themselves; the sect of the Essens, and the sect of the Sadducees, and the third sort of opinions was that of those called Pharisees; of which sects, although I have already spoken in the second book of the Jewish War, yet will I a little touch upon them now. FJAJ 18.5
3. Now, for the Pharisees, they live meanly, and despise delicacies
in diet; and they follow the conduct of reason; and what that prescribes
to them as good for them they do; and they think they ought earnestly to
strive to observe reason's dictates for practice
They also pay a respect
to such as are in years; nor are they so bold as to contradict them in
any thing which they have introduced; and when they determine that all
things are done by fate, they do not take away the freedom from men of
acting as they think fit; since their notion is, that it hath pleased God
to make a temperament, whereby what he wills is done, but so that the will
of man can act virtuously or viciously
They also believe that souls have
an immortal rigor in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards
or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in
this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison,
but that the former shall have power to revive and live again; on account
of which doctrines they are able greatly to persuade the body of the people;
and whatsoever they do about Divine worship, prayers, and sacrifices, they
perform them according to their direction; insomuch that the cities give
great attestations to them on account of their entire virtuous conduct,
both in the actions of their lives and their discourses also. FJAJ 18.6
4. But the doctrine of the Sadducees is this: That souls die with the
bodies; nor do they regard the observation of any thing besides what the
law enjoins them; for they think it an instance of virtue to dispute with
those teachers of philosophy whom they frequent: but this doctrine is received
but by a few, yet by those still of the greatest dignity
But they are
able to do almost nothing of themselves; for when they become magistrates,
as they are unwillingly and by force sometimes obliged to be, they addict
themselves to the notions of the Pharisees, because the multitude would
not otherwise bear them. FJAJ 18.7
5. The doctrine of the Essens is this: That all things are best ascribed
to God
They teach the immortality of souls, and esteem that the rewards
of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for; and when they send what
they have dedicated to God into the temple, they do not offer sacrifices
(3)(3) It seems by what Josephus says here,
and Philo himself elsewhere, Op. p. 679, that these Essens did not use
to go to the Jewish festivals at Jerusalem, or to offer sacrifices there,
which may be one great occasion why they are never mentioned in the ordinary
books of the New Testament; though, in the Apostolical Constitutions, they
are mentioned as those that observed the customs of their forefathers,
and that without any such ill character laid upon them as is there laid
upon the other sects among that people. because
they have more pure lustrations of their own; on which account they are
excluded from the common court of the temple, but offer their sacrifices
themselves; yet is their course of life better than that of other men;
and they entirely addict themselves to husbandry
It also deserves our
admiration, how much they exceed all other men that addict themselves to
virtue, and this in righteousness; and indeed to such a degree, that as
it hath never appeared among any other men, neither Greeks nor barbarians,
no, not for a little time, so hath it endured a long while among them.
This is demonstrated by that institution of theirs, which will not suffer
any thing to hinder them from having all things in common; so that a rich
man enjoys no more of his own wealth than he who hath nothing at all
There
are about four thousand men that live in this way, and neither marry wives,
nor are desirous to keep servants; as thinking the latter tempts men to
be unjust, and the former gives the handle to domestic quarrels; but as
they live by themselves, they minister one to another
They also appoint
certain stewards to receive the incomes of their revenues, and of the fruits
of the ground; such as are good men and priests, who are to get their corn
and their food ready for them
They none of them differ from others of
the Essens in their way of living, but do the most resemble those Dacae
who are called Polistae (4)(4) Who these Polistae in Josephus,
or in Strabo. among the Pythagoric Dacae, were, it is not easy to determine.
Scaliger offers no improbable conjecture, that some of these Dacae lived
alone, like monks, in tents or caves; but that others of them lived together
in built cities, and thence were called by such names as implied the same.
[dwellers in cities]. FJAJ 18.8
6. But of the fourth sect of Jewish philosophy, Judas the Galilean was
the author
These men agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions;
but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and say that God is
to be their only Ruler and Lord
They also do not value dying any kinds
of death, nor indeed do they heed the deaths of their relations and friends,
nor can any such fear make them call any man lord
And since this immovable
resolution of theirs is well known to a great many, I shall speak no further
about that matter; nor am I afraid that any thing I have said of them should
be disbelieved, but rather fear, that what I have said is beneath the resolution
they show when they undergo pain
And it was in Gessius Florus's time that
the nation began to grow mad with this distemper, who was our procurator,
and who occasioned the Jews to go wild with it by the abuse of his authority,
and to make them revolt from the Romans
And these are the sects of Jewish
philosophy. FJAJ 18.9